NASA discovers water on the moon — or did it?NASA grabbed headlines around the world with its announcement it has found “a significant amount” of water on the moon. But is 25 gallons of water really all that “significant”? It all sounds like a galactic-sized cash grab to Jon Wiener.
November, 2009
The Ayn Rand revival of 2009
With bailouts, salary caps and health care reform, 2009 has been a year of Big Government in the US — sparking a renewed interest amongst the country’s Right in the libertarian, free-market philosophies of Ayn Rand.
America opens its first pot cafe
America’s first “pot cafe” has opened its doors in Portland, Oregon. Certified medical marijuana can get their dose of Mary Jane from the “budtenders”, as well as food, should the munchies strike. Trippy.
Rundle: Bob Carr, PIR galah
Bob Carr’s weekend op-ed in The Oz demonstrates in miniature all the arrogance and mendacity of the big chains’ participation in the parallel book imports debate — and why they lost it, says Guy Rundle.
Blogger Belle de Jour’s true identity revealed
The anonymous blogger behind the famous Diary of a London Call Girl diary, which inspired spin-off books and a TV show, has revealed her true identity to the Times: Dr Brooke Magnanti.
Is Roxon anti-sport?
There is a hint of doublethink in the way Nicola Roxon has handled a recomendation to make sports medicine a speciality, writes John Orchard.
Will Twitter be Time‘s Person of the Year?
Twitter is emerging as the hot favourite amongst pundits as the hot favourite to be named Time magazine’s 2009 Person of the Year. We can just see the world’s social media experts wetting themselves already.
Which magazines are Australians reading?
Girl With a Satchel combs through Roy Morgan’s latest readership figures to see which glossies Australians are — and aren’t — reading. Better Homes and Gardens continues to boom, while Cleo has taken a caning.
When one man’s disaster is another’s PR coup
American PR firm Imperial PR has been honoured with an industry award for its “achievement” in protecting the image of a major US sugar producer after one of its refineries exploded, killing 14 people and injuring over 40.
Bartlett: TPVs –- failed policy recycled for political benefit
The human harm done to many refugees on TPVs is well documented, says Andrew Bartlett. It’s a sad day when a blatantly ineffective measure is wilfully adopted purely for political appearances.
Glyn Davis’s modelling debut
Melbourne University Vice Chancellor Glyn Davis appears to have launched a modelling career spruiking the buttoned-up business section of The Age.
The future of journalism? Actual journalists
For all the discussion from Australia’s best media minds about the future of news in this country, few are offering any grand ideas on how to fund real quality, investigative journalism, says Marni Cordell.
The 50 best music videos of the last decade
As the decade winds up, every man and his dog is weighing in one the “Top x” of the past 10 years. Paste gives its take on the best music videos of the noughties — with an Aussie contender making it into the top 5.
graph pr0n Warren Buffett’s $40 billion investment empire
Following Warren Buffett’s $34 billion buy-out of America’s second-biggest railway, this great infographic charts the history and breadth of the investor extraordinaire’s business empire and investments.
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: The Great Book Debate
Readers weigh-in on parallel imports, asylum seekers, all-male institutions, the Traveston Dam, Tiger Woods and more.
Back from the dead: Turnbull’s TPVs
Malcolm Turnbull has announced that Temporary Protection Visas would be back under a Coalition Government. But, putting aside their humanitarian impact, all the evidence is that TPVs don’t actually work.
Wal-Mart’s failure is the US writ large
However Wal-Mart’s sales grow, so grows the US economy — and in the past two quarters it’s been a miserable story from the retailer: some store sales have sunk, as overall retail sales have drifted lower.
Goldman doing “God’s work”; in kitten shame
Goldman Sachs’ antics continue to give Wall Street a bad name, writes David Hirst: publishing an upbeat report on real estate investment trusts while small town and Main Street America stagger to a forlorn future.
Travel tips for media on the Close the Gap bus
In a lecture for Reconciliation Australia, Koori Mai Editor Kirstie Parker talks about the role that Australia’s media can play in helping to Close the Gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.
Media briefs: Glyn’s modelling debut … What about the journalism we already pay for?
Melbourne University Vice Chancellor Glyn Davis makes his modelling debut, vox pop gold from the NT News, how censorship works in China, Google decks the halls with free wiFi and more news from the media.
Political snippets: Bring back those fluorocarbon sprays — the Antarctic ice needs them
Ice coverage in the Arctic is declining at a frightening rate while in the Antarctic, there has been a small but steady growth; Gordon Brown enacts some sweet revenge on Rupert Murdoch; and the US forms a Gang of Four.
Beecher: the choreograph of the commentariat
Synchronised indignation has been a trademark feature of the Australian media commentariat for years, writes Eric Beecher: the past week’s episode started with a stirring landmark speech about climate change by the Prime Minister at the Lowy Institute.
Gay marriage: an issue of both the legal and the spiritual
If there is a God, surely she wouldn’t have intended for Australia to let gay and lesbian people and their families to feel so ostracised from the church, writes Steve Dow.
Lowbottom High Diaries: Reforms to the national curriculum aside, the schnitzel was OK
Lowbottom High’s principal has joined 150 others to learn about the proposed reforms to the national curriculum and dine on some taxpayer-funded dessert. Trevor Diogenes tells the tale.
