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Life, Culture and Politics from BrisVegas
Larvatus Prodeo was an Australian group blog which discussed politics, sociology, culture, life, religion and science from a left of centre perspective. more»
Frist!
The OO’s branching out into comedy falls flat.
‘Only socialism denied James Pattinson five wickets’
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/sport/only-socialism-denied-james-pattinson-five-wickets/story-e6frg7rx-1226235961081
That’s simply bizarre JdM. The article was drawing long bows to be humorous (Sehwag scoring runs at Usain Bolt’s pace, so many chances that if he were a quiz contestant he’d be out of lifelines) but even so, it does underline the culture of News Ltd.
Hilfenhaus, for anyone watching, bowled more threateningly than Pattinson on that day and went unrewarded. Pattinson was largely the beneficiary of Hilfy’s work. In the second innings, Hilfy continued to threaten of a very flat pitch and produced in context two of the best deliveries of the innings to remove Dravid and Laxman. Pattinson was the least convincing of the frontline bowlers on a now very flat deck in I2 and took just the one wicket.
Sounds like meritocracy rather than socialism to me. I don’t suppose it might have occurred to Clarke either that sharing the bowling duties about might have been a good idea, given that he must have assumed 130 overs or so in innings 2 would be required? Nah … Wayne Smith, whoever he is, knows best.
Freshwater stonefish aka the bullrout or better yet Notesthes robusta (Günther, 1860) inhabit my closest waterhole. I know this because the council has a sign warning of their presence and suggesting swimming with “strong footwear”. What, safety boots? I’ve never heard of the damn things before but on inquiry find that they are everywhere in fresh water below a certain altitude on the east coast. Moreover, there are numerous recent newspaper accounts of exceptionally painful and/or near death encounters with them. My son attended the Peats Ridge music festival and said that the venue was encircled by a lovely fresh water river which they were barred from using after four people were stung by stonefish. Imagine that. There are now miles and miles of freshwater rivers forever lost to swimming so far as I’m concerned. I don’t know whether they have always been this abundant or whether it is a good season for them. I think I might blame greenies for building fish ladders over weirs.
Perhaps Clarke had a reason for not bowling Pattinson late on day 4.
“Injured Pattinson out of series”
http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia-v-india-2011/content/story/548293.html
And Hilffs economy rate was almost Mcgrath like.
A banality …
Does anyone else have in their household an ‘isoloted sock bag’ ISB)? In our household, for some reason, pairs of socks are continually isolated.
You’d think that given that we all wear pairs of socks, presumably remove them, place them in the laundry basket and then in the washing machine and on the line in pairs that when one came to the line to remove them, they’d still be in pairs.
OK, I can imagine that here and there on the way to the washing machine pairs might be separated, or perhaps some slacker hasn’t put their socks into the laundry basket and so when things are picked up, pairs are separated, but you’d think that within one or at worst two iterations, they’d all catch up. Yet my ISB has 25 socks in it!
The unanswered question — ‘where have ll the socks gone?’ — was raised in an episode of Blackadder but as far as I know, no team of scientists has addressed it. Surely there’s a nobel prize in answering this most vital challenge in modern life?
When they talk about people in poverty living on US$1 per day they don’t mean what they are able to buy with US$1 in their own country, but what they would be able to buy in the USA with US$1 per day (ie not much at all).
http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2011/12/chinas-poverty-line
Fran, the question was answered many years ago: socks are the larval stage of coathangers.
Jacques, it shows the OO is of the view there should be balanced reporting on the single individual glamour vs glory to the Nation issue.
Akn, the Bullrout distribution is reported on the east coast from Clyde River (southern NSW) to north as far as FNQ. Personally have seen them in our streams up here when snorkelling, they love rocky pools. Make no mistake their poison is something to reckon with, excruciating (rolling on the floor) pain on the whole limb for several hours. Bullrout venom is rapidly denatured by heat. Hot water, 45-50oC or as hot as bearable, will shorten the pain period to about 20 – 30 minutes from immersion (Wiener 1984).
