Italians still do graffiti with meaning and wit to it

I’m in Livorno at the moment and fear I may die of boredom. But at least the graffiti artists here have more wit than most of those back home: Bruciore means Burning, in case you are too lazy to use your google translate. Still, it’s clever and more loaded with meaning and conscience than any …

When Qatar Airlines Calls Something Surprising And Unfair…

http://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/we-were-there-for-australia-qatar-airways-boss-says-flight-decision-unfair-20230917-p5e5a8.html That Qatar Airlines calls the decision not to grant more access to Australia surprising and unfair is quite ironic. Tell it to the women who were strip searched at Doha airport. Now THAT was surprising and definitely unfair.

Premium Economy Does Help But Long Haul Flights Still Suck!

I’m mostly over my jet lag now, having hit the pillow in my hotel room in Rome at 4pm last night after a duty bound walk to the Collosseum followed by a late lunch at a cheap and cheerful restaurant just off the Via Cavour. I must say that breaking up the trip with a …

Lessons In Chemistry: Best Novel I Have Read In A Long Time

You remember the Gideon Society? They are the people who hand out copies of the Gospel in the street and who used to make sure that motel rooms each had a Bible in a drawer. Hunter S Thompson was very grateful to them for those Bibles as when he was sitting in his motel room …

Collingwood Vs Carlton? The Stuff Of Nightmares

Several years ago, I was in the lift on the way back from lunch at AFL finals time and happened to make some Collingwood jokes. By the time I had reached my desk, my phone was ringing. It was one of the HR Managers. He said: “Ernest, what were you saying in the lift?” I …

No One Likes Alan: Reflections On Qantas

I did lunch last week at the Great Northern Hotel in North Carlton with a friend who is a very senior barrister. Given that I am about to hop on a plane to Italy in a few days’ time, we talked a fair bit about travel, and particularly about the scandals which are currently plaguing …

Qatar’s Clumsy Attempts At Both Sportswashing and Skywashing

This week has seen a bit of a blow up in the purported controversy about Qatar Airways being denied the opportunity to have more flights to and from Australia. The revelations that Qantas has been treating its customers in what can be charitably described as a kleptomaniacal manner has raised rage at the protection that …

Don’t you miss the days when graffiti had something to say?

During and since the Covid lockdowns, much of Melbourne has been covered in graffiti. Most of it is indecipherable tags, where the only message is comprehensible to the purported artists and like minded morons of their subculture. [I make no apologies for my views on these vandals.] As a result, given that our Premier is …

Facebook’s AI is not ready to take over the World – yet

It’s been one week since I made the dubious decision to finally join Facebook – a decision which immediately caused me to have my account ‘temporarily suspended’ presumably by an AI. Despite this suspension, I have been able to log into that account via the mobile phone through which I set up the account. It …