What you can move with a bicycle

Notes from Xanadu

Our quarterly water bill came yesterday and water usage is down 10 per cent on the same period last year. Despite the marginal cost-benefit analysis of rain water tanks (most optimistic) and the probability of increasing the mosquito population, we are moving towards installing tanks. Below is the average household’s use of water.

Marrickville Council

The current Marrickville Matters (Dec 2009) is promoting the Council’s “Rainwater Tank Incentive Scheme” with rebates up to $2,000. To be eligible we must attend a Rainwater Harvesting Technical Workshop, which should be informative. Innovatively, these rebates are funded by the ratepayer’s storm water charge (will we still get charged for this?)

I have been reluctant to capture the rain water off our roofs mainly due to:

1. How to distribute it
2. Where to position the tanks
3. And the problem of minimising mosquito habitat.

More on possible solutions after we attend the workshop.

Global Warming

I wonder why we can’t reach consensus on ‘Global Warming’, ‘Climate Change’, ‘Sea Level Rising (or is it falling’. I looked at these two articles and had some sympathy for the dilemma and debate within our Federal Opposition

“Heat’s on to approve carbon plan”, The Australian, 20 November, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/politics/heats-on-to-approve-carbon-plan/story-e6frgczf-1225799949696

KEVIN Rudd has seized on high temperatures across southeast Australia this week as proof of climate change and the need for the opposition to back his proposed carbon emissions trading system. Mr Rudd has also used the data to challenge opponents who doubted the reality of climate change to examine current weather patterns and reconsider their positions.

But leading climatologist Blair Trewin, of the National Climate Centre, said the heatwave could not “definitively” be linked to climate change. Dr Trewin said: “Any individual heatwave like the one we are having at the moment . . . you can’t say definitively it is because of climate change. “What we can say is as the overall average temperature increases, and there is a clear increase of average temperatures by 0.8C in the past century, we would expect the frequency of high extremes to increase and the frequency of low extremes to decrease.

Climate change sceptic William Kininmonth, a former head of the National Climate Centre, disagreed with a 2007 report by the CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology that predicted more high extreme temperatures and bushfire dangers. Mr Kininmonth said the report’s predictions were “not going to come true”.

“These (heatwaves) occur randomly, and I don’t see see any reason they should come any more often.”

“Global temperatures could rise 6C by end of century, say scientists”, guardian.co.uk, 17 November, http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/17/global-temperature-rise

Global temperatures are on a path to rise by an average of 6C by the end of the century as CO2 emissions increase and the Earth’s natural ability to absorb the gas declines, according to a major new study. Scientists said that CO2 emissions have risen by 29% in the past decade alone and called for urgent action by leaders at the UN climate talks in Copenhagen to agree drastic emissions cuts in order to avoid dangerous climate change.

The new study is the most comprehensive analysis to date of how economic changes and shifts in the way people have used the land in the past five decades have affected the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere.

“Based on our knowledge of recent trends in CO2 emissions and the time it takes to change energy infrastructure around the world and on the response of the sinks to climate change and variability, the Copenhagen conference is our last chance to stabilise climate at 2C above preindustrial levels in a smooth and organised way,” said Le Quéré. “If the agreement is too weak or if the commitments are not respected, we will be on a path to 5C or 6C.”

But Le Quéré’s conclusion on the decline of the world’s carbon sinks is not universally accepted. Wolfgang Knorr of the University of Bristol recently published a study in Geophysical Research Letters, using similar data to Le Quéré, where he argued that the natural carbon sinks had not noticeably changed. “Our apparently conflicting results demonstrate what doing cutting-edge science is really like and just how difficult it is to accurately quantify such data,” said Knorr.

• The headline to this article was amended on Wednesday 18 November 2009 to make clear that the study said global temperatures could rise 6C by end of century, not that they will do so.

This correction seems to be the best summary of the problem.

