Blogotariat

By Damian Smith I’ve been reluctant to comment on Pauline Hanson’s noisome remarks regarding autism and schooling. Like wildfire her vacuous bigotry requires oxygen and I am loath give her the attention she so desperately desires. However, there are times when one must stare into the abyss. I have what was once known as Asperger’s…

The post The curious incident of the bigot in the Senate appeared first on The AIM Network.

As our politicians bemoan Australia’s sliding international ranking in standardised testing, calling for a back to basics direct instruction approach, they are ignoring the things that really matter. In 2015, Australia placed first in the Global Creativity Index which ranked 139 nations worldwide on “three Ts” as measures of economic development — talent, technology, and…

New results from Newspoll and Essential Research have failed to have any impact on BludgerTrack’s two-party preferred reading, but there’s one point worth noting on the primary vote, with the recent lift in One Nation’s poll ratings finally kicking into action on the trend measurement (more on that here if you’re a Crikey subscriber).

If you want to build a new coal plant you have to think about what is going to happen to electricity prices over the next 20 or 30 years, because that is the time frame that you have to sell over to make back the cost of building the plant. The reality is that renewables and storage is going to be much cheaper than coal in far less than 20 years, so anyone building a coal plant today is never going to make back their money.

Amusing stuff from CBA today: It would be surprising if AUD/USD fell below its December 2016 level of 0.7160 simply because there was a negative Australia-U.S. rate differential Structural improvement in Australia’s current-account deficit (to 0.6% of GDP vs 4-5% of GDP in 2001 period) Asian and global GDP growth remains firm, and Asia is

The post CBA: High Australian dollar “structural” appeared first on MacroBusiness.

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Cross-posted from The Conversation: Does the Australian government have the policy, organisational and conceptual capacity to handle the country’s A$6 trillion housing stock? We ask this question in a newly released research report. The answer is critically important to both household opportunity and prosperity, and to the management of our largest national asset. Australians’ wealth

The post Where’s Australia’s overarching housing policy? appeared first on MacroBusiness.

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A 25-year-old jerk was making rude comments towards a man’s wife and daughter, and he finally had enough. The young ruffian was harrassing and yelling at two women, a mother and a daughter, but didn’t realize the father was nearby. The father, almost 20 years older than the aggressor, had no problems walking right up to him and confronting him.

Regulator further lifts benchmark for NSW solar tariffs - well above AGL's proposed tariff - but rejects notion rooftop solar and storage have network benefits.

This chart shows (a) the formation of an ice-lolly, (b) ice-lollies with spikes, and (c) representations of ice-lollies observed at different temperatures.

We all know what an egg looks like, right? Well, we might know less than we think—bird eggs can be spheres, teardrops, oblong, and anything in between. An interdisciplinary group of scientists may have made progress in cracking the mystery behind how these different shapes emerged.

On Wednesday, rapper Albert Johnson—better known by his stage name Prodigy—passed away at the age of 42 from complications of sickle cell disease, an inherited blood disorder he'd had since birth. Though some medications can help those with sickle cell manage their condition, no cure or real treatment exists to combat the disease. And while better care in the United States has extended the lifespan of those with the disease, they often face a lifelong battle with pain, infections, and extreme fatigue.

Every few weeks, a telepresence robot rolls by my desk. It's usually a co-worker in a distant office on her way to a meeting, or checking in on the progress of physical things in the office from the comfort of her home.

It is almost always hot in Phoenix, but today temperatures are expected to peak at 120 degrees fahrenheit, which has prompted some airlines to cancel flights out of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The high temperatures alone aren't necessarily the culprit, but the environmental conditions that come with them can stifle attempts to get airborne. Mix in other variables like the type of plane, the length of the runway, and the conditions on the ground, and we're left with a complex situation that will only get worse as global temperatures rise.