One of Gadfly’s field agents reports that his stepmother had turned 100 and was anxiously awaiting a letter from Her Majesty to mark the occasion. Instead, through the post came a congratulatory letter from Michael McCormack, the deputy PM who is promoting carbon emissions as a way to contain bushfires.

When the 1974 impeachment hearings turned south for former US president Richard Nixon, his aides blamed the media.

   Accumulating evidence suggests that the microbiota living in and on animals has important functions in the social architecture of those animals. Sherwin et al. review how the microbiota might facilitate neurodevelopment, help program social behaviors, and facilitate communication in various animal species, including humans.

Understanding the complex relationship between microbiota and animal sociability may also identify avenues for treating social disorders in humans.

   Greenhouse gases driving climate change hit a record high last year and are showing no signs of slowing down, according to the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organisation. 

  UK Prime Minister and Conservative party leader Boris Johnson presented the Tory manifesto on 24 November ahead of a snap general election in the country, outlining Brexit plans and making pledges on other issues troubling the country.

  WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange 'could die' in British jail: doctors. The WikiLeaks founder is serving a 50-week sentence in the United Kingdom ahead of an extradition hearing in February. He is wanted by the United States on espionage charges related to his work.

More than 60 doctors have written an open letter saying that Julian Assange's health has deteriorated so much that the WikiLeaks founder's life is in danger inside a British jail.

  This picture by Gus leonisky of the new casino (tallest building on the foreshore) being built in Barangaroo, Sydney, is possibly the new look of a city under siege from bush fires. The air becomes "dangerous" for old people and babies. One can argue that these fires are due to mismanagement of forests that are not burned during the winter months, and deny that the changing climate due to global warming is responsible for the fires. But the sum-total of happenings, including the INCREASING higher temperature averages, the dryness of the countryside, the low levels of dams, to the reality many country towns HAVE RAN out of water, point to a changing dynamic in our future sustainability. Gambling with global warming is dangerous.

 ... Policing has played and continues to play a critical role in dispossession in a way that works to displace self-determination as a real option for Aboriginal peoples on their own countries. While we await the trial, the law will begin to do its work in transmuting witness reports, forensic data and all other information into evidence. Evidence is crucial to establish facts, ascribe guilt or absolve a defendant.

Ten years ago today, Andrew Robb arrived at Parliament House intent upon an act of treachery.

   The US withdrawal from Syria, even if it was immediately corrected, indicates with certainty that Washington no longer intends to be the world’s policeman, the "necessary Empire". It destabilized without delay all the rules of international relations. We have entered a period of transition during which each major power is pursuing a new agenda. Here are the main ones.

   It’s heart-warming to talk to young people who have understood the religious con and the spirituality traps. No, they’re not caught in some pseudo-post-religiosity age. They understand the fluidity of thoughts and the necessity of uncertainty, which means they accept that OTHER people may not think the same. But they value their own search for purpose through the real sciences, while discerning the value of imagination and the trick of fantasy. 

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was on Capitol Hill Wednesday (23/10/2019) to testify before the the House Financial Services Committee about Libra, Facebook's controversial cryptocurrency plan. 

At least, Libra was theoretically his reason for being in Washington, DC. Once he was in the hot seat, however, lawmakers pinned him down with questions about basically everything, making clear just how much ire the ostensible social network now draws at the highest level.

  Modern wind turbines already represent a tightly optimized confluence of materials science and aerodynamic engineering. Veers et al. review the challenges and opportunities for further expanding this technology, with an emphasis on the need for interdisciplinary collaboration. They highlight the need to better understand atmospheric physics in the regions where taller turbines will operate as well as the materials constraints associated with the scale-up. The mutual interaction of turbine sites with one another and with the evolving features of the overall electricity grid will furthermore necessitate a systems approach to future development.