Nuclear power | The shape of things to come | Economist.com
The article is a short but interesting summary of safer nuclear reactor designs in the works. (The Pebble Bed design I have blogged about before also gets a brief mention.)
Monday, June 05, 2006
How low can you go?
Scotland on Sunday - Family entertainment?
I have not commented on this year's Big Brother. However, the brainiacs at Larvatus Prodeo obviously devote some time to following it. (This is one program about which being a cultural snob is well deserved!)
From what I gather, this year's Australian version is perhaps not quite as grubby as last year's. (I could be wrong.) But if you want to see how low this type of show can go, have a look at the above report on the current UK version:
With debate raging about how low television standards can go, most vitriol at present is focused on Channel 4's Big Brother, a competitive popularity contest which bizarrely forces extreme personalities to fight for a £70,000 prize by being themselves.
After on-screen sex last year, series seven has plumbed new depths with its selection of candidates including a Scottish homosexual with suicidal tendencies, a teenage boy who wants to be a girl and a Tourette Syndrome sufferer. Even hardened media watchers are astonished.
Brian McNair, professor of communication at the University of Strathclyde, said: "You really have to question what that show is doing this year. The contestants are getting younger and younger and at least one of them showed signs of having mental health issues."
I wait for similar developments here next year. (I assume it will be back. I remain perplexed at the MSM coverage this show gets.)
I have not commented on this year's Big Brother. However, the brainiacs at Larvatus Prodeo obviously devote some time to following it. (This is one program about which being a cultural snob is well deserved!)
From what I gather, this year's Australian version is perhaps not quite as grubby as last year's. (I could be wrong.) But if you want to see how low this type of show can go, have a look at the above report on the current UK version:
With debate raging about how low television standards can go, most vitriol at present is focused on Channel 4's Big Brother, a competitive popularity contest which bizarrely forces extreme personalities to fight for a £70,000 prize by being themselves.
After on-screen sex last year, series seven has plumbed new depths with its selection of candidates including a Scottish homosexual with suicidal tendencies, a teenage boy who wants to be a girl and a Tourette Syndrome sufferer. Even hardened media watchers are astonished.
Brian McNair, professor of communication at the University of Strathclyde, said: "You really have to question what that show is doing this year. The contestants are getting younger and younger and at least one of them showed signs of having mental health issues."
I wait for similar developments here next year. (I assume it will be back. I remain perplexed at the MSM coverage this show gets.)
Anti spam help
Jetable.org - Home
This sounds like a very good idea:
To avoid spam, jetable.org provides you with a temporary email address. As soon as it is created, all the emails sent to this address are forwarded to your actual email address.
Your antispam address will be deactivated after the lifespan you selected comes to its end.
Found via Red Ferret Journal, which I must add to my links one day.
This sounds like a very good idea:
To avoid spam, jetable.org provides you with a temporary email address. As soon as it is created, all the emails sent to this address are forwarded to your actual email address.
Your antispam address will be deactivated after the lifespan you selected comes to its end.
Found via Red Ferret Journal, which I must add to my links one day.
Pat O'Shane's turn
Again, the law shoots and misses - Opinion - smh.com.au
Paul Sheehan's article is worth reading. Controversial New South Wales magistrate Pat O'Shane is its main subject.
Another case of a legal figure getting a mysteriously charmed run in that State.
Paul Sheehan's article is worth reading. Controversial New South Wales magistrate Pat O'Shane is its main subject.
Another case of a legal figure getting a mysteriously charmed run in that State.
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Caz rips into romanticised heroin
A very interesting post over at Avatar Briefs about the arts' infatuation with heroin addiction.
The extracts from Dalrymple are also fascinating.
By the way, what has happened to Major Anya? Has her blog permanently disappeared?
The extracts from Dalrymple are also fascinating.
By the way, what has happened to Major Anya? Has her blog permanently disappeared?
Fennel with parmesan
Maybe most of the sophisticated epicurean world knows about roast fennel and parmesan, but I only cooked this dish for the first time this weekend. Fennel is a vegetable that (I think it is fair to say) had little attention paid to it in Australia until the 1990's. I have used it in other recipes, but never got around to cooking it alone as a side vegetable.
Anyway, the recipe I followed was dead easy: vertically slice up a big bulb into about 8 thin pieces, fry them for a few minutes in 2 tablespoons each of butter and olive oil (with salt and pepper), shove in oven to bake for 25 minutes, sprinkle about 1/2 cup of grated parmesan on top and put back in oven for 5 minutes to melt the cheese. Very pleasing. Even Mrs Opinion Dominon likes it despite her claim to not be a fan of aniseed flavour generally.