So how come I’m also out of coathangers, DI(NR)?
Fran: Think about it. Coat hangers are obviously the cocoon stage where the larvae change into???? Cocoons like the wanderer butterfly cocoon often hang down below branches.
Has anyone any ideas about what the cocoons mature into? (Sheep are a logical starting point for the production of woolen sock larvae – but synthetic socks?)
The Age and SMH have run two excellent public interest reports by Philip Dorling on Martin Ferguson’s calls for increased spying on protest groups and harsher penalties for some protest activities.
As well as Ferguson’s role as energy and resources minister, he’s also the local member for Batman (and my local MP). Protest groups here are well acquainted with Ferguson’s attitude to peaceful, democratic protest.
Read Dorling’s excellent reports here:
http://www.theage.com.au/national/spies-eye-green-protesters-20120106-1poow.html
http://www.theage.com.au/national/the-watchdogs-kennel-in-clandestine-croydon-20120106-1poox.html
I have also written an extensive post this morning at Northcote Independent about Ferguson’s attitude to protest in his own neck of the woods:
Protest magnet Ferguson calls on the spies
http://northcote-independent.blogspot.com/2012/01/protest-magnet-ferguson-calls-on-spies.html
What has been the experience of others?
Fran, I’ve been working on this plan to buy socks in bulk in one colour once a year for the whole family. Negotiations continue with some reluctant trendies who want other than brown socks. I believe it could bring an end to the ISB in my lifetime.
Thanks Ootz. Well, in all my years in the bush I never heard of a freshie stonefish! Better yet, the treatment is to near as dammit boil the affected limb. Strewth.
On things ecological the SMH covers how the spooks, Mar’n, Julia, the AFP and a private spook outfit are treating the greenies as potential terrorists – ‘Spies eye green protesters’ (http://www.smh.com.au/national/spies-eye-green-protesters-20120106-1poow.html)
Mar’n and Julia – corroding the democracy of the future by borrowing from the McCarthy period of the past.
Yikes, Kim. I didn’t think my earlier comment was that subversive – it’s been waiting in moderation for quite some time. If it’s against policy, please let me know!
Maybe because it has three links in it?
I’ll try this. I’ve linked to Philip Dorling’s excellent public interest reports on Ferguson’s calls for more spying on green groups, and harsher penalties for some protest activities at my blog, Northcote Independent:
Protest magnet Ferguson calls on the spies
http://northcote-independent.blogspot.com/2012/01/protest-magnet-ferguson-calls-on-spies.html
That’s one link!
Aha, that’s better!
I’ll have to think about that for a bit, Fran. I’m pretty sure I heard it on The Science Show though, so it must be true.
joe2 @ 11 – surely one only ever needs blue socks! And I have done the bulk purchase thing in the past for socks. Works quite well until you buy the next batch and they don’t quite match.
I moved recently and have ventured to my new local library and decided to borrow this book by a Nigel Kerner called ‘Grey Aliens and the Harvesting of Souls-The Conspiracy to Genetically Tamper with Humanity’. I’ve read a couple of books like this, perhaps not quite as metaphysical and even though I don’t support their theories at all I find them an interesting read in how the authors come to their (idiotic) conclusions.
Aside from the whole crazy idea of alien-hybrids being amongst us or whatever does anyone know much about Nigel Kerner? I haven’t been able to find much on him other than appearing on some radio show with the king of the nutters David ‘reptilian humanoids’ Icke.
@19 — Jacques, was the book sitting on the ‘Fiction’ shelves? I sure hope so.
Any LPers with library experience here like to tell us just how one goes about selecting the appropriate sort of classification for books that are *cough* not factual, but marketed as ‘non-fiction’? What would Mr. Dewey do?
And replying with ‘ook’ is not sufficient.
I get on well with my family and having them all here at christmas is lovely, but one sibling is way too enamoured of Pinker and ev psych in general and though I usually manage to bite my tongue, lardy but the temptation to let rip is severe and the flesh was weak on at least one occasion. There’s a neat review of Pinker’s latest polemic at Foreign Affairs. Link thanks to the always-excellent John Hawks’ twitterfeed. There’s lots of new stuff on the Denisovans, at his blog.
