These women and kids are all here under duress, and I’m not even sure about the dog.

If you’re a member of an industry group and you’re being interviewed by the local rag (the Maribyrnong Mail) about protests by local residents involving your industry, you’d want to have the best possible shot at winning people over […]

It looks as if the Rudd Government’s ‘freshness’ might not just be cosmetic after all, with several announcements today demonstrating a new ideas in health and the environment.
First, there’s Peter Garrett’s mooted plastic bag ban. While the whole whalewatching debacle raised doubts about Labor’s commitment to micro-environmental causes not just Kyoto-sized PR ones, I’m happy […]

Another gem from the AGE today:
This:

What more can we do? Police’s Road Toll despair

This

Fatal crash ‘traumatic’ say police

This:

A Terrible Toll

Also this and This…

If you phone and drive, you’re also a bloody idiot
Man killed in hit run

Juxtaposed, on page 3, with this absolutely bonza idea!!1!

THE world’s first practical flying car may soon be be zipping over […]

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I blogged the other day about the way election promises aren’t meant to be taken seriously any more … they represent a rather sweeet naive conspiracy between voters and politicians to play ‘let’s pretend’ on a grand scale.
The most obvious example of course is in the area of health … well actually scratch that, the […]

The latest edition of the Lancet is less than impressed with Mr Howard’s record on Aboriginal health and even reconciliation.  They quote Ian Anderson, professor of indigenous health at the University of Melbourne, who refers to the Government’s refusal to sign the UN treaty on indigenous rights and also says:
“The best thing that John Howard […]

A discussion of teachers’ pay and conditions in another thread made me notice this story:
Nurses in Victoria’s public hospitals have begun industrial action today in support of better pay and conditions.
Nurses will close one in four beds and operating theatre sessions, as they fight for a pay rise of 6 per cent per annum over […]

I’m not sure whether to admire Howard’s brazenness or wonder if he’s lost the capacity to spin as well as he used to.
Out of the blue he announced the federal government would fund a new hospital at Devonport (also mentioned by observa in comments and the subject of a post over at Blogocracy).
Here’s an exchange […]

Pike, v. colloq., ~ on, withdraw timidly from. [ME, perh.f.PIKE1]
(OED)
While the news fairly swirls with drama– the phoney election campaign, the Mohamed Haneef disgrace, the sellout of the Tasmanian wilderness, the near-inevitability of Nukular Power and interest rate rises, and the departure of both Sheeds and Pagan in one week– you might not have noticed […]

The ABC was recently replaying the Reith Lecture series, the BBC program where an invited guests gives series of lectures on an area of his/her interest or experitse.  The 2007 lectures were given by economist Jeffry Sachs and he spoke about poverty, overpopulation and other crises.  The lectures were delivered live and there was a […]