A minor observation...

I've been meaning to opine on this all summer - and last summer too, when I think he also had the job.

Hamish Macdonald, the young-ish journalist who sits in for Fran Kelly as host of Radio National Breakfast over summer, is actually better at the job than Fran.   I don't dislike her, but Macdonald is often more direct and blunt with interviewees, and the show just feels, I don't know,  livelier?

Gradually building up to activity...

Not convinced this is a good mannequin look

As spotted in Sydney,  last year.   Don't think I ever posted about that weekend trip..

More mildlife

This summer's possum lodger is a very laid back customer.   Last year's would hiss and resent offers of fruit; this one takes it gently from the hand.   Nice...

Yet another holding post

Still busy

I didn't intend a blogging halt lasting this long, but I've just been exceptionally busy at work, and to a degree, at home.   And what a lot there is to link to at the moment re Trump, climate change, aliens (or lack of them), volcanoes, beer, cheese, bread and avocados.   (The last 5 topics will be dealt with in my first proper return post - there is a connection.)   But back to work again for the moment...

... and a Happy New Year

I'll be posting again soon,  but for now:

Christmas Greetings 2017

Policing the internet

Japan takes trying to intervene in suicide talk online pretty seriously:

In the wake of the recent high-profile killings and dismemberment of people who expressed a desire to commit suicide, the government announced measures on Dec. 19 to help those posting such thoughts on social networking services.

The Internet Hotline Center Japan (IHC), which is under contract with the National Police Agency, is expected to monitor such comments related to suicide beginning in January 2018 at the earliest.

Currently, the IHC monitors illegal data publicized on the Internet including obscene images, child sexual abuse images and advertisements on controlled substances and reports them to police.

Comments from those who express a desire to die will be included in the items reported to law enforcement.

Furthermore, the government will entrust other private organizations to keep close tabs on such postings on the Internet.

When such comments are posted and specific information including the date, time and place of the suicide attempt is learned through such measures, police will contact the poster and encourage them to talk with staffers who can provide support.

What's going on?

I see that Last Jedi criticism seems to be coming disproportionately from Right wing sites - even Ross Douthat is having a go at it!   Is the "fan backlash" influenced by the current culture wars?

But because I don't know when I can get to see the movie, I can't read into this yet.  I'm just looking at the start of articles...

In today's conspiracy news

Poor old CL:   he used to write well crafted conservative commentary at his blogs (since deleted).   Then he started living only in Catallaxy threads, the mutual support network for increasing stupidity, which has eaten into his brain, and lets him say what is really rattling around in his conspiracy laden head:

I've noticed this yearning evident in the conservative Catholic commentary lately for an actual violent physical fight over what is essentially a culture war.   Or at least, as evidenced in the recent writings of Philippa Martyr, a desire that "true" Catholics will soon start to be physically persecuted, so they can show their real mettle and die (or spend their time in jail?) defending the Catholic teachings that most Catholics have in fact moved on from.

It's a very strange time.

Didn't expect this...

MANILA – Firebrand President Rodrigo Duterte has said he wants same-sex marriage legalized in the Philippines, a move that would bring him into conflict with the dominant Roman Catholic Church.

Duterte, a longtime critic of the church which counts about 80 percent of Filipinos as followers, made the remarks in a speech before the LGBT community in his southern home city of Davao late Sunday.

“I want same-sex marriage. The problem is we’ll have to change the law. But we can change the law,” he said to wide applause.

“The law says marriage is a union between a man and a woman. I don’t have any problems making it marrying a man, marrying a woman or whatever is the predilection of the human being,” he added.
Divorce, abortion and same-sex marriage are still illegal in the Philippines due largely to the influence of the Catholic Church.

But Duterte, who took office in mid-2016, has actively attacked the church, accusing the clergy of sexual abuses and hypocrisy.

Spotted in The Japan Times.

Just another day in a Republican household

Truck dispute, handgun: throw in an unwanted pregnancy and you'd have the perfect cliche for a high profile redneck fight:

The elder son of former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin has been charged with assault and burglary in a violent confrontation with his father in which the two men struggled over a handgun at his parents’ Alaska home, court records showed on Monday. 

According to the criminal complaint and supporting documents, Track Palin, 28, broke through a window of the house in Wasilla, Alaska, and scuffled with his father, Todd Palin, on Saturday night in a clash that stemmed from a family dispute over a truck.

This is annoying

So many people have already seen The Last Jedi that lots of websites are opening up spoiler discussion threads.   And I see there are some articles saying that some fans are reacting against the film.  But I don't know why.

I can't read any of this yet, for fear of spoilers.  I'm not even going to look at Reddit until I have seen the movie.  

What's a President to do when his top two advisers are in conflict?

