Hey, ya really bustin' ma balls here!
There are 57 posts tagged: ethics
- DIE, Google, DEI
- 15 February 2024
Melonie Parker is Google's chief diversity officer, in charge of sociopolitical checkbox-based hiring. She joined Omose Ighodaro in the BBC's Executive Lounge, boasting Google's DEI credits in How Google is sticking to – and soaring past – its DEI goals. Although
(more…)soaring past
suggests that their goals may not have been too much of a stretch in the first place.- Parental approval
- 7 February 2024
A US woman has become the first parent to be convicted of involuntary manslaughter, for failing to intervene and prevent her then fifteen-year-old son from committing a deadly school shooting in 2021. She and her husband, who is to be tried separately, gave him a gun, while at the same time recognising his mental ill-health.
(more…)- The air that I breathe
- 23 January 2024
Reporting on a novel method of execution, which has been authorised for use by an Alabaman correctional facility in order to dispatch a death row inmate, the BBC's Tom Bateman affords me the opportunity to be a smart-arse, and earn petty points exposing unchecked misinformation at the corporation.
(more…)- Three's a crowd
- 14 December 2023
The chairman of Florida's state Republican Party and his wife, herself the co-founder of a conservative political organisation and a school board member, have been exposed as having a long-standing ménage à trois with another woman. All of this came to light only when the woman brought charges of rape and battery against the husband. They've gotta be Christians.
(more…)- Boo-bloody-hoo
- 6 November 2023
BBC Panorama sent one of its crack investigative journalists, Emma Lowther, undercover to infiltrate the Manchester HQ of fast-fashion company Boohoo. As if it weren't obvious from the
(more…)fast-fashion
label, Boohoo retails cheap clothing targeted primarily at young women. So, as fashion trends rapidly change, swift turnaround and cost consciousness are paramount.- Free Speech For People (of whom we approve)
- 31 October 2023
Free Speech For People is
(more…)a [US] non-profit non-partisan organization
thatenvisions a democratic process in which all people have an equal voice and an equal vote
. This must be why they're advocating for Donald Trump to be disqualified from running in the 2024 presidential election, under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment: so that his supporters can have an equal voice and an equal vote. Oh, hang on a minute…- Religiously passing the buck
- 29 October 2023
The Spanish Catholic Church is believed to be responsible for the sexual abuse of hundreds of thousands of children. Spain's ombudsman, Angel Gabilondo, also criticised the Church for inaction; attempts to cover up or deny the abuse; and a less-than-wholehearted engagement with his commission's work:
(more…)- "Freeing up"
- 21 October 2023
A new euphemism for technology-borne redundancy comes to us courtesy of those lovable practitioners of
(more…)tax efficiency
at Amazon:freeing up
. The company's trialling humanoid robots to automate its operations and further reduce costs.- How!...?
- 23 September 2023
Three Canadian women have been accused of falsely claiming Inuit heritage to defraud indigenous organisations of benefits. It's a pretty shonky thing to do; some people simply have no morals. But it upset Aluki Kotierk, president of one such organisation, more than most.
(more…)- Low rent
- 26 July 2023
Rental properties are hard to come by in the UK. And apparently some landlords have taken this as an opportunity to
(more…)cherry-pick
applicants. For shame. (whatever)- Not all you can eat
- 12 July 2023
Efforts to cut down on food wastage in China have brought some characteristically restrictive practices to Pooh's squalid shithole. Including limiting the number of dishes that can be ordered, and even
(more…)needs-testing
patrons:- Jimmy who?
- 10 July 2023
Allegations that an unnamed male BBC presenter paid a young adult £35,000 for explicit photos over a three-year period are remarkable for four things.
(more…)- 201 flops
- 6 July 2023
The Irish broadcaster RTÉ has been accused of financial impropriety, including spending €5,000 on 200 pairs of flip-flops and a loss of €2.2M on another flop, Toy Show The Musical of all things.
