Astro Boy Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes
Early reviews for Astro Boy are largely positive.
But why on earth is it being released outside of school holidays in Australia?
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Vaccination silliness
Slate runs a useful article on how the far Left and far Right both circle around and bump into each other when it comes to silly reasons to distrust vaccination. Some of the history is interesting:
UPDATE: Well, well. One of the vaccination doubters is none other than smug know-it-all atheist and alleged comedian Bill Maher. What a maroon.
Indeed, there's nothing more universal than fear of shots. "I just think there are people wired that way," says Gregory Poland of the Mayo Clinic. "They operate on the basis of emotion and anecdote—what they read at the University of Google—rather than a fact-based or data-driven point of view." In the 19th century, people thought the cowpox vaccine would cause pieces of cow to grow out of their arms. Canadian medical giant William Osler was widely mocked when he urged British troops at the beginning of World War I to get inoculated against typhoid fever. The French government stopped offering vaccinations for hepatitis B in schools in 1998 while it investigated the relationship between shots and multiple sclerosis. (Subsequent studies found no causation.)As for some of the loopier bits of paranoia about the swine flu:
Several Web sites have suggested that H1N1 is a vehicle for the government to implant microchips in our bodies to detect "bio-threats." At least one site posits that the vaccine contains a "Bible Code" connecting swine flu to prophesies in the Book of Revelation.It's all clear to me now.
UPDATE: Well, well. One of the vaccination doubters is none other than smug know-it-all atheist and alleged comedian Bill Maher. What a maroon.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
It's gold, gold, gold for Australia
Mungo MacCallum: Four decades in the fourth estate | The Jakarta Post
Mungo was in Bali recently, sharing this with out Indonesian neighbours:
Mungo was in Bali recently, sharing this with out Indonesian neighbours:
I’ve known, personally, 12 Australian prime ministers and I can only say that three of them were chaste. The rest were adulterers of Olympic standards.Of course, I assume John Howard was amongst the chaste, although there were scurrilous rumours put around about him at one time. Who would the other two be (especially if he is not counting Rudd as "personally known")?
Drinking the English way
Binge drinking spreads to Italy | csmonitor.com
It's interesting to note how the Italians are blaming British and American tourists for spreading the contagion of youthful drinking to excess.
The Italian drinking age is, according the article, currently 16 (as it is in several European countries, although it seems there is a widespread movement to increase it). European countries have managed to live with that for some years. In Japan, the drinking age is 20, and although they are not everywhere, beer vending machines can be found in some places which anyone can access. Teenage drinking does not seem to be a significant problem.
In Australia, I've noticed the TV advertising against parents allowing their teenagers to start having a drink at home, on the basis that the gradual introduction of alcohol to immature teenage brains is now believed to be dangerous, according to recent research.
It's all a pretty fascinating area, this issue of drinking and culture.
UPDATE: By the way, that link to the Wikipedia entry on drinking ages around the world contains lots of interesting bits. In Denmark, for example, it says "There is no drinking age, only a purchase age, and an adult can buy alcohol for a minor. By tradition youths are privately allowed to drink alcohol after their confirmation" (That's one way to increase youth participation in church: put on a keg after the confirmation ceremony.)
Even more fun is the detail about UK drinking laws (assuming it is correct):
It's interesting to note how the Italians are blaming British and American tourists for spreading the contagion of youthful drinking to excess.
The Italian drinking age is, according the article, currently 16 (as it is in several European countries, although it seems there is a widespread movement to increase it). European countries have managed to live with that for some years. In Japan, the drinking age is 20, and although they are not everywhere, beer vending machines can be found in some places which anyone can access. Teenage drinking does not seem to be a significant problem.
In Australia, I've noticed the TV advertising against parents allowing their teenagers to start having a drink at home, on the basis that the gradual introduction of alcohol to immature teenage brains is now believed to be dangerous, according to recent research.
It's all a pretty fascinating area, this issue of drinking and culture.
