Let the tears flow, Ellen

U-turn as Californians vote to ban gay marriage - World - smh.com.au

I'll be very disappointed if she doesn't cry.

UPDATE: an interesting side note to the Proposition 8 issue is that many, many Hollywood celebrities donated money to fight against it (including, sad to say, my directorial hero Mr Spielberg. It's funny how much of a gay rights supporter he is, yet off the top of my head I can't recall any of his movies featuring as much as one gay character.) But one prominent figure who did not donate was Rosie O'Donnell. This has caused some people to be less than charitable towards her (from the previous link):

i've lost completel respect for rosie, not that i've really had any for her to begin with. not opening her fat hyprocritcal mouth probably helped the no on 8 cause... lol.

The LA Times gives a good summary of the whole Proposition 8 story, which basically is one of gay activists never accepting the majority opinion of the electorate.

Sad

Bestselling author Michael Crichton dies

How sad. I reckon about every second book was an entertaining (and educational) read, but with an output like his, that was still a high success rate.

I certainly always looked forward to seeing what topic he was going to deal with in his next book.

This'll be interesting

Well, the great mystery of how things will pan out under President Obama begins.

It's hard to see how some of his over-the-top supporters could not end up being disappointed. (One suspects much of Europe will end up the same way.)

And does this election make it more or less likely that Israel will do something about Iran?

All will be revealed in due course...

UPDATE - miscellaneous further comments:

* Not many people have been saying it yet, but the popular vote for McCain was higher than many polls predicted, and actually not too bad given the financial crisis. Surely that alone must have shaved at least one or two percent from his popular vote.

* I've made the point elsewhere, but if I were a Democrat, I would be a little worried that such widespread success in both the legislative and the executive arms of government (and the likely liberal lean of the judiciary in future appointments) is going to make it near impossible for them to disclaim responsibility for anything that goes wrong. Truly, if anything gets broke now, they own it.

* Am I the only one who thought Obama seemed a little too dour in his victory speech ? I genuinely don't understand the accolades given to him as a orator. He's competent, but I really think you've got to be "of the left" to be overly impressed. To make a comparison, the oratory of John F Kennedy also dealt with lofty and idealist themes, and did genuinely impress; but at that time, the fate of Western democracy was by no means assured. Speaking of freedom, self sacrifice, human rights and dignity really had some significance to the entire world.

Obama-talk, on the other hand, is just internal politics - complaining about division, promising solutions to difficult and near intractable problems without any detail at all - dressed up in emotional generalities.

* Nevertheless, this post at Tigerhawk sums up well, I think, the generally magnanimous attitude that most of the right wing commentators take towards the Obama win. They do recognise the significance of the symbolism of a black man being president. It is a million miles from the bitterness, accusations and overwrought emotion the left were threatening if they didn't get their way.

* This post at Bryan Appleyard's blog makes a good comparison:

Obama is a hope candidate, and like all hope candidates (Blair being our most recent), he is doomed from the start by absurd expectations and by his own limitations.

* The other "glass half full" way of looking at it is that Democrats and Bush critics generally have bitched and moaned about the job being done by a US president who really has had the most extraordinary challenges to face. Now with an emphatic win, they've got the keys to the car and (one can only hope) might at least develop a bit of humility and realistic appreciation for the difficulties and imperfect nature of all governments.

UPDATE 2: Currency Lad's post this morning about the hypocrisy of the Democrats as "unifiers" makes the point more eloquently than I can.

Now she tells me

Annie Proulx no longer at home on the range - Los Angeles Times

Annie Proulx, author of Brokeback Mountain, presumably did not foresee this consequence:

"I wish I'd never written it," Proulx says...

Not because of the people of Saratoga, a town she doesn't think much of. Not even because the word "brokeback" has been misappropriated, as in, "Hey, you're not goin' brokeback on me, are you?"

It's all the manuscripts, screenplays and letters sent to her by men who rewrite or serialize her story, adding new characters, endings and even successive generations.

"These cover letters," she complains, "always begin with the sentence 'I'm not gay, but . . . ' They think that just because they are men, they understand men better than I do.

Elsewhere, she has given more detail:

She lamented that "remedial writers" are constantly sending "ghastly manuscripts and pornish rewrites of the story to me, expecting me to reply with praise and applause for 'fixing' the story..

Damn. What do I do now with my screenplay that deals with how Tim Blair and Mark Steyn accidentally meet up with Ennis and Andrew Sullivan, while all are moosehunting in the backwoods of New Hampshire, and, you know, one thing leads to another...

Interesting

BBC NEWS | Americas | US Elections 2008 | Who will win the electoral college?

This page at the BBC has a good little doo-dah on it that allows you to move a slider to see how the state electoral colleges have voted over the last 60 years.

It's pretty interesting to see how comprehensive some past election wins have been.

Possible headlines for the near future

Arugula shares soar!

Canada closes border with US: "PM: Go back to your homes, celebrities"

Ellen in hospital with dehydration *

Bullwinkle breathes easier as Palin relocates

Kennedy had "Camelot" - Obama establishes commission to find hum-able tune on Broadway

Andrew Sullivan jailed for stalking Trig - Tried to get hair for DNA testing

* slightly oblique reference to the amount of tears predicted to be shed by Ellen DeGeneres if Proposition 8, banning gay marriage, gets up.

Bet you didn't know this...

Snake bite is a 'neglected tropical disease' - New Scientist:

Snakes kill more people than either dengue fever or skin cancer, according to a new worldwide estimate.

See an interactive map of the areas affected

Cobras, vipers, black mambas and other venomous snakes take between 20,000 and 94,000 lives each year, and bite another 421,000 to 1,841,000 people.

Memories of John Kerry

Just thought I would double check on what John Kerry was saying about the number of US troops in Iraq in 2004:

John Kerry set a three-part test for removing U.S. troops from Iraq if he is elected president, while warning that President Bush might commence a more rapid draw-down this fall to improve his re-election prospects.

The three conditions, Mr. Kerry said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, are "to measure the level of stability" in Iraq, "to measure the outlook for the stability to hold" and "to measure the ability ... of their security forces" to defend Iraq. Until each condition is satisfied, he added, "I will provide for the world's need not to have a failed state in Iraq."

Mr. Kerry's remarks, two weeks before he accepts the nomination of a Democratic Party with deep misgivings about the war, indicate the Massachusetts senator isn't preparing to spell out a timetable for rapid withdrawal of the roughly 140,000 U.S. troops now in Iraq. To the contrary, he suggested that Mr. Bush was more likely to do so, saying "I've heard [it] said by many people" that the White House might be gearing up to withdraw troops before the November election.

Incurably waffle-y, wasn't he?

It's a surprising twist of fate that McCain has not been able to make political mileage out of being proved right on Iraq. Still, the world is fickle, and recessions help no one in power when they arrive.

Yes, still more about Ross & Brand

Dominic Lawson writing in the Independent on the Jonathan Ross/Russell Brand incident, writes about a problem for one type of modern comedian:

....this is where the need of comedians to be seen to tackle taboos has been pushed beyond reason by an increasing absence of boundaries to break. When the whole idea of privacy in sexual matters is seen as hopelessly old-fashioned inhibition, how far must an "edgy" comedian think he needs to go in order to startle his young audience into gasps of incredulous laughter? The answer is: a very, very long way indeed – and yet without any restraint, where is the tension that has always tempered true comedy?