My sister sent me one of Robert Sapolsky’s books for christmas so I’ve been catching up on some of the primate research that I recall AKN has mentioned here in the past.
That was me, mispelled own email address. /klutz.
Misspelled misspelled /illiterate klutz
Not even going to try to punctuate the gawds are clearly against me
Mercurius @ 20,
‘Adult non-fiction’, looks like the library know something you don’t
@24, wow Jacques, if you can get ‘Adult Non-fiction’ at your library…
…on second thoughts, I am *not* going to finish this joke.
@Mercurius
130 Paranormal phenomena
Includes: Example: Ghosts, ESP, Alien Abduction
http://www.library.okstate.edu/info/ddh.htm
Darren @ 11
http://ozleft.wordpress.com/2012/01/07/fergusonspooks/
@19
“Aside from the whole crazy idea of alien-hybrids being amongst us or whatever does anyone know much about…”Tony Abbott. If we are talking about crazy that is.
Sounds like a perfectly good theory for some people.
Nicholas,
I’m not sure what you mean about supposed communist and Trotskyist infiltration of the Greens. There’s no evidence of that, and in any case people putting forward their ideas openly is not infiltration. Operating secretly, as police agents do, is infiltration.
If you’re talking about former Communist Party members or Trotskyists joining the Greens, there has been a long history of such crossovers in Australian politics (eg Diamond Jim McClelland (Whitlam minister and former Trotskyist and former Governor General Kerr, also a former Trotskyist). And the current prime minister was once, as the right is fond of pointing out a member of Socialist Forum (not that anyone could tell these days). John Curtin, another Labor PM, belonged to the Victorian Socialist Party for at least five years.
I have recently started a series of posts on my blog (not yet complete) about sex work, public health and feminism, if anyone’s interested. The first is here and if the theme interests anyone the appropriate tag will follow on to the next (I have only two up so far, but expect 5 or so in total). Currently I’m managing to do quite a bit of blogging, which is kind of nice.
I’ve decided this year to take a photo a day to the very best of my ability. So far it’s been challenging but I’ve made it to today.
Also, I’d like to change my name here from sg to faustusnotes to match the name that I use elsewhere on the internet. Is there a protocol for this here?
@faustusnotes (formerly sg) – maybe just do that for a while until the regulars catch on?
Ed Lewis, 30, great refutation of a previous point scarcely worth the contempt of dismissal let alone an adult response.
@sg/faustusnotes, just change how you fill in the name field when you comment. The blog software will automatically hold your first comment with the new nym in the moderation queue, but once that has been approved then you will be able to comment as normally. Your wavatar that displays next to your comments here is tied to your email address, so that won’t change (unless you want to actually choose your own gravatar via registering with gravatar.com). You can sign your comments with a ‘formerly known as sg’ for extra clarity if you like, for a week or two, but I’m sure folks will catch on soon enough.
Okay! I’ll do that, tigtog. I did that over at Crooked Timber and immediately someone flamed me for being a pretentious wanker, or somesuch. Be nice to me, LP hivemind!
I actually meant the ‘used to be sg’ bit to be appended at the end of the comment body, rather than in the name field, because otherwise when you want to stop doing that in a few weekes then you’ll have to go through automoderation of the plain faustusnotes nym all over again, whereas if it’s just an appended sig then you can just stop doing it without triggering automod again.
Not a big deal either way for us, might be more of a pain for you.
Fran barlow
I have an enormous odd sock bag. 500 or so odd socks has to be a record i think. Have not actually counted but several hundred at least. Now the kids have all left I know they will never find a partner. Odd socks are a real mystery. Make great dusters
DtT, that’s a little OCD.
Forgot
again.
The solution to the single sock issue is to wear “fraternals”. So long as the daily socks are sufficiently matched as to leg-length and comfort, does it really matter if they don’t quite match in colour?
