The 52nd State

Ruminations

2006-04-19T23:04:00.000+08:00

Since I got back I've been taking a good break from blogging of any kind. There are several reasons for this, firstly the need to make up for lost time and get on top of university. But also I think I needed a rest from it. I've become progressively jaded about the concept, and have not been enjoying what has at times seemed like a chore and an exercise in futility. A greay many other bloggers will probably feel the same at some point, I imagine.

Also, this blog no longer feels entirely right. I created it quite some time ago when I was thinking and feeling different things and perhaps the sentiment expressed in its creation, and indeed its name, are no longer accurate or even appropriate. I can't continue to do something that doesn't intrigue and excite me.

So obviously I need a change, and a change is as good as a holiday - maybe like the holiday I've just had.

I think I need to consider just what I want out of this blog and what I am prepared to put into it - and indeed what my readers, if there are any left, are prepared to put into it. A blog with no comments is like a club with one member, John Quiggan once said, and if that one member's heart is not in it then all you have is an empty shell devoid of feeling or purpose.

I cannot let this become a liability to my career, but neither can I completely ignore my need for some kind of outlet from time to time, a means to practice my skills and keep my mind working, and to put any work I do in the course of my studies or my own volition up for feedback.

Perhaps I should start over with something new, fresh and more mixed with something for everyone; so people, and indeed myself, will actually find it interesting and engaging again. Maybe I should get a bit more professional and make a new blog with a proper domain and a better software than Blogger - Wordpress served me well for my travel blog.

So I guess I'm in need of some direction, or even a new one. I'll think some more, and if anyone has any suggestions I invite you to indulge me with them. For the time being I'll post when I feel the urge and about whatever suits me.

The saga is complete

2006-03-15T10:57:00.000+08:00

So, I'm back. Got on my plane at Sydney airport and got back to Perth around 2:20pm. It was a reasonably uneventful flight other than that the entertainment was not comparable to anything in the other flights I've had. I'm obviously too used to international. What was even cooler though is that the entire Warrtahs team (Rugby Union team, presumably here to play against our new and pretty terrible team) was on the plane, as was lead striker for the Perth Glory soccer team, Bobby Despotovski. Obviously there was a media presence and Mum managed to get on TV in the background during one of Bobby's soundbytes on the news last night. I have a couple of blury photos too (I zoomed in a lot and didn't want to use flash, he was getting mobbed enough already).

Come home, unpack the mountain of stuff, go to watch Syriana with Dad, and watch a couple of episodes of Babylon 5. This will be the last entry in this series and regular programming will begin again probably sometime next week.

Now to start saving for the next one...

Fish

2006-03-13T22:56:00.000+08:00

Today I met Dan in Sydney as planned and we had very good, very expensive pancakes, then walked to and over the Harbour Birdge to Kiribilli House, residence of a certain politician, and then went back to the bridge via various slightly illegal means, as well as taking lots of photos. He then went home and I walked to the Opera House and back to the city where I got on a bus and went back here. Sydney has so much better ambience than Perth and just wandering around the central city streets shortly after dark was quite nice in itself.

I'm getting up at 7am and going to the airport several hours early for logistical reasons, then I have to wait ages until my flight leaves and then I'm home, finally. No more suitcases til after Christmas.

Red and White

2006-03-10T21:37:00.000+08:00

I’m now in Sydney, having left Canberra this morning. I got in to Sydney Central at around 3:50pm and had a couple of beers with Shaun Cronin and friend until 6:30 and then figured out how to get to the Kennedy’s place. Since then I have done absolutely nothing, and unless a social engagement presents itself, I will spend tomorrow recovering, starting by sleeping in. Sunday will be consumed by church and Monday I’m meeting Daniel at some point and we’ll spend the day doing something, I don’t know. Then Tuesday I’m outta here back home.

Sydney is just as I remember and envisaged it. I would probably stay longer but I’m already two weeks late for university which is causing enough problems. Same with Canberra, though that’s purely for social reasons, as it’s more boring than an American college town.

Shortest museum visit ever

2006-03-10T21:35:00.000+08:00

8th March 2006

Today I walked to the National Museum. It is so not worth the walk, just don’t bother. Firstly the arhitecture was far too modern and generally strange, then it wasnt even that big, and mostly extremely boring and cringe-worthy. It’s almost like it was made to push a political agenda, as it was amazingly blatant with its editorialising of each exhibit. It was classic left/green stuff and wasn’t really even trying to hide it. It also perpetuates the old, tired, corny, manufactured stereotypes about Australian identity and culture that either no longer apply or are built upon myths or generalisations. It just got worse and worse and more and more blatant. Just, wow. It wasn’t even much good and it didn’t take me long to breeze through it, finding very little of even slight interest.

What is with people living in their own imagined, slanted, bubble world and then making a museum about it that bears the nation’s name?

I know I sound like Andrew Bolt (who greatest hits with commentary from himself has been made into a book, which I had to put down a few minutes after opening it, for fear of throwing it across the Target book section), but honestly, it’s just that bad. The area is pretty though, even if it is a hike.

Bushwhacked

2006-03-10T21:34:00.000+08:00

6th March 2006

I am back on Australian soil. This makes me quite happy as, though America is quite an awesome place, the culture does get a bit soul destroying after a while, and I’m sick of these suitcases. So tomorrow I enter my last week of this saga, somewhat mourfully, and return to Perth next Tuesday and surrender my life to the university work I’m already behind on for a week or so. But first, a stopover in the barbarian lands that are the East of this country.

The Alaskan Airlines flights out of Seattle to LAX was predictably bad, other than the fortune of the mother and daughter next to me vactaing their seats to two empty ones, leaving me with three to myself. The flight from LAX to Sydney was much more enjoyable up to the last hour when we hit what can be guessed as the after-effects of a particularly nasty storm that hit southern Queensland on the weekend, though there were few clouds in the sky. I almost died, the turbulance was so bad - nothing like I’d ever experience before. My stomach has not yet fully recovered.

On the plane I watch HP4, Capote and Good Night and Good Luck. More on those later, suffice to say they made the flight much better. We really do have a good thing going in QANTAS, it is by far the best airline in the world on all fronts - never having had a fatal crash and very few crashes of any description, having a good standard of entertainment, up to date technology, and pretty good customer service.

The Greyhound from Sydney to Canberra was pretty good, there was a movie, which is unheard of on buses in my experience. It was only Catwoman though, not particularly great and the sound wasn’t loud enough. But it did its job and killed a couple of hours. Then what am I assaulted with while waiting at that station for Hannah to finish work? The worst game show of all time, Family Feud, has been revived and hosted by none other than Bert Newton. Australia, can I not leave the country for four months and not have you screw it up? Go to your room and think about what you did.

So now I’m on a farm somewhere south of Canberra and leaving at 7:30am every day this week to go to Canberra and ammuse myself until 5ish. Apparently parliament isn’t sitting, which greatly reduces the number of things to do from one to zero unless Ronnie and Co can conjure something up.

And Crash for best picture? pfffffft...

Sleepless in Seattle

2006-03-10T21:32:00.000+08:00

3rd March 2006

Seattle, a small yet highly important city of less than 1 million nestled in the northwest corner of the United States, yet home to a powerful football team and headquaters of three giant corportations - Starbucks, Boeing and Microsoft. Bit like Galilee really.

It’s a very nice place though. I took the time to do a massive exploration and photo mission of the whole inner city on Friday and see what it has to offer. The answer is quite a lot. It’s very beautiful for a start, with some nice skyscrapers including the world-famous Space Needle, a waterfront ah la Fremantle, and possibly the best markets I have ever seen in my life.

If you ever go there, the two places you want to hit are Pier 66 and the Pike Place Markets. You can die happy once you have been to these markets - some of the best antique, knick-knack, produce and food shopping in such a small area, and with atmosphere to boot. Pier 66 will give you an easy to access skyline view, and behind you the expanse of the sound and the shores beyond it. It won’t cost you the excessive $14 cost of scaling the Space Needle, either.

Then there’s the coffee. If you drink it, there’s plenty of places to try - and I don’t mean the overpriced and overrated Starbucks. Avoid anything that looks like a chain and you’ll be fine. The waterfront also has some fine if odd gift shops and antique stores - the Ye Olde Curiosite Shope is not to be missed.

For the more adventurous, you can always try to rob Bill Gates’ ~~house~~ heavily guarded fortress or steal a Boeing plane for a jaunt down the runway.

Could I live here for any length of time? No, but it’s a nice place to spend a few days. I seriously didn’t sleep very well either, I don’t know why this is so.

Sydney meetup

2006-02-23T15:24:00.000+08:00

So, I'm going to be in Sydney for a few days on my way home, from Friday 10th March til Tuesday 14th March. Seeing as I probably won't be back around those parts for quite some time, I'd like to take the opportunity to say hello to some of the Sydney blog crowd at some low-key meetup.

Anyone from around there have any good ideas?

I tried to ford the river and my oxen died

2006-02-22T16:27:00.000+08:00

The line above is a reference to the Oregon Trail Game, played by a great many American children over many years. Consequently, every university on facebook has a group of nostalgic students using this line as the group name. On my 30+ hour trip from Stockton to Spokane, I passed through Oregon.

Yes, I am serious, it took that long to get here on four seperate Amtrak rides, and is definately on my List of Things I Say I Will Never Do Again But Probably Will. I got several hours to kill in Sacramento AKA ArnoldLand, so I went to the California State Capitol for about half an hour before it closed and got photos of the Governator office door. I also spied a Jonny Rockets in a shopping center, which fixed the problem of finding somewhere to eat for little money. Bottemless lemonades and $1.99 fries later and I can probably survive the ride to some random town just over the border in Oregon. Did I mention how much checked baggage on Amtrak rocks? Yesterday would have been hell (well, moreso) otherwise.

From there it was a long bus ride to Pasco in Washington State, including a stop at a random Oregon town that really isn't a town, more of a pit stop just before a major bridge into Washington with about four stores, a resturant and a couple of petrol stations - and a Maccas. It arrived quite early just after 7pm with my train not arriving til 9pm and then being half an hour late - of course. So I walked around a few dark Pasco streets and found a low-quality but very cheap bakery. Eventually got to Spokane at 12:45, met Joslyn and family, and slept until almost 1pm. It's pretty cold here.

Great balls of fire

2006-02-22T15:47:00.000+08:00

18th February 2006

I was supposed to get on a train to Stockton from San Diego at 10pm Thursday night, but when driving to the station on CA-94 we came face to face with a rather nasty accident that had occured much less than 20 minutes prior. It seems a van or SUV had been involved in a high speed chase with a police car and had crashed into the side of the road, rolled, and caught fire. This is a guess from what I could see at the scene, as there was also a police car with some damage to its front less than 10 meters from the burning veichle and there was a seachlight helicopter hovering overhead.

Soon there were hundreds of cars behind us and at least 50 in front, so we were stuck for over half an hour. Needless to say we were quite late for the train. The reporter in me wanted to jump out of the car and see what was going on as well as take better pictures than the blurry drive-by ones I did get. Smoke and hundreds of car lights do not help the cause of a digital camera. Interestingly enough, there was no press around. They missed a great opportunity with the chaos of the time the westbound traffic was completely blocked. I’d have had a monopoly if I had any way of broadcasting.

It seems like this kind of thing is not unprecedented.

So, eventually got to the station, argued with the desk staff for a while (”Dammit, there was a car ON FIRE in front of us on 94!”) and got on a train at 7:05 Friday morning for an additional $5. Iron Chef, Daily Show, Colbert Report and a Baileys coffee made the annoyance not quite so bad. But really, how many times do you get to see a car ON FIRE less than 30 meters from you? It was cool.

So, had pizza after a three-leg train ride, met up with Bill, and went to some random house parties and room gatherings. There was also a half-hearted poker game in which I came second of six after being short stacked in the sudden death. I though I had him til he pulled a flush on the only had I went all the way with. Not that anyone was playing properly anyway.
Outta here to Spokane tomorrow night at almost midnight for a fun-filled 25 hour train ride. Hopefully my coat will have arrived in the mail by then after I left it in Colorado.

P. S:Bill has just informed me that his team lost their rugby game against San Francisco University 49-8 and only 12 of their players showed up. Lame.

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains, all the cops have wooden legs...

2006-02-22T15:45:00.000+08:00

15th February 2006

I‘m here in San Diego having made a long road trip with Meghan from Colarado on Sunday. It really does feel just like Perth, as I was told it would. This is because it’s around the same lattitude and is protected by hills, just like Perth. This means the climate is rather temperate instead of swinging between extremes. It also has similar humidity and pressure. All this, of course, makes it awesome.

So, on Friday Ben, Ester and I drove down to Colarado Springs to spend time with Ben’s brother Daniel, who is a Lt. Col in the US Air Force and teaches Biology at the Academy there. So we were escorted in to the secure Academy base and spent the night eating the first home cooked meal in quite some time. In the morning we went to the Garden of the Gods which really needs photos to be explained properly, but basically there are many beautiful rock structures. Think of Ayres rock cut up into little pieces and scattered everywhere. There’s also so great mountain views. Then we went back to the Academy and I was persuaded to fly the flight simulator that all cadets learn to fly on. I did fairly well, especially considering the amount Daniel played with my controls remotely to simulate problerms with the aircraft.

Then Sunday was the roadtrip with Meghan to San Diego. We left at around 7am with the back two seats as well as the boot packed solid with her stuff and my bags, as she is moving to San Diego and we conveniently combined the trips. There were also her two cats, which could not be left in their cages because they would freak out more than they already were, and would make noise constantly. So we left them roaming around the car, which was interesting at times as photos will show. I have scratches all over my body :/

It was a reasonably pleasant trip with much cool scenery. Yes, we drove past the Big Rock Candy Mountains and throuhg Las Vegas, though missed the Grand Canyon because the roads were closed. We finally arrived at around 2:30am after Meghan woke me up from a 40-mile nap “Nic, the interstate is gone!” What had happened was that there was some work done on some of the lanes so we got forced into an exit somehow. My awesome map skills got us there without too much trouble once we figured out what had happened.

We’ve basically just been chilling since we got here and dealing with a house that you can tell was populated only by guys Meghan has bought latex gloves and set about fixing this. It’s an awesome house though. And there is like 15lb each of hot dogs and mince in the freezer. What the hell? Now I have to work out how to get to Stockton tomorrow, if Portland is going to work, and how to deal with the fast exploding Seattle issue. Should all be good though, I hope.

Note about Friday night

2006-02-22T15:42:00.000+08:00

8th February 2006

Two things of interest on Friday night I’d like to go into a little bit more detail about. Firstly at the arcade there was a room full of the usual video game shooters such as the ever-present Virtua Cop and Time Crisis and so forth that are a vital part of every arcade in the world. This room was totally seperate from the rest of the arcade and was restricted to those 17 and older.

I take exception to this, mostly on sentimentality. In Australia there is the universally known arcade giant Timezone, which has a wide variety of games including those in the 17+ section of the arcade we visited on Friday. Timezone, whether intentional or not, has always had a somewhat community feel to it on the very few occasions I went there to waste my parents’ money as a kid. Part of this was that when a good player of any of the games in question got a reasonable distance through the notoriously long and difficult levels, a small but gradually increasing crowd would stand around to watch - not which doing something else, but just stand and do nothing but watch this guy play, hoping that just maybe you would finally see someone finish it. By confining these games to a small room that allows only those 17 and over - definately not the majoity attendance of any given arcade - you severely reduce or even destroy this phenomenom, which I think is sad.

Secondly, I’ve always been facinated by the way rock climbers, no matter if it’s their first or 1000th time, always have almost exactly the same instincts. The way they look up a wall to plan their path, the way they test their footing before putting all their weight on it, the way they feel around potential hand holds with their hands and eyes, the way they watch their feet when swapping them, the way they relax their arms before attempting a particularly difficult stretch - if you watch enough climbers, and especially when you climb yourself semi-regularly, you will notice the uncanny similarities. I just find this very interesting, even if it’s something that must be observed and doesn’t translate well to paper.

Mile high

2006-02-19T12:52:00.000+08:00

I apologise profusely for lack of updates, I haven't been at a PC that would let me login and Blogger has been playing up. Dates of these entries are bolded at the top, this one is from Februaruy 8th.

I’m now in Fort Collins, Colarado, just outside of Denver and staying with family friend Ben Atchley and family. We’re right up in the mountains, which I haven’t seen anything like since I was eight and went to the snowy mountains around Canberra, except these are far higher. US Airways/ America West flight here from Houston via Phoenix was only marginally better than the United flight to Austin on the 29th of last month. Im sensing the trend that US domestic flights are supposed to suck. Only two more to go.

On Friday Carolyn and I drove into Austin from College Station, via the mall (guess the results), to meet back up with Mandy, then we went out to eat with Mike and Amy, a couple of other friends of ours, and Amy’s two kids. Mike and I, being the only two guys, ended up spending most of the time discussing 24 and sports, while the five girls talked about whatever it is girls talk about. We took the kids to an arcade afterwards and they and Carolyn also did a bit of rock climbing while the rest of us just watched. Later Mike and Amy dropped the kids off at a relative’s place and we met up and a diner for dessert because the club we wanted into was over 21 (stupid country).

Saturday there was a big birthday dinner for Mandy with her family (it was actually her birthday on Sunday, but that being Superbowl, it had to be on Saturday), including Levi who continued to affirm that he thinks I’m generally awesome for some reason. Carolyn and Levi’s four-year-old brother Micha also spent a large amount of time pulling faces at each other. We were considering going to a party with Mike and Amy after, but got lazy and instead spent the night playing cards until 1am.

The place we went to is called Cheddars. If anyone reading this ever goes to Texas, you will find one of these resturants and you will go eat at it. You will the order the baked potato soup because it is the best food in the world. Seriously. This is probably these best thing I have ever eaten in my entire life. Explaining to you just how good it is would probably tear a whole in the universe. Just buy a plane ticket to Austin now and go, it’s so worth it.

Drove back to A&M at some ungodly hour of the morning and watched several straight episodes of the FBI files, napped, took photos from the top level of the library and, of course, watched the Superbowl which the Steelers won (yay underdogs!). I can’t get over the 75 yard dash for a touchdown by one of the defenders, plus both the quaterbacks getting nailed before they could make a play several times, which is, by the way, hilarious every time.

Monday was another early start for Sociology and Philosophy (Nieche is so much better than Plato), then we made a beeline for Houston airport and got there well before my plane left, so I wrote on no less than ten postcards I’d been procrastinating and read week-old NYTs. Then the flight was delayed so I talked to random people. Met up with Ben without a hitch, which is the second hitchless leg in a row. Something is going to go badly wrong at some point to make up for this.

On Tuesday we drove around the mountains looking and scenery, elk, and random little mountain towns with rock shops that I spent over $50 in. Then we went to one of the biggest resturants in the world for dinner in Denver. It’s a Mexican place called “Big White House” in Spanish - Casa Something, and it has a number of distinctly themed areas to eat in, Mexican bands, divers into a pool in the middle, and all you can eat dishes for a little over $10. The food is great but not amazing, but you can’t put a price on the experience - particularly on a Friday or Saturday night, I’m told. Go there, seriously.

When I was 14 I was stupidly running my hand along a wooden log fence at my high school and managed to wedge a splinter of woon underneath my nail, and it needed microsurgery at the doctors to extract it. I did the same thing at the resturant on the wooden counter when I went to pick up my tray. Fortunately it wasn’t quite as bad as in high school, and I was, with great difficulty, able to remove it myself with a pair of tweesers once we got home. Perhaps I should sue the resturant, that’s the done thing in America, right?

