I’m reconsidering the Sydney Morning Herald’s place as my news source of choice. What do other people use?
The writing is as good as ever – there is no political commentator as astute as Annabel Crabb, and few sports correspondents can match it with the likes of Peter Roebuck and Will Swanton.
But when your banner of featured stories looks like this you’ve well and truly jumped the “sex sells” shark…
Two of the things I commonly say in arguments are the phrases “you aren’t listening to me” or “you don’t understand me”…
What I mean is “you don’t agree with me. Idiot.”
Sick of your dinner being interrupted by telemarketers? Too stupid to put yourself on the “do not call register“?
Follow this scientifically tested script.
Or you could try my trick – engage them in conversation, pretend you’re interested, and then just stop talking. Works every time.
Via CafeDave.
Tips like:
“In the nineteenth century, which was a dark and inflationary age in typography and type design, many compositors were encouraged to stuff extra space between sentences. Generations of twentieth century typists were then taught to do the same, by hitting the spacebar twice after every period [full stop]. Your typing as well as your typesetting will benefit from unlearning this quaint Victorian habit. As a general rule, no more than a single space is required after a period, colon or any other mark of punctuation.”
And:
If you do need to insert more than a single word space between sentences, or any other characters, then use one of the many space characters available in Unicode. Even if the character itself isn’t included in the current font, Unicode-aware browsers will display a good approximation. Avoid the temptation to use a non-breaking space,
, as this has a meaning in and of itself.For example:
 en space em space
KFC pulled its “racist” ad this week. And apologised. Dumb.
American cultural imperialism is perhaps the most annoying thing about our buddies in the coalition of the willing. Especially when they are ascribing flaws in their own character to the rest of the world. Nobody else thinks fried chicken is “black people’s food”. We all kind of missed that.
What I’d like to see KFC do is produce a follow up ad. A man standing in a crowd of angry fat Americans. A crowd he calms by the power of fried chicken.
That is all.
Web 2.0 stuff occupies my thoughts both professionally and personally. Here are six posts (or series) from this year that I thought were vaguely useful for understanding the world of social media…
Another thing I would like to touch on is quoting experts in arguments. I don’t like it when people argue that, as their stance is backed up by the word of an expert, they must be right. Most knowledge is quite readily and easily obtainable. Most people who do research have a tendency to promote their findings (I know, it’s crazy). So, if anyone is willing to really find out about a topic, if they are willing to spend the time to trudge through the literature, there wouldn’t be too many points of view, arguments and supporting evidence they wouldn’t have stumbled across. Researchers may add to the pool of knowledge, but I think most people will be able to understand the current pool of knowledge, and make their own inferences once properly informed.
If you ever wanted a great piece of pictorial justification for not putting Christian status updates on Facebook – especially updates with jargon – then here you go.
Anatidaephobia is the fear of being watched by a duck. It exists. There is a page for it, at a reputable site.
A hilarious site that highlights the dangers of placing ads on a page based on the content of the page.
“We’ve got you under our wing” is a slogan hardly likely to inspire confidence in the fledgling anatidaephobic who is seeking to learn more about their condition on the internet. Especially accompanied by a beady eyed mascot with such a sinister beak.
The Oatmeal has a little cartoon featuring ten things not to Twitter about. There, in cartoon glory, is a reminder about oversharing. Don’t do it people.
It’s a good list. Familiarise yourself with it. Submit to its authority.
I have a real problem with the way SMS language has garbled English. But the generation below me – iGen – or whatever they’re called – are content to conduct any written communication in that form. So I’m glad I found this list of the “text commandments”…
It’s pretty brilliant.
1. no1 b4 me. srsly.
2. dnt wrshp pix/idols
3. no omg’s
4. no wrk on w/end (sat 4 now; sun l8r)
5. pos ok – ur m&d r cool
6. dnt kill ppl
7. :-X only w/ m8
8. dnt steal
9. dnt lie re: bf
10. dnt ogle ur bf’s m8. or ox. or dnkey. myob.
M, pls rite on tabs & giv 2 ppl.
ttyl, JHWH.
ps. wwjd?
Are you scared of words that sound the same?
The Oatmeal’s resident genius is at it again. Clearing up English mistakes and helping you be less dumb.
First it was the brilliant apostrophe chart – now it’s words people commonly mix up (there are a few more).
I know a little bit about tourism marketing. I thought I could share some of my learnings with you today.
Rule 1. If you launch a much publicised media phenomena and bring a person to your destination giving them the “best job in the world” please do all in your power to make sure they don’t encounter one of your deadly natives.
THE winner of the so-called “Best Job in the World” has been stung by a potentially deadly jellyfish.
Ben Southall said he had experienced a “crazy 24 hours” after the tiny irukandji struck off the coast of Queensland in Australia.
Jim Lehrer is to journalists what any other respected expert is to their chosen field. He finished his last broadcast with a list of rules that have guided him through a career in the profession.