Club Troppo

Adobe and me only barely get on. Their readers keep crashing. Anyway they've recently upgraded their reader and in chrome it displays pdf files very much as if they are html files - rather than bringing up the clunky old reader within the browser. All very nice. But there's a...

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In this week's Missing Link Friday -- a former Costello adviser compares Australia's tax and welfare system to a platypus (follow the links to find out why), Tyler Cowen starts a debate about inequality in America, bloggers worry about the demise of serious political journalis...

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ABC The Drum/Unleashed editor Jonathan Green a couple of days ago: Waiting until just after 3.30 this afternoon before fronting the media and addressing today's asylum seeker tragedy made Opposition spokesman Scott Morrison look the model of restraint. "A day of sadness as wor...

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For five years now (ages in blogosphere terms) Club Troppo and On Line Opinion have sponsored a showcase of Australian independent blogging, which we call Best Blog Posts of <year>’. With Christmas fast approaching, the time has come to launch ‘Best Blog Posts of 2010?. On Lin...

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Last of the year. We're going into recess until after New Year. BTW We'll be doing Best Blog Posts again in conjunction with Online Opinion. I'll post a more detailed notice later today. Sinclair Davidson on Oakeshott's peddling "rumour" that govt colluded in sinking Xmas Isla...

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During the Government 2.0 inquiry a Web 2.0 enthusiast in the Qld police force wrote me an email suggesting that life wasn't easy for web 2.0 inside his agency. I stayed in touch but wasn't really able to do much other than encourage in various ways. Anyway, he says that thing...

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A recent Op Ed originally published in the business pages of the Melbourne Age, 15th December 2010. The re-emergence of the mining boom, temporarily de-railed by the global financial crisis, as a key driver of Australia’s economic prospects has been accompanied by a revival of...

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF0USo9vaGw I've decided to start posting the Missing Link Daily Twitter production here as a daily digest. Note that I cover "alternative media" (non-MSM fairly loosely defined) as well as blogs. Feedback welcome. Anyway I'll be suspending it fo...

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiuQDyGrp-g Apparently thirty or more asylum seekers drowned as SIEV sinks under Christmas Island cliffs. It's bound to have huge domestic political ramifications. Andrew Bolt is already fulminating and demanding Gillard's resignation. He's an od...

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Yes folks, progress might be painfully slow, but we're gradually moving the idea of independent fiscal policy from "you dreamers just don't understand the real world" category to the "you've gotta get hip, you've gotta get real reform" category. The OECD has published another...

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Not so long ago economist Paul Frijters mused about drug legalisation here at Troppo. It seems that Paul is an international trendsetter. Now economist elder statesman Gary Becker and the world's most prolific judge/legal academic Richard Posner are musing on the same topic at...

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Nicholas Gruen posted on the weekend about a South Australian defamation matter called Manock v Channel Seven Adelaide Pty Ltd which has been going for almost 7 years and still hasn't even reached trial. Nicholas quite rightly cited the case as a good example of the deplorable...

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Fatuous Sydney 2UE radio reporter Latika M Bourke not only won the 2010 Walkley Young Australian Journalist of the Year award but has now been employed by the ABC as its Social Media Reporter . I've unwillingly been inflicted with Ms Bourke's vacuous style of "journalism" whil...

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American conservatives hate welfare. But under President Bush, they willingly expanded food stamps -- a program that hands out over than 64 billion of dollars worth of assistance a year to low-income Americans and legal immigrants. The reason? Many conservatives don't think th...

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT6n1S-xBhY&feature=player_embedded

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I guess the coming of Master Chef was 9 parts good and one part bad. Great that people got into cooking, but all that stuff about 'plating up' was a bit much for me. A nicely presented meal is nice of course, but 'plating up'? A tad overblown methinks. Anyway, I just thought I...

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In a piece of news some will regard as predictably disappointing, the Cancun Climate Conference has reached an agreement , but its targets are both non-binding and fairly modest (reputedly a [combined] reduction in emissions of 13-16% by 2020), and include both developed and d...

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Canberra Times readers were left to think up their own 5 deck headline for this story by AAP medical writer Danny Rose.

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Here is the first paragraph of a recent interlocutory judgement. Check out the dates. The judgement is dated 22nd November 2010. Six years and there's no sign of a trial. Not much more need be said really. I'd add that litigating defamation ought to be a relatively straightfor...

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This week at Missing Link Friday -- bloggers tangle with the Wikileaks story, Ad Astra expresses his disappointment in Tony Abbott, Mr Punch falls victim to political correctness and the War on Christmas continues. Tangling with the cables guy A lot of bloggers are writing abo...

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