The politics of the fray: the Algorithm and the New Crusades ~ II
How Facebook’s algorithm got Christians and others outraged over the Olympics for profit, to the loss of goodwill
The politics of the fray: the Algorithm and the New Crusades ~ I
How algorithms harnessed our outrage to take gold, silver and bronze in Paris, and why that doesn’t bode well for anyone
From the backyard to the world, from Hills hoist to glory
It’s past time the Olympic world had a cultural lift. Why not backyard cricket in the finest Australian tradition. For more gold
All at sea en Seine
Transcript and translation of interview given by Thomas Jolly & Daphné Bürki on BFM-TV Paris, regarding the Olympics Opening Ceremony
Art and conversation
Further on the sometimes very hard work of digital communication, including memes and the subjectivity of art
Has a shot fired in Pennsylvania brought Christian Trumpism to Australia?
I may be wrong. But I sense the shocking event at a Donald Trump rally a week ago may just have changed the tone of Christian engagement in Oz
The ABC, the seekers, and the One God
Why the Archbishop was right to wish all Muslims peace and joy for Ramadan, and why all Christians should too, following the Apostle Paul (Acts 17:22-34)
Would you like Maccabees with that? — iii
Let us listen to the stories of the ancient indigenes known as Palestinians. The sustained military occupation they experience is mirrored in Israel’s own histo...
Power and sex in the trenches
For maximum value in public sympathy make your opponent look grotesque. How actual and alleged sexual violence is playing in Gaza
A meme in any other frame wouldn’t spell as neat
About memes in social media. Short can be good. A good meme, like a good pithy quotation, makes a single point well
Would you like Maccabees with that? — ii
Why is a modest strip of land at the eastern end of the Mediterranean so hotly and violently contested, physically, philosophically and spiritually?
Would you like Maccabees with that? — i
First in a series of brief pieces considering the historical foundations of the seven-decade conflict in the contested land known as Palestine
The heavens declare the glory of God
Why should a Christian believer trust science? Has science become a ‘religion’? Science as a gift enabling a better vision of the Glory of God
Raising a stubby for justice?
One more contribution to the Australia Day “question”. Whose day? Whose land? Whose nation? Together or apart? Is this the day? Is this the way?
The Red Penguins
How do you know the truth about what’s really going on? By doing some research on YouTube of course. That’s where you’ll meet the penguins who run the show
My statistical life
Do you want numbers to support your truth? Here is a quick tutorial I wrote on a serviette. No statistical skill required. In fact better with none
The idealist, the wrecker and the broken nation
Many, but not enough, Australians are in grief at a lost opportunity to finally include our First Nations People in our national prosperity
How not to become the bogans of Planet Earth
Here I get a little more passionate even than before. About the Voice. About indigenous Australians. About all Australians. The world is watching
Human Compassion Alert: read at your own risk
RMIT ABC Fact Check looks at the chief lines of misinformation being spread in the final leadup to the Voice Referendum. Both “Yes” and “No” claims are examined...
Speaking in a real Voice
When Australians vote in the coming Referendum on an indigenous Voice to Parliament, may evidence and fact triumph over fear and falsehood
Welcome to the circle
Between the antivax movement and the “NO” campaign against the Voice, Trumpism is thriving in Australia. Evidence has been supplanted by a circle of information...
Your all Greek future
Don’t know a second language? Your Greek vocabulary is looking good . It’s your future
Equality for the unequal
The question for Australia in 2023: Will the Voice entrench inequality or remove it? The answer depends on whether equality is the starting base or the end goal...
Someone somewhere is lying
When political truth claims compete for the minds and hearts of Christian “truth people” and positions are taken. Reflections from Scripture, history and today
Being pithy in a long, messy, nuanced and complicated world
Love them or hate them, memes are here to stay. We could rail against them and those with the temerity to share them. Or we could stop and think, first, second...
Vale Robert Withycombe
I don’t commonly publish obituaries, but this one demanded my attention. My small tribute to a pastor and scholar I only met a few times, but who impacted me nonetheless....
