Well, the free market has done its best work and a bunch of trusting folk are now finding themselves run ashore in their barb-wire canoes at the headwaters of Shit Creek. And the U.S. Government, which hates socialism so much, is being urged to save the very pigs who waved those folks on with cries of "trust the market" and "this boom will never end" and all the usual good stuff. It's the same con that dragged hundreds of millions of dollars into the black hole of W.A. Inc. Unfortunately, that government is listening and heeding.
When the fall-out reaches Australia our government will, no doubt, be subjected to the same exhortations. I say, "Let 'em burn!"
We've been told again and again that these types have to be saved or we'll all go with them. Let's put that to the test. If governments want to make gifts of thousands of millions of dollars of public funds, let the gifts be given to people who are being threatened with mortgage foreclosure. Pay off their mortgages. Pay off the loans of small businesses. Pay off the debts of owner-driver truckies. Pay for timely medical treatment for those whose conditions will worsen while they languish on public hospital waiting lists. Give interest-free loans to viable businesses to help them weather these storms. Then it won't matter what the Hell happens to the screen-jockeys and their blathering masters.
I'm just waiting for the first of those scum to take a pile of that public money to give themselves a golden parachute of several million dollars as they leave the burning wreck of the company they've put into a death-dive. For once, the politicians are showing a speck of sense and baulking at the prospect. I hope they've got the nous to hold their nerve for once and hold off the lobbyists.
Seeing the pigs fall without a parachute would be a mighty fine entertainment.
Friday, 26 September 2008
Wednesday, 24 September 2008
Post #83 Samso, the Danish island living off-grid (PICS)
"Photographer Nicky Bonne travels to the Danish island of Samso, where the residents have completely eradicated its carbon footprint by using wind power. Everyone on the island owns a turbine, and with its simple grid of solar power, wind farms and sheep, it's selling its power to the mainland."
A story from Digg.
read more | digg story
A story from Digg.
read more | digg story
Thursday, 18 September 2008
Monday, 15 September 2008
Post #81 Hire a Hall / Everything (Coughing up some sense)
Enough with the partisan politics. I've meant for some time to address an issue that may be the greatest public health problem in Australia and is, amazingly enough, the most easily solved. Can you guess?
It's tobacco use. Note I don't write abuse. It's a substance for which there is no dichotomy of usage types because there is no safe, responsible level of consumption. Use and abuse are synonymous for this weed. The anomalies in the treatment of this plant are enormous. If someone attempted to propagate its use as a recreational substance today, they would be stamped flat in a nanosecond, but it continues to kill with comparative impunity. Other substances, such as the opiates, cocainoids and cannabinoids have been ruthlessly proscribed without hesitation or regard to the useful pharmaceutical or industrial uses to which they can be put. The only explanation apparent is that reason has little to do with why governments prohibit substances; the social context is the determinant. The exemption of tobacco to this point from prohibition is due purely to the fact that there have been and are, so many addicted to it. Those addicts vote. The dealers who supply them have a lot of money to throw about for lobbying purposes. Governments also have an addiction to the revenues from tobacco taxes. The fact that many more people die from tobacco-related disease than from use of all the prohibited substances put together doesn't make a dent in this situation.
I read recently that Western Australia has the lowest rate of smoking in Australia: one in seven adults. That figure doesn't explain an interesting change in the demographic of smoking; very few of those adults began using tobacco after reaching their eighteenth birthdays. Where it was once unremarkable for people in their twenties, thirties, forties and even fifties to begin smoking, it's now almost unheard of in Australia. The pervasive anti-tobacco education programme has ensured that almost anyone old enough to be called a legal adult has too much understanding of the nature of the tobacco industry and their product to be taken in. The only age cadres from which new tobacco addicts can be recruited are children and junior teenagers. I.e. those who haven't reached their sixteenth birthdays. The industry says it doesn't sell its product to children. I call this one of the Three Great Lies of the tobacco industry. Here they are:
1. Tobacco isn't harmful to your health; it may even be good for you.
2. Tobacco smoking/chewing isn't physically addictive.
3. The tobacco industry does not market its products to children.
The first two were disproven by the research of the tobacco companies themselves, although they kept on telling them until they were proven to be lying by force of scientific argument and leakage of their own studies on the subjects. The despicable history of this behaviour is well-enough documented that I won't waste space on it here. You can find plenty about the lies of the tobacco industry by way of a bit of Googling. You can also find their stooges at work posting about "the lies of the anti-tobacco lobby". Most of the latter is focussed on attacking attempts at punitive taxation of tobacco in the USA; what a revenue-raising rort is all is, etc. Perhaps it is; I don't care at all, because I'm arguing for absolute prohibition of tobacco and the abolition of the industries that purvey the stuff.
The main argument against prohibition is that it hasn't worked with other substances and the prohibition of alcohol in the USA in the early years of the 20th Century is the exemplar of this folly. I've always waited for this factoid to receive the gut-kick it deserves and been disappointed. The anti-tobacco campaigners haven't ever said this to my knowledge; perhaps I'll be the first:
The prohibition of alcohol in the USA is not analogous to any attempt to prohibit tobacco in Australia. The American attempt was effected by a Constitutional amendment which was obtained by focussed, high-profile lobbying of legislators and did not have genuine majority support in the community. How can an amendment to the US Constitution be made without community support? Simple: In the US the Constitution is amended by legislators' votes alone. The proposed amendment is put before the Congress and, if passed, is referred to the State legislatures for ratification. The safety net in the Australian system is a requirement for ratification by the electors in a referendum. Grossly unpopular measures can't be introduced to the Australian constitution because of this. The lack of this in the US explains why the prohibition of alcohol failed so dismally; it never really had the heartfelt support of the majority to begin with.
The other flaw in using alcohol as an instrument of analogous argument is that it is a type of fundamental organic compound which probably occurs throughout the Universe. It can be derived from the fermentation/distillation of any organic matter with a high sugar and/or starch content. You may as well try probiting carbon and hydrogen. Tobacco, conversely, is a plant group which could actually be made extinct. It isn't the only plant type which produces nicotine, but it's the only one which does so in commercially-useful quantities. My ideal solution to tobacco would be a disease which would wipe the tobacco plant completely from the Earth. While we're waiting for that, let's go back to the Third Great Lie. It's easily disproven; if the tobacco industry didn't market its product to the young it would be out of business very quickly in First World countries. It isn't out of business so it must be. Once you've sussed that, it's a question of knowing where to look.
My analysis of their strategy leads me to believe that product placement is the main vehicle of marketing to the young and exceptionally impressionable. Tobacco use appears in connection with macho action movies, sexual encounters (the post-coital cigarette, etc.), sports events (car racing, yachting). They constantly push the edges of the restraints on their high-profile marketing and it takes a long while for the legislators to catch up. One of the saddest things I've seen was a former Health minister of the Commonwealth of Australia bragging in 2004 that, by the end of 2006, tobacco advertising would be banned from yacht spinnakers . That was supposed to be a big achievement...
The tragedy is that the process of education is very slow and every day a new crop of victims are added to the multitude already hooked. Can we really wait for this toxin to abate with time? We can, but I believe we should not. More than 80% of Australian adults are non-smokers; snuff (powdered tobacco) is already banned in Australia; the chewing of tobacco is almost an unknown practice; there's enough in those numbers to make the last push against tobacco feasible.
The last defence of the tobacco industry, when confronted with the death toll, is that theirs is a legal product. The time has come to take that privilege away.
It's tobacco use. Note I don't write abuse. It's a substance for which there is no dichotomy of usage types because there is no safe, responsible level of consumption. Use and abuse are synonymous for this weed. The anomalies in the treatment of this plant are enormous. If someone attempted to propagate its use as a recreational substance today, they would be stamped flat in a nanosecond, but it continues to kill with comparative impunity. Other substances, such as the opiates, cocainoids and cannabinoids have been ruthlessly proscribed without hesitation or regard to the useful pharmaceutical or industrial uses to which they can be put. The only explanation apparent is that reason has little to do with why governments prohibit substances; the social context is the determinant. The exemption of tobacco to this point from prohibition is due purely to the fact that there have been and are, so many addicted to it. Those addicts vote. The dealers who supply them have a lot of money to throw about for lobbying purposes. Governments also have an addiction to the revenues from tobacco taxes. The fact that many more people die from tobacco-related disease than from use of all the prohibited substances put together doesn't make a dent in this situation.
I read recently that Western Australia has the lowest rate of smoking in Australia: one in seven adults. That figure doesn't explain an interesting change in the demographic of smoking; very few of those adults began using tobacco after reaching their eighteenth birthdays. Where it was once unremarkable for people in their twenties, thirties, forties and even fifties to begin smoking, it's now almost unheard of in Australia. The pervasive anti-tobacco education programme has ensured that almost anyone old enough to be called a legal adult has too much understanding of the nature of the tobacco industry and their product to be taken in. The only age cadres from which new tobacco addicts can be recruited are children and junior teenagers. I.e. those who haven't reached their sixteenth birthdays. The industry says it doesn't sell its product to children. I call this one of the Three Great Lies of the tobacco industry. Here they are:
1. Tobacco isn't harmful to your health; it may even be good for you.
2. Tobacco smoking/chewing isn't physically addictive.
3. The tobacco industry does not market its products to children.
The first two were disproven by the research of the tobacco companies themselves, although they kept on telling them until they were proven to be lying by force of scientific argument and leakage of their own studies on the subjects. The despicable history of this behaviour is well-enough documented that I won't waste space on it here. You can find plenty about the lies of the tobacco industry by way of a bit of Googling. You can also find their stooges at work posting about "the lies of the anti-tobacco lobby". Most of the latter is focussed on attacking attempts at punitive taxation of tobacco in the USA; what a revenue-raising rort is all is, etc. Perhaps it is; I don't care at all, because I'm arguing for absolute prohibition of tobacco and the abolition of the industries that purvey the stuff.
The main argument against prohibition is that it hasn't worked with other substances and the prohibition of alcohol in the USA in the early years of the 20th Century is the exemplar of this folly. I've always waited for this factoid to receive the gut-kick it deserves and been disappointed. The anti-tobacco campaigners haven't ever said this to my knowledge; perhaps I'll be the first:
The prohibition of alcohol in the USA is not analogous to any attempt to prohibit tobacco in Australia. The American attempt was effected by a Constitutional amendment which was obtained by focussed, high-profile lobbying of legislators and did not have genuine majority support in the community. How can an amendment to the US Constitution be made without community support? Simple: In the US the Constitution is amended by legislators' votes alone. The proposed amendment is put before the Congress and, if passed, is referred to the State legislatures for ratification. The safety net in the Australian system is a requirement for ratification by the electors in a referendum. Grossly unpopular measures can't be introduced to the Australian constitution because of this. The lack of this in the US explains why the prohibition of alcohol failed so dismally; it never really had the heartfelt support of the majority to begin with.
The other flaw in using alcohol as an instrument of analogous argument is that it is a type of fundamental organic compound which probably occurs throughout the Universe. It can be derived from the fermentation/distillation of any organic matter with a high sugar and/or starch content. You may as well try probiting carbon and hydrogen. Tobacco, conversely, is a plant group which could actually be made extinct. It isn't the only plant type which produces nicotine, but it's the only one which does so in commercially-useful quantities. My ideal solution to tobacco would be a disease which would wipe the tobacco plant completely from the Earth. While we're waiting for that, let's go back to the Third Great Lie. It's easily disproven; if the tobacco industry didn't market its product to the young it would be out of business very quickly in First World countries. It isn't out of business so it must be. Once you've sussed that, it's a question of knowing where to look.
My analysis of their strategy leads me to believe that product placement is the main vehicle of marketing to the young and exceptionally impressionable. Tobacco use appears in connection with macho action movies, sexual encounters (the post-coital cigarette, etc.), sports events (car racing, yachting). They constantly push the edges of the restraints on their high-profile marketing and it takes a long while for the legislators to catch up. One of the saddest things I've seen was a former Health minister of the Commonwealth of Australia bragging in 2004 that, by the end of 2006, tobacco advertising would be banned from yacht spinnakers . That was supposed to be a big achievement...
The tragedy is that the process of education is very slow and every day a new crop of victims are added to the multitude already hooked. Can we really wait for this toxin to abate with time? We can, but I believe we should not. More than 80% of Australian adults are non-smokers; snuff (powdered tobacco) is already banned in Australia; the chewing of tobacco is almost an unknown practice; there's enough in those numbers to make the last push against tobacco feasible.
The last defence of the tobacco industry, when confronted with the death toll, is that theirs is a legal product. The time has come to take that privilege away.
Sunday, 14 September 2008
Post #80 Hire a Hall / Everything (A dreadsome day)
Well, I've just read at the ABC News that Brendon Grylls has cast the Nationals' lot with the Liberal Party to form a government in Western Australia. Oh brother...they're back. And Alan Carpenter has gone; resigned from the leadership of the labor Party.
Tuesday, 9 September 2008
Post #78 Hire a Hall / Everything (A lot of things)
On Saturday, 6 September 2008, an election was held for the parliament of the State of Western Australia. The outcome is still in doubt as there are some undecided contests and a negotiation is ongoing between the National Party and the two main contenders to see who will offer the Nationals the best deal in payment for their support. Colin Barnett, the man I called a "dill" in a previous post, may be the next Premier of W.A. This is an outcome which might be poetic justice for the Labor party and Alan Carpenter, erstwhile Premier.