Today’s Podcast

“The state of the arts”, ForaRadio, 18 November, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/foraradio/stories/2009/2744356.htm

Lyndon Terracini, the newly appointed artistic director of Opera Australia, voices his concerns about the state of the arts and outlines why he believes many of our cultural institutions must change.

Seen in Newington Road one recent Sunday as I cycled by.

Budget Beef – 2

We tried IGA Budget Rump ($8.99 kg) last night minced in rissoles and were unable to detect any flavour difference between this and Aldi’s Premium mince at $9.99 kg. I cut off the small amount of fat from the IGA meat and minced it. We found several pieces of gristle otherwise no difference in flavour.

I emailed Richard Torbay, who instigated the new law to re-label budget beef as ‘low quality’, seeking the source of his information –- no reply.  I also emailed Aldi requesting information on the source of their beef –- no response.

And GM Food

When I revisited the Aldi email, this banner ad. displayed at the top:

The dangers of GM crops – www.newint.com.au/shop – DVD exposing the dangers of growing GM crops in Australia (http://www.newint.com.au/shop/gm-crops-2008.htm)

I delved in further and came away impressed by the presenters’ credentials and experience. My concern for GM foods is rising.

Book Review

Stephanie Alexander, (2009), Kitchen Garden Companion, Penguin

I had heard snippets about this books and briefly glanced at it in Kmart –- it looked like a useful food resource. When I had some time I browsed it more carefully in Dymocks and initially, I remained impressed with the presentation –- splendid cover and internal layout. But it is superficial; alphabetically ordered, each entry has some growing tips and three recipes, which is fine for some vegetables but skimpy for others. The one great tip was to crush your eggshells and spread them around snail tempting plants. Snails will not cross them.

I had sent out a few hints that this might be a welcome Christmas present. Now I need to re-broadcast the hints – no!

Here is what she wrote about this book:

Like The Cook’s Companion this huge book started out as an alphabetical guide to the best ways of using popular crops being grown in so many school kitchen gardens. I felt that many good gardeners needed a bit of help when it came to cooking, and many cooks certainly needed to better understand how to grow food and to increase their understanding of seasonal availability.

It isn’t up to the quality of The Cook’s Companion but it is beautifully presented.

Today’s Podcast

“In the land of 419s”, 360, 14 November, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/360/

419s are those scam e-mails sent by Nigerians that clog up inboxes all over the world and it’s also the nickname given to any form of corruption in Nigeria. In this oil-rich country corruption is rife, causing a profound debauching of government, the people and the environment. In this Nigerian travel diary Susan Murphy meets people who carry on against the odds, with grace, fortitude and a sense of style. She also visits an extraordinary three-day Holy Ghost Revival meeting. They say in Nigeria that if you want to get rich start an NGO or a church. The music in the program is by Fela Kuti.

Today’s Blog

Is this a blog or a website? Interesting homemade video on home cooking which is quite fun. http://megustacooking.com/

Bicycle Vandalism in Paris

This was reprinted in today’s SMH, 18 November, p16 but their ineffective search engine couldn’t find it in the web edition.

Samuel Bollendorff for The New York Times

“Renters of Vélib’ bicycles in Paris say it can be a challenge to find functioning ones among those that have been vandalized”.

“French Ideal of Bicycle-Sharing Meets Reality”, The New York Times, 30 October, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/world/europe/31bikes.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=velib&st=cse (Selectively edited)

PARIS — Just as Le Corbusier’s white cruciform towers once excited visions of the industrial-age city of the future, so Vélib’, Paris’s bicycle rental system, inspired a new urban ethos for the era of climate change.

In Paris 80 percent of Vélib’ bicycles are stolen or damaged. Residents here can rent a sturdy bicycle from hundreds of public stations and pedal to their destinations, an inexpensive, healthy and low-carbon alternative to hopping in a car or bus. But this latest French utopia has met a prosaic reality: Many of the specially designed bikes, which, when the system’s startup and maintenance expenses are included, cost $3,500 each, are showing up on black markets in Eastern Europe and northern Africa. Many others are being spirited away for urban joy rides, then ditched by roadsides, their wheels bent and tires stripped.

