Crikey readers weigh in on Zionism, the Telstra split, student politics and more.
September, 2009
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: The Rundle vs. Danby rumble continues
Norway keeps out the hard Right — for now
The fate of Norway’s government is likely not a matter of importance unless you happen to be Norwegian. But what the election revealed about the state of its Opposition is of much more general interest.
Greenwald: Obama’s Guantanamo closure was a sham
Obama’s pledge to close Guantanamo is the “biggest sham in American politics”: the administration just filed a legal brief [PDF] stating that detainees at Bagram Airfield have no constitutional rights whatsoever — including habeas corpus.
Talking the Town: Talking the Town: The 86 Biggest Lies on Wall St launch
There was no better way to commemorate one year since the fall of Lehman Brothers than in the company of esteemed economics editor Ross Gittins and author John R. Talbott.
CPRS polluter haggling crushes our national interest
You can’t drive the economy forward while looking in the rear-view mirror, and as the low carbon competitiveness report highlights, the longer we delay “the more costly the eventual transition will be”, writes John Connor .
Meagre stipends see BHP execs through tough times
The world is only slowly emerging from a deep recession, but the bank balances of BHP senior executives have not been too badly hurt.
Video of the Day: Fonts alive: typography festival opens with a sans
What else to open the 5th Typophile Film Festival but a stop motion homage to typography that’s so good you could eat it. Includes letter soup and licorice all-fonts.
Bernanke ‘recession over’ claims ridiculous
Markets went whoopee, but Ben Bernanke’s comments that the the “technical recession” in the US was probably over chafe badly with reality.
Political economy: happy Christmas Australia!
Yesterday, there were two important pieces of economic news that were overshadowed by the Telstra story. The release of the Reserve Bank’s board meeting notes — and the margin creep of the banks.
Three into one: the Telstra triple business challenge
Telstra’s priority, wisely, is to ensure it keeps all of its 10 million households and businesses as customers at the point of transition to the wholesale NBN, and that it doesn’t take place in a competitive free-for-all.
Morning Market Report: The markets are a having a good day
The Aussie was up 86.33c compared to 86.16c yesterday morning. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said last night, “From a technical perspective, the recession is very likely over”.
Rupert Murdoch sees the digital light
Rupert Murdoch sees the day when newsprint-based papers won’t exist and everything is electronic, just like Crikey.
Dear media commentators: newspapers don’t need your advice
Got a brilliant idea about how to save the newspaper industry? Keep it to yourself. Newspapers aren’t short on ideas, says Joshua-Michéle Ross — they’re grappling with much larger questions and structural problems.
Fun videos help public health message go viral
New media has made health promotion much more interesting, says Melissa Sweet. The US health department launched a comp for public health videos. The best involves a chainsaw massacring of swine flu.
Condoms: the ultimate green technology
A new study says greater global access to contraception would reduce the world’s population by half-a-billion over the next 40 years, saving the planet 34 gigatons of CO2. At roughly $7 for a box of rubbers, it’s a cheap plan for saving the planet.
Why old media can still beat Web 2.0
For all the hype about the death of traditional media outlets, most new media business models are far worse-off, relying on unstable venture capital and cheap ads for funding. Old media orgs should be able to out-compete the new kids — if they dare.
How long can rock star Rudd stay top of the pops?
Kevin Rudd is riding high on a wave of surging popularity. But a dip into the annals of Australian political history shows personal popularity doesn’t always translate into success in the one poll that actually matters, says Mark Davis.
Facebook grows users and profits
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has blogged that they’ve hit 300 million users, and become cash flow positive earlier than predicted. Photo storage cost cuts from the Haystack project must’ve helped, says TechCrunch.
Parliament House or animal house?
The conduct of Federal Parliament recently has descended from chaos into outright farce, says Christian Kerr. Both sides know they’re behaving badly, but will either fall back into line?
PHOTO GALLERY: Images from an over-industrialised planet
A stunning collection of images from photographer Edward Burtynsky captures the high environmental price we pay to live in an industrialised world, giving “a second look at the scale of what we call progress”.
Up and away in Pixar’s beautiful new film
Like the best all-ages animation, Up mingles serious concepts into whimsical situations. It’s consistently entertaining from first frame to last but it’s also worthy of cinema studies-style analysis, says Luke Buckmaster.
How a picnic brought down the Berlin Wall
On 19 August, 1989, 700 East Germans walked freely across their Soviet-controlled borders and into Hungary for some good food, wine and a spot of political revolution.
Kraft or Cadbury: will shareholders even notice the difference?
Kraft’s intention to take over Cadbury offers shareholders the chance to replace a mediocre offering with something a little bit more mediocre, write Christopher Hughes and Edward Hadas.
ouch! 
British women: the original fashion victims
Women in Britain dress like frumps, says Linda Grant. A decade of noteworthy changes in fashion will do little but alter the colours they wear: from beige, grey and stone to navy and white. Aaargh.