Same church, different Iles
A conservative Christian organisation terminates its managing director, and Australian Christian social media goes into overdrive. And there are really just two...
Asbury and the longing heart
Recent events on the campus at Asbury in Willmore, Kentucky have divided Christian and other commentators much as always. Is this “the real thing”?
Witch hunting is back
Consider the witch hunts of mediaeval Europe. Then consider contemporary political conspiracy theories, such as QAnon. Then ask yourself, “Are witch hunts back?...
Charged with myths
A short piece about responding to the latest mythology on electric vehicles. Less about science denial, more about economic spin
Christian identity crisis #157
The current controversy around one man’s forced resignation as Essendon Football Club CEO highlights some gulfs between Christian and other worldviews
A true blue monarchy, my oath
What next for Australia? Republic or monarchy? Local or foreign? Here mates is a you-beaut solution. An Aussie monarch. What a ripper.
Australian Grieving
Australia, the Commonwealth and the world are mourning a momentous passing by any measure. On social media we will do this in a variety of ways. Live and let li...
We're not homophobic are we?
Whilst supportive of the GAFCON movement within world Anglicanism, I have concerns as to what may be communicated by the present timing of a new diocese in Aust...
Transgender for anxious Christians
Evangelical Christians tend to treat trans people and the whole idea of non-normative gender reactively rather than thoughtfully. But variations to the normative...
Oh the trenches of Numbla Vale
At last it’s happened. War has broken out in rural NSW, in the Snowy-Monaro region, in a paddock. Here is your on-the-spot report from your embedded reporter....
The sharing economy and your cat
Cat ownership is so twentieth century. Leave all that behind and become a cat shareholder in the twenty-first century. The future is here.
Playing the ball starts here
If we expect our public leaders to abandon the practice of public ad hominem attacks as an alternative to policy debate, we really should start at home
Cheap shots and barnacles
The digital age makes it harder to keep public discourse on substantive issues. Instead we’re distracted by cheap shots. We can do better. And we must
Trans athletes just want to play sport
Why are Christians anxious about trans athletes in female sport? Maybe it’s no more than its newness. The latest social change for the rights of minorities
Real pro-life in a dying world
Is absolute opposition to abortion the only Christian position? Perhaps not? An evangelical pastor asks again. As Roe v Wade seems to hang in the balance, let’s...
Easter Chewsday
If you’re so boring and shortsighted as to raise your kids to be responsible, disciplined and health-conscious, be sure it will come back to bite you one day when...
The keyboard is mightier than the gun
A mac nerd ponders Ukraine. A lot of software developers live there. Some may be my relatives, as may some of the invading forces. Pray for the peace of Ukraine....
The pandemic, the politics and the science
How do medical science, the Coronavirus, pubic health and US politics get on together? ZDoggMD is one place to find out. I’m just starting. Might be a good ride....
The aioli challenge
A challenge for the hip and enterprising foodie. Post a video selfie demonstrating your ability to eat a Turkish take-away kebab with umm … refined delicacy
Happy New Holland Day, cobbers!
Australia Day. What or who might we be if the Brits hadn’t hoisted the flag first? A light reflection on the modern history of the land in the south
An island, a king, and a true blue republic
King Bluey and his royal Aussie successors shall live in a pub on Macquarie Island. It ticks every box surely. Lots of history, bracing climate, miles from everywhere....
Would you like microbes with that?
Will the common cup tradition survive the covid era? I’d love to hear from Anglicans in particular (and any others who share that tradition). But all are welcome...
A tale of two worlds: social media and truth - Part IV
Final of 4. Truth, falsehood and trust. False premise #5: “The Media” is suppressing inconvenient information for an agenda. The fallacies of circular reasoning....
A tale of two worlds: social media and truth - Part III
3 of 4. Truth, falsehood and trust. False premise #4: If there’s a counter narrative out there, there must be truth to it. More information does not mean more...
