Why is Facebook so popular? Sunrise presenter Pete Blasina has the explanation: “It’s because of the Internet.” Gotcha, Pete. Note, this man is paid to present this segment on technology. Obviously Channel 7 have scoured teh internetz for only the best of the best. Hat-tip to Cameron Reilly.
The Straw Man and the Hallucinating Goldfish
Scientific American explains two media manipulation techniques, the “straw man” and the “weak man”. Know how to spot them and help fight the Hallucinating Goldfish.
In Getting Duped: How the Media Messes with Your Mind, Yvonne Raley and Robert Talisse write:
One common method of spinning information is the so-called straw man argument. In this tactic, a person summarizes the opposition’s position inaccurately so as to weaken it and then refutes that inaccurate rendition. In a November 2005 speech, for example, President George W Bush responded to questions about pulling troops out of Iraq by saying, “We’ve heard some people say, pull them out right now. That’s a huge mistake. It’d be a terrible mistake. It sends a bad message to our troops, and it sends a bad message to our enemy, and it sends a bad message to the Iraqis.” The statement that unnamed “people” are advocating a troop withdrawal from Iraq “right now” is a straw man, because it exaggerates the opposing viewpoint. Not even the most stalwart Bush adversaries backed an immediate troop withdrawal. Most proposed that the soldiers be sent home over several months, a more reasonable and persuasive plan that Bush undercut with his straw man.
The Weak Man tactic is a twist on this…
Continue reading “The Straw Man and the Hallucinating Goldfish”
Corey goes international
In the names of all the Gods, how could I have possibly missed the news two days ago that Corey Worthington Delaney is kicking off a three-city rave which will hit Sydney next month, followed by a tour of seaside spots in England in June, including Blackpool, Bournemouth and Torquay? Where can I get tickets?
New Film & TV bookshop on King Street
Marcus Wade has opened the Film & Television Specialist Bookshop at 1/502 King Street, Newtown. Actually it opened in November but we only discovered it yesterday. Drop in, buy something, say “Hi” from us.
How & Why Wonder Books were… wonderful!
I’m currently writing an essay to explain what I mean by “middle class values”, but I’ve been sidetracked into childhood memories about cows (don’t ask!) and rediscovering one truly wond’rous part of my childhood: the How & Why Wonder Book series.
If you can point to one thing that made me the geek I am today, it’s this series of books.
Each one was just 48 pages long, and the illustrations were usually paintings — pretty corny by today’s standards. But they really did create a sense of wonder for the Science and Technology which was unfolding in The Space Age. The first one was issued in 1960 and they ran well into the 1970s.
Looking through the lists put together by collectors intabits and Joe Roberts, I reckon I had at least 23 of the titles.
My favourites were The How & Why Wonder Book of Planets and Interplanetary Travel (insanely optimistic, in hindsight), Rockets and Missiles, Atomic Energy (no nuclear waste here, just atomic trains!) and The How & Why Wonder Book of Robots and Electronic Brains — man, there’s a whole essay in that last title alone, eh?
I bet my mother still has them stashed away in a cupboard somewhere.
The Bulletin closes after 128 years
The Bulletin magazine is no more. After 128 years, this agenda-setting weekly has just published its last issue. The Bulletin‘s fate was “somehow symptomatic” of the impact of the Internet on news magazines, says the publisher. I reckon it’s more about failing to publish information and commentary that you couldn’t find elsewhere. Apart from The Sphere of Influence, that is. Who needs yet more movie and wine reviews?