Where did global warming go? Here's where...
Yet another excellent post at Skeptical Science showing with illustrations how the Northern Hemisphere cold snap is distributed, and the unusually warm areas that are accompanying it.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
In which I get amusement at other people's embarrassment
Publicly Sleeping Salarymen | loneleeplanet
If you read Japanese blogs, you'll know from time to time people publish photos of drunk Japanese men who fall asleep on the train (or elsewhere) in embarrassing positions. I don't usually link to them, as it does feel somewhat unfair to the poor guy who obviously was in no position to consent to the photo, let alone its publication on the internet.
But, with this collection of the "10 of the best" examples of this genre, I'll give up my scrupples for today, especially as some of them are really very funny. (I think the entry on "The Backbender" may be best.)
If you read Japanese blogs, you'll know from time to time people publish photos of drunk Japanese men who fall asleep on the train (or elsewhere) in embarrassing positions. I don't usually link to them, as it does feel somewhat unfair to the poor guy who obviously was in no position to consent to the photo, let alone its publication on the internet.
But, with this collection of the "10 of the best" examples of this genre, I'll give up my scrupples for today, especially as some of them are really very funny. (I think the entry on "The Backbender" may be best.)
Persistent and pantless
Cover up or face life in jail, naked rambler is warned - Crime, UK - The Independent
This all started from his attempts to walk nude across England:Naked rambler Stephen Gough has been warned he faces spending the rest of his life in prison if he continues to refuse to wear clothes in public.
The former Royal Marine, a veteran of two “boots-only” hikes from Land’s End to John O’Groats, has spent most of the last four years in solitary confinement in Scottish jails after stripping off on a flight to Edinburgh. Since then he has declined to wear prison uniform or to appear clothed in court resulting in further custodial sentences for contempt.
This week he was found guilty of causing a breach of the peace following his arrest as he left Perth prison in December where he had just finished serving a 12-month sentence for the same offence. On that and a previous occasion police have been waiting to re-arrest him at the prison gates.
Mr Gough completed his first naked ramble across Britain in 2003 during which he was arrested 15 times and spent 140 nights in jail, mainly in Scotland where the authorities hold a dimmer view of public nudity than in England and Wales. He finished his second hike with his then girlfriend Melanie Roberts three years later.I don't know. If his problem is just that he wants to walk nude in the countryside, and his actions are all a protest about that, is it worth the effort to imprison him? If, however, he also was dropping into the corner shop nude to buy a bottle of milk, well I can see how that's a problem people shouldn't have to live with.
Sounds reasonable
From Rio to Copenhagen the model was wrong | The Australian
Geoff Carmody summaries the whole problem with the UN approach to climate change and the principles that should be adopted to start from scratch. (They point towards a carbon tax, basically.)
All sounds very reasonable to me.
Geoff Carmody summaries the whole problem with the UN approach to climate change and the principles that should be adopted to start from scratch. (They point towards a carbon tax, basically.)
All sounds very reasonable to me.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Jerks and safety on public transport
Club Troppo - Vigilance against violence
Club Troppo has an interesting post about an incident of racial harassment and assault (in terms of someone fearing for their safety) on a Melbourne train.
Amongst all the discussion, I see that no one mentions the obvious point: people felt much safer from such incidents in the days when there used to be a railway "guard" on the train (who could be contacted if there was a real problem on board) and there was also the knowledge that every station would be manned and the behaviour could be immediately reported to that person.
Saving costs by removing people as far as possible from the transport system has undoubtedly made it feel less safe, yet it seems that re-populating railway stations for this reason is just never considered seriously because of the cost. But even a moderate step towards this would, I am betting, be greatly welcome by the public.
It is a feature of modern Australian cities which has gone backwards over the last 30 years.
Club Troppo has an interesting post about an incident of racial harassment and assault (in terms of someone fearing for their safety) on a Melbourne train.
Amongst all the discussion, I see that no one mentions the obvious point: people felt much safer from such incidents in the days when there used to be a railway "guard" on the train (who could be contacted if there was a real problem on board) and there was also the knowledge that every station would be manned and the behaviour could be immediately reported to that person.
