Unknown stuff on the way

LHC completes the circle

One day I will get around to tagging all my posts about mini black holes, strangelets, mini time machines and other LHC stuff. In the meantime, feel free to use the blog search feature.

Getting away from it all

Antarctic Team To Install Seismographs, Where 'No Man -- Or Woman -- Has Gone Before'

The team ... will go to remote regions of Antarctica to place seismographs in both east and west Antarctica, to learn about the earth beneath the ice, and glean information about glaciers, mountains and ice streams. The location of their field camp, called AGAP-South, has never been visited by humans before, and the entire region of Antarctica has only been traversed by a Russian team 50 years ago and by a Chinese team last year.

It's good to know there are still places to go where no human footprint has been before. Of course, if I were there I would also be worrying about discovering UFOs under the ice with shape changing aliens on the loose.

Germaine has too much time on her hands

Guardian Unlimited: Arts blog - art: Why has the world gone pink mad?

Things improve, slowly

A life, stolen - Times Online

This is a long story about the harshness of the British mental health system of the 20th century, and how its repercussions are still felt today.

It does often surprise me to think how different and harsh some attitudes were within very recent times.

In fact, I am also surprised at some cultural differences that still exist. In the area of divorce, for example, it seems that the attitude of some Chinese and (perhaps to a lesser degree?) Japanese is that, in the event of remarriage, the father is better off severing all ties with the children of his first marriage, and each party makes their own completely new life. Perhaps re-establishing some contact with the child as an adult is OK, but the father takes no part in their formative years.

I have seen this happen with someone I know well, and although his character is generally likeable, he accepts without question his family's attitude that he should have no contact with his first child. (In fact, he already had nearly no physical contact, but was in regular communication with her. Now even that has stopped, even though he did see her again for the first time in years before he re-married.)

This strikes me, and I would think most other Australians, as terribly, terribly sad for the child. I would hope that it is a cultural attitude that will slowly die out, but it still seems strong at the moment.

Take your own fire extinguisher

In Russian renaissance, safety takes backseat - International Herald Tribune

From the report:

More than 17,000 people died in fires in 2006 in Russia, nearly 13 for every 100,000 people. This is more than 10 times the rates typical of Western Europe and the United States, according to statistics from Russia's government, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States and the Geneva Association, a Swiss organization that analyzes international fire statistics....

The death toll - hovering this year at about 40 people a day - flows from myriad factors. Among them are aging electrical and heating systems in public housing and rural homes, dilapidated firefighting equipment and widespread violations of safety codes.

High rates of alcoholism and smoking are also factors, fire officials say, because intoxicated people are often unable to escape fires, or inadvertently set them.

More trouble coming

China's economy generates billionaires by the dozen - International Herald Tribune

China has a lot of new billionaires, but there is reason to expect they won't stay that way forever:

Analysts are skeptical about the way China's stocks are valued, particularly those with huge amounts of untradable government shares, like PetroChina. But to the buyers in Shanghai, at least, it dethroned Exxon Mobil as the most valuable company in the world. And by the same criteria, they would consider China Mobile the world's most valuable telecommunications company. ICBC, a state-owned bank that was nearly insolvent a decade ago, is worth more than Citigroup to the speculators.....

But many analysts argue that there is nothing underlying the skyrocketing valuations - or, sometimes, that the companies' obscure finances make it impossible to know. And if the Chinese stock market is a bubble, the new billionaires will disappear as quickly as they rose, since much of their wealth was generated by the stock markets, as well as by the Chinese real estate boom and the Chinese economy, the fastest-growing in the world.

And if you thought the US had inequality in income:

As much as the bounty of billionaires is a source of pride, it is also a potential cause for concern in a nominally communist country. Per capita income in China is less than $1,000 a year.

"One issue is social stability," said Emmanuel Saez, a professor of economics at the University of California. "In Latin America you had such a concentration that revolutionaries wanted to redistribute it."

For Melbourne Cup Day...

