de Jonge, Alex, Stalin: and the Shaping of the Soviet Union, William Morrow & Co 1986 Editorial review: From Library Journal: 'De Jonge has written a provocative biography of this major figure of Soviet history. He has drawn heavily upon emigre accounts and diplomatic reports; all the same his study is not free of superficialities. He sharply criticizes Stalin's rivals and his World War II allies, and he hides nothing of Stalin's savagery. Yet de Jonge's conclusions, sure to be challenged, are also clear: Russia could never have become a superpower without coercion (the national work ethic being what it is), and, in exercising that coercion, Stalin enjoyed support from every level of Soviet society. This biography will not replace Adam Ulam's Stalin: the man and his era (1973), but it is a useful, clear-eyed introduction for the general reader.' R.H. Johnston, History Dept., McMaster Univ., Hamilton, Ontario Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. 
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Andrew Hamilton, Larger fears fuel cardinal's divorce beef, 'The four cardinals argued that they were merely accepting the Pope's invitation to open discussion of the issues raised in Amoris Laetitia. Certainly, an open exchange of views can allow the truth to appear. It also allows people to assess which of the participants in the debate are trustworthy in their pursuit of truth. Demanding yes or no answers to complex questions may put lead in your saddlebags in that respect.' back

Charlotte King, Former Victorian state wards continue fight for access to department records, 'The former children held in some of Victoria's most notorious institutions are demanding the State Government improve access to key medical records from their past. Now as adults, they claim the Government has a conflict of interest in withholding records from more than four decades ago.' back

Charly Lineweaver, If we find ET, don't talk to it says man who wants to find ET, 'Currently our strongest emissions into the cosmos – emissions that are making our presence known to the aliens – are the emissions that we think are protecting us from terrestrial aliens. Those emissions are military radar. The unintended consequence of this protective radar is that it is simultaneously shouting out to the aliens “here we are”.' back

Duncan McDonnell, If Silvio Berlusconi's any guide, America faces a long ride with Donald Trump, 'Italians under Berlusconi became poorer and more likely to be unemployed, especially if they were young. By the time his government resigned in November 2011, Italy had the largest debt of any country in the European Union. The man who was going to run his country "like a business" almost ran it into the ground. When Berlusconi stood down, a technocratic government led by the former central banker Mario Monti had to step in to clear up the mess. It remained for more than a year in office doing so.' back

Elisabetta Povoledo and Liam Stack, Pope francis Extends Priedts' Ability to Forgive Abortion, 'In a document marking the conclusion of the church’s yearlong Jubilee of Mercy, the pope extended a policy of allowing priests — and not only bishops or special confessors — to grant forgiveness for abortion, which the church considers a sin. The announcement was a signal of the pope’s vision of a more welcoming, merciful and inclusive church.' back

Clandestine in Chile - Wikipedia, Clandestine in Chile - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Clandestine in Chile: The Adventures of Miguel Littín (Spanish: La aventura de Miguel Littín clandestino en Chile) is a report, written by Gabriel García Márquez, about the Chilean filmmaker Miguel Littín’s clandestine visit to his home country after 12 years in exile.' back

Kim Traill, Propaganda fueld deadly Ukraine war on Europe's eastern border, 'Recent high-level talks failed to restart the stalled peace process in Eastern Ukraine, and daily explosions continue along the front line. More lives were lost in the last few days, adding to the 9,700 killed so far. Despite the death toll and continued conflict, nationalism is growing on both sides.' back

Lawrence Lessig, The Constitution lets the electoral college choose the winner. They should choose Clinton, 'IInstead, if the electoral college is to control who becomes our president, we should take it seriously by understanding its purpose precisely. It is not meant to deny a reasonable judgment by the people. It is meant to be a circuit breaker — just in case the people go crazy. In this election, the people did not go crazy. The winner, by far, of the popular vote is the most qualified candidate for president in more than a generation. Like her or not, no elector could have a good-faith reason to vote against her because of her qualifications. Choosing her is thus plainly within the bounds of a reasonable judgment by the people. ' back

Mark Ceeson, Trump's America: the irresponsible stakeholder, 'In one of the more striking manifestations of this role reversal, China has urged the putative Trump administration to honour its Paris Accord commitments to climate change mitigation. The fact that it is almost certain that a pro-fossil-fuel Trump administration almost certainly won’t is less significant – in the short term, at least – than the fact that China probably will.' back

