Now for some science

This articleScience & Technology at Scientific American.com: Inconstant Constants -- [ COSMOLOGY ] -- Do the inner workings of nature change with time? is a full length free one on the Scientific American website, and is not too bad.

I dip into Scientific American every now and then, but find its articles often have a bit of a readability issue. I think it is because they are often written by the researchers themselves, not journalists or specialist science writers. The articles therefore come across as, well, stodgy, for want of a better word.

New Scientist has a lively, often humorous, style, but seems to perhaps run too many "wacky" ideas by loner scientists. And (from what I can gather) they also seem to have a bit of an accuracy issue in that mag too.

I used to like "Discover" a lot, and bought it regularly for well over a decade. It was never very newsy as such, but had some good writers. I think it changed ownership, the style changed a bit, and besides, with any magazine, I think you eventually tire of them and need a break. Maybe I should try it again.

Back to the Scientific American article, it contains this curious bit of trivia:

"One ratio of particular interest combines the velocity of light, c, the electric charge on a single electron, e, Planck's constant, h, and the so-called vacuum permittivity, 0. This famous quantity, = e2/20hc, called the fine-structure constant, was first introduced in 1916 by Arnold Sommerfeld, a pioneer in applying the theory of quantum mechanics to electromagnetism. It quantifies the relativistic (c) and quantum (h) qualities of electromagnetic (e) interactions involving charged particles in empty space (0). Measured to be equal to 1/137.03599976, or approximately 1/137, has endowed the number 137 with a legendary status among physicists (it usually opens the combination locks on their briefcases)."

Care for a vinegar aperitif?

The Japan Times Online
The link is to a Japan Times story on the increasing popularity of drinking vinegar. I'm not sure that it'll catch on here somehow.

As the article indicates, a lot of this is about the Japanese being into trendy health products. I believe that was a large reason for the increase in the sales of Western red wine there last decade. I just drink it for fun.

Oh, and for all you sake fans out there...try the Australian one Go-Shu. It's good.

Dr Patel inquiry site

Bundaberg Hospital Commission of Inquiry homepage

For those of you with too much time on your hands, here's the home page for the "Dr Death" inquiry in Queensland. Has any other inquiry of this nature had such an open and Web friendly approach?

As for the scandal itself - it is almost delightfully appalling, assuming of course you or a near and dear one was not its victim. I just love that a Courier Mail journalist found out the Dr's overseas problems though a Google search. Pity no one at the hospital thought of doing that too when they first starting getting worried.

Transcripts are available - several days old - on the website. And like all inquiries, much of it is taken up by lawyering amongst themselves. Still, seems like a lot of interesting stuff in there.

Media Watch does story about nothing..nothing new

For those of you who missed Media Watch last night, the main story went something like this:

a. the ABC buys doco on suicide for Compass
b. Compass host watches it and is very worried that one segment gives viewers too much idea on how to do it. Wants it cut.
c. ABC asks outside expert (a Professor in mental health) what he thinks. He agrees. May encourage viewers with the inclination to try the method.
d. Program airs with one minute cut.
e. Doco producer (or director) is not so happy. Says it didn't show how to use the plastic bag.
f. Media Watch points out that the decision to cut is consistent with ABC editorial guidelines
g. Media Watch seems slightly miffed that it also was not allowed to show the missing minute as part of its story
h. Media Watch says ABC didn't really do anything wrong, but Liz finishes with:

"We're in favour of responsible reporting of suicide so understand the ABC's decision to err on the side of caution, but there has to be some space left for the full and frank views of people like Lisette Nigot."

Well she got a bloody doco shown on national TV about it didn't she!!

In my books, this is called A NON STORY.

The last comment by Liz (quoted above) meant next to nothing. Why did they bother with this story at all? Where exactly was the
"debate and controversy about the decision to cut or censor, depending on how you see it, a documentary shown on ABC TV's Compass last week." Just in the corridors of the ABC, I suspect. I don't think it raised a blip anywhere else.

I look forward to more non stories to come.

An old article about Robert A. Heinlein's house!

site: Robert A. Heinlein - Archives - PM 6/52 Article

For those of you who used to like Heinlein before his books became full of windbaggery. Here, via Jerry Pournelle's website, an old Popular mechanics article on the long gone sci-fi authors home.

It's a lot smaller than I imagined. And you can't open any window.

Should I mention sperm again?

The Genius Factory - My short, scary career as a sperm donor. By David Plotz

An interesting read, this story. I had missed the fact that the sperm bank of Nobel Prize winners was shut already.

Well said DD

The New Yorker: The Critics: The Current Cinema

Can't say I have read many reviews by David Denby, but I must say that this review of Batman Begins and Mr & Mrs Smith is a well written piece not just just on these movies, but the general problem with so much of Hollywood product these days. And don't get me wrong - I have even less time for most foreign film. And Australia film - what a joke.

Warning toilet humour... (alternative title: Don't try this at home)

An amusing toileting story of high adventure in New Scientist.