It's different when you see their faces

2006-02-16T04:34:00.000+08:00

While waiting for my flight in Houston after it was delayed I was watching a CNN News story at the gate about Bush’s new budget, including a 7% increase in defence spending and additional money for Iraq and Afghanistan. This was followed up by details of how there is still a long way to go in Iraq. A young man sitting next to me said, “I’ll be there in two months.” He was a US Army soldier returning home to California from holiday. He can’t have been older than 22. In just a couple of weeks he had to report back to his unit and within a couple of months he would be shipped off to Iraq.

He’d been on a long holiday with some friends, doing as much as he could before he left for the Middle East, knowing full well that there is a possibility that he won’t return. What’s a lot of money for a last holiday, and $500 for repairing a car you crashed during it when it’s no good to you if you die? You can’t take it with you. I guess not.

He’d drawn the short straw, with some of his comrades instead being stationed in Hawaii - sun, surf and girls being infinitely more palatable than miles of sand and the possibility of being shot at.

Why do it? Others in his family had joined the Navy and Air Force, so he figured he would join the Army to cover all the bases. He loves it, he says, but like so many other recruits, this isn’t what he signed up for. Towards the end of our conversation he paused to call his brother to let him know the flight was delayed. “I don’t want to go,” he said. “Can I stay with you? I’ll go AWOL.”

We talked about his desire to travel Europe some day. Hopefully he’ll get that opportunity.

Howdy Aggies

2006-02-02T12:59:00.000+08:00

I'm currently in Carolyn's Texas A&M University dorm room. Apparently this university is staunchly conservative, though most of the professors I've seen appear to be reasonably liberal (albeit very few), not that any of this matters, but it's at least slightly interesting. They also have a very healthy ROTC, which, back in the day (read: 1800s) was compulsory and it was an all male university. It's amusing to see all the ROTC boys wearing their uniform around everywhere, especially the seniors with theirs boots, which are apparently huge status symbols.

Yesterday in Austin I went to the Texas Capitol building, which, though quite small and limited from a sighseeing perspective, is very cool architecturaly. And George Bush was governor, so it's just amusing to see where he spent his previous political life. They also have mascots - the grandchildren of members - included in the framed photosets of each year's legislature. This seems odd to me. But it's Texas, so whatever.

Then we went to Mandy's uncle and aunt's place and ate icecream and debated the virtues of pickup trucks. The youngest kid who can't be older than 18 months, seemed to like me a great deal for some unknown reason. He ate most enthusiatically when I fed him icecream, but turned his head away from Carolyn. You had to be there. Then we drove to College Station and got lost and took at least an extra hour to get there.

Today I was smuggled into philosophy, sociology and logic classes. I understood the first two very well but got lost half way through logic because it's basically maths and stuff and I'm not so great at that. Then it rained a LOT and we got rather wet, even though it was sunny for most of the beginning of the day. Better not rain tomorrow, I have photobanditing to do.

It's Superbowl on Sunday, yay!

United Airlines: Uniting to make you airsick until we go bankrupt like everyone else

2006-01-30T16:00:00.000+08:00

I'm in Texas, land of decent weather, big hats and George W. Bush. Flight was terrible and I had a connection in Chicago, so there was a second even more terrible flight. Mercifully they were both short. The housemate of the person I'm staying with, until Wednesday when Carolyn stops studying lots and comes over here to Austin, has the smallest dog I have ever seen in my life, it's cute!

Also, I think the last time I went to bed before 2am was in 2005.

Rhythm and Blues

2006-01-29T16:01:00.000+08:00

Today the caffeteria was awful. Just absolutely terrible. I'm told this is normal for weekends, though I don't see why this should be so. In addition to the normally terrible orange juice there was a distinct lack of pizza, soup that did not deserve the name, and very bland desserts. I felt like I got screwed with my pants on. Also: whats with the vegan cheese?

Tonight Holly and I went to a random birthday party which was Ok but reasonably lame. Following that we went to a frat party down the road. This was mich more my kind of party. It had a large and active dance floor. It could have gone better but I didn't do too badly and there's plenty of things I can take away from it. There's always far too many guys and it's so counter-productive when girls who are definately heterosexual dance with each other. What's with that? I'm very tired and my legs hurt, I'm definately too tall and couching sucks. But, fun, so I can sleep relatively happy.

Curse of the Madden

2006-01-27T17:29:00.000+08:00

Football of any type has it's curses. The Curse of the Madden, the Derby Hangover, The House of Pain to name a few. My trip also has one. A recurring theme is that every travel between locations, no matter what the size, complication or method of transport, will have some kind of hitch or added complication - either due to unforseen circumstances, incomplete planning or my own incompetence (mostly the latter). How I paint myself into these corners and then get out of them is beyond me.

Anyway, Bucknell was rather fun though short lived. Went to a frat part on Wednesday night before Kyle and I drove to Harrisburg to catch my train. The party is what's known as a mixer - the frat hosts members of a sorority in their house, or are hosted in the sorority by the girls. There is much merriment and beer pong playing. It was pretty good, but my record has been reduced to 4-6. This must be fixed before I leave the country. By the time we left it was dying down anyway. Drove to the train in Harrisburg and had a good chat about many things, then got on it and left. So far so good.

Arrive in New York a few minutes ahead, grab and NYT, sit around reading the sports section for a bit over an hour before getting on the train to New Haven. I then have to transfer to Merriden at New Haven. I've had essentially now sleep, have a bad cold and haven't eaten very well, so I mis-hear an announcement and don't get off at New Haven. I have to get off at New London, go back to New Haven and then go to Meriden. This process takes exactly three hours and 20 mobile phone units. Finally I get to Wesleayn University some time after 2pm, talk to Holly and Mitchel for a bit, and crash.

Slept on and off til like 8:30 then went to some wine and cheese thing and then for random midnight food with a bunch of her friends while the dorm room was cleaned (you'd think it wasnt the same room now). Holly's friend Xue has a pet hamster I got to say hi to, and Holly has a hedgehog named Winston who's been asleep the whole day. Wes also has showers that give me nightmares due to lack of privacy. Basically you put your stuff on this window sill, the only dry place in the room, have your shower in a cubicle, then make sure the room is empty, then duck out and get dry and changed, praying that no one comes into the room. Add that it's unisex and, well, AU wins by a lot.

We have a party in this room tomorrow night which should be entertaining.

I'll have another go at sleeping now. Overtiredness is bad.

We love you Mr Roosevelt, we think you're fine

2006-01-23T18:00:00.000+08:00

I'm now at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA. I also have the worst cold I have had in quite some time, it's been getting progressively wrose in the last couple of days to the point where I have no stamina and have to have a constant tissue supply. I also have one hell of a headache now. No wonder I was exhausted after walking around Washington all day Saturday.

Friday I did finally go to Arlington and the Pentagon along with Teddy Roosevelt Island. Arlington Cemetary is quite large with probably hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of headstones. Presidents Taft and of course JFK are also buried there. Some of it's monuments are also stunning, as with much of Washington. I also got to see a funeral processession leaving the cemetary - including fire engines. You can get through the whole thing in probably a few hours. I must also be crazy because I crossed several lanes of major traffic in a couple of shortcuts I made on the way there from Teddy Island and to the Pentagon, along with climbing numerous walls.

Pentagon is actually rather unintersting. You need a lot of elevation to see the shape and grandeur of the thing, from the side it just looks like a massive office building of no particular interest - which, I suppose, is exactly what it is. They don't allow photographs either. Not really worth bothering with other than to say you've seen it.

Friday Cyn had a party in the suite, which is two dorm rooms, one with her and Sarah and the other with Kitty and Loralee, connected by a bathroom. Watched Battlestar there at 1am after all but half a dozen if us were gone, there was at least 20 originally. Saturday I hit as much of the remainder of DC as I could in one day, took over 100 photos which will be avaliable later. Went to dinner and then a couple of other parties, then messed around talking to people until 6am. Today was just the ritual 1pm brunch at TDR, then watching half the Pittsburgh vs Denver game before it was time to leave and catch my bus to Harrisburg. Lipe and I only just made it in time as it took as a bit longer than expected to get organised.

Got to Harrisburg fine a met up with Kyle, then we drived through the rain to Lewisburg, watched some random TV with his girlfriend and her friends, then the last half of The Italian Job and now I'm wasting time online. I'm five floors up without a lift, this is going to be fun...

Mexican mayhem

2006-01-20T13:28:00.000+08:00

Today I didn’t get up until 2pm so I didn’t go into the city like I had planned to, but I will do so tomorrow. I had a stomach ache when I woke up at 9:30 so I went back to sleep. I think I might becoming down with something because my stamina isn’t that good and I keep getting a sore throat.

Mexican making went more or less well. Little Sam, Matt and I went to the grocery store and bought four packs of enchildas and 4lbs of chicken along with some general supplies and ingredients for Matt’s cheesecake, which is currently cooling. We didn’t have a spare baking tray so we were forced to cheat a bit and ended up not using the sauce, just the cheese sauce and flavouring, and didn’t heat the tortias. I think it turned out ok.

Loralee and I walked to the National Cathedral, which is very awesome, stunning on the insisde and out. Also finally booked two out of three of my flights. I should have done this a while ago because i missed a couple of really cheap flights, but I’m only like $20 down or something, but whatever.

I dunno what’s going on tonight, everyone seems to have gone into their rooms. I think a few people aren’t in great moods but I’m totally missing everything, which I think is a good thing. It’s just me, Lipe, Goose and Kitty watching The Office on TV right now.

I love watching TV shows live, too. On the Corbert Report he mentioned locatecell.com and the site was maxed out when I tried to go to it right after he said it - everyone else watching it had the same idea. hah.

Hill resigned? They’re dropping like flies, there will be no one left.

How The Black Dog Kills Aussie Males

2006-01-19T19:22:00.000+08:00

Nic, in his latest missive from the States, mentions the resignation of WA Premier Geoff Gallop.

I don’t know much about WA politics but the cited reason for Gallop’s resignation was depression. Over at LP I blogged about two problems within Rugby League culture. One was related to the death of Steve Rogers who was struggling with depression. Australian males (me included) are reticent lot. We tend to internalize our struggles, not letting onto our mates what problems we have.

Hence it was with anger to note on some discussions regarding Gallops’ resignation the implication that he was too weak to cope with depression. A real man would have soldiered on and dealt with it. I have no idea about Geoff Gallop as a person but such comments are very wrong. This blinkered, macho mindset is what helps prevent Aussie males from being able to discuss such issues. If we are depressed we feel that the only way to cope is to stoically endure the black dog. This is what kills us.

To deal with depression we must face it head on and have the support we need to deal with it. That is to be open, to have someone to talk to and to be able to admit to a problem without fearing that you are less of man by doing so.

Kangaroo sensi checking in

2006-01-19T17:23:00.000+08:00

Hi people, I am alive.

I'm currently in very awesome Washington DC with Amanda and friends, crashing on a couple of her friends, Patrick and Lipe's, floor next door. This room is pretty much the life of Anderson 3 North, as the section we're living in is known, and there are often up to a dozen people in the tiny dorm room playing Halo, watching TV or just sitting around. This is both good and bad in that you get to easily socialise with lots of friendly people, but you often don't get to bed until crazy times like 3:30am as I am posting at now. But, I never go to bed until late anyway so it's all good.

Thursday night back in Morgantown was also rather lame, went to a bar which was crowded, filled with guys and not as interesting as we hoped. We couldn't get into the club we wanted to because the line was massive and freezing to death is so overrated. So we just went hope a little earlier than usual after messing around getting food for a while. Friday night was the house party at Chris' round the corner at which we played yet more beer pong and looked after a couple of girls who were amazingly drunk. That was a very fun night. Then went back to Nick's place and hung out with Nick and his roomates until ridiculously late, as usual.

Saturday was unfortunately time to leave. After a spat of nice days, this one had snow. The plan was for Nick and I to drive to Cumberland, about an hour from Morgantown and then for the esteemed Cam Riley to drive me in his black sports car to DC. This of course did not go according to plan, like every other aspect of this trip so far. Nick's heating decided now would be a great time to break, so we could not see out the windscreen in the snow and cold. We got about 20 miles down the road before giving up and turning back. Fortunately Cam was cool enough to drive the rest of the way to Morgantown and crisis was more or less averted. There was lemon soft drink at the buffet place in DC we had dinner at, much to my surprice and excitement, having been deprived of it for over two months.

Met Amanda in the car park and she insisted on carrying my bag inside, despite its ridiculous weight. Saturday night was spent playing karaoke, much to my embarassment, watching Sernity, playing poker and losing badly to Goose, and playing more karaoke. We were up until 6:30am. This feat was bettered by 7am the next night, which I spent playing werewolf until 2am, talking to Amanda until 4am and then watching the end of Finding Nemo and discussing politics of Lipe.

Other nights have been more of the same, pretty much. We went on a few expeditions to see monuments at night, as they are lit up and look awesome, and watched much Family guy, Simpsons and of course the 24 premiere and Monday's BSG repeat. There's so much to do in Washington that I'm going to find it hard to fit it all in, even having extended my stay until Sunday. Today me and Lipe struggled to get through Museum of American History and Museum of Natural History in one day. There are of course billions of photos and there will be more to come.

So, yes, enjoying my stay in DC possibly more than any of the other legs on this trip so far. Apparently I fit in rather well and everyone wants me to stay and then transfer here next semester. awwww. It's going to suck to leave, I could so live here for a god few months longer. Maybe I'll ship them all to Perth for a while. But seriously, I love everyone and am having a great time.

Tomorrow I shall hit up Arlington and the Pentagon, and then as much of the rest of the city as possible before the sun sets, then do the rest on Friday and so forth. Parties Friday and Saturday nights, excellent. I'm also attempting to cook large amounts of kit mexican food tomorrow night, which will of course be a disaster, but I'll do my best. Plenty of girls around to bail me out anyway. Speaking of which, apparently I'm capable of eating more than anyone else, and I'm not even trying as my stomach is still used to not eating very much at all. I did learn that the TDR cafeteria hot dogs are most definately not edible and the university makes its money by charging $2.75 for washing. Insane.

Lots of others stuff to talk about and in more detail, but this post is long enough already. That'll teach me to update so infrequently.

P. S: Geoff Gallop resigns to battle depression? What the hell?

A Good Old Fashioned Scandal To Start The Year

2006-01-19T16:36:00.000+08:00

I’ve had a bit of a post New Year blogging ennui while Nic is gallivanting around the US. But there is nothing like a good scandal to get things going again.

The Australian Wheat Board (AWB) looks like it paid about $300 million worth of kickbacks to the Saddam’s Iraqi regime. A better scandal to start the year you could not find and Mike Steketee’s column in the The Australian is worth reading.

But let us visit what Howard said last year:

"My dealings with the people in AWB in the past have always been some that I've found have always been a very straight up and down group of people," he told ABC radio.

"And I can't, on my knowledge and understanding of the people involved, imagine for a moment that they would have knowingly be involved in anything improper."

Howard is right about Andrew Lindberg in that he would not have knowingly become involved in a shady deal. I hear that DFAT regulars says that ole Lindy would lose his head if it wasn't screwed on. One of those lovable but forgetful types. I mean he earns $800,000 a year and has pressure. He can't be expected to remember every little thing that happened.

Given his memory lapses I have every confidence that Lindberg had no idea what was going on. Or even what he was doing. Then again his memory miraculously returns and he remembers it was the AWB that was channelling the money and not the UN’s fault as he claimed last year. And oh yeah, we misled investors as well. Loves a bit of a joke old Lindy.

Ghandi points out that while Howard deliberately made sure the terms of the commission could not investigate the government, the AWB seems intent to get the government involved. They are not going down alone.

This may make for interesting times indeed. Unless John Quiggin’s prescience from experience turns out to be correct.

Yellow ribbons

2006-01-10T03:02:00.000+08:00

If I see another "support our troops" ribbon I'm going to snap. They're everywhere.

Word association

2006-01-09T12:07:00.000+08:00

Last night didn't go entirely according to plan, of course. Went to some party and played more pong, Nick and I continued to play well. Hung around there until around 11pm then went downtown to the club. Unfortunately I forgot my passport and they refused to accept my other forms of ID, even though they clearly show my birthdate. Why is this country so anal?

We weren't there long anyway so I just hung around in coffee shops annoyed with myself. Consolation, I "borrowed" a book on taking travel photos from one of them. Went back to Shaun's place and the five of us (I've so given up on names) and played some progressively stupid drinking games such as complete the sentence and word association, which eventually involved playfully insulting each other in extremely unrepeatable ways. And Elton John for some reason. In fact he keeps coming up, as I'll get to later. Didn't get home until after 5am.

Today me, Nick and his sister drove to his parent's place in Cumberland, about an hour away, and got his car fixed properly (i.e. with something other than tape), then drove back via some poking around in Cumberland, napped (running on 4hrs sleep) and watched a new West Wing episode (squee). It sucks than John Spencer is dead, the show really needs him. Nothing is really happening tonight, hence me being on the PC, and tomorrow looks to also be rather quiet, though we may find a house party or get some people up here, or something. These apartments have too many guys.

Not a lot else to report that isn't self incriminating.

Oh yeah. Put glasses on Nick's little brother and he looks like Elton John. There are photos, everyone be patient, I'm dealing with over 500 of them.

I rock at beer pong

2006-01-08T06:45:00.000+08:00

I'm currently in part of supposedly "Real America", the gun-toting, teeth-missing, Bush-voting West Virginia. Tony and I made the 3-4hr drive out here, which was fine until the last hour when the fog and cold decended very quickly. I'm in Morgantown at Nick's place now, which is a room in the top floor of a student apartment complex for the University of West Virginia, this room has other rooms so it's like a little apartment for up to four people, all with their own bathrooms. It is like a college dorm but not. Of course, the same priciples apply.

Something must be wrong with me because I've drunk an unspecified number of beers since getting here. They aren't great, being beer, but I can tolerate them enough to have a few. We went out to a friends place about five minutes away and played beer pong, which is basically getting a ping pong ball and shooting it into a group of cups on the other side of the table. If you getit in, the opposing team has to drink that cup. The object of the game is to still have cups standing at the end. Me and Nick won convincingly in the first game, and I sunk my first two shots and three of my first four - which makes me awesome, apparently. The second game neither of us could hit the side of a barn. The white Russian with double the usual $30 vodka may have had something to do with that.

Last night was reasonably lame. There are no girls in town this early, so it was pretty much all guys. I missed the first 15 minutes of the BSG episode (which was insane but I'll rant about that later) but because nothing was happening I watched the rest of it. Me, Nick and one of his roomates watched some random George Clooney, Nicole Kidman, Balkan terrorists and a bomb in NYC - all the good stuff - and then went to a party downstairs and watched Team America til 3:30am. The girls show up today (including the other two roomates who arrived a few hours ago) so things may get more interesting and diverse than guys doing guys stuff. There's some party tonight and we may go clubbing.

"If you've seen one horse, you've seen 'em all"

2006-01-05T17:10:00.000+08:00

Such was today's expedition to Washington DC. It basically consisted of us driving in and arriving around 1pm and driving around the various random monuments scattered around the northern part of the center city in various circles and parks. These are the sights you need a car for, as walking between them would be a major pain. The way we did it was to drive up to one, jump out of the car, then the driver keeps going or parks somewhere illegal while you take a couple of photos and hop back in the car at a traffic light or at said illegal parking place. This seems to work quite well and we got them all plus the area around Union Station and the City Museum. Still plenty to do when Im back in DC later. Ate at this resturant next to the Postal Museum and had a drink that cost more than the food, no wonder it was so strong.

Very different city to New York and other metropolis, much less busy, much slower and laid back - probably because it's populated mostly by students, public servants, politicials and aides and press. I like it for different reasons to NYC, but I havent seen the downtown bits yet.

Camera, oh yes the camera. I bought a new one, plus a new 512MB memory card as it was on special. It's a Cannon this time and is rather kickass, definately better than its predecessor. It was almost $190US though, and the memory card was $40, plus the $20 extended warranty.