That's from the Washington Post, by the way.

Impulse control

And you thought people getting gastric band operations was a pretty extreme way to fight obesity:

Picture this: While reaching for the cookie jar — or cigarette or bottle of booze or other temptation — a sudden slap denies your outstretched hand. When the urge returns, out comes another slap.

Now imagine those "slaps" occurring inside the brain, protecting you in moments of weakness.

In a report published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Stanford neuroscientists say they've achieved this sort of mind-reading in binge-eating mice. They found a telltale pattern of brain activity that comes up seconds before the animals start to pig out — and delivering a quick zap to that part of the brain kept the mice from overindulging.

Whether this strategy could block harmful impulses in people remains unclear. For now the path seems promising. The current study used a brain stimulation device already approved for hard-to-treat epilepsy. And based on the new findings, a clinical trial testing this off-the-shelf system for some forms of obesity could start as early as next summer, says Casey Halpern, the study's leader and an assistant professor of neurosurgery at Stanford. He thinks the approach could also work for eating disorders and a range of other addictive or potentially life-threatening urges.

Look, if the only way this could work is putting electrodes into the brain, it's not going to be a common operation.

More detail on a credible UFO sighting

On the weekend, when I posted about the Pentagon UFO research story, I should have linked to this associated report at the New York Times in which a former Navy pilot explains the very strange UFO sighting in 2004.   It appears that it was visual and radar - just about the most interesting UFO encounters there are, as well as the pilots thinking it was affecting the water beneath it.   The video of the aircraft camera is not as impressive as one might hope, though, in that the object looks a bit fuzzy edged.  But then right at the end, it seems to zip off at high speed.  

I see some people are saying that the sighting was over the Pacific but not so far from a "Skunk Works" base, meaning they suspect it is advanced, human made, propulsion technology.   Could be, I suppose, but very fascinating even if that is the explanation.

I had thought when I posted initially that the two videos had been released before, but seems I was wrong about that.   I really want to know more about them.   Why does the second video in the article, this one:



end so abruptly?   In fact, I'm not even clear what year this one was.

A hoax of some kind remains a possibility, but the pilot speaking to the NYT and having his photo in the article makes that seems pretty unlikely.
  

I could have danced all night...

Cadavers in the ballroom

That's a headline you don't see every day.

It's at Reuters, and it is a rather surprising story:

Big names in hospitality, from Disney to Hilton and Hyatt, have a little-known sideline: They rent space to physicians who train on cadavers and body parts. There is scant regulation, and some public-health specialists warn of biosafety risks. 

More detail in the opening paragraphs:

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida – Just outside the operating theater, the organizers of a medical conference wore Minnie Mouse ears.

Inside, as doctors practiced on three cadavers, blood from one of the human specimens seeped through a layer of wrapping.

“They leak,” a lab technician said of the bodies.

The sessions, held last month and attended by a Reuters reporter, weren’t at a hospital or medical school. They were part of a so-called cadaver lab – and the setting was a Florida resort. It was one of scores of such events over the past six years that have been held at a hotel or its convention center.

In this case, doctors practiced nerve root blocks and other procedures on cadavers in one of the Grand Harbor ballroom’s salons at Disney’s Yacht & Beach Club Resorts convention center. Online, Disney refers to its ballrooms as “regal and resplendent.” They’re often used for wedding receptions. 

Disney did not respond to requests for comment for this article.

Mickey has blood on his shoes?

Easily thrilled

From an Australian perspective, this is a very odd headline and story at Gulf News:

Hailstorm thrills children in Dubai

Students of GEMS Our Own Indian School in Al Quoz were thrilled to see pellets of hailstones falling down all over their campus, the school’s principal Lalitha Suresh confirmed to Gulf News.

"Yes. The kids were really enjoying the hailstorm," she said.

 Many children were out in the school ground for the sports day selection procedures when it started raining.

"We were having our shotput finals. It was drizzling. Suddenly hailstones started pouring down. We were so excited. I was able to collect some hailstones in my hands. Then we were told to disperse and rush to class," said Julie Francis, a grade eight student.

Suresh said the sports day selection was postponed due to the rains.

"Kids started playing in the water also. You know they never get to play in water. We really had to manage the children. Anyway, we didn’t have any damage in the school."

I guess a tornado would thrill them even more...

Douthat trying too hard

Ross Douthat really tries too hard sometimes to find something like what he thinks is "balance" - such as today's column saying the defeat of ISIS is a Trump "win", and then criticising mainstream media for not acknowledging this.

The flaws in the argument are within the column itself - and many comments ridicule Ross:

And yet, there are a few comments from Trumpkins who think that Donald really won the war by unleashing the power of the American military, or some such guff.   They live in a world created purely by their own bubble of right wing punditry.