look what they did for me! a whole trailer load of bricks brought in and neatly stacked in my back yard and I only shifted one- the ceremonial last brick to go in the trailer.



I had been offered salvage access to a property belonging to a colleague, the house is to be demolished soon. They had the same kind of bricks that I used for the garden path, and conveniently clean*. I wanted enough to be able to replace my poxy front path with nice bricks. However, I am still too unwell to manage brick shifting. Left just to me I would have had to give up the opportunity. But I have stunningly lovely friends who came and shifted them for me! So I set up the meeting with the owners etc and others did the rest. Hoorah. We meant to take other stuff too but were not allowed to start taking the house apart. So no floorboards etc.

bonus extras:
-a few loose wall tiles that match mine at home-weird to find but good.
-roofing tin for mrbassman
-a little wood for burning
-a strangely nice, heavy glass ashtray with a rose pattern in the bottom.
-the old fence posts that have been cluttering up my yard have been taken away to be recycled into other fences and firewood

Now I am very very tired to go with the pleased. Also very congested. This virus (?) is going backwards. I've been coughing for weeks, now my sinuses are getting in on the act too. Usually goes the other way. Really not sure how I will handle work this week.

*Clean as in not covered in mortar. Dirty as in covered in muddy soil.

A case of CRU denying temperature data to independent scientists. Asking good questions about the refusal to share raw data. About those emails:

However, we do now have hundreds of emails that give every appearance of testifying to concerted and coordinated efforts by leading climatologists to fit the data to their conclusions while attempting to silence and discredit their critics.

That seems a more sober assessment than some of the sceptical triumphalism around the place. What they raise about the “black box” issue and the way research is funded. Retired climatologist Tim Ball on what it all means. The best comment I have seen on the hacked emails:

The emails help to shed light on some aspects of peer review that skeptics have suspected for years. It is increasingly clear that climate scientists in the monoculture have been using peer review to enforce the orthodoxy. Peer review panels are stacked with members of the club, and authors who challenge the orthodoxy are shut out of publication, while authors within the monoculture use peer review as a shield against future criticism. We see in the emails members of the monoculture actually working to force editors who have the temerity to publish work critical of the orthodoxy out of their jobs. We are now learning that when alarmist scientists claim that there is little peer-reviewed science on the skeptic’s side, this is like the Catholic Church enforcing a banned books list and then claiming that everything in print supports the Church’s position.
History teaches us that whenever we allow a monoculture – whether is be totalitarian one-party rule or enforcing a single state religion, corruption follows. Without scrutiny of their actions, actors in such monocultures have few checks and little accountability. Worse, those at the center of such monocultures can become convinced of their own righteousness, such that any action they take in support of the orthodoxy is by definition ethically justified.
This, I think, is exactly what we see at work in the Hadley emails.

Making the monoculture point rather more emphatically:

All the manipulation, distortion and suppression revealed by these emails took place because it would seem these scientists knew their belief was not only correct but unchallengeable; and so when faced with evidence that showed it was false, they tried every which way to make the data fit the prior agenda. And those who questioned that agenda themselves had to be airbrushed out of the record, because to question it was simply impossible. Only AGW zealots get to decide, apparently, what science is. Truth is what fits their ideological agenda. Anything else is to be expunged.

In other words, dissent is illegitimate in both content and motive. A more moderate version on the social validation of knowledge:

To be completely clear, I don’t think that either ideological motivation or even intimidation tactics prove that these scientists’ views are wrong. Their research should be assessed on its own merits, irrespective of their motivations for conducting it. However, these things should affect the degree to which we defer to their conclusions merely based on their authority as disinterested experts.

The emails as revealing the scientific equivalent of “machine politics”. Post with lots of links.

Sen. Inhofe, who is looking a touch prescient, wants to start an investigation. Including a warning letter to Dr Mike Mann. The CEI has lodged notice to sue for NASA’s refusal to supply documents under FOI requests.

