I care about the environment. I use electricity like it’s going out of fashion. I’m concerned about the plight of the poor. I give nothing to charity. I think trade unions are important. I didn’t join one. I believe it’s difficult to morally justify the slaughter of animals for food when alternatives are available. I [...]
In praise of Sunkist? What’s wrong with me? Ah, it’s not what you think. You see Rui and I managed to catch an Axis of Awesome show when we were back in Sydney recently and after the show I bought their Scissors, Paper Rock! album. All of the songs are great but my favourite is [...]
On the heels of Mitt Romney’s ridiculous speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference I thought it’d be interesting, and a throwback to that first year philosophy class I took, to offer a proof for why non-liberal societies must be oppressive. There are a couple of philosophical terms here and I’ve tried to link to [...]
In the latest instalment to the continuing series Shit No One Cares About Except Mike, I thought I’d bring you all up to speed on precisely what podcasts I’m listening to. I’m not going to go into a lot of depth here, just a brief description of what the podcast is about and why I [...]
OK, I don’t get it. The issue of an apology being offered by the Federal Government of the Commonwealth of Australia to Indigenous Australians is in the news again and all I seem to see are people arguing either that we do have a personal responsibility to the past or that we don’t. You have [...]
One of the most disappointing things in watching the Australian federal election campaign (and indeed the past two Australian federal elections) has been the almost complete disappearance of altruism from the platform of either party. Everything seems to be phrased in terms of what the individual can expect to get out of it. There’s little [...]
One of the things work often does to keep students occupied while they wait is to put on a video for them to watch. Lately it’s been the 2005 DreamWorks Animation film Madagascar. I happened to be walking past the TV at one point, just in time for this scene to catch my eye. Usually [...]
It’s come to my attention via the people over at Box Office Mojo that Ratatouille hasn’t cleaned up at theatres quite like Finding Nemo, Monsters, Inc. or even Cars (although the film is still playing in theatres so I suppose there’s the chance that number could increase). What is wrong with you people? I really [...]
I know I promised a review of Dogs and Demons but I think that’ll take a little longer to put together so instead I’ll focus on another book I finished recently, Amin Maalouf’s In the Name of Identity. This is the first book I’ve read by Maalouf, better known in the English-speaking world as a [...]
One of the books that had the most impact on me when I was younger was Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder. One scene in particular has always stuck with me. There’s a point in the story where two characters are talking about the way the typical person gets used to existence and stops questioning the [...]