From my Substack newsletter . Extraordinary images are being detected within the early pictures taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. As you know, the JWST went in search of exoplanets. Anyway at about the same time I was seeking an AI artist to illustrate the phenomenon of...
Continue reading →
I've recently completed an essay and like quite a few of my essays, it's not been 'optimised' for publication in a magazine, so I may not try to publish it. But in case any folks here think it's of interest, they need only put their email in comments below or email me and I'll...
Continue reading →
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...
Continue reading →
Posted in Politics - national, Politics - international, Life, Philosophy, Print media, History, Humour, Education, Literature, Society, Religion, Theatre, IT and Internet, Economics and public policy, Terror, Science, Journalism, Media, Libertarian Musings, Health, Political theory, Law, Dance, Review, Bargains, Travel, WOW! - Amazing, Social, Parenting, Ethics, Medical, Public and Private Goods, Death and taxes, Inequality, Social Policy, Democracy, Employment, Sortition and citizens’ juries, Isegoria, Coronavirus crisis
[caption id="attachment_35167" align="alignright" width="345"] The graphic from the nifty NYT review. [/caption] On the strength of nothing more than the fact that it's Audible's free book of the month, I've started listening to Midnight's library. It's fun and engaging. I'll...
Continue reading →
Societies are evolving and complex, which often makes it hard to see at any moment where things are going. It was thus with the move of Northern European countries towards democracy in the 19 th century, which seems inevitable and clear in hindsight but blurred at the time by...
Continue reading →
Posted in History, Humour, Education, Theatre, IT and Internet, Geeky Musings, Climate Change, Business, Immigration and refugees, bubble, Social, Bullshit, Employment
Consider three graphs that really on their own tell the story of the groups in the US/UK that did well and that did badly economically out of the lockdowns. On the super-rich : On the workers , particularly the bottom 25% (meaning those who in their characteristics like educat...
Continue reading →
I have been a utilitarian for about 30 years now and am seen in my academic work as an extreme version of the genre. I did my Phd on the topic . I do not merely say that governments should make policy for the benefit of the wellbeing of the population, but have spent years in...
Continue reading →
Posted in Life, Philosophy, History, Humour, Society, Religion, Economics and public policy, Science, Geeky Musings, Dance, Social, Parenting, Ethics, Cultural Critique, Death and taxes, Personal, Social Policy, Democracy
I am co-writing a book on the Great Panic to explain what happened and what can be done to avoid a repeat. In the course of our research for that book, me and co-authors are scouring websites in the rest of the world to find out how others in the Covistance have experienced th...
Continue reading →
An important rule in politics is that you adopt the best policies and slogans of your opponent only after you have destroyed that opponent. Till that moment you pretend he is the devil, but afterwards you re-label his best ideas and call them your own. A great Australian examp...
Continue reading →
Posted in Politics - international, Humour, Economics and public policy, Geeky Musings, Health, Social, Cultural Critique, Death and taxes, Social Policy, Democracy, Coronavirus crisis
2020 was certainly a roller coaster for a social scientist, full of surprises. Let me not once again bemoan the increasingly coordinated attack on all sources of vitality in Western civilisation, but look ahead and openly wonder about what 2021 will bring in terms of 7 specifi...
Continue reading →
Posted in Uncategorized, Politics - national, Politics - international, Humour, IT and Internet, Economics and public policy, Science, Social, Cultural Critique, Medical, Social Policy, Democracy, Coronavirus crisis
How will Western historians in 2050 remember 2020? In scenario 1, "The Great Panic, a lost generation", I sketch my best guess. Scenario 2, "A job well done" is the one I imagine many current Western governments hope is told. Scenario 3, "The dark path of the Great Panic", is...
Continue reading →
Posted in Politics - national, Politics - international, Life, Philosophy, History, Humour, Society, Libertarian Musings, Geeky Musings, Health, Dance, Innovation, Cultural Critique, Public and Private Goods, Social Policy, Coronavirus crisis
Those who already in March foretold the folly of lockdowns and social distancing did not dream we'd still be in the same place after 7 months. Only slowly has it dawned that the panic would become an enduring business model . For a long time, we believed sanity would soon prev...
Continue reading →
Posted in Politics - national, History, Humour, Science, Geeky Musings, Health, Dance, Cultural Critique, Death and taxes, Democracy, Coronavirus crisis
One can tell many stories of how current times resemble some earlier historical period. The conflict between nationalism and internationalism, as personified by the controversies surrounding Brexit and Trump, has been seen as somewhat of a re-run of the conflict between fascis...
Continue reading →
Some of you may have noticed a Twitter account called ' Sarhanis '. In any event, Antonios Sarhanis is its proprietor and we got to talking on Twitter and discovered that we shared various maladies. He's interested in philosophy but pretty unimpressed with the way it's handled...
Continue reading →
If you, like me, believe our collective hysteria is needlessly causing the world tens of millions of deaths and enormous unhappiness , you surely need a bit of humour to keep going. So let’s view the whole crisis via a different lens and share the brilliance of UK government c...
Continue reading →
The management of the University of Queensland, and in particular Peter Hoj and Peter Varghese, stand condemned today by the international media, by both Labor and Liberal politicians, by both left-wing and right-wing Australians, by its own students, and by the powerful pro-...
Continue reading →
Well, certainly wearing a mask walking down the streets of Melbourne makes no sense at all Brendan Murphy, Australia’s Chief Medical Officer, March 9 . The philosopher Mary Midgley styles her own writing as that of a critic. She means something urgent by this – not something A...
Continue reading →
We're constantly in team meetings here in the underground bunker at Club Troppo working out how to tweak the linkbait. An edict has already been passed down the line from the AI that runs the place that no posts will be published on anything but Coronavirus for the next six mo...
Continue reading →
Let's first agree that if Trump is a blessing in disguise for world peace, he makes an exceptionally good disguise. Trump's bark is probably the worst of any US president in living memory. He has threatened the total destruction of North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, and probably a...