Driving to West Virginia tomorrow, weather permitting, and I'm as you can see, up very late dealing with photographs, ugh. Theres so many.

Dropping the ball

2006-01-03T04:41:00.000+08:00

New York, what do you say about a city like that? It's a thriving super metropolis filled with rugged up, aggressive driving, styrofoam cup coffee sipping, high rent paying, sidewalk shopping New Yorkers that never closes, never slows down yet it takes you more than half an hour to go a few dozen blocks. It's not a pretty city, most of it is very dirty to the point of probably being beyond cleaning, and with so much rubbish from overflowing bins, building works and badly designed buildings from that period each city went through where boring arcitecture was the rage its not astheticly pleasing outside the landmark areas - and even Times Square is one big corporate advertisement bonanza, I don't think I've ever seen a bigger invasion of public space by private adviertising in my life.

But it is one of the best cities in the world; full of life, culture and vitality with an infinite number of things to see and do, and great places to eat and stay - if you have the money. If I had enough money, I would love to live there for a while. Maybe I'll write for the NYT for a year or so one day.

So after heading out from Toronto I spent a couple of days in Rochester, in fact out until 3am on boxing day night and the driving around the city looking at its few landmarks. Unfortunately we ran out of light pretty fast so the skyline photos will be very grainy and almost unsalvageable, but it was a pretty fun day. Amtraked down to Washington DC where Tony picked me up and we drove to Sterling, not too far down the road from Dulles Airport. On New Years Eve in the morning we made the five hour drive to New York City and after much messing around, parked the car at around 1pm and spent a couple of hours walking around sightseeing before driving to our hotel room, dropping off our stuff and then getting organised to get on the subway to Times Square. We should have left a lot faster somehow because we ended up being over six blocks away from the ball.

It's a circus. Hundreds of thousands of people standing in line around security checkpoints, then being herded into pens by police (it would so suck to be a cop that night) to stand around in the cold in the biggest mosh pit in the world for hours until midnight comes around, the ball drops and spectacular fireworks go off. Fortunately the people around us were quite cool so we had bouts of reasonable conversation and random bursts of cheering for no reason other than the need to alivieate boredem. There was even a few familiar accents which I really needed to hear, having not heard any since Fosters commercials in England. It threatened to rain and poured down when we were at our hotel near the airport, but didn't rain and stayed only slighly below freezing the whole night. The waiting sucks, your body hates standing around for over six hours and because we were six blocks back we couldn't really see all that much, and couldn't enjoy the live entertainment and free balloons and sparklers to wave around for the cameras, but the atmosphere, even if not as good that far back, and the fact that you can say you did it, just can't be bought. It's worth it, do it if you have the chance, just get half a dozen people and camp out at the front from around noon or so - I have to do this in a year or two.

Got back to the hotel via Burger King (first meal since a Maccas breakfast) at some ridiculous time of night, and then slept until leaving at around noon he next day to spend the day sightseeing. We unfortunately didn't get up the Empire State Building as the line was ridiculously long, probably with people from out of town doing the same thing we were. I was somewhat dissapointed we didn't see a whole bunch of things I had wanted to (I haven't seen the Statue of Liberty, for example) due to time and New York being so big with too many things to see, but we got to do quite a bit anyway and I know a lot more about the city in so I'm better prepared for future trips, which will most certainly follow when I have the cash and time.

Drove back to Sterling via a ridiculous amount of messing around in New York's streets, crammed with taxis and other drivers both from the city and out of towners like ourselves who's come in from the festivities, bumper to bumper for the whole length of Manhattan. You have to be 18 to drive in Manhattan, and I think that's for good reason, especially on Sundays where illegal turns disappear and all the rules go out the window. There is no way I would do it if I didn't have a lot of driving experience. The lights are rather pretty though, especially on the famous skyscrapers. The minute you get out of the Holland tunnel into New Jersey you're greeted by half a dozen petrol stations, as there are only a few in the whole of Manhattan, and they are obviously overpriced like everything else in such an expensive city.

Unfortunately, my camera is broken. Obviously, this is a serious problem. I have called Kodak, but I'm concerned that I'll not have a camera for Washington, which would obviously be a disaster. Also with $25 to FedEx it to Rochester (Kodak HQ, oh the irony) $35 to get it back fast rather than ridiculously slow, and the fact that my warranty has expired so I will have to pay $x for the repair or trade in, it's probable that the combination of the cost and time and risk of not having a camera at the right time does not justify the endeavour and I may as well buy a new camera and deal with my current one when I get back to Australia. Hopefully the parents would be ok with this course of action, but from my 6:30am call with Dad it seems they would be if I don't buy some expensive megacamera. Stupid camera, there's enough stupid stuff going on, especially after Toronto, that this extra stress is really not welcome.

Off to crazy West Virginia with Nick on Thursday afternoon, still logistics to deal with there. At least I have mobile phone now.

Why am I watching celebrity poker at 4:39am? Goodnight America.

Lying or Incompetent. Take Your Pick.

2005-12-19T19:57:00.000+08:00

A politician was caught out misleading parliament again. Some seem to think this is not much ado about anything. Others seem to think that it is something when a major piece of legislation is rushed through parliament and it that the public was somehow misinformed.

Costello’s argument is that:

"A report was carried in The Australian on November 5, 2005, which said that there had been specially commissioned advice from the Treasury and ... not me, but Treasury put out a statement saying that there hadn't been specially commissioned advice from the Treasury in relation to that.

This is not the first time a department has taken the fall for the failings of a minister. Nor the first time a minister seems blissfully unaware of what is going on in his own department on important matters.

Christian Kerr in Crikey points out the obvious:

McKinnon and Lewis have another story:

According to the documents obtained, a Treasury executive minute on the workplace relations policy was sent to Mr Costello on October 6. It argued the "economic case for reform", including expectations of higher employment growth, while claiming that productivity would initially be "suppressed."

Treasury pointedly argued that wages growth would be slower under the new industrial relations system.
So… Does this mean Costello misled the House or isn't doing his paperwork properly?

Either way it is pretty damning. If he misled the House on such an important issue he should resign. One aspect of the debate over the IR reform has been the distinct lack of economic evidence presented by the pro-side. The best argument seemed to be “Trust us. We know what we are doing.” Evidently any trust was misplaced. The IR reforms represent significant changes for the workplace and should have been debated with openness and honesty, not deception or gagging debate.

On the other hand, if Costello’s paperwork or lack of knowledge regarding what his department it up is at fault then that is no excuse. I would very dubious of a Treasurer who, in the course of formulating major economic policy, fails to consult his department. If that is the case then the Treasury seems to have no purpose for the Treasurer in terms of advice.

Finally Costello (ignoring his department again)

..... questioned the accuracy of the Treasury documents, which show the workplace changes passed by Parliament in early December will deliver smaller wage rises for low income earners and cut productivity in the short term.

I wonder what economic papers the Costello did or did not read to arrive that conclusion? And would he tell us anyway?

Cross posted at Larvatus Prodeo

Tookie and the needle

2005-12-17T01:39:00.000+08:00

It's a bit of a firestorm here in North America, the execution in California of Crips gang founder Stanley Tookie Williams by lethal injection a few days ago. As with every other well publicised execution, opponents and supporters of the death penalty have used it as a rallying cry to advance their ideological position. I, with a much more sober and noncommital opinion, simply watch the fireworks and wait for the news cycle to move on to, arguably, a more important issue. However, I feel the need to discuss this at least a little as I am on the right continenet.

Unlike many who rail for or against the application of capital punishment, I have no strong ideological position either way. There are certainly positives and negatives to each side, as with most arguments, but I think more so with this issue. Capital punishment has the advantage of being a strong deterrant for serious crimes, and on reducing the load on already overcrowding prisons, but has the disadvantage of possibly executing an innocent man, with no possibility of release should new evidence come to light, and in the same way leaves no opportunity for rehabilitation - in my mind one of the most important functions of the prison system.

To me, screaming bloody murder is almost a tangent to the issue of the viability of capital punishment as a concept. Many against it regard it's application as tantamount to state-sanctioned murder, but I believe this to be fundamentally incorrect. As with the Ten Commandments, there is an often overlooked distinction between killing and murder. Killing is the taking of another life by whatever means, but murder is different as it is an unsanctioned killing, hence the language of the Ten Commandments and modern law including murder and not killing. Capital punishment is by definition not murder because it is legally upheld by the law of the land, as with killing in self defence and an act of war.

Having established the legitimacy of it's legal standing, is capital punishment morally justified? One of the arguments against it is that killing of another human being is wrong no matter what the circumstances, but again this overlooks the obvious justification of killing in self defence, rendering that reason largely contradictory. Once you reach the inescapable conclusion that in some circumstances killing is justified, the morality becomes less of a short-sighted iedological absolute, and more of a sober examination of it's benefits versus shortcomings - if this renders it significantly beneficial to society as a whole, then it's institution is justified.

This contemplation is where the discussion of the viability of capital punishment should remain, and not stray into the abstract and high-horsed supposed moral superiority of bloodlust, retribution or pacifism. These arguments should be identified and disregarded. The sober debate over viability and justification continues, as it should, and my position is undecided.

However there are two aspects of the institution that warrant universal condemnation, especially in the case of Tookie Williams. First is the method of execution. Letal injection is an ineffective and unnecessarily complicated procedure that causes unnecessary harm to the condemned and cost to the taxpayer. Execution need not be more painful and distressing than necessary, therefore it should be as quick and painless as possible, but also efficient. Lethal injection is relatively painless, but as it took Tookie more than 12 minutes to die and was cumbersome, it clearly does not fulfil other requirements. It is bettered even by a bullet to the brain which, though messy, is quick, painless and costs only one bullet. When such an alternative is arguably better, the method is clearly inadequete.

Second is the length of time Tookie spent on death row, more than 24 years. This is not uncommon, and there have been numerous studies, mostly conducted by those against the death penalty, that conculsively determine that a stay on death row of longer than a period of months causes unnecessary mental anguish to the prisoner. As above, this is not acceptable. Also, an excessive length of time between crime and punishment dilutes the powerful deterrant value of punishment, as society can less easily equate the crime with the punishment.

Cesare Beccaria, in his 1764 essay "On Crimes and Punishment", writes:

"...the smaller the lapse of time between the misdeed and the punishment, the stronger and more lasting the association in the human mind between the ideas crime and punishment. The former will come to be sensed as the cause and the latter as the necessary, inexorable effect."

Clearly a 24 year gap is not what Beccaria envisaged.

For capital punishment to be a viable and justifiable institution in the fight against crime, it must, regardless of aforementioned central debates, be reformed into a more effective institution, better able to fulfil it's role in the criminal justice system.

Airports are bad

2005-12-17T01:32:00.000+08:00

I'm finally in Toronto after the absurdity of the last few days. I think it's Friday today? They seem to have all blended into one. The point of traveling certainly isnt what you do when you get there, it's how you get there. The saga goes roughly like this...

Saturday 10th: Went out on campus for a drink with Steph, a friend of the guy I was on the plane to London with. I kinda knew my way there from our sad attempt at a campus pubcrawl the night before with Russel and Co., and I got directions to the right bar once I arrived. Missed the last bus home due to my incompetence at reading the timetable, so I walked an hour which was actually quite nice. I got very little sleep as I got home at 3am and got up to go to church at the priory (I thought it would be cool to go to church in a 900 year old church building).

Sunday 11th, 17:30: Leave Russel's house, go to Lancaster train station, wait for the train which is late. Transfer at Preston, wait yet another 20 minutes for the transfer to Bolton. Arrive at Bolton around 19:30. Graeme, Emma and I hang around for a while, eat sausages (my only actual meal for the day) then the two of them and some friends go watch Narnia while I organise myself for the next day. I'm up until 2:30 uploading photos.

Monday 12th, 5:00: Wake up, get taxi at 5:15 to Bolton station. Train is late again and finally comes at 6am. Get to Manchester and wait for the bus to arrive, it is late also and I don't leave on it until 7am.

Monday 12th, 11:45: Arrive London. Spend until 1pm messing around getting my bags stored and looking in souvenier shops. 1pm or so I get on a bus tour and sit on the top of the double decker bus and take photos while it goes around all the interesting sights of central London. Batteries in my camera run out, but by some miracle the non-rechargeable pair work. It's very cold and windy on the top of the bus and it's a colder than usual day in London so I pretty much froze and did nothing other than look around and take photos. I'll put them up sometime soonish. The bus tour took around three hours and is well worth doing if you go to London, costs 20 pounds.

After the bus tour is over I go back and get the shirt that I bought in London the first day and tried to exchange it at a different store for a larger size, without sucess, so I just bought a new shirt, not sure what I will do with the smaller one yet. I bought some other souveniers too.When I got to Victoria Station to take the tubes back to Heathrow, the whole station was shut down for some random reason, this lasted over half an hour, then the train stopped for no reason for about 5 minutes. I eventually got to Heathrow at 19:35, five minutes too late to check in for my flights. Exasperated and argued with the staff and they got me a flight in the morning at 10:55 at no extra cost, which meant I would have to wait 15 hours in the airport, as it was now 8pm.

On Sunday night I got about four hours sleep and little more than two on Sunday night, so I'm quite tired at this point anyway, The seats at Heathrow are pretty useless and I only managed to grab a total of two terrible hours of sleep after tying my luggage together and to my fingers with baggage securing tags (bad idea, don't do it). Tuesday 13th, 12:00: The flight was delayed over an hour because there was a truck crash directly in our path near the airport. Sigh. Flight was spectacularly bad as usual. Useless British Airways. At least the headphones worked this time and I could watch Wallance and Gromit and Batman Begins, both of which are excellent. Food wasn't too bad either. Everything else wasn't so hot.

Tuesday 13th, 14:15: Finally get past US customs, pretty easily though there was a large queue. Tony is not there. I hoped he got the message from JFK who were supposed to tell him my new arrival details. I try using a pay phone and it frustrates me. I keep calling every half hour, fortunately it doesn't cost anything if it goes to answering machine. At 5pm I finally get through, because he calls the payphone and I've been camping next to it and take a chance at picking it up. Can we say lucky? Turns out he didn't get the message from JFK until he was in NYC. Oops. He was back in DC by then and couldn't get back nto NYC. So guess what? I'm in the airport for another night.

Next problem: Need to call Britt and tell her I'll be a day late. Her number in is my Australian phone, which now has no batteries and I can't recharge it. Fortunately the nice lady at the rental phone stand was able to somehow recharge it for me so I got the number and wrote it down. But then the pay phones won't work, she can't hear me, so I borrow this random guy's phone and make the call.

Wednesday 14th, 6:00: After getting next to no sleep, again, and having bought the wrong transformer, two US chocolate bars and four postcards on credit card I get the airtrain to the subway station, pay a whopping $7 to get to Penn station on the subway. I understand litterally two words the subway announcer says in a long string: "doors close".

Wednesday 14th, 6:45: Arrive Penn station, get ticket, discover my train is delayed (for the record, the only thing that has been on time so far is the plane that I missed). It doesn't leave until well after 8am. The train is insanely comfortable with heaps of leg room and lots of empty seats, and overpriced hotdaogs ($3.75) but I was really hungry and hadn't eaten anything other than pure sugar since the plane flight. I got very bored but fortunately bought an NYT at the station which kept me entertained, though I have to harass them about a bad story about the riots back in Sydney (and yeah, what the hell is going on there?) that implies we're racist and is inaccurate in places. Will rant later.

Get to Canadian border only 10 minutes late. I think I lied to a customs officer when asked a stupid question that has nothing to do with national security. It was mild interrogation compared to Heathrow though.Wednesday 14th, 19:45: Arrive Union Station, Toronto, find Brittney and parents and her 12-year-old brother who mine has nothing on, go to nice resturant and eat loads of veal parmigania with noodles. First decent meal since I don't know when. Since then I've just been chilling here at their place with their lazy but awesome cat get excited about the snowstorm that is just starting now (is it sad that I'm excited?). Parents are going to buy me snow pants, score.

The Death Penalty and Revenge

2005-12-16T14:28:00.000+08:00

On Tuesday in a fit of over reaction and musing on The South End Riots I remarked on the possible reaction in LA to the execution of Stanley 'Tookie' Williams. Thankfully no riots eventuated but obviously the execution raises worthwhile questions especially after the death of Van Nguyen two weeks ago.

Over at stoush.net Comrade Liam pointed to an excellent article from the BBC regarding the arguments for the death penalty especially in regards to the nature of redemption. Williams committed his crimes when he was 26. He was executed when he was 51. Is Williams the same person he was when he committed the crimes? Would Williams at 51 have embarked down the same path of damnation by starting the Crips if he had the chance all over again?

Williams did apologised for the violence brought about by the establishment of the Crips. However he did not apologise for the four murders. The details as presented are horrific and brutal. William’s behaviour in jail (till 1993) wasn’t much better. Then he changed, renouncing gang violence.

The Williams case is one, which personally, creates a struggle with regards to the idea of opposing capital punishment. The crime he committed was callous. Nothing can bring the victims back or erase the pain that the families must feel. Nothing can justify the crimes Williams committed. However I still can’t find anyone justification for the death penalty in regards to Williams (or anyone convicted of similar of even more heinous crimes). The death penalty is about retribution and revenge. An eye for an eye debases us all as a so called means of justice. It calls into account the very nature of what justice exactly is. It doesn’t allow for redemption, the ability to atone for what one had done or allow people to change. Some say that his redemption, if sincere, will be recognized in the afterlife but that is a bleak view of world that allows one to abscond from dealing with the here and now.

Revenge represents the danger that you are no different from those you wish to purse. An interesting comment to the idea of revenge is in today’s SMH by David Miller who was one of only two British journalists in the Olympic Village on the day of the Munich Massacre. Revenge is an understandable response to horrifying acts but is not a justifiable response. As Miller states revenge demeans us all. A disturbing nexus of the death penalty as revenge is the current case of Corey Maye.

South End Riots

2005-12-13T15:42:00.000+08:00

Instead of writing too much on Cronulla riots I’ll just link to Tim Dunlop and just say what he said and offer a few interesting links.

Andrew West argues today that the problem is Islam but this comment at Catallaxy is an interesting counterpoint. And Anonymous Lefty has one of the best examinations of both sides of the violence.

On the train ride home today I overheard a mobile conversation and apparently there more SMS messages regarding new flash points. The Central Coast of NSW is now being mentioned as a place to meet up similar to last Sunday's violence which is disturbing. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail like the young lady who was telling her friend about the message another friend had received. To paraphrase her they are all racist thugs and the message should be reported to the police. With which I can only add amen.

And in about 10 minutes (as I write this) Tookie Williams is scheduled to be executed. Some are hinting that this will lead to riots in LA.

Something Missing From Christmas?

2005-12-09T19:12:00.000+08:00

Friday December the 9th. The heat is on as summer is here. Tomorrow will see me as per usual on a Saturday joining the mad dogs and Englishmen running around the midday sun playing cricket. The last round before the Christmas break. And as Christmas bears down upon us something seems to be missing.

It can’t be the Christmas lights. We even put some up this year in the courtyard. A very modest display that makes a already pleasant courtyard the evening place to be. Nor is it the Christmas shopping. We have knocked that over in record time. There is no mad rush a few days out this year. So what is it that seems to be missing from this yuletide season?

I’ve got it. The thing that has been missing so far is the usual media beat up over a Scrooge destroying Christmas. Usually this is the responsibility of an alleged politically correct left-wing council. Last year in Sydney it was Clover Moore who copped the brunt a Devine crusade to save Christmas. But this year The Devine Miss M seems to be preoccupied with other matters.

So I checked in with Andrew Bolt. He seems busy combating evil Ivory Tower elite leftist universities. Which is surprising given that The Forum on Australia’s Islamic Relations wants to find an alternative name for Christmas in Australia? It seems that this idea, according to the article, got no traction at all even with other Muslim groups. As it should. It is an absurd suggestion. But is seemed to go no further than the odd newspaper article.

