This Saturday, as NSW goes to the polls, it might seem like the election is already decided.

But in the Upper House, the balance of power could be decided by just a few hundred votes, and extreme candidates like Pauline Hanson, Fred Nile and the Shooters Party could end up with the balance of power. John Hatton

Why? Because the NSW voting system means that millions of votes don't actually count toward the final tally of who gets elected! In NSW, your vote can actually 'expire'. If you don't allocate preferences, and your first preference candidate doesn't get elected, you have no say at all in the final count. That's why it's important to indicate multiple preferences.

Do your friends and family know this? Don't let them waste their vote. Check out our fun video below explaining how to make your vote count - and pass it on to your friends and family before Saturday.
Upper House NSW your vote

John Hatton Group C - Standing for real Communities

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"In societies with fewer opportunities for amusement, it was also easier to tell a mere wish from a real desire. If, in order to hear some music, a man has to wait for six months and then walk twenty miles, it is easy to tell whether the words, 'I should like to hear some music,' mean what they appear to mean, or merely, 'At this moment I should like to forget myself.' When all he has to do is press a switch, it is more difficult. He may easily come to believe that wishes can come true."
=W.H. Auden, "Interlude: West's Disease"

Old Fitzroy Short Films screens on the third Thursday of each month upstairs at the Old Fitzroy Hotel in Woolloomooloo starting 7:30pm. Denisa ;

Anyone who has read, watched, or listened to the news has an idea of what Koppel is worried about. The election cycle just behind us was dominated by very bitter views and accusations, on issues likely to matter very little in the long run = Learning to Love the (Shallow, Divisive, Unreliable) New Media

Three cheers for storytelling Storytelling Wins
Three cheers for storytelling. The triumph of The King’s Speech at The Oscars underlined the virtues of story, characters, and performance.

Not many films have greatness in all these ingredients. I’d seen Tom Hooper's recent film The Damned United about as the legendary English football manager Brian Clough, so I knew what he was capable of in these departments. Notwithstanding Colin Firth’s Oscar-worthy acting, I didn’t give too much of a toss about George VI’s triumph over his stammer – the Royals having so much going for them in the first place – but I did cherish the “downunder does good” element of the common man triumphing over improbable odds. Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue, played by Geoffrey Rush, brooks no airs when dealing with Palace protocols. He’s a man who knows what he’s about; stands his ground with humor and grace; and has an unconventional practicality about getting to an outcome. These are the qualities that Antipodeans bring to their work. In New Zealand we have a saying “winning the world from the edge” and that is just what Lionel Logue did.

• Blunt Talk Is Not Always Straight; [ Push polling; Damien Murphy The leaders' debate ]
• · Anyone who has read, watched, or listened to the news has an idea of what Koppel is worried about. The election cycle just behind us was dominated by very bitter views and accusations, on issues likely to matter very little in the long run Secret Fears of the Super-Rich …When to Get Your Wallet Out; If only Britain had something comparable to the First Amendment to the United States Constitution then we'd enjoy greater freedoms than is currently the case. Three cheers, then, to Bagehot for defending liberalism and liberty from the predations of the law and, naturally, the Sun newspaper. Even Goons Have the Right to Freedom of Speech. Especially Goons, in Fact
• · · COACHING FOR CATALYSTS: Creating Great Coaching Moments ; Bending and breaking the rules has become an accepted part of business culture, with both bosses and employees guilty of misbehaving. However, the repercussions of making them clean up their acts may be more costly than anticipated, suggests Stephen Ackroyd, co-author of the book, Organisational Misbehaviour and a professor of organisational analysis at Lancaster University Management School in the UK Organisational culture: look who's misbehaving now
• · · · Greater innovation is almost a universal aspiration, yet companies often underestimate how different the mindset, processes and organizational structures supporting innovation need to be Innovative thinking; Transferring organizational practices requires an understanding not only of what is being transferred but also of what is needed to ensure that the transfer is successful. In line with this thinking, the purpose of this study is to examine three factors that are crucial parts of this mechanism: use of teams, culture, and capacity The role of teams, culture, and capacity in the transfer of organizational practices
• · · · · Are passwords past their use-by date? How Apple and Google will kill the password ; Check to see if your website and/or domain is banned by the Google Search Engine.We will also check if your website and/or domain is banned by Google AdSense Google banned check ; Gabbie
• · · · · · Civil Liberties and Industry Groups Release Cybersecurity White Paper; To Net prophets like Clay Shirky, there is little about the Web that is not benign. But cyberutopianism is at odds with economic reality. Welcome to the digital plantation cyberutopianism The Internet isn’t making you stupid or unhappy or less productive. But it might be subverting your creativit Smarter, Happier, More Productive Biological and cyberwars are stealth businesses. Fingerprints are rare; the perpetrators often unknown. Does retaliation have a future? The New Virology

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Few weeks before the NSW Elections the legendry anti-corruption campaigner, John Hatton warned the people of Bermagui, Make sure that neither of the big parties get a majority in both houses of parliament. Voting Independent in the Upper House is your insurance for good government ... For example, I want to see a Public Works Committee, a Public Accounts Committee and a Public Service Commission which is not under government control. This will enable projects, expenditure and management to be put under a non-government spotlight. The public service at the moment centred in the Premier’s Department is to a large extent made up of people appointed - not to manage efficiently - but to be puppets delivering favours to big political donors John Hatton speaks about clean government
Candidates will be hoping for an advantageous position when the ballot papers draws for the Legislative Assembly and Council are held soon after the nominations close at midday John Hatton Team is in Left Side of the Paper - Group C

And at the other end of the spectrum the group led by former independent MP and corruption fighter John Hatton could take votes from the Greens. VOTE FOR JOHN HATTON

John Waters - Political wild cards shuffled John HATTON: Hatmobile - Parliamentary Underbelly Series
Mr Hatton was joined by actor John Waters, who played the corruption fighter in the most recent Underbelly series. "I was moved by the fact that I was portraying a man who obviously had a lot of courage to stand up and do what he did," Mr Waters told reporters.

