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Pearls and Irritations![]() |
China is making the once sci-fi dream of space-based solar power a reality and leaving the West scrambling to keep up. Imagine a kilometre-wide...
If anyone is yet to be disgusted with war and the reckless use of armed force, recent news from Gaza and Ukraine will change your mind. We have...
Political junkies and the media are obsessed with opinion polls on the relative standings of the political parties. Movements within standard...
“While a single year above 1.5°C of warming does not indicate that the long-term temperature goals of the Paris agreement are out of reach, it is a...
Scientists, who generally wear white laboratory jackets so they are not confused with economists, have a canon of sacred texts. Pride of place is...
There are signs that voters are turning towards Albanese and Labor and away from Dutton and the Coalition. Even Michelle Grattan, renowned for her...
Before this election is much older, Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton are going to have to determine where they stand on all the important issues....
Public commentary on Peter Dutton’s possible referendum on a ministerial discretion to deprive dual nationals of their Australian citizenship has...
Response to the latest Israeli/US slaughter in Gaza shows the world’s citizens looking into a moral precipice. How will they act? Will they ponder...
ABC’s Jane Norman is called out for repeating Coalition talking points with Jim Chalmers. Overnight reports claim Israel has killed senior Hamas...
I recently read Jerry Grey’s 8 March 2025 article and I was disappointed by the false and misleading statements made. I would like to participate...
Can any self-respecting journalist or political commentator inform me and many Australians as to why they continue to bolster the Australia/United...
What does it take to build peace in Australia and the world today? This is a question that has occupied the minds of a group of peace practitioners...
As both the actively enabled genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the sanctioning of those who protest it continue, the associated...
Australia’s shift to wind, solar and battery storage has shielded households and businesses from much higher power bills than they would otherwise...
Our recent research raises an important and challenging question: Are our well-intentioned management interventions like thinning in high...
A week into the job and I am deeply impressed by the strength and vigour of the community John has built around Pearls and Irritations. So many of...
There is a cruel historical irony in Israel’s genocidal war on the besieged Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank: the brutal suppression of the...
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial...
Senator Fatima Payman has launched her political party, Australia’s Voice, with candidates selected to compete in key Federal senate seats across...
Building nuclear power plants requires keeping air-polluting coal power going for an extra 25 years and killing 3000-10,000 Australians. Which milk...
The passing of the Early Childhood Education and Care (Three-Day Guarantee) Bill 2025 marks a major shift in Australia’s early childhood education...
Ma Ying-jeou warns that William Ching-te Lai is leading cross-strait relations into “a major crisis”. Taiwanese leader William Ching-te Lai...
We live in a global community, and many of us enjoy the benefits. A far greater number have no such enjoyment, existing in disadvantage; in...
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid the asking price for Itamar Ben-Gvir’s return to the government in advance. Not out of his own...
Maybe what Lehrmann Board of Inquiry chair Walter Sofronoff KC did was “serious corrupt conduct”, as the ACT Integrity Commission alleges. Or...
A giant eight-hour battery project in New South Wales has changed hands in a deal that also confirms that battery storage costs — a critical part...
The big news on house insurance this week was the response of the insurance industry’s peak body to a parliamentary committee’s extensive...
In Asian media this week: AI, green appliances to lead shift to consumption economy. Plus: Myanmar resistance rewrites rules of insurgency; Trump...
March hasn’t been one of the better months for Kim Beazley, the former Hawke and Keating Government minister, leader of the federal ALP and...
Home ownership has almost become an impossible dream in Australia and other Western capitalist countries. Governing authorities struggle in vain to...
While the biblical story of Noah’s Ark is certainly not the only ancient account of a devastating flood (the preceding Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh,...
History and politics buffs should either be made aware, or be given cause to remember, that in Brisbane, on St Patrick’s Day 1948, Australia’s only...
Because what is bad for the Coalition is usually good for Australia, Labor’s thumping win in Western Australia must be seen as a good outcome, but...
The Islamophobia Register Australia officially launched its latest report, Islamophobia in Australia Report 5, on 13 March in Sydney to mark the...
The Commonwealth Grants Commission’s annual updates of its recommendations as to how the revenue from the GST should be carved up among the states...
The ABC reveals Chinese social media is again facilitating foreign interference in our elections, Dutton is the true champion of China relations,...
If you ever need an example of the idiocy and the ignorance behind the Coalition and LNP campaign against renewable energy in Australia, a good...
Shortly after taking office, US President Donald Trump issued executive orders banning federal funding on so-called “woke” research. This is...