News alert - Gay bomb stolen!

The gay bomb, winner of the annual ig nobles has been stolen. It is rumored to be taken by an group of Australian left wing radicals. Informants advise they are going to bomb the Christian Democratic Party's annual gathering.

Social Engineering

When I was in Taiwan I was witness to one of the most impressive pieces of social engineering I have ever seen. The Chinese are renown for two things (amongst others) which are a penchant for gambling and a dislike for paper work and government taxes. So I was surprised in Taiwan to discover shop attendants almost forcing me to take the cash register receipt. Even in Australia, if I say bought bottle of water from a food place, they would not bother giving me a receipt. When I returned to my hostel, I asked about this unexpected behavior. It turned out, that the government had a problem. Small businesses would not record their cash flow. surprise! surprise! But they had very cleverly solved the problem. They issued government supplied cash registers. Every receipt is a lotter ticket in a national lottery. Once a month the prizes are drawn and the wining numbers published in a national news paper. As a foreigner I could not win a prize, so just before I left I gave my receipts to some locals I knew who could. I was mightly impressed and I can say that apart from the night food markets, I never ever made a purchase without getting a receipt.

"IMG_3600" by Doug Nienhuis [?]

Vladimir Putin a gay icon

I just love it. Previously I spoke of Vladimir. To find out that he is a gay icon on ABC raido was just very very cool. Almost hysterical.

"putin_.JPG" by win/win [?]

Internet snooping

It seems that the plans to provide free public wifi have hit a legal hurdle, they need to know who you are.

Under the Telecommunications (Interception) Bill, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) must supply user identifiable information such as IP and MAC addresses to law enforcement.

A very shory history of the fall of France in 1940

Germany invaded France and were surprised to win. The French fought valiantly but were routed and threw in the towel. The British also fought valiantly but ran away with their tails between their legs after a few days. The Americans stood the side lines and said, nothing to do with us.

"Oradour-Sur-Glane" by bloomsday616 [?]

a loss of confidence...

I have been listening to Dr Karl for some time. He occasionally complains about his slide down the scale of trustworthiness in the ABC surveys. Though he is still very credibly in the top 10. I would suggest that this is the reason why:

What the listeners are seeking is unbiased views of the world. They do not necessarily have to be correct, but they should be biased on good science. However Dr Karl occasionally makes the mistake of towing the line of the ABC. So when he gives a view on some topic that is to do with policy he takes the policy line rather than the good science line, even thought they may end up with the same outcome. This makes him a less trustworthy source of information. We do not want dogma, we want honest science.

I have no surveys or other analysis to back up this hypothesis.

fears of the internet

Today I was listening to an ABC podcast. They were talking about the phobia of pedophiles infecting the community at the moment and the extreme measures being taken to prevent them. They pointed out that the level of activity is very low and that children, as they have always been, are mostly at risk from their immediate family: fathers, brothers and uncles. It seems that there is much selective blindness is going on. It led me to have the following thoughts:

1. Many parents actually know next to nothing of the internet. This allows them to easily be led down the path of fear. For instance it is much harder to make the same claims about being afraid of pedophiles driving down the local street as the parents have lived through this themselves as children. What is happening on the internet is new and people are bewildered and afraid.
2. If you go around saying you are family friendly and thing that families are the best thing in the known universe it is hard to admit that they oft go wrong and sometimes are the worst placed in the universe. When I was a kid, had friends who I reckoned were safer living in the gutter or a garbage bin than at home. So lets blame the internet and ignore the most significant part of the problem. If they were serious they would attack the main problem.
   

This is not to say I think that the internet needs regulation, there needs to be social structures as anywhere in society. What I think is that it does not need fear mongering.