Pill popping

It really pisses me off that I can't buy any medication containing pseudoephedrine for my hayfever in Queensland without first obtaining a prescription while there are whole illegal shipments of pseudoephedrine making it across our borders for use in the manufacture of illicit drugs. Sometimes authorities might manage to intercept a shipment, sure, but like any illegal drug the mere fact that they intercepted one means that there are around 100 more that they missed.

I'm not really any safer, but I'm frequently a lot snottier.

Faisal finally free

Rum-fu master Philip Ruddock.

Muhammad Faisal has finally been given asylum after being imprisoned by the Australian government on Nauru for five years. During this time he had to be hospitalised for mental health problems caused by his detention, including suicidal ideation.

It looks like his 'adverse security risk assessment' from ASIO was the crock of shit it smelled like all along. What a pity they had to fuck up the guy's life for 5 years before finally doing the right thing.

And just look at the Rumsfeldian language that Philip Ruddock employed today to explain the decision to grant Faisal asylum:

I am told by the agency that they came to a different view on the basis of fresh consideration of material that was before it that was different to what was before them before

Peter Beattie scraps recycling referendum

This was inevitable, of course. As Toowoomba residents showed, you can't trust Queenslanders not to be a bunch of dumb hicks.

Clive Berghofer still hasn't crawled back into his trailer and is still trying to feed falsehoods about recycled water to the public via the media, who are all too happy to give him a voice in order to stoke yet another crazy story. To give him credit, he hasn't come out and whinged that 'they' are going to be calling us 'Poo-stralia'... yet. Perhaps it just doesn't have quite the same ring as 'Poowoomba'. Never mind, I'm sure that lunatic will think of something. I think I heard him referring to Japanese tourism on the radio the other day- presumably Japanese tourists will flee in terror at the thought of drinking cleaner water. Maybe he could smear himself in faeces and greet them at the airport holding bottles of recycled water- they probably wouldn't understand what the fuss was about otherwise.

The media really isn't helping in this matter either. I don't mean to single out the BBC because the Australian media are the most influential perpetrators of subtle misinformation, but I happened to stumble across an article from 2003 on Singapore's use of recycled water that provides a nice contrast. In the article it is referred to as 'recycled waste water', while in yesterday's story on Queensland from the BBC they refer to it as 'recycled sewage'. To my mind, the word 'sewage' implies the water along with all the other waste that accompanies it, so technically the recycled water would not be recycled sewage. I suppose it could validly be referred to as 'recycled sewage water', but that would be watering down the ick factor that the media outlets are aiming for.

I bet they'd lap up my idea for a Clive Berghofer stunt.

Bareback prostitutes

When I saw this headline in the SMH I thought it read 'barebackers working as prostitutes' and must have something to do with people who practise unsafe sex working in the sex industry. Then I clicked on the article and realised my filthy mind was playing tricks on me- the article was merely about backpackers having sex for money.

It wasn't entirely my fault, because for a second time I thought it read 'barebackers' and took a closer look- they've spelled 'backpackers' as 'backbackers' in the headline and the URL. Oops. So it was someone's dodgy spelling that triggered my mind into playing tricks on me, it's not just running rampant of its own accord. Phew!

Unhappy Meals

Sometimes what you're eating could scarcely be considered a food...

There's an article by Michael Pollan in the New York Times magazine that makes for very worthwhile reading. It's 10 pages long and I had a minor bone to pick here and there, but overall I think that anyone who reads it will come away better informed about food and nutrition in modern society and perhaps more importantly, with a greater propensity to think critically about what they put in their mouths.

Just a few points:

In laying the responsibility for the reductionist viewpoint, i.e. identifying 'bad' nutrients in isolation as the culprit for various ill effects, at the feet of nutritionists and scientists very early in the article, Pollan fails to note until page 10 of the article that this approach has become so widespread because of its commercial convenience. Food manufacturers seize upon such information and use it to persuade the consumer that product X (“high fibre! no trans fats!”) can cure what ails them.

Nutritionism, which arose to help us better deal with the problems of the Western diet, has largely been co-opted by it, used by the industry to sell more food and to undermine the authority of traditional ways of eating.

Refining grains: to the best of my knowledge, refining grains extends their shelf life not because 'it makes them less nutritious to pests' but because the fats contained in the germ of the grains contain a high proportion of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids, meaning they are more susceptible to oxidation (rancidity, 'going off'). A little basic research would have been appropriate here.

Freezing food destroys the fibre? First I've heard of that... it sounds very unlikely, and besides- which type of fibre? I'll have to look into it, but be sceptical.

There are many topics covered within the article that are worth noting- the influence of industry upon the production of dietary guidelines by government applies as much Australia as it does in the US. The influence of the alcoholic beverage industry on the government's guidelines for alcohol consumption by pregnant women is a rather astounding example here in Australia. Another is Tony Abbott living in the underpants of the Australian Food and Grocery Council and defending them against calls to ban junk food advertising to children.

Obviously I can't post the whole 10 pages (go here for the entire article after the NYTimes' stingy 7 day access has expired), but the list of 9 points of advice at the end are worth reading even for those who can't be arsed reading the whole article:

1. Eat food. Though in our current state of confusion, this is much easier said than done. So try this: Don’t eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food. (Sorry, but at this point Moms are as confused as the rest of us, which is why we have to go back a couple of generations, to a time before the advent of modern food products.) There are a great many foodlike items in the supermarket your ancestors wouldn’t recognize as food (Go-Gurt? Breakfast-cereal bars? Nondairy creamer?); stay away from these. [being picky I suppose you could say that my great-great-grandparents probably wouldn't have recognised garlic or olive oil as foods, but I get the point- S]

2. Avoid even those food products that come bearing health claims. They’re apt to be heavily processed, and the claims are often dubious at best. Don’t forget that margarine, one of the first industrial foods to claim that it was more healthful than the traditional food it replaced, turned out to give people heart attacks. When Kellogg’s can boast about its Healthy Heart Strawberry Vanilla cereal bars, health claims have become hopelessly compromised. (The American Heart Association charges food makers for their endorsement.) Don’t take the silence of the yams as a sign that they have nothing valuable to say about health.

3. Especially avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable c) more than five in number — or that contain high-fructose corn syrup.None of these characteristics are necessarily harmful in and of themselves, but all of them are reliable markers for foods that have been highly processed.

4. Get out of the supermarket whenever possible. You won’t find any high-fructose corn syrup at the farmer’s market; you also won’t find food harvested long ago and far away. What you will find are fresh whole foods picked at the peak of nutritional quality. Precisely the kind of food your great-great-grandmother would have recognized as food.

5. Pay more, eat less. The American food system has for a century devoted its energies and policies to increasing quantity and reducing price, not to improving quality. There’s no escaping the fact that better food — measured by taste or nutritional quality (which often correspond) — costs more, because it has been grown or raised less intensively and with more care. Not everyone can afford to eat well in America, which is shameful, but most of us can: Americans spend, on average, less than 10 percent of their income on food, down from 24 percent in 1947, and less than the citizens of any other nation. And those of us who can afford to eat well should. Paying more for food well grown in good soils — whether certified organic or not — will contribute not only to your health (by reducing exposure to pesticides) but also to the health of others who might not themselves be able to afford that sort of food: the people who grow it and the people who live downstream, and downwind, of the farms where it is grown.

