Society and culture, including media (books, movies, television shows and new media) and commentary on contemporary culture.
Many of you would probably be aware of the recent Four Corners coverage of an incident some time ago involving members of the Cronulla rugby league team, including Matthew Johns. Johns and his wife gave an interview to Channel 9 shortly after the Four Corners report was aired.
A “natural” deception expert recently did an […]
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the principal of James Ruse Agricultural High School, Michael J. Quinlan, will retire at the end of this year. This follows a 15 year stint at the very well-known selective high school.
Having multiple friends who are alumni of the school, all I can say is, “It’s the end […]
TitleMcDull, the Alumni DirectorSamson Chiu Leung-Chun ProducerPeter Chan Ho-Sun Length91 minutes Year2006 IMDBIMDB entry DVDRegion 0 / NTSC / Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1 / Cantonese, Mandarin audio / Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, English Subtitles PurchaseYesAsia.com
I asked to see this film mainly out of curiosity arising from the first two, My Life as McDull (2001) and McDull, Prince de la Bun […]
A List Apart is a web design weblog to which I subscribe (and read occasionally). Normally the topics deal with web design (i.e. how to design a good, standards-compliant web page), or web design project management (i.e. how to deal with clients).
So I’m more than a little curious to see this particular article about […]
There was a time when one has to beg the bank manager to get a loan. Not any more. A couple of months ago I went to my local bank branch (!) for an enquiry. And, of course, as part of this particular bank’s cross-selling strategy, they offered me a home loan.
Given […]
Well not quite.
This article in the Sydney Morning Herald discusses the psychological isolation of those young people that do not have mobile phones.
Mobile phones are increasing being used as a mechanism of social networking rather than simple communication. It is now viewed as more important for people to receive a large number of mobile […]
It all started with a speech given by Jim Spigelman, Chief Justice of New South Wales. Although the speech is more about the role of the rule of law in the development of Australian democracy, what grabbed the headlines is the second part of the speech, which deals with the decline of civility in […]
As you may or may not be aware, I am an “apostrophe man”. Given the recent coverage of the usage of “its” and “it’s” in Column 8, I must admit that this particular mistake is one that annoys me most.
My other gripe is the confusion between the two words “enormousness” (the noun form of […]
The Sydney Morning Herald had a front page story today about the proportion of students from non-English speaking background (particularly Chinese) in selective schools.
It provided an interesting case study on what is generally accepted as the best selective school in New South Wales, James Ruse Agricultural High School. The articles reported that approximately 90% […]
I have previously noted my enjoyment of AFR BOSS, the monthly magazine of the Australian Financial Review.
The October 2005 issue on personality is particularly interesting. I know it’s a little bit late, but there are two articles about which I would like to comment. Perhaps it’s because I am one of those shy, […]