The whales I never knew were there

Whale carcass may be towed out to sea to save pod | Environment | guardian.co.uk

The story is about some stranded killer whales up at Fraser Island, and ends with this:

Killer whales, also known as orca, follow the humpback whale migration along Australia's east coast to prey on calves.

I didn't know that.  Obviously, their tastes don't run to humans all that much, as I have never heard of an orca being seen anywhere near a beach on the Gold or Sunshine Coast as they pass on their way to or from Hervey Bay. 

I actually assumed they always stayed in colder waters.  My knowledge of marine biology is obviously lacking.

The use of on line photo editting to amuse myself continues (most people can safely ignore...)

PS, the face came from here.   By the time you squash it in, it's sorta hard to tell, I guess.

Some hope yet for a more realistic European carbon market

Europe’s politicians vote to resuscitate carbon market : Nature News Blog

From the link:

The world’s largest carbon-trading market may awaken from its coma: politicians in Europe’s parliament today agreed a plan to revive market prices which have collapsed in the recession.

It’s a change-of-heart from a parliament which had rejected the same idea in April. But although it would lift the market out of total irrelevancy, the plan still won’t raise carbon prices high enough to spur investment in low-carbon energy, which was one of the European trading scheme’s key goals when it was launched in 2005. So some politicians say much deeper reforms are needed. What’s more, the plan still needs to be approved by the ministers of Europe’s member states – a decision that won’t be taken until after Germany’s elections in September.

Clever, clever birds

Animal master-burglars: Cockatoos 'pick' puzzle box locks (w/ Video)

From the article:

A team of scientists from Oxford University, the University of Vienna, and the Max Planck Institute, report in PLOS ONE a study in which ten untrained Goffin's cockatoos [Cacatua goffini] faced a puzzle box showing food (a nut) behind a transparent door secured by a series of five different interlocking devices, each one jamming the next along in the series.

To retrieve the nut the birds had to first remove a pin, then a screw, then a bolt, then turn a wheel 90 degrees, and then shift a latch sideways. One bird, called 'Pipin', cracked the problem unassisted in less than two hours, and several others did it after being helped either by being presented with the series of locks incrementally or being allowed to watch a skilled partner doing it....

After the cockatoos mastered the entire sequence the scientists investigated whether the birds had learnt how to repeat a sequence of actions or instead responded to the effect of each lock.

Dr Alice Auersperg, who led the study at the Goffin Laboratory at Vienna University, said: 'After they had solved the initial problem, we confronted six subjects with so-called 'Transfer tasks' in which some locks were re-ordered, removed, or made non-functional. Statistical analysis showed that they reacted to the changes with immediate sensitivity to the novel situation"

You can videos of the parrots being extraordinarily clever at the link: it seems I can't embed them.

Here comes the drop

There was quite a bit of interest amongst people who follow the state of the Arctic ice cover earlier this year when a large part of it become fractured and broken in (I think) a way that hadn't been seen before.

But then, the NSIDC graph showing ice melt in summer showed ice cover staying much higher for a month or so longer than last year.

But the drop off in cover is now in progress:

The new, improved Kevin

Honestly, it's not just because I don't want Tony Abbott to win, and everyone knows I have long disliked Kevin Rudd and did not think he deserved his win in 2007; but....

I think it's undeniable that Rudd gave an extraordinarily self assured and good performance on his first 7.30 interview last night.   I feel pretty confident that it would have been causing no small amount of anxiety in Abbott's office as they watched it.  

Then this morning, the headline in the Australian indicates Rudd doing exactly the kind of thing that I had been thinking Gillard needed to do:  be seen to be "punishing" the New South Wales Right.

I am not sure what has happened at News Corp overnight, but even Julia Gillard is getting (well deserved) credit for the grace and dignity with which she took her loss of position last week.  This cannot hurt Labor overall.

And back at the ABC, Alan Kohler makes the point I have elsewhere:  Julia Gillard was remarkably unlucky in many respects (I'll do a post listing them one day), and it is certainly possible that any new government will reap the benefits of some positive changes just coming into effect now:

If the ALP loses this year it can count itself very unlucky indeed: the Rudd/Gillard/Rudd Government will have exactly encompassed the second-biggest crash and world recession in history followed by the slowest, most difficult recovery.

