Improving the scientific foundations for estimating health risks from the Fukushima incident
The article points out the complications with trying to work out the risk from radioactive fallout on humans. It seems to be written by someone mostly concerned that risk is probably always being over-estimated, but it does end with a call for some hard work to be put in on the issue.
In any event, if you are a parent with kids in an area around Fukushima, of course you are going to lean towards the side of caution.
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Monday, August 26, 2013
NBN talk
I noticed this blog a few weeks ago, that takes a very technical and detailed look at the NBN and the Coalition's alternative, and falls very heavily in favour of fibre to the premises and hence the NBN.
I've always been unsure whether the NBN was really worth it. But the fact is, it seems hard to find people with detailed knowledge in IT and communications who doubt that the NBN is a good investment that will last many, many decades.
On this basis, I've stopped worrying about it.
I've always been unsure whether the NBN was really worth it. But the fact is, it seems hard to find people with detailed knowledge in IT and communications who doubt that the NBN is a good investment that will last many, many decades.
On this basis, I've stopped worrying about it.
And now for something completely different (well, not really) - some anti-Coalition stories
1. Lenore Taylor has a great explanation of the obviously calculated Abbott bulldust that he's the guy who's trying to rise above tawdry politics:
For three years he conducted a relentless, deliberate and effective negative campaign against the Gillard government, a campaign at times so aggressive that many on his own side were deeply concerned it was causing irreparable damage to voter perceptions of Abbott himself.And, as I have noted before, the tactics being used against Rudd this time are those he used against Howard:
But with negative views of Labor’s record apparently entrenched – aided, it must be said, by Labor’s own self-destructive leadership saga – Abbott is flipping to positive just in time.
Slowly but surely his personal approval ratings are improving. He has toned down the attacks. His colleagues and his daughters talk about his “authenticity” as a community member and a family man. They label Rudd a “fake”.
And all the while Abbott refuses to deviate from his strategy of claiming to have a “real plan” without setting out what it is and how it will be paid for in anything like the detail provided by previous oppositions.
The last time we saw “the flip” exercised with such confidence and dexterity was in Rudd’s campaign launch speech in 2007, when he managed to flip the economic management debate to one where John Howard, who had just presided over 11 years of consecutive growth and record low unemployment, was on the defensive over the economy.2. Lenore also had a good column a few days ago about the Coalition's deliberate delays to disclose funding for policies:
Rudd had made $45bn in spending promises during the formal campaign, just $5bn less than Howard's $50bn in campaign promises, but when Rudd told the party faithful “this reckless spending must stop” he looked like the competent and frugal economic manager.
.... while oppositions of both persuasions have tried to game the formal costings processes, individual policies have almost always been released with their full price tags detailed over four years.3. Abbott's mysteriously unanalysed by Rupert's papers "let's go to Indonesia and buy boats!' scheme has apparently not gone over well in that country:
The Coalition's health policy, released on Thursday, had one line under costings which read: "The Coalition's policy to support Australia's health system will cost $340m over the forward estimates." Some of that – we were told on "background" – would come from cuts inside the health portfolio, and some from "elsewhere". In other words: they'll get back to us.
The "PBO has still got our homework" schtick has also worn thin since the Coalition has been telling us for months they already have everything fully costed and figured out.
The "Labor is running a scare campaign" excuse worked for a little while – aided by the ALP's silly insistence on using the $70bn figure for the Coalition's costings black hole, which by a quick reckoning is clearly overstated.
The buyback plan has met with heavy resistance in Jakarta, with a senior member of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's ruling coalition saying it showed Mr Abbott lacked understanding of Indonesia, and the broader asylum-seeker problem.
Mahfudz Siddiq, the head of Indonesia's parliamentary commission for foreign affairs, said on Monday that it was Mr Abbott's right to suggest the policy but warned that it had broader implications for the relationship between Jakarta and Australia.
"It's an unfriendly idea coming from a candidate who wants to be Australian leader," Mr Siddiq said.
"That idea shows how he sees things as [an] Australian politician on Indonesia regarding people smuggling. Don't look at us, Indonesia, like we want this people smuggling.
"This is really a crazy idea, unfriendly, derogatory and it shows lack of understanding in this matter."
Quick! Send us money! These cigars don't buy themselves, you know...
Interesting report at The Age on Sunday about the IPA.
For a "think tank" (using the term loosely) whose executive and members get a lot of screen time on the ABC and columns in the Murdoch press and elsewhere, it's always handy to read how they're viewed more broadly. Their mere ubiquity gives an impression of credibility.
The main point of the article, though, is that it seems many prominent corporations who used to support them no longer will, because they recognise that it devotes a lot of effort to running a nutty extremist climate change denying line.
At the same time, they are doing very well financially due to a recent surge in donations. We still don't know who the corporate donors are, although it is openly acknowledged that Gina Rinehart helps fund it. (That's no surprise: their "we think everyone should be on a level playing field, except when it comes to those parts of Australian our favourite billionaire Gina Rinehart invests in" policy made that obvious.)
The article says British Tobacco was (or is still - it's not clear) a donor. That's not news, really, but it's worthwhile reminding people when you get IPA mouthpieces like Chris Berg rubbishing cigarette plain packaging in the media. Mind you, Chris Berg was also writing in 2010 that internet material for terrorist bomb making was not really worth worrying about:
You don't have to be wrong about terrorism, climate change, stagflation, the health effect of wind turbines, and tobacco plain packaging to work for/be associated with the IPA, but it certainly helps.
