The Hong Konger protesting folk are slowly realising their place in China...that no matter what they do, Beijing will not do anything. Beijing granted HK autonomous status, and they have it. If they wish to destroy HK in a fit of wanting to be someone else, they can. They can bankrupt their parents, destroy buildings, break the laws, destroy the economy, and nothing will happen...except they will be worse off than they were. They are most upset, not about democracy, but the simple fact that Mainland China is growing exponentially more wealthy than they are.

Australia from the air - stunning footage by the ABC's drone pilots | AB...

Friend living in Hong Kong who owns a small shop. "I carry a machete and a small ax in my car now in case stopped by violent pro-democracy people ordering me to keep my shop shut and to go home. I'm not going to do that".

Looking at the Brexit thing...well, yes, it will happen soon and things will just go on, or change, as they normally do to deal with change. People will do this, and do that etc. Nothing very interesting. The UK is not a dynamic or interesting 'thing' to anyone outside it, nor to a lot of people in it. That won't change. Grist for the mill of history. Kingdoms naturally die...it may well be what Kingdoms do best.

ah, El Paso...Ah, America, almost daily mass shootings. I don't know if we can expect any better from a country whose greatest achievements are Country & Western Clog Dancing, Agent Orange, and Wrestlemania. If they build a wall, hopefully it will be thick and high enough to keep them all in.

From the decades in Palliative Care as a nurse, faceless bureaucrat, and government adviser in Qld, I do think a concomitant Euthanasia service is essential as a component of a Health System. Cross referrals etc. Simple. It just makes sense. It's just doing social good. Palliative Care and Euthanasia are different and the difference is in the Doctrine of Double Effect where Palliative Care doesn't actually kill people, disease does, and its a fine but real line, whereas with Euthanasia, people kill people, or better still enable really sick folk to kill themselves painlessly, when and if they want. I think both are very worthy notions and there should be good funding for both, and good funding for folk who prefer to rage against the dying of the light and turn up every day whooping and wailing in Emergency Departments.

I guess, if one had to pencil in the emotions of a lifetime on a graph, it would start above the baseline, kind of happy, then, as life progressed with its complexities, it would drop bit below the line, then a bit more, only to come back to the base line and then rise above it in latter life...thus, a wry smile.