Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

As computers become more powerful and more and more information is gathered about individuals it will be very easy to track people simply by their buying habits. We will not need to know their names, just a profile will be enough to identify them. Human being are extremely predictable.

[Full report here] Australia’s interest lies in the world adopting a strong and effectiveposition on climate change mitigation. This interest is driven by tworealities of Australia’s position relative to other developedcountries: our exceptional sensitivity to climate change: and ourexceptional opportunity to do well in a world of effective globalmitigation. Australia playing its full part in international efforts onclimate change can have a positive effect on global outcomes. Thedirect effects of Australia’s emissions reduction efforts are ofsecondary importance.

You have come to power at a time of a looming worldwide economic crisis; a time when we desperately need new leadership to deal with the immense problems ahead of us and an end to the deception, denial and neglect that characterised the Howard era. The news is in and it is very bad news indeed.

The business leaders of 150 global companies have today published a communiqué to world leaders calling for a comprehensive, legally binding United Nations framework to tackle climate change. The initiative represents an unprecedented coming together of the international business community and includes some of the biggest companies and brands from around the world. The leaders hope that the initiative is likely to have a significant impact on the UN climate negotiations starting next week in Bali, Indonesia.

Webdiary has been banging on about the dangers of peak oil for years now, largely due to the efforts of Ian McPherson, who went on to found Sydneypeakoil. The problem of quickly diminishing oil supply has been known about for decades, and was one of the reasons Dick Cheney wanted to invade Iraq. But Australian governments have buried their heads in the sand, to the medium and short term detriment of their citizens. Yesterday, the Queensland Government issued a report on peak oil, after lots of good work behind the scenes by activists.

Hello, and welcome to Spring! I'm finishing off my project this weekend before getting back to Webdiary, but just couldn't resist posting this transcript - an interview between Charles Wooley and the PM on the pulp mill. How tricky is this for our tricky PM?

"Over time, the scientific evidence that the climate is warming has become quite compelling and the link between emissions of greenhouse gases from human activity and higher temperatures is also convincing. Australia has long been an active player in the search for an efficient, effective and equitable solution to climate change." John Howard

Informal learning implies a messy, unruly, and potentially subversive process. But it also promises to nurture the creative ferment in which great science thrives.

"For a few hundred years, when science and mathematics were enjoying a period of great invention, one region of the world stood out. Masters of these disciplines were revered there, medicine advanced quickly, and the average person was curious about how nature worked. Not surprisingly, this region was globally respected. In the other half of the known planet, scientists were punished, even killed. Mathematics was outlawed as irreligious and alien, and was later made subservient to religion.": H T Goranson

"Although local Muslim leaders have since criticized Hilaly’s attitude, the incident again raises the question of attitudes regarding sex in "orthodox" communities, and how they can be reconciled with prevailing norms in the West. Meanwhile, in the United States, the controversy over government spying on its citizens seems to have died down, mostly because people are now convinced that their government will only look at the really bad guys. What do these two issues have in common?" H T Goranson

"Studies showed that there are hundreds of regions of the genome that could have more or less than the expected two copies. This alerted scientists to the existence of a larger source of genetic variation than was previously understood, and forced us to speculate on the implications of this discovery.": Jennifer L. Freeman and Charles Lee

"Oxytocin is active in evolutionarily old areas of our brain, outside of our conscious awareness. We simply have a sense that sharing with someone who has trusted us is the right thing to do. ... Our evidence suggests that bastards’ brains work differently. Their character traits are similar to those of sociopaths. They simply do not care about others the way most people do, and the dysfunctional processing of oxytocin in their brains appears to be one reason for this. Because bastards are out there, we still need government and personal enforcement of economic exchange.": Paul J. Zak

"Antarctic krill must not be fished to feed the fish farms of the world while starving the penguins, seals, whales, and other species whose survival depends on these tiny, but vitally important, creatures.": Virginia Gascón González and Rodolfo Werner Kinkelin, Antarctic Krill Conservation Project.