Anyway, the recipe I followed was dead easy: vertically slice up a big bulb into about 8 thin pieces, fry them for a few minutes in 2 tablespoons each of butter and olive oil (with salt and pepper), shove in oven to bake for 25 minutes, sprinkle about 1/2 cup of grated parmesan on top and put back in oven for 5 minutes to melt the cheese. Very pleasing. Even Mrs Opinion Dominon likes it despite her claim to not be a fan of aniseed flavour generally.
On religion in Europe
I found this article in last Friday's Australian (about how religion and politics in Europe have changed in the last couple of centuries) to be interesting, but overly brief. (Actually, it reads as a heavily edited down version of a longer article or talk.) Here's a sample:
Rather than Europe becoming more secular in the past 200 years, I suspect the religious instinct has simply metabolised into other forms. This was most obvious in the case of the political religions. These began with the radical Jacobins during the French Revolution, who made the first attempt to create a "new man" so as to realise heaven on earth through violence. The result was hell for many people, with a quarter of a million people murdered simply for adhering to their traditional Christian beliefs.
The metabolisation of the religious instinct was also evident in the two big creeds of the 19th century. Classical nation states used schools, patriotic myths, anthems, flags and monuments to achieve the goal of turning peasants with localised loyalties into Frenchmen, Germans or Italians....
Marxist socialism was another totalising creed. The 1848 Communist Manifesto was called a "catechism" until Engels renamed it. Mankind's expulsion from the garden of Eden was the Christian original for Marxist notions of man's alienation from his perfect self. There was no chosen people, but instead a saviour class called the proletariat. Instead of an apocalypse, there would be a cleansing revolution, the prelude to the restoration of a lost communist paradise. Then man would be reborn in harmony with his original true self.
On Saturday I heard the author, Michael Burleigh, being interviewed on the ABC, and he elaborated on these ideas a little more. His book on the topic could be good; if only I had time to read anything lately.
Rather than Europe becoming more secular in the past 200 years, I suspect the religious instinct has simply metabolised into other forms. This was most obvious in the case of the political religions. These began with the radical Jacobins during the French Revolution, who made the first attempt to create a "new man" so as to realise heaven on earth through violence. The result was hell for many people, with a quarter of a million people murdered simply for adhering to their traditional Christian beliefs.
The metabolisation of the religious instinct was also evident in the two big creeds of the 19th century. Classical nation states used schools, patriotic myths, anthems, flags and monuments to achieve the goal of turning peasants with localised loyalties into Frenchmen, Germans or Italians....
Marxist socialism was another totalising creed. The 1848 Communist Manifesto was called a "catechism" until Engels renamed it. Mankind's expulsion from the garden of Eden was the Christian original for Marxist notions of man's alienation from his perfect self. There was no chosen people, but instead a saviour class called the proletariat. Instead of an apocalypse, there would be a cleansing revolution, the prelude to the restoration of a lost communist paradise. Then man would be reborn in harmony with his original true self.
On Saturday I heard the author, Michael Burleigh, being interviewed on the ABC, and he elaborated on these ideas a little more. His book on the topic could be good; if only I had time to read anything lately.
Back to Marsden..
Well, as I guessed, there was a damaging John Marsden allegation to come, and it came via News Limited on the day of his funeral. Questionable timing, but a pretty important story.
For those who missed it, and there must be many given that it seems much of the media is not wanting to cover it, the report is that an adult man received criminal injuries compensation in 2001 based on his claims that as an 8 year old, Marden sexually molested him. This means the judge found that the incidents were proved on the civil standard of "balance of probabilities".
More from the report itself:
In his judgment of July 6, 2001, NSW District Court judge Ken Taylor accepted "on the balance of probabilities" that Marsden had sexually abused Mr Fraser after swimming lessons, after football training and after a junior rugby league grand final.
"The appellant (Mr Fraser) is supported by the psychological evidence. Resistance to his version of events has been slight. On the basis of the material before the court, it has concluded that it is more likely than not that the events occurred as stated by the appellant (Mr Fraser)," Judge Taylor said.....
In 1992, Mr Fraser, who was being treated for "severe depression and psychosexual dysfunction", told his psychiatrist that he had been sexually abused by Marsden. This was more than two years before NSW Labor frontbencher Deirdre Grusovin named Marsden in parliament as a "pederast" and more than three years before two Seven Network current affairs programs alleged Marsden had had underage sex.....
