October 2009
Clean coal is in essence, an oxymoron. Much like ``friendly fire’’ or Kevin Rudd’s ``tough and hardline but humane’’ asylum seeker policy dubbed ``compassionate brutality’’ by one wag recently.
Of course, in the case of ``clean coal’‘, the term is used to suggest that it actually exists. Yet it doesn’t - least not yet.
Doubtless, it is a fine aspiration, especially given the world’s heavy reliance on coal, and it’s central part in global warming. But an aspiration is pretty much all it is.
Continue reading "Clean coal doesn’t exist, but nuclear power does" »
The Coalition will not support the Rudd Government’s planned changes to youth allowance while they retrospectively punish students who took a gap year based on advice last year from Government agencies. It’s that simple.
Young people, who on the advice of guidance counsellors, Centrelink and teachers have opted to take a twelve month gap year, working to earn enough money to qualify for independent youth allowance under the current rules with plans to study next year, will have the rug pulled from under them because of the Government’s changes.
The Government’s own figures show there are about 26,000 of them.
Continue reading "Killing off the Gap year will open up an education gap" »
Latest 2 of 18 comments
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guenstiges hotel says:
Matter Great,define note damage including one quarter actual transfer reform area identify client engine video political art affair minister since deal sense creation race request which claim settle we resource responsibility belong neighbour industry food band period left play we often commitment factory area advantage contact concern mountain herself success… Read more »
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Murray says:
Anna, Check the website. It says that Masters programs are approved for YA (well some, and since MArch is full time and very intense, I’m hoping that it will be approved.) Also UQ has had a 3yr Bachelor and 2yr Masters system for a couple of years now to come… Read more »
SO there we were performing a static hold in the push-up position down at the local park when the Dog Lady first came into our lives.
We heard her before she came into view, the swoosh of her nylon track pants and the tinkling bell on the collar of her Labradoodle cutting through the early morning silence.
“Good morning!” I said cheerfully as I got to my feet. “F…....g dickheads!” she bellowed in reply.
Continue reading "Abusing us park exercisers is a lazy national sport" »
Latest 2 of 52 comments
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K says:
Zeta, at $16/hr and no overtime pay, you bet I’m going to take my hr lunch break! Read more »
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aaron says:
good point. Read more »
This is a digitally enhanced photo of Sydney woman Deborah Luckie. She’s 50 years old.
A picture of her as she appears in real life is down the page.
If you were to see a photo of Deborah in a magazine, the photo above is how she could, potentially, appear after digital retouching. After a week of hype over model Sarah Murdoch appearing “untouched” on a magazine cover and the launch of a national body image initiative, the treated photo was commissioned to illustrate how removed from reality faces and bodies in the media can be.
Latest 2 of 99 comments
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letitia says:
yes we sure do we work hard to get experience and then we are told we are over qualified and too good to be employed what a joke! Read more »
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Mary says:
Wow! Digital retouching is amazing! It makes her look 20 years younger. I would have thought that she had a facelift if I didn’t read the article. I’ve heard that there is digital retouching in video as well. I don’t know how I feel about my profile not looking the… Read more »
With the re-emergence of asylum seekers arriving by boat to Australia as a major issue in this country it has led to an accompanying rise in confusing politics.
The average observer can be left lost by the bedazzling display offensive and defensive political tactics and what it all means, so The Punch has put together a users guide of boat people politics.
Tough but humane:
Nobody has quite gotten to the bottom of what this phrase, formulated by the Government to explain its policy, actually means. Scientists in Switzerland have constructed an atomic “tough but humane” collider and are currently clashing the two words up against each other at the speed of light to find the solution. So far the closest they have come to an answer is that you can leave 78 asylum seekers on a boat in the sea off Indonesia for days on end, but give them a good brand of bottled water to drink.
