Idle thoughts 1

I've found that very cold or hot weather - particularly if it's unseasonable (and there's very little that isn't unseasonable these days) - is useful for developing mindfulness. A sudden gust of a chill south westerly when you're not dressed for it, or sweltering sun and no shade because all the trees are wilted; these … Continue reading Idle thoughts 1 →

Going dry

Seems we never learn... A post on The Historiographer.

Thoughts on reading ‘Strangers in their own land’ by Arlie Russell Hochschild

Neoliberalism and the self-harm faithful People of the earth [Part III] Louisiana is the major ground for Hochschild’s research. There, most of the people she meets – and gets to like –are hunters, fishers, cookers of their catch; lovers, ostensibly, of nature. And yet, tales of environmental woe [NATURE DESPOILED] abound in their world: ‘But … Continue reading Thoughts on reading ‘Strangers in their own land’ by Arlie Russell Hochschild →

Thoughts on reading ‘Strangers in their own land’ by Arlie Russell Hochschild

Neoliberalism and the self-harm faithful PART II - The Great Paradox What Arlie Russell Hochschild calls the "Great Paradox" might itself spring from our difficulty in determining exactly what POPULISM is [or of what political wing; right or left, it is]. Populism has been both of or at least partially of the ‘left’ – the … Continue reading Thoughts on reading ‘Strangers in their own land’ by Arlie Russell Hochschild →

Commentary on ‘Strangers in Their Own Land’

Neoliberalism and the self-harm faithful An introduction I’ve been exercising what passes for my mind with THE GREAT DIVIDE that currently occupies much of the debate about the state of the [American] nation. Forgive my anything but slick allusion to that address given by the US president, but it’s almost incumbent on anyone with an … Continue reading Commentary on ‘Strangers in Their Own Land’ →

A teacher reviews The Big Fat YES debate[s] – Book 1

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BNH2VV19 [ Year 8 Coordinator BSHS ] Marie K’s review of Big Fat YES debate[s] – Book 1 'I enjoyed the read; age appropriate language for years 5-8, entertaining and written like a conversation. I think the illustrations were appropriate for me but maybe could be simpler for yr 5/6 students (add colour???). I am … Continue reading A teacher reviews The Big Fat YES debate[s] – Book 1 →

Population

The global problem? Wikipedia notes: ‘The Population Bomb [1968] is a book written by Stanford University Professor Paul R. Ehrlich and his wife, Anne Ehrlich. It predicted worldwide famine due to overpopulation[i], as well as other major societal upheavals, and advocated immediate action to limit population growth. Fears of a "population explosion" existed in the … Continue reading Population →

Another road

He remembered thinking it had all been over so quickly. It had, hadn’t it, come suddenly. A few years of wildly see-sawing weather, of ever rising levees and old people dying from too much heat and water shortages here and floods there, then the mad rush of an island nation for drier land. Then another. And another. The bombing that had to be done. Defences set up on coasts where all the mangroves were dying and the reefs bleached... skeletal. The enclaves where life went on in what passed as the new normal controlled by people with big guns.

Regarding statistics, floods and the public nuisance that social media can be

The Guardian asks: "Are eastern Australia’s catastrophic floods really a one-in-1,000 year event? Describing a flood as a one-in-1,000-year event doesn’t mean we won’t see another one until the year 3000. Photograph: Bradley Richardson/Australian Defence Force/AFP/Getty Images Scientists say describing floods as ‘one-in-1,000-year’ events can mislead the public about the probability of such disasters recurring" On … Continue reading Regarding statistics, floods and the public nuisance that social media can be →