We all have strength enough to endure the misfortunes of others.

For me, The Great War ( World War One ) remains fascinating. From the time in my youth when I saw Peter Weir's film "Gallipoli", that time has been endearing. I see it as interesting because it was morally ambiguous. It does seem that - at least to start with - you had two belligerent parties of roughly equal moral standing, while with World War Two, it is pretty obvious who was good and bad.

I've been interested in developments around the law for some time. And unlike many others who would agree with a lot of my views, I have qualified support for the principles behind Zoe's Law 2, if not its exact wording.

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I've linked in images from the Battye Library of Western Australia, as part of fair use ( note in any case I've not copied the image ). In many cases the images have copyright held by that Library, in others they are held by individuals, as noted. I've also included images from the National Trust of Western Australia - who originally gave permission for the article intended for paper publication, but I trust the permission also covers this article.

The first half of this commentary was recently podcast on diffusion radio  ( at the time of writing - late January 2014 ). An earlier program ( around mid December 2013 ) included parts of an interview with Dr. Mathew Rimmer originally broadcast on Radio Skid Row, also including Dr. Ian Ellis-Jones in the studio.

The revised IPCC report suggesting less warming has generated some discussion, particularly with Matt Ridley writing about how we can be less concerned with the possible impacts of AGW - that is "Anthropogenic Global Warming" - or, put another way - global average temperature increase result from our industrial activity increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere - see here. So, it's opportune to comment on this development and Ridley's viewpoint, together with my overall view of the AGW debate.

When I wonder about the past, I wonder about the different society, the different people, and the different economy. Nowadays, many dwellings are isolated from industry. In fact, they can be _too_ separated - we talk about "dormitory suburbs".