-
purity control
You’ve no doubt seen the proposed question for the Australian cultural and ideological purity control test over the weekend: link here in case you haven’t.Some of the questions are, as John Quiggan puts it, nothing…
-
punchbowls so large that ducks could swim around in them
There’s nothing worse than waking up in the morning with no memory of the previous evening only to find you’ve founded an independent nation during a drunken rampage. Reading this NY Times book review I came across an… -
oh the history books tell it, they tell it so well
This was in the Oz today: British teachers are allegedly avoiding teaching their students about the Holocaust and the Crusades because this might offend Muslim sensibilities:These kids are told at home or by Muslim preachers that the
…
-
what looks good in the day, at night is another thing
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…
-
great dominions, they just want you to leave
I’ve always found it interesting that the United States plays baseball and gridiron whereas most of the rest of the world plays cricket and soccer. I had assumed (typical anti-Americanism, tut tut) that this was a reflection of some sort… -
signs and portents in the sky
Comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught), captured over our city last night by a friend.When beggars die there are no comets seen;
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.Seen
…