From The Guardian: Read more »

One of a number of wacky new media graphics:

HT: Nick Gruen

Related Posts

. I am the walrus, graphically

. What's left-wing? What's right-wing?

. What Does China Censor Online? Read more »

Balance in journalism is a good thing, right?

Maurice Newman, chairman of ‘our’ Australian Broadcasting Commission, recently argued for more balance on the climate change debate. In a swerve delivered to ABC journalists Newman suggested the media should give  a better hearing to those who doubt or deride the science of anthropogenic global warming.

Hasn’t he read The Australian?

Newman told 250 senior ABC executives:

Climate change is a further example of groupthink where contrary views have not been tolerated, and where those who express them have been labelled and mocked.

At first blush scientific groupthink seems a strange concept.  After all, almost all scientists accept human activity contributes to or is the main cause of global warming.

The scientific method involves the development of a hypothesis and its constant testing and re-evaluation. It is possible that the anthropogenic global warming thesis is wrong.  At the moment however no scientists have shown this to be the case. Read more »

Arsalan Ali Faheem in 77 Long Drives:

My neck stiffened.

There were gasps at the back.

You could smell fuel in the air.

Someone lit a cigarette.

I dug my shoes into the car’s frame. toes pressing down on the sole.

I dared a glance to the right. The d-man stared back. His right eye was green, left one was grey.

HIS RIGHT EYE WAS MADE OF GLASS! Read more »

Kangaroo Island Stare from Kevin Rennie on Vimeo.

Vimeo 1-minute-videos:
-Video must be exactly one minute long
-No camera movement (no panning, tilting, etc)
-No editing whatsoever
-Use original sound Read more »

I had occasion last week to reflect on the joke that a camel is a horse designed by a committee.

Our group was struggling to come up with a name to describe ourselves and our purpose. I had moved that the notion of community democracy should be included in the name. That motion was overwhelmingly. Not been used to the process, I suppose I did not present a very convincing argument for my proposition, although I still think I was right. I just have not developed any skills of rebuttal and argument because skills only develop when the environment makes them necessary. The prevailing assumption is that such skills are not needed, or can developed only by a chosen few. Then again, we live and work, in authoritarian top-down corporate organizations. Read more »

I've been taking a break from active writing and blogging for a few months while focussing on a new job. And exploring the gorgeous surrounds!See you all in a few months!!Bookmark this on Delicious

Justin George argues that Australia's involvement in the war in Afghanistan is compromising rather than enhancing its national security...  Similar questions face other countries.

by Justin George

With the release of the Australian government's Counter-Terrorism White Paper and its admission that Australia is at risk of 'homegrown' terrorism, the logic behind Australia's involvement in Afghanistan has been severely weakened. Read more »

The Rudd government continues the Howard government’s policy of making it ever more difficult for university students without rich parents to afford tertiary education:

It costs an estimated $20,000 to live away from home in first year, and government support is now uncertain.

The federal government wants to make it harder for students to qualify for the independent youth allowance, and is instead planning to offer poorer and regional students new scholarships worth up to $4000.

However, legislation for student support funding has stalled in the Senate, leaving students like Mr Sandiford with a gaping hole in their budgets. Read more »

Heart Full Of Hate

Miranda Devine, yesterday :

"....the internet has made it possible for people to express that hate before their better instincts kick in, before the instant rush of blood to the head dissipates and is forgotten. Their primal viciousness is captured and congealed in digital form."

It sure is. Miranda Devine, February 12, 2009 :

If politicians are intent on whipping up a lynch mob to divert attention from their own culpability, it is not arsonists who should be hanging from lamp-posts but greenies.

Miranda Devine, December 2006 : Read more »

African-Americans comprise 13% of a United States population of more than 308 million people. Dr Cornel West, we are told, is the first of that population category to obtain a Ph.D from Princeton University.

That might be interesting, saying what it does about the United States and the University, but the adoption of the perspective of all human beings, not least poor and working people is more interesitng. It is rare to hear social class used as a category to describe the social and political world of lived experience in the United States. Naturally, the interview with Dr West takes place on Al Jareeza:
Read more »

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!

It appears today’s Galaxy poll in the Sunday Mail shows the Liberals with a 51-49 lead on two-party preferred. Mystifyingly, we learn the Liberals are ahead from the paper’s editorial as carried on the Herald-Sun site:
and thus have to fill in the blanks ourselves. The two-party preferred figure was provided to me by a reader who also says Isobel Redmond has a 49-42 lead over Mike Rann as preferred premier. It can be presumed Galaxy has followed its usual practice of polling 800 voters, and that the margin of error is thus about 3.5 per cent. Be it noted that this is exactly the result they produced a week out from the Western Australia, which came in nearer the money than either Newspoll or Westpoll.

There’s a time and a place for ridicule, and it spans public debate.

If you’ve wondered why vocalise atheists ridicule so much, here’s why.

Broadly speaking, they have a problem with the way things are being run. The necessitates criticism. Such criticism necessarily involves refutation and all refutation in essence involves pointing out the ridiculous. Which is what ridicule is – pointing out that something is ridiculous.

You can’t avoid it, other than to shut up and not complain – which is then necessarily what people ask for when they ask for ridicule in the public domain to stop.

The only time that ridicule is problematic is when the refutation that it comes from is for some reason invalid. Any further problem, such as tone and tact, aren’t a problem with ridicule per se.

All ridiculous ideas are deserving of ridicule – this is self-evident. All ridiculous behaviours are deserving of ridicule. The only difficulties involve questions of degree, context, who by and consequence. Read more »

Carol Ann Duffy in The Guardian: Read more »

...We cannot do without science and scientists. The time has come to make a choice."

-  John Quiggin

Here's his full piece:

It is a commonplace to observe that Australia’s scientific institutions and organizations, have played a central role in promoting Australia’s prosperity and in maintaining our country’s place as a leading contributor to the growth of knowledge. Read more »

Author: James Boyers, ANU

On September 5 2007, George W. Bush and John Howard signed a treaty to improve defence cooperation between the United States and Australia. Although signed over two years ago, the treaty has not yet been ratified by the United States or Australian governments. Recent developments within United States Senate indicate that it is likely to obtain Senate approval, and ratification shortly thereafter.

At the time, the treaty reflected the Bush administration’s especially close ties with the Howard government in Australia. The treaty simplifies the process for exporting and importing defence articles, defence services, and related technical data between Australia from the United States. Read more »

Read more »

My recent scuffle with the Oz, is one of a long line in which a paper which was once (long ago, and only for a few years, but still) Australia’s best has had it out with bloggers, mostly coming off second-best. After being shredded in its fight with the psephbloggers in 2007, and having long since abandoned any claims to credibility, the Oz is not much of a scalp to hang on your belt these days.

A much more interesting match-up is between Tim Lambert’s Deltoid and the Times of London, as represented by their laughably mis-titled ‘Science’ reporter Jonathan Leake. With more than 200 years as the world’s best known newspaper of record, the Times ought to be a shoo-in. But Murdoch ownership erodes credibility at a startling rate, and Lambert has Leake dead to rights. I’m betting on a TKO for Deltoid. Read more »