People shuffling in the street, afraid to look others in the eye, get close, and be accused. Fear as a silent ghost hovering above the city, watching us, like drones. The panic in the eye of the mother as her little toddler cycles by an older woman on the street, too close. Th...
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It’s an intimidating picture. But the weaker the freeze, the more people die in overburdened hospitals — and the longer it ultimately takes for the economy to restart. Donald G. McNeil Jr in the NYT Yes folks, I normally don't go in for all that MALARKY WITH CAPITAL LETTERS IN...
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Spare a tear for millions of poor people around the world. They will no longer have good jobs, good health, or long life. Weep for the poor, the sick, and the old in our own societies. Their hopes, dignity, and pensions are gone. Light a candle for the workers in hotels, bars,...
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I ran into Ken Henry at a function – I think it was the terrific PM's Science Prizes in late 2008 but someone may be able to look things up and falsify this claim. In any event, I squatted at his table and had a quick chat to him about the recently announced or soon to be anno...
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Consider the shown picture where you are the decision maker who can pull the lever of the train tracks to avoid the coming train from going straight. If you do not divert the train, one person, John, will get run over. He is elderly and suffering from many diseases. You know h...
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Posted in Politics - international, Life, Philosophy, History, Society, Economics and public policy, Science, Libertarian Musings, Health, Public and Private Goods, Death and taxes, Democracy, Employment
This post is a direct response and rebuttal to the recent ‘Has the coronavirus panic cost us at least 10 million lives already? ’ by Paul Fritjers. Paul’s post takes the current covid-19 crisis, and uses some haphazard multiplication to create an alarming narrative, muddying t...
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This is now the whole article. Comments have been closed on the previous post . Part One To command nature, we must obey it Francis Bacon, 1624 The commitments that bind us to the social body are obligatory only because they are mutual; and their nature is such that, in fulfil...
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I congratulate you on the great success of your performance … Oscar Wilde's improptu speech to the audience at the opening of Lady Windemere's Fan [1. probably embellished apocryphally .] The current emptying of audiences offers a teachable moment about the construction of mar...
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Hats off to Joseph Walker who's podcasting up a storm at The Jolly Swagman (Yes, the title gave me the wrong idea too.) Anyway, I often find long-form podcasts rather tedious (except where I'm being interviewed in which case I find them endlessly fascinating, but others probab...
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The number of people worldwide who have died from the coronavirus stands at 8,000 at the moment, equivalent to the death toll of two days of the world's traffic accidents. The fear is of course that millions more will follow. The panic over what the virus might do has now lead...
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Here's a potentially unpopular proposition: The bulk of government economic action over the next few months should be directed to keeping businesses alive. Specifically, we need to keep afloat the many businesses with coronavirus-related short-term cash-flow problems. The corr...
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I believe that our political leaders are still underestimating the challenge posed by coronavirus. Radical action is needed to mitigate potential catastrophe. We must accept that the costs of coronavirus will be massive – a chunk of the economy will shut down. And that’s ok –...
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Festival Website | Films | Schedule Top Picks The Extraordinary (Opening Night) The Extraordinary is based on the real-life figure of Stéphane Benhamou who runs an informal shelter in Paris for autistic youth who have fallen through the cracks of a system unable to care for th...
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Dr Homer Rieth, the subject of a marvellous profile by Earshot on Radio National has died. It's an amazing story of a true philosopher, at least as suggested by the etymology of the word as a lover of wisdom. He operated on the outskirts of the institutions of intellectual res...
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Initially published as Part One. Now with the final two sections added. Minds are not for thinking, traditionally conceived, but for doing, for getting things done in the world in real time Wilson and Foglia, " Embodied Cognition ", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Part On...
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https://vimeo.com/382961887 A few weeks ago I participated in a really good panel chaired by Mark Pesce for John Allsopp's renowned Web Directions conference. The subject of the panel was bitcoin and digital money. All the panellists had something useful to say for themselves....
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OK, well that heading and graphic were linkbait. I'm a firm believer in my own and everyone else's ignorance. But here's some correspondence from someone for whom I have great respect that I received this morning you may wish to ponder and/or respond to. Using various resource...
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What might have been, had we had a crack. Herewith a piece commissioned by Sam Roggeveen and appearing previously at the Lowy Institute's blog , now for the delectation of the cognoscenti here at Troppo. https://twitter.com/donattroppo/status/1229359258468147205?s=20 Clayton C...
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They got him! It cost millions of dollars in legal fees, and involved multiple trials, settlements, and dismissal of the worst charges, but they convicted Harvey Weinstein. A bit like a buck who is taken down by a pack of wolves might receive the killing bite from a different...
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[caption id="attachment_35624" align="aligncenter" width="500"] If you put the golden age of female philosophy into Google Images you get this. It has accordingly been selected as the picture for this post by the Troppo Robot Barry.[/caption] I do think that in normal times a...
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