Many years ago, Robert M. Pirsig's hippy cult novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was one of my favourites. A few weeks ago I discovered he'd written a sequel in 1991 called Lila: An Inquiry into Morals . I've been reading it as a break from seemingly interminable...
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While some members of the Missing Link team have subscribed their selections and others have done so partially, others (where are you arts people?) haven't done so at all. They're no doubt as flat out as I am with work commitments. In my case it's finishing exam and essay mark...
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Barry Jones is a human search engine. Crawling over thousands of pages of words and numbers, he commits the data to memory and indexes it for regurgitation on demand. "When Mozart's name is mentioned", he says "a detailed entry appears in the screen in my head, Mozart, Wolfgan...
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OK Geeks, I have a question for you. Tell me where my reasoning is wrong. Linux is in many respects a superior operating system to Windows, and seems to work perfectly well for people who know what they're doing as a desktop operating system. The runaway success of products li...
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About a year ago Joshua Gans showed me some draft chapters for a book on parenting at which he'd been working away. To use an expression from the AFL, Joshua has a high 'work rate' and he writes blog posts in the morning over breakfast - and perhaps at some other times. Anyway...
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Peter Martin highlights an excellent column by Barry Hughes , but the part of the column I'd stress is not the idea that the RBA shouldn't be slowing the economy (and as a result increasing unemployment). As Hughes says, this is appropriate to prevent the current increase in p...
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I think I may have spoken too soon in my praise of Optus Wireless Broadband in this recent post - well the absence of a link brings me to my point - broadband shmoardband. My 'broadband' was too slow to allow me to put in a link. I just did a speed test on it and it's about 10...
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The Herald's transport correspondent Linton Besser reinforces standard confused thinking about motorway tolls in yesterday's edition. He reports that the NSW Government's 'Cashback' scheme, whereby private motorists can claim reimbursement for the tolls they pay on the M4 and...
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Thursday's Missing Link over the fold. A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill Politics Australian Andrew Norton bids farewell to the Australian De...
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Last week the mainstream media devoted tens of thousands of words to "analysing" the effects of the Brough/Howard NT Indigenous Intervention. Today the NT Department of Justice published its March quarter 2008 crime statistics (also see my previous post on NT crime figures ove...
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As a long time fan of Hegel, I remember thinking as I skimmed a book on him in a bookshop that Peter Singer would make an awful mess of him - as people like Bertrand Russell did from a similar tradition a couple of generations back. But though there were various bits of Singer...
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There's a dark side to the internet, says David Burchell , an eerie parallel universe that spreads across the web "like green moss on a neglected lawn." And here you are, right in the middle of it. The parallel universe Burchell is writing about is "the world of the political...
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Wednesday's Missing Link over the fold. A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill Politics Australian A Committee in the Coalition-dominated Senate g...
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Tuesday's Missing Link over the fold. A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill Politics Australian Daily life in Afghanistan Gary Sauer-Thompson , L...
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Check out this Blogging Heads . Its interesting to watch people you read as it adds a whole new dimension. Anyway, check out Tyler Cowen. Some politicians have the skill of speaking in perfect paragraphs. John Howard, Margaret Thatcher and Gough Whitlam spoke in perfect paragr...
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Based on the idea that a bleg is a blogged bit of begging, here is a blogged offer - a bloffer. I've just escaped from my Telstra wireless broadband subscription after two expensive years. If anyone wants my modem, just let me know and come round and pick it up. You have to pl...
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Monday's Missing Link is over the fold. A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill Politics Australian Ralph Buttigieg, believing Brendan Nelson's day...
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It's good to see that Melbourne academic Paul Mees continues to fight the good fight for rational public transport policy, unbowed by the disgraceful actions of his employer the University of Melbourne in recently demoting him at the behest of the Victorian government . In an...
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Well-being isn't just about our relationship with things, it's also about our relationships with each other. Poverty hurts, not just because it can leave you feeling hungry, cold and sick, but because it can also leave you feeling ignored, excluded and ashamed. In The Theory o...
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As Dan Herman argues , Governments using blogs is no big deal. They typically use them as new places to post press releases. Then again, that's better than nothing as the informality of blogs allows much more frequent posting so research agencies like the Congressional Budget...
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I've just finished reading Dancing with Strangers, which I've read in fits and starts because of lack of time. I'm still too busy to write a decent review, but no doubt you can find them if you look. The book was showered with praise on its release a few years ago. Rightly so....
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Sandy Levinson comments on recently deceased senior American political journalist Tim Russert: David Remnick has a very fine comment on Russert in this week's New Yorker . He notes, among other things, Russert's thorough preparation for his interviews and his desire to make ne...
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Is it just me or do other Troppo readers appreciate the irony (or rank hypocrisy depending on your level of cynicism) of the main exponents and proselytisers of fairness and equality in our society apparently applying a completely double standard, when it comes to their own re...
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Friday's edition over the fold. A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill Politics Australian I think the second one is LBJ but who's the third? Jim...
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Thursday's edition over the fold. A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill Politics Australian John Quiggin and Gary Sauer-Thompson look at the stat...
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Quite a dancer! HT The incomparable Kathy G .
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Wednesday's edition over the fold. A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill Politics Australian Tim Dunlop notes the AMA's bailing out of backing/pa...
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If you're interested in social policy and have a strong commitment to social justice then here's a job you might be interested in. Catholic Social Services Australia is looking for a new policy officer . CSSA is looking for an appropriately qualified and experienced person to:...
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Tuesday's edition over the fold. A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill Politics Australian The Missing Link team feels that we should complete th...
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Monday's edition over the fold. A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill Politics Australian (From Worst of Perth ) Can this gallery expect a visit...