Mr Hatton, a former South Coast MP, said he would bring "openness and accountability" to NSW politics as "somebody who says it as it is and is not afraid to take on the big money and the button pushers".

• The underbelly in NSW politics is very real [Pauline Hanson's bid to enter NSW politics has shone a welcome spotlight on the upper house, anti-corruption campaigner and independent candidate John Hatton says Hanson shines light on upper house: Hatton; Our support rises straight out of the community and our contact with the community is grassroots, he said, explaining that his team and its 'Hatmobile' is travelling across NSW to gather support Hatmobile ; John Hatton is one of Australia's most courageous politicians ever: The Forgotten People; What issues will change the way you vote at the NSW Election? ]
• · Openness and accountability ; John Hatton who opened with a fiery condemnation of corruption in the approvals process for mining and CSG extraction ; Special Gasland screening hosted by John Hatton
• · · Corruption fighter rallies Moruya troops ; Well-known Wollongong lawyer David Swan has launched a bid for the NSW upper house at this month's state election ; Saturday’s Illawarra Mercury helpfully featured opinion polls conducted by local outfit IRIS of each of the five state electorates on the paper’s turf, each with sample sizes of 400 and margins of error approaching 5 per cent. To speak Illawarra
• · · · NSW election minus 16 days ; Pauline Hanson and the NSW Legislative Council election
• · · · · LIBERAL Leader Barry O'Farrell has this morning revealed a family member's struggle with a mental illness helped to inspire the Coalition's health care policy. Barry O'Farrell reveals his family battle with mental illnes ; JUST hours before the NSW government moved into caretaker mode last week, the Planning Minister, Tony Kelly, approved four separate developments at Barangaroo, dealing another blow to critics attempting to stall the project.Minister ran down clock for approvals ; Newspoll has the Gillard government’s primary support a Keneallyesque 30, the Coalition on 45 and Greens 15. Distributing preferences as they flowed at last year’s election comes to 54 to 46 in the Coalition’s favour. Tables here. Newspoll history repeats
• · · · · · A total of 809 candidates have nominated for the NSW Election, 498 candidates for the 93 Legislative Assembly electorates and 311 for the 21-member Legislative Council election. The 498 Assembly candidates is down from 537 in 2007, 661 in 2003 and a record 732 in 1999. The big change in numbers for the 2011 election is the disappearance of Unity and Australians Against Further Immigration. The Australian Democrats have nominated only one Assembly candidate, down from 26 in 2007. There are an extra 21 Independents compared to 2007 and 29 more Christian Democrat candidates, the party standing a record 86 candidates. Family First are also contesting their first NSW election with 15 lower house candidates. The Legislative Council has seen numbers fall from 20 columns with 333 candidates in 2007 to 17 columns and 311 candidates in 2011. The Liberal/National Coalition have drawn the prize first column Group A on the ballot paper, Independent John Hatton has drawn Group C, while Pauline Hanson is in Group J. Summary of Nominations for the NSW Election ; The Largest Swings in Australian History - the Measuring Post for NSW 2011 ; THE sale of public assets should be put to a public vote

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Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.
– Jack Kerouac

We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open。

Travell around the world and make people happy with making the best shows with amazing magic passion and energy. Gabbie is travelling around the world in 365 Days

Travel does what good novelists also do to the life of everyday, placing it like a picture in a frame or a gem in its setting, so that the intrinsic qualities are made more clear. Travel does this with the very stuff that everyday life is made of, giving to it the sharp contour and meaning of art



"Good luck" - God be with you
Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things – air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky – all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.

A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.

The World Is Waiting For You, Good Luck, Travel Safe

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Happy Birthday MALCHKEON

And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.
-Abraham Lincoln


When I have a birthday I take the day off . But when my wife has a birthday, she takes a year or two off.

Time itself is like a spiral, something special happens on your birthday each year - FORTY years after Don's Party, David Williamson, Australia's tallest playwright, has written a sequel: Don Parties On.

The ABC's election broadcast, with the voices of Kerry O'Brien and Antony Green, will underpin the drama on stage. Don's old chum Mal (a hearty turn by Robert Grubb) （Don Parties On Program is signed by David for Malchkeon）

Time and Tide wait for no man, but time always stands still for a woman of thirty. Mal: Mate, I've got to hand it to you. You've gone to so much trouble. You've even got old videos of the 1969 election! Kerry O'Brien looks so young. Even his Left ear is bigger

Evening dining is equally impressive framed by the beautiful night lights of the Harbour Bridge and Luna Park

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I have a feeling my career's just peaked... I'm afraid I have to warn you that I'm experiencing stirrings, somewhere in the upper abdominals, which are threatening to form themselves into dance moves.
-Oscar winners

Today's politicians are a bunch of robots who would rather chase soundbites than make policy ... My old mate Paul Keating once said to me: You have to understand, mate, politics to me is just a game, and I will say or do whatever I have to, to win Rise of the machines John Hewson

Rise of the machines Australia crowned by Oscars
A RECENT decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to deny producer offset funding to the Beyond series Taboo threatens to change the content of Australian documentaries, according to the Screen Producers Association of Australia.