But surely this can't be right (see sentence in appropriate hue):

"A team stationed in Anchorage, Alaska, and led by Joseph McLauglin from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, surveyed 132 climbers in June 2002. They found that 29% had diarrhoea at least once on their average 18-day trek on the mountain. And 39% reported seeing snow contaminated with faeces in or near their camps. But that did not stop nearly a quarter of climbers from collecting snow for drinking water directly from camps. Only 16% of climbers said they always boiled their drinking water.

Furthermore, fewer than half said they always washed their hands after defecating, with 16% admitting using rocks and snow instead of toilet paper. A shameful 11% confessed to pooping directly into the snow."

Guess the snow would be good for those with piles.

How to have better sperm...

So watching group sex improves sperm quality. Funny things, testicles.

Actually, the headline is probably more attention grabbing than accurate. The article points out that sperm motility increases by a marginal fraction, but volume significantly decreases. Overall, I would have thought the guys watching just a woman were going to end up more fertile.

But now - I see the version of this story on news@nature seems to contradict the decrease in volume aspect in New Scientist. Seems even science journalists have trouble getting the story straight.

Incidentally I wonder what would happen if you tested this on gay men. Would be funny if their sperm also subconsciously adjusted to naked women.

Hmm 

Pining for Paul

What sort of pathetic excuse for a column in The Age is this?

A 20-something law lecturer (so it seems from the chronology suggested in the article) pines for a return to the startling vision of one Paul Keating PM.

"This is not to say that Howard is a bad person, just not the great leader that we need. I might be relaxed and comfortable, as Howard wants - but this is not the stuff that gets hearts racing, minds thinking and dreams satisfied."

I agree that Keating got many people's heart racing, especially at the thought of being able to hit his head with a large blunt object.

"Over the past nine and a bit years in which Howard has been Prime Minister, the equilibrium of opportunity that made Australia the lucky country in the 1980s and into the 1990s has slowly unravelled, leading to a lack of balance and lost hope for many."

How does this reconcile with the lowest unemployment rate for 28 YEARS?

"Keating was so much more than Italian suits, French clocks and "the recession we had to have". He was (and remains) a true inspiration. He made me believe I could do anything and be anybody. Unconnected, truly talented, passionate, kind, genuine, he left school at 15 to fight for what he believed in - the Labor way. A man who, without a prominent surname, networks on which to rely or a degree from a sandstone institution, became the most significant treasurer in Australian history, a compassionate prime minister and a respected leader on the international stage. He lit the candle of opportunity and hope for me and others in the tail end of generation X, even if many of us failed to appreciate his role."

Talk about hagiography.

Let's face it chum, however much he inspired you, his personality guarantees that nothing could delight the Liberals more than having Paul re-join the party.

" While Australia might not be under imminent military attack, there certainly is a festering battle to save the richness of the Australian spirit and the vision of the Australian community from eternal myopia. Keating's finest hour could still lie ahead."

Pass the bucket someone. What a joke. The column reads like it was written by a young teenager with a crush.

Test pic - guess where 

The spirit of generosity from The Age, and some comments on IR reform

Pamela Bone in The Age, grudgingly accepts something good happens under the Howard government. But could this government have intended such an outcome? Nah, course not:

"If Natsem's analysis is correct - and I must suppose it is - then I will be uncharitable enough to say that declining inequality has been an accidental consequence of the Government's policies rather than the reason for them. For in most things it does, as in the recent budget and the proposed changes to industrial relations - giving top income earners a much higher tax cut than those on the bottom, giving more money to private schools than to public, reducing workers' protection from unfair dismissal - the Government shows it is not about creating a more equal society."

"More equal" obviously equals "good" in this analysis, which is being rather simplistic. The whole basis of capitalism involves some degree of "unequal"; but then again there has to be room for genuine argument on how much "unequal" remains acceptable to keep a modicum of social coherence, at least.

Amongst analysis of the Howard government's industrial relations reforms, I haven't seen much comment about the relevance of wage mobility (not sure if this is the correct term, but maybe you get the drift.) This was the subject of one of the regular economics commentators' columns some years ago. I recall it pointed out that although the wage disparity between workers as a whole in the USA was much greater than in Australia, there was also a strong tendency for the individual low income earners to be on that lowest rung for a relatively short time. Australian's wage mobility was not so favourable.

To the average Australian visitor, the US economy and the way its society as a whole runs feels too laisse faire. Europe is definitely too much into nanny state overregulation. The nice thing about Australia is that we seem, for the most part, to always be aiming for the happy medium, and by and large hitting it.

I am no economist or IR expert, and find I do not have the time to study it sufficiently to have a firm view. But it does seem that the Howard IR reforms are not likely to have as draconian an effect as Labor and the unions are naturally want to say. It does seem to me that the IR system is in need of simplification, as it has become an industry in and of itself.

For example, the whole IRC minimum wage fixing system seems rather pointlessly adversarial - creating many full time jobs in the constant to and fro of attempting to justify ambit claims and counterclaims. Why not free up this bunch of lawyers and "experts" on this and let them do other things while the new body pulls its own figures out of the air without so much wasted breathe?

