Advance Australia?

Paul Romer (prominent US economist in growth theory):

"In the next century we're going to be moving back and forth, experimenting with where to draw the line between institutions of science and institutions of the market. People used to assign different types of problems to each institution. "Basic research" got government support; for "applied product development," we'd rely on the market. Over time, people have recognized that that's a pretty artificial distinction. What's becoming more clear is that it's actually the combined energies of those two sets of institutions, often working on the same problem, that lead to the best outcomes."

So what state is Australian science and innovation in? How do we measure it? How can Australian institutions improve their positions as innovators? Or should we just free-ride on countries who fund research more aggressively than us?

go to my festival

i do love a good rant

"Heat magazine - the tittering idiot's lunchbreak-pamphlet-of-choice - has caused a bad stink by printing a collection of comedy stickers in its latest issue. Said stickers are clearly designed to be stuck round the fringes of computer monitors by the magazine's bovine readership in a desperate bid to transform their veal-fattening workstation pen into a miniature Chuckle Kingdom and thereby momentarily distract them from the bleak futility of their wasted, Heat-reading lives."

PS

Three cheers for Bill Kelty

'Somebody has to tell the Liberal Party a few hard truths. The toughest of all is that the party, not just Howard, has lost touch with a generation. Young people are not better off with WorkChoices, mounting HECS debts, cynicism over climate change, unfair dismissals, with houses they can't buy, a monarchy they don't want, wars they don't support and the use of terrorist threats to undermine liberties.'

At least some middle aged white men get it!

Vale Matt Price

One column I always looked forward to won't be written anymore. Matt Price reminded me every time I read him that politics is fundamentally human. The details matter.

A moving tribute on Insiders

"I think that in the business of journalism and in politics and just in life we can lose touch with the human dimension, and Matt strove very hard not to do that".
-Karen Middleton

"No pithy punchline, life is fragile, hug your loved ones".
-Matt Price (in a note to friends post-diagnosis)