Tundra Medicine Dreams

This blog, written by a 'physician assistant' (read: doctor?) in a small town in Alaska is well-written and extremely interesting. Frankly I couldn't think of a worse place to live than Alaska (or Siberia, or Canada's northern regions), but that doesn't mean they're not fascinating and beautiful... at a distance.

As much as I like Wikipedia, this blog goes one step further, being extremely informative, but also making you feel almost as if you're living there. Well worth wasting some time on!

Brisbane IR rally

Gam and I made it in to the rally at Southbank this morning. After a hot and humid 34°C yesterday, followed by gale-force winds in the late evening and during the night, the sky had clouded, the winds became chilly and there was a thick layer of dust beneath the clouds that lent a strange dirty yellow tinge to the air. It really shows in some of the photos.

While the light was interesting, the weather was just downright horrible, despite the cheerful attempt at spin by one of the people who addressed the rally.

From memory, last year's rally attracted more people, but according to the police figures, around 15 000-20 000 showed up, compared with 10 000 reported last year.

There were a lot of people with young families at the rally this time around. Given the impact that the removal of public holidays and holiday loading from peoples' contracts can have on family life it's not surprising that the issue is of huge concern to people with young kids.

There didn't seem to be so much optimism, or momentum behind the campaign this year. The feeling was more one of a grim determination to remind Howard that workers haven't forgotten what he's done to them, and that they plan on making him pay for it at the next election.

Let's hope enough people have a long enough memory to actually make it happen.

I'm not sure what the sign on the left says... something about employers?
I'll get our lone spanish-speaking friend to help out with a translation.

This is Huxley the underdog, with his owner.
He was extremely hyperactive and chewed up all the sticks within several metres radius.
He barked in approval whenever the crowd cheered, and kept trying to go for a swim in the fountain.

A big thanks to everyone who agreed to pose for a photo :)

Get set for pre-election interest rate cut?

The OECD aren't exactly going out on a limb with their prediction of a possible cut in the interest rate just prior to next year's federal election.

What's next from their crystal ball? Perhaps there's a chance John Howard will manage to stir up some anti-muslim sentiment prior to the election?

More refugee blood on the government's hands.

'Surprise visit' almost makes it sound like a party.
'Coward's visit' would be more appropriate.

I think the definition of 'safety' the government sets for refugees should be one it holds itself to.

Meaning that unless they feel safe enough to go there on a properly announced visit without hiding behind a flak jacket and a platoon of personal bodyguards (none of this 'surprise visit' bullshit), it shouldn't be considered safe enough to deport someone to.

Immigration officials refused to allow Mohammed Sharif al-Saraf to stay in Australia when his three-year temporary protection visa expired in 2004, claiming the removal of Saddam Hussein meant it was safe to go back to his homeland.

But The Australian has learned he was back in Iraq for only a few months when he was killed, in Baghdad, in late 2004.

[...]

He was detained in Woomera, South Australia, for about a year. His claims for refugee status were found to be valid, but under the terms of the TPV his status had to be reassessed at the end of three years. By the time his claims were reassessed in 2003, the regime of Saddam Hussein had been overthrown and he was found to no longer be in need of protection.

Yeah. It's safe in Iraq because Saddam's gone. Any day now John Howard will be flying to Baghdad to walk the streets and shake the hands of ordinary Iraqis.

Here's the perspective of an Iraqi lorry driver on just how safe Iraq is now Saddam has been removed. Mission accomplished!

Eating my words, with soymilk poured over.

After giving a dairy-free diet a whirl back in October, I came to the conclusion that it hadn't had much of an impact on my acne. As for my impression of soymilk:

"I'd definitely never choose to have it in coffee again"

After switching back to having milk and cream in my coffee, within 48 hours I suffered a large breakout. Knowing that my acne is partly a 'time of the month' thing, I stuck to milk for a week before switching to soy again. My skin cleared up over the course of another week or so, and I subsequently had milk and cream in my coffee two days in a row. Cue another breakout.

It's ended with me as a soymilk convert. I still can't drink it in tea or with ovaltine, but I'm perfectly used to having it in coffee, so long as there's plenty of ice to subdue the soy taste.

My skin has improved markedly, and best of all I haven't needed to give up cheese, icecream or yoghurt (although I haven't been eating loads of the latter two lately anyway), or the odd cup of tea with condensed milk. I guess the sheer volume of milk I was drinking meant I was getting too much of something that wasn't good for me.