(more…)- The billionaires' club
- 15 June 2023
In the wake of George Soros handing control of his business and philanthropic empire over to his son, BBC Reel asks whether anyone should be allowed to inherit $25bn.
(more…)- Forever and a day
- 30 March 2023
Disney and the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, have been spitting and calling each other
(more…)poopyhead
, ever since Mouse House tried to undermine Florida House (Bill 1557, the Parental Rights in Education Act). This has culminated in DeSantis pulling the plug on Disney's Reedy Creek Improvement District, which had previously given the company carte blanche to do pretty much whatever the hell it wanted with its Walt Disney World resort.- Hypocrisy, thy name art faded footballer
- 8 March 2023
Comrade Lineker has displeased the politburo of the People's Republic of Portland Place, by likening the UK's asylum policy to [cough]
(more…)a certain period in Germany's history
. He's to bespoken to
andreminded of his responsibilities
towards the republic. After all, antagonising the government draws its unwanted attention to the PRPP's other activities.- Nothing like the real thing
- 7 February 2023
Apparently, you can't believe all that you read on the label. Clothing labels that is. Because fabric fraud is a thing.
(more…)- Oh, the irany
- 1 February 2023
An Iranian couple have been jailed for promoting corruption; prostitution; and propaganda, after posting a video of themselves dancing in the street beside Tehran's Azadi Tower (برج آزادی or
Freedom Tower
). Amply demonstrating that the Iranian authorities have nothing if not a sense of irony.- Copy/prosecute
- 5 January 2023
India's observed that the EU is squeezing mucho moolah out of Google for being shits about something, and they want a piece of the action. Unlike the EU, however, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) would rather not put too much effort into it, especially if it's been done better before, and decided to [cough]
(more…)share best practice
. (wink)- A fool and their money
- 12 December 2022
Scott Shafer has a YouTube channel on which he uncovers internet-based scams. Today, it's the turn of Vanessa Sierra, an OnlyFans
(more…)creator
and metaverse land flipper—of all things—who conned investors in an NFT scam called Smol Boyz Land.- Symbolic gesture
- 19 November 2022
The BBC is sending Gary Lineker, its most highly-paid mouth-breather, to Qatar to watch tosspots kick balls around fields. But, he's not excited by the prospect. Oh no. He's really only going so that he can champion the cause of human rights and raise awareness. Oh yes.
(more…)- Pope porn
- 26 October 2022
Priests do it Nuns do it They have a lot of fun doin' it Let's do it Let's watch porn [with apologies to Ted Koehler and Harold Arlen]
(more…)- Immorality code
- 17 September 2022
Mahsa Amini was arrested by Iran's morality police for not wearing a hijab, in contravention of the country's strict rules on head coverings. She was beaten while inside a police van. Because it's immoral for a woman to not cover her head, but it's okey-dokey for the police to kick the crap out of her. That's not immoral; is that it? (rolleyes)
(more…)- Brother, can you spare a halalah?*
- 1 August 2022
HRH Prince Charles' financial relationship with the Middle East isn't limited to accepting shopping bags stuffed with drinking tokens from Qatari prime ministers. In 2013, he accepted donations to his charitable fund from a Saudi family by the name of Bin Laden. The family's most well-known son—a cheeky wee scamp named Osama—was apparently a bit of a wild child, whom they disowned in 1994.
(more…)- BoJo gonna gogo?
- 6 July 2022
Now that both his chancellor and health secretary have resigned over the latest scandal to hit his premiership, we have to wonder how long BoJo can continue to bluff his way. When he appointed Chris Pincher as deputy chief whip earlier this year, he tacitly admitted to knowing that the old pervert had an unenviable reputation, referring to him as
(more…)Pincher by name, pincher by nature
.- Turning tricks
- 26 June 2022
HRH Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, accepted wads of cash totalling €3M, handed to him in suitcases and shopping bags, as charitable donations from Qatar's prime minister between 2011 and 2015. According to his spokesperson, all donations
(more…)were passed immediately to one of the prince's charities and all the correct processes were followed.
