Media – Page 100 – Stilgherrian

14 February 200724 September 2009

If I ever become an Evil Overlord…

… then here’s the plan: Follow the advice given in The Top 100 Things I’d Do If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord. Including:

My Legions of Terror will have helmets with clear plexiglass visors, not face-concealing ones.
I will not interrogate my enemies in the inner sanctum — a small hotel well outside my borders will work just as well.
If my advisors ask “Why are you risking everything on such a mad scheme?”, I will not proceed until I have a response that satisfies them.
My vats of hazardous chemicals will be covered when not in use. Also, I will not construct walkways above them.

Sure, the list is a decade old, but I only found out about it just now from author John Birmingham, who continues the discussion.

11 February 200724 September 2009

The Pointlessness of News

When I posted about the astronaut attempted kidnapping story the other day, I hadn’t realised it had already become a major global story. Now Freakonomics co-author Stephen Dubner asks: Why?

I realize the story represents a sort of perfect storm of media stickiness — a female perp and a female victim, lust, revenge, NASA, pepper spray, and of course the diaper — but I have to confess that I am overwhelmed that this has become such a round-the-clock story. Who cares, and why? They were even talking about the story on the two ESPN shows I saw pieces of last night (SportsCenter and Pardon the Interruption); in each case, the anchors sheepishly acknowledged that the story had zero to do with sports but… they simply couldn’t resist.

With 63 comments so far, there’s plenty of interesting ideas. Well worth the read. The highlights for me…

Continue reading “The Pointlessness of News”

03 February 200703 February 2007

Exxon’s unsubtle spin

It’s hardly surprising that a major corporation would use a PR firm to promote its worldview. But paying scientists $10,000 to write articles undermining a climate change report is just a bit too unsubtle.

09 January 200708 January 2008

Stick Guns

Six minutes of (anti-?)war. Superb, despite the shite MySpace video compression. Thanks, Richard.

See it in its original context, and read about its creator, Dave Tucker.

[Update 8 January 2008: The copy of Stick Guns on YouTube is better quality.]

08 January 200701 January 2010

“Whitewash”: journalist-speak for “I’m lazy”

OK, own up. Who started calling Australia’s 5-0 cricket victory over England an Ashes “whitewash”? And why couldn’t anyone, anywhere, come up with another description?

Continue reading ““Whitewash”: journalist-speak for “I’m lazy””

08 December 200629 July 2007

Oh, in New Scientist again

I actually told New Scientist about this back in April, but they finally ran it in the 18 November edition — which I’m just getting around to reading now.

It seems a curious claim to allow on your website for several months, but if it is true then BoardTracker.com‘s “advanced search” is very advanced indeed. Since April, when reader Stilgherrian first told us about it, it has offered to search back through the last 6142 years of internet forum postings.