The Punch

Overnight, the Federal Government issued a review of existing research into whether people who play violent computer games are at greater risk of aggression. Their conclusion? The same as mine. There is no link.

I’m not violent at all. Though I guess I am a murderer.

I’ve ruthlessly ended roughly 500 lives this week. Tall. Short. Loud. Quiet. Hairy. Fast. Slow. I’ve knocked ’em all off. It was mostly in self defence. A few were just for kicks, though. But seriously - you should have seen them. They were asking for it.

Continue reading "Killer by night, mild-mannered toiler by day" »

In the increasingly likely scenario that Australia fails to secure the necessary votes to stage the 2022 FIFA World Cup, soccer in this country will be booted back to sport’s second tier with the thundering force of a John Aloisi penalty.

That’s no doomsday scenario. It’s reality as cold as the snow currently blanketing Zurich, where the bid announcement takes place at 2am eastern standard time tomorrow morning.

In many simple, reassuring ways, it’ll be business as usual for soccer if our bid fails. The half million registered soccer players will still rock up at training. The A-League will probably still exist. And Australians will still go mad for the FIFA World Cup every four years, and to a lesser extent the Asian Cup and other Socceroos matches of consequence. But soccer won’t come close to displacing the oval ball codes in terms of mass popularity for a generation or more. If ever.

Continue reading "Australian soccer’s last stand" »

Ban the bomb, no new mines, the three mines policy, additional mines, street marches, fear of nuclear terrorism and the existence of rogue states with nuclear power or weaponry have all been elements in the debate about uranium mining, processing or nuclear power for a long time.

Perhaps its time to get past emotion fear and inconsistency and concentrate on rational debate in a coherent manner.

We are a blessed continent with more than adequate supplies of coal, gas and oil. We are major exporters to the rest of the world in each of these commodities. As I write new sources of energy like coal seam gas, costing tens of billions of dollars have become mainstream in Australia.

Continue reading "Clinging to old nuclear fears stifles the power debate" »

U2’s 360 degrees tour has touched down in Australia and is in full swing. Much like the main feature of the tour, stories have been coming from every direction on how extravagant the concert is. How the big scale, big vision, and big cost have lead to the biggest concert event ever.

You have to admit, the numbers are pretty impressive.

U2’s two year world tour has run up an $850,000 dollars daily running cost, and last year took $123 million as the highest grossing tour of 2009. ‘The claw’ stage that dominates the band as they play towers at an impressive height of 164 feet. It is so large that it took six 747 jets to get it to Australia.

Continue reading "U2 isn’t exactly practicing what it preaches" »

The latest Wikileaks disaster for the U.S. government may centre on the actions of its diplomats rather than its soldiers, but Cablegate and the Afghan and Iraq War Diary data dumps are all crises of information control and management.

In a press briefing on Monday U.S. State Department Assistant Secretary P. J. Crowley was quizzed about the government’s policies and practices of storing information.

There is, as Crowley said, tension between “the need to protect or the need to know” when it comes to information – and this is true in all spheres, not just government bureaucracies.

Continue reading "The Wiki leaks are not the end of all secrets" »

So Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal have stripped off for the cover of Entertainment Weekly. Surprised?

It’s becoming a trend in Hollywood to gain attention through everything but their actual profession -acting.

It doesn’t shock me though that these two got partially naked to promote their new film, Love & Other Drugs. Hathaway, 27, plays liberal artist Maggie Murdock in the movie, opposite Gyllenhaal’s commitment-phobic Viagra salesman Jamie Randall.

Continue reading "Lacking a bit of attention? Get your gear off" »

Monica Seles was born in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia today in 1973.

It’s Thursday at The Punch. What’s on your mind? Share it here.

As the whiskers of tens of thousands of Aussie blokes wash down the drains of homes today, thousands of nubile young women are rejoicing.

It is the end of “Movember”, the month formerly known as November which raises money for prostate cancer research and initiatives to combat male depression.

While the charity is one of the most brilliant health campaigns ever enacted, women around Australia are ecstatic we no longer have to give Aussie men some lip about their top lip.

Continue reading "Thank God there’s no such thing as “Mocember”" »

Ho! Ho! Ho! Yes, it’s that time of year again, when political correctness rears its ugly head and the majority of us are gifted the opportunity for a little righteous indignation with our eggnog.

Except nobody told new Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu.  In a bold and somewhat surprising display of common sense for a politician, he has made an effort to bring the spirit of the season back into Australian schools, insisting children “have the opportunity to enjoy the simple pleasures of Christmas”.

Praise the Lord indeed.

Continue reading "It’s called Christmas folks, with a capital C" »

It’s not entirely clear when the political momentum to consider allowing gay marriage in Australia suddenly became so noticeable. The Greens certainly helped pushed it along in Canberra with its Bill to compel MPs to consult their constituents on the topic over the summer break.

But for an issue that really doesn’t have the slightest impact on the vast majority of the population, the tide does seem to be heading in a direction that could leave the two major political parties stuck on a sandbar somewhere wondering how to get off. Maybe its a sign things are travelling better than we thought, what with everyone having time to think about a social issue beyond their hip pockets.

According to a huge poll reported on News.com.au this morning, two thirds of Australians have no problem with gay marriage. Of the 150,000 people who took part nationally, 46 per cent were in favour, 35 per cent were opposed and 19 per cent couldn’t care either way. This is good news for the gay marriage lobby, but there’s a big catch.

Continue reading "The handful of seats dictating the political agenda" »