Club Troppo

A couple of weeks back I wittnessed a discussion meeting here at QUT on whether Hedgefunds should be outlawed, or at least heavily regulated. The main speaker was Dr. Robert Bianci who has sent a large part of his PhD degree on the functioning of Hedgefunds. The PowerPoint sli...

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When Peach Home Loans was first launched it was called Plum Home Loans , and the avalanche of calls that we got after appearing on A Current Affair did not endear us to Plum Financial Services, of which we had not been aware. I had thought that having registered our business n...

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No not me. I don't want it!

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If only I knew how to use Photoshop ... About 3 weeks ago I pointed out that, although the MSM polls had Labor way in front, the overall trend (at least up to July) seemed to have the Coalition on track for a very close election result by late November or early December. Howev...

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Names are de rigueur around Ozblogistan this issue, as sundry people riff on a piece by resident Age bomb-thrower and lefty Andrew Bolt alternative, Catherine Deveny. Nick Gruen and Legal Eagle got going with two thoughtful pieces apiece, while Darlene Taylor was in wholeheart...

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Bryan Palmer writes : This gives an average of 58.25 for Labor and 41.75 per cent for the Coalition. Plug these numbers into the election calculator and see what you get. A pie chart of the "see what you get" with a uniform national 11% swing (normal caveats etc): The red area...

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I'm a speaker at Kevin Rudd's Manufacturing Industry Roundtable on Monday. I thought I'd outline a few thoughts here and invite feedback. Ive thrown these points together quickly as Ive got to get on a plane so apologies for any typos and for the staccato delivery. But feedbac...

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One formula for op ed writing is to annoy your readers . Another is to lay out some set of actual or imagined social phenomena onto some Procrustean ideological bed for interpretation. This lazy and infuriating piece of fluff from Catherine Deveny in the Age which is headed by...

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From the abstract to a recent article . In this research, we assess whether the number of public comments filed in response to proposed agency rules has dramatically increased as a result of the automation of the submission process. Specifically, we compare the volume of comme...

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I have no reason to accuse Troppo readers of being particularly representative of the community from which they come, but I'd still be interested in the experience of those whose experience is relevant to this question. Why do women use their husband's surname when they marry?...

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When I think of the latest polls I think of Gough Whitlam polishing off Billy Sneddon, Paul Keating seeing off Alexander Downer. If only they'd eased up a little their own political fortunes might have been a little better. If I were advising Kevin Rudd I'd have suggested he m...

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I've just happened upon a transcript of a Gordon Brown press conference at No 10.gov. The blogosphere pointed me there because of this controversial passage - which read just fine to me. I think Mrs Thatcher, Lady Thatcher, saw the need for change and I think whatever disagree...

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They must not get away with this. "Protest is not violent, war is violent," student Rainee Lyleson told Wednesday's rally. "We will not be intimidated." Rainee is fifteen and in Year 9 at Mosman High School. She spoke at the rally , at Belmore Park, attended by 300 school kids...

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It has been over 7 years since Judge Jackson issued his order for Microsoft to be broken up into an applications and a operating system business. Due to various complications , that never came to pass. But what if it had? What would the computer world look like today? The brea...

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John Quiggin has an interesting post on the progress (or perhaps lack of same) of the Brough/Howard intervention into NT indigenous communities. Both the post and comment thread are worth reading. John also asks: One of the striking features of the governments intervention in...

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RIP

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Andrew Inglis Clark This is the first of several intended posts about Australian federalism. Federalism doesn't seem to have very many supporters in early twenty-first century Australia, at least judging by the fact that both our current Prime Minister and Opposition Leader ar...

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I mentioned when reviewing Opera Australia's Barber that there was another production of the same work in the pipeline. By now it's actually too late to see Pacific Opera's season of The Barber of Seville , which finished last weekend. But it's still worth a comment for the be...

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There is speculation building that Holden is gearing up to full production in order to export the Ute to the United States. Holden Ute - Pontiac G8 Ute photochop by Aych Es Vee The traditional Ute platform in the US has been the Chevrolet El Camino, but it appears that the Ute...

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