Author | Lightnews

David Walker (Shorewalker DMS) @shorewalker.bsky.social · Feb 26

This would be a powerful argument if only you cited convincing evidence…

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Reposted by David Walker (Shorewalker DMS)

Captain Quoll @kudelka.bsky.social · Jan 3

Shot, chaser. What a bunch of clowns. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01...

Government commissioned report says the government’s proposed stadium is a terrible idea

Dimwit premier clearly had no intention of doing anything apart from bulldozing ahead.

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Reposted by David Walker (Shorewalker DMS)

Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · Dec 21

People sometimes make fun of science that sounds stupid and random.

Meanwhile, a study of lizard saliva turned into a peptide medication, which was turned into a diabetes medication, which was turned into a GLP1 weight loss drug, that just became the first therapy every approved for … sleep apnea

The New York Times @nytimes.com · Dec 20

Breaking News: The FDA approved use of the weight loss drug Zepbound for a common form of sleep apnea. It is the first drug authorized to treat the disorder.

F.D.A. Approves Weight-Loss Drug to Treat Sleep Apnea

Zepbound is the first prescription drug approved specifically to treat the common condition.

www.nytimes.com

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David Walker (Shorewalker DMS) @shorewalker.bsky.social · Dec 22

Not sure why you think the ABC is "broken".

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David Walker (Shorewalker DMS) @shorewalker.bsky.social · Dec 13

Underrated point.

David Walker (Shorewalker DMS) @shorewalker.bsky.social · Dec 10

Which system do you want to get rid of?
As a first step, it often makes sense to see if we can improve an existing system to eliminate bad practices.

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Reposted by David Walker (Shorewalker DMS)

Kevin Bonham @kevinbonham.bsky.social · Dec 8

Paul Fletcher re teals: "If Australia had a first-past-the-post system, none of the six teals who entered the parliament in 2022 would have been elected"

Overconfident clueless claim. If we had FPTP, voters would have voted differently and some teals would probably have won.

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David Walker (Shorewalker DMS) @shorewalker.bsky.social · Dec 7

Yep to the Slate observation. Thanks in part to Krugman,I now understand this as a marginal effect: new columnists publish earliest all the ideas which they believe will most affect their audiences' understandings of the world.

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David Walker (Shorewalker DMS) @shorewalker.bsky.social · Dec 4

One problem for those who deny philosophic fraud is this: they must depict a large number of philosophers as not smart enough to write well – a commonplace skill – but still smart enough to consistently spot fraud, a much rarer skill.
clubtroppo.com.au/2024/11/07/s...

Some philosophy is probably fraud; let’s try to find it

If scientific fraud represents five per cent of scientific papers, we might well expect that we have a great deal of philosophic fraud as well. But in philosophy, how can we detect the fraudsters? …

clubtroppo.com.au

Reposted by David Walker (Shorewalker DMS)

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias.bsky.social · Nov 29

"Working class material self-interest includes cheap energy" is perhaps the biggest thing contemporary progressives miss about economic policy.

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Reposted by David Walker (Shorewalker DMS)

Robert Merkel @rgmerk.bsky.social · Nov 27

Now, this isn’t a peer-reviewed economics paper, but nevertheless is one of the more interesting examinations of “why is the US economy outperforming the rest of the developed world”. It’s worth reading the lot, but one observation from the Australian context (🧵) www.apricitas.io/p/americas-p...

America's Productivity Boom

US Productivity Growth is Booming and Massively Outshining its Peers—Here's How

www.apricitas.io

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Reposted by David Walker (Shorewalker DMS)

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias.bsky.social · Nov 25

Part Two of the Common Sense Democrat manifesto — it’s not progressive or humane to become so leery of punishment that you let public spaces and public services become disorderly, dysfunctional, and unpleasant.

www.slowboring.com/p/liberalism...

