https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW_IPF2GSpw As part of a new policy, I'm going to post stuff I've published on my substack here where it's substantial enough, or where I want to be able to link to it without the distraction of all the other stuff I pack into my weekly substack...
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It's here, the booklet I am sure you have all been waiting for. The one which Gigi Foster and Michael Baker slaved over for 10 months . It is also on Kindle . It is dedicated to all the victims of the Panic, in poor countries and rich countries. They include our children, the...
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[caption id="attachment_34804" align="alignleft" width="1920"] Thanks to @followbenwhite for making this photo available freely on @unsplash 🎁[/caption] Troppodillians will know that I organise a discount Crikey subscription every year. But this year I'm also supporting Inkl ,...
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I've known Dennis Glover since we were both staffers in Parliament during the Hawke-Keating years (I was there in 1981, 83-4 and 1991-3 until just after the 'sweetest victory of all' in 1993 which with hindsight I wish John Hewson had won as it would have kept in-tact Australi...
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Some time ago I was written to by an Australian University asking me to become an Adjunct Professor in Journalism. This is an honorary position so, (paradoxically) it's not much of an honour! In any event, this is how the letter I received begins. The University’s 2012-2016 St...
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Lateral Economics has had occasion to compile a list of free, freemium and cheap services to help run your one person micro or several person small business. I post it here for your interest and because it may be useful to you. The latest service I discovered to my delight was...
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As I've argued elsewhere, most public debates on policy - and I suspect on pretty much everything else - tend to take place as culture wars. In a culture war the 'sides' are well defined - usually mapping pretty well onto 'left' and 'right' terrain. The identities of the vario...
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https://youtu.be/sXlmF3eI9R0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcEfKovFzf0 The earlier ad was removed from YouTube. It was even schlockier than the second one I've put up here, but until I can find the other one again, it will now have to do. So are we here at Troppo - not to me...
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Woolies and its marketers plumb the depths of vileness. Apparently they've taken it down with a delicious non-apology. It "regretted" it had caused offence. File next to corporate pedophilia under "The banality of corporate exploitation". Anyway, it's a worthy subject for a co...
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From the latest Journal of Economic Perspectives Fair trade coffee is a cup half full, according to Raluca Dragusanu, Daniele Giovannucci, and Nathan Nunn in “The Economics of Fair Trade” (Summer 2014, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 217–36). We are not persuaded. The authors barely menti...
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Well folks, my bright idea of a link isn't working. We need 50 subscribers to qualify for the lowest price subscription to Crikey and so far only 30 people have made their way to the link and subscribed. And here's the crisis. For everyone to get the lowest price, we need 50 s...
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The people at Abbotsford Convent asked me to pen a 'shout' for their fundraising campaign. I'd recently been on a tour of the place, and though I'd been there before and wandered around curiously, on the tour I was transported by a Big Idea, though those who've read my stuff h...
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Yes folks it's on again. The Annual Crikey Group Subscription. It's from this modest beginning that we funded Troppo's now world renowned garage of vehicles from the famed "Dave Sorenson" Mercedes Benz Sports which seems to spend more time at the panel beaters than on the road...
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It's on again folks - or at least I've started to receive emails about it from you people. The incredible Troppo Crikey Sub. I've not been able to find, on a quick search, the savings on a one year subscription, but if you can give us the link, please do so in comments. We typ...
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Campaigners seem to be having some success in raising the profile of writers and others giving away the product of their labour for free. The first time I ran into this issue in any big way was in launching the Government 2.0 Taskforce with a design competition. The prize? The...
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OK, this post will stick, irritatingly, to the top of the front page for this week to let you all know that I'll be sending off the Crikey subs soon. One reason for the reminder is that I'm surprised that I've received less interest this year - is Crikey sliding in popularity?...
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More here if you're interested.
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I'm not much of a fan of giving to wealthy causes. Like private schools for the well healed. I was asked to attend an interview to see if I'd go on the Council of my daughter's private school - which I said I would. I was then asked if I was Jewish (it's an Anglican School) an...
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I tend to avoid business class even when entitled to it except for overnight flights, but being entitled to business class travel on a government board the computer always requires me to explain myself. And though it has an option where you can say that you're entitled to fly...
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Here is this pesky subscription drive at the top of Troppo again. I'll pull it down in the next few days. But OFFERS END FRIDAY 17th Feb!! It's on again folks. Crikey subscribers on the group subscription I organise have begun getting presubscription emails. Whether you are a...
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A friend of mine, and a great contributor to Australian public policy, Mike Waller, a man who sketched out Australian competition policy on a single page and fed it up the line as an FAS in PM&C in the late 80s (or perhaps it was 1990), has wrenched himself from the policy sce...
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Look at this graph of the great tectonic shifts brought about by the GFC. Securitisation collapsed as a form of funding, and those in the official family ran round doling out gold plated assistance like free government guarantees to our banks (and next to nothing for our secur...
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PoD84TVdD-4 I know you're all on the edges of your seats about how Kaggle is going. The answer is "very well". We've just announced the closure of Series A funding. And you can read all about it in the New York Times , the...
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I'm pleased to say that we have taken possession of several container loads of these items which Ken has suggested using as prizes instead of the Troppo Mercedes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=V3G1cwqYkO4
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I've just got back from the USA and whilst there bought a SIM card for $60 which entitled me to one month's free calls throughout the US to mobiles and landlines and to landlines in other countries including Oz. Oh - and unlimited data - though not very fast after the first 10...
