The IAU has spoken: we have to call it a dwarf moonlet because it hasn't cleared its orbit of debris.

Seconded.

Please vote Green, but preference Labor ahead of the Coalition. Abbott is on record as saying he doesn't believe in climate change. I could give you many other reasons not to vote for the Liberals, but I suspect that will be enough for you.

On the first of January 1901, Australia was formed by an agreement not a war... We are pretty good at doing bloodless.

You forgot to mention that at least 2/3 of people seem not to know how the instant run off system of voting works. We have a voting system that beautifully avoids sticking us with a this or that two party system. Yet we have a two party system because most people won't take the 5 minutes needed to learn how it works, and how you can NEVER waste your vote by voting for one on the other parties so long as you place your preferences down to those two majors.

Which news network are you watching? Or which people are you tweeting with? Because mykos' version seems to be closer to what I'm hearing form people.

I'm sorry to point this out, but you have punctuated your response incorrectly. You see, the full stop should come inside the second set of quotation marks. Also, you should have added a comma at the end of the first quotation, but before the closing quotation mark.

I think she actually said that she'd be the first red-head as PM in colour photographs or something.

I agree with everything you said, but I do think it marks a milestone toward equality, and a milestone worth recognising.

Ask the previous generation of women what it would have meant to them to have had a female leader of their country when they were growing up? I bet they'll tell you it would have made a difference to know that it was possible for them too - and not just in theory - it will have a psychological impact on young women (and men); which in turn will help make our future work-places less "hyper-masculine" and better environments for all.

No, it's not a magic pill, but every little bit helps.

You mean a mobile phone keypad isn't a real controller!? Quick, someone tell Nokia.

Nothing could possibly go wrong!

I'm late on this, but there is some data that is free online, and other data that is available for a small fee. For instance some NASA satellites have public data archives or you can get ALL of Australia's rainfall data (over 100 years of it) for about $100. Research produces so much data that it cannot all be processed in the ways that scientists would like. I would suggest that you download data in an area you can get a handle on. Read up on the papers in that field (probably through a public library subscription) and then go and run some statistical analyses. Looking for correlations in weather patterns is always fun, astronomy is a bit more hard-core.

Phlogiston fit the evidence at the time. It was disproved by experimental evidence. Thanks for playing.