BBC News - Warning over electrical brain stimulation
I still think that the intriguing research into brain stimulation for increased cognitive performance hasn't attracted as much general attention as it should. But hobbyists are apparently running current through their heads with amateur equipment, and that might just not be that good an idea, yet...
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Don't you dare speculate, lay person
I forget where the story first ran recently about some new research on anaesthesia being possibly supportive of the Penrose suggestion that quantum effects in the brain might be at the heart of consciousness.
In any event, it appeared last week in a post at Mysterious Universe, but it has made the doctor who did the experiment very cranky. From the comments following the post:
Followed up by the post writer:
Dr Turin responds in rather arrogant fashion:
The good doctor goes on to explain in more detail, but he does sound a bit of a jerk.
In any event, it appeared last week in a post at Mysterious Universe, but it has made the doctor who did the experiment very cranky. From the comments following the post:
Followed up by the post writer:
Dr Turin responds in rather arrogant fashion:
The good doctor goes on to explain in more detail, but he does sound a bit of a jerk.
Steven Moffatt has killed Dr Who
This is my considered opinion after the first 20 minutes of the awful opening episode of the new Dr Who.
As far as I'm concerned, lurid quasi science fiction with a large children's audience is not a place to compulsively go on about sexual politics. It now does so pretty much continuously, and is ludicrous, boring, not funny, and only worth viewing to see how bad it has become.
As far as I'm concerned, lurid quasi science fiction with a large children's audience is not a place to compulsively go on about sexual politics. It now does so pretty much continuously, and is ludicrous, boring, not funny, and only worth viewing to see how bad it has become.
Saturday, August 23, 2014
Time slip government
Guy Rundle writes amusingly in The Saturday Paper about a strange aspect of the Abbott government:
Good political fun with out-of-touch ministers. Traditional, except for one thing: the hopeless targets of this stuff are usually relics of a bygone age. Joe Hockey is 49, Christopher Pyne 47. They were toddlers in 1969 – the year of Woodstock and equal pay for women. They are products of a post-’60s Western world, bound within it, but their mindset comes from somewhere else. It’s as if they’ve had a Philip K. Dick-style mind implant from an earlier era.
Perhaps the whole frontbench got a bulk deal on such, for what can explain this government’s unique inability to understand the real-life impacts of many of the measures it is proposing? The Howard government had the basic nous to refrain from antagonising low-income people who voted for them on culture-war grounds. There seems to be none of that on display in the Abbott government. Indeed it is worse. They seem to have no conception of the life-world of those on low incomes, the everyday structure and texture of existence for those in precarious or poor situations.
What else can explain Joe Hockey’s remark that the $7 Medicare co-payment is no more than a “couple of beers”? Quite aside from the inherent anachronism – it’s barely one beer in a pub – it suggests Hockey is unaware that many people on benefits have to budget with the expectation that they will spend the last two to three days of a fortnight with no ready cash at hand. How else to explain the six-months-on/six-months-off dole scheme for the under-25s, which would make it impossible for a dole recipient to, among other things, rent a flat with a standard 12-month lease. How are they then supposed to move to areas of lower unemployment to seek work, as they have been urged to do? The scheme is meticulously designed to punish initiative and reward stasis. It is anti-brilliant. You don’t have to come from a low-income background to understand these demands. You only need to buy a pie and a Coke at a convenience store – close to $10 – to realise that it constitutes about 10 per cent of a week’s discretionary income on benefits, or the part-time wage of a worker who needs a full-time job.
Friday, August 22, 2014
While I don't disagree...
....that the militarisation of the US police forces has become ridiculously over the top (and note that a significant part of it is due to Congress and the Pentagon thinking that recycling military equipment is a thrifty and useful thing to do), I find myself a bit chagrined when those Americans of a libertarian bent get upset about it, because of their support of the other side the ledger (the public) being armed to the back teeth.
Mark Steyn's recent column, for example, quotes with approval the tiny number of police shootings in other Western countries compared to the US. Yet this is him talking before about his home State:
Mark Steyn's recent column, for example, quotes with approval the tiny number of police shootings in other Western countries compared to the US. Yet this is him talking before about his home State:
New Hampshire has a high rate of firearms possession, which is why it has a low crime rate. You don’t have to own a gun, and there are plenty of sissy arms-are-for-hugging granola-crunchers who don’t. But they benefit from the fact that their crazy stump-toothed knuckle-dragging neighbors do. If you want to burgle a home in the Granite State, you’d have to be awfully certain it was the one-in-a-hundred we-are-the-world panty-waist’s pad and not some plaid-clad gun nut who’ll blow your head off before you lay a hand on his seventy dollar TV.Is it such a stretch for Steyn to imagine that police in a place where (as he thinks is fantastic) nearly every household has a gun (or on the street, anyone might be carrying a concealed gun) might be more inclined to shoot first in many situations?
