From 1998 to 2004, the previously booming Lego empire fell to pieces. But instead of losing its little yellow head, the company turned it all around by thinking outside of the box and embracing the toy world’s new kid on the block: video games.
December, 2009
Big Brother 2.0
Governments and intelligence agencies are increasingly monitoring social media services like Twitter and Facebook to catch tax cheats, digital pirates and political protesters, according to the NY Times. Is it time to ask just who your friends and followers are?
Data, fiction and politics
Why don’t governments treat climate data the same way they would polling data? asks Possum Comitatus. If politicians’ popularity numbers showed the same clear, long-term trends as global warming figures, you can bet they’d have acted by now.
How menus trick you into picking the $30 steak not the $10 burger
You thought menus existed to show you what food the restaurant serves and how much it costs? Wrong. Menus are advertisements, carefully designed to make you order the most profitable items.
Globalisation? That’s so ’90s.
A surprising new trend has been hitting world economies: deglobalisation. And it’s not just the GFC that’s caused it, but also an emphasis on domestic manufacturing, protectionist politics and the strength of emerging economies.
Jetstar smell Tiger blood
Jetstar is taking on everyone — including Qantas — with the announcement of multi-daily flights to Melbourne and Brisbane. But its main aim is Jetstar clone Tiger and the predator has finally become the prey, says Ben Sandilands.
Feeling hungry? Great Britain faces a food shortage
We need to produce more food in the next 50 years than we did in the last 5,000, on less land with less water, less fertiliser and fewer green house gases, say experts. Are we facing a potential global food crisis?
gross VIDEO: Pow! Berlusconi gets punched in the face
Raw footage of bloodied Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi directly after being hit in the face with a small statue following a rally in Milan. He was left with a broken nose. Warning: it’s quite graphic.
Hartigan dummy spit ignores the facts
News Limited’s extraordinary attack on Roy Morgan over newspaper readership surveys isn’t tethered to hard facts, writes Margaret Simons.
Twinza Oil to step up investment in Burma
Contrary to popular belief, Australia doesn’t have a ban on investing in Burma. But Australian company Twinza Oil will still come under heavy scrutiny when it starts drilling for oil there, writes Kyaw Kyaw.
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: Hold the government, not the opposition, to account
Letters from City of Sydney Councillor Irene Doutney, Immigration Dept spokesperson Sandi Logan, plus other Crikey readers on 50-cent Christmas card stamps, climate change, Westpac and more.
Morning Market Report: Woodside launches $2.5bn rights issue, as AMP chases AXA
The market is down 14, gold continued its downward momentum falling another $6.30 to $1119.90, and the Aussie dollar fell to 91.10c from 91.71c.
OECD: publicly funded NBN could pay for itself
The National Broadband Network could pay for itself in just 10 years thanks to spillover savings in electricity, health, transport and education, according to a new OECD report.
Media briefs: The Google Phone revealed … Tiger Woods and Trafigura gag UK press
The iPhone is sooo 2009: 2010 will be all about the Google Phone, as details and photos leak online. Plus Tiger Woods and Big Oil get gag-happy on the UK press and Playboy’s iPhone app: only for the articles.
Daily Tele takes NSW back to William IV
The tabloid frenzy in New South Wales over constitutional changes is dangerous and ill-informed. While we may well need a mechanism to call an early election against the government’s wishes, it shouldn’t be driven by the likes of the Daily Tele.
Midwives damn AMA-induced amendments to maternity reform
Rather than listening to medical advice on the long-awaited maternity reforms, the government pays attention to a union more focused on protecting incomes than helping prospective mothers, writes Professor Lesley Barclay and Professor Sally Tracy.
‘Carbongate’: the great carbon heist
Over the coming week Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will attend the Copenhagen climate change conference and be hailed as one of the world leaders on climate-change action. The PM attends the meeting with Australia being one of a handful of developed countries to have met their Kyoto Treaty obligations. Australia’s Kyoto commitment was to […]
Moti case reveals AFP shortcomings
The public is entitled to be informed of the way their interests are being represented overseas by “DFAT Cats” and their AFP cousins, writes Sydney barrister Roger de Robillard.
Greens, DLP and women line up to skewer Moreland’s blokey Labor faction
The bond developed between Victoria’s Moreland councillors could make the preference arrangements at next year’s state election very interesting, judging by actions at the latest council meeting.
Political snippets: Time for the Libs to exploit the government on health
Are the Liberals finally basing their attacks on the Rudd Government around health policy after months of missing out on the opportunity? Even just a look at the last week of reporting shows rich pickings.
Free trade, first movers and carbon mercantilism: why unilateralism is good
You thought Copenhagen was just about climate change? Australia, and most other countries, are treating Copenhagen like a trade negotiation. Such carbon mercantilism will cost us in the long run.
On the ground at the Copenhagen protests
Crikey’s Matthew Knott and Anna Rose have been blogging at Rooted and filing daily from Copenhagen. Over the weekend they wrote accounts of their personal experiences of the protests and subsequent arrests.
