Saturday Salon (Halloween edition)
by
Kim
An open thread, where at your weekend leisure, you can discuss anything you like.
An open thread, where at your weekend leisure, you can discuss anything you like.
One of the most depressing articles I’ve read in a while is Borneo’s majestic rainforest is being killed by the timber mafia recently in The Guardian. This comes on top TV programs on of what seem like futile attempts to save the Orangutan. Wikipedia tells us: The total number of Bornean orangutans is estimated to [...]
This week’s whimsy is brought to you by a meerkat with a camera.
Please share any bits and pieces you have come across recently that have surprised, delighted, intrigued or otherwise positively engaged you.
SocProf at The Global Sociology Blog has written a fascinating post about the coming food crisis. The link with financial speculation is both interesting and disturbing.
It’s being reported this morning that Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has asked Attorney-General Cameron Dick to examine whether compulsory preferential voting should be reintroduced in Queensland, ostensibly because of the growing rate of the informal vote. As Possum remarks: I’m sure that compulsory preferential voting having the consequence of boosting ALP electoral prospects in Qld [...]
As a sequel to my two posts on the topic of the current state of the Humanities in Australia, it’s appropriate to link to a couple of responses from Ken Parish at Troppo and Skepticlawyer. On a related note, Andrew Elder takes apart an astonishing argument by Christopher Pearson for a revival of elitism in [...]
Peter Martin reports on the Coalition’s proposed amendments to the NBN legislation currently before the parliament. It’s a fairly transparent attempt to kill the financial viability of the NBN by effectively forcing the copper network to keep operating. The amendments would: …remove the provisions which would exempt any agreement between between Telstra and NBN Co [...]
I have nothing to add to Grog’s excellent post on how the press gallery failed to discern that there had been a contest for the Deputy Leadership of The Greens three weeks ago, except to wonder whether an examination of political reporters’ output at the time might reveal a stack of non-stories.
A little bit of a research snippet from The Economist: Political scientists disagree over the causes of the parties’ decline. But a more pressing question is its effects. The decline of partisanship could signal a less tribal, more educated electorate. But research on 36 countries by Professor Paul Whiteley of the University of Essex shows [...]
John Quiggin has written an excellent post for Crooked Timber, looking at how social democracy can be extended beyond the borders of the nation state. I’m pleased to see Quiggin making a number of points I’ve argued for a long time – including the fact that a realistic utopianism is a necessary condition for any [...]
Yesterday, Tigtog discussed polls which showed that there had been little movement since the election. Today’s Newspoll might or might not be an exception to that trend, showing Labor with a record primary low of 33% and a two party preferred advantage of 52-48 to the Coalition. [Details are at The Poll Bludger.] Peter Brent [...]
Independent media site New Matilda, which ceased operations just after Kevin Rudd was overthrown as Prime Minister, is back, and is appealling for reader contributions to continue publishing. Details of their fundraising drive are here.
In what appears to be a first, The Greens outpolled Labor in a by-election for the Brisbane City Council Ward of Walter Taylor held on Saturday. The by-election was caused by Jane Prentice the previous LNP Councillor’s election to the House of Representatives for Ryan. On the latest count, the LNP scored 58.5% of the [...]
The size of the recently-announced spending cuts by the UK government is just flabbergasting. The Guardian’s summary lists all manner of huge cuts – not least, that the public sector workforce is expected to shrink by 490,000 over the next five years. That would be roughly the equivalent of 160,000 job cuts in Australia. While [...]
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