GREG WOOD/AFP/Getty Images

Felix Salmon weighs in on the unintended consequences of water pricing:

[P]ricing water can have interesting and not necessarily intended effects. In Australia, for instance, water rights can be traded. When the country was hit by drought, the price of those rights rose, and wheat growers started selling their water rights to the vineyards, because doing so was more profitable than growing wheat. And that, in turn, contributed substantially to the rise in global wheat prices.

The world would be better off right now if Australia's wheat growers had continued to grow wheat, and if Australia's wine growers had simply produced less wine. But that's not how the market incentives played out.

Well, the problem is about to get worse. The Australian government announced today it is buying $2.9 billion worth of water rights from farmers in an effort to safeguard drinking-water supplies. People have been predicting for years that water would become more precious than gold. Now, drip by drip, it's happening.

Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images

Rachel Morris, writing for the Washington Monthly's blog, says that "Hillary Clinton may have gravely insulted" New Zealand in a recent Newsweek interview. Asked if a scrapbook she's been keeping since childhood contains "any good jokes," Clinton came up with this zinger:

Here's a good one. Helen Clark, former prime minister of New Zealand: her opponents have observed that in the event of a nuclear war, the two things that will emerge from the rubble are the cockroaches and Helen Clark. [Laughs]

Ha ha, I guess?

The trouble, as Morris points out, is that "Helen Clark is the current prime minister of New Zealand," and has been since 1999. "[T]he joke doesn't get funnier even if you happen to know something about New Zealand politics," Morris tartly observes.

That's not Clinton's worst New Zealand gaffe, however. In the grand scheme of things, it's hardly a big deal. New Zealand, after all, is a pretty obscure country halfway around the world. This, however, is just plain embarrassing:

Mrs Clinton also once said her parents named her after [New Zealand native] Sir Ed Hillary, a nice line till it was pointed out she was born more than five years before he climbed Everest, when he was still a lesser-known beekeeper.

Paul Kane/Getty Images

Australia is suffering from an acute shortage of manpower, according to Australian defense minister Joel Fitzgibbon. He says, "the service suffering most is the navy, where retention and recruitment has become a real crisis." So why is the Australian Navy in such dire straits? The Financial Times explains:

Chinese demand for commodities has triggered a crisis in the Australian navy, whose submarine fleet is suffering from a critical crew shortage as skilled technicians are lured into higher-paying jobs by the booming mining industry.

Western Australia, in particular, is attracting workers from the Navy to work in the mining industry. Fitzgibbon says that mining companies even "hover around" West Australian naval bases hoping to recruit technicians, whose skill sets are easily transferable to mining. Wage discrepancies favoring mining can be in the tens of thousands of dollars a year, leaving the Navy unable to compete for talented workers on financial grounds.

Australia has recently spent $10 billion dollars on bolstering the navy, upgrading its fleet of advanced destroyers and warships. Last year, the Australian Navy engaged in war games with the United States, Japan, and India in a "Quadrilateral Initiative" to improve their strategic partnership and bolster regional security. Many analysts believed that this initiative and Australia's naval investment were, ironically, targeted at containing a rising China. I guess the Chinese stumbled upon their own way of striking back.

Late Wednesday night, the U.S.S. Lake Erie used its Aegis missile-defense system to shoot down an ailing reconnaissance satellite as it passed over the Pacific. Aegis is a key piece of the larger U.S. missile-defense system, combining extremely sophisticated ship-borne radars with heat-seeking interceptor missiles that can reach targets in low orbits (such as short- to mid-range ballistic missiles). After successfully using Aegis to knock out a target it was ostensibly never designed for, some may ask if this test of the system proves that the American missile-defense system works.

In a word, the answer is no. The mission is a qualified success for Aegis, since satellites and ballistic missiles share many characteristics at certain stages of flight. But taking out a crippled satellite and destroying an attacking ballistic missile are not the same thing. Most importantly, the satellite's trajectory was known in great detail and it could not maneuver under its own power. That's not the case for enemy ballistic missiles, which have unknown trajectories for large portions of their flights (though we can often guess where they're headed). Advanced missiles, moreover, are likely to be able to maneuver themselves midcourse and release decoys to confuse the missile-defense interceptors. Since shooting a missile out of the sky is a lot like hitting a bullet with another bullet, precise positioning data is crucial.

Finally, Navy personnel were able to choose the location and timing of the intercept. This allowed them to maximize visibility, to wait until the seas were calm enough for an ideal launch, and to keep as many radars and telescopes as necessary nearby to guide the interceptor and track the launch. The satellite was also several times larger than a ballistic missile would have been and was therefore easier to see.

