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!
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull becomes the conduit, no, the tunnel of love. We revisit the economic wisdom of Joe Hockey. Euroterrorism sprouts from Brussels. And guess who’s back?
In this episode, there’s talk of lizards and leeches, homeless people and hapless riflemen, Nicholas Fryer takes us through The Arch Window, and much more.
Continue reading “The 9pm Let the Fun Begin”
NASA sends a boy band to Pluto. Prime Minister Crusader Rabbit makes sense of the Middle East, more or less. And we hear some presciently ironic words from Singapore.
In this podcast, there’s talk of Singapore, censorship, wine, and taxes. Amongst other things.
Continue reading “The 9pm I Can’t Believe It’s Not a Planet”
Australia’s former Prime Minsister Gough Whitlam is dead. Politicians across the political spectrum praise Whitlam as a man of vision, but how does the current mob stand up? And yesterday was International Fisting Day. What did you do to celebrate?
Elephant stamps of approval go to an Australians this time: Bronwyn Bishop, Speaker of the House of Representatives, for her rumour-based security process; and Senator Jacqui Lambie, for confusing outrageous movie-plot ideas with reality.
We received two listener comments! In my response, I referred to some things I’ve discussed previously in Berners-Lee, Silicon Valley, and Australia’s cultural cringe and And the digital Antoinettes cried ‘Unemployed? Let them cut code’ and iPhone, therefore I am …a selfish disruptor and Enjoy your Ubergasm, but don’t expect respect in the morning.
And we refer to videos including the 1972 campaign song It’s Time, tributes to Gough Whitlam by Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull, and Will.I.Am’s launch video for i.am/PULS.
Continue reading “The 9pm Vision for Australia”[Update Friday 16 May 2014, 1115 AEST: Having read the spectrogram analysis by “Fully (sic)â€, the language blog at Crikey, I withdraw pretty much everything I’ve said in this post. I did indeed hear the word I thought I heard, but only after having read a headline that told me that’s that I was going to hear. I forget the name for that psychological phenomenon — is it “primingâ€? — but I know it’s a thing. Anyone listening to the audio files here would have been subject to the same phenomenon.]
Today in the Australian Parliament, Christopher Maurice Pyne MP, Member for Sturt, Minister for Education and Leader of the House, said a word which he says was “grub”. I call Christopher Pyne a liar.
The sentence said across the chamber to Opposition leader Bill Shorten (or maybe someone else) was, quite clearly [to me], “You’re such a cunt.” Listen for yourself.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 0:26 — 737.7KB)
I will be discussing the phonetics of “grub” versus “cunt” in the next episode of The 9pm Edict. Read the analysis at “Fully (sic)”.
I’m happy to respond to your comments on this stuff, but I’ll be busy recording my podcast sleeping and covering a conference in San Jose before finishing my podcast production, and won’t respond until that’s all finished. Be warned, however, that I’ll simply delete comments that are nothing more that party-political trolling. Keep it to the discussion of phonetics, appropriate language for parliament and suchlike. My website, my rules.
What I will say, however, is that I don’t really care what Pyne said. In the heat of the moment we’ve all said things we later regret. Sometimes, for some people, that might involve swearing. What concerns me is the character of a man who simply lies in the face of the evidence, rather than taking responsibility for his own words and actions. That’s just low.
Christopher Maurice Pyne, you truly are a grub. No, the other word.
There will doubtless be questions about the authenticity of this recording, so I’ll spell out precisely what you’re listening to here.
This audio file is the result of going to a ninemsn news story, since removed, at the URL http://video.au.msn.com/watch/video/pyne-calls-shorten-c-bomb-in-parliament/x78q4ru in the web browser Safari for OS X, and using Audio Hijack Pro to extract the audio of the video as it streamed and saving it into a 16-bit 44.1kHz AIFF audio file. I imported that file into Reaper, a digital audio workstation, trimmed the ends to fit, and saved it as an intermediate AIFF file with the same settings.
I then processed that file by normalising it (which means adjusting the volume so that the loudest sound in the file is set to the maximum audio level possible), creating another intermediate file, and then compressing it to an MP3 file with a variable bit rate of 128kbps at 21,050Hz.
[Update 16 May 2014: Edited to reflect the fact that I’ve put the podcast production back a day.]
Leena Jangjanya (ลีนา จังจรรจา, pictured above) is the most beautiful, most sexy woman in all of Thailand.
She’s usually just called Leena Jang, and since she’s a candidate in Sunday’s Thai general election her posters are everywhere in Bangkok’s northern suburbs. There’s three versions, including one in her graduation robes (law) and one where she’s looking like a successful businesswoman in white. You can see them both below.
Given a choice between dating Bronwyn Bishop or Amanda Vanstone, who would you choose? Apparently federal treasurer Peter Costello would go Amanda any day. Thanks to Crikey for the tip.