Thursday, August 21, 2014
Don't get too carried away with your bacteria
Microbiology: Microbiome science needs a healthy dose of scepticism : Nature News & Comment
I forgot to mention that Catalyst last week was the start of a 2 part story on microbiome science, and was very good.
But perhaps my "time travelling doctors who change history with fecal transplants" series needs to wait....
I forgot to mention that Catalyst last week was the start of a 2 part story on microbiome science, and was very good.
But perhaps my "time travelling doctors who change history with fecal transplants" series needs to wait....
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Black market continues
Black market boom lays bare a social divide in Colorado’s marijuana market | World news | Guardian Weekly
Yeah, yeah, it's early days yet, but this article about the black market reaction to legalisation of marijuana is interesting. (One odd thing I have noticed in other articles too - the amount of medical marijuana sold in that state seems astronomical.)
I would add one other observation - the issues with what happens to a black market for this particular drug is probably very, very different to the experience with alcohol and prohibition for the simple reason that making your own, good tasting and consistent quality alcoholic beverage is not as simple a matter as growing a dozen plants in your backyard. The ease with which the black market can produce a "quality" product probably helps ensure it does not go away when the legalised, highly taxed, version becomes available.
Yeah, yeah, it's early days yet, but this article about the black market reaction to legalisation of marijuana is interesting. (One odd thing I have noticed in other articles too - the amount of medical marijuana sold in that state seems astronomical.)
I would add one other observation - the issues with what happens to a black market for this particular drug is probably very, very different to the experience with alcohol and prohibition for the simple reason that making your own, good tasting and consistent quality alcoholic beverage is not as simple a matter as growing a dozen plants in your backyard. The ease with which the black market can produce a "quality" product probably helps ensure it does not go away when the legalised, highly taxed, version becomes available.
About the metadata freakout...
I find it a bit hard to understand the metadata privacy freakout, given that surely everyone should assume that any old bored 21 year old working late at an ISP could be looking up the browsing or message history of any customer he's interested in. As for what the metamind of Google knows about what you were up to last night - well, what they don't know is probably easier to answer.
A key point I was interested in was "how long do ISPs currently hold metadata anyway?" and according to the ABC, the answer seems to be this:
And as for Topher, a professional Tosser in my books, it is rather ridiculous to be suggesting that it is the ISPs themselves who want the change.
Update: to be sure, if the argument was about who within the government metadata was being released to, and whether it was with or without warrant, and the purposes for which it was being sought - that's fine if there are outrageous cases, but I can't say I've seen such examples within Australia being publicised.
But the mere fact that the government is seeking to set a minimum standard for how long it is kept, when an unspecified number of ISPs are already keeping it for that long or longer, well that's a minor issue when the main one is "how is it accessed".
A key point I was interested in was "how long do ISPs currently hold metadata anyway?" and according to the ABC, the answer seems to be this:
and this:What Telcos/ISPs are doing?
There has been a proliferation of ISPs in Australia in recent years – there are now more than 200.
There are variations between each company on what data they store and for how long. Industry retention patterns vary from "months" to "years".
There has been a trend towards telcos/ISPs holding metadata for shorter periods of time.
Some telcos already hold data for seven to nine years, government officials say. Those companies would not be affected if the Government proposes a mandatory two-year retention of metadata.
So, privacy freaks, is this another case of you blithely living with something that hasn't had an effect on your life for like, 10 years or so, but now that the government wants to regulate it a tiny bit more it's full blown panic mode?What would be different for telcos/ISP with mandatory retention of metadata?
Nothing, if they are already holding it for more than two years.
Some telcos/ISPs who hold for shorter periods would be affected if the Government seeks to "standardise" a two-year retention period.
And as for Topher, a professional Tosser in my books, it is rather ridiculous to be suggesting that it is the ISPs themselves who want the change.
Update: to be sure, if the argument was about who within the government metadata was being released to, and whether it was with or without warrant, and the purposes for which it was being sought - that's fine if there are outrageous cases, but I can't say I've seen such examples within Australia being publicised.
But the mere fact that the government is seeking to set a minimum standard for how long it is kept, when an unspecified number of ISPs are already keeping it for that long or longer, well that's a minor issue when the main one is "how is it accessed".
