Must read: the truth on Zaky Mallah

Even if you wouldn't dare send one cent in Rupert Murdoch's direction for the tripe that his company calls news, you'd be hard pressed to have missed these obscene covers from his stable of tabloid second-hand toilet papers.

And the behaviour of numerous Australian Government Members and Ministers, led by Tony Abbott himself, has been nothing short of the old Aussie schoolboy tradition of 'stacks on'.

You could be excusing for thinking perhaps there is something to their concerns, and that the speed with which ABC's Managing Director Mark Scott went into damage control was warranted.

If so, then you need to read this analysis by Jonathan Holmes, in the Fairfax press.

The genesis of a new science-based political party?

An idea that has been tossing around for some time with a friend on Twitter Paul Salanitri was resurrected amid the spectre of Sophie Mirabella as Australia's Minister for Innovation, Industry and Science.

The idea is to form a political party based on building support for Education and STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. Not a single-issue party, but a party that is unashamedly and solidly grounded on improving education, and on educating our elected representatives as to the importance and benefits that flow from an educated population.

For far too long, the major political parties in this country have targeted everything they do towards society's "lowest common denominator".

Meanwhile, so many of our nation's scientists, educators and health experts are left seething as their funding is raided yet again to pay for nonsense like marriage bonuses, and their reputations as objective researchers is disparaged in the pursuit of cheap political points.

And along the way, we've managed to make senators of a gun nut because 318,000 people didn't know the difference between Liberal Democrats and Liberal Party, an unheard-of motoring enthusiast on the back of just 3% of a quota or less than 13,000 votes, and a sports party person who got just 2070 votes! These people will hold the balance of power in the Senate from July 2014, and determine what Abbott promises make it into law...

Some people think we should just throw our support behind the Greens. But the stark reality is that many voters will not vote for the Greens no matter how much they try to portray themselves as mainstream. The recent election has clearly demonstrated that an unprecedented proportion of the voting population were casting about desperately looking for an alternative they could vote for. A full 32% of first preference votes went to parties other than the ALP, Liberals and Nationals. That's almost 3.4 million people. For Pete's sake, more than half a million people voted first for Clive Palmer's party!

What I've been reading lately

Just an archival catch-up of recent The Beach House Weekly—my Paper.li auto summaries—of an interesting few weeks in science, space and Australian politics.

From rockets to meteorites, Roxon to Rudd, novas to Nobels, planet hunters to metric hunters.

25 March 2013
18 March 2013
11 March 2013
4 March 2013
25 February 2013
18 February 2013
11 February 2013
4 February 2013
28 January 2013
21 January 2013
14 January 2013
7 January 2013
31 December 2012
24 December 2012
17 December 2012
10 December 2012

Intriguing to look back through actually. Something in there for everyone.

US Gun lobby inciting violence against journalists

Journalist details published by US gun lobbyists

This is an ugly turn in the rising tide of support for new gun laws in the US, following the recent horrific slaughter of 20 children and six adults. A New York publication The Journal News took the bold move of mapping local gun ownership locations to a Google Map. The gun lobby retaliated by publishing the home addresses and phone numbers of the publication's journalists (which I will not link to)!

Gun ownership map published by The Journal News, New York

It's debatable whether the publication's tactic was wise, and perhaps forcing a mobilisation and fightback by the gun lobby was a retrograde step.

But this is not new from the gun lobby. In fact, I was on the receiving end of similar tactics when I was one of the organisers of a rally on Queensland's Sunshine Coast to support strict new gun laws from John Howard's Australian Government.

My blog has been archived by the National Library, plus the week's readings.

The National Library of Australia run an amazing resource called Pandora that saved entire copies of important websites in Australia, creating a historical record of this new societal resource. And recently they contacted me for authorisation to duplicate my blog!

To be fair, I think it had a lot more to do with my being an election candidate that the intriguing mix of science and society news—in fact I think that was really the only reason... But hey—it means they 'accidentally' preserved a whole bunch of neat science stuff too!

So, saved for posterity, is my blog in Pandora: http://nla.gov.au/nla.arc-136401.

And wrapping up some other 'saved for my own reference' info, here's the last week's readings, via paper.li, replete with slushie Tony Abbott, bouncing tiger cub, homeopathy comeuppancy, climate crisis, and lots of rocket science:
Week ending 3 December 2012

And lastly, 60,000 views! Crikey...

My readings over the last month or so...

