25 October, 2015

Thinking of linking

This week I have been mostly reading...

Australia: 
Malcolm Turnbull's miracle poll turnaround for the Coalition risks messiah complex

Bill Shorten's class act falls on deaf ears

Michael Lawler really should have taken his own advice. And shut up.

The racists are exposed, now let's end the stalking of Adam Goodes

Joe Hockey Leaves Politics Little More Than A Footnote To Abbott’s Demise

Joe Hockey's biggest failure was his loyalty to Tony Abbott

It’s hardly class war to mention the fact that class exists

We haven’t seen the back of Tony Abbott yet

Offshore detention bill hits $280m for three months, Senate hearing told

Hockey's farewell speech was largely rubbish, confirming that he had never been up to the job

As Treasurer, Hockey proved to be an ordinary Joe

ASIO's Ben Chifley building has turned the spy agency into noisy neighbours

Afghan asylum seeker dies after setting himself on fire during video call with activists

This week policy took centre stage for a change - It's nice when the gallery notices

On Democratic Principle, the Fourth Estate, and visiting Nauru

How can I feel Australian when this country has told me I don't belong?

'Offers over $40,000': Tony Abbott joins the international speakers circuit ...or Man who wanted to abolish penalty rates willing to charge more than a waiter's annual wage for one night's work.

Bill Shorten's unsung role in Tony Abbott's demise

US:
Ted Cruz’s inability to be liked

I’ve Looked At Airbnb and It’s Way Worse Than You Think

Westboro Baptist Church Picketed Kim Davis For 'Enabling Fag Marriage' - Talk about nuts who deserve each other.

San Diego company slaps ‘Pharma Bro’ down by offering same cancer drug for $1 a pill 

The Big Bush Question

Mitt Romney Admits Obamacare Was Based on Romneycare—and That It Worked

Trey Gowdy Just Elected Hillary Clinton President

U.S. Tells Iraq: If You Ally With Russia Against ISIS, “You’re Our Enemy”

A New York Pizzeria Is Making Sure Mets Fans Won’t Have To Eat Deep Dish ‘Monstrosities’ In Chicago - Please see editor's note at the bottom of this piece.

UK:
Manchester United stars Neville and Giggs tell hotel squatters: stay for winter  

Germaine Greer: Transgender women are 'not women'

Petition urges Cardiff University to cancel Germaine Greer lecture 

Canada:
John Oliver: "Stephen Harper doesn't care about Muslim people"

Justin Trudeau begins first full day as Canada's prime minister-designate

World:
British activist Jacky Sutton found dead in Istanbul airport 

ANU academic Jacky Sutton dies in Turkey; colleagues, family unconvinced cause was suicide

What If They Gave a War and Everyone Came?

Music:
The Neuroscience of Bass: New Study Explains Why Bass Instruments Are Fundamental to Music

Paul McCartney talks Pipes of Peace with James Dean Bradfield

Why Paul McCartney's obscure and dissed 'Temporary Secretary' is the secret weapon of DJs worldwide

David Bowie Reportedly Releasing New Album Blackstar in January

Media:
Rupert Murdoch Is Deviant Scum - And rain is wet, but still a good rant.

Society:
Keep Islamophobia on the fringes where it belongs

Obscure Tumblr Sexuality Saved My Life

Star Wars and 007 are coming – beware the fanboy clones  

Secret languages of doctors, waiters, flight attendants, butchers and teachers

Science:
The Periodic Table of Elements Scaled to Show The Elements’ Actual Abundance on Earth

Even Avogadro Didn’t Know Avogadro’s Number

Mars - Peas in a pod

20 Intriguing Exoplanets

Why It's Unethical To Go Back In Time And Kill Baby Hitler

Tech:
Facebook expands search so you know what everyone's talking about

Clickbait of the week:
24 Pics That Prove 'Ken M' Is The Greatest Troll On The Internet

I got stupid on me and now I need to wipe it off on you:
When is it socially acceptable to wear black tights? 

Tony Abbott - Washington Speakers Bureau 

The least boring photo on my camera roll:


18 October, 2015

Thinking of linking

This week I have been mostly reading...

Australia:


JB's tribute: Sam de Brito lived a life of truth

Doctors' protest over asylum seekers shows us what real morality is all about

Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders granted a visa for Australia - Riddle me this, patriots: Why does the "Australian liberty alliance" need a foreigner to launch their party?

2016: A very different federal election campaign?

Don't use Silicon Valley jargon to justify penalty rate cuts

Malcolm Turnbull bins Team Australia and dials down the rhetoric

Refugee whistleblower will tell Canberra rally he saw a child bashed on Nauru

Most radicalised Australian teenagers attended public schools

It would be cheaper to feed, house and educate asylum seekers in Australia than lock them up on Nauru

Tony Abbott to sit on backbench for first time since 1995, as Malcolm Turnbull's ministry faces first Question Time

Energy companies gouging households 'because they can' - Where's my $550, Tony?