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In a marginal note to Missing Link the other day, I expressed the view that Jason Soon and Helen Dale's advocacy for the LDP's Negative Income Tax + abolition of minimum wage policy was "persuasive". And so it was at first glance. Despite my frequently scathing remarks about e...
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At the local Rapid Creek Market this morning I gave Kevin Rudd two tomatoes. I have never given tomatoes to anyone, ever before - such is the seductive power of fame. My grandfather used to give us homegrown tomatoes - by the barrel at certain times of year. These ones were 'l...
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..Looks like a quiet night. I need to get something off my chest. I have just received a notice from the Juries Commission in Victoria that I am wanted for jury service. It's one of the letters a busy person dreads. You cannot get out of it, even by paying a fine. And they are...
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill Politics Australian Phillip Toledanos new book Phone Sex (July 2008, Twin Palms) takes us into the boudoirs...
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Cyclists are an oppressed minority. Car drivers resent cyclists on the road, and pedestrians resent us on the footpaths, even when they're designated cycleways as well. On the same ride I've been told aggressively to get off the road and use the footpath by a car driver, and t...
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill Politics Australian The hero. The leader. The god by Alexandre Kosolapov (via the Stumblng Tumblr ) Gary Sa...
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QUT researcher Axel Bruns (presumably along with usual colleagues Jason Wilson and Barry Saunders) has just published some new quantitative research about blogs which contains some interesting results. He/they undertook a textual analysis of 3 prominent blogs with somewhat div...
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An earlier version of this story in the Fairfax press seemed to be trying to beat up a spurious Aussie versus Kiwi stoush by highlighting some obscure survey purporting to show that Auckland was in the world's top 10 most liveable cities whereas Sydney and Melbourne both misse...
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Why is it do you think that jurors playing Sudoku during a criminal trial amounts to a miscarriage of justice sufficient to abort a trial but it's perfectly OK for a judge to fall asleep and snore?
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill Politics Australian We should be thankful for the small mercy that Tim Blair at least doesn't seem to belie...
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill Politics Australian Should we be worried? (via Boing Boing ) Lauredhel and Fiona Reynolds discuss the absur...
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I recently bought an ultra-portable computer which seems pretty good. It's an ASUS U2E. The installation of Windows Vista has given me new reasons to hate Microsoft, but I won't go on about that here. (I have uninstalled Office 2007 as 2003 is better and I'm seriously consider...
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I've long regarded writing a letter to the editor of a newspaper as a rather sad and futile exercise. Far better to post on your own blog, where at least you're only inflicting your opinions on genuinely consenting adults with similar obsessions. However, I couldn't resist sen...
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill Politics Australian Luvvies, but not Albert Finney playing Hamlet ( via Laura ) The inaugural downunder fem...
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One particularly lamentable aspect of 'he said - she said' reporting (and this is in an all lamentable range of phenomena) is that things don't exist for the media until they've been mentioned by someone sufficiently senior in a mainstream political hierarchy. Thus journalists...
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The YouTube service for slides has just been launched . I'm not entirely sure of the point of it, since one can post a powerpoint slide show on a web in ppt and it will be indexed by Google for the words (and for all I know the images) in it. So it can be found and viewed - in...
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It's a little surprising that, outside the RWDB blogs, virtually no attention has so far been paid to the current trial of Canadian right wing pundit Mark Steyn on (effectively) religious vilification proceedings by the British Columbia Human Rights Commission. Admittedly it's...
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On my way through page three of Gintis's reviews I came across a fascinating and disgruntled review of Krugman's Conscience of a Liberal . What's interesting is that as Gintis subsequently makes clear in comments, he's an ideological friend of Krugman's who nevertheless thinks...
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The more assiduous of those in the Tropposphere may have noticed Fred Argy by his absence in the last few weeks on this blog. Fred went to hospital for an operation and is recovering well. I've just spoken to him and wished him well. I hope he'll be back to his usual thoughtfu...
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There are two kids' games that are very gendered not so much in their gendered content as we understand the genders, but in their appeal to boys and girls. The first I observed in my daughter when she was in early primary school. It's routines that involve the mutual clapping...
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As I've said before, I'm a big admirer of Herbert Gintis - at least as part of the duo of Gintis and Bowles who wrote the marvellous essay " Is equality passe " and has a string of books and great articles to his name. His project is to develop the implications of what Gintis...
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill Politics Australian Terry Sedgwick notes the loaded language in this headline announcing the predictable le...
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The Elite Diner in Urbana, Illinois just before it closed down ( via Flickr ) Some readers might have noticed that I occasionally add sidenotes to Missing Link querying why elitism seems to be such a dirty word for Australians (and probably Americans as well). I haven't to dat...
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill Politics Australian One for nostalgic codgers like me (KP) - Paul McCartney performing "A Day in the Life"...
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill Politics Australian via Larvatus Prodeo Tim Blair has been doing some sleuthing on the rumours that Kevin R...
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In a post I wish I'd written, Robin Hanson lists a series of unjustified presumptions readers of political opinion pieces (especially blog posts) often make. In my fairly long experience of attempting to discuss issues in the blogosphere and trying to make my meaning as clear...
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill Politics Australian Apathetic Sarah imagines John Macarthur as a supporter of Camden's charming Kate McCull...
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill Politics Australian Liberal politician Sophie Mirabella and demon spawn imagined (and explained) by Apathet...
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Last Thursday I rang a phone number to book a taxi. It isn't the normal number. It's the mobile number of Neil the taxi driver. Neil is a good fellow and many years ago - when I was at the Productivity Commission - I became aware of Neil's service. He runs a 'ring' of taxi dri...
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