"The difference is that the United States' aims are to spread democracy and openness," said the female interviewee, when asked by the BBC reporter on what the difference was between the US using "information warfare" vs. the Russians doing the same thing. (For context, this was a radio programme on the suspected Russian interference in... Continue Reading →
Are you what you write? (or, Machiavelli the playwright)
I just watched a documentary on Niccolò Machiavelli. You may know him as that scheming, deceitful, and generally rotten guy who wrote the political bible The Prince. So infamous is he that his name has become an adjective synonymous with evil. Just see what Merriam-Webster has to stay about being "Machiavellian": suggesting the principles of conduct laid... Continue Reading →
Fast Cars
With a light press of the accelerator, the car effortlessly sped up. Without my realising it we were now a little over the speed limit. It was odd how slow it felt. The cabin deathly quiet as the car stoically glided along. Flashback 10 years: driving in Perth in the 小金车 (xiao jin che or... Continue Reading →
Do not give me a gift of which I desire
A little note about happiness, from the book Homo Deus, by Yuval Noah Harari: If I identify happiness with fleeting pleasant sensations, and crave to experience more and more of them, I have no choice but to pursue them constantly. When I finally get them, they quickly disappear, and because the mere memory of past pleasures... Continue Reading →
Donn, fragments 