A manly question

Nothing much to note in this interview with actor Robert Carlyle, except for the fact that he swears a lot and makes this observation about filming in deserts:

We were shooting in New Mexico in 117-degree heat for a week. You'd have to put sunblock up your nose and your ears because of the bounce. Transformers shot there before us, and one of the crew guys was going commando in shorts. He burnt his tackle badly. So we were very aware.

Which brings me to the point of this post. I have often wondered about how, since it made its appearance in Seinfeld (and, I think, Friends,) this "going commando" joke would appear to mean that some men actually do this as an occasional option.

Yet, it has never, in my entire life, occurred to me that not wearing underwear for the day would somehow make sense. Boxers instead of a more snug fit: well, I can see the point of that. I'll even allow for the logic of beach nudists who don't like sand in their swimsuit. But to wear your normal clothes without underpants? Why would any man since the invention of smooth woven cloth ever think that was a good idea?

Weekend report

This weekend:

* Friday night: while channel surfing, I once again came in late to watching Love Actually. (I have never seen the movie in one sitting; I've watched bits and pieces over the years and figure I must have seen about 90% of it by now.)

I am curious to see it all because, based on partial viewings, it has always seemed an awful, awful film, displaying less emotional realism about love and romance than the first Shrek movie. Yet, it has its defenders, including friend and regular reader here Geoff.

Well, sorry Geoff, but after my longest stretch of viewing in one sitting, my opinion against it has well and truly solidified. I accept it may not be appropriate to judge it as a realistic film (apart from the ludicrous Hugh Grant as British PM, he appears to do the job from home in his spare time with a staff of about 3.) But, even allowing for 2 minutes of convincing crying from Emma Thompson, it just doesn't even ring true emotionally (for me, of course.) I actually find some of the plotlines rather creepy (oh, sorry, I have accidentally slipped into Hugh Grant talk), the use of the swelling orchestral score to make some scenes more "important" to be really irritating, and nothing in the film (unless it is in the 10% I still haven't seen) makes me laugh.

But don't worry, when appointed benevolent dictator, I will add aversion therapy to adjust errant opinions of this film to Medicare coverage. It is, after all, important that all people think like me.

* Sunday night: Speaking of partially watched movies, I saw some of Speed Racer. What an obvious dud of a film. How on earth was Lego ever convinced that there would be a market for a line of sets built around this film? (They were all heavily discounted after the box office failure.)

As many critics correctly noted, it is not possible to make car racing exciting when there are no laws of physics involved. Its directorial tricks were repeated endlessly, and it contains as much tension as watching an electric car racing set being played by a couple of kids for 100 minutes. Less, possibly.

* Sunday: Completing a movie theme post, the family went to Warner Brother's Movieworld for the first time yesterday.

It was an good enough day that the kids enjoyed, but two rides showed technical faults, and one needed some general cleaning up. One comedy routine was clearly in need of a re-write (no one watching laughed at any of the jokes), and the "character street parade" is embarrassingly short. (There are more characters from the Warner world than this, surely.)

As I suspected, if you have spent time in Disney theme parks, and seen the extraordinary commitment to perfection that they show, other theme parks suffer in comparison. It makes them just seem to not be trying hard enough.

Further proof of no credibility in Nobel Peace prize

A-ha to break up after 25 years

So, a band you assumed had broken up about 20 years ago was still around.

But what about this:

...after the commercial failure of 1993's Memorial Beach, the band went on hiatus, only reforming after being invited to play the Nobel Peace Prize concert in 1998.

Who's playing the 2009 concert...Cheap Trick?

Useful

Just How Sensitive Is Earth's Climate to Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide?: Scientific American

This article gives a good explanation of a couple of recent studies relevant to the issue of climate sensitivity to CO2.

It is not encouraging.

Feed the boy sheep

Meat and milk stop anaemia

Oddly, it would appear that in New Zealand at least, it is not uncommon for toddlers to be deficient in iron:

A survey carried out by Dr Elaine Ferguson at the University of Otago showed that up to 1 in 3 toddlers have low iron levels. Although severe iron deficiency is rare, these high levels of iron depletion are a concern because they increase a child’s risk of developing iron deficiency anaemia which can have serious consequences.

In a country full of delicious lamb, which most children seem to like a lot, this should not be happening.

Boat problems

Ken Parish from the far from right wing Club Troppo writes well about the problem of unauthorised immigrants arriving by boat. Welcome to the real world of hard decisions, Kevin Rudd.

The power of TV

The grisly truth about CSI degrees | Education | The Guardian

I knew lots of people want to work in forensics now, but this is ridiculous:

Let's call it the CSI Effect: thanks to the uncontrolled proliferation of cop shows focusing on forensic investigation, including Bones, Silent Witness, CSI and its Miami and New York spin-offs, the number of degree courses in forensic science being offered in the UK has rocketed, from just two in 1990 to 285 this year.

I like the last line in this final paragraph of the report:

The biggest problem, however, is that crime has not kept pace with the explosion in TV detective shows. The government-owned Forensic Science Service currently finds 1,300 scientists sufficient for its crime-solving needs. The UK's largest private provider, LGC Forensics, employs 500 people. In 2008 alone, 1,667 students embarked on forensic science degree courses. In order to ensure there are enough jobs to go round, more than half of them will have to retrain as serial killers.

I must admit, I saw the "classic" version of CSI recently and was sufficiently amused that I might start watching it again, but only if the station doesn't stuff around with the timeslot, as is their wont.

And when will there be the long awaited episode in which the architects who built the Las Vegas CSI lab are sued for negligence for failing to provide adequate ceiling lights. It must be the only workplace in the world where they have to use torches inside every day.

Important robot news

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?

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:

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 19^th 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.

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:

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):

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:

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."

Such procedures could no doubt speed up trials in courts in Australia.

Obviously *

Wildlife expert claims gorilla dung is critical to containing climate change

* sarcasm

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.

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.

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.

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:

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."

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.

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:

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.

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.