the back issue
Wealthy fare well from welfare
In 2013-14, the Australian Government dispersed a Robin Hoodesque $105 billion across the community through income support payments. That’s roughly 30% of its tax revenue. Unlike Robin, however, Kevin, Julia, Tony and their merry men gave much of their loot to the...
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The roads know no date
By the time the Christmas Holiday Road Toll counter begins, the worst is all but over. For many, unfortunately, the reminders of the roads' dangers come too late. Every year the Australian media and Police and Roads Departments produce an hour by hour, day by day...
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Re-calibrating medical sex
Thirty years ago TVs were filled with MacGyver, dancefloors swayed to Cindy Lauper, the US threw its weight all over Latin America, and 8 out of 9 visits to Australian Doctors were seen by guys. Australians made 68.1 million visits to General Practitioners in 1984-85,...
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Use the Source
Paging Doogie Howser, stat!
Australia’s population is slowly ageing, not only individually, but as a group. However, some groups are ageing faster than others, and our GPs (Medical practitioners) appear to be on a downhill race to retirement. Back in the mid to late 80s, 2 out of every 3 GPs in...
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She was one in 61 billion
Some figures are so big they are difficult to conceptualise. Sixty-one billion is such a number. So let’s start with six…. 6. Six is the number of weeks a chicken lives for before being slaughtered. Be it the main dish at Ferran Adrià’s degustation table[1] or a...
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From KFC to GFC
It seems you can’t turn your head these days without having an eye poked out by a fried chicken wing. In the land of foodie-fashion, Melbourne (Australia), fried chicken is running amok. From the eastern KFC variety (Korean Fried Chicken), to American...
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Burning up the runway
I often think Facebook is paid by tourism companies to mock my office existence and exaggerate how often my “friends” are on overseas holidays. But ABS figures[1]suggest Australians really are crossing customs at climate changing rates. Australians flew overseas 9.3...
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You son of a migrant!
Over the course of the 20th century Australia experienced a remarkable increase in high school graduation rates. This has been relatively stable for almost two decades at 74%, but is it evenly spread across the community? One interesting variable impacting...
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Sex education
Gender inequality, with regards to high school graduation rates, has not been this pronounced since pre WWII days. According to Census 2011 data, boys born prior to 1959 were more likely to finish high school than girls, but the reverse has been the case from that...
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A Culinary Atlas
Not all cuisines are created equal. Certainly not according to the Australia voting public at least. Following on from "Stirring the data with an urban spoon" (an analysis of urbanspoon data), this map compares popularity of different cuisines across the globe....
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Faceboomers
After a recent spate of births and pregnancy announcements on my facebook feed, it seemed Australians were finally heeding the words “one for mum, one for dad, and one for the country” (Costello dixit). This should not surprise me as the majority of my friends are in...
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Stirring the data with an urban spoon
One of life’s great tragedies is the limited opportunity for meal consumption, usually estimated at 3 per day. The seriousness of such a condition is accentuated when travelling through cities at fast pace. Having failed to find an adequate pizzeria on the first of a...
read moreTwo-speed tax decrease
Seeing as they are one of life’s two certainties, how is it that we're so ignorant about taxes? The federal government updates the income tax system roughly every second year, more often than not announcing tax cuts. This kicks off a war of sound bites over who is...
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Out the back, by the clothes line
On Sunday I ate a grape, and I liked it. I don't often eat grapes and perhaps I know why this is: grapes are one of my sacred foods. Grapes don't do much for me in terms of flavour. I mostly eat the small dark ones. Not necessarily muscats, but perhaps preferably...
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The price of soy
What's the difference between egg noodles topped with a tomato based sauce and those swimming in soy? In Melbourne: about $8. In the world of comparative food pricing, geographical heritage is possibly the the leading variable. After finding my new favourite cheap...
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Time for a road trip!
Today is the fifth day of the 2011-12 Christmas holiday road toll period¹ and it is hard to open a newspaper or news website without being informed that so far 18 people have lost their lives on Australian roads since last Friday. According to the World Health...
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Inflation Express
I'm not usually one to plan in advance nor buy in bulk, but with regards to Melbourne's public transport, I might be convinced otherwise. Last week's announcement of the upcoming 9% increase in train tickets (as well as bus and tram) has compelled me to buy my 2012...
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Dumplings stakeholder consultation
A few weeks back, in an impatient and self-absorbed move, I ordered dinner for myself and two colleagues as soon as we entered the dumpling bar of choice, without consultation. Having drunk our way through the evening I was now too hungry to wait to eat, colleague #1...
read moreRe-saucing the budget
In light of the weekend of indignation experienced across the globe, I thought I would share a couple of strategies which helped me cut kitchen costs during my student years. Fortunately for me, living in Australia made student life easier than in most other...
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Country fusion
Unlike many modern things (eg. cars, women and rock'n'roll), food does not appear to fare badly when compared to its previous models. Rarely, if ever, have I heard the phrase “they just don't make burgers like they used to!”. Not that I believe that when used to...
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