Bravus

Month: September 2006

  • The Value of Stereotypes

    A few different things have had me thinking lately about how and why we create stereotypes. One of them was a ‘look out for these kinds of cars’ thread on a bike forum: the consensus seemed to be that, in general, large four wheel drive vehicles (SUVs) should be treated with caution, since their drivers…

  • On Relinquishing The Quest For Perfection

    Just musing as I was washing the car yesterday, imperfectly… I may have already quoted this here, because I like it a lot: The search for perfection Is all very well But to look for Heaven Is to live here in Hell – Sting Note that I’m not making any statement about the existence or…

  • It’s not a(n un)Holy War… yet

    The current ‘War on Terror’ is supposedly about specifically focusing on terrorist groups and organisations. It is not supposed to be a war between Christianity and Islam… but I’m finding that an increasing number of the people I talk to, particularly right wing Christians, are imagining it in exactly those terms. They make broad and…

  • Bravus’ Wild Life

    No doubt one of the reasons the blog has gone a bit quiet lately is the energy that has been going into this thread at the William Gibson Board. Enjoy.

  • Problems of Scale

    One fearsome predator: I encountered this guy on our morning wander in the bush behind or place, and was terrified to realise that we have slavering monsters there! OK, I really wasn’t that terrified – no doubt you can tell from the fact that he’s sitting between two of my fingers that, although fearsome, he’s…

  • Salon on ‘The Wire’ on ‘No Child Left Behind’

    Read it

  • Quiet Period

    Just haven’t had a lot to say lately… I’m sure the muse will strike again soon, but a heap of grant applications and other related shenanigans, and just a bit of a mental lull, means I haven’t had anything to post about… and I vowed not to force it when there’s nothing going on in…

  • Types of Questions

    My buddy Lorne (and this is definitely not having a go at you, mate, it’s just trying to explain something I think might be interesting to you and everyone else who reads here) tends to talk about tests of all kinds as though they’re all about memorising facts and returning them in the test… and…

  • What the ‘Left Behind’ books are really about

    http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2005/12/what_the_left_b.html The guy is a bit vitriolic, and maybe overstates the case… but a form of Christianity that gloats, rather than grieves, at the death of non-Christians is (a) unChristian and (b) deeply scary when it’s dominant in the world’s sole superpower.

  • Jury Duty

    Got called for jury duty, in Canada, today. One of the possible ways to be excused is that you live too far away from the court. Think I qualify?

  • Leunig on 9/11

    As usual, Michael Leunig has the wisdom and compassion that says what needs to be said about the sadness of the world we’re living in:

  • If I’d had a bike in Canada…

    …I still wouldn’t have been able to do this – fun, though.

  • Election

    Queensland re-elected the Beattie Labor government yesterday. (We arrived too late to be on the electoral role.) They’ve had a few crises, around water and health, but still looked like a much better option than the squabbling and disorganised Liberal/National coalition that was opposing them. This really is one more election in which the lack…

  • Work, Life and Kids

    One of my friends from the William Gibson board, José, wrote this description of life in his city in Spain: Envision a society where it is forbidden to work before turning 16, where there are no jobs for students anyway after 16, where University is cheap, people keep living with their parents till they marry…

  • Kinda Freaky

    I made my first attempt at an animated gif yesterday. It’s pretty wild, so I didn’t include it on this page, but included a link: avoid it if you suffer from epilepsy caused by flashing lights. http://www.bravus.com.au/duckrodmoose.gif

  • How Homework Hurts Our Kids

    http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2006/09/05/homework_problems/ I think I’ve talked before about how Alfie Kohn suggests talking about ‘school work’ and ‘home work’ is the wrong metaphor, because kids and parents think of school as being about work instead of about learning. The book review on Salon, linked above, explores other facets of the homework issue.

  • Marriage Considered As Legal Prostitution

    I’ve seen the argument put forward a number of times, in a number of contexts, that marriage is basically a form of legalised prostitution, a social sanctioning of the trading of sex for money (in various forms). It always annoys me, so I thought I’d spend a couple of minutes on it. Firstly, the allegation…

  • Moving House

    I’ve been threatening to do it for a while, but I think I really will be moving this blog to a new server soon. I’ll let you know in plenty of time to update your bookmarks, and there’ll be a forward from here, of course, but the recent outages and server issues have made me…

  • A Cup Of Joe

    My mate Lithos had complained that just plain filter coffee had vanished from the menu in Brisbane. Given that in Canada it’s an absolute staple, with a whole franchise (Tim Hortons) built on it, that seemed hard to even imagine: in Canada, it’s pretty much served in buckets, and pretty much everywhere you can just…

  • Every Ride Is A Good Ride

    …although I was kinda doubting that the other night, riding home from work in solid rain, in the dark, with a less than optimally clean visor. Basically, when an oncoming car’s headlights were full in my eyes, I’d lose all sight of the road, which can be unnerving on a corner at speed in the…