That said, the fact that the Pentagon was able to reprogram missile-defense hardware for an anti-satellite shot in roughly a month is a geopolitically loaded development. China and Russia have long suspected that U.S. missile-defense programs were cover for eventual space warfare capabilities. Indeed, the Pentagon tacitly acknowledged the momentous nature of the mission by giving the secretary of defense final launch authority, rather than the captain of the Lake Erie. Now watch how many other countries suddenly find their satellites are crippled and need to be shot down -- purely for safety reasons, of course.

The Russians are shocked, shocked (!) that yesterday's bomber run caused such a stir:

Russia expressed surprise on Tuesday that the United States had scrambled fighter jets at the weekend to intercept strategic Russian bombers, one of which flew over a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Pacific.

Four U.S. F/A-18 fighters were launched after Russian Tu-95 Bear bombers flying south of Japan were detected turning towards the Nimitz aircraft carrier and its escort, a U.S. defense official said.

One of the Russian bombers flew over the deck of the Nimitz, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The U.S. fighters escorted the Russian bombers out of the area. [...]

We are surprised by all the clamor this raised," RIA news agency quoted Russian Air Force spokesman Alexander Drobyshevsky as saying.

A Russian bomber last flew over a U.S. aircraft carrier in July 2004, when a Bear flew over the USS Kitty Hawk in the Sea of Japan, the official said.

Via e-mail, NightWatch editor John McCreary comments:

The Russians are rebuilding and revalidating their data base on US and allied response times and procedures. In an earlier period, the US naval fighters would not have been scrambled to catch the Russians, they would have been shooting first and asking questions later.

The Russian Bear bomber was in position to bomb the aircraft carrier before the fighters were scrambled, according the news accounts. A lot of taxpayers'investment were at risk because a ship commander was apparently asleep at the helm. No doubt there is more to the story, but the Navy readiness and rapid reaction response does not look good in the press. If there is another interpretation of what happened, the Navy needs to put it into the public domain.

The smelter, from a photo taken between 1911 and 1916 (Via SMH).

When pricing a house next door to the contaminated site of a former uranium smelter, even a house with waterfront access, most realtors would aim low. In Sydney, though, one such house is on the market for roughly $3.6 million. The realtor describes the site nearby, full of radioactive dirt contaminated with "traces" of uranium and thorium, as just "a slight variation from the norm."

Not surprisingly, the house has been on the market for awhile. Many potential buyers have expressed interest, but so far nobody has purchased it (the crackle of Geiger counters from across the street may have something to do with this). As nuclear power expands, though, it is worth examining just how dangerous such contamination can really be.

Few specifics about the case in Sydney have been released, but it is possible to speak generally about the materials involved. Uranium is only mildly radioactive, and exposure even to high levels of uranium is not known to cause cancer (high levels, if ingested, can cause kidney and tissue damage, though). So, "traces" of it are unlikely to be dangerous. Thorium can give you cancer if you inhale it in large amounts (or possibly when you ingest it), but has not been known to cause birth defects or fertility problems, as some other radioactive materials can. Again, "traces" of thorium are likely harmless.

The wild card in this situation is the radioactivity from the soil. When certain types of powerful radiation encounter everyday materials, those materials can become "activated." In other words, they become radioactive (to a weaker degree) themselves. However, after nearly a century, the soil at this site in Sydney would have reverted to a very low, though perhaps above "background," level of radioactivity. (The New South Wales government and an independent consultancy say the radiation level is higher than background, but safe.)

While a higher than usual level of radiation in the area sounds scary, it is probably not all that dangerous. Many studies have found that constant exposure to low levels of radiation does not pose a health risk. One study, performed by the U.S. National Cancer Institute, found no increased cancer risk for people living near 62 large nuclear facilities. If nuclear power spreads, we should remain vigilant, but there is no need for paranoia.   

PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images

If you took the FP Quiz in our November/December 2007 issue, you would know that 23 countries maintain embassies in North Korea. But in how many countries does the Hermit Kingdom maintain an embassy? According to the listings for North Korea on the Embassy Information Web site, the answer is currently 56. Ask that same question at end of this month, however, and the answer will drop to 55.

North Korea's embassy in Australia is slated to close at the end of January because the country can no longer afford it. North Korea's most senior diplomat in Australia, Pak Myong Guk, blamed the high cost of the recent flooding in North Korea for the closure, and said that "When our financial situation is... resolved, then I think our embassy will be re-established again here in Canberra."

