Word-whore. I write 'em. I talk 'em. Information, politics, media, and the cybers. I drink. I use bad words. All publication is a political act. All communication is propaganda. All art is pornography. All business is personal. All hail Eris! Vive les poissons rouges sauvages!
In 2003, British solider Lance-Corporal Matty Hull was killed in Iraq and a colleague injured when an American A-10 aircraft opened fire on his vehicle. The cockpit video from the A-10 was leaked, and the transcript has been published.
I watched the video.
I cried.
By all rights, The Greens’ candidate for Marrickville in the forthcoming NSW state election should be a shoe-in. This is The Greens heartland, and Fiona Byrne is a local councillor and presumably knows her patch. Labor incumbent Carmel Tebbutt, the Princess of Marrickville (so-called because her husband Anthony Albanese, the Prince of Marrickville, is the Federal ALP member for the equivalent district, Grayndler) has to dissuade us from thoughts that the NSW ALP government is rotten to the core. And environmental issues are at the top of the agenda.
But it won’t happen. And here’s why…
Earlier tonight, my post-gym dinner-and-drinks led me to the Carlisle Castle Hotel. It was a quiet night, and my gym partner and I were almost alone in the front bar until Fiona Byrne and her entourage turned up after a candidates’ forum at the Newtown Community Centre.
This astronaut didn’t have The Right Stuff, it seems. Or maybe she had too much of it. The photo at right is US Navy Captain Lisa Nowak, 43, who flew a shuttle mission to the International Space Station last July.
But on Monday she was arrested and charged with attempted kidnapping and other counts, after she allegedly drove 900 miles and donned a disguise to confront a woman she believed was her rival for the affections of a space shuttle pilot.
The ABC story apparently finds it important to mention that “Nowak raced from Houston to Orlando wearing diapers so she wouldn’t have to stop to urinate, authorities said. Astronauts wear diapers during launch and re-entry.”
Thanks to Richard for spotting this one!
Of all the annoying things which happened yesterday, the most annoying was a disrupted telephone conversation. We’d just started an important (but not urgent) discussion when I was told, “Hang on, I can’t talk now.”
Well, if you can’t talk, why answer the phone?
With the topic left hanging, I’m sure we both felt uncomfortable for the rest of the day. But if the ringing phone had been ignored, we could have discussed it later — when we both had the time to treat it with clarity.
Why do people give a ringing telephone such priority — even more priority that what they’ve already committed to at that moment?
Somewhere in the last fortnight, I decided that my business Prussia.Net should operate ethically. Not that it’s unethical now, but rather that I should consciously work to improve its status as a “good citizen”.
But what does that actually mean in practice?
After all, Westpac makes a big deal of being the world’s most responsible bank, but that’s like saying you’re the world’s most polite gang rapist. “Responsible” or not, they’re still about being a parasite on everyone else’s business transactions.
So far, I’ve figured three things…
But I also figure it’s a lot more than just saying stuff, it’s actually about making a real difference. Wish me luck.
That was the content of the very first email I received in 2007. Sure, it was spam, so the subject matter was kinda predictable. But there are some sentences that should never contain the word “discount”, and that’s one of them.