The Taliban must be pleased. Not only did they win in Afghanistan, and immediately implement an impressively regressive suite of repressive policies, but they've managed to export many of those regressive repressive policies to the United States - book banning, bashing gay and women's rights and so on ...
Meanwhile, the lizards of Oz have been put into a complete funk by jolly Joe being forced to head home to negotiate with the Taliban about whether it's wise to promote a world-wide fiscal crisis ...
Surely a postponing of a visit from Satan's delegate is no big deal, but the reptiles even resorted to quoting Bob Carr ...
What else? Well there was petulant Peta, but the pond is again over the voice, so it was red card time.
And there was Dutton's gas war at the top of the digital and tree killer edition, but keen eyes will also note that one item went missing from the digital top of page ...
The Conversation was ahead of the game in being noted by the crawler bots, but The Guardian was also in touch ... and there was a graph ...
Oh fucketty fuck ... time to look below the fold for a distraction, perhaps an old man bleating about the world and remembering the glorious days of punting on the River Cam.
Was there a contributor in the comments section who could help?
Well, there's no distraction offered by the Jennings.
It takes enormous stupidity to link jolly Joe's no show to defence funding - he's off to negotiate with the Taliban about the future of the country and the world's economy you goose - and Cameron Milner rabbiting on about an early election is simply too soon.
It's too much like the United States, already obsessing about a presidential election that's still way down the road, but the prospect of a leading Taliban rep getting the gig - a Ron DeSanctus or a mango Mussolini - has Morning Joe sweating each morning ... (or night if you happen to tune in down under).
Never mind, there was a distraction to hand, and the pond said a very silent thanks to the reptiles for offering up a John Carroll bleat ... you know, the usual 'things have never been so good as they were in my day' pitiful whine into the ether ...
Is there an upside?
At least he's slagging off the tykes, but if he wanted to do a King Chuck about Melbourne architecture, there's a zillion buildings, and then, below all, there's RMIT and its fading green plastic ...
Now to get to a long punt through the institutions, and bloody Marxist caricatures ...
But isn't that the triumphant outcome of policies set in place by Dan the man not so long ago? Back in 2020 the New Daily was asking Higher fees for arts degrees: Why does the government have it in for the humanities?
The ABC was noting Humanities degrees set to double in price as Parliament passes higher education bill ...
Maybe it's not just Jane Austen. Maybe Dan the man should be given a little credit.
At this point the reptiles decided to irritate the pond with a huge snap of a boorish figure long gone from the political stage, so the pond decided to cut him down to a proper size ...
The immortal Rowe, now locked into the AFR, shared the suffering ...
Take it away lizard Oz editorialist ...
Indeed, indeed, who wouldn't want a visit, as opposed to negotiating with the Taliban about debt?
The infallible Pope summed up the situation ... and frankly finding an excuse to run the cartoon was why the pond went with the lizard Oz editorialist ...
And so to the rest of the whining, moaning lizard Oz editorialist ... and that honourable mention of the carping Carr ...
Indeed, indeed, fancy disappointing the reptiles and all because of having to negotiate with the Taliban about a minor debt issue ...
The pond is relaxed. Under the Taliban, the future is assured, at least as soon as the Taliban secures federal power and can implement correct-thinking policies across the land ...
And so to close on a short comedy item ...
The pond has no idea who Yoni and Christine are, but how they love that green Murdochian cordial ...
The good prof seems a little conflicted. He laments the loss of 'The once-upon-a-time collegiate, imbued with a centuries-old humanist ethos', but the way to recover this golden age is 'the appointment of ruthless deans with the will to make new appointments according to international merit, overriding the political and disciplinary biases of those many existing staff who traditionally control appointments committees.' Very collegial!
ReplyDeleteThe problem, of course, is that deans, ruthless or not, do not have knowledge across all the disciplines within their faculty and have to rely, to varying extents, on the advice of discipline experts (AKA = existing staff with political and disciplinary biases) or crude measures such as publication metrics.
As an aside, the prof's use of 'collegiate' as a noun (parallel to 'diaconate'?) stumped me for a moment. The OED lists four senses for this word as a noun and the prof's usage is not one of them. But I did like this one:
2. transferred and slang. An inmate of an asylum, prison, or the like.
Carroll: "...reminiscent of Nero playing the fiddle while Rome burned beneath him." Except that he didn't, and not only because Rome did not have "fiddles". But you just can't get amateurs (and that's grandifying him) like Carroll to show even passing respect for truth, beauty and the collegiate way.
DeleteAnd apart from that, Anony, where did you find 'collegiate' as a noun ? Search as I might, both inside and outside the OED, I couldn't find it. Four meanings for it, you say.
Ah, the return of dusty Dons in slightly tatty academic gowns scattering Latin puns to small groups of chaps in tutorials, officiating at High Table dinners, and offering sherry in their rooms at 11am. Yes, that’s the sort of academic reform this country needs. For a start, how about reviving the old Oxbridge system of Fellows, with its requirement that they be ordained clergymen of the Church of England?
DeleteAnd yes, there’s definitely an urgent need for punting on the Yarra. Hurrah!
