Extreme heat waves, declining food stocks, and a life-threatening sea level rise: it's a sobering vision of the future by one of the world's largest and most powerful institutions.

A report issued by the World Bank earlier this month warns of severe consequences if global warming is not dealt with. But the international organisation may itself be contributing to climate change.

In this Parliament it always comes back to honesty and character.

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition wanted to spend this week as a starring character in an investigative drama. She's ended up as the winning candidate on Red Faces,'' Julia Gillard said on Wednesday.

A supermassive black hole, 4,000 times larger than the one at the centre of the Milky Way, has been spotted by astronomers.

from Crikey ….

Julie Bishop on her own legal past: the interview with a partner

Among the more fascinating letters to editors are those from lawyers.

Surely an editor somewhere must have a wall of framed threats from lawyers, which cause either considerable mirth or lots of pain.

"Swedish ambassador goes berserk over Assange,'' read Monday's Wiki-tweet. It rang a bell, as it bounced around the globe, for while most diplomats are polite to the point of somnambulism, my sole encounter with the Swedish ambassador had been distinguished by rage (his). This rage, rooted in WikiLeaks, had itself been Wikileaked.

from politicoz ….

from Crikey …..

'Hacking democracy': a tool to streamline our Right To Know

from Crikey ….

Keane: Bishop and her fierce battle with the English language