Month: November 2005

car stereo

Spent the afternoon fitting the new car stereo. Lots of little coloured wires, fiddling with electrical connectors and a bit of swearing and it worked first time. Pretty chuffed really. I had visions of fusing the entire electrial system and blowing myself up into the bargain. I now have a shiny new car stereo to play with… *grins*

It’s got a USB port so I can listen to podcasts in the car using the USB flash drive. I’ll also take CD-RW discs and has all kinds of fancy radio features too.

The only thing is the aerial is a bit old and knackered so I’ll have my head under the wheel arch next weekend trying to fit a new one. Wish me luck !

ok, so we’ve had the

ok, so we’ve had the the perfect definition of an oxymoron. Now, the perfect definition of hypocrisy has emerged.

Back in October, Les Hinton, chairman of News International, criticised online citizen journalism, arguing that amateur bloggers are failing to meet the same standards as traditional news organisations.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina he claimed bloggers were responsible for “bad information” that later could not be substantiated. More over at Media Guardian – Hinton blasts ‘citizen journalists’ (subscription required).

The heart-stopping hypocrisy of a News International executive going on about journalistic standards, “bad information” and unsubstantiated stories is staggering. They own the Sun and News of the World for God’s Sake ! Greater repositories of hearsay, unsubstantiated rubbish, gossip, rumour and made up nonsense do not exist. Journalistic standards ? Who’s he kidding ?

Reading between the lines suggests the big papers are shit scared of blogs and the decentralisation of opinion. Before, journalists would dispense their views from the lofty heights of the daily papers. They wrote and we paid to read their views.

Now, any old Joe can set up a blog and comment on any subject. This has to terrify the corporate papers. They no longer control, and profit from, the dialogue of opinion. Their response is predictable. A classic tabloid tactic, attack and criticise to undermine anything that poses a threat.

Such staggering hypocrisy at this level can only mean one thing. They’re shit scared of the net, bloggers and where the future’s going.

Zombie content

We must fight shite content. We can’t let it go on. Bullshit management speak, crass corporate buzzwords, management consultancy gibberish, executive waffle and meaningless jargon. You know the kinda thing. Using more words to say less in a clichéd business-speak full of overworked adjectives.

Well, here’s an interesting take on how we can defend ourselves from an Attack of the Zombie Copy.

The Border Project

What’s it like to illegally cross the US-Mexico border ? What’s it really like for the American volunteers who patrol the border day and night ? Well, the Border Project have come up with an ingenious way to document these experiences. They’ve handed out hundreds of disposable cameras to both sides.

The idea is simple. They’ve asked the illegal migrants and the Minuteman volunteers tasked to stop them to take pictures. When the camera’s all used up they mail them back in a pre-pay.

The border film project have published an online exhibition – go take a look.

It’s the Environment, Stupid !

This year we’ve had some serious environmental catastrophes. A devastating tsunami, deadly earthquake, powerful hurricanes, terrible flooding, heatwaves, forest fires, volcanoes and drought.

Do you think the planet’s trying to tell us something ?

Just think about it for a moment. Our entire economic system is built on fossil fuels. Oil, gas and coal form the basis of everything we do. Without them you can’t switch on a light, power up a PC or start the car. Everything stops without fossil fuels.

The irony is… the by product of these vital fuels is environmental poison. The more we burn, the more damage we do. I guess it’s a bit like smoking. We know it’ll kill us in the end, but we do nothing. We deny its impact at our peril. On climate change and global warming we can’t handle the truth.

It’s serious. Just look at what’s happened this year alone. We seem unable to face the stark reality that our lifestyle is contaminating the planet. If we don’t act today, tomorrow will be polluted and dead.

Take a look at these awesome pictures of hurricanes. Mother Nature at her most raw and powerful. Why can’t we harness this energy to power the world ? The quicker we work out how the better. The clock’s ticking…