Made me laugh

(Found on Boing Boing.)

Oh, diddums

Ha!  [Some of] the freeloading libertarians of Catallaxy threads, who believe in property rights and are pretty big on laws enforcement (but only if it doesn't stop them doing what they like - see their attitude to speeding tickets and random breath testing) are a bit upset that George Brandis is indicating a crack down on illegal downloading of TV and media.

They are the same people who want to put physical retail out of business by only buying on line from overseas.

What a bunch of selfish gits who want expensive stuff to be made for them for free, or next to nothing.

Silkworms to the rescue

Scientists create powerful flu vaccines from silkworm DNA

Researchers said they have developed a new method of creating large
amounts of flu vaccine by using the genetic code of silkworms.

They said the new procedure is quicker and less costly than conventional methods.

The major component of flu vaccines is a special protein that exists on the surface of flu viruses.

Led by Kuniaki Nerome, director of a biological resources center in Nago, the team of researchers synthesized DNA that helps enable the protein based on the genetic information of a flu virus. The scientists then introduced the synthesized DNA into the genetic code of
silkworms.

After the silkworms turned into chrysalides, Nerome and his colleagues crushed the insect pupae and purified the resulting powder. They then found the special proteins with exceptional high purity on the surface of the powder particles.

It's surprising that anyone would come up with this idea for silkworms, isn't it?

And the Award this year for outstanding hypocrisy goes to....

Former Howard minister Nick Minchin to replace former Labor premier Steve Bracks as Consul General to New York Oddly, this was mentioned by Michelle Grattan and Fran Kelly on Radio National this morning without either of them remarking on the breathtaking hypocrisy of this act by a government that was indicating it was sick of these "jobs for the boys" appointments. If I recall correctly, even some of the numbskulls on Catallaxy threads were saying when Bracks was sacked that it would be a bad look to put Minchin in his place. What an annoying government.

Old time swimsuits and swimming

My recent post about the odd American history of nude (male) swimming made me realise I didn't know anything significant about men's bathing fashions, apart from the vague idea that Speedos where invented in Australia.    I was sort of right about the Speedo brand, although I am still not sure where the design for brief, modern male speedos (as beloved by European men over 60) came from.

One of the best single sources on this topic of men's bathing fashions generally is probably this photohistory page about the Brighton Swimming Club, which is headed by this photo which did the rounds of the internet last year:

 Apparently taken in 1863, I suppose it suggests that the triangular, brief-ish swimwear has been around for quite a while.  (Many have also noted that it offers proof that Stephen Colbert is a time traveller - see the man in the dead centre.)

The article says that prior to the mid 1800's, English men did just generally swim separately nude, but from the second part  half of that century bathing costumes become enforced.  The French seem to have a classier design of swimming shorts, if these illustrations are anything to go by:


 Or perhaps they're just swimming in their underwear?  I don't know.

Incidentally, the painting on the left may feature men modestly clad, but there nonetheless does seem to be a awful lot of gazing and posing going on.

 


Back in England, here's a photo of how incredibly unhealthy English bathing male specimens could be.  (Actually, he looks not long for this world, but seems cheery enough.)    

 
English men have come a long way since the 19th century in terms of healthy body development, I'm sure.   But then again:






Oh look, it's professional ignoramus and spindle body James Delingpole.  The insubstantial musculature is a good match for the intellectual weight of his opinions on matters of which he freely admits knowing nothing.  In his sign off from blogging at the Telegraph today, he says:

And thank you most of all to those of you who have supported me through thick and thin. Thanks for your technical expertise and advice (it prevented anyone ever noticing that I'm an English graduate and know NOTHING about science apart from, maybe, how to grow copper sulphate crystals)

As with Andrew Bolt, this does nothing to stop climate change denying twits from hanging on every word of his assessment of the state of the science.


Anyway, I digress.

It would seem that the increase in mixed bathing at the beach might have been behind men going for the neck to knee design.  But it can't just have been Queen Victoria's influence:  the link I am copying most of these illustrations from has a couple from France with the guys in the old, horizontal stripped neck to knees.

