I forgot to wake up for the eclipse this morning. Well it was only a tiny sliver of an eclipse in Australia. The pictures from New Zealand are superb, it rose in an already eclipsed state—how great’s that! Most of the time it was over the southern ocean below NZ and Australia. The blood moon … Read more
I have been living in retrospective nostalgia for the life n times of George Orwell this last week, when I read Homage to Catalonia, and discovered the very good BBC Arena documentary which interviews dozens of interesting and important characters from his life, who were still alive at the time (1983 but also with snippets … Read more
I hang out on debateanatheist on reddit, trying to be satisfied, but something’s just missing y’know? i can’t tell when i lost the ability to be satisfied by logic. Now i need some crazy to feel like life has a meaning. I’m hooked on the mystery like a drug. Sure i love physics, but even … Read more
In around 2009 I started a twitter account to get what seemed a direct line to gossip coming out of parliament house. In those days there didn’t seem to be any trolls. But it quickly got sordid. Soon i had my first exposure to what is really a kind of psychological warfare using images and … Read more
Looking back at some of my writing this website, I am coming to realise how naive I have been about human nature. They might sound outlandish, but I really was genuinely imagining future societies with interconnected internet democracy, a secular yet spiritual foundation, and living the fusion of science and art as ‘Plosm’, as ideas … Read more
Imagine going about your daily life and never being sure if the people you meet around you are real humans. Some of them, no one knows quite how many, are AI powered robots that churn out the propaganda of their creators. They seem real at first but when they are engaged, it is clear that … Read more
I am reading a lot of depressing guardian articles about it. And i have a new t-shirt. So I am thinking about the things that have to change to tackle climate change: 1. the planet has to be seen an extension of our own body, our own wellbeing. It’s health is our health. 2. decision … Read more
Last night I saw the Right Hon Malcolm Fraser speaking at the ANU about his new book, Dangerous Allies, about the US influence in Australia. He described the current diplomatic core and bureaucracy as having been “duchessed” by the US, for want of a better word he said, but I enjoyed this turn of phrase. … Read more
I was reading Russell’s essay on scepticism recently, which was written in 1928 between the wars. He is fearful of the irrationality of the general populace – and quotes the following scene: “In 1919 I saw The Trojan Women acted at the Old Vic. There is an unbearably pathetic scene where Astyanax is put to … Read more
There is plenty of promise held in the future’s tightly clenched fist, and I look forward to prising those surprises from its grasp as the years unfold glorious and slow. I want to explain a concept i have had lately. I would like to introduce a thing I call a “belief sphere”, which occupies the … Read more
ooh what a contradictory mess. bjm + fart + bandwagon + idiot wine + corck + bagawan at 6 to midnight. what about the water pissstol? i think there is a sort of revolution about to happen. I always think this. bulle and pull the titoff. methodrone strange juxtposition. i refuse to agree that i … Read more