The Rio Tinto-Chinalco deal gets more press, while the market and the Dow are both down.
May, 2009
Morning Market Report: RIO up 4%
Car sales accelerate, economy gets into gear
There’s another statistic which supports the belief that the Australian economy is travelling a bit better than we suspect at the moment.
Lessons in History: What we can learn from Great Depression hobos
One of the most effective ways to ease the burden during a financial crisis is to share – both resources and knowledge, writes Mike Stuchbery.
Founder’s son gets timely Timbercorp payout
News that the son of Timbercorp’s CEO received a redundancy payout weeks before the company was placed into voluntary administration has raised some eyebrows.
Brew a pot of tea and catch up with the MP expenses scandal
Britain’s MP expenses scandal has exposed a bipartisan culture of greed in the Parliament. Here’s how it all unravelled.
Rooted: Is agreement at Copenhagen all that matters?
Mainstream Australian discussion of the Copenhagen Conference later this year has focussed entirely on the need for a “successful agreement”, and not how you might define such success.
“Beer mat Mum” follows media script to perfection
The latest tabloid beat-up suggests the Australian media will grab any chance it can to condemn the authorities of our Asian neighbours, especially if it involves beer.
PM’s media manipulation beyond a joke
The Prime Minister is engaged in a deeply cynical and unashamed process of media manipulation, writes Bernard Keane.
Sport and sex: rogue players, predatory women and power
Why do sportspeople feature regularly in reports of sexual shenanigans? Social scientists explain.
Circumspection please, Ken Henry is not the bunyip
Ken Henry has become a new bogeyman for conservatives; obviously his years of loyal service to the Howard Government have been forgotten.
Rudd turns his back on closing the gap
Labor’s rhetoric on Indigenous health is better than in the Howard years, but the reality from Rudd and Macklin is no different from Howard and Vanstone, writes Gavin Mooney.
Tips and rumours: More tales from Turnbull
Malcolm Turnbull does some unsolicited meeting and greeting at a Perth shopping centre, plus gossip from the Sunday Tele.
Political snippets: Drawing political wisdom from the ages
Richard Farmer muses on Chinese poetry, budget deficits and the Daily Tele whistling a familiar tune.
Guy Rundle: Oz op-ed misses the mark by about 70 years
Today’s Oz op-ed claiming Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a neo-liberal is like saying Lenin was a social democrat.
Google: “Frenemy” of the NY Times
Google, with its popular Google News aggregation system, isn’t an “ally” of the New York Times — but it isn’t a parasite, either, says Executive Editor Bill Keller.
Canwest tossed a lifeline
Troubled media company Canwest say they have arranged up to $C175 million in new financing, but they’re still hovering on the edge of bankruptcy.
Rumsfeld denies responsibility for religious slideshow
A spokesman for the former US Secretary of Defense denies that Rumsfeld had anything to do with the “Christianisation” of the World Intelligence Update slides.
Everything you think you know about babies is wrong
An interview with developmental psychologist Alison Gopnik who thinks babies “are useless on purpose”.
Pleased to meat you
Introducing the beef jerky business card. Perfect for butchers.
Sex and disability: is it so hard to portray it well?
Persons with disabilities are rarely perceived or portrayed as sexual, in life as well and in Hollywood, respectively, writes Sarah Scott.
The GFC hits the Amish
Unemployment in the recession is causing a crisis of faith for America’s Amish, with many forced to break with centuries of tradition by taking government help to stay afloat.
Why the poor pay more
In America, having no car, no washing machine and no checking account means things cost more for the poor than the middle class. The Washington Post explains why.
Nerd alert: new fibre lands in Australia
1.29 terabits of new data capacity arrives in Australia. Geeks are there to welcome it with open arms.
