picture by Gus...

I have bagged Laurie Oakes a few times as the Bibendum of news for sometimes inflating the value of a political leak, designed and used to undermine a government's work... He's the king of leaks.

Opposition leader Tony Abbott’s “blood pledge” to dismantle the carbon tax if he wins power would financially punish the vulnerable and reward the big end of town, Throsby MP Stephen Jones claims.

Labor has promised to defend the carbon tax if it loses government to the Coalition, which tried unsuccessfully to block the passage of the tax through the House of Representatives yesterday.

Mr Abbott believes the Parliament had no mandate to introduce a carbon tax, predicting it will lead to a higher cost of living and job insecurity. Yesterday, he reiterated his plan to repeal the tax if the Opposition wins government.

I may be wrong...

But I feel that Fran Kelly on Radio National ABC TV is not so secretly enamoured with Tony Abbott... She seems to hate Julia. It may be that she loves the sound of her own voice while talking with a man, but when talking with other journos, it's all in roundabouts based on politics rather than the importance of proper policies... Even this morning I think I heard her say something like "I don't trust this [Labor] government to achieve something worthwhile..." between two interview segments. Of course this comment does not appear on transcripts because the transcripts are focused on the interviews...

I could have heard wrong... but I don't think so...

We are often reminded that we use only 10 % of our mental potentials... People will liberally quote Einstein on this belief... But is it true, did Einstein play a trick on us or did he really say that? ...

My view for what it's worth is that Einstein might have been using 10 per cent of his mind to create his most important theories while we need about 200 per cent of our brain power to understand these... People are different. 

The Wall Street Journal Europe – owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation – was mired in controversy yesterday as its publisher quit over fears the newspaper had "crossed the boundary" between editorial content and advertising.

Andrew Langhoff sent a memo to colleagues at Dow Jones – which produces The Wall Street Journal – saying: "I wanted to let you know myself that I have decided to resign." He added that it was "the most honourable course". The move comes at a time when the "culture, practices and ethics of the press" in the UK and of News Corporation have come under close scrutiny by Lord Justice Leveson.

Stunning images from high in the Himalayas - showing the extent by which many glaciers have shrunk in the past 80 years or so - have gone on display at the Royal Geographical Society in central London.

Between 2007 and 2010, David Breashears retraced the steps of early photographic pioneers such as Major E O Wheeler, George Mallory and Vittorio Sella - to try to re-take their views of breathtaking glacial vistas.

POSE a threat to the stability of Saudi Arabia, as Shia protesters are said to to have done in Awamiya, according to reports this week from the country's oil-rich Eastern Province, and you're brandishing a scalpel over the very heart of long-term US policy in the Middle East.

The US consumes about 19 million barrels of oil every 24 hours, about half of them imported. At 25 per cent, Canada is the lead supplier. Second comes Saudi Arabia with 12 per cent. But supply of crude oil to the US is only half the story. Saudi Arabia controls OPEC's oil price and adjusts it carefully with US priorities in the front of their minds.