With 80 percent of the initial 20,600 bicycles stolen or damaged, the program’s organizers have had to hire several hundred people just to fix them. And along with the dent in the city-subsidized budget has been a blow to the Parisian psyche. The heavy, sandy-bronze Vélib’ bicycles are seen as an accoutrement of the “bobos,” or “bourgeois-bohèmes,” the trendy urban middle class, and they stir resentment and covetousness. They are often being vandalized in a socially divided Paris by resentful, angry or anarchic youth, the police and sociologists say.

At least 8,000 bikes have been stolen and 8,000 damaged so badly that they had to be replaced — nearly 80 percent of the initial stock. It is commonplace now to see the bikes at docking stations in Paris with flat tires, punctured wheels or missing baskets. Some Vélib’s have been found hanging from lampposts, dumped in the Seine, used on the streets of Bucharest or resting in shipping containers on their way to North Africa. Some are simply appropriated and repainted.

Correction: November 5, 2009

An article on Saturday about the Paris public bicycle rental system’s problems with theft and vandalism referred imprecisely to the cost of the specially designed bikes. While each bike costs about $3,500 at current exchange rates when the system’s startup and maintenance expenses are included, the manufacturing cost of each bike is about $1,050.

This correction is missing from the SMH version.

Read All Comments (173) on the NYT page; interesting comparisons with Montreal and other cities in Europe.

Today’s Podcast

“A national curriculum”, Fora Radio, 11 November, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/foraradio/stories/2009/2738255.htm

The development of a national curriculum is now underway, with trials in some schools expected to start next year. Getting it right, say those involved, is a once-in-a-generation opportunity. So what should a national curriculum look like and how it might incorporate and address issues relating to Indigenous education?

Technical Note

I have been annotating interesting websites with Google’s Sidewicki application but the results when shared on my Facebook page are randomly weird. See http://www.facebook.com/ihian?v=feed&story_fbid=219126403064&ref=nf#/ihian?ref=name. If you click on the ‘Not Found’ or ‘Null’ headings, the relevant articles are found.

Some more on my favourite ex-governor.

Notes from Xanadu

The snow peas are delicious and plentiful –- another picking for tonight. The rocket was about to move into weed proportions and required a heavy harvesting last night. Both are delicious.

An assortment of new screw top lids arrived with yoghurt culture today from Green Living Australia (http://www.greenlivingaustralia.com.au/index.html) . The new lids mean I can make more mustard and then gradually move on to tomatoes as the prices drop. I will check out the Fowlers bottles and boiler; small Fowler jars will be good for anti-pasto when capsicums are cheaper.

The yoghurt culture is a challenge – one one hundredth of a sachet is sufficient but there are good instructions on the web site.

Today’s Media Tosh

Continuing the ‘this is insane’ water theme is this article in today’s The Australian.

“Mike Rann happy with pumping Murray flow to town 900km away”, The Australian, 17 November, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/politics/state-politics/rann-happy-with-pumping-murray-flow-to-town-900km-away/story-e6frgczx-1225798384284

PREMIER Mike Rann says he doesn’t want the people of Ceduna on South Australia’s far west coast to run out of water, and who could blame him. But isn’t it over the top to solve the problem by pumping water from the Murray River 900km away?

After all, Australians hear endless stories about the fragile state of the once mighty river, not to mention complaints from South Australians about the vandalism of upstream users.

So surely there’s another way to look after little Ceduna and keep any excess water for irrigators and river communities on restricted supplies? Not at all. “The pipeline was built some years ago,” Mr Rann said yesterday.

Water Security Minister Karlene Maywald said the Murray River water now going to Ceduna had been bought from existing users “some time ago” and was therefore not extra water taken from the river.

