The heroin resurgence

There's a very interesting article up at the Christian Science Monitor about the resurgence of heroin use in the US. 

It notes:

The rise is being driven by a large supply of cheap heroin in purer concentrations that can be inhaled or smoked, which often removes the stigma associated with injecting it with a needle. But much of the increase among suburban teens, as well as a growing number of adults, has also coincided with a sharp rise in the use of prescription painkiller pills, which medical experts say are essentially identical to heroin. These painkillers, or opioids, are prescribed for things such as sports injuries, dental procedures, or chronic back pain. Yet in a disturbing number of cases, experts say, they are leading to overdependence and often to addiction to the pills themselves, which can then lead to heroin use.

The report spends a fair bit of time on the 'gateway' pathway which it says is pretty common - alcohol, marijuana, prescription painkillers (often obtained on the street) and heroin.  (Although I guess some might suspect that this paper might be one particularly inclined to note the 'pathway' aspect of marijuana use, I don't know there is any strong reason to doubt it.  Certainly, the current experiment in legalisation in the US will be one to watch for future use of other drugs.)

Anyhow, the story puts a lot of the blame on the rise of OxyContin and its relatively liberal use by American doctors: 

The global production of oxycodone, marketed as OxyContin in the United States, increased from two tons in 1990 to 135 tons in 2009. More than two-thirds of that supply was manufactured in the US, which, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, increases the risk of its subsequent overprescription and diversion into illicit channels.

Experts trace the rise of painkiller misuse in the US to 1996. That's when the pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma introduced OxyContin, a narcotic and derivative of opium. Andrew Kolodny, chief medical officer of Phoenix House, a national nonprofit treatment agency, describes OxyContin as essentially a "heroin pill." It was made of oxycodone, a narcotic used to treat pain at the end of life. But the new pill would allow the company to reach a much wider audience.

"[Purdue] wanted a product that would be prescribed for common, moderately painful chronic conditions," says Dr. Kolodny, who is also president of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing, an advocacy group.

At first, the medical community balked. Using opioids for chronic problems seemed too risky given the nature of the pills' highly addictive properties. But Purdue Pharma launched an aggressive marketing campaign arguing that it was a compassionate way to treat patients and, because of its extended-release characteristics, would be less prone to abuse.

But before long, numerous cases of addiction to the painkillers began to surface. In 2007, Purdue Pharma pleaded guilty in federal court to misleading doctors and the public about OxyContin's risks and paid a $600 million penalty.

 And look at the number of deaths prescription painkillers cause:

•Nearly 3 out of 4 drug overdose deaths are now caused by prescription painkillers. In 2008, some 14,800 deaths were attributed to the pills – "more than cocaine and heroin combined."

•More than 475,000 emergency room visits were directly linked to prescription painkiller misuse or abuse in 2009, roughly double the number of five years earlier.

That's extraordinary.   And, I think, it is pretty strong evidence against the libertarian idea that legalising even the strongest drugs would lead to safer usage of them by those who have an addiction.  These deaths and emergency room visits are caused by "safe" (that is, not impure) drugs, and ones for which many of the users have been legitimately prescribed and so have proper information about dosage.   Doesn't help much, does it?

Zach's life

Zach Braff writes about how he got into acting in this piece in the New York Times about his current role on Broadway.   He remains one of the most likeable of American actors, if you ask me.

Teenage problems

BBC News - What medieval Europe did with its teenagers

Continuing with my recent medieval theme, this is a good read.   In the opening paragraphs:

Around the year 1500, an assistant to the Venetian ambassador to England was struck by the strange attitude to parenting that he had encountered on his travels.

He wrote to his masters in Venice that the English kept their children at home "till the age of seven or nine at the utmost" but then"put them out, both males and females, to hard service in the houses of other people, binding them generally for another seven or nine years". The unfortunate children were sent away regardless of their class, "for everyone, however rich he may be, sends away his children into the houses of others, whilst he, in return, receives those of strangers into his own".

It was for the children's own good, he was told - but he suspected the English preferred having other people's children in the household because they could feed them less and work them harder.

His remarks shine a light on a system of child-rearing that operated across northern Europe in the medieval and early modern period. Many parents of all classes sent their children away from home to work as servants or apprentices - only a small minority went into the church or to university. They were not quite so young as the Venetian author suggests, though. According to Barbara Hanawalt at Ohio State University, the aristocracy did occasionally dispatch their offspring at the age of seven, but most parents waved goodbye to them at about 14.

