Does it blow your mind that the image you are looking at is 28 million years old? Well, not the image precisely – that was taken by the hubble telescope just a few years ago – but the moment it captures. The Sombrero Galaxy is 28 million light years from earth. That means it takes 28 million years...
No Tony, economic growth is not the answer to everything
In his speech to the World Economic Forum last week, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot made this incredible statement: As always, stronger economic growth is the key to addressing almost every global problem. It summed up the direction of the speech, which was a plea for small government and...
Australia Day. A Time to Laugh and a Time to Cry
I find myself conflicted this Australia Day. Do I laugh or cry? On the one hand I am a proud Australian. I love this country. I love the fact that I can go to a footy match, sit beside supporters of my opponents, and feel perfectly safe. I love our self deprecating sense of humour, that calling a...
Finally, a humble athlete!
I was delighted today by a newspaper article on David Ferrer, the world no. 3 ranked tennis player often overlooked by spectators and press. He is quoted as saying. Tennis has given me much more than I thought it would…but my family, my friends and the people around me – in the real...
The Best Christmas Present I Have Ever Given
In an effort to resist the consumer orgy that is Christmas, Sandy and I agreed we would not buy each other gifts this year, but we’d make a donation to charity. But not buying gifts for each other didn’t means not giving gifts to each other. With the assistance of modern technology I...
Upon a Funeral
This week I attended the funeral of a friend’s mother. I had only met her a few times, and didn’t really know her, but by the end of the funeral had a great appreciation for her. As her story was told, with humour and pathos, in eulogy, poetry and images, it became clear that here was a...
New Year Affirmations
In place of New Year resolutions, this year I am proposing for myself five New Year affirmations. 1. Life is beautiful. Live joyfully. Whether it be the grandeur of a sunrise, the company of friends, a good meal, or the embrace of my beloved, there is astonishing beauty to be found in life. I want...
The Value of Non Retaliation
I am reading Darrin Belousek’s Atonement, Justice, and Peace, and have been struck by his argument that Jesus didn’t proclaim the principle of non-violence but of non-retaliation. A commitment to non-violence leaves open the possibility of retaliating in non-violent ways. Jesus however...
Peace on Earth
The Christmas story confounds my expectations of God. The angels in Luke’s Gospel bring news of peace, which will have been heard by his audience against the backdrop of a similar claim by the Roman empire. The Empire’s peace was in reality a subjugation, in which wealth was stripped...
Where Have all the Dole Bludgers Gone?
So where have all the dole bludgers gone? Growing up in an affluent part of Sydney, where unemployment rates were low and incomes high, the standard orthodoxy was that the ranks of the unemployed were filled with people who didn’t want to work and were living the life of Riley on unemployment...