Neanderthals r us
Well, not all of us, just the non-African sector of the species. It seems that humans of European and Asian descent have between 1 and 4 per cent of our genes from Homo neanderthalensis. If we are of African descent [...]
The unemployed are financially bankrupt because the ALP is intellectually and morally bankrupt
Here’s the text of a letter I’ve sent to the Fairfax papers in response to a report by Adele Horin on the National Welfare Rights Network’s survey of about 1300 Australians on what they think they would have to curtail [...]
Wednesday Whimsy
This week’s whimsy is brought to you by a Serious webcomic.
Please share any bits and pieces you have come across recently that have surprised, delighted, intrigued or otherwise positively engaged you.
Wikileaks on whaling
It seems that Australia was quite prepared to do a deal with Japan on whaling: US diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks reveal Australia was willing to compromise with Japan as late as February last year…A compromise under which Japan would [...]
Climate crunch: the fierce urgency of now
In November 2009, in the run up to the Copenhagen conference I published a post Climate crunch and Copenhagen: the fierce urgency of now. For my first climate change post in 2011 I’ve reposted most of that post, with slight [...]
Cultural and material limits and Peak Travel?
My pre-Christmas post on a possible limit to consumption mania (note the word possible) resulted in some considerable scepticism being expressed. However, I think it’s well within the realms of possibility that the satiation of everything – the modernist dream [...]
Quick link: Wayne Swan on the new nabobs of negativism
I always like me a good Spiro Agnew quote. No doubt with a wry smile at the placement of his article in the op/ed pages of ‘The Heart of the Nation’ (given what the Treasurer’s been reported as saying about [...]
Quick link: Quiggin on libertarians and evidence
John Quiggin takes the debate over road safety and regulation as a starting point for discussing the resistance libertarians mount to evidence.
Lazy Sunday!
Since we don’t live by politix alone (I sincerely hope), what did people get up to this weekend? Join in, share some tales, regulars and lurkers all!
Notes towards an ethics of dialogue: Kwame Anthony Appiah
In my previous post on the decline and fall of Western liberalism as a universal, I implied that doing good requires talking and deliberating, rather than doing good to the other. I was also making a point about the fact, [...]
The next decade: The (not so) strange death of Western liberal universalism
In thinking about Rob’s post on the decade ahead, it occurred to me that one of the current forces at work in the world most denied and, indeed, repressed is the death of Western liberal universalism. In his fantastic little [...]
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