Not so long ago

Research team says extraterrestrial impact to blame for Ice Age extinctions

From this report:

No one has found a giant crater in the Earth that could attest to such a cataclysmic impact 13,000 years ago, but the research team offers evidence of a comet, two and a half to three miles in diameter, that detonated 30 to 60 miles above the earth, triggering a massive shockwave, firestorms and a subsequent drastic cooling effect across most of North America and northern Europe....

The magnitude of the detonations would have been huge.

“A hydrogen bomb is the equivalent of about 100 to 1,000 megatons,” Bunch said. “The detonations we’re talking about would be about 10 million megatons. That’s larger than the simultaneous detonation of all the world’s nuclear bombs past and present.”

That's a lot of energy.

But let's not spend a paltry million dollars a year to help track down dangerous space objects heading our way, hey Peter McGauran. Just keep looking after the horsies with a $110 million plus assistance package.

I still think the horses are faking it for a rest. Go get a real job, horse people.*

* Readers are advised that this blog has an official policy of encouraging irrational dislike of horses.

More on gay Iran

The Guardian has two items of interest about sexuality in Iran.

The first story (which on the main page of The Guardian's website is given the very wildly understated heading "Doubts over Iran's no gay claims") explains how Iran in fact has a very high rate of sex change operations. Second only to Thailand apparently:

Sex changes have been legal since the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, spiritual leader of the 1979 Islamic revolution passed a fatwa authorising them nearly 25 years ago. While homosexuality is considered a sin, transsexuality is categorised as an illness subject to cure.

The government seeks to keep its approval quiet in line with its strait-laced stance on sexuality, but state support has actually increased since Mr Ahmadinejad took office in 2005.

His government has begun providing grants of £2,250 for operations and further funding for hormone therapy. It is also proposing loans of up to £2,750 to allow those undergoing surgery to start their own businesses.

Am I the only one to find it very hard to imagine why Khomeini would be persuaded to be all kind and understanding of transexuals but still want all sodomites to die?

The second Guardian article is in Comment is Free by the author of an entire book on homosexuality in Arab countries. He makes this interesting point:

Of all the Muslim countries, Iran at the moment is probably the most active in persecuting gay people. This probably has less to do with religion than local political and cultural factors.

Janet Afary and Kevin Anderson, authors of Foucault and the Iranian Revolution, argue that this was a reaction - at least in part - to sexual behaviour in the Shah's court. They refer to "a long tradition in nationalist movements of consolidating power through narratives that affirm patriarchy and compulsory heterosexuality, attributing sexual abnormality and immorality to a corrupt ruling elite that is about to be overthrown and/or is complicit with foreign imperialism".

That makes some sense. Political revolutions anywhere have often been been preceded by rumours of self indulgence and sexual decadence in the ruling class, and I suppose if the revolutionaries are Islamic they may concentrate on alleging homosexual decadence more than heterosexual.

Not a bad idea

Broadband beyond the grave offers web service for the dead

Users of YouDeparted.com can issue posthumous instructions for everything from their funeral to feeding their pet, cancelling bills and magazine subscriptions, organising their will and other financial matters, sending final letters to friends - and foes - and delivering a valedictory video address summing it all up.

All that's required in this life is a computer, some inputting, and a minimum of $9.95 (£4.93) a year. Once a user has died, and it has been confirmed to the site by designated family members or friends, the content is released as he or she instructed.

Being able to posthumously send a bunch of nasty emails to all and sundry has a certain appeal. I don't think there is anyone I actually want to do that to right now; but I like the idea of having the ability to do it.

Could be some new legal cases coming up as to whether electronic instructions can be legally constitute a will.

Also, Pauline Hanson could have used this service for her "if you are seeing this, I am dead" speech.

Wind power skepticism

Ill wind changes Rudd's course towards Gore | Herald Sun

All of this article by Terry McCrann is worth reading, especially if the figures he gives for the amount of power wind is actually generating in Germany is correct:

On average across the year, the 7600 MW of installed wind capacity produced 1327MW. That's an operational level of 18 per cent of capacity. In rational terms, it's insanity.

Indeed as E.ON Netz notes, installed wind capacity went up 12 per cent in the year but actual wind power fed in to the grid went up just 1.5 per cent. Because of lower "wind availability".

The way you 'solve' this is that 'traditional' power stations with capacities equal to 90 per cent of the installed wind power capacity must be permanently on line to guarantee power supply.

