Harry Clarke

I didn’t get far yesterday with my claim to a postgraduate student that climate change delusionism is analogous to irrational belief in biblical creationism – both involved a rejection of mainstream science and reliance on emotional instincts.   The student responded that he believed in the latter – that Adam’s dalliance with Eve created the human race [...]

One of the posts lost in the recent hack attack concerned Lord Monkton’s visit to Australia.  Conservatives around Australia (Albrechtsen and even Barnaby Joyce)* are seeking to distance themselves from this silly toff.  I liked the following summary of the great Lord Monkton from DeSmogBlog.  The mad Lord Monkton repeats the usual delusionist nonsense at a [...]

I have admiration for Tiger Woods the sportsman and really couldn’t care less if his sexual drives lead him to have partners other than his wife.  But something is lost in my admiration for the guy because of a stench of hypocrisy. Woods’  configured public image as the ‘perfect family guy’ turns out to be just that –  public [...]

My mother passed away last Saturday. 
The eulogy I delivered at her funeral today is over the fold.

Having studied and taught economics for just over 40 years I have no doubts as to who in my mind was the most influential and the greatest economist of the twentieth century and that was Paul Samuelson.  I learnt this morning that Paul Samuelson has just died at age 94.

RFK said this in 1968.  In a speech I heard today it was quoted and it stirred me.
“We will find neither national purpose nor personal satisfaction in a mere continuation of economic progress, in an endless amassing of worldly goods. We cannot measure national spirit by the Dow Jones Average, nor national achievement by the [...]

I was not surprised that Oliver Williamson won the Nobel Gong in economics though I had never heard about the other prize winner Elinor Ostrom. 

Republican Clive Hamilton  gets Queen’s birthday gong.

Alexander Downer sorts them out.
Yes, and the evidence was that Annice Smoel was drunk, did steal an expensive  beermat, did make a run for it and did abuse arresting officers.   What did she expect?

The story of the country-based GP who drilled a hole in the side of a young boy’s head using a household drill moved me. The boy had a head injury accident that led to internal bleeding that put pressure on the boy’s brain. The boy faced a near certain short-term death if the pressure was not [...]

I have been watching the 2009 Masters Tournament at Augusta the last couple of nights on Foxtel.  Augusta is an challenging golf course of great length, complexity and with lightning-fast bent grass greens. The player who impressed me most so far in the tournament is the youthful Anthony Kim a 23-year old Korean American who [...]

I found this NYT video moving. After this less so.
After this story I found it even less so.

I heard this remarkable man – ex president of Iran 1997-2005 – speak at La Trobe University this evening.  Mr Khatami is a Muslim cleric whose main interest is political philosophy.  I found his prepared speech, which ran for half an hour, academic and rather dry.  For another 2 hours however he took good-natured, though [...]

Former head of Human Rights Commission and perennial liar Marcus Einfeld has gone to jail for at least two years.  The left loved him as a personality judge. But he lied about a $77 fine (he had lied about traffic convictions several times before), lied about his academic qualifications (he bought degrees) and his past directorships and plagiarised [...]

The famous Harvard-based economist Professor Martin Feldstein is on the board of the American insurer AIG that received $200 billion in handouts from the US government and which has just paid over $160 million in bonuses mainly to those managers responsible for its massive financial failure.  The bonuses were ‘justified’ by AIG as retention bonuses designed [...]

In my youthful past when I sent an article to an academic journal and it was rejected my reaction was often one of fury.  This was often amplified by the fact that many referee reports are dismissive and careless*.  These days I still occasionally get angry but I have also become more philosophical as a product [...]

From being the son of a dirt-poor Chinese peasant, Shi has built one of the world’s biggest solar power companies, Suntech. He learnt his stuff at the University of NSW. Suntech is threatened somewhat by the global financial crisis and by entry from competitors but still a great force.  This Fortune article is a fascinating story [...]

La Trobe University academic Dr Richard Zann – an internationally reknown ornithologist - his wife Eileen and their daughter Eva all perished in the bushfires in their Kinglake home. RIP.
Five La Trobe staff have seen their homes destroyed and nine students have been left with no housing.
Meanwhile police believe arson was responsible for the death of 100 people at [...]

Western civilised countries routinely used human body parts in pharmaceutical preparations up to the end of the 18th century.  The practise was widespread. Blood, meat the lot was tried with varying success. The potions didn’t always work:
“In 1492, when Pope Innocent VIII was on his deathbed, his doctors bled three boys and had the pope [...]