Clean hands, Cool head, Warm heart.

GP, Gardener, Radical progressive

  • 0 Posts
  • 18 Comments
Joined 8 months ago
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Cake day: May 7th, 2024

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  • I think the debate on this issue is blown out of proportion.

    First, giving a small amount of money to someone in need is a very direct and human act of compassion which makes it worthwhile, if you gift someone money it is their prerogative what they do with it and the idea that it is harmful is blown out of proportion.

    Second, giving money to a local charity is also worthwhile, if you don’t feel comfortable for whatever reason.

    The idea that one approach is good and the other is actively bad is at best a distraction and at worst an excuse to do nothing at all

    The fact is that even in Australia, which by world standards has a not bad safety net, it is not possible for most people to get crisis housing and waiting lists for public housing are rarely less than 6 months, welfare payments can be cut off for trivial reasons and public mental health services are overwhelmed. These are the problems that successive governments have refused to tackle.

    If you can make someone’s day with a small gift then please do.










  • I’m lucky to have been able to experiment a bit with this as my work is flexible and I’m in a pretty good bargaining position. I also do a fair bit of unpaid work out of hours.

    Having either Friday or Monday I’ve found to be little different. Having alternating Fridays and Mondays is pretty awesome, 4 days on, 2 off, 4 on, 4 off.

    There’s a lot to be said for a mid week day off too. I’m looking at moving to a new employer and hoping to go negotiate a 3 day week, maybe Mon-Tues-Thur for example which will be heaven if I can pull it off.



  • I can’t say that I’m very familiar with the UK laws in depth other than that they have been in operation for many years and are generally considered effective.

    For referenda there’s no reason you can’t have a publicly funded campaign for yes and no and limit private advertising, we have something like that here in Australia.

    Sortition, random selection, when combined with an elected body has a lot of benefits. It has the advantage of having professional politicians with institutional knowledge and relationships while also having a body the that is actually representative of the larger population.


  • 100% agree!

    As an addition to this I firmly believe medical marijuana is a phase.

    Now I’ve made people angry here’s the nuance.

    CBD/THC combinations certainly have a role in some patients with chronic pain, especially where it’s use can avoid or reduce the use of opioids.

    There are clear specific uses such as intractable epilepsy where it is clearly the best treatment. It is effective for glaucoma but there are better treatments available.

    I’m highly suspicious of marijuana having any role in mental health and there are, in my opinion, no convincing studies published showing that it is useful at all despite the fact that large studies have been done and presumably file-drawed.

    The idea that smoking is an appropriate delivery method for a medication when other methods are available is insane. Very few things are as bad as tobacco smoke but inhaling smoke is bad for you.

    My prediction is that in 20 years we will have cannabis derivatives in capsules that fulfil the specific purposes and the idea that any doctor prescribed marijuana to smoke will seem insane to younger doctors.


  • A bicameral legislature, one house elected by mixed member proportional system and the other selected at random from the voting age population. Legislation must pass both houses, if it passed one house but not the other it can go to referendum at the same time as the next general election.

    You can also have things like citizen initiated referenda. Campaign finance laws similar to those in the UK are also desirable.


  • No. This sort of arrogant rubbish needs to be shut down.

    In my job - a doctor - I routinely discuss difficult and complex topics with people of all backgrounds and education levels. With very few exceptions people are able to understand difficult topics.

    It is my experience that the most difficult people to work with are not ordinary people but those who hold the opinion that everyone else is stupid.

    With very few exceptions sortition and participatory democracy have worked well whenever they’ve been tried.


  • I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt here but both Suetonius and Pliny are talking about Christians in the 2nd century, Tacitus speaks about Christ only in the context of Nero blaming Christians for the great fire. These are literary evidence for the existence of Christians in the second century but are not direct literary evidence of the existence of Christ as an individual which was the question I was addressing.

    I’d be delighted to be shown to be wrong but I believe my original post stands.


  • I’m by no means an expert but I was briefly obsessed with comparative religion over a decade ago and I don’t think anyone has given a great answer, I believe my answer is correct but I don’t have time for research beyond checking a couple of details.

    As a few people have mentioned there is little physical evidence for even the most notable individuals from that time period and it’s not reasonable to expect any for Jesus.

    In terms of literary evidence there is exactly 1 historian who is roughly contemporary and mentions Jesus. Antiquities of the Jews by Josephus mentions him twice, once briefly telling the story of his crucifixion and resurrection. The second is a mention in passing when discussing the brother of Jesus delivering criminals to be stoned.

    I think it is reasonable to conclude that a Jewish spiritual leader with a name something like Jesus Christ probably existed and that not long after his death miracles are being attributed to him.

    It is also worth noting the historical context of the recent emergence of Rabbinical Judaism and the overabundance of other leaders who were claimed to be Messiahs, many of whom we also know about primarily(actually I think only) from Josephus.


  • Reminder me of this

    “What to do if you find yourself stuck with no hope of rescue: Consider yourself lucky that life has been good to you so far. Alternatively, if life hasn’t been good to you so far - which, given your present circumstances, seems more likely - consider yourself lucky that it won’t be troubling you much longer.” Douglas Adams


  • If you don’t have time to do something right what makes you think you have time to do it twice?

    Respect other people’s time. When dealing with a busy person in a professional context;

    • Emails should be as short as possible while still conveying the needed information, don’t make a busy person excavate the relevant info from somewhere near the middle of the fifth paragraph.
    • Whenever possible phrase a question in a way that can be answered in one word.