Month: April 2009

Posted on

Episode 45! Cnuts! Prize! Exclamation marks!

Photograph of King Cnut t-shirt reading: U R A CNUT®

It’s Thursday. There will be a Stilgherrian Live tonight. Nominations are now open for “Cnut of the Week”. And there’s a prize!

Please remember the rules. For “Cnut of the Week”, we’re looking for people, organisations or other entities who are futilely trying to hold back the tide of change. It has to be something in the news in the last week, and you have to explain yourself.

Nominees have to be not merely doing bad things, but failing to notice or adapt to the change around them.

And did I mention the prize? Everyone who nominates and leaves a valid email address goes into the draw for a free t-shirt of their choice from our new friends at King Cnut Ethical Clothing.

(Of course, neither they nor us are as lame and unethical as to share your email address with anyone else. I for one have site policies about this sort of thing, and so do they.)

Cnut of the Week graphic

Nominations for “Cnut of the Week” are open until 8.30pm Sydney time, and you must nominate at the website to be eligible.

Then at 8.30pm you should be watching Nick Hodge‘s program @NickHodge before Stilgherrian Live starts at 9.30pm.

Who do you nominate, and why?

Posted on

Links for 29 April 2009

Here are the web links I’ve found for 29 April 2009, posted with postalness.

  • Australia 2020: Government Response: A year after the event which seemed so important at the time, we finally have the government’s response.
  • Developments in internet filtering technologies and other measures for promoting online safety | ACMA: The second of ACMA’s three annual reports on “developments in internet filtering technologies and other safety initiatives to protect consumers, including minors, who access content on the internet”.
  • The Full Story: “The Full Story is a media and information release portal where individuals and organisations can post breaking news, publicity, information or their side of the story on issues of local or national importance — free, as it happens, unedited and in full.”
  • Internet-Age Writing Syllabus and Course Overview | McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: “Course Description: As print takes its place alongside smoke signals, cuneiform, and hollering, there has emerged a new literary age, one in which writers no longer need to feel encumbered by the paper cuts, reading, and excessive use of words traditionally associated with the writing trade. Writing for Nonreaders in the Postprint Era focuses on the creation of short-form prose that is not intended to be reproduced on pulp fibers.”
  • NBN Luddites will be proven wrong | BuddeBlog: Analyst Paul Budde with another thoughtful piece.
  • RedR Australia: This organisation provides training for people working in overseas aid and disaster relief, covering everything from logistics to personal protection. Yes, there is a reason this is being bookmarked, but it’s secret.
  • Swine flu: Twitter’s power to misinform | Net Effect: Once more, the usual human trait of passing on information which may or may not be true is blamed on Twitter, not on the humans. Fail.
Posted on

No, we are not the same, Snarky Platypus!

Photographs of fictional Ja'mie King and Stilgherrian

On the right is perhaps one of the best photos of me ever, taken by @funkycoda on Saturday and posted by Miss Wired. Snarky Platypus reckons I look like Ja’mie King, that’s “her” on the left. Ahem.

Now I’m not that sure that I like this comparison. However Courtney Gibson says, “Ja’mie is a beautiful and sweet-natured Australian girl in the first flush of womanhood — at least u can feel flattered.”

Should I be flattered? Really?

[Update 28 April 2009: Edited to correctly credit the photo.]

Posted on

This is just to say…

I am, of course, the third-last person on the entire planet to listen to This American Life, the US public radio program presented by Ira Glass. But now I have. And in doing so, I stumbled across some amusing poetry.

The poems are based on an original by William Carlos Williams, called This Is Just To Say. In an episode of This American Life entitled Mistakes Were Made, program contributors created their own versions.

My favourite is the trio by Shalom Auslander:

1
I’m sorry you’re overweight
And drinking
And feeling like everything
In your life
Is doomed to failure
But this is probably why
Mom said
I was her favorite

2
It sucks, little doe
That I hit you
with my car

But at least
You weren’t alive
To watch the hunters
Shoot your children

3
He was a troublemaker, okay
And didn’t know when
To shut up

Still
We never would have killed him
If we’d known he was the Lord

There’s not much poetry here. Should there be more?