Franz Kafka’s A Report to the Academy is a short story, in the form of a first-person account voiced by a human-like ape who was shot and captured in West Africa then transported to Europe by ship in a cage. ‘Red Peter’ is driven to escape his cage, so he embraces the process and performance of becoming human, which includes learning to speak and behave like one of his captors. ‘Freedom was not what I wanted,’ he reports, retrospectively. ‘Only a way out; right or left, or in any direction; I made no other demand; even should the way out… [Read more]

In the 1997 film The Castle, the obvious-talking young narrator named Dale Kerrigan has a totalising faith in the promise of shared, familial love. Even the threat of potential house demolition, the material site of this ‘togetherness’, merely commits him further to the promise. Yet we only know this promise once it flickers; once it passes to unreliability. For Dale, this happens at two precise moments when he surveys his family sharing tender points in time. As if short-circuited, the wholesome scenes are dramatically cut in the film. Instead of warm fuzzies, all Dale can think about is his brother,… [Read more]

President Harry Truman attracted much enmity in the post-Roosevelt era of the 1940s. Sometimes it was based on little more than snobbery about his humble origins. More substantively, programs such as health-care reform incited the hostility of entrenched interests. Decades later, President Bill Clinton liked to say of his now-lionised predecessor: ‘My family supported Truman when he was actually president.’ The memorial service for Bob Hawke last Friday was a similar mix of reality, misremembrance and romanticism. The ingredients of political success remain both obvious and mysterious. It is now broadly acknowledged that Hawke led a highly competent government of… [Read more]

In March 1996, three US servicemen stationed in Okinawa were convicted of the abduction and sexual assault of a 12-year-old Japanese girl. It was the first time the US military prosecuted any of its soldiers since they first occupied the island in the 1940s. This is despite the fact that Japanese activists had protested both the occupation itself, and the apparent impunity of the servicemen since one of them raped a six-year-old girl in 1955. Those three servicemen all pleaded guilty to various charges associated with the assault. This caused ripples in a military known to be myopically protective of… [Read more]

Last evening Facebook released an extensive whitepaper detailing its new ‘Libra’ cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrencies—like the original, Bitcoin—create a secure, trustworthy and verifiable technology to maintain the entries within an accounting ledger. They’re secure because they use cryptography—similar to what your web browser uses when talking to your bank. They’re trustworthy because transactions are subject to a consensus-based approval of everyone using the currency, so no one can cook the books. And they’re verifiable because anyone can come along and inspect those books—if you claim you have a certain amount of cryptocurrency, that claim can be proven (or disproven) easily. Invented as… [Read more]

So once again winter has rolled around in the neoliberal paradise that is Australia. This means big wool coats, scarves, beanies—and sick people not taking time off work. Cue the privileged scolds ‘helpfully’ reminding people that they need to stay home instead of spreading their sickness around the office and on the bus and train if they’re one of the 20% that use public transport to commute. Aside from the garden variety colds (I am still recovering from one I caught two weeks ago), the klaxons are being sounded that this is going to be the worst flu season we’ve… [Read more]

The dust has settled on the federal election, and advocates from all sectors are either crowing over their wins or licking their wounds. On the battleground for the internet, there is a much darker spectre looming. Over the coming year, Australia will rapidly be relegated to the backwaters of the global digital world. We will no longer have a functioning industry of security software manufacturers, nor will we have faith in the safety and security of our telecommunications systems. The security of every digital device in homes all over the world will likely be compromised, for criminals, scammers and bored… [Read more]

Democracy is a constant search for balance between competing principles. Take the balance between single-member electorates in the House of Representatives and the principle of majority representation.  On May 18, the Morrison-led coalition won 77 of the 151 seats in the House—50.99%.  The national two-party-preferred vote stands today at 51.42% for the coalition. That number may alter as the ‘non-classic’ seats, currently fifteen, where minor parties and independents dominate, are recounted to produce the two-party (Labor vs non-Labor) figure.  For now, give the system a tick for getting the balance right. Occasionally, it goes wrong.  It did in 1998 and… [Read more]

(C4H9)3Snta Claus and Other Dickheads (Disambiguation)    1. In the 1950s, (C4H9)3Sn or Tribytyltin compounds (TBT) became a central component of paints used by boat manufacturers around the world.   2. In 1998 a small Yorkshire pig ran the length of one of Sydney’s busiest arterial motorways. The pig was fulfilling its role as actor; a thespian swine, a worker and an earthling, a distillation of the human mode, a small possible hero.   3. Santa Claus was pronounced dead on Thursday 4 August, 2005. The death notice was published in the US Postal Service’s publication, Postal Bulletin. Santa’s death… [Read more]