52 days ago by Nicholas V.

“The goal of every culture is to decay through over-civilization; the factors of decadence, -- luxury, skepticism, weariness and superstition, -- are constant. The civilization of one epoch becomes the manure of the next.” - Cyril Connolly We live in a decadent era, poised ill-balanced on the cusp o ...

94 days ago by Nicholas V.

“Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it” - Mark Twain Today we experienced one of those abrupt weather changes that is very characteristic of Melbourne. The day was quite changeable to begin with and there were some showers in the morning, however, b ...

98 days ago by Nicholas V.

“One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.” – Plato I’ve had an exhausting day today. Not only did I have to do the usual Saturday morning shopping, house and chores, but I had to work on an urgent submission that is due on Monda ...

99 days ago by Nicholas V.

“Debt is the fatal disease of republics, the first thing and the mightiest to undermine governments and corrupt the people” - Wendell Phillips The political and financial situation in Greece has reached crisis point. While there is no doubt that the state of affairs in Greece is serious, this is unf ...

100 days ago by Nicholas V.

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed” - Mahatma Gandhi I was in Sydney for the day for work today, but spent the whole day indoors, and what’s more in a windowless lecture room. Perhaps it was just as well as it was raining cats and dogs when I got there in t ...

114 days ago by Nicholas V.

“The forces in a capitalist society, if left unchecked, tend to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.” - Jawaharlal Nehru For the past six weeks protesters have camped in Zuccotti Park and surrounds, in the Wall Street financial district of New York and have identified themselves as the “Occupy ...

123 days ago by Nicholas V.

“18 And, behold, there came up out of the river seven kine, fat-fleshed and well-favoured; and they fed in a meadow: 19 And, behold, seven other kine came up after them, poor and very ill-favoured and lean-fleshed , such as I never saw in all the land of Egypt for badness: 20 And the lean and the il ...

128 days ago by Nicholas V.

“I want to put a ding in the universe.” - Steve Jobs Pancreatic cancer is one of the worse that can afflict the human body. As the pancreas is deep inside the body, and because it is a rather loose organ surrounded by a thin capsule, any tumour that begins in this tissue tends to grow quickly and sp ...

135 days ago by Nicholas V.

“Committee - a group of men who keep minutes and waste hours.” - Milton Berle I’ve had a very busy today, most of it taken up by two meetings, one of which was a monumental one lasting for five hours. Although there was a short break in the middle of it, at the end I was completely exhausted. Fortun ...

149 days ago by Nicholas V.

“He who sows the ground with care and diligence acquires a greater stock of religious merit than he could gain by the repetition of ten thousand prayers” – Zoroaster Zoroaster ( Zarathustra in Avestan) was a Persian sage who lived around 1400-1200 B.C. He is recognised as the prophet that developed ...