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Post by angra on Dec 2, 2012 12:19:18 GMT 10
Professor Marcia Langton is giving a brilliant speech as part of the Boyer Lectures. It's about Aboriginal involvement in the mining boom.
I take issue with her in combining Torres Srait Islanders with Aborigines. There are virtually no TSI people benefiting from the mining industry (maybe a few in Groote Island).
Other than that she is speaking well.
But "is she black enough?" for Bloty?
She has white hair!!! First Dog should make a comment.
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Post by angra on Dec 2, 2012 13:55:58 GMT 10
The Old Man and the Sea.
Must be about the most boring novel and film ever produced
An old man catches a big fish
A shark eats the fish,
That's it - end of story.
We're supposed to read world-revealing philosophy into this nonsense?
I reckon it's the worst novel/film combination ever.
Any other offers? And don't include Plan 9...
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Dec 2, 2012 16:56:44 GMT 10
For various reasons (relating to how I'm watching comedy channel these days) I keep seeing, over and over, the trailer for "The Perks Of Being A Wallflower"
I have nothing against emma watson. I'm sure she's a lovely girl. But this is probably the film I least want to see ... ever.
I only learned the expression "manic pixie dream girl" a couple of months ago (listening to "the dinner party" - a podcast from CBC, I think). It's basically a depressed-loner-male fantasy stereotype. Hot chick inexplicably falls for miserable loner and she solves all his problems - voila!
Google the terms: Emma Watson Manic Pixie
Others seem to agree that it fits.
I suspect that we'll see better than this from ms watson.
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Dec 3, 2012 19:49:17 GMT 10
self-deleted for being a bit nasty.
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Dec 4, 2012 7:37:38 GMT 10
I haven't put any effort into checking this story, so I'm risking a red face, but ...
I think the US is about to get more involved in syria.
What makes me think that? Because "intelligence" has started declaring things about syria developing sarin as a weapon (just like that, eh?) and "officials" have been reporting "movements" of chemical weapons and components.
More than that - the white house (well, hillary) has responded, reiterating that it's a red line.
Maybe somebody's just whipping up rumors, but it just seems a bit too familiar. I'm not even saying it would be WRONG for the US to get involved (although it'll be dipping a toe, maybe a foot, and sure as heck won't be an invasion). But if syria has a chemical weapons capacity, it didn't get it just in the last week. Also, there are surely more direct ways to send a warning to a national leader than through the pages of the huffington post.
We have a right ... to fight ... for democraceee ....
In related news, just listening to the BBC, there are voices in europe starting to call for an investigation of where the chemicals, used by saddam over halabja 20 years ago, came from ...
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Post by angra on Dec 5, 2012 7:35:29 GMT 10
Looks like the lunatics are in charge of the asylum. "The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing trying to look into the cause and prevention of autism. Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) launched into a several-minute diatribe (beginning at 12:58 in the video above) that starts off in an Orwellian statement: He claims he’s not antivax. Then he launches into a five-minute speech that promotes long-debunked and clearly incorrect antivax claims, targeting mercury for the most part. Burton has long been an advocate for quackery; for at least a decade he has used Congressional situations like this to promote antiscience. In the latest hearing, Burton sounds like a crackpot conspiracy theorist, to be honest, saying he knows—better than thousands of scientists who have spent their careers investigating these topics—that thimerosal causes neurological disorders (including autism). He goes on for some time about mercury (as does Rep. Dennis Kucinitch (D-Ohio) starting at 21:44 in the video), making it clear he doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking about. For example, very few vaccines still use mercury, and the ones that do use it in tiny amounts and in a form that does not accumulate in the body." www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2012/12/04/congress_hearing_on_vaccines_is_a_farce_of_dangerous_antivax_nonsense.html
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Dec 5, 2012 8:31:03 GMT 10
Meanwhile, back in the real world, I have heard[1] that vaccination rates in the UK have finally crept back up above where they were 14 years ago when a certain shyster decided to spin a yarn about MMR and autism.
So at least some sensible bits of the world are embracing reality. The US still thinks that incremental cuts to tax rates will increase revenue ... despite not having a shred of evidence to support it.
[1] but not even attempted to verify - it was either steven novella or allan koslow I heard it from, and either is fine by me.
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Post by angra on Dec 5, 2012 8:42:51 GMT 10
MoC - the shyster was Andrew Wakefield whose "findings" were unfortunately published by The Lancet which kicked things off with the conspiracy nuts.
"Investigations by Sunday Times journalist Brian Deer revealed that the lead author of the article, Andrew Wakefield, had multiple undeclared conflicts of interest, had manipulated evidence, and had broken other ethical codes. The Lancet paper was partially retracted in 2004 and fully retracted in 2010, and Wakefield was found guilty by the General Medical Council of serious professional misconduct in May 2010 and was struck off the Medical Register, meaning he could no longer practice as a doctor."
