Keeping prices high

High risk: drug war fought with dollars

Ross Gittins considers the "counterfactual" of drugs prohibition, something that the "war on drugs is a MASSIVE FAILURE" decriers routinely fail to do. 

I didn't want to know this...

Eating less meat essential to curb climate change, says report | Environment | The Guardian: Curbing the world’s huge and increasing appetite for meat is essential to avoid devastating climate change, according to a new report. But governments and green campaigners are doing nothing to tackle the issue due to fears of a consumer backlash, warns the analysis from the thinktank Chatham House.

The global livestock industry produces more greenhouse gas emissions than all cars, planes, trains and ships combined, but a worldwide survey by Ipsos MORI in the report finds twice as many people think transport is the bigger contributor to global warming.

The report goes on to note that some are calling for a meat tax to curb eating it.

Gee, and the "nanny state" whiners freak out over the suggestion of a sugar tax.   They'll see a meat tax as a direct threat to their (probably unwise anyway) intensely meaty diet.

No doubt I could do with eating less meat myself.  But it is very - satisfying.

Oh dear, another bit of huffing and puffing fails to blow the Senate into line

Asylum bill to reintroduce temporary protection visas faces Senate defeat | Australia news | The Guardian

The government faces another major Senate defeat with Labor, the Greens, the Palmer United party (PUP) and other crossbench senators insisting that 30,000 asylum seekers living in limbo in Australia receive the possibility of a permanent visa.

Couldn't happen to a more deserving Minister.

The Antarctic ice that matters

West Antarctic melt rate has tripled

A comprehensive, 21-year analysis of the fastest-melting region of Antarctica has found that the melt rate of glaciers there has tripled during the last decade.

Much more important an issue than what sea ice is doing around the continent. 

They're messing with their own minds

I heard on the radio that Tony Abbott gave an end of year pep talk to the party room yesterday emphasising how great a year of achievement it had been - you know, end carbon tax, mining tax, stop the boats, etc.

I then heard Christopher Pyne run the same line - it's been a tremendous year of achievement for the government, apparently. 

This is pretty hilarious - a government trying to spin its way out of depression, in the public eye.  It is, of course, likely to have the completely opposite effect on the public, who will see a bunch of self satisfied, arrogant, dissembling twits out of touch with reality.

Blob 2

New Abbott government strategy

Update: Ha! I posted this and then saw Abbott on Sunrise this morning, again talking in front of a Christmas tree. (He was also full of hesitation, again. He needs a long holiday - like for 30 years or so, that should do it.)

Update 2:  See:

Blob

An explanation: Christmas is a busy time, and I'm feeling a bit blog exhausted lately. Seems to me I have been completely and utterly vindicated in predictions that Tone would be a bad, bad PM; I suspect that a mild El Nino is on the way that will remove all temperature hiatus talk; David Leyonhjelm keeps on giving speeches that prove he is an intellectual lightweight wannabe populist whose party will not achieve anything electorally major again; the IPA has the sulks because it can't bend the Coalition completely to its will; Catallaxy has devolved into a place only frequented by the aging, angry white male contingent (and their oddball female admirers with anti feminist obsessions); fundamental physics seems to have hit a bit an impasse now that the Higgs has been found - probably; the Catholic Church is in the final, but still decades long, throes of revising its understanding of sexuality and theology more broadly; Fairfax will make a stunning comeback in corporate fortunes. (OK, I may be exaggerating on that last point.)

So I'm feeling a bit out of fresh material. I thought maybe I should spend a month just posting unexplained and pointless blobs and doodles. But then I felt like ridiculing Tony again, and I couldn't resist. But I'm still tempted to go into blob mode...

Changing shape

[1411.7402] Global monopoles change Universe's topology

I've always had a hard time getting my head around the matter of the topography of the universe; it's not something easily visualised.   But to make matters worse, a couple of scientists here suggest that the topography of the universe might be able to change.  A big crunch may yet happen, seems to be one of the implications.

What a funny old part of the world...

Iraqi army revealed to have 50,000 ‘ghost soldiers’ on its roll - Middle East - World - The Independent

His spokesman Rafid Jaboori said: "The prime minister revealed the existence of 50,000 fictitious names.

