Australia vs. New Zealand: sibling rivalry or something more sinister?Is the “open-door” policy between Australia and New Zealand really working successfully for both countries? MP Kelvin Thomson’s recent call to shut out NZ migrants could be a sign that friendly relations are starting to fray.
November, 2009
The last lions in Kenya
Wild lions could be extinct in Kenya within 20 years, with 100 dying a year due to poisonings and habitat loss. Could the lion cubs of today be the country’s last?
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Australia’s most hated opposition leaders
Possum Comitatus charts the final net satisfaction rating of past opposition leaders. Malcolm Turnbull may not be tracking too well at the moment, but he’ll need to sink a lot further to match the likes of Downer, Peacock and Crean.
No use killing over spoiled milk, China
China has executed two people for their role in the production and sale of tainted milk powder that killed six babies and left about 300,000 people sick.
Swyping: the new typing
Swyping — a new technology for typing on a touch-screen phone, where the user swipes their finger from one letter to the next — is set to launch next year, and could blow the old method of clumsily poking the screen with your finger out of the water.
Media briefs: Media briefs: War on Google gains recruits … Silvio Berlusconi: Rockstar of the Year … America’s Next Great Pundit
More publishers have joined Rupert Murdoch’s planned Google boycott, Italian Rolling Stone names PM Silvio Berlusconi as its “Rockstar of the Year”, WashPo names its Next Great Pundit and more news from the media.
Silvio Berlusconi: Rolling Stone‘s Rockstar of the Year
The Italian edition of Rolling Stone magazine has named Playboy PM Silvio Berlusconi as its “Rockstar of the Year” for his “lifestyle worthy of the greatest rock star.”
What will it take to get people paying for online news?
There’s movement at the station: Rupe is dumping Google, Journalism Online has 1200 publishers on-board, and Time is creating an iTunes for magazine articles. What’s next on the path to making paywalls prosperous?
More publishers join Murdoch’s War on Google
Publishers of the Denver Post and the Dallas Morning News are planning to de-index their news articles from Google, emulating Rupert Murdoch’s plans to cut the search off from News Corp content.
Chilcot Inquiry: the liveblog
Reporters from the Guardian are liveblogging revelations from the Chilcot Inquiry into the UK’s involvement in the Iraq War as they come to hand.
Antony Green: Automatic enrollment is good electoral management
Antony Green defends the NSW Electoral Commission’s move to automatically enroll 18-year-olds to vote: it’s an efficient policy, and one the AEC should adopt.
Bahnisch: Don’t write Turnbull off just yet
If Tuckey or Andrews had the numbers to roll Malcolm Turnbull, they would have done it by now, says Mark Bahnisch. Turnbull still has support from the majority or the party room, and he could still put up a fight against Kevin Rudd.
Andrew Bolt, Lateline and the bias of balance
Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt has got the science on climate change wrong before, but that didn’t stop Lateline from giving him air time on the subject, says Sophie Black.
Was the Iraq invasion planned before 9/11?
The former head of the UK’s Joint Intelligence Committee, Sir John Ricketts, has told the Chilcot Inquiry he heard “drum beats from Washington” about plans to overthrow Saddam Hussein months before 9/11.
Malcolm Turnbull: dead man walking
In 35 years of Australian politics, Alister Drysdale says he’s have never seen “such open, in-your-face disdain for a Liberal Party leader” as the party’s current attitude towards Malcolm Turnbull. His days are numbered.
Inside the Coalition party room
Tony Wright takes you inside the Coalition’s marathon party meeting, where MPs grappled with two serious issues: the CPRS and the leadership of their party.
Fred Nile’s kooky survey in Bradfield
Fred Nile has sent out a survey to voters in Bradfield, asking whether they support or oppose statements like “Jesus Christ is the Son of God” an “Australia needs a ten-year moratorium on Muslim immigration”.
What makes a nation rich?
Nations are not born rich or poor, says Daron Acemoglu: governments make them that way. The key to a country’s prosperity lies in free and dependable democracy.
Turnbull: “I’m the leader” — but not for long
Malcolm Turnbull has dragged his party kicking and screaming to actually support the Government’s CPRS, but his leadership is now terminal. Bernard Keane wraps all of last night’s partyroom drama.
The Robb rebellion: the ground shifts under Turnbull
What had looked for Malcolm Turnbull like a tough but doable task of getting his partyroom onside for a CPRS deal has become a nightmare, with former supporter Andrew Robb declaring he’s opposed to the deal, reports Bernard Keane.
Video of the Day: Beatles 3000
1000 years in the future, the legacy of John, Paul, Greg, and Scottie remains…
Why pass now and change later won’t help the CPRS
The Greens oppose the CPRS not because it is too weak, but because it will point Australia in the wrong direction with little prospect of turning it around in the timeframe within which emissions must peak, says Senator Christine Milne.
Letter from...: Letter from: Peshawar
“Seconds later, as if in answer to my thoughts, a suicide bomber detonated himself among those we had just passed …” Benjamin Gilmour writes from Peshawar.
Washington Post / Wednesday, 25 November 2009
The Washington Post has announced the winner of its reality-TV-style Next Great Pundit competition, and — surprise! — it’s a liberal, white, male, middle-aged, well-educated lawyer.