Issues
« Previous EntriesFive recent favourite TED videos
Thursday, January 13th, 2011TED is a profound, horizon expanding experience — and I’ve only ever watched the videos. One day I’d love to go to the event. Here’s five of my most recent favorites. There’s no common theme, and there’s no single reason why I liked them. Some of them moved me, others encouraged me or educated me [...]
FairTrade: Must work both ways
Thursday, December 23rd, 2010For a trade to be fair, it has to be fair in both directions. The source producers need to be paid a fair price for the product the produce, but I too need to pay a fair price for the item I’m purchasing.
Pythagoras: It’s not just a theory
Thursday, December 23rd, 2010It’s called Pythagoras Theory because it’s only a theory. Every triangle that it’s ever been tested on works, so there’s no reason to doubt that it will continue to work on every triangle we ever find. But until there’s a way to prove it, it will always be called a theory. If it’s ever proven, it will be called Pythagoras Rule.
Responsible policy on Bank Interest Rates
Wednesday, November 17th, 2010What we must question is that banks are effectively raising the price of a service after it’s been purchased. In no other industry is this legal and it must not be allowed to continue to be legal in the credit industry.
Environmentalists have it wrong — the economies of scale and inventing the future
Thursday, September 10th, 2009There’s a push on to ‘return’ to the idylic times where a man would work the farm chatting to his cows while his lovely wife baked a loaf of bread (probably with a dab of flour on her nose) while a pail of milk (direct from the aforementioned cows) stands on the bench beside her.
There’s a push on to do-it-yourself. To be handy around the garden and home. To plant one’s own vegetables and to bake one’s own bread.
But is that really good for the environment? I doubt it
Lotteries: Mathmatically speaking, they’re not really a tax on the stupid
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008Note: There are a lot of numbers in this post, so I’ve rounded a lot of them off, and included some footnotes. If you don’t like numbers, then consider yourself warned.
It’s been said* that “Lotteries are a tax on the stupid”. The premise being that anyone who spends money on a lottery ticket is just [...]
More provocative images …
Sunday, July 6th, 2008[There is] no evidence that [if] eating beef is the community standard [it] will persuade a vegetarian to approve of it.
Socially acceptable bullying?
Sunday, June 1st, 2008OK, let’s start by getting one thing out of the way: I’m watching Big Brother again this year. I didn’t watch it last year and only glanced at it the year before. Each year it got more and more tawdry in the hope for ratings gold in catching two twenty-somethings in a drunken tryst. But [...]
Warning: Provocative Images may offend some viewers
Thursday, May 29th, 2008Here in Australia there is an enormous brouhaha surrounding the photography of renowned photographer Bill Henson (left). If you’ve missed it, the controversy surrounds his use of nude child (teen) models in his photography (below).
I’ve been meaning to write a blog post entitled “What is art: I’m right, you’re wrong.” But it’s a difficult one [...]
The pointlessness of Earth Hour
Sunday, March 30th, 2008You’ve probably heard of Earth Hour, it started in Sydney last year and has spread around the globe this year. The idea is this: turn off all your lights for an hour.
The pointlessness comes in the confusion over why this is a good idea.
Turning your lights off for 1 hour will save approximately zero energy. [...]