George Monbiot apologises, calls for Jones’ resignation. Responding to Monbiot. Suggesting there is a general antipathy to open debate:

If the argument isn’t going your way, close it down. This was ever the way of liberal-left. Criticize the European Socialist Superstate and you’re a “Little Englander”; object to wind farms spoiling your view and you’re a “NIMBY”; demand curbs on immigration and you’re “a racist”; desire better education for your kids and you’re “elitist”; question the current majority scientific view on AGW and you’re a “Denier” who deserves only to be scorned, vilified and preferably silenced.

The debate is getting even more heated. Retired climate scientist Vincent Gray calls fraud:

Nothing about the revelations surprises me. I have maintained email correspondence with most of these scientists for many years, and I know several personally. I long ago realized that they were faking the whole exercise.
When you enter into a debate with any of them, they always stop cold when you ask an awkward question.

President Eisenhower’s farewell address famously warned of the military-industrial complex getting too much power. But he also warned of:

… Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers. The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present – and is gravely to be regarded.
Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.

Particularly if dissent become illegitimate. If one thinks dissent is illegitimate, it also makes perfect sense to stop “evil” opinions invading “proper” journals, etc. To the extent that moral judgment is going to trump evidence.

On Climategate, the BBC is apparently in “nothing to see here" mode. Tim Flannery discusses the hacked emails on the ABC. Noting a shift in what it is apparently acceptable to say. Climategate gets lots of Google™ hits, rather less media coverage.

The prospects for an Oz ETS:

Economist and Reserve Bank of Australia board member Warwick McKibbin warns the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme is "fundamentally unstable", the price of permits will be "inherently volatile" and the Copenhagen agenda is in "total disarray". "The political fallout from this is going to lead to changes," he says.
For geographical and political reasons, Australia does not have the hydro or nuclear alternatives to replace coal-fired baseload electricity. That makes it more costly for us to cut emissions compared with the US, Europe and Japan. That increases the risk of "leakage" of our carbon-intensive industries offshore to developing economies, such as China, where emissions restrictions are less stringent.

Tony Abbott on the politics of the issue.

Via communicator.

He is a survivor of domestic violence and patron of a British DV charity, Refuge.

On Saturday, was having a lovely dinner with montjoye when she mentioned that a microbiologist friend had reported that research had been done on how long it takes viruses and bacteria to latch onto something dropped on the floor.

About 90 seconds, on average, apparently. (Presumably, that is a mean, not a mode or median.) Viruses and bacteria just do not move very quickly on their own.

So, the "5 second rule" is very low risk. Which makes sense, otherwise people would get sick a lot more often.

There was an altercation last Saturday. Budgie + smoked trout = Fish Bird.

I was stripping the meat from a whole smoked trout, by hand, as in- both hands covered in slimy fish oil. Budge was talking to his friend in the steel bowl I was using to put the clean fish in. No drama so far. Except that budge got a bit excited and started nipping at my arm each time I put a piece of fish in the bowl, nasty competitor was I. I shooed him off quite a few times. Then he bit harder and without thinking, I grabbed for him. Now normally if I do that, he just flies off. It would be that day that I actually caught him eh? in my slimy, fish oil covered hand? He wasn't happy, I wasn't happy. I had to try to give him a bit of wash:



Poor thing, budgies are not ducks. They are not designed to be wet, or to be covered in fish oil! We forgave each other pretty quickly, he refused to leave my shoulder until he was dry, terribly cute. However, the wash wasn't very successful and he spent the week smelling of fish, ick. It has just about faded away now, thankfully.

Alas, I seem to have lost the ability to sleep in.....

Decided as I went to sleep last night after Torchwood and three episodes of season 2 True blood, that this morning I would laze in bed and (gasp) sleep in - so first time I woke up I carefully did not look at clock, just rolled over and went back to sleep (yes it was still dark)

Second time I woke up, sun just coming up, registered this, rolled over, pushed cat out of way, went back to sleep

Woke up a few more times after than, dozed, slept and finally decided on about the sixth waking that I was done with sleeping in - turned over, looked at clock and saw the time.......

7.49am - how pathetic a sleep in is that!

Two hours later I am breakfasted, bed linen changed, first load of washing on, and about to sit down and watch me some Glee. Sigh- it appears sleeping in is reserved for people other than me.........