UPDATE: By the way, that link to the Wikipedia entry on drinking ages around the world contains lots of interesting bits. In Denmark, for example, it says "There is no drinking age, only a purchase age, and an adult can buy alcohol for a minor. By tradition youths are privately allowed to drink alcohol after their confirmation" (That's one way to increase youth participation in church: put on a keg after the confirmation ceremony.)
Even more fun is the detail about UK drinking laws (assuming it is correct):
Children under 5 must not be given alcohol unless under medical supervision or in an emergency (Children and Young Persons Act 1933, Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act 1937).[50][51]. However, children aged 5 and over may legally consume alcohol in their own home or someone else's as long as they are under the supervision of an adult.Well it's good to know that the fine olde English tradition of giving children gin in the home can continue to this day!
Unexpected medical news
Shingles increases risk of stroke by a third - The Independent
The risk is significantly greater when the infection, caused by the chickenpox virus, involves the eyes.Shingles affecting the eyes sounds mighty unpleasant, even without being associated with an increased stroke risk.
Important news from Dubai
gulfnews : Man cleared of groping woman in Dubai beach
The Gulf News website has had a makeover, and now looks very, um, Western and spiffy, but don't worry, all of the important news is still given extensive coverage. (See above.)
Interestingly, to be acquitted, it only took a strong denial from the accused, and a mere pointing out of witnesses who would support him:
The Gulf News website has had a makeover, and now looks very, um, Western and spiffy, but don't worry, all of the important news is still given extensive coverage. (See above.)
Interestingly, to be acquitted, it only took a strong denial from the accused, and a mere pointing out of witnesses who would support him:
Such procedures could no doubt speed up trials in courts in Australia.Prosecutors accused I.A. of swimming behind the 27-year-old Filipina, B.B., into the deep waters where he touched her posterior.
"I didn't do that… I have witnesses who can counter her claims," he said in court earlier.
The accused pointed out at two defence witnesses whom he had brought to court to testify his claim. The judge refused to hear them saying: "It is not needed."
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Nuisance design students
Dezeen - Nuisance Machines by Andrew Friend
While I am sure there have been a million wacky ideas created by design students trying to come up with something original, there is an excellent chance that this is the silliest design student conceit ever. Congratulations Mr Friend!
Please follow the link. It is bound to amuse.
While I am sure there have been a million wacky ideas created by design students trying to come up with something original, there is an excellent chance that this is the silliest design student conceit ever. Congratulations Mr Friend!
Please follow the link. It is bound to amuse.
Oh dear...(or should it be "Arrggh"?)
Arrggh. My favourite cosmologist/physicist Frank Tipler continues his global warming skepticism in articles appearing in (of all places) Men's News Daily.
This recent article is just ridiculous, and indicates he should also write for that esteemed website of all things Carbon and green, CO2 Science, which promotes the philosophy that too much CO2 could never be enough.
Ah well, he is getting old after all. Hasn't everyone noticed that CO2 climate skepticism attracts people primarily on the far side of 50, and the degree of silliness such skeptics are willing to promote increases proportionately with increasing age? Add to age a conservative religious belief (as I think Tipler shares), and you have the perfect storm for an impervious skepticism that is, oddly, willing to risk the future wellbeing of the grandchildren they probably already have.
The only thing that consoles me is that, according to Tipler's own ideas, there is another universe nearby in which there is an alter-Tipler who is quite reasonable about climate science.
This recent article is just ridiculous, and indicates he should also write for that esteemed website of all things Carbon and green, CO2 Science, which promotes the philosophy that too much CO2 could never be enough.
Ah well, he is getting old after all. Hasn't everyone noticed that CO2 climate skepticism attracts people primarily on the far side of 50, and the degree of silliness such skeptics are willing to promote increases proportionately with increasing age? Add to age a conservative religious belief (as I think Tipler shares), and you have the perfect storm for an impervious skepticism that is, oddly, willing to risk the future wellbeing of the grandchildren they probably already have.