A lesson from Mr Mackie

More cultural learnings of America from the New York Times.

The practice of feeding kids up on psychiatric drugs is one hell of a frightening phenomenon in the US, and to a much smaller extent here. Faced with that situation, I find myself almost seeing where Tom 'Crazy' Cruise and the scientologists are coming from. Psychiatric drugs are not a substitute for good parenting, and not a cure for childhood. I think a big part of the problem is the ability of the drug companies over there to market psychiatric drugs as a panacea. Which most people (outside of the US, at least) would agree they are not. The extreme withdrawal effects that can result from cessation of many psychiatric drugs often leads people to think that what they're experiencing is a result of their 'problem', not the result of the drugs.

Here's just one example of the phenomenon the article refers to:

Fate Riske, 3, of Fond du Lac, Wis., takes two antipsychotics and a sleeping medicine to control what her mother, Elizabeth Klein-Riske, said were hours-long tantrums, a desire to watch the same movies repeatedly and an insistence on eating the meat, cheese and bread in her sandwiches separately.

When I was a toddler, my parents tell me, I would have my Great Aunt sit me on her lap and read me Snugglepot and Cuddlepie by May Gibbs. Auntie Clarrie was herself on a number of psychiatric medications, and tired easily. By the end of the book she would be exhausted. I, on the other hand, would sit up with a big smile on my face and say "now read it again!".

When we were quite young my brother and I used to insist on eating our carrots raw instead of microwaved, and our peas frozen. Mum would oblige, giving us our veges before she would cook the rest for herself and Dad. After a few years we grew out of it, as kids tend to do. Did we have a psychiatric disorder? Fuck no.

Right now we have a young Norwegian couple living next door to us with a little girl about 18 months old. They're a lovely couple, and the daughter appears happy, inquisitive and extremely cute. She does, however, throw countless screaming tantrums every day, every couple of hours at least. Is that evidence of a psychiatric disorder, or merely a normal stage of childhood that's soon to pass? Sure, if I ever have a kid that throws that many tantrums I'll be purchasing a pair of noise-cancelling headphones rather than giving in to tantrum-terrorism as I suspect the mother might be doing. But psychiatric drugs as a solution to such a problem?

Andrew Darr of Caldwell, Idaho, whose sons took medications, said that he was opposed to it from the start. “When you come home from work and instead of getting them clawing at your feet and yelling, ‘Daddy, Daddy,’ you get a lethargic grunt, it just kills you,” Mr. Darr said.

It's easy to blame the parents, and they well deserve to shoulder a good part of the blame. But their misguidedness could so easily be set straight by the medical professionals, the psychiatrists, they see with their concerns. Instead, the standard response appears to be "here, have some drugs". That's going to be one fucked up generation of children.

The $1000 garbage bag

More wankery from the NY Times fashion section.

Chanel is selling a $1000 plastic bag. There is a waiting list to buy this bag.

I wonder if Oxfam Unwrapped have a waiting list of people wanting to give them $1000?

Wankers.

Borat: Cultural learnings of America for make everyone know to stay the fuck away

Borat at the Eiffel Tower. That's in New York, right?

Gam and I went to see the Borat movie yesterday. I must say I probably enjoyed his TV spots on the Ali G show more than the movie. It's not that Sacha Baron Cohen did a poor job, just that a lot of the Americans in the movie were such frighteningly horrible people. And they weren't in character.

I've seen a lot in the media about the racism in the movie: 'the running of the jew', the gypsy stereotypes (not to mention Borat's talk of deliberately running them over in his car) and the way Americans unblinkingly accepted his racism and willingly expressed their own, but what really struck me was the readiness with which New Yorkers threatened Borat with extreme violence. Sure, in a movie they no doubt edited out all the less extreme responses in order to produce a desired effect, but I was shocked that anyone would react that way to someone who presented as being as harmless and eccentric as Borat. Maybe it's naivety on my part, but I couldn't help thinking that if the free hugs guy ever went to New York he'd probably wind up dead, or at the very least in hospital missing a spleen or something. It seems that the more people are forced to live on top of each other, the more antisocial they get. I was more surprised by the readiness of New York males to knife Baron Cohen than the readiness of rednecks to cheer on the killing of muslims or the hanging of gay people. So much for the supposed civility of the 'blue states'.

