Another Coup for Australian Journalism

Couldn't help but notice three of the big headlines at The Age Online this afternoon:

Kirribilli flame-thrower 'mentally ill'
4:45pm | "Sydney man who lobbed flaming bag into PM's residence ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment."

Drunk man served shot of detergent
4:02pm | "Barmaid served drunk customer a shot of Pine-o-Cleen, causing him to become violently ill."

Woman beheads goat in 'sacrifice'
2:23pm | "Drunken prank ends in the slaughter of a goat on the altar of a Brisbane church."

Glad to see The Age is tackling the issues that matter most.

Bundaberg

Back from Bundaberg, "one of Queensland's most modern and progressive cities." Initially, I scoffed at this claim, but then for QLD, Bundaberg probably could be considered a bustling urban centre. In any case, I was up there for the inaugural Queensland Coastal Conference. But managed to sample a little local culture - a dip in the surf at Bargara, a sip of some fine Bundy Rum, and a stay at the Bert Hinkler Comfort Inn - one of the many fine motels in town (although it did take us a few days to figure out who the hell Bert Hinkler was).

When I was in College. . .

The college experience (assuming you can afford it) is undergoing significant change as some of the more affluent schools are now offering double beds in what has traditional been minimalist campus housing. Gone are the days when college was akin to a cozy camp experience - now it's more like a luxury all-inclusive resort. Personally, I credit the year I spent sleeping on a rock-hard platform with my feet hanging off the end with all the success I've had to date. Although that experience (combined with a jerk of a roommate) also gave me incentive to move off campus after my freshman year.

It's a Small World After All

The world just got that much smaller. How small? Small enough that the traditionally marathon-esque journey from London to Sydney can now be undertaken by bus. Granted, it's a 12 week bus ride, but that's still a heck of a lot faster than the time needed by the first fleet to make the same journey by boat (eight months). So if you're in the market for a novel way to get to Australia (or to London), check out OZ-Bus.

An itinerary is provided here for the Australia-London leg, although the website does note: "Due to the unpredictability of political and environmental conditions, the route can be subject to change."

Spielberg and Hanks Stop Traffic

Sydney was locked down for APEC, but in Melbourne it takes something a bit more artsy to bring the city to a stand still. Enter Spielberg and Hanks, who have received permission to shut down the busiest intersection in central Melbourne for an entire weekend while they shoot their Pacific edition of Band of Brothers, which begain production in Melbourne last month.

WSJ Continues to Publish Rubbish on Climate Change

An opinion piece appeared on WSJ online last week (available here in full via a right-wing site), offering up a tired account of the climate change debate. The author, Syun-Ichi Akasofu (an individual with plenty of scientific credentials, but sadly one wouldn't know it from his article) raises three arguments that he asserts undermines the scientific evidence for climate change - three arguments that were dispensed with as rubbish years ago. Why they continue to resurface in any venue, particularly one associated with a presumably leading media outlet, is beyond me (but then WSJ has a history - see here or here). The three points:

1) "ice-core data showing that temperature rises tend to precede CO2 increases by about 1,000 years." Yes, in a naturally warming world CO2 increases in the atmosphere. This does not mean that any CO2 increase in the atmosphere is natural in nature(to draw this conclusion would be a far more absurd scientific deduction than anything climate change scientists have ever come up with). Rather, what this means is that as fossil fuel combustion increases atmospheric CO2 concentrations, the resulting human-induced warming will cause a positive feedback leading to even more CO2 in the atmosphere, and even more warming.

2) Then there's the old hockey stick graph, which the author argues has been debunked. "Two Canadian statisticians found that the authors of the graph made a statistical error in dealing with the tree-ring data. After correcting the error, the two researchers could not reproduce the sharp upturn of the curve -- even though they were using the very same data." OK, what was the point of the hockey stick graph? Temperatures in the northern hemisphere at the end of the 20th century were warmer than at any point in the prior 1000 years. Since that study was published, there have been about a dozen other independent studies arriving at the same conclusion (see Figure below from the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report). All of this is well documented in the literature for anyone interested in taking an honest look.

