The Virus

Bill Gates, formerly CEO, chief software architect, and chair of Microsoft, and now devoting his brainpower and passion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has expressed reservations about how the US specifically, and the world on general, is handling the pandemic crisis. “If we had built up the diagnostic, therapeutic, and vaccine platforms, and … Continue reading The Virus →

The Australian Electricity Dilemma-Alan Moran Nails It

The Spectator https://www.spectator.com.au/2020/07/do-we-want-to-follow-st-jacinda-and-price-our-industry-out-of-existence/ Alan Moran 10 July 2020 Rio Tinto’s announced closure of its aluminium smelter in New Zealand due to uncompetitive power prices this week is a reminder of the vulnerability of Australia’s four remaining smelters, all of which face sharply higher prices courtesy of government energy policies. With energy costs comprising about a … Continue reading The Australian Electricity Dilemma-Alan Moran Nails It →

Agriculture and Environmentalism

It seems I wrote this paper/speech in 1998 - 22 years ago. It reminds me of the saying "that the more things change, the more they remain the same" The On-Farm and Industry Consequences of Environmentally Driven Land and Water Regulations (A Darling River Farmer’s Perspective) Speaker: David Boyd, Managing Director, Clyde Agriculture Ltd Environmentally … Continue reading Agriculture and Environmentalism →

The Challenges of Modelling

Forecasting for COVID-19 has failed John P.A. Ioannidis1, Sally Cripps2, Martin A. Tanner3 1 Stanford Prevention Research Center, Department of Medicine, and Departments of Epidemiology and Population Health, of Biomedical Data Science, and of Statistics, Stanford University, and Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS), Stanford, California, USA2 School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Sydney and … Continue reading The Challenges of Modelling →

Consensual Scepticism-Margaret Thatcher

“The process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values, and policies in search of something in which no one believes, but to which no one objects; the process of avoiding the very issues that have to be solved.”

The Lower Lakes of South Australia

In so many key issues faced by mankind the best resolution is not at the extremes, but in a mid-course approach. A cursory reading of this latest report suggests to me that the panel has approached their task by weighing the merits of two extreme views. Total removal of the barrages on one hand and … Continue reading The Lower Lakes of South Australia →

Droughts and the Environment

“The suggestion that environmental water be given up for irrigation in times of drought implies that the environment does not need water during a drought". The Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder has told the Inquiry that evidence shows that this is not the case. Ugh? I thought that under natural conditions that is exactly what the … Continue reading Droughts and the Environment →

A Time Like No Other

Mike Boyd Apr 21 · 9 min read If — 6 months ago — you opined that the world would be locked down in the various ways we have seen unfold in the past month, you would have drawn ire and eye-rolling on a biblical scale. To quote the lyrics to People’s Faces by Kate Tempest; Was that a pivotal … Continue reading A Time Like No Other →

Society and Economy

The inference that "society" and the "economy" are different, even conflicting issues, needs to be quashed. When will our well meaning "do-gooders" recognise that the greatest contributing factor towards a nation having a compassionate society is to have a thriving economy.