And you thought Qantas in flight service was bad...

In the Sydney Morning Herald:

"An off-duty pilot was sentenced to 14 years in jail today for killing Indonesia's top human rights activist in a crime judges said was politically motivated.

Judge Cicit Sutiarso did not say whether the court believed that Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto was acting on someone else's orders when he placed a lethal dose of arsenic in food served to Munir Thalib on a Garuda airlines flight to Amsterdam on September 7, 2004."

What I want for Christmas

These are all from The Red Ferret Journal :


To quote: "Ladies, spoil the man in your life this year with the LBC (Laid Back Computing) 2000 computer rig. Your cuddly couch potato will thank you with tears in his eyes as he unpacks his slob prop and accessories, just watch his cute little love handles jiggle with joy. $1600.00 says ‘I adore you’ better than any cardiac arrest machine ever will."

Next:



A 3 foot flying model rocket with a little digital video camera in its nose. Every geek needs one.

And finally:


The sound proof microphone, perfect for karaoke practice!

Your very own Bio Dome Habitat for Christmas

SmithsonianStore.com - Bio Dome Habitat

Looks sort of cool, but a little too small. An evil boy could have fun putting one sort of animal in one part, and its food in another.

Scary thoughts before Christmas

The Officers' Club: The Top 20 Nuclear Close-Calls

From the interesting Officers' Club blog, the article linked above about the top 20 times the Earth nearly went "kaboom" makes for interesting, although not exactly Christmas-y, reading.

While talking death and destruction, I am still reading more about the possible dangers of the new CERN particle accelerator, and maybe can post about it soon. (It still doesn't look good to me.)

Some bits I like on the Sydney problem

The Australian: James Morrow: Self-loathing is the newest hate crime [December 19, 2005]

James Morrow's piece in yesterday's Australia on the Left's response to the Cronulla "race riots" (linked above) was good. I like the Germaine Greer teenager analogy very much.

Gerard Henderson covered much the same ground in the Sydney Morning Herald today, but with a bit of historical perspective too.

And more on Stephen Crittenden (Radio National) watch: I missed most of it this morning, but I heard the very start of an interview with (I think) a historian who was talking about certain Australian 19th century race riots, with Stephen making the observation that, contrary to what commentators are saying, the race riots in Cronulla are not unusual in a historical context. Yes, it's just as if Australian society is exactly the same as it was in 1860. (Insert teeth grinding noises here.)

Yesterday, Stephen had on someone from St Vincent De Paul Society about their research indicating that costs of living increases hit the poor disproportionately. Funnily enough, I could find no mention of this research on Google News; but I do recall that the Society's researcher on poverty has come up with some pretty contentious reports in the past.

The Society might not be wrong about this - I don't know. But I would like some balance in the reporting, and not just the lefties and anti Howard crowd getting a free and disproportionate run during the Radio National summer. (He did give Howard's friendly critic - and Sex Discrimination Commissioner - Pru Goward a run this morning; I think maybe Stephen was disappointed that she didn't have much of a go at the Federal government ignoring her warnings on most matters this year. )

String theory query

New Scientist Nobel laureate admits string theory is in trouble - News

This snippet from New Scientist does not increase my confidence in the risk assessments of the new particle accelerator (see my post a few down on the possible risk to the Earth of running the new CERN facility.)

"Nature" says Wikipedia relatively accurate

Internet encyclopaedias go head to head : Nature

I found this story via Boing Boing. In short, in a blind review of articles by Britannica and Wikipedia by some scientist types, the Wiki was only marginally less accurate. Yay.

Sounds like a sorta fun gadget

The Fly Pentop Computer - How an educational toy became a hot holiday gadget. By Paul Boutin

Deep and meaningful...and funny

A Lazy Layman's Guide to Quantum Physics

Readers may note that the internet is an endless source of distraction for me. If I find current affairs for the day dull, I may end up checking out interpretations of quantum physics, just to see if I have missed something.

Today, I stumbled across the page linked above, which is a succinct and humorous guide to the different interpretations of quantum physics.

(Actually, I think it misses a relatively recent one called the "many minds" interpretation, but I am having trouble making any real sense out of that one at all.)

Let's at least try to pretend, Stephen Crittenden

Each summer, it seems that the ABC's Radio National gives Stephen Crittenden (who normally does the Religion Report) a chance to run the Breakfast show for a few weeks. He always irritates, as he makes no pretence at all to objectivity or to disguise his strong disdain of the Howard government.

Yesterday, it was a reference to Howard's "dog whistle politics" as being at part to blame for the Sydney "race" problems. No using the disingenuous (but at least attempted) disclaimer of "some would allege that.."

This morning, it was a question about David Hicks (repeated both to his Marine lawyer and Hick's father) saying that "wouldn't the release of David now that he will get a British passport just confirm that the only thing keeping him in prison was the Howard government's sheer bloody mindedness?" (This is not a direct quote, but I am confident it is close enough.)

Look, most of his Radio National listeners would take no offence; I am sure it would attract more lefties than right wing inclined. But that's not the point; a national broadcaster has to make some attempt at neutrality. The Breakfast show is not it's host's editorial style show; it never has been. Someone should make an official complaint against Crittenden - unfortunately I do not currently have the time.