Also very striking was the reaction of Borat's dinner party hosts who reacted in a vastly more extreme fashion to the presence of his black prostitute friend than his handing the hostess a bag of his own faeces after using (or not using) the toilet.

Borat's meeting with the 'veteran feminists of america' held a surprise too. When he enquired what feminism was, one of the ladies replied "it's the theory that women are equal to men". A theory? A poor choice of words.

Sexism rears its head for real in the film when Borat hitches a ride with some drunken frat boys in a campervan. Overt in their expressions of the inferiority and general worthlessness of women, especially women who were silly enough to sleep with them (no doubt they would also have choice names for the women sensible enough to turn them down), they didn't miss a beat in spouting off about Russian women. I couldn't help thinking that these boys, like the good white (and probably 'christian') americans they are, would soon wind up married to some nice white girl and spawning more abominable little bigots and future doormats. Apparently a couple of those boys are trying to sue Borat, blaming him for one of them missing out on a job because of the racist and/or sexist sentiments he expressed in the film. My guess is he was turned down because it's unacceptable to express such sentiments so publicly, not because they are frowned upon generally. Maybe they can get jobs in the Republican party, assuming they haven't already.

In short, it was a good movie, but not a comfortable experience. Which it was probably never supposed to be in the first place.

Snap your fingers, have some muslims arrested

US Airways: Where muslim-spotting is part of the inflight safety routine.

All it takes is a note from one nervous bigot for six Imams to be booted off a flight from Minneapolis and handcuffed, then interrogated.

The cause for concern? Three of the Imams stood to say their evening prayers. The note read:

"Six suspicious Arabic men on plane, spaced out in their seats. All were saying, 'Allah, Allah', cursing US involvement with Saddam before flight."

The imams were asked to leave by the plane's captain, but they refused, after which the police were called.

I wonder if they were cursing US involvement with Saddam during the Iran-Iraq war, when the US were selling him weapons?

"They took us off the plane, humiliated us in a very disrespectful way,'' said Omar Shahin, of Phoenix.

Reached by cell phone just after his release, Shahin said he didn't know where they would spend the night or how they would try to get back to Phoenix on Tuesday. Hooper said US Airways refused to put the men on another flight.

[...]

Shahin expressed frustration that - despite extensive efforts by him and other Muslim leaders since even before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks - so many Americans know so little about Islam.

``If up to now they don't know about prayers, this is a real problem,'' he said.

US Airways should be reprimanded and forced to apologise to the Imams. As for the nasty, bigoted little person who caused the incident- why can a person be arrested for saying 'bomb' on a plane, yet get away with causing six innocent men to be dragged off the plane based solely on the fact that they are muslim? Sure, if individuals like that moron didn't have the collusion of american society as a whole then they would have been told to pipe down and stop being stupid, but how can someone who caused an incident like this be allowed to waltz off into the sunset while the Imams get stuck in Minneapolis and are treated like shit by the airline?

Iran not developing nuclear weapons: CIA

Ahmedinejad: possibly more truthful than Bush!

After being misused by the Bush administration in it attempts to build a case for attacking Iraq, the CIA has presented the US government with a report stating that it has found no evidence that Iran is building any nuclear facilities other than the civilian operations it reported, as requested, to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Bush administration is said to have been dismissive of the CIA's assessment, citing their own consultations with a hairy-backed chimpanzee gazing into a crystal ball which, they claimed, provided totally infallible evidence of Iran's evil plot to nuke the world.

Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh has cited the CIA report in his latest article for the New Yorker, drawing a swift response from the White House spokesperson Dana Merino. Not to disprove Hersh's article, mind, just to make a personal attack on him:

The White House is not going to dignify the work of an author who has viciously degraded our troops, and whose articles consistently rely on outright falsehoods to justify his own radical views

Of course, bringing in a little "he hates the troops!" always helps their cause. Surprisingly, Ms Merino didn't accuse Hersh of having a Koran at home. But we all know he probably does, the bastard.

If only they hadn't sacked Rummy. He could have recycled his old "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" line.

Say 'what?' again, motherfucker!

Unions: The Houston Janitors Story

If this story isn't a great example of why Australians need to support unionised labour and a sound public health system, I don't know what is.