So not only do you have to install six to seven times as much wind capacity as the output you will actually get, but you also have to build 'shadow' coal/gas/nuclear(?) as well.

That's one power station for the cost of 12 or so.

Did I say insanity? Unless you can build big enough batteries to store the power generated when the wind does blow.

Funny I should say that. E.ON has actually pioneered exactly such a battery. It's the size of four shipping containers, uses 'undisclosed' chemicals and can produce all of 1MW for four hours.

So not only do we have to have windmills blanketing the country-side, but millions of 'super-batteries' as well. Plus some new coal stations anyway.

We had them all shot

Ahmadinejad speaks; outrage and controversy follow - CNN.com:

When pressed about the harsh treatment of women, homosexuals and academics who challenge Iran's government, Ahmadinejad painted a rosy picture, saying, "Women in Iran enjoy the highest levels of freedom," he said.

He elicited laughter and boos from the audience at Columbia University when he said, "In Iran, we don't have homosexuals, like in your country."

That comment reminded me of Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke Petersen, as I am sure I have read that he had to have someone explain to him what homosexuals did when the issue of law reform for sexual matters came up.

Ahmadinejad in fact has the same "folksy" image as Bjelke- Petersen, the main difference being that (as far as I know) Joh didn't secretly pine for nuclear weapons.

Evading the details

Media Watch: Have We Met? (24/09/2007)

People who read Catallaxy know the story that Phillip Adams claimed to have had a "chilling" interview on his radio show with Helen Dale.

This story was dealt with in somewhat peculiar fashion on Media Watch last night, which seemed to want to spend as much time on other issues as pursuing the truth from Adams. The transcript on the Media Watch website (above) does not cover all of what was on the TV version .

Clearly, Adams was being evasive in his semi-retraction on LNL. He admits he did not interview her on that show, but implies an interview, or at least a meeting, did occur elsewhere without specifying when or where.

Oh well, I guess he might be more forthcoming to the ABC complaints people.

Real big of them

Taliban Allows Polio Vaccinations:

Thousands of Afghan children have received polio vaccinations after the Taliban movement agreed to allow health workers to operate safely in the south, the United Nations children's fund said. ...

In the past, health workers have been abducted in the region, which has has seen the heaviest fighting between the Taliban and international forces.

UPDATE: I missed a lot of it, but Four Corners last night looked interesting, being all about Afghanistan and the continuing pretty dire way most women are treated there, even when not under Taliban control. Still, there were some optimistic signs of revival of girls' education again, for example.

I still have trouble getting my mind around the concept that the Taliban are happy to kill teachers who dare to educate girls, though.

Irony warning

The Times of India does report widely on domestic violence and the mistreatment of women, but also carries many advertisements for marriage matchmaker services. You would think they might be a bit more careful about how closely these items are placed on the same page (see above.)

The paper also picks up a story from the Daily Mirror about railway track suicides in London. It is said that it's a lot of unhappy asian women causing the high numbers in particular areas.

This kind of suicide is really the most inconsiderate type possible, but thinking clearly is not really high on the agenda of those who do it, I suppose.

Making no sense

Tokyo sanctions an extended cull of Taiji dolphins | The Japan Times Online

The Japan Times has taken a very front line position in running articles criticising the annual dolphin slaughter in one part of Japan.

The result: this year's quota increased, and the killing season extended.

Given that the meat has been convincingly shown as unsafe to eat, it is a really bizarre exercise:

The creatures' meat is even included in school meals, and though the government knows full well it is toxic — up to 87 times the permitted level of methyl mercury was found in a joint Japanese/New Zealand 2005 academic study of samples bought from shops (see JT, Nov.1, 2006) — it seems it will do nothing now, perhaps preferring some scapegoating and deep bowing when awful human afflictions arise in the future. And as for Japan's meek vernacular media, well don't wait for them to raise a stink.

China's social problems, again

In China, 190 children are snatched every day.

It's an interesting article about another unintended consequence of China's one child policy.

The one who really doesn't know when to quit

Rudd's post-birthday slip-ups | NEWS.com.au

Yes, Kevin does have a problem: he doesn't know when to let the issue of his heart operation fade away. The story above shows that he is still using it in an attempt at humour:

When asked how he celebrated, Mr Rudd said: "With great sobriety ... well they tell me I've got a problem," referring to revelations this week about a heart operation he had 15 years ago.

On the TV news last night, I saw him make a fake clutch at his heart after missing blowing out one of his candles on his cake.