Alan called an early election in the hope that the Liberals would be caught on the hop and that the Olympics would distract the voters and keep the heat off Labor. It seems that they've been caught in their own trap; the heat was also off Colin and the Liberals. The tough questions that might have tripped him didn't find a lot of traction. I'll ask a few here:
1. What is the Liberal policy on privatisation of electricity supply?
2. What is the Liberal policy on privatisation of water supply?
3. What is the liberal policy on uranium mining in W.A. and the storing of nuclear waste in W.A.?
4. What will a Liberal government do about the disastrous "shared services" concept of public service department management?
5. What will a Liberal government do about "outcomes-based education" in W.A.?
If the Liberals published policies on these matters I didn't hear about them. If Alan had allowed the parliament to run full term these matters could have been examined in detail. The decision to call the early election was a corrupt decision and the Labor government has copped what it deserved. Unfortunately, we, the electors, may now cop what we don't deserve.
Alan called an early election in the hope that the Liberals would be caught on the hop and that the Olympics would distract the voters and keep the heat off Labor. It seems that they've been caught in their own trap; the heat was also off Colin and the Liberals. The tough questions that might have tripped him didn't find a lot of traction. I'll ask a few here:
1. What is the Liberal policy on privatisation of electricity supply?
2. What is the Liberal policy on privatisation of water supply?
3. What is the liberal policy on uranium mining in W.A. and the storing of nuclear waste in W.A.?
4. What will a Liberal government do about the disastrous "shared services" concept of public service department management?
5. What will a Liberal government do about "outcomes-based education" in W.A.?
If the Liberals published policies on these matters I didn't hear about them. If Alan had allowed the parliament to run full term these matters could have been examined in detail. The decision to call the early election was a corrupt decision and the Labor government has copped what it deserved. Unfortunately, we, the electors, may now cop what we don't deserve.
Thursday, 4 September 2008
Post #77 Finally some sense on the FemoNazis out there
"Is Palin a good choice for VP? The feminists don't think so. She's the wrong kind of woman!" -
Dugg from a story in the Sydney Morning Herald by Miranda Devine. Check out the illustration with it - it's real cute!!
read more | digg story
Dugg from a story in the Sydney Morning Herald by Miranda Devine. Check out the illustration with it - it's real cute!!
read more | digg story
Tuesday, 2 September 2008
Post #76 Hire a Hall / Everything (Costello the Waiverer )
I've been wondering why no-one points something out about Peter Costello. The same ping-pong argument goes on (in defiance of an obvious fact): "He could have been Prime Minister if he had challenged John Howard", says Tweedledill. "Oh, but the numbers were never there; that's why he didn't", says Tweedledumb. I say, like that cute song: Oh no, oh-no, you've got it all wrong!"
This simple truth is that obvious fact: He didn't challenge, because he couldn't win, because the numbers weren't there because...he wouldn't do the necessary to acquire them. Peter was only prepared to be supported by people whom it was easy for him to like and easy to have liking him. That's a satisfactory style in many places. A competitive political group isn't one of them. He just wouldn't do what Paul Keating or John Howard would do: cultivate the support of people whom he found beneath his dignity. A good numbers man has not only to swallow many a curry dinner in Manuka and many a yawn provoked by his interlocutors. He first has to swallow his pride. Peter wanted to have it come to him. And then perhaps he'd deign to accept it.
He started out saying that he was (to paraphrase it to a gist) a technocrat who wanted to get things done in government. Being PM was irrelevant. He was happy to make his contributions from the engine room in the treasury department and let others squabble over the captaincy of the ship of state. I won't digress on what I think of his particular efforts as Treasurer; I'm of socialist inclinations; join the dots. What I find worthy of saying is that he should have stuck to his original position. He may not have been the "world's greatest treasurer" like Paul Keating, but he was passable. As a survivor of W.A. Inc., I'm prepared and qualified to say that any Treasurer who stays on deck and sober is not to be scoffed at. Even a (shudder) Liberal Treasurer.
Peter didn't have the hunger for it and just drifted into a sense of entitlement to the leadership. He doesn't really have the makings for it. He should do the decent thing and lock all that out and do three good years as a constituency MP for the people of Higgins. They voted for him: he owes them that much.
This simple truth is that obvious fact: He didn't challenge, because he couldn't win, because the numbers weren't there because...he wouldn't do the necessary to acquire them. Peter was only prepared to be supported by people whom it was easy for him to like and easy to have liking him. That's a satisfactory style in many places. A competitive political group isn't one of them. He just wouldn't do what Paul Keating or John Howard would do: cultivate the support of people whom he found beneath his dignity. A good numbers man has not only to swallow many a curry dinner in Manuka and many a yawn provoked by his interlocutors. He first has to swallow his pride. Peter wanted to have it come to him. And then perhaps he'd deign to accept it.
He started out saying that he was (to paraphrase it to a gist) a technocrat who wanted to get things done in government. Being PM was irrelevant. He was happy to make his contributions from the engine room in the treasury department and let others squabble over the captaincy of the ship of state. I won't digress on what I think of his particular efforts as Treasurer; I'm of socialist inclinations; join the dots. What I find worthy of saying is that he should have stuck to his original position. He may not have been the "world's greatest treasurer" like Paul Keating, but he was passable. As a survivor of W.A. Inc., I'm prepared and qualified to say that any Treasurer who stays on deck and sober is not to be scoffed at. Even a (shudder) Liberal Treasurer.
Peter didn't have the hunger for it and just drifted into a sense of entitlement to the leadership. He doesn't really have the makings for it. He should do the decent thing and lock all that out and do three good years as a constituency MP for the people of Higgins. They voted for him: he owes them that much.
Friday, 29 August 2008
Post #75 High-tech search for Tasmanian Tiger
Australia’s most prominent Tasmanian tiger and puma photographic hunter will visit Mount Gambier to set up high-tech infrared camera equipment, following a spate of recent large cat sightings and unexplained attacks on sheep in the region. Glenburnie resident Russell Smith says sheep have been mauled by something bigger than foxes.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Post #74 Generations of Stars in W5
"Explanation: Giant star forming region W5 is over 200 light-years across and about 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia. W5's sculpted clouds of cold gas and dust seem to form fantastic shapes in this impressive mosaic of infrared images from the Spitzer Space Telescope. In fact, the area on the right includes the structures previously dubbed the Mountains of Creation. New evidence indicates that successive generations of stars formed in the W5 region in an expanding pattern of triggered star formation. The older, earlier generations of stars seem to cluster near the middle of the enormous cavities, with younger stars seen near the rims. Winds and radiation from the older, central stars likely carve out and compress surrounding interstellar material, triggering the collapse that gave rise to younger, later generations of stars farther out. In the false-color image, heated dust still within the cavities appears red, while the youngest stars are forming in the whitish areas. W5 is also known as IC 1848, and together with IC 1805 it is part of a complex region popularly dubbed the Heart and Soul Nebulae."
Credit Lori Allen, Xavier Koenig (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA) et al., JPL-Caltech, NASA
From APOD.
read more | digg story
Tuesday, 26 August 2008
Post #73 Ziggurat: Dubai Carbon Neutral Pyramid will House 1 Million
The Mayans and Egyptians constructed incredible feats of architecture able to weather the test of time, but they had no idea their pyramids would inspire the shape of the latest carbon-neutral super-structure to hit Dubai.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Post #72 Hire a Hall / Nothing (Not a Secret at All)
I saw an article in the Weekend Australian Magazine about Rhonda Byrne. It was a revelation to me that the originator of the "Secret" scam was an Australian. Not an expatriate to be proud of. I'd first noticed this con when some advertisements were run for a programme which was, eventually, not run on Australian TV. I later discovered through The Chaser series on ABC TV what it was all about.
The Chaser made a great mockery of this maximus bogus, revealing what had been behind the ads. The gist of the "secret" is to compel "The Universe" to grant your wishes. The method is that you set your hopes on something, believe you'll receive it - and then you do. The piece shown by The Chaser team from "The Secret" video was of a boy dreaming of a new bicycle, reinforcing his wish by making a montage of clipped pictures of it and then being presented with it at the front door by a man who is apparently a benevolent uncle. (The Chaser crew called this bike-donating character "a friendly old paedophile" in their summary of the action.) They then went about to various retail premises trying to take possession of clothes, cars, etc. by "focussing, believing and receiving" - all spoken of in falsely reverential and unctuous tones. The proprietors of these establishments were suitably and hilariously dumbfounded by this presumptuousness. A clothing retailer was told by these provocateurs, "We've commanded the Universe to give us these clothes. Now we must receive them." This was said in a tone such as would be used explaining a fact of life to a child. All loving and so forth.
Where this ceases to be funny is that this twit, Byrne, is proposing that cures for serious ailments such as breast cancer may be obtained by this glorified "wishful thinking". She's currently enmeshed in litigation over the millions she's reaped from this drivel. Apparently the people who did the actual technical work of producing the film were prepared to believe her about their cuts of the proceeds...but they haven't received. What a surprise!
The Chaser made a great mockery of this maximus bogus, revealing what had been behind the ads. The gist of the "secret" is to compel "The Universe" to grant your wishes. The method is that you set your hopes on something, believe you'll receive it - and then you do. The piece shown by The Chaser team from "The Secret" video was of a boy dreaming of a new bicycle, reinforcing his wish by making a montage of clipped pictures of it and then being presented with it at the front door by a man who is apparently a benevolent uncle. (The Chaser crew called this bike-donating character "a friendly old paedophile" in their summary of the action.) They then went about to various retail premises trying to take possession of clothes, cars, etc. by "focussing, believing and receiving" - all spoken of in falsely reverential and unctuous tones. The proprietors of these establishments were suitably and hilariously dumbfounded by this presumptuousness. A clothing retailer was told by these provocateurs, "We've commanded the Universe to give us these clothes. Now we must receive them." This was said in a tone such as would be used explaining a fact of life to a child. All loving and so forth.
Where this ceases to be funny is that this twit, Byrne, is proposing that cures for serious ailments such as breast cancer may be obtained by this glorified "wishful thinking". She's currently enmeshed in litigation over the millions she's reaped from this drivel. Apparently the people who did the actual technical work of producing the film were prepared to believe her about their cuts of the proceeds...but they haven't received. What a surprise!
Post #70 Lucky Bastards, I Chose the Wrong Profession... [COMIC]
"Life is always better on the other side. Being content is pretty difficult sometimes.." - from a Digg by MakiMaki.
When I saw this I thought of the song that has the chorus: "The other man's grass is always greener, the sun shines brighter on the other side."
read more | digg story
When I saw this I thought of the song that has the chorus: "The other man's grass is always greener, the sun shines brighter on the other side."
read more | digg story
Monday, 25 August 2008
Post #69 Hire a Hall / Everything (The "Environmental" Egg)
A new brand of egg has appeared on the shelves in my local Woolworths. It's retailed under the brand name "Wattle Ridge" and has the slogan "The Environmental Egg" printed below the brand name. Thereafter follows this:
The clanger is that these are cage eggs. In order to do all this ecological good, thousands of chookslaves, incarcerated in cages the size of shoeboxes, are frantically squeezing out "the environmental egg" for their masters' profit. I don't know whether the idea is to make the best they can of a bad job, to assuage their consciences, or whether it's just a sop to the potential consumer. I suspect the latter. Cage eggs have been getting a beating lately in the media and this is a mighty good marketing move. So, of course, I wouldn't buy these eggs, would I? Hell I wouldn't! Mighty fine eggs they are too! 12 with a gross weight of 700 grammes. I'd like it better if they fed and watered their forest from the effluvia of free range chooks, but there ya go. (Now I've blogged it out of my system and had a chance to reflect on how cruel those cages are, I think I'll stick to free-range eggs in future - forest or no forest.)
When you buy these eggs you are buying a completely renewable resource, in a completely biodegradable, environmentally sound pack. You are also contributing towards a massive tree planting program in an arid area (14,000 trees so far), recycled water through our water treatment plant and a recycling program second to none that turns the chicken's waste into valuable compost to fertilise the trees and add vital nutients to depleted soils. And, as you will notice, the pack also bears the Egg Corp Assured (ECA) mark of quality assurance.The material inside the lid offers you a chance to win "a year's worth of green electricity". Just send in two barcodes from their packages in an envelope with your contact details on the back. Send as many envelopes/entries as you please.
So buy the egg that isn't just good for you, but good for the planet.
To learn more see inside lid or visit www.wattleridge.com.au
The clanger is that these are cage eggs. In order to do all this ecological good, thousands of chookslaves, incarcerated in cages the size of shoeboxes, are frantically squeezing out "the environmental egg" for their masters' profit. I don't know whether the idea is to make the best they can of a bad job, to assuage their consciences, or whether it's just a sop to the potential consumer. I suspect the latter. Cage eggs have been getting a beating lately in the media and this is a mighty good marketing move. So, of course, I wouldn't buy these eggs, would I? Hell I wouldn't! Mighty fine eggs they are too! 12 with a gross weight of 700 grammes. I'd like it better if they fed and watered their forest from the effluvia of free range chooks, but there ya go. (Now I've blogged it out of my system and had a chance to reflect on how cruel those cages are, I think I'll stick to free-range eggs in future - forest or no forest.)
