The author has been described by News Ltd as an "iconoclast", "Svengali", a pollie's "economist muse", and "pungently accurate". Fairfax says he is a "Renaissance man" and "one of Australia’s most respected analysts." Stephen Koukoulas concludes that he is "85% right", and "would make a great Opposition leader." Terry McCrann claims the author thinks "‘nuance’ is a trendy village in the south of France", but can be "scintillating" when he thinks "clearly". The ACTU reckons he’s "an enigma wrapped in a Bloomberg terminal, wrapped in some apparently well-honed abs."

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Rory Robertson vs. Sydney Uni's Scientists (quite cool)

A regular reader sent me an email with the following remarks:

Rory Robertson (self-proclaimed "economist and former fattie") is still battling away with the "University of Sydney scientists" in his spare time. Fresh from a trek to Cape York, he has published a PowerPoint version of the "Australian Paradox" dispute, which he describes as "A disturbing episode involving the University of Sydney’s deeply flawed obesity study, academic negligence, a serious but undisclosed conflict of interest and possible scientific misconduct".

Rory says he has attempted to bring "greater clarity" to his arguments, but it turns out to be a pretty long-winded presentation. Perhaps like Mark Twain he needs to apologise for writing a long letter because he didn't have time to write a short one!

Regardless, he's got the nutritionists cold - in Slides 9 and 10 - on the fact that the supposedly peer-reviewed paper contains very serious errors that need to be corrected.

Click here to see it.