Club Troppo

Some Troppodillians may be familiar with the wonderful Melbourne Film Blog . A few weeks ago I decided that it was just ridiculous that I didn't consult it more. I only see about one film every month or two, and almost invariably the ones that are advertised in the papers. And...

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(Originally published in the business pages of the Melbourne Age and Sydney Morning Herald on 21 April 2010) One of the sillier propositions which has been propagated on the internet and in a range of investment newsletters over the past couple of years is the idea that the ‘q...

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My observation that the US is a normal sane country harbouring a crazy one inside it (that for all my admiration for him, Abraham really should have let the South slough themselves off into oblivion without polluting the Great Republic) has served inadvertently as linkbait and...

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Visit msnbc.com for breaking news , world news , and news about the economy

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Comparing the Effectiveness of Regulation and Pro-Social Emotions to Enhance Cooperation: Experimental Evidence from Fishing Communities in Colombia Abstract: This paper presents the results from a series of framed field experiments conducted in fishing communities off the Car...

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A little more grist to my mill identifying just which are the craziest states of the United States of America.

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Robert Manne’s new book (co-edited), “Goodbye to All That? The failure of neo-liberalism and the urgency of change”, is an attack on neo-liberalism. There are several academic political philosophies currently in vogue: libertarianism (or its opposite): acute market interventio...

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No doubt some of you will know of this, but Prezi is a fabulous (relatively) new online platform for making presentations. It builds the presentation from a 'mind map'. Very compelling, and it's remarkably simple to put these presentations together from your browser. Check out...

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Here's an email I received from the Brotherhood of St Lawrence, disclosing an event that I'd like to go to, but won't be able to. But some Troppodillian may wish to go. ‘War Child’ film tells the story of Emmanuel Jal: a child of war in Sudan, a boy soldier, a survivor, a refu...

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Web 2.0 is proving very adept at finding needles in haystacks that we couldn’t have found before. Netflix is a company which rents videos and which relies on the ability of its algorithm to predict what movies you’re going to like from the ranking you’ve given past movies. Giv...

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Here's a quote I read today. It’s how PR (Proportional Representation) systems are meant to operate, and is far preferable to a minority government. It’s a mature and sensible approach, and a step away from the pathologies of winner-takes all so common to Westminster systems w...

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A friend of the family Tony Carson, an interesting fellow who was great at crosswords and so secured for himself a place at Bletchley Park during World War II, had a hand in designing the Smith Family's program Learning for Life. It helps families pay for school books and also...

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I have long viewed sporadically gifted journalist Christopher Hitchens as a caricatured bullying buffoon, but until quite recently I admired Richard Dawkins . Years ago I read The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker with fascination, along with the works of fellow biological...

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Before Freud was granted the exit visa he needed to escape from Vienna, he was made to sign a document: "I, Prof. Freud, hereby confirm that after the Anschluss of Austria to the German Reich I have been treated by the German authorities and particularly by the Gestapo with al...

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I got this correspondence in my email today - last year we got a family membership to the Colliwobbles Football Club and enjoy going to most matches. I always email the words of our coach Mick Malthouse explaining the game on Saturday in hindsight on Mondays onto my son and so...

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Sri Lankan asylum seekers in detention on Nauru in 2007 I was asked an interesting question this morning (well, interesting to me anyway) by a local media person about whether the seemingly imminent transfer of Christmas Island asylum seeker detainees to Darwin would mean an u...

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I confess to not having read a proper biography of Leo Tolstoy. My conception of Tolstoy the man is based, unfortunately, on the relevant chapter of Paul Johnson's notorious Intellectuals . If you haven't come across this book, it's a series of case studies (or hatchet jobs) a...

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I have been sent the following guest post, by someone who wants to remain anonymous on account of his position in the public sector. (I know the author, but hey, here's an offer to those hundreds of thousands of public servants out there - if you want to send me a post that's...

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Recently there's arisen a debate about having a debate on immigration and also an attempt to relive the glory days of asylum seeker politics. Whilst attempts to link the two have been cynical, I believe there might be a good reason to link them. Why not draw almost all our new...

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ABC political analyst Antony Green is predicting that Kevin Rudd will seek a double dissolution election in July-August. A double dissolution election can't be held after 10 August because Constitution s57 forbids a double dissolution within 6 months of the expiry of the House...

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