“We capped our extractions from the River Murray back in 1968 to 1971, they (eastern states) didn’t do it until 1997.

“Therein lies the problem in the River Murray system, not a very small amount of water to a very remote community.” It is the first time the Murray’s precious waters have travelled so far west, something the opposition yesterday branded as insane.

Technical Note

I am on the short-list for teaching Office 2007 and Photoshop at UNSW next year. These well-structured programmes are a pleasure to facilitate but I haven’t touched O2007 other than the occasional look.

I have Parallels Virtual Machine loaded on my Mac, which then allows me to run Windows Vista and all Microsoft applications on my MacbookPro. It was 2007 when I set this up so had to download AVG virus protection followed by 96 Microsoft updates (800Mb). Both Vista and Office load quickly and appear to work well.

Today’s Podcast

The Night Air, 15 November, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/nightair/stories/2009/2740829.htm

A programme on radioactive dust from the Maralinga atomic testing and asbestos at Bayugal, NSW.

Sun rising over Jervis Bay last week

Today’s Media Tosh

A coincidence? Yesterday I recommended Deconstructing Dinner’s podcast on Fox News and its attack on the Obama government’s water mismanagement. Today in The Australian, p4 of the print edition, we have the emotive article on the citrus farmer forced into poverty by government water mismanagement.

What is missing from the on-line article (below) is the photo of ‘Riverland citrus grower Mick Punturiero refusing to leave his Cooltong property despite having to bulldoze acres because of government water mismanagement’.

I have, as usual, selectively quoted from the article and added comment in italics. This reporting is puerile.

“Growers ‘slaughtered’ in food bowl” The Australian, 16 November, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/growers-slaughtered-in-food-bowl/story-e6frg6nf-1225798004235

MICK Punturiero is angry and in full flight as his face contorts with rage over the state of the country’s food bowl. “You city people need to know we are being slaughtered here,” the 49-year-old citrus grower in South Australia’s dying Riverland district says.

He stands in the middle of an empty paddock on his 20ha Cooltong property near Renmark, where there once were rows of healthy orange trees. The trees have been bulldozed as he fights to stay on his land while those around him are forced to take federal government handouts – so-called exit grants – and, like hundreds of others have done during the past three years, uproot and leave the district.

Water mismanagement by federal and state governments continues to drive growers off the land, while corporations turn their backs on a regional economy searching desperately for a lifeline. What is this ‘water mismanagement’? We are given no clue.

If the Riverland dies, so too does one-third of Australia’s fresh fruits, nuts and vegetables. The district is the engine room of the wine industry, too, producing 30 per cent of the national crush. … The federal small block irrigators exit grant this year offered up to $150,000 as a special payment to about 2500 Riverland irrigators, with about 10 per cent approved to rip up their crops and leave their land. This is very similar to Deconstructing Dinner’s reports on the California drought.

Mr Punturiero, whose family business grows, packs and exports oranges, lemons and limes, saw a 60 per cent loss in income last financial year. “I have two empty paddocks I decided to clear of trees because there was no water,” he said. “But no one is going to force me off my land. Everyone just looks so disheartened. They have nothing to talk positive about. It’s a bit hard to be positive when your leg has just been cut off.”

The SA government believes the answer lies in tourism and retirement villages. It’s a message met with anger and disbelief from growers, small business owners and those recently retrenched.

The Riverland received another blow last week with news the Berri Juice factory would close after three generations, taking the number of jobs lost at the factory in the past two years to 200. The Berri fruit juice factory was well-managed when I visited in 1976 but was then:

• Under threat from the importation of US citrus concentrate that was remanufactured into ‘fresh’ juice.
• Citrus growers were pumping salt-heavy water for irrigation to flush the salt –- the logic of this escaped me.
• The land holdings were too small –- the outcome of soldier resettlement schemes that appeared sound at the time but never took into account the negative history of irrigation agriculture. It eventually fails due to the lifting of the water table and rising salt.

