Musings about life in retirement from academe
I was able to go a little deeper down the ancestral rabbit hole this time. John Simon Mann and Eleanor Goodridge, my great-great-great-grandparents, met and married at Port Macquarie where they had been transported as convicts.
As the election nears the fear of our local LNP is becoming palpable. Rather than promoting their own thin package of policies they are attacking the independents. That’s an admission that they don’t have the answers they claim the independents cannot provide.
It’s election time. In 2022 there was reason to hope that a change of government might bring vision and conviction. Unfortunately that went to water. In 2025 we need a different change.
My great-great-grandmother, Rachel, left her native Ireland for New South Wales. She lived a hard life at times and was sometimes in trouble with the law. Hers is an interesting story.
My great-great-grandfather, Alexander, left his native Ireland for Sydney, moved on to Toowoomba, and then went west. There were some bumps along the way but he built a life for himself and his sons.
I’ve had a couple of false starts at family history over the years. This time I made more progress along one line than previously and thought it worth telling the story. Now that I have a taste for it I might dig some more.
Australia has a long history of mistreatment of our indigenous peoples. Occasional hopeful signs of progress are followed by periods of regression. We have to find a way forward.
The news today says that Australian kids are not learning civics well enough. Should we be worried? How well can you do on the sample quiz?
I’ve been an amateur programmer for more than 50 years but have never done enough to remain fluent in any language. That has required constant relearning. Now ChatGPT enables me to explain what I need and have working code generated or have my own coding errors corrected.
Misinformation may seem harmless but the cumulative effect is not. Our best defence may be for each of us to be alert and call it out when we see it.