3) Then there are the particularly unscientific platitudes that are simply presented without any supporting information whatsoever. Things like global warming "can be attributed to the rebounding effect from the Little Ice Age" or "a supercomputer cannot provide an approximate estimate of the temperature in 2050 or 2100 because scientists are not able to instruct it with all the the unknown processes that may be at play." What the hell is this "rebounding effect" - the planet's energy balance is externally forced, so for it to "rebound" that external forcing must have changed. Although other forcings such as solar radiation and volcanic activity contribute in part to observed climate trends, you can't adequately explain those trends without accounting for the external forcing induced by greenhouse gases. Meanwhile, climate models are capable of reproducing the 20th century climate (although some models are much better than others), so presumably they can give an indication of the direction the climate will be forced in the future (but, hey, there are people that devote their lives to model evaluation - why not cite some of their work rather than making blanket statements). Obviously, if some other large forcing were to rear its head, then greenhouse gases would rightfully move to the back burner. Over geologic time scales, such forcings will invariably arise. But over the time scales of society and policy, there's nothing on the horizon that appears set to dominate over greenhouse gases.

In the universe of climate skepticism, this piece is pretty sub-standard, which makes one wonder why WSJ online would post it. It does a poor job of representing the science, which is exacerbated by the fact that the folks at WSJ online don't know any better or don't care. I'd be thrilled to see an international body of quality scientific research that provides compelling evidence that humans aren't significantly forcing the global climate. That evidence doesn't exist.

The Ubiquitous Backpacker

Australia is awash with backpackers, with the number of annual visits increasing by half a million in the past year along with an additional half a million in spending (largely on beer, I imagine). Apparently, new agreements secured at APEC will allow even more backpackers from the US and Canada to hitch-hike their way around Oz. Super - because nothing makes be happier that seeing little Canadian flags emblazoned on backpacks (and they say Americans are nationalistic. . . ).

Speaking of Canada, today's MX newspaper featured a reader's letter, who publicly outed herself:

"After years of travelling under the guise of a Canadian, I fell it's time to come out of the closet. I am an American".

She goes on to express her constant disappointment at meeting Australians who are surprised to find Americans that are actually critical of US foreign policy, the Bush administration, etc. Granted, I've had my own experience with Australians who seem happy to unload on an American - strangers who say things like "you know what's wrong with America" and proceed to list everything they observed while backpacking for a couple of weeks last year. I think it's a fair assumption that most Americans have a much better understanding of what's wrong with America than non-Americans. Yet generally I've found that if you've bothered to leave the US and, better yet, opted to spend some time in Australia ("the greatest country in the world"), most Australians will assume you must have some good sense.

German Enough for Ya?

Aussie fired for not being 'German enough'
September 13, 2007 - 9:41AM

"An Australian man has launched a 10 million pound sterling ($24.3 million) bid for compensation from a London investment bank he claims sacked him for not being German enough."

Bad Moon on the Rise

Despite the hopes that were raised back in May for above average winter rain and an end to the drought, southeast Australia is currently facing a familiar scene - the continuation of the Big Dry. With many farmers up against the wall at the beginning of the year, the hints of rain that did occur gave promise for a bumper year, triggering farmers to go "all in" in an attempt to make up for prior losses. But with normal rains failing to materialise, the consequences look dire. In the abscence of big rains in the next month, things will go from bad to worse.

Horseshoes and Handgrenades

Despite a number of close opportunities, the Socceroos fell to Argentina in tonight's friendly at the MCG.

Climate Ad

This new ad was sponsored by Australia's Climate Institute. Cute, eh?

Beautiful Beijing?

Beijing is China's most beautiful city? I find that hard to believe and (coming from my own perspective of western bias) hope that's not the case. Bits and pieces are certainly beautiful (assuming the air's transparent enough to see them), but on the whole, I reckon there's got to be something a bit more picturesque.

