Blogging politics, culture, sociology and life from Brisvegas
For anyone who hasn’t been quite sure of exactly what went down in Parliament over the last few weeks, check out the fine summary of Bekk’s brilliant LOLcat epic: Utegate as told by LOLcats
Below is just one sample image:
Tip o’ the tweet to @flopearedmule
My son is currently absolutely fascinated by the idea of space propulsion systems and orbital habitats. He has just possibly been playing too much Halo.
He’s full of questions and schemes for writing his own stories/future world. He’s got to the point where he’s rapidly out-pacing the knowledge of two admitted SF-geek parents about these things, because we’re not totally immersed in that tech. We thought Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey might be a good start, just because the tech described is generally thought to be within realistic bounds for this century sometime.
What would readers recommend as some of the best novels out there that actually deal with the hard science of space travel, and that are still a rattling good read?
My co-blogger at Hoyden About Town, lauredhel, has written a post about the proposed national disabled parking scheme (to have a uniform standard between the states):
For an examination of the details, see her post: the main point is that there is a significant population of legitimately disabled people who don’t fulfil the suggested major criterion of “walking without physical assistance from another person” (sticks/canes will no longer count, apparently).
Who does this exclude? Everyone who walks, with or without a cane, and who does not require the physical assistance of another person.
Every single independent person with an invisible disability.
What, it doesn’t matter how restricted their independent walking distance is by an invisible medical condition?. Even for the visible disabilities, most amputees (including military veterans) and most stroke victims won’t qualify under the new rules.
As for the invisible disabilities?
Tough luck for the chronic asthmatics and the emphysematous.
Tough luck for most people undergoing chemotherapy for cancer.
Tough luck for many people with Multiple Sclerosis or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
These rules will disable me, and many thousands of Australians like me.
These rules will create physical dependence.
Continue reading ‘“Harmonisation”? Or callous restriction?’
As I’m sure most of you know, last week the Obama administration released some memos written by staff in the Justice Department during the Bush administration, memos written for the CIA to provide legal cover for the use of harsh interrogation techniques that many people regard as clear examples of torture. Here’s takes on the news story from The Australian, BBC News, The Guardian and The Washington Post. Here’s editorial opinion from the NYT, the Boston Globe, the Financial Times and the Toronto Star.
No time to write a full post, so I’ll leave you with these paragraphs from Glen Greenwald as a jump-off point:
The most criticism-worthy act that Obama engaged in yesterday was to affirm and perpetuate what is the single most-destructive premise in our political culture: namely, that when high government officials get caught committing serious crimes, the responsible and constructive thing to do is demand immunity for them, while only those who are vindictive and divisive want political leaders to be held accountable for their crimes.
…[Obama expresses exactly] the mindset that has destroyed the rule of law in the U.S. and spawned massive criminality in our elite class. Accountability for crimes committed by political leaders (as opposed to ordinary Americans) is scorned as “retribution” and “laying blame for the past.” Those who believe that the rule of law should be applied to the powerful as well as to ordinary citizens are demonized as the “forces that divide us.” The bottomless corruption of immunizing political elites for serious crimes is glorified in the most Orwellian terms as “a time for reflection,” “moving forward,” and “coming together on behalf of our common future.”
Others argue that Obama has walked a line where he makes both sides half-happy and half-unhappy by revealing the memos but barring prosecution of those involved operationally. Your thoughts?
Just a little somethingsnark I put together following some events of the last few weeks:
What should the organisation’s response be?
If you have already guessed that in the real scenario the organisation ended up with a PR clusterf*ck, give yourself a cookie. Continue reading ‘A case study in Public Relations online’
AKA How the addition of a single word results in a headline that doesn’t provoke the Laura Norder crowd to clutch their pearls.
Assuming, of course, that one doesn’t want to confect a controversy via a plausibly deniable misrepresentation.
Saluzinsky’s article is actually fairly well balanced regarding the proposed privatisation of some NSW gaols, and the objections from both the left and the right to some of the proposals on different grounds. Pity about that headline.
Whichever way the decision comes down on staying public or going private, the idea of allowing prisoners in low and medium security prisons to have duplicate keys to their cells, so that they can have privacy from other inmates as desired, seems to be simply humane; if the experience overseas is that such measures reduce violence as well then all the better.
Unsurprisingly, breakfast TV took the reactionary approach on Sunrise, with Kochy talking about how we are mollycoddling prisoners and why not just give them the keys to the front gate as well? The goal of reducing violence was shrugged aside, as if violence in prisons is only inmate-on-inmate and can therefore be disregarded. Prison personnel deserve to have the safest work environment possible, you know, even if that means that prisoners aren’t sufficiently brutalised to give the Laura Norder mob their vengeful jollies.
