Any gardener will tell you that if you prune back a plant it will regrow with added vigour. The Taliban in Afghanistan has come back powerfully after 20 years of pruning by the US and coalition forces. Remember that pre-invasion by the US the Taliban did not control all ofContinue Reading
‘Microbiome’ – Micro meaning very small – Bio meaning life – Me meaning you or me. Remember this term because it is going to become better recognised as an important factor in human health and our longevity. Human microbiome is defined as the collection of genes found in all microbes residing within us – basically all the bacteria, fungi, viruses, and microorganisms inhabiting our bodies. ‘Microbiota’, another term, refers to all microorganisms inhabiting a particular environment like the gut. There are many trillions of these microscopic entities residing in our human gastrointestinal tract, on our skin, and most places. Long have we ignored this micro-environment and rather focused on larger, more readily seen matters, possibly to the detriment of our health and understanding of life. Remember that microbes have been around for a lot longer than we have (billions of years) and are easily the most successful life forms on this planet. In the current climate, with a global viral pandemic ravaging the world, we are all suddenly more aware of the micro-realm. Indeed, our awareness of microbiome greatly increased around 2002, when gene sequencing technology became available to identify microbes and their influence. Following this there has been a huge explosion in the study of microbiome and humans.Continue Reading
The Greek Chorus, for those who don’t know, was a device employed in traditional Greek theatre and defined as “the chorus in Classical Greek drama was a group of actors who described and commented upon the main action of a play with song, dance, and recitation.” That seems pretty close to what we find the media doing in today’s world. Stories are ramped up, endlessly repeated, drilled down into, and brought to the attention of the consumer of news and media. Editors and producers direct journalists toward issues and stories that have the potential to engage the interest of the viewer and reader. The more salacious a story or event may be the greater the public’s appetite for it. The media as Greek chorus of the modern world seems a good fit in more ways than one.Continue Reading
Funnily enough I am not a new Australian. I am not a mere visitor to these shores. I have lived and breathed the blessed air of this great southern land since Molly Meldrum was straight and Kent had it all together. Despite my many years wracked up on both the west and east coast of this island nation I still have a few head scratching moments. Trying to understand AFL footy is one of them when it comes to goal kicking players and why they take out their mouthguards and stuff them in their jocks or socks. How does a mouthguard impact upon the process of walking in and kicking at the goals? Could you get anything more unhygienic than placing an oral protective guard in a dirty sock or sweaty pair of underpants and then popping back in your gob?Continue Reading
We are all born into this life without our consent. Nobody asks us whether we would like to play the game of life in human form. Observing the unfocused gaze of a newborn babe one witnesses a magical tabula rasa moment. Consciousness is, it seems, at its earliest manifestation, the state of the watcher. A baby observes via its eyes and visual sensory apparatus within the brain. We, as human beings are made up of many trillions of human cells. There are 200 different types of cells within the body and none of these are individually conscious or sentient. Consciousness: Free will and cellular facts tell a story that is wildly divergent from the narratives derived from religion and lore.Continue Reading
The tide is turning against the current Australian Government, as women march against sexual abuse and violence in this nation. The Liberal National Party coalition is recognisable by its lack of gender equality in terms of membership and parliamentary representation. In fact, some male members of the federal government boast about their gender superiority via naming themselves the Big Swinging Dicks. These fellows actively blocked by the leadership aspirations of female parliamentarians like the recently retired Julia Bishop. The alleged rape of Brittany Higgins in the office of the Defence Minister at Parliament House in Canberra in 2019 and the subsequent cover-up has blown the whistle on a culture of sexual abuse in the highest realm in Australia. Big Swinging Dicks bringing down government.Continue Reading
In Australia, we have just completed a Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. Some people were shocked at the findings, which emerged out of this enquiry. More than 10, 500 submissions and the testimony of 600 witnesses were considered during the two years it ran. Elderly Australians have been abused, drugged into submission and treated abhorrently according to the evidence provided to the commission. The rights of those in aged care have been sorely neglected and transgressed over many decades here in Australia within the current federally run system. It is time to ask ourselves why we abuse the elderly and why we allow this abuse to go on unchecked despite countless reviews into the current system for aged care?Continue Reading
One of the most striking things I have observed during this global pandemic is how dependent we, as a 21C civilisation, have become on recreational activities. The absence of sports on the TV and from the daily calendar has left a gaping hole in the lives of many. Likewise, the removal of live entertainment and other shared recreational pursuits has reduced our lives in a number of noticeable ways. The majority of affected people are watchers of sport, rather than actual participants of games of sports. The disappearance of the football codes, the cancellation and postponement of major events like Wimbledon, the Masters, the Olympics, Grand Prix races, and more have shrunk the worlds of millions of fans around the globe. It is clear that you don’t know what you have until it is taken away. The price of sport and other non-essential activities at a time of COVID crisis seems unimaginably high.Continue Reading
So, you want to write one of those moody police detective dramas seen on TV. Well, here are the secret ingredients necessary to make it happen. Firstly, you need two characters who will be the main protagonists in your riveting episodic series. These will be two of the most fucked up cops ever let loose on an unsuspecting general public. Personal problems? Each of these young- and good-looking police detectives will be riddled with a full menu of intimate and socially dysfunctional issues. The producers will cast two actors who look like they have been working as apprentice hairdressers and are the least likely looking cops ever to have walked the earth. This kind of thing is par for the course when it comes to moody detective shows on Netflix and the other streaming services. They understand that the networks and TV people desperately want to appeal to a younger demographic and will cast authenticity to the four winds to do it. Now, pay attention because this is how to write a killer moody police drama series.Continue Reading
I want to make a confession first up, which is that I hate the word blog and all its extensions – blogging, blogger, blogged and blogs. Short for ‘web log’ apparently, blog, is an ugly word let’s face it. It sounds to me like a colloquial term fit for acts of defecation. Thus, the art of blogging is akin to a ballerina farting loudly throughout a performance of the Nutcracker Suite. OK got that off my chest. I wonder who came up with the term in the first place? I Googled it and according to a Wikipedia entry ‘weblog’ was so named by one Jom Barger in 1997 and one Peter Merholz reduced the two words to ‘blog’ in 1999 via a phrase posted on his blog. Now you know.Continue Reading