just thought Id drop in here and offer a heads-up for Troppo readers that ABC will be re-broadcasting the first three series of The Wire on ABC2 at 9:30.
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World Cup is of and running, and with the opening games we have already had a taste of some of the teams from around globe, which has sent body-clocks adjusting to a new form of nocturnal existence as thousands of viewers patiently wade through the early hours of mornings hopi...
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It may not seem that long ago that John Aloisi planted that penalty in the top-right corner of the net to send the Socceroos through to their first World Cup finals in thirty-two years. And with the kick-off of the World Cup in Germany now only six weeks away, how much can we...
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With election results expected to be released shortly I am not at all optimistic about the chances of free and fair elections in Zimbabwe. But hopefully I will be proven wrong and The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) will succeed in overthrowing the ruling ZANU-PF governme...
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American playwright Arthur Miller has passed away at the age of 89. A writer who helped shape the face of American theatre, Miller's voice will be a continual presence for many generations to come and will probably remain on the HSC curriculum for many more years. Like many sc...
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Published in both of Fairfax broadsheets this morning are Op-Ed articles by John Laughland , which attempt to provide the most generous spin possible for the Yanukovich government in Ukraine. Surprisingly this article was sourced from the Guardian , the same newspaper that pub...
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With so much commentary on the upcoming contest between "Ease the Squeeze" and "Be Inert and Embalmed" I thought I'd shift attention to Scandinavia where once again a decision will be shortly announced for the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. If I were not so time-p...
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JOHN HOWARD CANBERRA PRESS CONFERENCE 13:02 AM 12/8/04 HOWARD: I'd to thank you for all coming . I would like to discuss the spirit of the FTA which the leader of the opposition has so heinously ridiculed showing his anti-American and anti-religious fervour. Now we had quite d...
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The Hon. MICHAEL COSTA: This censure motion is a joke, just like everything else that Opposition members do in this House. I have absolute contempt for Opposition members because they are lazy, they do not produce policies and they do not do their homework. That is why I have...
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Gummo Trotsky has a delightful recollection of a particularly teacher who we have probably all encountered in some form, in some class, which has sent memories flooding back to the daze of secondary school. One such teacher I can recall was a science teacher who used to swing...
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According to the Guardian Football's most senior administrator attracted the wrath of the women's game last night by suggesting female players wear tighter shorts to promote "a more female aesthetic". Sepp Blatter, the president of the world governing body Fifa, said women sho...
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You're Bhutan! With the body of a gnat and the mind of a dragon, you are a bundle of energy. You enjoy mountain-climbing, rock-climbing, stair-climbing, pretty much any kind of climbing you can manage. This has lifted you into the clouds in more than one way, helping you achie...
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In his usual idiosyncratic fashion J.M. Coetzee has orated his Nobel Lecture through the persona of Robinson Crusoe. With great plagues, decoy ducks, parrots and mutliple Defoe references Coetzee weaves a fascinating tale of isolation, unease and confused identity. Worth a rea...
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Its just three weeks from Christmas so I thought I'd help those news organisations with a few ole trusty news angles that appear every Christmas. Early this month we had a new variation with Cocaine Christmas cards from Chile , which I believe would provide a new style of seas...
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The votes are in the ABC's search for Australia's favourite book , and the winner according to the voting public is Tim Winton's 'Cloudstreet'. Now, these lists may only be useful for conjecture, and I think like most lists, this one also tends to favour the more recently publ...
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Congratulations to J.M. Coetzee for winning the 2003 Nob(el)le Prize of literature. Of course, being a Nostradamus-like figure that I am, he was one of the four writers I highlighted for the Noble gong last year, (even if I couldn't spell his name.) When I have a spare moment,...
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I'll let the man in black speak "I hear the train a comin'; it's rollin' 'round the bend, And I ain't seen the sunshine since I don't know when. I'm stuck at Folsom Prison and time keeps draggin' on. But that train keeps rollin' on down to San Antone. When I was just a baby, m...
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From the transcript of last-night's Lateline -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TONY JONES: Except of course Al Qaeda, for example, would still have safe and quite prolific training camps and bases inside Afghanistan wh...
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CNNNN tonight had a hilarious episode in which the immutable backbencher Alan Cadman challenged for the Liberal leadership, which is an amusing enough as a stand-alone scenario. In a wonderful parody of the navel-gazing speculations of the press gallery, Cadman entered the pic...
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Yet another grand conspiracy, just a fortnight ago it was the firebrand from Ipswich who seemed to fail to recognise a political party is more than a cult of personality. This time its Outdoor Recreation Party 4WD-greenie-anti-grennie-friend of the worker-master of the mystica...
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Matt Price always a master at reporting the shenanigans at Parliament House has a short article in the Sunday Telegraph, which I stumbled upon by accident. The story focused on the Senate vote to increase the printing allowance of every MP to $150,000. You might recall that Pe...
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This month's Atlantic includes an interesting piece by Christopher Hitchens on Edward Said's Orientalism , which is being re-released with an updated introduction. As Hitchens points out Said's upbringing was ideal in allowing him to traduce the conceptions of several cultures...
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One knows not to question the wisdom of the Delphic seers , those voices of prescience whose cryptic counsels were so poorly interpreted by their clientele. Whether that be poor ole King Polydectes who was warned he would be killed by his foster-son or some other glutton for a...
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Second instalment of an extended allegorical cricketing yarn, begun as a comment to the post Australia's worst government? : Well we've just come back from drinks, and there's little new to report. Adding to the scoreboard we have been a couple wides after a wayward over from...
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