Wall Street was up 290 for the week — its best weekly run in over a year.
December, 2010
Morning Market Report: Wall St had best week in a year
Daily Proposition: Discover your inner Muse
Five albums in and countless tours around the globe, Muse remain a powder keg of delicious sound and energy, brimming with style, arrogance, talent and a clear sense of fun. Beg, borrow or steal to get a concert ticket, says Dan Hanks.
Media briefs: Doggone, Fairfax suits up … Howes’ mixed message
Fairfax Media’s ailing band of Melbourne suburban mastheads has a new mascot — Wilbur Weekly — a hulking promotional dog that attends community events to spruik the stable’s offerings and hand out stickers to children. Plus, other media news tid bits.
Video of the Day: How crayons are made
Go on an excursion inside a crayon factory, to learn exactly how a pack of crayons is created. It even includes the adding of a “secret powder” in the initial chemistry stages …
Tips and rumours: Tips and rumours
No pay for ABC shows. The ABC has inserted into all its TV production contracts a provision that the program is not to be made available for sale or licensing to pay TV (read: Foxtel and Austar) for five years, thereby upsetting Foxtel no end. The agreement doesn’t apply to Seven, Ten and Nine, who […]
Crikey Says: McClelland’s sensitive information debate, circa 1985
If McClelland thinks there is a debate to be had over media handling of national security information, he should throw it open to the media most likely to offer the sort of coverage he appears concerned about.
The abandoned island of Yeonpyeong
Following the recent North Korean attacks on the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong, nearly all of 1,350 civilian residents have fled to the South Korean mainland, leaving behind livelihoods and years of family history. Just 60 residents remain.
What the ATSB, CASA and Qantas failed to tell the Senate Inquiry
Those familiar with basic aviation law are stunned by the continued evasion by the ATSB, CASA and the Qantas Group of full disclosure of a critical issue in the botched Jetstar go-around at Melbourne Airport on July 21, 2007. Ben Sandilands explains.
cricket The Ashes Open thread: Adelaide day 5
Channel Nine doesn’t deserve the Ashes when this happens. Bring on “use it or lose it” anti-siphoning laws, says Leigh Josey.
Another brick in the wall
Andrew Bolt was on the radio with Steve Price pouting toxic about social workers and the new Super Clinics. How many of MTR’s listeners will simply have let the misleading impression given by Price and Bolt sink into their subconscious? asks Jeremy Sear.
Wikileaks Australian of the year
Julian Assange will surely win hands down and he has a big lead in the Australian of the century event too. Exposing the cant and hypocrisy, and sometimes downright childishness, of international politics is a mighty contribution to democracy, writes Richard Farmer.
Howes: If you don’t like gay marriage, don’t marry a gay person
There are definitely more pressing and important issues for Australia than gay marriage. But since all that has to be done is take six words out of the Marriage Act, we should just do it and quickly move on, writes Paul Howes, national secretary of the AWU.
Behind the scenes of the food policy turf wars
Health policy consultant Margo Saunders has been investigating some of the background to the announcement this week of an industry-dominated group to advise on the development of a national food plan. Some bureaucratic food fights are underway…
language Pavlovian response
It’s official. The great Aussie meringue dessert we know as a Pavlova, actually originated in New Zealand. But passions aside, none of this is really news. That’s been in the New Zealand Oxford dictionary for 13 years already, notes Piers Kelly.
Fighting for survival in Cancun
Over at the UN climate talks in Cancun, Philip Ireland, catches up with Pelenise Alofa from Kiribati and Fiji to hear about climate change in her homelands and reflections upon the climate negotiations in Mexico.
Morgan poll: Coalition ahead in NSW
A Morgan phone poll in NSW state politics has Labor on 22 per cent of the primary vote, the Coalition on 53 per cent and the Greens on 13.5 per cent, with the Coalition’s two-party lead at 65-35, reports William Bowe.
Views on gay marriage: from 2004-now
With three recent polls in the last few months gauging public opinion on same sex marriage, it’s worth taking a squiz at how opinion has changed over the last few years. Possum Comitatus breaks down the results into demographics.
cricket The Ashes Open Thread: Adelaide Day 3
Crikey Sports scribes Tom Cowie and Leigh Josey can’t believe what’s happening. England are on top and it doesn’t look like getting better any time soon.
cricket The Ashes Open Thread: Adelaide Day 2
Join Tom Cowie and Leigh Josey as they cover Day 2 of the Adelaide Ashes Test, trying to make sense of the enigma that is the Australian cricket team.
Holmes: Stop ignoring the key #twitdef issue
Jonathan Holmes gives his damning assessment of the Chris Mitchell vs. Julia Possetti #twitdef case. Rather than focusing on the exact wording of a tweet, Mitchell should pay attention to the harsh criticism being levelled against his paper by a disenchanted ex-journo.
travel Getting down and dirty martinis in Chicago’s speakeasies
The city of Chicago’s legacy lies in the pleasure industry, the self-appointed task in undermining Prohibition. Binoy Kampmark spends an evening at the luscious Green Mill cocktail lounge, where the jazz is loud and the dirty martinis potent.
Ask a climate scientist Was Greenland actually green?
Let’s get global warming and long-cycle natural climate change put in a little historical perspective for us today. Yes, the Medieval Warm Period and whether Greenland was actually green will be examined by two different climate scientists, writes Amber Jamieson.