WHETHER it's Animal Kingdom or Packed to the Rafters, there is one good reason why Australian films and TV dramas are flourishing again. In the words of a famous pop group, it comes down to money, money, money …
A review of the screen production sector to be released today by the federal Arts Minister, Simon Crean, shows film and television is being funded at record levels. A new system of production incentives has led to a tripling of government support in the past three financial years to $412 million. With further investment by the agency Screen Australia, production increased to a record $731 million last financial year.

• The King's Speech –and Many, Many Others Federal funding puts local films into action
; [ Bid for producer offset ruled out by appeals tribunal ; Australia crowned by Oscars; Provides screen cultural and industry support through a range of measures Screen Australia; Google - It's Hollywood's biggest celebration]
• · Young Australians like you know just how stupid the divisive political strategy being pursued by Scott Morrison, Cori Bernardi and others is. Social Media and a More Progressive Future ; The Minister for the Arts, Mr Simon Crean, has released the government's report of the 2010 Review of the Australian Independent Screen Production Sector. The report identifies several challenges and highlights opportunities to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the screen tax offsets in some areas. Interested parties are invited to comment on the review report by Friday, 11 March 2011. Comments should be sent by email to artsfilminfo@environment.gov.au. Source: 2010 Review of the Australian Independent Screen Production Sector; BAZ LUHRMANN'S Sydney production of The Great Gatsby has been dragged into a spat between producers and the federal funding body Screen Australia about what makes a movie Australian and when taxpayers should subsidise it Gatsby gets caught in row on film funding

• · · Screen Australia and filmmaker George Miller are coordinating the ‘Map My Summer’ project. ; FEDERAL agency Screen Australia will dip its toes into online distribution in a new initiative with YouTube.; The president of the Screen Producers Association of Australia, Antony Ginnane, says the industry body is “pleased” with the review of the independent screen production sector, but they don’t expect any additional direct financing in the upcoming budget. We’re pleased to see that, on many issues, the review doesn’t take a position one way or another. It gives us an opportunity now to engage on an ongoing basis with the Department, but given the state of the world, Australia and the budget, it would be unrealistic for the industry to expect any significant additional direct financing in the upcoming budget Encore
• · · · Oscars 2011: In quotes; There is no blogger here. There are women who tweet or use Facebook, and though using social media is good, it’s not blogging Real blogger at the meet-up
• · · · · John Ibrahim's $150,000 proceeds of crime payout to the NSW Crime Commission NSW court kept deal secret for years ; Police leaks to Ibrahim
• · · · · · Expectations of a change of government in New South Wales on March 26 are almost universal. But the swing the Coalition needs to achieve is historically high. Coalition needs tsunami of votes - and it's on cards ; The polls indicate an electoral wipeout for the NSW government. On current predictions the Coalition will have 19 members in the Upper House after March 26. This is two short of an outright majority. After the President is elected, it will need only three extra votes, which will come from the Shooters and Fishers Party and Reverend Fred Nile. Beware a lack of Upper House Greens

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Life's meaning has always eluded me and I guess it always will. But I love it just the same.
-E.B. White, letter to Mary Virginia Parris

Wikileaks can't ethically dump anything it feels like, as a publisher there are constraints and limits There is nothing to do today except bow our heads and hope and pray and send our love These three books are essential reading for anyone who really wants to understand the WikiLeaks phenomenon: Rate Inside WikiLeaks; Underground; Inside Julian Assange's war on secrecy: Inside WikiLeaks

Throwing the book at the WikiLeaks story

-Has WikiLeaks information served humanity?

Galaxy: Anna Bligh approval up 35 per cent Exotic Delights- By a Nose
To expand the mindset, Kevin Roberts keeps a look out for anything far out on the edge, thoughts that run a mile from the ordinary and thoughts that look to the brighter side of life and was quite taken by Encyclopedia of the Exquisite – An Anecdotal History of Elegant Delights for its many gems

Running a global creative enterprise throws out challenges that travel across strategy, innovation, imagination, operation and execution (on a slow day!).

The most satisfying work is voracious for unconventional blends of insight and ingenuity. To expand the mindset, I keep a look out for anything far out on the edge, thoughts that run a mile from the ordinary, thoughts that can connect disparate strands, and thoughts that look to the brighter side of life.

Literary morsels are good for this, and I was quite taken by Encyclopedia of the Exquisite – An Anecdotal History of Elegant Delights by Jessica Kerwin Jenkins. This delectable compendium weaves curiosity, obscurity, luxury and story to uncover small pleasures down through time.