It's a plausible reason, but as an Aussie, my instinct is to wonder: Why Australia? Why not, say, Austria, given the relative strength of the euro? In any case, I'm surprised that North Korea is in financial trouble. With all the business opportunities offered by the country, you would think the won would be rolling in.

Shame on Fox News for missing this one. An apparent assassination attempt on the president of the Maldives by an Islamic militant was foiled by a 15-year old boy scout last Tuesday. President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom was shaking hands at a rally when a bearded man unwrapped a kitchen knife from a Maldives flag and lunged for the president shouting "Allahu Akbar." It was then that uniformed boy scout Mohammed Jaisham Ibrahim stepped in front of the man and deflected the blow, getting stabbed in the hand in the process. The boy told reporters, "The scouts' saying is be prepared. I was prepared."

Ibrahim is recovering from his injury and enjoying his new-found fame. The assailant and four others have been arrested. Maldivians, who apparently have little love for their autocratic ruler, have mostly responded to the incident with mockery. The president's security detail is understandably embarrassed. My favorite though, is the Sri Lankan blogger who mocked the entire country for having militant fanatics who are, like... totally weak:

Coming from a country with a raging internal conflict, personally, I am used to slightly more specialized weaponry. Like a suicide bombing. Or a Claymore mine. Or an AK-47. I find it difficult to comprehend a political assassination with a sharp pointed object first invented in the paleolithic era. It was not even a sword, a machete, or a rambo knife that was used; it was a kitchen knife, presumably stolen from a mother or a wife in the middle of cooking a tuna curry. How quaint, how homegrown…

All in all, it wasn't the global jihad's proudest moment.

Correction: Fox News did actually run the AP story on their website. Apologies for the premature snark.

Ever since I heard a fascinating This American Life episode about the travails of Nauru, I've developed an unhealthy obsession with the tiny Pacific island nation, home to just over 13,000 people.

The plight of Nauru is as comical as it is sad. Ninety percent of the population is unemployed, and Nauru was recently named the world's fattest country. Now that it's no longer considered a laundromat for Russian mafia cash, the country's only real industry is phosphate mining. But that's dying, too. It's a nasty business that has left a giant crater in the center of the amoeba-like island. One of the government's major sources of income since the phosphate began running out has been hosting Australia's unwanted refugees. And now, that's running out, too. Throw a lack of freshwater and climate change into the mix, and tiny Nauru could be the first nation-state of the modern era to disappear. Nauru's upcoming 40th independence celebration, to be held Jan. 31, is going to be a bittersweet affair.

So, it's especially sad that Taiwan's President Chen Shui-Bian is assiduously wooing Nauru's new president, who just came to power in December after the 18-member Nauruan parliament ousted his predecessor. Nauru is one of only 24 countries that still recognize Taiwan as an independent state. But it's not much of an ally, I'm afraid.

Apparently, Australia boasts about 150 of what the folks down under like to call "Big Things." It all started back in 1964 with the "Big Banana":

Mark Kolbe/Getty Images News

Here's the "Big Oyster," which appears to be some sort of car dealership and actually looks more like a clam:

Mark Kolbe/Getty Images News

And here we have the "Big Macadamia Nut":

Ashlee Ralla/Getty Images News

And the "Big Gold Panner":

Cameron Spencer/Getty Images News

Here's the "Big Pineapple":

Cameron Spencer/Getty Images News

And my personal fave, the "Big Shrimp":

Ian Waldie/Getty Images News

When Google launched its fancy Web site for the 2007 Australian federal elections, the company gave no hint about Easter eggs—fun little surprises put there by mischievous programmers—buried in its mashup map section.

But blogger Ben Balbo poked around and found two animated graphics of Prime Minister John Howard and opposition leader Kevin Rudd having some fun with each other.

Here we see these bitter political rivals tossing the Frisbee at Bondi Beach in Adelaide Sydney:

And here we see them playing a vigorous game of rock, paper, scissors in front of Parliament, presumably deciding the fate of the nation:

And there's more, Ben says: 

I've been reliably informed that there are another 6 "easter eggs" hidden around Seaworld on the Gold Coast, Tanunda in Adelaide, a well known Melbourne sporting venue, near Barrack St Jetty in Perth, near Mandorah in Darwin and near the Botanic Gardens in Hobart.

The elections are slated for Nov. 24, which is this coming Saturday.

(Hat tip: Google Maps Mania)

DAVID HANCOCK/AFP/Getty Images

Australia, known for its expansive wilderness and biodiversity, is also one of the world's worst polluters, according to an informative new emissions monitoring website from the Center for Global Development.

