Probably right

Bruno review: The Current Cinema: The New Yorker

My favourite movie reviewer Anthony Lane has written about Bruno. While I have no interest in seeing it, I strongly suspect Lane is on the money.

I note in particular that he now agrees completely with what Christopher Hitchens said about Borat, namely that Baron Cohen's humour actually misfires in that his American targets come out of it as showing remarkable good manners in the face of attempted humiliation. Here's Lane:

I realized, watching “Borat” again, that what it exposed was not a vacuity in American manners but, more often than not, a tolerance unimaginable elsewhere. Borat’s Southern hostess didn’t shriek when he appeared with a bag of feces; she sympathized, and gently showed him what to do, and the same thing happens in “Brüno,” when a martial-arts instructor, confronted by a foreigner with two dildos, doesn’t flinch. He teaches Brüno some defensive moves, then adds, “This is totally different from anything I’ve ever done.” Ditto the Hollywood psychic—another risky target, eh?—who watches Brüno mime an act of air-fellatio and says, after completion, “Well, good luck with your life.” In both cases, I feel that the patsy, though gulled, comes off better than the gag man; the joke is on Baron Cohen, for foisting indecency on the decent. The joker is trumped by the square.

Hence, I have no interest in Baron Cohen's style of comedy.

Also, I strongly suspect that Lane is correct on the question of whether the film hurts or harms gays as a group:

....I’m afraid that “Brüno” feels hopelessly complicit in the prejudices that it presumes to deride. You can’t honestly defend your principled lampooning of homophobia when nine out of every ten images that you project onscreen comply with the most threadbare cartoons of gay behavior. A schoolboy who watches a pirated DVD of this film will look at the prancing Austrian and find more, not fewer, reasons to beat up the kid on the playground who doesn’t like girls. There is, on the evidence of this movie, no such thing as gay love; there is only gay sex, a superheated substitute for love, with its own code of vulcanized calisthenics whose aim is not so much to sate the participants as to embarrass onlookers from the straight—and therefore straitlaced—society beyond.

Mind you, I also agree with the point made by Piers Akerman that it's a bit rich for gays who support the Sydney Mardi Gras and the image that it promotes to complain about Bruno showing a stereotype.

It's a pity the media sucks up Baron Cohen's "talent" for self promotion with such gusto. But then, I suppose reality TV has shown the public's current unfortunate appetite for humiliation as entertainment.

Right for the wrong reason , and how to be pro-nuclear

Even Gore thinks Rudd goes too far | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

Andrew Bolt promotes skepticism of "clean coal" technology, and he's right to do so I reckon. (Have a look at the link to the letter from Professor Ivan Kennedy.)

It makes much more sense (to me) to use the money to help investment in ways to avoid producing the CO2 in the first place.

Climate change issues are very complicated: half the time the people who want to do something about it are wrong (misplaced trust in carbon trading schemes, clean coal & wind power; dragging their feet on new nuclear; not caring much about the coal sold to China and India;) and half the time the people who don't want to do anything about it are right by being dismissive of those same things, even if it is for the wrong reason.

Speaking of nuclear power, I see that Brave New Climate has become very fond of the idea lately. But, in the Australian political climate, the argument just doesn't get any serious consideration. Couldn't Malcolm Turnbull mark out a distinctive position for the Liberals by getting it to promote small scale nuclear for Australia? I am inclined to believe that thoughtful city dwellers would buy it.

Part of the problem is that most AGW proponents of nuclear go for new, big designs. (IFR, thorium, etc). My inclination is still to go for small, modular designs, about which Next Big Future recently ran a story promoting their cost benefits. (It also had a post listing the various types that are proposed.)

Apart from cost, I suspect that the roll-out time for small modular reactors would be a lot quicker than building giant individual ones. It also seems that many small designs do not have the problem of requiring siting next to the ocean for cooling water, hence solving the major issue of which bit of our prized coast line is going to scarificed to a power plant. (Queensland would claim the reefs mean it can't be there; Victorians will worry about their penguins, etc.)