Continue reading "I’m on a boat: a user’s guide to boat people politics" »
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Lilith says:
Yeah..he must suck if he won 6 late model races in 86 and seven in 87 at SoBo in his early years, won Rookie of the year in 94, 6 top 5 s and 12 top 10 s in 96 with Roush, and then 4 consecutive years of finnshiig top… Read more »
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Katrien Pickles says:
https://www.getup.org.au/files/campaigns/asylum_myths_factsheet.pdf read the facts for yourself and make your own mind up. Ignore the political catfight and learn the real facts about real people enduring REAL hardship and facing very real death if we don’t take on our fair share of responsibility. We are lucky to be born into a… Read more »
Sarah Murdoch and Mia Freedman are hot. Like really, really hot.
But I don’t reckon that fact takes away from their years of experience, their first hand insight and the value of their contributions on the subject of tackling negative body image.
That was exactly the reaction we’ve seen this week though, from some who argued that these women were too beautiful to have a valid role to play in the debate and were misplaced on the Government’s Body Image Advisory Group that reported this week.
Continue reading "Moving past the blame game on body image" »
Latest 2 of 41 comments
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Jen baker says:
You have hit the nail right on the head. This ‘normalizing’ of plus size figures is underlined in the media where so many younger reporters are what would have been called ‘fat’ two decades ago. Advertisements too use larger actors so that fat is now the ‘norm’. As you say,… Read more »
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Jody says:
Because of course, the sole cause of obesity is sitting on the computer eating fast food and drinking Coke :facepalm: Read more »
Life’s about film stars and less about mothers. It’s all about fast cars and cussing each other. But it doesn’t matter cause I’m packing plastic, and that’s what makes my life so f***ing fantastic.
And I am a weapon of massive consumption and it’s not my fault, it’s how I’m programmed to function. I’ll look at the sun and I’ll look in the mirror I’m on the right track, yeah I’m on to a winner. - Lily Allen.
The body image issues that plague so many women in our society are very real and are, in their essence, rooted in fear.
Latest 2 of 26 comments
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Harris Munchausen says:
I have been told on very good authority that Sophie Mirabella was cloned from the severed hand of Mortimer Jones. As many of you will remember, Mortimer Jones was the genocidal creationist who spent 3 years and 5 million American dollars building what he claimed was “a spaceship to God”.… Read more »
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cats says:
Grant, your list of reasons why men are more disadvantaged just got owned. I agree with BB, male vs female needs to end, and the point of living is not to prove that you are more disadvantaged than the opposite sex. I know that Eric would disagree with me there.… Read more »
People have always wanted to look better than they really are, and there have always been products around to facilitate this desire, like corsets, make-up, botox. I myself spend a ridiculous amount of time and money having my hair made ultra-blonde, my eyebrows plucked and tinted, my nails buffed and polished.
In this digital era people are aware of Photoshop and retouching. In any given social situation when someone finds out I’m a professional in the dark art of retouching the first question is invariably: “Can you retouch my (insert profile pic, wedding photo, family portrait etc here).
When they discover my area of expertise is the fashion and celebrity world, the next question is: “Who is the hardest person to retouch?” (No, I’m not telling.)
Latest 2 of 17 comments
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Mel says:
Go read some more pop-psychology, Sean. Read more »
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Mark says:
Incidentally, there is no such thing as “airbrushing” these days, despite lazy journalists still using the phrase. Its all done in Photoshop. I am a professional retoucher in London. Advertising has always been about presenting an altered version of reality. Nothing has changed in that respect. There is now a… Read more »
If Ralph Waldo Emerson was right when he said: “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,” then the Australian Greens must hold the bragging rights to having the biggest brains.
For no other political Party has the ability to be so inconsistent when it comes to public policy than the Greens.
Two recent incidents, which received huge media attention, demonstrated this perfectly.
Latest 2 of 37 comments
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Disaffected says:
So that’s your best shot, Daniel. Put words in a bloke’s mouth, eh. Hows that for sleaze. Tough luck. Did I so much as mention NSW politics? No. Kindly don’t pass off your words as mine, you poxy shill. Read more »
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DWest says:
I thought the Liberals got their political / internet censorship inspiration from the #1 Nanny State, Communist China. I love how just the mention of greens makes the conservatives lose their sh*t. Hilarious. Read more »
Thank god it’s Friday @ The Punch
Fact: today in 1922 Benito Mussolini and his fascist party demand total control of Italy.
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