A story about horses you many not have heard before (from the History of Psychiatry):

Anthropophagic horses have been described in classical mythology. From a current perspective, two such instances are worth mentioning and describing: Glaucus of Potniae, King of Efyra, and Diomedes, King of Thrace, who were both devoured by their horses. In both cases, the horses' extreme aggression and their subsequent anthropophagic behaviour were attributed to their madness (hippomania) induced by the custom of feeding them with flesh. The current problem of 'mad cow' disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) is apparently related to a similar feed pattern. Aggressive behaviour in horses can be triggered by both biological and psychological factors. In the cases cited here, it is rather unlikely that the former were the cause. On the other hand, the multiple abuses imposed on the horses, coupled with people's fantasies and largely unconscious fears (hippophobia), may possibly explain these mythological descriptions of 'horse-monsters'.

These psychiatrist seem to think it is all mythology, but it seems to me just as likely that when a horse bites, it's actually tasting you...

The narrowing

There's not a lot of excitement in the papers about the latest Newspoll, but it's given me a nice warm feeling for the following reasons: at least the polling is going in the right direction; there are enough people (barely) who could still swing it around to the Coalition; and there must be one or two innovative announcements to come from Howard yet.

Seemingly, the voters won't completely blame the Coalition for another interest rate rise, so maybe that won't be as influential on the polls next week as some think. It remains possible that increasingly dire financial shakes that may come overseas in the next fortnight could work in the Coalition's favour.

Ah yes, time for a port and an imaginary cigar. Except I am work and need to stop posting. Bah.

Cosmology news

Even get the feeling cosmology has many more uncertainties in it than the experts like to admit?

It's possible that the universe is 20% lighter than previously thought because of some rubbery interpretation of certain measurements. (Sounds a lot when its mass and density helps determine whether it will ever turn into a "crunch" in future).

There is also a suggestion being made that dark energy may be an artefact of the local bit of the universe we live in. I am sure most cosmologists would be happy to get rid of dark energy as a concept, but no one is really convinced the problem is gone yet.

Maybe they should just stick with it being turtles all the way down.

Another Pebble Bed reactor advantage

Science Show - Uranium supplies underestimated

The Science Show had an interesting interview on the weekend, in which this (new to me) feature of Pebble Bed nuclear reactors was mentioned:

Martin Sevior: The Chinese are pursuing pebble bed reactors and those are about four times as efficient in the use of uranium as light water reactors.

Robyn Williams: Could you explain how the pebble reactors work?

Martin Sevior: The pebble bed reactors basically have...your uranium is embedded in a carbon matrix which serves as the moderator. In a standard nuclear reactor, light water is the moderator. Water is also a very good absorber of neutrons, so carbon is much more efficient in that way, it doesn't absorb neutrons. So you can actually employ less uranium for the same about of power because instead of your neutrons being lost through absorption in water, they can initiate more reactions.

Now, I would still like to know the answer to a question I asked earlier this year: do they need to use much water in their operation? If not, we can forget about the Labor scare campaign of a string of nuclear power plants along the Australian coast.

Loose lips

Another journo backs Price on Garrett's backflips

Well well. Charles Wooley does indeed support the idea that Peter Garrett has been going around giving winks and nods about Labor electoral promises:

"Peter Garrett agreed, he intimated that 'What we say in Opposition might not be what happens in government.'''

The biggest significance of this may be for Garrett's ministerial ambitions. They have receded faster than Peter's hairline.

Got off lightly, it seems

Goat killer forced to make apology

A 26 year old, pretty normal looking woman (go to the link), got up to something rather abnormal in a Brisbane outer suburb last year:

The court was last month told Arnold had been drinking at a Friday the 13th party at Bellbowrie when she and three others decided to conduct a mock satanic ritual.

Documents tendered to the court last month stated the group drove to a property on Moggill Road, Pinjarra Hills and stole the goat, which was grazing at the front of the property.

They then broke into the church, which was under construction but close to opening, and dragged the animal to a raised platform where they slaughtered it.

So far, so bizarre. But was this a completely abnormal bit of behaviour over which she felt deep shame the next day? Seems unlikely:

The goat's head was later found by police in the freezer of Arnold's home, along with a camera containing photos of members of the group with the head.

