People & associates
Chris Berg
Meet the Nanny Spider: it wants to wrap you up in little rules and eat your life
Ignorance of the law is no excuse. So here's a bunch of things you can't do without council approval. You can't sit in a chair on your nature...
Climate trumping needs of the poor
At one of those weird, celebrity-laden events they have every few months in New York, Hugh Jackman announced last week "climate change and poverty...
Alcohol is good - so let's drink to that
Australia's relationship with alcohol is ''calculated hedonism'', according to the latest of many reports into drinking commissioned by the federal...
Higher, faster, costlier: the price of Olympic gold is too great
Malcolm Fraser opened the Australian Institute of Sport in 1981 by saying we were "no longer going to let the world pass us by". Since then the...
Consumerist kiddies? Come on, give them a little credit
There's a lot of rage directed at the advertising industry. The comedian Bill Hicks famously told his audience: "If anyone here is in marketing or...
Going green is just another rinse in government washer
There's no better way to dress up your drab, colourless economic plan than calling it ''green''. The Victorian Government has been trying to create...
PM's national broadband plan really is no net gain
Has there ever been a major Commonwealth program more hastily conceived than the national broadband network? After it was clear their previous $4.7...
Let's bin the overcooked moralising
When MasterChef announces its winner tonight, it will have done more than inspire a few home chefs to cook half a pig's head, as third-place winner...
Silly recommendations are very bad for our health
Should the Government give tax breaks for gym memberships? Sponsor therapy sessions for smokers? Limit the number of bottleshops in each suburb?...
Crisis? What crisis?
By now, we've all read the story, dozens of times. It goes like this: the financial crisis has brought down the Potemkin village of consumerism....