And onto Australia.  Things look very English-like in the early 20th century.  This shot is at Redciffe in 1910.  Shirtless boys seem acceptable, but I'd like to know how many females drowned from the incredible wet weight of their attire.  And is that the Queen Mum on the far left?:

But swimming carnival types do seem to be in pretty lightweight looking attire:



 Yes, that man's got one leg.  This is from 1914, and he's all round fit guy Charles Olsen.  You can read all about him here.

Well, it's getting late, but there are a heap of somewhat interesting photos of swimmers and pools available through the Queensland State Library.





I like this photo for the contrast between the well dressed, we're-out- for-the-day attire of some of the spectators, and the amazingly primitive swimming venue.  It's from 1910, but the location is not disclosed.  Country Queensland, perhaps:

Brisbane used to do a lot of its swimming in the Brisbane River in enclosures, but there don't seem to be a lot of  photos of what people wore.  I guess it was just generally the same gist as what's above.

But move forward to 1935 and it looks like at least some men were brazenly going topless, so to speak, at Shorncliffe in Brisbane:

Anyway, fast forward to post war, and apparently the 1956 Melbourne Olympics had a swimwear impact:

But it wasn’t until the 1956 Melbourne Summer Games that the ‘classic’ men’s swimming briefs made their first appearance. The new swimming trunks were made of nylon for the first time, and were worn proudly by the Australian swimming team, who took home eight gold medals. This exposure solidified Speedo’s hold over the market, and led to Speedo becoming the sole manufacturer and distributor of Jockey-branded underwear in Australia.

 So there you have it.  I'll keep looking at photo archives for swimming in Australia.  You can find great things like this 1900 photo of Bondi Beach:

It's amazing to think that until at least last year, there was a guy alive who could have been a toddler in that photo.  Well, if he weren't living in Japan, that is.

That's it for now...

Scandinavia may be an odder place than I thought

From a review of the book "The Almost Nearly Perfect People - The Truth about the Nordic Miracle":

Booth starts with Denmark because he lives there - his wife is Danish and their children study at Danish schools. That gives him an insight into the country that doesn't quite extend to the others, which he has merely visited and researched, his views of them perhaps coloured by his experiences of Denmark. (I would have the same problem. I live in Sweden; when I visit the other Nordic countries I see them through Swedish eyes, and behind them British ones.) He is at pains to point out how different they all are, and how scathing each nation is of the others. I can vouch for that. You should hear my partner on the Danes. She's going to love some of the ammunition provided here. Can it really be true that 'seven per cent of Danish men have had sex with an animal'? (Not the same one, surely.)

One of the major problems with this book is that it provides no sources or references, so we can't rely on everything Booth writes. Much of it is impressionistic, and I have to say that many of its impressions of the Swedes don't accord with mine. On the other hand, Booth is absolutely right to be angry about Sweden's record in the Second World War, which still ought to be a source of shame to Swedes, but which most of them seem blithely unaware of. This may be one of the things that fuels the arrogance that their neighbours detect in them. In Finland, which Sweden refused to help in its Winter War of 1939-40 against the Soviets, it is also apparently seen as evidence of Swedish men's 'gayness' - that and the hairnets that were ordered for the Swedish military in the 1960s, when long hair was fashionable. (Booth is good on Finnish 'macho' culture.)

It's been an exhausting century

German burnout | TLS

At the link  is an interesting review of a couple of books that look at the particularly German interest in modern life causing "exhaustion" or "burnout".  The funny thing is, "modern" life has been causing this for a very long time, apparently:

Martynkewicz marshals an impressive range of evidence to establish that
numerous German bourgeois and bohemians living around the turn of the
twentieth century felt physically and emotionally drained by the demands of
what they perceived as an ever more complex modernity. Perceptive case
studies include the “tired colossus” Otto von Bismarck, the diet-obsessed
Friedrich Nietzsche, the sharp and ascetic Cosima Wagner, the depressed
Protestant Max Weber, and the fitness fanatic Franz Kafka, as well as Gustav
Meyrink, Thomas Mann, Rainer Maria Rilke and many other key figures of
German modernism.