An atheist myself I have no real problem with Christmas apart from the rampant commercialism. But Christmas it has transcended its Christian origins. While it is still a day for Christians to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ others look upon the time as a chance to rest and catch up with friends and family. The time of year has been embraced by all cultures and creeds. As for me, it is the day before the Boxing Day test. I tend to rest up in the afternoon after the feast in preparation for the next day on the couch supporting the our national Cricket team.

Whatever your reason for season have fun, enjoy and keep the Berocca handy.

The Cult of The Suicide Bomber

2005-12-07T18:55:00.000+08:00

Unfortunately I missed the first episode The Power of Nightmares last night as I fell under the beery spell of several other bloggers.

Reading Mark’s post it is worth revisiting another documentary regarding terrorism and that is The Cult of The Suicide Bomber. This was shown a few weeks ago on the ABC and I don’t think much mention of it was made in the Australian blogosphere which is a shame. It is a documentary worth reviewing on this unfortunately all too common weapon of terror.

The documentary is narrated by Robert Baer, an ex-CIA officer who was stationed in the Middle East. He was in Beirut when a car bomber destroyed the Marine barracks and an the American embassy back in the early 1980s. As Baer states his

I lost several colleagues in those explosions and although I’ve now left the CIA, at the time, I vowed to make it my life’s mission to find out who did it and why and where the cult of suicide bombing started.

Baer does this by going back to the Iran-Iraq war. Hossein Fahmeidh is allegedly the first suicide bomber. He threw himself under an Iraqi tank and detonated explosives destroying the tank and halting an Iraqi advance. From then on acult of martyrdom developed and suicide bombing was encouraged as a weapon of war by Ayatollah Khomeini.

Hossein Fahmeidh’s act is not a new tactic in war. Suicide bombing is a tactic of asymmetric warfare. When one side is at a distinct disadvantage in terms of weapons and forces suicide tactics are not uncommon. The Japanese Imperial forces in World War II developed quite a range of suicide tactics other than the infamous Kamikaze missions. Soldiers throwing themselves under tanks and detonating explosives was one such tactic.

The interesting aspect of the Iranian use of suicide bombers is that this developed in the context of the Shi'a sect of Islam. This was also apparent in Lebanon where the Shi’a Muslims used suicide bombing against the Israeli forces. The spread of suicide bombing to the Sunni sect was an interesting development. Baer regards the idea of martyrdom as alien to the Sunni sect. However the use of suicide bombing by Palestinians against the Israelis legitimized suicide bombing for the majority of Muslims.

The strength of Baer’s documentary is how he is able to touch on how suicide bombing affects both sides in a conflict. The interviews with the families of Palestinian suicide bombers are quite revealing. As well he interviews Israeli survivors of suicide bombings as well as bombers who were caught before they could detonate their explosives. Baer is obviously horrified by the escalation of suicide bombing in the Middle East. Howerever the way in which he opens the documentary up to both sides, without judgement, allows a greater understanding of the threat and the greatly different interpretations of the acts of the suicide bombers.

It has been argued that those who organize the suicide missions prey on the troubled or even mentally retarded. Indeed the mother of Lotfi Amin Abu Saada, the most recent Palestinian suicide bomber suggested this was the case. While this may some times may be true it is in contrast the pride that the family of the bombers show in the interviews. Further evidence against this argument (that suicide bombers are manipulated into their acts) is the case of the British born Palestinian suicide bombers. And then there is Muriel Degauque, the Belgian suicide bomber.

Btw, Tim Dunlop has a link to an interesting article on the growing ranks of female suicide bombers.

In context of asymmetrical warfare the use of suicide bombing is understandable though desperate tactic. The disturbing aspect of Baer’s documentary is how suicide bombing is being enacted outside warfare and its use against civilian targets. The nature of the Muslim again Muslim violence in Iraq is evident of this. It has become a ‘pathological virus’ (as Baer puts it) which is a disturbing development. Baer also points out that the irony is that most of the Iraqi victims are Shi'a Muslims.

The Cult of The Suicide Bomber succeeds well in outlining the history of suicide bombing in the Middle East and providing a context for understanding. However suicide bombing has evolved beyond the usual confines. The act has now become the goal with no real attachment to a cause. As Baer states in conclusion

In the latest mutation suicide bombing has lost any attachment to a cause. The bombers target is not an opressor or an occupying army. There is no apparent meaning to what they had done. For them death is the only aim. In its latest and most disturbing development suicide bombing has turned into a weapon of chaos.

Crossposted at Larvatus Prodeo

Poundland

2005-12-05T00:49:00.000+08:00

Last few days have been entertaining. Thursday I went into Bury with Jemma and ate and talked and so forth. Met her brother and boyfriend and then went back to her place to watch the two boys try to make a damaged toy helicopter fly again, and put together an electric toy railway they had justbought. Boys and their toys, of course. Next batch of photos will have some sights from Bury in it.

Friday was shopping day. Because Im rather unprepared for the cold other tan borrowed gloves, a scarf and my coat, I bought some thermal long-johns (£1.50x2) and three pairs of socks (£1) in Poundland and other such cheap shops (there were four of them in the main mall). No sign of any pants made of similar material to my coat, reasonably priced or otherwise, but maybe there will be some when I get to America, perhaps I will beg my parents to buy them for me. I also bought lots of very random christmas/trip presents for whoever at cheap prices. Nowhere will fix my camera though, so Ill wait until America.

Graeme bought three Stag sausages for £9 from a French guy in the Victoria Square market (the one with the town hall in it) and we had some very awesome pancakes made on the spot from some other French guy. We went home, Emma came round and we cooked and ate them with chips. I put my beret on to complete the theme.

Yesterday I went to Graeme's grandparents' place which is a nice old English house and held many photos, paintings and stiches, as you would expect. Had a very awesome meal that his grandmother cooked - beef patties, wedges and stir-fry vegetables, and a nice dessert, and then cereal and proper English breakfast in the morning. The best food by far Ive had in a long time. I lay in until 11am because it would probably be the only proper bed Ill sleep in until Sydney.

Tomorrow afternoon Im going up to Lancaster to stay with Russell for several days.

Van Nguyen's Death and The Failure of the War on Drugs

2005-12-01T18:32:00.000+08:00

Tomorrow at 9:00am AEST time Van Nguyen will die. An interesting aspect regarding the case of Van Nguyen is the elevation of Van Nguyen to almost hero status. There are even calls for a minute’s silence. Van Nguyen is not a hero (no matter who calmly he is facing execution according to reports). He knowingly engaged in trafficking an illegal substance. Even if the underlying reason was to help his brother it was a stupid risk to undertake.

However he doesn’t deserve to die irregardless of Singaporean law. The hypocrisy in relation to the death penalty for trafficking is breathtaking. The justification is to be “hard on drugs and drug smugglers.” But killing Van Nguyen will do nothing in regards to halting the supply of drugs. Sure one syndicate has been momentarily inconvenienced but they will find other mules or means to move their shipments. It will do nothing to stop the addicts obtaining their fixes. Van Nguyen is just a politically expedient tool of the war on drugs. The hard task of executing Van Nguyen is really the soft option in the end.

In all the debate regarding Van Nguyen as far as I know (if I am wrong I am sure I will soon find out) there has been little or no commentary about the effectiveness of the war on drugs. .

The war on drugs has been a failure. Drugs are plentiful and in easy supply. Sure a bust here and there disrupts supply but the gap is soon filled. There is no doubt that drugs do cost the community. I could not imagine the despair of a parent to lose their child through a drug overdose. But alcohol costs the community greatly yet is well tolerated via acceptance (and I argue most people handle their alcohol well).

The solution to the war of drugs is an economic one. Legalise drugs through government controlled supply. The government offers the drugs well under street value. Either the suppliers are forced to compete or are forced out. At the same time there is still police enforcement against the suppliers. Not the users or even the small time dealers but directly against the source. My hypothesis is that with economic and legal obstacles the criminal aspect of drug use will be reduced. For users, with the government selling drugs at a greatly reduced price there is no need to commit crime to feed a habit.

I freely admit that my solution has holes. There are two immediate objections I can think of.

The first is via legalizing drugs there is a danger of increased health issues related to drugs. This is a valid point and hard to overcome. Though it may reduce overdoses via having a known purity of heroin and the like. In relation to the health issues I do see a program advising addicts and the public the dangers of addiction similar to an alcohol awareness program.

The second objection is an increased in violence and crime as drug dealers lose their income. I am not sure there is precedence for this but I am not sure this would be a problem. As I have stated enforcement should turn to the source of the drugs not the addicts and small time dealers. This may help eliminate crime in this regards.

I don’t see my solutions and being utopian or perfect. Though simplistice as my idea seems I don’t see the current methods of combating drugs as working either. All Van Nguyen’s execution does is promote the futility and hypocrisy regarding the war of drugs. We would do well to remember his death not via a minute’s silence but to examine whether the war on drugs is actualy working.

I think there are far better solutions to saving the lives of the addicts than by executing the occasional mule that blunders into the hangman’s noose.

Crossposted at Larvatus Prodeo

Things I don't get about England

2005-11-30T05:01:00.000+08:00

“well” used as an adjective - “Drinks will be well expensive.”

A woman apologising to me about four times for stepping on my foot on a bus. I’d have turned around and said quick sorry then kept on walking, but she looked quite embarassed and guilty. Come on its no big deal, I barely noticed.

Orderly lines at buses and trains. The Australian way is to crowd around the door in two semi circles with a gap to let people get off, then squish on all at once. The English line up in single file!

Fast food places offer free delivery, what madness is this?

They seem to be obsessed with WW2, like we are with Gallipoli only worse. There’s only so many docos you can make about it, guys. I am hooked on this Churchill’s Bodyguard thing though, I wake up at 9am and watch it.

At least six straight episodes of Meet the Ancestors on the UKTV History cable channel.

Their ads are more annoying than ours.

It’s hard to find a Maccas, even when you want them.

In other news, it snowed yesterday and there is still snow hanging around making walking around interesting. It’s also still very, very cold. Graeme and I went into the city center today to see the Museum and Aquarium and to see if we could find someone to fix my camera. All three stores said I would have to send it away for 2-4 weeks, which is obviously not doable, but I have a Kodak number to ask what’s up with it and I’m sure there will be a place that does on the spot repairs somewhere, they definately exist.

Bolton architecture is also a lot better than Perth’s. This is more than a bit sad.

Pondering Pittwater’s Significance

2005-11-28T17:50:00.000+08:00

On Saturday voters in the NSW electorate of Pittwater voted Independent candidate Alex McTaggart into parliament. The seat of Pittwater was formerly held by ex-NSW Liberal leader John Brogden. Brogden resigned from parliament after attempting to take his own life after being dumped as leader by his own party. The Liberal party suffered a 25% swing against them.

In the post-vote analysis it has been argued that part of this swing consists of a protest vote against IR reform (follow the comments for the discussion. LP blogger cs does have some interesting points). I am sceptical of this line of reasoning though I could be wrong. I see Pittwater as a parochial anomaly. Pittwater seems an insular area and the protest vote was likely against the Machiavellian machinations of the NSW Liberal right and taking Pittwater for granted. Note that Labor did not field a candidate. Given the troubles Labor have in NSW a wise move and in my mind makes this result no possible indicator of state or federal trends.

However there are at least two state elections to be held during the first 7 months of 2006. South Australia will go to polls on March 18^th 2006 and Tasmania sometime before July. I have no idea on how Labor is faring in both those states.

In this case Howard is correct not being concerned about Pittwater as an indicator of possible federal trends. But keep the SA and Tasmania elections in mind. If the Labor campaigns use the IR reforms as a platform it may give us an indication of federal trends.

Guy at wsacaucus.org has a good round up of blogosphere commentary on the result.

Manchester: England's nightlife capital

2005-11-28T01:49:00.000+08:00

Went into Manchester last night to meet up with a few other people I know in the area. It was Graeme, Richard, Russel, myslef and two friends of theirs I didn't know. We met at the Salisbury pub on Oxford Road and hung around there until shortly before 11pm. It was an ok pub but the crowd was fairly lame. We moved on a little down the road to Jilly's club, which is a kind of alternative club that plays mostly heavy metal/punk with some rock that I recognised. £5.50 entry, £1 for my coat storage, lots and lots of goths and very loud music - my ears are still ringing which is driving me crazy.

Didn't get home until at least 2:30am, with a taxi ride as we missed the train and Graeme didn't want to wait 2hrs for the next one. Talked a lot to the taxi driver about - you guessed it - Australia and so forth, he was very friendly, possibly moreso than any others I've encountered.

The OK button on my camera seems to have randomly broken. This is a problem. The camera is still useable but I can't use the screen or delete photos, so it's almost a film camera in terms of functionality now. I'll go to a camera store soon and see if they can fix it, it's probably a simple problem.

England

2005-11-25T04:19:00.000+08:00

One of the Halo refs who was actually on my flight found me at the departure lounge as we had sort of planned, and we sat next to each other on the plane where he lamentated about an Austrian girl he’d met at the event and missed. It was otherwise a pretty bad flight, the entertainment system was not anywhere near as good as Qantas had been, stupid British Airways. The headphones they gave us didn’t work and the freebie from WCG only worked if I held it in, but managed to watch Stealth and the end of Fantastic 4. The guy in front always had his seat back as far as it could go, which was a serious problem for me and I had to resist killing him. Got some sleep, fortunately.

We ended up being at Terminal 4, and by the time we got to Terminal 3 he’d given up and gone home, so after the Halo guy caught his connection I had to work out how to get to London. I got £50 out and caught a train to Picadilly Circus for £3.80 and paid £11 for the privilage of storing my luggage for the day. Everything is so ridiculously expensive in London, and it was extremely cold. I walked around bits of central London including the lovely St. James Park and looked in the National Art Gallery, Imperial War Museum, the Guards Museum (£2), Parliament where I listened to an interesting House of Commons debate on welfare reform, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square and Westminster Bridge. I would have liked to have looked inside
Westminster Abbey and the Cabinet War rooms, buit there was not the time or money to do so. I need a whole week or so to do everything, I barely touched the war museum due to time. I think on the way back to catch my flight out I’ll do this again and get a £16 bus tour. There are a number of photos , though I ran out so not as many as I’d like.

I got lost going to my bus at 8pm (it gets dark at 4:30pm, what madness is this?) but got on it in time and had a nice trip to Manchester where Graeme picked me up at the station and got me back to his place by 2am. Next day, being my birthday, was celebrated by sleeping in, watching TV and seeing Jemma, a mutual friend of ours. We had hot chocolate in a cafe and then Jemma and I had a quick drink in, yes, an English pub before she had to go home. I’ll probably see her again later next week.

Afterwards Graeme and I grabbed fish and chips, drinks and a DVD for that night and uploaded 240 photos to which I will caption and put up soon. Today has been spent lounging around watching TV. This is my idea of a holiday so far - minus how cold it is (thank you many times for the gloves, Em.) The place really needs a clean, we’ll get to that tomorrow.

Kazakhstan?

2005-11-24T20:18:00.000+08:00

I’m in Bolton, UK right now. Much has happened in the last few days.

Sunday was of course the WCG finals and closing ceremony. There were some very good games played and all were broadcast on both screens with commentary. The Russian that beat Legionaire made far too many mistakes against the Korean and was easily beaten 2-0 - but this is the first time a non-Korean has ever made the final so it was very impressive that he made it this far. The Korean cheers squad was something to behold Legionaire did win his bronze medal playoff 2-1, the 3rd game being the best where he was almost destroyed by a zergling rush and came back to win the game through covert tactics.

Canadian team eG, who beat us uin the quarter finals won a thriller in their bronze playoff against Russia, and by some freak of nature a strong side from Kazakhstan of all places gave a reasonable showing against defending and now dual champions 3D from USA. eG’s Halo division claimed silver, losing to 3D’s Halo team.Brazil cleaned up Need for Speed, a high scoring FIFA final saw Germany pick up it’s only gold medal and Shortround for USA was comprehensively defeated by China’s Sky in two very short games involving tower rushes. Grubby got the bronze 2-1, somehow losing on Lost Temple which is his best map.

With two gold and a silver, the Americans were declared the tournament champions and claimed the trophy.

The us referees packed up the mice and keyboards, I spoke to some sponsors about WALAN business and recieved my payment, some hardware and a certificate from ICM. Everyone who was going to the after party bundled into buses and we went to a club which had been booked for us for the night. It wasn’t a great party. The food ran out before I got there and there was only a couple of rounds of free drinks, so myself, Toby and a bunch of the Warcraft players sat around for an hour before getting a bus back to the hotel to drop off the big checks and decide what to do next.

What followed was the most unsucessful attempt at baring and clubbing in the history of man and we were home by 2am. Fortunately there was a BBQ with the referees and WCG staff, but the meat wasnt cooked properly when I ate it as it started to rain, which cost me in the morning. I can’t have got to bed before 4:30am. Morning I could hardly get out of bed I was so sick, it was noon before I could walk around after forcing myself up.

The last day and night are always a bit sad, as these people who have been thrown together mostly won’t see each other for another year, and as Singapore was such a blast and I had met so many wonderful people from around the world, I didn’t want to leave. So after much hand-shaking and several email exchanges, teams made their way to their flights at various times, hopefully to meet in Monza, Italy next year.

Myself, Shiva and Joe the head admins and the English g0tfrag.com guy I can’t remember got into a couple of taxis and went to Suntec to do a couple of things. I can remember us looking around and recounting how easy it was to steal things in an obvious fashion because no one thinks it’s suspicious for someone to walk out with, oh, a big plasma screen TV. Me and the English guy then went to do some shopping for an hour while Shiva and Joe did stuff. I succumed and spent over $70SG on random presents from the massive Suntec shopping centers.

Joe and Shiva had gone by the time we got back so we got some food in the food court I ate at on the Wednesday and then split up to explore Singapore before going to the airport as our flights were at the same time, though not the same flight. We arranged to meet at Terminal 3 at Heathrow.

Nothing new under the sun

2005-11-24T20:01:00.000+08:00

I watch half an hour of debates in the House of Commons on Tuesday while I was in London, it was a debate on welfare reform - particularly incapacity benefits. Does it sound at all familiar? Read this bit from Steve McCabe and the reply from the Tories David Ruffley.

Ruffley continues onto a rather damning leaked memo:

I shall quote—from a transcript that appeared in a national newspaper—the words of the Prime Minister to the right hon. Member for Sheffield, Brightside (Mr. Blunkett), who was then Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. The Prime Minister said:

"We should publish information on the number of sick notes signed by GPs, and audit the top ten per cent . . . Employers should have a right of appeal when an employee is signed off sick . . . We could propose taking sick note certification away from GPs and create a new specialist service . . . Incapacity benefit should be paid at £56 per week, the same rate as the jobseeker's allowance"—

which would of course be a cut. The memo continues:

"Claimants have to attend compulsory monthly work-focused interviews . . . Those not engaging in activity lose the entire premium."

Best, and most controversially of all, the Prime Minister said in his memo:

"Given the cost of employment programmes, it seems that the only funding option might be to widen the scope of means-testing the system . . . Alternatively, part of the benefit top-up could be paid as a voucher"—

for "rehabilitation and training programmes"."

History repeats itself.

Easy Prey

2005-11-24T17:08:00.000+08:00

The death of Nguyen Tuong Van will accomplish nothing. It is an act of retribution way out of proportion to the crime. There is no chance for contrition nor redemption. A life is taken for no reason other than to show the world that the Singapore justice system is tough.

Nguyen’s death won’t stop the drug trade. The drug barons won’t care. While it may act a deterrent for some, soon enough a person who is gullible, desperate or both will come along and agree to act as courier. Easy prey for drug smugglers. They too may die while those that are directly responsible for the trade go unpunished. And Singapore is culpable in this. Singapore has close ties to Burma. It invests heavily in the country Yet it does nothing to pressure Burma to crack down on its trade in drugs.

