(no subject)

Holy cow! One of our local papers, The Weekly Times, has just declared that global warming is a "hoax" and a "joke". Now we're in the electorate of Bennelong, which means our federal MP is none other than PM John Howard, and TWT is Howard's pal - putting him on the cover, running an exclusive "report" from him in each edition, and so on. But Howard is belatedly beginning to acknowledge global warming - so is the paper suddenly turning against him?

Lost in Transmission

First book to pop from the stack of half-read books: Lost in Transmission, the extremely readable memoirs of India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan by ABC reporter Jonathan Harley, including a gripping chapter on 9/11 from Harley's POV - in Kabul.

I think what may stay with me, though, is the fact that three of Harley's Australian friends took their own lives during the years covered by the narrative, and the contrast between their despair in a land of peace and plenty and the desperate struggles to survive which Harley encounters overseas. I ought to know better, but I felt ashamed of my own intermittent thoughts of suicide.

Vagueanism

My veganwards slouching has not all been deprivation: I have rediscovered peanut butter and popcorn.

(Simple microwave popcorn, that is, not the awesome bucket of luxury that off_coloratura sent. :-)