Sadly, the South African plans for a test of a pebble bed reactor (small, modular and intrinsically incapable of meltdown) continue to recede further into the future, yet it seems to me to the ideal form of reactor research and development to be funded by government.

China continues to work on a similar design, but with that country's appalling product safety history, I am not sure that a Chinese design is an easy sell to the Australian public.

I would be much happier for our government, or the Americans, to buy into the South African development project to get their test reactor up and running, rather than spending billions on carbon sequestration.

Roman days

I'm currently slowly reading "Life and Leisure in Ancient Rome" by J Balsdon. It's actually a 1969 book, now sold in cheap paperback edition in discount book shops.

My knowledge of day to day life in those times is very limited. Watching "I Claudius," "Gladiator" and the recent Dr Who episode set in Pompeii is about it, really. I suppose I could get a better idea by ploughing through Colleen McCullough's Roman novels, but I am not convinced she is a good enough writer. [Update: I forgot, but I did quite like the British Museum's section on Rome too, where I became aware of the popularity of the phallic symbol as a sort of "good luck" charm, and household gods. I remain curious about how particular household gods were created in the first place. Somewhere in England, I think at Hadrian's Wall, I also learnt about how they used sponges on sticks instead of toilet paper.]

So far, the book is actually very enjoyable, and every few pages there is something odd and novel that I feel like sharing. Here are some examples:

* August 24, October 5 and November 8 were believed to be the days that the entrance to the underworld was open. There were another three days when the ghosts of the dead were out and about. While I know many cultures share the idea of a "ghost" day, what is the point of having another set of days in which the entrance to the underworld is open? In any event, they were unlucky days on which nothing important could be done. I like to imagine the exchanges in some toga-clad planning committee trying to set a good day for the equivalent of a school fete: "no, no, you can't do it on that Saturday, remember the gates of the underworld are open that day."
"Ah, oh yeah, yeah, sorry forgot about that one."

* On March 15, the festival of Anna Perenna was a holiday in which people went to a river bank north of the city and "lay about promiscuously in the open or in tents, drank heavily (one glass for every further year of life that was desired) and, in the evening, reeled back to the city in tipsy procession." All sounds like some festivals in present day England. I assume the alcohol content of the drinks was less than today (they drank wine with water, I think) otherwise those desiring a long life would have been at high risk of ending it early by alcohol poisoning.

* The low birth rate within Roman families is noted, although the reasons why are apparently not entirely clear. The widespread use of lead may well have had something to do with it. Certainly, contraception was often desired, but not effective, and abortion as well as "exposing infants" (leaving outside them to die - or, if lucky, be rescued by strangers) was common. God knows what the rate of death by botched abortion might have been - the author does not describe the methods. Abortion was made illegal in the second century, but it appears there was never a law against abandoning infants.

Interestingly, the reason for abandonment was often simply economic. The much maligned Emporer Constantine introduced immediate economic relief for the poor who were at risk of doing this. He also allowed them to sell their children (often to slave nurseries), but with the proviso that if things improved, they could buy them back. A big improvement on being left on a rock for the night, at least, but whether that makes up for his having his son and wife killed is debatable. (He's a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, but as far as I know, Roman Catholics don't spend a lot of time celebrating him. Evelyn Waugh wrote a novel about his mother Helena, and told a friend how Constantine figured in it as - if I recall correctly - "a bit of a sh*t.")

It's interesting to think that State welfare to encourage the raising of children started 2,000 years ago.

Anyhow, it's a good read, and well worth a look.

