Latest Posts
Bad laws make lawbreakers
Miranda Devine had a rant this week about cyclists: But hostilities were fed by the lies told by the Government and the RTA, which gave cyclists unreasonable expectations and ideas above their station. The former roads minister Carl Scully, a vegetarian cyclist, threw $250 million at the lobby, further fuellingContinue Reading
Music and Complexity
Last week was a very cultured week for me. I hardly ever go out to live events these days, but accidentally, I found myself at two in a week. It started on Monday evening, with a Musica Viva Chamber music concert in the Angel Place Recital Hall for 1,200 people fromContinue Reading
Economic Capital – a common currency of risk
This is the paper which provides the background behind a presentation on economic capital which I made to the Institute of Actuaries of Australia’s Biennial Convention. How and why should we measure it? Economic capital means different things to different people. But for this presentation, the purpose of economic capitalContinue Reading
How does climate change affect extreme weather events?
John Connor, CEO of the Climate Institute, made a speech today talking about bushfires. I’ve been pondering one of his key points for the last two weeks, ever since the bushfires. Climate change is not just about warmer weather, it is about wilder weather. One of the lessons I learnedContinue Reading
Witnessing history
Watching the Obama Inauguration, from a country deeply affected by American politics, but still outside it, has been wonderful (although I have to admit that 3 am was just too early for me to watch it live). But reading Elizabeth at Half Changed World’s description of actually being there hasContinue Reading
Feminist Book review
In today’s book review, I’m doing a combined review of two Australian feminist books that were published in 2008. The Great Feminist Denial, by Monica Dux and Zora Simic, and The F Word: How We Learned to Swear by Feminism, by Jane Caro and Catherine Fox. First a disclosure ofContinue Reading
Market Forces – do we need them for ferries?
The thought that the market can do anything better than the public sector has become pretty unpopular in the last six months. Nevertheless, I still believe it. And I’m going to illustrate it today with one public service that is pretty close to being a basket case; Sydney Ferries. SydneyContinue Reading
Book Review – The Unthinkable
Today’s book review is The Unthinkable – Who survies when disaster strikes – and why by Amanda Ripley. When I was in year 5 at school, I shocked my teacher by writing in a book review that I liked a book which involved an earthquake (Ballet shoes for Anna) because “IContinue Reading
Car privileges – an outmoded trapping of hierarchy
In most big Sydney CBD companies, a car space is a sign that you’ve made it. In my company, and the last company I worked for, the most senior executives are entitled to a car space. They are allocated strictly by rank, and neither the cost, nor the Fringe BenefitsContinue Reading
Women’s glacial progress melted away
Today the EOWA released the results of their annual women in leadership census. Sadly, the apposite headline is “Women’s glacial progress melted away”. The census is pretty simple – someone reads the annual reports of the top 200 listed Australian companies, and counts the proportion of women on the seniorContinue Reading