ABC Chairman Maurice Newman made a few comments yesterday that may go a long way to explaining some of the pressures editors and producers at the public broadcaster may be under – specifically on the issue of anthropogenic global warming (AGW).

This collective censorious approach succeeded in suppressing contrary views in the mainstream media, despite the fact that a growing number of distinguished scientists were challenging the conventional wisdom with alternative theories and peer reviewed research.

While claiming some of his best friends were journalists, Newman attacked the profession for uncritical group thinking on a range of issues (Enron, tech meltdown and the GFC) and further outing himself – with language that could only be described as that of climate skepticism.

Of course Newman is welcome to hold whatever views he wishes, that is not the issue. Read more »

The other day I was at Toby’s Estate’s Wooloomooloo outlet when I became inordinately interested in the menu pricing.

From my notes (I did mean inordinately) :

Short Black/Ristretto : $2.20

Long Black/Piccolo Latte : $3.00

Latte/Flat White/Cappuccino : $3.50

Here’s my puzzlement. It’s clearly not marginal cost pricing.  Whilst the extra labour and milk obviously add a slightly greater cost to the flat white compared to long black, these extra costs are also present to a marginally smaller extent in the piccolo latte which is priced the same. And the effort involved in adding already heated effectively free water to a cup for a long black can’t represent an 80 cent cost on top of a short black.

But we don’t expect perfect marginal cost pricing in many places anyway. Read more »

On Sunday I wrote: "It’s never been easier to check quotations". It’s time for an update.

While checking some of my own words on Monday, I discovered that many of my old blog posts had been attributed to Danger Mouse and Admin. A part of my online identity had been sucked down the memory hole.

While it’s easier than ever to check quotes from well known figures like John F Kennedy, Groucho Marx or Winston Churchill, it can be surprisingly difficult to check quotes from bloggers. As John Quiggin notes, some bloggers try to fend off criticism by stealthily correcting their mistakes. And some blogs just disappear. Read more »

Welcome back to another week at Pure Poison. Use this open thread to discuss anything that doesn’t fit the conversation under other posts.

Today is International Women’s Day, and it’s nice to see that some of our conservative commentators are taking the opportunity to raise important women’s issues.

Have at it.

It’s never been easier to check quotations. With tools like Google Books and the Yale Book of Quotations there’s no need to publish spurious or out of context quotes.

But even today, books, newspapers and academic papers are full of quotes that are just wrong. Here’s an example from Catherine Lumby’s and Duncan Fine’s book Why TV Is Good for Kids: Read more »