Continue reading →
If these kinds of things existed in my country, I wouldn’t need to be running for President to fix everything up. Elizabeth Warren The only thing that didn't leave a nasty taste in my mouth last year was the food. Barry the hypothetical troll from last year (He's been debunked...
Continue reading →
Delivered at Melbourne University, Friday 19th July, 2019 and cross posted at The Mandarin . Welcome to the launch of another book by Australia’s most overachieving economist. A global authority on decision theory, he also publishes in the daily press, in submissions to govern...
Continue reading →
The probability of a massive nuclear war the next 10 years between any of the 8 current nuclear powers (US, UK, France, Russia, India, Pakistan, NK, Israel) seems low. The bluster of the leaders is supposed to make the threat look a bit bigger than it is in order to get negoti...
Continue reading →
Posted in Politics - national, Politics - international, Life, Philosophy, Environment, History, Humour, Education, Literature, Society, Religion, IT and Internet, Terror, Science, Geeky Musings, Health, Climate Change, Ask Troppo's Love Gods, Dance, Space, Chess, Social, Ethics, Cultural Critique, Death and taxes, Democracy
As Orwell put it “there are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them.” At least in economics one of the things that sets up intellectuals for this is the way so much of their discipline seeks to get 'below' the level of immediate intuition to something...
Continue reading →
The Donald is visiting the UK and has had me in stitches a whole day. He's clearly been having a chat with Nigel Farage about how to handle the Conservatives and has shown them up in spectacular fashion. Theresa May, bless her, was of course in an impossible position. She undo...
Continue reading →
In all ways that we measure these things, physical violence has reduced in Western countries in the last 70 years, particularly mainland Western Europe. What about psychological violence though? Psychological violence, ie the inflicting of mental pain, takes many forms. It inc...
Continue reading →
Posted in Life, Philosophy, History, Miscellaneous, Humour, Education, Society, Religion, regulation, Media, Libertarian Musings, Health, Social, Parenting, Ethics, Cultural Critique, Public and Private Goods, Inequality, Personal
Brexit is the main political issue in the UK, competing with sex for the attention of the public. It is a daily gamble whether the news headline is about some politician fondling a knee 55 years ago or a row over Brexit. For the last 18 months, the debate in London has been su...
Continue reading →
https://youtu.be/PX4B6e0wnV8 Above is my presentation to CEDA's Outlook conference in Brisbane a couple of weeks ago. I came after a McKinsey's consultant talking about digital disruption which is always a fun thing to present or listen to because there are lots of 'wow' momen...
Continue reading →
Anglo-Saxon countries are often heaped together as having a single culture. When it comes to migration, attitudes to sex, teenage-pregnancy, inequality, language, and bellicosity, that seems about right. At least, the UK, the US, and Australia are pretty close on those scores....
Continue reading →
Posted in Politics - national, Politics - international, History, Humour, Libertarian Musings, Geeky Musings, bubble, Ethics, Cultural Critique, Bullshit, Indigenous
National history is the story that binds ‘us who make up the nation’ into a single entity with a collective memory . It has a purpose and as such we can choose what historical events and realities to put into that story, whilst forgetting the rest. Of the four main current con...
Continue reading →
Posted in Politics - national, Life, History, Humour, Society, Geeky Musings, Social, Race and indigenous, Ethics, Cultural Critique, Death and taxes, Democracy, Indigenous
Sometimes, it feels like 1910 all over again. Then, a confident Germany was the up-and-coming industrial power house, fearing an even more up-and-coming Russia, with the UK and France desperately holding on to their colonial empires. Now, a confident China is the up-and-coming...
Continue reading →
Posted in Politics - national, Politics - international, Philosophy, Environment, History, Miscellaneous, Humour, Society, Religion, Sport-general, Theatre, Music, Economics and public policy, Science, regulation, Gender, Journalism, Media, Geeky Musings, Climate Change, Political theory, Business, Travel, Immigration and refugees, Information, Intellectual Monopoly Privileges, Innovation, Social, Race and indigenous, Ethics, Cultural Critique, Public and Private Goods, Death and taxes, Inequality, Social Policy, Democracy, Bullshit, Indigenous, Employment
The #MeToo flood of stories of women who feel abused by men – ranging from lurid stares to straightforward rape – seems like a disaster to me for the Democrats. Not because of the stories themselves, but because of how the progressive media and commentators have reacted to it....
Continue reading →
Posted in Life, Philosophy, Miscellaneous, Humour, Religion, IT and Internet, Gender, Media, Libertarian Musings, Health, Law, Information, bubble, Social, Cultural Critique, Bullshit
Looking at the newspapers you’d think Catholicism is having a hard time with philandering priests and cover-ups of their doings being found out on a weekly basis. In Australia, the royal commission has uncovered a lot of systematically covered-up child abuse in the Catholic Ch...
Continue reading →
Posted in Politics - international, History, Miscellaneous, Humour, Society, Religion, Art and Architecture, Libertarian Musings, Geeky Musings, Dance, WOW! - Amazing, Ethics, Cultural Critique, Death and taxes, Bullshit
In Memoriam: Bill Craven [1. On Marnie Hughes-Warrington from ANU's History Department tweeting this address, I sent her an email as follows: Subject: Seeking to contact Bill Craven Hi Marnie, Thanks for your tweet to my speech on RG Collingwood. I’ve always wanted to write to...
Continue reading →
Let me indulge, purely for entertainment value, in some fan-speculation on what we will see on-screen after the Long Night is over and the final 6 episodes Of Game of Thrones are run in 2019. Let me first talk about the end-game aspects I think the books and the tv-series seem...