Mr Fraser described in graphic detail how he was sexually assaulted on three separate occasions as an eight- and nine-year-old boy by Marsden, who coached rugby league and taught swimming at St John's College (now St Patrick's), Campbelltown, where he later established his first law practice.
Marden's brother has not taken the allegation well. The Melbourne Age notes just this:
Controversy dogged Mr Marsden right up to the service with a newspaper claim that previously suppressed court records showed he was a pedophile. His brother Jim described the reports as "a scurrilous lie that should be flushed down the toilet".
The media treatment of this story is interesting of itself. Most Australian media appears to be giving it a wide berth. Perhaps because of the funeral day timing? Perhaps because they don't realise how scandalous it is? I think there is a tendency amongst some to think that if a matter can't be proved on a criminal standard of proof, then you are allowed to treat it as "unproven". No doubt, that is how Marsden would have wanted people to view it.
It leaves open fascinating questions such as how many within the profession knew about this. Did his own brother know about it? Did it give the Law Society any concerns (if they knew about it at all.) Note that the judge is quoted as saying that "resistence to his [the complainant's ] version of events has been slight."
I await some more detailed analysis of this story.
For those who missed it, and there must be many given that it seems much of the media is not wanting to cover it, the report is that an adult man received criminal injuries compensation in 2001 based on his claims that as an 8 year old, Marden sexually molested him. This means the judge found that the incidents were proved on the civil standard of "balance of probabilities".
More from the report itself:
In his judgment of July 6, 2001, NSW District Court judge Ken Taylor accepted "on the balance of probabilities" that Marsden had sexually abused Mr Fraser after swimming lessons, after football training and after a junior rugby league grand final.
"The appellant (Mr Fraser) is supported by the psychological evidence. Resistance to his version of events has been slight. On the basis of the material before the court, it has concluded that it is more likely than not that the events occurred as stated by the appellant (Mr Fraser)," Judge Taylor said.....
In 1992, Mr Fraser, who was being treated for "severe depression and psychosexual dysfunction", told his psychiatrist that he had been sexually abused by Marsden. This was more than two years before NSW Labor frontbencher Deirdre Grusovin named Marsden in parliament as a "pederast" and more than three years before two Seven Network current affairs programs alleged Marsden had had underage sex.....
Mr Fraser described in graphic detail how he was sexually assaulted on three separate occasions as an eight- and nine-year-old boy by Marsden, who coached rugby league and taught swimming at St John's College (now St Patrick's), Campbelltown, where he later established his first law practice.
Marden's brother has not taken the allegation well. The Melbourne Age notes just this:
Controversy dogged Mr Marsden right up to the service with a newspaper claim that previously suppressed court records showed he was a pedophile. His brother Jim described the reports as "a scurrilous lie that should be flushed down the toilet".
The media treatment of this story is interesting of itself. Most Australian media appears to be giving it a wide berth. Perhaps because of the funeral day timing? Perhaps because they don't realise how scandalous it is? I think there is a tendency amongst some to think that if a matter can't be proved on a criminal standard of proof, then you are allowed to treat it as "unproven". No doubt, that is how Marsden would have wanted people to view it.
It leaves open fascinating questions such as how many within the profession knew about this. Did his own brother know about it? Did it give the Law Society any concerns (if they knew about it at all.) Note that the judge is quoted as saying that "resistence to his [the complainant's ] version of events has been slight."
I await some more detailed analysis of this story.
Friday, June 02, 2006
Australia started with a very big bang?
ScienceDaily: Big Bang In Antarctica: Killer Crater Found Under Ice
Today's interesting science news is about evidence found for a very big and very old giant crater beneath the ice of Antarctica:
The 300-mile-wide crater lies hidden more than a mile beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. And the gravity measurements that reveal its existence suggest that it could date back about 250 million years -- the time of the Permian-Triassic extinction, when almost all animal life on Earth died out.
Its size and location -- in the Wilkes Land region of East Antarctica, south of Australia -- also suggest that it could have begun the breakup of the Gondwana supercontinent by creating the tectonic rift that pushed Australia northward.
Wouldn't be much concern about global warming - or anything else for that matter, if a hit that size happened again.