A tale of two worlds: social media and truth - Part II
2 of 4. Truth, falsehood and trust. False premise #3: All opinions are equal. The government and the experts are lying to us about their agenda. Ant-science sentiment....
A tale of two worlds: social media and truth - Part I
Beginning a 4-part series: Truth, falsehood and trust. How certain false premises have undermined trust in our culture. #1: global control by an ‘elite’. #2: only...
Back to the blog
Why I stopped blogging years ago, and why the blog and I are back with a fresh suit. The writing art, the lures of social media and its limitations. Stay tuned....
Bibles, beer and blindness
OK. I’ve been listening to this debate raging among Christians as well as in the general community - all without actually watching the video clip - until now....
The hip pocket verve
This is one for my fellow suffering blokes. Are you tired of sitting on a burgeoning mound of leather, plastic, cardboard and metal alloys? .. buying new jeans...
Mal’s folly
Ok here's my take on the NBN debacle ...Tony Abbott was ideologically committed to trashing Labor's legacy, root and branch. He tasked his shadow cabinet members...
Mercies in disguise
Being a fogey I naturally don't keep up with the latest in contemporary Christian music. So an awful lot passes me by, interspersed with haphazard moments of discovery....
Batting for Jesus on a rough wicket
The teacher set the class the common task of designing their own respective coats of arms and matching life mottos. Our son’s motto was simple and to the point:
Cricket....
What about the birds?
My vote on July 2 will go to the party whose leader can most satisfactorily answer the weightiest moral and economic question of our time. That question of course...
Cakes, weddings and Jesus
I’d like to raise a question I haven't raised before anywhere. I’m thinking aloud, so this isn’t a ‘position’ in any sense. More an exploratory question …
To...
Why Pell is not the tree to bark up
I’m getting frustrated with much of the media commentary on Cardinal Pell and the Royal Commission. This isn’t about whether he’s a good guy or a bad guy, whatever...
Jesus and Anzac
I'm just back from a half-day's Anzac Day commemoration here in Cooma. Part 1 - the Anzac Service at the Cooma Cenotaph. Part 2 - the semi-formal lunch at the...
Say "No" to all domestic abuse
Fairfax's "Shine a light" campaign on domestic violence is an exemplary instance of harnessing the power of a major media organisation for social good. Former...
Too much spark
The only truly surprising thing about the excessive revelry of New Year’s Eve indulgence in Fitzroy North’s Edinburgh Gardens, is that it wasn’t replicated in...
Up the poll
Is there no end to the prevailing obsession with polls? When for the past 3 years our senses have been numbed and our reasoning capacities neutered by almost daily...
Hanging with the Greens
So its official. Asylum seekers are now the sacrificial lambs, to be offered up by both would-be governments to appease the rednecks who now hold the balance of...
Anywhere
And when Manus fills up … ?
WANTED URGENTLY: uninhabited islands, disused prison hulks, surplus orbiting space stations … anything really.
Must...
Are faces too human?
I can’t say I've ever taken much notice of the relative content of The Age’s print and online editions. But I'm intrigued by the non-appearance in print of an...
Boats and votes
The new Rudd Government’s emerging asylum seeker policy will be a thing of horror to many Australians, but unfortunately not the ‘right’ ones. What we're now seeing...
Dishonourable mentions
Your Editorial of 22nd June called on then Prime Minister Julia Gillard to stand aside from her office “so that vigorous, policy-driven democratic debate can flourish...
Quality time
Your leading editorial of Saturday 8th June is right to call our political leaders back to matters of substance, but short on collective self-awareness. The standard...
A Little thought
Cardinal Pell's account to the present abuse enquiry has quite understandably attracted more anger than sympathy, casting much doubt on his humanity. However on...
Anyone for cordial?
Dave Greenslade’s vignette (Letters, 25/3) of the wartime cordiality between Menzies and Curtin might well be a piece of space fiction, beside the governmental...