Continue reading →
Posted in Uncategorized, Uncategorised, Politics - international, Life, Philosophy, Print media, Environment, History, Miscellaneous, Humour, Education, Literature, Society, Religion, Films and TV, Sport-general, Theatre, Music, IT and Internet, Economics and public policy, Food, Terror, Science, Art and Architecture, regulation, Gender, Journalism, Media, Libertarian Musings, Geeky Musings, Health, Climate Change, Political theory, Metablogging, Law, Dance, Space, Review, Startup, Products, Travel, Immigration and refugees, Information, bubble, WOW! - Amazing, Social, Parenting, Race and indigenous, Ethics, Cultural Critique, Medical, Public and Private Goods, Death and taxes, Inequality, Personal, Social Policy, Democracy, Bullshit, Indigenous, Employment
Troppo is getting ready for the singularity. That's the period during which Ken, Don, David and I put our feet up and Troppo just runs itself with KenBot, DonBot, DavidBot and MeBot doing all the work. Commenters put their feet up too and just pig out on scones, cream and zero...
Continue reading →
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_7h0TzqFA8 I'm a big fan of Colin Hay, whom I saw on stage for the first time about three years ago. Hilariously funny and great songs. I particularly like "It's a beautiful world". The video above is a good clip showing how funny he is. It's i...
Continue reading →
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...
Continue reading →
ClubTroppo chief executive Nicholas Gruen - who was criticised by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for his imaginary $5.6 million salary - has resigned from the job after seven years. Mr Gruen, who began the job in his own mind long, long ago, tendered his resignation to the Cl...
Continue reading →
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmOvEwtDycs] Here at Troppo we have referred to the 'Yes Minister series' many times because of its brilliant commentary on the timeless issues of government, exemplified in the skit above. I have gone through three phases with the serie...
Continue reading →
Posted in Life, Philosophy, Humour, Society, Economics and public policy, Journalism, Libertarian Musings, Geeky Musings, Political theory, Review, Ethics, Cultural Critique, Democracy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-4FQAov2xI Being a 'young country' as we keep congratulating ourselves, we seem free of some of the greater absurdities of the Old World. Then again there's at least something to be said for them. Having a kind of Monty Python show as your Head...
Continue reading →
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNfGyIW7aHM From BCG's latest set of instructions : In grappling with organization design, company executives tend to draw on two venerable approaches, which can be characterized as the “hard” approach and the “soft” approach. . . . Both approac...
Continue reading →
If Rex can give us his guide to Gravitational Waves - a very impressive performance I have to say, then I can dust off an old document from my days at the ANU law school - in the late 1980s. Concept Split: Shockwaves Shock waves spread from the policy making community through...
Continue reading →
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyfUu_fNQfM Well folks after a gruelling (if largely imaginary) 24 hour period haggling with other Troppmeisters, I'm pleased to announce Troppo's unanimous support for The Donald for President of the Greatest Country on Earth. We were locked in...
Continue reading →
Are these cartoons racist? I have little doubt they are. They're also cartoons that take a stand against violence against women. I guess they're racist (in a bad way - or in the way that we generally take to be a bad way) because they present people in a very unattractive ligh...
Continue reading →
Yes, folks flying high above the Pacific Ocean (which as Woody Allen's father concedes to his mother is a worse ocean than the Atlantic Ocean) I took in the final episode of the History Chanel's "Sons of Liberty" a mini-series about the American Revolution. I go for historical...
Continue reading →
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...
Continue reading →
https://youtu.be/I4dglIt77Tc I expect l ots of Troppodillians will know of Stewart Lee - the guy in the video above - given how good I reckon he is, but I'd never heard of him until, at the beginning of the Easter weekend YouTube noticed I'd been checking comedians out to deci...
Continue reading →
I just came across this hilarious story . Trying to rescue Naomi Campbell from the overzealous attentions of Mike Tyson, the Oxford philosopher A J “Freddie” Ayer – according to Ben Rogers, his biographer – inserted himself between the boxer and the supermodel. “Do you know wh...
Continue reading →
http://vimeo.com/108138933
Continue reading →
The pride of man makes him love to domineer, and nothing mortifies him so much as to be obliged to condescend to persuade his inferiors. Wherever the law allows it, and the nature of the work can afford it, therefore, he will generally prefer the service of slaves to that of f...
Continue reading →
Delivered for your amusement - if not necessarily mine: :) This conversation took around 15 minutes as I was working on other things. Thank you for choosing Optus. Please wait for a site operator to respond. Optus has a privacy policy, please let your consultant know if you wo...
Continue reading →
French economist Thomas Piketty has been picking up a lot of attention in the rest of the English speaking world – well mainly the US – thanks to the publication of an English translation of his recent book Capital in the 21 st Century . Never heard of him? Don't fret about it...
Continue reading →
Lamest April Fools' Day joke so far today . There must be better efforts out there. Just post 'em as you find 'em. Please. I could use a bit of ROFLMAO today. Update (9:41 EDST) : I wish I'd taken a screen shot. The current version of the linked post seems to me to have had so...
Continue reading →
By clicking on the image you will be taken to the full demonstration of Brand *Santa* which has certainly impressed us here at Troppo. And I would like to take this opportunity on everyone's behalf to offer everyone else Seasons Greetings.
Continue reading →
Hoist from archives for a brief re-appearance. [caption id="attachment_24972" align="alignright" width="350"] A value we hold dear at Troppo - what's there not to like about being open and authentic? A Christmas Season message from Troppo[/caption] A Troppo community service:...
Continue reading →
Do countries that are already rich become even happier when they become yet richer? This was the essential question on which I entered a gentleman’s bet in 2004 with Andrew Leigh and which just recently got settled. The reason for the bet was a famous hypothesis in happiness r...
Continue reading →
Posted in Uncategorized, Politics - international, Life, Philosophy, History, Miscellaneous, Humour, Literature, Society, Economics and public policy, Geeky Musings, Social, Ethics
People talk many many times over about the world is getting smaller. About communications technology how it crosses the gulf between here and there. I have seen this in abundance with my own eyes and you too. The new ways of offshoring the jobs and work, like call centre, that...
Continue reading →
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aUn-I_loNE
Continue reading →
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQFTCOiEFk0 Yes folks, I'm not joking.
