The Stump

A mini lecture from Treasury via the OECD

It is a very rare event for the OECD to make a comment about the economy of a member country that does not have at least a wink and a nod of approval from that country’s official representative. More often than not the commentary and forecasts are simply the work of the country’s Treasury/Finance department [...] Comments (0)

The Poll Bludger

Galaxy: 67-33 to LNP in Queensland

GhostWhoVotes reports that Galaxy (courtesy of the Courier-Mail) has arrived with the first poll of state voting intention since the Queensland election, and finds the new LNP government enjoying a honeymoon spike on top of their astronomical election result. The LNP leads Labor 54% to 23% on the primary vote, compared with 49.7% and 26.7%, [...] Comments (18)

Pollytics

The 2012 State of Play

Australian federal polling trends and election simulations Comments (47)

Croakey

Nurses add value to chronic diseases management in primary health care

Nurses are expected to play an increasingly important role in managing chronic diseases in general practice and primary health care more broadly. A recent study investigated the feasibility and impact of a nurse-led collaborative care model of chronic disease management compared with standard GP-led care. There were some encouraging findings: the GPs felt a lessening [...] Comments (0)

Cinetology

Safe movie review: remembering the child that was…

He was an adorable and precocious child, plump and wide-eyed, with a room-filling presence that warmed the bitterest of hearts. His cheerfully naive demeanour, so sweet and earnest, had a way of assuring adult company that the world was a pleasant place after all and that every human being is born fundamentally decent. This tender-minded [...] Comments (0)

Curtain Call

REVIEW: The Heretic | Sumner Theatre, Melbourne

Despite the flurry of publicity around the opening, Melbourne Theatre Company’s The Heretic is not actually about climate change. The debate just provides the set-up for a peculiarly domestic comedy. The first act of British writer Richard Bean’s play is a tough slog for the audience. Scientist Dr Diane Cassell (Noni Hazlehurst) has found some [...] Comments (1)

The Northern Myth

A squeezebox, a paper cup and a dancing sister: “Vous êtes de vrais artistes …”

I was half way though my last beer when two young buskers set up in front of the cafe, he with a squeezebox and all of the brass, class and front of a seasoned performer, his younger sister hesitant and less assured. They rattled off a few tunes for the passing parade and received a few donations. As I finished my beer and wandered over to drop a Euro in their paper cup an old man stopped by and told them: "Vous êtes de vrais artistes ..." Comments (0)

Back in a Bit

The top five Asian dishes for tourists to try

Bite. Chew. Swallow. It is easier said than done. Particularly when faced with a deep fried tarantula the size of your hand or an embryonic egg, sevens weeks in the making. Travelling through Asia can challenge many of your attributes but none more acutely than your tastebuds and, perhaps, gag reflex. If you’re game, start chewing through this list and see where you end up. Comments (0)

Culture Mulcher

Ending soon: Kentridge, and, The Clock. (Plus, gallery crawl: hippest and blue-chippest)

Two major shows are finishing up shortly, at their only venues in Australia. William Kentridge, ACMI, Melbourne Why, why did I wait so long to see Kentridge at ACMI? Partly it seemed to be on for ages; partly I wasn’t sure I liked his work, d’oh. The show is gobsmackingly tremendous; K and I spent [...] Comments (1)

Fully (sic)

Indigenous languages in the theatre

Student guest blogger Mercedes Roetman writes… In the last few years I have been to see a number of plays where the main language has been an Indigenous Language. The first play I would like to talk about is a play called Ngapartji Ngapartji – meaning ‘I give you something, you give me something’. The play was held [...] Comments (0)

Plane Talking

European carriers blame eurozone meltdown for poor results but it’s really about bad management

Only a few days after Ryanair reported record profits, Air France KLM, Lufthansa and Iberia, are reporting troubled times. Air France is combining Brit Air, Regional and Airlinair, which serve secondary and even tertiary cities, into a single unit, and says, somewhat opaquely that a leisure arm will be established around discount unit Transavia while [...] Comments (0)

Rooted

Climate change & the Murray Darling: when our most divisive enviro issues meet

Climate change and the Murray-Darling Basin plan are two of the most divisive environmental issues in Australia. They are also two of the most important. But what does the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) plan to do about climate change in its Murray-Darling Basin plan? Comments (4)

Pure Poison

Tony Abbott’s faux concern for Thomson reported as something other than laughable

I just love journalists running Tony Abbott’s new faux concern schtick as if it were something other than a transparent demand to be appointed PM: This morning Mr Abbott, who has been leading the political assault on Mr Thomson, shifted the emphasis of his calls on him to quit. He called on Prime Minister Julia [...] Comments (21)

First Blog on the Moon

Hug a Climate Scientist Day 2012!

Hi Science fans! This press release was sent out by the First Dog on the Moon Institute earlier today to EVERY SCIENTIST AND SCIENCE JOURNALIST ON EARTH (or at least some of them). It is all fairly self explanatory – the links to various resources are below. If you have any questions we won’t be [...] Comments (1)

Laugh Track

Podcast: A Talk with Shaun Micallef

Download podcast interview link: A Talk with Shaun Micallef It’s hard not to like the softly spoken giant of Australian comedy that is Shaun Micallef. He’s had a consistent presence on television screens since the early 90s in Full Frontal, followed over the years by a string of programs including The Micallef P(r)ogram(me), Micallef Tonight, [...] Comments (1)

earworm

New adventures in hi-fi with Spotify | music news

Spotify is finally here. The leading global music streaming service launched in Australia today. Local music fans now have three options to listen to 16 million songs in Spotify’s music library. It’s free with ads aired between tracks, $6.99 per month ads-free and $11.99 per month for the premium service which includes the ability to listen [...] Comments (1)

Letter from the Editor

Mexican drug cartels turn 2.0

Maria was found decapitated with a handwritten message linking her murder -- not to the coverage of the drug wars in her paper -- but to her postings on social networks. The cartels have moved online. Comments (0)

Liticism

The public and the private: Notes from the Sydney Writers’ Festival — Part II

A girl sits on a crowded train reading aloud an explicit section from Nabokov’s Lolita: She would try to relieve the pain of love by first roughly rubbing her dry lips against mine; then my darling would draw away with a nervous toss of her hair, and then again come darkly near and let me [...] Comments (0)

The Urbanist

Are Michelle Obama’s ‘Food Deserts’ a myth?

I’ve always felt there’s something dubious about the “food deserts” hypothesis that’s so captured Michelle Obama’s imagination. Now a story in the New York Times suggests my instinct might be close to the mark. Food deserts are places that have good access to fast food outlets selling high-fat, high-sugar junk food, but poor access to [...] Comments (12)

Game On

Batman: Arkham City Revisited

EDITOR’S NOTE: I’m traveling for four weeks, returning in mid-June. During this period, I’m running a series of articles that take another look at some of the bigger releases of 2011, reassessing their impact outside of the release-schedule hype. While it was widely critically acclaimed at the time, in retrospect Arkham City feels like it [...] Comments (3)

The Wellhead

COAG, Clean energy and ‘Green Tape’

The COAG meeting today, notable for its coincidence with an increased scepticism about the clean energy industry among the conservative premiers of New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria, coincides with Campbell Newman’s battering ram impersonation. “Get out of the way”, Campbell Newman proclaims to the Prime Minister. It’s something of a case study in how [...] Comments (1)