Month: October 2015

NOW that Joe Hockey is on his way to be Australian Ambassador to the United States and that the appeal period has run out, it might be a time for some sober reflection on his defamation action against Fairfax publications, including this newspaper. Continue reading “Hockey’s reputation: lessons for all”

TIME flies. It is now a tad over a year since I went on the 5-2 diet.

It resulted from watching a BBC program that did a thorough expose on the diet industry and another program by Michael Mosely, a medical doctor and journalist, who quickly summarised all that was wrong with the diet industry and then went in search of the best medical advice to see what was the best way to loose weight. Continue reading “Waist not want not — the 5-2 diet works”

WITH all the talk about cities over the past fortnight, we should do something about Australia’s woeful approach to cycling. Continue reading “Improving cycling and city life”

YVONNE D’Arcy’s win in the High Court against a pharmaceutical giant has been widely applauded. But it may not be such a victory for the underdog as first portrayed. It would be unfortunate if the case resulted in pharmaceutical companies contracting their gene-research programs. It would mean cures and treatments for sufferers of a great range of genetic disorders would be unnecessarily delayed. Continue reading “Reward needed for medical research”

A well-known Irish joke tells of about a tourist in Ireland who asks one of the locals for directions to Dublin. The Irishman replies: ‘Well, if I were you, I wouldn’t start from here’. I don’t think it is as anti-Irish as seems at first blush. There is wisdom in it. If you want to go somewhere it is a good idea to start from a place where your goal is achievable. Continue reading “Despite and because of the past, US should just disengage”