Compare that with John Howard, who, after winning that 2001 election, governed during one of the great economic booms in history, escaping into satisfied retirement 24 days after the stock market peaked.

Julia Gillard, in fact, was doubly unlucky because a key part of America's recovery from the bust that its own credit excesses had caused was the debasement of its currency. When the 2010 election was held on August 21, the Australian dollar exchange rate was 89.38 US cents on its way to parity by the end of that year and $US1.10 by mid 2011.

So by coincidence, Gillard's leadership more or less exactly encompassed the period of Aussie dollar strength, caused entirely by US dollar weakness. The good news is that it has allowed 2 percentage points to come off interest rates because of low inflation, but that didn't help Australia's first female prime minister.

 I would not be surprised to see significant betting market odds moving towards Labor as a result of all of this.

Update:   More news of good politics from Rudd:

Kevin Rudd has offered Tony Abbott a series of unprecedented briefings from the nation's security chiefs as he attempts to turn the tables on the Opposition Leader in the debate on asylum seekers.

The Prime Minister has written to Mr Abbott promising access to the heads of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the Immigration Department, saying the coalition should have the latest confidential information on people smuggling.

Rudd's approach to this is very much like Peter Beattie, I think:   admit a past mistake, but move forward with a positive "we can fix it, though" attitude, and people might accept it.

And he is making Abbott look defensive and as if he is the one playing politics if he won't take the briefings on offer.

One final point:  Rudd's manner of speaking last night seemed to me to have few of his old Rudd-isms.    It was more direct, and (if I recall correctly) had none of his faux folkiness which so many have found annoying in the past. 

Update 2:  Anxiety levels are rising at Catallaxy, and the name calling increasing.  How amusing.  

Whoops

I seem to have found a way to delete comments by accident when using my tablet last night.   Two were disappeared, but it wasn't intentional..and I am sorry about that.

How they deal with child abuse allegations in Poland

Poland: A dark side of the Catholic Church | The Economist

Someone writing in The Economist in May this year:

One of the three items also featured my own experience whilst trying to investigate a case for France 24 television. We had spoken to a man who told us he had been abused in the late 1970s by someone who was now rector of a parish in Szczecin. We travelled to the parish and found the cleric in question (who cannot be named for legal reasons) leading mass. Afterwards, I asked him whether he had any comment to make on the allegations, and got an astonishing reaction. Accusing us of filming illegally, the priest led both me and the cameraman into the rectory… and locked us in.

After a few minutes we tried to escape, and were violently blocked by the cleric. Fortunately, in the scuffle that ensued he dropped his keys and we were able to get out. Our detention had lasted less than ten minutes and nobody was hurt. But since we had managed to film the whole thing on two cameras, we gave some of the footage to local journalists.The story made the national news the following day, prompting a degree of fuss, though not exactly an uproar.

What is remarkable is the reaction from the Church. For two days neither parish nor diocese would comment at all. Then came a statement from the diocese spokesman to the effect that they were looking into the possibility of charging us with trespassing and slander. According to prosecutors no such complaint has yet been lodged. We had already reported the incident to the police.

The spokesman also told TVN he had no knowledge of paedophilia charges against the priest in question. The very same spokesman’s signature is on documents relating to the formal complaint the victim lodged with the diocese more than two years ago

A couple of hydrogen fuel cell car stories

Acal Energy says its new hydrogen fuel cell is good for 300,000 miles

From the company's press release:

"Degradation has long held back the potential for the widespread use of hydrogen fuel cells in the automotive sector. Breaking the 10,000 hour threshold during rigorous automotive testing is a key reason our hydrogen fuel cell design and chemistry has been selected for trial by a number of the 6 top automotive OEMs."

He continued: "With our technology, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles can drive over 500 miles per tank of fuel, and can be refuelled in less than five minutes, emitting only water. For a driver, the only difference from driving an internal combustion engine car is what's going in the tank, but for the environment the significance of zero carbon emissions is enormous".

I wonder how much a tank of hydrogen will cost, though...

This article Honda, GM plan to establish alliance for fuel-cell vehicle development indicates that quite a few car companies are pursuing the technology, so maybe there is something to it.

The Australian's war on science hots up?

