No, contrary to yesterday’s rumour Andrew Denton’s first guest for 2008 won’t be long-term GITMO resident David Hicks but instead noted feminist, temperance campaigner and pacifist footballer Wayne Carey.
Super Hornets are Go
Defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon has announced that the controversial purchase of 24 Super Hornet aircraft will go ahead.
The review of the Howard government’s decision to buy the aircraft — at a total cost of $6 billion even though the RAAF hadn’t wanted them — reached some damaging conclusions, including:
- There has been a lack of sound, long-term air combat capability planning decisions by the former Government over the course of the last decade.
- The retirement of the F-111 was made in haste but is not irreversible. The cost of turning the F-111 back on would be enormous and crews and skills have already moved on.
- The former Government’s decision to leave Australia’s air defences in the hands of the Joint Strike Fighter project was a flawed leap of faith in scheduling terms and combined with the quick decision to retire the F-111 early, allowed an air combat capability gap to emerge.
- The subsequent timetable the former Government put on the acquisition of an interim fighter left Defence planners with no choice but to recommend the Super Hornet. No other suitable aircraft could be produced to meet the 2010 deadline the former Government had set. One year on, that is now even more so the case.
Cancelling the order would still incur a financial penalty and create “undesirable tensions”, and the final conclusions is that “the Super Hornet is an excellent aircraft… and is the only aircraft which can meet the small delivery window created by the former Government’s poor planning processes and politically-driven responses.”
As a shareholder in Australia Inc, I’d like to know why the former “board members” allowed this to happen. When company directors are negligent they become personally liable so why, given the report’s damning conclusions, does Brendan Nelson not become personally liable?
Twitter versus Del.icio.us versus blog posts
I’m starting to think that my “here’s what I’ve found” items should move from Twitter to Del.icio.us or maybe even Tumblr [no account there yet, will explore soon] and just be summarised here daily. Then Twitter can be just the day-to-day status stuff — which needn’t be archived here at all, but maybe elsewhere.
Are you OK with that one, Mat F?
There seems to be a surge in “RSS aggregator” products like FriendFeed to create a unified “life stream”. But the more I think about it, the more I think “one stream that contains everything” is wrong. It might be fine for archiving — for your needs. But what about those following you? Dumping everything into a single sewer of undifferentiated crap seems to throw the burden of understanding you onto you audience. And all successful media creation is about what the audience wants — no matter what the scale.
It’s better, I think, to separate out the threads into different streams. People can subscribe to the combination they want. And they can choose to view them in the aggregator of their choice.
Business contacts get your business posts. Family and friends get the status reports about your lunch. A select few choose to view the reports of your illicit camel sex. where they want them, when they want them.
Well, that’s what I think today, anyway. What do you think?
Twitter updates for 2008-03-17
- @NickHodge I, for one did not say that. Maybe we do just elect a new dictator. I word my questions very, very carefully… 😉 #
- @andrewbarnett Has the Lynx deodorant caused you to fall thru the floor into a room of semi-naked women, as advetised? #
- @Spinopsys I think that’s my point: despotism is about moving the money to the top of the food chain, so businesses are run that way. #
- @duncanriley Well done, sir! A good story and exactly what Crikey loves. And it IS a good story. #
- Oh, I forgot a "Monday plan" tweet earlier. Says it all really. Well, after a ragged 0415 start I reckon my afternoon is reading & tea. #
- Gawd I see the bloody Dalai Lama is in the news AGAIN. He’s like the Bono of Buddhism. [sigh] <– Another friend-winning comment, eh? #
- @rosshill Web start-up cf shuttle mission very bad analogy. Space missions are planned & rehearsed to the last detail. #
- @triviabot You have been very repetitive over the last few days. I want… nay, DEMAND some new trivia. #
- @ApostrophePong & I are off for dinner etc. AFK. #
- WTF are we doing in an Irish pub on St Patrick’s Day? #
Black is the new President
Peter Black wins Headline of the Day Prize today with Black is the new President. Unless, of course, he means himself, in which case that’s just ego gone mad…
Australia 2020 Summit “destined to fail”
Another negative piece about the Australia 2020 Summit, this time from geneticist Michael Lardelli in The 2020 Summit — more hallucination than clear vision. He reckons it’s “destined to fail”.
Let me quote a couple more lines from the [ALP policy] website:
“The Australia 2020 Summit will examine… How we best invest the proceeds of [current] prosperity to lay the foundations for future economic growth.” And “How… we plan future population growth at a national and regional level, given the constraints of water shortages and sustainability?”
The trouble with these statements is that they assume the possibility of future economic growth and the inevitability and even desirability of population growth. But economic growth requires energy. A clear, objective view of the facts shows that by 2020, Australia and the rest of the world will be deep in an energy and food crisis of epic proportions.
Lardelli reckons that not even the Greens can openly suggest that future economic growth is impossible or that population growth is undesirable.
I don’t think we should write off the Summit just yet. These are Australians we’re talking about. If the Steering Committee tries to shut down true ideas-generation, I reckon our “best and brightest” will fight back with vigour.