No Sacred Cows

Scepticism served medium rare

Category: Satire

  • There was a time when ordering a meal involved an exchange between two human beings. One stated what one wished to eat, another pretended to be interested, and eventually something resembling it arrived. The system was not perfect. It depended upon memory, goodwill, language, competence and, occasionally, even eye contact, all notoriously unreliable technologies. Fortunately,…

  • Escape from Eight Hours of Techno Torture, to Sanctuary at the Macaca Beach Bar We came to Khao Takiab for a peaceful night by the sea. Softly lapping waves reflecting the full moon, a light breeze, a swim in warm water. Instead, we found ourselves with a front-row seat at a deafening eight-hour Full Moon…

  • The early morning songtaew was peaceful. A lay ascetic sat opposite me, quiet, composed, radiating the sort of calm that makes everyone else behave for once. No drama. No noise. No need to pretend the world is listening (as in the earlier blog). Fast-forward to the return journey, where tranquillity died a swift death. In…

  • Influencer Interruptus

    When even solitude needs a tripod. One man’s dawn swim meets the selfie apocalypse. After an hour’s swim at dawn in glorious solitude, the sea smooth as glass, the horizon glowing like molten silver – I thought I had the beach to myself: two kilometres of unspoilt quiet. Then, inevitably, modern civilisation arrived. A lone…

  • Looking through my crystal ball… Democracies will erode under the weight of attention spans shorter than a hamster’s. The planet will heat, then hiccup, then wheeze, then expire, because the best we can do is redesign shampoo bottles to save the turtles. And we will still waste time arguing over the colour. Eventually, we might…