Club Troppo

I'm heading off overseas with my 15 year old son. Turns out the cheapest way to get to the US, where we're spending most of our time is via China. And, in case you're interested and didn't know of it, Flightfox is a great way to pay people who know what they're doing to do lot...

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This piece is inspired by Paul Frijters' post titled The Benefits of Being Dumb in Politics . I don't actually think it is possible meaningfully/reliably to distinguish between politicians who are "really smart and great actors as well, who thus have no problems with telling o...

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[caption id="attachment_24901" align="alignright" width="584"] In the grain fields near Horsham[/caption] Joe Hockey has just announced he is blocking the foreign takeover of Graincorp by Illinois-based Archer Daniels Midland. It's a lousy decision. But it at least has the vir...

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Here is a puzzle for you: what is the theoretical link between bitcoins, Australian coal exports to China, and the US becoming a New Switzerland? It’s a bit of a convoluted link, so see at what stage in the story below you spot the answer. Bitcoins are all the rage at the mome...

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It is natural to think of our political leaders as either superhumanly clever and benevolent when we agree with them, or else dumb as dishwater and evil when we don’t agree with them. Yet, if one takes our own group-loyalty out of the picture, we can ask the simple question wh...

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In his introduction to his translation of the Analects of Confucius, Pierre Ryckmans likened that 'literary classic' to a coat hook that has over the centuries acquired so many layers of coats that it can no longer be seen-has become so big that it completely obscures the corr...

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People talk many many times over about the world is getting smaller. About communications technology how it crosses the gulf between here and there. I have seen this in abundance with my own eyes and you too. The new ways of offshoring the jobs and work, like call centre, that...

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The most interesting aspect of the reaction to the governor-general's last Boyer lecture , with its last-sentence support for abolishing the monarchy, is the thinness of the opposition from the left to her expression of her political views. As the events of the past few days h...

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Black to play M Ortueta vs J Sanz 31. ...? See game for solution. If you can't see the move - click through to the game and see how many things had to work out for the tricks to be worth playing.

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Some memories fade too slowly. I was reminded of one such memory by the TV advertisement being aired in the lead up to White Ribbon Day tomorrow (Monday 25 November). It was late morning on Friday, 20 September and I was at the local Magistrate’s Court on a court visit for the...

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_8WbDD2mmkw Rating: 2872. Closest behind, Garry Kasparov on 2851. Table of highest rated players ever, with date their best ratings were first achieve d Rank Rating Player Year-month 1 2872 Magnus Carlsen 2013-02 2 2851 Ga...

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aUn-I_loNE

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Campaigners seem to be having some success in raising the profile of writers and others giving away the product of their labour for free. The first time I ran into this issue in any big way was in launching the Government 2.0 Taskforce with a design competition. The prize? The...

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To defend free speech does not mean you cannot criticise how others exercise it. The very opposite, if anything. With weaker legal restrictions on, say, racist insults there should be stronger social sanctions - criticism, debate, counter-arguments. It’s called manners, and wh...

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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="557"] This image came up on a Google search for "What's On". It's from The Central Tavern at Springfield Lakes , wherever that is. Seems nice enough, the cocktails can be very red by the looks of things, though there does seem to be qu...

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Dear President Yudhoyono Or can I call you Susilo? We like to use first names here in Australia. It’s a sign of informality. It indicates that you’re not wanting to be stand-offish. If you like we can go with middle names so that’d be Bang Bang right? You can call me Tone, or...

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQFTCOiEFk0 Yes folks, I'm not joking.

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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="630"] OK, so this is José Raúl Capablanca v Alexander Alekhine a few years later, but that's blogging for you - no fact checkers, no pay, no responsibility. Not like the MSM[/caption] This is perhaps the most storied chess game in hist...

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The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer came back into the news on Monday (11 November), with reports [i] on a paper published in Nature Geoscience which finds that reductions in chlorinated fluorocarbon (CFC) emissions achieved under the Montreal Prot...

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I've often considered this distinction at the back of my mind, but never really given it much explicit thought. While actively hostile discrimination - for instance on the basis of race of gender - is still around, there's not much of it about. On the other hand people not onl...

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