tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91617878319940707302011-07-09T05:44:46.087+09:30"Judge of a man by his questions rather than by his answers." -- Voltaire (1694 - 1778)<br> "In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted." -- Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970)<br> "The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best - and therefore never scrutinize or question." -- Stephen Jay Gould (1941 - 2002).Daniel O'Brienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06393637097448300930noreply@blogger.comBlogger281100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161787831994070730.post-89000047104786103242010-08-09T22:01:00.004+09:302010-08-09T22:18:19.051+09:30

Okay. I just had to link to this disturbingly simple guide to saving me a small bucket of money.Those of you who have had the pleasure of my acquaintance are well aware that my love of microwave popcorn knows no bounds.Photo Credit: AyeliePrior to my deciding that running the occasional marathon was an interesting idea, I averaged a bag a day. Now that I'm on a bit of a health kick it's more like

Daniel O'Brienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06393637097448300930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161787831994070730.post-41723009439231264342010-08-09T08:09:00.006+09:302010-08-09T14:15:42.338+09:30

Food is something I constantly struggle with. Be it getting enough of the right type, not eating too much of the wrong stuff, or even just finding something I can be bothered cooking for myself.I live alone and try to get away with as little expenditure of time and money on food as is possible. But at the same time I want to enjoy the food that I'm eating and whilst my budget feels tight, it's a

Daniel O'Brienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06393637097448300930noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161787831994070730.post-25769485008903451612010-07-17T23:36:00.001+09:302010-07-17T23:36:41.633+09:30

Following from my previous post, I have actually been doing a moderate amount of writing on my overly long daily commute. Sadly, finding the time to transfer it from.my phone to my pc and then edit it has been less easy It would seem then that the easiest solution is to blog straight from my phone and not worry so much about the editing part... This is a bit of a test post to see how woeful the

Daniel O'Brienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06393637097448300930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161787831994070730.post-19861838211374817902010-06-09T12:16:00.002+09:302010-06-09T12:27:49.458+09:30

Earlier this week my travel arrangements underwent an involuntary upheaval. Now, instead of spending about an hour a day on the train napping, I have the pleasure of spending over two hours a day on a bus not able to nap. Not effectively at any rate. And not without risking missing my stop.Once I got over the initial shock of standing at a bus stop at 7 in the morning, watching my extremities

Daniel O'Brienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06393637097448300930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161787831994070730.post-79786201019216505392010-06-09T08:48:00.003+09:302010-06-09T09:24:10.063+09:30

"It's possible that he really does think the foreign governments coming out against him are wrong, that Google is far more evil than his own policies, that Australian banks don't actually encrypt their customers' data, and that sticking with his policies will get him and Labor re-elected. In which case, he should resign and hand over the position to someone with a more realistic perspective on

Daniel O'Brienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06393637097448300930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161787831994070730.post-66899456964747149822009-08-06T19:11:00.002+09:302009-08-06T19:13:38.173+09:30

I've been meaning to write a piece since the whole furore erupted over the Kyle & Jackie-O Show's woeful stunt a week or two ago, but haven't gotten around to it.Today I read a piece that pretty much sums up my position and probably does so in a more readable manner than I would've accomplished.Go and read it over at Club Troppo.

Daniel O'Brienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06393637097448300930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161787831994070730.post-46511010720441658632009-04-13T17:09:00.004+09:302009-04-13T19:03:45.243+09:30

For a long time now I've been a big fan of Professor Mike Young, a pre-eminent water economist based at the University of Adelaide. Most, if not all, of my opinions on what we should do to address the difficulties within the Murray River have arisen from reading his works or hearing his arguments.Reproduced below is the full text of the latest Droplet, an irregular email sent out addressing

Daniel O'Brienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06393637097448300930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161787831994070730.post-56706246708853272432009-03-06T22:42:00.003+10:302009-03-06T23:08:03.765+10:30

The Economist puts forward an argument I have been trying to make for years, and they do so with far more style and success than I have enjoyed.Illegal drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, and heroin should be legalised. Prohibition does not work. It is likely that prohibition makes things worse.We have seen no real lasting successes in the war on drugs. We have seen phenomenal long-term success in

Daniel O'Brienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06393637097448300930noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161787831994070730.post-89400163635428056952008-12-29T20:58:00.003+10:302009-09-13T22:59:48.067+09:30

I originally set up this blog because I wanted to tackle serious questions in a serious fashion. Since then I've discussed iceberg lettuce, shamelessly plugged my other blogs, and talked a lot about what I'm going to talk about.So, it hardly seems out of character to devote a post to the ubiquitous chick flick.I started thinking about this question when I saw the Chick flicks post over at Club