Saving costs by removing people as far as possible from the transport system has undoubtedly made it feel less safe, yet it seems that re-populating railway stations for this reason is just never considered seriously because of the cost. But even a moderate step towards this would, I am betting, be greatly welcome by the public.
It is a feature of modern Australian cities which has gone backwards over the last 30 years.
Get that woman out of there!
Dezeen - Axial Symphony by Design Systems
I think I quite like this apartment refurbishment by a Hong Kong company, although I am curious about how hard it will be to maintain the mini mountain range on the terrace. You can't exactly run of mower over it, although I suppose a whipper snipper may do. (Kids would love it as an area to play with toy cars, soldiers or whatever.)
But what's this? There's a woman in shot in one of the interior photos. And she's slouching on the sofa! This is not allowed in architectural photography. All interiors must look unsullied by any evidence of actual humanity (including magazines, old newspapers, the mail, food, crumbs, the dog, and of course, people.) Big mistake.
I think I quite like this apartment refurbishment by a Hong Kong company, although I am curious about how hard it will be to maintain the mini mountain range on the terrace. You can't exactly run of mower over it, although I suppose a whipper snipper may do. (Kids would love it as an area to play with toy cars, soldiers or whatever.)
But what's this? There's a woman in shot in one of the interior photos. And she's slouching on the sofa! This is not allowed in architectural photography. All interiors must look unsullied by any evidence of actual humanity (including magazines, old newspapers, the mail, food, crumbs, the dog, and of course, people.) Big mistake.
Real estate bubble or not?
In China, fear of a real estate bubble - washingtonpost.com
There seems to be a fair amount of different opinion expressed in the article as to whether China has a real estate bubble that is about to burst, or whether it will hold for many years yet.
Of course, they already know about yurts, so it may be a bit redundant for me to mention again my favourite solution to all housing problems.
There seems to be a fair amount of different opinion expressed in the article as to whether China has a real estate bubble that is about to burst, or whether it will hold for many years yet.
Of course, they already know about yurts, so it may be a bit redundant for me to mention again my favourite solution to all housing problems.
Lindzen criticism mounts
Lindzen & Choi's "feedback is nothing to worry about" paper from last year is facing more criticism.
Given that even Roy Spencer thinks Lindzen got this wrong, it would seem a fair bet that he did.
Given that even Roy Spencer thinks Lindzen got this wrong, it would seem a fair bet that he did.
More money from dead bodies
Now you can be mummified just like the Egyptians - Science, News - The Independent
We haven't heard much about the plasticised skinned body exhibits lately, so it must be time to come up with some other ghoulish use of dead bodies for public entertainment. Cue England, that new bastion of inappropriate and degrading entertainment on TV:
We haven't heard much about the plasticised skinned body exhibits lately, so it must be time to come up with some other ghoulish use of dead bodies for public entertainment. Cue England, that new bastion of inappropriate and degrading entertainment on TV:
We've had the first televised real autopsy and the first on-screen assisted suicide. The latest wheeze to challenge the British public’s attitudes to dying comes from Channel 4, which is appealing to the terminally ill to find someone to donate their body to be mummified for a reality television show – then displayed in a museum for two years.
Way to run a country
Chavez's snap devaluation sparks panic in the aisles - Americas, World - The Independent
The Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez promised to send soldiers into shops to seize businesses from owners who raise prices in the wake of the country's steep currency devaluation.
People had crowded into shops over the weekend to snap up imported televisions and electrical appliances, fearing that the devaluation of the bolivar was about to send inflation soaring.
"Right now, there is absolutely no reason for anybody to be raising prices of absolutely anything," Mr Chavez said on his weekly TV show. "I want the National Guard on the streets with the people to fight against speculation. Publicly denounce the speculator and we will intervene in any business of any size." To audience applause, the president added that the government would take over shops and give them to their workers if price rises were discovered.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Options, none of them good
Israel and Iran: The gathering storm | The Economist
Here's a very good article on the current situation and the limited options available in dealing with Iran's nuclear program.
Here's a very good article on the current situation and the limited options available in dealing with Iran's nuclear program.