Model letters and diaries in medieval schoolbooks indicate that leaving home was traumatic. "For all that was to me a pleasure when I was a child, from three years old to 10… while I was under my father and mother's keeping, be turned now to torments and pain," complains one boy in a letter given to pupils to translate into Latin. Illiterate
servants had no means of communicating with their parents, and the  difficulties of travel meant that even if children were only sent 20 miles (32 km) away they could feel completely isolated.

Poor kids.   There's lots more detail in the article, but I'll just extract a couple of more paragraphs:

Many adolescents were contractually obliged to behave. In 1396, a contract between a young apprentice named Thomas and a Northampton brazier called John Hyndlee was witnessed by the mayor. Hyndlee took on the formal role of guardian and promised to give Thomas food, teach him his craft and not punish him too severely for mistakes. For his part, Thomas promised not to leave without permission, steal, gamble, visit prostitutes or marry. If he broke the contract, the term of his apprenticeship would be doubled to 14 years.

A decade of celibacy was too much for many young men, and  apprentices got a reputation for frequenting taverns and indulging in licentious behaviour. Perkyn, the protagonist of Chaucer's Cook's Tale, is an apprentice who is cast out after stealing from his master - he moves in with his friend and a prostitute. In 1517, the Mercers' guild complained that many of their apprentices "have greatly mysordered theymself", spending their masters' money on "harlotes… dyce, cardes and other unthrifty games".

Republican parody parodied

I see that the Republican Party has started an advertising campaign that attempts to broaden their base.

This is leading to much ridicule.  First, one of the GOP ads:



And then the parody, from the people making John Oliver's upcoming show:

Giant robot led recovery (and Giant Clive)

 

I like a country that has its own special brand of government priorities.  From the Japan Times:

With its mountains of public debt, a nuclear meltdown to mop up and the 2020 Olympics bill, you’d think the last thing the Japanese government would be spending taxpayer money on is a study on robots in science fiction.

But as the Terminator once said: “Wrong.”

From the halls of Kasumigaseki comes “Japanese Animation Guide: The History of Robot Anime,” a 90-page inquiry commissioned by the Agency for Cultural Affairs and its Manga, Animation, Games, and Media Art Information Bureau.

The bureau’s boffins seem intent on capitalizing on what remains of Japan’s gross national cool as perceived overseas. Cool Japan, a concept now more than a decade old, has been parlayed into national policy, and the agency commissioned the report as an initial framework for discussing the key pillar of anime with people overseas. The robot study could be the first of several examining different anime genres.

The report goes on to note the enduring popularity in Japan of giant robots, Gundam in particular.  Giant Gundam models get the public out, as you can see above.

I wonder if someone is working on making big Japanese robots that move.  Maybe a full size Gundam is out of the question, but even a half or third scale one might be impressive.  And maybe just wheels for the feet, instead of having to worry about the trickery of walking.  But giant robots gliding down the street on their power - yes, that would be something to see.  I think I can probably interest Clive Palmer in this as a new manufacturing enterprise for Australia.   The only thing is, the first giant robot he would make would probably be a version of himself.

And speaking of Clive, I wonder how his robot dinosaur resort is going.  Tripadviser comments make for some fun reading, although there seems to be a somewhat suspicious pushback to me.  Some of the comments which made me smile:

* Our overall experience with the staff was poor - they were either inexperienced, had a poor attitude or had too much to do to provide any real guest services.

For example, the front desk did not know which of the restaurants was licensed. When we rang Palmer Grill to find out what time it opened we were asked "Why?"...

Stay away from any room near the Palmersaurus - the constant pathetic bleating of the dinosaurs cuts through any attempt at tranquility or peace. ...

Mr Palmer has chosen to closely associate himself with the Resort - there are photos, cartoons, articles plastered on walls; the signs make it clear that the Resort, the dinosaurs, the Grill are all "Palmer"; the Clive Palmer political buses and signs sit in the carpark; there are TV channels dedicated solely to him and his business interests.

Another visitor didn't care for the Palmer TV either:

*   The three TV channels devoted to the 'resort' owner and the many photos and in-your-face signs bearing his name around the resort are straight out of a sitcom.

Other recurring themes:  hardly any staff; those remaining stressed out; eateries closed; musty smelling rooms; dinosaurs pathetic.

Hedley Thomas, while obviously reporting to do political harm to Palmer, nonetheless gave us some interesting background in February:

Executive and senior staff at the resort who have walked out in the past eight weeks include the resort's head, Bill Schoch, who made an unsuccessful tilt for the federal seat of Fisher as a PUP candidate; the general manager, John Eaton; and the directors of engineering, rooms, finance, spa, and restaurants, as well as the managers of housekeeping and engineering. 

