There’s no getting around the fact that my name is a bit popular. It’s led to numerous issues, including (a) an email begging me to return to TV, and (b) approaches from classics students wanting help with essays. In the case of (a) it turned out I’d been confused with Matthew Wright the British TV … More In which Google mistakes me for another Matthew Wright
A little while back some guy on social media informed me for the umpteenth time that New Zealand couldn’t afford HMS New Zealand – a major warship that the government gave to Britain in late March 1909 – because (according to him) the colony was too small, in recession and had only minimal labour force. … More How to pay for expensive government projects by drinking beer
This week I watched Don’t Look Up. I was impressed. Others may have different opinions, but to me it came across as a razor-sharp satire on the current zeitgiest, a social commentary of the highest order and a dark comedy with some solid science behind it. The scary part wasn’t the concept of a planet-killer … More What happens when Earth is hit by a 10km wide banana…
I have to admit I’m getting a bit bored with Lord of the Rings. Not the books, so much as the shenanigans around the movies and TV series. Peter Jackson’s original adaptation a couple of decades back was amazing, but his version of The Hobbit was a nine-hour-plus train wreck that veered into self-parody. I … More Bored of Lord of the Rings
I am always intrigued by the number of jokes made about the way other languages sound to English speakers. Usually they rest on some tired and long-discarded national stereotype such as Swedish allegedly consisting of people saying ‘borka borka borka’, or German consisting of people gutturally barking orders at each other: Speaker 1: Achtung! Panzer! … More How English sounds to speakers of other languages
I figured out a way of making electric cars go further. All they need is a generator on board and – presto – no problems with battery charging. Better still, you can get rid of those heavy batteries altogether and run the electric motors from the juice provided by the generator. That’s even greener – … More How to make electric cars go further
I worked for many years in corporate communications. The organisation ran on buzzwords. They were amazing ways to get ahead. All you had to do was invoke them and you were in. When I joined, the buzzword was ‘budgeting’. Everything had to be budgeted, meaning properly planned and costed ahead of time. However, most of … More How to get ahead with buzzwords
What’s the secret to making a YouTube channel go viral? I certainly want to know. I write full time, and the way to make a small fortune from writing is to start with a large one. But YouTube – well, all you have to do is start a channel, go viral, and money flows in. … More How to make a YouTube channel go viral
I’ve decided to call defeat over conspiracy theories. You can’t stop ‘em or change the minds of anybody who believes them. So I’ve decided to join them. From here on, I’m a believer in every conspiracy theory around, especially the ones that contradict each other. So yes, the moon landings were faked (six times), and … More Why I believe every conspiracy theory, including the ones that contradict each other
I haven’t posted here for the past couple of weeks. Time to run my blog has been a bit sparse. Why? You’ll find out soon. Meanwhile have a guess as to what’s been going on. Have I been… Kidnapped by aliens from the planet Zorg. Founded a death metal band and got busy recording a … More Missing in action – a bit
Matthew Wright 
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