• Subjects range extraordinarily; Ach Anka Captain Bligh [The strong feeling in NSW is that any change will do - we want people to think about what kind of change they want Real change but little difference in campaign slogans ; Reports that public service jobs will be at risk if the coalition wins government at the NSW election in March are "rubbish", an opposition spokesman says. "(NSW Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell) has said we will need more public servants, not less, to fix NSW so the report is rubbish," the spokesman said on Sunday. But the man behind the sacking of more than 50,000 public servants during the Greiner and Fahey Liberal state governments, Garry Sturgess, and the head of former prime minister John Howard's department, Max "the Axe" Moore-Wilton, are both advising Mr O'Farrell, Fairfax media claimed on Sunday. NSW opposition denies it would cut jobs ; Opinions flow from his tongue in torrents, aided and abetted by a pair of hands in constant movement. Lunch with ... Mark Textor, strategist ; O'Farrell is now like a bloke on a bicycle at the top of the last hill before the finish line. He does not need to pedal much, just grip the handlebars, refrain from lairish behaviour and ignore cheers or taunts from the kerb. O'Farrell will be made to earn it ; Political strategists Bruce Hawker and Grahame Morris, along with program host (and politics wonk) Janine Perrett, will try to answer some of these questions in Sky's newest offering, So, You Want to Be a Politician? Reality show to revel in political dark arts ]
• · The NSW Liberals kicked off their election campaign while angry protesters screamed their concerns over party plans. THE Coalition's $400 million household energy rebate plan was quickly derided by Labor yesterday as 'Fairness for Families-lite ; Forget the vision, just smell the pork
• · · "We don't renegotiate our commitments, we deliver on them," said Mr Albanese, adding that Mr O'Farrell might have a change of heart. NSW Labor election strategy 'destroyed': Opposition; The time will come very shortly where the leader of the opposition and the Liberal Party will have to make a decision whether they are going to simply continue to oppose every health reform that we deliver for patients or whether they will act in the national interest to back this plan Despite talk of renewal, unions maintain stranglehold on NSW Labor
• · · · No devil dealing with the Greens in NSW election - Barry O'Farrell ; Labor's plan: let's just make it all up
• · · · · In terms of national success honesty and transparency do not necessarily bring reward Corruption and economic success can cohabit; Many on the move are young, smart and searching for a dream that has evaporated. In Southern Europe, A whole generation - the best educated in the history of the Mediterranean - is fearing for their future. Says one young jobless women with a law degree, a masters, and fluency in five languages: I have everything except a death certificate...
• · · · · · When speeding laws say one thing and a large majority of people demonstrate they have a different view, it’s time to recalibrate Let the people decide how much; This year the first of the baby boomers will hit retirement. They’re the wealthiest generation in history, the first mass market, and in many ways the main shapers of the world as we know it. The Media Dragon Generation is coming of age

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A NEW movie titled State of Siege conjures scenes of a dismal, war-torn future rather than the leafy backblocks of Roseville. What really drove me to pick up my camera and say something was the moment I realised that under the heel of an uncaring bureaucracy and a dictatorial government, I and my fellow citizens were powerless and without influence. The one-hour documentary was made on a shoestring. The executive producer was Home and Away director Geoff Nottage, who gave his his time. Mr Grosvenor's wife Diane was the chief camera operator. Former NSW MP John Hatton, entrepreneur Dick Smith and NSW Opposition Leader and local MP Barry O'Farrell are interviewed. Mr Grosvenor said he requested an interview with Premier Kristina Keneally but did not receive a response My Castle: One man's stand against developers ; The seat that has almost become the epicentre of NSW politics in recent years, Penrith, will host the Liberal-National coalition's official campaign launch on Sunday. Ku-Penrith-gai ; John Hatton Team ; John Hatton Story and History

War doco filmed in Ku-ring-gai STATE OF SIEGE
DENNIS Grosvenor has been living in a war zone at Roseville for three years.
A powerful, must-see documentary at Roseville Cinema and all good cinemas

Feature length documentary that tracks the history and modern conflict between development and urban conservation. Steeped in a culture of political donations, modern politics has put the basic tenets of democratic rights under threat.
"One may started asking questions and uncovered the arrogance of power..."
Proceeds go to Wires
Features commentary from:
Jack Mundey - John Hatton - Lee Rhiannon - Sylvia Hale –
John Mant – Dick Smith - Barry O’Farrell.
STATE OF SIEGE- Background
Dennis Grosvenor - Tropic of Oz Independent Films
From the Green Bans of the late 1970’s to the present, there has been a constant battle between the forces of conservation and development. With few exceptions, when it comes to the economy and the profit motive, the environment has generally come a poor second. From Ku-ring-gai to Catherine Hill Bay, from the Tweed to Eden, bulldozers have either moved in, or are poised and ready to change the landscape forever, and the quality of life many take for granted. When my neighbourhood was rubber-stamped for demolition.

• When my neighbourhood was rubber-stamped for demolition; Tropicofoz: War doco filmed in Ku-ring-gai; Neighbourhoods ; A GROUP of Sydney doctors has taken an unprecedented move by spending thousands of their own money to hire a public relations firm to take on the State Government. The Royal North Shore Hospital's medical staff council, made up of more than 300 clinicians, launches a campaign today opposing the sale of land near the hospital - PR firm Viva Communications [ Joh Hatton Candidate Legislative Council; John Hatton NSW E*ections 2011 AD ]
• · John Waters as John Hatton ; Many are predicting a bloodbath in next month's election for NSW state Labor after numerous scandals and policy debacles
• · · NSW anti-corruption campaigner and former NSW MP John Hatton says independents will be an attractive option for many voters at the March state election. Mr Hatton, who is running as an independent for the upper house after retiring from parliament in 1995, said independents could hold the balance of power in the upper house after the poll Independents an attractive voter option ; Pubs - Caught on camera
• · · · Two seasoned pollsters have written a spirited defence of their practices, warning that limiting political polls would allow politicians and even the media to “push their own distorted view of public opinion.” “Canada’s pollsters should remember that they perform an important public service,” Ipsos Reid’s John Wright and Darrell Bricker argue in an article circulated to reporters. “Our polls speak truth to power.”
Do political polls harm democracy or serve the public interest? ; Labor warns of O'Farrell blank Czech - Labor improves on crime, fails everything else Young voters are swimming against the tide; The New South Wales (NSW) elections are just around the corner and there has already been a number of election related videos coming out They say they believe but act like they dont
• · · · · At the heart of the ALP’s election campaign advertising is a single, profound and powerful message: “You wouldn’t hit a girl would you? Look into my eyes and tell me I’m unelectable; New South Wales 2011 election part 1: ; Nielsen's research director, John Stirton, described it as ''an astonishing ... they would still be headed for a bigger victory than Nick Greiner's in 1988 Essential Research: 59-41 to Coalition in NSW; John Stirton is neat this is just Too messy for Anthony Green
• · · · · · New South Wales has been disgraced by an increasingly corruption-prone, wasteful and incompetent government focussed on retaining power and privilege instead of governing for the public good The larger parties are arrogant and out of touch ; Essential Research: 59-41 to Coalition in NSW ; Push polling ; Each morning began with an early phone hook-up of Greiner, Hooper, and Laurie Power ... Other staff included Stephen Coutts as speechwriter, John Stirton as pollster PRESS Polling

