‘Triangulate your research’ was one bit of advice that served me well. That means taking in data from several sources. And if you don’t trust the climate scientists, maybe pay attention to what the bankers are saying. And if you still aren’t convinced, the agricultural scientists and water experts have perspectives worth paying attention to. […]

For the first time in many decades I am spending a long summer break in the land of my birth and childhood. I escaped New Jersey shortly after university, but now events require my presence. Mostly my visits have deliberately avoided the extremes of summer and winter, but this year I have no choice but […]

The Courier Mail headline claims they’re “collateral damage” but it’s just cheap PR spin: “Bikie WAGS collateral damage in Queensland war on bikies”. In fact these women are complicit – they’re not “collateral” to anything. Neither are they, strictly speaking, “human shields”, as I’ve claimed, because human shields don’t deliberately put themselves in the way of danger, […]

The international statistics say that Australia’s education performance is slipping, but how can this be when spending on education has been increasing in real terms for decades? Part of the answer to this riddle can be seen in the words of educationist Stewart Riddle. According to yesterday’s Australian: In an article posted on The Conversation website last […]

Professor Joseph Stiglitz is over here to tell Australia how to run an economy, when it really ought to be a research tour so he can educate his fellow Americans on best practice. What Australia has done contradicts much of what Stiglitz recommends, and proves empirical proof that he’s wrong. This is a situation when MiltonJohn Maynard […]

One of the best reasons for being skeptical of many of the claims made about CO2 emissions is not the science, but the language. I went from being a more or less mainstream adherent to a skeptic when I read a defamatory media release from the IPCC. In it Rajendra Pachauri branded Ian Castles, former […]

Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz is in Australia to tell us how to run a successful economy. According to Stiglitz our government should be spending more, not trying to get its budget back into surplus. It says a lot about Australians’ inferiority complex that we give people like this the time of day. Because […]

The Federal Court decision to rule the former ALP  Queensland government’s Wild Rivers legislation invalid is a victory for the future of Indigenous Australians, rescuing many of those in northern and western Queensland from the racist assumptions, and corrupt wheeling and dealing, of Queensland’s major left wing parties. According to The Australian: Federal Court judge […]

Are you confused by this title? Well, not half as confused as I am by Andrew Bolt’s, Janet Albrechtsen’s and Alan Jones’ war on Malcolm Turnbull. I hope more coalition MPs than just Malcolm are having dinner with Clive Palmer. The idea that having any cross-party socialisation is somehow treason to the team is bizarre, […]