Another NFL season is down to just two teams, and while some pundits marvel at the new generation of outstanding QBs and the associated focus on offense, we should be reminded that some things never change (and I don’t mean the Patriots appearance in the AFC Championship game): winning playoff games depends on good old fashioned things like controlling the line of scrimmage and the clock. This preview shouldn’t be all about Brady, but he…
(contains spoilers) It should come as no surprise that two innovators – Netflix and the Black Mirror team – have combined to produce something so special that we might look back on Bandersnatch as a key moment in the emerging genre of ‘interactive movie‘. The idea of handing the audience/viewer control over how the story plays out has been around for decades. Usually, this takes the shape of giving viewers a choice of a few…
During the month of Elul, our minds turn to Rosh Hashanah, and we reflect on the year which is drawing to a close. We have many different units for measuring time – seconds, minutes, hours, days, months and years – and each serves a different purpose. To paraphrase Marc Levy, if you think a hundredth of a second is a short amount of time, ask the person who won the Olympic silver medal in the…
I stumbled across a wonderful article that deals with the intersection of two of my favourite topics: intergenerational issues and the impact of social media on society. It analyses the starkly different ways that Facebook is used by Baby Boomers, as opposed to Millenials. It comes from a web site called The Cheat Sheet, which is “dedicated to providing audiences the information they want in an approachable, entertaining way”. But looking at the content and the…
Another Superbowl, and like a bad rash, those Patriots just won’t go away. OK, that was a little cruel, but I think many people are waiting for this dynasty to end, and even predicting its downfall, yet time and again the Pats find ways to win, especially when it really matters. And that’s what goodgreat teams do. Having attended last year’s Superbowl, I was awestruck witnessing the most amazing comeback ever. Games like this affect…
I’m sick and tired at the increasing frequency that big issues are politicised, and the regular straw-man arguments that often serve to reinterpret opinions as extreme and thus polarise us further. Most of us sit in the 80% of grey space in the middle, rather than the 10% at the extremes. Yet many of us are too easily caught up in those extremes, and have lost the ability to conduct nuanced debate in that grey…
Disclaimer: some of these arguments regarding same-sex marriage are specific to Australia. The same-sex marriage debate continues to hot up in Australia as the Liberal party stumbles around, torn from within and without. Plebecite? Postal vote? Parliamentary conscience vote? But all of this is a side-show to the core debate. As a quick aside, it’s worth noting that anyone who uses the term ‘marriage equality’, rather than the neutral ‘same-sex marriage’, has made up their mind….
Following the successful launch of his book Transition, David was interviewed for an article in CPA Australia’s magazine INTHEBLACK. “12 commandments of the family business” discusses the challenges of mixing family with business, particularly in the context of the estimated A$3 trillion wealth transfer taking place in Australia. Family business is a huge portion of the Australian economy, comprising 70 percent of businesses, and 50 percent of employees. Key success factors are vision, and governance….
We have a criminal justice system, but how often and under what circumstances is it able to deliver just outcomes? To understand this, let’s first consider the important features that make the system work: an independent judiciary, the assumption of innocence until proven guilty, that both sides of a case are heard, a trial before a jury of ones peers, and the due process surrounding all of this. These are the essential ingredients to reaching…
Language constantly evolves, and we coin new words and phrases to fit the zeitgeist – the dominant set of ideals and beliefs at any time. While usually language and pop culture are reflections of this zeitgeist, features of said culture can be hard to identify because we are deep inside of it. However, by studying the new words that have been coined, we can get a greater insight into the trends around us. I’ve noticed the increased use…