Per capita, Australians produce 10 tons of carbon dioxide every year from generating power. That's two tons more than the average American and almost eight tons more than the average Chinese person. Australia relies heavily on coal and as such, the country has some of the world's least efficient power plants. In terms of total emissions, the United States is still on top with more than 2.5 billion tons of CO2. Like with everything else, however, China is closing the gap fast.

Australia is also one of the world's top exporters of coal, and China is becoming a good customer now that its power needs exceed its domestic coal production. As The Economist puts it, "Energy lore has it that in China a new coal-burning plant is fired up every week... Freighters are literally queuing up off Newcastle, Australia, the world's busiest coal port."

STEPHANE L'HOSTIS/Getty Images

Starting tomorrow, the United States will experience "Movember," a month when men from all ages and walks of life will sport a distinctive mustache, ranging from a little fuzz to an outright walrus look. Don't worry, it's all for a good cause: to raise awareness about prostate cancer, a disease that affects one in six men in the United States.

Since it started in Australia in 2003, Movember—which combines the Australian slang for mustache (mo') with the designated mo-growing month of November—the annual event has raised more than $8 million. Participants, known as "Mo Bros," take donations in exchange for not shaving their upper lips for a month. The money then goes to the main prostate-cancer charity in the home country of the participant. Movember now has official Web sites for six countries, and people from other countries are still able to register and participate.

The Wall Street Journal's Sarah Needleman seems skeptical. She writes, "Convincing... business professionals... to grow mustaches -- even for a cause -- may be tough in the U.S., where mustaches aren't currently in vogue and facial hair runs afoul of corporate grooming norms." But, um, it's not exactly a fashion statement in Australia either—which, of course, is kind of the point. As Adam Garone, one of the three co-founders of Movember, puts it:

The mustache is a vehicle to get [men] talking... What we say is you're essentially donating your face for a month. You become a walking billboard because you walk into a meeting and you're forced to explain yourself."

Indeed, the success of Movember largely depends on men in the corporate world taking a risk to grow a mo'. During the past few years, the competitive spirit in the world of finance has translated into big bucks for prostate-cancer research—around 25 percent of the total Movember money raised, according to Garone. It will be interesting to see how Movember does in its first year in the United States. And it will be almost as interesting to see hordes of Wall Street bankers with their new looks. Good luck, Mo Bros!

UPDATE: Passport reader Arjew Tino writes in with a hard-hitting report from the Movember crowd in DC.

Back in June, the New South Wales Road and Traffic Authority (RTA) in Australia launched a provocative television advertising campaign designed to cut road accidents due to speeding in the state. The BBC explains that the TV commercials, which have been backed up by ads online, at bus stops, and in cinemas, depict "women shaking their little finger - a gesture used to symbolise a small penis - as speeding male motorists race past." And now it seems as if the ads, with their slogan, "Speeding: No one thinks big of you,"are having a positive effect.

Roughly 60 percent of young men responding in a survey commissioned by the New South Wales government said that the ad forced them to reflect on their driving habits. Although there don't seem to be any statistics revealing a decline in road accidents just yet, New South Wales Roads Minister Eric Roozendaal insists that "Wiggling your pinkie has cut through to that crucial age group of young drivers - they're using it as a way to slow their mates down and stop them acting recklessly on our roads."

Road traffic crashes are the leading cause of death among people aged between 10 and 24 around the world, according to the World Health Organization, so young men are a crucial demographic to target. Nearly 400,000 people under 25 are killed in road traffic crashes globally every year, with millions more seriously injured. And with men far more likely to die in car crashes than women (in the OECD, men are almost three times more likely to die than women), New South Wales's strategy may be worth pursuing elsewhere.

Somehow, though, I doubt that Africa and the Middle East—the regions with the world's highest road fatalities—will see their own "little pinkie" campaigns.

TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty Images

In most cases, price cuts on consumer products are a good thing—a sign of healthy competition in the market or innovation creating bargains on more dated products. Not so in Japan. The Financial Times reports that a "price war" in Japan between mobile phone service providers furiously competing to undercut each others' prices, and aimed at the country's 100 million cellphone users, could have a major impact on the country's general economic well-being, possibly contracting the economy. A key indicator of the country's economic health, the core consumer price index (CPI), could be slashed by as much as 0.6 percentage points as a direct result of the mobile phone war, extending the country's 7-month stretch of deflation. To put that in perspective, compare that 0.6 drop to the 0.1 drop in the United States' CPI in August (that included all goods) when the subprime mortgage market collapsed. 