Continue reading →
Well this joke probably doesn't really qualify as one such joke about which I've spoken in the past , but anyway I came upon it today and it made me laugh much more than when I first ran into it - though who knows why. Last American Who Knew What The Fuck He Was Doing Dies Ste...
Continue reading →
From the ever-wonderful XKCD , seeming to comment on current US governance: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="381"] XKCD: world's sharpest comic?[/caption]
Continue reading →
I love accents. I love pretty much everything about them. I love the way in which they actually convey things - sincerity, guile, sneering, superiority and their opposites and complements - all surreptitiously; all in a way that is at the same time so compelling to our intuiti...
Continue reading →
The journal 'Agenda', the policy journal of the College of Business and Economics at The Australian National University just released a piece of mine called ' Universities as Royal Courts'. One can download it free of charge (just click on the link). It continues my long-runni...
Continue reading →
Can't remember who first pointed me to ' Becks in Paris '. Whoever it was, I'm grateful. [The] blog imagines Beckham’s internal monologue as he collides with the Parisian intellectual tradition – the glittering surface of a footballing icon cracked open by existentialism. Gold...
Continue reading →
Thanks to commenter Sancho for alerting me to the following post, by Sarah Kliff, at the Washington Post's Wonkblog (via Reading is for Snobs ). It had me chuckling all the way to the bottle-o and back on this dreary, rainy Melbourne morning: Readers ask, we answer! What happe...
Continue reading →
Imagine yourself to be in the mythical Land of Beyond where you need minions to do a dirty job that men with honour would refuse to do. A classic trick in this situation is to pick people despised by the rest of society who are thus dependent on protection and will simply do w...
Continue reading →
Posted in Uncategorized, Life, Philosophy, History, Humour, Education, Society, Economics and public policy, Libertarian Musings, Geeky Musings, Political theory, Business
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="284"] White to play and win: Click on the image to play the game.[/caption] Meanwhile, in case you're interested, the Candidates matches have begun. We are two rounds in with the four strongest players in the world in an eight man (yes,...
Continue reading →
http://youtu.be/0YM9Ereg2Zo
Continue reading →
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wz9CbuC--w Enthusiasm alert: Well folks, some of you are aware that I suffer from bouts of enthusiasm. In the cold light of day, perhaps things don’t look so good. So here I am blown away by something I’ve just seen. But then I’m on a plane tra...
Continue reading →
Gentlemen, Whilst marching from Portugal to a position which commands the approach to Madrid and the French forces, my officers have been diligently complying with your requests which have been sent by His Majesty’s ship from London to Lisbon and thence by dispatch to our head...
Continue reading →
Here's a poster seeking to raise funds for the World War One effort. As you can see, the symbol chosen was a tad ahead of its time and, given that it was for the British war effort, it was so far ahead of its time that it was decided not to use the same symbol even twenty year...
Continue reading →
It wasn't enough that we were all recently exposed to the unbelievably tone-deaf talents of Craig Emerson. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1pEt7bgY2U Before that there was former Senator Mary Jo Fisher's very strange spoken rendition of the Rocky Horror Timewarp number, eerily...
Continue reading →
The ABC has broadcast a two part doco on Woody Allen's life which I really loved. He's a remarkable person, and just keeps churning out films, great, good, bad and indifferent. In any event by the end of watching this documentary I was an admirer of his, not just of his films,...
Continue reading →
http://youtu.be/xlIrI80og8c I didn't know I was a fan of Karl's till this. (Apologies if you've seen it before - like our tagline says - Troppo, proudly a few months behind the cutting edge of popular culture)
Continue reading →
From @danilic (zoom in to read some of the smaller text)
Continue reading →
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e1xvyTdBZI Readers as geriatric as me will probably remember British comedian Benny Hill's famous spoof song Ernie (He drove the fastest milk cart in the west). It topped the UK Singles Chart in 1971, reaching the Christmas number one spot, and...
Continue reading →
You heard it first on Troppo. And no Charlotte, it isn't bad that you didn't know that the Titanic was real. Philosophers have had the same trouble for years.
Continue reading →
http://youtu.be/NOyx3r59L-I
Continue reading →
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...
Continue reading →
Many years ago my father used to respond to some of my wilder claims or flights of fancy by asking "if you're so smart how come you're not rich?" This amused him but I didn't find it very funny - and not just because it deflated my pretentions. I appreciate it more and more wi...
Continue reading →
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtGSXMuWMR4
Continue reading →
I ran into James O'Loghlin at the Innovation Awards in Brisbane last week. He MCed the awards and in introducing the evening with a 10-15 minute monologue that was sufficiently funny that I the dim dark recesses of my brain reminded me that he was a stand up comedian before he...
Continue reading →
http://youtu.be/WAvf1lVbjUA
Continue reading →
I usually disagree with recently reborn RWDB blogger Professor Bunyip, and his potshots at this week's principal witnesses in the Finkelstein Press Inquiry aren't exceptional in that regard. But I have to confess (not for the first time) to taking a certain guilty pleasure at...
Continue reading →
Since a recent visit to San Francisco catching up with a cousin of mine I'd last met forty years ago, I've been receiving an email once a week. It is written by Raymond (using a French pronunciation of the word long before Stephen Colbert took to this trick). It is sent to any...
Continue reading →
Wonderful publish. Severely, you’ve got received some excellent subject material right here and I hope to acquire again quickly to study some additional.
Continue reading →
Christopher Hitchens loves writing paragraphs like this. And it's fun when you come across them . How dispiriting to see, once again, the footage of theocratic rage in Kandahar and Mazar-i-Sharif. The same old dreary formula: self-righteous frenzy married to a neurotic need to...
Continue reading →
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blB_X38YSxQ Feel free to share stories of good April Fools jokes in comments.
Continue reading →
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X454D3Fzwso I've spoken about it previously, but I've just found the treasure trove above of Farnarkeling reports from the Gillies Report. The form of comedy is so pure that the final song is a bit of a pity - as good as it is - compared with the...