Now I'll wander off into science fiction speculation for a bit. One of the reasons for colonizing the solar system, if you actually like humanity and think it deserves surviving, is to provide a lifeboat for civilization if a huge global disaster of that kind happened again. (Maybe there is little chance of killing all people on earth, but the course of civilization would surely be put back a couple of thousand years.)
Now, the easiest (and nearest) place to colonize is the moon. But, there is one significant problem: what will happen to the human body after living for prolonged periods in 1/6 G, and what will the bodies of babies conceived and born in such a low gravity environment be like? Long and spindly like that silly Jedi knight in the last couple of Star Wars films? Or same body shape, but with a heart that simply could never cope with a full 1 G? (It would presumably be the same as a normal "1 G" person being taken to a 6 G planet to live.) Can you counteract the effect of low gravity by sitting in a centrifuge for an hour a day?
One of the first things a permanent moon colony should investigate is animal models of this. Rats, rabbits or other animals that breed quickly should be put through a few generations of low gravity to see what happens to their bodies. I think Jerry Pournelle has written that rats have been put in a permanent higher G environment (in a centrifuge) and developed super muscles to compensate. However, I don't know that it is possible to simulate a 1/6 G for a rat for any long period of time.
If it all looks hopeless (from the point of view of humans born there never being able to go back to earth) then it may be some time before any woman ever lets a child conceived there be born.
The other space colonisation idea is the construction of giant spinning O'Neill colonies, which could have an artifical gravity somewhat higher than the moon. (Living in about 1/2 G sounds a pleasant idea to me.) Such huge engineering seems to be no longer taken seriously, but who knows, in a hundred years it may be on the cards.
As for Mars: well, it has water, but then it seems quite possible that parts of the Moon do too. Its atmosphere is so thin it's barely worth having there at all. And its gravity is only about double that of the Moon, but is that enough to make it safe to have a baby there (who can return to earth?)
(I just found a site for a proposed "Mars Gravity Biosatellite", which would send 15 mice into space in a spinning satellite designed to simulate Mars gravity. I am not sure if this will involve them having babies, though.)
Anyway, Mars is so far away that I am sceptical of its use as a lifeboat for humanity. Building a big enough colony underground on the Moon, near lunar ice, seems a much better way to go to me.
Today's interesting science news is about evidence found for a very big and very old giant crater beneath the ice of Antarctica:
The 300-mile-wide crater lies hidden more than a mile beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. And the gravity measurements that reveal its existence suggest that it could date back about 250 million years -- the time of the Permian-Triassic extinction, when almost all animal life on Earth died out.
Its size and location -- in the Wilkes Land region of East Antarctica, south of Australia -- also suggest that it could have begun the breakup of the Gondwana supercontinent by creating the tectonic rift that pushed Australia northward.
Wouldn't be much concern about global warming - or anything else for that matter, if a hit that size happened again.
Now I'll wander off into science fiction speculation for a bit. One of the reasons for colonizing the solar system, if you actually like humanity and think it deserves surviving, is to provide a lifeboat for civilization if a huge global disaster of that kind happened again. (Maybe there is little chance of killing all people on earth, but the course of civilization would surely be put back a couple of thousand years.)
Now, the easiest (and nearest) place to colonize is the moon. But, there is one significant problem: what will happen to the human body after living for prolonged periods in 1/6 G, and what will the bodies of babies conceived and born in such a low gravity environment be like? Long and spindly like that silly Jedi knight in the last couple of Star Wars films? Or same body shape, but with a heart that simply could never cope with a full 1 G? (It would presumably be the same as a normal "1 G" person being taken to a 6 G planet to live.) Can you counteract the effect of low gravity by sitting in a centrifuge for an hour a day?
One of the first things a permanent moon colony should investigate is animal models of this. Rats, rabbits or other animals that breed quickly should be put through a few generations of low gravity to see what happens to their bodies. I think Jerry Pournelle has written that rats have been put in a permanent higher G environment (in a centrifuge) and developed super muscles to compensate. However, I don't know that it is possible to simulate a 1/6 G for a rat for any long period of time.
If it all looks hopeless (from the point of view of humans born there never being able to go back to earth) then it may be some time before any woman ever lets a child conceived there be born.
The other space colonisation idea is the construction of giant spinning O'Neill colonies, which could have an artifical gravity somewhat higher than the moon. (Living in about 1/2 G sounds a pleasant idea to me.) Such huge engineering seems to be no longer taken seriously, but who knows, in a hundred years it may be on the cards.