And that is the gross hypocrisy. Nguyen does not deserve to escape punishment as he as committed a crime. But the penalty is grossly excessive in regards to the crime. For all Singapore’s rhetoric on being tough on drugs they look the other way when it suits their purposes. Nguyen is a sacrificial lamb of politics.

Easy prey.

The Unveiling of Michelle Leslie

2005-11-21T19:55:00.000+08:00

Michelle Leslie has been released from in prison in Bali and as well as the hajib it seems.

In the Oz blogosphere Tim Dunlop agrees with Andrew Leigh who said:

After her trial for drug possession, Australian model Michelle Leslie flies into Sydney today. I couldn't help noticing that the devout Muslim seems to have adopted a new look since her release.

Update: Since I posted this on Sunday, plenty of others have made the same point. Some, however, seem upset by it. I don't see it that way. The only reason you'd pretend to be a particular religion when charged with a crime is if you think the court is biased towards people of that religion. If the court is unbiased, it doesn't matter. If the court is truly biased, then we should hardly blame defendants who appeal to their prejudices.

Now I don’t deny that it is possible that the courts were biased but a religious bias doesn't make sense for a few reasons.

Bali is predominately a Hindu country which made Leslie’s adoption of the hijab rather strange. Muslim adherents do exist in Bali. On one trip to the northern parts of Bali (back in 1993 I think) a mate and I walked past a small mosque and were warmly greeted by worshippers. Women did wear a head scarf butnot the ridiculous full burqa that Leslie wore at one stage. However to assume “Indonesian” means “Muslim” in Bali is quite erroneous especially to anyone who has visited Bali. This is the oppurtunistic mistake that Leslie made and I think that Tim and Andrew make the same erroneous assumption. It assumes that the judges are likely to be Muslim when there is just as great a chance for them to be Hindu or even Christian.

That is not to say that courts are biased or even open to influence. But to assume that adopting a hajib was an understandable defence tactic is a gross misreading of the situation.

It was strange though that when it was revealed that the son of high-ranking Indonesian minister was also involved Leslie was soon on a plane home.

Politics still trumps religion.

Never getting a Singapore licence

2005-11-19T20:25:00.000+08:00

Singapore does have road rules, similar to here. The difference is that much fewer people follow them. The worst are the taxi drivers, which was especially pointed out when I went out with the CS guys on Wednesday night.

This taxi we got in charged us $35 for next to no distance and then dropped us off at the wrong place, so we got very lost and had to get another taxi. The taxi home was the worst, the driver indicates like when he’s already changed lanes, and then leaves it on for up to two minutes for no reason. The speed limit, high as it is, is ignored, and the taxi will randomly stray across lanes or drive down the middle of a lane marker. No one knows how to merge, it’s just a basket case.

So we’re rocketing along back to the hotel trying to work out exactly what is up with our driver, and for that matter, every other local on the roads. If you haven’t been cut off 10 times in one day, you haven’t gone more than a few miles. Yeah, never getting a Singapore licence no matter what - not that I suspect it would be difficult.

Cheers and jeers

2005-11-19T20:16:00.000+08:00

Today was the business end of the competition, deciding who would tkae the top four placing to play for the serious money tomorrow. It went pretty smoothly because the guys that were left were very serious and professional, and therefore easy to manage. 32 were reduced to 4 in three rounds and the last round decided who would be playing for gold, sliver and bronze.

It was insane, and by that I mean it in a good way. Best tounament I've ever seen, with so many of the games going right down to the wire and with such high stakes. Phil lost a nailbiter to Insomnia, especially the last game which took well over half an hour, he got so very close. The best series was probably Grubby vs Kov, three very close matches with Grubby finally clinching it by hexing Kov's primary hero and turning it into a sheep, which was too slow to escape being killed. Another great clincher was in the semi-final when Short from USA used a spell to send Grubby's primary hero into the air and surrounded and killed it when it landed, seconds before his other hero was able to teleport them to safety.

It's hard with the time I have to describe just how great all this was and what the atmosphere was like. The best I can do is the photos which wil be coming once I get to Manchester next week, but really you had to be there. It's honestly just as existing, if not more so, than sport. These guys take it all very seriously and Kov was inconsolable for an hour after his quarter final loss.

Our CS team walked over Taiwan but were soundly beaten by the damn Canadians of eG in the quarter finals, who also beat us in the Halo quarter finals. Legionare made it to the semi finals and lost, he will play for bronze tomorrow - the Russian he played was really good. This is probably our best all round result yet, especialy if Legionare can pull it off. 3D from USA is likely to take out CS, though I have always fancied eG as being dangerous.

Won't be doing too much tomorrow but sitting around watching the finals, I think there is a party tomorrow night or something. Many photos were taken today and more will be taken tomorrow once I recharge my batteries, which failed on me at a bad time.

Double overtime

2005-11-19T00:43:00.000+08:00

Today was much better than yesterday. CS didn’t need to poach us so I refereed groups I-J. Only contained one big name in SK_Deadman, but most of them were pretty cool to work with. The only problem was that two of them spoke very little English, which became a problem but not one I couldn’t handle. I also had to forfeit one guy because he showed up too late for his match, he protested to Tony for a while, but not me fortunately. Deadman cruised his fixture 5-0 and a Korean guy took out the other pool. Also chatted a lot to the Ben from UK who was on the bad end of a group of death (a pool stacked with good players that results in a big name being knocked out) he came 3rd and missed out on progression after losing a tiebreaker series, there were some awesome games in that pool though, his win over SK_Hot was brilliant and Wizard vs Hot on the stage was great also. Even games are the best and the real reward of doing this work, along with the atmosphere and socialising.

We finished the pools and had no less than 4 of 8 groups with ties that needed breaking, which must be some kind of record. This meant the three players have to have a mini-series to break the tie, if they tie again we do it all over again. One group went into double tiebreaker at 9pm, so most of us bailed and let the remaining few handle it. My tiebreaker was pretty fast.

All four Australian players or teams are through to the single elimination brackets, which is surprising and unprecedented. Philbot somehow managedd to snatch victory after suffering two early losses due to choke (cracking under pressure). Hes has to play last years champ, though some people think he has an outside chance. Legionare smashed his group 7-0 and the Halo team also won their pool. Great resukts for us. Other highlight was the Singapore vs Korea CS game on the screen. It was a full house with thousands watching, many lof them locals who went nuts every frag, the atmosphere was amazing. The best bit is not the games themselves, but the people it brings together. I have many photos too.
CS guys play Malaysia tomorrow and Legionare plays some Russian guy he should beat, no idea for Halo.

Tonight I ate some rice and chicken at the hotel food court for $3, it was great. I love Singapore.

Five in one

2005-11-19T00:25:00.000+08:00

This was written last night, but the internet is slow so I didn't get time to post it til now

There is a shopping center in Singapore that has no less than five internet cafes and gaming centers in it, which is, obviously, insane by Australian standards. They also get very frequent use, also strange. Anyway, last nights adventure before I tell you about the significantly less exciting events of today.

Opening ceremony Ill cover with photos once I get to UK, it was the usual corny stuff with random oriental entertainment and so forth. Afterwards the Australian Counter-Strike team got a practice match against Greece, so we all went to the aforementioned gaming center, which was a very awesome one actually, and watched them play against Greece in three games and smash them each time. Greece don’t seem to be much good but they were cool. Their Warcraft 3 guy is really good though, he and Phill, our WC3 guy also went and played lots of games, but not proper strats. Then we went back to the hotel at almost midnight, via Maccas where i got a cheeseburger and bummed chips off Dave and Rory from the CS team. I’m so cheap.

The hotel room has a grand total of two power points, next to each other on the TV counter, which is in a really crappy place to shave - I took a photo of what I resorted to, which you can see later. Hung around a bit with my roomates and fellow refs Kelsen and Tony and then crashed cos I was tired and it was 2am or something stupid like that.

Today was the first day of competition. I got drafted into reffing CS because they were short on people. Standing up for like 9hrs is not fun, at all. It was OK i guess, but I was glad when it was over. My feet and legs are recovering. The Australian CS team played very well and pulled off a great win against Spain which I refereed. They were down 5-0 in the first half and came back to lose only 1 round of the next 15, before losing some more for a comfortable win. It was great stuff to watch, I can imagine the scences on IRC and scorebots at home, plus the 80+ watching it live via HLTV. Then they rolled Mexico 27-3 or something. Legionare for Starcraft also won his first game convincingly, but I didn’t see the others.

People have asked me how the whole thing works. Basically it’s a computer and XBox gaming tounrament with prizes in the tens of thousands. There are national preliminaries which select the best players for each game from each country and send them to the international event in Singapore, it will be in Italy next year. These players are put into pools like a sporting event and then the top 1 or 2 from each group depending on size and game go into an elimination draw until the top 3 are determined. My job is to herd the players around, make sure they obey the rules and then collect the results. It’s not hard but involves standing up for ages. Today pools A-H played and tomorrow pools I-P play and the top 32 players for WC3 and Starcraft go to the finals and the top 16 CS 5-man teams, not sure about other games. There are over 700 players from 70+ countries.

Got back to the village and had satay with Kelsen, and then got to the players lounge which is cool but needs photos to explain. There are a few PCs and free fairy floss(!!!) and ice hockey and table soccer.

Ill update on the second day tomorrow night

How Not To Understand Technology Corporate Style

2005-11-18T19:04:00.000+08:00

I remember an online discussion many a year ago now, just when mp3 technology had surfaced , where one participant swore black and blue no-one would every download mp3s. Of course, this was in the dial-up days. Even then mp3s took off and the advent of broadband hastened the expansion.

Of course record companies did not like the downloading of mp3s and have been failing miserably for a while to understand and combat people wanting mp3s. Sony is the latest example of a company acting in such a manner.

Sony recently started to produce CDs using XCP technology. The idea of the technology is to prevent copying and sharing of a CD. The user also must use software bundled with the disk to play the music. In addition to the copy protection measures an added feature is that the software opens your Windows PC to being hacked. Removing the program stills leaves security vulnerabilities. Mac and Linux users are not affected. Geeks can go wild with the technical specifics. Legal geeks can ponder the possible GPL violations.

Sony’s rationale is to prevent unauthorised copying eroding its revenue, a dubious proposition at best (here is an interesting paper on the subject). And you must read Janis Ian’s classic musing on the subject as well.

What is the most disturbing aspect of Sony’s behaviour is the distrust and lack of respect they have for their customers. It is an intriguing concept that you mark all your customers as being potential bootleggers. It also beggars belief that in trying to limit their customers’ usage of a product that they would botch it so bad. In a world where many companies’ strategic plans involve the Internet in some way, Sony still has no idea.

Another company that shows interesting disregard for their customers and not understanding the reality of the times are our TV networks. It is that time of year when the networks shut down all their top line shows until February. Except cliff hangers galore. The trouble is that the cliff hangers we see are not the full story. For example Nine will close down CSI next with an episode directed by Quentin Tarantino. Great you CSI fans say. However it is a two part episode and second part will not be shown until February. This is not the only show where the networks are holding episodes in reserve. Some shows are ending even with 4 episodes to run in the current series.

If you are a fan of cult shows then it is even worse. If the timeslot is not constantly shuffled around the show is likely to be abandoned mid run.

Of course in this day and age this is a stupid thing to do. It does not take long to find a copy of the episodes available for downloading. I’m sure that as soon as CSI ends next week some homes will then pop a disc into the DVD player and watch part 2 of the season closer. Bugger waiting for February. Note that I do not condone watching CSI. It is just a good example. Though Tarantino directing has gotta be interesting.

Part of the problem is that the ratings seasons for Australian and the US are quite different. That still doesn’t explain why the networks treat their audiences with such disdain or why the networks are yet to realise that the old rules are soon not going to work.

The Internet, as we know it, has only been around for about a decade. In a short time It has had an amazing affect in the ability to access and share information. The Internet throws up many opportunities for media organisations. Some seem to be able to take advantage of the opportunity. Others seem to stumble and bumble around not quite getting the idea that things have changed.

Cross posted at Larvatus Prodeo

Feels like Eurovision

2005-11-16T14:55:00.000+08:00

I'm again mooching off a WCG PC and a practice for tonight's Opening Ceremony is going on about 10m away, with the whole athlete parade ala the Olympics (which is the idea) but the announcers make it sound freakishly like the Eurovision Song Contest. Hmm, it looks like the band has messaed up and stopped playing a few countries before the end. And there's bagpipes! The place looks more awesome than yesterday, which is very. I'll take lots of photos.

Got up, ate some food which resembled mashed potatoes and gravy, and some yummy noodle dish. Then left the hotel on the bus and have been here ever since. Afer a multi-hour referee meeting we have litterally nothing to do until the OS which is in like 3hrs, so we just went to a food court and I ate some local food and drink - a soup with lots of bean sprouts in it, beef and wierd but awesome sauce noodle dish, and as much as I could drink of a can of this yellow drink that tasted like unbareably sweet honey. I didn't think anything could be too sweet - this was. I've got friendly with a bunch of my fellow refs, most of whom are locals so they've been showing me where to eat and keeping me from getting too lost. There was no money or catering for lunch, which sucked, but there will be tomorrow. There's rumors we won't get any more dinner money and that only breakfast and lunch are provided. Oh, well, I'll have to stay cheap. Food courts are good for that, fortunately - everything is so cheap!! Other than fruit which costs more than Perth. I think we are doing a satay thing tonight.

I did a good job showing this random guy from Miami around the WCG venue, flanked by the other refs, in fact I was surprised how well I did playing tour guide. Maybe I just know what I'm talking about for once.

Matches start tomorrow, I'm up at 7am again but we don't actually start WC3 games until 1pm so we'll end up testing and watching other games for a few hours. I'm managing the same group as defending chap SK_Insomnia from Bulgaria and 4K_Fov from Korea, who will probably be press ganged.

I will go and spend money irresponsibly now, because I want icecream.

Welcome to the jungle

2005-11-16T14:03:00.000+08:00

This was written last night at 10pm

I’m currently mooching off a WCG PC in the tournament area, in fact it is the PC that will be used by Mario Mendizab AKA “Mordack_pa” from Panama and Andrey Sobolev AKA “SK_Deadman” from Russia.

Flight was without incident. The tecnology has greatly improved sine I last flew over two years ago, the entertainment system is now interactive, so I watch Cinderella Man which was extremely good, and a CSI episode. The food was good as far as airline food goes - nice chicken and rice dish which I washed down with some V&OJ.

Singapore is all kinds of awesome, I love it so much even if everyone looks nothing like what I’m used to and there are SO MANY BIKES. Everything is much better looking than Perth and the public transport system is ace. Honestly, the trains are regular, clean, there are signs everywhere so it’s hard to get lost (I managed though) and all very high tech and nice looking, and costs $1.50 to get anywhere I wanted to go. Kicks over any other system I’ve seen many times over in every possible way. I was rushing around the whole time and was still in awe of how cool this place is. I could so stay here for months.

Carrying my heavy bags around all day was not fun, I dunno how I’ll survive my day London. I got off my plane at around 5pm and changed $26AU into $31SG, which was cool. I’ve been given $50SG for tonight’s dinner too. Anyway, I get on this monorail train to the other airport terminal which has the train station. Then I get on a train and go to the station near my hotel, then realise I have to wait 40mins for a shuttle bus to get there. I was wearing my leather jacket, pants and long sleeve shirt - yes, this was a crap idea. It’s 32C and humid as hell, so I was very hot and sweating a lot by this time.

Eventually it showed up and I hauled the suitcase onto it and went to my hotel, only to be told that there was a meeting that started at 5pm for referees that no one had told me about. I dump my stuff in my room and walk with my carry-on bag (which is very heavy too and hurts shoulder, it’s all red now) to the train station as the next bus wasnt for ages. It’s actually not that far. I then go to the venue, which is extremely cool btw - photos later, on the train for another $1.50SG and am briefed on what I missed by the head WCG guy who I know from earlier. Got my ID and shirt too as well as dinner money.

So everything is cool now that it’s all sorted. Tomorrow is the opening ceremony and I have to be up by 7am and get on a bus at 8am, ugh.

Why Protest Against The IR Reforms?

2005-11-15T18:54:00.000+08:00

One of the rationales against participating in today’s protest against the government’s IR reforms was that the protest will achieve nothing. What is the point?

Of course the protests are not going to reverse the Howard government’s stance on IR reform. One can almost hear the employer groups gazing over the castle walls at the unruly rabble. Muttering “tut, tut” with all the casual contempt that they can muster. “We are only doing this for their own good” they cry. “Why do they not learn their place?”

A compliant workforce is what the government and certain employee groups would like. But those that turned out today were not the “usual rent a mob.” While the unions ran the show, participants were from all walks of employment. Some were even marching for their children. Fearful of the workplace they may inherit.

These are the people affected by the IR changes. White collar, blue collar, skill or unskilled. Ordinary people who have no recourse through knowing Howard’s mates. Who have no recourse through having money and are able to move in the right circles. Who have no recourse by being able to lobby and have special meetings with the Prime Minister. They who have no recourse don’t have much of a choice. This is why they protest.

There is no point in standing around doing nothing. And by coming together people do make a point. The point is that many are worried about the IR legislation. They spoke as one today. And we shall hear more from then again.

A Modest Suggestion for Reforming the NSW Liquor Act

2005-11-13T19:44:00.000+08:00

On the Central Coast where I live there is a strip of shops and restaurants that run down Victoria Rd in East Gosford (on the way to Terrigal). The restaurants and cafes are quite good and make a great dining out experience close to home. The other night we went out for celebratory dinner at one of the local haunts. It was a warm evening and sitting in the café enjoying the meal and ambience brought to mind some problems I have with NSW liquor licensing laws.

The biggest problem is how licensing is handled for restaurants in NSW. You can only have a drink in a restaurant if you order food. Restaurants can have patrons who are drinking only but there is a certain ratio regarding seats for dining and non-dining patrons that must be observed. This is not a problem in large restaurants as they have the space and facilities. For small restaurants to comply with the restriction it would border on the farcical. And this is where reform regarding NSW licensing laws is needed.

Restaurants and cafes should be able to serve alcohol to customers without needing them to order food. I don’t mind going to pubs for a beer but if I would like to enjoy a nice bottle of wine there are better places to do so (away from the pokies and techno noise that seems to fill pubs these days). On a balmy summer evening, sitting at a table outside a café watching the world go by with a nice bottle of wine would be grand. Under the current licensing regime that is impossible without ordering food. It is positively archaic.

The liberalisation of licensing laws in this regard would be welcome by many people. Not just your sophisticated inner city folk but anyone who would like to while away some time drinking wine or beer in the confines of a nice café or restaurant. Possible objections would involve alcohol related social and health issues. Under that current licensing laws including Responsible Service of Alcohol guidelines (and I do have a current RSA certificate) the problems could be mitigated. Remember that the clientele most likely attracted to a restaurant would be out for a quiet drink and not a full on bender. It would not make any difference.

There have been indications that Premier Iemma will make changes to the NSW Liquor Act. However the changes mooted seem to favour larger gaming or alcohol concerns rather than making overdue changes to the restaurant/café culture of NSW. While such changes should be made with the problem of alcohol abuse in mind, adults should have some choice regarding places where they can enjoy a quiet drink. And the ability to stop into a restaurant or café for an adult beverage would not adversely affect society as we know it.

Howdy Y'all

2005-11-11T20:01:00.000+08:00

Hi Everybody.

My name is not Nic. It is Shaun. Some of you may be wandering what I am doing here away from my usual blogging haunt of Larvatus Prodeo.

Well it seems that Nic is heading off a secret mission or something like that for a few months. While he is off gallivanting around parts unknown Nic kindly invited me to guest blog at The 52^nd State for that period.

