East Timor asylum seeker solution has not yet been killed outright, but only an unreconstructed optimist would now suggest its fate is other than sealed.
March, 2011
The prosaic magic of the post-it artiste
Sarah McConnell has an unusual hobby: whenever she sees something funny she draws it on a post-it note and marks the time. McConnell now has over 1100 “hourlies” and chats about them in this interview with SpooK Magazine.
Garnaut’s power challenge to Labor
Professor Ross Garnaut’s last update is on electricity. He’s gone in looking for a carbon price, but come out with a new regulatory model for the electricity sector. And it makes sense.
The Media Monitors' Top 20: New premier nearly as busy as PM
The new premier of NSW neck and neck with the PM on media mentions this week after he snuck over the line by 25 seats and the Labor Party immediately fell into the self-obsessed infighting that largely got them to this position in the first place.
Buying a home ‘a ridiculous thing to do with your money’
A US financial expert recently suggested that “buying a home has to be the most ridiculous thing you could ever do with your money”.
Global warming over 1000 years: why Flannery is correct
Tim Flannery is right in his summing up of global warming, writes Dr Andrew Glikson, earth and paleoclimate scientist at the ANU.
Push for higher super contributions using women as stalking horse
Look carefully at who is pushing for the rise in super contributions to 12%. The clear beneficiaries will be the finance industry, union funds and high income males.
aviation industry 
Qantas to chop management jobs and capacity growth
Qantas has slashed its projected rises in domestic and international capacity and will axe management jobs in a further and urgent reaction to the natural disasters in Queensland, New Zealand and Japan and rising fuel costs, writes Ben Sandilands.
There’s no sense in trying to govern forever
Politicians naturally campaign to get elected and re-elected, but the “govern forever,” “hold on for dear life” mind frame can end badly. Last week’s NSW election is a fine example, writes Dennis Glover.
Students get higher education at cannabis college
Oakland University in California offers a curriculum pot heads around the country find irresistibly alluring — an education based on the lucrative medical marijuana industry, writes Jason Motlagh.
Maley: inflection point for the inexpensive
Two relatively recent developments make it likely that we’ve now passed the point where we can expect the prices of manufactured goods to keep falling, writes Karen Maley of Business Spectator.
Japan, a land where it’s pollen versus radiation
This is spring — the hay fever season with huge amounts of cedar pollen wafting on the air, writes Rick Tanaka from Tokyo
Quack quack: duck shoot debate returns to Donald
For the first time since 1996 duck hunters are returning to the small Victorian town of Donald. With them they bring guns, business and the inevitable environmental debate, writes Ashley Fritsch.
Ten PC games brought back to life by the iPhone
Well before the days of Angry Birds there were PC hits such as Doom, The Secret of Monkey Island and Prince of Persia. These games - and many more - have found an afterlife on the iPhone. Here are 10 of them.
Savoring symphonies and silencing the noise of the self
Listening to a brilliant symphony is like cosmic weeping. W H Chong reflects on rousing compositions such as Gorecki’s No. 3.
film reviews Red Hiding Hood movie review: a howler
Director Catherine Hardwicke’s Red Riding Hood takes a Brothers Grimm fairytale and turns it into a weirdly modernized version with a gooey atmosphere that feels like a costume rave party gone wrong, writes Luke Buckmaster.
Carbon derangement in NSW
A narrative is starting to build that NSW Labor’s defeat last Saturday is a result of the federal government’s announcement of a carbon tax. Such an argument is insulting and illogical, writes Dave Gaukroger.
It’s high time governments tackled the harm caused by gambling
Commercial gambling now permeates our society and Australians spend/lose around $19 billion a year. At any one time hundreds of thousands of Australians are directly affected by the consequences of problem gambling, writes Dar Charles Livingstone.
Garnaut calls for electricity regulation
overhaul
Ross Garnaut has warned that flawed regulation is partly responsible for Australia’s surging cost of electricity, and called for a regulatory overhaul to minimize the limited impact of a carbon price on electricity prices and energy security, writes Bernard Keane.
Garnaut on electricity: regulatory reform the key
Ross Garnaut warns flawed regulation is partly responsible for surging electricity costs, calling for a regulatory overhaul to minimise the impact of a carbon price on prices and energy security.
One naked photo, many lives ruined
One day, a 14 year old girl sent a picture of herself naked to her boyfriend. Within weeks the entire school had seen the photo, children were charged with child pornography distribution and an entire community was battling the distressing effects of child ‘sexting’.
How toy ads reinforce gender stereotypes
A look at the language used in advertisements for children’s toys finds them deeply gendered. Boys toys refer to “battle”, “power”, “hero” and “action”, while girl ads speak of “love”, “fun”, “magic” and “babies”.
Andrew Bolt attacks ‘false, offensive’ claims
Australia’s most popular opinion writer has branded the equation of his views on Aboriginality with Nazi eugenics as “false and grossly offensive” in the Federal Court today.
