Thanks to our ingenuity, tenacity and eye for opportunity, there is no doubt that global food security is possible. It’s just there are a few things that need to happen first.

Source: Global food security — the 10 big things we must have

There are times in life when even great enthusiasm, intent and tenacity are not quite enough.

This is not what we are told of course. Mostly we are assured that we can. Just keep at it and your dreams will come true, whatever they may be.

No doubt this is a crucial message for the young faced with uncertainty about their personal and the global future. Otherwise it would be too easy for them to lapse into self-fulfilling failure.

Yet at a certain time of life “yes we can” rings hollow, like a huge resonating bell without a hammer to ring it. Before you realise it ‘maybe we can’t’ seems so much more plausible given a lifetime of evidence.

Rather than burden others with this negativity, Alloporus is taking a break for a while… at least six months is recommended.

A huge thanks to the kind souls who do occasional read the thoughts on this blog. It is good to know that even one person reads what was written.

Till next time.

After 17 hours of negotiation there is a deal. And not the one most people expected. The Greek prime minister is persuaded into accepting a bailout.

Perhaps this was always going to be the outcome. The 17 hours was just a haggle over the details. Or maybe it really was a period of intense negotiation. Only the people who were there have any chance of knowing.

Except the psychologists tell us that we make most decisions in a split second. The new handbag is after all just a click away. Our brains think fast on such matters. Instinct or desire easily and instantly make the decision for us.

Decisions on the fate of a nation must be more methodical. The pros and cons sifted and viewed from every possible angle. You’d think.

Proponents would have to present the options and their consequences, preferably with some evidence. You’d think.

The PM would have to consider, ask many questions and consult with experienced advisors. He’d want to see some numbers. A projection or two on how the deal is likely to pan out. You’d think.

In fact there is no way that 17 hours is enough for serious evaluation. The smartest communicators on the planet could not condense the complexity is so short a time. You’d think.

I have a hunch that actually not much thinking went on, just persuasion.

Or maybe the deal was done already and the talking was just face saving.

Ah yes, the quiet carriage.

Sydney has banished raucous commuting. On suburban trains half the carriages are designated quiet. Mobile phones must go to silent, chitchat is prohibited and music cannot leak from ear buds.

Woe betides anyone who flouts these rules.

Whisper above the ambient ‘clickety-clack’ and a death stare will burn the back of your head. Carry on talking and there will be an indignant tap on the shoulder from an angry passenger about to shower vitriol on your flouting of the rules.

Not far under the surface of everyone is an authoritarian. Barely hidden is an alter ego itching to call chancers to task — to meet out justice onto anyone who fails to conform. The gusto with which this persona breaks out will scare more than the horses.

Harmless looking women of a certain age explode at a blip above a murmur. Anyone daring to select Powderfinger on their Bose’s have no idea of the terror that awaits them in the quiet carriage.

Stares and shoulder taps are just the beginning.

In a few bars they are hounded into submission. It is a wonder to behold.

Shame nobody called to task the hefty dude who fell asleep on the 06:44 to central.

His snoring had no place on the quiet carriage.

You don’t need to be a cricket tragic to get this one but it might help.

George Bailey is a professional cricketer made captain of Australia’s T20 side in 2014 and promoted to bat at six in the test team. Most pundits thought he probably wouldn’t cut it in the longer form of the game thanks to a tendency to dangle the bat outside the off stump in a rather English fashion [enough said].

So this moment of genius is as much about the circumstance as it is about the quite common event of a gifted athlete achieving near perfection in a sporting contest.

The moment was in the second T20I game against England last year. Australia had performed heroics in the field, diving and sliding their way to restricting the english to a modest total. Australia cruised in the chase thanks mainly to brisk work by Shaun Marsh [another prone to random bouts of genius] when a couple of wickets fell bringing Bailey to the crease.

A few defensive prods, some deflections and even a dangle or two outside off was as expected. Then a couple of bigger hits, one into the midst of the inebriated 10 rows back.

As the commentary team flagrantly warmed to another Australian showing the English what for, the moment came.

A packed offside field and a good length ball delivered at respectable pace, all normal enough. Except Bailey smoked the ball along the ground so fast that nobody moved until it hit the boundary rope, threading the path of the ball with precision between the fielders posted to stop that very shot.

When I was 15-year-old school kid I saw an english cricketer Derek Randall do the same thing at the Oval in London, an image I will never forget. It is such a thing of beauty when timing is combined so effortlessly with intent that the result happens before anyone can move.

Bailey did it and others do it on occasion and I thank them with spontaneous applause from the couch.

I am frequently inspired by what for me are moments of pure genius.

They can be creative, inspirational, an expression of athletic talent or just moments when the vastness of the universe floods through a human soul into the present moment.

I thought it might be nice to record and share them as a series of posts. Here is the first.

Pure genius #1 | Bee Daw, Bee Daw

Minions, the adorable yellow blobs of magic in the Despicable Me movies are a fantastic invention.

It is amazing how so much warmth and charm can pour out of an animated character in the shape of a bean. The first pure genius moment is the fireman minion scene in Despicable Me 2 when the minion responsible for the fire alarm has his loud haler taken away.

Incredulity mixed with shock and resignation… and impeccable comic timing, pure genius. It creases me up every time.

