Category Archives: Media

On censorship in Australia and elsewhere

What do you do as an Australian parliament when a foreign company censors mainstream media content in Australia, undermining free speech? Do you organise an inquiry to hold those foreign companies to account and to see how you might prevent … Continue reading

Posted in Coronavirus crisis, Cultural Critique, Democracy, Films and TV, IT and Internet, Journalism, Media, Politics - international, Politics - national, Print media, Society | 12 Comments

Introducing! The podcast reader

I thought you’d like to know of a venture I’m on the board of which is a global monthly magazine being published out of Melbourne dedicated to publishing the best podcast interviews of the month as a printed magazine for … Continue reading

Posted in Innovation, Media | 3 Comments

Uncertainty, Part 1: McGurk

As one the best illustrations of the way our minds deal with uncertainty, consider the following video. Please listen and watch at least 30 seconds so you can experience the three sequences of spoken words. Pretty much all humans who … Continue reading

Posted in Economics and public policy, Life, Media, Philosophy, Political theory, Science, Social, Theatre | 21 Comments

Cracking the code: How to tell what News Corp really thinks about the price of links

News Corp is telling us what Google should really pay for linking to its sites. It’s telling us in code – HTML code. And the answer is … $0.00. What is an Internet link worth to the linker? For most … Continue reading

Posted in Bullshit, Business, Economics and public policy, Information, Intellectual Property, IT and Internet, Media, Politics - national, regulation, Web and Government 2.0 | 19 Comments

Why “final offer arbitration” is Russian Roulette for Google

The legislated “bargaining” process between Google and News Corp is unmoored from reality. Its “final offer arbitration” is unsuited to the task. In the debate over the federal government’s news media bargaining code, rather strange things have happened. The most … Continue reading

Posted in Economics and public policy, Journalism, Media, Politics - national, Print media | 15 Comments

How others are organising the Covistance: ideas for those who want to help.

How are we going to escape the authoritarian nightmare and regain our liberties and zest for life? This long read is written for organisers of new Covistance initiatives, explaining the logic of what others have done and what could further … Continue reading

Posted in Coronavirus crisis, Death and taxes, Democracy, Geeky Musings, Health, Information, IT and Internet, Journalism, Law, Libertarian Musings, Media, Parenting, Politics - international, Politics - national, Science | 17 Comments

Constant distractions are leading to major declines in top-level reasoning. What to do?

Till 20 year ago, IQ scores in the West increased about 3 points per decade ever since the 1920s, a phenomenon known as the “Flynn effect”. That rise in IQ test scores, which have an average of 100 and a … Continue reading

Posted in Education, Employment, Gender, History, Inequality, IT and Internet, Media, Parenting, Public and Private Goods, Science, Social, Uncategorized | 20 Comments