The world seems to be teetering on the precipice of a cliff right now. Just this week the Russo-Ukranian war has escalated to a new and dangerous level, Russian people are fleeing their own country, there appears to be war ‘by other means’ being waged against NATO – evidenced by the destruction of the gas … More Armageddon is just a few steps away
I had to get some assistance this week with my website hosting – various bits and pieces of maintenance had to be done, including migrating it to a different server because the one it was on didn’t host the right software. It was quite a saga. The company I deal with operates a help desk … More How to deal with website hosting, part 486,309
The other week my YouTube feed proposed a channel of intriguing title: Beard meets food. I am not sure why this was presented to me, but because I deliberately turn off Google’s surveillance systems (insofar as I can), Google’s algorithms keep coming up with a default potpourri of wildly irrelevant offerings. This was one of … More How to eat a burger bigger than your head in one sitting
Something I find a tad annoying about online behaviour these days is the ‘drive by comment’ on social media platforms. This is a remark triggered by a headline that flows by as a link. The commenter doesn’t click the link but merely posts a response based on the headline alone. I’ve been noticing it happening, … More Drive-by commentaries and social media
This week New Zealand’s inflation hit a 31-year high after decades when the spectre of relentlessly rising consumer prices seemed to have been conquered forever. What happened can only partly be blamed on domestic issues – a 32 percent rise in the price of fuel, for instance, simply had to be accepted. Although that last … More The inflation monster is baaaaaaack
The spectre of armoured vehicles (not all of them are ‘tanks’) grinding across the roads of Europe to prosecute a hot war, of refugees carrying their belongings with them along roads jammed with civilian vehicles, seems somehow out of date to me, echoing grainy monochrome newsreel footage from another century. And yet, here it is. … More The tragedy of the war in Ukraine
The occupation of New Zealand’s Parliament grounds by a disparate group of protesters – ostensibly over the Covid mandates, but representing a multitude of causes and apparently without a single organiser – follows similar occupations in Canada and elsewhere. It’s a disturbing development. Protests usually focus on an issue. They are usually led and organised … More New Zealand’s parliamentary protest and the lessons of 1848 Europe
Back in the 1950s and 1960s the popular vision of the 2020s was simple. The future was defined as the turn of the millennium; the 2020s were the future of the future, and this nebulous future future had every potential to fix humanity’s problems. By the 2020s all disease would be conquered. We’d have climate … More We’ve missed our utopian future
In my previous post I suggested that 2022 was arriving like a Medieval butt-trumpet, with all that this implies. This wasn’t entirely for satirical effect though, you have to admit, Medieval butt-trumpets are pretty funny. But there’s a serious issue behind it (see what I did there). Back at the beginning of 2021 I joined … More Predictions for 2022 – what’s going to happen?
I am always intrigued by the number of jokes made about the way other languages sound to English speakers. Usually they rest on some tired and long-discarded national stereotype such as Swedish allegedly consisting of people saying ‘borka borka borka’, or German consisting of people gutturally barking orders at each other: Speaker 1: Achtung! Panzer! … More How English sounds to speakers of other languages
Matthew Wright 
You must be logged in to post a comment.