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David Roffey's blog

Submitted by David Roffey on June 1, 2008 - 5:00pm.
Management Update 31
May site statistics and financials, with a bit of extra analysis on who you all are.
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Submitted by David Roffey on May 29, 2008 - 10:46am.
Cirque du Soleil: Oxfam benefit nights
As in previous years, Cirque du Soleil have donated thousands of seats for Dralion to Oxfam. If you were thinking of going, please consider going on those nights when your money goes to Oxfam: Sydney: 18, 19, 25, 26 September 2008: Canberra:  6, 7, 13, 14 November 2008.
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Submitted by David Roffey on May 16, 2008 - 8:14pm.
Burma - some good news
An email update from a worker in the country. The title above was his subject line from the email - you can make up your own mind whether he's right .
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Submitted by David Roffey on May 15, 2008 - 10:27pm.
Terror and Consent: The Wars for the 21st Century
The threat of terrorism is now part of the landscape of daily lives all over the world, yet we have hardly begun to think properly about it. In his new book Terror and Consent  and in this lecture Professor Bobbitt argues that we are fighting these wars with weapons and concepts which though useful to us in previous conflicts have now been superseded.
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Submitted by David Roffey on May 1, 2008 - 5:00pm.
Management Update 30
April site statistics and financials
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Submitted by David Roffey on April 21, 2008 - 8:56am.
From Little Kev Big Hits GetUp?
link to getup song page
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Submitted by David Roffey on April 17, 2008 - 10:35am.
"Dear Mr Rudd" - nothing needed on Welfare or Education?
Robert Manne's collection Dear Mr Rudd: Ideas for a Better Australia covers some interesting ground, if relatively superficially (or "readable", according to the blurb). But what I find more interesting is what it doesn't cover.
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Submitted by David Roffey on April 1, 2008 - 10:29pm.
Management Update 29
March stats & financials, plus some news on a potential development
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Submitted by David Roffey on March 20, 2008 - 9:02pm.
"After the slaughter, sickening jubilation"

© Steve Bell 2008
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Submitted by David Roffey on March 14, 2008 - 7:30am.
Oil Dollar Euro ULP
I'm interested by the claim repeated in numerous news analyses that "investors are buying oil to hedge against the sliding greenback" - it seems to me to be a tad more significant that world oil demand has exceeded world oil supply for the last several months, and looks like doing so for at least the rest of this year. My forecasts for year end 2008: $145 barrel; A$1=US$1; ULP at $1.87 per litre. Enjoy.
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Submitted by David Roffey on February 29, 2008 - 3:49pm.
Management Update 28
February stats and financials - still no opps for money laundering.
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Submitted by David Roffey on February 28, 2008 - 11:18am.
'Iraq War cost so far: $6 trillion': Stiglitz
Stiglitz and Bilmes dug deeper, and what they have discovered, after months of chasing often deliberately obscured accounts, is that in fact Bush's Iraqi adventure will cost America - just America - a conservatively estimated $3 trillion. The rest of the world, including Britain, will probably account for about the same amount again.
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Submitted by David Roffey on February 21, 2008 - 1:22pm.
Garnaut Interim Report
[Full report here] Australia’s interest lies in the world adopting a strong and effectiveposition on climate change mitigation. This interest is driven by tworealities of Australia’s position relative to other developedcountries: our exceptional sensitivity to climate change: and ourexceptional opportunity to do well in a world of effective globalmitigation. Australia playing its full part in international efforts onclimate change can have a positive effect on global outcomes. Thedirect effects of Australia’s emissions reduction efforts are ofsecondary importance.
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Submitted by David Roffey on February 1, 2008 - 10:05am.
Management Update 27 - and a question of history ...
January stats, and a question on the integrity of Webdiary archives.
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Submitted by David Roffey on January 30, 2008 - 5:32pm.
Peak Coal?
"The perception that coal is the fossil fuel of last resort may well be an illusion." Energy Watch. Professor David Rutledge of CalTech in a lecture last October, suggests that world coal reserves are grossly overstated and could be substantially exhausted this century.
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Submitted by David Roffey on January 1, 2008 - 8:13pm.
Management Update 26
December unsurprisingly quieter on the site than November ...
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Submitted by David Roffey on December 1, 2007 - 9:06pm.
Management Update 25
November 07 our strongest month ever ... Must have been something happening ...
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Submitted by David Roffey on November 26, 2007 - 7:25am.
How big a problem is the Senate?
The question resolves down to this: can Labor peel off one or two Liberal or National Senators to vote with them on each significant issue? That nice Mr Joyce is an obvious candidate, at least on WorkChoices, and on each issue there are others who can be identified as having sympathetic views.
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Submitted by David Roffey on November 24, 2007 - 5:05pm.
Current prediction Lab 85: Coal 63; other 2
McEwen now called as won by Libs, LaTrobe probably there soon, while Corangamite and Flynn join the doubtfuls.
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Submitted by David Roffey on November 22, 2007 - 10:23pm.
Spread betting
Time for some personal predictions from Webdiarists. What's the majority going to be, for which side, plus any predictions for specific seats? To someone like me who lived through the 1997 UK campaign, this has all the feel of that, including the mixed polls in the last few days, so I'll go with the Newspoll state-by-state 100 Labor, 48 Coalition, 2 other. Over to you
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Submitted by David Roffey on November 17, 2007 - 7:23am.
Your Personal How-to-vote from GetUp
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Submitted by David Roffey on November 1, 2007 - 8:26pm.
Management Update 24
October site statistics and financials.
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Submitted by David Roffey on October 31, 2007 - 9:45am.
'Vote the Bastards Out'
The Spooky Men's Chorale supported the Not Happy John launches in 2004 and 2007, and for the 2004 campaign wrote their extended treatise on the politics of Australia and how to fix its problems, Vote the Bastards Out. Their performance at Gleebooks was one of the few good moments in the election campaign so far. Now they're launching their new release, Stop Scratching It - a treatise on how to run the War on Terror ...
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Submitted by David Roffey on October 23, 2007 - 9:34am.
Australia Fair - email your candidates!
"During the election campaign, we are asking people to enter the Australia Fair site and email their local candidates (this will be automated) calling for action to improve fairness in Australia. We are also asking candidates to prepare statements for posting on the website." Peter Davidson, ACoSS
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Submitted by David Roffey on October 21, 2007 - 2:45pm.
The Grate Debate - over-by-over commentary
A space for you to get your (and my) reactions down as it happens and as they occur to you.
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Submitted by David Roffey on October 1, 2007 - 4:30pm.
Management Update 23
August & September site statistics and finances
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Submitted by David Roffey on August 21, 2007 - 4:05pm.
Australia turns up the heat on climate change?
"Australians should be proud of what we are achieving at home to meet the climate change challenge" Alexander Downer in the Age this morning. Is he right? UPDATE: CSIRO and BoM report on the future for Australia
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Submitted by David Roffey on August 1, 2007 - 10:27am.
Management Update 22
July site statistics and financials
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Submitted by David Roffey on July 21, 2007 - 3:55am.
Oil Prices: where now?
On Webdiary we've gone round the the Peak Oil loop more than a few times over the last few years (eg here). A new point of interest has arisen over this week: for the first time in the last few years the oil futures price has come out of its persistent state of contango as it rose back over USD75. What does this mean? Well, the short answer is, for the first time in a long while, oil futures dealers are not on balance convinced that the next move in the oil price is necessarily up.
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Submitted by David Roffey on July 3, 2007 - 2:42am.
Management Update 21
June and 2006-7 site statistics and financials.
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