Sounds doomed to me.  Just like Palmer's political career.   Never in the history of Australian politics has there been a personality based party more obviously destined for fractious disintegration. 

More important than bikies laws

 Doctors' contracts dispute: Queensland Premier Campbell Newman vows to fight union rabble rousing - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Yes, the Campbell Newman anti bikie laws were in some respects over the top, but gee I have trouble building up much personal concern over what was essentially anti criminal gang laws, especially if (as I suspect) they will be wound back after an initial hammering.

Personally, I am more concerned about a government blundering its way through negotiations with a highly skilled group of workers who have taken substantial pay cuts compared to what they could get in the private sector to work for the public health system.

Does anyone have any idea why the government has taken this group on?   How much lower than private sector remuneration does Campbell Newman think they should work for?

The Newman government has been very unimpressive generally.  I bet Campbell himself loses his seat, and I won't be sad.  

Poor Arthur

Every journalist seems to like Arthur Sinodinos at a personal level, and I always thought he seemed a sensible, straight talking and pragmatic type.   I have my doubts that he is comfortable with the climate change denialism arm of the Coalition, although I guess I could be wrong.  He and Malcolm Turnbull would seem to be a good match.

And this respect for him amongst journalists is what I think is making many of them shake their heads about his involvement with a corrupt company.

It seems to me that the Australian Financial Review is running hardest on the matter, and when even The Australian says an Abbott minister has to step down, you know it must be serious.

Tony Wright gives some surprising detail in the AFR as to how he first heard about the Sinodinos problem:

When The Australian Financial Review alerted readers in a “puff’’ in early 2013 it would publish a magazine item – “Arthur Sinodinos: Going public” – I received a call from a senior figure in the heavily factionalised branch of the NSW Liberal party.

He asked whether the magazine item, of which I was the author, made reference to Sinodinos’s term as chairman of Australian Water Holdings, including tax implications of his 5 per cent stake in the company then believed to be worth about $3.75 million.

This individual also repeated scuttlebutt abroad in the NSW branch that Sinodinos’s personal finances were stretched. Political journalists get these sorts of calls periodically, more often than not from within the same party or faction of the individual being targeted.

Politics is not conducted according to Marquess of Queensberry rules.

 Another AFR report today talks more about what came out of yesterday's hearing.  I note that the traditional politicians defence of "not recalling" has been deployed by Arthur already:

Senator Sinodinos, who stood down as Tony Abbott’s assistant treasurer on Wednesday, told the Senate in February 2013 that political donations by AWH “were handled by the ­management of the organisation at their discretion”.

“I do not recollect donations to political parties being discussed at the board level,” he said. ICAC documents show that between April 2009 and May 2011, AWH paid $183,342 to the Liberal Party-related slush fund known as EightByFive, operated by Tim Koelma, a staffer for former NSW state Energy Minister Chris Hartcher.

The payments by AWH were booked as public relations services from Mr Koelma.

As a rule of thumb, when a politician deals with questions about his knowledge of damaging matters at the time they happened by using the "I have no recollection" formula, it is usually a sign that they are on the way out.

I don't think Arthur will be back.

Update:  now Fairfax provides some of the details of Arthur's financial problem at the time he took the ill fated job.   I didn't realise how good a pun the title of this post would turn out to be.

Today's weigh in

My weekly minimum weight is always the morning following the second "fast" day.

This morning, after a couple of weeks of hanging around the low 85.0's:  84.4kg.  Yay.

My first fast day was 28 January. 

Another loopy murderer who references Dexter

I was half watching a TV show about teenage killers last night, when they went into a lot of detail about a fairly recent example from South Australia.  I hadn't heard of this case at all, but the teenager killed his girlfriend, and an unfortunate woman who just happened to be in the wrong place, with an axe.  His comment to the police was widely reported:  "I wouldn't make a very good Dexter."

OK, so he wasn't claiming inspiration from the show.   Still, I'm going to add this case to the list I produced in October 2012 as to the number of murderers who were keen on the show.  (And repeat my very reasonable argument that people should regret that it was made at all.)

An appalling creep, and freedom of speech

Suicide voyeur William Melchert-Dinkel, who posed as a female nurse and went by the name 'Falcon Girl', has case overturned

He was found guilty of aiding the suicide of Mark Dryborough, 32, who died
in Coventry, UK, in 2005, and of Nadia Kajouji, 18, who took her own
life in 2008.