The only thing that consoles me is that, according to Tipler's own ideas, there is another universe nearby in which there is an alter-Tipler who is quite reasonable about climate science.
You read it here first (well, before this anyway)
Essay - The Collider, the Particle and a Theory About Fate - NYTimes.com
Hey. For some reason the New York Times has an essay on the idea the future itself is interfering with the start up of the LHC.
Meh, you read about it here in February 2008.
Update: in another case of the media out-of-the-blue dealing with the big questions, there was a reasonable review of the idea of the multiverse in The Guardian recently.
Hey. For some reason the New York Times has an essay on the idea the future itself is interfering with the start up of the LHC.
Meh, you read about it here in February 2008.
Update: in another case of the media out-of-the-blue dealing with the big questions, there was a reasonable review of the idea of the multiverse in The Guardian recently.
Suicide champion
Why do so many Greenlanders kill themselves? - Slate Magazine
Interesting article on Greenland and the mystery of how it came to be (by far) the country with the highest suicide rate in the world. From an Australian perspective, it's interesting to see the role of welfare in indigenous community getting a mention:
As it is difficult to encourage aborigines to go back to being hunter/gatherers in the harsh Australian outback, the important thing in the communities would be to make sure there is the hope of social mobility for the young. Or, at the very least, meaningful, daily employment.
Interesting article on Greenland and the mystery of how it came to be (by far) the country with the highest suicide rate in the world. From an Australian perspective, it's interesting to see the role of welfare in indigenous community getting a mention:
The lesson may be that you have to hunt to get your food, your days are too busy to get depressed. If you then move (with the encouragement of government to allow better delivery of services) to a town or mission, you become more welfare dependent and (especially for the young) bored and hopeless for the future.It's true that the island's Inuit, who make up 88 percent of Greenland's population, suffer from the same rampant alcoholism that plagues many North American indigenous groups. On one evening in August, I stood in the checkout line at Nuuk's only supermarket and watched an obviously intoxicated man sing "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" to a display of Haribo gummi bears. A few minutes later, a woman tried to pocket a bottle of wine. Security nabbed her. Later, at the police station, where the woman sat on a wooden bench, laughing hysterically and giving spirited high-fives, a police officer blamed alcohol for Nuuk's three biggest public-safety problems: unsupervised children wandering the streets, theft, and people shooting themselves or one another. "Ninety five percent of our cases involve drinking in some way," he said.
Peter Bjerregaard from Denmark's National Institute of Public Health has noted that while Greenland's suicide problem began in 1970, almost all the deaths involved people born after 1950—the same year that Greenland began its transformation from remote colony to welfare state, as the Danes resettled residents to give them modern services and tuberculosis inoculations. Hicks, the Canadian researcher, said the correlation is present in other Inuit societies as well.
"It happened first in Alaska, then Greenland, and finally in Canada's Eastern Arctic," he told me. "It's not the people who were coerced into the communities as adults who began to exhibit elevated rates of suicidal behavior—it was their children, the first generation to grow up in the towns."
As it is difficult to encourage aborigines to go back to being hunter/gatherers in the harsh Australian outback, the important thing in the communities would be to make sure there is the hope of social mobility for the young. Or, at the very least, meaningful, daily employment.
Why Australia is slow to go nuclear
Going fission
Here's a long article in The Age looking at why Australia is very, very slow to consider nuclear seriously. I didn't know this:
Here's a long article in The Age looking at why Australia is very, very slow to consider nuclear seriously. I didn't know this:
A poll conducted this year by the Uranium Information Centre found the 40 to 55 years age group most trenchantly opposed to nuclear power.So, it's my own demographic which is the stupidest. How encouraging.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Nice TV
Just a quick note to observe that the 3 part nature documentary series "Ganges", which started last night on the ABC, was very spectacular. I see that it has taken a couple of years to make it to screen here, which is a pity.
