Yes, in this article from the SMH, 1959, the notion of global warming had not penetrated our brains and science was still going as if the "natural" rhythms of the climate was in charge. As I have mentioned before on this site, science believed rightly that the earth's climate was going towards another ice age.

Governments in Hobart and Canberra have discovered that trees make their carbon accounts look good, but it’s a con.

The Royal Bank of Scotland has sent out a research note calling for clients to brace themselves for what would be a "cataclysmic year" on the markets.

The bank's advice? "Sell everything".

In Gus collection of odd stuff, there was this article published in the SMH (1961), before the Gladesville Bridge, Sydney, was built... The amazing story here is that engineer Tony Gee was just 22 years old when he was given the job to design the bridge. After searching for a month, I have found the picture above. Hurray...

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My latest journey to Timor-Leste (East Timor) began on 16 October, the 40th anniversary of the murder of five Australian-based journalists in Balibo by Indonesian special forces. My first trip there was in March 1975, six months prior to their deaths.

Could you explain to me this custom?” We had spent three days with our Turkish colleague, and by our final evening together in Çanakkale, on the eastern shore of the Dardanelles strait, the conversation had become more expansive. “Why do Australians insert newspaper into their backsides and set fire to it as they leap into the sea?”

From David Corn

On Friday night, New York Times columnist David Brooks, a mild conservative, and I were on the PBS Newshour, and our discussion of Cruz's recent surge in Iowa really ticked off some within the right-wing press. Here are a few headlines:

US, British, French, Israeli and other energy interests could be prime beneficiaries of military operations in Iraq and Syria designed to roll-back the power of the ‘Islamic State’ (ISIS) and, potentially, the Bashar al-Assad regime.