Sam de Brito: a polarising writer who wore his vulnerability on the page

We need an anti-poverty plan: ACOSS

Pollster says attack on Turnbull's wealth a 'shallow personal shot'

Dear Scott Morrison: stop waffling and learn to master your brief, quickly

The PM is no ordinary taxpayer, which is why clarification is neeed

The Cult of Malcolm makes Apple fanboys look like amateurs

How we can honour the 'Balibo Five' 40 years on

US:
To Keep and Bear Arms

A Short History of U.S. Bombing of Civilian Facilities

Father of Journalist Shot Dead On-Air in Virginia Speaks Out to End U.S. Gun Violence Epidemic

Gun Deaths Are Mostly Suicides

Chris Matthews Looks At The Speaker's Race And Sees 'A Party In Revolt'

Larry Wilmore Takes Apart All The Tricks Conservatives Use To Shut Down An ‘Honest Conversation About Guns’

What Exxon knew about the Earth's melting Arctic

Nearly 90 Percent Of People Killed In Recent Drone Strikes Were Not The Target

On the Brink of War and Economic Collapse

It’s Time Sane Republicans Realise That They No Longer Have a Political Party

Archconservatives' Real Enemy Is Democracy

What The Big GOP Meltdown Reveals From A Guy Who Saw It All Coming

UK:


World:
Music:
The Devaluation of Music: It’s Worse Than You Think

Camera Obscura keyboardist dies from osteosarcoma

RocKwiz Live Salutes The ARIA Hall Of Fame

Media:
Feds Arrest Fox News Commentator, Allege He Lied About CIA Past - I'd like to hear from some of those who were baying for Brian Williams' blood.

Fox News 'terror expert' Wayne Simmons arrested for lying about 27-year career as CIA officer

Inside Turnbull’s media strategy

Science:
Silent rooftop wind turbines could generate half of a household's energy needs

Wind energy is now as cheap as natural gas, and solar is getting close 

How modern life has damaged our internal ecosystems

Journey of shuttle Endeavour through Los Angeles begins

NASA Innovation Expo Highlights Kennedy Technology Advances on Journey to Mars

Never-Before-Seen Images Reveal How The Fukushima Exclusion Zone Was Swallowed By Nature

Animals:
Why crows hold funerals for their dead

Do animals mourn their dead?

Tech:
The Payments World Really Wants To Know Who You Are
Medicare Fraud - What is it about the right that they can only view an issue through the prism of politics?

11 October, 2015

Thinking of linking

This week I have been mostly reading...

Australia:
It’s a tawdry legacy Abbott defends, and he makes a tawdry spectacle of himself defending it.
 
Desalination plant could be switched on

Campbell Newman biography: Handful of book shops refuse to stock book - Instant Karma's gonna get you!

Brace yourself Australia, it’s about to get really hot

Federal government asks Australian Federal Police to find Nauru whistleblowers

Xenophon gives the main parties a Senate solution

Rehabilitating Abbott

Royal Children's Hospital doctors refuse to return children to detention
 
US:
Tactical Experts Destroy the NRA’s Heroic Gunslinger Fantasy

Bernanke: I’m not really a Republican any more

Doctors Without Borders airstrike: US alters story for fourth time in four days 

Bobby Jindal’s New Strategy? Be Worse Than Donald Trump

Julio Iglesias says he will no longer perform in Trump casinos

Churches come together for Habitat for Humanity home build

Police find man extremely high, curled up in pile of Doritos and cookies:

How the Koch brothers and the super-rich are buying their way out of criticism 

Society:
Why the phrase ‘first world problem’ is condescending to everyone 

Music:
Musician Jim Diamond dies 

Media:
The Verdict recap: Karl Stefanovic's shout-fest was a stinking mess, and no match for Q&A ...surprising absolutely no-one

Science:
Curiosity's Drill Hole and Location are Picture Perfect - Look at this picture of Mars!

How Modern-Day Dirigibles Can Plug The World's Transit Gaps 

Tech:
Google's 'Don't be evil' creed disappears as company morphs into Alphabet 

What happens to your digital content if the provider goes out of business?

Firefox will stop supporting web plugins (except for Flash) by the end of 2016

History:
O.J. by the Sea

I got stupid on me and now I'm wiping it off on you:
Once a high-flying politician has been brought down to earth, Australia’s tall poppy syndrome works in reverse - Yeah, I'll take that bet, Rowan.

'Christian Muslims' welcome, says Hanson

And...
If you were in any doubt that Reagan would be "too liberal" for the modern Republican party...




08 October, 2015

The Rules: Keeping it real


Oh, for pity’s sake Rupert! Do you have to make it so bloody easy?

I would have thought that to be as rich and powerful as you are, one would have to have at least a modicum of sense. Oh well, you know what they say about assumptions. Or are you playing the ‘doddery old man who, despite a 60-year reputation for being a control freak, doesn’t know what’s going on in his own businesses’ shtick that you pulled in front of the Leveson inquiry?

For you, and anyone else who needs to be told, here are the rules:

If you renounced your citizenship in order to own a television network, you don’t get to talk about who is real.