Daniel O'Brienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06393637097448300930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161787831994070730.post-75731587004055656442008-11-21T09:59:00.004+10:302008-11-21T10:23:56.310+10:30

George Soros has written an interesting piece regarding the global financial crisis, the first section of which provides a nice, tight overview of what has happened. He goes on to argue that the prevailing economic theories of financial markets have been wrong for quite some time, before proposing the framework for a new premise on which to build the theory.I am woefully under-qualified to

Daniel O'Brienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06393637097448300930noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161787831994070730.post-7432903103635515102008-10-23T00:30:00.006+10:302008-10-23T00:53:38.926+10:30

The following is a mock consultancy report prepared by myself and a fellow class-mate as part of the Resource & Environmental Economics III course. The mock report was prepared for (the imaginary version of) the South Australian Department of Treasury and Finance as An Examination of a Government of South Australia Incentive Scheme for Hybrid Electric Vehicles.This report was written by myself

Daniel O'Brienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06393637097448300930noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161787831994070730.post-55627916675748957592008-10-23T00:26:00.002+10:302008-10-23T00:30:47.949+10:30

I have a new blog - Divided Answers.I will continue to post here at Integrated Questions, but I now plan to update at Divided Answers two to three times a week and once a week over at Imaginary Ripples. Integrated Questions will get updated when I have the time and inclination to write a long and considered essay on a topic of some importance - or, as you will see shortly, when my studies compel

Daniel O'Brienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06393637097448300930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161787831994070730.post-10299383646462851032008-08-16T02:07:00.003+09:302008-08-16T02:09:16.591+09:30

Check out imaginaryripples.blogspot.com if you're interested in reading some fiction that I've written.Ignore the 'more' option at the end of this paragraph. I really should do something about that...

Daniel O'Brienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06393637097448300930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161787831994070730.post-65730611249415977212008-05-27T22:59:00.005+09:302008-05-27T23:09:06.689+09:30

In the same feed-reading session that I am pleased to read that the ABC has passed the journalistic accuracy test, I am assaulted with this website they've put together for kids.Whilst you are there make sure you play the "This is Your Lifestyle" game so that you can "Find out how much you suck".I am at a loss for words.Though, I won't be in my next post. Until then please comment below about

Daniel O'Brienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06393637097448300930noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161787831994070730.post-46845944174727190342008-04-30T21:28:00.004+09:302008-04-30T21:59:57.617+09:30

A valid question if ever I've asked one. This is just a quick post to list a few of the things that I've intended to blog about in recent weeks (months) but haven't made the time to do so.Plastic Bags - The proposed SA ban (and the stupidity of it) and why GoGreen Bags are actually a good idea (my initial scepticism to the side).Federalism in Australia - Why our current federalism is the worst of

Daniel O'Brienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06393637097448300930noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161787831994070730.post-48236656991098064802008-02-21T12:57:00.003+10:302008-02-21T13:11:15.340+10:30

In recent weeks, well, months really, I have been re-examining my beliefs around abortion. Historically, I have been pro-choice. Very pro-choice. I thought pro-lifers were a bunch of religious nutjobs – righteous, pretentious and judgemental.That may not be an unfair description of many religious opponents of abortion, but I now appreciate that there is a non-religious argument against the moral

Daniel O'Brienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06393637097448300930noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161787831994070730.post-26272402964370438902008-02-01T22:07:00.000+10:302008-02-01T22:19:17.813+10:30

Apparently so.As I discovered courtesy of A Road to Surfdom, the AWU (Australian Workers Union) believe that long service leave should be transferable from job to job.As in, if I work at one place and accrue a couple of weeks long-service leave in my short amount of service then I should be able to take it to the next place I work for a short period of time.I'm assuming I'm not alone in been

Daniel O'Brienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06393637097448300930noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161787831994070730.post-84502308564259195182007-11-19T12:48:00.000+10:302008-01-26T22:10:41.173+10:30

Well, after a month of enforced, exam-driven hibernation I'm back. With any luck, this will be the first of three posts between now and friday. At least then I can claim to post once a fortnight on average...Reproduced below is an article I wrote for a linguistics course I took this semester. I'll leave it to speak for itself. I've neglected to write a headline because I seem unable to think one

Daniel O'Brienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06393637097448300930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161787831994070730.post-55432379764725222772007-10-17T19:55:00.000+09:302008-01-26T22:12:37.568+10:30

Last night I attended a YACSA Pizza and Politics night in town. About fifteen people showed up to listen to short presentations from:Senator Simon Birmingham - Federal Liberal Senator and #2 Senate Candidate for SA;Ruth Russell - Lead Democrats Senate Candidate for SA;Sarah Hanson-Young - Lead Greens Senate Candidate for SA; andTony Bates - Lead Family First Senate Candidate for SA.Unfortunately,

