We call it “Survival as a service” — Hey everyone! Sorry to pop up in your feed like this, but you’ll be glad we did. If you’re a human living on Planet Earth, this message is for you. We’re a consortium of technology, finance, food processing, agribusiness, and government organizations, including all your favourite social media and AI…

We can’t go backwards — CW: sexual abuse / anecdotes of abuse When I was eighteen I was walking home after a night of drinking, decked out in full punk regalia — motorcycle jacket, combat boots and assorted accessories. As I passed a park known in my hometown as a gay rendezvous spot, a car…

Media mogul accuses non-Fox media of being too political — If there’s one thing we’ve learned in the last few years it’s that money and power don’t buy self-awareness, and in case Musk and Trump weren’t proof enough, Rupert Murdoch is here to hammer the point home. The ancient Australian news baron and destabilizer of democracy announced this week that…

Prose poem prompt: Retell a well-known tale — Welcome, my son said the Divine Presence in a froth of chilly mist and ineffable thought I trust you’ve been well? Lucifer nodded his noble head Eyes wide, deep and blue-green as a primordial sea chiseled jawline sharp as a razor’s edge skin glowing deep bronze and flawless under the perpetual golden hour of…

Your mileage may vary — Recently I’ve thought that my writing on Medium has seen far too few narcissistic self-indulgent listicles. This piece aims to remedy that shortfall. Below are some books I first read between my early teens and mid-twenties which affected my worldview or my philosophy or the way I string a sentence…

“Why didn’t Leander bring bacon?” — Marcus Aurelius, ruler of the Roman Empire from CE 161 to 180, was widely considered a wise and just emperor. Today he is admired for his Meditations, which exemplify Stoic philosophy and the virtues of wisdom, moderation, courage, and justice. Recently a British tourist sleeping off a bender in a…

Imagine a zombie apocalypse in slow motion — Stupid science. Just when we all got chill with the mass delusion that COVID-19 was over, a study in British medical journal The Lancet suggests that the real fuckening may be yet to come. The research looks at individuals suffering from long COVID, aka Post-COVID-19 condition (PCC), and the conclusions…

Calm down, people, not like that — Yesterday was a pleasingly quiet day at the gym pool. Each of the three lanes had only a single occupant, and I was enjoying floundering my way up and down my row without risk of collision. As I was almost ready to leave, a dark, attractive woman in a bathing…

Technology is making phone cons more convincing —learn to recognize the signs — My ex-wife C was over at the house, temporarily relieving me as the adult in charge of watching our son play online games. She’d just arrived when she got a phone call. “No. No. Definitely not. That wasn’t me.” As someone who’s had my identity stolen twice — I’ve since…