Friday, 22 August 2008
Wednesday, 20 August 2008
Post #67 Sopogy thinks small to make megawatts of solar power
If giant solar thermal power plants spread across the desert are like a mainframe, Sopogy is making the equivalent of a personal computer. The Hawaii-based company on Tuesday at the Intersolar 2008 conference will show off the latest version of its MicroCSP--essentially a shrunk-down version of concentrating solar power (CSP)[...]A story from Digg.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Monday, 18 August 2008
Post #65 Phew, what a scorcher: The world's hottest chilli pepper
"Its lethal effects include burning eyes, streaming nose, uncontrollable hiccups and much, much worse. And it is about to be sold at Tesco. The world's hottest chilli pepper, the Dorset Naga, will be available in 10g sachets containing up to three tiny fruits, at a price of 89p..."
A story from Digg. Check out the chart on the article cited. But I don't believe it. I've tried the Habanero too and it's overhyped.Those short Asian chillies are the masters.
read more | digg story
A story from Digg. Check out the chart on the article cited. But I don't believe it. I've tried the Habanero too and it's overhyped.Those short Asian chillies are the masters.
read more | digg story
Friday, 15 August 2008
Post #64 Hire a Hall / Everything (Flight of the God-botherer)
All these stories appearing recently about Qantas and its deteriorating fleet reminded me of an aerial adventure I had way back in the days before the Internet or Britney Spears. I was flying the long leg from Canberra to Perth on a two-engine jet operated by what was then called Trans-Australian Airlines. It was a bare-boards affair by today's standards and, although I was seated on the right, on the aisle, about three rows back from the bulkhead behind the cockpit, there was no such thing as First Class. What I did get was a first-class look at the action when an "incident" occurred.
I was reading a paperback when I felt a slight jolt of the kind that occurs when a car has a transmission glitch. Then, about a minute later, I noticed a noise coming from the cockpit; the doorway was open and a stewardess was leaning in the open doorway to the compartment, apparently talking to the pilots and bracing the door open with her back. The noise was a barping sound, of the sort favoured by designers of electronic alarms. There was some urgent talking going on and I noticed that the woman in the doorway was clinging on to the doorframe and actually holding herself up with it, not just being casual. I then saw that I was holding my book at a funny angle. In fact my head was craning to the left to keep in line with it.
I looked around the cabin and realised that the aircraft was leaning to the right. I knew it was the aircraft and not just my inner ear being humorous because every other passenger in sight was adjusting their posture for the list. Nobody was yelping at this point, but there was an undercurrent of muttering. Then the "Fasten Seatbelts" sign pinged on. The aircraft was developing a seriously dexter inclination by now and the engine sound through the fuselage was sounding weaker. The angle of this tilt was probably only 5 degrees but it was enough to be disturbing. The talk from the cockpit was becoming more noticeable; no trace of distress but a tone of strictness as instructions were given in a terse voice and repeated back. I heard the word "restart" among it all; that wasn't a good sign. What had stopped that needed a restart? I guessed it was the right engine. I guessed right. The aircraft was beginning to make a long slow turn to the right and we were descending.
At this point I decided to put my head back in the book. There was nothing I could do about it and I didn't want to start discussing it with the woman sitting in the window-seat to my left. She was starting to make very faint noises of a hyperventilating kind. I wasn't being brave; I just didn't think anything would really happen. I knew two-engine jets were designed for safe single-engine flight and I assumed we were turning to make a landing at some diversion-site. After we'd described a full circle, I knew that wasn't it. Then the tilt began to really make itself felt and the word "stall" could be heard from the front.
I could see that my optimism was not going to be readily rewarded and I wasn't making any headway with the book. I'd read the same sentences over several times. Then a new stimulus arrived. In the very front seat on the aisle a man rose up to meet the occasion. He was about sixty years, white-haired and bespectacled; a tall rangy type. He was clutching his seat and wrestling himself upright in defiance of the seat-belt warning. He looked back down the cabin and called out in a preacher's voice: "Brothers and sisters! Put your trust in Lord Jesus! He shall protect us!"
The murmuring of the passengers had stayed within non-panic levels to this point but the preacher's words were a catalyst. At that time the religious revival which seems to be on today was nowhere to be seen. Organised religion, particularly Christianity, was probably at its nadir in Australia. Most of the passengers had probably only been in churches in recent years (if at all) to attend weddings and funerals and we surely weren't going to a wedding. I don't certainly know to this day the gender of that first person to crack, (and I never will) but I think the strangled shriek that came forth was uttered by a man. "I don't want to diiiee!", he bawled. That set a bunch of others off; women began sobbing, voices were raised to ask, "What's happening?" and the old favourite, "Are we going to crash?"
The stewardess at the front remonstrated with the preacher and got him back in his seat and then started calling for quiet and calm over the public address. It took a good five minutes to restore order and in that time the pilot managed the restart. Another jolt, a returning roar of engine power (welcomed with a cheer by some) and we were heading back on course and pleasantly horizontal.
The pilot announced over the PA that the fault had been a temporary failure of fuel supply to the right engine and that we were going to proceed to Perth as there was nowhere closer to land. And that we did, with no further alarms. We walked off the aircraft onto the tarmac (no airbridge in those days) and into the terminal and collected our baggage and...went on our ways. Leaving the aircraft, I saw the preacher talking earnestly to the chief stewardess, apparently assuring her of his honourable intentions and that he'd never expected the name of his God to be a synonym for a death cry. He was, apparently, a real minister of religion in country Victoria, Methodist or Baptist, and he was visiting relatives in Perth. I heard most of the yarn as I was getting my gear together and then making my way past to the door. Other people passing him glared at, ignored or sneered at him according to their taste. One disembarker laughed and interjected, "Good on ya mate!" as he passed. I saw that the woman he was speaking to had a frozen smile and was obviously just wishing he'd get to Hell out of there so she and the others could have a good private collapse in our absence. After all, they knew how close we'd really come to buying it.
I walked past with an impassive face (I think) and did just get the Hell out of the airport. There was no media pack waiting for us. In those days people in distress couldn't call ahead with mobile phones and raise an alarm. There were no such things. Nor were there counsellors or public relations flaks waiting. And I never heard another word about it. Not a word in the papers or on television or radio. It figures; the airline had no reason to draw public attention to it. The wholly government owned airport infrastructure had no reason to publish it. The people who panicked had no reason to brag on it. And here's how the loop closes: When I told a few people, they didn't believe me. Because if it had happened, why wasn't it reported? And everybody knew that Australian airlines didn't have incidents like that. That happened overseas, to foreigners. Like terrorist attacks.
I still have that book I was trying to read when it happened. It's volume one of a collection called The Past Through Tomorrow, and it's a collection of speculative fiction by Robert Heinlein about a future which didn't happen. Real events have made his stories redundant, but as the editor points out, the future he imagined may have happened somewhere in a parallel universe. I can find the exact page I was looking at in that book when all the above happened. Sometimes I take it off the shelf and read that passage and imagine I'm back on that plane hearing those words, "Put your trust in Lord Jesus!" and I feel a tingle up my spine. Works every time.
I was reading a paperback when I felt a slight jolt of the kind that occurs when a car has a transmission glitch. Then, about a minute later, I noticed a noise coming from the cockpit; the doorway was open and a stewardess was leaning in the open doorway to the compartment, apparently talking to the pilots and bracing the door open with her back. The noise was a barping sound, of the sort favoured by designers of electronic alarms. There was some urgent talking going on and I noticed that the woman in the doorway was clinging on to the doorframe and actually holding herself up with it, not just being casual. I then saw that I was holding my book at a funny angle. In fact my head was craning to the left to keep in line with it.
I looked around the cabin and realised that the aircraft was leaning to the right. I knew it was the aircraft and not just my inner ear being humorous because every other passenger in sight was adjusting their posture for the list. Nobody was yelping at this point, but there was an undercurrent of muttering. Then the "Fasten Seatbelts" sign pinged on. The aircraft was developing a seriously dexter inclination by now and the engine sound through the fuselage was sounding weaker. The angle of this tilt was probably only 5 degrees but it was enough to be disturbing. The talk from the cockpit was becoming more noticeable; no trace of distress but a tone of strictness as instructions were given in a terse voice and repeated back. I heard the word "restart" among it all; that wasn't a good sign. What had stopped that needed a restart? I guessed it was the right engine. I guessed right. The aircraft was beginning to make a long slow turn to the right and we were descending.
At this point I decided to put my head back in the book. There was nothing I could do about it and I didn't want to start discussing it with the woman sitting in the window-seat to my left. She was starting to make very faint noises of a hyperventilating kind. I wasn't being brave; I just didn't think anything would really happen. I knew two-engine jets were designed for safe single-engine flight and I assumed we were turning to make a landing at some diversion-site. After we'd described a full circle, I knew that wasn't it. Then the tilt began to really make itself felt and the word "stall" could be heard from the front.
I could see that my optimism was not going to be readily rewarded and I wasn't making any headway with the book. I'd read the same sentences over several times. Then a new stimulus arrived. In the very front seat on the aisle a man rose up to meet the occasion. He was about sixty years, white-haired and bespectacled; a tall rangy type. He was clutching his seat and wrestling himself upright in defiance of the seat-belt warning. He looked back down the cabin and called out in a preacher's voice: "Brothers and sisters! Put your trust in Lord Jesus! He shall protect us!"
The murmuring of the passengers had stayed within non-panic levels to this point but the preacher's words were a catalyst. At that time the religious revival which seems to be on today was nowhere to be seen. Organised religion, particularly Christianity, was probably at its nadir in Australia. Most of the passengers had probably only been in churches in recent years (if at all) to attend weddings and funerals and we surely weren't going to a wedding. I don't certainly know to this day the gender of that first person to crack, (and I never will) but I think the strangled shriek that came forth was uttered by a man. "I don't want to diiiee!", he bawled. That set a bunch of others off; women began sobbing, voices were raised to ask, "What's happening?" and the old favourite, "Are we going to crash?"
The stewardess at the front remonstrated with the preacher and got him back in his seat and then started calling for quiet and calm over the public address. It took a good five minutes to restore order and in that time the pilot managed the restart. Another jolt, a returning roar of engine power (welcomed with a cheer by some) and we were heading back on course and pleasantly horizontal.
The pilot announced over the PA that the fault had been a temporary failure of fuel supply to the right engine and that we were going to proceed to Perth as there was nowhere closer to land. And that we did, with no further alarms. We walked off the aircraft onto the tarmac (no airbridge in those days) and into the terminal and collected our baggage and...went on our ways. Leaving the aircraft, I saw the preacher talking earnestly to the chief stewardess, apparently assuring her of his honourable intentions and that he'd never expected the name of his God to be a synonym for a death cry. He was, apparently, a real minister of religion in country Victoria, Methodist or Baptist, and he was visiting relatives in Perth. I heard most of the yarn as I was getting my gear together and then making my way past to the door. Other people passing him glared at, ignored or sneered at him according to their taste. One disembarker laughed and interjected, "Good on ya mate!" as he passed. I saw that the woman he was speaking to had a frozen smile and was obviously just wishing he'd get to Hell out of there so she and the others could have a good private collapse in our absence. After all, they knew how close we'd really come to buying it.
I walked past with an impassive face (I think) and did just get the Hell out of the airport. There was no media pack waiting for us. In those days people in distress couldn't call ahead with mobile phones and raise an alarm. There were no such things. Nor were there counsellors or public relations flaks waiting. And I never heard another word about it. Not a word in the papers or on television or radio. It figures; the airline had no reason to draw public attention to it. The wholly government owned airport infrastructure had no reason to publish it. The people who panicked had no reason to brag on it. And here's how the loop closes: When I told a few people, they didn't believe me. Because if it had happened, why wasn't it reported? And everybody knew that Australian airlines didn't have incidents like that. That happened overseas, to foreigners. Like terrorist attacks.
I still have that book I was trying to read when it happened. It's volume one of a collection called The Past Through Tomorrow, and it's a collection of speculative fiction by Robert Heinlein about a future which didn't happen. Real events have made his stories redundant, but as the editor points out, the future he imagined may have happened somewhere in a parallel universe. I can find the exact page I was looking at in that book when all the above happened. Sometimes I take it off the shelf and read that passage and imagine I'm back on that plane hearing those words, "Put your trust in Lord Jesus!" and I feel a tingle up my spine. Works every time.
Thursday, 14 August 2008
Post #63 Review: Cuil, Google's bastard child.
They have the Google scam down pat. If you are looking for another route to spamming your way into being a pseudo-millionaire on pennies, then this train wreck is worth waiting at the depot for...A post from the Linkback Project
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Post #62 Aging Disco Diva's polemic against John Edwards.
"The disco diva's view on Edwards scandal.."From a shout to me on Digg by Amy Oops. Check out Amy's blog from my blogroll.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Post #61 BLOGRUSH: BAD REPUTATION =NOT WORTH IT
Blogpost from "For Free".I'd heard about this. Now I wonder what's motivating them.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Monday, 11 August 2008
Post #60 Hire a Hall / Everything (A dismal choice.)
Alan Carpenter, Premier of Western Australia, has decided to take advantage of the change of leadership which I foresaw/dreaded in an earlier post. We're to have an election on Saturday, 6 September, 2008. The rapidity with which the Labor government led by Carpenter has degenerated into arrogance and contemptuous behaviour has been a thorough disappointment to me. Carpenter spent a lot of years bashing corrupt and incompetent ministers when he practised journalism for a living. He now seems to be putting into practice the aphorism about having "learned nothing and forgotten nothing".
