If your pig eats the vegetables in my garden I'm going to spear you in the eye. In fact, I don't think I could live with the dishonour of not doing so. At least, I might feel that way if I were born in the New Guinea Highlands. The complicated relationships between the clans that have lived there for numerous generations create an aggressive culture of compulsory and violent retribution. The graphic history of the wars between the clans is engaging enough, but what makes this typically in depth New Yorker article by Jared Diamond exceptionally fascinating is the contrasts and comparisons he draws to contemporary global society and and our system of states. He convincingly challenges Rousseau's concept of the evolution of the social contract, which inspires reflection on our expectations of actors in both international and interpersonal relations. Though I disagree with some of the conclusions he infers at the end, (he bases them on an isolated example that could be other...

I've been quite busy recently, what with my trip to Melbourne the weekend before last and the Mobile Enterprise course I was doing through work last weekend. On top of that I've been going to see a few different things, and so hence this round-up of reviews. It's not because my opinion matters, or for posterity, but rather to make me feel like the last few weeks have been productive in some way. I shall start from most recent and work backwards until I reach a point of boredom. Don't worry it wont take long. Chalkies - Holden Street Theatres This locally produced comedy/musical/play by Matt Byrne is about teachers, students and school amalgamations.It runs for nearly two and half hours, though on the plastic, ex-classroom seats in HST, my ass thought it was closer to five hours. Four actors play over 30 characters between them, some of the well, some of them not so well. While there was plenty of amusement in Chalkies, that shouldn't have been too difficult given th...

As if it wasn't bad enough how much I wanted the iPhone before, then they have to go and release the developers kit, and now cool apps like this version of Quake appear. Using the accelerometer as the control... Oh. My. I want one sooo bad. AAAArgh! I know I am never going to be able to afford one when they are finally, eventually released here. With the 3G version just a couple months from release, that can't be long either!