Frankenchess
A remarkable event took place in London towards the end of last year, when the AlphaZero computer program took on…
no. 490
White to play. This position is from Ivanchuk-Lafuente, Gibraltar 2011. White now terminated proceedings abruptly. What was the key move?…
Documentary
In Competition No. 3032 you were invited to provide a poem about passports. While the news that British passports…
2343: Rats!
Round the perimeter clockwise is a 14-word quotation in ODQ, with its first word represented by a number in the…
to 2340: Booboos
Amongst the many ‘aphorisms’ of Yogi Berra, the New York Yankees baseball manager, were ‘The future ain’t what it used…
Toby Young: I’ve been unmanned by a tennis brute in bright pink
As regular readers will know, Caroline has developed a fanatical interest in tennis and is currently captain of the ladies…
This Winter Olympics, don’t knock our fearless Fridge Kids
At this time of the year, well-meaning folk of otherwise sound mind start to get very sniffy about the impending…
Dear Mary: how do you deal with a daughter who has gone vegan to get attention?
Q. Several friends have reached an age and wealth that means they take unreasonably long holidays or even entire gap…
A glorious theatrical feast at the National: Foodwork reviewed
There is a restaurant on the stage at the National Theatre in London. It is called Foodwork, and it is…
How can MPs live up to a code of conduct that makes no sense?
Ministers must observe the rather curious ‘Seven Principles of Public Life’ in the new Ministerial Code published this month by…
Business/Robbery etc
Now that Sam Dastyari is at last about to give up his $200,000 a year Senate salary for Kristina Keneally’s…
Latham’s law
For the large amounts of national security spending and ‘expert advice’ available to our governments, they are still struggling with…
Rock ‘n’ Roll diary
There seems no end to the need for trigger warnings in the leftist utopia but I never thought the rock…
Crossing the Jordan
The ABC, for all its tax-voracious ‘local content’, loves showing British programmes – which is just as well because with…
Losing the battle for Britain
Q: What’s the connection between jazz great Thelonious Monk and a dachshund called Charlie Barker? A: A cartoonist named Michael…
Border wars
At the end of last year the European Union delivered an ultimatum to the Polish government. It gave the administration…
Beats at the barber shop
If there is one prop that sticks out in the Barber Shop Chronicles it is the mirror. At the end…
Australian notes
Human Rights Commission hoisted with its own petard In the recent Australian Marriage Law Survey, Australians were asked the following…
Portrait of William Manning c.1821
The great museums and galleries in Australia do more than acquire, maintain and display their collections; they are also centres…
Foundations laid in 1788
Amanda Vanstone recently chose to reveal that neither she, nor indeed, anyone she knew, would be celebrating the arrival of…
Brown study
You may be wondering what the connection is between the federal government’s innovation initiative and the developing sexual harassment scandal.…
UN ‘Peace-keepers’ abuse the girls in their care, yet no one is ever punished
Last week, women working for the UN became the latest to join the #MeToo gang, and for all the eye-rolling…
Mr Abbott’s agenda
The once and possibly future Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, this week started 2018 strongly. Writing for the Australian and speaking…
Slavery no more: Wilberforce and the settlement of Australia
On the meandering banks of Sydney’s Hawkesbury River, there lies a small, historic town featuring a sandstone church, a cemetery…