I'm not the most political blogger out there (tending toward science, philosophy and music at LP) but I intend to do some more political blogging while here. With the Anti-terror laws, IR reforms and the tragedy that is George Gregan still having a test spot there is not shortage of blogging fodder. Also, being a New South Welshman, we have dodgy tunnel construction projects galore threatening to renovate apartments in a flash that provide more grist for the blogging mill.

So hello one and all. I shall start proper blogging anon!

It's not the economy, stupid

2005-11-05T11:31:00.000+08:00

So, apparently the Industrial Relations reforms actually have no economic benefit, according to a treasury report the government refuses to release. Those ads we paid for have been saying how much wages will rise, the economy will strengthen and employment opportunities will increase under the legislation, but the government knows there is a report which contradicts these claims, and it is concealing the evidence.

You mean, we are paying the government to lie to us? Surely not...

Loose lips sink ships

2005-11-05T11:16:00.000+08:00

So, Howard thinks it is really important that we have fancy (but useless) new counter-terrorism laws so we will be able to prevent terrorists attacks on Australian soil, he even recalled the senate to amend the existing laws after he received intelligence of a serious terrorist threat here, which is fair enough. Obviously he appears to be, in his own way, serious about preventing terrorism.

So why, then, did he choose to publicise the threat and some details thereof, possibly tipping off local terrorists that the authorities were onto them, making law enforcement beat their collective heads against their desks? It wasn't necessary to tell the public, all that would do is create fear.

Did he just want the people to be fearful so he could gain more support for the legislation? If that is the case, then does he really feel politics is more important than national security?

Come now, act sensibly, John.

Mega bad idea abandoned

2005-11-03T22:56:00.000+08:00

The Curtin-Murdoch university merger plan that has been on the cards since June has thankfully been abandoned, with the universities deciding the idea was too costly to justify the benefits. The idea was a poor one from the start and as a student at Curtin I am glad this decision has been reached.

Below the fold is an article by me appearing this week in Murdoch's Metior magazine, exploring the merger concept and the Howard government policies that prompted the merger deliberations. It seems I was wrong to describe the merger as "inevitable", but I wasn't the only one surprised with the outcome.

Continue reading 'Mega bad idea abandoned'When ECU Vice-Chancellor Millicent Poole, in June this year, made the ambitious suggestion of combing with Curtin and Murdoch to form one "mega-uni", Murdoch and Curtin brass went public with their existing two-way merger discussions. This announcement caught just about everybody on the hop, particularly the 50,000 students studying at the two universities. These students, along with their elected guild representatives, are now scrambling to make sense of what may be a huge change in their education – and unlikely to be a good one.

This strategy is right out of the gospel of Dawkins, Education Minister for the Hawke government, who in the late-1980s declared that there was only one model for universities – large, comprehensive and research focused – and that all technical colleges and any institution with under 2000 students would have to combine, either with themselves or with an existing university, and would all be funded at the same rate. As a result, 63 separate institutions became 36 universities. The philosophy was that universities produced a standard "product", so achieving economies of scale and driving down the cost per student was paramount – more so than quality.

It was an era in which, as stated by CIS research fellow Andrew Norton, "diversity counted for little and competition for nothing." In the same way, diversity would be greatly damaged by a Curtin-Murdoch merger. Diversity of teaching, course and campus life is the only thing preventing universities from becoming solely generic degree factories, pumping students off a production line into the workforce. Students need a wide range of choices to get the most out of their education; a merger reduces choice, especially in a small place like Perth. Job losses for staff, numerous course closures, syllabus shakeups and increased bureaucracy are also inevitable.

But you won't find these concerns weighing very heavily with university powerbrokers. If you've taken the time to look at either of the merger feasibility websites, you should note it reads like a sales pitch, with vague, wishy-washy answers to important questions. Both guilds have committed to keeping track of the proceedings to ensure student interests are looked after, but one should not be optimistic about their ability to do much more than wrangle a few concessions – minds are already made up, and it is a purely financial decision.

That this now seems like a good idea is due to the government funding situation. Since the Howard government rose to power in 1996 it has stripped over $5 billion from higher education funding, starting with a 22% drop from 1996 to 2000, and a 6% drop in funding per student. In 1981 government funding made up 90% of university income; today it's less than 40%. Not all of the blame can be placed on the Howard government, however. In 1995, the Keating government introduced a flat level of indexation, the amount university funding increases due to inflation, at 2% per annum. However wage costs alone are rising at a much faster rate, leaving universities with ever-increasing shortfalls – Murdoch loses $2-4 million each year and ten of Australia's 38 universities made losses in 2003. With the government continuing to forsake universities in the budget, financial pressure on universities will increase.

To stay afloat, universities have resorted to two alternate methods of revenue generation: cost cutting and aggressive recruiting of full-fee paying international students. Excessive cost cutting is already rampant in universities such as Curtin, especially in it's business school – uncovered by Grok in November last year in a letter from Curtin Business School student "Erik." The letter described the conditions students of the department study under, including excessive numbers of group projects, student presented tutorials and student self-evaluation, and mid semester exams are even held in such crammed conditions that some students are forced to use overhead projectors as desks. The exams themselves aren't up to scratch either, with some "consisting entirely of true-or-false and multiple choice questions taken straight from the publisher’s website." These measures are designed to decrease staff workload, presumably so a smaller number of lower-paid staff can make do – CBS makes do with 214 staff members for 14058 students, that's over 65 students for each staff member. This is not an isolated problem, with student to staff ratios nation-wide increasing from 12:1 in 1985 to 16:1 in 1996 and to 21:1 by 2003, with some universities reporting up to 35:1. Between 1996 and 1998 staff numbers were slashed by 3000. Some tutorials have up to 50 students. Such cost cutting can only go on for so long before more drastic measures are required.

International students pull in $7.5 billion in revenue each year and are the lifeblood of Australian universities now that government funding has retreated. Curtin University boasts that over half its revenue is generated by international students, and full-fee paying students account for 40% of Central Queensland University's. So reliant are universities on this river of cash that they are prepared to go to great lengths to recruit and keep students, especially those outside the Group of Eight, like Curtin and Murdoch. Strategies range from setting up overseas campuses to even offering students visas and points towards permanent residencies – which Brendan Nelson denies they have the authority to do.

To continue receiving funds, universities must ensure they continue to study, which means they have to pass. As many of these students have neither the pre-requisites for university entrance, nor an adequate grasp of the English language, universities such as Curtin rush students through an eight-month crash-course, aimed to teach them English and cover the first year of their course, and then parachute them into the second year of a course of their choice. From all accounts, including that of "Erik", these are woefully inadequate, unleashing a mass of poorly prepared students. The catch is that failing these students results in a significant loss of revenue, so steps are taken to ensure they pass.

Standards are lowered, dumbing-down the course to a level where less capable students are able to pass, and group projects form a significant proportion of the marks for a given unit, allowing weaker students to ride on the backs of the more capable ones. Some students are even passed without fulfilling the course requirements, the highest-profile case being at Newcastle University in 2003. Professor Ian Firns found 15 essays with entire sections lifted directly from the internet. When he failed them outright, the university remarked the essays and passed the students. Dozens of academics have complained of similar occurrences. But reports such as these make it to overseas press and could hurt student numbers, so staff who speak out risk their jobs, and students like "Erik" face undesirable ramifications. But the situation is not sustainable, with countries like China gearing up to enter the market in force with super universities like Oriental University City. The damage to Australian universities from the loss of international student revenue would be "near catastrophic", according to ANU Vice-Chancellor Ian Chubb.

Universities are acting like businesses, rather than halls of knowledge, and in doing so they play right into the Howard government's hands. The Howard government has been relentlessly pursuing a free-market ideology, where every institution is converted into a business competing in a marketplace with little or no government support except where convenient, like forcing universities to push their stuff on to individual contracts that weaken academic unions, or forgo a 5-7.5% funding increase. Upcoming Industrial Relations reforms, changes to the welfare system and the sale of Telstra are all part of this master plan. Brendan Nelson’s new Research Quality Framework legislation results in what is, in the words of Dr Simon Cooper, "educational Darwinism", with universities competing against each other for research funding, with a preference for "applied research", where knowledge must sell. This leaves smaller players like Curtin and Murdoch in danger of having their research programs lose their funding unless they can combine their resources. Nelson is unapologetic, hinting that some universities may have to go because his policy is all about picking winners.

What's more, the preference for profitable research means arts and humanities are going to find it hard to find funding. Already at Curtin, Performing Arts and numerous other courses are under threat because they don’t make a profit. As Curtin Humanities rep, Rebecca Higgie, said in August "If you think the university is going to spare your course because it has 'education value,' then you’re living in a land of make-believe." But Nelson’s agenda cares very little. To him universities are merely responding to a market demand.

The endgame, as much as Nelson denies it, is for an American-style system where all students pay full fees. "The only solution that's now posed by the policy environment is to move to a more universal full fee system, and I think that's the likely end of this particular reform road that we're now on," says CQU’s Professor Simon Marginson. The center cannot hold. Either the government must restore university funding, against its ideology, or cut funding entirely. Our degrees are already the most expensive since World War II, and with another fee rise only delayed in Curtin by Guild lobbying, the future is not bright for the so-called clever country.

Forget VSU, this is the greatest threat facing Australian students.

Petty is as petty does

2005-11-01T09:49:00.000+08:00

It seems everyone wants a piece of the national broadcasters right now, and no one for any good reason. ABC executives attended a Senate Estimates hearing yesterday to be confronted by a frothing-at-the-mouth Liberal senator Santo Santoro, alleging over 600 counts of bias and other complaints against the company, few of which have been highlighted in the media.

The complaints which have been made public, however, can only be described as petty. Apparently the ABC has been "changing the term "terrorist" when used in Iraq or Israel and substituting "militant"," reporters make frequent "derogatory comments" about Christianity and "consistently showed sympathy for, and sometimes even took sides with, terrorists, immigration activists, Guantanamo Bay inmate and terror suspect David Hicks, and the ALP."

These charges are all highly subjective and therefore likely to be exaggerated depending on the opinions of the viewer - Santoro, being a raving conservative, probably thinks there is some vast left-wing conspiracy going on.

But it gets even more absurd. Santoro also accused the ABC of "dishonouring" WW1 soldiers because all but one of its TV presenters did not wear a red poppy on Remembrance Day last year, but all wore rosemary on Anzac Day. Firstly, I don't see how this is tantamount to "dishounoring" anyone; and secondly, what is the problem? The ABC says it, sensibly, does not have a policy on the wearing of either, the individuals choose to wear or not wear. It should not be forcing its staff either way.

Bob Brown also took the opportunity to dig the boot in. Conversely, he accused the ABC of a right-wing conspiracy in giving less than 5% of its airtime to coverage of the Greens campaign. Again, the ABC sensibly responded, stating that the focus is on the two major parties as they can actually form government.

It's almost laughable just how petty most of these allegations are. What is happening here is that Santoro has been unleashed upon the ABC to carry out what, from every indication, appears to be a personal vendetta. "The ABC is riddled with bias and mismanagement and I have the conclusive evidence to prove it," he triumphantly announces, having prepared no less than 1000 questions to interrogate ABC executives with. Why taxpayer time and money is being wasted on this is anyone's guess.

He was also comically livid that ABC Chief Executive Russell Balding failed to attend the hearing, even though no less than seven high-level executives were flown to Canberra. "You can all sit there and be sanctimonious and serious," he said, the irony of which is staggering, "For you to come without any explanation... I find that to be discourteous to the committee." Sure, it is a bit odd that Mr Balding did not tell his colleagues why he decided not to come at the last minute, but when seven other executives are sent, those who manage the day-to-day operation of the broadcaster, such a violent response is unnecessary. Santoro just wanted to have a go at Balding and was denied the opportunity, so he's cross.

SBS is under attack too, from none other than Barnaby Joyce who wants another headline. He seems to think, as a Christian, that SBS should not broadcast programs such as Queer as Folk or a documentary coming up this weekend that has a more unconventional theory on the family of Jesus, because "many people would be offended." If you don't like it, turn it off instead of being so self-righteous.

This is ridiculous. Either get some reasonable accusations with hard evidence, or get over it.

How to kill your newspapers

2005-10-29T23:26:00.000+08:00

Fairfax is still resolute in offloading 7.5% of its editorial positions, claiming it needs to make the job cuts for financial reasons, as neither The Age nor The SMH have been performing well this year. Naturally, their answer is to cut costs and hire more, comparatively cheap, marketing staff to increase their circulation to bring in more advertising revenue. The Fairfax careers page is currently advertising a hoard of positions, but only a few are for editorial staff with the vast majority comprised of, you guessed it, sales and accounting.

This is a great way to kill a paper. Cut your editorial staff, resulting in a reduction in quality as well as quantity of the actual content - the stuff people read the papers for - which will eventually reduce circulation anyway because people will stop buying. The strategy does not work, yet newspapers continue to pursue short-term cost-cutting solutions instead of investing in improving newspaper content to attract readers. It's a badly kept secret that Fairfax barely takes on any new blood, and this is what it needs more than marketing staff - if they are going to shed anyone it should be the under-performing dead wood at the top end, to be replaced by fresh, promising journalists.

Someone on the executive board must stand up and save the company from itself, before it backslides any further for failing to maintain a quality product.

$1.8 billion oil for palaces

2005-10-28T10:08:00.000+08:00

I did say I expected there to be many more companies involved in dodgy deals in the oil-for-food program, but 2000? Wow. This is a mess, and it looks like it's all going to hit the fan rather soon.

Thou shalt not blog

2005-10-27T22:12:00.000+08:00

There have been numerous cases of employees being fired for keeping a blog or journal that includes information about the company they work for, and most schools already limit their students to educational websites while in class - but never before has a school tried to reach its long arm of influence into the personal lives of its students in this way. Earlier this week, Rev. Kieran McHugh, principal of Pope John XXIII Regional High School, declared that students would dismantle their personal websites and profiles or face suspension.

Local newspaper The Daily Record has a long but poor article on the landmark decision by the school administration, giving the protectionist freak-out lobby a virtual free kick with very few strong dissenting voices and more than half a dozen soundbytes from the principal, but this allows us to see more of the scope of the underlying problem - people just don't get it.

While some have attributed the school's decision to an attempt to stifle student criticism, the thrust of McHugh's justification appears to be protecting the poor, innocent children from online predators.

All together now: Won't someone please think of the children?!

It becomes more and more farcical every time a hysterical older conservative harps on about what's corrupting our youth and putting them at risk, when in reality the risk is so minimal one wonders how much they understand the technology they are condemning. It's almost embarrassing, but so many people buy it because they don't understand themselves.

Blogging and particularly the hyper-networked journal websites such as MySpace and LiveJournal are a very new phenomena, and one that is still misunderstood by much of the adult population. It is immensely popular among young people and allows them to communicate with existing friends and others from around the world, and the results are overwhelmingly positive. Predatory behaviour does exist, but not to anywhere near the extent the balding panickers claim.

The online world is not some dangerous Detroit alleyway where child users must closely guard any information about themselves, and hence be unable to utilise the potential of the medium, neither are they all so naive as to render themselves vulnerable to attack. Provided they are informed about the public nature of the online medium and the covert methods of those who may wish them harm, most users - those in their later teens - are able to discern what is safe for themselves. Not all children are stupid, and reactionary responses from schools are an ineffective and excessive way to protect them. That many parents (number likely to be exaggerated) thanked the principal for exposing the "dangerous" activities of their children and acting to stop them exposes a widespread ignorance problem.

The only reason Pope John XXIII Regional High School has been able to get away with the ruling is that it is a private institution. Authoritarianism is rampant in private schools, especially those attached to religion - I should know, I went to one years ago. Private schools are free to do whatever they please with limited regulation and hence the potential to implement rules which impede on student rights in a way that would be beyond the pale anywhere else in the world, but even civil liberties groups admit there is very little that can be done. It is a problem, and this is just another symptom.

Indicative of the ignorance possessed by many is the inability to concede that self-expression generally and blogging specifically have very real educational benefits. It allows them to mix with people of different cultures, enhance their linguistic skills, build social and in many cases professional networks, seek second opinions and improve their knowledge and academic abilities through wider discussion.

Instead of implementing an unenforceable rule that limits student self-expression and has staff furiously Googling and monitoring their students when they could be educating them, schools should encourage their students to blog, unleashing the potential of a very powerful medium for educational and personal development.

Tribal justice

2005-10-26T21:27:00.000+08:00

The WA state government appears to be seriously considering recognising Aboriginal tribal punishment and having judges take it into consideration when handing out sentences. Attortney-General Jim McGinty seems to be in support of such a move in light of a review of tribal justice being undertaken by UWA's Crime Research Centre.

The line review director Harry Blagg, Aboriginal Legal Service chief executive Dennis Eggington and the Attorney-General seem to be taking is that tribal justice is a reality in the state and traditional law will always exist, so it should be accommodated in the current legal system.

The problem with this is that you can't have it both ways, and it's ridiculous to think you can. Did the federal government not say, several months ago in reference to Islamic law, that Australians live under only one law? So why now are we entertaining the idea of effectively letting Aboriginals live under two legal systems? Surely the federal government will act against this move if they meant what they said.

Terrence Dann, convicted today of the murder of two of his children, was prepared to go back to his community and face the death penalty - a punishment Australia does not endorse - should they be allowed to carry this punishment out because tribal law is a "fact of life"? What about Islamic Law, neo-Mosaic Jewish law, Christian divorce laws and covenant marriage? What about a large section of the population who would like to lynch child-molesters, should they be allowed to do that too?

If you're going to allow one group of people to use their own laws, or accommodate them into the mainstream legal system, you have to do it for every group. It's one or the other - you can't honestly draw these double standards left right and crucifix, unless you want to give up on a universal system of law for all of us.

Cruelty to cows, fish and women

2005-10-26T15:47:00.000+08:00

It's been a mixed day for animal rights activists. A 61-year-old Queensland retiree was fined a measly $1000 for accidentally shooting a woman in the leg. Rudolf Stadler had volunteered to shoot a "troublesome" cow his friend owned, but unfortunately is not very handy with a firearm - his first and second shots both missing, one of which went through the shed wall, a fence and across a paddock before hitting Carrie Tunney in the leg while she was in a passing car.

This is certainly a bizarre accident that makes you wonder what on Earth Ms Tunney did to deserve it, and is no fault of any party, other than Stadler's inability to hit the side of a cow. The judge understood this and sensibly revoked Stadler's licence, who sensibly told reporters he has no plans to apply for a new one.

"But," the animal rights activists will wail, "he shot a cow just because it was "troublesome" and was only fined $1000? What about the cow, will someone not speak for the cow?"

They did, however, have better luck in Rome, where round fishbowls have been declared illegal, dog owners must walk their dogs at least three times a day, face jail for abandoning their pets, and can no longer dock tails or give animals away as fairground prizes. Apparently round bowls provide insufficient oxygen for fish and cause them to go blind.

Maybe pet owners fed up with these ridiculous laws will just "lose" their dog while out for one of those walks they are having instead of, you know, living.

Abdominal interference

2005-10-25T21:03:00.000+08:00

Victorian health minister Bronwyn Pike has seen reason and backed away from plans to impose a 48 hour waiting time for women wanting late term abortions. Her support for the move resulted in a heavy backlash from other Labor Party MPs. But of course, the bill was still a good move and didn't involve the erosion of reproductive rights for no good reason.

"Ms Pike's spokesman Ben Hart said the minister was disappointed that some people had characterised her original intention as "interfering" with a woman's right to choose to have a late-term abortion."

Of course, she wasn't interfering, what were we thinking? Making someone wait two days before they can do something they can currently do in a couple of hours hardly constitutes "interference."

