Rape is rape—explained so clearly even a drunk could understand it

It's pathetic that in 2017, we still have to explain to men what rape is.

But apparently, we still do.

So here's what rape is, in a handful of tweets so simple even a totally wasted drunk should be able to comprehend.

Stop blaming the victim!

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.

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.

Dear America, your adherence to Imperial measures is "illogical"

George Takei—of Star Trek fame—posted this gem today, saying 'As Spock would say, "Highly illogical." '

I concur. For a nation that fought a war against British Imperialism, I've never understood why they cling so tenaciously to an illogical Imperial measurement system that most of the rest of the world has abandoned.

Two of the most powerful, uplifting, upsetting TED talks I've watched.

"I had extensive and life-threatening injuries. I'd broken my neck and my back in six places. I broke five ribs on my left side. I broke my right arm. I broke my collarbone. I broke some bones in my feet. My whole right side was ripped open, filled with gravel. My head was cut open across the front, lifted back, exposing the skull underneath. I had head injures. I had internal injuries. I had massive blood loss. In fact, I lost about five litres of blood, which is all someone my size would actually hold. By the time the helicopter arrived at Prince Henry Hospital in Sydney, my blood pressure was 40 over nothing. I was having a really bad day."

Janine Shepherd was training for the Australian Olympic team when she was run down by a truck. Her story of her road to recovery will amaze and move you.



And while thinking of TED talks that stay with you, another I've been meaning to share for a long time is this one by Jill Bolte Taylor. She was a brain researcher who suffered a stroke of her own. In this extraordinary talk, she explains how she saw this happening from the inside, realising the headache was something more.

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.

Enjoy: "Audacity to Dream" - an inspirational video presentation

Astronaut Ron Garan debuted this beautiful and inspirational video at the TEDxISU conference, hosted by the 25th International Space University Space Studies Program last week.

Enjoy.

But Garran's efforts don't start and end with a video clip, as some notes about his accompanying speech reveal:

Opposition to the Muslim church in Gungahlin is being led by Christian evangelists with links to the US.

The letter circulated in Gungahlin, via www.the-riotact.com 

I can’t believe we are here again, with yet another protest action against the proposal by the Canberra Muslim Community to build a church in the Gungahlin district.

Except of course I can believe it. Nay - I fully expected it once the development application went in. But that doesn’t make it any less disappointing.

What is even more disappointing though is to find that it seems to be led by a so-called "Christian" pastor who is practising here in Canberra.


Canberra Times journalist Lisa Cox (to her great credit) has been working all week to try to get to the bottom of who the organisers are. She has identified this pastor as Irwin Ross - who doesn't even live in Gungahlin. He's from the Belconnen area. And he identifies himself as belonging to Olive Tree Ministries - a Jewish-Christian evangelist group based in the USA.


Cox has also reported that in the same week these objections were circulated in Gungahlin, other anti-Islamic leaflets were also circulated in Canberra. These ones were produced by "Chick Publications" - another USA evangelist organisation that is blatantly pushing anti-Islamic propaganda.


Despite these extremely concerning revelations, let's consider whether the opponents have any valid points in their claims against the Gungahlin mosque - a church by another name, and in a street where two other churches have already even approved (one built so far):

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:

Models without the Photoshop treatment (and makeup and photography)

We hear a lot of commentary about how unrealistic it is to think that ordinary people can look like the magazine models do, and that they have all been 'shopped.

These pictures from Mamamia put a pretty bold underline under that though. You may be shocked at just how different the women look unadorned versus magazine-ready.

Girls can be scientists too - Einstein's advice to a young girl

From Brain Pickings comes this delightful snippet from Albert Einstein.

Apparently before we could communicate with famous scientists and other people using Twitter, there used to be some communications media called "letters". Interesting concept...

Anyhoo, Einstein used to get letters from children around the world - and reply to them. There's even a whole book about them called Dear Professor Einstein.


He had several exchanged letter with a South African girl named Tyfanny in 1946. In one letter she writes:

I forgot to tell you, in my last letter, that I was a girl. I mean I am a girl. I have always regretted this a great deal, but by now I have become more or less resigned to the fact. Anyway, I hate dresses and dances and all the kind of rot girls usually like. I much prefer horses and riding. Long ago, before I wanted to become a scientist, I wanted to be a jockey and ride horses in races. But that was ages ago, now. I hope you will not think any the less of me for being a girl!

Einstein's reply:

I do not mind that you are a girl, but the main thing is that you yourself do not mind. There is no reason for it.

Sage - and timeless - advice for girls everywhere.

"Co-opertition." Think about it. An interesting concept.

We are so used to competitions and competing.

But what if instead we found ways to shape events and activities around working together? What if we turned our usual adversarial mindset on its head?

A tweet came across my feed where that one word that looked like a typo jumped out at me. I didn't even need to go to the link before I was thinking through a whole bunch of scenarios where this could work.

http://barcampcanberra.org/

Then I realised I had done something just like this at the recent BarCampCanberra. I saw a slot in the agenda of this "unconference" and opened up a discussion about an idea I've been tossing around for a while about a website - CoursesThatDontSuck.com.

My predisposition with this has been to be guarded about the core idea. It could be a hit and make me a motza - set me up in a lifestyle to which I am yet to become accustomed. Or even a little.

But even if it didn't, it could do something to reduce waste going into crap training providers. A big thing in Canberra where course providers are on the $650+ a day gravy train. Even the government itself is in on it, with the APSC raking it in for courses of often questionable value and wasted time and "capital" with your boss.

"I made this cake all by myself. Just look at my cake!" Life without Facebook...you will laugh

Some things change life altogether. Social media is like that.

But what would our lives be like now if Facebook was just shut down?

Enjoy...

Disturbing homophobia in Queensland and Iraq...

In one of those curious coincidences, social media today has delivered a gross and disappointing example of homophobia in the name of cheap politicking from Bob Katter in his Queensland election campaign, followed by even more disturbing news from the other side of the world.

First the man in the stupid hat. We put up with a lot of shenanigans from Bob Katter, and we are sure glad he isn't the only person in the current Federal Government balance of power situation, and that the other independents have far more rational heads. If there was any doubt, this campaign ad comprehensively removes it. (Just linking - not embedding that trash on my site.)

Anika in Africa - a troubling expose of the health system in Tanzania

Anika Jeppersen is the daughter of an old friend from high school and she's been training in maternity. Recently she left Australia for several weeks working as a volunteer in maternity hospitals in Tanzania, Africa.

Anika has been keeping a blog of her experiences, and it seems that the term "hospital" is one taken under advisement.

I recommend reading Anika in Africa. It is troubling, upsetting and uplifting all at once. Make sure you start at the beginning.

From cherry-picking denialists to space games and squealing sheilas: weekly wrap of The Beach House

What I've been reading and writing about for the week to 5th of February, all in a neat little magazine for you.

Perspectives on the Tent Embassy Anniversary fracas

A lot has been written about the events of Australia Day 2012 in Canberra. A lot of it misinformed, a lot blown out of any semblance of proportion. But very little written with any regard for the unnecessary and completely avoidable damage done to the cause for reconciliation.

Apart from Laurie Oakes' piece questioning the role both before and during of the Australian Federal Police, and this piece by Sunshine Coast Daily oped writer Bill Hoffman:

The tent embassy on the lawns of old parliament house is 40 years old.

It has sat there as an ugly reminder of the ugly reality of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' disadvantage for all that time.