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P aul Haggis considers himself a curious man. Yet for 35 years he did not question the tenets of his religion: Scientology. Why? The incentive to believe is high;

The media don’t shape the culture ; they merely reflect it, giving rise to today’s common readers: Those who have fallen in love with their own mediocre taste... Narcissus Regards a Book

The journalist Janet Malcolm once gently joked in an interview that "the narrator of my nonfiction pieces is not the same person I am—she is a lot more articulate and thinks of much cleverer things to say." True to form, her memoir of life as a widow reveals little and obscures much You give it immortality - That is why you write and for no other reason

Grandfather knows best
If this doesn't make you laugh, you're dead
She votes Democratic but lives Republican.

Man cannot live by masterpieces alone, nor can any playwright, however gifted, hope to produce them every time he sits down at his desk. It is in the nature of things that there must also be well-made pieces of intelligent entertainment to keep our fancies tickled, and there must be enough of them to keep actors from standing on unemployment lines and critics from going mad with boredom. Therefore let us now praise A.R. Gurney, who writes a play or two each year, some of them inspired, others merely solid, but all guaranteed to send you home feeling that you wasted neither time nor money by seeing them. "Black Tie," Mr. Gurney's latest effort, falls into the second class, scoring 100% on the intelligent-entertainment checklist.

• Grandfather knows best [ If this doesn't make you laugh, you're dead; Most people have a hard time understanding what the true value of their tax dollars would be if invested and saved for the future, says economist and Independent Institute Research Fellow Emily Skarbek, director of the Center on Entrepreneurial Innovation. "MyGovCost.org's latest version is an easy-to-use tool that provides an understanding of how government spending directly impacts you MyGovCost.org]
• · John Lantigua has this article today in The Palm Beach Post. Seventy years ago, Ohio farmer Roscoe Filburn found himself on the losing end of a U.S. Supreme Court case. He'd harvested 239 bushels more wheat than the federal government allowed and was ordered to destroy the extra crop and pay a fine. Wickard vs. Filburn could be an important touchstone this year as the health care law, called the Affordable Care Act by supporters and Obama¬care by opponents, heads to the high court Congress' power at heart of fight over health law ; Keneally plunges to record low
• · · Adam Gopnik has this "A Critic at Large" essay in the February 14, 2011 issue of The New Yorker. Toast, as every breakfaster knows, isn’t really about the quality of the bread or how it’s sliced or even the toaster. For man cannot live by toast alone. It’s all about the butter. Its risk is real: evil things will register more vividly than the great mass of dull good The Information: How the Internet gets inside us ; Legislative Council Calculator
• · · · Seat-by-Seat Prediction ; NSW Elections
• · · · · A common image of the ‘political class’ running the Australian Labor Party is of a collection of daleks, without names or faces, and about whom it’s possible to believe the worst. But can we be sure that many of the nameless, faceless wouldn’t seem a bit less alike—and a bit more attractive as human beings—if they were allowed to tell us about themselves? Lessons from the Political Class; A decade that changed Australian journalism
• · · · · · History’s Greatest Feuds: Man vs. Machine; Stephen Baldwin vs. Kevin Costner the oldest dog in America ; Artificial intelligence has advanced to the point that computers can very nearly pass for human. What are they telling us about ourselves? To find out, the author enters himself in a famous battle of. wits pitting man against computer ; A history of the Baghdad Express illuminates the resilience of politicized Islam From Berlin to bin Laden

In the words of H.L. Mencken, “There comes a time when every man feels the urge to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and start slitting throats.”

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Jean's undoing, in my view, was nothing as humdrum as booze or tobacco or malnourishment, but a deadly streak of passivity of a kind that sometimes goes with perfectionism, and which I think she loathed in herself.
-Wilfrid Sheed, "Miss Jean Stafford"
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power and leadership.
- Vaclav Havel misquoting Abraham Lincoln
I’m from a very, very small town in the middle of nowhere; it’s actually like one street, and everybody knows everyone. Economic woes can change a person. Take the money from someone's wallet, starve them for a time, and what they once thought important falls quickly to the realm of secondary consideration. In matters of romance, as happened during the Great Depression and other periods of history where need weighed heavily on the world, love is trampled by the desire for gain. Profitability and the perception of security hold dominion. Passion, affection, a pounding pulse, butterflies in the gut—those matter far less in times of prolonged hardship. Perhaps romance, those unspoken, treasured feelings that two souls share by looking into the eyes of the other, can still result from a union built first on shelter from the cruel world and monetary expectations. God Unknown

Collecting individuals’ online habits Top Social Media Brands: Infographic
U .S. Representative Jackie Speier has introduced the Do Not Track Me Online Act of 2011, prohibiting online marketers and analytics companies from collecting individuals’ online habits.