Today it's aging economist Maurice Newman with a litany of crap to the theme of "climate change is bunk" in The Australian.   By the end of the week, it will probably be IPA anti wind gadfly Alan Moran.  We all know from off hand remarks made elsewhere on the web by Judith Sloan (the paper's "contributing economics editor") that she thinks its all overblown rubbish too, but she doesn't tackle the topic head on.   (There are childcare teacher "dimwits" to call out, after all.)

Seriously, is anyone keeping a count on the number of anti climate change articles appearing in the Australian in the last few months?  My impression is that their frequency is increasing, perhaps in anticipation of an election? 

Abbott's scheme taken apart

Tony Abbott's paid parental leave policy: high cost, low benefit | Business | guardian.co.uk

Go to the link for a cool, calm explanation from Greg Jericho as to why Tony Abbott's parental leave is too generous, and too expensive, for no good reason.

A sad case

Parents warned after girl's battery death | The Australian

I for one didn't realise lithium button batteries were as dangerous as this for little kids:

SAFETY experts are trying to educate parents about the dangers of button batteries after the death of a young girl who swallowed one. 
 
Specialists tried desperately to save the four-year-old after she was taken to a hospital on Queensland's Sunshine Coast on Sunday with stomach bleeding.

But there was little that could be done for her.

Safety experts say they're worried parents don't fully understand the dangers in so many household items.

Kidsafe Queensland says an estimated four children a week are rushed to emergency departments across Australia each week after swallowing the batteries.

The biggest danger is when parents don't realise their child has swallowed a button battery, which tends to lodge in kids' throats.

Often parents can simply think their child is coming down with something, with symptoms including vomiting, coughing, abdominal pain and fever.

The Tony Abbott fence straddle continues

Coalition Blow to Local Government Referendum

Tony Abbott is a flaky politician who personally supports the constitutional amendment to clarify once and for all the Federal Government's ability to directly fund local council, but has crumbled under pressure from his dimwit Tea Party/IPA/conspiracist wing of the Coalition to find a way to try to ensure it won't pass.

He's a real disgrace, a million miles from being a "conviction politician" on anything.

A new weapon against high blood pressure

Removing nerves connecting kidney to the brain shown to reduce high blood pressure

Have I heard something about this before?  I can't remember.  Anyway, seems promising (and not overly invasive) for those with really serious blood pressure problems:

A new technique that involves removing the nerves connecting the kidney to the brain has shown to significantly reduce blood pressure and help lower the risk of stroke, heart and renal disease in patients. The procedure, which has very few side effects, has already shown promising results in hard-to-treat cases of high blood pressure....

The procedure, which has been successfully trialled on 19 patients at the BHI, is performed using a fine tube that is inserted in an artery in the patient's leg and positioned in the artery feeding blood to the patient's kidneys. The nerves to the kidney are around the artery and ablated by radio-frequency energy that is emitted from the tube....

Dr Nightingale, who runs the Specialist Hypertension Clinic at the BHI, said: "We have used renal denervation in patients who have hard-to-treat blood pressure. Similar to the results from the basic science experiments, we have also seen reductions in blood pressure which has been essential for reducing the risk of heart and renal disease, and stroke in our patients. This is an exciting new treatment for these patients who have struggled with high blood pressure which tablets are not controlling."

Dr Baumbach, an interventional cardiologist who performed the treatment, added: "The technique is very straight forward, performed as a day case and there are no side-effects. It is becoming a popular technique for patients with both resistance and poor tolerability to high blood pressure medication."

Does Andrew Bolt ever read Catallaxy threads?

Andrew Bolt starts off doing the right thing by calling out anonymous hateful twits who went on line to attack new Labor minister Ed Husic for taking his oath on a Koran, but then he makes a comment which indicates he must (if he was honest) also consider the threads of the Catallaxy (the posts of which seem to supply 30 -50% of his content now) to be the hate-filled poisonous pits:

His anonymous haters are of no account, and do not deserve the attention they are getting. There are too many such trolls on every chat site in the country. They do not deserve to intrude on adult conversation.

Hilariously, the "adult conversation" line is routinely used by the Bolt refugees who have taken over Catallaxy threads as a rejoinder to someone who disagrees with them.