In Traffic, Tom Vanderbilt’s eye-opening analysis of cars, traffic and driving, this is how he describes the act of driving: ‘Much of the time we spend in traffic is . . . a kind of gauzy dream state of automatic muscle movements and half-remembered images.’ A kind of half death, I reckon, a suspension of [...]
One of the destinations on the right-hand side is called Secular Humanity. I’ve observed with quite some interest the ‘religion war of words’ that has sprouted over the last half decade. I’m not a militant atheist – people can believe or worship as they please . . . up to a point. And that point [...]
John Lind has a terrific article on Salon. Titled ‘Wanted: Freedom from Religion,’ its initial line goes like this: ‘The theocratic repression in Iran is a reminder that there can be no freedom without secular government.’ Lind rejects the common idea that the horrors in Iran are part of, as he puts it, ‘a global [...]
Daniel MacArthur at Genetic Future has broken news on a new personal genome sequencing product to be launched by Illumina. A couple of days ago I referred to bottom-end pricing for such a product as US$68,000, but this post clarifies pricing somewhat. If correct, Illumina will charge US$48,000, about half of the current lowest price.
A couple of weeks back, 60 Minutes ran an extended segment on the pleasures and pitfalls of having your genome scanned. Of course they featured some well-known Australian volunteers and, as I’d expected, they drove me nuts with their shallow treatment, but nonetheless it was exciting. The three volunteers swabbed their mouths, sealed up the [...]
Daniel MacArthur, on his excellent, focused blog Genetic Future, summarizes well (even I can understand it!) a new US$24,500 offering by Knome that (in Daniel’s words): provides a substantial chunk of the information value of a whole genome sequence at a quarter of the cost, by focusing exclusively on the 2-3% of the genome that [...]
On Sunday, bushwalking near Seville, fifty kilometres east of Melbourne’s heart, I spotted a bird high up on a dead branch. From where I stood, the dead branch bisected two closer forked branches, so the motionless bird was framed against the still sky. Despite the beautiful countryside, we’d seen few birds, so I felt a surge [...]
My favourite blog about the global economy, about globalization in fact, is Andrew Leonard’s tremendous How the World Works. Lately he’s been weighing in on the side of heavy government investment against the free marketers, which has made his column even more interesting. Unlike most blogs, every item holds interest.
Over Easter the city boy camped in the Langi Ghiran State Park, just before Ararat. One day we climbed up Mount Langi Ghiran. A cairn marked the highest point one could reach on the marked paths, but it was clearly well below the summit, so three of us scrambled up rocks into the heights. We sat [...]
A friend once took his family into rural Tasmania. On a glorious hillside, gazing over rolling valleys under a sunny sky, he was amazed to hear his teen daughter sum up what she saw like this: ‘Give me a good building any day.’ That’s exactly how I’ve felt all my life. A city boy finds [...]