Needless to say Youtube has the clip.

http://youtu.be/op-SI6eCydU

So here we have a new post on a new look template with the prospect of new topics and a reinvention of Alloporus.

Oh no, not again. He’s said this so many times before.

Well maybe you’re right. Change is a constant everywhere except in our own minds where we are limpets to the past in some vain attempt to stay stable and comforted. So to reinvent the muse is a challenge.

Regular readers will know that my attempt to be glass half full on topics environmental that was promised in post #100 has obviously failed. The next 100 were more cynical than ever. Perhaps jaded edges and gray hair are inevitabilities for persons of a certain age. ‘Grumpy Old Men’ was a great show because the actors just had to be themselves and play to a ready made grumpy old audience.

This means I will need a plan if things are to change.

It begins by writing about topics other than the debacle that is our management of the environment — see how hard it is — without any special purpose. I am not sure if a scientist can do this as it means putting aside a powerful legacy. Eons of determinism and adherence to logic must step aside for themes without obvious physical purpose. It is what it is and all that.

Naturally there are plenty of topics: golf, cricket, soccer… well also spirituality, the meaning of life, yoga, politics, diets, sex, cooking, kids [and adult kids], parents… Life clearly gives us plenty to think about and most are worth writing about.

In the spirit of the new Alloporus that is about as far as the plan goes. The only real rule is that I will try to stay clear of the environment but it will be difficult and I know that the odd ‘sounds crazy’ will sneak in because they are usually too bizarre to miss.

I hope you watch this space as keenly as I must.

Here we go and comment away. Have your say.

The current world population is 7,174,691,000 growing at around 9,000 per hour.

Roughly 1 billion people live on less than $1 per day — 1 billion is also the estimate of the world population size in 1804

Policy choices…

Paid parental leave and the baby bonus.

Stop the boats.

Sounds pretty crazy to me.

Well here we have it.

After more than 52,000 words on topics from potatoes to washing machines, here is the 100^th post on alloporus | ideas for healthy thinking.

It is a milestone of sorts and a good excuse to take stock.

I started blogging in 2010, only so did quite a few others. There are now more blogs on the net than voters who will turn out for the upcoming US presidential elections [staggering but true]. So many bloggers means a scramble for readers and at times it seems people are more interested in writing than reading the ramblings of others.

Visions of a large and growing readership on alloporus fell away soon enough.

On the upside blogging is good practice for any would be author. There is great discipline in always trying to say something interesting, a few hundred words at a time. So what have the previous 99 posts tried to say?

Rather than get all wordy on you I thought I would try to strip it all back to sound bites, so here goes.

Leadership sucks.

That’s it. 99 posts and a whole heap of words that try to explain it, when, in fact, two words suffice.

Leadership sucks.

It would seem that a theme running through just about all those 99 little ditties is that leadership is very hard to do well.

It requires more than force of personality to rise above the general chatter of all the mini-demagogues running around leading their band of one. Leaders need smart, attractive ideas that are strong enough to cut through the noise and then persist for long enough to take hold. This requires extraordinary tenacity even when you have a great idea.

And it seems we have a dearth of true leaders around who are even prepared to give it a go. Instead we are saddled with the egoists, chatterers, and wannabes trying to fill the gap.

Bless ‘em for trying but really our leadership sucks.

And, in the modern world, leadership itself sucks. Sticking your neck out is a risky business given the multitude of tools available to all and sundry to knock it off.

That’s assuming that you can even be heard. Ironically the information revolution has also made it easier for us to ignore the important stuff. We are far too busy texting, tweeting, posting on our wall and, well yes, blogging, to listen to real ideas. So breaking that big one through to enough minds is a huge challenge. So leadership sucks too.

Having simplified all those posts penned with great angst and care to two words, it begs the serious question of what to do with the next 100 posts?

I am tempted to type ‘leadership sucks’ in a ribbon across the page and keep posting that every day until flames consume me. Only that would be the ultimate avoidance; the head in the sand that I subconsciously railed against in the first 99 posts.

I could produce more of the same. A regular 500-word whinge about how terrible it all is. But this risks perpetual sadness and the likelihood of becoming a drunkard with his glass always half empty. And yet I have come to realize that this is my default condition. Not the drunkard bit but I too easily land close to despair at the ways of the human world, a state of mind I can tolerate only because my passion is readily aroused by good ideas and natural wonders.

So to continue to post yet more thinly veiled complaints about lack of leadership seems to have me running away again.

I could go all ‘ra, ra, ra’ on you and just talk everything up.

It would be easy enough to find ideas in the environmental good news stories that pepper the websites of green groups, NGOs and even some of the government departments. From there it would just be a matter of seeing the glass as half full. Yes we can and all that

Of course regular alloporus readers will be laughing at this point. They know me too well. Half empty to half full would require a change equivalent to spontaneous combustion. Rare indeed.

So I am going to try something else.

My idea is to see if I can make the next 100 posts about a more fundamental requirement. The theme is already a category tag on alloporus, suggesting that I have tried it already, only now I will try to make it stick.

It also happens to be the theme of my next ebook that is currently with the editor and will be available at a huge discount to loyal alloporus readers in time for their Christmas stocking.

So here is my new theme, and again two words are enough.

Awareness matters.