Ken Webber, 49, has worked at Berri for almost 35 years. Mr Webber and his wife Sharon, 44, were born and grew up in the district, and have three children. “I thought I was going to work my life at the factory,” Mr Webber said. “I have to find a job. It’s not going to be easy because wineries are closing as well. Some of the big wineries are not even taking locally grown grapes this year.” I sympathise with Ken but not with the emotional cant written by The Australian – it is very similar to that broadcast by Fox News. Ken must have been aware for years that his future at Berri was limited. He will have to migrate as rural workers have done for centuries.

Like many in the region, the couple are angry with Karlene Maywald, a Nationals MP who represents the Riverland but sits in the state Labor cabinet as Water Minister. They believe she is too focused on critical water for Adelaide and that the Rann government has given up on the Riverland as a food bowl.

Today’s Podcast

“Germany’s literary changes after the fall of the Berlin wall”, The Bookshow, 9 November, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2009/2735022.htm

No respite from the babbling Ramona. In this interview she asks the same question three times, without drawing a breath. I wish the ABC would send her on some interview techniques training.

The last of the Jacarandas – a good year for colour

Geography

http://www.iag.org.au/home/

A dear friend emailed me the latest Institute of Australian Geographers newsletter and I was disappointed to see that members are not researching critical issues such as climate change, water shortage, immigration (queue jumping?), toxic waste, GM food, and so on. They had a jolly time in Cairns and awarded some members special status. So many geographers in Cairns and not a mention of dengue fever, fertilizer polluting the Reef, transport from the Atherton food bowl to Australian cities, water, indigenous land rights –- just a few of the matters I looked at when there last year.

I preferred geography in the 70s when the wacko Marxists riveted our research attention on people issues and the mal-distribution of resources. Geography was fun then.

Today’s Podcast

Deconstructing Dinner, 12 November, http://www.cjly.net/deconstructingdinner/111209.htm

This should really be titled ‘Has Rupert lost it?’. I have long admired Rupert Murdoch (even bought shares in News Limited and lost out) but this podcast illuminates his:

1. Loss of control of the empire (favoured).
2. His ultra right-wing views (doubtful considering his history as a publisher).

Several times I have recommended or criticized this podcast but this one is exceptionally balanced. Listening to the Fox News sound bites made me wonder if Rupert is not going down the Howard Hughes path of ultra-rich wierdo.

A pity Deconstructing Dinner didn’t bring the same balance to their “Sally Fallon Morell” podcast on the 15 October. She was as balanced as Fox News!

Today’s Blog

This promised some of the balance I have been seeking in the Climate Change debate. Perhaps it does but their writing is too dense and for screen-reading, far too long, hence I never got the point of the entry for 13 November. It was far to ‘nuanced’ for this aging mind.

Climate Resistance – Challenging Climate Orthodoxy, http://www.climate-resistance.org/

Environmentalism is in the ascendant. It holds that instead of buffering ourselves against whatever Mother Nature has to throw at us, we should try to make the weather marginally different by cutting down on the things that make life worth living.

An unfounded sense of crisis dominates public discussion of environmental issues, and shrill demands for urgent action to mitigate climate change thrive at the expense of genuine, illuminating, nuanced debate about how to make the best of an uncertain future. We believe that is well worth resisting.

Neither the science nor the politics of climate change should be exempt from scrutiny. Our intention is to provide some decent commentary on how science, politics and the media handle environmental matters, for anyone interested in challenging this dangerous new orthodoxy. And for anyone just interested.

Apple sauce

We rarely buy and eat pork — I have been frightened by the scare reporting on over-use of antibiotics and overcrowding of pens but Beryl brought home a handsome rib roast so I whipped up this sauce.

