Visiting Israel

Digging the Bible. - By David Plotz - Slate Magazine

Here's a nice travel piece by David Plotz, which explains why Israel would be such an interesting destination for people interested in the Bible. History everywhere.

Anything but self control

Cue the gluttony - Los Angeles Times

This article talks about the idea from the US that "environmental cues" make people eat more, and become obese:

Several recent studies, papers and a popular weight-loss book argue that eating is an automatic behavior triggered by environmental cues that most people are unaware of -- or simply can't ignore. Think of the buttery smell of movie theater popcorn, the sight of glazed doughnuts glistening in the office conference room or the simple habit of picking up a whipped-cream-laden latte on the way to work.

Accepting this "don't blame me" notion may not only ease the guilt and self-loathing that often accompanies obesity, say the researchers behind the theory, but also help people achieve a healthier weight.

To make Americans eat less and eat more healthily, they contend, the environment itself needs to be changed -- with laws regulating portion size, labeling or the places where food can be sold or eaten. That would be much easier, the researchers add, than overcoming human nature. The theory that our society -- not us -- is to blame for our overall expanding waist size is garnering support from health and nutrition experts.

Now look - no doubt "supersizing" meals is one of the unhealthiest ideas American fast food ever came up with; but the idea of laws to limit portion size is surely the most inappropriate thing anyone has ever suggested legislating about.

A requiem for the sitcom

I've written before about how sitcoms over the last, I don't know, 5 years or so, seem to have just fizzled out to a sad death. (When did "Malcolm in the Middle" end? It was the last one I could whole-hearted recommend.)

AA Gill in The Times is in despair of British sitcoms in particular; although I would say it has been moribund for perhaps 15 or 20 years. (OK, perhaps one small, short, silly exception: The IT Crowd.) What Gill says of British sitcoms applies to the US ones too, in my opinion:

I don’t believe in golden ages, on TV or anywhere else, and I am constantly telling people that if they’re not seeing the best television of their lives at the moment, it’s only because they’re not looking in the right places. I honestly believe every aspect of television is better than it’s ever been – except for the sitcom, which is far worse than it was 20 years ago, 10 years ago, last year and probably last Wednesday. It seems to be an artistic form, like weaving corn dollies and plate-spinning to music, that has reached a point where nobody can remember what its point is supposed to be. Sitcoms used to be about anger and hubris and the small man standing against the slings and arrows of life. The difference between British and American sitcoms was that ours were all about failure and theirs about success – they’d bake a cake, our lot would fall into a cake.

Now the situation has gone missing. It’s just about pushing comedians into rooms. The comedy lacks structure or tension or even interest. They’re not about life, they’re about the tired conventions of sitcom, so every scene, every exhausted setup and wan punch line, has been handed down until it’s ragged and sticky with overuse. The sitcom has become the Oxfam shop of telly.

Even Kevin has not saved us

Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | A senseless belligerence

Waleed Aly goes to town in this Guardian piece about the treatment of Dr Haneef and David Hicks, and claims that the new Labor government is probably not going to be all that different despite its "softer" rhetoric.

But this comment (by "Phorein") caught my eye, as one of the finest examples of over-the-top condemnation of Australia I have recently seen:

Unfortunately for Australia, those who have been living down there for a long while know first hand that this article does describe a sad reality: that of a country which has progressively become a totalitarian society based on surveillance and hatred. Yes, it's a regime, because there is no political debate, because the political elites go hand-in-hand with a clique that utterly dominates the mass-mediad, and because most gullible and holier-than-you "Aussies" are happy to be sheep.

I love condemnations of Australia by Guardian readers. It just wouldn't be as much fun to read without them.

Kid's holiday movies

The kids and I have seen 2 holiday season movies so far.

First, the power of TV advertising convinced both son and daughter that they must see Alvin and the Chipmunks. My observations: at first, I thought the lead actor (Jason Lee) just seemed particularly bad at pretending that the computer generated characters are really there when he talks to them; but then I noticed that he also seemed to be seeing through the human actors when they were in a scene. He just seems not quite "there" in his acting.

For a kids film, it is perhaps surprising to note that it tackles the issues of corporate greed, exploitation of artists, and men over 30 who still have a 20 year old's aversion to commitment to having a family. And let's face it, when the average age of the target audience will be about 5, expectations should be low. But even so, it's not a movie that will stick in anyone's mind for more than 10 minutes after leaving the cinema, even if the chipmunks first song in the movie (a rendition of "Funky Town") drew spontaneous applause from an easily pleased audience I saw it with.

It also raises the most incredibly inconsequential question ever: was that Paris Hilton in a black wig doing an uncredited appearance as the French maid? Even Yahoo answers does not know for sure.

Secondly: The Water Horse - Legend of the Deep. This is more like it. The poster heavily promotes that it is a Walden Media production, the same company that is making the Narnia series, and with good reason. It shares with "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" a very similar tone of basic seriousness, as well as great production values, solid acting and good script.

