Greatest country

Contextless misuse of statistics noted

We all know Trump and the GOP is going to go full throttle on claiming that there is a "tremendous" jobs recovery from the rapid loss caused by GOP confusion and politicisation of the COVID response, but it's also becoming a Right wing meme that the police are going pro-Trump again because they are being killed on the job at a higher rate.

So we get this misleading headline at ABC news (the American one):

Police officers killed surge 28% this year and some point to civil unrest and those looking to exploit it 

Shoop became the 32nd U.S. law enforcement officer shot to death this year on July 13, marking a 28% jump in felonious officer deaths over the same period in 2019, according to data from the FBI. 

But a Twitter thread about it turns up this graph:

Speaking of the South...

On the weekend, I also finished watching Tiger King, including the "after show" interviews with some of the key figures.

Probably hard to add anything new to what people have already said about it, but there is this - it was hard to tell whether Joe's flamboyant style of gayness ever hurt his business in a conservative state.  Was it a a case of American conservatives making toleration exceptions for showbiz gay - like Liberace, or Siegfreid and Roy, perhaps?  I thought it a bit funny that the young-ish campaign manager guy (who says in the after show that he also is gay) blamed Oklahoman hatred of gays for Joe's poor electoral performance in the governor race - seemingly discounting the "nutjob" factor a bit too much, I reckon.   (The campaign manager seems to be still mentally scarred by the experience - but he had extremely questionable judgement in getting involved in the first place.)

The after show was also good for seeing the "cleaned up" version of John Finlay - the heavily tattooed husband who appeared shirtless and meth-mouthed in every interview.   Oddly, he seemed to claim he had no problem with appearing shirtless - I would have guessed it was the documentary directors trying to make him look as bad as possible.   I also thought the story the (rather odd) producer guy told in the after show was very telling - about how Joe took in a woman's old horse and promised to give it a good remaining life, only to immediately go and shoot it and feed it to the tigers when she left.

I hope the success of the show does not lead to documentary makers seeking out ever greater collections of bizarre characters to follow, though. 

Funny movie noted

Until this last weekend, I had never caught up with Will Ferrell's 2006 movie Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, and I have to say that I found it very funny.   It seemed to me to strike something of a sweet spot in terms of its comedic silliness and quasi realism; and while it no doubt did mock some aspects of the South, it didn't paint it as a Redneck nightmare zone.   No doubt the co-operation of the NASCAR organisation helped make sure it was (kind of) respectful.

I do worry a bit about Will Ferrell, though:  seems to me that he peaked in the decade 2000 - 2010.  (I see that Elf, which I think most people would probably regard as his best movie, was in 2003).  His movie choices in the last decade, however, seems to have included many more duds than hits.

Eschatology considered

I did another speed reading quick hit on the University of Queensland library yesterday (I've explained before why I do this), and the book of choice was this:

Eschatology - what a great word.  And such an important subject in religion, particularly Christianity.

But the chapter I sped through was on Buddhist eschatology, and it was interesting in its own way.

I guess I hadn't realised that it (naturally, coming from that place) had picked up the Indian idea of  cyclical creation and destruction.   I hadn't thought much about Hinduism and its obsession with that topic until recently watching both Sacred Games on Netflix (the second series became very messy, a bit ridiculous, and hard to follow, with an unsatisfactory ending) as well as this cartoon summary of key Hindu belief on Youtube:



So getting back to Buddhism:  there was a lot of interesting stuff in the chapter on its eschatology, but I was not able to copy it and the book does not seem to be on Scribd, so it is hard to remember it all.

Ideas that I hadn't realised before:  that it's long been a Buddhist belief that Buddhism would eventually no longer exist (one of the few religions with a prediction of its own extinction, I would bet);  that there can only be one Buddha in a world (universe - I think), hence you have to wait for the next cycle of destruction and creation to get another.   Maitreya is the Buddha to come - and as one page I did take a photo of says:

A vast span of time was expected to pass between the death of Sakyamuni Buddha and the coming of Maitreya, who would not appear until just after the next cycle of progress reaches its peak.  Once again, scholastic writers have attempted to calculate the time involved, with the most common being a figure of 5.6 billion years.

 A long time between drinks, so to speak.  

I'm not sure whether any branch of Buddhism, in light of modern understanding of the universe, thinks that it's not only one Buddha per entire universe.   Any scope for the equivalent of multiple incarnations of Christ on other, alien inhabited planets, I wonder?   (An idea which CS Lewis was sympathetic to.)   I'm not sure that Buddhists have ever given much thought to aliens.