Doodling on the hill
Jaye Fletcher (Letters, 14/3) is a bit tough on the pollies with their smart phones. If we expect the poor blighters to sit through day-long meetings on our behalf,...
Habemus Denis
Who does this poncey Argentinian think he is anyway? We had the conclave right here in Melbourne a week ago. And the Pope’s name is Denis.
Differently wired
Amidst the furious political commentary on the rise and fall of Ted Baillieu as Liberal leader, little has been observed about the role of temperament in the art...
Simply trust
Mary Delahunty (Opinion, 11/3) joins a long list of commentators and public figures suggesting that Prime Minister Julia Gillard's fight for legitimacy is fundamentally...
What can I say?
Please, no more letters denouncing lexical abuse. I'm speechless already.
Gun control and all that - a critical response
On the Second AmendmentIn the course of a discussion on Facebook the other day, a friend referred me favourably to the above post, asking my opinion. In reading...
Surplus talk
Hey, big spender: Howard the king of the loose purse strings This will undoubtedly not end the frothing at the mouth on both sides of the house about the most...
Up the poll again
With a surfeit of worthy contenders, it would be difficult to single out one Age Reader's Poll for an inanity award. However the question posed on 9th January...
MyBusKi?
Skybus on Myki? Way to go! Another chance to showcase our technological accomplishments to the world. (Let's hope the world doesn't touch-off.)
Now the jokes are on the Mayans
From little things slightly larger things occasionally grow. Here’s a slightly matured expansion of a recent Facebook status update …
What will the Mayans...
A coin toss
I'm trying to decide which major party I respect less. Labor for sacrificing the world's poor to appease the god of economics, and insulting our intelligence with...
Another unMykely story
It’s been some time since I've ruminated in this forum on the mysterium tremendum which is Victoria’s very own Myki. That’s because its all been remarkably quiet...
The lonely Cardinal
Editorial Opinion: ‘Pell has failed the church and its victims’
This was a secular commentator, and sadly I think they're right. Also sadly, the Cardinal...
Living with grey
Even for those who believe unfashionably in absolute truth and absolute error (notably we orthodox Christians), mature engagement with the world demands a basic...
Just ugly
In a seemingly interminable announcement late in 2010, Federal independent MP Rob Oakeshott held the nation in thrall awaiting what amounted to his casting vote...
Enough about Alan & Tony
Quite magnanimous of The Age (Letters, Tuesday) to publish Roger Stagg’s observation that 46.7 percent (14 of 31) of letters printed Monday, related to Tony Abbott....
Strong, please … and no sugar
So let’s see if I've got this right. To prove oneself morally pure, the unacceptable must be condemned (or something as closely synonymous as possible), and the...
The off switch
I don’t like Alan Jones, and there is no defence for his tasteless remark about the Prime Minister’s late father. However the flurry of online vigilanteism in...
Very touching
Police using Myki to track people? (The Age, 17/9) What a brilliant way to catch those fare evaders! Oh wait ...
The wide mercurial boy
Michelle Grattan (Opinion, 14/9) says Tony Abbott is "a wide boy". Probably explains why we see so much of him.
Fair fighting in the public square
published here at On Line Opinion
Where two or more people are caught in a seemingly intractable dispute yielding only mounting frustration, the first word...
Headlines and other mythologies
Oh for Pete’s sake! It’s time to sack a few sub-editors and redraft some headlines.
First the SMH publishes a headline with a grossly inaccurate and...
Introverts in the Church
“Introverts in the Church”, Adam S McHugh
I came across this title in the course of researching on the subject of introversion among Christian pastoral leaders....
Plain coal
Well at least they could make them sell their coal in plain packaging.
A sweet reward
Our two cats are anticipating a very satisfactory Christmas, following the purchase of Darrell Lea by the pet food Quinns.
Mobilise the grannies
I quit smoking 40-odd years ago, aged 11, and haven’t looked back. That surely qualifies me to offer a suggestion or two on finishing off the tobacco industry....