Continue reading →
See over page for Troppo's exclusive revelations. The other day I discovered a new expression: "click-bait". It was used on ABC Media Watch in connection with a concocted story repeatedly published on News Ltd websites about a German bloke allegedly killed and eaten by his own...
Continue reading →
Why do all the spam comments say the same thing? Is it really that hard to think up template comments that I might let through when looking at the detritus our spam checker leaves for me to check. This one is specially silly, but otherwise conforms to the standard formula. I a...
Continue reading →
About to book United Airlines to the United States, I thought I'd let any Troppodillians who don't know of this video, that it exists, and that it's fun (and it lopped around $170 million off UA's market cap according to some factoid crazed journalists). And looking it up, I j...
Continue reading →
Computers are very clever beasties - at least most of the time. Sadly their matches against each other are deadly dull. The games virtually never have strong strategic lines of thinking - which is the main thing that makes chess absorbing (for me anyway - a battle is waged: a...
Continue reading →
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...
Continue reading →
From: Nicholas Gruen (Lateral Economics) Sent: Saturday, 20 November 2010 3:12 PM To: Assistant Subject: Qantas Booking Hi there, I purchased the ticket with details below at Mascot Airport and they said they'd send me my invoice by e-mail, but they've not done so. Can you che...
Continue reading →
This afternoon I returned home from a day out doing various things Kaggle , and on the stairwell was a fancy black, clear wrapped package. I thought it was some fancy bit of nonsense for their frequent fliers points. Well it kind of was. It was their latest special card. I'd b...
Continue reading →
As I've mentioned previously, I usually participate on a Friday morning panel show on ABC Local Radio here in Darwin. It's called 3 Big Questions but it really includes 2 serious ones and a rather silly one to keep things entertaining. Today's silly question was a compound one...
Continue reading →
Well well well. I'm a fan - perhaps a bit of an ex-fan of WordWeb . It's a great little dictionary, thesaurus which enables you to highlight any word in any app and by clicking a few keys get a definition of a word and synonyms, antonyms and so on. It's a 'freemium' model of m...
Continue reading →
From Deidre McCloskey's The Secret Sins of Economics A very pompous linguist was giving a talk at Columbia and noted that there were languages in which a double negative meant a positive (standard English, for example: “I am not going to not speak” = “I am going to speak”) and...
Continue reading →
I recently attended the David Solomon Lecture in Brisbane as part of Right to Information Day. David Solomon designed the freedom of information architecture of Qld and Anna Bligh asked him to do it and more or less implemented what he recommended. So good on her. He is a Good...
Continue reading →
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SBL6dgBBak
Continue reading →
A while ago, I was rung by Richard Letts of the Music Council of Australia , a kind of peak body of music organisations asking - to my amazement - if I would give the Annual address at their annual conference. Robyn Homes of the National Library of Australia had seen me speak...
Continue reading →
Grossly unfair but wickedly funny: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PE_vr0t3FA
Continue reading →
I'm occasionally asked by local ABC Morning Show host Leon Compton to be a panellist on a Friday segment titled "3 Big Questions". It involves three local media or superannuated political luminaries musing about political and sometimes more general issues of the day. I was on...
Continue reading →
The lads from the BBC radio comedy The Now Show, distill the essence of Copenhagen. The English Blog has the transcript
Continue reading →
Billy Joel Masterclass Concert 2001 (Pt.2 of 12) Uploaded by denimel . - Watch more music videos, in HD! If you click through to the source, you'll find twelve of these segments from a 'master class' of 2001. And I'd never heard the song featured in this final segment. Billy J...
Continue reading →
Yum. My favourite. I just got sent this by email from in inimitable Tim Harkowitz. Others please feel free to add to Troppo's stock of Jewish jokes in comments. There is a very pious Jew named Goldberg who attends synagogue every Sabbath. Every Sabbath, he prays: God, I have b...
Continue reading →
Shit Box Cardboard crapper Click to enlarge Little Jack - Blue Little Jack - Pink In Stock £14.99 Shit Box In Stock £15.99 Show prices in Euros and US Dollars Next Day Delivery is available. Order by 4pm > Poos. We all do them (except Her Maj, of course). The trouble is, dropp...
Continue reading →
Many years ago, as we were looking at a scrum in a rugby game being played in Towoomba of all places, a friend of mine commented that it looked like the quintessentially British institution! The other wise observation I have for you is that political think tanks on both sides...
Continue reading →
This New Yorker cartoon by Australian cartoonist once plying her trade in the Good Weekend and now made good in the Big Apple is good fun on it's own. Turns out it's also a comp . I presume a caption comp. No reason we can't participate.
Continue reading →
A question that seems obvious once it's been asked. Find out the answer in this revealing video. The Colbert Report Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c The Colbert Coalition's Anti-Gay Marriage Ad colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor NASA Name Contest
Continue reading →
Sometimes videos detract from an original piece of music. This vid is just too obvious and adds a little too much schmaltz to Mitch Benn's funny and rather moving little number. I think it's better with your eyes closed.
Continue reading →
Dave Bloustien looks like a cross between Dr. Who and a 1960s mod with a cravat, waistcoat and sideburns. Certainly a contrast to the t-shirt and jeans that constitutes the usual comedy clobber, but Mr. Boustein doesnt deliver the usual stand-up routine either. Instead he offe...
Continue reading →
It seems incredible, hard to believe, but we've got ten double passes to give away to Highly Suss , which looks like fun. I'd go myself if I wasn't going to be overseas. If you're planning to be in Melbourne for the 4th of April, then let us know and we can send you a ticket t...
Continue reading →
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...
Continue reading →
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart M - Th 11p / 10c CNBC Gives Financial Advice Daily Show Full Episodes Important Things With Demetri Martin Political Humor Economic Crisis
Continue reading →
An amusing post by Greg Ransom on Taking Hayek Seriously. Based on the story of Hayek's visit to Australia in 1976 as told by Ron Kitching with some more background on Catallaxy . In brief, Ron Kitching and the late Roger Randerson organised financial backing for a month-long...