RET worries
I see that IPA aligned economists are getting all aroused at the prospect that, having lost out on the fake and hysterical free speech crisis they tried to whip up because Andrew Bolt wouldn't apologise for mistakes made in a column, they may have an Abbott government "win" on the Renewable Energy Target. (The rumour being that key figures in the government are wanting to have it killed off entirely.) Julie Novak, for example:
From what I can make out, the economics of electricity production in this large country are rather complicated, and in an ideal world, all countries would price carbon with consistency and at realistic levels to wean the planet off burning carbon, and all electricity production, retail and transmission would work the same across our own country, and you genuinely could have a situation where you let energy companies work it out for themselves without the need for the additional spur of a government mandated RET.
However, given the world (and Australia) is not so simple, the RET is one element of a multi-pronged approach to energy, and letting it stay does not represent an economic problem of any significance. Removing it now that it has been in place for so long is actually a lot more trouble than it is even theoretically worth.
And one thing is clear - given that the free marketeer economists aligned with the IPA have no problem at all with it actively promoting pubic and political disbelief that there is even a problem to address regarding climate change, their opinion on the merit of the RET is not worth a pinch of poop.
Julie Novak is, of course, completely and ludicrously wrong in this morning's tweet, in response to a rare column in The Australian supporting the RET:
Get real, Julie.
From what I can make out, the economics of electricity production in this large country are rather complicated, and in an ideal world, all countries would price carbon with consistency and at realistic levels to wean the planet off burning carbon, and all electricity production, retail and transmission would work the same across our own country, and you genuinely could have a situation where you let energy companies work it out for themselves without the need for the additional spur of a government mandated RET.
However, given the world (and Australia) is not so simple, the RET is one element of a multi-pronged approach to energy, and letting it stay does not represent an economic problem of any significance. Removing it now that it has been in place for so long is actually a lot more trouble than it is even theoretically worth.
And one thing is clear - given that the free marketeer economists aligned with the IPA have no problem at all with it actively promoting pubic and political disbelief that there is even a problem to address regarding climate change, their opinion on the merit of the RET is not worth a pinch of poop.
Julie Novak is, of course, completely and ludicrously wrong in this morning's tweet, in response to a rare column in The Australian supporting the RET:
Get real, Julie.
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
A bit of Wittgenstein
Wittgenstein,Tolstoy and the Folly of Logical Positivism | Issue 103 | Philosophy Now
Given all the World War 1 talk going on at the moment, it's apt to remember one philosopher's participation in it. The above piece here from Philosophy Now reminded me about Wittgenstein's war, and how his one famous book was written during it.
Given all the World War 1 talk going on at the moment, it's apt to remember one philosopher's participation in it. The above piece here from Philosophy Now reminded me about Wittgenstein's war, and how his one famous book was written during it.
It made sense...
Stop Making Sense 30th anniversary: David Byrne and Jonathan Demme talk about how the movie got made (VIDEO).
Yay. Slate has a short story up about the 30th anniversary of Stop Making Sense, with a couple of videos.
I'll post this one:
because it illustrates how David Byrne now comes across as a very witty, relaxed and normal person, in contrast to the image of of an eccentric young geek that you got from his interviews at the peak of Talking Heads (as well as in the movie.) I don't think Aspergers was a condition anyone talked about back then, but if he acted in interviews now as he did as a young man, I'm pretty sure some people would wonder about it.
What I'd like someone to ask him one day is whether he really was different back then, or whether there was a large element of performance in his interviews and public persona. (I wouldn't really care if there was - he was so interesting to watch anyway - I'd just like to know.)
And this all reminds me, I haven't visited his website for some time. I see that (like me) his elderly mother recently died, and he has an interesting and charming post talking about her life. Lovely.
Yay. Slate has a short story up about the 30th anniversary of Stop Making Sense, with a couple of videos.
I'll post this one:
because it illustrates how David Byrne now comes across as a very witty, relaxed and normal person, in contrast to the image of of an eccentric young geek that you got from his interviews at the peak of Talking Heads (as well as in the movie.) I don't think Aspergers was a condition anyone talked about back then, but if he acted in interviews now as he did as a young man, I'm pretty sure some people would wonder about it.
What I'd like someone to ask him one day is whether he really was different back then, or whether there was a large element of performance in his interviews and public persona. (I wouldn't really care if there was - he was so interesting to watch anyway - I'd just like to know.)
And this all reminds me, I haven't visited his website for some time. I see that (like me) his elderly mother recently died, and he has an interesting and charming post talking about her life. Lovely.
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