Matthew Jordan, In a post-truth election, clicks trump facts, 'We know from studies of how anti-vaccination myths spread that each time a telegenic spokesperson repeats a lie – even in a segment designed to correct it – it becomes more familiar to audiences. Paradoxically, because people tend to equate familiarization with truth, the more a lie is called out for being a lie, the more difficult it becomes to parse from the truth. Digital media platforms exacerbate this problem because revenue models incentivize clicks over truth. In digital capitalism attention has been monetized. The more outrageous the statement, the more clicks it generates.' back

Max Fisher, How the Iranian-Saudi Proxy Struggle Tore Apart the Middle East, 'Behind much of the Middle East’s chaos — the wars in Syria and Yemen, the political upheaval in Iraq and Lebanon and Bahrain — there is another conflict. Saudi Arabia and Iran are waging a struggle for dominance that has turned much of the Middle East into their battlefield. Rather than fighting directly, they wield and in that way worsen the region’s direst problems: dictatorship, militia violence and religious extremism.' back

Misty Adoniou, A new phonics test is pointless - we shouldn't waste precious money buying it from England, ' Daniel Matthews logged in via Google Why are you comparing phonics and sentence comprehension, isn’t that like comparing bricks with walls? My understanding, and I am teaching my own children as well corresponding about related matters with Prof. Christiansen of Cornell Uni, is that there is a hierarchy of circuits in the brain that process these different levels of abstraction and that they feed upward so that if the lower levels are under developed the higher levels are not able to develop fully either. If nonsense words are parts of valid n-grams they are of benefit but ultimately it is the chaining rules for those n-grams that must be acquired to construct a complete set of even higher level valid n-grams. This hierarchical set of relationships is how the brain represents what is, and is not, valid language, then it is the associations with the top level symbols and the rest of the brain’s functional modules that constitutes meaning. I have a set of fraternal 6 y/o, year one, twins here, who have just finished learning their Doltch and Fry word lists, for all levels. They were educated with the above theory in mind and when they are tested any words they fail are returned to the pool to be learned again, so when I say finished I mean they have demonstrated at least once that they can read, understand and write every single work in both of those complete lists. How much of this they retain is another matter as I have seen that young children can unlearn as fast as they learn and that periodic revision is vital for long term retention. back

Pat McConnell, Banking inquiry findings - Ask the wrong question get the wrong answers, 'But the problem goes much deeper than the committee members falling out over what to do - they weren’t even looking in the right place. The committee members were asking the wrong questions of the wrong people, and as a result, the got the wrong answers and made the wrong recommendations. Section 198A of the Australian Corporations Act clearly states that: The business of a company is to be managed by or under the direction of the directors. So, if the buck stops with the board, why did the committee not question the senior directors of the big banks, in particular the chairmen, senior independent directors and chairs of risk committees? ' back

Ruby Hamad, Australia society demanded my shame, now I am demanding Peter Dutton be sacked, 'And so, as someone whose Lebanese and Syrian parents came to Sydney in 1977, I knew immediately that when immigration minister Peter Dutton said last Friday that Malcolm Fraser "made mistakes over migrants", he was talking about me and my family. Sure enough, Dutton, prodded for an explanation by opposition leader Bill Shorten on Monday, singled out the Lebanese Muslim community, saying 22 of the 33 Australians charged with terror related offences were the children or grandchildren of Lebanese Muslim immigrants. In any other time, this statement would be staggering. To invalidate the existence of hundreds of thousands of Australian citizens because a sum total of 22 of them were charged – charged mind you, not convicted – with serious criminal offences is beyond any reasonable argument.' back

Siobhan McHugh, Changes to Radio National are gutting a cultural treasure trove, 'Corporate-speak has crept into the creative realm, with one manager saying at a meeting this week that RN needed to deliver a “return on investment”. This is a departure from the loftier language of the ABC Charter, which describes “programs that contribute to a sense of national identity and inform and entertain, and reflect the cultural diversity of, the Australian community”. back

Thomas L. Friedman, Dancing in a Hurricane, 'These accelerations in technology, globalization and Mother Nature are like a hurricane in which we’re all being asked to dance. Trump and the Brexiters sensed the anxiety of many and promised to build a wall against these howling winds of change. I disagree. I think the challenge is to find the eye. For me, that translates into building healthy communities that are flexible enough to move with these accelerations, draw energy from them — but also provide a platform of dynamic stability for citizens within them. More on that another day.' back

Vincent O'Donnell, 'Fake news' is poison for the body politic - can it be stopped?, 'If prescription drugs contained as much fake content as the news coverage of the 2016 US presidential election, there would be wide demands for government action. But, it was only news. However, “fake news” can be as poisonous to the body politic as fake pharmaceuticals are to human life.' back