Crimeyness
According to the latest information from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics, I’m living in one of the most across-the-board safe neighborhoods in the city. It’s a little peculiar, however, that the local government area in the study ends at the western border of my suburb, when Camperdown is not part of the same council district as most of the rest of those in the study, but instead in Marrickville Council. So I’m left to wonder what the rest of my true LGA would look like, and therefore what suburbs are worth considering for a home purchase (not that that’s the only consideration, or even the primary, given the recent spate of interest rate rises and those likely to come over the next few months, particularly once – if – Labor takes the federal election). It should be noted that many of the southern suburbs are less than felicitous, because that’s where the airport is. I already feel like I’m back in Queens, living in the LaGuardia flight path.

Advances in Science
Via Arts & Letters Daily, an analysis of paranormal phenomena that disproves the existence of ghosts, vampires, and zombies. Except that the two physicists have failed to do so, due to having incompletely understood the governing “rules.” Ghosts, for example, can walk up stairs because they’re not walking. They’re floating. They appear to walk because the ghost, as a being trapped in the physical plane by their inability to accept their transition to the spiritual realm, emulate their own past behaviors. Vampires would not overrun the earth, or haven’t already, because the assumption here, that being bitten by a vampire creates a vampire, subtracting a human, is incorrect. Vampires are created when humans consume the blood of a vampire and then die, whether from being “drained” by the vampire or otherwise. Not all victims so partake, so the vampire population is not exponentially increased, neither is the human population exponentially decreased. Zombies of the “28 Days Later” or “Night/Dawn/Day of the [Living] Dead” variety are not the same as traditional zombies, per the discussion of the case in Haiti. Modern movie zombies are more akin to vampires, and, as per that discussion, don’t exist, because their bite, or body fluid transmission, invariably infects the victim, and would therefore cause an exponential population dominance transfer, as depicted in the example movies. However, traditional zombies may yet be considered as possible, since these are brain-damaged persons, whether by the malicious infliction of drugs or by disease, who fall into the control of unscrupulous persons, who treat them as slaves or as agents of terror.

I mean, really, if you watch the movies, the rules aren’t that hard to figure out, and the traditional explanations are pretty clear after all this time. Scientists, go figure.

Viral
Yeah, I set up a Facebook page, and had a bit of fun with it, but it’s pretty boring, now, so I don’t spend an inordinate amount of time on it, building “networks” – i.e., joining groups – or adding applications – i.e., on-line toys and games.

It was probably in the cards before Microsoft’s buy-in, but Facebook is expanding its advertising capabilities. You’ve heard of “viral” marketing, the kind of advertising that spreads by word of mouth without necessarily acknowledging that an ad. The Carlton beer “big” ad was one, and even that Rube Goldberg car ad, which I think was Honda’s. More applicable to Facebook’s move, however, is the still largely underground practice of having people attend trendy nightspots and events who then take every opportunity to chat up strangers with how much they like product x. Facebook, similarly, will “allow” users to identify as fans of a product. Advertisers will pay to create groups, and users will join them. Advertisers can pay more and have actual advertising content appear on users’ pages.

This is all very good for Facebook, whose revenues – and profits – are sure to increase, perhaps even dramatically. There are plenty of people out there who really are fans of particular products, and they’re pretty certain to sign on to display their preferences on Facebook. It increases their own profile, after all, and these social networking sites are all about the friends list. But users won’t benefit, as the program’s structured presently, in any monetary sense, that is, they won’t get paid for advertising products on “their” pages. Fair enough, I suppose. The pages really belong to Facebook, not the users. But Google’s Adsense program, where Google puts ads on your blog or website, regardless of whether you’re paying for the site or not, pays for “hits” and pays more if those hits translate into sales. This seems a bit more fair to me, but then I’m not likely to sign up as a fan (or tool) or anyone’s anytime soon.

Are the Favorites Sneezy & Wheezy?
Poor critters, hardly time enough to recover from the flu, and it's The Race that Stops a Nation, this year "marred" by scratches among the top contenders.

Cinema
Well, movies, anyway. . . . M. and I went to Death at a Funeral on Saturday. It’s a pretty typical British farce, with a simple, limited set of jokes stretched nearly to their limit, a few big but obvious gags, all performed by a serviceable cast, some of whom are vaguely familiar, but probably only better known to a U.K. audience (which is not a criticism, since it helps, as far as I’m concerned, when movies are not overly beset by Stars). Fun, but, really, we should have gone to see Ratatouille. (Or Day Watch, but I haven’t seen Night Watch yet.)