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A while ago I blegged in search of a new smart phone. Well disposed to Android I thought I'd buy Samsung Gallaxy II S which had had rave reviews . Anyway, some people expressed curiosity about how things would end up, but I ended up taking Neerav Bhatt's advice on the thread a...
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If anyone wants to come to an event put on by the Australian Business Foundation and Deloitte, on the new R&D Tax Credit - they can come along to an event in Melbourne this Friday. Details are below the fold. The new R&D: the future of innovation and development in Australian...
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I'm thrilled to say that we raised over $30,000 for Africa. Troppo itself initially raised a little over $2,000 to which would have been matched the contribution I'd promised, but in the last day I also said to the fund raisers that if they could get some more funds in by refe...
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My first smartphone was an Apple iPhone. I'm rather proud of being a technology laggard - it's nice to have others at the bleeding edge. Anyway, just before doing the Govt 2.0 Taskforce I thought I'd better get a bit hip and get a smart-phone and only one appealed - the iPhone...
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIDo1Oug6JY&feature=player_embedded Last Christmas, instead of sending gifts to its clients, the multi-billion dollar conglomerate that is Peach Home Loans sent them donations to Women for Women in Africa in lieu thereof. I found out about it bec...
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Yes, folks. It's that time again. Crikey are reminding me that it's time for your group subscriptions. If you've already got one through me, I'll be shooting you an email to find out if you want to repeat the dose. We got sixty subscriptions last year so got to the maximum dis...
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Once upon a time, masterclasses were things that were put on by people who were obviously masters at their trade. A masterclass was put on by someone whose technique everyone admired even if there might be inevitable disagreements about taste and artistry. World renowned music...
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Yes folks as part of our relentless drive to leverage our world class infrastructure and skills to bring our readers to their personal delight point - and beyond, Subho Banerjee of PM&C emailed me (amongst others to tell me of the opportunities below). He assured me that anyon...
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Books at 30% off in Borders - here .
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And why not? I wonder what his golf handicap is.
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OK, it's a little bit rich and it's not any of its owners. Kaggle has just given away a netbook for an idea for a data competition which we intend to host. How easy was that? Will you be next? Prizes, Prizes, Prizes, out they go. Below is my post on Kaggle: Here at Kaggle we d...
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Here's an email I received from the Brotherhood of St Lawrence, disclosing an event that I'd like to go to, but won't be able to. But some Troppodillian may wish to go. ‘War Child’ film tells the story of Emmanuel Jal: a child of war in Sudan, a boy soldier, a survivor, a refu...
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Web 2.0 is proving very adept at finding needles in haystacks that we couldn’t have found before. Netflix is a company which rents videos and which relies on the ability of its algorithm to predict what movies you’re going to like from the ranking you’ve given past movies. Giv...
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Well, I probably won't be there, but I must say this is coooool. Very cool. An auction of old old radios . They're little bundles of nostalgia these little guys. What about this one! Or perhaps you'd like it in blue. Blue we can do. Joel's, the auctioneer reckons they'll go fo...
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Hi all, I was going to take a breather from the crikey annual group subscription this year, but couldn't help myself. I'm beleaguered with people asking me if I'm doing it again. Because it's not hard to do I'm doing it again. Please email requests to join in with your name an...
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[caption id="attachment_9654" align="alignleft" width="180" caption="This coupon available for books about rabbits (and for other books)"] [/caption]
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I'm sitting in a queue waiting for a Tiger plane from Melbourne to Perth. There's a good chance you'll not get on the plane if you don't arrive 45 minutes early. They're a budget airline you see. Well this is all very well, but in a thin market like ours when they often have f...
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Chartered Secretaries Australia are putting on a show called a Public Sector Update in which I'm talking on Public Sector Innovation under the unnecessarily pessimistic title of "Can innovation in the public sector exist?" How to harness your intrinsic motivation to drive inno...
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Well bargain hunters fresh from your kills at Borders (they don't stand a chance when you've got those Troppo coupons in your hand) have we got a deal for you? The entire autobiography of Ben Franklin read by Ben himself. OK, well I lied about that last bit, it's really Greg H...
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This man is Dave Bloustien. Why should you be interested? Because you will always remember this man's face as the first sign that being a reader of Club Troppo made you an insider , somone in the know and on the money . Yes, folks, due to our extraordinary buying power, our pu...
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Learn out loud sells and gives away spoken books and other things. And they are giving away an MP3 reading of Kafka's Metamorphosis . I have no idea if the reading is any good.
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In an earlier colum n I outlined the problems of the cognitively challenged 'Tania'. Tania is not cognitively challenged because she's stupid. She is cognitively challenged because impossible demands are made on her cognitive faculties. That's what I argued with regard to the...
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Meet Nikita McBride. She's the daughter of friends of mine - Ken McBryde and Stephanie Smith who are the co-founders of the wonderful architecture firm Innovarchi . Nikita has recently been diagnosed with juvenile diabetes type 1. In January 2009 she's participating in the Juv...
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And if you tell them that Troppo sent you you can have as many books you want for free. (Note: you may be required to perform the Troppodillian secret handshake.)
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