In any event, it's amusing to read the reaction Andrew Bolt which I will now paraphrase as follows:
"Look! The Age says the IPA are corporate shills, but then admits that more money comes from donations! Stand up, everyone, and be proud that the IPA has become a mutual support club for climate change nutters, and for people like me who do lousy research on aboriginal issues and then get taken to court and lose and want to act like a martyr for the next 2 years.
And send money - more money! The price of freedom, especially my freedom to do lousy research via Google and ridicule people based on mistake, is not cheap!"
What Andrew doesn't address is how much more money the place needs. I see that, after a fairly lengthy delay, the IPA financials for 2011/12 are finally available (I have been checking for them for the last year or so.)
They indicate that in 2011, it received $562,000 in donations; in 2012: $2,612,000. How much of that is loose change from Gina's deep pockets is not clear. (And seriously, Andrew Bolt, do you think a donation from any body controlled by Gina should not be counted as effectively coming from a corporate interest?)
Total income went from $2.4 million to $4 million.
The current year income surplus after expenses went from $217,000 to $313,000, with a total retained surplus of $1.544 million.
And yet, Andrew Bolt and Sinclair Davidson have been big on asking for donations over the last year or so, and there is no doubt that the martyrdom of Andrew Bolt played big with his fanbase.
So, yeah, the anti-mooching "think tank" is very big on panhandling. Even though I would have expected the cigars for the board meetings are free....*
And Tony Abbott says that the IPA "...has supported capitalism, but capitalism with a conscience."
Yeah, sure. To put it at its most charitable, Abbott is living in the past.
To be less charitable, and more realistic: he's a dill who doesn't know who to listen to....
* reliable details from John Roskam to dissuade me of how I like to imagine meetings there are welcome. I wonder how many ex smokers are on staff too.
For a "think tank" (using the term loosely) whose executive and members get a lot of screen time on the ABC and columns in the Murdoch press and elsewhere, it's always handy to read how they're viewed more broadly. Their mere ubiquity gives an impression of credibility.
The main point of the article, though, is that it seems many prominent corporations who used to support them no longer will, because they recognise that it devotes a lot of effort to running a nutty extremist climate change denying line.
At the same time, they are doing very well financially due to a recent surge in donations. We still don't know who the corporate donors are, although it is openly acknowledged that Gina Rinehart helps fund it. (That's no surprise: their "we think everyone should be on a level playing field, except when it comes to those parts of Australian our favourite billionaire Gina Rinehart invests in" policy made that obvious.)
The article says British Tobacco was (or is still - it's not clear) a donor. That's not news, really, but it's worthwhile reminding people when you get IPA mouthpieces like Chris Berg rubbishing cigarette plain packaging in the media. Mind you, Chris Berg was also writing in 2010 that internet material for terrorist bomb making was not really worth worrying about:
When they're not utterly stupid, they are oddly banal. Another Inspire recommendation is to shoot up lunch spots that are popular with government workers. So in a decade, al-Qaeda has gone from targeting the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon - the two symbolic organs of American power - to threatening Starbucks outlets one at a time.That was, of course, before the Boston bombings killed 3 people and maimed and injured 264 others.
Then there is ''Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom'', which suggests repurposing a home pressure cooker to become an explosive device. Such a device is weak, apparently, so the magazine recommends it is placed ''close to the intended targets''.
It is surprisingly hard to detonate explosives successfully.
You don't have to be wrong about terrorism, climate change, stagflation, the health effect of wind turbines, and tobacco plain packaging to work for/be associated with the IPA, but it certainly helps.
In any event, it's amusing to read the reaction Andrew Bolt which I will now paraphrase as follows:
"Look! The Age says the IPA are corporate shills, but then admits that more money comes from donations! Stand up, everyone, and be proud that the IPA has become a mutual support club for climate change nutters, and for people like me who do lousy research on aboriginal issues and then get taken to court and lose and want to act like a martyr for the next 2 years.
And send money - more money! The price of freedom, especially my freedom to do lousy research via Google and ridicule people based on mistake, is not cheap!"
What Andrew doesn't address is how much more money the place needs. I see that, after a fairly lengthy delay, the IPA financials for 2011/12 are finally available (I have been checking for them for the last year or so.)
They indicate that in 2011, it received $562,000 in donations; in 2012: $2,612,000. How much of that is loose change from Gina's deep pockets is not clear. (And seriously, Andrew Bolt, do you think a donation from any body controlled by Gina should not be counted as effectively coming from a corporate interest?)
Total income went from $2.4 million to $4 million.
The current year income surplus after expenses went from $217,000 to $313,000, with a total retained surplus of $1.544 million.
And yet, Andrew Bolt and Sinclair Davidson have been big on asking for donations over the last year or so, and there is no doubt that the martyrdom of Andrew Bolt played big with his fanbase.
So, yeah, the anti-mooching "think tank" is very big on panhandling. Even though I would have expected the cigars for the board meetings are free....*
And Tony Abbott says that the IPA "...has supported capitalism, but capitalism with a conscience."
Yeah, sure. To put it at its most charitable, Abbott is living in the past.
To be less charitable, and more realistic: he's a dill who doesn't know who to listen to....
* reliable details from John Roskam to dissuade me of how I like to imagine meetings there are welcome. I wonder how many ex smokers are on staff too.
Another Jericho
Wage rise blowout a figment of Coalition’s imagination | Business | theguardian.com
Another good, clear column from Greg Jericho here, with lots of graphs, and ending with this summary:
Another good, clear column from Greg Jericho here, with lots of graphs, and ending with this summary:
For the past six years there has been a lot of hoo-hah said and written about industrial relations. As soon as the ALP moved to change IR legislation, warnings came from the Liberal party and conservative commentators of a wages boom. They also warned that the Fair Work Act would destroy productivity.