My advice: No one sensible actually thought this was a damaging issue, Kevin; or at least it wasn't until you had minders who denied you ever had an operation, and you and your fellow parliamentarians started ludicrously suggesting that it took a Liberal Party private investigator looking at your medical records to discover you had the operation.

Leave it alone. Even by bringing it up in attempts at humour, it reminds people of an episode that has backfired badly.

(Matt Price thinks that "Labor’s contrived and co-ordinated squealing about alleged dirt units, private detectives, slime files and mud-slinging will work." I think he's wrong; it is now too transparently a tactic.)

UPDATE: the Courier Mail now reports that it has seen a sheet alleging a Coalition minister is a closet gay. Shock! Labor or its supporters actually circulate dirt on their opponents? Who'd have thought?

UPDATE 2: now it's said that the gay minister stuff was originally leaked to Laurie Oakes by a Liberal Party figure, as part of internal politic-ing for positions. Funny business, politics.

You know, the first time I ever heard the old one about Keating having an affair with a young guy was from a solidly rusted on Labor supporter and well connected member of her union. Clearly, she had heard it from someone within the Labor movement who sincerely believed it, as she had not immediately dismissed it out of hand.

Rumour mongering follows some bizarre paths in politics, and life generally I suppose.

Another springtime pic

From my backyard, again.

Ackroyd's unusual interests

Soul survivor | News | Guardian Unlimited Film

Follow the link to an interesting interview with Dan Ackroyd. I knew he was interested in the paranormal, but not the extent to which he is a true believer.

Just not very funny

Summer Heights High episode upsets ecstasy death family

Even before this story came out, I had been intending to post about my puzzlement over the (apparent) popularity of Chris Lilley's satirical "Summer Heights High".

The three characters he plays are intensely dislikeable, each in their own way. And yes, we have all seen irritating teen girls, heard smart-arse islander boys, and know that drama teaching may be particularly attractive to a self-absorbed (presumably gay) man; but is there any reason to try to blend these characters into a mockumentary of such length? To me, they are just not interesting enough, and show no sign of development from week to week. The story line of the drama teacher writing songs about the drug overdose girl became so unrealistic that it just became stupid. I don't blame the family of a real drug overdose victim being upset.

At least Kath & Kim is not entirely populated by unpleasant central characters. True, Kim is totally without redeeming features, but I always felt that everyone around her was written to have at least some good in their character.

Summer Heights High strikes me as very similar in tone to the dark Australian "comedy" films to which I have never responded either.

A good week for the government

This week has seen a very solid momentum swing back towards the government. The highlights:

* the Rudd/Labor humbuggery about "smear campaigns" is, I reckon, finally starting to be revealed clearly as such to the public after yesterday's performance in Parliament. It has irritated me all year that Rudd has been getting away with this: carrying on as if stories clearly created by journalists (such as the issue of the Eumundi farm, or the strip club incident, or the heart operation) were being created by the Liberals; and acting as if it were some revelation that politicians or their staffers seek to background journalists on the past lives of their opponents (as in Gillard.)

Rudd went one lunge for sympathy too far with his questions about the heart operation story yesterday, and it clearly backfired. Have a look at Matt Price's very disdainful comment on this in The Australian this morning. (It was also very clear to anyone who had seen Downer on Lateline the night before that he had not idea of the story until that day.)

Rudd's attempt at a comeback to Costello "not having courage to take on Howard" is clearly a losing argument, especially when you see Costello reacting with glee as if it is water off a duck's back. The re-invigorated Costello is going to have a high profile during the campaign, and provided he and Howard compare their notes very carefully every morning and don't start accidentally contradicting each other, I think their handover approach may work reasonably well.

* As noted in a previous post, a hot culture war issue over lesbians and IVF can't hurt Howard, as it will perhaps persuade any doubtful Hillsong types that the Liberals are (at least marginally) more socially conservative than Labor.

Incidentally, Mark Bahnisch had a post at LP this week in which in response to me, his "buddy", he claimed the IVF lesbian case was a "storm in a teacup". Since then, I've read at least 4 newspaper commentary pieces on it, even one today, and noted the thousands of angry comments to various forms of media. For a sociologist, he seems completely tone deaf to what his society is actually talking about.

* The government's success in striking a deal with one of its strongest aboriginal critics in the Northern Territory is really very significant, and undercuts a lot of the carping criticism by aboriginal rights tragics who prefer ideology over success on the ground. Labor types may doubt The Australian's version of the story, but the story about it on The 7.30 Report was very positive too.