A newspaper clipping reporting the incident was also found on top of the fridge.

Of course, solicitors sometimes have to put the best spin they can on acts which are very hard to spin:

Arnold's solicitor John Jacob said his client suffered from an alcohol addiction but psychiatric reports indicated she did not have a "macabre predisposition" to commit violent offences.

"There is nothing in Ms Arnold's personal background or her psychological character that makes her any more likely to be involved in offences of this nature," he told the court.

"(But) when she drinks alcohol she makes poor decisions."

Her punishment: 2 years probation, no conviction recorded. Has to consent to psychiatric treatment (although for what it is not clear.)

Warning: all young men in Brisbane looking for a date. Study the photo at the link. Commit it to memory. Remember just how poor her decision making can be.

This has been a public service announcement of Opinion Dominion.

Money and sanity

Recovery From Schizophrenia: An International Perspective.

Apparently, according to a WHO international study, living in poorer countries gives a better chance of recovering from schizophrenia:

Outcome from schizophrenia is routinely better in developing world settings, and this difference becomes apparent during the initial 2 years of illness. But even for developing world patients with a poor early course, outcome is superior to that of developed world patients with an equivalent early course. Employment rates are substantially greater for developing world subjects, and some authors have attributed this to the freedom from the economic disincentives to employment that can accompany the provision of disability benefits in the industrial world (1). The editors, who include a well regarded medical anthropologist, are cautious about attributing the improved developing world outcomes to specific cultural factors. Shantytowns may not be ideal "communities of recovery," they point out, and extended families can be tyrannical as well as supportive. They conclude, however, that family involvement may be a key positive factor. They point to "the extraordinary engagement of Indian families in the course of treatment," (p. 280) coupled with low criticism and reduced demands. They also point to a startling difference in one component of social inclusion. Nearly three-quarters of Indian subjects with schizophrenia were married at follow-up, compared with about one-third of people with the illness in the developed world centers.

How odd.

Reviving polytheism

Bring back the Greek gods - Los Angeles Times

I missed this a couple of weeks ago - the Los Angeles Times runs an article arguing that polytheism makes more sense than monotheism, and suggesting that the modern world would be better off with it.

Yes, I think we should have some type of contest for new, more appropriate gods for the 21 st century.

I would like to take the article to task on several of its suggestions, but have no time right now.

The funniest serious gadget for some time....

Mangroomer DIY Electric Back Hair Shaver - wax-free smoothness at a stroke - The Red Ferret Journal

Eating at Teneriffe

It's rare that I get to eat out at somewhere new that I feel I can wholeheartedly recommend.

Today, my wife and I tried out a "European Tapas bar" at Teneriffe, the former dockside industrial area of Brisbane now full of woolstores and warehouses that have all been converted to apartments for young couples, old couples, and gays; which essentially means the suburb seems childless. (We had to leave ours locked in the car for a couple of hours.)

The name of the tapas place is Salon, and you can go look at the menu at its website. It also had a pretty eclectic drinks selection, and everything was just great. They do the breakfast menu until 2pm, the waiter told us. (I suppose it takes that long for the ecstasy to wear off from last night's clubbing.)

I have been wanting to eat at a quality tapas place for some time, and was not disappointed.

All Brisbane readers are encouraged to support it; I want it to still be open in 12 months time when we next have the opportunity to have a Sunday lunch alone.

(And need I say it: just kidding about the kids.)

What a resume; what a life

Spotted this in a New Yorker review of a couple of books about the history of cars:

In 1921, a team of G.M. researchers looking for a way to prevent knock discovered that by adding small amounts of tetraethyl lead, or TEL, to the fuel supply they could solve the problem. By that point, the toxicity of lead was already well known. Indeed, one of the G.M. researchers behind TEL, Thomas Midgley, very nearly poisoned himself while working on the additive, and several workers at a plant experimenting with TEL died gruesome deaths as a result of exposure to it. (Midgley went on to invent Freon, which was later discovered to be destroying the ozone layer.)

The author apparently argues that even in the 1920's, chemists proposed avoiding the problem by increasing petrol octane, which is the solution that, 50 years later, was finally forced on the car manufacturers after untold public health harm by leaded petrol.