It didn’t.
In his campaign launch speech on Sunday, Tony Abbott talked of returning IR to the “sensible centre”. It’s a claim based on the view that unions now have too much power. If that is true, there is scant evidence they have used it to gain excess wage rises which have decoupled earnings from productivity.
When the Liberal party does finally announce its changes to IR after the election, it would be nice if they could keep themselves to fixing problems that actually exist, and not ones that occur only in their imagination.
Sunday, August 25, 2013
How's the Murdochcracy going?
It was a stunningly beautiful day in Brisbane today. The tides were right too, so it was off to Cleveland for some canal fishing for (as it turned out) about 5 hours. (Small fish caught and thrown back; prawn smell still slightly persisting on everyone's fingers. Takeaway pizza for dinner.)
So, while I was out, can anyone let me know if the installation of the Murdochcracy has been completed, with the rise to power of his favourite "conviction politician" (ha!), TonyPutin Abbott?*
Seriously, there seems to be a pretty unusually muted response by anyone to the completely over the top editorial line being pursued by the Murdoch papers in this election campaign.
But then, even Insiders was weird today. Barrie Cassidy started by asking some pointed questions about why Rudd's movements yesterday were so important to the Murdoch press; Malcolm Farr half fobbed it off, making out that he didn't think what Rudd did was such a sin. But then by the time Cassidy got to the Rudd interview, he was very aggressive towards him on the matter of the Gillard record As Cassidy was supposed to be pals with (Gillard's) Tim, I can only assume there was a large element of revenge in this for Rudd's role in her departure.
Rudd's sin apparently was in not making it clear he was doing Kitchen Confidential (essentially a bit of campaign related work) before having a briefing last night on Syria (done in lieu of some Brisbane campaign thing, I think I read.) The video of the briefing that took place did look pathetically transparent - but then again, there have been several videos of Tony Abbott pep talks to his shadow caucus team over the last six months which looked every bit as stilted and "for the cameras" as yesterday's effort. As for appearing on Kitchen Confidential - Abbott has already done his episode.
So, as far as I can tell, Rudd has every right to be furious with his treatment at the hands of the Murdoch press; but as nearly everyone thinks Rudd was a jerk for the way he undermined Gillard, no one's going to put their job on the line by putting in too much effort into calling out Murdoch.
What a sad state of affairs for someone like me, who has never liked Rudd, but considers that Labor collectively now has a sounder approach on economics and a majority of other issues than the alternative, which is headed by a bloke who has become a disgraceful fence-sitter and increasingly shows himself to be just not very bright. (Not that you need to be all that bright to be a successful politician. In fact, being too smart as a politician runs the risk of frequent paralysis. But you need to have enough smarts to know who to listen to. Abbott hasn't even got that, if you ask me.)
And look at the way that Abbott's odd ideas (buying people smuggling boats in Indonesia) are simply not getting any significant coverage in the press. For God's sake, I saw that quite a few at Catallaxy thought it was a stupid idea on Friday; then phftt; the proposal gets next to no attention while Murdoch's minions come up with the next "Rudd's a disaster!" headline for the following morning.
I haven't read much about the Liberal Policy launch today. I saw Abbott's daughters front and centre (for God's sake, Tony & Kevin, leave the kids at home like 99% of working people do), and something about defence spending being 2% of GDP in future. Tying defence spending to GDP was a Romney promise**. What a surprise. Mind you, this was an aim to be reached "in a decade". As irrelevant as Rudd's "aim" to reduce company tax in the Northern Territory if re-elected in 3 years.
And how appropriate that one of the few election commitments was for a big boost in Alzheimer's research. I wasn't really aware that Australia had any particular expertise there, and would have thought that other areas of biomedical promise might be worth pursuing - but Tony does have his power base to support.
All I can say in conclusion - if you value press coverage that runs something other than Murdoch's geriatric views, go an and pay for a digital subscription to a Fairfax paper. I'll be doing it tomorrow. It would be an appalling state of affairs if Fairfax did not exist.
* Has anyone else called Tony's never ending appearances as fitness he-man his Putin-isation? I doubt that is an original thought...
** I see that Labor has previously committed to this figure as well, which Alan Kohler calls a nonsense way to determine appropriate defence spending. At least Labor won't be reminding people of this the election campaign.
So, while I was out, can anyone let me know if the installation of the Murdochcracy has been completed, with the rise to power of his favourite "conviction politician" (ha!), Tony
Seriously, there seems to be a pretty unusually muted response by anyone to the completely over the top editorial line being pursued by the Murdoch papers in this election campaign.
But then, even Insiders was weird today. Barrie Cassidy started by asking some pointed questions about why Rudd's movements yesterday were so important to the Murdoch press; Malcolm Farr half fobbed it off, making out that he didn't think what Rudd did was such a sin. But then by the time Cassidy got to the Rudd interview, he was very aggressive towards him on the matter of the Gillard record As Cassidy was supposed to be pals with (Gillard's) Tim, I can only assume there was a large element of revenge in this for Rudd's role in her departure.
Rudd's sin apparently was in not making it clear he was doing Kitchen Confidential (essentially a bit of campaign related work) before having a briefing last night on Syria (done in lieu of some Brisbane campaign thing, I think I read.) The video of the briefing that took place did look pathetically transparent - but then again, there have been several videos of Tony Abbott pep talks to his shadow caucus team over the last six months which looked every bit as stilted and "for the cameras" as yesterday's effort. As for appearing on Kitchen Confidential - Abbott has already done his episode.