And I only make sure of the leg length these days, because otherwise my calfs feel unequally cold in the air-conditioning at work *G*
Mind you, it’s more of a challenge when one’s hand-knitted socks go awandering separately …
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/national/government-doles-out-tough-love-for-teenage-parents/story-e6frea8c-1226239469136
The solution to the odd sock problem is to make a virtue of wearing unmatched socks, as did Edmund Capon, former Director of the NSW Art Gallery, regularly seen sporting red/blue or green/yellow etc. During TV interviews he would ensure, when seated, that his trousers were slightly raised so the cameras did not miss them. Stylishly unmatched “Director’s Socks” were on sale at the Gallery Shop for a number of years and did a roaring trade despite them being so easy to create at home without really trying…
Moving on from socks/sox: just listening to discussion on aboriginal recognition in the Constitution which evidently will be the subject of a referendum this year so, will become a subject of some intensive debate later this year. It seems that the push will be for the race laws in s.25 and s.51 (xxvi) to be repealed which, to me seems quite reasonable and perhaps some recognition in a preamble or the body of the Constitution; should we also acknowledge the contribution of immigrants I wonder ? Inevitably, once we start with Constitutional amendment we need to include some of the general housekeeping that was intended during the last referendum including the elimination of spent sections, some further clarification on who actually is the Australian Head of State: the odd s.59 that suggests that the Queen may disallow any law within one year of the GG’s assent is an obvious area in need of attention. Perhaps even removal of our Constitution, from an imperial act, to a stand alone Australian Constitution.
Wow , plenty of grist to the mill to come in this discussion.
My mum and sisters all have these socks that come in a “pair” of 3 unmatched colours.
Insanity.
The other problem with socks is not merely their colour but their state of wear — i.e. the elasticised portions, the thickness of the material at the heels etc. Even if the colour appears similar, you want pairs that are comfortable.
DI(NR), that’s the first time I’ve heard anyone confuse socks with paperclips!
My favourite theory regarding lost socks is Hewlett & Milligan circa 1991: socks have a frequency slightly out of tune with this dimension, so every so often one of them will just slip out of our “reality”. However, they usually don’t find another dimension to which they are completely attuned, so somewhere in the interdimensional void there is a sort of “sock’s graveyard” with all the lost socks in the universe just floating around.
Tim at 45,
That theory may also apply to thongs in sea water, explaining why i only find left thongs on the beach. (left/right hard to tell with socks)
Discussion on outmoded penalty rates here by restauranters.
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/restaurants-and-bars/out-of-the-frying-pan-penalty-rates-under-fire-from-celebrity-chef-20120109-1prx3.html#comments
I find this odd. For myself and my peers we have the unprecedented work flexibility at the sacrifice of penalty rates or overtime pay. That’s right, we can turn up as early as we want and leave as late as we want as long as we’ve done core hours.
But this…from my brother’s experiences in hospitality base weekly pay is optional, so what’s the deal with overtime? is it that the high end restaurants don’t have the flexibility of just getting away with it like the locals?
Australia sending a customs vessel to pick up the protesters. If the Japanese are willing to release the men why don’t they just transfer them to the Steve Irwin giving the Japanese boat is following it anyway?
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/whale-watch/gillard-slams-whaling-activists-as-japanese-agree-to-release-20120110-1ps7v.html
Chris, the Japs don’t have to release the criminals at all, but to let them off the hook with no charges is admirable.
As for Bob Brown calling them heros, If there isn’t a law prohibiting a Senator from condoning and encouraging crime and illegal activity,there should be.
The intent of boarding was evidently to delay the Shonan Maru II and tell them to go home, with the Steve Irwin slipping away. So success in a way, eventually perhaps.
It was within eye sight of Rottnest Is apparently, so why couldn’t they just stay put and return them by small boat?
It’s become a bit of a high stakes game and diplomatic conundrum for both govts it seems.
Given the crap governments have spent enormous amounts on. I have no problem with more of my taxes going towards funding more customs/ocean research vessels and a presence and research in the southern ocean and antarctic, with the research/education opportunties and skills/jobs required to do that.
