We have heard a lot in the news in recent times of loss or potential loss of jobs at Qantas, Holden, Ford, SPC Ardmona, Gove Alumina Refinery, Port Henry Aluminium Smelter and so on. There has been a lot of gnashing of teeth because the Government wouldn’t step in and have the Australian taxpayer prop […]

It was the good Dr Phil who introduced me to that wonderfully insightful book by Thomas S Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Kuhn showed that the progress of science has been largely discontinuous. Most scientists work within a generally accepted set of theories (which Kuhn termed a paradigm) and are largely content to make […]

In psychology to “confabulate” means to fabricate a reason for something in order to rationalise our behaviour when in fact the behaviour has an unconscious cause. Most of you will think this is an academic concept that has little application to normal human behaviour. Surprisingly it is a very common human phenomenon. As the good […]

Despite his prolonged protestations of innocence, Craig Thomson has been finally found guilty of fraudulent use of his credit card whilst an official of the Health Services Union. In the face of a number of other complaints regarding alleged criminal conduct of unions (not the least of which included one involving the former Prime Minister, […]

In the Western world it was probably the increasing influence of science that caused the rise in atheism. Atheists tend to be philosophical naturalists – people who attempt to understand the world without invoking anything supernatural. As the ability of science to explain the physical world increased, the need for the supernatural decreased commensurately. Indeed […]

My wife would certainly attest to the fact that I have a particular abhorrence of spiders. It is hard to know how it originated. Our progenitors no doubt had some fear of spiders and even more so of snakes. They, as hunter gatherers would routinely have encountered these potential threats. As a result over the […]

I once had a strange discussion with the author of a so-called “New Age” book. He had some disparaging things to say about science and mathematics. To illustrate a point he maintained that even the universal constant pi could not be accurately determined. He, of course was misled. Because pi was unable to be defined as a proper […]

The world is endlessly complex, intricate and surprising. Conceptually we find that hard to cope with and consequently we spend a lot of effort in trying to simplify it. Some of our models of the world and its component parts have proved very useful first approximations and have aided our general understanding. However sometimes our […]

Here we are in a New Year and traditionally that has offered us the opportunity to pause and take stock. Australia seems to be in transition again. There are a number of influences having an impact on our country and our way of life. As we approach Australia Day I thought I would elaborate on […]

My more long-suffering readers will remember there is a metaphor I am particularly fond of. We might call it the parable of the raindrop. When the sun shines on the vastness of the sea through the mechanism of evaporation water vapour is formed. Now the sea is the final repository of pretty well all raindrops […]