The world’s nuclear powers are pissed off and they’ve said so: The five major nuclear-armed powers said on Friday the Non-Proliferation Treaty was under threat and cited Iran’s uranium enrichment campaign in a rare joint call for action to shore up the NPT. Read more »

The once-green Sahara turned to desert over thousands of years rather than in an abrupt shift as previously believed, according to a study on Thursday that may help understanding of future climate changes. And there are now signs of a tiny shift back towards greener conditions in parts of the Sahara, apparently because of global warming, said the lead author of the report about the desert's history published in the journal Science. Read more »

The British government has shelved plans to get people to reduce their carbon footprint by allowing them to trade personal emissions permits because it would be too expensive and ambitious. After studying ways of encouraging individuals to cut their CO2 emissions so they could sell their excess permits to those who exceed their carbon quota, the environment ministry has concluded it is not yet practical. --Reuters, 8 May 2008 Read more »

TheWife does almost all the housework (she took over what little I did when she went off work for the first few months of theBoy). Really the only thing I do now is my own laundry.I came home tonight to find she'd done that too. A weekend free of having to wash clothes!Hooray for theWife. She's such a little trooper.

I am a frustrated would be writer. No, not in the sense that I have written tons of stuff and have failed to get it published. Frustrated in the sense that in my literary wake I have half a dozen half hearted half started books that died between pages counts 28 and 100. Sometimes I open them up and dick around with them for a bit, but months will go by between attempts. I have successfully to date completed one project - a Pratchett esq effort - which is excrementitious. Best advice I got was 'stick it in a drawer and try again in a few months.' Read more »

A TOP Indian advocacy group that monitors climate change in south Asia warned last night that the Nargis cyclone that devastated Burma was "a sign of things to come", as climate change caused extreme weather to increase in intensity. "Nargis is a sign of things to come. Last year, Bangladesh was devastated by the tropical cyclone Sidr," CSE director Sunita Narain said in a statement. "The victims of these cyclones are climate change victims and their plight should remind the rich world that it is doing too little to contain its greenhouse gas emissions." Read more »

I wrote these two laws down on a scrap of paper years ago. I still have the scrap of paper but not the original reference. Harris's First Law: Belief in the truth of a theory is inversely proportional to the precision of the science. Harris's Second Law: The creativity of a scientist is directly proportional to how much he knows, and inversely proportional to how much he believes. Read more »

Neil Diamond has a new album out!!!!!!! Gosh, I wonder if it’s as good as Jonathon Livingstone Seagull? But you won’t hear any of it here I’m afraid. Instead you get a re-mix of some other boring old farts who once were rockers. Download audio file (thewho_racedit.mp3) Seriously, why do re-mix djs bother? The original was 10 times better. Read more »

Jason at Gatewatching advises a new report on Press Freedom in Australia is out and apparently there has been some headway. I haven't read it yet, but according to Jason the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance are looking forward to improvements in freedom of information over the next year. Read more »

I’m reposting this announcement from Club Troppo of a joint fundraiser to help cyclone relief in Burma/Myanmar. As regards logistics, I suggest readers here donate to a charity of their choice, and send me an email copy of the receipt for record-keeping purposes. Since the idea is to turn the spirit of competitive emulation to the general good, please feel free to announce your donation in the comments thread for this poist Read more »

Guest blogger: Andrew Selth, Research Fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute Read more »

This is my dole diary.  Some of this may be true. 07:00 Hit snooze 09:00 Berate myself for flushing the alarm clock down the toilet.  Fucking thing doesn’t work.  Must use neighbours loo. 09:01 Turn on Kath and Kim on Ten.  Can’t decide if David Reine is faking stupidity. 09:03 Put kettle on and make a large plunger of strong coffee. 09:05 Regret final drink, which even though I can’t remember drinking, now believe to be completely unnecessary. Read more »

As we learn more and more of the impact of Nargis, the scale of the disaster becomes more difficult to fathom: perhaps up to 100,000 dead, millions affected.  And the Burmese junta continues to stand in the way of assistance, particularly from Western governments, but even from the ineffective U.N. Read more »

Not that this will be allowed to interfere with any stereotypes: THE Rudd Government is rejecting asylum seeker applications at a higher rate than the...

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Like all his predecessors, Ehud Olmert constantly invokes spurious security arguments in order to defend policies that are indefensible. The Palestinians do not pose a threat to Israel's basic security; it is the other way round. The contest is an unequal one between a vulnerable Palestinian David on the one hand and a heavily armed and heavy-handed Israeli Goliath on the other. Read more »

1. Boring I am underwhelmed yet not surprised. The WA Budget was largely predictable and left a lot to be desired. Basically a big stamp duty cut, a footy field and a bail out. No funding to fix up PMH and no obvious funding for a pay rise for teachers. Read more »

As I blogged last month, Gerry Rzeppa wants to pay Richard Dawkins a shitload of money for the privilege of proselytising to him. Rzeppa is offering Dawkins Read more »

Andrew Leigh has posted some useful figures on his blog that are worth pointing to next time someone suggests that politicians should be paid more. He has provided a rough percentage breakdown of the annual income of individuals and households.  In short, it whows that only 2 or 3 per cent of the population earn over the $120 000+ a year which politicians get. Read more »

Guest blogger: Raoul Heinrichs, the 2007 Lowy Institute Thawley Scholar, is on a research placement at CSIS. Read more »

No idea what his parents were thinking, but it’s a name to live up to or live down.&nbsp;

Republican presidential nominee John McCain has friends who want to see Islam destroyed. Yes, he’s a moderate man: Read more »