Both the OED online (which I consulted first) and my hard-copy compact edition list 'collegiate' as a noun with 4 senses.
DeleteNup, Edge still won't find it for me, Anony; can you give me a URL ?
DeleteOED Online is paywalled but local library may provide access. This gives the bare bones: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/collegiate#Noun
Delete'Bare bones' indeed, but thanks.
DeleteQuite a day for 'Top of the Pops' at the Aussie:
ReplyDelete"There was Dutton's gas war ..." Oh yeah, like Chambers and Malcolm say: "Peter Dutton will reverse Anthony Albanese's sweeping market and regulatory interventions in the oil and gas sector." Sure he will, just as soon as he becomes PM... ummm, in the middle of next week maybe ? Or next decade maybe.
And our lovely Peta: "As the penny drops, so does support for the voice" Just can't bring themselves to say "Voice", can they. But wait; Adrian Beaumont: "Support for the Indigenous Voice to parliament in the Resolve poll slumped to 53-47 nationally on a two-answer basis... There has been a clear national trend against the Voice in Resolve polls since September 2022 when it was at 64-36 support. Historically, referendum polling has crashed as we get closer to votes, and just one of 25 referendums held by Labor governments have succeeded."
https://theconversation.com/labor-maintains-large-lead-in-post-budget-polls-a-year-after-winning-election-but-voice-support-slumps-205746
The Taliban win again.
Just regarding the gas wars
Deletehttps://ieefa.org/resources/gass-role-transition
“Gas usage for gas-powered electricity generation in Australia has collapsed.
Between 2014 and 2022, gas usage for gas powered generation fell by 47%. A market that virtually halves in just eight years is usually termed a collapse.”
Yes, I realise that gas has uses outside of electricity generation, but this is how they have framed the argument and the press should really hold them to account for the dumb things they say.
It won’t happen of course because it’s easier to talk about the politics rather than the difficult business of governing.
Which brings us to the voice. The no camp have no real concerns, this is just a fight you have because you want a fight, and because you have nothing else to offer.
"a fight you have because you want a fight"; yep the basic tenet of brainless bullying which is all that the reptiles know.
Delete"lizards of Oz, Lloydie of the Amazon and Chevron would save the day ..." if they repaid us $1,186 each for our fossil fuel subsidy!!!
ReplyDelete"Still Not Getting Energy Prices Right: A Global and Country Update of Fossil Fuel Subsidies:
September 24, 2021
Summary:
"This paper provides a comprehensive global, regional, and country-level update of:
(i) efficient fossil fuel prices to reflect their full private and social costs; and
(ii) subsidies implied by mispricing fuels.
"The methodology improves over previous IMF analyses through more sophisticated estimation of costs and impacts of reform.
"Globally, fossil fuel subsidies were $5.9 trillion in 2020 or about 6.8 percent of GDP, and are expected to rise to 7.4 percent of GDP in 2025.
"Just 8 percent of the 2020 subsidy reflects undercharging for supply costs (explicit subsidies) and 92 percent for undercharging for environmental costs and foregone consumption taxes (implicit subsidies).
"Efficient fuel pricing in 2025 would reduce global carbon dioxide emissions 36 percent below baseline levels, which is in line with keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees, while raising revenues worth 3.8 percent of global GDP and preventing 0.9 million local air pollution deaths.
"Accompanying spreadsheets provide detailed results for 191 countries."
https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2021/09/23/Still-Not-Getting-Energy-Prices-Right-A-Global-and-Country-Update-of-Fossil-Fuel-Subsidies-466004
"Three climate policies that the G7 must adopt — for itself and the wider world
"But the true cost is much greater. Adding in the environmental and health costs of fossil-fuel use, including climate impacts, pollution, traffic congestion and road accidents, as well as forgone tax revenues, underpricing fossil fuels is costing the G7 nations almost $1.2 trillion each year — 2.8% of the G7’s GDP and $1,186 per person5. For the rest of the world, the cost is $4.7 trillion (see ‘The true price of fossil fuels’). https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01586-w
Hmm, Dan The Man(ly): "Education Minister Dan Tehan says the changes will give students cost incentives to study subjects that will prepare them for fields where jobs are needed." "Jobs are needed" ? Do we reckon he might have meant "where workers are needed" ? Or is there some devious Coalition trick about getting more graduates for too few jobs ?
ReplyDeleteHere's the Carroller yet again: "In universities that are functioning rightly, students are drawn to classes where there is some charisma, where the intellectual content is engaging, attracted by lectures where there is the seriousness that what they are studying really matters, seminars in which there is heated discussion of ideas." Wau, the Unis have changed greatly since my day then. I didn't know and didn't care who the lecturers were, I just enrolled for the four subjects I needed to pursue what I still thought I was interested in: Pure Maths, Applied Maths, Physics and Chemistry.
ReplyDeleteThat was at the internationally 'renowned' Melbourne University (in the same year that Monash took off). Yeah, there were some who wanted "discussion of ideas", heated or otherwise: we still all remember the SCIIAES* of course. But at least in the sciences it was just years of being "schooled" in what was known with maybe the prospect of a Piled higher and Deeper maybe 5 years in the future.