As for Mars: well, it has water, but then it seems quite possible that parts of the Moon do too. Its atmosphere is so thin it's barely worth having there at all. And its gravity is only about double that of the Moon, but is that enough to make it safe to have a baby there (who can return to earth?)
(I just found a site for a proposed "Mars Gravity Biosatellite", which would send 15 mice into space in a spinning satellite designed to simulate Mars gravity. I am not sure if this will involve them having babies, though.)
Anyway, Mars is so far away that I am sceptical of its use as a lifeboat for humanity. Building a big enough colony underground on the Moon, near lunar ice, seems a much better way to go to me.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Digging in on the Moon
New Scientist SPACE - Breaking News - Can bulldozers save Moonwalkers from solar flares?
The short article above talks about how to protect astronauts on the moon from radiation by burying them. Well, their habitats anyway.
Seems to me that looking for suitable caves for shelter would be a good idea too. Must be some somewhere up there.
By the way, TLPs (transient lunar phenomena) don't get much of an airing these days. Would these sites be good places to send explorers (of the human or robotic kind) looking for holes or caves to live in? (Maybe the holes are full of gas, though. Still, would be interesting to try to find any active geological process going on there.)
The short article above talks about how to protect astronauts on the moon from radiation by burying them. Well, their habitats anyway.
Seems to me that looking for suitable caves for shelter would be a good idea too. Must be some somewhere up there.
By the way, TLPs (transient lunar phenomena) don't get much of an airing these days. Would these sites be good places to send explorers (of the human or robotic kind) looking for holes or caves to live in? (Maybe the holes are full of gas, though. Still, would be interesting to try to find any active geological process going on there.)
Revisionism on Arctic history
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Arctic's tropical past uncovered
It seems that there is still a lot of new stuff being discovered about the history of the Arctic, and it's all very relevant to how good current models of climate change are.
This part seemed surprising in particular:
"Five hundred thousand years above where the Azolla was found, we found the first drop stones," explained Professor Brinkhuis, who is also a co-author on the third paper which details Arctic ice-formation.
"These are little stones that come from icebergs, icesheets or sea ice. So it must have been cold enough to have ice."
"Before we did this it was thought that the ice field in the Northern hemisphere only began about three million years ago, but now we have pushed that back to 45 million years ago."
That's some major revision of a very major issue (when did the Arctic freeze over?)
It seems that there is still a lot of new stuff being discovered about the history of the Arctic, and it's all very relevant to how good current models of climate change are.
This part seemed surprising in particular:
"Five hundred thousand years above where the Azolla was found, we found the first drop stones," explained Professor Brinkhuis, who is also a co-author on the third paper which details Arctic ice-formation.
"These are little stones that come from icebergs, icesheets or sea ice. So it must have been cold enough to have ice."
"Before we did this it was thought that the ice field in the Northern hemisphere only began about three million years ago, but now we have pushed that back to 45 million years ago."
That's some major revision of a very major issue (when did the Arctic freeze over?)
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
On the Reign of Terror
The New Yorker: The Critics: A Critic At Large
This is a really good book review/essay, of the kind the New Yorker can do so well, on the French Reign of Terror. To give you a taste (talking of Robespierre):
There is a case to be made that the real singularity of the Terror was the first appearance on the stage of history of this particular psychological type: not the tight-lipped inquisitor, alight with religious rage, but the small, fastidious intellectual, the man with an idea, the prototype of Lenin listening to his Beethoven as the Cheka begins its purges. In normal times, such men become college professors, or book reviewers or bloggers. It takes special historical circumstances for them to become killers: the removal of a ruling class without its replacement by a credible new one. In the confusion, their ethereal certainties look like the only solid thing to build on.
This is a really good book review/essay, of the kind the New Yorker can do so well, on the French Reign of Terror. To give you a taste (talking of Robespierre):
There is a case to be made that the real singularity of the Terror was the first appearance on the stage of history of this particular psychological type: not the tight-lipped inquisitor, alight with religious rage, but the small, fastidious intellectual, the man with an idea, the prototype of Lenin listening to his Beethoven as the Cheka begins its purges. In normal times, such men become college professors, or book reviewers or bloggers. It takes special historical circumstances for them to become killers: the removal of a ruling class without its replacement by a credible new one. In the confusion, their ethereal certainties look like the only solid thing to build on.