A group of janitors in Houston, Texas, have been striking as they call for better wages and fairer health care. Their current wage is US$5.25 an hour. That's $6.83 per hour, or roughly what a 15 year old would earn in Australia. For some of the striking workers it is even less:

Flora Aguilar, 51, another striking janitor, was making $5.15 an hour after more than two years on the night crew for the cleaning contractor OneSource at the 55-floor Enterprise Plaza downtown. She was taking home $209 every two weeks, of which $20 went to bus fares. She said she had seen two managers fire women for refusing to stay past the end of their shift -- even though the women would have missed their last bus home.

That's the kind of shit that happens when the government makes it easier to fire people.

Democratic congressional leaders have said one of their first priorities as a majority will be raising the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour, which would go a long way toward meeting the union's goals.

The Houston janitors are demanding more -- $8.50 an hour plus health insurance. They also are demanding full-time work instead of four-hour shifts. Their proposed package, equivalent to a 60 percent pay increase, would still fall short of what SEIU janitors make in other cities, including the District. In many other cities, union janitors work full time and get health benefits.

Not only have the janitors been treated appallingly by their employers (who are crying poor), they were allegedly treated pretty shabbily by the Houston police too, if this account is anything to go by.

The health insurance side of the story is equally appalling. Here's a brief excerpt from one of the janitors' biographies posted on the campaign website:

Last summer, Ana Leticia's husband suffered a heart attack. "He went to the hospital but we do not have health insurance. Now we have a bill for more than $8,500," she says. "They keep on sending us bills in the mail but we can't pay it."

Yes, this is the USA: Land of the Free to die in a gutter because you have no health insurance. Sounds wonderful, doesn't it?

See, clearly what these janitors on poverty-line wages require is a system that enables them to 'negotiate' one on one with their large, wealthy employer.

Workers in Australia are undoubtedly comparably well off. But those rights that unions have fought for, and earned, are under threat. There's no use waiting until they've been completely whittled away; Australians' penchant for complacency is doing them no favours. We need to act to protect workers' rights. There's a big rally on November 30, and I believe that it's not just in union members' interests to attend. Most Australians aren't CEO of a huge company, or Prime Minister of Australia. Most Australians aren't politicians sitting pretty on a salary of almost $200 000 per year, with a limitless taxpayer-funded pension waiting for them at the end of their career. Workers' rights are important to all but a small minority of Australians, and that small minority are in sore need of a boot up the arse. That's why Gam and I will be attending the rally in Brisbane on Thursday, 30th November in support of the Rights at Work campaign.


UPDATE: The Houston janitors have reached a deal with their employers

Under the three-year deal, the first for the janitors since they unionized last year, their pay, which now averages $5.25 an hour, will increase to $6.25 on Jan. 1, 2007; to $7.25 on Jan. 1, 2008; and to $7.75 on Jan. 1, 2009.

Further, the employers agreed to increase a janitor’s typical shift to six hours a day, from four. Many of the janitors had said they were being given too few hours of work to support their families.

“It’s a moment of great victory,” said Mercedes Herrera, a janitor for five years who earns $5.15 an hour. “We all came together, and the union gave us strength. Many of us have never received a raise. I’ve earned the same ever since I started, so the raise is great.”

This is a step forward. However, 2 years is a long time to wait for wages to reach the equivalent of AUD$10, and when the family health coverage kicks in in 2009, the janitors will be expected to pay almost 20% of their income just to provide health care for their families. Imagine the stink that would be raised if the wealthiest americans had to fork over 20% of their income to obtain private health insurance. Yet somehow, for people living on the poverty line, that's perfectly acceptable.

Why censor sex?

Adult entertainment: 70% of Australians aren't offended.
[Photo of Belladonna from www.nsgalleries.com]

A couple of weeks ago I received a 'special announcement' from AdultShop in my email. They are conducting a campaign to have non-violent, sexually explicit films removed from the X18+ classification, arguing that the definition used to classify such films is out of step with the views of a large majority of Australian adults.

Apparently the Office of Film and Literature Classification criteria for classifying a film X18+ is when the film

contain[s] real depictions of actual sexual activity ... in a way that it is likely to cause offence to a reasonable adult

According to a survey of 1499 Australian adults by ACNielsen commissioned by AdultShop in September:

Thirty per cent said they were personally offended by films "primarily involving various forms of actual sex, including close-ups", while only 22 per cent thought "most reasonable adults" found them offensive.