The past stinks

From a TLS review of a new book on the Palace of Versailles:

Water was in great demand and caused enormous problems. The fountains used up half a million litres in three hours. In the eighteenth century they were rarely switched on, and in summer the basins emitted pestilential odours. A great reservoir at the end of the North Wing provided water for washing and for the kitchens and stables, usually in an insanitary way. A brisk washing of hands and faces was often sufficient for most courtiers, and perfumes seldom counteracted the remaining body odours. A bath was a sex aid rather than an act of personal hygiene. Before the water closet became a royal privilege, the chaise percée was the norm. There were 274 of them in Louis XIV’s time. The king and leading courtiers habitually gave audience while seated on theirs. The ambitious Parmesan diplomat Alberoni paid a compliment to the homosexual duc de Vendôme as the latter rose from his chaise percée by exclaiming ecstatically “O culo d’angelo”, as the duke wiped his backside. The gist of Newton’s findings is that Versailles stank, as courtiers and their servants urinated in corners and on staircases. Drains were inadequate, refuse and dead animals were simply thrown out in the public way, and vidangeurs had the unenviable task of cleaning out stinking cesspools.

What a great word: "pestilential".

Tesla remembered

Happy birthday, Nikola Tesla: thanks for the electricity

Good to see Nikola Tesla remembered in The Guardian. It's well worth reading up on him, if you never have before.

He certainly was a character well suited to science fiction speculations, yet I don't recall him appearing in any famous movie.

Precision

Apollo special: Mirrors on the moon - New Scientist

A good article about the measurements done by laser on the Earth-Moon distance.

Did you know that they can measure the distance to within a few millimetres? And at this scale, you have to take into account the solar radiation pressure that can push the moon about 4 mm?

No, nor did I. It's hard to imagine how precisely some scientific measurements can now be made.

Funny the way things turn out...

It's been an odd feature of the last 20 years of politics here how Labor's view of itself as the "natural" party for better Australian foreign policy has gone all askew. On the face of it, one would think that they have a point: it sees itself as less subservient to the US, emphasizes independence of foreign policy development and the importance of regional engagement, and academic foreign policy experts all appear broadly to be aligned with such sentiments.

Yet, I don't think anyone seriously denies that Keating was about as far off the mark as he possibly could have been when he said Asia would not take a Howard government "seriously".

Now, we have the counter-intuitive situation of aPrime Minister with apparent superb credentials to impress the Chinese getting slapped around the face by said country.

Go on Kevin, we're waiting to be impressed with your resolution of this problem.

Long life in a pill?

If red wine's good, are resveratrol pills even better? - Los Angeles Times

Interesting article on how resveratrol (a potentially health promoting compound in red wine) is being sold to the public well before anyone knows if it works on humans, or at what dosage.

Impatience of this type is often unwise.

Baby power

How to ensure lost wallets are returned - Telegraph

A weekend in July

Some highlights:

* Saturday night ox tail stew. This is a dish for which a pressure cooker is indispensable. A better winter meal (served on mashed potatoes, with some green beans and couple of glasses of red) is hard to imagine.

* A visit to the Queensland Maritime Museum. It's been maybe 20 years since I had been there, and I was really impressed. Years ago, it was a bit of an amateur enthusiasts' jumble, but now the new-ish main exhibit hall is set out with high quality exhibits full of interesting detail. (Queensland Museum, go have a look.) The centrepiece of the museum remains, however, the HMAS Diamantina, a former Navy ship that saw some service in WWII, now sitting in a permanent dry dock originally built in the 1880's. The ship has been fitted out well (better than the last time I saw it), and all levels are open for people to wander around. Here's a photo (not the clearest, but still):



One of the exhibits in the main hall is an extract from an 1864 migrant ship on-board newspaper, written to entertain the passengers. Oddly, the then idea of entertainment included a serialisation of a real life shipwreck story. (This appearing after the introductory bit about how rough the weather has been lately, preventing the passengers from entertaining themselves "on the poop" as before.) There is also a birth on board recorded, indicating that migrants were made of sturdy stuff in those days. You can have a read of some of it if you click the image:


I think the story was that this was re-printed in Brisbane when the ship arrived: it did not appear in neat newsprint like this on board the ship.

There is a small admission price to this museum, but it is well worth it for half a day.

* Some extremely tender "wagyu" style rump steak on Sunday night. More red wine, this time the $1.99 a bottle cab sav from Dan Murphy's!. (Quite drinkable, but unremarkable. The steak was excellent, though.)

