Seems Tony Abbott finally headed off to Indonesia today to have some talks. Not about the boats – he wants the focus to be on building a constructive relationship and of course building trade opportunities. Well good luck with that one mate. For the past three years you’ve spe...

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http://vimeo.com/75482401 Here's a presentation I gave to a conference called - unhelpfully - Art for Art's Sake. It was actually about new approaches to participation in the arts, about finding ways of connecting people to the arts - and the arts to people - which go beyond t...

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Annabel Crabb wants us to get real about women in politics. The current carry-on is "all very interesting and thought-provoking and no doubt useful to a certain degree" but there's an elephant in the room: [F]or chicks, you can choose politics or you can choose having children...

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Kevin Rudd got elected in 2007 by convincing people that he was a slightly younger and more vigorous version of nerdy John Howard, with similar conservative policies except that he would abolish that nasty Work Choices legislation and introduce some fairly meaningless warm and...

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Suppose you wanted to believe, as I do, that intelligence and vague ‘racial groups’ are, on the whole, unrelated from a long-run perspective. What would you then have to believe about genetics and IQ, as well as the long-run effects of socio-economic circumstances on IQ to rat...

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According to Mike Seccombe, at the Global Mail , under the Abbott government, Australia will be open not just for business, but open to costly multi-national law-suits: On the eve of the election, the Coalition released its trade policy , which includes a commitment to “remain...

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AKA "Intellectual vanity and policy poseurs" AKA "Contorting sophistry in favour of contractionary monetary policy" AKA "The global Serious id hrumphs again". Part 3 of a series ( 1 , 2 ). Via Matt Cowgill I see weak corporate governance beneficiary [1] Richard Goyder humphs a...

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It was around six thirty on a cold wet Melbourne Day. A long day for me, including a mid-morning appointment with a new psychologist. First appointments are all about background – what your condition is, personal and family history and all that other stuff that they need to kn...

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I learnt something interesting today, while I was writing up notes on legal history: Australia didn't formally achieve complete judicial and legislative independence from Old Blighty until 5.00am, Greenwich Mean Time on March 31 st 3 rd 1986. That's the precise time that the A...

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High profile climate un-changer Professor Andrew Bolt of the Herald Sun School of Thought Homogeneity, is well known for his contention that the temperature rise of the planet has stopped. He’s been saying it for years. Today, Professor Bolt wrote that a leaked IPCC report con...

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by David N. Figlio, Morton O. Schapiro, Kevin B. Soter - #19406 (CH ED LS) Abstract: This study makes use of detailed student-level data from eight cohorts of first-year students at Northwestern University to investigate the relative effects of tenure track/tenured versus non-...

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The excitement is palpable, the atmosphere is electric, the game is in motion as media attention quickly turns away from the dull low-wattage reality of the Coalition win, to the contest that really matters – The leadership of Labor in opposition. Bill “Spud” Shorten has alrea...

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Remarkable article about how our social experience and the way we come to frame our lives influences gene-expression. I would’ve bet my eyeteeth that we’d get a lot of noisy results that are inconsistent from one realm to another. And at the level of individual genes that’s ki...

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ihi0MnK0Q4 The Liberal Democrats look set to take a Senate seat in NSW after the party scored the best spot on the ballot paper . A libertarian party, the LDP's website describes it as a "a serious, progressive, small-government alternative." Th...

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaqpoeVgr8U One of the numerous downsides of the rise of feminism is the demise of righteous masculine anger. For the record I'm strongly supportive of the great achievements of first and second wave feminism. But just as with other great changes...

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According to the ABC's Senate Election calculator , these are the seven 'others' who will be joining the Greens and Senator John Madigan of the DLP on the Senate cross-benches in the new parliament . Party Candidate & State 1st Preferences (%) Quotas i Counts ii Australian Mot...

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=03l8VcSvyBU A nice visual illustration of the idea of institutions as public goods. Note the word 'institution' is here used to mean more than formal organisations. The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy provides this...

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I am taking this opportunity to launch me own website : johnrwalker.com.au. Hope you enjoy. I would like to thank Andrew Hunter of KeyChange Solutions for his patience and terrific design input.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NluKzkEuo3A As part of its Gruen Nation show, an ad was produced which Clive Palmer wanted to use in his campaign. Well it was public money that produced it, so why shouldn't he be able to use it? Now in fact there may be complications. Gruen Nat...

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In previous elections, I either gave a list of mistakes I wanted the next government to avoid , or policies they could follow . Some of the mistakes I flagged in 2007 were indeed made, and about half of a preferred policy was implemented, no doubt entirely unrelated to my advi...

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