Monthly Archives June 2008

Whales to Wood, Wood to Coal/Oil- What's Next? Earth's systems revolutions.... Spend the time to watch the video lecture by Daniel Nocera at M.I.T. In 1845, the Dietz Company of New York introduced the sperm oil lantern, which nearly wiped out some whale species. A decade or so later, Dietz began to manufacture lamps using other oils, and gas lighting…

Staying at School Ain’t Silly. Andrew Leigh - Nicholas Gruen draws my attention to a piece on school completion by CIS researcher Peter Saunders (based on a longer paper here) [Broken Link - see below], who argues: Three-quarters of students currently stay to year 12, and most of them benefit from higher earnings and better job prospects as a result.…

COAG Communique released. The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) held its 20th meeting on 20 December 2007. In addition to the Prime Minister, Premiers, Chief Ministers and the President of the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA), Commonwealth and State and Territory Treasurers also attended. COAG agreed to a new model of cooperation underpinned by more effective working arrangements. COAG identified…

More Australians seeking qualifications. More Australians have been seeking higher educational qualifications, with the largest increase being in Bachelor Degrees, according to figures recently released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Nearly 2.5 million people (18% of all Australians aged 15-64) were enrolled in a course of study as at May 2007. The proportion with a non-school qualification (such as…

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