It being Thursday and not too chaotic, there shall be an episode of Stilgherrian Live tonight. That means nominations are now open for “Cnut of the Week”.
We’re looking for people, organisations or other entities who are futilely trying to hold back the tide of change. It has to be something in the news in the last week, and you have to explain yourself. Nominees have to be not merely doing bad things, but failing to notice or adapt to the change around them.
Everyone who nominates and leaves a valid email address goes into the draw for a free t-shirt of their choice from our new friends at King Cnut Ethical Clothing.
Nominations for “Cnut of the Week” are open until 8.30pm Sydney time, and you must nominate at the website for it to count. And also, when we draw the t-shirt winner, you must be watching the program and email us the secret word within 5 minutes of your name being announced, otherwise we’ll pick someone else.
Yes, it’s just like your local pub’s Friday night meat raffle. Apart from the meat. And the alcohol. And the pleasant company. And the pub.
(Of course, neither they nor us are as lame and unethical as to share your email address with anyone else. I for one have site policies about this sort of thing, and so do they.)
At 8.30pm you should be watching Nick Hodge‘s program @NickHodge before Stilgherrian Live starts at 9.30pm.
Who do you nominate, and why?
I nominate our glorious Prime Minister, Mr Rudd for not being able to get a valid and meaningful ETS system up.
As discussed on Twitter, the AFL for “Big Brothering” the kids web site for footy. If only lawyers and businesses saw it promoted them, rather than “lets squeeze a dollar out of these suckers”! Oh well, they did get a fair bit of negative promotion the AFL, but the site would have got a bizillion hits for Google ads I guess.
My nomination goes to Fairfax / Fairfax Digital for their universally stupid move to fight the move from press to digital by moving as much as possible of their digital arm of the business to their print arm. And to top it off, what is their new remit? To use their websites to sell more newspapers.
I can’t decide what kind of witty comment to cap it off with, so I’ll try two…
I nominate the Wynyard Baptist Church in Tasmainia, for cancelling Tai Chi classes for seniors (Tai Chi classes that help old people suffering from arthritis) due to “conflicts” between beleifs of Tai Chi and the Bible.
http://bit.ly/q9kcF
I nominate Malcolm Turnbull for worring more about politics and his fucking ego; than the future of the country.
I second the nomination for K Rudd.
Not that I am convinced that his emissions trading scheme was of any real value to the environment, but for the last eight months he has been saying that he’ll bring it in no matter what and that the economic crisis would not affect the governments plans.
To suddenly take a 180° turn like this and deliver it with a straight face and no hint of a blush is insulting.
@einspruch: Without detracting from the other nominations received so far, I must say that the failure of the Rudd government to generate an actual progress on emissions reduction is appalling. My friends over at newmatilda.com have just written about that, Rudd Breaks His First Promise.
Rupert Murdoch!
“But why?” I hear you ask. “He’s so *nice!*”
Well, according to Fairfax (who else), Murdoch has decided that online news revenue should come from subscriptions rather than advertising. This replicates the Wall Street Journal model. In short: he wants to start charging to read news.com.au.
http://business.smh.com.au/business/murdoch-flags-charges-for-online-news-20090507-aw0y.html
My immediate thought is, “Who would pay to read that gormless drivel?” And my second thought is, “Oh shit, that means we have to read the Herald instead?”
yep… I to will be suggesting rupert murdoch.
“He said News Corp was “absolutely looking” at replicating the business model of The Wall Street Journal, which has much of its content behind a subscription wall”
hmm…. so newspapers dry up… so he’ll charge people more to look at the internet… when more and more news is free on the internet….
yes that will work really well for News Corp me thinks. I can just image your average daily tele reader paying for access to the online version.
The fashionistas of the media who have harped on all well about the best and worst dressed at the Logies, focussing mainly on the women, and making the gorgeous Myf Warhurst burn her dress because of the comments she received about it. Apparently you can wear a dress and flash a tit on the red carpet if you are a stick insect, but if you are not a size 0 and wear a dress that actually suits you you get lampooned for it.
Actually the Logies could actually be their own Cnut of the week for their narcissistic view of television. It is highly amusing that reported commentary on the host on Monday referenced Twitter! So Brickbats/Cnuts to the Logies as an institution, but bouquets to Liz Green (from the ABC), Wil Anderson and Max Markson for twittering the event so eloquently!
I nominate the Coalition, for their continued refusal to accept that the public really did vote against them in the last election. We won and you lost—suck it, twitches.
I am in favor on the nomination of everyone mentioned so far, especially the church in Wynyard as it’s the next town over from @allidc’s family.
I’m also a bit keen on seeing ACMA soundly bollocked for another act of censorship stupidity and thinking their strategy for Nanny Stating us will actually work.
See http://bit.ly/14WBUK for details.
I nominate the ignorance of Marrickville.
On Monday, a wog-looking woman came into a regular Vietnamese diner and asked “Excuse me, do you speak English?” in the tone. The owner thought she would ask something hard for him. But it turned out that she wanted a direction to the main street.
Today at Marrickville Train Station, a Chinese man tried to ask a way to an Asian woman but she replied “I don’t speak Chinese!” and stepped away as if he had a swine flu. He then turn to me and asked if I speak Mandarin. I said no but asked him back where he wanted to go. It took him awhile to pronounce Hurstville. I was sorry that I couldn’t help him then she said “Just get off at Sydneham”. He nodded and thanked us while she was continuing her Vietnamese roll.
These snippets of life in Marrickville, where considered as the most multicultural communities in Australia, shows that there are still presumptions in misunderstanding. Do people learn about others or even try to?
Don’t worry the prize. I just want to rant.
I nominate the journos and obit writers who got duped by a fake quote in Wikipedia (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/07/2562940.htm) . They may have thought they were embracing change by using Wikipedia as a research tool, but they didn’t realise that open wikis can contain as much bad information as good and that it could be a means of deception and social engineering. Fact-checking FAIL.
Thank you, everyone. Nominations are now closed. Stilgherrian Live starts in one hour.
Don’t worry, ’Pong, you can never win the prize ‘cos there’d be allegations of corruption. You know what these people are like. Stilgherrian Live isn’t run like the NSW Labor government, you know!
I second the AFL vote and I second the vote for the Church in Tasmania.