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!
While writing about the Citizenship Test, I realised they’d forgotten to ask an important question about our national symbols. See if you know the answer. If you’re reading this in an RSS reader, go to the website to vote.
[poll id=”11″]
Last week’s results: Sadly for the Snarky Platypus, “I really want to see a remake of Flashdance” received only one vote. The clear winner was “A bit more to the left, and with a bit more velocity.”
Did anyone understand that poll?
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:
Which of The World’s Weirdest/Stupidest Conspiracy Theories do you find most convincing? I must admit, I like the idea that WWII never really happened. “The Illuminati employed elaborate special effects, stage magic, and phoney journalism to scare the world into pacifism.” Via BoingBoing.
This isn’t a new video, but certainly one I like: a time lapse video of flight patterns over North America as they unfold over the course of a day.
You can clearly see the wave of activity following the time zones east to west as the morning commuter flights do their thing. International flights follow a different drummer.
One of the reasons I like this video is that it reminds us we’re all part of something much, much bigger. In this case it’s the human-made world of aviation, but like the Powers of Ten video, it helps generate a sense of perspective.
Thanks to The Long Now Foundation for the reminder — and follow their blog for many more similar reminders, such as a 35-year time lapse of the Tokyo skyline and some slow art.
I’ll write more about The Long Now Foundation another time.
If you listen closely to the conversations between you and your friends, you’ll discover tiny little phrases that reveal who you really are.
So this week’s poll — yes, I know it’s a week late, deal with it! — asks you to choose from a number of phrases the one you’re most likely to use in conversation. Go to the website to vote.
[poll id=”10″]
Last week’s results: Yes, without a doubt, Duran Duran is the greatest band in the history of pop.
Are you feeling as uninspired today as I am? Been like that all week? Perhaps it’s what I’m going to start calling “The Sydney Effect”.
OK, if you’re not in Sydney this won’t work for you. But today it’s not just me feeling flat. So is my office manager. So is The Other Andrew. So are most people I’ve spoken with on the phone — and email volume is definitely down today.
A few years back I was talking with a psychiatrist who’d practised all over the world, including Sydney, London, the US, Europe. He’d noticed that in every city, each day his clients would be in different moods depending on what’d been happening in their life. Every city, that is, except Sydney.
In Sydney, if his first client was depressed, then everyone else that day would be depressed too. If that first client was angry, so was everyone else.
He didn’t know why, he just knew that it happened.
Maybe I should run a test each morning. Phone someone at random, see what mood they’re in, and plan the rest of the day accordingly.