The chapter did mention how the Indian sourced religions have taken some heart from modern cosmological theories of the universe cycling between Big Bang and Big Crunch - "see, we sensed that thousands of years ago!" they can say.   (And really, the 5.6 billion years figure is at least on the right scale of talking about cosmological time.)   But then, as with Christianity, the latest idea of a universe continually expanding into eternal darkness doesn't help much.

There was other interesting stuff - one Buddhist text with the Buddha sounding like a very sexist fellow with very low regard for women stepping out of their place (although as with so much Buddhist source material, how close it is to the words of the actual Buddha is anyone's guess.)

Anyway, all interesting stuff.  I see the book is available for around $80.   It is Father's Day soon...

Update:  I suppose I should state the obvious - the chapter I read was not very long, and tried to give a "big picture" view of eschatology in Buddhist belief, and I may have got some of the details wrong and be contradicted by those who know more about the many complicated variations on Buddhist belief within its branches.

I think the Wikipedia entry on it and eschatology is not very good - it seems to be bits and pieces without trying to give an overview in context.   However, the entry on Maitreya is better, and I didn't realise that there had been so many claimants to the title (including stupid old con man L Ron Hubbard):

The following list is just a small selection of those people who claimed or claim to be the incarnation of Maitreya. Many have either used the Maitreya incarnation claim to form a new Buddhist sect or have used the name of Maitreya to form a new religious movement or cult.

• In 613 the monk Xiang Haiming claimed himself Maitreya and adopted an imperial title.^[24]
• In 690 Wu Zetian, empress regnant of the Wu Zhou interregnum (690–705), proclaimed herself an incarnation of the future Buddha Maitreya, and made Luoyang the "holy capital." In 693 she temporarily replaced the compulsory Dao De Jing in the curriculum with her own Rules for Officials.^[25]
• Gung Ye, a Korean warlord and king of the short-lived state of Taebong during the 10th century, claimed himself as the living incarnation of Maitreya and ordered his subjects to worship him. His claim was widely rejected by most Buddhist monks and later he was dethroned and killed by his own servants.
• Lu Zhongyi (1849-1925), the 17th patriarch of Yiguandao, claimed to be an incarnation of Maitreya.
• L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the belief systems Dianetics and Scientology, suggested he was "Metteya" (Maitreya) in the 1955 poem Hymn of Asia. Numerous editors and followers of Hubbard claim that in the book's preface, specific physical characteristics said to be outlined—in unnamed Sanskrit sources—as properties of the coming Maitreya were properties with which Hubbard's appearance supposedly aligned.

So, just as Christianity has had its problems with wannabe leaders claiming to be a new version of (or related to) Christ, so has Buddhism.  Not sure any of them caused as much trouble as Hong Xiuquan, though - 10 million deaths by the self proclaimed brother of Christ!

Pretty much how I feel

Yes, it annoys me that journalists who work outside of the Murdoch workplace still treat their politically moderate mates who work inside of Murdoch as if there is nothing disgraceful about the fact they still work there.

It's gone on for too long.  The absolute tipping point for me was, I reckon, this cartoon that appeared with a Bolt column a couple of years ago:

Did any Murdoch journalist resign over that cartoon more suited (as I said in my post) to something like the Bulletin circa 1920?   Not that I heard. 

Journalists:  I don't care if your mate still manages to fit in some moderate commentary in the Murdoch press.  It should be socially unacceptable for anyone to accept a dollar by working for an outright racist, anti-democratic outfit (which is what the Murdoch American network is in its enabling of Trump and his cronies.)

Their friendship should be shunned.
  

The nutty American way of democracy, again

Is it just Australia, or do lots of other countries look at the American system of allowing individual states and parties to completely and maliciously stuff up fairness and national uniformity in voting in their Federal elections and think "this is absolutely nuts"?

I mean, we now have a President who votes by mail, encourages the elderly residents of one state that he needs to win that it's OK for them to vote by mail, while also admitting that he will not support funding the Postal service because he doesn't want them to be able to cope with mail in voting.  And the fat faced corrupt Attorney General was saying the other week that it was "obvious" that mail in voting would allow for fraud.

This is tinpot dictatorship in a nominal democracy territory.   

The anti-establishment Left may be causing local trouble on the streets of (some) American cities, but the American establishment Right is far more determined to do the most harm to democracy as a whole.   

Seen better days

The famous Arecibo radio telescope has had a spot of bother:

Science writes:

The iconic Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico was damaged early on 10 August when a snapped steel cable smashed into one of its antennas and tore a 30-meter gash in its 307-meter-wide dish. Observations have been halted for at least 2 weeks while investigations are carried out

Build your own dangerous laser

Are the laws about getting your hands on dangerously powerful lasers looser in America than here?  Or does being a "backyard scientist" means you can order them from China and not attract attention?
Anyway, this is interesting and entertaining:

Florida man

Just wow:

 You would think the litigiousness of America would stop really stupid workplace decisions like this, but apparently not.