Another catch-up of my readings via various sites and social media forums, for anyone interested (but mainly just for my own record), through the Paper.li automatic magazine tool.

There's something in here for everyone...

Week to 26 November
Week to 19 November
Week to 12 November
Week to 5 November
Week to 29 October
Week to 22 October
Week to 15 October

Cyberbully pot-kettle, Greens launches, telescopes, more. The week that was.

Alan Jones learns what it's like on the receiving end; the ACT Greens campaign powers towards 20 October; the first stage of the Square Kilometre Array is turned on; a Nobel laureate yanks the rug out from under Newspoll; iPad Mini confirmed; and much more.

The week that was - my readings and posts.

What do political polling and climate change have in common? Not what you think! Brian Schmidt talks about uncertainty.

Here's the talk by our own Nobel Prize winner Brian Schmidt from the recent TEDx Canberra.

He talks about the certainty in uncertainty, showing how credible statistical analysis can reveal unexpected results.

You may be surprised...

Greens leader Christine Milne's address to the National Press Club last week

Christine Milne gave her first address to the National Press Club as Greens Federal Parliamentary Leader last week, with her theme being "An economy that serves people and nature, not the other way around."

Watch here, or if you prefer, the transcript is here.


A few quick extracts:

Didn't take long for Alan Jones to start blaming everyone else - including the journalist

Reluctant as I am to have his visage on my blog, this shot fits perfectly...

The almost unanimous condemnation of the atrocious comments by talk radio 'shock jock' Alan Jones appear to have achieved precisely what a number of commentators predicted: a faux apology, followed shortly thereafter by blame-shifting to everyone else, in this pathetic attempt at defence in News Corp media.

And foremost of course on the blame list is the journalist who had the temerity to pay for a ticket to an open-invitation Liberal Party fundraising event, to use a private email address, attend that event, and - oh my gosh - record the speech being given at that public event. Even the Listening Devices Act (NSW) gets a look-in. Sorry Jones - a public address is not a "private discussion". (I've had cause to study that piece of deliberately vague law-making myself...)

Along the way, the blame shifting gets spread or implied on:

Catch-up on The Beach House Weekly reading summaries

The weekly Paper.li digital magazine tool dropped off for a while and they lost the ability to call up archive copies by week.

It's sorted now, so here's a catch-up . Likely this isn't of much interest to anyone else - more for my own record. But feel free to check them out if you like!


What I've been reading and/or writing about:
July 2
June 25
June 18
June 11
June 3

Does it feel like Tony Abbott and Co are just talking from a script? Maybe this is why.

Listening in on political interviews can be a frustrating past-time. With Tony Abbott's Liberals in particular it's like they are just parroting speaking notes from a script.

And Tony Abbott himself is getting  growing reputation for turning and walking away whenever he questioning wanders away from the "standard fare".

This week, someone turned up a copy of that very script - the Federal Coalition Speakers Notes. And there you have it - every unsubstantiated or just plain false claim accusation and assertion that we've heard over and over ad nauseum for months.

Coalition Speakers Notes 1 July 2012

Look out - Greg Jericho has written a book about social media and politics. Can't wait!

As the old media of Fairfax and New Corp struggle vainly to resist the changes being wrought by the internet and social media, some people "get it".

One of those people is Greg Jericho - formerly anonymous author of the hugely popular blog Grog's Gamut.

Greg was unnecessarily and shamelessly outed a while back by former Canberra Times (old media) journalist James Massola, who is now with the Fin Review.

Although he ended up leaving his public service job, Jericho has gone on to a fairly successful role as an alternative voice on Australian federal politics - primarily via the ABC's cutting edge commentary platform The Drum.

Asylum seekers - there is a better way to "stop the boats"

Most Australians have been disgusted by what they saw in Parliament House last week during the rushed asylum seeker debate. They've seen the Labor and Liberal Parties bickering over which off-shore processing solution is the best, tears shed, and Tony Abbott proclaiming "I just don't like it." Oh OK then...

This is a lengthy post sorry. But it is a complex issue and eight-second sound bites cannot do it justice.

The reality is that both ALP and Liberals have painted themselves into corners. John Howard served his political purposes of the day to sow fear and uncertainty around the whole issue of border protection. Then to get elected, Kevin Rudd painted himself the same as Howard in order to remove that point of difference (and several others). Many ALP and Rudd supporters went along with it, believing that once elected, Rudd's ethics would win through and he'd take a more humane approach. But Rudd locked himself into his own rhetoric - instead of being a leader and bringing a more educated community along with the need to change, he locked the off-shore solution in even firmer.

