Barack Obama is honouring his pledge to close down the notorious Guantanamo prison, but how and where will the detainees be trialled in a fair manner? NPR explores the options, examining what justice means for Gitmo prisoners.
October, 2009
Best to stay on the boat and avoid Indonesia’s corruption
Indonesia has a notoriously corrupt justice system, yet we have agreed to send innocent people seeking asylum in Australia there. Angela Dewan explores the overcrowded, under funded and crooked Indonesian jails.
The wisdom of washed up boy bands
The hey day of the boy band may be over, but choreographed side steps lives on. The Guardian interviews five boy band-ers on the difficulties of fame. What do you do when your screaming teeny bopper fans move onto indie rock?
Tiger bares its teeth at Cityflyer
Low fare airline Tiger Airways continues its assault on Qantas’ Cityflyer operation with the announcement of even more Sydney flights, says Ben Sandilands. Yep: not low fare Jetstar, nor middle market Virgin Blue, but high fare Qantas. Grr.
Breakfast Media Wrap: PM gets called a bit grubby as stand-off on the high seas continues
The pick of Saturday morning’s media
Sri Lanka inadvertently throws Tamils a lifeline
Disparaging comments about Tamil asylum seekers by the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Australia makes it almost certain they will meet the criteria of the Refugee Convention, even if they didn’t before, writes Andrew Bartlett.
Sad tales from the opening of Melbourne’s new Fairfax building
Margaret Simons was at the “soft opening” of the new Age building in Melbourne. What’s a “soft launch”? It is the launch you have when the Board is dysfunctional and the Chairman doing the honours has been forced out.
Toyota invents its own climate-cooling flower
Manufacturing the Toyota Prius produces more CO2 than normal cars, so the company came up with a novel solution: engineer a new species of flower to plant around factories that reduces the temperature and the energy needed for cooling, thus offsetting the carbon emissions.
The beat up over Jack Kerouac’s estate
The Telegraph examines a fascinating 15 year bitter fight over the multimillion dollar estate of Jack Kerouac, author of beat generation classic On the Road. The stoush between his third wife, his ignored daughter, his wife’s family, his nephew and his biographer leave no one a winner.
VIDEO: Reinventing the mouse
With the rise of laptops and touch-screen computing, many have predicted the death of the computer mouse. But Microsoft is working on five cool new iterations of the device that integrates multi-touch technology to go well beyond the old point-and-click.
leaked 
JPMorgan knew about insider trading eight years ago
Internal documents from JPMorgan Chase reveal the company knew about insider trading allegations against Galleon hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam and his associates as far back as 2001.
Is it Game Over for Nintendo?
Nintendo have reported an astounding 52% decline in profit due to slow Wii sales. Will a new DS be enough to save Nintendo? Did they focus too hard on appealing to Wii Fit mums rather than focusing on hard core gamers?
Australia’s most hated brands
The 2009 Brand Asset Valuator study reveals Australia’s most popular brand names — which this year include Google, Nokia and Vegemite — but far more interesting are the brands we like the least, which include Grazia magazine and Aurora Coffee.
Why is it called the Netherlands?
Radovan Karadzic is currently on trial at The Hague, not at Hague. Why do so many place names require a definite article? Just think of the Bahamas, The Bronx and The Gambia. Slate explains.
Crikey Says: From WA premier to Wesfarmers lobbyist?
Former WA premier Alan Carpenter joining Wesfarmers as its chief spinner and lobbyist is, in a word, a disgrace.
How Crown stacks the odds in its favour
When Crown Casino management have been missing their main floor revenue targets, they have been systematically changing the rules on table games in their favour, writes Mark Cridland.
Memo CASA chief: an uncritical media is not your friend
The underlying managerial culture of modern enterprises is to push productivity to within a millimetre of breaking the people or the equipment, and to lift output year in year out. Unfortunately in the airline game, that can kill hundreds of people at once.
Political economy: A wonky week ahead
The week ahead will be a good one for economic policy wonks, writes Henry Thornton, with the US economy achieving growth in the Third Quarter and Australia’s central bank monthly meeting results to come.
Democracy in Queensland goes from bad to verse
It is 7.45pm in the Queensland parliament, debate continues on the Criminal Code (Honesty and Integrity in Parliament) Amendment Bill. Democracy is hard at work …
What do the Chinese know about investing in property?
Apparently, the Chinese, not always known for their investing expertise have been “single-handedly been responsible” for Melbourne’s recent home price inflation — at least according to one real estate agent.
J Street pushing a policy that leads to disappointment
This week’s J Street’s conference saw Zionists, students, pensioners, 1948 Jewish fighters, anti-Zionists and Nazi hunters congregate in Washington DC in an effort to widen the debate over the Middle East.
Political snippets: The Barossa’s approach to a crushing problem
The beleaguered Australian wine industry gets some relief with the news that the crush during this year’s vintage was 5% less than in 2008, a cautionary tale from Paul Krugman, and why we’re still not “closing the gap”.
