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
Fallen Leaders Fit for the Ignoratorium
The Apollo 11 moon mission remains one of the greatest scientific and engineering accomplishments in human history. It is even greater when you consider the extraordinary risks involved, including the very real possibility that three men could have ended up floating lifeless in space for eternity.
The risks for astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins didn’t end when they returned to earth. Nobody was sure, because nobody had ever completed such a mission, how the lunar experience might alter a person. Or, in the case of Collins, how many hours of lunar orbit might alter a person. Collins went all the way to the moon but never set foot on it.
It was thought possible that the astronauts might unwittingly bring back with them some form of space virus, or be changed in other ways that made them dangerous to normal earth-based humans. So NASA enforced a strict twenty-one-day quarantine, beginning from the moment the astronauts’ return craft left the…
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
