Quick link: Afghanistan NGO Safety Office
Independent overviews of the state of the Afghanistan conflict are hard to come by. So the reports of the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office (a project co-funded by the Norwegian and Swiss foreign ministeries, and the EU) are very useful. Their [...]
Coral bleaching hits the Coral Triangle
From the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies: International marine scientists say that a huge coral death which has struck Southeast Asian and Indian Ocean reefs over recent months has highlighted the urgency of controlling global carbon emissions. [...]
Are the Humanities dying?
In an op/ed piece last week, Graeme Turner from the Centre for Cultural and Critical Studies at The University of Queensland closed his ruminations on the contemporary landscape of the Humanities in Australia – “scorched earth”, he reports – thus: [...]
Wednesday Whimsy
This week’s (belated – blame the jetlag) whimsy is brought to you by the 70s nostalgia of the very first episode of The Magic Roundabout.
Please share any bits and pieces you have come across recently that have surprised, delighted, intrigued or otherwise positively engaged you.
Afghanistan and the sunk cost fallacy
From Tony Abbott’s Parliamentary speech (PDF, page 29) on the Afghanistan war: As things stand, each bereaved family knows that the Australian people respect their loss and value their sacrifice. We have honoured their deaths by continuing their campaign. How [...]
Quick Link – Possum on HIP and Fire Risk
The Liberals have put much at stake painting the Home Insulation Program as an unmitigated disaster. However Possum has conducted a rigorous analysis of fire rates, controlling for a number of issues. The bottom line is that, “the data strongly [...]
The Afghanistan debate
With parliament about to debate Australia’s deployment in Afghanistan, it’s worth linking to Raspal Khosa’s analysis of what Australia is actually doing in Uruzgan Province. One thing that comes through pretty clearly in Khosa’s report is just how peripheral Australia’s [...]
Both atheist ‘rationalism’ and Catholic triumphalism betray Mary MacKillop’s legacy
I had mixed feelings last night about whether to watch the canonisation ceremony for Blessed Mary MacKillop on ABC News 24. In part, but not exclusively, those feelings related to the way the ceremonies would be covered, and I’m afraid [...]
Spotlight the Spin
Our weekly look at media spin tactics: let’s dissect the PR that aims to blow one’s own horn, bury one’s errors, resurrect the shambling zombie corpses of well-flogged deceased equines, and ooh look A Big Distracting Thing.
Lazy Sunday!
Since we don’t live by politics alone (I sincerely hope), what did people get up to this weekend? Join in, share some tales, regulars and lurkers all!
Conroy answers some questions
Today on ABC local radio here Stephen Conroy came on Madonna King’s program to answer callers’ questions. Madonna said it was one of the most popular segments ever. Before it was over Malcolm Turnbull’s office made contact. As a result [...]
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