Latest Articles
We are encouraged to rely more and more on government officials to do for us what we could equally well do for ourselves—and, maybe more importantly, not to do what might help us solve our own problems.
Sep 08 2024
10 mins
If we imagine a metric called the Pinocchio Scale, which measures the number of lies told by a politician as a percentage of his or her overall public statements, our current prime minister (for want of a better description), Airbus Albo, has moved well into uncharted territory.
Sep 06 2024
5 mins
Let Your RIG Rip
David Jones, The Aha! Moment: A Scientist’s Take on Creativity (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012), 280 pages, $31.95
Some years ago I was one of the profs in an ABC-sponsored Profs and Pints show, held (alliteratively) in a Perth pub. There were three academics and an audience of about a hundred people crammed in a room which would have comfortably held fifty, and the subject matter was “Minds and Machines”. It was great fun for everybody except those sitting near my grandson, a raucous infant who protested incessantly and had to be hauled away prematurely by my daughter.
The audience was lively and to them must go the major credit for making it a very high-quality entertainment. After a number had asked questions and made comments, all of them intelligent and many well informed, a somewhat gangling young man stood up and explained that he was not a scientist, a mathematician or an engineer. He was more the creative sort.
It says much for the tolerance of those present that…
Madam: Archbishop Fisher (July-August 2024) does not resist the attacks on his church by the political, social or scientific atheists and those who insist on not being told what to do.
Aug 29 2024
6 mins
To claim Aborigines have the world's oldest continuous culture is to misunderstand the meaning of culture, which continuously changes over time and location. For a culture not to change over time would be a reproach and certainly not a cause for celebration, for it would indicate that there had been no capacity to adapt. Clearly this has not been the case
Aug 20 2024
23 mins
A friend and longtime supporter of Quadrant, Clive James sent us a poem in 2010, which we published in our December issue. Like the Taronga Park Aquarium he recalls in its 'mocked-up sandstone cave' it's not to be forgotten
Aug 16 2024
2 mins