Ingredients

• 3 granny smith apples, peeled, cored, coarsely chopped
• Tablespoon brown sugar
• 3/4 cup apple juice or water
• 1 tbs fresh lemon juice
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 1/4 tsp mixed spice or all spice

Process

• Combine the apple, sugar, apple juice or water, lemon juice, cinnamon sticks and mixed spice in a saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring, for 3 minutes or until the sugar dissolves.
• Increase heat to medium-high and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally until the apple is soft. Remove from heat. Remove cinnamon sticks and discard. Set aside, uncovered, for 5 minutes to cool slightly.
• Transfer apple mixture a blender and process until pureed. Place in a clean saucepan and stir over low heat until heated through.
• Serve warm

Adapted from http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/7253/traditional+apple+sauce

“Palin pours heart out about family and politics during the McCain campaign”, The Australian, 14 November, p17.

Budget Beef

On the 14 October I commented on ‘budget beef’. We unsuccessfully searched a number of Bi-Lo and Coles but Beryl has found it at the IGA in Pyrmont. We will put it through the ‘taste test’ as mince in the coming week. I guess ‘taste testing’ budget beef is an art form like wine tasting — more on this later when we have some data. The other aspect of ‘budget beef’ which I commented on is that these cattle have most likely eaten grass, lived in a cluster of paddocks and had calves, in contrast to the lot-fed cattle factories that produce much of our edible beef.

In Kelly Burke, “MPs get tough on beef from old cows”, SMH, 14 November, http://www.smh.com.au/national/mps-get-tough-on-beef-from-old-cows-20091113-ieq2.html we can read some cant.

BEEF from old cows previously labelled ”budget” by some supermarkets and butchers in NSW will have to carry the qualification ”low quality” or ”low grade” under a bill passed through the lower house. This is a non-sustainable approach to utilizing aging cattle. I have been unsuccessful locating an objective grading system that can correlate ‘low quality’ with age in beef or mutton. I know that ‘boiler’ means an old hen beyond productive laying but her carcase is still full of flavour in soup or stock. How can older cattle be of lower quality?

As much as 30 per cent of the beef sold in Australia at any given time is believed (my emphasis: we have been searching for ‘budget beef’ so I suspect the 30 per cent is a manufactured figure rather than a collected statistic) to be from cows aged anywhere between 3½ and 12 years old, and of an inferior quality for many cooking methods (What cooking methods?). Yet the absence of a meaningful grading system means consumers have little way of telling the true quality of the meat they are buying. Where is the grading system that can measure flavour?

But the NSW independent MP Richard Torbay said the practice was misleading consumers and needed reform. ”It has been described as a lucky dip, where consumers buy meat one week that is tender and delicious and then the next week they buy the product under the same label and it is tough and tasteless,” Mr Torbay said. ”The system has no teeth.” Who is describing it as a lucky dip and can we have Richard Torbay’s data?

Mr Torbay accused the Red Meat Advisory Council of reneging on an earlier agreement to support the reforms and instead lobby politicians to withdraw their support for the bill, despite 11 months of negotiations with the industry. But the secretary of the council, Justin Toohey, said it was Mr Torbay who had reneged on the deal, having promised to leave the issue of grading to the industry to self-regulate. Amendments, including the clarification of the label ”budget”, were only introduced in the last few weeks, leaving no time to negotiate.

”The word low has very negative connotations and producers don’t want that,” he said. ”Just because it’s from old cow beef, it doesn’t necessarily mean poor quality. It just needs to be cooked differently.”

Richard Torbay is the Speaker of the  NSW Legislative Assembly and the independent member for the Northern Tablelands so:

1. Being independent lifts him in my esteem.
2. He should know the beef industry.

But when I searched on Torbay (http://wapedia.mobi/en/Richard_Torbay) I came across his experience as a kitchen hand, CEO of the UNE Union, local government flack, and his limited education (an honorary doctorate from UNE???) but nothing about his knowledge of meat. But lack of knowledge never stopped a politician from issuing cant.

