Australian TV

Maybe it is just me, or maybe I am mistakenly generalizing from a selected sample of clips plus my semi-informed priors based on visits to Oz, but it just really seems like they have a lot more fun on Australian TV than in the US or Canada.

Joking with the Dalai Lama on Australian TV

My sense is that the Dalai Lama would appreciate a good joke, if only he could understand it.

And what is it about Aussie accents that just sounds like fun?

Lingering Australia question

Whenever I visit Australia, I ask the locals "You have a state called New South Wales, but where is New North Wales?"

I have yet to receive a good answer.

Oz

There has not been as much blogging as usual as I was in Oz (i.e. Australia) for a conference on evidence-based policy sponsored by Australia's Productivity Commission. Information about the conference, including the agenda and my slides, is here.

The other outside speaker was Ron Haskins of the Brookings Institution, who I have been wanting to meet since graduate school. You can find the short paper underlying his talk on the web page as well.

The meeting included a lot of higher-ups in the Australian federal and state governments and as a result was conducted under "Chatham House rules", which means that I cannot tell you which speakers I thought were really cool and which a waste of time, though there were some of both. It was interesting to interact with so many people with power - this was a much higher level enterprise than I have ever been involved with in either Canada or (even more so) in the US.

I also got a chance to see old friends and make new ones via seminar visits to both the University of Melbourne and the Australian National University in Canberra.

All in all a most excellent journey.

Another reason to like Australia

Musical selections for funerals in Oz.