MODERN history suggests that democracy aligns, and progresses, with the expansion of civil liberties, including access by ordinary citizens to government information. But the new media reform bills tabled in [Australian] federal Parliament last week … [Read more...] about Media Rules Prohibit Dissent
Opinion
Climategate 3: Thank you Mr FOIA
SOMEONE hacked into the Climatic Research Unit, CRU, at the University of East Anglia and published thousands of confidential emails between leading climate scientists online in November 2009 [1]. Many of the emails showed that leading proponents of … [Read more...] about Climategate 3: Thank you Mr FOIA
National Parks Fueled Summer Bushfires in the Pilliga
IN January 2013, from the comfort of their lounge rooms, many Australians watched the forests of the Pilliga burn. The word Pilliga wasn’t mentioned in the sensational reportage as such. The stories were primarily about the devastation and drama of … [Read more...] about National Parks Fueled Summer Bushfires in the Pilliga
Cooking Books for Hot Summers
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has “confirmed” that it is been the hottest summer on record in Australia. But I’m sceptical. The “record breaking hot summer” is apparently a statistical fact derived from simply averaging across 104 or 112 … [Read more...] about Cooking Books for Hot Summers
Your Temperatures Diddled
ALMOST exactly three years ago Michael Hammer showed that the official temperature rise profile for the 20th century in the United States is largely, if not entirely, an artifact of adjustments applied after the raw data is collected from the weather … [Read more...] about Your Temperatures Diddled
How Scientific Ideas Become Fashionable (Part 2)
MICHAEL Crichton wrote the Oscar-winning science fiction adventure Jurassic Park. But screen writing was not his first career, he studied medicine at Harvard, and later in life became very concerned about environmentalism and science, and the … [Read more...] about How Scientific Ideas Become Fashionable (Part 2)
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