These thoughts came to me on my return to the rail services in England, and hearing a young woman talking loudly in her mobile telephone to some lover about her recent examination for a sexually transmitted disease. The other English people in the carriage seemed unsurprised by this casually revolting monologue; but there was a French couple sitting opposite – their Parisian fastidiousness evident in appearance alone – who gazed in palpable astonishment at this unselfconscious exercise in personal debasement.

I would hazard that neither Russell Brand nor Jonathan Ross would have found this episode surprising, entrenched as they are in what is sometimes laughingly known as "youth culture"

I would argue that there is not an inherent need for comedy to "break boundaries", but still Lawson's point about the increasing crudity of the target youth audience seems accurate.

If Sarah had said that...

Michelle Malkin notes a very recent ramble from "heartbeat away" Joe Biden, that really makes you wonder about how nervous we all might feel if ever he became president.

As one commenter says: "And to think some are worried that Palin could be #2…."

As bad as that?

Election Predictions: Pundits Weigh In

Out of a long list of political pundits listed above (including Karl Rove!) only one - Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard and Fox News - predicts a John McCain win. (And a pretty narrow one at that.)

What's more amusing is how in the comments that follow, quite a few Obama fans see Rove's opinion as being all part of the evil plot to convince Democrats that they don't have to bother voting.

New physics?

CDF Ghost Muons | Cosmic Variance

When the Cosmic Variance physicists aren't spending their time promoting gay marriage, Obama and the death of religion (who said scientists are mostly godless liberals?) they do write interesting stuff about physics.

They are very excited about some experimental results which (if confirmed) indicate that some completely new physics has been discovered. (Well, some completely new particle, which may - or may not - solve the mystery of dark matter.) It's not so often that something so unexpected turns up at particle accelerators.

Some science magazines are reporting it too.

My somewhat cynical take on this: aren't we all glad we spent $6 billion (and counting) on the LHC while in fact there was useful stuff being discovered at old labs?

We'll be hearing more about this

Sex on TV Increases Teen Pregnancy, Says Report - TIME

Perhaps that headline should only be "...is associated with increased Teen Pregnancy", but you get the drift.

It would interesting to have a list of TV shows of the last decade which have been shown to have the most irresponsible attitudes to sex. Two immediately spring to my mind:

1. Sex and the City. Was contraception ever mentioned in that show, even in passing? Did any of the women ever say over their Manhattans "Why did I do that? I hardly know the guy and didn't use a condom. Now I've got chlamydia." (Maybe it was dealt with in one episode; I was hardly a regular viewer.)

2. Ally McBeal, but mainly for one outstandingly irresponsible episode in which she had "one off" sex with a hunky stranger she had just met at a car wash. (I think it was in the car wash itself.) Yet the episode was all about what this meant from a sexual politics point of view, of the "how bad is it for women to just want anonymous sex now and then, after all most men would be happy to do that" variety. I don't recall anyone saying to her "Surely you used a condom?" (The spontaneous nature of the incident indicated that she didn't.) Of course, the follow up should have been: "Are you insane? Get off to the STD clinic immediately".

John McCain could make you rich!

An Australian on line bookmaker is offering 9 to 1 for a John McCain win. Now you know where to invest your dwindling retirement funds.*

*Disclaimer: Opinion Dominion is not a licensed financial adviser, nor even comfortably rich. However, a share of any winnings from this tip will be gratefully received.

The Japanese who can samba

An enclave of Brazilians is testing insular Japan - International Herald Tribune

Until I started visiting Japan, I didn't know anything about the South American connection. You can read an interesting article about Brazilian Japanese who have migrated back to Japan at the link above.

Comment, comment

Comments are cordially invited (on this post) about any recent post.

It's so quiet around here sometimes...

Strange days in England

Pity the women who come within range of Brand and Ross | India Knight - Times Online

Readers will recall last week's post about how a couple of big time BBC radio hosts caused an uproar by leaving obscene and juvenile messages on the answering machine of a 78 year old actor, who didn't find it terribly funny.

Thousands of people complained, the PM criticised the BBC; comedian Russell Brand belatedly resigned, and Jonathan Ross, who has been around forever on British TV as well, was suspended for a few months.

Yet, over the weekend, there were a couple of articles in the British press claiming this was all massive overkill.

The strangest defence of all came from India Knight in The Times (see above). She complains that if the public likes 2 blokes of mature age carrying on like "hysterical teenagers", then the BBC ought to keep running them (provided they apologised, which they had.)

Yet by the end, she claims this:

"...what lies at the centre of this sorry saga is misogyny. None of it would have happened if Ross and Brand displayed - or were asked to display - even an iota of respect for women. Instead, both men have made part of their living out of treating women - wives and mothers excluded - as though they were pieces of meat. This can be very funny but it sticks in the craw."

She then explains how she once did a "straight" interview with Brand, and weeks later (after the interview was published):

I was ... taken aback to find myself named on air as a prelude to Brand discussing my bosoms with, surreally, Noel Gallagher from Oasis, who insistently asked: “Did you sleep with her?”, a question that caused Brand to speculate in some detail about what sleeping with me might have been like. None of this was mean or cruel, but it was out of order and reductive: woman, ergo piece of meat, fair game, punchline, nonperson.

It seems pretty amazing that she defends Brand at all in light of this. He sounds about as loveable, mature and intelligent as our Kyle Sandiland, and I for one would be most upset if he scored a slot on ABC radio or television.

Just all further evidence for my evolving thesis about the great moral decline of England.

More Japan pics

It's time to show some more photos of minor interest from my recent Japan trip. As always, clicking on the photos makes them bigger and somewhat more impressive.

Another small town in the northern part of Honshu is Hanamaki. The centre of town itself is nothing special, but it has many onsen hotels in the area, and we stayed in one which had a particularly pretty setting. Here's the view from the back:


There were pleasant walks to be had around the surrounding farm area, with featured many rice fields. (Mind you, rice is grown absolutely every it can fit in Japan. Staying with friends well in the middle of in Osaka, their apartment looked over a small rice field.) While I had seen green rice fields in spring and summer before, I didn't realise they went a nice golden colour before harvest:


Not only are houses, hotel rooms and cars small in Japan, so are the tiny sized rice harvesters:


Walking around, we saw this older style onsen, still operating apparently, but it put me a little in mind of the one in Spirited Away.


This flower (cosmos, I believe) was very common this visit, including in the gardens and roadsides around Hanamaki:


This was a very large, extra-touristy, onsen hotel, with entertainment each evening. The local farmers' elder sons (the only ones allowed to do this, apparently) presumably make a bit of extra money of an evening by doing the deer dance. This clip is not too exciting, but I'm sure you've wasted your time on worse diversions:



After all that walking and entertainment, it is reassuring to see the automatic defibrillator in the hotel foyer:


These have become an incredible fad in Japan over the last few years, and they appear in all sorts of places now. (Soon I expect they'll be in cars.) One wonders whether the staff administer the shock, or if they have to wait for the ambulance to arrive. (UPDATE: anyone can use them, apparently, and there is a very interesting and detailed article in Nature about how and why they have appeared everywhere in Japan.)