Here's what I'd like to get done this weekend;

remove furniture and appliances from my home that are not needed - particularly from Rose' s room
freecycle the microwave and 50's kitchen cupboard
tidy the kitchen
go to hardware/nursery and buy; herbicide, compost turner, flower seedlings (and place to put them)
put away my clothes - you know it's been a while when you have winter garb to put away
read my home decorating mag (with a side order of investigating state bank house designs at the State Library, Public Records Office and Powerhouse museum - I love online catalogues)
sort out how much wood (and what size) we need for the kitchen building
go to a party
visit my Oma
participate in house demolition
pay bills
contemplate christmas presents - more likely to make them the earlier I think about it.
Pay back the hour I stole from work to make dinner last night
muck around with the Articles of Association for Urban Coup

there's more, but I'd better stop there.

I forgot my old favourite - afternoon nap

( Read more... )p.s. hermes is moulting, and keeps rubbing himself all over my laptop, and the screen is covered with fur.
p.p.s. Yesterday at work I said "well at least i've still got Hermes" and busybee thought that i said herpes not Hermes.

As readers would know, Freya hadn't been well for about six months. First of all there was the pemphagis- several smaller episodes, then a big flare up, then a smaller flare while we worked out what the maintainance dose of prednisolone had to be. Then the urinary issues started. First a vet said cystitis (not one of our regular vets), antibiotics didn't clear it up. Then a bladder/kidney infection- three weeks of antibiotics didn't clear it up. Then tests revealed that it was antibiotic resistant E. coli, so more antibiotics. Because she'd had such a problem with this infection, the vet (one of the good ones) scheduled an ultrasound to see if there was an underlying problem. Throughout this whole time she continued to lose weight.

Which takes us to two weeks ago. Ultrasound showed three small transitional cell tumours. The treatment for this can't be taken at the same time as corticosteroids, so we had to wean her off the prednisolone (stopping suddenly can cause adrenal shock). In the week and a half it took to get her off prednisolone, the tumours grew until they/it could obviously be felt, filling her bladder. She started on meloxicam last Friday, but we weren't hopeful because the tumour growth had been so fast. Plus she stopped eating solids last Wednesday, and was only taking fluids.

More later... unfortunately, you know this doesn't have a happy ending.

Last night, at about 3AM, I gave myself a needle-stick injury.

I'd given the cat her fluids, I coudn't find the doohicky to cap the needle, so I could not removed it safely.

So I tried to remove it unsafely, as evidenced by the fact that shortly after I started doing so, I had to pull the needle out of my right forefinger.

I must have hit a major vessel. There was very little blood, but within moments my right forefinger was bluish and slightly swollen. Also rather painful. It still is bluish and swollen, and the bruise has now spread into the palm of my hand.

I tried to bleed it a bit, because I once saw someone on telly do that when they got a needle stick injury courtesy of a drug addict, and then I gave it a wash with dettol because that's what my parents would have done. Then, thinking of snakebite treatment and the action of the lymphatic system, I decided to wrap my hand and forearm in the one bandage we own, so that I not move things too much, thus delaying the process of spreading cat venom lymphatic fluid throughout my own system. No reason to hasten my own death.

Then I went to bed, having decided the one really stupid thing to do would be to see what Dr. Google had to say about this sort of thing (and I still haven't looked, and have no intention of doing so for at least a week). Some things should simply not be done at 3AM.

Today I spoke to one of the other GPs at my GPs practice (she's not in today), and I'm already feeling much better thankyou. This is probably a safer injury than a cat bite. The cat mouth is full of bacteria, but the cat itself, not so much. Tetanus is a risk with dirt, there is no dirt inside the cat and the needle was, in that respect, probably quite clean.

But it's not entirely certain.

She did say that if things go red and infected in the next day it might be time for antibiotics. There is a problem here: crap immune system because of the drugs for Crohn's Disease means I'll have more trouble if I do get something, but Crohn's Disease makes taking antibiotics a huge problem because so many of them do so much damage to the Crohn's Disease affected gut.

But it doesn't seem that likely.

