Author Archives

Australian, female, fat, born in 1971. Been hanging around the internet (first Usenet, now blogs) since about 1997. Far too cynical for my own good.

• “Country”

  By megpie71 on 2015-03-17 • ( 2 )

  [Inspired by: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-11/abbott-defends-indigenous-communities-lifestyle-choice/6300218 – particularly the comment thread] I was born in Western Australia, and I lived most of my life until I was about 27 in the south-eastern suburbs of Perth.  I then moved to Canberra, in the ACT,… Read More ›

• On Political Polls and Negative Rainfall

  By megpie71 on 2013-03-26 • ( 10 )

  

  http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-26/coalition-support-leaps-in-latest-newspoll/4593938 – Coalition support leaps in latest Newspoll (Trigger warning: “smug bastard” photo of Tony Abbott). Does it occur to anyone else this headline is rather like “Phenomenal amount of rain didn’t fall yesterday”? According to this poll, if somehow… Read More ›

• Expectations of Deception

  By megpie71 on 2013-01-28 • ( 7 )

  

  Gary Younge is upset about the level of deception which is present within everyday society. He feels this is dangerous, and we’re in danger of subsiding into a culture of fakery and deceit. He uses the examples of Beyonce’s lip-synching the US national anthem during the presidential inaguration, the discovery of horse DNA in budget beef burgers in the UK, and Lance Armstrong’s very public confession of taking performance enhancing drugs during his professional cycling career as examples of this tendency.

  I have a slightly different take on things. I think it comes down to the tyranny of expectations.

• Challenge to Federal Families Minister Jenny Macklin: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

  By megpie71 on 2013-01-02 • ( 39 )

  

  According to this article on the ABC, our Federal Families minister, Jenny Macklin reckons she could live on the dole. The dole is currently about $35 per day. Now, normally when someone in a position of privilege or power says… Read More ›

• Some Thoughts on Transhumanism

  By megpie71 on 2012-12-11 • ( 8 )

  

  My biggest problem with transhumanism as a movement is it seems to be largely about the extremes of techno-neepery on the part of a lot of IT and engineering nerds. Now, that would be fine, except IT and engineering nerdery share a couple of rather crucial traits which make them, and the resulting transhumanist movement, somewhat dodgy.