“Eat less” is the most unwelcome advice of all, but in fact the scientific case for eating a lot less than we currently do is compelling. “Calorie restriction” has repeatedly been shown to slow aging in animals, and many researchers (including Walter Willett, the Harvard epidemiologist) believe it offers the single strongest link between diet and cancer prevention. Food abundance is a problem, but culture has helped here, too, by promoting the idea of moderation. Once one of the longest-lived people on earth, the Okinawans practiced a principle they called “Hara Hachi Bu”: eat until you are 80 percent full. To make the “eat less” message a bit more palatable, consider that quality may have a bearing on quantity: I don’t know about you, but the better the quality of the food I eat, the less of it I need to feel satisfied. All tomatoes are not created equal. [ eating less is a tough one... I'd struggle to follow this advice for more than 24 hours. 'Eating better' is much easier to do, for me at least. Gam may disagree!. ]

6. Eat mostly plants, especially leaves. Scientists may disagree on what’s so good about plants — the antioxidants? Fiber? Omega-3s? — but they do agree that they’re probably really good for you and certainly can’t hurt. Also, by eating a plant-based diet, you’ll be consuming far fewer calories, since plant foods (except seeds) are typically less “energy dense” than the other things you might eat. Vegetarians are healthier than carnivores, but near vegetarians (“flexitarians”) are as healthy as vegetarians. Thomas Jefferson was on to something when he advised treating meat more as a flavoring than a food.

7. Eat more like the French. Or the Japanese. Or the Italians. Or the Greeks. Confounding factors aside, people who eat according to the rules of a traditional food culture are generally healthier than we are. Any traditional diet will do: if it weren’t a healthy diet, the people who follow it wouldn’t still be around. True, food cultures are embedded in societies and economies and ecologies, and some of them travel better than others: Inuit not so well as Italian. In borrowing from a food culture, pay attention to how a culture eats, as well as to what it eats. In the case of the French paradox, it may not be the dietary nutrients that keep the French healthy (lots of saturated fat and alcohol?!) so much as the dietary habits: small portions, no seconds or snacking, communal meals — and the serious pleasure taken in eating. (Worrying about diet can’t possibly be good for you.) Let culture be your guide, not science.

8. Cook. And if you can, plant a garden. To take part in the intricate and endlessly interesting processes of providing for our sustenance is the surest way to escape the culture of fast food and the values implicit in it: that food should be cheap and easy; that food is fuel and not communion. The culture of the kitchen, as embodied in those enduring traditions we call cuisines, contains more wisdom about diet and health than you are apt to find in any nutrition journal or journalism. Plus, the food you grow yourself contributes to your health long before you sit down to eat it. So you might want to think about putting down this article now and picking up a spatula or hoe. [Very good advice- this applies particularly to the 'unhealthy' stuff you might want to eat... if you have to put all the ingredients together and cook it yourself you're likely to eat it less often than if all you have to do is open the cupboard and pull out a packet. Besides, nothing beats fresh-baked biscuits, cakes, puddings etc. Of course the 'plant a garden' advice doesn't apply so much to those foods, but you'll never find veges as good as the ones you pick fresh from the garden... or pot on the balcony!]

9. Eat like an omnivore. Try to add new species, not just new foods, to your diet. The greater the diversity of species you eat, the more likely you are to cover all your nutritional bases. That of course is an argument from nutritionism, but there is a better one, one that takes a broader view of “health.” Biodiversity in the diet means less monoculture in the fields. What does that have to do with your health? Everything. The vast monocultures that now feed us require tremendous amounts of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to keep from collapsing. Diversifying those fields will mean fewer chemicals, healthier soils, healthier plants and animals and, in turn, healthier people. It’s all connected, which is another way of saying that your health isn’t bordered by your body and that what’s good for the soil is probably good for you, too.

Since when is Serena fat?

I was amazed when I read that some of Serena Williams' detractors have been calling her fat and unfit. Yesterday she made the world's No. 1 ranked player look unfit. I doubt anyone would be game to call Serena fat to her face- she has some rather enviable biceps and knows how to use them. Fat! I'm still shaking my head... She is in fantastic shape and is just a fricking amazon in terms of athleticism.

If Serena maintains her current form she'll be No. 1 again in no time. I suppose that's the best way to answer her critics, but gee... what a bunch of wankers. Is it jealousy or what?

US late to Israel's cluster bomb party

From the New York Times:

The Bush administration will inform Congress on Monday that Israel may have violated agreements with the United States when it fired American-supplied cluster munitions into southern Lebanon during its fight with Hezbollah last summer, the State Department said Saturday.

[...]

Cluster munitions are anti-personnel weapons that scatter tiny but deadly bomblets over a wide area. The grenadelike munitions, tens of thousands of which have been found in southern Lebanon, have caused 30 deaths and 180 injuries among civilians since the end of the war, according to the United Nations Mine Action Service.

[...]

Any sanctions against Israel would be an extraordinary move by the Bush administration, a strong backer of Israel, and several officials said they expected little further action, if any, on the matter.

But sanctions against Israel for misusing the weapons would not be unprecedented. The Reagan administration imposed a six-year ban on cluster-weapon sales to Israel in 1982, after a Congressional investigation found that Israel had used the weapons in civilian areas during its 1982 invasion of Lebanon. One option under discussion is to bar additional sales of cluster munitions for some period, an official said.

Israel committed war crimes and was punished with a slap on the wrist (meaning America stopped selling them cluster bombs for a little while- they probably had a good stockpile anyway, so the 'ban' was of no consequence). Now it seems likely that for committing the very same war crime they're faced with getting either another slap on the wrist or getting off scot-free. I'm sure the Israeli government is quaking in its boots.

Ironing sucks- why bother?

There's an item in the New York Times titled "Can Polyester Save the World?" about the growth of the disposable clothing industry. I hate this kind of crappily-made clothing- the cotton so thin it resembles my oldest pair of underpants, the fact that they've done away with proper hems... I might be a dag, but I'd like my clothing to last past a few washes. I'm not such a fashion victim that I'll throw my clothes out, embarrassed to have ever worn them, after only months of use.

But the graphic that accompanies the story is highly misleading. A polyester blouse, they say, is more 'green', more energy-efficient than a cotton t-shirt because it is washed at a lower temperature than cotton, dried in the sun rather than dryer-dried and not ironed. Which leads me to the question:

Am I really abnormal because I wash cotton and polyester together on a cold wash setting, dry everything on a line and iron absolutely nothing? If I had to iron, say work clothes, I sure wouldn't be ironing my t-shirts! Who the fuck irons a cotton t-shirt? Who irons anything more than the minimum they can possibly get away with?

I had no idea that green living was as easy as just not being anal about my laundry...

Learning from mistakes of the past

I think this article on how Otto Frank, the father of holocaust victim Anne Frank, provides a good illustration of how forcing refugees to go through the 'proper channels' in an effort to flee their persecutors can lead to extreme hardship, even death.

During the holocaust some refugees were lucky enough to encounter people like Chiune Sugihara, with enough of a sense of humanity that they were willing to break the rules in order to save lives. As we know, others weren't so lucky. Some of them are still alive, but first had to go through an unimaginable hell in order to get there.

How can anyone spout off about 'queue jumpers' and 'proper channels'? How can anyone who holds that attitude defend it at the expense of even one person's life?