Fun and Games in India
Do you have a sex problem?- The Times of India
I don't know what gave me the urge to look up the news in India right now, but I am glad I did. From the above article:
MUMBAI: On Sunday, Delhi's Javed Ali, suffering from a sexual disorder, finally discovered his manhood. He opened fire on his sexologist Rajesh Abbot. After four rounds, when the pistol jammed, he pulled out another one.
Of the 13 shots fired, seven hit Abbot, who died on the spot. Ali was upset that despite Abbot's promises, his performance in the bedroom had remained unchanged.
This extreme episode serves as a cold reminder to those in the difficult business of curing male problems.
I wonder if it is hard to get life insurance there if your profession is "quack sexologist." The article goes on to detail the typical quackery in this field:
The quack's ingenuity starts with what seems to be highly impressive diagnostic equipment. A patient is made to lie down and a red light is shone on his body from a hidden source.
Except that when it comes to the patient's private parts, the light is switched off with a remote control trick and the doctor gasps with practised shock.
The patient is then told that since the light did not work in that zone, he suffers from a grave disorder and that he needs a special course of treatment.
The patient is also asked baffling questions like, "Did you use a lot of hand as a child?" Since in 19 out of 20 cases the answer in yes, the patient instantly bonds with the quack and reposes his faith in the diagnosis.
Delhi resident Pradeep once entered a professed sexologist's clinic in Daryaganj. The 'doctor' sat behind a neat desk in a one-room clinic and on hearing about the problem, immediately ordered Pradeep to stop masturbating.
"You're wasting a nectar from heaven," he said.
I don't know what gave me the urge to look up the news in India right now, but I am glad I did. From the above article:
MUMBAI: On Sunday, Delhi's Javed Ali, suffering from a sexual disorder, finally discovered his manhood. He opened fire on his sexologist Rajesh Abbot. After four rounds, when the pistol jammed, he pulled out another one.
Of the 13 shots fired, seven hit Abbot, who died on the spot. Ali was upset that despite Abbot's promises, his performance in the bedroom had remained unchanged.
This extreme episode serves as a cold reminder to those in the difficult business of curing male problems.
I wonder if it is hard to get life insurance there if your profession is "quack sexologist." The article goes on to detail the typical quackery in this field:
The quack's ingenuity starts with what seems to be highly impressive diagnostic equipment. A patient is made to lie down and a red light is shone on his body from a hidden source.
Except that when it comes to the patient's private parts, the light is switched off with a remote control trick and the doctor gasps with practised shock.
The patient is then told that since the light did not work in that zone, he suffers from a grave disorder and that he needs a special course of treatment.
The patient is also asked baffling questions like, "Did you use a lot of hand as a child?" Since in 19 out of 20 cases the answer in yes, the patient instantly bonds with the quack and reposes his faith in the diagnosis.
Delhi resident Pradeep once entered a professed sexologist's clinic in Daryaganj. The 'doctor' sat behind a neat desk in a one-room clinic and on hearing about the problem, immediately ordered Pradeep to stop masturbating.
"You're wasting a nectar from heaven," he said.
One year blogiversary
Happy...blogiversary..to me
Happy blogiversary to..me
Happy blogiversary Mr...OD
Happy...blogiversary to...me
(I paid $1.26 million for that dress, so it's got to get some use sometime.)
[Silly fantasy post- well, not fantasy exactly, I wish I did own a $1,260,000 dress, but purely for investment purposes of course (does something crassly masculine to emphasise the point) - ends here.]
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Some scepticism on wind power
BBC NEWS | Business | Germany's wind farms challenged
OK, I'll admit something here. I really dislike windpower as a concept. I have never been near a giant wind farm, but from all photos of them, I think they are an aesthetic blot on the landscape. They are pretty noisy in a strong wind too, I believe. They must kill some birds, from time to time. What's worse, they spread their offensive features over large areas, not like a single power station that can be hidden behind a hill yet service an enormous area.
Apart from aesthetics, I think what annoys me is the idea of giving up so much control as to how much electricity is in the grid to mother nature. I don't trust her. Give me a power source that puts me in complete control instead. Put nature in its place, which is to serve us higher creatures at the pointy end of creation/evolution. (I could go on in that patriarchal, judaeo-christian vein, but it would only be worthwhile if I knew I did have readers that it would annoy.)
I guess the same could be said for the unreliability of solar power too. However, at least it has the good grace to not clutter up the landscape.
Anyway, any articles that criticise windpower will always be welcome here.