Quoll @ 50 – did it actually work? I thought the Shonan Maru II didn’t stop its chase of the Steve Irwin. Its a success though in terms of the publicity that they wanted to get.
I guess we’ll see when the SM II has to meet and transfer people in the middle of the southern ocean if the Steve Irwin can get away.
As for publicity it certainly seems a success.
The Japanese fleet would want the world to quietly leave them to undertake their grisly task and turn away.
The continuing efforts of Sea Shepherd (volunteers) really seems to be keeping the public pressure on like nothing else.
Now a Japanese boat has been inside Australian territory at Macquarie Is chasing the Bob Barker.
It’s an ongoing non-violent direct action campaign to end whaling in the southern ocean, there’ll be ups and downs, some things working better than others at times. It’s not over until Feb or Mar this time, or until industrial whaling is stopped in the end.
I’m sure there’d be no end of volunteers and there are many many supporters.
Its keeping public pressure on the Australian government, but is it also keeping pressure on the Japanese whalers to not back down and keep whaling even though its no longer economic to do so?
Anyway as Crabb described on the Drum we’ll now have a customs ship chasing a Japanese ship chasing an Australian ship chasing a Japanese whaling ship chasing whales all over the southern ocean.
“Its keeping public pressure on the Australian government, but is it also keeping pressure on the Japanese whalers to not back down and keep whaling even though its no longer economic to do so?”
Well if humans really can find no motivation for their actions other than spite, it seems entirely appropriate that it all ends in a great screaming mess.
Really I find it pathetic that particularly in Australia spitefulness and beligerance seems to have grown significantly as cultural/psychological phenomena and seems to underpin much discourse.
If people want to play it tough, that means taking the hits as much as giving them.
The immoveable object and the irresistable force?
Every action elicits re-action…
@53-@54:
From the range of Japanese university students and teachers with whom I have discussed this issue in Japanese, actually it looks to me like the main motivating factor now that is sustaining “scientific” whaling is nationalistic/political in nature — the Japanese government chasing the local nationalistic vote; and nothing to do with market demand or desire for the product (of which there is very little — the government can’t even give the stuff away, and provoked outraged from families when they tried to put their thousands of tonnes of unwanted surplus meat they couldn’t sell, into school lunches a few years back….). For the people I spoke with, their level of interest and engagement with the issue was low (and their level of interest in buying or consuming whale meat even lower) — they saw it as a fringe issue, and the pro-whaling crowd at home as political fringe-dwellers, but using the issue to thump a nationalist tub,
You would need to know your pre-WWII history to know why the ‘Japanese psyche’ doesn’t respond well to international pressure on what they perceive to be “domestic” issues.
Actually a big cup of STFU on the part of Australia and the “West” might see this “scientific” whaling dropped more quickly and quietly by a near-future Japanese government…
FWIW Merc,
Does any race/cultural/social group respond well to outside pressure on what they percieve to be domestic issues?
Whatever you’re take on the merits or not of the Sea Shepherd and Forest Rescue.
The Australian government and others through organisations such as the IWC and international are piling on the pressure as well. The Japanese government can simply not walk away from this situation even if the Sea Shepherd ceased to exist tomorrow.
Doesn’t seem like the world is not going to STFU… what are you or they going to do about it?
Frankly given the state of play in the world and human exploitation and degradation of the natural resources and systems that maintain a whole lot services required for our healthy existence on planet earth.
Does any cultural/social group really now have the space to just pander to their own perceptions and waste millions on pointless destructive exercises?
Spite and beligerance are not useful motivating factors if anyone, including the Japanese public, really want anything of value in the long run…
I disagree Merc.
The Australian government should make it plain that whalers were not welcome in the SOWS and that it would do everything short of military conflict to discourage whaling.
Personally, I’d like to see the Australian government send ships there to document what is going on in real time and publicise it in all of its graphic detail on the web. They could blog the entire thing, resupply the Sea Shepherd ships, and generally make the Japanese exercise as difficult as possible.
Then we could see who would blink first.