Daniel O'Brienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06393637097448300930noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161787831994070730.post-21730765558303490462007-10-08T18:55:00.000+09:302008-01-26T22:13:04.331+10:30

Below is an essay (and I use that term loosely, reports with headings do not an essay make) I recently wrote for Public Finance III. I present it here in a largely unedited format.Apologies for any problems with the tables. I seem to be having some rather embarrassing difficulties coding them properly.Edit: Looks like the tables work fine, just didn't display nicely in the preview. (Also, fixed

Daniel O'Brienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06393637097448300930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161787831994070730.post-1790260711392451972007-09-14T22:16:00.000+09:302008-01-26T22:14:09.282+10:30

John over at Australian Politics - a blog, posted about today's announcement of the new Australian Hospital Nursing Schools scheme by Prime Minister John Howard and Health Minister Tony Abbott.I will avoid discussion of John's take on the nursing schools, though I will say that I am, in theory at least, a supporter of the Government's proposal. I was a partner (admittedly the junior partner) in a

Daniel O'Brienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06393637097448300930noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161787831994070730.post-61932619603707170682007-08-10T16:06:00.000+09:302008-01-26T22:14:45.226+10:30

Steve McIntyre recently discovered that NASA's data for temperature trends in the US has a rather serious error - caused by a y2k bug of all things.Unfortunately, http://www.climateaudit.org/, a website operated by McIntyre is currently offline (I imagine it's getting pummelled after the recent mentions in the blogosphere). Thus I cannot really comment on the data itself.Several other blogs have

Daniel O'Brienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06393637097448300930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161787831994070730.post-60965810067645157292007-08-09T17:48:00.000+09:302008-01-26T22:15:13.588+10:30

Prime Minister John Howard released a YouTube video today to announce the Defence Gap Year program. The video itself is fairly bland and boring - Mr. Howard would do well to avail himself of a better speech writer and some public speaking ability. The idea behind it seems fairly sound to me though. I would have given some serious consideration to spending a year between high school and medical

Daniel O'Brienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06393637097448300930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161787831994070730.post-55036053082464924892007-08-08T20:28:00.000+09:302008-01-26T22:15:54.540+10:30

Hey All,As one or two of you have previously noted, my blogroll has been woefully incomplete in the past. That particular oversight has now been, mostly, rectified. Take a look at the new Political, General, and Friend's Blogrolls.I must make special mention of a few of the blogs.Freakonomics is an amazing blog by one of the preeminent economists of our time. Jointly maintained by Steven D.

Daniel O'Brienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06393637097448300930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161787831994070730.post-83719448689694140992007-07-29T14:44:00.000+09:302008-01-26T22:16:20.473+10:30

I have spent the last few years flirting with various political parties. The Democrats, the ALP, the Liberals, the Greens once or twice, and on one particularly unfortunate night the Libertarian Party.I’ve always had a soft spot for the Democrats, a product of growing up in a left-of-centre household in the nineties I imagine. Amazingly I even agreed with most of their policies. At least until a

Daniel O'Brienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06393637097448300930noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161787831994070730.post-47736434899712252392007-07-03T02:17:00.000+09:302008-01-26T22:17:27.621+10:30

I wanted to make a Chicken Caesar Salad for lunch today. Unfortunately, I put our (never actually) weekly shopping list together in a rush last Saturday and neglected to include cucumber and lettuce. Thus we had neither and I was lacking two essential ingredients for my salad.One of my housemates was also contemplating our lack of ham (or any other sandwich meat for that matter) and I had reason

Daniel O'Brienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06393637097448300930noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161787831994070730.post-61292797502698603212007-06-22T19:32:00.000+09:302008-01-26T22:18:24.847+10:30

As much as I would love to actually devote some time to a proper analysis of this post's title question, the current hectic schedule that accompanies exam week prevents me from doing so. I may come back to it after things calm down a bit. Though, I suspect that this will have been blogged to death by then.So, for those who haven't heard anything about this (where the bloody hell have you been?)

Daniel O'Brienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06393637097448300930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9161787831994070730.post-52127519525008161192007-06-08T00:40:00.000+09:302008-01-26T22:19:24.710+10:30

The Great Global Warming Swindle (TGGWS) is a documentary produced by WAGtv, directed and written by Martin Durkin. Durkin bills it as 'the definitive response to Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth'. Since it was aired by the UK Channel Four on the 8th of March this year, the documentary has been the subject of considerable controversy, both internationally and in Australia. The ABC has been

Daniel O'Brienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06393637097448300930noreply@blogger.com2