Sleepless on the sofa
Geez, mate. We've reached a pretty pass when a bloke can’t get some kip in front of the box watching the cricket, without the nippers scarpering and the cops getting...
Just playing
Saturday’s leading front page article should make us all nauseous. But it probably won’t. $310m of our taxes have been spent so that the fitter of our compatriots...
Myki does it again
My capacity to expend further scribal energy on Myki is waning. I shall be brief. Just had yet another two phone conversations with Myki staff, after second “change...
Class action
Seems our cricket team has dropped to 4th in the ICC’s one-day rankings. That on the heels of all those tacky silver medals in London. Desperate times alright....
A daily suppository
Here we are back on the Myki investigative trail, continuing from last time. When last I mused, I revealed the gnostic intrigue of the “change of mind”, with its...
My Myki, my life
I reckon I was onto more than I knew in coining the language of gnosticism in recent reflections on my personal Myki saga. Indeed I've now attained a still higher...
What we don't want
Spot on, Tony Burns. [end Letters, The Age, 6/8] Public funding of sport is plenty high enough already. The front page [end same date] should say it all. Half...
We're all psychics now
Some still valiantly persist in calling it a “news” cycle. But the tidal wave of reality is thinning their numbers. Increasingly now it’s just a stock exchange...
And so this is Christmas
Who remembers the olden days when we complained about Christmas goods in the shops in October? The local Woolies is selling Christmas mince pies. There’s either...
Top-up no dropoff
A glance at my tag cloud indicates what rich blogging fodder Myki has provided over the past few years; a fact we of the blogosphere are thankful for (when we...
Stop medalling
So, the Aussie commentariat is obsessing over medals? Well honestly, is anyone truly surprised? We have this same discussion through letters, talkback and (more...
unAustrian
The lengthy coverage of the Australian team's entrance meant the arrival of the Austrian team was overlooked. I'm a proud Australian, but as an ex-Austrian I feel...
A neglected gift
Last night I discovered my daughter’s hidden blog, to which she has clearly posted rather erratically. That fact, together with many of the blogged ruminations...
Not the Olympics
Modern Olympic Movement pioneer Baron Pierre de Coubertin’s mind would be exercised by more than in-flight gender discrimination between athletes. Were he to return...
No, Myki! Please, please … anything but that!!!!!
The great thing about Myki is that you learn something new about it most days. The sad part is that each new learning is most rarely either pleasant or winsome....
The driest incontinence on earth
I thought I'd had the laugh of the week on reading the Zits cartoon (18/7) about "the two parent system". But that was before I got to the bladder-bursting lines...
In the wrong queue
Medicare was born not long before our eldest child. At the first consultation with the doctor managing my wife's pregnancy, he wryly directed us to take the receipt...
Skipping all stations
Metro's strategy of "altered" services should be applauded as the stroke of sheer strategic genius that it is. And the lift in performance bonuses isn't the half...
No fairytale
Not quite the fairytale for poor Gingerella. The handsome prince has turned into a glass Slipper, and the ugly sisters are dancing a jig in their budgie smugglers....
If I like you less, does that mean I like you more?
I don't know who or what I like anymore, since Facebook stole my dictionary. And now I'm wondering whether "like"-ing everything I read would actually devalue...
Economic myopia
In challenging Archbishop Freier's grasp of economics, Colin McLean (Letters, 10/4) evidences his own brand of fiscal myopia. Dr Freier is not the only one who...
Let's get lexical
The lexical proficiencies of consultants Mercer are grossly under-utilised in merely serving the behavioural capabilities of educators at a single tertiary institution....
Manners, please
After a week in which public political discourse has reached a new low on the common decency index, the community deserves better than major organs of media dancing...
Trying to look annoyed
Until recently I thought the hardest thing about being snapped (by a camera) was putting on a smile that actually lasted, looked sublime, didn't make me look a...
Ticket to ride, and ride, and ride, and ....
Those folks who say Melbourne's Skybus isn't good value just haven't considered the technology. Granted the tickets have barcodes. But from my experience yesterday,...
