I’m sceptical of the “booze epidemic”, particularly as I’ve been unable to find anything justifying the claim. But now something authoritative has come to light. According to AAP:
The NSW auditor-general’s report found there were 20,475 alcohol-related assaults (ARAs) statewide in the 2006-07 financial year.
The figure has risen steadily through […] Continue Reading…
April 23, 2008 | Graham
At last – reliable evidence on the “booze epidemic”
Posted by Graham at 9:10 pm |
Comments (4)
April 23, 2008 | Graham
Open for foreign supermarkets, but not foreign ships
Every government, no matter how honest its intentions, ends up shaving the common good for sectional interest. It’s unavoidable, but spotting the inconsistencies can be fun.
With increased food prices the government is desperate to be seen to do something about them, particularly as they can’t and it was a […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 10:47 am |
Comments (5)
April 22, 2008 | Graham
Lin Hatfield Dodds
The Hatfield Dodds, Lin and Steve, were about the only power couple that I could spot who both got a guernsey to the 2020 Summit. Lin’s now topped that to make herself a household name by withdrawing from the Olympic torch relay.
It’s raised some interesting posts from some ethnic […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 9:37 pm |
Comments (1)
April 21, 2008 | Graham
Guns don’t kill people, and people don’t do it as much.
John Howard told a joke against himself at a Liberal Party function in Brisbane (as reported by the SMH).
“The other was that his diplomacy needed work. Asked at a function at the George H. W. Bush presidential library in Texas to name his top three achievements, he started with […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 9:53 pm |
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April 20, 2008 | Graham
One of the biggest ideas is ours!
Despite my pessimism, it appears that the Governance stream came up with a worthwhile eDemocracy Big Idea – a government portal to be called www.your.gov.au (or maybe www.yourgov.gov.au, but that looks clumsy when you write it down). According to Kate Crawford, who apparently submitted the idea, the portal will […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 9:59 pm |
Comments (2)
April 18, 2008 | Graham
Not going to the summit
You really can’t ignore the 2020 Summit, so here goes. But first a declaration.
Not only did I nominate for the summit, but we also tendered to provide an online collaborative workspace for it, as well as lobbying for a website for the summit where the rest of Australia could […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 9:18 am |
Comments (2)
April 17, 2008 | Graham
Is JK Rowling a witch?
Is JK Rowling a witch? It would appear to be a reasonable question given her performance in prosecuting a case against Steven Vander Ark for daring to have compiled The Harry Potter Lexicon.
The judge is urging both sides to settle, drawing on well-known legal precedents from Dicken’s Bleak House. […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 12:55 pm |
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April 17, 2008 | Graham
Fuel fools
The federal government’s new FuelWatch is likely to be as effective in lowering prices as those proposals contained in nuisance emails that still circulate the Internet. The ones that say we can force petrol companies to lower prices by boycotting one of the petrol brands for a while, the […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 3:46 am |
Comments (1)
April 16, 2008 | Ronda Jambe
What could be better than sliced bread?
It is not trivial that ‘earning our daily bread’ is synonymous, even in the 21st century, with the most fundamental economic elements: do something so that you can eat. The only societies that don’t measure their success in terms of their daily bread are the societies that are equally […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Ronda Jambe at 2:45 pm |
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April 15, 2008 | Graham
What goes down will go up even higher
House prices are falling and interest rates are rising, which is bad news for existing home buyers, and new home buyers too. Doesn’t sound right, but it is unfortunately true.
Unless we fix the underlying supply and demand problems in housing, lower house prices will only be temporary, and will […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 10:02 am |
Comments (7)