A short item on the ABC Rural News yesterday grabbed my attention, about a Namibian scientist talking to locals in far west New South Wales about harvesting water from fog.

There's more on the Fog Collection Project at the Gobabeb Training and Research Centre website, and on the Canadian website fogquest.org.

Let's save the rest of the world's forests. But not our own. Oh no, we must not let Australia lose its competitive advantage blah blah blah...

"...we [The Australian] have attacked the Howard Government for its lack of credibility on economic management. We have adopted a rationalist position, criticising the Government for giving too much money to special interest groups in the quest for electoral advantage at the expense of good policy. Against the reforms of the Hawke and Keating years, the Howard Government can be justly accused of being weak on economic reform... for a government that argues its strongest virtue is economic management, the real economic achievements of the past 11 years are slim pickings."

Item one: Last Saturday, and it's reported that Maxine McKew, the high-profile ALP candidate for preselection to oppose John Howard in the electorate of Bennelong, has received death threats - something that made the papers worldwide.