So, you can do certainly do worse than try the onsen of Hanamaki. Wish I could remember the name of the one we stayed at, but my wife will know if anyone is interested.

Developer perils in China

Bursting of bubble hits Chinese middle class | theage.com.au

The Age has an interesting article today on the downturn in the real estate boom in China. There are bargains to be had in new apartments, at least compared to a year or so ago, and things may well get worse.

The most fascinating part of the story is this:

Buyers in the West are familiar with the property market tides that alternate between spreading wealth and financial misery. Western courts tend to dismiss the claims of real estate agents as "mere puffery". But in China, where the concept of private home ownership is scarcely a decade old, those who bought near the top tend to believe they have been robbed. The first buyers to notice their wealth diminishing were those who bought unfinished apartments and watched neighbouring units being sold for much less. They are banding together to accost developers, air their grievances in the media and take their problems to court.

"Don't buy Zhonghai houses, the value will fall fast," chanted a crowd last weekend at a Zhonghai development in eastern Beijing. A Zhonghai manager, Ouyang Guoxin, negotiated the crowd's silence by promising to buy back the apartments at original contract prices during the week, which he never did. On Tuesday the crowd raided the group's offices in West Beijing and disconnected the receptionist's computer.

And as for the legal system: well, it isn't helping. (Mind you, not that it should, in this particular case, but still it could be better handled than this):

Shanghai lawyer Du Yueping says he has received inquiries from disgruntled investors in most major Chinese cities, including 400 in the coastal city of Xiamen. "They're all asking me the same question, how they get their money back," he says.

Each working day since September 23, Mr Du has tried to file a writ in Shanghai's Pudong District Court. Each time, the judge has refused to accept the paper work, citing orders from above.

Pornography, sex (and cows) in Indonesia

It's been months since I've checked the Jakarta Post, which is a pity because I have been missing stories like these.

Australians are rightly concerned about the Labor Party's plans to compulsorily censor the internet at ISP level. (Funny how little time blogs Larvatus Prodeo have spent on the issue. If it had been done under John Howard, the lefty blogosphere and The Age would be brimming every day with column inches about the fascist nature of the government.)

Yet, things could be worse. In Indonesia, what sounds like the world's vaguest anti-pornography legistlation has just been enacted:

Here's the Jakarta Post's list of concerns:

Contentious articles in the porn bill:

1. Article 1: Definition
Pornography is drawings, sketches, illustrations, photographs, texts, voices, sound, moving pictures, animations, cartoons, poetry, conversations, gestures, or other forms of communicative messages through various kinds of media; and/or performances in front of the public, which may incite obscenity, sexual exploitation and/or violate moral ethics in the community.
Feared impact:
The definition is open to all kinds of interpretation, such as how to define gestures that incite obscenity or sexual exploitation, and will be subject to debate.

2. Articles 20-23: Public Participation
The public can play a role in preventing the production, distribution and use of pornography...by...(d) supervising people on the danger of pornography.
Feared impact:
This article could be used by certain groups to take the law into their own hands by attacking people they believe are violating the law.

3. Articles 8, 34, 36: Criminalization of victims
The articles threatens up to 10 years in prison or Rp 5 billion in fines for violators of the law.
Feared impact:
Artists or models in art shows or productions could be punished for their creativity.

Yep, watch your hand gestures next time you are in Jakarta.

In further Indonesian sex news, this time involving cows, who knew that in Bali, if a man is caught having sex with a bovine, religious purification requires that the cow (but not the man) be drowned?

I note that the man in question was aged 70. Maybe he had been watching too much Japanese DVD porn. (See previous post if you don't understand.)

Anyhow, surely everyone should feel sorry for the cow. But I suppose we do have to teach such brazen temptresses a lesson.

Disturbing Japanese story of the year

It was in Time magazine in June, but I missed it then. (Of course, what the nation needs is younger people more involved, and not in a solo way.)

Phillip Adams - professional dill?

Back in March 2006, I noted how one Radio National fixture (Robyn Williams - who has run the Science Show forever) admitted that he had not remembered that when you catch a plane from Australia in summer to go to New York, it might just be cold at the destination. He wore sandals and (I think) shorts on the plane. Just how many people with a university education and a lifetime of thinking about science do that?

(Men who don't wear closed in footwear on long international flights have always annoyed me anyway: feet and sandals can smell, and I don't reckon they could be as inherently safe as proper shoes in an emergency exit situation.)

Well, a lack of common sense seems to be thriving at Radio National, particularly in the overtly political broadcasters.

Phillip Adams on Wednesday night seemed to have a bit of time to kill, and started his show by detailing his misadventures in getting into his Sydney home. You can listen to it here, but I'll summarise from memory:

a. due to some accident, he has been using only one eye this week;
b. he realised a couple of nights ago during his evening radio show that he had locked himself out of his Sydney house;
c. his house is narrow but 4 levels high;
d. he decided to get in by climbing up to the 3rd level balcony with an extension ladder, which he had trouble working out how to use properly;
e. this he did, in the dark and (by the sounds of it) by himself;
f. he got up to the balcony (the door to which he presumably does not lock) and got inside;
g. his monitored alarm system then went off, waking up the neighbours (as his show ends at 11pm, this was presumably around midnight);
h. the alarm company rang and asked for his password. He could not remember it, nor even his own phone number (!)

He did not bring this up, but he is aged 69. He is well know for his Egyptian artefact collection, and made his millions in advertising.

So, the next time you see a one eyed, grey, rich, somewhat overweight 69 year old man teetering three levels up on an extension ladder in Paddington, you might want to call out to him :"Phillip, there is such a thing as a 24 hour locksmith, you know!"

Clean coal skepticism

Time to bury the 'clean coal' myth | Environment | guardian.co.uk

There's not much detail in the polemic, but I share the skepticism that clean coal has any realistic prospect (at reasonable cost and within an appropriate time frame) of making a difference to greenhouse gas.

Bye bye Doctor

Tennant to quit Doctor Who | Media | guardian.co.uk

Shrimp don't care for CO2

Long-term effects of predicted future seawater CO2 conditions on the survival and growth of the marine shrimp Palaemon pacificus

Another day, another report of an experiment in which a marine creature is shown to be adversely affected by high levels of CO2 in the atmosphere:

The present results demonstrate for the first time that the predicted future seawater CO2 conditions would potentially reduce shrimp, and possibly other crustacean, populations through negatively affecting mortality, growth, and reproduction. This could threaten entire marine ecosystem through disrupting marine food web.

News will be greeted by the sounds of crickets chirping in the audience.

Half of America will find it funny

'I Would Make A Bad President,' Obama Says In Huge Campaign Blunder

Can't trust Catholics

The end of the Catholic vote - Los Angeles Times

A majority of Catholics are going for Obama, according to this article, despite lots of guidance from US bishops that abortion is a crucial issue this election.

George W could holiday there

On war's outer edge in Kurdish Iraq - International Herald Tribune

Iraqi Kurdistan is trying to attract tourists:

Not without reason do guidebooks charitably call Iraqi Kurdistan the "Switzerland of the Middle East."

