Compromise and Conceit
Infernal adventuring…
Category: Australia
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Big Bang Theory has some amusing and interesting insights into the world of nerds and physicists, and the way it depicts the social standing of nerds in America seems very familiar to an Australian viewer. But like most American shows, when it moves on to talking about relationships and gender relations, it’s a whole new…
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Continuing my series of posts on sex work, public health and radical feminism, this post will attempt to describe the public health issues surrounding modern sex work, and some common public health responses to it. For the most part I will be talking about developed nations; for a variety of reasons, different conditions pertain in…
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In the Australian state of New South Wales, final year mathematics exams were held a few days ago and the Sydney Morning Herald reports the advanced maths exam was “cruel and difficult.” Students on some message board are posting sad messages saying they might as well not have bothered because it was so hard, and…
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Yesterday Australia passed a carbon pricing scheme, over the strenuous objections of the opposition. In fact, the opposition’s objections were so strenuous that their leader, Tony Abbot, has promised a “blood oath” to revoke the legislation. I guess he’s thinking of a blood oath in the demonological sense of signing a contract in blood to…
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On the same day it considers banning facebook for children, the Australian Federal Government has agreed a deal to implement an “R18+” category for computer games. This category brings computer games into line with videos, and has long been sought by the game industry – the alternative method used by the censorship board in Australia…
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I have a colleague – let’s call her Miss P – who lived in Australia for a few years, in Melbourne and Perth, and has a bank account there (with ANZ). She had some questions today about her account, and has tried calling a few times but is daunted by the English required, so today…
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The UK is having a referendum soon on whether to change their voting system, from First Past the Post (FPTP) to Alternative Vote (AV). Under the latter system, you get to give some kind of preference statement, so if you are e.g. faced with a choice of Stalin, Hitler or George W. Bush but Bush…
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Australia has a compulsory superannuation scheme, and I have questions about it. These questions have been floating around in my head for a while, but the catalyst for thinking about them this week was this article by Brian Toohey, which I discovered through the Australian political blog Larvatus Prodeo. I’ve always been a supporter of…
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Introduction This is a bit of a weird diversion from normal programming, but I thought I’d give it a go. On the weekend it was the final of the Australian Rules Football League, the AFL, and – rather remarkably for the game – it ended in a draw. Those of you who know anything about…
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We just had a national election in Australia. As I have done for every other election, I held an election party, this time sans-partner (who was in Oz), and sans-Australians (since I was in Japan). It was attended by an Iranian, two Japanese, one Australian, an American and a Thai. So, it seems I should…
Compromise and Conceit 