He's been replicating the sort of antics that saw both the previous Coalition government and its Labor predecessor thrown off the government benches. This election is reported to be the earliest called in a Parliamentary term in 50 years. It's apparently intended to catch the Liberal and National parties on the hop; I think the lesson of early elections is that those who call them are punished. In this case I think the result will be a narrow squeak back for the Labor party, narrower than would have been the case if Alan had shown a bit more ethics and let the Parliament run its term. Oh boy... this whole decade is living proof that we need some new ideas and some honest people in government.
He's been replicating the sort of antics that saw both the previous Coalition government and its Labor predecessor thrown off the government benches. This election is reported to be the earliest called in a Parliamentary term in 50 years. It's apparently intended to catch the Liberal and National parties on the hop; I think the lesson of early elections is that those who call them are punished. In this case I think the result will be a narrow squeak back for the Labor party, narrower than would have been the case if Alan had shown a bit more ethics and let the Parliament run its term. Oh boy... this whole decade is living proof that we need some new ideas and some honest people in government.
Post #59 APOD: Open Cluster NGC 290: A Stellar Jewel Box
Jewels don't shine this bright -- only stars do. Like gems in a jewel box, though, the stars of open cluster NGC 290 glitter in a beautiful display of brightness and color.
From The APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day) Collection.
read more | digg story
Thursday, 7 August 2008
Post #58 Great Impoverishment Opportunity - Got to be missed - Nigerian Advance Fee Scam Comes To Cote D'Ivoire!!
Here's a gem from my spam folder:
From Moore and Sussan Fona.
Private and Confidential
Abidjan - Cote d'Ivoire.
Dear One,
It is my pleasure to contact you for a business venture which I and my Sister,intend to established in your country. Though we have not meet with you before but we believe, one has to risk confiding in someone to succeed sometimes in life. There is this amount of Eight Million,Five Hundred Thousand US Dollars (US$8.500.000.00) which our late father deposited in one the prime bank here in Abidjan Capital city of Cote d'Ivoire which he wanted to used for his political ambition in our Country before he was assassinated.
Now we have decided to invest this money in your country or anywhere safe enough outside Africa for security and political reasons. Our father was an international Gold and Diamond dealer who operated the province of Africa and the rest of the world during his days in business.
We want you to help us claim and receive the money in your account for onward joined partnership business and investments in your Country. We will like to invest part of the money into these three investments in your Country but, if there is any other business that is better than our suggestion, we will be very glad to follow your advice.
1). Real estate
2). The transport industry
3). Five star hotel
If you can be of an assistance to us we will be pleased to offer to you 15% Of the total fund while the balance will be invested by you. I await your soonest response.
Respectfully yours,
Moore and Sussan Fona.
Email:moore.fona@yahoo.fr
Go on, send 'em your love!! But nothing else, mind!!!
What defeats me is how there can be anyone left on the planet who: A. Is tech-savvy enough and informed enough to be using email and the Internet and B. Willing to fall for this stuff.
Anyway, "Moore and Sussan" have given me a reminder to spread the word about the most excellent website of the Western Australian Department of Consumer and Employment Protection. They have a division on their site called Scamnet which is well worth a look. Most of the scams targeted are international, not W.A. - focussed.
From Moore and Sussan Fona.
Private and Confidential
Abidjan - Cote d'Ivoire.
Dear One,
It is my pleasure to contact you for a business venture which I and my Sister,intend to established in your country. Though we have not meet with you before but we believe, one has to risk confiding in someone to succeed sometimes in life. There is this amount of Eight Million,Five Hundred Thousand US Dollars (US$8.500.000.00) which our late father deposited in one the prime bank here in Abidjan Capital city of Cote d'Ivoire which he wanted to used for his political ambition in our Country before he was assassinated.
Now we have decided to invest this money in your country or anywhere safe enough outside Africa for security and political reasons. Our father was an international Gold and Diamond dealer who operated the province of Africa and the rest of the world during his days in business.
We want you to help us claim and receive the money in your account for onward joined partnership business and investments in your Country. We will like to invest part of the money into these three investments in your Country but, if there is any other business that is better than our suggestion, we will be very glad to follow your advice.
1). Real estate
2). The transport industry
3). Five star hotel
If you can be of an assistance to us we will be pleased to offer to you 15% Of the total fund while the balance will be invested by you. I await your soonest response.
Respectfully yours,
Moore and Sussan Fona.
Email:moore.fona@yahoo.fr
Go on, send 'em your love!! But nothing else, mind!!!
What defeats me is how there can be anyone left on the planet who: A. Is tech-savvy enough and informed enough to be using email and the Internet and B. Willing to fall for this stuff.
Anyway, "Moore and Sussan" have given me a reminder to spread the word about the most excellent website of the Western Australian Department of Consumer and Employment Protection. They have a division on their site called Scamnet which is well worth a look. Most of the scams targeted are international, not W.A. - focussed.
Tuesday, 5 August 2008
Post #57 APOD: X-Rays from the Beautiful Cat's Eye Nebula
This composite picture combines the latest Hubble optical image of the Cat's Eye with new x-ray data from the orbiting Chandra Observatory and reveals surprisingly intense x-ray emission indicating the presence of extremely hot gas.
(Very beautiful...glad it's not close to home. - Retarius.)
read more | digg story
Monday, 4 August 2008
Post #56 Hire a Hall / Everything (Camera contempta. - Sara Daniel, Iraq, Trial by Media, Dr Haneef)
I've just read the rather strange book, Voyage to a Stricken Land by Sara Daniel. Inter alia, she tells of having been the recipient of video material showing the attack on the DHL aircraft at Baghdad airport which was recorded by a French news crew, as described in this article. The weirdest thing about this is that, although the role of the news crew in the incident was a major furore at the time, Daniel doesn't mention their existence at all in this book. (The book is also one of those eclectic efforts where the timeline is all over the place. I don't know why authors can be bothered with such pretentious stuff; it just wears out the readers' patience.)
I can only assume that Daniel had a sensitivity in that matter which prompted her to just skip the subject; I can't imagine the glaring omission is a natural part of the narrative. Perhaps she simply didn't want to criticise her compatriots nor to try to justify their association with the jihadi group who carried out the attack.
The role of the camera's presence in encouraging or provoking incidents is a universal issue in these times. Apart from the capacity to invite everybody from terrorists to drunken, partying teenagers to try to score their fifteen minutes, it intrudes into the public's thought processes in more insidious ways. One of the most useless and reckless forms of this is the "perp-walk", an American invention, whereby a person arrested/charged by the police is paraded, by prior appointment, past the media. The corollary is when they've been put on trial and are subjected to being pursued to and from the courthouse. The media pack particularly love it when the target covers up with a coat or some other object and flees with the pack on their heels: it's great television.
I've begun to wonder why the judiciary ever allowed this malarkey to start in Australia. Our law doesn't contain any provision for punishment by public humiliation in this manner. It seems to have just entered some people's noggins that the suspect or convict is obliged to submit to this modern form of the stocks and pillory as part of the transactions of our system of jurisprudence. In fact the media become outraged when someone manages to avoid this ritual; particularly when employees of the state assist them in doing so. It's a scandal if someone is helped to leave the court via the underground carpark in a concealing vehicle and without paying their due of suffering under the cameras.
I finally lost all patience with these scumbags when I saw the photograph of the famous maybe-terrorist Dr Haneef wrapped in a blanket and huddled over barefoot in the back of a van. The cops couldn't find him a dignified suit of clothes to wear? Or shoes? And how do the photographers happen to be able to get close enough at the right time to take these shots? Recording of accused persons and witnesses approaching or leaving a court should be prohibited, as should recording of them without their consent in any other venue if it's going to be shown in connection with the case. The same goes for the convicted being conveyed from the court.
Every person under charge is innocent unless and until proven guilty. Recording them entering or leaving the court by any means should be a contempt of the court. The same goes for the aftermath of a trial. Whether they're walking away acquitted or being taken off to The Nick in a van with grille-covered windows, the public exposure of their situation in this way is, depending on the circumstances, an invasion of privacy or a potential influence on the effects of subsequent appeal proceedings which may produce an order for retrial. That is, if someone is granted retrial on appeal, the next jury to hear the case has seen them hauled off in the tumbril like the guilty dog they may not be. If they're acquitted on appeal, the media surely aren't going to run the story, "We were wrong!" with prominent footage of the vindicated one being kowtowed to by the offending news crews.
I'm not what the Americans fatuously call "liberal". If the right persons can be caught and absolutely proven guilty, I don't mind seeing the terrorists' carcasses swinging in the breeze from the lamp-posts along St Georges and Adelaide Terraces. I'd call that a nice set of decorations for Christmas. On the other hand, I don't want to see anyone blamed for any wrong they haven't done, whether it be great or small. Once the camera has seen and its edited view has been broadcast, the visual memory of the "guilt" is indelible. It remains to haunt the subject and their friends and family even when the charge is utterly refuted.
Of course the media will squawk and squeal if this prime-time fodder is withheld. The usual moans about "freedom of the press" and "freedom of speech" will be heard. This has nothing to do with "freedom of speech". It's about a repugnant grotesquerie, pure and simple. No political or reasoned legal opinion would be suppressed by not allowing these circuses.
I can only assume that Daniel had a sensitivity in that matter which prompted her to just skip the subject; I can't imagine the glaring omission is a natural part of the narrative. Perhaps she simply didn't want to criticise her compatriots nor to try to justify their association with the jihadi group who carried out the attack.
The role of the camera's presence in encouraging or provoking incidents is a universal issue in these times. Apart from the capacity to invite everybody from terrorists to drunken, partying teenagers to try to score their fifteen minutes, it intrudes into the public's thought processes in more insidious ways. One of the most useless and reckless forms of this is the "perp-walk", an American invention, whereby a person arrested/charged by the police is paraded, by prior appointment, past the media. The corollary is when they've been put on trial and are subjected to being pursued to and from the courthouse. The media pack particularly love it when the target covers up with a coat or some other object and flees with the pack on their heels: it's great television.
I've begun to wonder why the judiciary ever allowed this malarkey to start in Australia. Our law doesn't contain any provision for punishment by public humiliation in this manner. It seems to have just entered some people's noggins that the suspect or convict is obliged to submit to this modern form of the stocks and pillory as part of the transactions of our system of jurisprudence. In fact the media become outraged when someone manages to avoid this ritual; particularly when employees of the state assist them in doing so. It's a scandal if someone is helped to leave the court via the underground carpark in a concealing vehicle and without paying their due of suffering under the cameras.
I finally lost all patience with these scumbags when I saw the photograph of the famous maybe-terrorist Dr Haneef wrapped in a blanket and huddled over barefoot in the back of a van. The cops couldn't find him a dignified suit of clothes to wear? Or shoes? And how do the photographers happen to be able to get close enough at the right time to take these shots? Recording of accused persons and witnesses approaching or leaving a court should be prohibited, as should recording of them without their consent in any other venue if it's going to be shown in connection with the case. The same goes for the convicted being conveyed from the court.
Every person under charge is innocent unless and until proven guilty. Recording them entering or leaving the court by any means should be a contempt of the court. The same goes for the aftermath of a trial. Whether they're walking away acquitted or being taken off to The Nick in a van with grille-covered windows, the public exposure of their situation in this way is, depending on the circumstances, an invasion of privacy or a potential influence on the effects of subsequent appeal proceedings which may produce an order for retrial. That is, if someone is granted retrial on appeal, the next jury to hear the case has seen them hauled off in the tumbril like the guilty dog they may not be. If they're acquitted on appeal, the media surely aren't going to run the story, "We were wrong!" with prominent footage of the vindicated one being kowtowed to by the offending news crews.
I'm not what the Americans fatuously call "liberal". If the right persons can be caught and absolutely proven guilty, I don't mind seeing the terrorists' carcasses swinging in the breeze from the lamp-posts along St Georges and Adelaide Terraces. I'd call that a nice set of decorations for Christmas. On the other hand, I don't want to see anyone blamed for any wrong they haven't done, whether it be great or small. Once the camera has seen and its edited view has been broadcast, the visual memory of the "guilt" is indelible. It remains to haunt the subject and their friends and family even when the charge is utterly refuted.
Of course the media will squawk and squeal if this prime-time fodder is withheld. The usual moans about "freedom of the press" and "freedom of speech" will be heard. This has nothing to do with "freedom of speech". It's about a repugnant grotesquerie, pure and simple. No political or reasoned legal opinion would be suppressed by not allowing these circuses.
Friday, 1 August 2008
Post #55 Hiltons Support McCain, Reportedly Fuming Over Obama Ad
..Apparently, the elder Hiltons had breathed a sigh of relief that Paris was starting to get her act together since hitting rock bottom with her stay in jail last year, when all of a sudden the McCain ad compares her unfavorably to Britney Spears and Barack Obama...
(Paris is diminished by comparison to Obama...and McCain's campaign has done it again...hypocrisy that is. - Retarius.)
read more | digg story
(Paris is diminished by comparison to Obama...and McCain's campaign has done it again...hypocrisy that is. - Retarius.)
read more | digg story
Post #54 Weasels bow to China's will
Andrew Bolt calls it as it is on China's Olympic con...Yep, I just agreed with Andrew Bolt. This is a story I Dugg from his blog.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Thursday, 31 July 2008
Post #53 Hiring journalists from other professions
An observation from Michael Gorey on journalism.