An example of good journalistic investigation by Deer.
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Post by jules on Dec 5, 2012 12:15:06 GMT 10
I have a couple of issues with vaccination.
Well one really...
The vaccinations that children get at one year of age - 3 at once - seemed a bit harsh for my daughter. It appeared to be nastier than we expected. Looking back, I think i would have preferred she had one a fortnight or 3 weeks instead of all 3 at once. I think it would have been easier on her
She had no probs with the earlier vaccinations, 'cept for the obvious ones - an immune response to the vaccinations themselves, which just shows they are working correctly. But she had responses to all three vaccinations at once and her immune system was over taxed cos she got bugs that she'd had weeks earlier and appeared to have recovered from. Long term she seems ok, perhaps easier to upset tho.
Obviously we want her to get all her vaccinations - but that yearly one - it just seems its all done at once for the convenience of other people involved except the bub getting the jabs. She was fine at the time too, all smiles by the time she left the consultation room where she had her shots, and no probs for the first 10 days afterward. Then high fevers for about a week, complete loss of appetite for several weeks, and lingering milder appetite loss for over a month and increased nausea at the same time, as well as general unsettledness (yes it is a word). She has been a reasonably trouble free baby up until the reactions started to that yearly vaccination. Didn't put on any weight for up to 6 weeks after the immunisation and was very unsettled in that time.
I doubt her reactions would have been worse over that time if she'd had the vaccinations separately, and I'm wondering if they would actually have been milder.
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Dec 5, 2012 18:24:22 GMT 10
Well, this takes all. Bill O'reilly, a few days ago, tried to declare that christianity is not a religion - it's a philosophy.
Why? Because if christianity isn't a religion ... then the state can spend taxpayer's money, taxpayer's resources, assets, time and ... whatever ... on CHRISTMAS!
And he's doing well to try to get away with it. He then flips back and declares that roman catholicism and methodism ARE religions (so can, presumably, keep not paying tax), but it's not in THEIR name that christianity is celebrated.
What an utter load of cockamamie stupidity. Ack. So many holes, I could grate cheese on this rubbish.
That's the sort of crap that miranda would try on.
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Dec 5, 2012 18:31:05 GMT 10
Wow. I just watched the second half of that. Wow.
I'm speechless. Wow.
I don't think I'll say anything more about that. Just watch the video, everyone. This is the sort of discourse that our abominable friend wants to see replicated here.
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Dec 5, 2012 18:39:43 GMT 10
Random thought ....
What's the the most pervasive religion in the world today?
Soccer.
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Post by angra on Dec 5, 2012 18:47:28 GMT 10
Jules - check out Ben Goldacre's reports. MMR vaccines have been shown to have no link to autism. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMR_vaccine_controversy"The greatest fraud in medical history?" Following the initial claims in 1998, multiple large epidemiological studies were undertaken. Reviews of the evidence by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Institute of Medicine of the US National Academy of Sciences, the UK National Health Service, and the Cochrane Library all found no link between the vaccine and autism. This is not to say that some vaccines don't have side effects in small numbers of kids. But is this worse than seeing your child die of polio, diphtheria, smallpox or TB? On the other hand as Ben points in his recent book out Big Pharma is notorious for keeping their trial data secret. That more appropriately applies to designer drugs and 'manufactured' diseases. But Wakefied got paid around half a million pounds by litigation lawyers to 'produce' evidence that MMR vaccines were linked to Autism. He was ultimately found to be a fraud. But I agree it's a murky world in which it's hard to distinguish genuine medical advance to PR hype for new drugs. Just don't forget to have TB, Hepatitis, Tetanus and Typhus vaccinations if you travel to SE Asia or the South Pacific for any length of time.
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Post by jules on Dec 5, 2012 19:47:53 GMT 10
Don't get me wrong I'm very much in favour of vaccines in principle and practice. And have no time for Wakefield's bullshit. But I'm wondering about the wisdom of giving a child a whole bunch at once when the only reason for that seems to be other peoples convenience.
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Post by angra on Dec 5, 2012 20:03:17 GMT 10
Jules - it's maybe for the Doctors convenience that "one jab should rule them all", but if each one has a small risk, then maybe stringing them out compounds the risk? I don't know. But it's probably cheaper, and usually for the best evidence, follow the money.
I know I had multiple separate vaccines over many years and I'm still kicking. But the multiple jabs I had for living in PNG put me in bed for a few days. But then I had four separate ones at the same time. Maybe there was some cumulative effect?
Still have the old smallpox vaccine scars on my arm. That was the old-fashioned way. Then they gave me a TB vaccine update when I was at school in sugar tablets - so I guess the technology has changed over time.
My parents thought I had Polio when I was a kid, but the doctors said "no it's just growing pains - he's been vaccinated" (What the hell is that?). But for weeks I could hardly walk due to the pain in my legs - but got better. Never found out what this was.
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