Friday, January 30, 2015

The tedious world of Moffat

This summer, the ABC has been running that re-invented Sherlock show from the BBC from the start.  I had not seen it before.

There is quite a bit to like:  Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman are both good in their roles, and the (novel, as far as I can recall) method of showing internal thoughts or other information simply by having the floating words in the air near the character is neat.  On the downside, I have always found the 90 minute format for character based, slightly comedic, detective stories is just a bit too long.   I remember my interest in episodes of Columbo, for example, always started petering out at the 60 to 70 minute mark, and that was with commercials.

But my main reason for the post is to make the observation that, just as Graham Greene's output seemed permanently stuck in a "Greeneland" [depressed males, often with a crisis of faith, seeking solace in sex,] co-creator and sometimes writer Steven Moffat seems absolutely stuck in pan or omni-sexual Moffatland.

It was an obvious modern joke to make in the first episode: people wondering if Sherlock and Watson are a gay couple.  Maybe even the second episode.   But last week, I think 4 shows in, and we have the lesbian dominatrix story.  And Watson still talking about how he is not gay.  And everyone wondering if Sherlock has ever had a boyfriend or girlfriend.  Really, who cares?   It is tediously like modern Dr Who of the last 5 or so (possibly 8 or so - I lose track) years, where it seemed an episode which did not feature some jokey reference to queer sexuality or practice of some kind or other was a real rarity (in what is basically a kids' show.)

I have no idea why this obsesses Moffat so much.   Amusingly, it seems that even gay or "queer" theorists  find fault with how he deals with it.   It also appears that some feminists find Moffat very objectionable.  Maybe he is rather like Tony Abbott - can't keep anyone on any side of the spectrum happy.

But the main thing is - it's just such a bore to see a personal obsession keep on appearing with such regularity in shows which are not about sexuality.  It sticks out like a sore thumb,  from a man who seems to have issues. 

Tracking down the cause

Mystery childhood paralysis stumps researchers : Nature News & Comment

I don't like hearing that there are cases of childhood paralysis that don't have a clear cause, but there you have it.

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Meanwhile, in New York...


PS:  my theory is that Rupert lives on by taking a daily infusion of more youthful blood compulsorily donated by editors and staff at News Limited papers.  Hard to explain that in one box, though...

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Julie's loss noted


For those of my vast international readership who are wondering what this is about.... http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-01-19/julie-bishop-tweets-in-search-of-lost-earring/6024594 

Musing about the PC, 28 years ago

I'm under pressure again to dispose of my old magazine collection - many of them Omni's from the 1980s.  (By the way, they were printed on quality paper - there's really not that much page yellowing in my carelessly stored editions.)

But just glancing through these still quite appealingly designed magazines, I come across articles that remind me how the world has changed, and it's sort of charming, even if it makes me feel old.   Here's a scan of an article written by someone in the PC business in April 1987, who was asked by Omni "Is the Computer Business Dying?":
  

Cute design

Cubitat from Urban Capital and Nichetto Studios is a compact home in a box.

I like this a lot.  Of course, as a home, all it lacks is exterior walls.  But no design is perfect...

Maybe if I could just have one installed in an appropriate sized yurt...

Rupert now directing Prime Ministerial staff arrangments...

Hilarious to watch Rupert directing the show from New York:


Especially funny if Abbott really is personally responsible for the Prince Phil knighthood and didn't even run it past her...

Disappointing that I'm not smarter than I knew

Unconscious thought not so smart after all

A bunch of studies American's don't believe

Good guy with a gun myth: Guns increase the risk of homicide, accidents, suicide.

The most surprising thing, as this article points out early, is that a significant majority of Americans actually believe the NRA line that gun ownership is a good idea for personal safety.  

More common than you think

BBC - Earth - Spectacular real virgin births

A good read about virgin births in the animal kingdom.  (Quaint term - "animal kingdom" - isn't it?)