READ THE WHOLE STORY HERE AT GOREY.COM.AU | digg story
READ THE WHOLE STORY HERE AT GOREY.COM.AU | digg story
Tuesday, 29 July 2008
Post #51 Google Knol Primary Impressions
Here are the impressions on Google Knol. Why it is not worthwhile to build links through it? Why links hold no weight? What to do first on Google Knol, and almost everything you need to know when you start Knolling...From CuteWriting by Lenin Nair
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Thursday, 24 July 2008
Post #50 Google Knol Finally Out for Wikipedia?
Yesterday, Google announced its Knol project publicly. Its a Wikipedia-ish content system, in which authors can contribute about anything and get a share of revenue generated by their articles. In this way, it can be compared to Adsense...
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Tuesday, 22 July 2008
Post #48 Hire a Hall/Everything (Won't get fooled again?)
I've just read Rough Justice, by Robin Bowles which reviews some controversial cases in Australian criminal law. Among the cases referred to is the disappearance of Peter Falconio in connection with which Bradley Murdoch is currently imprisoned, after being convicted of his murder. This struck me most amongst the contents because I had been utterly convinced of Murdoch's guilt. Of course I'd also previously been prepared to accept the guilt of Andrew Mallard (at least at the time of his prosecution) and I'd almost been convinced of the guilt of Lindy Chamberlain, just before the dam burst on the truth. I'd never really taken much notice of the cases of John Button or Darryl Beamish; they popped up occasionally in the media and I'd never really formed a strong view one way or the other, but I certainly wasn't convinced of their innocence until Estelle Blackburn's work, Broken Lives, appeared.
Reading Rough Justice I became exasperated. The DNA evidence against Murdoch, which had been presented by the media as absolutely damning, is probably somewhat dubious. There were aspects of Joanne Lees' mutating testimony that were also perplexing. The general picture was a familiar one...familiar from all of the other episodes where a reasonable book had shown up the superficiality and omissions of media coverage of a major criminal investigation and consequent trial. Now, I don't tend to believe whoever last "got" at me, and I surely don't accept what the media pumps out as highly credible. So why do I keep being surprised by revelations in the works of (usually female) authors who seem to have a better grasp of the facts than I do? Probably because I keep behaving as if I do accept what the media pumps out.I suspect that this is because, in the very serious matters of which I'm thinking, there is some as-yet-unextinguished faith that "They" won't allow gross misreporting of the proceedings. This probably has a deep foundation in my childhood when the authority of journalism as a profession was not as prolifically disparaged as it is now. It also relies on that youthful faith in the forces of law and order that served John Button so well (for those who don't know his story; he was fitted up). I've learned a lot better, including from my own work in the field. And yet, the things one learns earliest in life (I should say: is taught) are the most enduring. So the tendency to believe persists. It persists in the realm of heinous crimes; where one expects that the gravity of the matters will impose a constraint of care and honesty which it doesn't occur to one to expect in political blathering or celebrity gossip.
Now, do I take the work of Estelle Blackburn, Robin Bowles, and Colleen Egan as authoritative? To the extent that they have a track record of reliability and proven results, yes. John Bryson's 1985 work, Evil Angels, was the first work of this kind which I read that dealt with an Australian case, (although there appear to be plenty of predecessors). It examines the Chamberlain "dingo" case and was the beginning of my loss of credulity for the media's treatment of high-profile criminal investigations and trials. I remember being amazed at the depth of the material which I and millions of others had not been provided with by the apparently intense and detailed coverage of the case.
So, where's all this leave me with regard to Brad Murdoch? I can't say I believe in his innocence but the seed of doubt has been planted. From it grow a multitude of optional other scenarios to explain the events of that case. One fact is certain: Peter Falconio is not to be found by the world at large. If we take that as a starting point, the possibilities cover a spectrum from the simple explanation that all is as Lees has said, except for the identity of the offender, to Falconio having used Lees as a dupe in a complex scheme to fake his own death.
And what does it say for the continuing dilemma of how to respond to the often-wrong published accounts of investigations and trials? I wrote above that I'd expected that "They" would not allow such schlamperie. Of course the authorities represented in the archetype "They" are often up to their necks in scamming the public, so it's not remarkable that no governmental thunderbolts fall upon the misreporters. One approach would be to not believe any of it, but that doesn't seem very practical. You'd have to believe that everyone convicted was innocent and either live complacently with it or start throwing bombs. Nor can every citizen battle through the labyrinth of process to check transcripts of trials, police files, etc. Not that you'd be allowed to anyway. The only thing I can think of is some kind of oversight by an Official Witness Agency that would be established to provide a neutral and comprehensive summary of the transactions. That expression "Official Witness" came to me as a bit of "cryptomnesia", but I finally remembered where I'd seen it: in one of Robert Heinlein's works, Stranger in a Strange Land. One of the characters performs such a function and provides a demonstration of her technique at the behest of Jubal Harshaw, one of the protagonists. He asks her to tell him what the colour of a building on a nearby hill is. She replies, "It's white on this side."
I'd like to see such an agency, perhaps established through the State Constitution as a branch of the judiciary, which would provide an overview of court proceedings in the same manner: just the irrefutable facts about what happened in a hearing, sans any tinting whatsoever. They could be fed through a website for any matter before the courts which had a minimum penalty of more than one year's imprisonment. That should give pause for thought to some of the more reckless fabulists in the media. Now all that's needed is for someone to persuade the governments of Australia to do it.
Don't hang by 'em.
Post #47 The Chinese Diet Could Solve The West's Obesity Crisis
Chinese food has a bad reputation in the UK. The rice-heavy meals and fatty meat dishes are thought to lead straight to obesity and heart disease. But properly prepared, says Chinese food expert Lorraine Clissold, the very opposite is true: the Chinese way of eating is healthy and fulfilling, fights illness and prolongs life. She also insists...
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Post #46 APOD: The Colliding Spiral Galaxies of Arp 27
I have heard that these galactic collisions are on such a vast scale that the stars miss each other and that galaxies pass through each other. It seems unlikely that there are no collisions at all...
read more | digg story
Post #45 Dream déjà vu
A dream from Michael Gorey...the sort of thing that keeps skeptics in work; but can so many people who have these experiences be wrong?
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Monday, 21 July 2008
Thursday, 17 July 2008
Post #43 A ride with the panzers
I found an interesting website a while ago, called Achtung Panzer! It gives a fascinating amount of detail about German armoured vehicles and opens with this disclaimer:
No, it doesn't glorify war, it just glorifies the implements of war...but that's okay by me, so let's get to the heavy metal!! The site contains videos showing original footage from WWII and pictures of all sorts of obscure war-wagons you've never heard of. I spent a couple of hours delving into the fascinating corners of what is obviously a labour of love. One interesting thing about these contraptions is the extent to which they were often improvised from captured enemy kit or put together from bits and pieces of other designs which had failed to reach full production. As a research tool or just an interesting read, I recommend it.
It is important to understand that this website is not dedicated and does NOT support any Revisionist or Neo-Nazi beliefs and does NOT glorify war. This website is dedicated to the history of tanks and people of the Panzertruppe during World War II. It describes most of the armored fighting vehicles used by the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS Panzer Divisions from September of 1939 to May of 1945. It also describes some of the Panzer Generals and Aces along with other information and additional articles related to the Panzertruppe and/or World War II in general.
No, it doesn't glorify war, it just glorifies the implements of war...but that's okay by me, so let's get to the heavy metal!! The site contains videos showing original footage from WWII and pictures of all sorts of obscure war-wagons you've never heard of. I spent a couple of hours delving into the fascinating corners of what is obviously a labour of love. One interesting thing about these contraptions is the extent to which they were often improvised from captured enemy kit or put together from bits and pieces of other designs which had failed to reach full production. As a research tool or just an interesting read, I recommend it.
Tuesday, 15 July 2008
Post #42 17 Electric Cars You Should Know About from 2005 to 2008
Electric Cars: You Want 'Em? We've Got 'Em!Over the past 3 years, we've written about many electric cars here onTreeHugger. We think it's time to look in the rearview mirror, so here's an overview.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Post #41 An opinion piece from Crikey.com on banking.
Why government intervention in the banking sector may not be a bad idea after all.(When the government is a player in the field it can do something direct to influence the interest rates charged in the market place. It can also effect the "service" fees charged.)
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Post #39 The Moon Rocket Project NASA Doesn't Want You to Know
By day, the engineers work on NASA's new Ares moon rockets. By night, some go undercover to work on a competing design. These dissenting scientists and their backers insist they have created an alternative rocket that would be safer, cheaper and easier to build than the two Ares spacecraft that will replace the space shuttle.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Post #38 Tesla Roadsters now rolling off production line
The wait for the much-anticipated all-electric sports car is almost over, as manufacturing begins this summer with anticipated ramping up later this year.(But US$100,000 !!?? - Retarius)
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Monday, 14 July 2008
Post #36 The New Face of our Galaxy
The good people working with the Spitzer space telescope have made a huge discovery...An article by James Savik.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Tuesday, 8 July 2008
Post #35 Why "Wikiblogs" (probably) won't be coming to a site near you.
PART ONE
The project I referred to in the previous post was twofold; initially it was simply to write a biographical article for Wikipedia about the journalist and author, Estelle Blackburn, whose main claim to fame lay in the writing of the book Broken Lives. In the course of doing this, I noticed recurring messages appearing at the top of my screen from the Wikimedia Foundation, asking for donations to fund their projects. I knew that there had been recurring suggestions about placing advertising on Wikipedia and I felt as uneasy about them as I do about advertising on Australia's SBS broadcasting network. An idea occurred to me which seemed to provide a compromise:
The Wikimedia Foundation could support a firewalled fee-free blogging platform which would have the benefits of the flexibility of the Wikipedia editing system and be superior to the systems being offered by most other blogging servers. By "firewalled" I mean that the Foundation would take the same approach as Google and other providers by laying down certain basic prohibitions but otherwise allow the bloggers to get on with it. As for the content, as long as it stayed within the basic rules, the Foundation could, as the Mission Impossible cliche goes, "disavow any knowledge of you and your actions". Along one side of the blog page would be discreet Google-style ads that would produce revenue that would go entirely to the Foundation.
Now, in principle, that seemed a good idea and was a potential source of massive revenues. I also thought, as I told one Wikipedia administrator, that it was a good riposte to the Google/Microsoft/Yahoo cabal who were feeling the edges of the rug that Wikipedia was standing on with ideas such as "knol". I also know enough about "great ideas" to see that it's best to subject them to a thorough test before taking them to The Boss. I've conducted that test and, when I take up the story later, I'll tell you how the whole thing seems to have crashed and burned...
PART TWO
The most obvious danger to the Foundation from hosting blogs (apart from the strictly illegal material that would be proscribed) is the opinion content of those blogs. That's what blogs mostly are; opinion pieces. I needed to find a stimulus to test the response to an opinion; an opinion that would provoke a hostile response. By chance, that turned out to be rather easy to find.
The post about Estelle Blackburn, Carmen Lawrence and Teddy Kennedy was a response test to see how Wikipedia could/would cope with an editor expressing a provocative opinion on a blog in the context of contributing on a related topic on the Wikipedia site. It occurred to me to choose that matter because it was readily to hand; being a controversial issue related to a couple of people I was writing about. I first created a link from my Wikipedia user page to this blog, then a couple of days later, posted the test material. Apart from a literary conceit of joining some characters together by pointing up similarities in circumstances it was basically a replay of criticisms that were prolific in the Australian media some years ago. I was careful to limit my comments to those matters which would be protected in the United States, where the blog server is located, by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and in the Commonwealth of Australia by the ruling of the High Court of Australia pertaining to comment about public figures.
To this end my criticisms of the main subject, Carmen Lawrence, had to focus on her time as an MP and avoid any reference to past or later activities of a type that were pejorative of her, or went beyond her role as a public office-holder. I also had to avoid any accusation of guilt in the context of a charge of which she had been acquitted in court. It's a fine line, but the original scandal which led to a Royal Commission and a perjury trial is one thing; the issue of testimony at the Commission and perjury before it is a complex forensic issue and must be treated completely separately. I kept my commentary well away from that.
PART THREE
Sorry...The rest of this yarn is at a private blog where those I've invited can read it.
The project I referred to in the previous post was twofold; initially it was simply to write a biographical article for Wikipedia about the journalist and author, Estelle Blackburn, whose main claim to fame lay in the writing of the book Broken Lives. In the course of doing this, I noticed recurring messages appearing at the top of my screen from the Wikimedia Foundation, asking for donations to fund their projects. I knew that there had been recurring suggestions about placing advertising on Wikipedia and I felt as uneasy about them as I do about advertising on Australia's SBS broadcasting network. An idea occurred to me which seemed to provide a compromise:
The Wikimedia Foundation could support a firewalled fee-free blogging platform which would have the benefits of the flexibility of the Wikipedia editing system and be superior to the systems being offered by most other blogging servers. By "firewalled" I mean that the Foundation would take the same approach as Google and other providers by laying down certain basic prohibitions but otherwise allow the bloggers to get on with it. As for the content, as long as it stayed within the basic rules, the Foundation could, as the Mission Impossible cliche goes, "disavow any knowledge of you and your actions". Along one side of the blog page would be discreet Google-style ads that would produce revenue that would go entirely to the Foundation.