I have also rung the vet, they haven't called back yet. That was 10B's idea, he was surprised I didn't ring them first because of course, they'd be the ones to have experience of this sort of thing and the ones that probably know all about it.

So that was my night. Today I'm feeling a little cranky and hard done by. And annoyed at myself for being so monumentally stupid.


Oh, and the needle is still attached to the line, also quite annoying. I did find the doohicky and recapped it, but it's well and truly jammed.

I am quite keen to get into brewing real beer (using malted grain and hops etc) A piece of equipment that would make this easier is a large stainless urn. Preferably of about 20L volume (or bigger is good too). New ones cost a fortune, so I am putting it out there for the universe to provide via an op-shop or similar. It does need to work to suit the purpose, (or be able to be put it on a stove, one needs to boil the contents for some time) it does not need to be shiny, but rust inside is probably bad for the beer. (Correct me if I am wrong here)

I know so many talented op-shoppers/garage sales people 8-> I am happy to pay people back, in money or in product samples as preferred. (or it would make a great birthday gift </shameless>)

A great big pot is the next choice, but the tap on the urn makes the whole process safer as siphoning boiling wort can be tricky. I wonder how hard it would be to put a tap into a stainless pot? Hmmmm......

This is a holding post - I have a meme to answer from pseudicide and the first question is so hard, I'm procrastinating...... I will get to it, I promise.

And certain people who will not be mentioned or acknowledged as existing have continued on their quest to totally screw up Christmas for me - so I'm sulking.......
Timing - not its strong suit, along with any kind of ability to empathise with the feelings of others - maybe it really is a sociopath (everyone keeps telling me it is - maybe I should believe them). Might think about dealing with it tomorrow (oh god now Annie is in my head - reframe, reframe, reframe - OK - doing a Scarlett O'Hara - tomorrow, I'll think about that tomorrow)

On a good note: having coffee tomorrow afternoon with someone to discuss a possible job option for next year, and my resume is circulating at work. Things are looking more positive on the job front.

And Happy Thanksgiving to all my US friends.

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Send some lovin' thanks to your friends with our holiday vgifts!

Photos of the week

We're so delighted with the immense talent of our growing, global lj_photophile community that we've decided to introduce a poll. Each week, we'll choose a half-dozen photos (based on user comments and staff feedback) and ask you to select a photo of the week. The winning photo will be announced in the next newsletter. If possible, please limit photo size to 350x350 to ensure that images display properly on friends pages. We want to thank you again (and again!) for sharing your passion.

Check out this week's photo poll and more fantastic user content after the jump!

( Read more... )

Curtains

Thanks for joining us. To our American friends, have a fantastic Thanksgiving. To all of our international neighbors, we'll eat a little extra for you!

We're ok, I'll talk about it in a few days.

Goodbye little Freya.

Still feeling a bit tired from the big journey north. The ilkla moor event was small but still fun. Probably the only chance I will ever get to take a peacock from feathers to food. He was rather tasty too, if a bit tough. It was interesting to note how much harder it is to gut and clean a peacock than a chicken. (See me, the expert who has now done one of each 8->) I could have done without the blister on the base of my thumb from raking the grass clear of the fire area but you can't have everything. It is extra annoying that the brakes of my bicycle rub in the same spot so I got to the train station this morning with more blood on my hand. It rates bother, but not much more.

Cyberread got back to me about the book. They agree that their website needs a lot of work, which they are working on, and they gave me a voucher for the version of the book I actually wanted for free. So I am now the happy owner of the book I originally chose so it is all good. I think I will wait for the site to be revamped before I go there again, but I will probably be back.

I think I need to find more dinner than the peanut butter sandwich I just had. I am still hungry. Then to decide between reading my new book, or finishing Mum's socks. Hmm, Christmas is a way off yet, I think the book is going to win.

In other news I, among others, am still coughing. At least I can ride my bike without expiring, unlike some people who are still quite ill. Bugger this lurgy! It is far too persistent.

In an update to yesterday's post, there has been a response to Stilgherrian's criticism of Tikatok's copyright policy. Read all about it here.

