As far as I know Clive Palmer’s two main cash producing assets were Queensland Nickel and the Coolum Resort, known now mainly for the fibreglass dinosaurs he installed all over the place. Coolum is presently shut, and Queensland Nickel has gone into receivership. Terry Barnes thinks “Palmer and his political influence are going the way of the fibreglass dinosaurs inhabiting his defunct resort at Coolum.” Continue reading Will Clive Palmer and QNI go the way of the fibreglass dinosaurs?
All posts by Brian
Poll stuff
While we wait for politics to crank up other matters are more interesting.
On politics, Essential Report has the LNP lead narrowing to 51-49, while Roy Morgan also has a narrowing but by 1.5 points to 56-44. They can’t both be right, but they can certainly both be wrong! Continue reading Poll stuff
Cologne: what happened and where to from here?
A Deutsche Welle report I heard on NewsRadio began along these lines:
- She was pulled to the ground by her long blond hair, then a man laid down on top of her.
An extensive investigation by Der Spiegel tells us that groups of men humiliated, sexually assaulted and robbed women around the main railway station in Cologne on New Year’s Eve. What happened was not new and was not limited to Cologne. What was different was the scale, the presumed predominance of men from North Africa amongst the perpetrators, and the timing in relation to the dilemmas faced by the influx of refugees from Syria. Continue reading Cologne: what happened and where to from here?
Saturday salon 16/1: late edition
1. Essendon players pinged
- The Court of Arbitration for Sport has upheld WADA’s appeal of the AFL anti-doping tribunal’s Essendon verdict, with 34 past and present Bombers players banned for 12 months, which means they will miss the entire 2016 season.
The key thing in the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) system is that the individual athlete is finally responsible for what goes into his or her body. That runs counter to the ethos of how teams operate. Continue reading Saturday salon 16/1: late edition
Di Natale breaks with Greens’ policy on genetically modified crops
Richard Di Natale has broken with The Greens’ policy on genetically modified crops, saying that he does not believe genetically modified crops pose a significant risk to human health. He says there is no concrete evidence on potential health harms to people. Continue reading Di Natale breaks with Greens’ policy on genetically modified crops
One-third of Australian pensioners live in poverty?
Yes, according to Fairfax, with the story reprinted in The Guardian, and then picked up by other media outlets. For the record, the ABC also got it wrong by saying it was all people over 60. It was all people over 65.
But the article was misleading in other ways as well. Continue reading One-third of Australian pensioners live in poverty?
Goodbye Holocene, hello Anthropocene?
It hasn’t happened yet, not officially. The final decision rests with an august scientific body called the International Commission on Stratigraphy, which has a 36-person Working Group on the Anthropocene. Now 24 scientists, including some from the Working Group, have produced a paper advocating for the Anthropocene to be recognised as having begun in the mid-20th century. Continue reading Goodbye Holocene, hello Anthropocene?
Men behaving badly
Actually, that doesn’t quite do justice to what has been going on in a series of incidents over the last little while.
Gabrielle Jackson did a piece for The Guardian Enough platitudes and excuses: here is the truth about this week of sexism. Amazingly, on the weekend before she wrote the article she herself was groped by a complete stranger sitting at the next table in a Sydney restaurant. Continue reading Men behaving badly
Saturday salon 9/1
1. Neanderthal DNA lives on
About 1.5 to 2.1 percent of the DNA of anyone outside Africa is Neanderthal in origin. But the DNA is not evenly spread. Your Neanderthal DNA may be different from mine. Scientists have found at least 20% of the Neanderthal DNA in humans. That’s what they’ve found, the toatal may be twice as much. Continue reading Saturday salon 9/1
Australia’s annual climate statement 2015
Subjectively 2015 seemed like a very hot year, so there may be some surprise to find that according to the BOM’s Annual climate statement 2015 it was only the fifth hottest year. That’s possibly because the October-December period was the hottest on record. There was exceptional heat early in October, with parts of Victoria being 7°C above normal. Nationally October was 2.89°C above the 1961-90 average, a record monthly anomaly. Continue reading Australia’s annual climate statement 2015
Reconciling estimates of climate sensitivity
The most important number in climate science is not 400 ppm or 2ºC. It’s climate sensitivity, the amount of warming we’ll get from doubling CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere. Curiously the IPCC AR5 report declined to give a number. Continue reading Reconciling estimates of climate sensitivity
Where the wind blows…
Households can now think about harnessing wind power as well as solar:
- A super-efficient and completely soundless wind turbine developed by a Dutch company aims to enable every household to generate its own wind energy. Continue reading Where the wind blows…