The thin line between rot and fermentation

 There's a somewhat hair-raising article on CNA with the title:

Adventures in DIY fermentation: From onion-chilli paste to grasshopper garum

 and it ends on this note which keeps me away from home experiments: 

This fermenting business needs an intrepid spirit and a sense of humour. As the Noma team put it: “There is a thin line between rot and fermentation.”

Consider this recipe for example:

“In the typical southern Tunisian home,” she wrote, “the cook will slice around seventy pounds of fresh onions, toss them with salt and turmeric, pack them in earthen jugs, and leave them for three months to become soft and wet.”

Wolfert’s version of hrous was simplified and shortened for convenience. But the long Tunisian path proved irresistible to me. When I finally popped open the lid on the onion jar, stashed in a cupboard, the ripe pong was admittedly something best kept away from anyone you might be hoping to feed. But the finished paste was sensational.

But the most horrifying idea is this:

There is nothing more highly prized at Noma than the grasshopper garum. This long, sophisticated, chocolatey potion is so versatile and so good they had to stop it popping up in too many of their dishes.

Noma suggests using live grasshoppers as well as wax worm larvae, little cream-coloured wrigglers that definitely look better as moths. Sourcing initially looked simple but, in the required quantities, it turned out to be a Google-defying mission (one example from my search history: “Are pet shop grasshoppers safe for human consumption?”).

I didn’t relish seeing the little critters jumping around in my food processor either. My squeamish compromise was cricket flour, a high-protein powder, which I am told makes a mean chocolate brownie and is catching on fast among insect eaters. 

I won’t go into the details of my encounter with 300 grams of wax worms, but let me just say that, when working in bulk, the sawdust is hard to separate from the larvae.

 So, the basic point is - if fermented foods are going to smell bad anyway, how does one tell if it's a "don't eat this, it'll make you sick" sort of bad smell, instead of "it's fine, it's meant to smell like that" kind of bad odour.

 Reader Tim, who seems unduly interested in fermentation, but I assume has not gone so far as putting live grasshoppers in his blender,  may care to explain...

A short opinion

That choice of Kamala Harris for Biden's VP seems pretty good to me.   Helps deal with the Republican law and order panic campaign; she seems smart, basically likeable, and ticks the "should appeal to people of colour and immigrants" box as well.     

Still a hockey stick

First, this tweet:

 

I read some tweets by Stephen McIntyre criticising this study due to some alleged massive mistake on (I think) Antarctic proxy temperatures.    However, when I go back to his twitter feed now, it seems he has become massively obsessed with proving a scandalous and earth shattering injustice was caused to Trump and his team regarding the Russia interference investigation.  Honestly, he has 60 tweet threads on the topic, and comes back to it again and again.  He seems, in short, a complete Right wing nut now. I can't even find the climate related tweets I read only (I think) last week, they are so swamped with political, conspiracy like, guff.

And, I should point out, as with his previous criticisms of Mann and the hockey stick, the key point should be "what difference does it make?  Do your own reconstruction the way you think it should be done and let us know what it looks like."  But as far as I know, he never does. 

 

COVID efficiency

Yesterday, an important co-worker in the office wanted her GP to give her antibiotics for what was almost certainly a sinus infection that had started with an earache and moved into post-nasal drip affecting her throat.  She rang him for a telephone consultation.  He insisted on her getting a COVID 19 test, and self isolating at home until the result was in.  He emailed the form to her at work.

She went and had the test at about 11 am yesterday.  This morning she got the result emailed to her - negative, as expected.   She is back at work at 9 this morning.

The GP had said the tests were only taking about 24 hours in Brisbane now, although at the pathology place they said 2 to 3 days, but they would mark this one "urgent".  Came back in way less than 24 hours.

Pretty impressive.

Anyway, I am still in a ridiculously busy patch at work.

Also - the continual flurry of pathetic and unhelpful commentary on COVID 19 from the Right is pretty depressing. Who would have thought the harm to democracy and good government that would come from political commentary being monetarised in the way it has been (and primarily from the Right).  

A noodley day

Today, I eat 600 calories.

Yesterday, though, I made some very nice blueberry pancakes for breakfast (with ice cream and maple syrup); a big plate of char kway teow for lunch from a cafe at Sunnybank, where lots of Asian eating abounds; and my wife made Hiroshima style okonomiyaki for dinner (which has noodles in a layered fry up which is, I have decided, nicer than the more flour batter based Tokyo style.   It is a fiddly thing to cook, though.)