Seventy-six per cent said such films should be available, on a restricted basis, to adults

Currently it is illegal for adult shops outside the ACT and Northern Territory to sell porn. Adults all over Australia can order it via mail or internet, so long as the sale is made in either the ACT or NT. Isn't this disadvantaging small businesses (which most adult shops are) in other states?

Why hasn't John Howard ducked into a phone booth and donned his 'champion of small business' cape for this cause? Perhaps Janette still has it in the wash after the IR reforms...

Gam and I signed a petition at one of the adult shops in the City a few years ago, calling for the sale of X-rated film depictions of sex to be made legal in Queensland. Sure, all the sex shops here seem to sell it (I'm not saying we've been to all of them, mind), but they're operating outside the law, and the elderly couple who ran the shop where we signed the petition told us as much. Typically, the petition was ignored by the Beattie government.

The law on X18+ ratings for depictions of sex is unreasonable and should be changed. The current laws prohibiting the sale of X-rated material in all states would hopefully be rendered irrelevant in the face of a change in the censorship guidelines used by the OFLC.

The September 2006 ACNielsen survey highlighted that more people are offended by films containing violence than films containing actual sexual activity between consenting adults. However, films containing violence are classified R18+, and therefore can be legally sold throughout Australia. Despite fewer Australian adults being offended by films containing explicit sexual activity between consenting adults, such films continue to be classified X18+ and cannot be sold within each of the States.

The SMH contacted the Australian Family Association for their opinion. The response by spokeswoman Angela Conway was that the freedom of Australian adults to view footage of consensual adult sex is currently "balanced against child protection and other public policy requirements that extreme content, including sexual violence, bestiality, snuff movies etc be kept illegal", and that the latest push to change the classification to ease restrictions on depictions of sex constitutes a "full blown attack" on that balance.

It's quite a leap from consensual adult sex to violence, bestiality and snuff movies. When I think of sex, none of those things come to mind. When an AFA member thinks of sex, for the love of god, lock up your kids, dogs, garden tools and anything else you can find!

Angela Conway claimed that Adultshop.com was "misrepresenting the meaning of the concept of reasonable adult". Meaning that the 70% of adults who aren't personally offended by porn aren't reasonable adults and shouldn't have a say on the law, presumably. Any 'reasonable person' who is offended by porn just wouldn't buy it, regardless of the classification. It seems that a great many of the people offended by porn aren't reasonable, and believe it's within their rights to prevent other people from buying it.

Film depictions of violence and acts which would land a person in jail should never be treated more lightly by censors than depictions of unsimulated sex, something that is perfectly legal, normal (erm, mostly) and healthy (ignoring the risks posed by plastic surgery that so many porn stars go in for, not to mention the odd HIV scare in the industry among non condom users from time to time).

For people who are offended by porn, the solution is not to ban it, it's to stop watching it. Are you listening, Angela?

Wanker parents breeding rocker kids

Forced to act out the unfulfilled dreams of their stupid parents.

Oh please. The parents of these kids have such a lot to answer for. 9 year olds don't just get together and start creating 'original' hard rock by themselves.

Hugo’s mother, Molly Gove, who said she was in a few riot grrrl bands herself in the ’90s, enrolled her daughter in the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls in New York, where children 8 to 18 learn the playlist of bands like Bikini Kill and the Pixies.

Really? Did little Hugo (who is a girl... ooh how edgy, 'Mom'!) happen to learn a Pixies playlist that included John Valby and the Pixies' "I left my sperm in a fag named Cisco"?

No?

Not that hardcore, eh?

Seriously, if you ever need a good laugh, the NY Times fashion section is the place to go. Wankers galore.

Copy of article here.

Total junk food TV ad ban for UK

Perhaps during screenings of Midsummer Murders and the Bill? Suckas.

Australia is left eating the dust of more progressive nations once again after the UK communications office decision to implement a total ban on junk food advertising during TV programs watched by kids and teenagers. What pisses me off the most about junk food advertising to kids is how so many ad execs and food and grocery council spokespeople claim that the advertising doesn't influence peoples' decision to buy the products. Yeah. Because you'd really throw hundreds of millions dollars down the drain every year just because.

