The nightmare sprung to life: A gang. Worse, an Asian teen gang. An hour before dawn. I’m alone. With a bike. A dozen or more boys fired up with freedom, yahooing down the lampless highway, bashing bushes, tossing fire crackers, chiacking. Strife seems likely. There are no side roads for a speedy escape. Maybe a Continue reading »
Media
A talk to the Economic Society of Australia: Monsters in the Machine, Technology, Growth & Human Flourishing An Author Talk with Goldfields Libraries An appearance on the Breaking the Spell podcast
The best scene in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer comes towards the end of the movie. The titular physicist is talking to Einstein, recalling a previous conversation in which they’d discussed the possibility that an atomic bomb would ignite the Earth’s atmosphere. ‘When I came to you with those calculations’, Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) reflects, ‘we thought we […]
On the ground reporting by Western media of the Russia-Ukraine conflict has been weak. Most have a pro-Ukrainian bias and prefer to operate from hotels in Kiev or further west. Interviews from the trenches seem partly staged and rely on interpreters, though VICE News Tonight has good Russian-speakers who in the past have done some Continue reading »
The Chinese Foreign Minister, Mr Wang Yi, is in Australia this week to participate in the China-Australia Foreign and Strategic Dialogue with his Australian counterpart, Foreign Minister Penny Wong. This is a good development and very much to be supported. While observing the reporting of this upcoming dialogue from the distance of my office in Continue reading »
The US has created the conditions for the decline of its own society. TikTok being banned in the USA is not the issue. The fact is, this is a ban on any current or future successful technology owned by a potential adversary and, let’s not make any mistake about it, China, where the ownership of Continue reading »
In Asian media this week: ‘Inexorable, predictable’ proceedings against Move Forward. Plus: South Korea’s new envoy at heart of political row; Xi revives Mao’s party-control dictum; Fukushima meltdown fuel still a mystery; China’s tai chi diplomatic culture; Singapore writer in long Taylor Swift gloat. In a slow-motion replay of the main contest in Thai politics Continue reading »
As Theresa May's former Communications Director Robbie Gibb is re-appointed to the BBC board, the new retail edition of Byline Times’ reveals the inside story of how the corporation was cowed by the Conservative party machine
New evidence uncovered in a Byline Times #MediaToo investigation questions the assault charge that led to the TV presenter's suicide