Apparently, ads have already been shown on American TV. Visiting there sounds like a very mixed experience:

While Erbil is a far cry from Baghdad, signs of the war are impossible to avoid. Hotels are fenced off by concertina wire, vehicles are inspected by Kalashnikov-toting guards, and checkpoints are abundant. On a lesser note, tourists accustomed to high-end comforts may also find Kurdistan frustrating. Electricity is spotty, few locals speak English and latrines, even in some hotels, consist of a hole in the floor.

But the friendliness, and pro-American sentiment, of many Kurds might make up for the poor infrastructure. Mention in a restaurant that you are from the United States and your meal may be gratis. And it is not uncommon for Kurds to invite Westerners to share home-cooked meals, even in inhospitable places.

UQ research on acidification and reefs

Rising CO2 'will hit reefs harder'

As usual with the issue of ocean acidification, this will probably just get 'spotty' media coverage:

In a large experiment on Heron Island, the team simulated CO2 and temperature conditions predicted for the middle and end of this century, based on current forecasts of the world's likely emission levels and warming by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The results of their analyses of the bleaching, growth and survival of a number of organisms including corals indicates that a number of very important reef builders may be completely lost in near future.

“We found that coralline algae, which glue the reef together and help coral larvae settle successfully, were highly sensitive to increased CO2. These may die on reefs such as those in the southern Great Barrier Reef before year 2050,” says Dr Anthony.

Thanks, Janet

Janet Albrechtsen today supplies some details to confirm that (as I said yesterday) Europe has no reason to feel smug about the current financial crisis.

Mystery man

Confessions from the Obama campaign trail - Los Angeles Times

Interesting "confession" here by a reporter who has been on the campaign trail with Obama, and feels he still doesn't know who he is. His Messianic qualities seem to be somewhat lacking in the back of the campaign plane:

One of the striking ironies is that a man who draws tens of thousands of people to his rallies, whose charisma is likened to that of John F. Kennedy, can be sort of a bore.

The overall image painted is of a man who is overly cautious about controlling his image, and/or just a tad on the emotionally cold side.

PS: I still wonder which personality type it is best to have his or her finger on the nuclear button: someone who has been known to be have strong outbursts of temper, and had more than his fair share of adultery (indicating at least, I suppose, someone well acquainted with emotions, but not necessarily in a good way); or someone who appears to have his emotions tightly bottled up and has spent an inordinate amount of time in calculating his own advancement.

The (no doubt unfair!) images I get is of McCain's aides wrestling him to the ground to stop him giving the "fire all missiles" order, while in an alternative universe Obama intellectualises his way (and convinces his minders) to making a limited nuclear attack in circumstances that will later be regretted.

All silly speculation, I know, but hey it's my blog.

Nuns on the line

Vatican switchboard sees a human touch as the answer

For some reason, the LA Times has a rather charming article on the nuns who answer the phone at the Vatican featured prominently on its website.

Talk about slow to suspect

Teacher Amanda Thompson has lesbian sex with student, court told | The Daily Telegraph

This report of the prosecutor's summary of a teacher/ underage student lesbian affair makes the other adults in the situation sound rather dim:

Mr Fuller [the prosecutor] said Thompson would regularly spend the night at her student's home, where they performed sex acts on each other.

The court heard Thompson was so trusted by the girl's parents that she became "part of the family", attending birthday celebrations, accompanying the family on holidays, and even spending Christmas day at their home.

When the girl's parents discovered the couple in bed, they asked that the bedroom door be left open.

Well, yeah I guess that'll teach to teacher to stay out of their daughter's bed during her regular visits.

As for the teacher's husband:

The court was told Thompson's then-husband became concerned about his wife's relationship with the student when he frequently found them lying in closed rooms or under a blanket upon arriving home from work.

I suppose his wife going over to stay at the girl's house wasn't enough of a sign?

Of course, it may be either the report, or the prosecutor's summary, which makes this case sound stranger than it is. But it does sound very odd.

Oh sure

Nuclear-powered passenger aircraft 'to transport millions' says expert - Times Online

Hey, I like nuclear power as much as the next right wing, technophile blogger, but even I draw the line at nuclear powered aircraft making much sense.

Apparently, the good professor suggests the reactor could be jettisoned and land safely by parachute if the plane is about to crash. One suspects, however, there are still quite a few accidents that happen with insufficient "its time to jettison the reactor" lead time.

More economics

Emerging markets and the financial storm | Into the storm | The Economist

The Economist's summary of a few days back about what's going on and how things are likely to pan out gives some guarded grounds for optimism. But one point that is surprising is this:

Some experts think that China needs growth of 7% a year to contain social unrest.

The magazine thinks China has enough reserves to be able to spend its way to maintaining 8% growth. Just lucky then.

(Of course, what could really throw another level of complexity in the equation would be an Israeli attack on Iran. I think we can safely assume that the economy alone is reason the US would be already telling Israel not to think about it at the moment.)

UPDATE: Paul Krugman remains pessimistic.

No good news today

In hard times, some flirt with survivalism - Economy in Turmoil- msnbc.com

I've just spent a hour trying to find good news to post about today. It's official, there is none.

So, let's dwell on how bad things can get. That's fun, sort of.

Yes, the survivalists (who used to thrive more when nuclear war and/or Russian invasion seemed more on the cards) have a new reason to feel justified:

Seattle survivalist Hagmahani sees such commodity hoarding as just a partial measure for weathering a financial crisis.

On his blog, mutuallyassuredsurvival.com, he advises people to prepare for a “major paradigm shift” that will, in a decade, leave the U.S. with a Third World economy.

The $700 billion government financial bailout, in his view, only ensures a crisis that cannot be avoided after unbridled lending and spending.

“One of the most frightening possibilities is the banking system freezing up,” he said. “... Our remittance system is almost entirely through the banking system. … Without ATMs, you can’t get groceries, you can’t get paid… Is that a possibility? Yes.”

Another survivalist recommends stuffing your sofa, not with money, but with food:

Wilson, who also has an online radio show called the Armchair Survivalist, said one of his new clients is a New York interior designer who specializes in outfitting cramped Manhattan apartments with hidden food storage units that double as tasteful furnishings.

Maybe I'll just buy a few packets of seeds and finally get around to getting some chooks for the yard.

Stick to playing music

Cityfile: Rock the Vote Rocked by Incompetence

Hope you didn't register to vote using one of the forms provided by Rock the Vote: Every single one of the 173,000 New York State voter applications downloaded from the group's site was printed with the wrong address, which means thousands of newly-registered voters can expect to be turned away at the polls if the mess isn't sorted out before then.

Heh. Obama's vote will be down slightly in New York, then.

New rocket bad news

Is NASA's Ares doomed?

Incidentally, I can't see President Obama being a big supporter of the space program. With a world wide recession as well, it does not look encouraging for a return to the Moon any time soon.

How encouraging

UK finances may be bad but there are many other nations that owe a lot more - Times Online

More pessimism, this time looking at Britain and Europe.

As has been noted elsewhere, it's ironic that so many Europeans should be gloating about what they see as an American problem coming home to roost, when it actually appears that much of Europe is going to come out of this very badly indeed.