After APEC: Back to the Drawing Board

APEC is set to wrap up and although it has all come off as a "much ado about nothing" affair, there are some lasting repercussions:

1) "A $250 million security operations has been brought down by 11 comedians." This comment uttered in response to the penetration of the security shield erected around Bush and the rest of the APEC leadership by the The Chaser crew. So much for Australia's big demonstration of power, authority and competence amidst the global war on terror. Australians found the whole thing hysterical, but government officials weren't smiling. At least the NSW police got to bash a few protestors to make sure everyone knows they mean business.

2) A grand opportunity for John Howard to prop up his sagging poll numbers slipped past, with Howard receiving little praise or attention, his own party grumbling about a snap election and change of leadership, and opposition leader Kevin Rudd coming across cool, calm, and collected.

3) Another smokescreen on climate change emerged, with APEC leaders agreeing that an international greenhouse gas mitigation target may not be such a bad idea and setting regional goals (non-binding of course) of reducing the greenhouse gas intensity of their respective economies by 25% by 2030. In other words, they promise to dream optimistically about a future world where energy intensity continues to decline (as it has for decades) and greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise. If maintaining "business-as-usual" is a grand vision of progressive behaviour, I reckon we're in trouble.

Aussie Eateries in NYC

The Age ran an article today on the growth of Australian-themed restaurants in New York City. With names like "Little Australia", "The Sunburnt Cow", "Sheep Station", and "Bondi Road", these establishments were largely developed by Aussies for Aussies, but are making inroads with Americans. Common offerrings appear to be Australian beer (both the good stuff and the not-so-good-stuff) and wine along with a smattering of Australian sports (rugby, AFL, cricket, etc.). I'd be interested to see how Americans contend with the Australian variety hamburger (complete with beet root and a fried egg). But at the very least, Americans will be able to experience something a bit more authentic than "Outback Steakhouse".

A Horse is a Horse, Unless it's a Racing Horse with Equine Flu

It's the end of the world as New South Wales knows it. Thousands of horses have come down with the sniffles at the dawn of one of the most lucrative gambling events of the year - spring carnival. New South Wales' carnival has been called off, tossing people out of work, and forcing tens of thousands of horse enthusiasts and chronic gamblers to find other forms of entertainment (to the dog tracks!). Some have called it a natural disaster, demanding compensation and government relief (think of the poor bookies!).

Victoria has thus far been spared, leaving Melbourne's carnival (and the Melbourne Cup) to continue on schedule, but with the horses of NSW and QLD barred from traveling, it's likely to be a subdued affair.

America, uh, in the, uh, such as, News, Again. I Think.

There's nothing Australians love more than a sporting event, except perhaps taking the piss out of someone. Fortunately, Americans provide ample opportunity. So the morning shows in Australia were delighted this week by Miss Teen South Carolina's stunning testimony to the quality of American education:

And this of course was followed by comical commentary on the Stalinesque legistlative proposal in Atlanta to punish the city's fashion challenged:

Proposal would ban underwear-exposing pants
By DAVID PENDERED
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/22/07

"Exposed boxer shorts and thongs would be illegal in any public place in Atlanta if the City Council approves a proposed amendment to the city's indecency laws."

As one Australian commentator put it: "you'd think they'd invest their energy in addressing issues of poverty, universal health coverage, gun violence and education (see above) before regulating boxer shorts".

Yes you would, wouldn't you.

Only In Australia

While the first, er, "colonists" of Australia left England under duress (for lack of a better word), this latest ad for Bundaberg Rum puts a humorous spin on the motivations of England's emigrees in the modern era.

Meanwhile, Catherine Deveny has this response to Australia's recently implemented citizenship test:

"Who are we trying to keep out with this test? How will knowing the name of Australia's first prime minister or the date of Federation keep out terrorists, wankers or bludgers? The citizenship test questions are irrelevant and offensive. Here's my citizenship test and if you don't like it you can rack off and go back to your own country. You know what the most un-Australian thing in the world is? Migrants. And we don't want them coming here with their fancy food, classy culture, rich traditions and willingness to contribute."