Changes
The election campaign is going strong, with announcements seemingly every day from every side. The Liberals promise one thing, Labor promises the same thing, the Democrats or Greens promise something else. Labor promises something, the Liberals promise the same thing, and the Democrats or Greens promise something entirely different. Mostly what it amounts to is promises of billions and billions of dollars spent on things that the present government, over the last 11 years, hadn’t been spending on, but with the Reserve Bank tipped to raise interest rates yet again tomorrow, you’ve got to wonder about the economic credentials of any of these people. The Liberals have managed the government mainly by not spending up big, except at elections or on advertising for policies the public generally despise, so hearing that Labor is going to spend similarly would seem to be one of the big influencers in the Reserve Bank’s decision-making process.

Meanwhile, at least there’s some entertainment to be had. Over the weekend, we had Peter Garrett making an ill-advised joke to one reporter in front of another, the latter of whom, a notorious shock-jock (whose wife is a Liberal Party staffer), duly reported the remark as a serious statement regarding all Labor’s policy announcements. Way to shoot your boss in the foot, Pete.

Previously, however, we had the always entertaining Tony Abbott turning up late for his own debate, by half an hour, without so much as a phone call to warn the National Press Club, let alone his Labor opponent. When called on his bad behavior, Tone had the class to swear at his interlocutor. Lovely guy. And all this on the heals of questioning the motivations of an asbestiosis sufferer regarding his campaign to get necessary drugs on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Classy.

Three weeks to go.

Weather Wars
John Howard is a known climate change sceptic, but is promising AU$75 million for the development of renewable energy technology. Meanwhile, Kevin Rudd, who says he’ll sign on to Kyoto if Labor takes government in November, is promising AU$489 million for solar panels in schools, at AU$20,000 per school. I’d kind of like to see the numbers switched. Even if we take the number of schools as 24,450 (489 million divided by 20,000), AU$75 million would provide just over AU$3,000 per school. If this was added to the existing rebate scheme, it would make up about half the cost of a fairly large installation. O.k., not really enough, but I’ll bet selling a few candy bars would make up the rest. Around where I work, it seems like they’re always on sale.

How’d I Miss This?
Wait, she’s Judy Giuliani? It’s Rudy-and-Judy? And he’s still the GOP front-runner? That won’t last.

You Throw Like a Girl
And now, for just $25, you can prove it. (Via Josh Rubin’s Cool Hunting.) But do not whack it with your personalized Louisville Slugger.

Spending Money
Child care is a contentious issue here. It’s expensive and there aren’t many providers or places. Labor is offering to increase the child care tax rebate from 30% to 50% and to pay it quarterly instead of annually. The fear, naturally enough, is that this will only increase the cost. It might, too. But it might also mean that there’s more money to be made by opening more child care centers, increasing staff. Most businesses will expand to meet demand, so long as it’s reasonable to expect the increased revenue to also increase profit. If Labor gets in and enacts this change, and I was running a chain of child care centers, I’d already be looking at where else I could open. In fact, if I was a private education provider, I'd think about expanding my client base.

From the Homeland
The Opera House was full up for Laurie Anderson last night, and she put on a good show. The material was often political, but with her characteristic wry humor. The verse about Al Gore, pretty clearly expanded to take recent events into consideration, got a good laugh, but I got the distinct impression that the song about snow wasn’t a grabber for most of the audience (perhaps because it’s already so hot here). Anyway, unlike the last few of her performances I’ve seen, she had additional musicians on stage – keyboards, viola, bass guitar – and focussed more on songs than stories, and only using “the voice” once. Definitely a lot of fun, but all the better because, for an encore, and in honor of the twenty-fifth anniversary of her debut album, Big Science, she did “Let x = x” (which happens to be my favorite from the record).

Tax Reform
On the face of it, with just an outline in the news, Labor’s tax plan doesn’t sound bad at all. One particular element of the announcement stood out to me, the idea that we need to build national prosperity beyond the resources boom presently carrying the economy. This is something I haven’t heard from John Howard, although I’ve been able to glibly argue it as his intention in the WorkChoices legislation. I’d like to know what the thresholds are for the three rates proposed, and I’d also like to know what Mr. Rudd’s got planned if “national and international economic circumstances” change. It has to go through the PM to the treasury for costing – although I’d expect Labor to have done that themselves already – but it’s a start, and might allow Labor to regain some of the momentum they appear to have lost (in just the first 5 days of the campaign).

No Room at the Inn
World Youth Day, the Roman Catholic jamboree, is in danger of not finding a home in Sydney. I can’t for the life of me figure out why Randwick Racecourse was deemed the appropriate venue for the event. They’re expecting hundreds of thousands of teenagers from around the world, which would exceed even the capacity of Telstra Stadium, out at the Olympic Park. I’ve seen the racecourse, and no way is it going to outdo the stadium. (Of course, with the Rugby and AFL matches there, it might just be a matter of conflicting dates, but maybe the Pope’s a fan?) Is the Darling Harbour Convention Centre booked out? It would be just as convenient as Randwick, and there are plenty of backpacker dorms in the area. “Don’t scare the horses” seems a pretty lame excuse, and so’s the problem with the trainers. What, they sleep in the stable, too? It’s about money, who wants it, who’s going to spend it. The NSW government wants all those RC tourists spending it, to offset it’s own AU$20 million outlay, but no way can Randwick charge admission, and I guess the Cardinal figures he’s laying out enough already.