Time to 5:2 again

Fasting facts: is the 5:2 diet too good to be true? | Life and style | The Guardian

I tried the 5:2 diet last year and it did work, but having stopped completely for maybe four months now the weight has been creeping back up towards last year's starting point.  Michael was probably right - having lost the weight, doing it one day a week may be the way to maintain it.

This Guardian article starts out as if it is going to take down the claims a peg or two, but everyone it quotes still seems quite strongly supportive.  There is an alternative mentioned:
Longo himself has fasted daily for more than five years now. He practises time-restricted feeding, where he allows himself only two meals within three to 12 hours – a method that is common among centenarians and, says, “a good way for me to maintain a healthy weight”. It’s better than 5:2, according to Longo, because your system prefers a daily routine, rather than extremes every few days (he also recommends three-to-five day fasts every three months). But he wouldn’t recommend trying it without medical supervision, for fear of malnourishment and “because people like to improvise”, he says. You certainly can’t just go around fasting willy-nilly if you’re still growing, pregnant, diabetic or have other serious health conditions.
Well, until a book comes out about that, I won't try it.

Anyway, perhaps from next week it's time for me to go back to 5:2.   When it's cooler, I can throw in one of those 60 second a week exercise regimes .   Michael endorse them too!  (Heh).

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Hotter

Climate change will hit Australia harder than rest of world, study shows | Environment | The Guardian

The CSIRO/BOM website that the article links to looks pretty good - it breaks Australia down into regions and explains what is on the cards regarding not just rainfall, but extreme rainfall, temperatures, etc.  It also indicates the degree of confidence.

While regional forecasts of the effects of climate change are still very tricky, it's interesting to note that one thing they are still most confident about  is that the south west corner of Western Australia will continue to get drier. 

The Guardian report also notes this:
Some of the most profound transformations are set to take place in the
seas that surround Australia, which will warm by a further 2C to 4C
unless emissions are cut.
The ecological changes that this could involve have potentially serious consequences on such mundane matters as tourism.   This summer, a boy was stung at the Brisbane bayside suburb of Wellington Point by the (sometimes) deadly irukandji jellyfish.   An article at the Conversation in 2013 noted that they are normally only in northern Queensland waters (north of Gladstone) but had been found in Harvey Bay.  Now Brisbane.   While it remains unclear whether they can establish this far south in large numbers, if they did, and effectively prevented widespread use of southern Queensland beaches for the hottest summer months, the tourism effect would be very dire.

I am guessing that economists and their DICE models haven't worked out a way to factor that one into projections for GDP effect of global warming in 2090...

Monday, January 26, 2015

Faker than a spaghetti western


Just turned over to watch some of the Baz Luhrmann film Australia, which I knew would be ridiculous, but it exceeds my expectations. 

What on earth was this director thinking?   Everything about the film screams "fake":  the awful acting of poor Nicole Kidman, the sets, the story, the stampede, and (somehow) he even makes the Australian outback look fake - it looks and sounds more like a (particularly bad) 1940's American Western.   It's a film weird in concept and execution.   Any Australian critic who liked it is not to be trusted.

And looking back at what some American critics said about its treatment of aborigines - I see exactly what they mean.

I've been out for a while...is Abbott still PM?

Tony Abbott under fire from Cabinet colleagues over decision to grant knighthood to Prince Philip

 So, the answer seems to be yes, but is on the way out...

Hot

Yesterday, ABC TV said that Brisbane had a high of 37 degrees, and Ipswich too.   It's quite unusual to see the same temperature in both locations. 

I know it was hot where we live, about halfway between those locations.  If this heat and high humidity continues well into February, I think it will start to have the feel of the 1998 summer.

Looking around the world, Brazil is apparently having record heat and continuing, very serious, drought, and California has been hot.  Its drought is also still hanging around, even though rains late last year gave them hope.  The January lack of rain is, however, highly unusual:
January is usually San Francisco's wettest month, averaging four and a half inches of rain since 1850. In January 2015, though, it hasn't rained at all -- and the forecast doesn't suggest that's likely to change. Over the past 165 years, that has never happened. Not once. The closest the city came to a rainless month was when it got 0.06 inches -- in 2014.
But back to Brisbane.

