Just when Mr Rudd looked to have Labor in the perfect position for the Federal election later this year, a report in the Australian today contains ominous signs that, far from being the long awaited anti-Howard many people imagine, Rudd’s vision for Australia might in fact be a hideous centre-right Blairite “new” Labor state (the […]
Archive for March, 2007
Slowly but surely, the 2006 US election result is catching up with the Bush administration. The steps taken by the Democrat-controlled Congress and Senate are - so far - not as spectacular as the many excesses of the pre-2006 period where Bush enjoyed almost unquestioning support from Republican dominated houses. However, the administration’s […]
You may have come across this already: there is currently a heated debate about the fate of a baby polar bear named Knut, currently residing (or being held captive, depending on your perspective and level of insanity) in a German zoo. Should he live happily in captivity, or should he be put to death […]
As anyone who lives in Australia is acutely aware, water is a big issue at the moment - it tends to be when you found a country in a massive desert - and we’re all being harassed endlessly about water conservation and water use.
So for any city-dwellers who are currently showering once a month, driving […]
this monkey’s gone to heaven
16Mar07A bit out of date now, but in February it emerged that the University of Sydney has agreed to ban stem cell research at a new facility built on land it acquired from a Catholic residential college.
According to the ABC:
The church’s deed on the land stipulates there should be no foetal stem cell research or […]
This is an interesting little survey about books that readers in the UK found they couldn’t finish reading. The fiction list is as follows:
1.Vernon God Little, DBC Pierre
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
3. Ulysses, James Joyce
4. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis De Bernieres
5. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
6. The Satanic Verses, Salman […]
I’ve updated the layout somewhat so that longer stories are now abbreviated on the front page - hopefully this makes the site a bit more readable. If something interests you, just click the link to read on. If not, well, I guess it’s even easier to ignore now.
I have also been testing the […]
welcome to the working week
08Mar07From the letters in The Age today:
CHANGES in the approach to work hours, in relation to family or rest time, are long overdue — but this applies to all sections of the workforce, not just those with an obvious “family” reason such as children, elderly or disabled relatives. Single, unattached members of the workforce require […]
Another snippet from the US election, where they make Australia’s current efforts in political mudslinging look altogether quaint and provincial. There’s currently a controversy over remarks made by the loathsome right wing ‘commentator’ Ann Coulter about John Edwards, John Kerry’s running mate in 2004 and current candidate in the Democrat presidential primaries. Coulter […]
Attorney-General Phillip Ruddock recently appeared on the SBS program ‘Insight’ along with David Hicks’ military lawyer, military prosecutor, and his father Terry Hicks (link to the transcript here).
That Ruddock would even venture onto the program is surprising, and he deserves a small amount of credit for that. His answers to some of the questions […]
We are like sailors who on the open sea must reconstruct their ship but are never able to start afresh from the bottom. Where a beam is taken away a new one must at once be put there, and for this the rest of the ship is used as support. In this way, by using […]
Ah, elections. Such an exciting time, when the smallest mis-statement or mistake can lead to all kinds of media hysteria. Two examples have emerged in the last couple of days.
In the US, John McCain - senator, 2008 presidential candidate, and generally decent (albeit Republican) guy, is getting hammered for describing US deaths in […]
You may have read the bizarre story about Chinese scientists developing radio-controlled pigeons by cracking open their skulls and jamming electrodes into them (horrifying picture here).
Related reading led me to this amazing/ridiculous story about a secret WWII project run by the United States to turn giant swarms of bats into a military superweapon by equipping […]
Born Again German
01Mar07I’ve always been fascinated with the relationship between language, thought, and identity. I remember someone once told me that words are the building blocks of thought, and it stopped me in my tracks. I’d never questioned what my thoughts were made of before, and it led me to the bizarre question – how would we think without words? Try it for a second. Kinda difficult to get anything except basic imaginings & rememberances, huh. Well then – what happens when you are forced to learn, and think in, a new language?
Canada’s parliament has just voted to repeal an anti-terrorism law passed in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Even more impressive, they did it in the face of a scare campaign from their government which attempted to paint them as ’soft on terror.’
As reported in the Canadian Globe and Mail:
Last night, a […]
