Last week I wrote a post in regard to a recent announcement from Acting Superintendent Gini Welch that the NZ Police would now be operating a zero-tolerance speed limit breach policy permanently. In that post, I looked at some of the thinking behind the Police’s sudden urge to ticket
The late Christopher Hitchens said, in defense of free speech, “Every time you violate or propose to violate the free speech of someone else, you, in potentia, you’re making a rod for your own back”. Because, as Hitchens argued, who gets to decide? Right now, it may be people
Angela Renton The University of Queensland A recent demonstration video released by Elon Musk’s firm Neuralink might not look like much at first. In the video, a pig named Gertrude eats snacks from a person’s hand, while an accompanying computer screen displays blue lines that peak and trough,
Dave Parry Auckland University of Technology The Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) has issued a warning to all New Zealand businesses to be prepared for cyber attacks, following almost a week of daily attacks on the New Zealand stock exchange (NZX). The attacks have caused outages, sometimes for hours, of
Sir Bob Jones nopunchespulled.com In a recent Herald article, Caro Rainsford, a director of Google in New Zealand, argued that the lockdown’s closure of schools and universities, paved a new education future of digital learning. She’s talking nonsense. In education terms the Internet is doing no more
If you have a great Youtube or Vimeo video to share send it to videos@thebfd.co.nz
It’s a little-known fact that, prior to the late 90s/early 2000s, the most intense period of globalisation occurred in the second half of the 19th century. For much of the 20th century, in fact, globalisation was in retreat. Walls and trade barriers went up and stayed up well
The highly contagious COVID-19 epidemic has stopped the world in its tracks. New Zealanders thought that they were okay and free from the virus as they had been told it had been eliminated. Jacinda told the world she had danced in celebration at the news and Kiwis felt reassured that
If you have a great Youtube or Vimeo video to share send it to videos@thebfd.co.nz
Alexander Hall papundits.wordpress.com President Donald Trump’s WeChat executive order shows the war on Chinese subterfuge is bigger than just TikTok. Trump issued two different executive orders on Thursday evening: The “Executive Order on Addressing the Threat Posed by TikTok” placed a ban on TikTok from being used
Duggan Flanakin papundits.wordpress.com The rush to decarbonize every nation in the world in one or maybe two decades reflects the “I want it all NOW!” philosophy imbued through modern education systems. Current and recent former students – and their teachers – demand a perfect world (since they can envision one)
If you have a great Youtube or Vimeo video to share send it to videos@thebfd.co.nz
Following on from my previous letter regarding China, there are now interesting developments in the UK. It has ditched Huawei from the 5G programme and is looking to remove Huawei’s influence from the current infrastructure over the next few years. The UK’s mobile providers are being banned from
Corinne Weaver papundits.wordpress.com Corinne Weaver is a staff writer for MRC TechWatch and she works as a senior analyst for the Media Research Center at the NewsBusters site. As the Joe and Betty Anderlik Fellow, her coverage on tech censorship, media bias, and pro-life issues have been cited
John Colley Warwick Business School, University of Warwick A handful of technology companies have benefited from coronavirus. Amazon has profited handsomely, as have streaming and video conferencing platforms like Netflix and Zoom. But the pandemic has laid bare the shaky foundations of a number of other platforms that bill themselves