Pat Oliphant

Mike Steketee, “Oliphant spears and all”, The Australian — Inquirer, 14 November, p5.

An interesting interview with the cartoonist Oliphant.

There are several of these signs outside Enmore TAFE seeking the whereabouts of the Minister of Education.

I had to use the train-bus system today to go to Clovelly and it was excellent. There in an hour (even thought the bus was late) and back in an hour. I enjoy this public transport; I can sit an watch, take photos, read and relax rather than dealing with the traffic when I drive.

More garlic has been planted and much basil. The snow peas are salad ready so will harvest this weekend.

Social Media

A positive use for Facebook

“Facebook post clears robbery suspect”, ABC, 13 November, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/13/2741856.htm

A 19-year-old New York man who was arrested for armed robbery has been exonerated thanks to a status update he posted on social networking site Facebook. Rodney Bradford was arrested and held for 12 days in connection with an October 17 armed robbery of two people in the Brooklyn housing project where he lives.

But he insisted he was in Manhattan at the time of the crime, a claim he backed up by an update he made to his Facebook page from a computer in his father’s Manhattan building, prosecutors said. A spokesman at the Brooklyn district attorney’s office acknowledged that Facebook played a role in the dismissal of charges

Today’s Media Tosh

I am undecided about the author of this article, Frank Furedi. Something of a media tart if you look at his website (http://www.frankfuredi.com/) and the Google results from searching his name. I have quoted selectively but I don’t think I have missed that he is actually saying nothing.

Frank Furedi, “Mired in climate of confusion”, The Australian, 13 November, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/mired-in-climateof-confusion/story-e6frg6zo-1225797096948

FOLLOWING a judge’s decision at a British employment tribunal that Tim Nicholson, a sustainability officer who was sacked from a property firm, was entitled to legal protection for his philosophical belief in climate change, scientists have been expressing their shock.

“As a scientist who works on climate change, I find it deeply alarming,” said Myles Allen, who heads the Climate Dynamics group at the University of Oxford. Allen’s concerns are entirely understandable. I cannot see why his concerns are understandable.

Since the rise of the modern era, science has prided itself on its capacity to explain the world on the basis of experimentation, research and, above all, hard evidence. Science emerged, self-consciously, as an alternative to world views based on faith, moral conviction and other forms of a priori thought. So it is natural that a genuine scientist would feel insulted by judge Michael Burton’s ruling that Nicholson’s concern with climate change qualified as a philosophical belief under the Religion and Belief Regulations, 2003. Here we have ‘genuine scientist’; is Furadi implying that there are also bigus scientists?

However, if science is recast by a legal ruling as simply a moral or religious world view, then its pre-eminent authority is likely to be compromised. What is to distinguish science from quacks with strongly held principles? Indeed. We are constantly subjected to the rantings of ‘genuine scientists’ thrusting their opinions down our throats in an effort to get funding, published, tenure, and fame.

Indeed, science often has the quality of a quasi-religious dogma these days, especially in the arena of climate-change alarmism. “The scientists have spoken,” says one British-based green campaign group, in an updated version of the religious phrase, “This is the Word of the Lord.” “This is what the science says we must do,” many greens claim before adding that the debate about global warming is finished.

I thought we should revisit Sarah Palin.

Cicadas

Cicadas singing

Amazing! They began singing in Marr Playground at 7:45pm last night and stopped at 8:00pm. Summer has begun.
More information at http://australianmuseum.net.au/Cicadas-Superfamily-Cicadoidea

GE Corn

Kelly Burke. “Europe rejects GE corn but Australia has ‘no concerns’”. SMH, 12 November, http://www.smh.com.au/environment/europe-rejects-ge-corn-but-australia-has-no-concerns-20091111-ia08.html

A GENETICALLY engineered corn authorised by the Australian food regulator as safe for human consumption has been withdrawn from Europe because of safety concerns. Monsanto has pulled its commercial development application for high lysine LY038 corn, originally intended only as feed for animals, after the European Food Safety Authority questioned the safety studies already conducted by the company and used by Food Standards Australia New Zealand to approve the GE corn in 2006. Rather than conduct additional research as the European authority requested, Monsanto decided to abandon its bid to introduce the corn to the European market.