So, as far as I can tell, Rudd has every right to be furious with his treatment at the hands of the Murdoch press; but as nearly everyone thinks Rudd was a jerk for the way he undermined Gillard, no one's going to put their job on the line by putting in too much effort into calling out Murdoch.
What a sad state of affairs for someone like me, who has never liked Rudd, but considers that Labor collectively now has a sounder approach on economics and a majority of other issues than the alternative, which is headed by a bloke who has become a disgraceful fence-sitter and increasingly shows himself to be just not very bright. (Not that you need to be all that bright to be a successful politician. In fact, being too smart as a politician runs the risk of frequent paralysis. But you need to have enough smarts to know who to listen to. Abbott hasn't even got that, if you ask me.)
And look at the way that Abbott's odd ideas (buying people smuggling boats in Indonesia) are simply not getting any significant coverage in the press. For God's sake, I saw that quite a few at Catallaxy thought it was a stupid idea on Friday; then phftt; the proposal gets next to no attention while Murdoch's minions come up with the next "Rudd's a disaster!" headline for the following morning.
I haven't read much about the Liberal Policy launch today. I saw Abbott's daughters front and centre (for God's sake, Tony & Kevin, leave the kids at home like 99% of working people do), and something about defence spending being 2% of GDP in future. Tying defence spending to GDP was a Romney promise**. What a surprise. Mind you, this was an aim to be reached "in a decade". As irrelevant as Rudd's "aim" to reduce company tax in the Northern Territory if re-elected in 3 years.
And how appropriate that one of the few election commitments was for a big boost in Alzheimer's research. I wasn't really aware that Australia had any particular expertise there, and would have thought that other areas of biomedical promise might be worth pursuing - but Tony does have his power base to support.
All I can say in conclusion - if you value press coverage that runs something other than Murdoch's geriatric views, go an and pay for a digital subscription to a Fairfax paper. I'll be doing it tomorrow. It would be an appalling state of affairs if Fairfax did not exist.
* Has anyone else called Tony's never ending appearances as fitness he-man his Putin-isation? I doubt that is an original thought...
** I see that Labor has previously committed to this figure as well, which Alan Kohler calls a nonsense way to determine appropriate defence spending. At least Labor won't be reminding people of this the election campaign.
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Goodbye trees
I wasn't expecting much from the video, but watching trees disappear vertically underwater makes for a very peculiar look:
Incidentally, is it just me, or does the number of sinkhole stories in the media seem much higher now than it ever used to be?
Incidentally, is it just me, or does the number of sinkhole stories in the media seem much higher now than it ever used to be?
What a load of absolute bollocks
Gillard led a contest of 'crude political head-banging', says Abbott
Sorry, folks, but this confirms it.
Abbott is not smart and has no self awareness.
There has been nothing in the history of Australian modern politics to compare to the personal slagging off and rumour mongering that Julia Gillard suffered at the hand of the right wing media such as Alan Jones, Michael Smith, Larry Pickering (and Andrew Bolt, who would gleefully point people to those last two sites even if he wouldn't repeat it himself.)
Tony Abbott did make snide comments about Gillard's single woman status for years (a minor list is collected here) and the Gillard "misogyny speech" was red hot because he had just echoed Alan Jones' highly offensive "died of shame" comment made after her father had died.
Now Tony confirms that he felt really sorry for himself after that speech.
I don't care that he was a Rhodes scholar. He's just not smart.
Update: Wendy Harmer's take on this is pretty good too, likening him to a bully boy who just can't resist going back for one last punch, when he's already won (vis a vis Gillard). I don't know that nastiness is the best explanation, though. I tend to lean more to mere gormlessness.
This analysis of him at Independent Australia (admittedly an over the top site in many respects) also seems pretty accurate:
Sorry, folks, but this confirms it.
Abbott is not smart and has no self awareness.
There has been nothing in the history of Australian modern politics to compare to the personal slagging off and rumour mongering that Julia Gillard suffered at the hand of the right wing media such as Alan Jones, Michael Smith, Larry Pickering (and Andrew Bolt, who would gleefully point people to those last two sites even if he wouldn't repeat it himself.)
Tony Abbott did make snide comments about Gillard's single woman status for years (a minor list is collected here) and the Gillard "misogyny speech" was red hot because he had just echoed Alan Jones' highly offensive "died of shame" comment made after her father had died.
Now Tony confirms that he felt really sorry for himself after that speech.
I don't care that he was a Rhodes scholar. He's just not smart.
Update: Wendy Harmer's take on this is pretty good too, likening him to a bully boy who just can't resist going back for one last punch, when he's already won (vis a vis Gillard). I don't know that nastiness is the best explanation, though. I tend to lean more to mere gormlessness.
This analysis of him at Independent Australia (admittedly an over the top site in many respects) also seems pretty accurate:
It’s as if he can’t be bothered. Or it’s as if he has missed the past four decades entirely. Though, presumably he wasn’t alone in this. Presumably he is in sync with an entire demographic that has not seen the need to pull back the curtain and only reluctantly ever answers the door.I would add - he appears to show an interest in changing mainly when the need presents itself directly to him in his family - thus more (allegedly) understanding of gay issue because his sister went into a lesbian relationship. He realises the importance of parental leave to women because his daughters are now of child bearing age. He's on board with fertility treatment (against Catholic teaching, incidentally) because he knows Christopher Pyne and his chief of staff have had it. Yet again, this indicates to me a significant degree of shallowness and/or opportunism that I find unacceptable in anyone aspiring to be PM.
He really does think, when confronted with the issue of the recognition of the rights of gays, that it’s a matter of fashion.