As for borrowing to pump prime the economy, the above article notes:

Meanwhile, some economists have expressed deep concern over how even bigger increases in government borrowing will eventually be paid for. At some point in the future hefty tax increases or spending cuts still look inevitable. But when things are this bad, anything is worth a try.

It's a mystery

The Associated Press: World markets slump as Nikkei hits 26-year low

I don't know about my average reader, but one of the most puzzling things I find about economics is understanding how currency markets are supposed to make any sense. For example: why is the Yen surging, and in the process causing the Nikkei to drop:

"Worries about the impact of the surging yen on Japanese export earnings have hit the Nikkei hard," said Julian Jessop, chief international economist at Capital Economics.

"This in turn has led to sharp falls in European markets even when, as on Friday, the U.S. had closed higher the day before," he added.

On the radio, it was said that if you invested in Japan 26 years ago, you would now just be "even". Puts our superannuation losses in perspective, one suspects.

Why is the Australian dollar taking such a battering?

Why are economists held in any esteem whatsoever?

UPDATE: here's some explanation of what's happening via Bloomsberg. It still doesn't make any sense to me. For example:

The Australian dollar plunged to a five-year low against the greenback, as concern over a global recession led investors to buy the U.S. dollar as a safe haven. New Zealand's currency gained.

Why is the US dollar a "safe haven"? And why did that powerhouse New Zealand have its currency go up? All very odd and counter-intuitive, if you ask me.

UPDATE 2: here's a better, more detailed explanation of what's going on with the Yen.

An extreme case of cold feet

Nervous groom held for blaze at wedding hotel | The Japan Times Online

Kawata, 39, was arrested Sunday on suspicion of setting fire Saturday to a hotel in Hokuto, northern Yamanashi Prefecture, where he and his fiancee were supposed to get married later in the day... Kawata allegedly started the fire around 2:20 a.m. after spreading a flammable liquid, possibly kerosene, in a corridor behind the hotel's concert hall, the police said.

Lion will sleep with lamb, etc

The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan (October 26, 2008) - Goodbye To All That

Andrew Sullivan is feeling the love of President Messiah already, it seems:

Sometimes, when the world is changing rapidly, the greater risk is caution. Close-up in this election campaign, Obama is unlikely. From a distance, he is necessary. At a time when America’s estrangement from the world risks tipping into dangerous imbalance, when a country at war with lethal enemies is also increasingly at war with itself, when humankind’s spiritual yearnings veer between an excess of certainty and an inability to believe anything at all, and when sectarian and racial divides seem as intractable as ever, a man who is a bridge between these worlds may be indispensable.

My guess: Obama will be tested by an international crisis designed to take advantage of him, as Biden predicted, within 6 to 12 months. He'll either want to talk-talk, as he has said he will, and fail; or he might surprise us, throw some military might around, and end up doing pretty much what McCain (or Clinton) would have done anyway.

What I don't see happening is the entrenched enemies of the USA and Israel suddenly seeing the mistake of their ways and world peace ensuing.

Nor do I see any particular reason for an outbreak of sweetness and light in the culture wars within the States. Lefties will crow triumphant, as they did in Australia after John Howard's defeat, yet it will be quite on the cards that a new Republican candidate will look like a plausible alternative again by the next election (as appears is happening in Australia).

Just my guesses, anyway.

Back to the Arctic

Reduced ice thickness in Arctic Transpolar Drift favors rapid ice retreat

As noted a few posts back, I don't actually rely on melting Arctic ice as proving AGW. However, those who are pointing out that ice cover is reforming rapidly this year (and thereby suggest that an ice free pole is far away) should take note of the above research. It points out that, at least in one section of the Arctic, regular recent testing indicates that the ice is much thinner than it was in 2001. Their conclusion:

The regime shift to younger and thinner ice could soon result in an ice free North Pole during summer.

Kevin Rudd is on the phone now correcting the record

Spotted this headline in BYM Marine Environment News:

Australia. Prime minister Anne Bligh call for tougher action over Great Barrier Reef

Rosie creeps closer

Toyota, Univ of Tokyo unveil robot that does household chores

Toyota Motor Corp and a research body of the University of Tokyo have jointly developed a prototype for what many busy career people have been dreaming of for a long time: A hardworking robot that handles household chores. In a demonstration for reporters last week, the robot cleaned up rooms, smoothly put away dishes from a dining table and picked up shirts and put them in a washing machine.

God knows what it will cost, though. Have a look at the photo at the link: put a dress on it and it does look a little like Rosie from the Jetsons.

The state of comedy in Great Britain

Russell Brand causes outrage after explicit nuisance calls to Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs - Times Online

Oh yes, the BBC leads the way in showing us classy taste in comedy:

The BBC has come under fire after comedian Russell Brand and TV host Jonathan Ross made a series of obscene phone calls to the Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs.

The controversial presenters, both notorious for their liberal use of profanities on air, left messages on the 78-year-old actor's answerphone in explicit terms claiming Brand had had sex with his granddaughter, Georgina, and went on to joke that the actor may kill himself as a result.

In the pre-recorded segments aired on Brand's BBC Radio 2 show, the host and Ross, who presents a show on the same radio channel, began making calls after Sachs failed to answer his phone for a pre-arranged interview.

They were also pre-recorded segments, which the BBC cleared to be aired.

More making money from dead bodies

Flayed babies' bodies included in new Body World exhibition - Telegraph

Weirdo Gunther von Hagens has a new exhibit of flayed plasticised bodies on exhibition, and he gets a heap of free publicity, but (as far as I can tell) nothing in the way of criticism.

I posted about this a couple of years ago, and still I seem to be the only person around who finds him and his work irredeemably ghoulish, and can't understand why, having done this once, there is still an entertainment market for weirdly posed skinless dead bodies.

van Hagens claims his exhibitions send "a health message". I find the claims of it being educational for the general public in any significant sense hard to believe.

Moon ice?

The Great Beyond: No ice! No worries - we never thought it was there anyway

As this Nature blog comments:

The question about ice on the Moon is a long standing debate. There are two camps in the world of moon science; one claiming that there is ice and the other, yes, you guessed it, saying “oh no there isn’t”.

So this latest paper seems to be a victory for the non-ice camp, according to the coverage the news has received (MSNBC New York Times, Thaindian News) and a slightly more measured story from the Economist.

But hang on a minute, according to Ben Bussey, from Johns Hopkins University, no-one ever expected surface ice on the Moon anyway. “The absence of the presence of ice is not surprising given all previous data predicts that the ice is buried,” he told me. Bussey claims to be in neither of the aforementioned camps, but does say that he’d like to think ice is there. “The data is tantalisingly supportive”. But be clear – we’re talking about sub-surface ice here.

A nice scenario for a science fiction story might involve lunar "ice prospectors" trying to get rich by discovering large hidden ice deposits. (Such relatively near-future science fiction located close to earth seems to have gone well and truly out of fashion, but I feel there must a lot more stories waiting to be set on the moon.)

Problem is, with all the legal uncertainty about no one really being able to claim lunar resources for themselves, there may never be an incentive for private searches for it, unlike the gold rushes of earth.