A visual look at global brands and celebrities with the most social media presence and followers. Which companies have utilised social media with success and who has the biggest Twitter following, Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber?

• Polar opposites ; [Does anyone still care about dangling modifiers? An emphasis on sales and marketing has led publishers to ignore an important truth: Editors are supposed to edit The lost art of editing; At Ashley Madison's website for "dating," the infidelity economy is alive, well, and profitable Are you an aspiring adulterer? Noel Biderman is there for you. The motto of his budding Internet empire: “Life is short. Have an affair”. Cheating, Incorporated ; Fifty years ago a favorite language dispute showed up in print. A reader asked Ann Landers if it was “I couldn’t care less,” I could care less ]
• · Computers can fly airplanes, but they can’t make plausible small talk. We forget how impressive humans are. Computers are reminding us Mind vs. Machine ; Times are changing in the world of Search Engine Optimization and it looks to liven up this sector. With Search Engines introducing ever more sophisticated algorithms, the art of providing good SEO Services is now crying out for more original and off the wall techniques Search Engine Optimization in 2011
• · · Getting A Grip On Corporate Blogging
; The Haves and Have-Nots of the Blogging Boom Blogs to Riches
• · · · hollywood; THR, Esq. Named Top Legal Blog
• · · · · It's like a perfect battle. New guard vs. old school. The power of youth vs. the experience of the established. Trash vs. class. The faceoff between "Bound to You," Christina Aguilera's "Maybe This Time" moment toward the dramatic climax of Burlesque, and "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me," Cher's torch song belted as if from the depths of a movie career gone all too predictably sour with age, is one of those Oscar matches that elevates a category that in many other years seems as rote and irrelevant to the artistry of movies as Best Visual Effects Oscar ; It’s like Animal Farm. The pigs make all these noble rules, and then systematically subvert them Pitching Cold River; mazon Studios launched a new feature that allows writers to control the level of collaboration on their original scripts. Writers, upon upload or thereafter, will be able to designate their projects as open (anyone can add a revised script to your project), closed (only you can add revised scripts to your project) or revisable by permission (only participants who obtain your permission can add a revised script to your project). This feature has been a top request of Amazon Studios participants. Amazon Studios now slightly less terrible ; Welcome to Amazon Studios

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The desire not to destroy the palace but to move into it oneself has always been the occupational curse of revolutionaries.
-Wilfrid Sheed, "Writers' Politics"
Then along comes Valentine's Day...

Icon of a revolution. Four-term president. When Vaclav Havel retired, many expected him to fade away. He had another idea: direct his first film such as Cold River. It will be my last adventure

Curiority - Political Cats, Films and ART What Chekhov Meant By Life - Last Adventures on River Earth
Like for my sister Gitka , for East German teachers of Marxism-Leninism, 1989 wasn’t the year the walls of tyranny came down. It was the year their lives fell apart.

Halfway through Phil Collins's new film, a statue of Karl Marx is winched out of a Berlin square. It recalls Fellini's La Dolce Vita, in which a statue of Jesus is airlifted over the roofs of Rome before the shenanigans begin. Both sequences invite similar questions. What happens when the key symbol of a culture is run out of town? Does life become sweet? Does it leave an icon-shaped hole?The Runcorn-born, Berlin-residing, 2006 Turner prize-shortlisted artist wanted to address these questions in his film, called Marxism Today. But most of all, he wanted to find out what happens to a discredited creed's followers, as they move into an alien new world. "I was in Berlin on the 20th anniversary of the Wall coming down. All the focus was on reunification and the subcultures of dissent that existed in East Germany – be it the Protestant church or punks. The one voice that wasn't heard was that of teachers of Marxism-Leninism in East Germany. Where did they go? There must have been a lot of them: it was a compulsory subject."

• We do not need no revolutions [In 1927 Barbara Follett published a much-praised first novel. She was 13. The book was about a young girl who disappears. In 1939, Barbara vanished.. Vanishing Act ; Samuel Johnson derided slang as “fugitive cant” unworthy of preservation, but the low idiom of thieves and beggars has evolved into a highbrow linguistic tradition Slang of ages ]
• · The apparent randomness of scratch lottery ticket numbers is a mathematical lie. A geological statistician in Canada has cracked the code. Cracking the Scratch Lottery Code; The financial crisis revealed a grim truth: Too much prosperity, for too long, tends to devour itself. We crave booms, but they bring on busts. Rethinking the Great Recession
• · · Pictures are naturally more memorable than a well written, evenhanded magazine story about the scope and tragedy of Detroit’s economic woes could ever be. But that’s precisely the problem. These indelible pictures present an un-nuanced and static vision of Detroit. They might serve to “raise awareness” of the Rust Belt’s blight, but raising awareness is only useful if it provokes a next step, a move toward trying to fix a problem. Ruin Porn- The Case Against Economic Disaster Porn; Instead of sheets--dirty tablecloths. The dog walked in the street and was ashamed of its crooked legs
• · · · US and its slums; Steve Jobs is one of the heroes of our age. He’s changed our lives. But Apple is more than a one-man band. I think though that the time is right for him to pass over the reigns formally to Tim Cook who ran the place through Steve’s previous two absences Job
• · · · · The Church of Scientology is being blamed for being more than just bizarre. News sources are reporting that the religious group is also behind human trafficking and exploiting free labor! ; Today's edition of The New York Times contains an editorial that begins, "When it comes to pushing the line between law and politics, Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas each had a banner month in January."
Justice Scalia, who is sometimes called “the Justice from the Tea Party,” met behind closed doors on Capitol Hill to talk about the Constitution with a group of representatives led by Representative Michele Bachmann of the House Tea Party Caucus.
Politics and the Court
• · · · · · "Personal Privacy and the Right to Know": This editorial appears today in The New York Times. For 45 years, the Freedom of Information of Act has invigorated American democracy by obliging the executive branch to make public a splendid range of documents. It serves the people’s right to know, while leaving out data whose disclosure could be harmful ; This article appears today in The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Few Wisconsin families have been touched by tragedy as much as the Krnaks Bar None: Lawyers' clients kept in dark on past issues