There’s a certain laziness here. It represents the approach that says that some things aren’t worth noticing, learning, respecting. They’re just not important. He is comfortable where he is and really can’t be bothered to take on new information, or understand new dynamics.
Friday, August 23, 2013
From the Friday night video archives
I just stumbled across this at Millard Fillmore's Bathtub (a blog I still don't quite understand thematically): a segment from the old Groucho Marx quiz show featuring a very young, and very tall, Ray Bradbury.
This is apparently from 1955, and Ray is rattling off all of his most famous books as already being written. I would have thought they came a bit later - in the late 50's to mid 60's. Obviously my mental chronology of his career is wrong. I also had no idea he was such a strong looking bloke. My image of him is as being grey haired with thick glasses, and not physically imposing at all.
This is apparently from 1955, and Ray is rattling off all of his most famous books as already being written. I would have thought they came a bit later - in the late 50's to mid 60's. Obviously my mental chronology of his career is wrong. I also had no idea he was such a strong looking bloke. My image of him is as being grey haired with thick glasses, and not physically imposing at all.
A peppery tale
Tableside pepper grinding at restaurants: Why servers started wielding pepper mills in the early 20th century.
I would have thought Slate would have covered this before; but evidently not.
It's actually quite a good read that gives a bit of background about the evolution of restaurants between the 19th century and now.
I would have thought Slate would have covered this before; but evidently not.
It's actually quite a good read that gives a bit of background about the evolution of restaurants between the 19th century and now.
Changing expectations
English views of marriage: From here to eternity | The Economist
From a review of a new book looking back at changing views of marriage in England. The author reckons that high expectations really kicked in during the 1950's. These paragraphs are interesting:
From a review of a new book looking back at changing views of marriage in England. The author reckons that high expectations really kicked in during the 1950's. These paragraphs are interesting:
The growing idea that marriage was all about feeling alarmed many. The Bishop of Sheffield thought that the institution would buckle under the load of emotional and sexual expectation. The Royal Commission on Marriage and Divorce of the early 1950s feared “an undue emphasis on the overriding importance of a satisfactory sex relationship”. They were not wrong. By 1959 the Archbishop of Canterbury was thundering against the “tide of adultery” sweeping the land. Ms Langhamer convincingly argues that the sexual permissiveness of the 1960s and the subsequent decline in marriage were less a reaction to the so-called stability of the 1950s than a product of the decade’s instability.
She sees the 1920s and 1930s as a time of pragmatism, of slow courtships and modest expectations. The question was less whether a couple were in love than whether she could housekeep and he could earn. Ms Langhamer concedes that the trends she traces are winding and unsteady—that caution was urged in the 1960s, just as emotional intimacy was sought in the 1920s. Still, she finds that after the devastation of the first world war, steadiness was valued above all. The woman who, in 1930, wished simply to meet someone “clean, and if not good-looking, at least pleasant”, with £5 a week, was not untypical.
What a waste of research effort
New research suggests 'female sperm' and 'male eggs' possible - Science - News - The Independent
As a person who thinks that IVF research has been pretty much an inappropriate allocation of medical resources, I can't fathom why it is thought useful to do this research for the tiny number of humans who find they would want to go absolute extremes to reproduce.
There are probably thousands of biology research subjects into how cells work that are of more potential benefit to humanity than this.
As a person who thinks that IVF research has been pretty much an inappropriate allocation of medical resources, I can't fathom why it is thought useful to do this research for the tiny number of humans who find they would want to go absolute extremes to reproduce.
There are probably thousands of biology research subjects into how cells work that are of more potential benefit to humanity than this.
Defending Kevin
Kevin Rudd does have a huge burden of well known examples of past poor treatment of his minions to overcome. For years, I noted he had a fake public persona, according to many, many accounts.
And it is entirely possible that anyone who saw how he interacted with the TV make up woman the other night might have thought "that's a bit much Kevin, you *%#@."
But honestly, should the press really run with an uncorroborated complaint of being "treated badly" which contains no details at all?
She didn't say at all how he was rude. It could have been anything from heated swearing to ignoring an attempt at polite chit chat to saying "hurry up, and don't talk to me while I prepare mentally." Yet it was run all day by not only the Murdoch press, but Fairfax and on the ABC too.
On the Drum, they wondered why he didn't just apologise. Apologise for what? We have no idea what he actually did.
OK, so perhaps its Kevin just reaping the consequences of past bad behaviour. It still seems to me to be disreputable of the media to spend so much time on it during a campaign without knowing how he allegedly "treated her badly".
Update: I see that Andrew Bolt, who ran with the Rudd rudeness story at great, great length yesterday, is now complaining that the story was not covered enough by Fairfax! Apart from the fact that it did run on Fairfax websites all day, he apparently can't see that his comparison with the story of Abbott and an incident from his university days is just a little different in this way- we knew exactly what Abbott was alleged to have done. (And, incidentally, Bolt's own employer recently had to apologise in Court for running Kroger's claim that the complainant had a history of lying and was a nutter. Did Bolt ever note that at his blog? He certainly hasn't updated his original post giving publicity to Kroger's claim. Just like he has never updated corrections to Anthony Watt's wrong claim about how his project would show the temperature record was wrongly attributed to CO2. Bolt is a propagandist who hardly ever bothers noting corrections to his past errors - and when a court confirms they are errors, he whines bitterly about that too.)
Update 2: what a sleazy, sleazy gossip monger Bolt has become. Running a post today about a band aid on a the hand of Rudd, and parsing Rudd's comment about it as if there is a scandal being hidden (the suggestion obviously being that he hurt himself hitting something in a rage.)
Even a two faced politician doesn't deserve groundless crap like that.
