I have been reading the book ‘The Great Wave’1 by Michiko Kakutani which was given to me by a mate who thought I would enjoy it. Kakutani is an American Pulitzer Prize winning literary critic and writer2. The book is subtitled ‘The era of radical disruption and the rise of the outsider’1.
As conservative commentator David Frum said several years ago: “If conservatives become convinced that they can not win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy”1.
Like many inquisitive kids, I was fascinated with dinosaurs and knew the names of lots of them. When I was employed, I’d commonly see kids as young as 5, who could tell their parents (and me) the names of dozens of dinosaur genera. When I was about the same age as them, I was given a book on dinosaurs from the How and Why Wonder Book series. This series was turned out in large numbers on many topics, of which I had a few, but the dinosaur volume was my favourite1.
The Boyer Lectures are a series of talks by prominent Australians, presenting ideas on major social, scientific or cultural issues, and broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC) Radio National. The lectures began in 1959 and a couple of years later were named after Richard Boyer, the ABC board chairman who suggested them.