🔗 What is the Bechdel test?

More proof .. if proof were needed .. that I live under a rock … fascinating .

JESSICA CHASTAIN: But then I looked at the test, and I thought, OK, it doesn’t seem too unreasonable. And then I looked at my films, and I realized not one of my films has passed that test.


Talking of LinkedIN - 🔗 take a look at this which I just dropped onto LinkedIN. It’s my position on the Callaghan debacle that New Zealand’s ‘Office of the Auditor General’ has just weighed in on.

TL;DR - Callaghan are guilty.

To quote;

Callaghan Innovation did not …

… a whole tonne of stuff. The piece is called - Accountability Has No Meaning in New Zealand - because really unless something now happens. It doesn’t.

Those who live in Aotearoa should find it particularly interesting. Even if you haven’t been tracking the past few years of the story.


I think I just broke 🔗 LinkedIN


There’s a LOT of stuff going on in New Zealand at the moment as the new Govt takes control and is starting to / trying to (not sure which) roll back everything the previous Govt was doing. C’est la vie.

In parralel, the topic of efficiency seems to be on everyone’s lips - different learned people in different positions essentially reporting ‘findings’ .. new budgets in cities … and the eternal question of whether we are getting what we pay for.

Just one small example from Wayne Brown in Auckland … a speed bump in a road to slow traffic down costs multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars. I’ll let that sink in.

I am far from qualified to comment much on this (other than that seems a lot to me), but Bernard Hickey definitely is - and if you want to read his excellent Substack around not just speed bumps - but all things political and fiscal in this fine country - look no further than 🔗 here.

Meanwhile - Aotearoa - don’t feel so bad - this 🔗 🎙️ podcast from Freakonomics relects on the US construction industry. Turns out it is the only industry that has not become more efficient over the past seventy years - because that is how it is designed!


📽️ Finally steadily working my way through ‘The Morning Show’ .. review forthcoming at some point in the future - but meanwhile - a track that got played on last night’s episode …

🔗 🎵 One Way Glass by Innerspace Orchestra

Gorgeous. So of course I had to look it up …



You might remember that I was never a fan of 🖇️ Ramaswamy

Just 4 months later - even Fox has tuned on him … FOX!

Fox🔗 News Goes Absolutely Nuclear on ‘Court Jester’ Vivek Ramaswamy - The Daily Beast


🔗 Seventh Russian general confirmed dead’ … hoist by his own petard’?

Not keeping a strict count now - but someone should, along the lines of …

Russian Generals killed by Ukraine: 7 Russian Generals claimed to be killed by Ukraine: 16 plus one admiral Russian Generals accidentally killed by Russia
Russian Generals purposely killed by Russia

That last one isn’t as strange as you might think - putting aside this from a year ago : 🔗 Putin said to be conducting internal purge of military generals, intel personnel we ‘know’ a bit about 🔗 this one at least.

Meanwhile, Putin just created 60 more … I wonder what the Russian department of ‘Workplace Safety’ thinks?


🔗 Apple’s new Journal app won’t be available on iPad and Mac

Seriously? I guess if I use it … it will only be for photos … no writing .. oh wait …DayONE dos it all on all platforms.



🔗 🎬 Decisions Decisions

Rent 3.99 Buy 14.99

Will I watch it 4 times?



You know how AI can write stuff - so you don’t have to?

And you know how AI can read stuff - so you don’t have to?

And you know how you can use AI to soup up your videos - so you don’t have to?

So all that’s left for you to do is watch the videos?

WELL - now you don’t even need to bother with that.

Bard to understand a video’s content and respond to user requests for information

🔗 One more nail in the coffin for being human



🔗 In a sign of the times, podcast app Castro may be dying..

I moved over to Overcast a couple of years ago - but this is very sad. Really liked Castro. 😢


🔗 Switzerland Is Trying to Host the Cheapest Winter Olympics on Record

Well they’ll save a lot of money just having the snow ready to go, rather than having to create it in a desert.


🔗 Apple’s Vision Pro Isn’t the Future

Flagging this to highlight that I am betting that Wired is WRONG. I will come back to it in the future - let’s say round about the end of Q1, beginning of Q2, 2024?


The Wired link is from June. Meanwhile 🖇️ me in October. I will try to find a few more.


🔗 Hickey’s Article

My restack …



🔗 Listening Brands by Jr Little 📚 was published in 2015 - did we not already have this then?