Update 3: the first account I have heard that gives any detail of what is supposed to have happened in the make up room:
And it is entirely possible that anyone who saw how he interacted with the TV make up woman the other night might have thought "that's a bit much Kevin, you *%#@."
But honestly, should the press really run with an uncorroborated complaint of being "treated badly" which contains no details at all?
She didn't say at all how he was rude. It could have been anything from heated swearing to ignoring an attempt at polite chit chat to saying "hurry up, and don't talk to me while I prepare mentally." Yet it was run all day by not only the Murdoch press, but Fairfax and on the ABC too.
On the Drum, they wondered why he didn't just apologise. Apologise for what? We have no idea what he actually did.
OK, so perhaps its Kevin just reaping the consequences of past bad behaviour. It still seems to me to be disreputable of the media to spend so much time on it during a campaign without knowing how he allegedly "treated her badly".
Update: I see that Andrew Bolt, who ran with the Rudd rudeness story at great, great length yesterday, is now complaining that the story was not covered enough by Fairfax! Apart from the fact that it did run on Fairfax websites all day, he apparently can't see that his comparison with the story of Abbott and an incident from his university days is just a little different in this way- we knew exactly what Abbott was alleged to have done. (And, incidentally, Bolt's own employer recently had to apologise in Court for running Kroger's claim that the complainant had a history of lying and was a nutter. Did Bolt ever note that at his blog? He certainly hasn't updated his original post giving publicity to Kroger's claim. Just like he has never updated corrections to Anthony Watt's wrong claim about how his project would show the temperature record was wrongly attributed to CO2. Bolt is a propagandist who hardly ever bothers noting corrections to his past errors - and when a court confirms they are errors, he whines bitterly about that too.)
Update 2: what a sleazy, sleazy gossip monger Bolt has become. Running a post today about a band aid on a the hand of Rudd, and parsing Rudd's comment about it as if there is a scandal being hidden (the suggestion obviously being that he hurt himself hitting something in a rage.)
Even a two faced politician doesn't deserve groundless crap like that.
Update 3: the first account I have heard that gives any detail of what is supposed to have happened in the make up room:
Whether Rudd deserved the critique is another question. Accounts of those who were in the room are consistent with Rudd's - that he said ''hello'' and ''goodbye'' to Fontana and virtually nothing in between as he prepared for the most important 60 minutes of the campaign to that point, reading intently from last-minute briefing notes before taking the stage. ''I was in the zone,'' is how he put it.
Murdoch's journalists not what they used to be
I have been wondering how the intense anti-Labor editorial and headline slant of Murdoch's papers has been sitting with some of his senior journalists. Their reaction certainly seems a far cry from what went on in 1975, when they went on strike:
A letter written by News Limited journalists and presented to management outlines clearly some of the concerns they had resulting in their strike action on 8th-10 December 1975, the last week of the election campaign.Is the only difference that Murdoch's editors have given up on actually altering senior journalist's column's to give a different slant? Come on, you weaklings - speak up for yourselves.
…the deliberate and careless slanting of headlines, seemingly blatant imbalance in news presentation, political censorship and, more occasionally, distortion of copy from senior specialist journalists, the political management of news and features, the stifling of dissident and even palatably impartial opinion in the papers’ columns…~ Denis Cryle; ‘Murdoch’s Flagship: 25 years of The Australian newspaper’; MUP (2008)
Thursday, August 22, 2013
There's money in underpants
Well, there you go. Just yesterday, as I noticed the pre-Father's Day blitz of underwear advertisements at the local shopping centre, I wondered to myself "how much money does Bonds make from men's underwear?"
Quite a lot, seems to be the answer:
A SURGE in demand for Bonds underwear has helped clothing group Pacific Brands post its first full year profit since 2010.So, undergarment sales for just one company are approaching half a billion dollars? In which market, I wonder?
But the maker of work clothes, bed linen and shoes is bracing for a tough financial year ahead as consumer confidence remains weak.
Pacific Brands' $73.8 million net profit in the year to June 30 is a turnaround from a $450.7 million loss in fiscal 2012.
The underwear division drove much of the result, with earnings rising to $78.1 million, compared with a loss of $330.3 million the previous year.
Undergarment sales revenue also rose by five per cent, to $453.9 million, as wholesale, in-store and online sales for Bonds underwear accelerated in the second half of fiscal 2013.
In a different shopping centre, I was annoyed by several poster ads for (I think) Bic women's razors, which featured only a close up frontal shot of a woman's panties (with woman inside them.) The byline was something like this (I am going by memory, because I can't find an image of it on the net): "Showered, shaved and ready to go, all before he's even found his keys."
Whatever the exact line was, the point of the ad was obviously to encourage women to have a daily pubic shave, just like their blokes do to their face.
I am not exactly outraged by this current hairless fashion per se, but there is something about razor companies actually encouraging it for profit that irritates me. Perhaps because it is obvious that the fashion is often having a poor effect on women's self image, 'cos they get to see clearly shapes and folds which would normally be somewhat obscured by hair. And besides, the ad is surely guilty of that old term "objectifying" a women's (hairless) torso in a way that I think everyone should be uncomfortable with in a public space like a shopping mall.
And while we are in the general groin-al area, can the papers please stop running headlines such as this:
Lily Patchett explains why she allowed student newspaper Honi Soit to publish a photo of her vaginaThe fact that a University newspaper was intending to publish a front page featuring 18 vulva images (which is, technically, more correct than saying they were photos of vaginas) is surely not that dramatic an issue is it? University newspapers have been routinely "in your face" for the mere sake of it for the last 40 years, haven't they?, and while I think the idea is not in great taste, I find it less objectionable in the context of who would likely see it and the effect on attitudes to women than decades of page 3 girlie photos in Murdoch owners papers in England.
