“Asking around, it turned out we were all at Keith Windschuttle’s book launch because we admired the work of Keith Windschuttle. As the Americans would say – go figure.” 

Cate Blanchett: “We change countries, governments, history, gravity. After gravity, culture is the thing that holds humanity in place, in an otherwise constantly shifting and, let's face it, tiny outcrop in the middle of an infinity of nowhere.”

Christopher Pearson has chosen two favourite poems. Little Gidding by T.S. Eliot and Sailing to Byzantium by W.B. Yeats. Both poems are read by Lionel Farrell.

The Age: “Australia green groups have called a strategy meeting to devise ways to hit back at the climate sceptics movement, amid fears they are losing the PR war.”

“This is how debate should be, and just to read even Lambert’s admittedly partisan account is to see how much faster we are likely to arrive at truths, or at least save ourselves from error, if we promote debate and insist it be held in good faith.” 

Keith Windschuttletook part in a Radio National panel discussion of the Stolen Generations to mark the second anniversary of the national apology.

The Australian’s Stephen Romei: I have just caught up with David Free’s recent piece in Quadrant, titled What’s Wrong With Australian Fiction? What ensues is a catty and funny piece. I confess to being a sucker for this sort of writing, though I’m sure others will think it’s as sophisticated as a toddler pointing out the cripple in the room.

John Quiggin: ‘All the same elements were there – supposedly disinterested citizen researchers who were in fact paid rightwing operatives, misuse of accountability procedures, and exceptional gullibility on the part of the “sceptical” mass audience.’

Watching the UK Guardian catch up with the blog world is a lot of fun. Here’s a new treat.