Rilke’s famous dictum “Du mußt dein Leben ändern” neatly sums up the resolute
attempts of these characters to counter their exhaustion-related disease by
subscribing to various tenets of Lebensreform (lifestyle reform). It
is one of the many strengths of this fine study that the intricate
connection between these salvation-promising reform movements and exhaustion
is so cogently demonstrated: Martynkewicz shows that the fin de siècle
did not just produce exhaustion, but also saw the advent of numerous
strategies to counter and even to prevent its effects. “In times of weakness
and illness”, he writes, “the longing for salvation and redemption, as well
as for saviours, spiritual guides, prophets, trainers and dieticians,
multiplies.” Among the prophets we encounter are the naturopath Ernst
Schweninger, whose allegedly miraculous regime was said to have transformed
the “obese and miserable dotard” Bismarck into a strong and “elastic” young
man; the raw food advocate and deviser of Bircher muesli, Max
Bircher-Benner; his colleague Heinrich Lahmann; and the endocrinologist
Eugen Steinach, who performed and popularized dubious and later discredited
rejuvenation operations.

Other practices that were frequently mobilized to counter exhaustion include
nudism, vegetarianism, macrobiotics, gymnastics, yoga, gardening and
expressive dancing.

 Rather a pity they weren't too exhausted for World War 2, though....

This story will be like catnip for Andrew Bolt

In The Guardian:

The Church of England has said that it will, as a last resort, pull its investments from companies that fail to do enough to fight the "great demon" of climate change and ignore the church's theological, moral and social priorities.

Although the church's Ethical Investment Advisory Group (EIAG) has resisted calls for the church to pull its money from fossil fuel companies, insisting that engagement is the best way to effect change, its deputy chairman told the General Synod that it was considering "all options" when it came to developing future investment policy.

Chinese TV noted

An bit of a blackly amusing opening in this NYT column on the "China's Television War on Japan":

Iron Palm Du Dapeng’s eyes are burning with rage. The Chinese martial arts expert strikes a Japanese soldier with his fist and then, using his supernatural powers, tears the soldier in half. Blood splatters, but not a drop lands on the kung fu master.

This is one of many violent scenes in the Chinese television series “The Anti-Japanese Knight,” a recent action drama set during the Japanese invasion of China in the 1930s. Like many Chinese television dramas, the “Anti-Japanese Knight” promotes patriotism and praises the Communist Party for defeating the Japanese, while conveniently leaving out mention of the decisive role played by the Chinese Nationalists in that war. The violence and anti-Japanese tone send a clear message that killing is acceptable — as long as the targets are “Japanese devils.”

More about this show from a report last year:

In the television series "Anti-Japanese Knight," an unarmed Chinese martial art expert tears a Japanese soldier in half from head to crotch, the divided corpse suspended in the air with a skein of blood connecting the pieces. In another scene from the same series, a Japanese soldier's intestines are wrenched out of his abdomen in a fight sequence.

[Jason, are you ordering the DVD?]

Balmy Sochi

I didn't realise that Sochi was not such a good place to rely on cold weather for winter Olympics:

Weather challenges are no surprise in Sochi or the adjacent mountains — this is one of Russia's few regions with a subtropical climate. Warm, rainy days forced the cancellation of several international test events last winter.

The Russians prepared for the Games by installing a massive snow-making system and stockpiling snowfall beneath thermal blankets over the summer. They also got lucky with early winter storms that provided ample coverage.

But none of that could entirely counteract the nearly balmy weather that arrived here this week.

The forecast today:  18 degrees!

On jobs lost when industries close

I find this commentary on what happens, and what governments can do about it, when the car industry shuts down in Australia to sound pretty credible.   Certainly much more credible than Sinclair Davidson's vague take on "not forgetting" the retrenched workers which ended with the oh-so-predictable line that the best thing the government could do would be to promote more more industry by reducing taxes and reforming industrial relations.

[I can write the ending for the script of any Davidson/Sloan/Novak/Moran interview regardless of the issue.  An asteroid about the hit the greater Melbourne area?:  "Well, if true, and scientists haven't had a good record at predication lately, look at climate change; government needs to immediately reduce the cost of rebuilding by cutting taxes and easing up on the building code, and revising IR laws." ]

I note this part from The Conversation piece with interest:

Some commentators have characterised the car industry closures as unleashing a round of creative destruction that will drive the growth of new industries and create new jobs. For that to be true, it is necessary to assume that existing investments in the car industry somehow inhibit the growth of other “better” opportunities. This is bunkum: if there were investment opportunities in these other sectors, the investments would have happened regardless of the automotive sector. In fact, spillover arguments would suggest such investments are now less likely without the critical mass of the automotive sector.