This country is merciless to good small talents. A writer who doesn't take chances and swing for the fences (whether or not he has a prayer of reaching them) is less than a man.
-Wilfrid Sheed, review of Letters of E.B. White

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The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid 'dens of crime' that Dickens loved to paint. It is not done even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the offices of a thoroughly nasty business concern.
-C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

Dennis Atkins of the Courier-Mail reports the internal inquiry into Labor’s 2010 election fiasco being conducted by Bob Carr, Steve Bracks and John Faulkner “could open up selection of election candidates to the public”, American primaries style. This has always struck me as being the last bad solution for much of what ails the party, in view of the terminal membership decline of major political parties generally. NSW E*ection

When I was 22, I knew it all. Now few decades later, I find myself relating to the Judy Collins lyrics I sang at 20 all too well.
I’ve looked at life from both sides now,
From win and lose, and still somehow
It’s life’s illusions I recall.
I really don’t know life at all THE WHO: WON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN ; The litmus test is the collision of stewardship and self-interest.

Perspective: New Age, New Morals, New Leaders
To speak of "moral leadership " in today's world seems a contradiction in terms. Almost every day, headlines tell of the disgrace, downfall, imprisonment or forced resignation of a political, corporate, religious, or community leader somewhere.
The new paradigm for leadership means that leaders today must be chiefly concerned with giving service to their community -- rather than advancing their own ideas, careers or sense of privilege.

The corruption of leadership takes many forms. There are those who seek to use positions of power to accumulate wealth, undermine rivals, or win sexual favors. There are those who use their authority to advance some particular cause at the expense of justice to other ideas. There are those who care more for partisan advantage than the discovery of truth. There are those who seek to dominate out of a base desire to manipulate and control others. And there are those who abuse positions of advantage simply because they have not reflected on the true purpose of leadership.

• Leaders like Vaclav Havel see the culmination dissent in the formation of a “genuine community” Leadership [What combines Risk, Corruption and Incentives – and Leadership; Sometimes I wonder if suicides aren't in fact sad guardians of the meaning of life. The dissident does not operate in the realm of genuine power at all. He is not seeking power. He has no desire for office and does not gather votes. He does not attempt to charm the public, he offers nothing and promises nothing. He can offer, if anything, only his own skin -- and he offers it solely because he has no other way of affirming the truth he stands for. His actions simply articulate his dignity as a citizen, regardless of the cost Vaclav Havel ]
• · Sensuality, along with Mystery and Intimacy, is one of the three magic ingredients in a Lovemark. Sight, scent, hearing, touch and taste are gateways to the emotions and a powerful means of connecting with the consumer. Each sense is profoundly complex, to a point where they defy description and easily slip from your grasp when you try to pin them down. Why is it easier to imagine what a lemon tastes like than to imagine what it smells like? ; Love is the only proper measure of a year in a human life.
• · · Jason Whittaker of Zoamorphosis has posted the first review of Blake and Kierkegaard: Creation and Anxiety. Many thanks for his timely and professional review Blake and Kierkegaard: Creation and Anxiety ; The McGuire brothers are a study in contrasts - one a succesful personality the other about to be a politician Eddie and Frank McGuire: good cop, bad cop
• · · · Here’s a note to all the news directors around the country: Do you want to save some money? Well then bring home your journalists following Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard, because they are not doing anything of any worth except having a round-the-country twitter and booze tour. Election 2010: Day 14 (or waste and mismanagement - the media);By now you’ve probably heard about social media and how it’s making celebrities out of mild mannered public servants and chirpy journalists who think in 140 character bursts. Maybe you’re wondering whether a witty and intelligent person like yourself could also become an internet celebrity. The good news is YOU CAN! Becoming a popular blogger is easy, unremunerative and unthankful, but easy
• · · · · Writing is a creative act between the writer and the reader. Ad hominem comment threads brutalise that relationship. you can’t be a blonde and have a PhD! ; Prostitute, concubine, mistress, wife: the boundaries are blurred in this study Art – History - Mistresses through the ages
• · · · · · THE advice from one of the country's most respected legal practitioners to the Governor-General is simple: "Let the people decide." Former Federal Treasurer and member of the Australian Gulf Council’s advisory team, Peter Costello with AGC chairman Alastair Walton; United Arab Emirates Foreign Trade Minister, Her Excellency Sheikha Lubna Bint Khalid Al Qasimi, and former Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, at an Dubai summit in December where Mr Hawke presented Her Excellency with an RM Williams leather briefcase. Arab farm investment push; WE thought 2010 would be a pivotal year, and we were right. It saw profound political shocks in Australia, Britain and the US. And it was the year China seemed to tire of Deng Xiaoping's injunction that the rising giant should bide its time, and began to assert its interests aggressively. Waning West; Californians used to be an optimistic and self-confident breed, their home a harbinger of America’s utopian future. Today, however, the Golden State exudes hopelessness

