Random header image... Refresh for more!

Society

Google Earth or Real Earth? I’m Getting Confused

Thumbnail image for Google Earth or Real Earth? I’m Getting Confused

One of my very favourite cartoons is Michael Leunig’s ‘TV sunrise’. The picture of a father and son watching the sunset on television while the real thing happens just outside the window seems to capture the essence of modern life. The only problem with the cartoon is that it is a bit dated. I mean, [...]

Read the full article →

Chill Out, Slow Down and Live Longer: a Hope for the New Decade

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pdxdj/23219947/sizes/t/

While waiting to cross a road yesterday, I watched a cyclist do a perfectly legal and correct right-hand turn. The bike stayed to the outside of the lane but even there he caused the car behind him to pause for a moment before it could turn. The car then took its turn, the driver planting [...]

Read the full article →

Why Technology will Never Replace the Knowledge of Elders

Thumbnail image for Why Technology will Never Replace the Knowledge of Elders

It was a crafty weekend at our house. I was house-painting – a job that is going to keep me going for many months. Our youngest daughter was making soap for Christmas presents. And my wife and eldest daughter were working together as said daughter had her first introduction to serious needlework. It got me [...]

Read the full article →

Climate Change Straight Talk from Unlikely Sources

15000 delegates are currently sitting in Copenhagen and thrashing out some sort of agreement on how humanity might be saved from the effects of climate change. That’s a mighty big committee. Let’s hope all the hot air that will be exhaled over the next fortnight is being captured and put to good use. I must [...]

Read the full article →

Our Love Affair with Digital: Are we Being Led Astray?

Thumbnail image for Our Love Affair with Digital: Are we Being Led Astray?

The stark realisation of just how wedded to digital technology we have become gave me a strong sense of unease recently. Am I alone in feeling a growing sense of communal vulnerability in this relationship?

Read the full article →

An Open Letter to My Kids before Christmas. Dear Girls…

Thumbnail image for An Open Letter to My Kids before Christmas. Dear Girls…

You know that uncomfortable sagging feeling you get when you leave for school camp knowing you’ve left something behind – you just don’t know what? It’s horrible the way the hunch sits in your gut like too much cake until, as you open your bag at the other end, the realisation hits: it was the [...]

Read the full article →

Portrait of the Artist as a New Media Mogul

While working in a ‘real’ job and then later for myself, I had no idea how little society valued the arts. Now that I’m a writer, I’m learning fast – and the image I see is not very attractive.

Read the full article →

Hurry Up and … Slow Down

Thumbnail image for Hurry Up and … Slow Down

Over forty years is a long time to work on a single task. Yet that has been the lot of the four editors of the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary. The massive 3,952 page double volume will be released this month, the culmination of the editors’ entire careers. In our world of fast, [...]

Read the full article →

Happiness Sheds its Hippie Heritage

I was listening to a talkback radio discussion last night about what constitutes achievement and success in work and life. While not a particularly original topic for evening radio, I was struck by the tone of the calls. During quite a lengthy discussion, not a single caller suggested that success is about climbing the corporate ladder or making money. Could it be that success – for everyone, not just the hippies – is about being happy?

Read the full article →

The Scourge of Human Spam

My mother taught me that it is rude to interrupt. It is something that my wife and I, like most parents, try to instil into our daughters. With all that happens in the modern household it is hard enough to find time to have a conversation of more than 30 seconds without those precious sentences [...]

Read the full article →

Steve’s Diabolical Challenge

Like Senator Steve Fielding, I am a lapsed engineer. Like Steve, I have attempted to understand the science of climate change. Unlike Steve, I eventually understood that the task is beyond ordinary mortals. In fact it is even beyond the intellect of a single engineer. I realised that we should be leaving it to the [...]

Read the full article →