I know this is a bit of silly prejudice, but I am always kind of surprised when India shows up on documentaries as having a lot of open space and natural beauty. You get so much concentration on the crowded cities on TV, you kind of expect the whole country to look like one giant stretch of humanity from end to end.
Sunday night ABC nature documentaries have become a family favourite at my house.
I know this is a bit of silly prejudice, but I am always kind of surprised when India shows up on documentaries as having a lot of open space and natural beauty. You get so much concentration on the crowded cities on TV, you kind of expect the whole country to look like one giant stretch of humanity from end to end.
Sunday night ABC nature documentaries have become a family favourite at my house.
A new type of controversy at the LHC
Physicist working at CERN arrested : Nature News
This news broke last week, but I wasn't sure if the guy arrested was working on the LHC or not. Seems he was:
It is also possible that my fretting about mini black holes contributed to a premature loss of virginity (this even happened in my own home town!).
Of course, given the number of readers this blog maintains, it's just as likely that I caused the election of Pope Benedict.
This news broke last week, but I wasn't sure if the guy arrested was working on the LHC or not. Seems he was:
He is believed to be a postdoc at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) who, since 2003, has been performing data analysis on one of four major experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's most powerful particle accelerator.Hey, maybe some al-Qaeda operative reads my blog and thinks mini black holes from the LHC have potential as a terrorist weapon. (Well, I did refer once or twice to the fact that some physicists talk of evaporating black holes having similar power to atomic bombs.)
French antiterrorism police arrested the 32-year-old researcher together with his 25-year-old brother. The duo is suspected of passing along information about possible terrorism targets inside France to members of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb — the North African wing of al-Qaeda.There is no evidence that his work at CERN is connected to terrorism, according to laboratory spokesman James Gillies. All work at the laboratory is published in the open domain and is not military in nature, said a CERN statement.
It is also possible that my fretting about mini black holes contributed to a premature loss of virginity (this even happened in my own home town!).
Of course, given the number of readers this blog maintains, it's just as likely that I caused the election of Pope Benedict.
Pipe dreams
Technology Review: Carbon Capture Remains Elusive
Technology Review usually seems a wildly optimistic magazine, so when it has an article expressing doubts about CO2 sequestration, we should take note. Here are some reasons why government plans to rely heavily on this technology should be taken with a bucket of salt:
Her criticism is very valid, but on the other hand the Green's solution (that Australia is capable of making a rapid changeover to run purely on renewable energy) seems wildly off the mark too. (Especially if you read Barry Brook's blog.)
Why is it impossible at the moment to find any political party in Australia that actually makes sense on CO2?
Technology Review usually seems a wildly optimistic magazine, so when it has an article expressing doubts about CO2 sequestration, we should take note. Here are some reasons why government plans to rely heavily on this technology should be taken with a bucket of salt:
One of the geological challenges faced by Duke Energy and others investigating in CCS is ensuring that the pressure inside reservoirs deep beneath the surface of the earth doesn't climb too high as carbon dioxide is injected. "There are only certain safe levels that you can raise the pressure to before you get into issues of seismicity," Herzog says....
As I suspected, finding the right places to pump it in is the biggest problem, even in geologically diverse North America:
The Greens Senator Christine Milne was on Radio National this morning complaining that the Rudd government's plan relies almost exclusively on CO2 sequestration coming on line in (I think) 2030, and it providing the actual reduction in greenhouse gases that Australia makes. Before that, it's all overseas permits....one of the biggest remaining questions is whether sufficient reservoirs exist to store all of the carbon dioxide that may be captured.
The best-studied storage deposits are former oil and gas reservoirs capped by layers of nonporous rock that kept the petrochemicals locked deep underground for millions of years. Yet of an estimated 3,947 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide storage capacity under the U.S., only 1 percent consists of depleted natural gas and oil reservoirs. The vast majority of capacity--3,630 gigatonnes--consists of deep saline formations that have received less scrutiny.