Julia Gillard had a chance to leverage her "good party that had lost its way" speech and make changes for the better. But she also adopted a "don't scare the horses" path to asylum seekers and other contentious issues - and she's being paying the price for her lack of leadership on these issues ever since.

Gloria Jeans financially backs homophobia - join the boycott

How is it that one can not have previously known that the owners of Gloria Jeans have been supporting the so-called Australian Christian Lobby - a lobbying front with an almost exclusively anti-gay campaign platform?

Well I didn't, but this blog expose has righted that.

Until now, Gloria Jeans has been a last port of call due to their bland washed-out coffee. But this seals it for me.

I encourage people of similar thoughts to also put their online support behind the Facebook group Boycott Gloria Jeans and to let others know. They may be as oblivious as I was.

Also this podcast may be of interest - puts the franchisees' perspective.

Gail Mabo discusses her art - and the meaning of reconciliation

Gail Mabo - the photo does not do justice
to the beautiful vibrant colours in the artwork

This National Reconciliation Week, my dayjob workplace (the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations) held a panel discussion featuring people from the department's executive, Reconciliation Australia and Gail Mabo.

Gail is the daughter of Eddie Koiki Mabo and Boneta Mabo - her father being the person with his name forever bound to Native Title rights thanks to his tenacious activism and Australia's High Court.

Gail is an accomplished painter, and three of her pieces were on display at the event. She talked with me afterwards about the stories behind them. And I learnt a few things along the way:

Interview with Dr Brian Boyle on the Square Kilometre Array project

In a first for this blog, an exclusive face-to-face audio interview with Doctor Brian Boyle - Project Director of the Australia and New Zealand bid for the Square Kilometre Array.

I met Brian when he gave a presentation on the SKA bid to those of us fortunate enough to be at the Mars Curiosity Rover Launch Tweetup at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Centre. So it's something I've followed very closely since, including following Brian via Twitter (@BrianBoyleSKA).

In the interview, we cover the bid and outcome, what it means for Australia and indeed world science, the technology and supporting infrastructure, science in the media, inspiring new students into astronomy, and even some joking around maybe a sequel to The Dish - Dishes...

The interview was conducted in a (kind of noisy sorry) cafe in Canberra on 29 May 2012. Apologies for a couple of bits that could stand being cropped out due to lack of editing software. The interview is in two parts over 35 minutes:

Dental care breakthrough negotiated by the Greens

There's been a great breakthrough today in the Greens' campaign to get dental care properly funded and included in Medicare. Greens Senator Dr Richard di Natale announced successful negotiations with the Government to get half a billion dollars worth of dental care improvements included in Tuesday's Budget:

• $345.9 million for a public dental waiting list blitz, to help the 400,000 Australians on public waiting lists get treatment faster
• the Chronic Dental Disease Scheme will be saved from Budget cuts, until we can develop a comprehensive national scheme with the Government to replace it
• $158.6 million to train more dentists and oral health therapists, and help dental professionals set up practices in rural areas
• $10.5 million to promote good oral health.

But di Natale has said this is just the start:

A pox on both your houses - Bernie Fraser lets fly at both ALP and Liberal Parties

Former Reserve Bank Governor Bernie Fraser isn't the most dynamic of speakers...which probably is partly why this knockout interview with him didn't get wider coverage and commentary.

But it should have.

In this ABC 7:30 Report interview he lets fly at the Labor Party and the Liberal Party:

In terms of my benchmark of competence, fairness and compassion, they've both failed, and they're both failing still, and the more distressing thing is I don't see a way out from either side.

Like most (all?) economists, he's scathing of the haste with which the ALP is pursuing a budget surplus this year:

Canberra Airport's second Sydney airport snow job continues...

(See what I did there?)

The latest glossy piece of heavy-weight paper to come out of the Canberra Airport contains yet another spin piece about how critical it is for the operation of the Sydney Airport that the Canberra Airport remains curfew-free.

"Canberra Airport is the only curfew-free airport within reach of Sydney..."

They go on to claim a recent example of nine flights being diverted from Sydney to Canberra due to bad weather, so they could wait out the weather, refuel and return as supposed evidence to back up their argument:

"This event was a clear demonstration of Canberra Airport's important role as a backstop for Kingsford Smith Airport. Canberra's curfew-free status is critical to that role." - Managing Director Stephen Byron.

Wrong...