We pander to the snobbish middle-class at the expense of other school-leavers.

We like to fancy ourselves as being a great nation of egalitarians. Yet when you look closely, we do not always pass the test. Nobody sensible believes that equality of opportunity should mean equality of outcome. But we do like to think that we treat people equally. That we are ''fair''.

It is hard to read the news from Japan to the Persian Gulf and then reflect on American politics and not conclude, as scientists would say, that we’re running an uncontrolled experiment on the only country and planet we have. And what is that experiment? We’re basically taunting — there is no other word for it — the two most merciless forces on earth: the market and Mother Nature.

WOOLWORTHS is being taken to court for the use of the phrase Honest to Goodness in its latest advertising campaign starring cooking doyenne Margaret Fulton.

An independent organic food supplier is alleging the supermarket chain's latest marketing push launched a fortnight ago infringes its intellectual property.

A hearing between Sydney organic and natural food trader Organic Marketing Australia, which trades as Honest to Goodness, and Woolworths is set down for a hearing in the Sydney Federal Court tomorrow.

The spectre of Bradley Manning lying naked and alone in a tiny cell at the Quantico Marine Base, less than 50 miles from Washington, DC, conjures up images of an American Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib, where isolation and deprivation have been raised to the level of torture.

In fact, the accused Wikileaker, now in his tenth month of solitary confinement, is far from alone in his plight. Every day in the US, tens of thousands of prisoners languish in "the hole".

picture of the moon on 19/03/11... by Gus

The economics of new nuclear power plants is a controversial subject, since there are diverging views on this topic, and multi-billion dollar investments ride on the choice of an energy source. Nuclear power plants typically have high capital costs for building the plant, but low fuel costs.

What is Sarah Palin doing in India?

The former vice-presidential nominee and Alaska governor is famously travel-shy and a largely unknown entity in the subcontinent.

Though her reality Alaska TV show premiered this month (aired on Monday nights) it doesn't appear to have been a hit with audiences addled on political scandals, cricket and soap. People are not even sure what Ms Palin knows about and thinks of India. "I am very excited to visit India," she has been quoted as saying in what appears to be her only observations on the country so far. "Americans have a great respect for the world's largest democracy."

(an earlier cartoon repeated)...

Fed up with those popular images of the female secret agent, Ms. Wilson decided to draft her own. Eight years after her cover was blown by the political columnist Robert Novak, she has signed a book deal with Penguin Group USA to write a series of international suspense novels, with a fictional operative, Vanessa Pearson, at the center. Ms. Wilson will write them with Sarah Lovett, a best-selling author of mysteries, who also lives in Santa Fe.

The idea for the books, Ms. Wilson said, “was born out of my frustration and continuing disappointment in how female C.I.A. officers are portrayed in popular culture.”

When the Labor Party's national secretary announced his resignation on Wednesday, Julia Gillard put out a glowing tribute to the man. It unwittingly encapsulated the central problem facing Labor.

The Prime Minister thanked Karl Bitar for his efforts that "helped us be re-elected in 2010 allowing us to deliver our plans to make Australia a stronger and fairer society". In just 20 words, Gillard said so much, and so much wrong.

The party's looming death as a stand-alone political entity is the biggest story in contemporary Australian politics.

Labor's end - that's all, folks

A South Sydney game sky...

from David Brooks

Researchers have been looking into these subtle paraconversations, and in this column I’m going to pile up a sampling of their recent findings. For example, Tobias J. Moskowitz and L. Jon Wertheim wrote a fantastic book excerpt in Sports Illustrated explaining home-field advantage. Home teams win more than visiting teams in just about every sport, and the advantage is astoundingly stable over time. So what explains the phenomenon?

The other night I watched as a Libyan 'rebel', brandishing a heavy machine gun, screamed for foreign intervention to stop Gaddafi from attacking civilians like himself. Very credible indeed.

Whilst it may seem like a highly unlikely scenario, if a few thousand Australians, fed-up with the tyranny of our corrupt parliamentary system & its leaders, somehow broke into a military arms depot & took to the streets in armed revolt, wouldn't we expect our government to move swiftly to crush such a rebellion? How is Libya any different?

The US military lacks the people and resources to defend the country adequately from concerted cyber attacks, the head of the Pentagon's cyber command has warned.

"We are very thin, and a crisis would quickly stress our cyber forces," Gen Keith Alexander told Congress.

The US says government systems are attacked millions of times a day.

Disputes over budgets are holding up a new cyber protection system ordered by the Department of Homeland Security.

However, some argue the threat of cyber warfare is greatly exaggerated.

picture by Gus — from Stanwell Park

But if Sydney is Elizabeth Taylor, then Melbourne is Helen Mirren. Far from faded glory, Mirren is using her later years to put in some of the best performances of her career. And boy can she rock a swimsuit!

In eight days, when NSW voters boot Labor out of power for the first time in 16 years, it will be less about the rejection of a few wayward politicians who demonstrate a desire to dance about in their underwear. It will be the rejection of what we see reflected in the mirror.

CATHOLIC bishops have warned the faithful against voting for the Greens in the state election, saying some of their policies were of ''grave concern''.

Yesterday the NSW Greens outlined a plan which would transfer government funding from wealthy private schools to public schools.