The top hat controversy
Times Archive Blog: Why inventors weren't always hailed as heroes
The Times website has a link today to a Times Archive Blog story about inventions that caused a social stir in their day. Most strange is an account of the first top hat being worn on the street causing quite a disruption.
It is not so clear whether the story is true, but there is a link to the Times 1926 article which discusses it.
In fact, the whole Times Archive Blog looks like a very entertaining resource, and I am sad to have not discovered it before.
The Times website has a link today to a Times Archive Blog story about inventions that caused a social stir in their day. Most strange is an account of the first top hat being worn on the street causing quite a disruption.
It is not so clear whether the story is true, but there is a link to the Times 1926 article which discusses it.
In fact, the whole Times Archive Blog looks like a very entertaining resource, and I am sad to have not discovered it before.
Doctors in trouble
Doctors gone bad stories are always interesting (or, I suppose, horrifying if you happened to have been their patient) and there are a couple of pretty spectacular cases of note lately:
* She was just trying to be helpful:
* She was just trying to be helpful:
A DOCTOR has been struck off the medical register for giving a woman 22 prescriptions for mood-altering drugs, knowing she was secretly spiking her husband's coffee with the tablets for four years.
Yuk-Fun Christina Port, a GP in Deniliquin for more than 20 years, wrote prescriptions for about 3000 antidepressant and anti-psychotic tablets, including the highly toxic drug lithium carbonate used to treat bipolar disorder, without examining, diagnosing or monitoring the man.
Dr Port also changed the type of medication prescribed and increased his dose at the wife's request even though she had not seen the man for about six years, the NSW Medical Tribunal found.Dr Port said she felt pressured to prescribe Sinequan, Aropax and Zoloft because the man's wife said he was becoming violent at home and she feared for the safety of her children.
* a former neurosurgeon seems to be finding it particularly hard to kick a habit:
A LEADING neurosurgeon charged with supplying drugs to a woman found dead in his apartment has been arrested for breaching his strict bail conditions.
Suresh Surendranath Nair, 41, was arrested shortly after midnight yesterday when Kings Cross detectives raided his apartment in Bondi.
His arrest came after surveillance police alleged the Malaysian-born surgeon separately hired three female escorts over 2½ hours, taking them back to his first-floor unit in Hall Street.
As part of his bail conditions, Dr Nair is barred from hiring any sex workers or taking illicit drugs.
The raid on the unit came a week after Dr Nair discharged himself from a private hospital where he had been undergoing treatment since being charged in relation to the death of Suellen Domingues Zaupa, 22, at his Elizabeth Bay unit on November 21 last year.
Three escorts over 2 1/2 hours? Seems kind of excessive, doesn't it?
And you thought House getting hooked on prescription painkillers was a scandal.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
An innovative use for DNA science
Are the Taliban descended from ancient Israelites?
The Jerusalem Post reports:
But, it's possible that a historical link might be capable of good, and indeed at the end of the article, one researcher thinks this is the point: So it may be a case of government funded DNA research for peace. Neat.
The Jerusalem Post reports:
Are the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan descendants of an Israelite tribe that migrated across Asia after it was exiled over 2,700 years ago?She's be doing genetic testing on the samples. If the theory pans out, I somehow can't imagine the Taliban being impressed. In fact, I thought the Israeli Government might be funding it just to annoy them.This intriguing question has been asked by a variety of scholars, theologians, anthropologists and pundits over the years, but has remained somewhere between the realms of amateur speculation and serious academic research.
But now, for the first time, the government has shown official interest, with the Foreign Ministry providing a scholarship to an Indian scientist to come to the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa and determine whether or not the tribe that provides the hard core of today's Taliban has a blood link to any of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, and specifically to the tribe of Efraim.
Shahnaz Ali, a senior research fellow at the National Institute of Immunohaematology, Mumbai, has joined the Technion to study the blood samples that she collected from Afridi Pathans in Malihabad, in the Lucknow district, Uttar Pradesh state, India, to check their putative Israelite origin.
But, it's possible that a historical link might be capable of good, and indeed at the end of the article, one researcher thinks this is the point:
Navras welcomed Shahnaz's research grant. "It's a great news that now my research would be analyzed scientifically," he said on his blog.
