A friend, Peter Thomas, who served in Vietnam at the same time as the blog, decided to ask his AI friend what it thought about the Frontier Wars. After some input from him he got the following answer. On checking AI got one or two things wrong, but the exercise is interesting, nevertheless.
The most significant result is that, if you rely on official Australian history sources, there is a strong argument that many of the conflicts between British settlers (and colonial authorities) and Aboriginal peoples meet accepted historical definitions of war, even though they were not formally declared wars by governments at the time.read more
It was inevitable – it had to happen and the only question was when.
Today markets are moving into a major correction – a development predicted by Fitch ratings a few days ago – when Fitch warned that an AI-related correction had become a “major global credit risk’ due to the scale of AI investment, elevated tech valuations and the impact of AI on global markets.read more
It is extremely unlikely that Donald Trump has even the slightest knowledge about history.
But if he did, he might realise that the problems he is experiencing with the Strait of Hormuz are very similar to those experienced by other countries in the past 500 or so odd years.
In 1507 the Portuguese viceroy of India, Alfonso de Albuquerque, tried to blockade the Persian Gulf by subduing the Kingdom of Hormuz. According to John Aspinwall, writing in History Today (July 2026), The campaign was a failure.read more
While various religious groups are entrenched in wars – US Christian Nationalists, Muslims, Israelis – it is worth looking at another sort of religious battle – the one designed to prevent the forthcoming Census from accurately reflecting the status of religion in Australian life.
The August 11 Census will ask questions about religion.read more
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has fallen into that common political failing – exemplified by Tricky Dicky Nixon – when the cover up becomes a bigger problem than the event itself.
The Rationalist Society of Australia’s Si Gladman has revealed that the ABS blocked a damning statement about the controversial ABS Census religion question.read more
Donnald Trump recently took to Truth Social to claim his “REAL POLL NUMBERS” are “THE HIGHEST THEY HAVE EVER BEEN” but failed to cite any actual survey to support his claim.
The reality is rather different. According to G. Elliott Morris’ latest analyses he is even deeper underwater.
53% of Americans see grounds to impeach Trump and respondents most name corruption and abuse of power as his main offences.read more
It is arguable that the US has never been a democracy in the normal sense of the word.
From slavery to restrictions on voting people have been disenfranchised – often by violence.
Donald Trump is working hard to keep it that way.
The Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) produces the largest global dataset on democracy with more than 32 million data points for 202 countries and territories from 1789 to 2025.read more
The tidal wave of climate disinformation and denial often appears overpowering.
In Australia One Nation, the Liberal Party and the National Party are all deeply committed to climate denial.
These Australian denialists are increasingly taking their policies from Donald Trump and Republicans. So far in the US the Trump administration has trashed climate programs and research while sacking scientists.read more
An insider’s view of how public relations really works