Not since 1977 – almost 40 years ago – has a governor-general performed so poorly at the Melbourne Cup.

In 1977 Sir John Kerr got a bit plastered and was out of control.

Not so in 2015. Sir Peter Cosgrove was in total control. So much in control that he was utterly controlled by what seemed to be a pre-prepared speech.

Just fill in the blanks with the name of the jockey, trainer and owner.

He completely missed the point of history.

Why didn't he just chuck away his prop – his prepared speech – and seize the moment of history. For the first time in the 155 years of its running, a female jockey won the Melbourne Cup.

Yay.

On Sunday 1st November, the Bolt Report had a guest who was conferring with Andrew Bolt about the farmer who took his life because of his battle with mining companies. The case was used by Bolt to bash the ABC yet again. Bolt was asserting that we "did not know" why the farmer took his own life and we should not blame the CSG mining companies for this fellow's despair. But according to Mr Bolt we should bash the ABC for assuming it was the fault of the miners. 

The rumours were sealed with a kiss.

Which one would bend the banana first?... Way before FUTURAMA — that cartoon about a courier company in 3000 AD written by the fathers of "The Simpsons" — I had written the pilot script for a funny sitcom about a courier company and had started to draw a comic strip I called FUTURON. But FUTURAMA is sometimes about president heads in brine, or whatever, still leading the world to perdition. The one-eyed Leila is the most sane of a mad crew in which the uncle is younger than the grand-grand nephew due to a cryogenic accident. So I relate well to insanity. 

E-vo-lu-tion is not an option. It's the way life works. In medical sphere, the adaptation of bacteria, microbes and viruses tells us irrevocably about adaptation, including that in which our army of antibiotics are becoming lamer. Things evolve, change, devolve, become extinct, not because of the grace of a god's fart but because the total environment, including the biotic environment, in which we live also changes. 

From personal experience and by all other accounts, Tony Abbott is a good guy.  Many suggest he's surprisingly funny, caring and dedicated to public service.  People who know him best say he's the sort of guy you can have a beer with.  After all, what's not to like about a politician of 21 years standing who can ride a bike and hold his own on a big day at North Steyne?   

The Federal Government's new chief science advisor, Alan Finkel, has advocated for an end to coal-fired power but acknowledged it will not happen "overnight".

His comments come as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull heads off a push from a group of well-known Australians to put a moratorium on new coal mines.

Yesterday we launched in London what we hope will be a new direction for the environmental movement, one which takes green thinking in a more progressive and pragmatic direction. We call it ‘ecomodernism’.

There is a belief of superiority in religious mobs. 

Today's effort by Miranda Devine in the Daily Telecrap takes the cake...

Read the chosen words like "Lovebirds", "genuinely", "no secret of their shared psychological problems" with "medical certificate" to boot... Yes I agree with Miranda. Mental illness should not be treated as public entertainment... But please compare what she wrote about Craig Thomson.

Craig Thomson had been found guilty of having spent $5,000 of a Union fund to which he was not entitled to, after the media and the Tony-Abbott-mob accused him of stealing half a million dollars — as told to Kate McClymont by you guess who: Kathy Jackson, "whistleblower"... Surprise surprise!

If there is one chart that might finally put to rest debate of a pause or "hiatus" in global warming, this chart created by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has just supplied it.

For years, climate change sceptics relied on a spike in global temperatures that occurred during the monster 1997-98 El Nino to say the world had stopped warming because later years struggled to set a higher mark even as greenhouse gas emissions continued to rise.