There is currently no obvious new job generator in the Australian economy except for domestic construction and infrastructure projects. This does not bode well for the future in Victoria and South Australia.

Dangerous (?) particle colliders re-considered

What are the chances that a particle collider's strangelets will destroy the Earth?

Well, this is surprising.  Given that it has been years since I have noticed any advance on the issue of whether micro black holds from CERN could be dangerous, some are suggesting that its time to look at RHIC's risk assessment again.

Curiously, the claim is:

Johnson and Baram are calling for the new commission to look into the risks of RHIC destroying the Earth in addition to evaluating the financial aspects. A large part
of the motivation for their appeal is because of the ongoing upgrades
to RHIC. The collider is preparing for its 14th run,
where it will be operating at 18 times the luminosity for which it was
originally designed. The high luminosity will enable scientists to
conduct more detailed studies of the quark-gluon plasma's properties and
investigate how it transitions into the normal matter that we see in
the universe today.

Another area that Johnson and Baram argue begs some scrutiny is that RHIC is now running at lower energies than in the past. Somewhat counterintuitively, lower energies may pose a higher risk than higher energies. In the original risk assessment report in 1999, the scientists stated that "Elementary theoretical considerations suggest that the most dangerous type of collision is that at considerably lower energy than RHIC." That assessment referenced RHIC's original design energy of 100 GeV. Over the years, lower-energy experiments were performed, and the 2014 run will include three weeks at 7.3 GeV.

Silly old Americans

Report: U.S. failing to protect kids from HPV

We were filling in consent forms for vaccinations which will be given to our son, free of charge, at his high school this March.  (He's just started year 8.)  There were 3 forms, one of them for HPV.  I mentioned to my wife that maybe some very conservative parents object to this one.  We have no objection whatsoever.

I see that the vaccination rate in Australia for girls is pretty high:

Notified vaccination coverage for girls aged 12–17 years nationally was 83% for dose 1, 78% for dose 2 and 70% for dose 3.

So, how's it going in America?:

Although a safe and effective HPV vaccine has been available for
eight years, only one-third of girls have been fully immunized with all
three recommended doses, according to a report from the President's
Cancer Panel, which has advised the White House on cancer since 1971.
HPV, or human papillomavirus, is a family of viruses that causes cancer
throughout the body, including cancers that predominantly affect men,
such as a type of throat cancer. Only 7% of boys are fully vaccinated,
although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended
the shots for them since 2011.

Raising vaccination rates to atleast 80% of teen girls could prevent 53,000 future cases of cervicalcancer in girls alive today, according to the CDC.

 The reason appears to be partly the cost, and squeamishness amongst doctors (as well as parents, I bet):

And at a total cost of $400 for three shots, the HPV vaccine is also
more expensive than other vaccinations, although it's often covered by
insurance, Jackson says.

The real problem, research shows, is that doctors are treating HPV vaccinations differently than other shotsrecommended for kids at that age, such as meningitis and whooping coughboosters, Jackson says.

All too often, doctors offer HPV shots,giving parents the option to vaccinate, without strongly recommendingthem, says Debbie Saslow of the American Cancer Society, who served asan adviser on the report. That could be because doctors are leery of
initiating a discussion about sexual activity, which is how HPV spreads,
Saslow says. Doctors recommend giving HPV shots to kids at a young age,
when they're most effective.

 I find it hard to believe that parents could really feel that their kid will be led into early sexual debauchery because they now have a vaccine that will prevent an older age disease that has never stopped any teenager in history from having sex.

I would also bet that a huge number of boys and girls in the 12 to 14 year range would not even know or care which disease the jab is for.  As for the cost, thank heavens for our "socialised" medicine.  The Tea Party would prefer cervical cancer to that.

Americans have their quaint, and deadly, quirks.   (Pistols in cinemas, anyone.) 

Olympic sized openings

On Saturday night, I watched some of the replay of the Sochi Winter Olympic opening, although I did take the opportunity to doze through the athletes entry part.  (Always the most tedious part, isn't it?)

It was all on a very spectacular scale; in fact, these host country promoting spectacles have become so elaborate they're becoming almost unattractively elephantine and wasteful.