I tend to agree with Mercurius. Furthermore, all the Japanese people I speak to about this are labouring under the false impression that Sea Shepherds are an Australian mob and that Australians are weirdos because we eat kangaroos but object to Japanese eating whales. So I don’t think the Sea Shepherd’s message is getting across that well.
However, no one I’ve met in Japan seems to think it’s a matter that could ever interfere with the good relations between the two countries, they’re just perplexed by the whole thing.
As an interesting aside, when I was in Iceland there was whalemeat everywhere, and it was popular (Icelanders eat crazy stuff). But interestingly, everywhere that sold it made a big point of advertising the fact to tourists in English. So even though Australians and Americans think whaling is bad and whales are special, it does appear there’s a fairly robust market aimed at selling them samples of the stuff … I wonder how many people who oppose whaling at home happily tuck into the stuff when they’re on holiday …?
also, I’m meant to have changed my nickname. Stupid computer.
My sense is most SS supporters now don’t really care in the end what the Japanese think (if such a broad generalisation can be justified anyway) or if it makes sense to them.
Perhaps the feeling is mutual.
What people do care about is stopping the industrial exploitation of whales in the southern ocean by Japanese government sponsored boats… by whatever non-violent direct action is possible, practical or necessary.
Despite the hype, I tend to think that many humans are suffering a terminal delusion that they understand others, when the evidence is that just as often as not, humans completely misunderstand the intentions and motivations of others as well (from interpersonal to the inter cultural/country level). No matter what they say.
It is not possible for some humans (say us) to base their life and actions entirely upon what another group of humans (say Japanese) may or may not believe about them.
Engagment with others certainly helps unravelling some of the confusion and difficulties.
Though the idea that any bunch of humans is somehow ever going to entirely understand the mindset and motivations of another group of humans seems far fetched.
Who can be waiting around until everyone else understands exactly what you’re motivations, actions or words mean? Do we always understand ourselves, or is it sometimes clearer in hindsight?
I don’t expect others to lead their life on the basis of my perceptions.
I can’t lead other peoples lives for them.
Make decisions for them.
So why should I conduct my life and restrict my use of words and engagement with others on the basis of what others (may or may not) think or believe?
I’ll listen to (or read) what others might say directly to me, but frankly the idea that I’m going to change my beliefs significantly on the basis of someone elses speculation about what another ridiculously broad group of people a long way away might think… well highly unlikely.
This seems a far more domestic issue for many Australians than the Japanese because it is literally closer to home for us and involves animals we watch pass along our coasts regularly.
@5 Fran,
Ever since people ceased regular sacrifices to Barefootwalkalotl the Mayan Sock God, s/he has taken terrible vengeance and claimed hir due upon the washing machines of the world…
@58 — and yeah, sg, Japanese with whom I have discussed this issue are not far off mortified that ‘we’ eat kangaroo, either because “but they’re so cute!” or because “but they’re your national emblem!”
(Nevermind that, if you live in mainland Australia, being a kangatarian is probably the most environmentally-sustainable way to get yer animal protein…)
To say that both Australian anti-whaling activists and Japanese pro-whaling activists are talking past each other, would be understating the matter somewhat…
But maybe the analogy between the kangaroos and whales is a bit mixed– although some of those Sumo-fellahs do get quite large.
I guess the Japanese equivalent of the Australian Kangaroo, would be a midsized land-grazing mammal… perhaps the Sika deer? There are also hundreds of thousands of Sika deer…
@63…and there we go, talking past each other again. Of course the analogy with kangaroos is flaky, that’s what talking past each other means.
Lemme put it this way…every year, thousands of Aussies occupy Turkish soil for a morning to memorialise the Gallipoli landings. How is it that the Turks are OK with that? If you can wrap your head around it, that might give you a clue about how to talk to the Japanese about whaling…
Srry Merc, I must admit, I glanced and should have taken more time
I have to apologise for an earlier post. According to the union that represents restaurant and catering staff penalty rates are too high, jobs are being lost and the government needs to step in to scrap penalty rates.
Bit surprised to see that on the 7.30 Report but if their union says the workers need to be less greedy then it must be so.