Although our weather bureau contains tables of our climate at different locations, I can't see that they provide anywhere where you can easily graph the results.   (I would welcome being corrected on that.)  But over at the Berkeley Earth temperature records, they do provide pre-made graphs for all major cities.  

Here's what Brisbane's looks like:

 Seems a clear trend since I was born...

A call out to a gallah


Honestly, it would be the funniest bit of political history in Australia since Federation  if Tony's weird knighthood decision led to his losing the Prime Ministership.   I await with pleasure his media performance on this one....

Update:  the photo of the cockatoos was taken this morning.   It's very cheering, watching these white, intelligent birds having a feed. 

Friday, January 23, 2015

Butterfly improvement

Butterflies booming in south-east Queensland - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Yes, my daughter (still on school holidays) has taken to ringing me daily at work to tell me the large number of pretty blue (and one or two orange, apparently) butterflies in our back yard.   I haven't actually seen them there myself, although while driving around I have caught sight of a flash of blue.

We normally get only the most basic black and white type, which I have posted pictures of before.  I did, however, some years ago, get a nice shot of a slightly more exotic one.   I am not sure why there should be a sudden burst of prettier ones. 

An oldie but a goodie - about Matt Ridley

Libertarians are the True Social Parasites | George Monbiot

Mentioned today because the recent Ridley "why are people so mean to me?" column was tweeted by one jtfsoon.

Jihad continues

Man, someone at The Australian is absolutely determined that Gillian Triggs is to be sacked, or discredited to the max.   I would love to know what contact there has been between editorial staff and Coalition figures who want the same outcome - this campaign has been so intense it is hard to believe that it is being driven just by someone at the paper who has taken affront at Triggs.

Anyway, the latest effort comes by quoting the only Australian Human Rights academic I know of who has come out in defence of torture, and taken the view that Australia should withdraw from the UN Refugee convention.  His views on refusing entry to potential refugees who arrive on boats arrivals have essentially been adopted by this government (following from the Rudd decision, it has to be admitted.)

Mirko lost his Refugee Review Tribunal position due to his torture column.  He is truly an outlier in the field of human rights commentary.  His opinion on anything to do with human rights has to be seen in that light.

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Gay ol' Berlin

The Gay Capital of the Nineteenth Century - The New Yorker

OK, so everyone's aware of Germany being a bit avant-garde regarding homosexuality in the 20's and 30's, if only because of Cabaret.  (Actually, I still haven't seen it - but I think that's right...)
This review of a book argues that Berlin was actually way ahead of its time in the 19th century, and that a few prominent characters in Germany really can be said to have kicked off the whole gay rights reform movement, despite neighbouring France having actually decriminalised it much earlier.
It's quite an interesting read.  Here, for example:
Gay urges welled up across Europe during the Romantic era; France, in particular, became a haven, since statutes forbidding sodomy had disappeared from its books during the Revolutionary period, reflecting a distaste for law based on religious belief. The Germans, though, were singularly ready to utter the unspeakable. Schopenhauer took a special interest in the complexities of sexuality; in a commentary added in 1859 to the third edition of “The World as Will and Representation,” he offered a notably mellow view of what he called “pederasty,” saying that it was present in every culture. “It arises in some way from human nature itself,” he said, and there was no point in opposing it. (He cited Horace: “Expel nature with a pitchfork, she still comes back.”) Schopenhauer proceeded to expound the dubious theory that nature promoted homosexuality in older men as a way of discouraging them from continuing to procreate.
Not surprisingly, Karl Heinrich Ulrichs seized on Schopenhauer’s curious piece of advocacy when he began his campaign; he quoted the philosopher in one of his coming-out letters to his relatives. Ulrichs might also have mentioned Wagner, who, in “Die Walküre” and “Tristan und Isolde,” depicted illicit passions that many late-nineteenth-century homosexuals saw as allegories for their own experience. Magnus Hirschfeld, in his 1914 book “The Homosexuality of Men and Women,” noted that the Wagner festival in Bayreuth had become a “favorite meeting place” for homosexuals, and quoted a classified ad, from 1894, in which a young man had sought a handsome companion for a Tyrolean bicycling expedition; it was signed “Numa 77, general delivery, Bayreuth.” Ulrichs had published his early pamphlets under the pseudonym Numa Numantius.