Back to char kway teow:  it was a disappointment when in Singapore (and Malaysia) 19 months ago that this dish did not seem as ubiquitous as I hoped it would be.   Mind you, we only spent time in Malacca in Malaysia, so maybe it is slightly regional in popularity?   Anyway, I have always liked it a lot as a fried noodle dish, and it is not always easy to find a cafe in Brisbane that does it justice.  Yesterday's was pretty good.

Dr Sleep confirms it...

...I really, really don't care for Stephen King.

The sequel to The Shining has turned up on Netflix, and I can see why it was a box office flop.

I have read that the book of The Shining had much more of what I think could be called magical realism, and it was Kubrick who turned it into a more ambiguous and realistic psychological study, well capable of different interpretations.  And King didn't like it. 

So I presume this sequel follows his book closely, as the magical realism abounds.   No ambiguity here - the ghosts from The Overlook have followed Danny all of his life, and ancient quasi gypsies tour the world looking for kiddies with psychic power to suck it, or their souls, out of them.  Danny finds himself in contact with one such potential victim and decides to help her.

I think it's an idea that could work, and for much of the first hour (which is about as long as the first act takes to unfold - it's a very leisurely told story) it kept reminding me of Ray Bradbury - in particular Something Wicked This Way Comes, which happens to be my favourite novel of his.   While the movie never bored me, it was more a case that I kept expecting it to develop into something with genuine suspense, dread or scares:  but they simply never come. 

I think it became clear that was from a writer devoid of good ideas when many of the supernatural villains were taken out in a very typically American way [I say so as not to be accused of too much as spoiler].   This is probably about 3/4 of the way in, and the movie from there just kept getting less and less convincing.

I also had a problem with the lead villain actress - it's hard to put my finger on it, but there was just something sort of smug about her performance and physicality that carried no menace at all.

So yeah, not a great movie, and I blame Stephen King totally for a bad story.

  

A tragic case

So Trump pronounced it "Thighland", and ridiculous Dinesh leaves millions jaw-dropped by tweeting about it:

Amongst many funny comments following:

Update:  this was the complete Die-nesh (that's how you pronounce it, no?) discussion:

More amusing tweets follow:

It's a control freak's paradise

I mean, who doesn't want to micro manage their own city state?:

I hope they have done something about lycra wearing cyclists.  Or perhaps it's completely unnecessary, given the climate?

Update:  one problem that Singapore seems surprisingly incapable of adequately fixing is the amount of dengue fever - which is running at some sort of recent record high at the moment:

SINGAPORE -- Singapore has been hit by an outbreak of dengue fever on pace to shatter records, adding to the burden on its health care infrastructure already taxed by growing coronavirus cases.

The country reported more than 20,000 dengue cases this year as of late July -- close to the full-year high of 22,170 in 2013. Infections are rising at the fastest-ever weekly pace.

The disease is widespread in Southeast Asia, and there is no effective vaccine or treatment. Some of the initial symptoms, including fever and body aches are similar to those of COVID-19, making them difficult to distinguish. And both diseases often cause no noticeable symptoms in patients, yet can be fatal in severe cases.

I have seen on CNA and elsewhere that the country is trying out the bio control line of releasing treated mosquitoes which breed with females who then have infertile eggs (which has been trialled in North Queensland too, I think), but it seems it's still under assessment and improvement, and it's hard to breed enough mosquitoes to make it effective.

 

Big loss

Disney is bleeding money:

For months it’s been clear that Disney, the country’s most prominent entertainment company, was facing a financial disaster unlike any in its history.

On Tuesday, it became evident just how deep the carnage has gone.

The company revealed that as a result of the coronavirus pandemic it took in just $11.8 billion in revenue and $1 billion in operating income in the three-month period that ended in June, the height of lockdowns in the country. The numbers are a significant drop from the same period a year ago, when it generated $20.25 billion in revenue and $4 billion in operating income, among the worst slides of the modern era.

In more "what's Graeme thinking?" news

Long time readers will hardly be surprised to know that Graeme is complaining from inside the  moderated comments cage I built just for him that I haven't posted about the Beirut explosion disaster, because (of course!) it was actually an atomic strike by some nefarious Jews.   He's calling it "the Jewish nuclear attack on Lebanese Christians".

I think we can safely assume that if he stubs his toe on the furniture in the dark on the way to the toilet at night, he immediately starts wondering about the surname of  the last tradesman in the apartment because he was probably a Jew who moved the drawers just enough to cause the accident and is now gloating about it at the Synagogue.

[Waves to Graeme inside the moderated comments cage.  You nut.]

Update:  I'm sure that, according to Graeme, this will be e-vil psy-ops:

I may, or may not, let you know what he says while shaking the cage.