“Over the past few weeks, the PM has been cracking down to expose the ghost soldiers and get to the root of the problem.”

The announcement is an indication that he intends further action against state corruption in the military and beyond. Earlier this month he sacked 36 army commanders in a move intended to improve the efficiency of the military and to reduce graft.

Mr Jaboori added: “Haidaral-Abadi is setting integrity, efficiency and courage as the criteria to
appoint a new military leadership. This weeding out process will extend beyond the military to all state institutions.”

Fictitious soldiers, known as 'fadhaiyin', are created to provide extra income for officers and the more senior the rank the more ‘ghost’ incomes there are.

We need more ghosts in ISIS, I know that for sure...

LDP soars to 2.72%

I see that, even with David Leyonhjelm getting his distinctive head on the TV and in the papers a lot since he became a Senator, the LDP in the Victorian election managed to get 2.72% of the vote (so far), marginally ahead of the Sex Party and the Democratic Labor Party.

It's a party for an eccentric minority, like the other micro parties.

What was I saying about Scott Morrison?

Scott Morrison wants to snatch courts’ powers over immigration and citizenship | The Saturday Paper

"Quasi fascist" wasn't it?   From an article in this weekend's Saturday Paper:

Morrison is pursuing what immigration lawyers describe as a
“legislative blitzkrieg” via three bills that would dramatically extend
the minister’s powers and curtail review of his decisions.

Each piece of legislation on its own is a significant extension of
ministerial power. Taken together, they represent a tough new regime, as
the minister who credits himself with stopping the boats now applies
his unyielding approach to other facets of his portfolio.

Morrison spells out why his decisions should be beyond reproach and
exempt from the standard review processes in the explanatory memorandum
of the Australian Citizenship and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2014.

“As an elected Member of Parliament, the Minister represents the
Australian community and has a particular insight into Australian
community standards and values and what is in Australia’s public
interest,” it says. “As such, it is not appropriate for an unelected
administrative tribunal to review such a personal decision of a Minister
on the basis of merit, when that decision is made in the public
interest.”

In other words: trust him, he’s the minister.

Tales from the past

A Nineteenth Century Japanese Folk Tale Still Inspires UFO-Believers

I hadn't heard this one before.  It is a bit odd.  

As featured on Insiders this week...

The always slightly disturbing political cartoons of David Rowe often feature on Insiders, and today they showed this one, which I thought a brilliant example of his work:

Of course, it will make no sense to the casual reader of this blog in 50 years time (Google is immortal, isn't it?) but then that's the case with many political cartoons.

More adventures in rooting

Gosh, it was back in May 2013 that I explained the odd bug in my relatively primitive Samsung Tab 2 tablet which required either a factory re-set, or rooting the system to be able to access system files to stop the bug.  I successfully rooted and solved that problem permanently.  (I think.)

Well, a new and completely different bug arose this weekend - the machine got stuck in a "reboot loop".

Getting to the bottom of this problem proved much harder - in fact, although there are suggested remedies out there, no one seems to really know what causes it.

The simplest remedy is to do a factory re-set; the more complicated one was to "flash" onto the machine a whole new modified operating system, of which there are many floating around out there.   Actually, I would have been perfectly happy using an official Samsung one - yet finding one for the correct region is a real pain.  Samsung Australia don't bother providing it as a download.  Samsung US seemed to, but not for this region, and I understood that it could be risky using the wrong region one.  And some websites did have the right firmware, but on one of those awful download sites that try to get to pay money instead of waiting for a painfully slow 4 hour download to finish.   Of course, the fact that this was a basic tablet that's been superceded by probably 40 Samsung models alone means that there is probably very low demand for a copy of the right firmware.

Anyway, I spent hours considered using Odin (the software, the Norse god was not available) to put on a whole new ROM, but before I did that, I tried something less than a factory reset - a wiping of the partition cache.  The only effect this had was to prevent me getting back to the system recovery screen commands - while the machine continued its reboot loop.

I then tried to follow the many guides about installing a whole new ROM, but none of them allowed for the fact that I might not be able to get to the system recovery commands.   So I used Odin to try to install a couple of recovery programs that many said were needed anyway for loading a new ROM.  Neither of these worked - well, they got onto the machine, but only the introductory screen would show up, then the tablet would start its reboot loop again.