Too much too quickly?

Rudd should dip his cap to undo damage | The Australian

Interesting article arguing why the government's bank guarantee was too much too soon.

Kevin Rudd was on Sunrise this morning at his self-interviewing worst, and actually seemed to irritate his pal Kochie by unduly politicising it.

Around Japan

Hey it's Sunday, the world is still a financial basketcase, and maybe I will never be able to afford overseas travel again short of mounting my own version of the Kon-Tiki expedition. So, why not show off a few holiday snaps from a few weeks ago.

Most tourists visiting Japan probably head south of Tokyo, towards Osaka and Kyoto, rather than exploring the northern part of Honshu island. However, there is a lot nice scenery towards the northern end.

This trip, visiting friends, we found ourselves in Hirosaki. It's a pretty town I had never heard of before, but apparently it is well known in Japan for its cherry blossom festive which is held in the very large and attractive grounds of the old Hirosaki castle. There's only one main bit of the old castle left standing, which has a bit of a museum inside:

Here's the Hirosaki version of samurai armour, which is featured in quite a lot of Japanese castle museums, but hey it's still cool looking stuff:



For an evening meal in Hirosaki, I can't recommend highly enough Restaurant Poo:


No one was quite able to explain the name, and I suppose it was just a little juvenile of me to take so much pleasure from reading a menu with "Poo" written on it repeatedly. But we really did eat there, it being close to our friend's house and one of their regular haunts. The food was meant to be Chinese, but it was quite different to your average Chinese restaurant experience (in either Australia or Japan), perhaps because of the Japanese chef. "Poo" was also very cheap, and outstanding value. It served "beer cocktails", one of which was beer and tomato juice. (Ugh). I don't hang around bars in Australia much, but this was the first time I had even heard of the concept of a beer cocktail.

For a day trip from Hirosaki, you can do a lot worse than drive to Lake Towada. This is a large, caldera lake which is quite deep, and (apparently on a fine day) has famously blue waters. From Hirosaki, the road is very windy (two of the passengers were overcome with carsickness). Still, the view from the lookout is great, even on an overcast day:


That little dot you can see to the right of the island is fairly big tourist boat. Pity you don't get a good idea of scale from the photo.

Being quite the fan of "You Only Live Twice", I naturally hope that I will find the Japanese lake which conceals a secret rocket base. However, once you get to the shore, you discover that Towada only conceals the silly swan paddle boats that every Japanese tourist lake provides:


The waters of the lake are exceptionally clear, and there's a pretty little "island" just off the main beach. Lovely:




Being near water, and Japanese, the shops naturally provide fish on a stick as a snack:

Nearby, there's a stream that flows out the lake that provides a very pleasant walk amongst waterfalls and greenery:




A very pretty part of Japan, perhaps even better right now when autumn colours have more fully taken hold.

I can't think of a clever way to end this post: just hope you don't mind the photos. I can bore you with many more.

Strangest idea ever for a pro Obama video?

Found over at Boing Boing, and (as far as I know) not yet noted much in the Australian blogosphere:

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

As many people have said at Boing Boing comments: Andy Griffith is still alive??? And not even in a nursing home, by the looks. For a major 1960's TV star, he sure knew how to keep a low profile for the rest of his life. Even the very liberal Boing Boing notes that the video is (amongst other things) "sentimental" and "horrifying" at the same time. Quite an achievement.

On a more serious note, Ron Howard makes some statement to the effect "I believe that voting for Obama is a chance to vote for someone who will make a truly exceptional president".

Err, I know that is typical political campaign rally talk, but this seems to be Howard's personal video, and how can he (or anyone) really judge how Obama will perform as president? Just because a politician says "We need change and I will be different" seems a slight excuse for believing said politician will be a great President. Especially when, with Obama, you've got so very little history of leadership or involvement in government to judge him by.

Odd

How to be a bona fide hipster

Lisa Prior has this throw away line today:

Hipsters are hard to describe because they are so full of contradictions. But like a toupee or AIDS-related wasting, you know it when you see it.

Even l can see gratuitous offence to people suffering life threatening disease in that.

Typical Labor

Doubt cast over intervention income management legality - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

They try to placate the claims of racial discrimination by agreeing to allow the Racial Discrimination Act to apply to the Northern Territory intervention. Surprise! There is immediately the view expressed that it is impossible to make the current income management part of the intervention non-discriminatory.

It's an invitation by the government to be taken off to the Human Rights Commission and courts for protracted argument about discrimination. Like that'll help the remote communities. (And will the challenge be funded by government money paid to aboriginal advocacy groups?)

Here's a plan, Labor: why don't you make the changes you think make it non-discriminatory, but still avoid the need for argument by leaving in place the revocation of the Racial Discrimination Act? You can then claim the moral high ground without wasting time and effort trying to "prove" it.

Westfield of London - does it have giant faces?

Mega-mall: Is this the future of shopping? - This Britain, UK - The Independent

The report is about Frank Lowry opening a massive Westfield mall-ish thing in London. It's of some interest.

The main point of my post, however, is to ask the question: which advertising/design guru came up with the awful idea of using enormous large prints of beaming, happy people, or alternatively food stuffs and gift items, as a feature on both the outside and inside of shopping centres?

Maybe its day has gone already (I don't drive past the place often), but one prominent Brisbane suburban shopping mall a couple of years ago had a makeover in which gigantic prints of happy people, fruit and vegetables, and assorted other shopping stuff, appeared on the outside of the centre's main building. I have seen something similar appearing in other shopping centres more recently too; it would seem to have suddenly become a favourite idea of the design consultants who shopping centres no doubt engage to freshen up their look.

Another similar problem: cinema complexes in those same malls that feature giant posters of the current movie stars, as at the date they were built. Of course, 15 years later, those same stars may be no longer the box office crowd pleaser they once were, but we still have their mugs up there trying to pull us in.

Most recently, a jewellery shop inside my local suburban mall was refurbished with by large, permanent backlit posters featuring a man and woman in an obvious sexual endeavour. (At its worst, the guy is shirtless in an predatory position above the semi-reclining, jewellery clad, woman, who is of course pleased with the attention.)

(Obviously, this post would be much better if I was able to illustrate this with photos.)

The problem I have with this type of design: it has looked cheap, tacky and dated as soon as it appeared. I can't imagine a look that is likely to date faster. Furthermore, it's just inherently inane: you don't need to drape shopping malls in giant prints of fruit, vegetables and people to let passers-by know that inside they will indeed find fruit, vegetables and people. Trying to tell women that jewellery is somehow associated with a better sex life seems outright dishonest: the number of men in history who have slept with a woman because they were particularly impressed with her attractive pendant could probably be counted on one hand.

Someone needs to taken to task for this. Maybe Councils need their own design consultants to enforce better taste against the shopping centres. And then we will need a Design Court system to resolve disputes, with lawyers who specialise in recognizing good taste. Or just invest me with power to adjudicate. That'll help.

Quick Pixar review

Saw Wall E on the weekend.

Charming enough, but not especially memorable. Like Ratatouille, the reviewers liked it more the public, it seems. Its relatively modest box office (for Pixar) is quite understandable: kids can't be counted on to like dystopia movies (even ones with optimistic endings), and their parents don't like being reminded they are too fat.