Otto Frank urged a former university friend, Nathan Straus Jr of New York, to appeal to refugee agencies in the US to get the Frank family out.

"By July 1941 it is clear that Otto Frank had hit a stone wall," Mr Rheins told the BBC News website.

Otto Frank had also sought an escape route to Cuba, but in 1941 "it was very difficult to leave Holland," Mr Rheins said.

The family would have needed exit visas from the German authorities and then more visas to cross France and Spain, he said.

[...]

[Otto Frank] survived the Auschwitz death camp, but Anne died just before her 16th birthday in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945.

'Essence' my arse, mate.

Being Australian means less of this...

...and more speaking out about what really matters.

Patrick really hits the nail on the head in his post on the 'patriotic' bandwagoning we've been seeing from the two major parties recently:

Something that has regularly been pissing me off for a while now is this whole "if they come over here, they [insert minority here] should be prepared to learn the language". I've heard this bullshit schtick from the regular cadre of racists and pig-shit ignorant 'patriots' that you would expect, but I've also had a couple of tussles with otherwise quite reasonable people.

It drives me crazy, for a couple of reasons. Mainly because such a statement is built on a number of false premises.

Firstly, 99% of the time, it's coming from the mouths of people who barely speak one language, let alone two. The idea that learning english is a bit like learning to ride a bike obviously reigns supreme in their minds. Sadly, it's not quite that easy.

[...]

What they forget is that we live in a largely libertarian society, and in a libertarian society, the rule is basically that you can do whatever the hell you want, as long as it's not against the law. This is a big principle in western liberal thought, but you know, when it comes to the pakis or whatever, it seems to get thrown out the window.

It's not that I don't think that learning english is important for getting by in Australia, but as Patrick points out, in a free society that's supposed to be a choice for the individual.

And, as someone who has had a pretty piss-poor outcome at learning mandarin (good grades don't mean squat when it comes to actually using a language) I know that a second language can be bloody hard to acquire once you're past a certain critical age (probably around 10).

From time to time I read stories in the media about so-called 'controversies' over bilingual street signage, or non-english shop-front signs. A shop that doesn't have a sign written in english doesn't preclude anyone from going in and checking it out, and if anyone has a problem with it the problem is with the individual not the shop.

It's all very well for someone like John Howard, who travels with interpreters when he visits a foreign country and has such a hard-on for England that he would never consider moving to a non english-speaking country, to spout this nonsense. I'm also willing to bet that many Australian diplomats and consular officials are unable to speak the language(s) of the country where they've been posted. This may amaze some of the stupid rednecks who spout this "youse should be speakin' our langwich" bullshit, but many countries have more than one official language as well as a wide range of dialects, and it's not mandatory or expected that every single person who lives in that country be able to speak every language and dialect that exists.

In Australia, partly due to our isolation and partly due to the crushing of aboriginal culture we have a kind of false homogeneity; most of us are probably unaware that we are unique in this sense. Even England has different dialects spoken in some areas of the country, although England is a rather mild example of the phenomenon given that (I assume) the speakers of these dialects also speak modern english. A better example is probably Ghana. I'm not sure how many languages and dialects exist in Ghana, but schoolchildren there are expected to study not only their native language but also english and one other Ghanaian language out of the numerous ones that exist. Language is extremely important, but in most places around the world it is not feasible to expect that every single citizen of a country should be able to converse with every other citizen of that country. Nor is it necessary.

That's not to say that I don't believe that the federal government should provide as many hours of free teaching that any immigrant desires in order to learn english. I believe there should be every opportunity available for people who want to learn the language and the government ought to put its money where its mouth is; if it's such an important issue why not stop spending money supporting the US' war of terror and instead create the best damn programme they can for teaching potential new Australians this language that is "the essence of what it is to be an Australian".

$10 billion water plan a fresh idea

John Howard at the Bjelke-Petersen government criminal Hinze Dam

Seems that John Howard's answer to the Australian public's environment concerns is to position himself as an environmental hero. I still think that if this fails he'll resort to cranking up the old 'fear of muslims' panic machine.

Still, John Howard's $10 billion water plan is probably just what is needed to fix the mess that the states have been prevaricating over for decades. Queensland has been one of the worst offenders when it comes to effectively stealing water from the Murray-Darling system, and has been in the pockets of cotton growers to the point where it became impossible to implement any real solutions to the problem. That's not to say that the other state governments would have acted differently in Queensland's position, it was just that Queensland happened to be upstream of the other states and thought it had first dibs on all the water that flowed through it, regardless of the effects on the environment and farmers downstream in other states. That the plan has been greeted favourably by the NSW and Victorian governments is testament to this fact. South Australian premier Mike Rann is unconvinced that the Howard government isn't also in the pocket of cotton and rice growers due to the influence of the Nationals in the coalition, and there's more than a small chance he's right. On the other hand, I don't think Rann could honestly say that things could be going any worse for SA than they are right now. Besides that, if we're lucky John Howard and the Liberal-National coalition will be out on their arses at the next election- hopefully Rann will treat this as an extra incentive to campaign for Kevin Rudd.

Opposition leader Kevin Rudd has so far been unable to criticise the plan because, as he points out, Howard effectively pinched a Rudd Labor policy.

I should probably do my bit by quitting my Australian-grown brown calrose rice habit, tasty though it is.

Reshuffle puts 'fresh face' on same crappy policies

Joe Hockey: New face, same knife in the back for workers.

Do Howard's periodic cabinet reshuffles really fool anyone into thinking that change is afoot? Did the government's refugee policies become any less reprehensible under Amanda Vanstone after she took over Philip Ruddock? No-one is going to believe that Kevin Andrews is going to care any more about refugees than he did about Australian workers, or that their jobs are safer under Joe Hockey.

It doesn't matter what Howard does with his cabinet. They are there to enforce Howard's policies. The only man with a little bit of slack on the leash is Malcom Turnbull. After all, no-one goes into politics with $110 million and expects to sit pretty on the back bench. Turnbull went into politics with the aim of becoming prime minister, and soon. That's not to say that he'd not make a better PM than John Howard, just that he waltzed in with a fat bank balance and the floor is being cleared for him to one day take the leadership of the Liberal Party. Peter Costello must be boiling with impotent rage.

every day in the kitchen

The title sounds fit for the memoirs of a 1950s housewife, but don't be fooled: this cookbook by Allan Campion and Michele Curtis now shares my affections with Stephanie Alexander's The Cook's Companion. It might even be just a little bit better than Stephanie's trusty tome, which doesn't have a recipe for cinnamon buns. My god, those cinnamon buns!

I finally got around to spending the $25 UQ Bookshop book voucher I received for helping out with the nutrition stand back in August (or whenever my profile photo is dated). The book cost $35, which meant I forked over an extra $10. I got a bargain. This book is a beauty. It's one of those handy compilations of a zillion different recipes (well, 500 in this case) and 99% of them look extremely doable. The other 1% seem to require a le creuset cast iron pan (or similar) with a lid, something we probably can't afford for a while.