Now, in principle, that seemed a good idea and was a potential source of massive revenues. I also thought, as I told one Wikipedia administrator, that it was a good riposte to the Google/Microsoft/Yahoo cabal who were feeling the edges of the rug that Wikipedia was standing on with ideas such as "knol". I also know enough about "great ideas" to see that it's best to subject them to a thorough test before taking them to The Boss. I've conducted that test and, when I take up the story later, I'll tell you how the whole thing seems to have crashed and burned...
PART TWO
The most obvious danger to the Foundation from hosting blogs (apart from the strictly illegal material that would be proscribed) is the opinion content of those blogs. That's what blogs mostly are; opinion pieces. I needed to find a stimulus to test the response to an opinion; an opinion that would provoke a hostile response. By chance, that turned out to be rather easy to find.
The post about Estelle Blackburn, Carmen Lawrence and Teddy Kennedy was a response test to see how Wikipedia could/would cope with an editor expressing a provocative opinion on a blog in the context of contributing on a related topic on the Wikipedia site. It occurred to me to choose that matter because it was readily to hand; being a controversial issue related to a couple of people I was writing about. I first created a link from my Wikipedia user page to this blog, then a couple of days later, posted the test material. Apart from a literary conceit of joining some characters together by pointing up similarities in circumstances it was basically a replay of criticisms that were prolific in the Australian media some years ago. I was careful to limit my comments to those matters which would be protected in the United States, where the blog server is located, by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and in the Commonwealth of Australia by the ruling of the High Court of Australia pertaining to comment about public figures.
To this end my criticisms of the main subject, Carmen Lawrence, had to focus on her time as an MP and avoid any reference to past or later activities of a type that were pejorative of her, or went beyond her role as a public office-holder. I also had to avoid any accusation of guilt in the context of a charge of which she had been acquitted in court. It's a fine line, but the original scandal which led to a Royal Commission and a perjury trial is one thing; the issue of testimony at the Commission and perjury before it is a complex forensic issue and must be treated completely separately. I kept my commentary well away from that.
PART THREE
Sorry...The rest of this yarn is at a private blog where those I've invited can read it.
Post #34 The case of the missing mistress...a deletion explained...
I refer to Wikipedia in my blog posts but I usually refrain from blogging about Wikipedia and those who contribute to it. I'll make an exception here for a moment, in a moment.
First off: The whip-wielding lady in the latex suit who has been prominent on the sidebar has gone. She's gone because I felt that there was a certain type of traffic being attracted to this site by her presence. I have several traffic meters on this blog. The Feejit ones are visible, the others aren't. Feejit, although quite good, seems to miss a proportion of the traffic detected by other systems. For some reason, Google sites, of all things, seem to occasionally fail to register on Feejit. A lot of people seem to be finding their way here by way of Google images - a lot more than Feejit shows. I have a feeling they're not coming to look at the gladiators, Daleks, plastic soldiers, etc. Maybe I'm wrong. If they keep coming, great.
So why did I put her there if I felt uncomfortable with it? Here's where Wikipedia comes in. A couple of months ago some friends got into Wikipedia editing and I helped them with some intermittent advice and let them copy my formats from my user pages. I didn't discover until a few days had passed that they were doing some indiscreet things. One wanted to explore her interest in a certain type of sexuality... she created a name and user page that drew a block. After a further false start and some negotiating I persuaded her to take a lower profile on the site and give up the attention-drawing approach. Another friend wanted to be rather cheeky about certain matters involving ethnicity and also left a raunchy coded message on my talk page. Not only that, she wanted to do a project on a rather dangerous topic that you wouldn't want tracked back to you in real life. I also persuaded her to go for a "silent running" approach. I promised, in the course of our discussions, to give both of them some kudos on my blog to pay them off for going quietly. Well, I wasn't going to blog about bondage sex, but I kept my word by finding a comparatively tame picture for the sidebar. After a while, it just didn't look right to me or fit the general tone of what I wanted to say. I also noticed those visits from Google.images that might be on her account. My friend has kindly consented to the lady's departure. As for the other part of the deal, it involved taking time to bash certain rights-abusing governments and that's fine by me; that's what we're here for.
All this happened after an episode in which a couple of other people did some edits to a Wikipedia article and one of them left some messages on talk pages (including mine) that had the same effect as a stick down a bull-ant nest. It drew a wide-ranging block that affected several public sites which I and my friends like to edit from. I was able to defuse that situation and talk the party concerned into dropping it, but only after some unpleasant disputation with another Wikipedian.
Some of the Wikipedia crew believe that I created all of the user ID's involved as some kind of role-play and that the four entities are my "sockpuppets" as the Wikislang goes. I've heard of people creating imaginary friends, but never imaginary obstacles to their own plans. Their appearance and the affects thereof were just a coincidence with a project I was advancing. Also, the occasions when you need peace and focus are when the gods decide to vex you. Everybody knows that the best way to provoke rain and hail or dust-storms or the arrival of flocks of enthusiastically-defaecating birds is to hang out a large quantity of laundry that you've busted a gut to clean. So it was in this case. They broke the surface for their own reasons; they submerged and went away because I asked them nicely. As to what I was up to - you can read about that in the next post.
First off: The whip-wielding lady in the latex suit who has been prominent on the sidebar has gone. She's gone because I felt that there was a certain type of traffic being attracted to this site by her presence. I have several traffic meters on this blog. The Feejit ones are visible, the others aren't. Feejit, although quite good, seems to miss a proportion of the traffic detected by other systems. For some reason, Google sites, of all things, seem to occasionally fail to register on Feejit. A lot of people seem to be finding their way here by way of Google images - a lot more than Feejit shows. I have a feeling they're not coming to look at the gladiators, Daleks, plastic soldiers, etc. Maybe I'm wrong. If they keep coming, great.
So why did I put her there if I felt uncomfortable with it? Here's where Wikipedia comes in. A couple of months ago some friends got into Wikipedia editing and I helped them with some intermittent advice and let them copy my formats from my user pages. I didn't discover until a few days had passed that they were doing some indiscreet things. One wanted to explore her interest in a certain type of sexuality... she created a name and user page that drew a block. After a further false start and some negotiating I persuaded her to take a lower profile on the site and give up the attention-drawing approach. Another friend wanted to be rather cheeky about certain matters involving ethnicity and also left a raunchy coded message on my talk page. Not only that, she wanted to do a project on a rather dangerous topic that you wouldn't want tracked back to you in real life. I also persuaded her to go for a "silent running" approach. I promised, in the course of our discussions, to give both of them some kudos on my blog to pay them off for going quietly. Well, I wasn't going to blog about bondage sex, but I kept my word by finding a comparatively tame picture for the sidebar. After a while, it just didn't look right to me or fit the general tone of what I wanted to say. I also noticed those visits from Google.images that might be on her account. My friend has kindly consented to the lady's departure. As for the other part of the deal, it involved taking time to bash certain rights-abusing governments and that's fine by me; that's what we're here for.
All this happened after an episode in which a couple of other people did some edits to a Wikipedia article and one of them left some messages on talk pages (including mine) that had the same effect as a stick down a bull-ant nest. It drew a wide-ranging block that affected several public sites which I and my friends like to edit from. I was able to defuse that situation and talk the party concerned into dropping it, but only after some unpleasant disputation with another Wikipedian.
Some of the Wikipedia crew believe that I created all of the user ID's involved as some kind of role-play and that the four entities are my "sockpuppets" as the Wikislang goes. I've heard of people creating imaginary friends, but never imaginary obstacles to their own plans. Their appearance and the affects thereof were just a coincidence with a project I was advancing. Also, the occasions when you need peace and focus are when the gods decide to vex you. Everybody knows that the best way to provoke rain and hail or dust-storms or the arrival of flocks of enthusiastically-defaecating birds is to hang out a large quantity of laundry that you've busted a gut to clean. So it was in this case. They broke the surface for their own reasons; they submerged and went away because I asked them nicely. As to what I was up to - you can read about that in the next post.
Wednesday, 25 June 2008
Post #33 Hire a Hall/Everything (Psychics and sidekicks)
I was prompted recently to think about the paranormal by various weird coincidences (that I won't digress on here) and I came to the conclusion that there's a real chasm between the fictional perception of clairvoyance and such things and the effect they would have in real life. One very obvious clanger is the response that the world at large would have to a successful soothsayer. I first noticed this in the movie of Stephen King 's book, The Dead Zone. In a scene which isn't actually in the book, Christopher Walken who plays the psychic, Johnny Smith, throws open a closet filled to the brim with the parcels and letters sent by people seeking his help. He's greatly distressed by the pleas for help he's being buried with. In the novel Replay by Ken Grimwood a man reliving his life over and over again, has a nasty experience when he and a female companion (who's having the same experience) try to explore what's happening to them by using their knowledge of coming events to attract the attention of the world with stunningly-accurate predictions. They are put under house arrest by the US government. Their predictions, based on a certain sequence of events, become useless as the effects of state intervention take matters further and further from the familiar pattern. By the time they "die" to start another cycle, they have brought that alternate reality to the brink of nuclear war.
I wonder what would happen to these would-be crime-solving psychics in my own town if they got "lucky". There are some famous disappearances which attract the efforts of these types. Here is a link to a skeptics' website which covers the impact they've had in the case of Sarah Spiers, a missing, possibly murdered, resident of Perth, Western Australia. There are some other interesting cases referred to there. But, apart from the grief that incompetent would-be's cause, what would the consequences of success be? Now, the "coppers" have been known to humour psychics, just in case. But they don't really believe in them. Let's say someone found the remains of a missing person in some obscure place. If they could also point to a killer and there was substantiating evidence, they might be heroes. What if there's just a body? It wouldn't take a cynical police officer long to think that a person who knows where a dead body is hidden is more likely to know from putting or helping to put it there than by some psychic insight. And what would a jury make of it? One day, one of these characters might find a body...then we'll see.
I wonder what would happen to these would-be crime-solving psychics in my own town if they got "lucky". There are some famous disappearances which attract the efforts of these types. Here is a link to a skeptics' website which covers the impact they've had in the case of Sarah Spiers, a missing, possibly murdered, resident of Perth, Western Australia. There are some other interesting cases referred to there. But, apart from the grief that incompetent would-be's cause, what would the consequences of success be? Now, the "coppers" have been known to humour psychics, just in case. But they don't really believe in them. Let's say someone found the remains of a missing person in some obscure place. If they could also point to a killer and there was substantiating evidence, they might be heroes. What if there's just a body? It wouldn't take a cynical police officer long to think that a person who knows where a dead body is hidden is more likely to know from putting or helping to put it there than by some psychic insight. And what would a jury make of it? One day, one of these characters might find a body...then we'll see.
Sunday, 15 June 2008
Post #32 Hire a Hall/Nothing (Naked hypocrisy)
A few years ago a public health advocacy group attempted to hire some advertising space in The West Australian to advise men who didn't identify themselves as homosexual, while still having the occasional dalliance, of the dangers they faced from STD's, particularly AIDS. The advertisement was to be full-page and include a large photograph of two naked men embracing; posed in such a way that their genitals would be obscured. The West, which reaps a profitable revenue from advertising whorehouses, telphone sex lines, "adult product" vendors and so on, felt that this was beyond reason and wouldn't allow it.
Yesterday we Western Australians were treated to a photograph of a naked man and woman embracing (from waist up) in a small box next to the West's masthead title. Inside, on the front page of the Weekend Magazine liftout, was the full-page, full-size photograph in which the two rather unphotogenic parties are grinning at the camera. The woman, posed right of picture, is holding, with her left hand, the lead of a terrier dog who sits at the bottom of the photo, also grinning at the camera. Her hand, holding the lead, is placed in front of the man's groin. It doesn't completely obscure his penis, a small section of which is peeking from behind.
And the pretext for this image? The story contained in the liftout about the decline of nudism in Western Australia. The story is further illustrated with nude pictures of the two front-page models and with photos of other nudists in a hot-tub (some penis-shapes distinguishable through the water) and out and about enjoying their pastime.
I'm not in the least interested in rubbishing the nudists. Couldn't care less. Just one, admittedly obvious point to make...in fact it's made, isn't it?
Yesterday we Western Australians were treated to a photograph of a naked man and woman embracing (from waist up) in a small box next to the West's masthead title. Inside, on the front page of the Weekend Magazine liftout, was the full-page, full-size photograph in which the two rather unphotogenic parties are grinning at the camera. The woman, posed right of picture, is holding, with her left hand, the lead of a terrier dog who sits at the bottom of the photo, also grinning at the camera. Her hand, holding the lead, is placed in front of the man's groin. It doesn't completely obscure his penis, a small section of which is peeking from behind.
And the pretext for this image? The story contained in the liftout about the decline of nudism in Western Australia. The story is further illustrated with nude pictures of the two front-page models and with photos of other nudists in a hot-tub (some penis-shapes distinguishable through the water) and out and about enjoying their pastime.
I'm not in the least interested in rubbishing the nudists. Couldn't care less. Just one, admittedly obvious point to make...in fact it's made, isn't it?
Friday, 13 June 2008
Post #31 Hire a Hall/Everything (1001 things to make and do..)