FSANZ has subsequently come under attack for its approval of the corn by the University of Canterbury’s centre for integrated research in biosafety in New Zealand. The research’s leader, Professor Jack Heinemann, a prominent anti-GE campaigner, said FSANZ ignored the centre’s detailed scientific analysis conducted over two years by 10 biosafety researchers and instead ”shopped around” for alternative opinions which would cast a more favourable light on the corn’s safety. Other countries which have approved LY038 include Canada, South Korea, the Philippines and Japan.

Although the crop has yet to be grown here commercially, Monsanto Australia told the Herald there were no immediate plans to withdraw from the local market. The product had been withdrawn in Europe purely for commercial reasons, the Monsanto spokeswoman said, an assertion FSANZ repeated in a statement issued to the Herald yesterday. ”Following a rigorous safety assessment of genetically modified high lysine corn in 2006, we concluded that it was as safe as its conventional counterpart,” the statement said. ”We have no safety concerns about this corn.”

FSANZ said it had followed the processes outlined by the international food standards-setting body, Codex Alimentarius, which is overseen by the World Trade Organisation. But Professor Heinemann said Monsanto went against the Codex Alimentarius by using another genetically modified product as the control in its safety studies. ”This violates both international food safety testing guidelines and European rules,” he said. ”We were the first in the world to point this out and FSANZ chose to ignore it. The European Food Safety Authority didn’t.”

The European authority also expressed concern that Monsanto had failed to conduct any tests on cooked LY038, which could cause a chemical chain reaction leading led to a higher level of advanced glycation end products, believed to be pathogenic.

Research recently published in the Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism found that if ingested, these end products could be linked to cardiovascular and chronic kidney diseases. Earlier research has also suggested a link with some cancers and Alzheimer’s disease.

Today’s Website

2010 Truefood Guide, http://www.truefood.org.au/truefoodguide/

The new 2010 Truefood Guide includes even more food and beverage brands, as well as incorporating the alcoholic beverages edition we launched earlier this year. It also sees leading brands Nestlé, Foster’s, Schweppes and Lindt shift to GE-free.

On the train yesterday.

News from Xanadu

I have resumed working in the garden now that the hole in my left shin is slowly healing. Sieved a barrow full of composty soil and ended up with a fine potting mix – will still have the escaped tomato and pumpkin seeds ready to thrust up later in the summer. The clay-loam mix I have been covering the kitchen scraps with is not breaking down so will begin putting a handful of gypsum on each layer.

Nine of the original 16 garlic cloves have sprouted – 56 per cent is not such a good result. I planted another 20 cloves today in better soil.

The Dijon-style mustard is a success. I tested it last night (four weeks after making the first batch) so will order more screw-top lids and produce another couple of kilos.

The Perils of Facebook

Farhad Manjoo, “How Does Facebook Know I’m Gay?” Slate, 6 November, http://www.slate.com/id/2234734/

Dear Farhad,

How does Facebook pick which ads to display? I’m gay, out, and proud, but my sexual orientation isn’t listed on my Facebook page. However, Atlantis’ gay-cruise ads still appear when I’m browsing. Has the site somehow figured out that I’m gay?

Not Happy With Facebook Ads

Dear Not Happy,

According to a Facebook spokesman, you’ve most probably been swept up in an ad targeted to a very broad group. When companies advertise on Facebook, they’re allowed to choose a range of demographic characteristics that determine which people see their ads. It’s possible that Atlantis didn’t choose to limit its ads just to gay people but, say, to all single men under 40 who live near San Francisco. This way the company gets to people like you—folks who aren’t out on Facebook but who might still be in the gay-cruise demographic.

Farhad