In the dark reflection of the one-year anniversary of the shipwreck of SIEV 221 — the Christmas Island boat tragedy — it’s time to ask ourselves and each other: what have we learnt? Not only because this was Australia’s deadliest shipwreck since 1890, as David Marr’s descriptive piece points out — 41 rescued, as many as 50 dead, including eight children and […]
December, 2011
Guy Rundle: How violence in Europe takes a hard-Right turn
How will the Liberal Right deal with the increasingly violent and racist trajectory of the hard-Right? Not well, one suspects on the evidence.
Fishing industry overhaul to have huge impact on jobs, tourism
The Department of Primary Industries Victoria seems to have nearly got away with very limited consultation before undertaking the most extensive reform of fisheries in Australia’s history, writes Crikey naturalist Lionel Elmore.
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: Uranium’s uncertain future
Crikey readers have their say.
Morning Market Report: Euro’s continued decline pushes markets down
The Dow Jones closed down 131 overnight. The Dow closed lower for a third day and hit its lowest level in two weeks.
Media briefs: Naparstek quits The Monthly … Leveson latest … UK journos tweet from court …
Ben Naparstek — the baby-faced wonder who was roundly ridiculed for becoming editor of The Monthly at the age of 23 only to make the magazine more widely-read than ever — has now quit to join Fairfax. Plus other media news.
Political snippets: Chinese whispers forecast fast growth
Chinese officials have just finished their annual economic talkfest known as the Central Economic Work Conference with a commitment not to allow global uncertainties to disrupt what it called “relatively fast growth.”
Video of the Day: Voyagers to cross into interstellar space
After 34 years in space, Voyager probes launched in the late 1970s will soon “punch through the curtain” and cross the solar system boundary. Voyager 2 is only about, oh, 9 billion miles away.
Tips and rumours: Tips and rumours
Dept penny-pinches, first class for bosses. Bernard Keane had the leaked email yesterday revealing the Commonwealth’s Department of Health has been forced to call for voluntary redundancies and will cut its workload to meet efficiency targets. With the penny-pinching now to begin, staff are also questioning the regular international travel by the most senior bureaucrats — and which […]
Crikey Says: A failure of imagination
A year on from Australia’s deadliest shipwreck since 1890, we revisited our editorial from December 2010, written, as our opening line states, as they were “still pulling bodies from the water”, as pieces of SIEV221 splintered across the rocks of Christmas Island.
I punk’d Occupy Wall Street
Remember when the internet buzzed with rumours that Radiohead would visit Occupy Wall Street for a secret performance? Malcolm Harris admits that he pranked the protests via Gmail.
The top 10 most uninteresting people of 2011
Enough about the best films, books, people of the year. Gawker takes a different tact, presenting the 10 least fascinating people of 2011. Take a bow, Michael Bublé.
Walk the streets of post-tsunami Japan
Google Street View has been updated to include nearly every street from every town affected by the Japan tsunami back in March. All the images come from July- November this year.
Five major 2011 trends in digital entertainment
Mashable’s Christina Warren lists five of the biggest things to happen to digital entertainment over the last year, including the proliferation of ‘social TV’.
Rupert Murdoch: all hail the Sun King
At 80 years of age, Rupert Murdoch still flies into Australia to sack his right-hand man, rip apart the front pages and terrify his editors. They hang on every word and his 175 newspapers around the world dutifully spout his views, writes Paul Barry.
Great excuses for knocking back a drink at a Christmas party
The festive season is a time for food, family, presents and…alcohol. But what if you’re not in the mood for a drop of grog? How do you say no? The Guardian lists some good excuses for staying sober.
The festive season of waste?
For many of us Christmas is inherently about excess, family, presents and, importantly, food. And all of this would not be such a bad thing, if so much of it didn’t go to waste, writes Larissa Ocampo.
Taking the pants off Mia Freedman’s leggings rant
Leggings are not pants! Mia Freedman used that familiar argument to springboard a discussion about broader political attitudes but was hit with a tirade of negative responses. Freedman could learn from the manner with which she responded, writes News With Nipples.
The importance of understanding inequality
MIT economics professor Daron Acemoglu explains the importance of understanding inequality and the prism through which it is viewed by economists and non-economists.
Are Bashar al-Assad’s political days numbered?
Amid mounting local and international pressure, expectations are building that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will soon be overthrown. Defence Minister Ehud Barak says it will be a matter of weeks, not months, reports Joel Greenberg.
Expert advice for Tanya Plibersek
Continuing the theme of a recent Croakey post about new Health Minister Tanya Plibersek, Melissa Sweet asks a panel of medical experts what advice former Health Minister Nicola Roxon could give her.
One year on: reflecting on the Christmas Island boat tragedy
In the dark reflection of the one-year anniversary of the shipwreck of SIEV 221 – the Christmas Island Boat Tragedy – it’s time to ask ourselves and each other: what have we learned? writes Peter Chambers.