"We're at the place where there is no problem doing millions of tonnes a year, but to solve the climate problem we need to do billons of tonnes or gigatonnes a year, and at that scale, storage becomes a real issue," Herzog says.
Her criticism is very valid, but on the other hand the Green's solution (that Australia is capable of making a rapid changeover to run purely on renewable energy) seems wildly off the mark too. (Especially if you read Barry Brook's blog.)
Why is it impossible at the moment to find any political party in Australia that actually makes sense on CO2?
Encouraging
Better to be fat at 40 than thin: study | The Japan Times Online
Good news if you are slightly overweight. (Emphasis on slightly.)
Good news if you are slightly overweight. (Emphasis on slightly.)
Some secret
Two dead at James Arthur Ray The Secret sweat lodge retreat
Mr Ray appears to know everything except the fact that overheating can kill.
Mr Ray appears to know everything except the fact that overheating can kill.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
An Anthony Lane moment
“The Invention of Lying” movie review : The New Yorker
The Anthony Lane review of Ricky Gervais' "The Invention of Lying", a high concept comedy based on the idea that religion is simply a lie, contains this final, somewhat biting, comment:
The Anthony Lane review of Ricky Gervais' "The Invention of Lying", a high concept comedy based on the idea that religion is simply a lie, contains this final, somewhat biting, comment:
Audiences here should be reminded, at this point, that Gervais found his fame on the BBC, with “The Office” and “Extras,” and that the execration of religious faith, specifically Christianity—plus a reflex sneer at the fools who fall for it—has, in the past decade, become the default mode of British cultural life. It makes sense, I suppose, for Gervais to use his film to air such mockery, if spiritual belief genuinely strikes him as a lie like any other; the plan would carry more weight, however, if he didn’t use the rest of the film to air his transcendent belief in Ricky Gervais.
Friday, October 09, 2009
Why doesn't every Miss World win, then?
As the BBC says:
In awarding President Obama the Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian committee is honouring his intentions more than his achievements.If he really wants to impress the world, Obama will decline to accept this, and tell the committee that he appreciates the thought, but he won't deserve it until he actually has some achievement to show for his efforts.
Lunar attack
Only an hour to go as I write this for the NASA LCROSS mission to smash into the moon. If it's lucky, the plume will show water or something else of interest under the lunar surface. Neat.
I'll be watching on NASA tv on the internet, unless I find a news show on cable is taking it live too.
Meanwhile, crashing a rocket into the moon is enough to bring out some, well, lunacy, in the form of blogs like "Do not bomb the moon". Amongst the comments by those who fear this is a bad, bad idea, I perhaps like this one best:
UPDATE: well, that's it, and there wasn't a flash or anything to see visually. Funnily enough, on NASA TV after it, some guy admitted it wasn't clear what they had just seen - maybe the gain wasn't high enough. (In other words, he sounded as if he had expected to see something too.) Anyhow, information from other orbiting satellites will be sending back their observations soon.
I'll be watching on NASA tv on the internet, unless I find a news show on cable is taking it live too.
Meanwhile, crashing a rocket into the moon is enough to bring out some, well, lunacy, in the form of blogs like "Do not bomb the moon". Amongst the comments by those who fear this is a bad, bad idea, I perhaps like this one best:
It’s a plot to destroy earth! A big enough chunk, like several tons of material, will be broken loose and since it’s between the moon and earth, it will eventually be caught up in earths’ gravity and flung into us much like a large astroid that wiped out all life on earth mellinium ago!
FInd a large deep cave to hide in and take enough food and for 4 years if you want to survive.
When I was bducted by aliens a few years ago, they warned me of this but nobody would listen. Now maybe they will.
UPDATE: well, that's it, and there wasn't a flash or anything to see visually. Funnily enough, on NASA TV after it, some guy admitted it wasn't clear what they had just seen - maybe the gain wasn't high enough. (In other words, he sounded as if he had expected to see something too.) Anyhow, information from other orbiting satellites will be sending back their observations soon.
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