You can see the layout of the chapters from the pictures. Like TCC, every day in the kitchen contains a little blurb prior to most of the recipes, often about the authors' (editors? Compilers?) experiences with the recipe or merely a short description of the dish. This is a feature I really enjoy. It also has occasional pictures, which I used to think were essential in a recipe book; I now hold in higher esteem a good recipe and any helpful hints that the author is able to provide rather than a slickly styled photograph bearing minimal resemblance to the reality composed by a 'food stylist' and a photographer. Still, the pictures are nice.

Another feature I thought was great was the suggestions for variations on a recipe printed at the bottom of many of the recipes. This kind of recipe improvisation is something that I'll do quite often anyway, but it's a nice touch and could provide inspiration at times when I'm lacking.

So far I've only tried two recipes, the san choy bau and the cinnamon buns. The san choy bau was really good (I substituted macadamia nut oil for peanut oil and added some chilli flakes, red capsicum and bamboo shoots), but the highlight was the cinnamon buns,partly for the experience of baking my own bread but mostly because they taste just phenomenally good. Bread making is something I've never done before (!) and up until now has been Gam's domain in the kitchen... Gam can churn out all kinds of fancy and incredibly tasty bread without even having access to a strong flour. I never knew kneading could be such fun, feeling the dough turn from almost sticky to springy under my hands.

Best of all, the buns are incredibly tasty. My only recommendation is to make slightly more of the cinnamon/butter/sugar paste, and use brown sugar for the paste. I didn't bother with an egg wash for the ones in the picture.

sticky cinnamon buns

400g plain unbleached flour
60g caster sugar
1/2 tsp salt
14g dried yeast
50g butter (I used ~65g)
1 egg
200mL milk
75g soft butter (I used ~80g)
75g caster sugar (I used brown sugar, ~90g)
1 tsp ground cinnamon (~2tsp... you can't really have too much cinnamon, can you?)

Sift flour, sugar, salt and yeast together into a large bowl. Melt butter and mix with egg and milk. Pour onto flour, mix briefly with a wooden spoon (I used a plastic scraper), then tip out onto a floured bench. Knead for 4-5 minutes or until dough is smooth and silky. Place dough in a bowl, cover with clingfilm and set aside in a warm place to prove until doubled in bulk, about 1-2 hours.

Tip dough onto floured surface and knead well. Roll dough out to a large square about 30cm (the thinner you make it the more surface area for the yummy cinnamon bit to cling to! Don't be afraid to make it a bit bigger). Mix soft butter, sugar and cinnamon together and spread liberally over dough (meaning cover every visible area of the dough's upper surface- this is the tasty bit, remember). Roll up from one end to form a large Swiss roll shape. Cut into 2cm slices. Place slices, cut side up into a lined deep baking tray. Cover tray with a tea towel and prove in a warm place for 20 minutes (use clingwrap again if you don't want to get your tea towel messy).

Preheat oven to 200°C.

Brush with egg wash. Place proved buns in oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until risen and golden brown. Best eaten warm. Makes 12 buns.

The Australian Open

Andy Roddick wanted to pack it in, go back to his hotel and cry into his pillow.

I don't even particularly like watching Andy Roddick- he's a great player, but I don't find him particularly more interesting or endearing than any of the other male tennis players. Tonight I felt so sorry for him. What Roger Federer did to Andy Roddick can't even be fairly described as a thorough beating. He made Roddick look like a small, helpless child.

Federer even appeared to throw away a bunch of points in the third set just to allow Roddick to avoid having a nervous breakdown on the court. I really think that's what happened. Federer won the second set 6-0. Andy Roddick, according to the commentators, had never lost a set 6-0 in a grand slam (or was it a grand slam semi final?). Roddick was just falling apart. After the match he looked shattered.

The worst of it is that it's just impossible to paint Federer as the 'bad guy' in one of these matches. It's impossible to really want him to lose. He is so benign, so blandly nice.

And probably the best tennis player the world has ever seen.

Faith in human nature

I had a great day yesterday. I managed to do a nice long piano practice and complete a whole heap of housework that I'd been meaning to do. I spent a lovely morning reading my new cookbook (more of that in the next post) and deciding what I was going to cook for dinner. I sound like a bloody housewife, but that's beside the point. On a bit of a happy high as I was getting ready to walk to Toowong to do some shopping before meeting Gam at the train station I briefly wondered what could possibly go wrong with the day...

After I did all the shopping I sat on the bench outside the train station to wait for Gam and indulged in some people-watching. Shortly before his train arrived I decided to put my backpack on; the straps caught on one another and I briefly struggled to unhook them. I presume this is the moment that my wallet fell out of the backpack (it's poorly designed and I should have been more careful about tucking my wallet into the mesh pocket).

I didn't even realise the front pocket of the bag was partially unzipped until I was downstairs waiting for Gam to change out of his work clothes. We went upstairs and asked at the ticket office if a wallet had been handed in, and none had. The guy at the ticket office suggested we try the Centre Management office. We went to Centre Management and they were closed. Figuring it was highly unlikely that someone would hand a wallet to the Centre Management when the ticket office was only a few metres from where I lost the wallet, we walked home.


I cancelled the credit card (again) and put a stop on the keycard (in the hope that I'd get the wallet back). No-one had used the credit card, which was a good sign, but I wasn't sure about my chances of ever seeing the wallet again; I assumed some arsehole had just pocketed it. I switched on the computer shortly before we went to bed but didn't check the email because I was too busy watching the tennis and eating fresh cinnamon buns and my $6 kilogram of lychees (mmm).

What I missed by not checking my email was this:

Subject: Wallet

hi sarah

I was exiting the train station at toowong this afternoon, and your crazy holo-green wallet caught my attention, lying on the floor. Although I had a cursory look around the peak-hour full train station, i thought it would be safest and quickest if I took it with me, and emailied you on your student account (forgive my intrusion by looking through your cards, but at least i could get a contact lead). I live in toowong, so can drop it you if you llive near the uni, or if you'd rather organise a meeting spot around toowong, thats fine also.

My name is [...], and I've lost /had stolen my wallet far too many times too make you hassle through the replacement of it all. If you need to contact me, [...] is my mobile.

Cheers

[...]

What a relief! And more to the point, what a nice guy. Obviously I don't have the wallet back yet, but I'm glad to know that not everyone is a potential thief, and I feel a little guilty for thinking so yesterday. Even if it was my own fault for not securing my wallet properly.

I'm taking this as a sign I should finally get a new wallet, as my trusty holo-wallet is starting to disintegrate somewhat... I kind of got attached to it because my high school best friend Sachi gave it to me, but the time is probably right for its funeral. Sachi would probably think it crazy that I still have it anyway :)

Afghan opium has legitimate use: NHS doctors

There's a shortage of diamorphine (aka heroin) in British hospitals right now, and NHS doctors are asking why the British and American governments are continuing their futile poppy-eradication schemes instead of buying up the plentiful Afghan supply. Such an action would have benefits not only for the NHS in alleviating the diamorphine shortage, but for the farmers, who will have a legitimate commercial use for their crop without the risk of having foreign soldiers burn the crops that form the basis for their livelihood.

I've often wondered what it is that prevents Afghanistan's crop of opium poppies from being utilised by the pharmaceutical industry when numerous western nations have their own growing operations, which probably result in a more costly product. It appears to be straight out protectionism, only in the case of Afghanistan the farmers don't have their own government on their side. Rather, it is on the side of the US and UK because they are the ones pulling the strings.

