Byron C Clark

Wayne's World and Spinal Tap are a couple of favourites in there

This most 'media studies' line in this book has got to be "the hat is also a text"

Kinda want to get that on a hat now

IHeartMedia has to be one of the most successful rebranding exercises. Clear Channel was synonymous with corporate radio & the homogenisation of music, there are punk rock songs criticising it

IHeart has a bunch of podcasts hosted anarchists and their no-AI 'guarenteed human' promise. Same company

There are a lot that aren't sure, but Tubi has a bigger library than any video store I went to growing up, and I can subscribe to Indian and Chinese services and see films that would be available through piracy 20 years ago

Ooh I like this lore

Which is, let's be real, rather unnerving

Ducks obviously somewhere on the silly side. You know what's probably in the middle? A penguin

On the one hand, it's absurd. But then you start to think, it's a long way from it's natural habitat. And it can't fly so it took considerable effort to get there.

That is a penguin with a purpose 🐧

I passed a cemetery today and saw a duck perched on a headstone 🦆 🪦

It got me thinking there's a spectrum of silly to spooky when it comes to birds in cemeteries

I feel like that may have actually been truer 20 years ago, when the art you could access was (mostly) confined to retail in your town, and piracy was the only option to access most stuff outside the mainstream. Now there are so many niche streaming services and there's a skill barrier to pitacy

This is representative of a fringe minority view of course, this isn't a comment about the state of society, it's a comment on the state of social media

Screenshot of a Facebook post from Star News Christchurch posted 4 hours ago. The post preview reads: “A public health expert says NZ is in its ninth Covid wave as the latest figures show 50 hospitalisations an…” followed by “see more.” Below is a news link preview from odt.co.nz titled “Spike in Covid deaths and hospitalisations.” The preview image shows stylised blue virus particles floating over a background of charts and line graphs. At the bottom of the post are reaction icons and counts showing 298 reactions and 348 comments.

Screenshot of a Facebook “People who reacted” page. At the top it shows “All 299.” A breakdown of reactions is displayed: 192 laughing reactions, 41 likes, 41 sad reactions, and 17 shocked reactions. A back arrow appears in the top left.

Facebook has become such a hive of misinformation and conspiracy theorising that when a reputable news source reports that 19 people died from COVID this week nearly two thirds of the reactions are "😂"

With all the fakery around, especially AI video rubbish, people just might start to recognise the importance of news outlets like, say, the BBC.
There's plenty wrong, and they are far from perfect, but you are going to get news from them that is, broadly speaking, honest and real.

At Largest ICE Detention Camp, Staff Bet on Detainee Suicides, AP Reports Camp East Montana has received several 911 calls in the span of five months about immigrants trying to harm themselves.

Staff at the nation’s largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility have placed bets on which detainee will be the next to die by suicide, according to new reporting from the Associated Press based on 911 calls and detainee accounts.

That gender survey is BS. Gen Z men where???

That big scary survey about Gen Z men being more regressive than Boomers is so flawed. An image of young men is being manufactured in the media and we should be very concerned about that.

Why do pollsters keep doing this???

*I know they're not calling themselves TOP anymore but I was short on characters

Former MP Jackie Blue quits National to join Opportunity party | RNZ News Jackie Blue says she can't stand by what the government has done to low-paid workers.

I imagine TOP* could fill a niche for people who want a National government without the baggage of NZ First's culture wars or ACTs racism-baiting (or possibly people who want Labour but not Greens and/or TPM) but that's a small niche, not >5% of the population

www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

I see NZ has supplied the latest edition of "American posters on Bsky don't realise other countries exist and have elections"

Real energy security would be investing in renewable electricity generation and building electrified intercity rail

The idea that New Zealand should be drilling for oil for "energy security" seems to forget we live in a globalised world and any oil drilled in the EEZ will be shipped to somewhere it can get the global market price, just like we pay approximately the same for NZ produced meat and milk as the UK

a man is standing in front of a sign that says this is audrey ALT: a man is standing in front of a sign that says this is audrey

Little Shop of Horrors

Also Robin Williams didn't return for the Aladdin series or straight to video sequels, so the Genie is Dan Castlaneta (Homer Simpson) doing a Robin Williams impression

He also voiced Earthworm Jim with a voice somewhere between Homer Simpson and the Genie

both of these two are brilliant actors who didn't look the part of heros or romantic leads, so we got their talents in sitcoms and animation

(Avery also voiced Shredder in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Alexander was the voice of Duckman)

A TV screen shows two characters from Aladdin the Animated Series

Watching an episode of Aladdin the Animated Series (because Saturday mornings are for cartoons) and realised that the voice actors behind these two are

James Avery (Uncle Phil on the Fresh Prince of Bel Air)
Jason Alexander (George on Seinfeld)

Does the fascist Israeli regime support the U.S. war on Iran? Obviously. Did they "puppet master" it? If you're tempted toward that conspiracy theory you're giving into the undertow of a very old fascist bait-and-switch. You're not fighting fascism. You're slipping rightward.

Antizionism isn't antisemitism. The very old notion that Israel secretly controls the U.S. *is.* White supremacists call it "ZOG," "Zionist Occupation Gov't." It's *not* antizionism. Such tired bigotry is most useful to the fascist Israeli regime, which uses it to deflect from its real crimes.

Khalil and Noreen Suffering in Gaza Please join us in defending Khalil and Noreen's kids from the brutality of war, winter, hunger and illness. Noreen suffers from damaged cartilege. She can't move easily. She also needs a corneal trans...

Khalil needs another $70 to hit his immediate goals.

A small standalone public toilet building in a grassy park at sunrise, with long warm light casting shadows. The cream-coloured block structure has a dark metal roof and an open doorway. Graffiti on the door reads “Have a nice shit” with a large heart drawn underneath. Trees and a paved path are visible in the background.

The golden hour (or "magic hour") is the period shortly after sunrise and before sunset when the sun is low, producing soft, warm, diffused light with long shadows. It is favored by photographers for creating a, flattering, romantic, and "golden" glow.

Is it not more likely that voters shifting to Green are ex-Labour voters rather than ex-Conservative?

Historian here history first time as tragedy the second time as farce.