Club Troppo

I know how powerful internet and Web 2.0 technologies are, so I don't need any convincing. If this study had not confirmed my prejudices I would have retained the prejudices (Why? Because it's obvious that sophisticated knowledge management capabilities have the capacity to gr...

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HMS Dunera carried about three thousand 'Dunera Boys' to Australia. I received this sad email today which I reproduce for anyone who's interested below the fold. The Dunera Boys, now mostly in their late eighties are down to around 80 with around 50 remaining in Australia. Dea...

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I have no doubt about it. Labor will be returned with an increased majority. With one week to go, the election campaign has descended to a level of debate at which rational argument is irrelevant. There's little point in having a reasoned position on greenhouse policy, offshor...

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The delightfully named Ben Spies-Butcher of the CPD writes in support of the Henry Review's proposals for the income tax system as opposed to a flat tax. In a nutshell, he feels that the Henry Review's scheme offers great efficiency benefits by simplifying the tax system and r...

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Books at 30% off in Borders - here .

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The floods in Pakistan have resulted in about 1,600 deaths, with many more expected (even disregarding the possibility of a cholera outbreak), and have stranded or displaced about 12 million people. The worst aspect seems to be that this is just a taste of what's to come, if t...

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I was asked at a Departmental seminar today whether the eleciton of a Coalition Government would set back Government 2.0. I said I didn't know, but that even if it did not have as much support from an incoming government as it has had in this term, the main tasks ahead of us w...

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We have competing paid parental leave schemes in this election, and voters are going to choose between them.But the kind of scheme desired depends a great deal on why you would want a paid parental scheme at all. Whilst details of the different schemes are available in the med...

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I'm in broad agreement with this piece by Chris Dillow. Jonathan Calder asks a good question: why has political radicalism become synonymous with wanting to see a permanent and massive public debt? Let me deepen the puzzle. In three ways, the left should be more concerned abou...

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Given the massive ignorance, not just of you're average Joe (Sorry I think that's now 'Joe Six-pack') but of experts, I think we should be particularly on the lookout for 'no-brainer' reforms. Simple things that we can do than generate gains and for which it's very difficult t...

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Here I cite this article by Annabel Crabb [fn1]. Here she defends the fact that all questions asked at press conferences are race calling in nature on the fact that policy literature isonly given to journalists at the beginning of the conference, and that the harried journos j...

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Noises are being made about high speed rail links in Australia again, and once again focus has begun on the Newcastle-Sydney leg of any such system. I assume this is both because of the density of the population, but also because the endless dormitory suburbs and above ground...

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Well folks, that's how your mad as hell correspondent feels. I'm refining the #HeSaidSheSaid campaign. After posting it I realised that we really needed a more general term as the pathologies of modern media - what Tim Watts calls souffle journalism - comprehend quite a few mo...

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The most common defence of 'he said she said' journalism is that reporting both sides with wide-eyed ignorance about the merits of their claims is at least 'objective' and it's true in a way. I remember having dinner with some relatives in Italy when a heated argument broke ou...

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A guest post by Conrad Perry: It looks like the new Julia being the real Julia campaign has kicked off with a bit of good old fashioned teacher bashing. This reminds me of one of the things that seems really ingrained in many people’s minds, and an assumption which a lot of th...

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In case you're interested, there are some great election haikus circulating with the hastag above. Here are a few chosen pretty quickly. Feel free to offer your own here, or on Twitter. Labour it campaigns / Five weeks in a leaky boat? / Waterfalls await. All day winter winds/...

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Elo ratings involve a system whereby your 'rating' is a function of who you beat or lose to and their rating. The 'future of the species' business is a reference to the fact that this manoeuvre of bootstrapping meaning from the record has become more important to the world rec...

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Julia is now 'being Julia' - complete with a big announcement - by her - that she's going to be the new 'real' Julia prompting the opposition and media into the obvious riposte 'then who was the old Julia?'. Might it have been a bit wiser to have been the real Julia for a few...

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBmavNoChZc#t=6m25s

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