Queensland Roar: last match of the season

Gam and I went to see the Roar play their last match of the season against Sydney on Saturday night, along with our friend Niall. While we were waiting for Niall we availed ourselves of the free face painting so as to look a bit more patriotic. My navy blue and orange cycling pants almost matched Roar colours, but our fluoro yellow cycling tops mean we usually look more like linesmen or security. Seeing as it was an important match for the Roar we were going to fork out for better seats than usual, but the girl at the ticket office informed me that about 20 000 more people than usual had showed up to the match with the same idea and it was cheap seats or nothing. We had to walk up about five flights of stairs to get to our seats. Still, we had a pretty good aerial view. The players resembled ants.



Queensland had to win the match in order to make it to the semi-finals, but recalling their stinking home game record we weren't expecting too much. In the end it was a rather average performance by both sides and they drew 1-1. So sucky Sydney gets to the semis and Queensland don't. Not that they actually deserve it, mind, it just would have been nice. At the very least it would have been nice to see them win at home for once! There's always next season... hopefully Frank Farina will be good for the team. Things appear to have picked up a bit since he became coach, but we'll have to wait and see.

The Australian Open

Serena Williams in her match against Nadia Petrova. Photo: Sebastian Costanzo

Speaking of TV, the only thing worth watching of late is the tennis. But why is it that the men's matches are all too often on late at night and if I want to watch a match at a civilised time I wind up with 'Grunty' Sharapova and her latest hapless opponent? I can't stand watching her matches because she shrieks every single bloody time she hits the bloody ball. Talk about annoying. I caught the 3rd round Hewitt-Gonzales match... was hoping Hewitt would lose, and he did so in style. Gonzales is on fire, and his mid-match tanty over poor treatment by the referee (nothing outrageous, just failure to let him know that he'd conceded a point on review or something) and by the pro-Aussie crowd made it all the more exciting. By the end of it I was snoozing off, waking only to berate the TV when Gonzales fluffed another match point.

I would have loved to see the Nadal-Murray match but I can't handle staying up until 2am on a weeknight, especially now that I've got myself into the habit of getting up at 5:30am! Ever since the arrival of Roger Federer the mid-tournament matches are the best, as once it reaches the final all you see is the Fed-Bot grimly playing his precision tennis making a fool of his helpless opponent. Yawn. The women's finals look like the same old same old. I would have liked to see Li Na beat Hingis but it wasn't to be. It's nice to see Serena Williams make it to the semis as she usually puts on a fine show.

Will be watching the Fed-Bot vs. Tommy Robredo tonight and hoping against hope that Robredo can come up with the goods to beat Federer. I'm not holding out much (any) hope, as the only time I've ever watched Federer get beaten was in a match against David Nalbandian, where he seemed to be badly injured and hobbling about the court. And even then he made Nalbandian fight for it. He's too good.

Chas innocent

I suspected that common sense would prevail in the case of Chaser star Chas Licciardello being charged with offensive behaviour. It was a ridiculous waste of police and court time to charge him to begin with, as anyone who viewed the footage of the incident could attest. It's a well-worn cliché that police should be 'going after the real criminals' but in this case it's absolutely true. I'm glad he was found not guilty, and I hope the Chaser will return soon for another season... TV is so crap at the moment.

Update: reading about the decision on this blog I was reminded of NSW premier Morris Iemma's reaction at the time:

Premier Morris Iemma, who at the time of the prank called it "grossly irresponsible" and "well beyond just having a joke", today accepted the magistrate's decision. "It's a decision of the courts; the proper process has worked its way through," he said.

Slight overreaction perhaps, Morris? Ya dickhead.

Enough of the phony outrage from politicians on things that don't matter. Like the Big Day Out flag thing. As if there aren't more important things for politicians to worry about, yet they all pile on when it comes to anything to do with mussie-bashing or the Aussie flag. Bunch of wankers.

Clinton vs. Giuliani?!

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Hillary Clinton and Rudolph Giuliani are the front-running candidates for their respective parties in the 2008 presidential race. What about Barack Obama?

America is not going to elect a black man as president in 2008. Barack Obama might be the consummate politician (although whether that's an insult or a compliment and whether anyone knows what he really stands for is arguable), but racism is so widespread in the US that I'd doubt whether it would elect a black man as president at any point in the next 50 years. Even 100. Nor is a woman likely to be elected as president in 2008. Given that only around 70% of americans would vote for a female candidate for president at all (meaning that 30% of americans are hardcore sexists; the figure is closer to 50% among men), and that Hillary Clinton is despised among anti-war Democrats and almost universally despised among Republicans, it's going to take a minor miracle for the Democrats to take the White House in 2008 with either Clinton or Obama in the running.

Americans have repeatedly demonstrated their willingness to vote for a scumbag, so it's no surprise to see that Rudy Giuliani is a front runner for the Republican candidacy. The man rode the shockwaves of 9/11 to public popularity as capably as Layne Beachley surfed her way to 7 world championships. He's a scumbag in his private as well as public life, only because of his connection with 9/11 most people are victim to the Emperor's New Clothes syndrome, and are unwilling to see him for the leech on the blood of its victims that he is. Giuliani's closest rival for the Republican nomination is John McCain, the man who previously refused to cosy up to religious nuts but now schmoozes with Jerry Falwell and the notorious Bob Jones University. 'Maverick' indeed. The man is unprincipled, which means he's going to give Giuliani a real run for his money. A lot of Republican voters dislike Giuliani because of his pro-choice stance on abortion, although whether he'll stick by that during a presidential run is questionable. A Republican has got to play their cards right on issues like that to get elected in New York, but when he's at the mercy of the entire country, Rudy will be playing a different game. It depends on how he's going to get that sought-after 'crossover appeal'.

I'll watch the race with as much interest as any Australian, but there won't be any satisfaction to be derived, regardless of the result. Last time around, american voters had the opportunity to get rid of George Bush and they refused. Now, Bush gets to retire comfortably from the presidency with no prospect of the Democrats having enough guts to impeach the bastard like he deserves. Bill Clinton got impeached over a blowjob, yet Congress is too cowardly to impeach the man who has driven the country into an international disaster, a bloodbath.

Not a lot is going to change in 2008.

Get offended at rights infringement

T-shirts like this are popular for a good reason...

I can't believe that this could happen in Australia.

An Australian who lives in Britain has threatened legal action against Qantas for barring him from a Melbourne-to-London flight wearing a T-shirt depicting US President George Bush as a terrorist.

Allen Jasson today said he was defending freedom of speech through his insistence on wearing the T-shirt.

Mr Jasson, 55, an IT specialist living in London, is staying with his daughter in Melbourne after he was refused entry to the flight to London at Melbourne Airport on Friday.

Airline staff argued the T-shirt, which bears an image of the US President with the slogan "World's number 1 terrorist", was a security risk or an item likely to upset passengers.

A security risk? Likely to upset passengers? Bullshit. Most of the world despises George Bush. It's not like Mr Jasson was flying to the US, and besides that, the sort of person who the t-shirt is likely to offend would probably be offended if he didn't read the right newspaper or watched BBC instead of FOX. Idiots like that deserve to be offended.

I bet if someone had boarded the flight with a t-shirt proclaiming "George Bush: Greatest guy ever!" Qantass wouldn't have even blinked. Mind you, I don't think people who despise George Bush would necessarily be offended by such a t-shirt, they'd just assume that the wearer was a redneck moron. But because redneck morons have a greater propensity to throw tanties when someone insults their hero, Qantass feels compelled to act on their behalf.