- Chicken, egg; egg, chicken
- 28 May 2022
Dennis Butler was warned to slow down while passing a celebratory event in Charleston, WV, because children were playing there. When the convicted felon returned to fire on the crowd with a semi-automatic rifle, a bystander drew her own gun and popped a cap in his ass, killing him and saving innocent lives. Bloody good show, lady!
(more…)- Having their meat and eating it
- 4 May 2022
As the US Supreme Court appears set to challenge women's right to abortion, conservative and religious pro-lifers hope that Roe vs Wade will be overturned. I can't help but wonder how many of them are vegetarian though.
(more…)- Foetal attraction
- 1 April 2022
Lauren Handy is an American anti-abortionist, who describes herself as a
(more…)Catholic anarchist
. She's a leader of an activist group calling itself the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising.- No Newzz is good news
- 24 March 2022
BuzzFeed News—or should that be Newzz?—is being shuttered, at the urging of shareholders. The news landscape will never be the same again. Hopefully.
(more…)- Appleton Greene
- 8 March 2022
AGC is a
(more…)niche corporate training provider
offeringstandard and bespoke training programs for corporate clients
. They contacted me as part of an unsolicited marketing outreach campaign. This is not the first contact that I've received from them.- Liver hard, die young
- 20 February 2022
BoJo's bozos—AKA the UK government—are likely to drop plans to ban the import of foie gras, after several cabinet ministers raised concerns over upcoming dinner parties.
(more…)- Hopeless response
- 11 February 2022
I receive a lot of unsolicited email from predatory publishers. Most messages are simply too unremarkable for comment. Some are amusingly inept in one way or another. Few actually piss me off.
(more…)- Champagne conservative
- 9 February 2022
After we've discovered that Boozy BoJo has a pretty ropey taste in beer, is seems that his, or his carers', taste in champagne is more refined. At least, that appears to be a bottle of Veuve Cliquot to the left of the image.
(more…)- Evalueserve
- 8 February 2022
I was sent a job description for a consulting company called Evalueserve, a company that I'd never heard of before. The job is to be located in the UK; except Evalueserve doesn't have a UK office.
(more…)- Drinking piss
- 5 February 2022
As the pressure on BoJo over restriction-busting knees-ups at Downing Street increases, it appears that the PM was photographed at one event holding a can of beer.
(more…)- Pain meds
- 3 February 2022
Sansa H advises me that
(more…)You have more opportunities for future collaboration
. And it's always good to have opportunities, isn't it?- White men need not apply
- 18 January 2022
A think-piece on Substack, Hollywood's New Rules by Peter Kiefer and Peter Savodnik, exposes a new pattern of discrimination, in a land in which it's been rife for decades. This is yet another tit-for-tat, boot's-on-the-other-foot situation, in which people are awarded work not strictly on merit, but simply for not being heterosexual white men.
(more…)- Hitler: that two-faced jerk!
- 9 December 2021
In The Fegelein Wedding - Nazi Fairytale or Nazi Nightmare? Mark Felton recounts Gretl Braun's romances and marriage. Gretl, the younger sister of Adolf Hitler's squeeze, Eva, fell in love with Fritz Darges, who was Hitler's SS adjutant at the time.
(more…)- Journalistic ethics are a thing...allegedly
- 1 December 2021
CNN anchorman Chris Cuomo has been suspended indefinitely, over allegations that he aided his sex pest brother, ex-New York governor Andrew.
(more…)- When 'yes' means 'no'
- 19 November 2021
According to David Robson, for BBC Worklife, people are more likely to comply with requests for assistance, through fear of disagreement otherwise. All very psychological.
(more…)- The ethics of spam
- 10 September 2021
I've received something similar to this email from Ethics International Press before. In that instance, the message referred to Dr Rosamund Thomas, as if her name was supposed to mean something to me.*
(more…)- Privates on parade
- 20 May 2021
Yet another German terrorist plot. And, once again, under German privacy rules the suspect's surname cannot be revealed. In this case, the suspect is a military officer who's only named by the BBC as Lt Franco A.
