It was another day at the gym working what might generously be called weights. A Polynesian acquaintance passed and picked up dumb-bells seven times heavier than mine and we nodded at each other. Then he paused and looked at me, and I back at him. A sheen of sweat covered his shaven dome and biceps which were the same size as my thighs, which I keep under wraps with long trousers. “How old are you?” he asked and I told him. He paused again then shook his head the way people do when they’re both pleased and amazed. “It’s good you old people come in here and work out eh?” He said and moved on. It was a compliment. But how come I felt both pleased - and old…? ******** If you want to watch democracy in action don’t even think about Godzone, where it’s progressively being pushed to the margins. Take a look at any current affairs programme in Oz where PM Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott are in the last week of their election campaign. You can see accountability in the raw, with Gillard taking questions live, directly from voters. It’s what used to happen here many many years ago before candidates had the cheek to avoid questioning. Don Brash has been commissioned to look at the wrong issue: instead of examining the wage gap between the two countries perhaps he’d do better looking at the democracy divide. ******** People with extremely strong ties to their countries or groups are not only willing, but eager, to sacrifice themselves to save their compatriots… …the "Trolley Problem" presents a hypothetical moral dilemma in which a person must choose whether to kill one person to save five strangers from a fatal trolley collision either by pushing a man in front of the tracks or simply flipping a switch that would automatically kill an innocent bystander. To put a new spin on the moral dilemma, the researchers added self-sacrifice as a means of saving a member of their group from a runaway trolley. Read this new psychology research on: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100812111059.htm
******** Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.
Mark Twain
******** something to take on your travels… 
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