Anyway, I had never heard of Thomas Midgley before, even though it sounds like he almost singlehandedly did the world in; which is quite a feat, really.

Let's see what Wikipedia has to say about him....Ah well, there you go: typically, I am not original in my thoughts:

One historian remarked that Midgley "had more impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in earth history." ^[1]

He also died in a "stranger than fiction" fashion:

In 1940, he contracted polio at the age of 51, which left him severely disabled. This led him to devise an elaborate system of strings and pulleys to lift him from bed. This system was the eventual cause of his death when he was accidentally entangled in the ropes of this device and died of suffocation at the age of 55.

I hope we have all learnt something from this post*.

*(I have no idea what, but it was sort of fun.)

Clapton goes clean

There are two anecdotes about Eric Clapton which I hadn't heard before in the Salon review of his autobiography. (Mind you, I have never followed his life story closely; maybe the first one is common knowledge?):

Clapton was prone to outrageous behavior when drunk, which was now most of the time. He did one entire show lying down onstage. He was particularly fond of crude practical jokes. The nadir came when he decided to play a trick on his drummer, who had taken a girl back to his hotel room in Honolulu. Intending to spoil his pal's night and give him a good scare, Clapton grabbed a samurai sword, walked out onto a ledge 30 stories up, and made his way into the drummer's bedroom. Neither the drummer nor the girl were amused, and neither were the police, who came to the door with guns drawn, thinking he was some kind of assassin.

Odd how he was lucky to avoid the (much later) sad fate of his son.

The other story is how he came finally came clean, and it's a perfect fit for the AA approach:

In 1987, driven by fear that Conor would grow up to see him as the drunken mess that he was, he returned to Hazelden, where he had a dramatic revelation that proved to be what he says was the turning point in his life: "In the privacy of my room I begged for help. I had no idea who I thought I was talking to, I just knew that I had come to the end of my tether, that I had nothing left to fight with ... I surrendered." Clapton writes that he has never wanted to take a drink or a drug in the 20 years since that moment.

Let's hope it stays that way.

More on politics

Some random thoughts:

1. why hasn't some Liberal sympathiser put up on Youtube the video snippet I saw this week of Maxine McKew getting all carried away dancing in the street at Bennelong? Labor figures dancing after the Keating election win did them harm in the 1996 election. Maxine looking as if she is celebrating already is equally not a great look.

2. Kevin Rudd has come out first with some home buyers assistance, although it would seem it is all about only saving a deposit, which has little to do with the problems with servicing large mortgages.

I have been betting all along that the Liberals would have a substantial policy on home buying assistance, and I hope that such an announcement figures in the official campaign launch, and is more far reaching than the Labor policy.

By the way, when are the official campaign launches? They are always interesting to watch not so much because of content, but more as theatre.

3. The Coalition advertising campaign seems more reactive than anything else, and that's not good. Too much time spent aligning the ads with the focus groups, I think.

4. More talk today about possible big financial meltdowns being just around the corner. Peter Costello may have been right to raise the issue when he did. It should work in the Coalitions favour, but who knows with this electorate...

5. Catallaxy actually has a good discussion going on at this week's open forum about tax cuts and interest rates.

Grrrr...

What is it with ABC journalists wasting time in interviews with John Howard about transition arrangements with Peter Costello? Kerry O'Brien started off his second interview with a question about this last Monday's, and Barry Cassidy did it again on Insiders today (transcript not up yet). Do they think they know something that the PM is not telling us? Otherwise, I thought the PM's position on this was very, very clear, and why waste time asking him about it.

Then I turn over to Sunday, and catch the end of an interview in which, I reckon, Kevin Rudd was being handled very gently by Laurie Oakes. There were all sorts of things he said that could have been challenged (in particular, his simultaneous claim that its Howard who is into scare campaigns, and that Peter Costello as PM would make Work Choices tougher!) There's no doubt Labor is running scare ads too, with more to come.

Then Laurie says post-interview that there was still a touch of Captain Cranky about Howard this morning...maybe it's because of the type of interviewing he is having to put up with.