Qed

The $1b new town for nobody

david — Wed, 09 May 2012 22:31:10 +0000

$1b?

And no one lives there?

Why? So scientist can do some research…

Perhaps after the experiments are concluded they could let a few of the poor in to the houses and see how they use the gee-whiz new town.

Or maybe flog it off to some entrepreneur…

Is this some sort of modern day temple erected in [...]

Rupert Murdoch’s blind eye makes report difficult to read

david — Tue, 01 May 2012 22:26:36 +0000

Poor Rupert.

His son James isn’t much chop either according to the poms so what happens now? Do the shareholders of News kick out the Murdochs? Oh wait they can’t because the Murdochs have a stranglehold on the voting shares.

But what the free market apologists will tell you is that if the monetary value [...]

Apple – doing the Double Irish with a Dutch Sandwich

david — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 22:24:51 +0000

At bottom

“When it comes time for all these companies — Google and Apple and Facebook and the rest — to pay their fair share, there’s a knee-jerk resistance,” … “They’re philosophically antitax, and it’s decimating the state.”

because…

If Apple volunteered to pay more in taxes, it would put itself at a competitive disadvantage,… and do a [...]

Canberra Times conjures up a miracle

david — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 23:46:24 +0000

I don’t have a Canberra Times subscription, partly because the paper version is a faint shadow of what it was but mostly because I refuse to pay good money for someone else’s information bias after all, the “Grimes” is establishment mainstream media.

Which might explain why it can declare, complete with heartwarming picture that the ACT’s [...]

Buffett’s prostrate

david — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 22:16:58 +0000

The news that Warren Buffett has prostrate cancel tells you a lot about what is news. NOT NEWS lots of men today are diagnosed with prostrate cancer. NEWS a very rich man is diagnosed and can also afford to pay for the very best medical care. Oh and it’snot life threatening either…phew!

Web freedom faces greatest threat ever, warns Google’s Sergey Brin | Technology | The Guardian

david — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 23:33:07 +0000

Freedom of expression is a touchstone in western thought, one that follows from the idea of free will. We are free to think and those thoughts when expressed in words should also be free, free from persecution or censorship.

What can we make of Sergey Brin’s comments? His family fled a repressive regime in Russia but [...]

Government spending and austerity measures

david — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 12:35:36 +0000

Now that the queenslanders have shown the rest of Oz what they can do, attention is shifting to the federal government’s budget. Setting the scene is the recent news from Victoria, Gillard’s home state, where the right wing Liberal government is committed to budget surplus despite rising unemployment. The vics are also planning to flog [...]

Queensland and the politics of change

david — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 00:41:18 +0000

As I listen to Love40percents latest announcement in Canberra, I’m reflecting on the ALP wipeout in Queensland’s recent state elections and the ramifications for the so-called party of the left currently in power nationally under Prime Minister Gillard.

Briefly, the ALP in Queensland have lost about 45 seats and the remaining 6 or 7 members [...]

Critical Theory

david — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 17:52:14 +0000

Andrew Feenberg asks “What is the Philosophy of Technology?” a question Popper concerned himself with a few years ago and one that came up in my studies the other day.

According to Popper, who wrote in 1965 (Three Views Concerning Human Knowledge) science has abandoned philosophy and instead concerned itself only with with [...]

Can we afford democracy?

david — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 23:50:40 +0000

Today the Age had this on Italy’s new PM.

As a highly respected economist and bureaucrat, Mr Monti is certainly a sterling exemplar of his kind. For critics worried about democracy, though, there has been a question about an unelected person running a nation.Concerns about the will of the people are low on the radar of [...]