(Meanwhile, fun reading out of Hansard, especially toward the end, from about when the WYD logo is discussed.)

Cane Toad Redux
Imported species of plants and animals have a habit of getting out of control. So when you’ve got lantana spreading like kudzu, what do you do? Issue a 457 visa for a South American fly? (As if there weren’t enough flies in Australia.) How does that song go?

More with Less
Mario Batali says more pasta, less sauce; and Mark Bittman, of the NY Times, says more sauce, less pasta. I says it’s really only going to work Batali’s way if you’re using fresh pasta. The dry stuff’s never going to hold up without plenty of sauce, so most of us should follow Bittman’s advice.

November 24
It’s on, and if you’re not enrolled yet, you’ve only got until Wednesday, due to the rules changes recently passed.

I kind of thought Howard might have pushed for a later date, but 24/11 has been tipped for a while now, and it was only the Man of Steal (oops, “Steel”) playing games that left it so uncertain so long. Picking up the Sunday paper to see he’d flown down to Canberra might only have meant he was going early for the recall of Parliament, instead of meeting with the Governor General for its dissolution, although the headlines made it quite clear what to expect by lunchtime.

Since the campaign’s been underway for some weeks already, it’s going to be interesting to see what happens next. How negative will it be? The Liberal party brochure is surprisingly full of stabs at Labor, rather than focussing on the accomplishments of the Coalition and outlining policy for a return to government. But the technical issues are just as interesting to me, as a new(ish) voter. After all, despite the polling on “preferred Prime Minister,” when we vote, we mark the ballot for the preferred party.

I reckon Howard’s in real trouble. The Coalition may retain government, but Howard’s own seat is imperilled. And the polling is substantially in favor of Labor overall.

Making Nice
But still not saying “sorry.” That’s our PM. On the plus side, a referendum on reconciliation is a good thing, although long past due, but why now? Of course it’s the election. Howard’s been in power 11 years, and could have done this at any time. Although he’s continuing to stonewall on calling the election, claiming that the Liberals are busy governing, this is only something he’ll do if he’s re-elected. He could put it to a vote next week, when (if) Parliament is recalled. There’s plenty of time before he has to name a date for the referendum to be drafted and voted on, so this is a stunt, meant to deflect attention from the failures of the Northern Territory intervention and the fact that the government really doesn’t have anything to run on worth voting them back in.

Mind Games
Weird. Initially, the dancer spun counter-clockwise, but, as the article points out, you can switch it with a little concentration, so I got my right hemisphere engaged - somehow. Oddly, when I began the keystrokes to copy the URL for this post, the spin reversed, presumably because my right-brain kicked back in to accomplish this task. Don't you love science?

Caught on Camera
There’s a fair bit of whinging in the popular (read: Murdoch) press about speed cameras in NSW, the latest of which is about how the government’s “robbing” tollway motorists to the tune of $10 million, over and above the $41 million for other speed traps and $200 million in tolls. It’s fairly hilarious to hear the complaining, regardless of whether the money is earmarked for road safety programs or just going into the general budget. “Blatant revenue-raising” is the charge made by the Opposition leader. The focus of this particular article on the revenue from toll roads implies that paying a toll entitles drivers to violate speed limits, but when 15,000 fines are issued in a six-month period for a single stretch of tunnel, you can see there’s a problem. Sydney drivers are very aggressive, but beyond what’s already being done, there’s little the government can do to alleviate the problem. Drivers garner demerits and have their licenses suspended eventually, even revoked, and still they speed, run lights, tear through pedestrian crossings. I’m very happy with the cameras. I’d like more. If you don’t, well, don’t speed.

Structural Investigations
What fun pets are. Over the weekend I ended up with Police Rescue attending my home, extracting Felix from the crawlspace under the house. In the end, I suppose I could have managed it myself, but it would have had to wait for me to buy a couple of new tools at the hardware store, leaving poor pussy down the well overnight. As it was, his plaintive, but-I'm-hungry meowing was more than I could stand. I'll get the tools anyway, because I have no idea where he gained access, so he's pretty sure to get stuck down there again.

I did get a fairly good look at the underlying structure of the row of terrace houses; there's a lot more room under there than I would have thought. Basically, it seems that if you can get in under one, you can get in under the whole row. Nice, if you want to attempt underground burglery, although ultimately access would depend on the renovations to the interior that may have been conducted and whether there's any furniture in the way. I've got a thousand-pound t.v. in front of the access panel under the stairs (or that's what it felt like moving it around), so I feel pretty safe.

The cops were very nice about it, probably because it was an operation that didn't involve blood or trauma, and, after all, he's a very handsome cat.