Category: Social Commentary

Sky and the sounding of Trumpian clarions

Political commentary Sky Australia’s RWNJ crew are arguing, just two days after the electoral blueblood bath that was Labor's (& a Greens/Teals') win, that the Liberal Party needs to shift even further to the right. (See this Guardian article.) My first thoughts are that we are indeed becoming more of an underpopulated America than ever. … Continue reading Sky and the sounding of Trumpian clarions →

Planting the Anthropocene’s golden spike

An extract from an article Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com Although there is a strong agreement among scientists that human activity has pushed the earth out of the stable patterns of the Holocene, debate is far from settled about whether this constitutes a new geological epoch and, if so, where to plant the golden spike … Continue reading Planting the Anthropocene’s golden spike →

The bearable lightness of Social Medialessness

Doing away with not only white noise (with apologies to Milan Kundera) An extract... Way back in 2017 I read a Guardian article by Carole Cadwalladr. Cambridge Analytica was drawn to my attention. Cadwalladr wrote of a time in 2013 (still less than 10 years ago) when employees at Cambridge described the now infamous entity … Continue reading The bearable lightness of Social Medialessness →

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 →

Extract from book for kids with art by Brendan T.

Weather is crazy cold snaps and frying egg hot days and blizzards. A day or two. Climate is when you can expect those things with some certainty. Yep, it's August—here come those wild and woolly westerlies. Jacaranda here always flower in early October; that sort of thing. Climate change means those old certainties aren’t as certain as they used to be.