There’s a lot about it in the news today following the fatal gang attack at the QANTAS terminal at Sydney airport, and who could object to generally tightening up laws against gang activity when not only the lawlessness but violence that puts the general public at risk is the gangs’ motif?
I can see why being able to outlaw a particular association as a criminal gang could be a useful tool in disrupting gang activity so that they are more likely to be apprehended, but unless the media is being spectacularly wrongfooted in their reporting, it really does appear that laws are being mooted with respect to criminal activity that are going to be different from other laws depending upon the suspects’ vehicle(s) of choice. What does it matter whether a gangster is wearing a leather jacket and riding a Hog or wearing a hipster outfit and riding a Segway?
Demotivator made by moi. Feel free to download and share from the Flickr page (click on the pic).
25 Things I Didn’t Want to Know About You
By Claire Suddath Thursday, Feb. 05, 2009 (TIME)
Honestly, the way some journos react to Facebook memes is a dead giveaway that they’ve only just joined the digital social revolution. Memes like this have been doing the rounds on LJ and blogs for years (and before that on newsgroups and mailing lists) – it’s not a new thing just because it’s new to Facebook. Silly mugginses.
h/t to Jill from Feministe on my Facebook Friends Feed (and crossposted from Hoyden)
Open “Man of Steel” thread: the medal, the hype, the other recipients, the legacy etc.
The former British prime minister, Tony Blair, and the Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, were also honoured at the ceremony.
So, whaddaya reckon?
*back to holiday lurking mode*
Film studios to become ‘police, judge, executioner’: Australia’s third largest ISP is being sued by several film studios and the Seven Network for enabling copyright infringement by failing to prevent its users from downloading pirated movies and TV shows.
iiNet, and the industry body, the Internet Industry Association, say ISPs should not be required to take action against any customers until they have been found guilty of an offence by the courts.
ISPs argue that, like Australia Post with letters, they are just providing a service and should not be forced to become copyright police.
Conversely, the TV and movie industry want ISPs to disconnect people it has identified as repeat infringers. There would be no involvement from police or the courts and the industry would simply provide the IP addresses of users they believe to be illegal downloaders.
“To shift the burden of proof and require that ISPs terminate access to users upon mere allegations of infringement would be incredibly harmful to individual internet users in Australia,” the online users lobby group Electronic Frontiers Australia said.
“Every citizen has a right of due process under the law and, when faced with having their internet service terminated, every citizen has the right to ask that the case against them be proven first.”
The Herald Sun decides to mock a bereaved son for paraphrasing song lyrics in a tribute to his dead mother, just because that son happens to be a convicted murderer. Would any other person who used a line from a song or poem in a death notice be accused of “ripping off” the artist? Isn’t using such lines from songs and poems in death notices in fact so commonplace that it shouldn’t be worth mentioning, unless it is to score a cheap point about how gauche it is to use lines from a pop song instead of from the literary canon (as if they wouldn’t have mocked him for presumption if he’d quoted Keats or Shakespeare)?
The “rips off Celine Dion” headline may be down to a sub-editor, but article author Paul Anderson felt compelled to make the point that Barbara Williams, mother of Carl Williams, used “cheap” champagne to wash down the medication that caused her death. Again, if she’d been drinking Dom Perignon he’d almost certainly be making an issue out of that as well. No wonder this paper is nicknamed “the Hun”.
The various emotional arguments that Carl Williams doesn’t “deserve” to go to his mother’s funeral because of his own murderous acts fail on logical grounds. Sure, the man is an incredibly unsympathetic figure due to his ruthless killings. However, if criminals generally are given leave to attend the funerals of family members, as I believe they are, then Williams too should be allowed to attend his mother’s funeral.
Capricious exceptions to general rules based on emotional outcries are not the hallmark of a society that respects the rule of law. People owe it to themselves to be better than this.
crossposted at Hoyden About Town
And what will they actually do?
Govt to unveil $300m infrastructure plan (part of the overall economic stimulus package)
Mr Albanese said it was important that the money be spent this financial year.
“This has to be stamped into this current financial year,” he said.
“The government’s made an assessment that this is a realistic figure which can be spent and achieve very positive outcomes as well.”
Larvatus Prodeo is an Australian group blog which discusses politics, sociology, culture, life, religion and science from a left of centre perspective. more»
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