the apparent false news of the murder of Kim Jong Nam via a VX toxin cloth is, actually, quite a marketing opportunity for a savvy entrepreneur. "Kleenex VX Face Wipes, in a soft travel pack of 20, ideal for those difficult situations when a tissue just isn't enough."

being towards and in sight of the end of my working life...oh I was going to say something meaningful...oh dear, I think I've said enough. It is enough to note that when people are born that they are brand new. the notion of a personal rebirth or transcendence is highly unlikely and it would be far better to bet on the horses. still, this generation of Healing and New Health and Alternative Notions have certainly provided a good income to a lot of people, and even a wonky new Belief System to the occasional and quite odd person, and there is nothing wrong with that...apart from the ethical thing that is always wrong with that...but even ethics are changing faster than we do. I suppose the great thing is the truth, that people don't change, they just grow for awhile...& that the Human Condition remains exactly the same, century in, century out. You can bet on that.

Trying to understand the China Family phenomenon

The job of the young is to fulfil their needs and social requirements in life.
A big aspect of this is to ensure that your parents are well cared for within the family.
Human capacities rise and fall as is natural, and in the assent of capacities the parents look after the child and in the decline of the capacities the children look after the parents.
It is remarkably sustainable as a system.

KO:49: REVOLUTION: revolutions, whether social or individual, once they happen, take at least two or three human lifetimes to roll out the benefits and costs. This is something hard for folk who think change happens fast. This is a very hard truth for both Americans and Australians....thus the rise of various token professions of promise, whether they be of the spiritual, the physical...or the psychological.

So, I remain without the Facebook, and that is actually a relief...too much of nothing for me...it looks like something, but it isn't anything. to me, Facebook is much what the writer Kurt Vonnegut noted as a "Grand Falloon"...what you get when you prick a balloon. but...I have turned on the blog again. I like the blog. You write things...You don't get comments or followers but rather just anonymous readers. The readership changes from country to country. This week most have been from Japan, and then England. As noted the blog is mostly about what is happening in North Asia. If I had my way, which is unlikely, I would set up home in Dalian, a giant trading city in North China, and quickly zoom over to the Koreas and Japan to keep up to date. It is such a fascinating area. It has everything...nuclear weapons, mysticism, shamanism, fusions of maoism, neo-communism, democracies, old soviet structured ideas and things, new Japanese things etc all laid one across the other...and all, unlike SE Asia, understandable if you focus. Massive concentrations of people and profoundly rich resources...and great angst.....and the sea there is so deep and cold, wow. Melbourne will do. John

I recall that the first ever vinyl 45rpm single record that I bought was Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze. We have both stood the test of time.

one of my favourite Dylan Thomas poems...the sermon by Rev Eli Jenkins...from Under Milk Wood

Every morning when I wake,
Dear Lord, a little prayer I make,
O please do keep Thy lovely eye
On all poor creatures born to die

And every evening at sun-down
I ask a blessing on the town,
For whether we last the night or no
I’m sure is always touch-and-go.

We are not wholly bad or good
Who live our lives under Milk Wood,
And Thou, I know, wilt be the first
To see our best side, not our worst.

O let us see another day!
Bless us all this night, I pray,
And to the sun we all will bow

And say, good-bye – but just for now!