Every 15 minutes

2005-10-24T11:12:00.000+08:00

A police report today indicates that a child is abused every 15 minutes nationally with 33,000 incidents reported to police, almost half of which were in New South Wales with an abuse estimated to be carried out every 35 minutes. Coupled with a rise of 5% annually over the past five years, the NSW police have acted to combat the disturbing statistics.

The police have called a three-day National Policing Forum to, with the help of members of the FBI, plan effective national guidelines and strategies for dealing with child abuse. The strategy is likely to be directed at homes, where 72% of the assaults take place, 35% at the hands of the child's parents.

It is likely this rise is a result of increased awareness and reporting of the problem, rather than an actual substantial increase in the number of incidents. Nevertheless it is obviously a serious problem that needs to be addressed, and this is a step in the right direction.

More oil for palaces

2005-10-23T15:27:00.000+08:00

Midway Trading, a US oil trading firm, has pleaded guilty to paying $400k in bribes to Iraqi officials to secure oil deals in the oil-for-food program. They will pay a $250k fine. It's likely they will not be the last either.

Locked up for the common cold

2005-10-22T21:40:00.000+08:00

As the ever-present threat of bird flu provides a convenient distraction for the public from other important political issues, the government today revealed it would detain airline passengers into Australia for up to six days should the threat escalate any further. This comes after seven pidgeons imported from Canada were destroyed after testing positive for bird flu related antibodies and further shipments banned.

I don't plan on being hold up in a Kingsford-Smith airport hangar bay with up to 499 other people just because someone on my flight has a cold, but that's what it may come to if the government's drastic plan is implemented. Hopefully this will have all blown over by the time I return on 6th March.

Howard has again appealed to the public to stay calm and not panic. Don't worry, it's just an oncoming pandemic, nothing to worry about. Of course, this nothing but encourage the people to worry even more - has no one worked this out yet? Perhaps that's the point, keep the public fearful about bird flu, flood the media and avoid difficult questions about IR, anti-terrorism laws and that woman we sent to the Philippines (what was here name again?).

Oh no, John, save us from the bird flu by passing anti-terrorism laws which are largely useless at preventing terrorism, let alone bird flu, and we won't worry about our pay and conditions being nuked by cost-cutting employers gladly calling the hotline asking how they can further exploit their workers. Just don't let the Bad Birds in!

At least we don't have 600 empty prison camps awaiting a martial law declaration.

Satire is the right word

2005-10-20T18:20:00.000+08:00

Why is it always the lawyers who make the biggest fools of themselves? American anti-videogame crusader Jack Thompson has made blunder after blunder in recent weeks in the pursuit of his cause, progressively making himself look more and more like a raving religious-right ideologue and alienating his allies.

Jack's line is essentially that violent videogames cause young people to commit murder and mayhem, and should therefore be banned or heavily regulated. There's something to be said for ensuring younger teens are prevented from playing games with adult content, at least without parental consent, but Thompson's obnoxious, hardline position and tactics are very much beyond the pale. He once compared Electronic Software Alliance president Doug Lowenstein to Adolf Hitler.

The most recent row began last Monday with Thompson issuing a "modest proposal" to the game industry, in particular Take Two and Rockstar Games who make the infamous Grand Theft Auto and upcoming title Bully, to create a game featuring a vengeful parent whose child has been murdered by a gamer. The character goes on a nation-wide rampage, killing everyone from gaming industry figures to Walmart cashiers. Thompson said he would donate $10k to charity if the game was made.

This was probably the last straw for the National Institute on Media and the Family founder David Walsh, who shares concerns about child gamers, but in a much less militant fashion. Walsh wrote to Thompson saying the organisation has "a growing concern that your use of our name, without our permission, has had a negative influence as we try to educate the public," and that Thompson's "commentary has included extreme hyperbole and your tactics have included personally attacking individuals for whom I have a great deal of respect." He then requested that Thompson cease using their name and remove the link to their website from him, effectively disassociating Jack Thompson from NIMF.

Thompson then hit back with a two letter reply to David Walsh, and accused him of distancing NIMF from him for financial reasons:

"...Dave Walsh, who takes money from video game retailers, Target and Best Buy, and doesn't disclose that on his website?"

"Dr. Walsh's efforts are funded by Target and by a foundation run by Best Buy lawyer and Best Buy Director Elliot Kaplan. I am suing Target and Best Buy over the Bully game, which both Target and Best Buy are pre-selling. You connect the dots."

Thompson also sent a letter to Senator Joe Liberman, who was CCed on Walsh's letter, slandering Walsh.

In the meantime, artists from the popular webcomic Penny Arcade sent an email the Thompson regarding his proposal:

"10 grand is pretty weak man. Through our charity http://www.childsplaycharity.org/ gamers have given over half a million dollars in toys and cash to children's hospitals all over the country."

Included in the email signature was the phone number of Mike Krahulik, one of the Penny Arcade duo, which Thompson promptly called twice to abuse him. Mike managed to get off a pertinent question during the one-sided exchange: "If a company made his reprehensible game, he would literally have to sue himself and talk about what a bastard he was on national television?" The question went unanswered.

Four groups of gamers made hasty attempts at constructing a game to fulfill Thompson's challenge, including a text adventure by the Old Grandma Hardcore blog. Also, unknown to Thompson, a group of GTA modders know as the "Fighting Hellfish" had made a mod remarkably similar to Thompson's proposal a week earlier, only with Thompson himself carrying out the carnage.

Thompson declared the result insufficient and refused to hand over the money to charity, saying his proposal was merely "satire" intended to "highlight the patent hypocrisy and recklessness exhibited by the video game industry's willingness to target cops, women, homosexuals, and other groups with some of their violent games." Making himself look even more silly, he ended his response with:

"You all seem rather bothered and worried about a nonentity. God is in this battle, and I am privileged to be a foot soldier. You all should be concerned, not about me, but about Him."

As the community collectively rolled their eyes, Penny Arcade did something positive, donating the $10k themselves, in Jack's name, to The Entertainment Software Association Foundation, a fund which has raised $6.7 million in eight years.

Jack Thompson was not impressed, writing to Mike "This story is completely false and defamatory. Take it down or else." Mike responded with a fake auto response email. This succeeded in enraging Thompson further. You would think he would be through digging his own grave by now, but like all good lawyers gone a bit funny in the head he made some legal threats, namely sending a fax to the Seattle police department asking them to arrest Penny Arcade for their supposed "campaign of harassment."

Unfortunately for Jack, he sent the fax to everyone other than the police. He also misspelled the Penny Arcade url. Later, GameSpot was contacted by Thompson, saying the police now had the correct url and actually had the fax this time. GameSpot called the Seattle police, they still had not received the fax. Penny Arcade remained completely unworried the entire time.

On Tuesday night, Thompson appeared on CNN for 15 seconds of fame, speaking out against new game Blitz: The League. Afterwards he triumphantly posted on GamePolitics, telling gamers to "get a life."

It's pretty clear that Jack Thompson is not only extremely wrong in his opinions, but incompetent at publicising them. Perhaps the best take on the whole saga was from Mike Krahulik, pointing out that Thompson is not at all special, just the mouthpiece those concerned about the "corruption" of modern youth - the latest threat being videogames. He is just an actor playing his part. If he were to be shut down, and he could be easily, someone else would just take over - and that someone might actually have a clue. So, Mike contends, perhaps the gaming community is lucky it has a muppet for its opposition.

The only satire here is the adventures of Jack Thompson.

Carpe jugulum

2005-10-18T23:35:00.000+08:00

It's one thing to attempt to stop someone from speaking in parliament, but it's another to try it literally - as NSW Roads Minister Joe Tripodi discovered today when he was throttled by National Party MP Andrew Fraser. The minister was giving a speech on the Pacific Highway upgrade in the Lower House, and made a remark about Mr Fraser not being in his electorate of Coffs Harbour last time Tripodi had visited. Upon hearing this, Fraser threatened to throw a glass of water on Tripodi, then jumped to his feet and grabbed his throat. It took six members to separate the two and throw Fraser out of the chamber.

There have been only a few similar incidents on the floor of parliament in the last few years, one of which involved Andrew Bartlett, which we won't return to. Somehow I think Andrew Fraser's actions are a bit more serious than Bartlett's arm-grabbing, and warrant more than just the simple apology he has given.

Such behaviour is obviously unacceptable from elected members of parliament and should be condemned, but calling for his head - which will inevitably occur, as in other cases - is excessive, though one would expect that Fraser will face some kind of internal party reprimand and then everyone can move on.

Come on guys, this isn't Taiwan.

Update: Fraser has been suspended from parliament for eight sitting days and has resigned from the front bench, though he will probably be reinstated once he has serves his suspension. He claims he was not drunk at the time, though he did have a glass of wine before the session. Tripodi seems to already be over it.

Elsewhere: Sam Butler discusses the dirty politics leading up to the event.

Terror in the detail

2005-10-17T15:14:00.000+08:00

Now that ACT Chief Minister John Stanhope has done the nation a service by publicising the draft proposal for the new anti-terror laws, and the same draft has become avaliable to politicians around the country, the legislation looks to be in serious trouble, with a Liberal backbench revolt poised to water it down.

This is because all the ideological hackery and vague press releases have been proven, as one might expect, to be quite different to the actual bill - showing itself to be a largely useless and over-reaching raft of new laws that will do little to actually prevent terrorism, and are so badly written they are open to misuse.

This is of course what people feared, and now that the public has been provided with the details to constructively discuss the legislation, a public backlash is quite possible. I'll return to this when I have a bit more time.

How to win at the Olympics

2005-10-14T23:12:00.000+08:00

Plant anti-communist material on your opponents - it's enough to get you deported from China, as Australian dancer Xue-Jun Wang found out last week. Mr Wang, who is a Sydney Dance Company member, gave a Chinese citizen Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, a book critical of the Chinese government which is claimed to have inspired over 5 million to quit the Party.

Wang, speaking at a press conference with defector Chinese diplomat Chen Yonglin, warned that Australian athletes at the 2008 Olympic Games may suffer a similar fate to himself were they to speak of or be found with material critical of the government or supporting democracy.

However, I cannot see how China would be able to manage such a stunt at such a high-profile event, so more than likely the threat is non-existent. However, it is outrageous enough that someone, let alone an athlete, could be deported and probably blacklisted from China for only dissenting against the oppressive government.

The Australian Olympic Committee has of course said nothing critical of China's handling of Mr Wang's case, but if China is going to hold a major international sporting event, it needs to be able to confirm that no athlete will be subject to arbitrary deportation.

More talk of tickers

2005-10-13T19:09:00.000+08:00

We're all missing the point. The most important part of the upcoming Industrial Relations reforms is not the effect it will have on Australia's working population, or how it will affect the economy; but whether Kim Beazley has managed to build a case against it in the four days of unrelenting government propaganda. Yes, Howard was again banging the "Beazley stands for nothing" drum in parliament today.

There seems to be a semi-organised effort by Howard, his cronies and pro-government pundits to paint the Opposition Leader as a statesman without a platform who, as Howard said today, doesn't have the ticker to lead the ALP, let alone the country. The meme is oft repeated, but is rarely backed up with anything substantial, only designed to imprint the smear into the minds of the average voter. This time is no different.

"The only thing that can be said of the Leader of the Opposition is that if the Coalition is in favour of it, the Leader of the Opposition is against it."

Well, with a raft of odious and unnecessary legislation championed by the government, what's an opposition to do? There's isn't much room or even need for grand new policy from an opposition. You've got to pick the opportune moment, and right now when the public won't care what went down by the time it counts is not the one.

We know exactly what Howard stands for, and many of us don't like it. However much Labor needs to get its act together to be able to articulate policy, the fact remains that no policies are better than bad policies.

Go you good thing

2005-10-12T14:45:00.000+08:00

As has been discussed elsewhere, Senator Barnaby Joyce has crossed the floor and managed to scuttle an undersireable part of the Trade Practices Amendment Bill which would make company mergers easier and weaken the ACCC's role in approving or preventing them. The bill was passed without the section Barnaby voted against.

It's heartening after his decision to support the full sale of Telstra to see him hold his nerve despite the intense pressure he is under from both within his own party and the coalition, and from the opposition and lobby groups. With contentious and important legislation such as IR and VSU coming up, those who don't support the government line will be pinning their hopes on Joyce repeating this action several times.

Howard and his merry men are already off to close the breach, however. Howard "said he would talk to Coalition MPs about the need for the legislation to be passed without any changes." In other words, he wants them to tow the party line and support bills even though there may be areas that member may find objectionable. While an MP may support the bill in essence he or she should be perfectly within rights to desire that certain elements be changed or removed.

9th October

2005-10-09T21:31:00.000+08:00

John Howard's Coalition government was re-elected one year ago today. This means we have less than two more to go.

All hail the back room

2005-10-08T23:59:00.000+08:00

I just survived a meeting it was possible I would not, though I think people spent quite a bit of mobile phone credit today counting the numbers. We ended up getting a consensus, a new way forward and the most (only) constructive meeting ever. Far from the bloodbath everyone was gearing up for, probably due to a lot of the backrooming. I'm happy with the result.

I won't need a deal with News Ltd. quite yet. Now I need sleep.

Gestational Certificates

2005-10-06T20:13:00.000+08:00

There are almost no words to describe the absurdity of the latest far-right attack on reproductive rights. A bill drawn up by the Indiana legislative would make marriage a requirement for parenthood, barring singles and same-sex couples from having children via any form of assisted reproduction technology.

Married couples wanting to have a test-tube baby or via artificial insemination would be required to lodge a "petition for parentage" and be screened in a procedure similar to those of adopting parents. Successful couples would be given a "gestational certificate," before then, they and doctors commit a crime if impregnation goes ahead.

Yes, women are to be put back in their place as baby factories.

Fortunately the bill was dropped today.

(Via)

Things I always wanted to know

2005-10-04T23:25:00.000+08:00

Some junk research and other weird and wacky from the radio this morning:

Apparently you need a network of at least 18 friends and family to get by, and you should select your friends by what you can get out them.

Parents of children under five have significantly lower sex drive as a result of their lack of sleep. Who would have thought! What a remarkable discovery.

Yes, these people get paid.

Also, an anti-pollution activist is making a protest by leaving his car on for 12 months. His logic is undeniable. He also doesn't have a proper job, I'm not surprised.

Thankfully there was some good science news today, with a Perth pair being awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for discovering that stomach ulcers are caused by bacteria, not stress. Maybe people will stop telling me I'm giving myself stomach ulcers. To prove this one of them swallowed the bacteria and developed some nasty ulcers. As Spotswood would say, now that's dedication.

Giving the terrorists a second win

2005-10-03T19:41:00.000+08:00

What happened in Bali is sad. Not just because of the obvious, although small, loss of life, but because of the after effects it will have on the people of Bali - after effects that frankly should not occur, with scores of people canceling planned holidays to the Indonesian island and others returning home from current holidays early.

To be quite honest, the behaviour of such people in the wake of terrorist bombings, both now and earlier, is disappointing to say the least. The chances of a second attack are almost zero, this one coming almost three years after the 12th October attacks in 2002, and tourists are in any case in negligible danger. They have more chance of being killed by their plane crashing, or having a car accident on the way to the airport.

It's hype, panic, ignorance and possibly cowardice - and it is going to destroy the Bali economy all over again. It is perpetuated not just by the media, but by the federal government who keep loudly advising that all Australian defer all non-essential travel to Indonesia. On the contrary, if you have ever wanted to holiday in Bali, now is the time. Show some solidarity and some backbone.

The tiny threat of terrorism is no reason for not visiting a country. People need to realise that their decision to run scared has a much greater impact on human life than any terrorist attack could. When hundreds of people cancel their holidays to Bali, the terrorists win. When the economy grinds to a halt because there are fewer tourists, the terrorists win. When people are afraid of taking a damn holiday the terrorists win. When poor Indonesian tourist workers starve to death, the terrorists win. Seriously people, just, why? Why do you say you're never going back?

Forgive and forget?

2005-10-02T15:36:00.000+08:00

Say Hitler didn't kill himself and eluded capture after the conclusion of WW2 and, upon seeing the error of his ways, went on to become a Mother Theresa-like figure before being tracked down after a few years.

Ignoring the obvious legal imperatives, would you let him off the hook?

The nuclear solution

2005-10-01T23:52:00.000+08:00

I'd just like to show some solidarity with Philip Gomes on the subject of nuclear power generation and storage. Whether or not you you believe in the whole climate change deal, or that we are fast running out of oil, coal and ozone layer, the need for alternative energy generation is a more pressing need than ever before, and will continue to be more so. Nuclear power is the only economically viable alternative to fossil fuels - "renewable" energy is simply not viable at it's present level of development.

Nuclear power, by comparison is not only ready, but very effective - Australia has enough uranium lying around to power the entirety of Western Australia for 1500 years. It is also, contrary to popular belief, safer than coal - to both workers and the population. Accidents like Chernobyl that stick in people's minds are intrinsically impossible with today's reactor technology and the radiation given off by nuclear power generation pales into insignificance compared even to background radiation. It is also effective enough to produce a hydrogen alternative to oil.

However, the waste has to go somewhere, and, short of shooting it off into space, burying it very deep in the ground is by far the best option. There are two places with enough desolate desert landscape to achieve this most effectively - Africa and Australia. Australia is a much better choice as it is stable both geologically and politically, unlike Africa. As a result, there is a huge economic opportunity for Australia in production, export and waste storage. Our economy is not exactly a powerhouse, and this would be a great boon to the economy. Also, as Phil says, if we are going to make a gigantic sum of money off our massive uranium stash, we are obligated to do a fair share of the waste storage - for a suitable fee of course.

However, the suggestion is, unfortunately, a bad one politically, as the Australian public is simply not ready to accept the truth and embrace nuclear power and all that comes with it. Perhaps sometime in the future, as the price of oil continues to rise, they will come around.

Kick 'em when they're down 2

2005-09-30T18:34:00.000+08:00

Another brick in the Liberal Party master plan was unveiled today - new rules governing job agencies. Agencies will be given larger cash bonuses under more relaxed conditions, so they can tackle the large number of single parents and disability sufferers forced to look for work in the event of new legislation which cuts their benefits unless they find work.

Particularly telling was this line in the report:

"Under the new rules, job agencies will also be able to claim more money when they get a person into a job that reduces their income support."

This is the plan, the gradual dismantling of as much of the welfare system as is feasible, instead allowing market forces to dictate, well, everything, and leave those who can't keep up in the dust. Get people off income support, get them working dead end jobs - often at the expense of higher education - and let the privileged continue to get richer.

Prepare the bullshit protectors

2005-09-29T17:39:00.000+08:00

The High Court has rejected the ACTU and ALP's challenge to the $20 million taxpayer-funded government Industrial Relations ~~propaganda~~ advertising program. The public will now be treated to a deluge of advertising aimed to pacify their justified fears about the governments proposed legislation.

The government will slap the ACTU and the ALP with a $200k legal bill, Workplace Relations minister Kevin Andrews having the audacity to brand it a political stunt.

We are going need some of these.

Scorched earth

2005-09-29T17:01:00.000+08:00

With a Liberal-Nationals coalition re-established in Queensland, the Liberal Party master plan to progressively annihilate and replace the National Party has been granted yet another success, following the sale of Telstra which was passed with the blessing of the National Party.

Part of the deal is to have join pre-selections for one candidate, chosen by both parties, to stand against Labor in numerous seats at the next state election - reducing the number of three-cornered contests. This would not be an issue had it not been for the optional preferential system Queensland has adopted. As you would guess, few voters bother to number more than one box, so even though more may vote for the Liberals and Nationals than Labor in one seat, the vote is split between them and with no distribution of preferences, Labor wins the seat. The whole aim of this coalition is to beat Labor, as they know neither party is likely to do it alone.

