Something seems to have happened since I last did a stint in the public service, nearly 5 years ago. Back then, managerialism was still in vogue. There were silly obsessions about performance, and group gatherings to build morale that actually helped to break it. That’s because the highly paid […] Continue Reading…
July 06, 2008 | Ronda Jambe
Have We Hit Peak People?
Posted by Ronda Jambe at 11:24 am |
Comments Off on Have We Hit Peak People?
June 29, 2008 | Graham
Who said the Nats were washed-up?
The results in the Gippsland by-election have to give a few people pause for thought. By-elections this close to elections generally punish the candidate associated with the party that causes them, in this case the Nationals. However, they were rewarded with a 7% two-party preferred swing to them.
Both the […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 2:16 pm |
Comments (5)
June 29, 2008 | Graham
Caroline Marohasy rides The Horseman
My friend Caroline Marohasy makes her movie debut in The Horseman, a new Australian revenge thriller, shot in and around Brisbane, including at the Burpengary caravan park.
If you like the look of the trailer (I found it was suitably creepy, although they needed to hit the cabbage a bit […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 1:17 pm |
Comments (3)
June 29, 2008 | Graham
Why does the MSM do science so badly?
You’ll have to go hunting to find this story, but it is perhaps the most important event so far this year, with the greatest potential to affect our lives.
A Nature Physics article outlines how researchers have managed to manipulate the quantum state of a previously unknown molecule by varying […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 1:01 pm |
Comments (4)
June 26, 2008 | Ronda Jambe
Back in the Harness – with Clathrates
Another stint in the good ol’ public service. But my mind is elsewhere. On clathrates, to be quite precise.
And I sure hope I am not the first one to mention this to you, because you’ll be hearing a lot more about them, and it is not good news. But […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Ronda Jambe at 7:01 pm |
Comments Off on Back in the Harness – with Clathrates
June 23, 2008 | Graham
Nats to wipe the floor with Libs
This looks like being inaugural at the same time as it is the ultimate, as in last. Courtesy of Facebook, Nats v Libs looks like the merger isn’t going anywhere.
Closer attention to detail reveals that it is actually a rugby union match between Libs and Nats (I prefer that […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 9:26 am |
Comments (2)
June 19, 2008 | Ronda Jambe
Under the Moruya Moon (6)
Two steps forward, one step back. It’s the way of the world. So it wasn’t surprising to find that the termite damage to the house was worse than we thought. The floor in one bedroom had collapsed before the tenants moved out last December, and it has taken us […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Ronda Jambe at 1:57 pm |
Comments (1)
June 16, 2008 | Graham
Liberal National Party could be the end for Springborg
One of the lesser mysteries of the proposed Liberal National Party is why the Santoro faction changed from being opposed to its most enthusiastic proponents. Afterall, when Mal Brough first mooted his ambition to be Liberal Party President they targetted him for being pro-amalgamation.
To date the theories that I […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 10:08 pm |
Comments (5)
June 16, 2008 | Graham
Putting the Wowser into Rudd
The NHMRC is about to change its definition of what constitutes “binge drinking” and Kevin Rudd is getting the blame. When I started this piece earlier today that was unfair, because the NHMRC is an independent body that the Prime Minister has no control over. By this afternoon, Kevin […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 3:06 pm |
Comments (2)
June 14, 2008 | Graham
Grammar’s taught to grammarians
Baden Eunson from Melbourne Uni decries the “fallacy” that children “learn grammar by osmosis”, and it needs to be taught. I agree with him to some extent, but after reading Nicholas Ostler’s “biography” of Latin Ad Infinitum, I’m not so sure that it’s such a big deal.
The Romans, driven […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 5:44 am |
Comments (6)