OK, I'll admit something here. I really dislike windpower as a concept. I have never been near a giant wind farm, but from all photos of them, I think they are an aesthetic blot on the landscape. They are pretty noisy in a strong wind too, I believe. They must kill some birds, from time to time. What's worse, they spread their offensive features over large areas, not like a single power station that can be hidden behind a hill yet service an enormous area.
Apart from aesthetics, I think what annoys me is the idea of giving up so much control as to how much electricity is in the grid to mother nature. I don't trust her. Give me a power source that puts me in complete control instead. Put nature in its place, which is to serve us higher creatures at the pointy end of creation/evolution. (I could go on in that patriarchal, judaeo-christian vein, but it would only be worthwhile if I knew I did have readers that it would annoy.)
I guess the same could be said for the unreliability of solar power too. However, at least it has the good grace to not clutter up the landscape.
Anyway, any articles that criticise windpower will always be welcome here.
A prescription to do nothing
Vile acts cut across colour and class | Phillip Adams | The Australian
I knew Phillip Adams could not help but weigh in on the aboriginal abuse debate going on at the moment.
His column above is a typical example of an extremely common approach used by the Left. It's the old "mote and the beam" argument taken to a deadening extreme. Don't go criticising aboriginal abuse, says Phillip, as our own westernised suburbs are full of abuse against women too.
This is a formula for ignoring realities on the ground, and for doing nothing, or at least nothing effective. It is why the Left often fails on the issue of moral leadership. It lets itself become paralysed by a debilitating philosophy that is essentially relativist in its outlook, and expands a fear of hypocrisy away from the personal (which is the extent to which the Christian teaching is unexceptional and worthy) to the corporate. By this technique, no one is entitled to criticise other cultures too much (because their own is never perfect,) the United States in particular, but the West generally, is to be extremely circumspect in its dealings with all other nations (because the West is not perfect either,) and isolationism is the de facto "correct" response. [Unless of course a collectivist approach can be achieved, which it rarely can when the "collective" has to include those persons or nations deserving criticism in its decision making forums.]
Yet the same approach gives full permission to the Left to concentrate on the perceived inequities in their own societies or governments, regardless of how relatively minor such social issues may now be compared to those in the rest of the world.
It's a galling approach, as it means the Left usually claims to be the side taking the high moral ground, while simultaneously not realising that it is also the side more prepared to ignore or downplay clear instances of moral depravity deserving and requiring action. (They don't even like mere criticism of groups very much, if the group can argue it is acting on Left-ish collectivist "good intentions", such as ATSIC, or some of the communist regimes.)
There is more I can write, but it will have to wait.
I knew Phillip Adams could not help but weigh in on the aboriginal abuse debate going on at the moment.
His column above is a typical example of an extremely common approach used by the Left. It's the old "mote and the beam" argument taken to a deadening extreme. Don't go criticising aboriginal abuse, says Phillip, as our own westernised suburbs are full of abuse against women too.
This is a formula for ignoring realities on the ground, and for doing nothing, or at least nothing effective. It is why the Left often fails on the issue of moral leadership. It lets itself become paralysed by a debilitating philosophy that is essentially relativist in its outlook, and expands a fear of hypocrisy away from the personal (which is the extent to which the Christian teaching is unexceptional and worthy) to the corporate. By this technique, no one is entitled to criticise other cultures too much (because their own is never perfect,) the United States in particular, but the West generally, is to be extremely circumspect in its dealings with all other nations (because the West is not perfect either,) and isolationism is the de facto "correct" response. [Unless of course a collectivist approach can be achieved, which it rarely can when the "collective" has to include those persons or nations deserving criticism in its decision making forums.]
Yet the same approach gives full permission to the Left to concentrate on the perceived inequities in their own societies or governments, regardless of how relatively minor such social issues may now be compared to those in the rest of the world.
It's a galling approach, as it means the Left usually claims to be the side taking the high moral ground, while simultaneously not realising that it is also the side more prepared to ignore or downplay clear instances of moral depravity deserving and requiring action. (They don't even like mere criticism of groups very much, if the group can argue it is acting on Left-ish collectivist "good intentions", such as ATSIC, or some of the communist regimes.)
There is more I can write, but it will have to wait.
The cat amongst the pigeons
Let's talk about nuclear power and other energy sources - Opinion
So Tim Flannery is very clearly in favour of having the nuclear debate, and does not want to dismiss it out of hand. I can hear him being quoted in Parliament by the government already.
As I said before, stubborn resistance to nuclear is not going to be the clear winner that much of Federal Labor thinks.