So, out of desperation, I decided maybe it would be useful to re-root the machine using the same Odin method I had used for the previous problem last year. 

Lo and behold - re-rooting it meant the system recovery screen was back, and at that point, I hastily did the factory reset that I should have just done the first time, and saved myself 8 hours of frustrating Googling amongst the world of Android nerds.

And so the tablet is back - admitted with all photos and videos lost (not that there were that many, and I think some are backed up on the PC) and apps to re-install.   But - it is not a brick.  Yay.

(And actually it gets limited use now by my wife mainly - I spend all my time with my beloved Samsung Tab S 7 inch.  A fantastic machine that even Samsung's poor support for its earlier, crappier models does not detract from.)

Update:  Is this the most boring post ever on this blog?  Don't get me started on recent precipitation patterns in South East Queensland, though....   

Fred Flintstone not a reliable guide (and - let's learn about beef)

The palaeolithic diet and the unprovable links to our past

Quite an interesting article here looking at the "palaeolithic diet" idea and why it's a bit of a crock.

I forgot to previously mention - there was a Michael Mosley documentary recently on SBS that looked at the issue of meat in the diet.  His final position f tended to be not very surprising - on health grounds he admits the evidence is not 100% clear, but he leans towards most people eating less meat, especially beef, and certainly not much processed meat.  (I think the evidence against processed meat is pretty strong, not matter who you ask.)

The second part of the documentary was a bit more interesting, looking at the type of meat which is most environmentally friendly.  A bit surprisingly, industrially raised chicken meat came out on top.  Yes,  chickens living all of their short lives in an electronically lit and heated English shed are much better for the planet that a lot fed cow.  But, he did have a bit of a hippie looking farmer scientist who argued cows raised in the old way - on small farms with plenty of grass - were not particularly bad for the environment, given their fertilizing effect and the handy thing they do by making milk as well.

Now, this raises a question that I don't know the answer to - what's the inter-relationship between dairy and meat?  Do we eat dairy cows, or do they end up somewhere else?

Here's a post from an American blog that starts to shed some light:

Dairy cattle are unique in the fact that they can produce high
amounts of milk without significant emphasis on muscle mass.  Muscle
mass is an important trait that is sought after in modern beef
production.  Holstein cattle are a breed of dairy cattle and are the
typical black and white spotted cow that is routinely seen through
today’s popular media when references to cattle and beef are made.

So do we eat dairy cattle?

According to the USDA’s cattle inventory for 2012 there were
approximately 39 million head of beef cows in the US and 9 million dairy
cows. (These numbers reflect cows that have calved)  The inventory for
steers over 500 lbs (steers are castrated males) was an astounding 15
million with heifers (young female cows that have not had a calf) a bit
further behind at around 10 million.  Of this 25 million only 13% are
typically of dairy influence.

Though dairy cattle are the “minority” of the cattle industry (from a
total number standpoint) a portion of them do indeed make it into our
food chain.  Since only cows can produce milk, the male dairy calves are
typically castrated and placed on feed after weaning (weaning is a term
that is used when calves are weaned off of milk) and fed to about 1250
lbs to be harvested for our consumption.

As I mentioned before, the dairy breeds don’t typically exhibit the
muscle mass as typical beef breeds however, they do in fact have a
tendency to show evidence of higher quality grades on average.  Quality
grades are how the industry grades beef cuts, you will see them
displayed as; prime, which is the highest, followed by choice, select
and standard.  Quality grades are based on a combination of age and
marbling (the fat that is deposited within the muscle, it can typically
be seen best on fresh ribeye steaks).  On the other hand, dairy cattle
that enter the food chain typically have much smaller muscle surface
area.  This means, your typical ribeye in square inches is much smaller
than those produced from a beef type animal.

When older dairy type cattle enter the food chain the beef derived
from them usually ends up as “ground beef” used for burgers and patties.

 As far as what happens to male calves of dairy cows - they have a short life and end up as veal.  A lengthy article in last year's Age describes the process, and the controversy.

And let's not forget that male chicks in the chicken industry face an industrial grinder!

By all rights, more men should be vegetarians than women, given the way our gender is generally treated in farming!

