Edward Elgar, my sometime publisher, is interested in me updating my 2015 book – Eurozone Dystopia: Groupthink and Denial on a Grand Scale (published May 2015). I have held them off for a few years because there have been notable developments such as Brexit, COVID-19, and more since I finished that work, which are still…
Reading
Wildly overdue, Danger Came Smiling, the first London retrospective of artist and musician Linder, places her in two significant contexts. The first is Manchester in the late 1970s, where Linder made her name as the singer in Ludus (whose second album titles this exhibition), establishing herself as a distinctive voice in a national post-punk scene […]
ABC’s Jane Norman is called out for repeating Coalition talking points with Jim Chalmers. Overnight reports claim Israel has killed senior Hamas official Salah al-Bardawil and his family. Former First Minister of Scotland, Humza Yousaf, calls on the international community to realise Israel is out of control, while the Arab League calls on nations to Continue reading »
As universities worldwide face major cuts, especially to the humanities, this meme has been doing the rounds. So I thought I’d share my story about Indiana Jones’ last day of work, drawn in part from Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Indiana Jones, whose front row students once wrote “I love you” on their […]
Allow me to stipulate that I do not wish to die. In fact, had anyone consulted me about the construction of the universe, I would have made my views on the subject quite clear: mortality is a terrible idea. I’m opposed to it in general. (In wiser moments, I know that this is silly and that all life feeds on life. There is no life without the death of other beings, indeed, no planets without the death of stars.) Nonetheless, I’m also opposed to mortality on a personal level. I get too much pleasure out of being alive to want to give it up. And I’m curious enough that I don’t want to die before I learn how it all... Read more
Source: Trump Rages to Snuff Out Democracy’s Candle appeared first on TomDispatch.com.
Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – March 23, 2025
by Tony Wikrent
Managing Unexpected ICE Visits: Best Practices for Employers
March 19, 2025 [IndustryWeek]
Trump not violating any law
‘He who saves his Country does not violate any Law’
Tom Homan — “We’re not stopping”
Response to the latest Israeli/US slaughter in Gaza shows the world’s citizens looking into a moral precipice. How will they act? Will they ponder the principles of humanitarian law let alone ideals of a common humanity? Can there exist any citizens who support Israeli/US brutalities and the cowardly complicity of Western governments, including Australia’s? If Continue reading »
A week into the job and I am deeply impressed by the strength and vigour of the community John has built around Pearls and Irritations. So many of you have sent very generous messages and I feel very welcome, and busy! I will write a short message every week, keeping readers informed on how we Continue reading »
Our recent research raises an important and challenging question: Are our well-intentioned management interventions like thinning in high conservation value forests truly serving nature, or are they inadvertently accelerating the degradation of these critical ecosystems? These interventions are part of what has been termed Active Management and they include thinning, post-disturbance salvage logging, prescribed burning, Continue reading »
Australia’s shift to wind, solar and battery storage has shielded households and businesses from much higher power bills than they would otherwise be paying, a new report has found, debunking Peter Dutton’s constantly repeated claim that renewables are to blame for rising electricity prices. The report, released by the Clean Energy Investor Group on Wednesday, Continue reading »
As both the actively enabled genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the sanctioning of those who protest it continue, the associated psychological challenges likewise continue unabated. It is not only the international `rules-based’ order which is subverted (with all the political, legal, social, and economic dimensions that entails). When any pretence to a moral order Continue reading »
What does it take to build peace in Australia and the world today? This is a question that has occupied the minds of a group of peace practitioners and activists in the network “Raising Peace”. Concerned with a seemingly unstoppable acceptance of war and the downplaying of peace in public discourse, over the last few Continue reading »
Can any self-respecting journalist or political commentator inform me and many Australians as to why they continue to bolster the Australia/United States togetherness as though it is the same relationship of years past? The United States is not a friend – it is increasingly becoming a pariah state, joining its very best friend, Israel. Surely Continue reading »
I recently read Jerry Grey’s 8 March 2025 article and I was disappointed by the false and misleading statements made. I would like to participate in the exchange of ideas in a way that, I hope, will better inform your readers. Readers and subscribers of Pearls and Irritations trust that contributors are experienced analysts, but Continue reading »
For the first time, the government is consulting on a Land Use Framework for England. It’s an important step, but there’s a long way to go. By George Monbiot. This is my response to the government’s Land Use Consultation, sent on 23rd March 2025. The Consultation document can be read here, and its Analytical Annex […]
As deliberately-contaminated sewage sludge is spread on farmland, it feels as if humanity is on a suicide mission. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 21st March 2025 If humanity has an epitaph, it might read something like this: “Knackered by the things we missed.” It is true that several existential threats are widely known […]
When econometric and statistical textbooks present simple (and multiple) regression analysis for cross-sectional data, they often do it with regressions like “regress test score (y) on study hours (x)” and get the result y = constant + slope coefficient*x + error term. When speaking of increases or decreases in x in these interpretations, we have […]
In his latest dispatch, Chris York reports on overnight attacks on Kyiv, Trump's diplomacy and the latest drone and media manoeuvres
The peril of putting your face on, Trump’s Tuesday night massacre, and more from The Lever this week.