Lately they've been trying the line that the responsibility is only partly theirs. Only thing is, they don't want their part of the shared responsibility to consist of abstaining from inciting 'pester power' through advertising and refraining from misleading parents about a food's nutritional value a la the infamous Coco Pops ad. They want to sponsor sports events for the kiddies, getting their brand out and about even in the sports arena. As far as they're concerned, that's where their responsibility, so called, ends.

The system of 'self regulation' has failed, but we have our fitness-fanatic health minister mysteriously dragging his heels on legislating to protect the interests of parents and children.

Why?

Fraser calls both sides on dog whistle politics

From the SMH:

Former prime minister Malcolm Fraser believes many comments by Australia's politicians about Islam are racist.

Mr Fraser also said many of the words used to stimulate debate about the need for a set of Australian values were code for saying Muslims did not comply with Australian values.

And he questioned whether the next federal election would be fought using a race card.

Mr Fraser made the statements during the official launch of the Australians All website aimed at promoting an inclusive, diverse, multicultural, peaceful and prosperous Australia.

Fraser is spot on about the underhanded racism visible in the statements by many of our politicians. However I doubt the next election will be race-based unless we see another terrorist attack in the next 6 months. If the next federal election is fought using a race card it's merely going to be a battle between Kim Beazley and John Howard to see who can come up with the biggest race card. Beazley, having lost to Howard 5 years ago in the "We will decide who comes to this country (they must not be swarthy and arriving on boats)" election isn't likely to see the race card as his best chance of winning an election. Howard got the racist vote all wrapped up years ago, he just likes to stir things up every now and then to remind the racists who their daddy is.

South Australia: the progressive state

Stub out smoking around kids.

Finally a state government has the balls to start cracking down on parents who smoke in the car with their kids present. Well done SA!

Scientists score stage victory over drug cheats

Finally, scientists have developed an effective test for non-injected synacthen, the synthetic analogue of adrenocorticotrophic hormone, used by some sports drug cheats.

The drugs cheats are still light years ahead of the scientists, but the more difficult they make it for them, the better.

Note: I don't mean to keep badmouthing professional cyclists, however drug-riddled the sport is. I just couldn't be arsed making another picture at this point. Next time I'll try the world of swimming or athletics.

Dear Rupert,

Rupert Murdoch
Ivory Tower
US of fucken Eh.

Dear Rupert,

The world already has so many countries where high earners have it cushy and the poor get fucked over. I believe you belong to one of them.

Instead of bitching about how high earners in Australia are taxed too much, try looking at the outcomes of the huge wealth disparity in your own country (I'm talking about the one you're a citizen of, not all the countries whose governments you have in your pocket). If you think that's such a fine idea that you'd like to share it with Australians who already earn at least twice the average wage, why not suggest they move to the US instead of prodding our government to further americanise our way of life here in Australia?

There has been a lot of talk lately about foreigners who come to Australia and fail to 'respect Australian values'. In view of that, why don't you just go back to where you came from and take your Republican values with you? I'm quite sure John Howard, Kim Beazley and Peter Costello will back my suggestion, as they have been among the most vocal opponents of 'unAustralian' types coming over here and trying to force their 'values' on the rest of us.

In fact, I'm sure you'll be hearing from them any day now. Right John? Right Kim? Right, Peter?

*cricket*

Yours Sincerely,

Sarah

Today's Apathetic Youth
Australia

Proposal to penalise doctors for poor outcomes

"Come back when you're healthy, please.
Sick people aren't good for the bottom line"

This push by former Howard government health minister Michael Wooldridge and former chief executive of the Australian Health Insurance Association Russell Schneider to have doctors' pay based on patient readmissions and death rates is an incredibly stupid idea. The only outcome will be a scramble by doctors to avoid taking on the riskiest cases, in the knowledge that they are likely to suffer financial penalty if they do so.

Time for some more articles on the joys of the private healthcare system in the US, I think:

$5700 debt when the health insurer changes the rules.

Anorexia patient's family sue insurer for refusing to cover cost of treatment.

Gobal warming 'debunker' debunked

"Why yes I'm a climatologist, if by "climate" you mean "toys and puzzles". What? Like you don't go to the raving homeless guy down the street for medical advice?"