Besides, if the Carrolling One reckons Unis were like that back in his day, why doesn't he personally show any evidence of it now ?
* Society for the Control of Immoral Impulses Amongst Engineering Students.
In the Caroller column, I sought some understanding from him that it is very difficult to be a student now. Well, more specifically, difficult to survive financially while accumulating the necessary course credits. If I might insert some of my own experience - I used to run cross-disciplinary seminars at Flinders. To be effective, we needed an entire day to set out the case studies, get discussion rolling, and so on. The seminars were intended to bring students in the biological sciences and in economics together, but we were open to anyone who wanted to participate, even as a docent. I don't recall that we ever had a sociologist join us, or, if so, cannot recall their contribution.
DeleteInto the new millennium, it became increasingly difficult to schedule these seminars. Not for lack of participants, but, as the staff in the different schools told me, timetables were almost intractable just for necessary course work, because a high proportion of students needed several jobs to pay costs and fees at the university, and to cover living and transport expenses. Fitting in opportunities for other gatherings, that had been part of university life (yes, even at UofQ in the early 60s!) for as long as there had been universities, was nigh impossible even within one school or faculty.
So, sadly, we had to cease. The real sadness came when I learned later that there were sets of notes, and overhead transparencies (I never used Power Point, or any of its claimed equivalents), from those seminars, circulating around later students who were looking for material for self-generated essays and assignments, or to shape a possible post graduate stream.
Well if they will let all those paupers into what was clearly the preserve of the sons of the wealthy, what can you expect, Chad ?
DeleteFrom my past though, live lecture presentations were quite unnecessary and printed (then) or online (now) 'lecture notes' were all that was required. Yes, it helped to have live 'tutorials' for asking questions, but we never had any discussion whatsoever in the lectures themselves.
Melbourne Uni was never remotely like Gottingen in the time of Born and Plank and Heisenberg.
Just think Chad, that the doings of European (including Russian) mathematicians and scientists plus some assistance from Americans in the 20th century (starting with Einstein and Hilbert) is simply, by a huge margin, the greatest intellectual undertaking by the human race ever. A huge creation of (Mermin) 'explanations' that one day may even become descriptions - or indistinguishably so.
DeleteNever to be repeated, and certainly not including anything much from Aussie Unis. Except in the biochemical field - we were good there.
Always worth a reminder, GB. Yes, so much of it done on 'thought experiments' - and mingling with that group, to maintain the tincture of humanity - the wonderful Wolfgang Pauli. I doubt that his equivalent could come to the fore these days.
DeleteSadly you may just be right about that, Chad, for he of the Exclusion Principle.
DeleteWith the talent the 'right' side in the USA claims for giving ameliorative names to exercises in what John Quiggin classifies as 'boneheaded stupidity', I wonder if the warriors of the right there might be termed the 'Talibannes', because, unlike Afghanistan, where men, and men only, oppress women, in the USA there is a goodly proportion of women also oppressing women. In that context, the spirit of the 'equal rights amendment' continues, and Phyllis Schlafly is forgotten.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, isn't Bob Carr just the man to get to comment on world affairs. Today's Mr Ed: "A second term for Mr Biden, he said, could see the US President suffering from 'frailty and cognitive decline', with appearances at major forums and events left to the 'unsteady hand of (Kamala) Harris'."
ReplyDeleteAnd frailty and cognitive decline is a state well known to Bob Carr. But the 'Progressive Lefties' do love to express their hatred for others, don't they. If you've got 'subscriber access' you can read up on such things here:
"Voters gave Labor only a relatively lukewarm endorsement last year. It won office with a mere two-seat majority and its lowest primary vote in 80 years."
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/labor-s-honeymoon-is-over-at-least-in-the-eyes-of-progressives-20230517-p5d8z8.html
It amazes me that there’s so much focus on the supposed frailty and cognitive decline of Joe Biden, and so little on the physical and mental condition of his likely opponent in 2024 - who after all is only about 4 years younger and in much poorer physical condition. There’s ample footage of Trump struggling to walk properly or to take a simple sip from a glass of water for example, while interviews from 20-30 years ago show a man who, while already an egomaniacal blowhard, was then at least capable of stringing a few coherent sentences together. The fact that he’s able to waddle on and off a golf cart a few times and spew an unending stream of lies and verbal abuse seem to be taken as proof of physical and mental fitness. A case of projection, perhaps?
DeleteI'd like to think it's just that 'woke Lefties' don't readily involve themselves in personal attacks based on clear lies. And I think there's at least some of that. But the wingnuts and reptiles never let go of a pile of shit once they've smelled and tasted it, so repeat and repeat and repeat again all the various lies of which 'senile Joe' is just one.
Delete"The pond has no idea who Yoni and Christine are..." Neither do we - well I don't, anyway.
DeleteSo why would a Labor minister prefer Foxtel to ABC 24 ? As you say, DP, it's a shame about the ratings.
And a shame about a Federal Minister whose staff can't even seem to check out whether their office does or doesn't have a service they apparently consider essential (though no sane observer will ever understand why).