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Another Tale of Two Thrillers

Covers of The Beijing Conspiracy and Spook Country

One of my six special vices is reading thrillers, often very trashy ones. So it was an especially wonderful pleasure to read two thrillers in a week — from opposite ends of the trashiness spectrum.

Adrian D’Hagé‘s action thriller The Beijing Conspiracy is like demolishing a slab of VB with mates on a Friday night. It’s loud, fast-paced and perhaps a little clichéd. But it’s great fun and you know you’ll be back for more. I ploughed through it in less than 24 hours.

By comparison, William Gibson‘s Spook Country is like a richly textured cabernet merlot. Take it slowly to appreciate the subtleties, and your time will be generously rewarded.

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Captains of Industry

Here’s a nice little out-of-touch conversation, between three private schoolboys on a Sydney North Shore train.

Schoolboy 1: I feel sorry for the suckers in state schools.

Schoolboy 2: Their parents have no idea.

Schoolboy 3: How do they expect their kids to become captains of industry?

This was overhead by Sydney Morning Herald reader John, from Umina Beach (not published online). Three things strike me:

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“I’ll take care of that, Prime Minister”

Most politicians, and especially Ministers, have no clue about teh Internets. An article from The Guardian explains why, at least in relation to former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.

As prime minister, Tony Blair was shielded from the bewildering speed of technological change. Everything was done for him. So in 10 years he never learned how to send a text message. Finally he did. [Alastair] Campbell [Blair’s director of communications] reported: “I have had two from him. The first was the single word ‘are’. The second read: ‘this is amazing you can do words and everything’.”

Thanks to Memex 1.1 for the pointer.

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AFL Flash Chant: “Howard, time to go!” Pass it on!

Here’s an idea. If inthemix.com.au could organize a Flash Rave at Sydney Town Hall yesterday with hundreds of people, it should be possible to organize a Flash Chant of “Howard, time to go!” during the AFL Grand Final this afternoon.

Here’s how:

  • Spread the word fast. We’ve 4 hours.
  • Focus on telling people in Melbourne, or who have friends in Melbourne, and AFL fans.
  • Spread the word using every social network you have — SMS, MySpace, Facebook, whatever. (But don’t spam people you know won’t be interested. Choose wisely.)
  • It’d be way cool if the chant was running once TV returned to the game after GetUp! screen their Climate Clever-er ad, or when John Howard was on screen. That means someone should organize someone who’s watching the game on TV to tell people at the ground when it happens. Have a brief trigger-word SMS ready to send instantly.
  • Everyone needs to be chanting the same thing: “Howard, time to go!”
  • If it’s loud enough, during a quiet part of the game, you get national TV coverage!

The crowd for Geelong versus Port Power will presumably have a working-class bias. Everyone will be hyped up for The Big Day anyway. It shouldn’t be too hard to make this happen.

I’ve just created flashchant.com so it’s easier to spread the word, too.

Update: The website has been online less than 2 hours and already it’s received 600 unique visitors. Scary.