Virgin Blue apparently also prevented Mr Jasson from taking a domestic flight while wearing the shirt. Shame on them. They're a better airline than Qantass, but their actions in this case are just as reprehensible.

Brown thumbs

Given that I've been gifted with not only an extraordinary quantity of laziness but an uncanny ability to kill 'unkillable' plants even when I put in a genuine effort to ensure their survival, I really appreciate it when something just grows without any input from me whatsoever aside from pouring some water on it a couple of times a week. Case in point: the fine looking capsicums growing out of various pots on our balcony.

I didn't plant them.

Gam didn't plant them.

I strongly suspect that they got there by way of (the late) Porkie's poo, which we would have put into various pots when we fetched dirt from her side of the garden. Her favourite part of the capsicum was the pith and seeds, so I'm guessing many seeds passed through her digestive system and were given magical powers of survival along the way, because in late spring all these little capsicum plants started eagerly pushing up through the soil. They're actually quite attractive plants, with lots of dark green leaves and pretty-looking white, waxy flowers (I took the photo on a hot day and could only find one flower that hadn't wilted with the heat, but you get the idea). They don't show any signs of dying, and are producing a small crop of capsicums; I'm certainly not averse to free food, and the biggest plants actually survived without my bothering to water them (because I wasn't sure if they were weeds). Lately I've been rewarding them with regular water and the fruit are growing noticeably larger every day. With the price of red capsicums hovering around $9/kg even a single successful capsicum is nothing to be sneezed at.







Another hero in our garden is the pot of oregano. When we first moved into our place we tried buying one of those wussy supermarket oregano plants, but not only did it lack the characteristic smell and taste of my parents' oregano plant back in Kempsey, its insipid leaves soon shrivelled and died, leaving us down $4.99 and with no fresh oregano. My parents came to the rescue on their next visit, bringing us a little cutting they'd propagated from their own oregano plant (which they'd viciously pruned just prior to our request for a plant because it was taking over the small herb garden). The oregano now cascades over the pot and tries to take over the balcony; I prune it back 2-3 times a year to keep it in check. It needs watering only once every couple of days.

While I prefer 'useful' (read: edible) plants in our limited garden space, I have to admit that the climbing geranium my parents brought us a cutting of a couple of years ago is rather pretty. Not only that, it grows from snapped off segments of stem, so all I have to do to plant a new one is just push a stick into the ground. It's probably a little too successful, given that it tries to grow from the pruned cuttings I dump in the back garden in an attempt to get them to compost, but the flowers are nice

Nestlé and 'good nutrition'

I've said it before: I love chicos. Yesterday I found 'family size' bags of them on special at our local Coles (in the fridge?!) and gave in to the craving. After finishing off the packet this afternoon I took a look at the packaging, which has changed somewhat since I last bought them. I can't remember if the sweaty, gooey-looking 'baby' creature was on the packet last time I purchased some; I can say that if the product actually resembled its depiction on the package in any way there's no way I'd eat them. Is it high on meth or something? Look at those eyes! Gross!

But what really caught my eye was the little note on the packaging stating:

Nestlé believes that proper nutrition and physical activity are important in maintaining good health

How lovely of them to inform us of that. Does a statement like that mean anything at all in the absence of further information either on what constitutes 'proper nutrition' or directions to a source of such information? Admittedly, if consumers of chicos (and presumably other sweets made by Allens/Nestlé) were to swot up on 'proper nutrition' they'd learn that nutritionists don't consider confectionery to be something that should be eaten frequently, advice that Nestlé is probably not too keen for consumers of its products to bear in mind when browsing the lolly aisle. But hey, if you're browsing the lolly aisle you're not there for spinach, you're there for a sugar fix. Why bother with this smarmy 'we care about good nutrition' act? It's like the tobacco industry pretending to care about peoples' health and then failing to put a QUIT hotline number on the packet (I wouldn't have a clue if they actually do because I've never really looked closely at a cigarette packet, it's just an analogy).

I still like chicos. They're fricken delicious. But Nestlé are a bunch of wankers. On packs of its various products, Sanitarium directs people to its own website for nutrition information (which, from a relatively cursory reading, is quite sound) because they know what they're selling isn't bad for people. Nestlé give their little spiel and fail to direct customers to further information because the 'proper nutrition' they claim to 'believe' in is not consistent with their aim to sell as many of those products as they possibly can.

Just keep pushing and quit pretending, guys...

David Hicks: loves his tiny cell, enjoys torture

If only this was Alexander Downer's home for the next five years...
maybe a rudimentary sense of empathy might start to develop.

So... according to the news I've been listening to all day these 'new military commission' rules that David Hicks is to be tried under are going to allow evidence gained under torture as long as the 'judge' (i.e. the military personnel appointed 'judge' for the kangaroo court) thinks that the evidence is reliable.

For the judge to say the evidence is unreliable would be to effectively condemn the torture that the Bush administration (particularly Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld) has overseen as producing worthless information.

Is that likely to happen?

In other news, no wonder Alexander Downer refused to say who gave the so-called assessment of David Hicks' psychiatric health:

It's just been revealed that it was "a public affairs officer with the US Embassy in Canberra"

Yeah. That sounds like a great qualification for saying whatever the fuck the US and Australian governments want the public to hear carrying out a psychiatric assessment. That little tidbit of information doesn't half make Alexander Downer look like more of a dickhead than he did already...

Waste

A couple of weeks ago I noticed a small part of our dishwasher had broken. It didn't look like a vital part, but the plastic had perished and was crumbly to the touch. We asked our resident managers who we should call to get it replaced; they let us take a look at a spare dishwasher to determine whether the small part itself was replaceable, and suggested we could just use the part from the spare dishwasher to save us having to get a part.

Gam determined from looking at the spare dishwasher that the small part was not replaceable or removable from the larger setting. My heart sank at the thought of having to wash up by hand (the horror!) because it was a weekend and we had little chance of getting a replacement before the Monday. Our managers were nice enough to give us the entire part, but it struck me as being a ridiculous waste, having to discard a large part of the dishwasher for want of a small piece of plastic that was not replaceable on its own.

Take a look:

The part that actually needed replacing.

Closeup of the remainder of perished flange that once held it in place.

The part that had to be replaced (place where the small part belongs is highlighted).

Stupid busted-arse foot...

Hmm... need to cut those toenails...

When I was doing the vacuuming a few hours ago I had the head off the vacuum hose so I could vacuum in a corner of the kitchen. At that moment a roll of paper towel blew off the bench and onto the floor, the end of it getting sucked into the vacuum hose on the way.

I reflexively moved to pull it out, and in the process dropped the head of the vacuum hose, with the metal pipe landing square on the (rather boney) top of my foot. That hurt a bit, and I saw a red welt appear but figured it would feel better in a few minutes, which it must have done, because I don't recall thinking about it up until just now, when I realised the left half of my right foot feels kind of paralysed and I can't really bend my toes forward... and I want to walk to go and meet Gam at the train in 40 minutes.

One of those "Ahhhh... shit!" moments.






[Gam, when you read this... I'll be FINE! Don't worry so much!]