So Tim Flannery is very clearly in favour of having the nuclear debate, and does not want to dismiss it out of hand. I can hear him being quoted in Parliament by the government already.
As I said before, stubborn resistance to nuclear is not going to be the clear winner that much of Federal Labor thinks.
Monday, May 29, 2006
Baby must be perfect
Babies with club feet aborted - Sunday Times - Times Online
From the above article:
MORE than 20 babies have been aborted in advanced pregnancy because scans showed that they had club feet, a deformity readily corrected by surgery or physiotherapy.
According to figures from the Office for National Statistics covering the years from 1996 to 2004, a further four babies were aborted because they had webbed fingers or extra digits, which are also corrected by simple surgery. All the terminations took place late in pregnancy, after 20 weeks. ...
Some parents, doctors and charities are increasingly worried by what they see as a tendency to widen the definition of “serious handicap”. The handicap provision, which does not exist in most other countries, permits abortions to be carried out until birth. It was intended to save women from the trauma of giving birth to babies likely to die in infancy...
One doctor in the north of England who did not want to be named, said a recent case in his hospital had involved the discovery of a hand missing from a foetus scanned at 20 weeks. “The father did not want the pregnancy to proceed because of his perception that the child would not be able to do all the usual things like sport,” said the doctor.
Of course, the followers of Peter Singer should have no problem with this. But for people of common sense, it's a pretty appalling state of affairs.
From the above article:
MORE than 20 babies have been aborted in advanced pregnancy because scans showed that they had club feet, a deformity readily corrected by surgery or physiotherapy.
According to figures from the Office for National Statistics covering the years from 1996 to 2004, a further four babies were aborted because they had webbed fingers or extra digits, which are also corrected by simple surgery. All the terminations took place late in pregnancy, after 20 weeks. ...
Some parents, doctors and charities are increasingly worried by what they see as a tendency to widen the definition of “serious handicap”. The handicap provision, which does not exist in most other countries, permits abortions to be carried out until birth. It was intended to save women from the trauma of giving birth to babies likely to die in infancy...
One doctor in the north of England who did not want to be named, said a recent case in his hospital had involved the discovery of a hand missing from a foetus scanned at 20 weeks. “The father did not want the pregnancy to proceed because of his perception that the child would not be able to do all the usual things like sport,” said the doctor.
Of course, the followers of Peter Singer should have no problem with this. But for people of common sense, it's a pretty appalling state of affairs.
How did I miss this?
TIMEasia Magazine: Best of Asia - Meguro Parasitological Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Always good to know there is still something to see in place you've been to before!:
Though it occupies only two floors of a small office building, the museum boasts that it displays more specimens of roundworms, hookworms, flukes, nematodes and leeches than any other place on earth—not to mention gruesomely graphic images and descriptions of the havoc they can wreak on humans and other hosts.
Always good to know there is still something to see in place you've been to before!:
Though it occupies only two floors of a small office building, the museum boasts that it displays more specimens of roundworms, hookworms, flukes, nematodes and leeches than any other place on earth—not to mention gruesomely graphic images and descriptions of the havoc they can wreak on humans and other hosts.
Distracting drivers in Japan
Back to Japan for a minute. One thing about that country that I find surprising is the very common use of quite large in-dash LCD screens for GPS navigation, but also watching TV or DVDs.
You would think that this would be dangerous and distracting for the driver, but I have been in so many different cars in which the TV or a DVD has been on, I presume there is no Japanese traffic law against it.
It seems that it is blamed for some accidents, and that is hardly surprising. In New South Wales, the situation is like this:
..driving with a TV/VDU (visual display unit) visible to the driver carries the same penalty as mobile use: $225 and three demerit points. Factory-installed DVD players/TV screens in cars that are dash-mounted typically switch off when the vehicle is in motion.
If drivers in Australia were allowed to watch TV, I wonder which shows would cause the most accidents.
You would think that this would be dangerous and distracting for the driver, but I have been in so many different cars in which the TV or a DVD has been on, I presume there is no Japanese traffic law against it.
It seems that it is blamed for some accidents, and that is hardly surprising. In New South Wales, the situation is like this:
..driving with a TV/VDU (visual display unit) visible to the driver carries the same penalty as mobile use: $225 and three demerit points. Factory-installed DVD players/TV screens in cars that are dash-mounted typically switch off when the vehicle is in motion.
If drivers in Australia were allowed to watch TV, I wonder which shows would cause the most accidents.
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