Monthly Archives: 2016-10

13 published posts from 2016-10.

Michelle Guthrie and the ABC

Last Friday I attended a speech by the new ABC CEO Michelle Guthrie put on by the New News conference which is always good value and a tribute to the forward-looking energy of Margaret Simons - Melbourne Uni professor of Journalism and frequently practising journalism. Simons...

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Posted in Films and TV, Media, Cultural Critique

Google Calendar and Time Zones

Setting appointments I'll be attending in London next week on Google Calendar has reminded me of a problem that online calendars haven't sorted out - at least to my satisfaction (or perhaps knowledge); how to handle appointments when there are differences between time zones. I...

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Posted in IT and Internet, Geeky Musings

Dispatch no. 2 from the epistemic swamp

I've just posted the first version of the introduction to this post on the first dispatch from the epistemic swamp, but I thought I'd open up the discussion again on a new thread. The tweet above surely highlights different ideas of truth and authenticity. Of course, Trump is...

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Posted in Politics - international, Political theory, Cultural Critique

Jewish Film Festival

Festival Website | Films | Schedule Top Picks Denial (Opening Night) In the 1990s, an impassioned and articulate American Professor Deborah Lipstadt publishes a book titled 'Denying The Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory'. Soon after, a prominent 'denier' refer...

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Posted in Films and TV

Iranian Film Festival

Festival Website | Films | Schedule Top Picks Life and a Day (Opening Night) Somayeh is at a loss. Her only desire is to leave her family and take her destiny in hand, yet the love of her sick mother holds her back. Her elder brother, introduces her to an Afghan who wants to m...

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Posted in Films and TV

Investor-State Dispute Settlement

I gave a talk at the Lowy Institute last Wednesday to which I initially gave a long-winded title "Intellectual Property- Economics, Diplomacy and Australia’s strategic interests" but managed to get more cut-through under the pressure of Twitters 140 character limit "DFAT goes...

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Posted in Politics - international, Economics and public policy, Political theory, Law, Intellectual Property

Peace in our time eludes NT politics again

[caption id="attachment_29556" align="alignright" width="300"] Yingiya Mark Guyula and other newly elected Independent NT MLAs[/caption] In contrast to the almost continual chaos and dysfunction that marked the former unlamented Giles CLP government, the period of almost 2 mon...

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Posted in Politics - Northern Territory, Law

Strategic thinking, very serious people and roads not travelled

Paul Krugman has popularised the notion of the Very Serious People. Very Serious People spend a lot of their time talking about strategy. After all, strategy is the most important, most serious thing you can talk about. After all, when you've got strategy worked out, the rest...

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Posted in Politics - international, Economics and public policy, Cultural Critique

The strange upshot of defending the indefensible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC9DhD0lxCo I expect I'm not the only one to be rather dazzled by Kellyanne Conway's ability to defend the indefensible Donald Trump with sweet reason itself. Here she is more coherent, more compelling, more forensic than pretty much anyone on m...

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Posted in Media

In the long run, Keynes lives

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_tZ73VbqCQ&feature=youtu.be Just listen to the list of this guy's activities. Donate here should you wish.

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Posted in Economics and public policy

Greek Film Festival

Festival Website | Films | Schedule Top Picks Chevalier Six average guys are on a private yacht in the Aegean Sea for who-really-knows-what reason. When a mechanical hiccup leaves them marooned at sea, they choose to wile away the time playing a game of one-upmanship called ‘C...

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Posted in Films and TV

It's a Puzzle

Black to play N Batsiashvili vs N Zhukova 22. ...? See game for solution. This may be a two star puzzle, but I couldn't get it out. Can you? Click through to the game for the answer.

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Posted in Chess

Penalty rates how valuable are they: some evidence

Valuing Alternative Work Arrangements by Alexandre Mas, Amanda Pallais - #22708 (LS) Abstract: We use a field experiment to study how workers value alternative work arrangements. During the application process to staff a national call center, we randomly offered applicants cho...

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Posted in Economics and public policy