Free ride to Broome

I've always wanted to go to Broome. It's got a really interesting history, cultural mix and beautiful beaches.

Even better would be going to Broome in a private plane funded completely by someone else, like Australian taxpayers.

Maybe I should set my sights on becoming prime minister...

UPDATE: Howard has hurriedly agreed to repay the cost of two commercial flights from Broome to Brisbane. Probably two economy fares at that (not that he ever flies economy or ever will in his life, given the free first-class airfares he'll take advantage of at taxpayers' expense once he's retired). He certainly hasn't agreed to repay the $7500 per hour that it cost taxpayers for him to travel by his VIP plane for his luxury stop over.

From the government's response it is clear that Howard fully expected to get away with this:

Special Minister of State Gary Nairn defended the trip, describing the criticism as a "grubby attack" by the ALP.

He then walked out of his own media conference after questions where raised over how much the stopover cost and when the prime minister decided to repay the cost of the flights from Broome to Brisbane.

No special treatment for developers

I don't really feel sorry for the owner of this Maserati. It's difficult to feel sorry for idiots who think they can park anywhere they like (in this case not the owner, but his sister). Besides, it should be insured.

It's even more difficult not to feel antipathy towards developers whose desire to make a quick buck is prioritised by the council over the quality of life of the residents of the area in which they choose to build. This seems to be the case in the Sydney street in which the Maserati was parked, and is something that happens a lot in Brisbane.

Two good examples in our area are a house on Boomerang road that's currently having extensions done where the builders have placed a barrier that blocks off an entire section of footpath so they can pile up crap; the other side of the road not only has no footpath but a steep embankment, forcing pedestrians to walk on the road. Boomerang road is fairly quiet, with a lot of pedestrians (students walking to do their shopping at Coles), so the situation isn't as bad as the one on the dangerous Carmody road, where developers building a bunch of townhouses have also erected a barrier that cuts off the section of footpath in front of the block, with the opposite side of the road again having no footpath and a steep embankment. This, I believe, is a direct threat to the lives of pedestrians, as Carmody road is the scene of some of the most dangerous driving I've ever seen (as well as an accident last year that caused serious injuries to two girls who were on the footpath).

I'm of the opinion that if a development application is submitted the council that involves permission for the developer to put the lives of pedestrians at risk by forcing them to walk on the road the council should throw it out and tell them to come up with one that doesn't involve hogging the footpath. Unfortunately, as is the case with most councils, Brisbane City Council is in the pocket of developers and the councillors are the sort of people who are too lazy to be regular pedestrians.

Broken hearts and bad habits

Even if this cured heart disease would you know what to do with it?

I find it hard to believe that a lack of proper advice from their doctors could be responsible for around 60% of heart patients returning to bad dietary, exercise and/or smoking habits after a procedure. Having never been in such a position I can't say how difficult it is to alter lifelong dietary and exercise habits, or to give up smoking. But I'd like to think that if my life or even just my quality of life depended on my changing them, I bloody well would.

However, putting myself in the shoes of a 60 year old patient with heart trouble caused by a lifetime of poor diet, lack of exercise and a smoking habit, a ten minute talk on diet, smoking and exercise from a doctor is not going to provide adequate information for me on how to go about it. Food is a big part of everyone's life, and generic advice such as 'eat more vegetables and cut back on saturated fats' doesn't quite cut it when it comes to how this advice can be implemented. There's no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to food.

The same probably applies to smoking and exercise. Smoking is an incredibly hard addiction to overcome; too often it's referred to as a 'habit' when in reality it's just like any other drug addiction, only a more socially acceptable one. Exercise seems a lot simpler to implement, but it may be the case that a patient needs someone to encourage them, to hold them accountable, or even to participate alongside them in order to ensure it becomes a regular, rather than sporadic, part of their lifestyle.

Given that the problem is as large as it is, this quite likely means that 'repeat offenders' are draining the health system of large amounts of money. If, instead, all patients who undergo a procedure for cardiovascular disease were given free appointments with a dietitian or nutritionist on a regular basis for 6 months or so, as well as counselling and possibly free quit-smoking aides such as nicotine patches, surely even if it cost the same amount of money as these patients winding up on the operating table time after time, the improvement in their quality of life would mean that it would be money well spent?

Tamworth shamed into refugee backdown

Tamworth Mayor James Treloar: unapologetic racist.

After a thorough public spanking from the Australian media, Tamworth council has decided to accept the settlement of those five refugee families after all.

Still, Mayor James Treloar refuses to apologise for essentially calling Sudanese people a pack of disease-ridden criminals.

On the bright side, when I googled 'James Treloar' just now, one of my previous posts came up as the third result on the front page. Good. The bastard's name deserves to be tied to this issue. Permanently.

Cloudy apple juice and a head of raw broccoli

It's not that long since I read something (probably in one of the papers) referring to a 'consumer perception' that cloudy apple juice is better for you. Now a study published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture has confirmed what consumers presumably believed to be true: cloudy apple juice really is better for you than the clarified kind.

It turns out that cloudy apple juice contains around double the level of procyanidins found in clarified apple juice. The level of procyanidins is also dependent on the apple cultivar; apparently the sweeter varieties have lower levels than tart apples (although I must say that the varieties referred to in the article are unfamiliar to me).

So there you go: if you're an apple juice drinker, prefer the cloudy over the clarified.

In other nutrition-related news, University of Illinois researchers have found that including tomato and broccoli together in the diet may lead to reduced tumour growth in prostate cancer sufferers. The study was published in the journal Cancer Research. That's all fair enough until you get to the bit where it is suggested that

Men should regularly consume servings of up to three quarters of a head of raw broccoli and two to three tomatoes to help fight the disease.

The university's food science and human nutrition professor, John Erdman, said men should consider consuming three to five such servings a week.

Now, who the hell is going to wolf down almost an entire head of raw broccoli? I can handle raw broccoli stalks if they don't have a tough skin, but I've tried eating broccoli florets raw, and to be honest they're quite hard to choke down. And I, according to Gam, am a 'hippy'- a word that has a wide range of meanings in his vocabulary, but in this case used to refer to 'someone who enjoys eating vegetables'.

Lucky I'll never have to worry about prostate cancer, I guess.
--------------------------------------------------------------

While I rarely drink apple juice, I do buy cloudy apple juice for making bircher muesli. Lately, with big, sweet blueberries in season and going cheap(er) at Fruity Capers in Toowong I've been making a highly simplified lazy-person's bircher muesli as a snack. It's pictured above; not a very pretty presentation because I'd already hoed into it before I decided to take the photograph!

The ingredients:

cloudy apple juice
rolled oats
blueberries

The method:

Place the blueberries (I usually use just under half a punnet) in a bowl and squash them with a fork. Place a handful or two of rolled oats on top of the squashed blueberries, then pour over enough apple juice to soak the oats and have some visible excess. Leave the whole lot to sit for 15-20 minutes.

You'd be hard pressed to find a healthier breakfast, snack or dessert (or whenever you choose to eat it). And it's delicious.