I don't know much about Wagner, but I didn't suspect his work of having such an influence.  However, I see that a lesbian blogger has written at length about it.  She says:
In the epilogue to Laurence Dreyfus’s study of Wagner’s erotics, he writes, “It is clear that Wagner’s devotion to depictions of sexual desire was exceedingly unconventional, indeed unprecedented in the history of art.”2  This is certainly because his belief that the repression of female sexual desire as one of the big ills of society was very unconventional. Eva Rieger called the depiction of female sexual desire via Isolde “all but revolutionary.”3  I have covered all this in the posts I referenced above, but I want to make one clear point: all his female characters exhibited very strong desire, including the “virginal” ones such as Elisabeth in Tannhäuser. This was particularly subversive to the dominant sexual culture.
Women–“respectable women”–flocked to hear Wagner’s works, and were among his strongest, most consistent supporters.4  And, while they didn’t scream à la Beatlemania, there were repeated reports of audience members—mostly women or gay men—fainting, having sobbing fits and other sorts of delirium.5  This outsized reaction to him made his critics react in horror, seeing his work as both a manifestation of illness, and a cause of it. They deemed—with their own brand of hysteria— that Wagner seduced the women (and gay men) to mental disease through his over-wrought music. He was damned as degenerate—just as critics damned rock n rollers in the same way. Nonetheless, Wagner won the cultural battle—at least for a time—as a large share of the intelligentsia reacted by embracing him, and Wagnerism was born.
Wagner’s stunning popularity and vast influence (as I wrote about here) opened
the floodgates to much more sexual expressiveness in music and, for that matter, all art. He got away with it, so others now fearlessly followed in his path. In this way, he both directly and indirectly influenced the cultural perception of sexuality. The acceleration of trends towards more open sexuality of the fin de sìecle period, particularly within Germany, France and England, can certainly be traced directly to Wagner.
The things you learn....


Update:   just been reading a bit more about Richard Wagner, and find that his son Siegfried, who continued the family business, was definitely gay - or actually, if one takes ability to have several kids with his wife being any guide - bisexual.   (Rather like Oscar Wilde in that regard.  It would seem that both are now claimed as "gay", but whereas the popular impression of the 21st century gay man is more of one recoiling in horror at the idea of sleeping with a woman, those of the 19th and early 20th century seem to have been somewhat more flexible.)

Anyway, as noted in this site, there is a direct Hitler connection too (I mean, apart from his liking the music):
When Hitler, who was a financial supporter of the Bayreuth Festival, could no longer publicly endorse Lorenz, it was Siegfried’s wife Winifred who used her influence to rescue Bayreuth’s star heldentenor from public disgrace, exile and possible imprisonment over a charge of homosexuality.

Most historians concede that Hitler and Winnifred (below) carried on an affair after Siegfried’s death in 1930; there were even rumors of a possible marriage. Although Winifred was proud of her association with Hitler, when he visited her at Bayreuth, she took pains to conceal the connection. Hitler would register at the Hotel Bube in nearby Bad Berneck, and Winnifred would send her own car to pick him up, so that Hitler's ostentatious Mercedes would not be seen pulling into the driveway at Wahnfried, the Wagner family's villa built for Richard Wagner by King Ludwig II of Bavaria.
  Well, I didn't know that...