Continue reading →
A friend send me this cartoon.
Continue reading →
John Clarke, living national treasure, is on ABC radio national again. On poetica this weekend, or downloadable here .
Continue reading →
Ten year old Alex has spent all day very close to a bright red, brand new Kookaburra cricket ball. the two of them have been pretty much inseparable. On going to bed I joked with him about how you rub the ball on your pants. He said "yes but you have to lick it or it doesn't w...
Continue reading →
Comedian laureate of our bullshit drenched age, John Clarke is on LNL tonight. I love John Clarke and, on consulting others in charge of this website - including Dr Troppo - it has been decreed that tuning in is compulsory. Those who are unable to pass a comprehension test (to...
Continue reading →
Have you noticed that 'masterclasses' have become one of the latest victims of linquistic inflation. I recently got this invitation out of the blue and into my email inbox. I know the esteem in which I am held by some in the blogging community - so I guess it was only a matter...
Continue reading →
Every night while we sleep, the Wealth Fairy flits from home to home stuffing riches into the magical savings accounts Australians call 'housing equity'. In the morning, newly renovated kitchens buzz with activity as mums and dads get the kids off to school. Coffee mugs clink...
Continue reading →
Courtesy of a friend Paul, here is an email I received of neologisms from the neologism competition in the Washington Post. Once again, The Washington Post has published the winning submissions to its yearly neologism contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate mea...
Continue reading →
After the Menzies administration was voted out during World War 2 and the Curtin-led ALP took over there was a suggestion to have a Government of National Unity so the best talent on both sides of the house could be applied directly to the desperate issues at hand. Curtin reje...
Continue reading →
Blogger Beth Hamburger at the convention reports the comments of the Ambassador to Israel "Do we want to be more like France, Sweden, Denmark and the rest of Europe, with a hands-off policy when it comes to the Middle East, with a neutral love of life ?" Damn those Europeans....
Continue reading →
I gather this YouTube is quite well known. I'd never seen it when I came across it.
Continue reading →
Dilbert is running mashups , many of which are less funny than the usual. IMHO the one above is an exception.
Continue reading →
I've never known. Anyway, I've discovered a blogger I'd not read before - a stroppy femmo who's a great read - who seems to have similar views to mine . Go and have a good squiz around her site .
Continue reading →
I was reading an honours thesis by Joel Ickiewicz and I thought his brief acknowledgements page was so cute I'd share it with other Troppodillians so, with Joel's agreement, it is below the fold and it has won Troppo's inaugural cutest acknowledgements page of the year. This e...
Continue reading →
Yikes? The last house that Adam Smith lived in - at Canongate - is up for sale. And the local council may let it go to developers. Oh cruel irony of ironies, the ultimate Adam Smith problem - a council that doesn't know the difference between the Theory of Moral Sentiments and...
Continue reading →
Ron Tandberg has done cleverer cartoons. He's done funnier ones. But somehow I've never seen a cartoon that's more Tandberg than this one. The master of the simple idea. And living national treasure.
Continue reading →
Can't say I've ever been remotely tempted to get involved with "social networking" sites like MySpace or Facebook. It's probably something to do with being fundamentally anti-social, sometimes even bordering on misanthropic. But it's also an instinctive aesthetic aversion; it...
Continue reading →
Dramatic photos from The Age this morning show Melbournes enormous Port Phillip Bay on a tilt. Readers were witness to the astonishing spectacle of giant cruise liner Sun Princess apparently motoring uphill to berth at Station Pier. There was no explanation for this perplexing...
Continue reading →
Australia is blessed with great cartoonists. John Kudelka is one such. There are some terrific cartoons on his website - which I've reproduced below the fold. In the meantime, he's doodled away to produce a book of cartoons and light commentary on the theme of 101 Uses For A J...
Continue reading →
Microsoft is a remarkable company. When you run the world's biggest internet mail operation, the default option for most high school students, when you're being threatened by companies that make better stuff but don't have your head start, it's not that difficult to respond to...
Continue reading →
Reading the Dunera News (of all things) - the Dunera is the prison ship on which my father came to Australia during World War II - I came across some fun quotes. Some I'd heard before but not recently and some I'd never heard - including one from one of my faves - Oscar Wilde....
Continue reading →
Nelson: "Order the signal, Hardy." Hardy: "Aye, aye sir." Nelson: "Hold on, that's not what I dictated to Flags. What's the meaning of this?" Hardy: "Sorry sir?" Nelson (reading aloud): "'England expects every person to do his or her duty, regardless of race, gender, sexual or...
Continue reading →
Australian Mateship is the name given to the practice of referring to a person as mate when you cant remember their name.
Continue reading →
During yesterday's Constitutional Law lecture, I noticed that one of my students was quite distracted and continually fiddling with his mobile phone. I wasn't entirely surprised, because I was talking about section 109 inconsistency, which isn't the world's most rivetting topi...
Continue reading →
If you've ever wanted to make a burger with 100% pure bacon or you need a recipe for caramelized bacon then I've got links for you. Welcome to the baconsphere! "Bacon is totally meat candy," says bacon enthusiast Heather Lauer. Heather blogs at Bacon Unwrapped . See Heather's...
Continue reading →
Thank God you're here is a lot of fun. Here's the best effort I've seen. From Shaun Micallef a truly funny and very silly fellow. In the (likely) event that Wordpress won't properly embed the screen, you can click here .
Continue reading →
You may talk o' bat and ball An say Warneys great an all, An' pay omage to The Don just like yer mean it; But about that funny thing On yer head ol Dunga Gin Did yer get it cleared by Customs when yer brung it? cause weve got standards ere yknow Were not yer alf-baked bloomin...
Continue reading →
John Howard introduces his strategy for the future.
