I love the moment when an idea from another culture challenges and somehow completes our own.
In our Austral-anglo world, public discussion is on the nose. Watch the participants on any panel uneasily agreeing and staying away from fights. Note the absence of conceptually driven chat shows on the ABC, even though it is desperate [...]

John Howard runs a simple myth about himself which seems vaguely tacky to me:
“I was brought up to believe that about the best thing you could ever do in your life,” he said soon after taking office in 1996, “was to start up a business with nothing, work your insides out, hope you earned a [...]

Truly random moments -
Larvyprod has found the first tranche of 101 Uses for A John Howard…
…. I turned up a wonderful post with a long, terrific comments run about curiosity, manners, body temperature and dumb generalisations at blac(k)academic…
…. the lastest post from BibliOdyssey assaults some lovely pictures in a very good cause….
… and Jellyfish, [...]

I don’t know how to phrase this, but I just wanted to offer a huge and heartfelt thank you to all the comments and emails I have had.
You are all fabulous, and your care for me is inspiring.
Our blogosphere place, joint, thing whatever – it’s pretty terrific.
Love to you all,
- david

I’ve been home from hospital for a few days, and I can focus on fine print. I’ve cut my fingernails so I can type again. Bread tastes funny and I can’t tolerate coffee. I’ve been away a lot longer than we expected.
My first conscious memory after my bowel resection is one of the worst [...]

Since I am being completely sooky at the moment, allow me to introduce the new member of our household.
Her name is Mia, and she is a three year old Tibetan Spaniel, via the RSPCA.
Mia is the name we can shout in the street at a dog from a notoriously independent breed. Her real name, [...]

Back in January, I nearly had my bowel resectioned. Unfortunately my polyps are back, and I will need to have a chunk of my “unstable” colon removed. The hospital says I will be there from five to seven days.
So, Barista will be quiet for a while, from tomorrow morning.

The SBS advertising story is getting worse.
I rang Harold Mitchell, Australia’s highest profile media buyer, because I figured the $10 million extra that SBS thought it could make was too high. Surely he would be more cynical.
Instead, he told me SBS could possibly make twice as much. They will be able to sell [...]

Fuji in Clear Weather (from the series Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji)- Katsushika Hokusai, early 1830’s.

American bombers pass Mt Fuji as they attack Tokyo, which they are firebombing into nothing.
I’ve been haunted by the rhyme of these two images before, and now the photograph turns up as part of a collection from [...]

Iranian soldiers in the war against Iraq
Histologian, a terrific historian blogging from Greece, has a post on the Iranian preparations for a guerilla war.
If I was an American planner, this would leave me very disturbed, although the Iranian assessment that they can’t face the US army directly would give a little comfort.
I guess [...]