"I don't know what would be the outcome of the DNA analysis, but it would provide us a direction to resolve the complex issue. I also hope that such effort will have positive ramifications and will bring the Muslims and Jews close and enable them to forget historical animosity," Navras wrote
Saturday, January 09, 2010
Seedy Sydney
I don't often find myself in agreement with Miranda Devine lately, but I reckon she's pretty right about the always slightly seedy atmosphere around the southern end of George Street.
Other big cities like New York apparently manage to push out the sex shops and general depressing sleaze from their entertainment areas, but somehow Sydney seems never to have quite managed that. (Mind you, it's been some years since I visited, but later this year I'll be there for a few days.)
Other big cities like New York apparently manage to push out the sex shops and general depressing sleaze from their entertainment areas, but somehow Sydney seems never to have quite managed that. (Mind you, it's been some years since I visited, but later this year I'll be there for a few days.)
Friday, January 08, 2010
Movies that jump the technological shark
I just saw the second half of the 2005 Jodie Foster movie "Flightplan". I knew the set up, and was curious to see the explanation for where the missing kid had disappeared on the plane.
I hadn't realised that the script would solve that problem by pretending that a plane somewhat resembling the new Airbus A 380 would have absolutely cavernous amounts of open space both above and below the passenger decks. It was so ridiculous, this internal design of the aircraft, that the movie just plummeted into a black hole of implausibility so overwhelming that I found it impossible to believe that any viewer could have found it engaging. Do people really think the hidden nooks and crannies on a passenger plane look something like a standing inside a Zeppelin?
Looking at the summaries of reviews at Rottentomatoes, it would seem that critic Mark Ramsey similarly found this the defining feature of the film:
GoldenEye: no it wasn't the laser in a watch. Yes, ridiculous I know, but impossibly powerful gadgets had been in many of the Bond films for many years and I can overlook them. What I couldn't forgive was the absolutely 100% gold-plated absurd idea that a satellite weapon would have to be controlled by an antenna the size of the Arecibo Observatory, (of course, it was the Arecibo Observatory used in the film,) which also had to be hidden in a fake lake! I mean, even in 1995, satellite telephones were already in use with small laptop sized antennas, and even smaller handsets were in the pipeline. The satellite in question was not orbiting Pluto, for crying out loud; to use EMP it had to be in low earth orbit, not even geosynchronous orbit. What an inexcusably weak excuse for getting an interesting location into a movie. Didn't anyone point out this made no technological sense at all?
For some reason, it seems that every few months my mind goes back to GoldenEye and how annoyed I was at this incredibly stupid plot point. Maybe therapy is called for. Send me money someone, I will put it to good use.
Armageddon: to the best of my knowledge, this is by far the biggest collection of stupid, wrong, or improbable space science stuff ever assembled into one loud movie. Too many things wrong to possibly list. As Phil Plait wrote:
I hadn't realised that the script would solve that problem by pretending that a plane somewhat resembling the new Airbus A 380 would have absolutely cavernous amounts of open space both above and below the passenger decks. It was so ridiculous, this internal design of the aircraft, that the movie just plummeted into a black hole of implausibility so overwhelming that I found it impossible to believe that any viewer could have found it engaging. Do people really think the hidden nooks and crannies on a passenger plane look something like a standing inside a Zeppelin?
Looking at the summaries of reviews at Rottentomatoes, it would seem that critic Mark Ramsey similarly found this the defining feature of the film:
It's an obscenely big plane. "Where is my daughter?!" asks Jodie. "Did you search the plane's tennis courts? The plane's new ballpark? Get me this plane's governor! NOW!It's not often that technological ludicrousness ruins a movie for me. I mean, I'm not one of those people who likes to be overly analytical and worry about the fact that in Star Wars we can hear an explosion in space, or some such. Sometimes things are a bit silly and laughable but are sort of dramatically right, and you don't come away thinking that movie was ruined. But other times, that just doesn't work, and I can think of 2 movies in which technological silliness smacked me in the face so hard I could no longer enjoy it:
GoldenEye: no it wasn't the laser in a watch. Yes, ridiculous I know, but impossibly powerful gadgets had been in many of the Bond films for many years and I can overlook them. What I couldn't forgive was the absolutely 100% gold-plated absurd idea that a satellite weapon would have to be controlled by an antenna the size of the Arecibo Observatory, (of course, it was the Arecibo Observatory used in the film,) which also had to be hidden in a fake lake! I mean, even in 1995, satellite telephones were already in use with small laptop sized antennas, and even smaller handsets were in the pipeline. The satellite in question was not orbiting Pluto, for crying out loud; to use EMP it had to be in low earth orbit, not even geosynchronous orbit. What an inexcusably weak excuse for getting an interesting location into a movie. Didn't anyone point out this made no technological sense at all?