The motive for it was actually on pretty solid feminist grounds:
The editors of Sydney University's Honi Soit publication said they published the graphic edition in order to make a statement about how vaginas have become "artificially sexualised ... or stigmatised".Yes, it was a response to the effect of the likes of the Bic poster which I had a problem with.
Of course, it goes too far, as University papers are wont to do (the people who run them are immature, let's face it). Surely the point could just have readily been made by referring people to a website or two which feature "average" vulva for women's reassurance without them being on the street. (There was a website set up specifically for this purpose in the US recently; I read about it at Slate or Salon.) Or the photos could simply have been inside the paper.
But still, as for the mainstream media, it should be treated as a bit of a non story, rather than taking it as an opportunity to write a half dozen headlines referencing genitalia.
Saul sounds skeptical
Coalition has $30b gap in promises: leading economist Saul Eslake
He predicts that the Coalition will ultimately adopt all of Labor's proposed budget savings measures, except for ending the tax break for cars bought through salary sacrifice.
Even so, Mr Eslake estimates, the Coalition has so far committed to $28.4 billion of tax cuts and $14.8 billion on new spending in the next four years, a total of $43.25 billion. But he estimates the nine savings measures the Coalition has announced so far would save only $13.44 billion over the same period.
"By our reckoning, over the remainder of the election campaign, the Coalition needs to announce additional savings measures totally in the vicinity of $30 billion over the four years to 2016-17 in order to be able credibly to claim that it would produce better bottom line outcomes than those projected (by Treasury and the Department of Finance), he said."
"That is a substantial sum, although it is considerably less than the $70 billion 'black hole' suggested by the government."
Clive and Mal had a chat
Mad, rich Clive is probably telling the truth about this, I reckon.
Mal Brough's role in the Slipper saga was clearly dodgy from the start, and he lied to journalists about it. As Bernard Keane wrote:
Mal Brough's role in the Slipper saga was clearly dodgy from the start, and he lied to journalists about it. As Bernard Keane wrote:
Twice now Brough has been revealed as having misled the public over his role in the affair. The first time was in early May when, in the aftermath of Fairfax’s Jessica Wright outing him as having met with Ashby, he arranged a tell-all explanation to The Australian, complete with photo shoot with his wife, to explain he’d met with Ashby three times and had only spoken to a small number of trusted legal advisers about the matter, and not anyone else in the Coalition or LNP.
That marked a change from his position of just a few days earlier, that claims he was aware of the legal action beforehand were “nonsense”.
We now know, courtesy of yesterday’s document release by the Federal Court, that he was misleading the public again with his claims to The Oz, and was a key player in the co-ordination of what appears to have been a campaign to damage Slipper, trying to arrange a job within the LNP for another disaffected Slipper staffer, Karen Doane. Ashby is also alleged to have emailed Brough with confidential material from Slipper’s diary.
Self inflicted wounds
There's no doubt, I think, that the issue of the funding and costs of the Tony Abbott endorsed Paid Parental Leave plan is hurting the Coalition. Maybe not "election losing hurt", but certainly a significant negative for the campaign. And it would appear entirely self inflicted, because the claimed supporting costing done by the Parliamentary Budget Office is presumably sitting in the box in Liberal Party HQ marked "do not open less than 48 hours before election day."
The evidence that it is hurting: everyone in the Coalition is showing clear annoyance and irritation at persistent questioning about it. Tony Abbott last night, Joe Hockey during the day yesterday, and this morning the heavily South African accented Mathias Cormann on Radio National.
Cormann amuses me - he is like the perfect antidote to the annoyance I am sure many Australians have felt over the years towards Scottish or English accented unionists, some of whom have gone on to political careers (hello, Doug Cameron.) They have often provoked the reaction that they were importing their aggro, working class warfare from the UK to a country that didn't want it.
Well, fortunately for Labor, we now have a Coalition spokesperson who comes with an accent which, especially when they get agitated, I think people associate with sentiments ranging from "I am born to rule and you aren't" to "release the hounds - we must have law and order."
And to make it funnier - I see that he is actually from Belgium and only sounds South African becausethat's where he learnt English. he, um, sounds South African. (To me. And clearly when I went looking for a reason why he sounded that way, I read the Wiki link too quickly!)
As far as I am concerned, he should be on TV and the radio more often...
But back to the Tony Abbott's parental leave: there must be many, many teeth grinding about this policy amongst Coalition strategists - it is wholly of Abbott's creation, never been widely supported within the party, and he has been so persistent about it for so long, it is politically impossible for him to back down now.
A perfect, and completely unnecessary, self inflicted wound.
Update: Delicious. Despite Henry Ergas' attempt to put lipstick on this pig of a policy, Judith Sloan calls the scheme "crazy", and Sinclair's inevitable gut reaction against anything involving money being handed to a government means he's been helping the bad PR for it as well.
The evidence that it is hurting: everyone in the Coalition is showing clear annoyance and irritation at persistent questioning about it. Tony Abbott last night, Joe Hockey during the day yesterday, and this morning the heavily South African accented Mathias Cormann on Radio National.
Cormann amuses me - he is like the perfect antidote to the annoyance I am sure many Australians have felt over the years towards Scottish or English accented unionists, some of whom have gone on to political careers (hello, Doug Cameron.) They have often provoked the reaction that they were importing their aggro, working class warfare from the UK to a country that didn't want it.