In the original trial, the court was told that Mr Melchert-Dinkel, who is
married with two children, posed online as a compassionate female nurse
to prey on depressed individuals, but then gave them advice on how to
suicide.

He allegedly told police that he acted for the ‘‘thrill of the chase’’ and
wanted to watch his targets die via a computer webcam.

But in a ruling eagerly awaited across the United States by both sides in
the assisted suicide debate, the state supreme court has ruled that a
state law prohibiting ‘‘advising’’ and ‘‘encouraging’’ suicide broke the
constitution by restricting freedom of speech.

However, it upheld the part of the statute that outlaws ‘‘assisting’’ suicide
and sent Mr Melchert-Dinkel’s case back to a lower court.

County prosecutors must now decide whether to appeal against the ruling in the
US Supreme Court or to bring fresh charges against Mr Melchert-Dinkel
for assisting suicide.

It's another example of why I don't care for the American approach to rights.

Talk about your dubious studies destined for tabloid attention

I don't even want to put the headline here, but it's to do with men, sport and locker rooms.  You can guess the rest.

About Tim, revised

Has anyone noticed the website for blowhard hypocrital self-promoting socialite Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson lately?  Here's his discription:

Tim Wilson is Australia’s Human Rights Commissioner and a classical liberal public policy analyst. He is one of Australia’s most challenging opinion leaders drawing on strong philosophical principles, backed up with evidence while maintaining a real-world edge. Passionate. Controversial. Fearless. He’s not afraid to be outspoken in offering an optimistic solutions-focused perspective on local and international issues that gets people engaging and talking.

 Timbo, I think there is an important "an" missing from that first line, which should open like this:

Tim Wilson is an Australian Human Rights Commissioner.

Does he write this self congratulatory stuff personally?  Perhaps not.  At the bottom of the website:

 Mr Wilson is represented by Shaun Levin from Profile Talent Management, +61(0)3 8598 7808 or slevin@profiletalent.com.au.

On his $300,000 plus salary, paid by an organisation he wanted disbanded until a political pal offered him a job there, does he still need really need an agent?   I think I might be emailing him with a requested correction to the profile, together with this proposed replacement photo:

I always wanted a dungeon

One of the sites I found via using Zite is medievalists.net, which has always quite a few interesting articles.

I see they have a post about an English castle that's gone on sale for 3 million pounds, complete with moat and dungeon.  

It looks more window filled than I expect a castle to be.  But then again, I am not entirely sure what makes a castle a castle.  I see from Wikipedia:

Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble. This is distinct from a palace, which is not fortified; from a fortress, which was not always a residence for nobility; and from a fortified settlement, which was a public defence – though there are many similarities among these types of construction. Usage of the term has varied over time and has been applied to structures as diverse as hill forts and country houses.

I guess just having a moat counts as a fortification, then.

I never thought that Castle Howard, as used in the TV version of Brideshead Revisited looked like a castle either, and Wikipedia informs me I was right to be skeptical:

Castle Howard is not a true castle, but this term is often used for English country houses constructed after the castle-building era (c.1500) and not intended for a military function.

Actually, I always thought it looked too grandiose compared to what was mentioned in the book.  Sure the family was supposed to be rich, but that rich?  

Anyway, glad we've sorted that out....

Oceans going down

I see that Oceanography has a special issue out about changes to ocean chemistry, which means in large part it's about ocean acidification.

I think all of the articles are available as .pdfs, so I won't bother linking to individual ones.

But having a look at a couple of them, the take away messages are:

*  the oceans at all parts of the world are showing declining pH dues to increase CO2 in line with predictions

*  coastal oxygen free "dead zones" are increasing and are likely to continue increasing with warming temperatures.  (This has been predicted for some time too.)

I don't do many posts about ocean acidification lately, but looking through the Ocean Acidification blog, there is plenty of research still going on, much of it with worrying results.  It seems to be a frequent theme that both oysters and scallop growing areas in North America are already suffering due to coast water acidification.  Although there is a natural variation to pH in those areas anyway, the slow increase in surface acidification is obviously not helping.

Many studies look at developmental and behavioural changes displayed by various species under decreased pH, but it is obviously very difficult to work out how they will play out in the future oceans.   Some species indicate some adaptive ability, but the big picture is enormously hard to predict.

I still think the pteropods are like the canary in the coal mine on this issue.  A study in 2012, which was looking at pteropods taken in 2008, found that those in aragonite undersaturated waters were showing severe shell erosion already.    A future collapse in this extensive species which feeds many of the sort of fish we like to eat could be dire. 