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Only one man in a thousand is a leader of men -- the other 999 follow women.
-Groucho Marx

The NSW state elections are on the 26th March. If you believe in the old two party paradigm you have the choice of total incompetence on one side and no policies on the other. A salutory reminder that there are other options, greens independents etc. Multi party governments work quite successfully in other parts of the globe. For instance Swedens multi party government has given rise to the most social and economic success story in Europe.
‘Politicians are the same all over – they promise to build a bridge where there is no river’ Time to get political...

NSW Legislative Assembly speaker Richard Torbay backs the People's Parliament NSW People's Parliament Initiative

A tale is told of a man in Paris during the upheaval in 1948, who saw a friend marching after a crowd toward the barricades. Warning him that these could not be held against the troops, that he had better keep way, he received this reply, " I must follow them. I am their leader."
-A Lawrence Lowell, 1856-1943, President of Harvard University,Conflicts of Principle
Whither the revolution?

New Year, same politics? Stopping that sinking feeling Quick Sand: You can't explain real estate bubbles by zoning controls
The Age reports that Wendell Cox’s Demographia has released a study showing Melbourne to be 321st on a list of 325 most affordable world property markets. Decreasing land taxes is the real villain creating land and housing bubbles …

In other words, we’re almost the world’s most unaffordable market: almost the world’s dearest city. Incredibly, London, with a population of 7.6 million is said to be cheaper than the city of Geelong which is home to a population of only 200,000 souls. Amongst more important things I’ll mention later, it could be argued that homes and sites in Geelong are generally larger than those in London, but that’s not mentioned by Cox. Instead, he shoehorns Melbourne’s astronomical residential property prices to square with the extraordinary claim that they're a result of its zoning regulations. Perhaps this means Melbourne also has the 321st worst residential zoning regulations in the world?

• The Ship is Sinking: Leaders and the Tough Decisions [Malcolm Mackerras who unlike Anthony Green tends to get the pendulum right All the signs continue to point to a historic rout for Labor in March ; WHEN Julia Gillard announced on Monday her chief of staff, Amanda Lampe, was leaving her job at the end of March there was plenty of talk in the national capital about her role in the Government and what her departure might mean PARTY GAMES: Wisdom in short supply ; In the eyes of many foreign journalists, India is a nation of Gatsbys and Babbitts engaged in a manic quest for status and wealth Time for a reality check ]
• · Speaking to Lindsay Tanner at this Wheeler Centre event, George Megalogenis considers what has happened to political leadership in Australia. In a brilliant analysis, ( Quarterly Essay "Trivial Pursuit: Leadership and the End of the Reform Era" ) Megalogenis dissects the cycle of polls, focus groups and presidential politics and explores what it has done to the prospect of serious, difficult reform and the style of our leaders. He argues that politics-as-usual has become a self-defeating game and mounts a persuasive case for a different model of leadership. He shows clearly why and how politicians are losing, or have lost, their will to reform due to incessant polling and the 24 hour news cycle. It touches on the Green vote at the last election, and the creeping dichotomy of red states and blue states in Australia. Talk-back radio in the 90's, and how this encouraged newspapers to "shout" more ; They also cover how the shift of the medium of the media affects the pre-existing quality of journalism and coverage on issues. For example, the shift of evening newspapers to the 6 o'clock news. Talk-back radio in the 90's, and how this encouraged newspapers to "shout" more. And of course, the rise of the internet.; It is not a new criticism that today’s poll-driven politics is not delivering policies in Australia’s long term national interest. However, George Megalogenis argues that the hung Parliament resulting from the 2010 Federal Election should be a wake up call to politicians: the current model is not serving the interests of Australia’s major political parties either.
• · · The WikiLeaks cables read like good literature. Both diplomacy and fiction, after all, feature plots, moral ambiguity, and casual deception ; The Czech political funding system is so opaque, it would be amazing if it were not corrupt. Behind the Curtain
• · · · The real story of a biographer in a celebrity culture of public denials, media timidity, and legal threats Unauthorized, But Not Untrue: Opraholics” and “Winfreaks” ; Sadly, mentally ill IBRAHIM Siddiq-Conlon has a message for Australians, whether they want to hear it or not. Full-bred Aussie with a longing for sharia law
• · · · · Leaders in a revolving door... state governments falling... the machinations of the machine men... politics over policy - and the opinion polls holding up score cards like judges at a diving contest so we can all keep track ; Blaming Palin will not help the healing in Tucson
• · · · · · GRAHAM Young is the founding editor of a well-regarded e-journal called On Line Opinion, and is a regular contributor to The Australian. I'd describe him as belonging in the centre of the political spectrum, perhaps tending to mild conservatism. Oversensitivity can only compromise debate ; The removal of our advertising should not be viewed as a violation of free speech; it's simply that we choose not to advertise on blogs that do not align to our organisational values Troppo bullied by corporate thugs; Wanted - new financial backers