from Crikey .....

Mungo: double disillusion leaves spirit of the nation in jeopardy

Mungo MacCallum writes:

Artificial meat grown in vats may be needed if the 9 billion people expected to be alive in 2050 are to be adequately fed without destroying the earth, some of the world's leading scientists report today.

Holy asylum seekers Boatman - Australia's border patrol forces would have a hotline to Tony Abbott under a Coalition Government to ask him if they're allowed to turn the boats back.

As another boatload of illegal immigrants arrived on the weekend - the 152nd since Labor won office - Mr Abbott explained how his pledge to turn back the boats would work.

"In the end it would be a prime ministerial decision," Mr Abbott said.

"It would be the Government's call based on advice of the commander on the spot."

Mr Abbott said the phone call from sea would come to him - on the boatphone - and it would be his choice whether or not to turn a boat back if it was safe to do so.

Former prime minister John Howard says Julia Gillard has no right to hide the details surrounding her ascension to the top office.

The second longest serving prime minister also criticised Ms Gillard's predecessor, Kevin Rudd, for dodging questions about his axing. 

"I've said all along that I would be the underdog," Mr Abbott said.

"I'm running against the full might of an incumbent government. I'm running against five incumbent state Labor governments. I'm running against the union movement which is a $1 billion-a-year logistics support operation for the Labor Party. I'm running against big money, big factions. I'm running against big politics .....

I'm running against everyone."

from Crikey .....

Meglomaniacal Abbott finally comes out of the cabinet

Andrew Dodd writes:

FEDERAL ELECTION 2010

Generally, Tony Abbott does humility pretty well. But in a couple of questions at the Rooty Hill RSL on Wednesday night his guard slipped and we saw another side of his personality.

from Crikey .....

Rundle: the topic is cancer - the 2010 election and the collapse of political legitimacy

Guy Rundle writes:

Physicist Stephen Hawking, who recently said humans should avoid seeking out aliens because they might colonise our planet if they noticed us, has now warned that mankind must colonise other planets or face extinction.

"I believe that the long-term future of the human race must be in space," Hawking tells BigThink.com. "It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster on planet Earth in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand, or million.