This is a dazzling debunking of climate change science. It is also wildly wrong

Deniers are cock-a-hoop at an aristocrat's claims that global warming is a UN hoax. But the physics is bafflingly bad

George Monbiot
Tuesday November 14, 2006
The Guardian

For the past nine days my inbox has been filling up with messages labelled "Your scam exposed", "The great fraud unravels" and "How do you feel now, asshole?". They are referring to a new "scientific paper", which proves that the "climate change scare" is a tale "worthier of St John the Divine than of science".

Published in two parts on consecutive Sundays, it runs to a total of 52 pages, containing graphs, tables and references. To my correspondents, to a good many journalists and to thousands of delighted bloggers, this paper clinches it: climate change is a hoax perpetrated by a leftwing conspiracy coordinated by the United Nations.

Monbiot

Bystander death in police pursuit.

I think it's time the police looked at their tactics in car chases and whether they should be conducting car chases at all. When a car they are chasing hits and kills a person, do they really think the victim's family is going to feel any better when they hear that police have laid charges against the person they were chasing? Does that even come close to compensating for the loss of a family member?

Can the police honestly say that catching one offender in a car chase is worth the death of an innocent bystander?

Faces

I read this morning news of research published today by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons showing that teenagers who suffer acne are more likely to have suicidal thoughts and attempt suicide. I must say I wasn't surprised. A person's face is one of their most important tools for communication, and to be constantly conscious of what feels like facial disfigurement, however trivial it might seem to some people, must greatly add to the burden of depression that so many teenagers undergo.

This evening I came across this article in the Guardian. It's quite long, but I found it very informative, and moving. It's about a British plastic surgeon (craniofacial surgeon) and the charity work he carries operating on children with severe facial deformities. Some of the children had suffered psychological trauma and depression as a result of their treatment by their peers.

"It's been very clearly demonstrated in psychological studies," says Kelly, "that there is an almost knee-jerk interpretation, and assumption, that behind the mask of facial difference there must be a child who is less intelligent, less kind, less receptive, less likely to progress. And the child feels this rejection and faced with it from all sides, will tend to internalise it. And it tends to produce in the child a feeling they're incompetent, that they can't cope, can't be good. Another thing that happens is that their physical deformity tends to paralyse their physical possibilities in their minds, and they feel physically impaired - that they can't play football, for example - whereas in fact, of course, they can. It's very restrictive.

More on the same charity from the BBC site.

Moo breast cancer for red meat lovers

I'm seeing a lot of headlines suggesting that a diet high in red meat appears to double a woman's risk of breast cancer.

I'm inclined to believe the risk has more to do with the kind of shit that US cattle producers are allowed to get away with pumping their cows full of, rather than the meat itself. No advances in productivity should come at the expense of the health of the consumer.

I hope Australian law doesn't allow for the feeding of growth hormones to cows here. At the very least I believe such information should be available to consumers at the time of purchase. Same goes for the feeding of antibiotics to chickens, which is a huge contributor to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains. Labelling the product with information like that should be compulsory. Or simply changing the law to prevent it from occurring in the first place...

Aussie cricket fans doing our country proud

Monty Panesar, target of racial abuse in Australia.

Isn't it great to see Australia make the news overseas?

From the Guardian:

England's Ashes tour has barely begun but Monty Panesar has already suffered racial abuse, with a spokesman for the team yesterday confirming reports that a fan had called the spinner a "stupid Indian" on Sunday during the match against New South Wales in Sydney.The incident took place while Panesar fielded near the boundary by the Clive Churchill Stand at the SCG. A journalist for the Sydney Daily Telegraph heard a fan shout: "Give us a wave Monty. You can't speak English you stupid Indian. I'll have to say it in Indian. What are you doing playing in the English side? You're not English." The newspaper also alleges that Panesar was abused during England's match against the Prime Minister's XI in Canberra last week.

The incident will be galling for Australia's cricket authorities, whose efforts to prevent racial abuse have included trials of a text messaging system for reporting offensive behaviour, and who for the first time can impose life bans on offending fans. It is also immediate vindication for South Africa's Graeme Smith, who predicted that Panesar would be subjected to "an unbelievable amount of abuse".

Hours before the reports appeared, the Australian prime minister John Howard was asked about banter from the crowd. "I think it will be vigorous but in the best of humour," he said. Already, his optimism appears to have been misplaced.

Panesar, by the way, was born in Bedfordshire.