Of course, this means the Liberal Party will be able to muscle in more candidates at the expense of some National Party ones, and be able to control more of the operation of both parties - despite currently having three times as few seats. For the sake of beating Beattie, the Nationals will be marginalising themselves, allowing themselves to be slowly eroded by the Liberals who are hell bent on their destruction. It seems the National Party brass has chosen to risk a slow death of the party, over perpetual opposition - knowing full well they will be long gone and have had their tilt at power.

The only option I can see is for the coalition to gain a large victory over the Beattie government at the next election, but with few Liberal MPs elected. They can then burn the coalition agreement and stay in government. With the declining in the National Party vote further damaged by their support for the sale of Telstra, against the wishes of 80% of the electorate, this seems highly unlikely. The Liberals probably have a similar aim, gain enough seats to make this impossible, and perhaps gain more seats than the declining Nationals in order to wrest control of the new government.

There is speculation within the ranks that Liberal state president Michael Caltibiano will soon mount a leadership challenge against Bob Quinn, and then seek to become premier if the Liberals get more seats in a coalition win. He has been against a coalition for many years, but tellingly backflipped after his recent victory in a lower house by-election.

Far from coming to their senses, this could turn out to be a long term blunder for the last potent state National Party in the country, or at least a very risky manouver for short term gain. Those in the corner of Blackall and Macquarie Streets must be rubbing their hands together.

Nosce te ipsum

2005-09-29T01:21:00.000+08:00

Running a large two-day event with numerous things to do and people to not let down, and all with three hours sleep the night before and zero during the event itself, triggers different coping mechanisms in people both mentally and physically. I am a machine. I don't sleep, I don't relax, I stay focused as much as I can. I build up huge amounts of adrenaline, which takes days afterwards to dissipate. Coming off this frankly sucks, it's depressing and provokes self-reflection.

I think about the bizarre world of Mark Latham and his spectacular self-destruction, and in particular one comment made about it, about people pinning their happiness on the opinions of others. I would agree that this is a common character trait, possibly flaw, in people - not just those in positions where opinion is everything. How do you determine success and failure? How do you determine the worth of a person? And how much does it matter?

I am a results-based person. This means I believe I am the sum of my achievements, what I produce, what I have done and nothing more. If I consistently fail at the expense of success, I am a failure. If I consistently prove myself to be awesome, then I am. If people think what I produce is of a high standard, then it is. The opinions of others and your successes and failures are the only accurate judges of your own quality. My year 7 teacher, one of the wisest men I have had the pleasure of knowing, once said to me "You are judged by what you produce, not what you think you know in your head."

I am a person who is not content to be mediocre, or even good - I must be excellent, I must better myself in every possible way, I must succeed and succeed well and regularly. So I strive to become better and better, to keep up and then to overtake, to know and understand more. It drives me, it motivates me, it keeps me breathing, because I absolutely cannot let anyone down. I demand more and more of myself, and I push myself to succeed, if something isn't working then it is not worth doing, and if something is worth doing, then it must be excellent - if it's not then I have wasted my time.

I depend on results for who I am both professionally and personally. Consistent failure at the expense of success shows me to be the failure I am, and this depresses me; and every success puts me on top of the world until it is rationalised into obscurity. But they are few and far between. My life is a succession of failures from start to finish, weaving a trail of destruction that corrupts everything it touches, over and over and over. I have achieved nothing, therefore I am nothing - perhaps worse than nothing. I appear doomed to fail each time, in every possible way. I fool myself into believing I can do things, compete in arenas, take on tasks I cannot, when on even the simplest of fields I fail.

I don't feel I'm very likeable, and from the way my life has gone it appears true. I used to think it was them, perhaps they're just bastards. But with the way it goes I need to take a good hard look at myself and realise it me at fault, and fail to address, even identify, the problem that is me, and prevent the cycle of self destruction from continuing to wreak havoc. To continue to fail. To hate myself more.

Though bastard I am, I am a stubborn one; with an inability to give up. I keep trying, I keep hanging out for things to work, to strike it rich on a nugget of glory in a mountain of disappointment riddled with squandered opportunity. To prove to myself what I, what everyone somewhere in themselves, hopes is true. For my psyche demands it, and it does not cease to demand it, and I must obey - swimming towards the ever receding horizon waiting for a favourable current. I must seek to further understand myself, for to succeed perhaps I must know myself. Or at least understand something. Anything.

3 years for prisoner abuse

2005-09-28T15:56:00.000+08:00

Private Lynndie England, the American soldier found guilty of abusing, torturing and humiliating Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib, for no reason other than her own enjoyment, has been sentenced to a mere three years in jail and a dishonourable discharge from the army. With parole she could be released in one.

She was found guilty on charges of one count of conspiracy to maltreat prisoners, four counts of maltreatment and one count of committing an indecent act, which unfortunately do not carry very high penalties, hence the short three year sentence. Her sentence is only the third longest of the nine soldiers sentenced for their part in the atrocity.

This wasn't about information gathering, this was about soldiers gaining twisted gratification from abusing their prisoners. Three years is not enough.

One day in September

2005-09-24T04:39:00.000+08:00

GO THE WEST COAST EAGLES!!!

Ahem. Sydney people, don't brag too much after today.

Also, I won't be around until Tuesday because I'm out all weekend and recovering on the Monday, but I'll be watching the game. Have fun.

Show yourselves!

2005-09-23T15:59:00.000+08:00

Apparently yesterday was Lurker Day, where all the lurkers who read but don't comment come out of the woodwork and tell us who they are and what they want.

So if there are any lurkers here, come on out.

Kick 'em when they're down

2005-09-22T23:51:00.000+08:00

In the continuing saga of the Howard government progressively screwing over single parents and those with disabilities, some of the most vulnerable people in our society, Kevin Andrews was on ABC Radio yesterday, defending the government's changes to the welfare system. The minister is barely bothering to cover up the total lack of compassion embodied by these changes.

The government has adopted a policy of getting people off welfare to appease their economic ideology and those of the public who pour scorn on the welfare system as a concept. They are doing this at all costs, even forcing the disabled and single parents into dead-end low wage jobs and cutting their benefits. It's in every way abhorrent.

Couch Barnaby

2005-09-22T22:09:00.000+08:00

Is Senator Barnaby Joyce having headline withdrawal already? Today he made the outrageous suggestion that senators should vote remotely and secretly from their electorates, and only go to Canberra for question time. It makes you wonder if he's been reading the Latham diaries, what with some of the things he's been saying.

"There is a different culture in Canberra and people are isolated and insulated by party machines."

"Senator Joyce... conceded that most of his colleagues would hate the idea "because if you cannot see the vote you cannot control it"."

Is he that cynical already?

Pretty much everyone who has commented on the suggestion in the media thinks it's a terrible idea. As both Senate Clerk Harry Evans and Senator Andrew Bartlett have said, if you don't know how your elected representative is voting, you can't hold them accountable for their decisions - so what's the point?

Labor's Joe Ludwig says it's a recipe for a lazy senator and ACT Senator Kate Lundy has taken offence to Joyce's comments about Canberra's culture, demanding an apology.

What is Barnaby doing? Just what does he hope to achieve with wacky ideas like this which have no chance of being supported by either side of Australian politics?

Lost in the 70s

2005-09-21T17:44:00.000+08:00

Crossposted to Larvatus Prodeo.

Once upon a time there was a man named Glen Larson, who had the bright idea of creating a science fiction series upon the premise of a rag-tag band of human holocaust survivors racing across the galaxy, pursued by an army of killer robots. It was a corny, campy space opera featuring dashing young heroes, wise old leaders and treacherous politicians. This adventure was called Battlestar Galatica.

It lasted only one season in 1978 before ratings and expenditure forced it to be cancelled, despite an embarrassing and short-lived attempt to revive it in 1980. 25 years later, in 2003, after some of the original team had campaigned for a revival for decades, former Star Trek writer Ronald D. Moore commissioned a higher budget "re-imagining" or "reboot" of the series – much to the dismay of many older fans and actors from the original series, who spoke against it.

One of these actors was Dirk Benedict, who was cast as Starbuck – the cigar smoking, death-defying, high-flying fighter ace with a girl in every galaxy. The re-imagined Starbuck, while holding on to many of the original's characteristics, is female. Benedict and his fans were more upset about this than any other part of the series. In May 2004 he wrote an article for Dreamwatch Magazine, slamming the new series and, more disturbingly, revealing truths about himself that horrified many fans.

Continue reading 'Lost in the 70sIt's one thing to criticize a television show, but it's another to do it wallowing in your own prejudices. After first lashing out in a fit of bitterness at the network executives (or "Suits" as he calls them) of the 1978 production for their disenchantment with his portrayal of Starbuck the First, he bursts out with a critique of Starbuck that would make Evil Pundit blush.

"There was a time... when men were men, women were women and sometimes a cigar was just a good smoke. But 40 years of feminism have taken their toll. The war against masculinity has been won. Everything has turned into its opposite, so that what was once flirting and smoking is now sexual harassment and criminal. And everyone is more lonely and miserable as a result."

Lonely and miserable? Speak for yourself. It wasn't a creative decision designed to alter the dynamics of the show to bring about more tension and intrigue between characters or anything like that, oh no. It's an indication of what a terrible state the world has become, at the fault of, well, feminism of all things. When in doubt, blame the feminists.

Now, I'm not all that enamoured with the payback mentality of the feminist movement, but to say that it has dramatically and adversely changed the fabric of society is absurd. He continues along this path:

"In the new un-imagined, re-imagined world of Battlestar Galactica everything is female driven. The male characters, from Adama on down, are confused, weak, and wracked with indecision while the female characters are decisive, bold, angry as hell, puffing cigars (gasp) and not about to take it any more."

For a start, this isn't true. The mini-series pilot, which is all that had been show at this point, featured the complete and utter destruction of all but 50000 humans – which is enough to give anyone the jitters. It also featured reignited tension between Commander Adama and his son Apollo, which causes much pain and confusion for them, and brings out their weaknesses. Starbuck's appearance as mad, angry and bold is more of a coping mechanism than anything else, she has many of her own weakness, which come out later in the series. As part of the realism of the show, none of the characters are the larger-than-life heroes of the original, but real, flawed human beings being asked to do extraordinary things. It's a huge longbow to claim it's female-driven. Benedict is either exaggerating for his own ends, or doesn't even understand the series.

Secondly, what exactly is the problem with having strong female characters? It becomes boring when they are all damsels in distress, like in most of the original series, which was rife with the sexism Benedict so adores.

"'Re- inspiration' struck. Starbuck would go the way of most men in today's society. Starbuck would become "Stardoe"... Women are from Venus. Men are from Mars. Hamlet does not scan as Hamletta. Nor does Han Solo as Han Sally. Faceman is not the same as Facewoman. Nor does a Stardoe a Starbuck make. Men hand out cigars. Women 'hand out' babies. And thus the world, for thousands of years, has gone round."

I understand now. Benedict doesn't like the new series because it's not sexist enough. Women aren't damsels in distress, the men aren't always going to save the day, women aren't just trophies or distractions – they can be whatever the hell they want and fly better than the Tom Cruise next to them. It's like, you know, the real world? I don't know where Benedict is typing from, but I live in a place called Earth – and both genders appear to come from the same place.

Sadly, this misogynistic diatribe from Benedict is not unlike the views of many other members of the human race. There is a hyper-conservative social dogma which dictates that women have their place – chained to the bedroom and the kitchen, unless they are dealing with the children, while the bloke is out doing the real work and coming home late after being on the grog with his mates. This is then dressed up and repackaged as "traditional values," sold to an apathetic public and used to win elections. Women need finishing schools, and should only receive family tax benefits if they stay home. It's their place – my ideology tells me so.

These roles cannot change, they say, because they are proper. Why? Well because that's the way it's been for thousands of years – if it 'aint broke, don't fix it. But, see, it most definitely was broke, and is well on the way to being fixed, no thanks to you.

But wait, there's more:

"To take what once was and twist it into what never was intended. So that a television show based on hope, spiritual faith, and family is unimagined and regurgitated as a show of despair, sexual violence and family dysfunction. To better reflect the times of ambiguous morality in which we live, one would assume. A show in which the aliens (Cylons) are justified in their desire to destroy our civilisation. One would assume. Indeed, let us not say who are the good guys and who are the bad. That is being "judgemental"...

In the bleak and miserable, "re-imagined" world of Battlestar Galactica, things are never that simple. Maybe the Cylons are not evil and alien but in fact enlightened and evolved? Let us not judge them so harshly. Maybe it is they who deserve to live and Adama, and his human ilk who deserves to die?"

Benedict spake and lo a strawman was created is his own image, and he named it Moral Panic, then Benedict rested on the eighth paragraph. Billions of people just died and you want them to be all cheery? Well I suppose in his version they took a timeout at an isolated Casino resort, even with the Cylons hot on their tails. Of course it's bleak, dark and depressing – it's real. It does not pretend that people will be perfectly happy to lose their families and friends, homes and possessions, hopes and dreams, and that everything will run smoothly on a desperately understaffed ship with no relief and little hope and purpose.

Not everything is as black and white in the real world, and these traditional values you hold to are not absolute, nor are they a true reflection of reality. In the real world people are not either good or evil, friend or foe – they are always somewhere in-between. Benedict calls it "moral ambiguity," we call it "the real world." Just because you're trapped in the Cold War where there were the Good American Capitalists and the Bad Godless Communists and you were either with us spreading freedom and democracy, or you were against us giving aid and comfort to the enemy, and where if you thought otherwise you were a ~~witch~~ traitor, a security threat and un-Whatever, in addition to being morally bankrupt, doesn't mean we can't move on.

I guess that's what this all comes down to, reality. Some of us are fine with living there, and others like to do ostrich impressions all day and pretend it's all nice and safe and simple and just how they like it. They seem to think we should all join them in their fantasyland.

I disagree. But perhaps you have to be here.

Motes and eyes

2005-09-20T21:40:00.000+08:00

The Ruddmeister stating the obvious on The 7:30 Report:

Kerry, this is advanced as a critique as if it's somehow unique to the Australian Labor Party. Any organised political party since the rise of organised political parties has had this tension about it. Maintaining a central control over the policy development process on the one hand and an effective degree of dissent within it so you can have an input from the rank and file and elsewhere. This is a standing structural tension within any political party. If you read any Australian newspapers in the last week you'd think it was uniquely our problem. If I go to the US or the UK, you see parallel debates emerging as well.

Pick your face

2005-09-20T16:52:00.000+08:00

Doctors in a Cleveland clinic are beginning interviews for the first attempt at a face transplant. Up until now, face transplants have only been tried on animals and corpses, but this team of doctors, headed by Dr. Maria Siemionow, feel they are ready to perform a human trial. The 12 applicants, five men and seven women - all severely disfigured, visit the clinic for rigourous interviews. One will be chosen for the procedure, with the bill covered by the clinic.

The risks are high. The transplanted face may be rejected or become infected, leaving the patient worse off than before. To help prevent this, patients will have to take medications for the rest of their lives, and this medication increases the risk of cancer and can cause liver damage. The selected patient will need to have a good mental history, and a large support network of family and friends, and will be told as much about the operation as the doctors know. If success, the transplant would give the patient a new lease on life, with a face resembling both their own and the donor.

In addition, of course, they would have to deal with enormous amounts of media attention, broadcast to a public who may not all be overly sympathetic. What of the ethical concerns, apart from the uncertain success of the procedure, especially far into the future?

I was wrong about Latham

2005-09-20T14:52:00.000+08:00

In my comprehensive 2004 Federal Election coverage last year, I praised Mark Latham and defended him against his critics - pointing out, among other things, that just because he was relatively unknown and inexperienced in Australian politics besides some crude remarks from the backbench, did not mean he would make a bad Prime Minster should he have won the election. I again praised him upon his exit from politics in January.

In light of recent conduct from the man revealing himself not to be who I and many others thought he was, I officially retract all the aforementioned statements about Mark Latham.

Update: While we're in the business of retracting, I retract everything I said last November in this debate.

Weapon of mass destruction

2005-09-17T18:40:00.000+08:00

Office cleaner Frank Clewer certainly dressed powerfully for his job interview in the Victorian town of Warrnambool. The man built up a static charge of between 30000 and 40000 volts (depending on which report you believe) in his polyester jacket, which he wore over the top of a woolen shirt, just by walking around the town.

Clewer walked into the foyer of a local business and set the carpet alight, causing several small burn marks. Employees at the building smelt the burning and called the fire brigade, who, completely oblivious to the charge in Clewer's jacket, evacuated surrounding buildings, cut the power, ripped up the carpet and checked the ceiling wiring - fearing a power surge. Meanwhile Clewer returned to his car and melted the plastic seat cover at his feet.

Realising something was wrong, he returned to building and told the firefighters who tested his clothes and discovered the massive charge in his jacket. Apparently it wasn't too far short of igniting his clothing.

Scientists and academics David Gosden, Karl Kruszelnicki and Allan Driver have all tried to explain the bizarre events. Clewer and his wife have simply been cracking jokes about the experience.

Fearless leader

2005-09-16T14:43:00.000+08:00

Bush writes a note to Condoleezza Rice at the UN summit.

You've been had

2005-09-15T23:25:00.000+08:00

Fresh from the senate vote to sell Telstra last night, Senator Banaby Joyce received a hiding from Kerry O'Brien in an interview on the 7:30 Report. Joyce was repeatedly questioned about his election promise to vote against Telstra being inconsistent with his vote in the senate, questions he feebly answered. Another question Kerry asked in the interview deserves noting:

"What did it say to you about the sincerity of the Government's intent on this package that you say has only come about because of your resistance, that the wording of the bill that you received when you sat down in the Senate last week for the $2 billion fund that is supposed to guarantee the future services to the bush actually said up to $2 billion and that it also switched cash potentially for Telstra shares of dubious value. What do you think that said to you about the intent of the Government to carry out the spirit in the letter of the package?"

It says that the government has no intention of completely honouring the agreement that led to National Party support, they have already changed the wording and will probably go on to further denigrate the deal as it. Obviously Joyce has been had, and has given away his vote on the basis of a deal that will turn out to be far less satisfactory then he imagined.

Andrew Bartlett was of course dead right last month when he noted that what the Howard government say and what they really mean are often two very different things, and Joyce was probably going to get screwed. He has.

Barnaby's ticker

2005-09-14T17:45:00.000+08:00

After intense and sustained pressure for several months, a battered Barnaby Joyce has voted with the Coalition to sell Telstra, allowing the bill to pass through the senate 37-35. The final nail in the coffin was probably the National Farmer's Federation's approval - prompting ALP Senator Stephen Conroy to accuse the government of dirty dealing, particularly after debate was silenced by a guillotine motion after just 20 minutes.

The most likely explanation is simply that Joyce's ticker has failed and he's cracked under the pressure. What with him repeated arguing in favour of the deal he's extracted on Lateline and the 7:30 Report, one would think that, other than the many second thoughts he has had over the course of the debate, he had bowed to the insistence of his colleagues.

Obviously he has been under a great deal of stress, so much so that he was admitted to a Canberra hospital last night, apparently with chest pains. I really wouldn't want to be him right now, with so much weight on his shoulders, and facing the prospect of doing it all over again with other key pieces of legislation such as IR and VSU, which he currently plans to block. Does he have the nerve to stand firm this time?

Elsewhere: Andrew Bartlett is justifiably outraged about the disgraceful manner in which the bill was passed, Modia Minotaur predicts the IR debate will be even bigger.

Blogging liability

2005-09-14T15:13:00.000+08:00

Article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about blogging and it's affects, both positive and negative, on the author's ability to get a job.

"All bloggers, they said, would be wise to write as if their bosses, future bosses or grandmothers were reading over their shoulders. While many currently are recommending that bloggers with incendiary messages write anonymously, some experts say that won't work if a company really wants to find out who you are. And it won't look good once you're caught."

Thoughts?