“The sciences do not try to explain, they hardly even try to interpret, they mainly make models. By a model is meant a mathematical construct which, with the addition of certain verbal interpretations, describes observed phenomena. The justification of such a mathematical construct is solely and precisely that it is expected to work - that is correctly to describe phenomena from a reasonably wide area. Furthermore, it must satisfy certain esthetic criteria - that is, in relation to how much it describes, it must be rather simple.”

The purpose of Palmer's "CONservationist" "CONversion" is to distract people from the main game: ELIMINATE THE WELL-PERFORMING CARBON PRICING for Abbott to claim victory on the repeal of the "carbon tax". NOTHING ELSE. 

The Prime Minister has used the Federal Liberal Council meeting to take a step closer to handing more power to the states.

Tony Abbott says the federation has great strengths but they are combined with buck passing, duplication, waste and inefficiency.

Extraordinary film footage has emerged of Australian immigration minister Scott Morrison directly threatening asylum seekers detained in Australia’s offshore detention centres in Papua New Guinea and Nauru to return to the countries they have fled from or spend a “very, very long time” in detention.

Dear Mr Gore...

The Australian Competition Tribunal has overturned a decision by the competition watchdog to block AGL Energy from buying the New South Wales power assets of Macquarie Generation.

The tribunal says it will allow the $1.5 billion deal with some conditions.

More than $5 billion was invested in Australian clean energy last year but the sector has virtually ground to a halt owing to widespread anxiety over the government’s commitment to renewables, according to the industry body.

The Federal Government is pressing ahead with its plan to wind back Labor's financial advice laws aimed at protecting investors.

The Coalition has been under pressure over some of the controversial changes it flagged to the Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) reforms.

 

Tony Abbott might be our global coal ambassador but it appears he is increasingly out of step with the rest of the world, writes Mungo MacCallum.

Secret Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) - Financial Services Annex (from wikileaks)2014-06-19

Inside Snowden's Germany File

 

By SPIEGEL Staff

An analysis of secret documents leaked by Edward Snowden demonstrates that the NSA is more active in Germany than anywhere else in Europe -- and that data collected here may have helped kill suspected terrorists.

 

A report into the police handling of former treasurer Troy Buswell's series of crashes in his ministerial car has found "systemic failure at a number of levels".

 

Australia’s high court has upheld a legal challenge against federal government funding arrangements for the national school chaplaincy program.