Posts by Jonathan King
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Hard News: The perils of political confidence, in reply to Joe Wylie,
He kissed a toad, confident that something of his shininess would rub off on the critter. Now he's trying to blame the media for the resulting warts.
Ha! Nailed it.
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Funny: I know this is all done by algorithm ... But just what key words are the NZ Police using to place their ads? Recruiting ads on 'Cops go nuts' and 'Police brutality' Occupy Wall Street stories! http://twitpic.com/70z70x http://twitpic.com/70z6nz
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I closed my Facebook profile last week (and put in a “request” to have it deleted – they kindly give me two weeks before they’ll do it, in case I change my mind!).
I posted on my Tumblr my main reasons why:
What’s on my mind?What’s on my mind is how Facebook makes me feel a little more uneasy every day. There’s something fundamentally creepy about it … and it’s getting creepier by the day.
My principal concern is that, while Facebook looks a lot like The Internet, it is something very different. The Internet is an open system of things that link to each other; Facebook is a closed system that, every day, tries to close out the bits that go somewhere else, makes it harder for you to go (or link) somewhere else, and continuously encourages you to deposit *everything about you* with them.
Facebook is the biggest information harvesting exercise in human history … and it’s gathering, filing and *using* that information in ways that you don’t know for the benefit of people other than you.
I keep thinking one day I’ll leave Facebook .. and I know the bigger and more ubiquitous it gets, the harder – and more outlandish – it will seem to leave. But if I – and I hope, others, don’t – then one day we’re going to wake up and find we’ve handed the way we communicate, store our personal information, store and share all our media to one privately-owned company that will dictate to *us* the terms of how we (or *they*) use it. And if that doesn’t scare you it should.
Think about it: that ‘mailing list’ of fans on your band’s page? You don’t own – or readily have access to – that. Those photos and videos you uploaded directly to Facebook (now that it discourages you to link to Youtube)? Facebook controls the storage of those – and can tell exactly who looks at them *without sharing that info with you*. All that chatting, bitching, flirting and planning you do on Facebook message threads? Stored *for ever* on someone else’s archive. Gulp.
It sometimes makes me nervous about how I might spread the word about things I’m doing outside Facebook … but then it makes me *more* nervous to think I should be nervous about that!
You can find me on Twitter: (@MrJonathanKing), on Google+ and at jonathanking.tumblr.com but, after the end of this week, you won’t find me on Facebook any more.
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Hard News: Christchurch: Square Two, in reply to Lara,
I heard the start of Gerry Brownlee’s interview on Nine till Noon this morning and didn’t last two minutes before I had to go and slam doors. The ‘I know what’s going to happen. It’s blindingly obvious
Same here.
The thing that’s really starting to piss me off is the tone and language of irritation, exasperation, superiority he and his pals are using to and about people in Chch who are asking for information or presenting their own informed POV – which is just like how they talk to / about the “beneficiaries”: ‘look, we know what you want and you’ll count yourself lucky to get what we decide you’ll be allowed to have when we we decide it’s appropriate to tell you … in the mean time stop your bleating …’
The arrogance and hostility just contained within a phrase like "blindingly obvious" is breath-taking and outrageous.
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Muse: Some Link Crack To Tide You Over..., in reply to Kumara Republic,
I read somewhere that if you like film-making but don't have the time or money, then comic book writing is the next best thing
Yes! Comics are an excellent source of no time or money.
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Craig, many thanks for blush-worthily kind words ... and for link to comic. And I look forward to review of book.
"You can work in movie style productions, but have proper control ..."
That applies to comics, too, kinda!
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Hard News: The witless on the pitiless, in reply to Bart Janssen,
Of course people can and do. Religious texts are used by many folks to guide and support them through life. The problem is not the texts themselves but the people who chose to use such writings to justify actions that are evil.
I suggest the problems start when people believe these stories to be true!
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Parker! Source, of course, for the amazing Point Blank! As well as two glorious new graphic novel adaptations (in a projected series of four) by Darwyn Cooke. The first two are THE HUNTER and THE OUTFIT.
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"What I don't think people understand is exshully that ... it's illegal to fileshare?"
Watching that Katrina Shanks video on the other thread actually makes me incredibly pissed off when I think about the days I spent crafting an extensive, thoughtful, nuanced argument -- from the point of view of a filmmaker whose work has been pirated -- against this bill ... Only to see that they've clearly absorbed so very little of the information that they must have been dealing with -- let alone arguments and information that might take a little thinking about.
Embarrassing.
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Goblin Mix were my Favourite Band in the Whole World back in the day. It was pretty cool to be able to go and see your Favourite Band in the Whole World regularly!