If you took up citizenship of another country, not because you love the country or believe in its values, but to expand your personal empire, you don’t get to talk about who is real.

If you frequently use the word “we,” when referring to the concerns of Australia, and of Britain, and of the United States, you don’t get to talk about who it real. I’m all for internationalism but you have made your choice.

If you’re an old white man, you don’t get to decide what makes a “real” black man. I thought you might have learnt that from your minion at Southbank after he came unstuck doing something similar. Oh, but who am I kidding?

Finally – and this is for anyone – if you’ve found a black person you like, that doesn’t prove you’re not a racist. In fact, using the “Look, here’s a black person I agree with, so I’m totally not a racist,” angle is actually pretty racist. We might not have thought you were until you brought it up. You might as well tell us who some of your best friends are, and how much you liked The Cosby Show or Michael Jackson before he went all funny.

And one last thing, Rupert: Don’t ever call yourself Australian again. I know you like to claim to still be Australian when it’s convenient to you but you are not. You said so, under oath without purpose of evasion, on September 4th, 1985. So don’t talk to anyone else about being real.

  
 

07 October, 2015

Clichés Translated

Part four of an occasional series

“He tells it like it is.”

Translation:
He upholds my prejudices.
 


04 October, 2015

Thinking of linking

This week, I have been mostly reading...

Australia:
Doctors group condemns Medicare review as an attack on GP integrity

Catholic church in Bendigo holds talks with anti-Islam group

Newman ‘never comfortable’ with asset sales

Newman a dud politician?

Senior government minister Mal Brough under federal investigation

The problem with the ban against Chris Brown "these campaigns are inconsistent at best, racist at worst."

Step away from the microphone - Tony Abbott isn't helping himself

Tony Abbott should stop playing the sore loser and retreat gracefully

Climate sceptic Maurice Newman not reappointed as government adviser GOOD!

Treasurer Scott Morrison sticks to plan to move public servants out of Canberra

Abbott's downfall caused a 'civil war' on the right. But can the left take advantage of it?

Timeframe for UN Security Council bid 'unambitious', Tanya Plibersek says

Dear Treasurer, here's how to answer those economic questions

'It's surreal': Australia's first Indigenous minister, Ken Wyatt, on his promotion

West Coast Eagles former star Daniel Chick lifts the lid on toxic drug culture in 2006

Hundreds of Liberal members resigning after Tony Abbott exit - LOL!

Tony Abbott's self-indulgent and damaging farewell radio tour

All codeine-containing medications could be prescription-only from next year

Dick Smith savages Malcolm Turnbull for shielding rich from tax transparency

NSW lagging in national digital skills race

Journalist Peter Greste Calls on Australia to End Secrecy over Offshore Asylum Detention Centers

US:
Carly Fiorina Really Was That Bad

Maple Street Book Shop closing after half-century in business

Mass shootings since Sandy Hook, in one map

Armed vet destroys gun nuts’ argument on mass shooters by explaining why he didn’t attack Oregon killer

Jeb Bush rejects tighter gun laws after Umpqua shootings: ‘Stuff happens, there’s always a crisis’ - Is this what they call "compassionate conservatism"?

If We Treated Other Public Health Issues The Way The Pro-Gun Crowd Treats Shootings

UK:
UK student visa policy could shut out future leaders, says thinktank

World:
Russia admits it won’t kill Islamic State only - Now riddle me this, patriots: Wouldn't now be a really good time for Syria to use those weapons of mass destruction that Saddam Hussein gave them before he was overthrown?

Dad of activist sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia "shocked" by son's response to execution order 

Astonishing bravery of the boy who faces being beheaded then crucified in Saudi Arabia for taking part in protest when he was 17 - Are we going to bomb Saudi Arabia?

Ten things that happened at my wedding in India

Music:
BBC John Peel Lecture by Brian Eno

Roger Waters on Reinventing ‘The Wall’ and Plans for a Final Arena Show

The Neuroscience of Drumming: Researchers Discover the Secrets of Drumming & The Human Brain

Electron Microscope Shows How Vinyl LP's Are Played

Society:
Whitesplaining - what it is and how it works

The way to kill a complex city is to chase out all the poor people – and their food 

Want men to stop hitting women? Stop talking about “real men”

Media:
Andrew Bolt Has Epic Whinge About Australia's Takedown Of His M8 Tony Abbott

Science:
Aspirin 'can double life expectancy in cancer patients', study says

Black hole is 30 times expected size

NASA Confirms Evidence That Liquid Water Flows on Today’s Mars

Scientists to bypass brain damage by re-encoding memories 

Animals:
Anxious border collie Archie escapes Qantas and transport staff, goes on run - but he's okay now.

I got stupid on me and I need to wipe it off on you:
Barry Humphries decries ‘finger-wagging puritanism’ So nothing to do with the fact that you're advertising News Ltd and your jokes from the 70s aren't funny any more?

The least boring photo on my camera roll:
I am very, very lucky.