A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill
Politics
Australian
Holbein sketch of Lady Guildford (via Scarlett W Blue) |
Apathetic Sarah notes that Queensland is to get its first nude beach. And that the Treasury Workchoices report being hyped by the press is soo last April. Harry Clarke feels that the the date of publication of the report is not very relevant.
Harry also foresees a cataclysmic wages explosion flowing from the Brumby government’s agreeing to pay increases for teachers.Jack Lacton is apoplectic about curriculum changes at Macquarie University.
In an article largely devoted to Sam Newman, Catherine Deveney has the temerity to diss a Gold Logie winner, and earns the ire of Andrew Landeryou.
Andrew Bartlett has seen the future of Queensland on a billboard.
Andrew Leigh looks over te numbers and tries to come up with “middle Australia“.
International
Darryl Mason reports that the White House has lost a lot of e-mails about Iraq. As Richard Nixon might say, “expletive deleted”.
Derek Barry has a round-up of news on Cyclone Nargis, while Norman Geras and Ian Holliday speculate on the possibilities of longer term benign political consequences. Terry Flew covers the Indiana primary in three guest posts for Larvatus Prodeo. Peter Faris QC and Publius both predict the imminent demise of Hillary.
Economics
Joshua Gans is only getting started on the problem of parental support - i.e. paid parental leave - and promises more.
Peter Martin wonders why more people aren’t taking up job opportunities in the boom State of Western Australia.11. KP: Probably for the same reason the NT’s population only ever inches up despite prolonged boom conditions and excellent facilities: remoteness and isolation impose both financial and “separation from family and friends” costs that most people aren’t prepared to pay unless they have no other realistic choice [?]
Harry Clarke takes issue with the proposition that selling dope in post offices would result in a reduction in consumption!
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Issues analysis
Andrew Leigh links to a paper on emerging financial sophistication in the people smuggling industry - COD. 22. gilmae: It can’t be long until there is a Facebook app or even a full blown Web 2.0 site offering trust metrics for people smugglers…100% positive ratings FTW [?]
Fred Argy wants to clear the air on any perceived ideological bias he may or may not have against privatisation.
John Quiggin continues his focus on the Republican War on Science.
Kathy G looks at research on poverty and pain.
Having trouble teaching controversial issues to high school students? Harry Brighouse provides convenient summaries of “for and against” arguments on two of them: abortion and parents designing their children.
Arts
Lady Guildford after intensive study of happiness research realises that money can’t buy it … |
Paul Martin suggests that Stefan Ruzowitzsky’s Foreign Oscar winning Holocaust film The Counterfeiters is “nothing special”
Andrew at the Art Life offers some images of anatomical theatre from the medical museums of Europe and the US, while linking to even stranger mishaps that resulted in the head of the Philip K. Dick android becoming the centre of a lawsuit against an American airline after the farcical revelations that the head of the robot is missing - having been left in the overhead storage compartment at the conclusion of an interstate passenger flight. Surely the irony of this incident is going to offer mirth for PK Dickheads for years to come through its abundant layers of irony. (SH - How will the robotics company ever know that they are in possession of the authentic facsimile of PK Dick’s head, its not like they can utilise the Voight-Kampff test upon their robot to make sure they have the “real thing”)
“Plaintiff brought the Head onto the plane in a carry-on duffel bag and stored it in the overhead bin. Plaintiff fell asleep during the flight from Texas to Las Vegas, and woke up when the plane arrived in Las Vegas. (Motion 1:22-25.) On waking, Plaintiff immediately left the plane to catch his connecting flight to San Francisco. (SUF ¶ 2, SGI ¶ 2.) Perhaps because he had just woken up, Plaintiff lacked the total recall [ba-dum-bump-chee] to remember to retrieve the Head from the overhead bin.”
Scott Esposito ponders the reasons behind the sudden rise of critical attention afforded to Chilean born writer Roberto Bolano in the USA, considering how the mythologising of the writer’s life assisted in attaining a broader attention rarely afforded to writers published in translation.
Scott McLemee picks the recent English translation of Victor Serge’s gut-wrenching novel set during the claustrophobia of 1940s Stalinist Russia Unforgiving Years as his current favourite work of fiction for 2008.
Alison Croggon reviews a Melbourne production of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s Venus in Furs and wonders:
Aside from the obvious attractions of the beautiful language of these texts, it’s hard not to speculate that some kind of reclamation is taking place, a return to some of the nascent explorations that were blown apart by the catastrophic events of the 20th century, in particular the second world war. It’s not nostalgia I’m sensing here, but a certain curiosity, a certain desire, and I’m intrigued to see where it leads.
Amanda Rose returns to her roots with a country muxtape.33. KP: The jazz one had too much bloody sax for my taste [?]
Mark Bahnish reviews and gives the thumbs down to a new sci-fi novel The Philosopher’s Apprentice by James Morrow44. KP: I wonder if that’s the same bloke who once wrote a libertarian-oriented blog [?]
Sport
Tony is less than thrilled at the one-off interstate game in the AFL this weekend.
Snark, strangeness and charm
Ken Lovell updates contributors to his appeal for assistance for a Phillippines school on where the money went.
Is there an optimal way to be “in the moment“, wonders Norman Geras?
Tony the Teacher distills the flavour of Melbourne from a talkback radio segment.Audrey Apple doesn’t like Samantha Brett. Jeremy approves of plain speakingLauredhel finds something salacious in the stacks. Phil at veni vedi blogi finds his left wing principles challenged by a despicable person.Gummo Trotsky uses the Fritzl case as an excuse to launch into McLuhanite weirdness, with the threat of more to follow.skepticlawyer spreads her wings, finds her own digs and her own domain name.