Runs and rupees
"Should Australia continue to increase its economic ties with India?" (The Age, Reader poll, 5/1) Well absolutely, if Clarke keeps batting like this.
A bigger vision
Australian Marriage Equality convener, Alex Greenwich (The Age, 5/1), needs to listen a little more to religious community concerns on gay marriage. Proposed legislation...
The voice of experience
Two PMs? We know all about it. But how many independents?
Don't thank us
If you're one of our customers directly affected by the grounding, you can look forward to a special thank-you … (Fullpage Qantas ad, The Age, 4/11)
Don't tell...
An uglier game
The race to the moral bottom has gone viral, it seems. No longer confined to our major politics, it now infects our major religions too. The next time you put...
The God-shaped hole
This is the text of my sermon from last Sunday. The audio file is available on my podcast as usual, which is why I don't normally post my text anymore. But a few...
More evidence that God uses a mac
I've discovered an even better method of using my iPad as a preacher, and surely further proof that there will be no Windows in heaven. One of those serendipitous...
Let's have a real debate
The recent publication of Lindsay Tanner's "Sideshow" has in some sense given us all permission to question the health of politics in Australia, and especially...
Words and conspiracies
In a free, democratic and diverse society it's only to be expected that the place of religious belief in public life will be debated. This is as it should be....
The silence of the plods
I would love to know what really went on between Mr Overland and his former deputy, Sir Ken Jones - just as between Nixon and Ashby, Rudd and Gillard, Turnbull...
Anyone for a truly secular long weekend?
Thanks to 2011's happy confluence of the lunar cycle, a Christian festival and the Australian calendar, Australians have enjoyed the mother of all long weekends....
Be sure your tweets will find you out
Before the commentariat, Christian and other, condemns the Australian Christian Lobby's Jim Wallace as a loony fundamentalist bigot, let's all take a deep breath...
The PM's Speech
So the PM needs elocution? (Dean Frankel, Opinion, 21/4) Repeat after me, Julia: The refrain unplain goes mainly down the drain.
Not in my back pocket
Perhaps it's time to call a spade a spade on climate change action. Call me a pessimist, a simpleton or both. But here's how it looks from my kitchen table ......
Close to home
A light has just dawned for me, and it's not a pretty sight. A bunch of teens brutalise a defenceless creature in a suburban park, and we're unequivocally sickened...
Honesty: a political health hazard
A senior politician admits serious error on national television, and the nation's collective lower jaw hits the dirt. After the necessary analysis from commentators...
The secular gospel
"A secular approach to religious teachings", Tina Whittle? (Letters, 5/4) That does sound interesting. Would that be something like a lecture on heart surgery...
Has the free speech horse Bolted?
Whatever one's personal opinion either of News Limited's columnist Andrew Bolt as a person or, of the case now before the court -- and it's clear opinions vary...
Losing the way
Polls heading south again, eh Julia? Bit of a blow. Good government losing it's way again, I suppose.
Confessions of an unusually old closet hipster (apparently)
I'm still in recovery mode after a Saturday morning breakfast conversation with my two still-living-at-home unattached 20-something Gen-Y offspring. It was in...
Rednecks
With all those rednecks flocking to Avalon (front page photo, 28/2), I'm amazed the Prime minister wasn't asked to comment. Avalon is now in her electorate. "The...
King Warnie
Whoever first dubbed Shane Warne "the King of Spin" spoke more than they knew. Move over, Will & Kate. No offence intended toward our esteemed constitutional monarchy,...
The politics of being human
We as a nation - politicians, journalists and the general public - are displaying remarkably short memories of a Federal election campaign which was long on spin...
The changing of the colours
About the flag, one thing at least is clear. Ausflag director, Brendan Jones has never tried changing the carpet in an Anglican church.
More than words
While waters have flooded Queensland, some Australians with less on their minds have flooded cinemas and other venues. And in a week when public leaders have been...