The Present Moment
Regular readers may recall that I have previously written about the TV program SAS Australia and the fascination in seeing what people may be capable of. The program must be doing well as there is currently a third season and it is being run at the start rather than...
Counting Down To Sanity
Infectious disease has dominated global health discussions for the past few years. Part of me would have loved to start this year’s blog with something other than Covid-19. However, it remains the predominant, and in some jurisdictions, the only health issue that...
Almost Groundhog Day
One of the great movies of all time, in my opinion, is Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray as a weatherman trapped in the same day. Every event and interaction he has is identical and he remembers that whilst everyone else is living it as if it was the first time....
Who Will Ring The Bell?
It is easy to tell when a sporting event is over. Either a prerequisite number of wins have been attained (e.g. tennis) or a finish line has been crossed. In time-based games, a siren or bell sounds to inform players, umpires and the crowd that time is up, and the...
Have A “Can Do” Approach
The term reality TV is a bit of a misnomer. It is generally a soap opera with unpaid actors. Big Brother and Survivor were the first of the genre and to the surprise of many are still on our screen some 20 years later. A further twist has been celebrity versions of...
It Is All Just Greek To Me
Even in these unusual times in which we live, the basics in health still matter. There was an interesting piece in The Weekend Australian, exploring the life expectancy of first generation migrants from Greece living longer than the national average. The article by...
Olympic Lessons
Like most people, my interest in sports like swimming, high jump, and canoeing, to name but three, increases for the two weeks of the Olympics. There is something that touches us about seeing people who excel at what they do. Regardless of whether it is winning gold...
Questions Not Beliefs
As Led Zeppelin said “you know sometimes words have two meanings” Words do mean different things to different people. The dictionary defines science as “…knowledge of the physical or material world gained through observation, experimentation and systematic study”. It...
Keep It Simple
Winter is coming in the southern hemisphere. In fact, it has arrived early in some parts with record cold, rain and even snow in May. It will come as a surprise to experts, bureaucrats, and politicians (but not regular readers here) that in winter there are an...
The Lost And Found
Let’s start by rewinding about a year. Lockdowns were imposed as temporary measures to “flatten the curve”. This was to enable health systems to cope with cases as they arose – not to end up with no cases. Australia had such remarkable success in its quest that the...
Good News – Take Two!
Last month I wrote about good news not getting much airplay. The other issue which gets lost in media hype and political hyperbole is perspective. In 2017 there were 56 million deaths around the world. That number may have been slightly different in 2020 but would be...
“It’s Good News Week”
The media knows that bad news sells. Rolling coverage of terrorist attacks, natural disasters and, of course, more recently Covid 19 makes people more likely to buy newspapers (yes, they still exist) or consume news electronically or online and maybe even pay for some...