Yes, it is a little derivative in certain respects, and it certainly helps if you are not too familiar with the geography of Scotland. My (5 year old) girl found it a bit too scary in parts, but I would expect that most children (particularly boys) from about 7 to 12 should be really impressed.

Indeed, overall, I liked it a quite a lot, especially as I tend to give bonus points to any intelligently made family movie that can touch the adult audience as well as please the kids.

(It seems to be underperforming at the box office in the States, but everyone involved should be pleased with the product.)

Next on the list: the well reviewed "Enchanted". That should keep my daughter happier.

Oratory and politics

Is Eloquence Overrated? - New York Times

In light of the good reviews Obama gets for some of his speeches (personally, I am not so convinced; it seems to me the deep, smoker's voice would get him half way to acclaim even if he were reading a McDonald's menu), this is an interesting article on the value of politic oratory.

There is an actual connection to the Kennedy speeches too.

Greenaway warning

The Renaissance Man | The Japan Times Online

It had escaped my attention until now, but that director of unbearably pretentious arthouse films, Peter Greenaway, had a new film released late last year.

The Japan Times says it opens this way:

The opening scene of "Nightwatching" sees the painter [Rembrandt] stripped, beaten and screaming, questioning the meaning of art and life. It's a classic Greenaway treatment, for in his films, philosophizing and gore come hand-in-hand.

This has been a public service announcement to any man with a girlfriend interested in arthouse film.

Annabel on copyright

Talk to the hand if you want to use Hewitt's gesture - Opinion - smh.com.au

Annabel Crabb writes amusingly on sport and copyright this morning.

Curry ends political career?

Abe: I flushed career down toilet | The Daily Telegraph

Former Japanese PM Abe has gone into a lot of detail about suffering from ulcerative colitis since he was 17, and how it led to his resignation.

"To mention an indelicate matter, I rushed to the lavatory after having keen abdominal pains and saw the basin all red with tremendous bleeding," he said.

"Bleeding causes slight anaemia. More than anything else, though, you feel depressed as you see fresh blood every time you go to the toilet."

Abe said the illness usually made him "feel the need to relieve my bowels every 30 minutes".

Now that would make cabinet meetings a challenge...

But the heading for this post comes from this part of the story:

Abe said his health deteriorated in late August, when his stomach was upset by local food during his tour of India, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Sounds like it may be the first time a curry or chilli dish has led to a Prime Minister's resignation.

For Indiana Jones fans

Keys to the Kingdom: Entertainment & Culture: vanityfair.com

Vanity Fair has a long article on the upcoming Indiana Jones movie. And a long interview with Spielberg.

The main article notes that the new movie is set in the 1950's, and apart from featuring crystal skulls, Lucas himself suggests that story has more of a science fiction heart than a supernatural one. (There has been speculation that part of the movie is set in the alleged home of recovered UFOs - Area 51.)

This ties in with my long standing idea for Indiana Jones to be tied in with Close Encounters.

If this turns out to be the basis for the movie, I should write to Spielberg and ask for a royalty cheque. (I cannot recall clearly whether I actually posted this idea somewhere years ago in my very early days of using the internet. Let's hope so!)

Of interest

Late Night Live - 10 January 2008 - The Kennedy Brothers

Today I heard most of this repeat broadcast of Phillip Adams talking to David Talbot about his book on the Kennedy brothers.

I'm not entirely sure how much to trust the founder of Salon.com, but some of the information was new to me. For example, I hadn't heard before that a couple of people report that Lyndon Johnson, on Air Force One immediately after JFK's assassination, made a couple of comments to the effect that he feared it was a military coup.

Talbot also says that Robert Kennedy privately believed there was a conspiracy involved, but was waiting to get elected President before he could get to the bottom of it.

Pretty interesting.

But not here...

BBC NEWS | New nuclear plants get go-ahead

Colour me skeptical

Crean vows to act on trade deficit - National - theage.com.au

More Rudd government talk, but with considerable vagueness about the actual cure:

After 68 successive months of trade deficits, Mr Crean said that to get the trade balance back in the black, Australia needed faster growth in exports of services, and sophisticated manufactured goods, which had flagged in the past decade. "It's about investing more in infrastructure and skills, it's about innovation, and it's about having an integrated trade and industry policy approach."

Surely much of this is to do with the globalisation of the manufacture of sophisticated goods, which presumably was not that much of an issue the last time Labor was in power. I can't see it matters how much you skill up the Australian work force in the next 5 years; China is still going to be a cheaper place to make the same stuff, surely.

This will get Lambert going

Iraqi war death toll slashed by three quarters - health - 09 January 2008 - New Scientist

A much larger survey in Iraq than the notorious Lancet one estimates the loss of life at more like 150,000, not 600,000.

