A terrible tragedy
Australia is still reeling from the terrible execution-style murder of a couple of young cops at a rural property in Queensland. Four of them had gone to knock on the door to ask about a missing person at the request … Continued
A pinch of salt might not be enough
Summer was absent without leave at the beginning of December. We landed at Hervey Bay airport into drizzle and (for us) cold temperatures. For me, jeans were still the order of the day. But that changed, weather being what it … Continued
Getting there is half the fun
Peter and I have just returned from a long-awaited holiday to New Zealand. Or Aotearoa if you prefer the Maori name. It was a small group bus tour, travelling in a full-size coach which normally seats around fifty. But this … Continued
Back from across the ditch
I love New Zealand. It’s such a magical mix of rolling green hills, glacier-carved valleys, steep mountains, mist, rain, great food, weird animals. I’ve ticked two more items off the bucket list (Hobbiton and Rotorua), learnt heaps, met people and … Continued
Another Saturday
It doesn’t seem to me that there’s much to talk about that’s new. The Labor Government is trying to get through industrial relations legislation which some argue will take us back to the 1980s. If true, that will be diabolical. … Continued
Gambling, click bait and AI art
The Melbourne Cup has been run and won, much to the chagrin of a bunch of activists who think horse racing should be banned. But I won’t give these people any more air time. What’s more important is gambling. Gambling … Continued
The state of justice
As I write the United Kingdom has yet another Prime Minister. At least this time they avoided the weeks of rudderless drifting to extend the vote for the PM to the Conservative Party membership. I gather Liz Truss was not … Continued
Of drought and flooding rain
Back in 2006 John Doyle and Tim Flannery made a mini-series entitled ‘Two Men in a Tinnie’ in which they travelled the length of the Murray-Darling River system. That year was hard. In December we were told that Australia had … Continued
It’s time ‘white’ Australians stopped with the virtue signalling
There’s been a move in Australia that’s gathering pace to rename places from European names to aboriginal names. Generally speaking, it’s a great idea, especially because the European name tended to be the name of the person who ‘discovered’ the … Continued
The magic of AI art
I mentioned last week that I’ve found a wonderful new way of being creative – Midjourney. It’s a website that uses Artificial Intelligence to create images based on a prompt entered by people like me. /imagine followed by whatever you’d … Continued