From the point of view of a sometime activist (or perhaps, more accurately, curmudgeon), it's a useful reminder that it's sometimes worth making a fuss when something isn't as it should be.

The growth of cognitive science has been one of the major intellectual advances of the last few decades. Largely kicked off by Noam Chomsky’s rethinking of the human aptitude for language, and attracting noted popularisers (such as Steven Pinker), it has been spreading across intellectual life. That humans have finally created something that is vaguely analogous to human cognition in its operation (computers)—something, moreover which we can “see” inside of—may have had something to do with this. (Chomsky works at MIT, after all.)

D. Jason Slone’s Theological Incorrectness: Why Religious People Believe What They Shouldn’t presents the application of the findings of cognitive science to the study of religion. One of the strengths of the book is its presentation and synthesis of the work of a wide range of scholars.

Slone starts with two observations which are striking, given that religion is supposed to provide absolute truth: there is more than one religion in the world and religion contains all sorts of things people have to guess at (since most of us do not get to chat with the various superhuman beings religion postulates) (p.vii). But it is the difference between what people say they believe when “formally” asked and what they believe and do when making more rapid or personal decisions—the reality that received ideas from one’s culture (including theological ones) play only a partial role in what people say and do (p.4)—which is the starting place of the book’s analysis.
( religion as is v religion as ought )
The brute fact that Slone bases his analysis on, and explores in Theological Incorrectness is that religious people believe all sorts of things that, in terms of the doctrines of their religion, they should not. That is, religion as a cognitive and cultural experience is not defined by the doctrines of theologians.

But nor is it defined by “culture”. As Slone points out in his conclusion:

… cultural theories of religion are impoverished by lack of understanding of how the mind works and thus of why humans think what they and do what they do. Sociocultural theories of religion assume that the mind is a blank slate that learns what to think from culture. Not only is this mind-blind assumption inaccurate but it is illogical … Were humans merely cultural sponges we would find that each culture would be autonomous, confined and homogeneous … This paradigmatic assumption does not fit the facts.
A better explanation for why people believe what they “shouldn’t” is that people have active minds that are continuously engaged in the construction of novel thoughts and the transformation of culturally transmitted ideas (p.121).

If we look to the human mind we find that:

Three very important aspects of cognition that constrain religion are intuitive ontology (what kinds of things are in the world), intuitive causality (how do these things work), and intuitive probability (how things are likely to work). These basic cognitive capacities not only allow us to perform important functions required for survival, like analysis and prediction of environmental activity, but also produce postulations and presumptions that might be, on reflection, systematically incoherent. In this sense, theological incorrectness is a natural by-product of the cognitive tools in our mind-brains. (p.122)

And it is to evolution that we need to look to understand where those cognitive capacities come from, and why they are like they are. Not that that is a counsel of despair, moral or otherwise:

Religions preach ethics because people are prone to “ethical” behaviour, not the other way around (p.123).

Slone then makes a claim that strikes me as being too strong:

One can say, therefore, that religion is not a cause of behaviour per se. It does not determine how we think or act.

It is not the only determinant, but to suggest that belief does not have logics, and that people do not act on those logics, is just silly. Leninism, Nazism, liberalism: the doctrinal differences between these political ideologies really do matter. I take his point that cognitive habits act upon doctrines, but it is also true that people can (and do) adopt particular doctrines and act upon them. Consider this rather nice TED talk on how basic religious beliefs affect business (and other) practices.

A point Slone then immediately appeals to himself, as he concludes his book arguing strongly that religion can only be studied properly in the light of our understanding of how human cognition works: it must be scientifically grounded. Slone notes that such scientific “reductionism” no more abolishes other ways of comprehending things than knowledge of how light and sight works abolishes appreciation of the beauty of a Monet painting (p.124).

Theological Incorrectness is a fascinating excursion through religion as it ‘is’, its distance from religion as it ‘ought’ and the use of cognitive science to explicate that distance.

From Stilgherrian, notice about the truly dreadful copyright situation on the kids' creative website Tikatok here. Copyright is one of the things I feel very strongly about (it's one of the reasons I don't use Facebook), and I think that taking children's copyright for their creative work sucks pus.