Tim Lambert is bound to get agitated over this, but it sounds like his unswerving defence of the Lancet study is now going to get harder.

The Boxing Day incident

The Dilbert Blog: There’s a Name for It

This Boxing Day post at Scott Adams' blog is well worth reading for a laugh.

Super soaker saves the world?

Solar Cells with 60% Efficiency?

Nuclear Engineer Lonnie Johnson, best known for his invention of the super soaker squirt gun, has recently designed a new type of solar energy technology that he says can achieve a conversion efficiency rate of more than 60 percent.

The super soaker had an "inventor"?

Williamstown, Melbourne

On the recent trip to Melbourne, apartment accommodation at a reasonable price was a bit hard to find in the city, and the family and I ended up staying at the old port area Williamstown.

In the late 1980's, I had lived in Melbourne for about 9 months, and although I was not particularly happy with my job and personal circumstances at that time, I was always impressed by Williamstown and rented an apartment there. It has a real English village atmosphere, with small pubs on many corners (some now shut, but many still operating,) gardens with lots of roses and lavender in front of the many century-old cottages, lots of tree lined streets, and a historic waterfront area that is full of sidewalk dining and bars. Some of the facades of the old commercial buildings could do with a bit of sprucing up, but the slightly worn aspect of the area I find part of its appeal.

You can either catch a train or ferry and be in the middle of Melbourne in well under the hour either way (about 30 minutes on the train.) By car it is a very easy drive up and over the Westgate bridge and you are in the middle of town.

On a nice sunny day, the waterside park at Nelson Place is surely one of the nicest places you could be in Melbourne; but if you stay in the area for a couple of days you can also enjoy the simple charm of an evening walk through the streets admiring the houses and their gardens, and stumbling on the occasional building of particular historic significance. You'll likely also likely find yourself near a small pub in which to take refreshment mid-way.

The photos that follow don't do it complete justice: I don't want to include any with the kids here. But if you are visiting Melbourne in nice weather, do yourself a favour and at least have one long day wandering around Williamstown.


Museum minesweeper HMAS Castlemaine (normally open only on weekends, though)


Williamstown marina.


Waterside precinct.


Old hotel (not sure what it is now)


The Williamstown timeball, built in 1852. Its use explained here.



An impressive house.

Bad haiku

As inspired by real life events in Melbourne:

Hat on, Austin gripped,
Hey, that pie was nearly free
More beers next time Tim.

Why I will never bother reading her

Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas

This passage, from a Time Literary Supplement review of a book about Stein & Toklas, is pretty amusing:

But just how “incomprehensible” is a work like The Making of Americans, Stein’s monumental, and largely unread, chef d’oeuvre? The sympathetic reader, the one who does not send the book windmilling across the room after finishing the first page, has two options. The first – which appears, incidentally, to have been the preferred tactic of Stein’s immediate circle – is simply to go with the flow of words, to luxuriate in a language unchecked by the stuffy conventions of realism or, for that matter, grammar. To use a trope Stein herself favoured, the words become the bold brushstrokes of a thoroughly modernist aesthetic, conveying moods, impressions and suggestions of form in place of narrative coherence or clear ideas. (While acolytes like Bernard Faÿ adored such airy expressionism, Picasso was apparently less indulgent – he was unable to sit through a reading of Stein’s “word portrait” of him, professing to its author that he couldn’t abide abstractions.)

Icky

eMJA: What’s hanging around your neck? Pathogenic bacteria on identity badges and lanyards

After previous studies finding harmful germs on doctors and nurses' neckties, stethoscopes and pens, an Australian study has been done to test ID cards and the lanyards that health care workers often keep them on.

The results were not good, especially for lanyards:

A total of 27 lanyards [out of 71 tested] were identified with pathogenic bacteria, compared with 18 badges. Analysing lanyards and badges as a combined group, seven had methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, 29 had methicillin-sensitive S. aureus (MSSA), four had Enterococcus spp and five had aerobic gram-negative bacilli. Lanyards were found to be contaminated with 10 times the median bacterial load per area sampled compared with identity badges. There were no significant differences between nurses and doctors in total median bacterial counts on items carried, but doctors had 4.41 times the risk of carrying MSSA on lanyards

The same edition of the Journal carries a fairly cranky sounding editorial that complains that we don't really need more studies showing where germs in hospitals can be found:

The United Kingdom has just mandated a “bare below the elbows” dress code in its hospitals.5 This means no more coats or even wristwatches, despite a lack of evidence that these items play a major role in transmitting MRSA. The UK Prime Minister has called for better cleaning of wards, in the belief that this is the key to controlling MRSA.5 While there is some merit in these proposals, they are focusing on elements that are minor compared with the most important one — how best to stop MRSA spreading via hands....

We don’t need more environmental-type studies without clinical endpoints. We need studies in which we intervene and show that the interventions reduce the number of people infected with MRSA.