I usually don't agree with much that's generated by the columnists at The Australian, but I have to say that the recent observations by Messrs Megalogenis and Sheridan are persuasive on the subject of Kevin Rudd's scattergun policy output. I said to Anastasia a while back that we in Australia were celebrating the overthrow of the former corrupt regime (Howard) and that we could now settle down in peace to enjoy the new corrupt regime (Rudd). I only half-meant it as a joke. The other half now appears to be acquiring some substantiation.
The most recent projects; to restart the nuclear disarmament process and to create a Pacific Union, have eroded my hopes that Kevin Rudd might be at least half as good as he seemed. Nothing unworthy in the essence of either, of course, but the approach being taken is like a scrapbooking project or some such - cutting out and gluing together a cardboard rocket and calling it a space programme. I'm also reminded of a documentary I saw years ago in which Mussolini was shown inspecting a great fleet of aircraft parked in a field as the voice-over commented, "Many of the planes he inspected that day had no engines..."
What beats me is that anyone with two brain cells to rub together can see that Australia can only make one substantial contribution to ending nuclear proliferation: halt all mining and export of uranium. If that's not an option on the table, there's no point in going further. The nuclear technology is out of the bottle, it's only the essential raw materials which are controllable in the long term. And that surely isn't on the table. The ALP's three mines "policy" was never really a policy. It was a transitional phase while the factions struggled to determine whether the policy would be for or against uranium mining. It looked like a policy because the struggle lasted so long and the holding position became a de facto platform plank. No-one in the ALP thought it was a final position, although the Coalition liked to call it such to give them something to mock. Well, the struggle's over now. The miners have won. That can be said with certainty when even that veteran of the Nuclear Disarmament Party, Peter Garrett has kept a straight face as the ALP has gone down the nuclear road.
As for a Pacific Union, it might have had some hope if it had been defined within reasonable limits in private and then canvassed in private with the governments of potential member nations. The way this has been done must look to a foreigner like posturing for the domestic audience. Surely a serious effort would be advanced discreetly and with a solid proposition being developed before the negotiating began?
Sheridan is right in saying that Rudd will squander his reserves of credibility and goodwill if he keeps on in this way.
The most recent projects; to restart the nuclear disarmament process and to create a Pacific Union, have eroded my hopes that Kevin Rudd might be at least half as good as he seemed. Nothing unworthy in the essence of either, of course, but the approach being taken is like a scrapbooking project or some such - cutting out and gluing together a cardboard rocket and calling it a space programme. I'm also reminded of a documentary I saw years ago in which Mussolini was shown inspecting a great fleet of aircraft parked in a field as the voice-over commented, "Many of the planes he inspected that day had no engines..."
What beats me is that anyone with two brain cells to rub together can see that Australia can only make one substantial contribution to ending nuclear proliferation: halt all mining and export of uranium. If that's not an option on the table, there's no point in going further. The nuclear technology is out of the bottle, it's only the essential raw materials which are controllable in the long term. And that surely isn't on the table. The ALP's three mines "policy" was never really a policy. It was a transitional phase while the factions struggled to determine whether the policy would be for or against uranium mining. It looked like a policy because the struggle lasted so long and the holding position became a de facto platform plank. No-one in the ALP thought it was a final position, although the Coalition liked to call it such to give them something to mock. Well, the struggle's over now. The miners have won. That can be said with certainty when even that veteran of the Nuclear Disarmament Party, Peter Garrett has kept a straight face as the ALP has gone down the nuclear road.
As for a Pacific Union, it might have had some hope if it had been defined within reasonable limits in private and then canvassed in private with the governments of potential member nations. The way this has been done must look to a foreigner like posturing for the domestic audience. Surely a serious effort would be advanced discreetly and with a solid proposition being developed before the negotiating began?
Sheridan is right in saying that Rudd will squander his reserves of credibility and goodwill if he keeps on in this way.
Thursday, 12 June 2008
Post #30 Hire a hall/Everything (Inert and just a Lama)
The Dalai Lama is now visiting Australia. The usual ructions are being made over whether various marks of esteem should or not be paid to him, in the currency of meetings with Government ministers. The thing that puzzles me is why, leaving aside those to whom he is a religious mentor, anyone would bother to meet him. If you are supportive of or indifferent to the Chinese occupation of Tibet, you wouldn't cross your own tracks by giving him house-room. That makes sense enough - but if you support the independence of Tibet there's no point in knowing him either.
Since fleeing Tibet, in 1959, the Dalai lama has achieved... absolutely nothing! The gradual obliteration of the indigenous Tibetan culture and the creeping genocide by importation of Han Chinese has progressed unstinted. If one analyses the policy he espouses in the context of similar historical events, there's a tendency which I think is quite unusual. Consider, for example, the behaviour of de Gaulle and the light in which it places the Dalai Lama. What sort of "exiled leader" preaches accommodation and submission to the occupier and oppressor of his homeland? The Dalai Lama 's ability to provoke Chinese hostility is utterly at variance with and out of proportion to his actual impact on the course of events. In fact, it's caused me to develop a certain suspicion: What if the Dalai Lama is actually a sidetracking decoy who is operating under the direction of Beijing? Sounds crazy? Well, it wouldn't be this first time in the history of the world that a scam like that was played: The Soviets had a fine line in similar activities; the Soviet-era Russian Orthodox Church was KGB from top to bottom.
How and why would this work? Simple; it attracts all the media attention and political heat towards a person who really isn't a threat to Chinese control of Tibet. Like the bogus "global warming" debate that keeps the real heat off the carbon fuel industries, the Dalai Lama's hotly-disputed peregrinations provide a sponge-issue that soaks up energy that might otherwise go towards actually doing something. Like a trade embargo. Like supporting an effective armed insurgency (unlike the old ineffective one). Like an honest-to-God armed intervention on the model of the Korean Police Action. Perhaps the perennial choleric outbursts from Beijing are method-acting which allows the concerned foreigners to think that they are being very activist by "defying" Beijing and meeting the Dalai Lama.
The fundamental truth about the Dalai Lama is that, if he isn't a plant by Beijing, he's doing nothing to distinguish himself from one. He is utterly impotent and insignificant. That's the best reason to eschew meeting him. He makes Quisling look like Arminius.
Since fleeing Tibet, in 1959, the Dalai lama has achieved... absolutely nothing! The gradual obliteration of the indigenous Tibetan culture and the creeping genocide by importation of Han Chinese has progressed unstinted. If one analyses the policy he espouses in the context of similar historical events, there's a tendency which I think is quite unusual. Consider, for example, the behaviour of de Gaulle and the light in which it places the Dalai Lama. What sort of "exiled leader" preaches accommodation and submission to the occupier and oppressor of his homeland? The Dalai Lama 's ability to provoke Chinese hostility is utterly at variance with and out of proportion to his actual impact on the course of events. In fact, it's caused me to develop a certain suspicion: What if the Dalai Lama is actually a sidetracking decoy who is operating under the direction of Beijing? Sounds crazy? Well, it wouldn't be this first time in the history of the world that a scam like that was played: The Soviets had a fine line in similar activities; the Soviet-era Russian Orthodox Church was KGB from top to bottom.
How and why would this work? Simple; it attracts all the media attention and political heat towards a person who really isn't a threat to Chinese control of Tibet. Like the bogus "global warming" debate that keeps the real heat off the carbon fuel industries, the Dalai Lama's hotly-disputed peregrinations provide a sponge-issue that soaks up energy that might otherwise go towards actually doing something. Like a trade embargo. Like supporting an effective armed insurgency (unlike the old ineffective one). Like an honest-to-God armed intervention on the model of the Korean Police Action. Perhaps the perennial choleric outbursts from Beijing are method-acting which allows the concerned foreigners to think that they are being very activist by "defying" Beijing and meeting the Dalai Lama.
The fundamental truth about the Dalai Lama is that, if he isn't a plant by Beijing, he's doing nothing to distinguish himself from one. He is utterly impotent and insignificant. That's the best reason to eschew meeting him. He makes Quisling look like Arminius.
Tuesday, 10 June 2008
Post #29 A cartoon history of gasoline consumption in the USA
This link says it all. (If you get stuck at the Salon sign-in page, just click their bypass link in the top right corner.)
Monday, 9 June 2008
Post #28 Gasoline thieves adopt a new drill
"With gas prices at record highs and service stations thwarting drive-offs with pay-before-you-pump policies, gas thieves are becoming more creative."
A story from Digg. I wonder how long before it happens here, if not already.
read more | digg story
A story from Digg. I wonder how long before it happens here, if not already.
read more | digg story
Sunday, 8 June 2008
Post #27 Hire a Hall/Everything (All gassed up.)
Yep, we got us a gas explosion on Varanus Island. I'd never heard of the place until something blew up there on Tuesday, 3 June 2008 and apparently cut the supply of natural gas to W.A. by one third. At least it's taken Fran Logan's mind off "the threesome"!
Thursday, 5 June 2008
Post #26 Estelle Blackburn, Carmen Lawrence and...Teddy Kennedy.
The post which was here has been deleted by the author for reasons explained in the post, "Why 'Wikiblogs' (probably) wont be coming to a site near you." which was first published on 8 July 2008.
Post #25 An interesting speculation about a prominent case
A contributor to a talk page lays out some suspicions about a serial killer.
NOTE: Scroll down to where "chrisj" posts, at the bottom of the thread.
read more | digg story
NOTE: Scroll down to where "chrisj" posts, at the bottom of the thread.
read more | digg story
Post #24 Unethical Scam Associated Content
"Associated Content, the people's media company, is a highly unethical business practice. It is a website that can scam you, writers! beware. You should not be backed by such to get published anywhere. Do your work, and get published for it. That's it."
From a post by Lenin Nair.
read more | digg story
From a post by Lenin Nair.
read more | digg story
Wednesday, 4 June 2008
Post #23 APOD: A Twisted Solar Eruptive Prominence
"Ten Earths could easily fit in the "claw" of this seemingly solar monster. The monster, though, visible on the lower left, is a huge eruptive prominence seen moving out from our Sun. The above dramatic image taken early in the year 2000 by the Sun-orbiting SOHO satellite."
read more | digg story
Tuesday, 3 June 2008
Post #22 Hire a Hall/Everything (...drew their plans against us)
In the opening paragraph of the War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells tells of the complacency of humanity as the alien enemy prepares to attack: "...intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us."
I feel that we are replicating the complacency of Wells' imaginary earthlings in the real world. There is a hostile and far-thinking power which is gradually establishing a strategic advantage against this planet. That power is not to be found on Mars, but in the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the despotic government which is engaging in a space programme that appears to be replicating the first phase of the US-Soviet "space race" of the 1960's. The standard view of this "race" is that the US won and the Soviets, disheartened, turned their attention to Earth-orbit activities. In truth, although the US succeeded in landing six expeditions on the Moon, the prize in the race was not truly claimed. The Moon has no permanent human settlement and is as much in contention as it ever was.
The Chinese government has announced its intention to carry out Moon landings. It seems unlikely that they will content themselves with a tip-and-run effort. They have made their decision to advance a space programme without the impetus of a foreign competitor that is challenging them in the field. So, is it plausible that they will content themselves with a gesture which merely repeats the American effort? This is no knee-jerk plan and it must have a pragmatic purpose and an intended outcome to their advantage.
I've read Robert Heinlein's work The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and been impressed by the case he made for the Moon as a base for military operations. I recommend it as a source of insight into the potential danger of allowing uncontested control of the Moon to fall into the hands of a government which has repeatedly demonstrated that it places no value on treaties or human life. As Heinlein shows, the Moon is a great place from which to throw rocks..
And how do we respond? So far, publicly, only with benign curiosity. We observe the state which is celebrating five thousand years of despotism as it lays the ground for a lunar base and we watch with mild interest, not the alarm which it should cause. Compared to this threat, the provocations of Al-Qaeda are small fry indeed.
I feel that we are replicating the complacency of Wells' imaginary earthlings in the real world. There is a hostile and far-thinking power which is gradually establishing a strategic advantage against this planet. That power is not to be found on Mars, but in the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the despotic government which is engaging in a space programme that appears to be replicating the first phase of the US-Soviet "space race" of the 1960's. The standard view of this "race" is that the US won and the Soviets, disheartened, turned their attention to Earth-orbit activities. In truth, although the US succeeded in landing six expeditions on the Moon, the prize in the race was not truly claimed. The Moon has no permanent human settlement and is as much in contention as it ever was.
The Chinese government has announced its intention to carry out Moon landings. It seems unlikely that they will content themselves with a tip-and-run effort. They have made their decision to advance a space programme without the impetus of a foreign competitor that is challenging them in the field. So, is it plausible that they will content themselves with a gesture which merely repeats the American effort? This is no knee-jerk plan and it must have a pragmatic purpose and an intended outcome to their advantage.
I've read Robert Heinlein's work The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and been impressed by the case he made for the Moon as a base for military operations. I recommend it as a source of insight into the potential danger of allowing uncontested control of the Moon to fall into the hands of a government which has repeatedly demonstrated that it places no value on treaties or human life. As Heinlein shows, the Moon is a great place from which to throw rocks..
And how do we respond? So far, publicly, only with benign curiosity. We observe the state which is celebrating five thousand years of despotism as it lays the ground for a lunar base and we watch with mild interest, not the alarm which it should cause. Compared to this threat, the provocations of Al-Qaeda are small fry indeed.