Babycatcher

I've added this blog to my blogroll today but I thought it deserved the attention of a post. I'm not quite sure what I can say about it other than I found what I read so compelling that I have spent almost all of my day up until now reading through Joanne's archives. I've never been to Malawi, although Gam lived there for a time as a child (his younger brother was born there, I believe) and I've read about the state of the hospital system and the drain of doctors and nurses to countries like England, a phenomenon that occurs in a whole host of developing countries. But there's nothing quite like reading the first hand perspective of someone who has chosen to live and work there as a nurse and deal daily with the consequences of a sorely underfunded health care system. And I'm not sure I can do it justice by attempting to describe it. It's not exactly light reading, but it's well worth it.

Terror alert level green

Heard on ABC Newsradio this morning:

NEWSRADIO ANNOUNCER: "A new poll has revealed that more Australians are concerned about climate change than terrorism."
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Get ready for the sound of John Howard cranking up the fear machine in the lead up to this year's election. As far as Howard is concerned, this is an intolerable situation.

First Aid classes for schoolkids

You've got to feel for that poor 16 year old kid who got bitten by an eastern brown snake and died over the weekend. He and his mate no doubt did what they thought was the best thing to do- run for help. Unfortunately it was probably the worst thing he could have done; the consequences speak for themselves.

A much more productive use of taxpayer's money than buying school flagpoles and forcing hordes of bored schoolchildren to stand in front of them and sing the national anthem would be 30 minutes of basic first aid classes every week for children from kindergarten to year 12.

Teaching 'patriotism' is just part of John Howard's personal wankfest as prime minister.

Teaching kids how to save a life -that's invaluable.

Why?!

A bunch of yobbos, aka 'Serbian' and 'Croatian' tennis fans get stuck in at the Australian Open.

You idiots. You bloody idiots. You're frigging Australian. This vendetta isn't in your blood, it's in your tiny heads. Get over it.

Court decision legitimises cult edicts

The freaky Exclusive Brethren cult has been criticised by the judge in a court case in which an ex-member of the cult sought custody of his three children, aged 6-16, from their mother, who remains a member of the cult. The mother had cut the father off from access to the children, failing to comply with the court-ordered bi-monthly visits. The wealthy cult had funded the mother's court battle.

During the court proceedings, the mother was asked what she would do if the court granted custody to the father.

The mother said she would want a relationship with them, but only if they were faithful to the Exclusive Brethren

Yeah, that's a mother worthy of having custody over her children. She puts the interests of her religion before the interests of her children.

The judge also ordered that the father was not allowed to expose the children to tv, radio or non-members of the Exclusive Brethren cult.

Despite the judge's criticism of the mother's behaviour, which he described as 'abusive', this is essentially a case of the court enforcing the indoctrination of children into a cult. I have little doubt that if the Exclusive Brethren did not call themselves christian and were not swimming in money that no court in the land would have sent down an order that essentially forced children to remain within a cult against the wishes of a parent.

The judge did point out that up until 2003, when the father left the cult, it was the father himself who was party to enforcing the tenets of the cult upon the children. But so what? If he used to flog them with a belt up until 2003 when he realised he was wrong, would it be 'disruptive' to the children if he suddenly stopped? That's pretty fucked up reasoning.

Of course, the father is still a religious nutbag. He now belongs to another slightly less nutty christian fundamentalist church/cult. The kids are already well-indoctrinated, having expressed a desire never to see their father again (after no doubt being told the man is in the clutches of Satan himself). If the mother has the right to indoctrinate the kids then why not the father?

The Exclusive Brethren are seriously fucked up. What's even more scary is that (despite refusing to vote in elections) they are in bed with the Liberal party and support them financially. Money from people with such hideous beliefs should be viewed as tainted. If an equally nutty muslim cult was giving money to the ALP the government would be all over it. Besides, seeing as the EB refuse to vote in elections, doesn't that mean the Liberal party is taking money from people who are quite blatantly breaking Australian law?

Hawach case: when selfish parents do battle

The case of the effective kidnappings of Hannah and Cedar Hawach by their parents provides a rather extreme example of what can happen when a court awards full custody to one parent who then decides to punish the other parent by moving the children as far away as possible. Melissa Hawach, a pretty, blonde Canadian woman is being treated a lot more kindly by the Australian media (and no doubt the Canadian media too) than her swarthy, and frankly not particularly handsome ex-husband Joseph. Heck, an article I read in the Daily Telecrap Telegraph had pretty much turned the story into a pro-Melissa telenovella with vaseline on the lens and violins playing in the background. The SMH is a little more subtle, at least.

I'm assuming Melissa Hawach was awarded full custody by a Canadian court; I haven't seen it mentioned in which country she was awarded custody, but obviously the arrangement didn't take into account the needs of the girls or their father, who was forced to move to Canada to continue seeing them.

As for the hiring of mercenary scumbags- let's avoid the pretense of honourable intentions here just because they're from Australia and New Zealand- it really takes it to another level altogether. Can you imagine how the media would be treating the case if the father had hired Lebanese ex-military personnel to kidnap the girls?

This is so very fucked up. Neither Melissa or Joseph Hawach are doing the best thing by their girls at this point in time.

Crushing time!

Damage caused by the pathetic wankers at Noble Park on Friday.

I think I've found some more perfect candidates for the inaugural Public Humiliation Ceremony that I proposed for people caught drink driving. Sure, they're hoons and they weren't necessarily caught drink-driving, but seeing as hoons are such massive wankers I'm sure the public would get a great amount of satisfaction at seeing the bastards forced to front up to a public crushing of their cars. None of this namby-pamby impounding (after which the car may be returned to them). Confiscate and Crush should be the motto!

Of course this should be on top of hefty penalties for the damage they caused when they attacked police and vandalised shops.

Silicone bakeware

When I first saw silicone bakeware at David Jones over a year ago I couldn't help but be intrigued. With the prices starting at around $30 for a 6-muffin tray I couldn't really afford to be tempted at the time, but now silicone bakeware has even started appearing at Coles and Woolworths and the prices have fallen, so when Myer had a bunch of it on special a couple of weeks ago Gam and I bought a silicone tart dish. I'd already decided that a silicone cake or loaf tin would be a bad idea because its flexibility meant there was a distinct possibility of slopping cake batter over the side of the tray on the way to the oven. A bicuit tray was a possibility, but as we didn't have a dedicated tart dish and Gam wanted to give it a go with his pecan pie we got the tart dish.

According to Gam, putting the pastry into the dish for blind-baking was 'about the same' in terms of difficulty. After blind-baking the pastry crust he thought it needed more support because the flexibility of the dish meant there was a possibility of breaking the crust while carrying it from the oven. There was also potential for spilling the contents once the pastry had been filled, so he put the dish on a pizza tray for support. The best feature of the silicone tart tray was the ease with which the tart could be removed; usually we just cut it up and serve it from the dish in which it is baked, so it was nice to be able to remove the whole tart so easily.

Aside from the sheer novelty of silicone bakeware I must say that it doesn't hold a lot of appeal on practical terms, given that another silicone product -silicone-impregnated baking paper- already makes baking cakes and biscuits so goddamn easy. Armed with a regular bicuit tray, springform tin or regular square cake tin and a roll of the aforementioned baking paper there is no need to bother with greasing and flouring and gingerly easing the cake from the tin for fear of it sticking. For biscuits I just grab the edge of the paper and slide the whole batch, paper and all, onto a cooling rack. For cakes you can leave it to cool a little then grab the edges of the paper and lift the cake out of its tin and onto the cooling rack.

NYTimes article on silicone kitchen ware.