Overall, it's a mid-level Pixar. Thinking about the body of work again, I increasing tend to rate the funniest, wittiest script of them all as being in Monsters Inc, although A Bug's Life is full of wit too. (You really ought to rent Monsters Inc if you have never seen it.) The most exciting visually was easily The Incredibles. Toy Story had much charm, and the great advantage of novelty. Ratatouille is still the most adult themed, even if it does feature talking rats.

Finding Nemo remains, to my mind, a bit of a dud, but Cars was the least successful of all.

In any case, the supporting Pixar shorts are always excellent. "Presto," showing with Wall E, is one of the best.

Add to my to do list

How Webby is William Shatner?

William Shatner is apparently posting Youtube digital diary entries. They sound funny, even if it is unclear whether that's intentional.

Must watch tonight.

By the way, re the famous Shatner rendering of "Rocketman": have I mentioned before that I saw that on TV when the science fiction awards show it was featured in was first shown in Australia in 1978? Yes, I realised its glorious inanity as soon as I saw it. It's something to tell the children about when I am older.

Greenwashing

The absurd claims companies make to boost their environmental credentials | Environment | The Guardian

Not a bad article here, listing the ways companies exaggerate or lie in their process of trying to claim Green credentials.

There are many examples given, but I particularly like this one:

...what are we to make of Fiji Water's claims to be cutting the carbon footprint of its water by 25% and offsetting the rest? "Every drop is green," it says. But isn't the whole idea of bottling water on a remote South Pacific island and shipping it to your dinner table just a tiny bit barmy?

High on list of things to do when I become Benevolent World Dictator will be to ban the production of bottled water. (Well, I suppose we can let a little bit into India for the tourists to drink.)

For your McMansion on the Moon

‘Waterless’ Concrete Seen As Building Block On Moon

There are little details in this report, but it says sulphur could be used as the binding agent on lunar concrete. But where does that come from?

Doctors and the "E" word

Erectile Dysfunction Gives Early Warning Of A Heart Attack, Warns Expert

Interesting to note:

...the link between erectile dysfunction and the risk of heart disease is being ignored by doctors, writes Dr Geoffrey Hackett from the Good Hope Hospital in Birmingham.

Over many years Hackett reports regularly seeing patients referred with erectile dysfunction after a heart attack, only to hear that they had developed erectile dysfunction two to three years before—a warning sign ignored by their general practitioners.

This part is amusingly put:

"Continuing to ignore these issues on the basis that cardiologists feel uncomfortable mentioning the word 'erection' to their patients or that they may have to deal with the management of a positive response, is no longer acceptable and possibly, based on current evidence, clinically negligent"

Shut up Sam

What the hell? Sam de Brito, possibly the most undeservingly paid blogger in the world (well, I assume he gets paid something by Fairfax, despite the fact that he uses his blog constantly to promote his own books), confesses recently to spending a $1000 on cocaine on a weekend.

But that's OK, because he then writes how much he regrets it, in the process telling us that he lied to friends and (apparently) partook in some particularly perverse sexual activity. (Oh, why hold back Sam, you're usually talking about men needing to be more sensitive and open, aren't you?)

So, what's the upshot of this? An invitation to talk at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research on some panel about stress, drugs and mental health! He then finds the audience was not compassionate enough to a woman with a rambling question.

de Brito recently said of himself:

I like to think of myself as a New Age Yobbo, someone who knows a bit about books and fashion and sociology, uses some ten dollar words but can also regress to the grubbiest of Australian stereotypes if the situation calls for it.

Like telling us about the time he caught crab lice from a one night stand with a backpacker.

Look, I suppose there may at least be some redeeming value to confessional memoirs written by people towards the end of their life once they feel they have obtained some wisdom from the experience. But it's simply unedifying, and serves no public benefit, to publicise exploits you regret as soon as they have happened, even if you purport to be doing it as a mea culpa.

In particular with any talk about drugs, anything short of painting the experience as horrific almost certainly just has the effect of confirming to the young and impressionable that its worth trying it for themselves, to see what the fuss is about. (And even then, showing a near death from an overdose in Pulp Fiction was said to have caused an increase in heroin use in Australia. The person who claimed this: Phillip Adams, who is not exactly know to be into promoting moral panics.)

I find it a remarkable indictment of modern corporate mores that Fairfax should give this guy the space to run his tedious self-analysis on their pages. I can imagine quite an outcry if his stuff had appeared in mainstream newspaper 30 years ago. By all means, he could do this schtick on Blogger; then, while he may be as annoying and objectionable as he is now, at least it wouldn't be compounded by the fact that he is getting corporate support to share his faults with us all.

And why can't Sam get enough insight to realise that less "sharing" and navel gazing, and more "doing" (of worthwhile, responsible and mature acts) may be the way to become the better person he says he wants to be.

Tipler's back

How to test the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics

Frank Tipler, the physicist who every other scientist thought went over the top with "The Physics of Immortality", only to see him outdo his idiosyncratic application of science to religion in "The Physics of Christianity," has recently published a possible way to test whether the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum physics is correct.

How neat. We may soon know if there are multiple versions of ourselves spread out across the multiverse. Can you imagine the number of books that would be written on the philosophical implications of that? (Well, there probably are quite a lot already, but establishing that it's true would be a philosopher's playground for another century or two at least.)

My hunch, however, given the vigorous debate that already goes on about what quantum physics means, is that most scientists won't accept that Tipler has provided a proof at all. (The fact that he starts using capital letters in one part of the arXiv paper is not too encouraging.)

Still, many years ago on The Science Show (Radio National), I remember someone was talking about a potential way that MWI might be testable in future. I can't remember the details, but it was certainly different to what the relatively simple method Tipler is suggesting.

Tiny nuclear power plants actually coming?

Nuclear-In-A-Box Startup Hyperion Raising More Cash - NYTimes.com

Interesting, the idea of nuclear power becoming very local. (Hyperion says their model will power about 20,000 homes.)

The Greens will love the idea. Ha.

Don't tell Andrew Bolt

Less Ice In Arctic Ocean 6000-7000 Years Ago

Andrew Bolt and others have been posting a lot about the Arctic ice melt (and apparent recent rapid re-freeze), so he's bound to take encouragement from this article that suggests that the Arctic ocean had much less ice 7,000 years ago too, before our modern CO2 increase, of course.

My general impressions are as follows:

* the issue of the coming and going of Arctic ice is clearly not fully understood.

* of course there are AGW advocates who leap too quickly onto anything that appears to prove greenhouse warming. Those who wildly overstate the case as to the short term effects of AGW (such as Tim Flannery, Al Gore, etc) are usually not the scientists themselves.

* most climate scientists were actually somewhat cautious in what they said about the big 2007 melt. At Real Climate, for example, they said:

The disappearance of the ice was set up by warming surface waters and loss of the thicker multi-year ice in favor of thinner single-year ice. But the collapse of ice coverage this year was also something of a random event. This change was much more abrupt than the averaged results of the multiple IPCC AR4 models, but if you look at individual model runs, you can find sudden decreases in ice cover such as this. In the particular model run which looks most like 2007, the ice subsequently recovered somewhat, although never regaining the coverage before the meltback event.