Sunday, 1 June 2008
Post #21 Hire a Hall / Everything (This very tired brown land)
The big shock last month was the announcement by the Australian government of an immigration quota increase. If ever there was something this country didn't need, there it is.
I've read a book by Mark O'Connor, a while ago now, which I found a very moderate and reasonable treatment of Australia's role as an immigration recipient. It's called This Tired Brown Land (1998) and it's essential reading for everyone who wants to be informed on the topic. The scholarly studies by demographers are impenetrable to the layperson, the diatribes of the bigots are tiresome and offer no substantiation. This little book covers the topic in a calm and friendly manner that persuades with common sense.
After reading it I wondered why Australians have any difficulty in seeing the weirdness and folly of our current population "policy". In fact it goes a long way to prove that we have no such policy.
In light of our worsening water supply, our degrading arable land, the stress on our power supply systems, public hospitals, transport infrastructure and anything else you can shake a stick at that's going down the gurgler - why the hell are we loading the boat further?
What I find most striking in this work is the explanation of the role played by the interest groups who promote immigration. Their interest doesn't seem to coincide with the long-term welfare of the nation. I detect the presence of the same people who are the "usual suspects" in the cause of multiculturalism. These are the (usually self-appointed) "ethnic community representatives" who start squawking about racism whenever anyone tries to take a sensible look at the population issue. Keeping up a constant flow of "clients" for their "ethnic" organisations is a motivating force behind this behaviour. Then there are the industry groups who would rather import ready-made labour than train current Australian citizens. The fact that they like to obtain them from countries where labour organisation is a scarce commodity is also an indicator of a motive.
The current Australian immigration policy is a good model of a pyramid scheme. The point will come where it blows out and the last ones aboard will be up the proverbial waterway without means of propulsion. And the rest of us will be right there with them.
I've read a book by Mark O'Connor, a while ago now, which I found a very moderate and reasonable treatment of Australia's role as an immigration recipient. It's called This Tired Brown Land (1998) and it's essential reading for everyone who wants to be informed on the topic. The scholarly studies by demographers are impenetrable to the layperson, the diatribes of the bigots are tiresome and offer no substantiation. This little book covers the topic in a calm and friendly manner that persuades with common sense.
After reading it I wondered why Australians have any difficulty in seeing the weirdness and folly of our current population "policy". In fact it goes a long way to prove that we have no such policy.
In light of our worsening water supply, our degrading arable land, the stress on our power supply systems, public hospitals, transport infrastructure and anything else you can shake a stick at that's going down the gurgler - why the hell are we loading the boat further?
What I find most striking in this work is the explanation of the role played by the interest groups who promote immigration. Their interest doesn't seem to coincide with the long-term welfare of the nation. I detect the presence of the same people who are the "usual suspects" in the cause of multiculturalism. These are the (usually self-appointed) "ethnic community representatives" who start squawking about racism whenever anyone tries to take a sensible look at the population issue. Keeping up a constant flow of "clients" for their "ethnic" organisations is a motivating force behind this behaviour. Then there are the industry groups who would rather import ready-made labour than train current Australian citizens. The fact that they like to obtain them from countries where labour organisation is a scarce commodity is also an indicator of a motive.
The current Australian immigration policy is a good model of a pyramid scheme. The point will come where it blows out and the last ones aboard will be up the proverbial waterway without means of propulsion. And the rest of us will be right there with them.
Sunday, 25 May 2008
Post #20 Hire a Hall / Everything (A shocking development!!)
Yesterday I heard an announcer on ABC NewsRadio say something like"...breaking story. New corruption allegations coming out of New South Wales..."
I thought, "This is supposed to be news?" Here's what would be news:
I thought, "This is supposed to be news?" Here's what would be news:
And now a shocking development from New South Wales. News tracking services have confirmed that seven days have passed since a corruption story broke in New South Wales! Premier Morris Iemma has announced at a press conference just held here at Parliament House, Sydney, that the Government will convene an urgent inquiry into the scandal-deficit and has urged the people of the State to remain calm: "We have no reason to believe that the situation will not self-correct in the near future", Iemma stated, to a hostile media pack, "However the government is not being complacent." Informed government sources, however, state that vicious argument broke out at an emergency Cabinet meeting called to discuss the crisis. Ministers are believed to have walked out in fury because of accusations of corruption-negligence from a Cabinet Secretary. The State Opposition Leader, Whatsisname, accused the government of "a gross abrogation of public duty" and promised that a Coalition government would restore corruption to normal levels within six months of taking office: "With particular emphasis on sexual impropriety and contractor kickbacks." A government media spokesperson dismissed this as "further evidence of the Coalition's lack of innovative policy".If only. This is part of the "Sydney Broadcasting Corporation" syndrome which believes that the whole nation is breathlessly awaiting the next word from Emerald City. There was a time when I wouldn't want to miss The 7:30 Report but, after the efforts of the renowned Howard saboteur, Jonathan Shier, which resulted in the abolition of the State-based format of the programme, I couldn't be bothered with it. In fact, Lateline went to Hell after Kerry O'Brien left and the 7:30 report went to Hell after he took it over. I've got two items at the top of my wishlist where the Rudd government and broadcasting policy are concerned: A restoration of the State-based 7:30 report (sorry, Kerry, but you can do the Sydney version) and abolition of the execrable commercial advertising on SBS. And if, as Christopher Pearson alleges, that would require the government to "stump up" thirty million dollars, so be it. Money more than well spent.
Thursday, 22 May 2008
Post #19 How the other half may not live: APOD: A Dangerous Sunrise on Planet Gliese 876d
"On planet Gliese 876d, sunrises might be dangerous. Although nobody really knows what conditions are like on this close-in planet orbiting variable red dwarf star Gliese 876, the above artistic illustration gives one impression."
An interesting scene from a Nasa website, found at Digg.
read more | digg story
Wednesday, 21 May 2008
Post #18 An editorial comment
I've spent the past few days working on the technical aspects of blogging; practicing HTML, Javascript and so on. I've found some anomalies in the way the page element system works.
Among other things, the editing box for HTML/Javascript appears to accept some edits, then deletes them in the saving process, leaving you at square one. The other bug I've noticed is that the space for a page element which is as wide as the page and just below the title box seems to have stopped working on my blog. I don't know if this is particular to me and due to something I've done or is systemic. I'll ask Google Help about it and see what transpires.
I've come to this conclusion from trying different browsers: Mozilla Firefox beats the hell out of Internet Explorer. Maybe there's a catch I can't see, but I don't know why anybody's using IE if they have a choice.
Among other things, the editing box for HTML/Javascript appears to accept some edits, then deletes them in the saving process, leaving you at square one. The other bug I've noticed is that the space for a page element which is as wide as the page and just below the title box seems to have stopped working on my blog. I don't know if this is particular to me and due to something I've done or is systemic. I'll ask Google Help about it and see what transpires.
I've come to this conclusion from trying different browsers: Mozilla Firefox beats the hell out of Internet Explorer. Maybe there's a catch I can't see, but I don't know why anybody's using IE if they have a choice.
Friday, 16 May 2008
Post #17 Hire a Hall/Everything (The fat girl shop)
In one of the shopping centres I frequent there was, until recently, a shop that specialised in providing office and evening wear to the larger sizes of women. The shop was equipped with appropriately-sized store dummies and came complete with a sturdy young proprietress who could easily fill the clothes she sold.
Along the arcade to each side were other women's clothing businesses. One had previously been a lingerie store which had lissome torso dummies in its windows which would have been passable facsimiles of the bodies of girls in their early teens. Around these were stretched the typical pieces of scanty fabric that dominate the selections of modern female underwear. It flourished in this incarnation for several years then was transformed into a general clothing store, under new management, but with the same scrawny type of window-mannequins. Walking past, along the winding arcade, I'm confronted directly by its window display and when I see the dimensions of the blouses, skirts, dresses, etc. that are offered, I wonder what regiments of twelve and thirteen-year-old girls are swarming in there to buy the stuff and keep them in business. Maybe they just put the most svelte stuff in the windows and the racks are covertly holding the larger sizes. I won't conduct field research to find out!
Another store along the arcade two doors from what I took to thinking of (I regret to admit) as "The Fat Girls' Shop" was also a conventional type; slender dummies standing in the windows with permanently-fitted pink page-boy wigs, showing off a regularly-changing array of the usual gear for the emaciated. Elsewhere in the centre there's a less overtly "thinist" place that caters for more mature women, but the dummies standing sentry in the windows are relentlessly lithe.
A couple of weeks ago the fat girl shop closed. I couldn't figure it at first. I walk along the streets of this city seeing plenty of potential customers. Let's be clear, it's not really "fat" in most cases; there are many women who just have robust skeletons. You can tell from the size of their heads that they couldn't trim down beyond a certain point that would still make the stuff in those window displays unwearable. So why does a shop touting "plus sizes" pass away? Well, the owner may have found greener pastures, but I suspect she just couldn't cop enough revenue to keep going.
Now, Kingsize Menswear is a brand that has no trouble making a mint. Although it caters to the naturally broad and tall (and broad and short) it's also been covering the fat "guts" of Australian men since 1972 and goes stronger every year. The only thing I can see is that "fatness" is such a taboo in female culture that, apart from covert purchase through the Internet or mail-order catalogues, women just won't be associated with such a place. As in, won't be caught dead calling themselves a name by walking through the door.
There was another thing that I felt uneasy about: the clothing itself was striking what I thought was an "off" note. It was enlarged to fit the bodies of the big girls, but it was the same fabric, embroidery and so on, that characterised the clothes for the skinnies. I'd walk past the big dummy at the door when it was wearing a translucent evening gown or a torsolette and it just didn't look right. A frilly G-string stretched across a metre-wide derriere ain't the same as when it's on a pert, narrow one. I think that's really where the problem is: that stuff isn't attractive or sexy wear for women. It's purpose-made to emphasise the form of a very narrow part of the spectrum of women. Making it in a large size doesn't make it any more natural. The answer to the question,"How can flattering, impressive clothing be made for larger women?" is not to be found in making larger sizes of the same gear made for the smaller ones. The real challenge for designers is to wipe the preconceptions away and begin with fabrics, designs and colours that will make a natural compliment to the woman they're meant to fit, not a misguided distortion of someone else's style. Then nobody will need to fret over walking through the door of a "plus size" shop.
Along the arcade to each side were other women's clothing businesses. One had previously been a lingerie store which had lissome torso dummies in its windows which would have been passable facsimiles of the bodies of girls in their early teens. Around these were stretched the typical pieces of scanty fabric that dominate the selections of modern female underwear. It flourished in this incarnation for several years then was transformed into a general clothing store, under new management, but with the same scrawny type of window-mannequins. Walking past, along the winding arcade, I'm confronted directly by its window display and when I see the dimensions of the blouses, skirts, dresses, etc. that are offered, I wonder what regiments of twelve and thirteen-year-old girls are swarming in there to buy the stuff and keep them in business. Maybe they just put the most svelte stuff in the windows and the racks are covertly holding the larger sizes. I won't conduct field research to find out!
Another store along the arcade two doors from what I took to thinking of (I regret to admit) as "The Fat Girls' Shop" was also a conventional type; slender dummies standing in the windows with permanently-fitted pink page-boy wigs, showing off a regularly-changing array of the usual gear for the emaciated. Elsewhere in the centre there's a less overtly "thinist" place that caters for more mature women, but the dummies standing sentry in the windows are relentlessly lithe.
A couple of weeks ago the fat girl shop closed. I couldn't figure it at first. I walk along the streets of this city seeing plenty of potential customers. Let's be clear, it's not really "fat" in most cases; there are many women who just have robust skeletons. You can tell from the size of their heads that they couldn't trim down beyond a certain point that would still make the stuff in those window displays unwearable. So why does a shop touting "plus sizes" pass away? Well, the owner may have found greener pastures, but I suspect she just couldn't cop enough revenue to keep going.
Now, Kingsize Menswear is a brand that has no trouble making a mint. Although it caters to the naturally broad and tall (and broad and short) it's also been covering the fat "guts" of Australian men since 1972 and goes stronger every year. The only thing I can see is that "fatness" is such a taboo in female culture that, apart from covert purchase through the Internet or mail-order catalogues, women just won't be associated with such a place. As in, won't be caught dead calling themselves a name by walking through the door.
There was another thing that I felt uneasy about: the clothing itself was striking what I thought was an "off" note. It was enlarged to fit the bodies of the big girls, but it was the same fabric, embroidery and so on, that characterised the clothes for the skinnies. I'd walk past the big dummy at the door when it was wearing a translucent evening gown or a torsolette and it just didn't look right. A frilly G-string stretched across a metre-wide derriere ain't the same as when it's on a pert, narrow one. I think that's really where the problem is: that stuff isn't attractive or sexy wear for women. It's purpose-made to emphasise the form of a very narrow part of the spectrum of women. Making it in a large size doesn't make it any more natural. The answer to the question,"How can flattering, impressive clothing be made for larger women?" is not to be found in making larger sizes of the same gear made for the smaller ones. The real challenge for designers is to wipe the preconceptions away and begin with fabrics, designs and colours that will make a natural compliment to the woman they're meant to fit, not a misguided distortion of someone else's style. Then nobody will need to fret over walking through the door of a "plus size" shop.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)