Continue reading →
From Colin Wicking I'm not sure what's happened to Colin Wicking's excellent Ned the Bear cartoon series. Maybe Ned's gone into hibernation for the dry season, which just hit Darwin belatedly this morning. For readers (including me) suffering Wicking withdrawals, here's a rece...
Continue reading →
Via the Tele : A FRIDGE, underwear and a Darth Vader voice distorter were some of the items bought by Darwin's lord mayor using stolen council funds, a court was told today. Darwin's Lord Mayor Peter Adamson, 46, is facing four charges, including stealing, obtaining property b...
Continue reading →
Former Skyhooks guitarist and media 'personality' - he's a funny man if you're up early in Melbourne on Radio 774 - Red Symonds has taken to video mophing to amuse himself. Crikey often picks up his efforts. Having looked at a few this one particularly took my fancy. If as I p...
Continue reading →
If you like an occasional straight shot of social criticism, withering satire and fine, hard, funny writing, you could do worse than dip into James Kunstler's weekly diatribes . Best known for his conviction that America's love affair with the automobile, suburbia and cheap en...
Continue reading →
I always think of this line when asked for a reference. Today Crikey carried a whole bunch of similarly ambiguous one liners for references from LIAR The Lexicon of Intentionally Ambiguous Recommendations. They're over the fold. I cannot recommend this person too highly. I rec...
Continue reading →
Astonishing revelations Nicholas has already alerted readers to John Quiggin's call for sponsors in The Great Shave. But apparently the wind has gone out of the sails , so he's asking for a bit more help. He will throw in $1000 of his own if the $2000 target is reached by Mond...
Continue reading →
I asked fellow missing linker Darlene who I should go see at the Comedy Festival. Being a reviewer she was very discrete and said she didn't want to play favourites, but that I could of course check out people on you tube. Of course! I hadn't really used you tube for that - th...
Continue reading →
Courtesy of Ross Gittins.
Continue reading →
Every year I scan the Melbourne Comedy Festival catalogue which appears in just about every form imaginable from March onward. This year's festival starts on April 4th. I often go along to a session or two keen to check out developments in what people think is funny. I'm usual...
Continue reading →
Melbourne's Herald Sun today warns Melbourne's fashion conscious women about the dangers of those stylish extra large handbags WOMEN are risking health problems by carrying fashionably huge handbags. It's the load on the musculoskeletal system that's the real worry. The Herald...
Continue reading →
According to ex-Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, there is no reason to disbelieve in the existence of Santa. Please pass this message on to sceptical children. Dear Mr Rumsfeld, I am 8 years old. Some of my liberal friends say there is no Santa Claus. Daddy says "If Donal...
Continue reading →
I was alerted to this funny story on Late Night Live. When the London Review of Books began taking personal ads, the content was quirkily British - as for instance in the ad from which I took the heading. ""Bastard. Complete and utter. Whatever you do, don't reply - you'll onl...
Continue reading →
Some people are little grumpy before they've had their first cup of coffee. And maybe that's why Sunrise co-host David Koch got so many complaints when he repeated this joke at 6:50am. But how risqué can a joke be if versions of it have appeared in respectable magazines like t...
Continue reading →
[photopress:Australian_Intellectual.jpg,full,pp_empty] Australians love a good competition. We can turn anything into sport. So if shows like Australian Idol can give young singers a chance to crack into the music business why not have an Australian Idol for public intellectua...
Continue reading →
[photopress:vampire.jpg,full,pp_empty]
Continue reading →
[photopress:robson.jpg,full,pp_empty] TodayTonight host Naomi Robson was trying to get to Papua to save the life of a young boy earmarked to be eaten by a tribe of cannibals, an industry source claims. They're kidding, right?
Continue reading →
[photopress:full_1.jpg,full,pp_empty] Just to lighten things up.
Continue reading →
A great video , that others have already linked to by Yobbo. If you've not clicked through - do yourself a favour.
Continue reading →
Those sixties were fun! A while back I posted on Rolf Harris's amazing song Sun Arise. Well in the process of doing so I downloaded a couple of additional files which intrigued me. One was called "Rolf Harris with The Beatles - Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport.mp3" and I've appende...
Continue reading →
In what can become a regular feature with your help, welcome to the first 'pun watch'. Please feel free to put some of your favourite puns in the comments section below. Meanwhile, Chris Caton takes out the inaugural award. Not necessarily a truly great pun, but it tickled my...
Continue reading →
Some good lines, courtesy of Tim Harkowitz . If there is no self, whose arthritis is this? Be here now. Be someplace else later. Is that so complicated? There is no escaping karma. In a previous life, you never called, you never wrote, you never visited. And whose fault was th...
Continue reading →
You aim too please. Iintroducing the latest in gaming technology. And who said my subscription to slashdot was a waste of time.
Continue reading →
[photopress:tnycartoon_060409.jpg,full,alignleft] Around Christmas time I downloaded and listened to a podcast of a lecture at the Adelaide festival of ideas by Kathy Laster called " The Dark Side of Kath and Kim ". I really disliked the lecture which argued that Kath and Kim...
Continue reading →
Hiptomus hoptimus Jupiter Optimus Came to the earth in the Form of a swan Leda pretended to Parthenogenesis Heaven she said had been Egging her on Thus was I introduced to a marvelous comic poetic form about thirty years ago when I read the New Statesman's wonderfully erudite...
Continue reading →
[photopress:hoax.jpg,full,pp_empty]
Continue reading →
A weekly wrap of what's been happening across the Top End news-wise, which might be handy for former residents who really miss reading about this sort of thing. May contain cane toads and/or crocodiles. SUPER TOAD Cane toads on the rampage across the Top End are evolving rapid...
Continue reading →
[photopress:Dr_Tropp___SuperId.jpg,full,pp_empty] Every Sunday evening I take time out of my busy schedule to help readers with their problems . As this is the internet, many of my most troubled readers are sock puppets and characters from fiction . This week a character from...