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Reposted by David Walker (Shorewalker DMS)

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias.bsky.social · Nov 19

I thought "Trump picks officials like he's casting a television show" was overdone as a take about his first term staffing, but Trump 2.0 really is a ton of guys he's seen on TV.

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David Walker (Shorewalker DMS) @shorewalker.bsky.social · Nov 16

The French philosopher Barbara Cassin published a book called “Jacques the Sophist”: academic.oup.com/fordham-scho...

Jacques the Sophist: Lacan, Logos, and Psychoanalysis

Abstract. “The psychoanalyst is a sign of the presence of the sophist in our time, but with a different status.” The surprising confluence of Lacanian psyc

academic.oup.com

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David Walker (Shorewalker DMS) @shorewalker.bsky.social · Nov 16

If we’re using “sophist” in its modern sense – “a person who reasons with clever but false arguments” – then I’d say yes. The sophist simply needs to be aware that they’re deceiving their audience, don’t they?

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David Walker (Shorewalker DMS) @shorewalker.bsky.social · Nov 15

Good @MattYglesias.bsky.social piece on the unpredictability of politicians and Trump’s successes when he falls into moderation.
“That’s the successful model for Trump: own the hell out of the libs, but to the greatest extent possible, try not to do too much.”

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias.bsky.social · Nov 14

Trump does best politically when he’s long on trolling but light on actual conservative policy ideas

www.slowboring.com/p/how-donald...

How Donald Trump could succeed

Or, more likely, fail

www.slowboring.com

David Walker (Shorewalker DMS) @shorewalker.bsky.social · Nov 12

Eventually the Giant Lobster comes for us all …

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David Walker (Shorewalker DMS) @shorewalker.bsky.social · Nov 11

If AOC knows a reliable way to educate the public about civics and current events, she should start by giving it to school and tertiary ed systems.
My guess: she has no more idea than any other politicians about how to "educate the public", whatever that would mean.

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David Walker (Shorewalker DMS) @shorewalker.bsky.social · Nov 11

Don't even know where you are, but you are clearly not serious about your big things. Here's the giant lobster from Kingston, South Australia, along with the Goulburn (New South Wales) Big Merino (sheep).
Lift your game, anonymous pigeon-admiring location!

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David Walker (Shorewalker DMS) @shorewalker.bsky.social · Nov 11

If AOC knows a reliable way to educate the public, she should start by giving it to school and tertiary ed systems.
But as with other politicians who say "now we have to educate the public", her existing attempts to "educate" the public mostly, on net, turn off the public. That tells us something.

David Walker (Shorewalker DMS) @shorewalker.bsky.social · Nov 11

Sigh. "That finding, though within the margin of error ..."
I'm no great fan of the Greens, but this appears at first glance to be the usual reporting on statistical noise, combined with perfectly normal likeability results for a party toward one end of the ideological spectrum.

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Reposted by David Walker (Shorewalker DMS)

Catherine Ryan Hyde @catherineryanhyde.bsky.social · Nov 11

The moon with Saturn tonight. #Astronomy #Astrophotography

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David Walker (Shorewalker DMS) @shorewalker.bsky.social · Nov 11

Telling quote - perhaps the basis of another "tell".
Most of us would be reticent to claim we never lie.
But when you've really deeply accepted the idea of lying as a way of life, I would imagine that something like "I always speak the truth" becomes much easier to say.

Reposted by David Walker (Shorewalker DMS)

Kevin Bonham @kevinbonham.bsky.social · Nov 10

kevinbonham.blogspot.com/2024/11/the-...
The Pressure Valve: Does The Defeat Of Same-Party State Governments Help Federal Governments?

The Pressure Valve: Does The Defeat Of Same-Party State Governments Help Federal Governments?

Tasmanian and Australian psephology, opinion poll analysis, election analysis and political commentary by Dr Kevin Bonham.

kevinbonham.blogspot.com

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David Walker (Shorewalker DMS) @shorewalker.bsky.social · Nov 10

The ABC seems to have excellent taste here.