Whatever wave of migration we look at, someone was already there. Colin Barras in the New Scientist (paywalled) takes a look at the three ancestral waves of migration that founded Western civilisation.
First were the hunter-gatherers. Then came the farmers. These were followed by the Yamnaya, originating from herders on the steppes north of the Black Sea, who brought the horse and the wagon, and the Indo-European language that predominates in Europe, except for Basque, Estonian, Finnish and Magyar (Hungarian). Continue reading Deep origins: early Europe→
Labor has written to the Australian Federal Police to ask them to look into Speaker Bronwyn Bishop’s decision to take a taxpayer-funded helicopter trip from Melbourne to Geelong to attend a fundraiser for Ron Nelson, a Liberal candidate in the Victorian state election.
The suggestion is that supporting a party fundraiser is not part of the duties of the speaker of the Australian parliament. Continue reading Saturday salon→
Happiest is a woman, living without a partner in a small town in Queensland, who is not poor and who exercises every day. Continue reading Happiness is…→
Last year, the total circulation of all Australian daily newspapers was a little over 2.1 million, fully one million lower than it was at the turn of the century.
Dennis Atkins has written an opinion piece in the Courier Mail on US Supreme Court judge Justice Anthony Kennedy’s “coherent, comprehensive and cogent” majority judgement on same-sex marriage. The judge reasons and writes beautifully:
Conservative cabinet minister Eric Abetz says Australia should not legalise gay marriage because no Asian country has adopted marriage equality.
And Senator Abetz says legalising gay marriage would lead to polyamory and argues issue should be rejected out of hand because Opposition Leader Bill Shorten supports change.
Tony Abbott’s announcement that Australia will send more troops to Iraq was made in front of no fewer than eight flags, bringing the flag-count-in-announcement index to an all-time high.
The Abbott Government has crossed a line by setting up an inquiry to interfere directly in the editorial processes of the ABC. That is the true obscenity of the Zaky Mallah Q&A affair. Continue reading Abbott calls for heads to roll at the ABC→
The Oz headlines Bill Shorten in its Newspoll report, and not in a good way. 54% are dissatisfied with his performance, only two less than Tony Abbott. But surprisingly 34% now think Abbott is doing a good job, compared to only 28% for Shorten. This gives Shorto a net satisfaction rating of -26 to Abbott’s -22. Continue reading Poll stuff 17/6: Lowy Institute edition→