And as for unfair dismissal: well, isn't one of the main problems with current state laws on this (not sure about federal) is that the onus of proof is turned against the employer? No wonder most employers can't be bothered defending them.

I suspect that the ease of instituting an unfair dismissal claim has the same unintended consequence of the (former) generosity of the courts in personal injury claims against Councils and such like. Namely, it only encourages the complainant/plaintiff to dwell on the matter and not get on with their life. This is really quantifiable in the medical side of personal injury case, where it has been long established that those who litigate always take longer to "get over" their back injury (to take a very common example.)

Some otherwise genuine cases of people unfairly dismissed will no doubt go unrecompensed because the risk and cost of having to prove a case in the other jurisdictions will be too expensive. But I suspect that this will be a very small proportion of the overall body of IR claimants under the current system. Time to look at both the greater good I think.

Let's suck the Howard reforms and see.

Just how often is Blogger down?

Margo's happy again - sort of

Oh joy. Margo'’s coming out of her depression.

"“I sat in Judi Moylan'’s office on Tuesday reading a few of the 3,000 emails she'’s got from Australians since she became the public face of the Liberal rebel'’s plan to civilise our mandatory detention regime"

I wouldn'’t let it be too widely known that prime contender for the nation'’s most emotionally over-wrought journalist/commentators is starting to hang around the office, Judi.

"“As democracy cracks from side to side, interesting things are starting to happen."”

Hmm, not sure what that even means. Is it a good thing or bad?

"“OK, our government won'’t hold respectable open inquires any more, even into scandals like the kidnapping and deportation of an Australian citizen, and the 11 month incarceration and scandalous neglect -– perhaps even physical and sexual abuse - of a mentally ill Australian permanent resident."”

Kidnapping? Perhaps sexual abuse. Let Margo add some drama to the already cracking democracy, shall we?

"“Well, who needs the government, if that'’s their attitude."

Margo and cohorts are setting up the Nation of Margopia?

"“Don'’t get depressed at how powerless you are. Have a look around and work out how you too can defend your democracy. It'’s fun, and it'’s scary for those political “representatives” and business leaders who think they'’ve won their fight to crush our right to know what they'’re really doing for themselves at the expense of us and our future."”

Uhuh. Yes, I know Howard and Big Business gloat all the time over their brandies at the club about how they have crushed all knowledge of the stuff they are currently being pursued over by Margo'’s pack.

"“You can bet Howard and his heavies will try to destroy the careers of Moylan and her fellow rebels. So how about those of you who live where they do joining the local Liberal Party branches to keep them in politics?"

Margo approves branch stacking when it for members she approves of.

"“Anything is possible."

Except Margo writing a cool-headed rational commentary on the Howard government.

" We'’re only powerless if we think we are. And that'’s exactly what the destroyers of our democracy want us to think."”

Do the phrases "“straw man argument"” and "“conspiracy paranoia"” mean anything to Margo?

Democracy is working exactly as it can and should over this whole migration policy stuff, and in fact, I have also long thought that certain aspects of immigration policy were too tough and should be modified.

Margo, go and do and your stuff; it doesn'’t bother me at all to have such a healthy robust democracy demonstrated in part by the fact that you are not in jail, a gulag or even a readjustment camp for the perpetually outraged. But please, for the sake of any borderline credibility as a political commentator, stop trying to paint this (and the re-election of the Howard government generally,) as a dire threat to democracy.

Death to Megafauna

This story is interesting, not least because the issue is such a sensitive one for those with an overly romantic vision of how aborigines lived in harmony for thousands of years with the Australian environment, looking after it until Europeans came and started the degradation that continues....etc etc.

I have always been of the view that it is rather pointless to give credit to a - um, how should I put this? - technologically challenged culture for not doing something that it just didn't have the technology to do anyway. So if the countryside when they ran the place was pretty pristine...well, it would be if you didn't have metal tools, guns, tractors or dynamite, wouldn't it.

Even so, they still made a significant change to the environment due to their burning practices, so the country they "lived in harmony with" was pretty different from the country they first walked into.

As to the megafauna's demise, this article seems to make it clear that the jury is very out on the precise role, if any, the early inhabitants had. Anyway, can't it just be a combination of humans eating them, changing the environment with fire, and natural climate change as well? And it may have been different factors in different degrees in different parts of the countryside. That would seem more likely to me than being dogmatically on one side or the other of the opposing camps.

By the way, I am sorta glad we don't have 200kg , 2.5 m tall flat faced kangaroos around anymore..imagine the dint they could put in your radiator!

Things to remember about Joh

This seems a pretty good summary of the more unsavoury aspects of Joh Bjelke Peterson's years, adding a few things I didn't know, and some stuff I had forgotten. Don't know about Russ Hinze being a talented minister though.

And remember - I am a conservative!

Errrk! A different sort of reconstruction in Iraq

Institute for War and Peace Reporting

My only comment is how much money they charge for this. Must be a fortune in that country.

Dangerous profession number 49 in Iraq

Institute for War and Peace Reporting

I bet it's not American Express!

Institute for War and Peace Reporting