New stuff still being learnt about Van Allen radiation belts

An "Impenetrable Barrier" Protects The Earth From Killer Electrons

You would have thought they would know all that there is to know about the near Earth radiation environment, but apparently not.

Moving right along...

Andrew Bolt is now giving detailed suggestions for an Abbott government reshuffle?   How amusing. 

It's all rather hopeless, though.  Malcolm Turnbull has had to trash his reputation to try to show loyalty; if he was honest about how crook he really thinks several government policies are, he'll be chased out of the party room with pitchforks.   I rank everyone else in this way:

Hockey:  who knew he was a man with fear of windmills from 10 km away, who is such a numbskull on climate change that he denies it could ever have an adverse economic impact?  He (like the whole government really) is caught legs astride the barbed wire fence of agreeing with sensible economists that it's not a great idea to kill government spending too quickly, while simultaneously trying to run the "but government spending is going to kill us!" line.  The same fence straddling attempt on climate change is also clear - it's killing the government's credibility.

Hunt:  hopeless, unappealing defender of a bad policy for purely political reasons.

Morrison:  arrogant, quasi-fascist supported by an aggro ugly team of public servants who should be the first to go when Labor regains government.

Johnston:  Angry man prone to saying stupid things under pressure.  Fits in perfectly with this government!

Dutton:  barely appears alive.

Robb:  apparently an engaging character in person; not a glum robot as he appears on the media.    Despite rising above his health issues, not to be forgiven for killing off Malcom Turnbull and giving us this hopeless Prime Minister.

Bishop, B:  the most embarrassing Speaker I can ever recall, with no authority and the nation can see it.  Also unable to be replaced without massive embarrassment to Abbott.  A continuing sore that will last until she decides to go. Stick in there, Bronnie!

Bishop, J:  a relative success at Foreign Affairs, but if Alexander Downer can be, it can't be that hard for any rich lawyer used to schmoozing with people over cocktails, can it?  Likely to be a failure in any other role.

Brandis:  a man long unpopular with many in his own party, is what I heard years and years ago.  A particularly unappealing demeanour to the public.   Must be retained.

Abetz:   unappealing, arrogant, goose like presentation to the public.  Must be retained.

Further assessments as they come to mind.

Let's be unpopular

At the risk of provoking a lynch mob that will burn down my house (which, incidentally, missed the worst of yesterday's intense hail and wind storm, thanks for asking), may I be possibly the first to say that I am finding the amount of media time devoted to Phillip Hughes's death via cricket accident is just a little bit over the top?

Obviously it's sad, and has drama, and was rare, and he apparently had a grand future ahead  of him, etc.  And of course, fame at a national sport means more public interest than, say, when a jockey dies from a horse fall, as seems to have been happening a lot lately.

Despite acknowledging all of that, I still think it's been a bit OTT, the coverage and reaction.

There, it's said.    The 2.5 other people in the nation who share this view now know they are not alone.

The butthurt* is strong in Sheridan (and Abbott?)

We're coming up to a fortnight since Obama gave a speech in Brisbane which apparently led to a lot of behind the scenes yelling by offended government staffers, and Greg Sheridan is still carping on about it:

BARACK Obama’s implicit attack on the Abbott government over climate change will do more long-term damage to the US-­Australia alliance than is commonly thought. There is no need to rehearse the gratuitous nature of the speech, Obama’s failure to tell his Australian hosts what he was going to say in advance — as the most elementary courtesy, much less alliance solidarity, would require — the bad manners of not acknowledging the Governor-General, and the determined effort to embarrass his hosts by referring so crudely to the Australian debate and using, and misusing, iconic elements in that debate.

As Sheridan seems to have the equivalent of a Batphone to the PM's office, I can only assume that they are still fuming.  Which seems a bit of a waste of effort as government credibility collapses on all fronts, not just that one.

*  On the matter of butthurt:  it is not a term I normally use, as I have never been sure whether it derives from a reference to homosexual activity.  I see from Gawker that this remains a matter of much contention - butts can be hurt in many ways, after all.  In any event, I don't particularly want to be associated with Catallaxy reader style hysteria about why homosexuality is repulsive, so I would happily substitute another term, if I could think of one.  Suggestions are welcome...