blamebrampton (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
blamebrampton) wrote2009-09-08 07:04 pm
blamebrampton) wrote2009-09-08 07:04 pm
Oh Senator Fielding ...
Senator Stephen Fielding, the Family First Senator in the Australian Federal Senate (Upper House) (and, you'll note, not my family, and not many other people's, either), is a man who -- due to an insanity of Australian voting politics that should be understandable to those familiar with the terms gerrymander and Electoral College -- is sometimes left holding the balance of power in the Senate, despite having been voted for by only 55,000-odd Australians*.
I think he's an idiot. Mostly because of his voting record, but also because he keeps opening his mouth and saying idiotic things. A little while ago he went to a conference on Global Warning in the US and came back convinced that Global Warming was all a hoax. When challenged on his position and the science behind it, he responded that he had heard very convincing arguments at the conference. The conference was run by the Heartland Institute, a radical fundamentalist anti-science group who have diversified from their pro-tobacco lobbying position ('it's perfectly safe!') to a stance on global warming that ranges from 'It doesn't exist' to 'Who wouldn't like things a bit warmer?' (Victorians, who are likely to be on fire again this summer, for a start.) I'm sure the handful of scientists who appeared at that conference did sound convincing, after all, they were paid handsomely for it.
Today he has been at it again. When doorstopped outside Parliament House, he complained about the government's level of spending.
'The physical and monetary policies need to be working in concert with one another!' he declared.
He later corrected himself. 'Fiscal. I'll make it quite clear: F-I-S-K-A-L.'
He's just declared that he has a severe learning disorder. Which apparently only extends to him spelling things differently to the rest of the world, not to him arguing bogus climate science against the entire CSIRO (Australia's premier science organisation), and all other major scientific bodies.
On the other hand, APPLAUSE for Senator Judith Troeth who crossed the floor in Parliament today to vote in favour of a bill that ends the policy of charging refugees held in refugee camps for their detention. Brave and humane, well done, madam!
In other exciting news of the day, Samoa switched from driving on the right to driving on the left today. One nation by one, the way of righteousness is spread ;-)
*There are over 20 million people here, 5 million in Victoria, the state he was voted in from, so that's 1.9% of the vote of 1/4 of the country. With enough warning to campaign, I think even I could do better.
I think he's an idiot. Mostly because of his voting record, but also because he keeps opening his mouth and saying idiotic things. A little while ago he went to a conference on Global Warning in the US and came back convinced that Global Warming was all a hoax. When challenged on his position and the science behind it, he responded that he had heard very convincing arguments at the conference. The conference was run by the Heartland Institute, a radical fundamentalist anti-science group who have diversified from their pro-tobacco lobbying position ('it's perfectly safe!') to a stance on global warming that ranges from 'It doesn't exist' to 'Who wouldn't like things a bit warmer?' (Victorians, who are likely to be on fire again this summer, for a start.) I'm sure the handful of scientists who appeared at that conference did sound convincing, after all, they were paid handsomely for it.
Today he has been at it again. When doorstopped outside Parliament House, he complained about the government's level of spending.
'The physical and monetary policies need to be working in concert with one another!' he declared.
He later corrected himself. 'Fiscal. I'll make it quite clear: F-I-S-K-A-L.'
He's just declared that he has a severe learning disorder. Which apparently only extends to him spelling things differently to the rest of the world, not to him arguing bogus climate science against the entire CSIRO (Australia's premier science organisation), and all other major scientific bodies.
On the other hand, APPLAUSE for Senator Judith Troeth who crossed the floor in Parliament today to vote in favour of a bill that ends the policy of charging refugees held in refugee camps for their detention. Brave and humane, well done, madam!
In other exciting news of the day, Samoa switched from driving on the right to driving on the left today. One nation by one, the way of righteousness is spread ;-)
*There are over 20 million people here, 5 million in Victoria, the state he was voted in from, so that's 1.9% of the vote of 1/4 of the country. With enough warning to campaign, I think even I could do better.
no subject
My friend edits a slightly kookier one: http://www.scitechdaily.com/ which does good short magazine coverage of stories from a lot of journals and other publications. Most of the stories link to the original stories off site, and the nagivation is not as easy, but there are some good and interesting things covered there, often ones you won't find talked about much elsewhere (in the sense of obscure science, not crazy science).
For science and tech research, it's worth checking out MIT News occasionally: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/ The stories are written on campus, but for a general audience, though still containing details and contacts for specialised readers. There is also a Twitter feed for the page's updates.
The venerable Nature also has a very good news site: http://www.nature.com/news/index.html Its stories are often a bit longer and more complex than those on the New Scientist site, but certainly understandable by the lay reader, though its interface is not as easy to navigate as the NS one. It also has a Twitter feed.