A post on not posting

Seasonal duties are making it harder for me to get around to blogging. It's also a little harder to find stories at this time of year worth commenting on. Parliament is finished; the more important commentators head off to their Christmas parties and don't return until January or February; to fill in time, part of the media get into the ungratifying business of talking about whether "Christmas" is under attack. The Brisbane weather has also been hot, humid and stormy, with the added "fun" of extended blackouts.

I can't even find anything useful to add to the Cronulla "race riots" of the weekend. (Except for the observation that NSW Premier Iemma is remarkably uncharismatic in his television appearances. I didn't think Bob Carr was that great a media performer either, but at least you didn't get the impression that he needed prodding to stay awake during interviews.)

I also am still looking at whether tiny black holes that might be created at CERN from 2007 might destroy the Earth. It deserves a longer post than my last one, and Zoe Brain has not entirely convinced me not to worry.

The Iraq elections may enliven me, but at the moment I should concentrate more on getting more work done so there is some money for Christmas.

I should not joke about particle accelerators

The Potential for Danger in Particle Collider Experiments

See the link above, for a fairly recent, and credible sounding, explanation of how the new CERN accelerator may really mean the end of the earth.

Why is this not attracting attention? Has anyone mentioned the Fermi Paradox in relation to this issue too?

UPDATE: interested readers should have a look at my long Jan 06 post on this here.

One of the more interesting news stories on "Narnia"

USATODAY.com - C.S. Lewis' stepson keeps 'Jack's' magic alive

A particle accelerator ate my planet

New Scientist SPACE - Breaking News - Astrophysicists weigh up risks of cosmic wipeout

You know, I am still a little worried about the use of new super big particle accelerators when it seems they don't really know what may turn up. (See the links at the side of the article.)

UPDATE: readers interested should check my much longer post on micro black holes (from January 06) here.

It's not just Tony

The Australian: Renate Klein: Abortion drug not the safest method [December 09, 2005]

Interesting article in the Australian today (see above) from someone who sounds ideologically a million miles from Tony Abbott, yet she sets out her reasons for opposing the early abortion drug RU486. The way she describes it the process of using the drug does sound unpleasant, and she makes a good point that, even if warned of the possible risk of infection, women may have trouble recognising the symptoms.

Aborting little criminals not so likely after all

Economics focus | Oops-onomics | Economist.com

Interesting story in the Economist on how the claimed link between easier abortion in the US and lower crime rates is looking very shaky now.

So you thought greenhouse gases were a worry...

Science & Technology at Scientific American.com: Geologists Link the "Great Dying" to Volcanism

A short article in Scientific American (above) makes it perfectly clear just how unfriendly the earth's environment can be (even before nasty people came on the scene to ruin the Garden of Eden.) To quote:

"Roughly 252 million years ago, life on the earth nearly ceased to exist--as much as 90 percent of marine life and 70 percent of terrestrial life died out. At around the same time, a vast up swelling of magma covered between one million and four million cubic kilometers of what is now Siberia. The eruption continued off and on for about a million years, with basalt lava and poisonous gases seeping up through cracks in Siberia's mantle....

The researchers argue that the deadly gases of the Siberian eruption killed vegetation across the globe, just as much smaller modern eruptions have produced acid rain and other plant-killing phenomena. Without roots to hold the soil in place, rivers and streams washed most of the dead vegetation to the sea where it then blocked the sun's light and sucked up all the oxygen. "What began on land ended in the sea," Visscher says. "It seems there was no place to hide at this time of great dying."

And when could it happen again?- Any time now.

On the demise of Margo

Some random thoughts:

* Where will artist in residence Robert Bosler now find an outlet for his impenetrable prose?

* Those with the biggest attachment to Webdiary only have themselves to blame. They displayed no respect for the conservative voice, and made the site into their own lefty Howard Derangement Syndrome echo chamber. Conservatives mainly visited the site to laugh at it.

* I remain a little puzzled about Margo herself. In her TV appearances (especially on Sky News in the last election run up) she used to present as significantly less mad than she does in her written pieces. I mean, she could smile and laugh a little, something you get no sense of at all when she writes. But since Howard won the last election, she has been so overwrought over the "death of democracy" under Howard (who is so evil he can present a false face of benevolence to the public) for so long it was getting clear that she was living on the edge. And her "community" only encouraged her belief system.

* After going independent, I think I heard her on Radio National's Friday morning forum once , and have been surprised she did not find a regular gig somewhere there. Also, why did she stop appearing on Late Night Live? Was it a full blown falling out with Phillip Adams?

Oh well, I am sure it will do her good to stop thinking about politics.

Some modern Chinese history

FrontPage magazine.com :: Leftwing Monster: Mao Zedong by Steve Mosher

Article above is lengthy (I haven't finished it yet) but it seems an interesting short history of Mao's nasty rule over China. (Seems short on actual figures for people killed during various government initiatives, but I am sure estimates are available elsewhere.)

Can't trust forests to get anything right

Study: Temperate Forests Could Worsen Global Warming

So cutting down temperate forests would reduce global warming?