Continue reading →
[photopress:Dr_Troppo_3.jpg,full,pp_empty] Mr Joker is a character in a Bob Dylan song . He has contacted me because he is unhappy with the circumstances of his existence: "Can you please tell Bob to rewrite my life?" he pleads, "It sucks". No whimpering Mr Joker. It's time to...
Continue reading →
[photopress:Ask_Dr_Troppo_2.jpg,full,pp_empty] Good evening. After another hectic Sunday experimenting on my rats and persuading undergraduates to deliver painful electric shocks to each other I checked my virtual waiting room and found it full of Troppo readers with fascinati...
Continue reading →
[photopress:Dr_Troppo.jpg,full,pp_empty] Hello. I am Dr Troppo. It has come to my attention that many of you have problems that you haven't managed to solve by reading magazines or watching Dr Phil on TV. Well, you're in luck. I can help you deal with these problems in person,...
Continue reading →
It is an odd fact that practitioners of the dismal science - or some of us - really are a humorous lot. Robert Solow is probably the funniest - but then he's got a Nobel Prize so he's a clever fellow. I was reminded of this receiving Chris Caton's report on the US economy toda...
Continue reading →
Among a few others were Babbage, and Lyell, both of whom liked to talk. Carlyle, however, silenced everyone by haranguing during the whole dinner on the advantages of silence. After dinner, Babbage, in his grimmest manner, thanked Carlyle for his very interesting Lecture on Si...
Continue reading →
Troppo has been quite blokey lately, what with Wen and Sophie AWOL and Jen in Melbourne. So I thought I'd post over the fold something to indulge the prejudices of female readers just for a change. There is of course no resemblance to my own domestic behaviour in any of these...
Continue reading →
As the intensity and pace of the Troppo culture wars over sexuality and schools diminish rapidly (though increasingly people are commenting elsewhere - see Tim Dunlop's contention that there is no centrist position on the issue recently posted at Road to Surfdom ), it's probab...
Continue reading →
A Troppo Scoop* Troppo was the first to bring you news that Australia was discovered by Chinese Admiral Zheng He , and also broke the story that the Templars live in tunnels under Hertfordshire ... The true identity of "Nabakov" (pictured above, centre), the commenter who alwa...
Continue reading →
I have to admit, as Troppo's resident RWDB, that I occasionaly drop into Inner Margolia for a bit of a giggle. And I had a hilarious laff at this effort by 'the Jack' Robertson, well known errr... he says he's a soldier, writer and former blogger. The Jack seems to have a lot...
Continue reading →
An argument that Beckers belief Forget about truth . It's an airy-fairy philosophical concept that even the experts can't satisfactorily define. In practice, what most people demand from an idea is that it's useful for something. And like other consumer products, the supply of...
Continue reading →
Troppo Contest of the Week! Continuing the TV theme , I think I watched the worst ever American reality tv show set in Australia last night. Outback Jack . The host is called J. D. Roberto. The premise is that twelve "uptown girls" think they're going to a mansion to pick a ba...
Continue reading →
Internet quizzes are always fun. Except for those pesky iq tests... Via internet quizzes, I first found out that I was 47% slutty , and that there was an 80% probability that I was a woman. Courtesy of Alex in a comment on a Catallaxy thread , here's a more serious internet qu...
Continue reading →
Or, Yet Another Troppo Contest At Fafblog , the Medium Lobster has a post which begins: You're in a desert, walking along in the sand, when you look down and see a tortoise. This is standard procedure, designed and developed to protect you and the homeland. Do not be alarmed:...
Continue reading →
Apparently not all armadillos believe in deep civility. Nor are we all non-aligned centrists. Apparently some are even would-be active supporters of John Howard's vision of Australia's role in South-East Asia.
Continue reading →
A wise man would leave well enough alone, and let the dust settle before venturing back into provocative blogging. But the combination of Bush, Blair, and sado-masochism is too tempting to resist. As this News Online story notes: For its 10th anniversary, upmarket London corse...
Continue reading →
A piece of meaningless frippery after Wayne's powerful but harrowing post below. Feel free to add your own nominations in the comment box. Personalised number plates Opera Line-dancing Fat chicks "I fish and I vote" bumper stickers Australia's Funniest Home Videos Tripe and on...
Continue reading →
It had to happen, I suppose. Someone's started up a Mark Latham blog. Well worth bookmarking IMO.
Continue reading →
Here's a Suzy email, almost certainly more locally representative than her tantric poem immediately below: NORTHERN TERRITORY ETIQUETTE General Rules Never take a beer to a job interview. Always identify people in your yard before shooting them. It's tacky to take an esky to c...
Continue reading →
Suzy Kruhse often sends group email jokes and vaguely humorous messages. They're invariably the same ones that public servants spend all day emailing to each other (in between swapping copies of the Paris Hilton sex video) to avoid having to do any actual work. The following i...
Continue reading →
I might as well spread this one before some other smartarse does. How many lawyers does it take to change a lightbulb? "Such number as may be deemed necessary to perform the stated task in a timely and efficient manner within the strictures of the following agreement: Whereas...
Continue reading →
What with the Blaster virus and Sobig F still causing headaches in computer networks around the world, I thought it was worthwhile posting this joke email just forwarded by Suzy Kruhse BE ON THE LOOK OUT FOR THE FOLLOWING VIRUSES: CLINTON VIRUS: Gives you a 7 Inch Hard Drive w...
Continue reading →
Geoff Honnor blogged on this not so long ago, but it's worth recording the gratifying news that Nigerian email scams are spawning rapidly, making the repetitive task of inbox deletion at least a bit more varied and entertaining. I received one from the Philippines the other da...
Continue reading →
Here's another of Suzy Kruhse's joke emails. I'm sure it's just one of the standard ones that circulate on the Internet, but some of them raised a chuckle in me, anyway. For those who love the philosophy of hypocrisy and ambiguity. 1. Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet...
Continue reading →
