Commentary

Ideas Need Words and a Festival
There are a few days a year where I can walk into the Aotea Centre, sit down in a darkened theatre and climb into someone else’s brain for an hour, just to hear what interesting minds think.  Multiple times. What a grand cheat. [More]
A BPA Follow Up
The warnings about dangers of BPA plastics aren’t going away, they’re getting louder. [More]
Men and Advertising Don’t Mix
A women’s empowerment fantasy is a post-coital shot of George Clooney and yourself on the couch where you’ve just polished off the last piece of his homemade chocolate cake during the foot massage—and you control the remote. Men are trading in aspirational selling, but we’re not delusional buyers.  [More]
Twitter Twuniverse Worth Twying
A Twitter prayer in 140 characters:  O Lord, smite those that post morning bowel movements or what yr dog 8 for breakfast on worldwide social media.  Even yr Mum doesn’t care.  Edit or throw self under train. [More]
An Offer He Couldn’t Refuse
He got an offer he couldn’t refuse. In just two shipments, he nearly cleaned out his supplier’s entire North American stock of controversial BPA drink bottles. What sane businessman would turn down 85 per cent off?  [More]
Good Riddance To The Emo-tivation Decade
If a tree falls in a forest and there’s no one there to Twitter about it—who the hell cares? Obviously, only the guy with some battery life left on his iPhone. [More]
The Next 100 Years: Move to Poland
Prepare yourself.  The next 100 years might get a little tichy for those who don’t want to see Ronald McDonald as Head of the UN someday. [More]
Mow The Lawn?–Oh Puhleeze
There is a commercial now on television that features a woman going to the beach, a hairdresser, and a manicurist with a beaver.   The ad is for tampons.  Mm-hmm. [More]
When A Nightmare Gets A Fairytale Ending–or Not
The press celebrated the nuptials worldwide.  The story that began as a horrific honor rape was now giving us a Bollywood ending, worthy of the screenplay that is brewing in real life. That is, depending on who’s telling the tale. [More]
When Formaldehyde and Finance Make Great Art
When Rome was burning—okay, maybe Wall Street and the worldwide financial cousie-bro markets in between– Damien Hirst was sitting behind his Mr. Magoo glasses watching a £111 million pound wall of money rain down into his hot little hands on the very same day. [More]
Fauxtography: When Pictures Lie
After years of fierce contention, a French court has now ruled that this footage shot by a freelance Palestinian cameraman was possibly a staged fake. If true, this would mark one of the most devastatingly harmful hoaxes seen in modern media.  [More]