Embarrassing? Let me count the ways...

ADF man robbed of laptop by ladyboy | The Australian

THE Australian Defence Force is investigating a potential breach of national security after a naval officer in Bangkok was robbed of his Defence Department computer by a ladyboy he had brought back to his hotel room late at night.

Defence last night played down the security implications of the theft, saying the data in the laptop was of a low classification and it was password-protected.

The officer -- named in a Thai police report as Lieutenant Commander ....................., a qualified helicopter pilot who received the Order of Australia Medal in January -- was in Bangkok on official business and had gone out for the night to the city's Nana Plaza, an entertainment zone in the city full of go-go bars and where ladyboys also solicit in the streets.

An observation...

Has there ever been an uglier internet ad than the one for "The Gabriel Method". No, I'm not going to link to it, but you know, the weight loss whatever-it-is with the photo of the porker guy before (with shirt) and after (sans shirt)?

I've always found it deeply unappealing, yet it seems to be popping up more than ever. (I think it used to haunt conservative blogs in particular, but its reach now seems more widespread.)

Can someone design a Firefox tool that hides it from my sight?

Sure, like we need ones that are easier to lose

Buffalo jams 16GB in really tiny USB key

'ello?

Seems remarkably quiet, comment-wise, around here lately. I do my best to cover the best topics: sex, religion, politics, giant robots, but for nought...

UPDATE: blog re-designed somewhat. I'm quite pleased with the result. (But still some fiddling to be done to make it perfect.) Any novel Gadget/Widget suggestions are welcome.

UPDATE 2: that's odd. I just noticed that the upgrade to the "layouts" template made my links revert to a previous version, before I fixed them up a few weeks ago. I've got to go sort them out again (as well as insert headings.) Oh well...

Good news, kind of...

Low-end house prices 'to fall 10pc' | Property | News.com.au

The odd thing is, I guess for the first time buyer, government grants to encourage you to buy a house shouldn't really make much difference. I mean, while the grants are available, they artificially inflate the price, as everyone knows the government is funding a percentage of your buying power.

When the grants finish, the price should drop and the net cost to the first time buyer who has waited should be about the same.

The drop in price should also encourage investment buyers, which may have the effect of reducing rent (slightly) for those who can't buy.

The only losers are those who buy with a grant and who then need to sell soon after the grants cease. (Oh, and the rest of us who have had their taxes spent on a grant which may not really have helped first home buyers at all.)

On thin ice

Arctic sea ice has thinned by more than 40% in five years, Nasa satellites show

Of note in Slate

There are two fairly amusing articles of note in Slate.

The first: about the Segway and its image problem. Apparently, guided city tours on them are now "ubiquitous", and "help fulfill one of the iron laws of tourism: Thou shalt do things one would never do at home (eat tripe, smoke a water pipe, listen to French pop)." I am curious to try them at least once.

The second: William Saletan has a go at finding a loophole in the Catholic Church's official negative position on masturbation. Was there ever a teaching that was less followed in the history of the church? A much more realistic Christian approach to the topic - at least in the context of teenagers - can be found at this site, which appears to be written by an Australian youth worker associated with the Assemblies of God. However, the number of photos of boys plastered through the site (even though it is just their faces) works against it: it gives the feeling that the author has just a little too much interest in boys, even though his advice is pretty reasonable (if you're Christian, at least.)

Do as the giant robot commands!

Gundam promotes Tokyo 2016’s Olympic bid
(Go to the link to see a photo of said giant robot in Tokyo)

Iraqi veteran fabulist

The story of the Marine who wasn't - Los Angeles Times

As it happens, I am pretty certain I currently have a client who is a big-time fabulist.

My suspicions are likely to be confirmed soon if promised large amounts of money (not for my benefit) do not arrive.

Miyazaki news of the day

Hayao Miyazaki, Anime’s Master, to Visit San Diego Comic-Con - NYTimes.com

(The article talks about him generally, and his lack of commercial success in the US.)