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 →

Extract from Mythic Dreams – why modern capitalism’s pursuit of growth is a sin

Ch 2: A Haves and Have Nots World A much greater hunger In 1800, the world’s population was about 1.36 billion. If we are to believe statistical analysis, most people lived, in income terms, relatively similar lives. According to Gapminder statistical analysis (admittedly conjectural, given that data before 1900 is ‘highly uncertain’) the world’s poorest … Continue reading Extract from Mythic Dreams – why modern capitalism’s pursuit of growth is a sin →

On humanity and the lack of it

To the extent the government is exercising compassion now, it is compassion driven by the bad publicity it is suffering...

Bad government 3

Good governments often provide things for people to help them live better lives, like education, health services, affordable houses, roads and public transport, stuff called infrastructure (which includes those roads and also electricity and such). The government does not charge a lot for people to have these things. Sometimes (and for some people) these services are free. Pizza, unfortunately, is not free to anyone...

A modest proposal for the preservation of the plutocracy via the maintenance of a selected body of the fossil fooled

A smaller population also means there is less opportunity for agitators to fulminate against us; revolutions never really topple US but they can be very disagreeable. Just ask Rasputin.

Bad government 2

Viral government Here is a definition of good government from a book for kids (The big fat NO debates – Government) by yours truly. If kids can get this, so should most adults. All… people want pretty much the same things as you and me. • Love • To feel safe/secure • A bit (or … Continue reading Bad government 2 →

Welcome to our mediaeval times

I’ll argue that in this early 21st century venality and appalling inequity is again (still) on general display, that institutions are both revered and detested, that pandemics dominate and fundamentally change our world, and that reason seems lost amid a sea of conspiracy theories, despite the best efforts of some authorities. As Julia Hurst and Zoe Laidlaw observed recently, ‘…identity is rooted in history, and so history cannot be escaped.’

An alternative truth

The opening of a novella about this pandemic; just set somewhere else entirely.In a world with alternative truths what we would perhaps prefer is an alternative world on which to trial them. Part 1 - Beginnings December 13 Nahuw, Anihc Moon is about to place an Uggo piece into what he hopes will be a … Continue reading An alternative truth →

Foreword from a draft non fiction text

The fossil fooled I began to write this book on the first of January 2020, hoping this will be a year and decade of better vision than we have shown so far (forgive the pun). As I write, much of Australia burns. This fire season began in August 2019, some say July. The fires are … Continue reading Foreword from a draft non fiction text →

Greta and the trolls

Isn't it fitting that Greta should hail from a nordic region, more-or-less the homeplace, I think, of trolls and other things nasty, like Ragnarok. What is it that brings them out whenever she gets a post or mention on social media.