* even if the current round of substantially lower than average summer ice is caused by completely different cyclic factors from CO2 increase, it may be a worry if the cycle continues because of its potential to have an enhancing effect on any warming that is caused by CO2 in coming decades.

Methane coming out of the Arctic ocean may well end up being a major concern too. We will hear more about that soon, it seems.

* Above all, remember my official line is that ocean acidification is a big enough issue alone to limit CO2 anyway. Doesn't matter if temperatures go up or down: a huge gamble with what will happen to ocean ecology is in play if CO2 is allowed to soar to levels not seen for millions of years.

Curious...

Doctor shares secrets to calm your child

A doctor who has written a book about soothing babies and toddlers says this in the above interview:

Q: Do you have any ideas on how to have the happiest teenager on the block?

A: I can't tell you the whole secret approach, but I can tell you part of it uses a lot of duct tape. In a lot of ways, they're like toddlers - they want a lot more authority than they're prepared to handle, and they've got a lot of immaturity. A lot of the communication techniques that work with toddlers works with them as well. What hasn't been acknowledged is how important the nonverbal part of communication is. The way you acknowledge someone's feelings is actually more important than what you say. Even with the right words, if it's done in a very flat, psychiatrist voice, it makes you want to be more distant and find someone who does understand you. These books deal with discipline as well, but it turns out that 90 percent of getting your kids to behave well is respectful communication.

I can't quite tell if the duct tape bit is a joke or not.

The noddy girls identified

Labor's script is showing, brown noses out of joint - Annabel Crabb - Opinion

Annabel Crabb's column today answers the question: just who are those two nodding women MPs who always manage to get their face in shot on TV behind Kevin Rudd in Parliament?

What it doesn't tell us is: how do Parliamentarians score those seats? They must be worth an absolute mint in terms of free publicity to your own electorate.

The rest of the column (about how the Dorothy Dixers got emailed to journalists yesterday) is pretty interesting too.

PS: Christian Kerr's take on the day goes into more detail about the issue of how Rudd got his Reserve Bank advice second hand. Seems Kevin was hyperventilating at certain points during Question Time, but I don't recall seeing that part on the TV news.

Onsen appreciation

The Gangster In My Tub - The Atlantic (November 2008)

The Atlantic has a short article explaining the pleasures of Japanese onsen which is right on the money:

Why is all this fun? Japanese people sometimes explain the attraction with mumbo-jumbo about how onsen provide a spiritual experience. Personally, I think there’s something in the lizard part of our brain that really likes sitting around in hot water with no clothes on in a beautiful mountain setting. Also to be taken into account is that after the onsen, you can put on your yukata (a bathrobe-like garment provided by every ryokan) and eat wonderful food—the culinary quality at Japanese inns is amazingly high.

As the article mentions (and has photos of) the Yakuza at an onsen, I should mention that I have never seen a tattooed Yakuza in an onsen or sento. (I understand that they are not welcome at the great majority of such establishments.) I did read in an old edition of the Lonely Planet guide to Japan that a member of the Yakuza may be quite happy if you show an interest in his tattoos. I thought this odd advice: generally speaking, isn't it more prudent to avoid engaging gangsters in conversation about mutual interests?

Speaking of tattoos: God I've seen some awful examples on women at the shopping centre lately. What are they thinking?

Godless England

There's a God-shaped hole in Westminster | Rachel Sylvester - Times Online

Seems about right, this column.

Fighting over Radio National

One thing I have learnt about Radio National since Stephen Crittenden spat the dummy about losing his show is that they don't update their presenters' photos often. (Have a look at Stephen's unflattering unhappy photo in the News.com story on this compared to his RN bio.)

I am being needlessly bitchy, I suppose, as in fact I would prefer The Religion Report stay. He doesn't do a bad job, I reckon, and I occasionally get to listen to it.

However, there is a lot of dross on RN and, apart from Crittenden's show and (perhaps) the Media Report, the other ones mentioned for axing will not be missed by more than a handful of listeners.

The really great presenters of the Radio National are, I reckon, Alan Saunders and Norman Swan. Both just come across as good natured polymaths, and don't wear their political ideology on their sleeves as do so many other Radio National presenters.

If you have a spare half hour, you could do much worse than listen to Saunder's "By Design" show of last week which featured Paul Keating and Elizabeth Farrelly talking about Sydney's Circular Quay. Quite entertaining in parts.

Excrementally interesting

Excerpts from The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters.

It's all about China and excrement, but it is interesting.

The Japanese, incidentally, followed the Chinese system of really appreciating the value of their poo. Have a look at this Youtube entitled "The role of human excrement in Japanese agriculture" for a brief summary.

Strange missiles

UFOs, alien abductions and Tina Turner feature in Close Encounters secret files - Telegraph

The Telegraph reports that some more recent government UFO files have been released, including some on a few very odd "unexplained missile" cases from 1991.

These cases don't particularly suggest aliens involvement (not in the traditional flying saucer sense), but they remainpuzzling nonetheless.

Proposed end of the world update

Also while I was away, Rainer Plaga made his response to the criticisms of his original paper suggesting that the Large Hadron Collider could create a dangerous, earth threatening, mini black hole.

He added an appendix to his paper on arXiv, here, saying that Giddings and Mangano's criticism that he used an equation incorrectly is just wrong. For the earlier explanation of the background, see my posts here, here and here.

I'm in no position to judge the accuracy of Rainer's rejoinder, just as I had trouble understanding Giddings and Mangano's criticism. And no physicist on the Web seems to have commented on Rainer's response.

So: who knows? Some informed comment on this would be welcome, but I guess money worries are more important that the end of the world...

UPDATE: the accident that shut the LHC down appears to require more work to fix than first thought. Nature is reporting it won't be turned on again til June 2009, but even then some seem to think that is optimistic.

Australian supermarkets note

Supermarkets slash prices to keep fearful customers | The Japan Times Online

Some very strong supermarket competition in Japan:

Major supermarkets are engaging in price cuts to keep customers as a sagging stock market and worsening corporate earnings pressure consumers to tighten their purse strings.

Aeon Co. began its biggest discount campaign ever Saturday at about 2,000 stores run by group companies, slashing prices on about 1,000 items by an average 20 percent until the end of February.

Maher miss

I see that while I was on holiday, a Bill Maher documentary on religion was released in the States.

Although Rotten Tomatoes indicates it was generally well received by the critics, it seems when you read the reviewers' key comments at RT that many of those who liked it still had reservations about it being basically one big cheap shot. (It is a curious thing, sometimes, as to how RT decides whether a particular review is, overall, positive or negative.) Kenneth Turan of the LA Times explains well the reasons he and others didn't like it.

Anyhow, the main reason this is mentioned here is because I thought David Wolpe wrote a good rebuttal to this type of criticism of religion.

Surprisingly, I see that the movie has made $9,000,000 in the States, in 3 weeks. (The production budget is said to be $2.5 million.) I take it that counts as a success. Athiests with a liking for a grating liberal comedian are willing to pay for it, then. Unfortunately, more completely one sided liberal docos are probably on the way.