(more…)- Product displacement
- 19 April 2021
Product placement is a reality of advertising in today's entertainment industry. It's become so everyday, that much of it passes us by, at least consciously. Occasionally, something comes along that's so unsubtle as to be almost aggressive; but, by and large, product placement goes unnoticed. That's probably when it's most effective, when it's subliminal; but I'm no marketing psychologist.
(more…)- Debunking disliking dislikes
- 6 April 2021
In No More Dislikes For You, Just Some Guy raises more valid points on YouTube's experiment. This is a useful insight to those of us who are not YouTube content creators.
(more…)- Disliking dislikes
- 1 April 2021
For undisclosed reasons—read: pressure from Disney/LucasFilm—YouTube is experimenting with hiding dislike counts.
(more…)- Creepfake
- 8 March 2021
Apparently, the future of content creation lies in deepfake, the use of artificial intelligence to generate lifelike
(more…)talking heads
that, for all intents and purposes, cannot be distinguished from the real thing. In the case of at least one software system, the process is as simple as typing in the words for a selected avatar to speak. The whole concept is an ethical and cultural minefield, if not just plain creepy; and, as Donald Trump supposedly said of Jeffrey Epstein, I'm not a fan.- The upside to 'methodical'
- 19 October 2020
In 2018, British Airways experienced a data breach that affected personal and credit card details for more than 400,000 customers. Now, the UK's Information Commissioner's Office has fined the airline £20M for that breach. This is substantially less than the £183M fine that it originally announced in July 2019, after taking into account
(more…)the economic impact of Covid-19
.- Disney Minus
- 6 September 2020
Reviews of Disney's live action remake of Mulan have been generally mixed to favourable. I like the story, and I was looking forward to this release. But…hnnng, I can't.
(more…)- Apples 'n' pears: logo wars
- 12 August 2020
The couple behind Prepear, a recipe and meal planning app, are preparing to do legal battle with the mighty Apple Corporation. And all because they want to use a pear as their logo.
(more…)- Not much anonymity
- 20 February 2020
A suspected racially-motivated attack in Germany, which is being treated as terrorism, has claimed at least nine victims. According to police, the suspect, a 43-year old German citizen identified only as
(more…)Tobias R
by local media, killed himself.- Biter bit
- 1 November 2019
In Indonesia, Mukhlis bin Muhammad of the Aceh Ulema Council helped draft strict adultery laws in compliance with Islamic Sharia law. So it was
(more…)a surprisenice to read that he was caught with a married woman who's not his wife, and has been publicly flogged 28 times. Deep joy.- Eat 'til you bust
- 8 August 2017
The Trendy Shrimp, a mall restaurant in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China, has been criticised for a crass advertising campaign which offered discounts to women based on the size of their bust. An A-cup bra netted the wearer 5% off of her meal, while the proud owner of a G-cup received a similarly massive 65% concession. That's a pretty safe bet; I can't imagine there'd be too many of those being awarded in China.
(more…)- And a little something for yourself, Your Honour!
- 5 August 2014
Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone, who stood accused of bribery in Germany, has had the charges dropped after offering to pay the court £60M ($100M).
(more…)- Fat cat gets fatter
- 13 August 2013
Paul Walsh, who stepped down as chief executive of Diageo in June, trousered a cool £14.8 million in his last year in the role, mainly as a result of
(more…)incentive plans linked to the company's performance
.- Olympus, Olympus, Olympus?
- 5 July 2013
Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, the former chairman of Olympus and first-class hypocrite, having been found guilty of accounting fraud has been handed a three year suspended sentence. So it looks like the dishonourable little shit won't be going to ol' pokey after all. Boo!
(more…)- Olympus, Olympus, Olympus!
- 8 November 2011
You recall how Olympus sacked Michael Woodford, allegedly for his questioning of past fiscal malpractice? It turns out that he may have been on to something.
(more…)