This should be called ‘From the Galley’, as I am sitting twixt two of those on a Boeing 777 somewhere over the Timor Sea, on the way to Kuala Lumpur, on the way to Europe. Close to twenty-four hours stuck in an aeroplane to spend two weeks on the other side of the world. (more…)
Making sense of the world can be difficult. We attempt it through our senses, tempered by our mind. What the mind does with all this input depends to a large extent on its programming through culture, education, parenting, race, peer influence, the environment and the media. (more…)
I like to tell myself that I am in control of my life, that I do or do not do things as I choose. The reality is that this is both true and not true. (more…)
How often do we worry about the structure and neglect the substance? We do it within families, in business, in government and individually. A working structure is useful in any enterprise and essential in some, while many activities can be enjoyed with no structure at all.
What can we believe of what we are told? How do we judge the truth? It is not easy.
In Victoria, the law says that a producer of orange juice may add cane sugar to the packaged juice and proudly write on the container: “100% pure orange juice. No added sugar”. This is to make up for any amount by which a batch of oranges may fall short of containing a specific amount of natural sugars. (more…)
Last week I started with a number of questions and I realise I only addressed the first of these. The one that is worth exploring further is: How many people do work that is demoralising? (more…)
Speaking Volumes: Conversations with remarkable writers
Ramona Koval
ISBN: 9781921640612
$35 417 pp
Scribe 2010
The name and voice of Ramona Koval are well known to many Australians as the presenter of the long-running ABC Radio National program The Book Show, where she interviews many writers and talks about their work and about writing generally. She is passionate about what she does and adds to this an intelligence and compassion that makes listening to her and her guests a pleasure. She is so good at what she does that she is frequently invited to moderate discussions and conduct interviews with writers around the world. (more…)
The Vitamin D Solution
Michael F Holick
Scribe 2010
ISBN: 9781921640520
$35
336 pp including bibliography and index
At the outset I need to declare a possible conflict of interest: I work part-time for a company in Melbourne that manufactures vitamin D supplements in oral and injectable form. However, that, and my sixteen years working for the Australasian College of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine, gives me the knowledge and insight to read this book intelligently and review it. (more…)
How many people occupy themselves with activity that does nothing to further the overall wellbeing of the human race or the planet as a whole? How many get paid for such activity and call it work? How many people do work that is demoralising? (more…)
Stories are powerful vehicles. They can entertain, they can inform, they can educate and they can instruct. They can also confuse, obfuscate, hide the truth, mislead and derail. It is the stories we tell ourselves that are the most important stories of all. (more…)