As for specific elements of it, I have to say that, not having read War and Peace, I was not assisted in my understanding of the story by watching an arty quasi re-enactment of it by hundreds of ballet dancers.   My main thought while watching this was that one of male leads in a key sequence with a heroine (she's torn between a few different men, is she?) had quite a "Robert Helpmann" look about him.  (But are Russian ballet dancers allowed to be gay?)   Yes, if ever there was an art form that is highly unsuited to a realistic depiction of romantic, heterosexual love, it's ballet.  (Women who go watch it will probably disagree - I suspect I have 95% of the male population on my side.)

I didn't make it to the end - the Russian Revolution occurred (portrayed in a kind of neutral way) then industrialisation started happening and Russians started having babies (I was moving in and out of the room by that stage and was having trouble following.)   I assume they didn't get to the modern part where about 40% of Russian working age men die of alcohol related illness:  an enormous bottle of vodka emerging from the stadium floor and hosing liquid from the top over the happy crowd of male ballet dancers falling over pretend-drunk might have been seen to be sending the wrong message.  

Come to think of it, the country might have done better by pouring billions of dollars into Alcoholics Anonymous style programs. 

I'm sure I'm not the only person to suggest it, but can't the Olympics go back to something less elaborate?   A few songs, a bunch of dancers, perhaps a 10 minute re-enactment of the original nude version (with the addition of women for the benefit of the modern viewer) would keep the ratings up games after games.  Then on with the athletes and a quirky lighting ceremony.   Fireworks display.  Done.  No more than 90 minutes all up (athletes should jog on if necessary.)   That's my suggestion.

Bigger chances of El Nino

Researchers suggest controversial approach to forecasting El Nino

This group is predicting a 75% chance of a return to El Nino this year.  We'll see.

We see it in Australia too

The conservative man-crush on Putin.

There's a very similar thing to be seen in threads at Catallaxy, where the mere "manliness" of Tony Abbott has been a matter of admiration for years, and they never recognize the Putin like PR techniques that were deployed by the Liberals during the election campaign and afterwards.  

A good question

Can Spinning Habs Solve the Zero g Health Issues? Can Humans Live in Mars or Lunar g? - So far, Nobody Knows

Mutliverse levels considered

Are Parallel Universes Unscientific Nonsense? Insider Tips for Criticizing the Multiverse | Guest Blog, Scientific American Blog Network

Here's a pretty good column by maths fan Max Tegmark, in which he provides a useful table and short explanation of the different types of multiverse.

Mark Steyn insists on wearing his "So sue me (for lots and lots of money!)" t shirt

It's hard to credit the lack of common sense on display in the Steyn-o-sphere.

A recent post of his is incredible for a couple of reasons:

a.  it makes it sound as if he really has taken but a passing interest in the details of the entire Mann "hockey stick" issue before making his "fraud" claim; even more spectacularly unbelievable - he is making it clear that he is learning more about it from blogger Steve Goddard.   Yes, the blogger with severe credibility issues who no longer appears at Watts up With That. 

b. Steyn deliberately, when involved in a court case in which a judge has commented that it certainly appears Mann has grounds for defamation, takes the opportunity to again make a comment discrediting the bona fides of Mann in his work:

So why not just do a straight tree-ring graph of the last millennium? Ah, well. Because that doesn't tell the story that Mann & Co wanted to sell, and certainly doesn't make a hockey stick.

Wow.   "Make hole; keep digging; attempt bogus justification that freedom to dig holes anywhere is a right" appears to be the Steynian theory here.

c.  Apparently, lots of people are buying "gift certificates" to fund Steyn's self represented attempted defence of the defamation action.  Well, good luck with that folks.   Your hero appreciates your generosity in helping fund the damages to Mann that Steyn appears determined to send his way.

And here I was thinking the Japanese do some pretty odd things...

Can someone explain to me why the killing and butchering of an inbred giraffe in a Copenhagen zoo was a public event?   There are kids in the photo too, which seems a very odd choice of education by their parents.  (OK, so an argument can be made that kids these days are too isolated from the reality of life and death - cutting the head off a chook in the backyard was a family spectator event when I was a kid in suburban Australia.  But still, a giraffe is a big mammal, and this seems just a bit weird to me.)