On Wednesday morning Jay Weatherill and 200 or so of Adelaide’s soi-disant cognoscenti gathered at Adelaide Oval, scene of triumph, disaster and foreigners hurling dangerous things at locals. Everyone was there for the launch of the programme of the second ‘Open State’ festival, which will chart the potential triumphs and disasters of our species as it careens into the 21st century, with... Continue Reading →
Turnbull’s Judgement – of Keating, Katter and Crabb #auspol
Annabel Crabb, in her book ‘Stop at Nothing’ about current Prime Minister (correct at time of publication) Malcolm Turnbull, recounts a phone call from ex Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating to then PM Kevin Rudd. The story originally comes from Peter Hartcher of the Sydney Morning Herald (27 June) and here’s the grab- When Malcolm... Continue Reading →
What may Jay say? The alternative @JayWeatherill speech for #Openstate
The following document fell through a wormhole from an alternative universe, landing as a smoldering set of singed papers, with a comedy thump, on my desk. It purports to be an account of the speech given by South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill at the launch of the “2017 Open State Program.” Standing at the podium... Continue Reading →
Open letter to Jay Weatherill on #fuckwitgate
Dear Jay, we are both busy (you with trying to implement climate and energy policy while the Federal Government supplies only ridicule and chaos, me with finishing a thesis) so I will keep this as brief as I can. When I read what was reported in today's Australian (1) 'Jay says nay on right-wing remark'... Continue Reading →
Weatherill lets fly at right wing attack against renewables
WHOOP! My second stand-alone article on the excellent reneweconomy site... South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill was in a pugnacious mood at the launch of Climate Wars, the new book by Labor’s shadow climate minister Mark Butler, and let fly at the ‘rightwing f***wits’ (his words) that were keen to use any event to attack renewables. Butler’s book... Continue Reading →
Book Review: Clade – superior #climate fiction #clifi
When – not if, but when – I reread James Bradley’s wonderful set of linked short stories, ‘Clade,’ I will be on the lookout for two things; his references to the seasons, and his imagery of flight (in every sense). These short stories, which follow one family from about now, through roughly beyond the middle... Continue Reading →
AMEEF – burnishing the mining industry
AMEEF was established in October 1991, as the Ecologically Sustainable Development Process was peaking. One of the first things they did was a listing of all articles environmental, with a lovely cover. Ten years later, it was still going (but would be shut down a bit later). I stumbled across its magazine, Groundwork, recently. Not... Continue Reading →
Climate change? Eh? 1998 Labor Essays…
So, by 1995/6 the whole idea that you might be able to 'green' the Australian Labor Party had kinda fallen apart. The 1993 election had ignored the issues (with Keating particularly aggressive, blah blah true believers blah blah), and despite Environment Minister John Faulkner's best efforts, the proposed carbon tax/levy in 1994/95 died an ignominious... Continue Reading →
The media, the environment – lessons from South #Australian history…
Right-winger sometimes try to 'catch out' Noam Chomsky by saying 'well, you critique the mainstream media saying it helps manufacture consent, but you at the same time rely on journalistic accounts to put together your arguments. Are you a hypocrite or what?' (I paraphrase). Chomsky replies that there are many hard-working and diligent journalists who... Continue Reading →
New element – Administratum – discovered
from facebook - here, originally. "This bit of humor was written in April 1988 and appeared in the January 1989 issue of The Physics Teacher. William DeBuvitz was a physics professor at Middlesex County College in Edison, New Jersey (USA). He retired in June of 2000." 'The heaviest element known to science was recently discovered by... Continue Reading →