To the beat of a different drum
With a fair bit of ado, the ABC launched its new opinion website, The Drum, on Monday. It’s edited by Jonathan Green, formerly of Crikey, to whom congratulations are due, as they are to Sophie Black who’s had a very [...]
Australians for Australian books
In a second piece of good news to come from the Federal government today, the Productivity Commission’s mooted changes to the import regime for books have not been accepted. The argument about consumer benefit was always spurious – the purported [...]
Not-so-evil internets: making kids better writers
Every few months or so, we read about some freaked out reporter/columnist/pundit/politician complaining about how the internet and texting are destroying kids’ ability to write. Yet, pretty much every study on the subject has found the opposite to be true. Study after study after study after study after study have all found that kids today are better writers than in the past.
Did Facebook kill the blogging star?
On Line Opinion has been featuring pieces on the internet and everyday life throughout August. My contribution, published today, examines some questions about the social and cultural implications of new media technologies, and in the process, busts some myths about [...]
Books in the digital age
I’m speaking on the 11th of August at an event organised by the Queensland Writers Centre: Books in the Digital Age:The Future of Writing With the rapid changes in Australia’s writing and publishing industry, where will books fit in the [...]
Blogging otherwise…
I might have mentioned in passing here, and I know I’ve said on Facebook, that I’ve become interested lately in exploring some themes which don’t really seem to fit into the LP space, and also in a more personal form [...]
English language, partisan misuse thereof, etc.
Years ago, I used to read Quadrant – incidentally before Robert Manne became editor, if I recall correctly. Back in the day, there was a sense that there was some sort of contest of ideas, and thus there was some [...]
Guest post by patrickg: Distant Suns IV
A while back, I wrote a series of posts on speculative fiction – Distant Suns. Commenter patrickg liked the posts and wanted to try his own hand at one. So I’m happy to host the first of his continuation of [...]
On reading (and writing) the acknowledgements page
<img src="http://larvatusprodeo.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/2030886815_ed804cda53.jpg" Image of a PhD dissertation courtesy of raffyd at flickr – reproduced under a creative commons licence. My 2009 began in a very sober mode (if not mood) – today was the deadline for finishing the edit of [...]
Best blog posts of 2008
The Troppo/On Line Opinion best blog posts anthology is now becoming something of a venerable internetty tradition. Nominations for 2008 are open – read all about it over in James Farrell’s post at Club Troppo. And go forth and nominate!
Speculative fiction and the nature of the current crisis
Pirate by ~Loserbabooser on deviantART I’m not at all so sure that the connection between current crisis and future speculation (or speculative futures) is as straightforward as Felix Gilman suggests at Ecstatic Days, but I find these questions quite the [...]
Recent Comments