Latest Posts
Book Review: The Power of Babel – A Natural History of Language
Today’s book review is The Power of Babel – A Natural History of Language, by John McWhorter. I’ve never noticed it in a bookshop, but a friend bought it for me, and I’m very glad she did. My foreign language ability is pitiful (I did three years each of frenchContinue Reading
Gymnastics
The world gymnastics championships are on this week in Melbourne. I did gymnastics all through high school, and I have really mixed feelings about the sport. I was OK at it, not elite, but moderately serious (six hours of training a week), and for me it was a great sport.Continue Reading
Unconscious sexism
I had a meeting with a new client this afternoon. On the way up, I had been getting the briefing from my colleague about who the people were, X who the meeting is with, and Y and Z who might come, depending on what X decides (all male names). SoContinue Reading
Increasing storms
Are the storms that we’ve had this year a sign of global warming? Or is it just coincidence (after all, we’ve had a pretty horrible year for earthquakes and tsunamis too). I went looking for evidence, but couldn’t find it in a casual sweep; I’m finding that global warming isContinue Reading
Families and work
In search of an idea for a post, I went looking on the ABS website for statistics about women and work. I got sidetracked into this fascinating summary of lots of different research they’ve done into work, families and childcare. I was particularly struck by a graph that shows theContinue Reading
The joys of real mathematics
I’m on a course at the moment. Learning about economic capital and Basel II. Surprisingly, I am enjoying it more than I thought I would. It’s run by a former senior banker, with a physics background, who, while he is very senior, can’t let go of the fact that heContinue Reading
Access to medical care
A recent article in the SMH about health care in Australia surprised me. It was a review of reasonably sick people, and how likely they were to skip treatment because of the cost in different countries. The study was based on interviews with 7000 adults, from six industrialised countries, whoContinue Reading
Book Review: Affluenza, When too much is never enough
This week’s book review is Affluenza: When Too Much is Never Enough, by Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss. Clive Hamilton is the Executive Director of the Australia Institute, a left leaning independent public policy research centre. Richard Denniss was formerly Chief of Staff of Natasha Stott-Despoja, when she was leaderContinue Reading
Medical malpractice
Last week’s New Yorker has another great article from Atul Gawande, this time about Medical Malpractice (print only, Q&A with author here). It’s a musing on what the right remedy for medical malpractice is. The example that encapsulated the article best for me was towards the end of the article,Continue Reading
Anti-terrorism
Margo Kingston’s webdiary (which I don’t read, but probably should, now I’ve become a blogger) has a really thoughtful submission from Platinum Funds Management on the proposed new anti-terror laws in Australia. As I’ve said before, I feel I should be worried about these new anti-terror laws, but they’re soContinue Reading