Well, fortunately for Labor, we now have a Coalition spokesperson who comes with an accent which, especially when they get agitated, I think people associate with sentiments ranging from "I am born to rule and you aren't" to "release the hounds - we must have law and order."
And to make it funnier - I see that he is actually from Belgium and only sounds South African because
As far as I am concerned, he should be on TV and the radio more often...
But back to the Tony Abbott's parental leave: there must be many, many teeth grinding about this policy amongst Coalition strategists - it is wholly of Abbott's creation, never been widely supported within the party, and he has been so persistent about it for so long, it is politically impossible for him to back down now.
A perfect, and completely unnecessary, self inflicted wound.
Update: Delicious. Despite Henry Ergas' attempt to put lipstick on this pig of a policy, Judith Sloan calls the scheme "crazy", and Sinclair's inevitable gut reaction against anything involving money being handed to a government means he's been helping the bad PR for it as well.
For people who can't work out the basics
Gosh. Slate finds it appropriate to have a video that argues that slicing a tomato is much better with a serrated knife than a straight edge one.
I think I might have worked that out successfully by the age of 14.
Anyway, perhaps I have noted this before here, but Victorinox steak knives are a fantastic general purpose knife in the kitchen, and they slice tomatoes very well.
But I must thank Slate for one kitchen idea that I never knew, and it does work brilliantly: how to boil eggs right. (You don't really need the ice bath at the end, though.)
I think I might have worked that out successfully by the age of 14.
Anyway, perhaps I have noted this before here, but Victorinox steak knives are a fantastic general purpose knife in the kitchen, and they slice tomatoes very well.
But I must thank Slate for one kitchen idea that I never knew, and it does work brilliantly: how to boil eggs right. (You don't really need the ice bath at the end, though.)
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Record rains watch, and old men and climate change
Record rains flood large tracts of China, Russia, the Philippines
My theory that large, more frequent disastrous floods from more intense rainfall may be the earliest, clear sign that global warming is a highly disruptive and economically harmful thing might be getting some more support via these floods.
It's been a funny, mixed summer for global warming: some record heat in parts of China, a very hot, record breaking, run in Japan, and Alaska and other parts of the North. I think the Australian winter has been pretty warm on a country wide scale, and it's been a bad snow season. Yet it also seems to have been wet and cool in part of the US, and weather conditions are such that the Arctic ice cap itself (while well down on long term average) will not get close to record summer minimums.
Those are my impressions anyway.
As for how this is reported: Rupert Murdoch is over 80, and is now free of a liberal wife and her friends, so of course he no longer sounds at all convinced of climate change being a problem.
On the age issue, it's also funny to drop in on that paper retirement village for conservatives known as Quadrant. It runs very, very heavily against climate change now, but look at the line up of writers who get space to go "ha, as if!" Geoffrey Luck (former ABC journalist) - appears to be age 82. Someone called Tony Thomas - never heard of him before, but appears to be an author and some Googling indicated he was born in 1940 - age 73 this year. I can't spot an age for retired right wing economist Des Moore, but here's a photo:
What else can I say, but "typical".
Ian Plimer is 67, a relative spring chicken amongst the climate deniers who have written in Quadrant. I haven't yet spotted the age of fellow retired geologist Bob Carter, but he looks of the same vintage.
Tom Quirk's name turns up on Quadrant as a climate commentator; he's on the IPA but I haven't found his age yet either. Time for another photo then:
Not exactly youthful.
I just find it remarkable how age specific active climate change denialism is.
Sure, there are younger folk (and women, such as Quadrant's own Phillipa Martyr, who hasn't yet cracked 50, but is an ex smoker with a cat who has offered to date Rupert Murdoch) who are happy to tell the world that they think it's all crap; but to be a really active club participant in spreading the word, it helps enormously to be over 65 and require prostate checks.
My theory that large, more frequent disastrous floods from more intense rainfall may be the earliest, clear sign that global warming is a highly disruptive and economically harmful thing might be getting some more support via these floods.
It's been a funny, mixed summer for global warming: some record heat in parts of China, a very hot, record breaking, run in Japan, and Alaska and other parts of the North. I think the Australian winter has been pretty warm on a country wide scale, and it's been a bad snow season. Yet it also seems to have been wet and cool in part of the US, and weather conditions are such that the Arctic ice cap itself (while well down on long term average) will not get close to record summer minimums.
Those are my impressions anyway.
As for how this is reported: Rupert Murdoch is over 80, and is now free of a liberal wife and her friends, so of course he no longer sounds at all convinced of climate change being a problem.
On the age issue, it's also funny to drop in on that paper retirement village for conservatives known as Quadrant. It runs very, very heavily against climate change now, but look at the line up of writers who get space to go "ha, as if!" Geoffrey Luck (former ABC journalist) - appears to be age 82. Someone called Tony Thomas - never heard of him before, but appears to be an author and some Googling indicated he was born in 1940 - age 73 this year. I can't spot an age for retired right wing economist Des Moore, but here's a photo:
What else can I say, but "typical".
Ian Plimer is 67, a relative spring chicken amongst the climate deniers who have written in Quadrant. I haven't yet spotted the age of fellow retired geologist Bob Carter, but he looks of the same vintage.
Tom Quirk's name turns up on Quadrant as a climate commentator; he's on the IPA but I haven't found his age yet either. Time for another photo then:
I just find it remarkable how age specific active climate change denialism is.
Sure, there are younger folk (and women, such as Quadrant's own Phillipa Martyr, who hasn't yet cracked 50, but is an ex smoker with a cat who has offered to date Rupert Murdoch) who are happy to tell the world that they think it's all crap; but to be a really active club participant in spreading the word, it helps enormously to be over 65 and require prostate checks.
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