For some reason, it seems that every few months my mind goes back to GoldenEye and how annoyed I was at this incredibly stupid plot point. Maybe therapy is called for. Send me money someone, I will put it to good use.
Armageddon: to the best of my knowledge, this is by far the biggest collection of stupid, wrong, or improbable space science stuff ever assembled into one loud movie. Too many things wrong to possibly list. As Phil Plait wrote:
Here's the short version: "Armageddon" got some astronomy right. For example, there is an asteroid in the movie, and asteroids do indeed exist. And then there was... um... well, you know... um. Okay, so that was about all they got right.Any reader with a different favourite example of a silly bit of technology that ruined a movie, you are welcome to share.
Planetary disaster averted
No, a nearby supernova won’t wipe us out | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine
The Daily Telegraph and The Sun both reported this was a relatively immanent danger to the Earth. As it wasn't picked up by more reliable sources, I suspected there might be less to the story than first appeared. Seems I was right, even if it wasn't the papers' fault
The Daily Telegraph and The Sun both reported this was a relatively immanent danger to the Earth. As it wasn't picked up by more reliable sources, I suspected there might be less to the story than first appeared. Seems I was right, even if it wasn't the papers' fault
Prat blog
For those of you who just can't get enough of the only TV show host ever to urinate on his shirt and wrap it around his head, (he was feeling a touch hot at the time, and an application of warm urine apparently helps,) I've just discovered that "Bear" Grylls has his own, not frequently updated, blog.
He's significantly more annoying than Steve Irwin, who at least kept his unnecessary wildlife interventions to simply annoying them; not eating them. (That's assuming you can believe anything at all on "Man vs Wild". For all I know, every animal he eats raw may have followed him into the wilderness in an icebox.)
Worse still, it seems from his blog that he was appointed "Chief Scout" in England last year. That would put me off encouraging a child to the organisation.
Every time I see the show and the mention of him being ex-SAS, I just imagine a bunch of groans from the soldiers who used to serve with him. "That prat again...!"
He's significantly more annoying than Steve Irwin, who at least kept his unnecessary wildlife interventions to simply annoying them; not eating them. (That's assuming you can believe anything at all on "Man vs Wild". For all I know, every animal he eats raw may have followed him into the wilderness in an icebox.)
Worse still, it seems from his blog that he was appointed "Chief Scout" in England last year. That would put me off encouraging a child to the organisation.
Every time I see the show and the mention of him being ex-SAS, I just imagine a bunch of groans from the soldiers who used to serve with him. "That prat again...!"
Unnatural selection
Brow Beat : Beauty, American Beauty: Sam Mendes Directs James Bond
Slate has some mildly amusing fun with the announcement that Sam Mendes (!) is in talks to direct the next James Bond.
Presumably, this may at least mean that we don't get a repeat of the hypershakes and hyper-editing of Quantum of Solace. (My son saw some of it on TV recently and said, quite unprompted by his Dad, "it's too fast". Smart boy.)
However, whether it will also mean a Bondian mid-life or sexual identity crisis is another matter.
Slate has some mildly amusing fun with the announcement that Sam Mendes (!) is in talks to direct the next James Bond.
Presumably, this may at least mean that we don't get a repeat of the hypershakes and hyper-editing of Quantum of Solace. (My son saw some of it on TV recently and said, quite unprompted by his Dad, "it's too fast". Smart boy.)
However, whether it will also mean a Bondian mid-life or sexual identity crisis is another matter.
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