So, for all of the talk of lower rates of temperature rise and when that will turn around, this is the issue that climate change deniers larger ignore or simply dismiss as another scientific disaster story told to ensure funding. 

They are ignorant and dangerous to the future of humanity.

More Renaissance

Further to my recent post about the Renaissance, this BBC article about the codpiece fashion of the time is quite amusing.  (You have to watch the video to understand properly what they are talking about.) 

Can Andrew take a hint?

I see Andrew Bolt today notes everything about the Marcia Langton "racist" allegation except the story in The Australia where the one aboriginal activist who he doesn't have a problem with (at least since he started to criticize Labor and defected into the Abbott camp) tries to tell him to stop going on about colour and race:

“I know Andrew Bolt personally,” Mr Mundine said. “I don’t believe he is a racist. Having said that, I find it strange that he continues to talk about colour, and talks about race. I find that bizarre.
“To me he does not have an understanding of the complexity and structures of indigenous kinship and I think he needs a little more education in that area.”

I also note that in defending Mundine last year, Bolt didn't just label one Left wing person as "racist", but the entire political category:

  The Left tends to see racists everywhere. That’s the thing with mirrors.

It makes his drama queen act over Langton all the more ludicrous. 

Low flying dreams

The Flight 370 story, with the parts about it flying low during certain sections, either deliberately or accidentally, reminds me about the recurring "low flying" dreams that I have had in recent years.

Although it seems a while since I had one, I have over the past years had dreams in which I am on a passenger jet, looking out the window and realizing we are flying really low for no apparent reason.   Sort of so low we are going up and down to get over hills.  No one else on the plane seems to have noticed.  I find it scary.

I have not been able to identify why this should be a recurring theme in my dreams.  I was interested to see in New Zealand a few years ago a smallish passenger jet flying through a valley on the approach to Queenstown airport.  I thought I wouldn't like the look of that if I were in the plane.  But was that enough to bring on a recurring dream?  I also think I might have had my first "low flying dream" before then.  They have turned up now and again for quite a long time.

That is all.

Against the Bolt and the Abbott

Hypocrisy adds insult to injuries

It's taken a while for someone to make this observation about the Kenny defamation case, but here it is in Richard Acklands enjoyable article ripping into Andrew Bolt and his demands for apologies:

Maybe Aunty's lawyers wanted to avoid another round of bullying from the government and News Corp.

Already it has the prime minister's dinner guest and Murdoch
pen-man Chris Kenny on its schedule of defamation cases, with Tony
Abbott saying the ABC should not be ''defending the indefensible''.

''Next time the ABC comes to the government looking for more
money, this is the kind of thing we would want to ask them questions
about,'' he said.

If ever there was a blatant contempt of court, this is it -
threatening a litigant with a monetary penalty if it defends itself in
civil litigation. George Brandis must have forgotten the Wran case in
which the former premier was found guilty of contempt for encouraging
the second jury in the Lionel Murphy case to find the High Court judge
not guilty.

Things we're learning from Flight 370

The mystery of this missing flight has certainly led to a lot of interesting explanations about aviation and other topics: even, of all things, anthropology.

1. Take a look at this article from Slate: How the Malaysian Airlines Plane Could Have Landed in the Stone Age. Who knew there was an island in the Indian Ocean with an African looking naked tribe which apparently aggressively fights off anyone who wants to visit them?:

From 1967 through the mid-1990s, Indian anthropologists embarked on periodic "contact expeditions" to North Sentinel Island. Approaching by boat, they attempted to coax out members of the tribe by depositing coconuts, machetes, candy, and, once, a tethered pig onto the beach. The Sentinelese almost always responded to these "gifts" by shooting arrows, throwing stones, and shouting at the unwelcome visitors. India discontinued its attempts at peaceful contact in 1997 and ruled that the islanders be left alone, but visits still occur — in 2006, a fishing boat drifted too close to the shore, and Sentinelese archers killed the two men on board. An Indian helicopter sent to retrieve their bodies was also fired upon and could not land.

That is a very strange story.  It's like discovering that King Kong Island still exists in the 21st century.

2. Slate also explains the limitations of being able to use mobile phones in an emergency in an aircraft. I had wondered about how they had been used in 9/11. Now I know.

3.   The BBC gives a pretty easily followed explanation of how aircraft are tracked.  

Tougher than expected

Frozen moss buried in Antarctica for more than 1,500 years starting to grow again in laboratory - Science - News - The Independent