Just a week ago, economy minister Hiroko Ota made assurances that Japan's economic recovery was on track, declaring that "Although the consumer price index remain[s] in negative territory, there is not much change in price conditions and an exit from deflation is in sight." But if the effect of mobile phone rates really does meet these dire predictions, I'm not convinced. In what could be Japan's eighth straight month of falling prices, Japanese consumers may soon be wishing for a little less cutthroat competition and a return to a normal, healthy economy. Although they may be getting some killer cuts to their phone bills, it's hardly something to be excited about if it ultimately means that the rest of the economy might go under.

GREG WOOD/AFP/Getty Images

Why is Australian Prime Minister John Howard consistently undermining international efforts to provide humanitarian help to the people of Sudan—even after his government has acknowledged that Darfur is one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters?

In addition to recently rejecting the U.N.'s request to send troops to Darfur (citing Australia's unpopular "war on terror" commitments), Howard has just announced that Australia will no longer accept refugees from Africa under its humanitarian refugee program until at least mid-2008. The government argues that this "freeze" is necessary due to the failure of many Africans, particularly Sudanese, to "integrate" into society. Instead, the government wants to take in more refugees from Asia. Given Howard's previous less-than-generous approach to asylum-seeking Asians, including falsely accusing a number of them in 2001 of throwing their children overboard a ship to blackmail the Australian government—the infamous Tampa incident—Howard's newfound concern for local refugees seems disingenuous, to say the least.

While critics have denounced Howard's refugee decision as racist, supporters argue that it's justified given the problems some Sudanese refugees have experienced settling into Australia, including a number of violent incidents. But are these incidents really surprising? Refugees, by definition, are fleeing from persecution. Many of them, particularly from Sudan, have been traumatized by violence. Instead of simply closing the door, these cases should prompt the government to analyze its refugee counseling programs to try to ensure that refugees are learning the skills, including language skills, to properly "integrate" into Australian society. It is, after all, intended to be a humanitarian effort.

Alas, that's not likely to happen. What's more likely is that Howard will—once again—continue to push Australia's xenophobic buttons in the run-up to Australia's election, just as he successfully did during the Tampa crisis before the 2001 election. Perhaps this time, though, Howard's support for the Iraq war will prove too unpopular for that tactic to succeed.

Members of a local Chinese dance troupe wait at the entrance to Sydney's Luna Park, 18 September 2007, for the arrival of the Special Olympics' "Flame of Hope". Sydney is one of the key international destinations on the Torch's epic world journey, which sees it touch down in five continents before arriving in Shanghai for the 2007 Special Olympics World Games being held 2-11 October. (Photo: GREG WOOD/AFP/Getty Images)

White House photo

Oops, Bush did it again. After telling Australia's deputy prime minister that "We're kicking ass" in Iraq, U.S. President George W. Bush made two more of his characteristic verbal blunders at the APEC summit in Sydney.

In a speech this morning, Bush welcomed business leaders to the OPEC meeting, not the APEC meeting. Apparently, he got his PECs confused, referring to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries instead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. He made a quick save, though, by smiling and saying that he planned to attend an OPEC meeting next year. (The meetings section of OPEC's Web site, however, doesn't yet have anything listed for 2008.)

As he continued his speech, Bush recalled how Australian Prime Minister John Howard had gone to Iraq last year to visit "Austrian troops." Actually, there are no Austrian troops in Iraq, but there are 1,500 Australian military personnel in and around Mesopotamia.

You gotta give the prez credit for adding some comic relief to what might otherwise be a no-nonsense meeting of government officials and business leaders.

"We're kicking ass."

That's what U.S. President George W. Bush said when Australian Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile asked him about his recent stopover in Iraq on his way to Sydney for the APEC summit.

You would think that a person who once gave a speech under a "Mission Accomplished" banner would have learned something by now.

It doesn't get much more audacious than this. Cast and crew of a popular TV comedy show in Australia were arrested today after driving through police checkpoints in Sydney posing as a Canadian motorcade. Two "Canadian" motorcycles and three cars made it through two police checkpoints before being halted at the Intercontinental Hotel, where U.S. President George W. Bush is staying for the APEC summit. But it gets better. When the "Canadians" got out of their vehicles, one of them was "dressed in a white tunic and cap and wearing a long fake Osama bin Laden-style beard."

The producers of the show, "Chaser's War on Everything," clearly didn't set out to harm anyone. As Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer put it, "They presumably were, as is the nature of their show, aiming to humiliate a lot of well-known people." Mission accomplished.

This is hardly the first time Chaser's has ridiculed Australia's approach to security and terrorism (but it may be the last). Check out this amusing YouTube clip from their show: