This week’s $100 million lottery prize prompted ABC radio to ring me about the research finding that winning the lottery doesn’t make you happier. I declined the interview after discovering that I would be talking live to the nation’s insomniacs at 4.20am next Sunday morning (though did suggest a solution to this problem - find an overseas interviewee in a day time zone). Though one early paper - which is cited in books on subjective well-being published up until a few years ago - did find some evidence for negative effects of lottery wins, it was never an especially strong finding
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Let’s not tar and feather him for it Bernard Keane in Crikey : Hockey showed substance and maturity and got kicked for it We always lament politicians’ lack of candour and preference for staying on-message, rather than treating us like intelligent people. And the problem is undoubtedly getting worse with Kevin Rudd, a thoughtful and engaging interlocutor off-the-record, who has taken rigid public messaging to heights hitherto never seen. So spare a thought for Joe Hockey, who on Tuesday spoke intelligently and candidly and has copped a bagging for his troubles. When did the history of women’s abuse begin? According to one feminist scholar, writing for a a law school casebook, it began in the year 754 BC, under the reign of Romulus of Rome. It is a sad fact that the state of liberty in Australia is in a rather sorry shape. The size and scope of government is consistently increasing, our economic and social freedoms are shrinking, and there is no respite in sight. There can be no denying that freedom is on the retreat. An extraordinary surge of cash washing through checkouts has helped vindicate the government’s series of cash splashes, pushing retail spending to yet another all-time high in May, the fifth since the stimulus payments began. The internet is a great time-waster. Facebook even more so |
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