Of course, it is true that aboriginal issues are not a significant vote changer for 95% of Australians, but it is still a positive story.

* For those who read newpapers, there is also this positive comment on John Howard from Alan Greenspan:

In his memoir The Age of Turbulence, for which he was reportedly paid an advance of $US8 million ($9.3 million), Greenspan writes: "Prime Minister John Howard impressed me with his deep interest in the role of technology in American productivity growth. Whereas most heads of government steer clear of such detail, he sought me out on such issues during visits to the US between 1997 and 2005.

"He needed no prodding from me on monetary policy. His government in 1996 had granted full independence to the Reserve Bank of Australia."

Priced by the word, this pat on the head for the Australian leader is worth $US2800, but it's priceless if you're a prime minister in search of accolades from modern American heroes.

Expect to see that used politically here soon.

Yes, a pretty good week really.

Too good to be true

Sunny Outlook: Can Sunshine Provide All U.S. Electricity?: Scientific American

Maybe I worry too much about small global risks, but one issue with extremely high reliance on solar power is what happens if something disastrous causes the sun to be blocked for months at a time? For example, a supervolcano, a small to medium size asteroid strike, or accidental nuclear war.

It would mean the immediate end of power for months, and surely that would make national recovery all that more difficult. (Presumably, coal or gas fired plants would not last much longer, as such a disaster would cut fuel supply too.)

But I think once they are fuelled up, nuclear plants run pretty much on their own for a few years, don't they?

It would seem to me to be a matter of caution to always keep some nuclear power plants on line for this reason alone, even if solar became as truly ubiquitous as the optimists hope.

When surgeons get bored with normal operations...

ScienceDaily: Surgeons Remove Patient's Gall Bladder Through Vagina

This idea of surgeons going in and removing organs via various orifices has been reported before, and research in the field goes on, obviously. The whole idea just makes me feel queasy, and my intuitive reaction is to sceptical about how much better such methods can really be. God knows if I were a woman, there would be no way I would prefer via vagina procedure over a simple incision. (There's a sentence I will probably write only once in my life.)

Bringing back the culture wars

The news story about the lesbian couple suing their IVF doctor for providing them with two healthy children instead of one has raised a stunning amount of antagonism from the public. News Ltd had readers' comments on this story yesterday, and although I can't find them now, there seemed to be about one supportive post to every 50 very angry ones.

I note that yesterday's initial report had more detail of the mother's neurotic sounding reaction than today's version linked above. The Daily Telegraph version had this part which was sure to raise eyebrows across the nation:

The woman said she enjoyed some aspects of the pregnancy, such as decorating the girls' nursery, but other parts were distressing, including purchasing a pram.

"It was like the last frontier of acceptance to spend hundreds of dollars on a pram," she said.

People would have been upset if it were a heterosexual couple complaining of the same thing, but add into the mix the fact that it's lesbians, and far from poor ones at that, and you have the ideal circumstances for a real culture war about gays and making children. Lucky John Howard, I think, as a conservative cultural backlash on such issues must surely be easier for him to handle than Labor. (Penny Wong, I am waiting for your comments about this case.)

To illustrate how angry people get about this, on talk back radio this morning I heard a man complaining how he and his ex wife had failed at IVF, how much it had cost them, etc, and then he started crying when he said that he was so angry to hear one of the women on the radio saying that if they won the case they would buy 2 Harleys and travel around Australia. The radio announcers had to interrupt quickly and reassure their listener that the earlier call (which I had missed) was fake. I presume this man heard what was intended to be a satirical call and assumed it was true.

The thing is, it is clear the doctor is admitting a mistake, and I am not entirely sure what his defence is. If the judge actually finds in favour of the women, the public outcry will be huge.

I expect that this case, regardless of its outcome, will make the issue of gay relationship financial rights all the more politically sensitive. These women are, at the very least, unhelpful to that cause.

I would also be curious to know how many of the public are against the idea of lesbians ever making their own children, whether it be by IVF, donor semen, or whatever. I suspect that people may well draw a strong distinction between lesbians who end up with children as a result of a failed heterosexual relationship, and those who have only ever been in lesbian relationships but use artificial methods to conceive. The public may well be more conservative on this than many people think.

Spring 2007

Taken in my backyard at lunchtime today.

Death to apostates

Comment is free: Supporting Islam's apostates

Interesting article. I note with particular interest the quote from the Koran which is a good example of the, ahem, problematic nature of that document.

(Go on, Geoff, hit me with some Armstrong niceness about how unfair I am being.)