"Irrespective of the arguments put forward in support of intelligent design, which have been abundantly refuted, let it simply be stated that a theory based on an a priori declaration that things are not naturally explainable is not a scientific theory. By definition, the science is based on the idea that the object of study is naturally explainable. Why look for an explanation otherwise? What is truly wonderful is how much of nature, including the fundamental features of life, has already proven to be explainable.": Christian de Duve

"The most alarming implication of genetic selection is that only the rich will be able to afford it. The gap between rich and poor will become a chasm that mere equality of opportunity will be powerless to bridge. That is not a future that any of us should approve. But avoiding this outcome will not be easy, for it will require that selection for genetic enhancement is either available to no one or accessible to everyone. ": Peter Singer

"Cinemas everywhere will soon be showing former US Vice President Al Gore’s film on global warming. “An Inconvenient Truth” has received rave reviews in America and Europe, and it will most likely gain a large worldwide audience. But, while the film is full of emotion and provocative images, it is short on rational arguments." Bjørn Lomborg

"In August 1981, IBM introduced the 5150 personal computer. It was not really the first personal computer, but it turned out to be 'The PC,' and it revolutionized not just business life, but also the way people thought about the world. No good deed goes unpunished: by making the PC, IBM practically destroyed itself as a company. Its innovation gave rise to a huge number of new and dynamic companies, forcing IBM to reinvent itself completely in order to compete with them – just one example of the socially transformative effects of the PC. ": Harold James

"Unfortunately, it appears that, among other presumptions, the PM has already decided that ecological impacts and community concern aren’t relevant issues to the proposal for a major expansion of the nuclear industry in Australia.": Justin Tutty
... brought back to the front page because the questions are still the same / unanswered by the report ...

"The general public is aware of clinical research trials, but there is little awareness that the number of subjects enrolled in research is much larger than the number enrolled in clinical trials alone. While some research-related deaths reach the popular media, the actual number of deaths in research is higher. Even regulators and industry experts are not aware of the true numbers of deaths and adverse events, due to the lack of proper reporting.": Adil Shamoo

"Why is there culture? What motivates people to write poems, paint, or sing? Most people engaged in these activities would respond with answers like, “because I like to” or, “because it fulfills me,” if not, “I feel obliged not to waste my talent.” They tend to believe that culture reflects the existence of a soul type, or that it's an expression of humans’ intelligence and creativity. Natural science – as so often – has a more mundane answer, one that has to do with natural selection. ": Arne Jernelöv

"The release last month of a Federal Government discussion paper on the development of a national nanotechnology strategy created ‘nano ripples’ throughout the community – so small as to be imperceptible to the human eye." John Hepburn

"Albert Einstein once said, “I have no special gift, but I am passionately curious.” Certainly, Einstein was being tremendously modest. But, just as certainly, curiosity is a powerful driving force in scientific discovery. Indeed, along with talent and interest, as well as mathematical or other quantitative abilities, curiosity is a necessary characteristic of any successful scientist." Helga Nowotny

"Back in the eighteenth century Kant had said no, but asserted that there were “clear indications that the way is now being opened for men to proceed freely in this direction [toward enlightenment] and that the obstacles to general enlightenment--to their release from their self-imposed immaturity - are gradually diminishing.” The standing obstacles may have been diminishing, but we are creatures handy at constructing new ones. In taking up Kant's call to "Sapere Aude!" (Dare to know!) you could think we would have done a better job with Socrates' suggestion that we heed that precept inscribed in gold letters over the portico of the temple at Delphi - gnothi seauton (know thyself)." Craig Rowley

"Science, and the behavior of scientists, has never been perfect. Consider the Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk, whose claim to have extracted stem cells from human embryos that he cloned turned out to be based on phony research. Hwang has just been fired by Seoul National University, and six of his co-workers have been suspended or had their pay cut." Steve Fuller

"High levels of depleted uranium (DU) have been measured in the atmosphere in Britain, transported on air currents from the Middle East and Central Asia. Scientists cited the U.S. bombing of Tora Bora, Afghanistan in 2001 and the “Shock and Awe” bombing during Gulf War II in Iraq in 2003 as one of the main reasons." Leuren Moret

"For most of the twentieth century, programmers were patently unsuccessful in designing chess computers that could compete with the best humans. A human chess master’s ability to intuit, visualise, and prioritise easily prevailed over the brute force approach of computers. The computers gradually improved, but they still seemed far inferior to the top humans. Or so we thought." Kenneth Rogoff

"Claims that the fossil fuel industry had unprecedented access to confidential Commonwealth government processes and the silencing of senior climate change scientists require an independent investigation." Greens Senator Christine Milne, in response to last night's 4-Corners program, "The Greenhouse Mafia."

"Despite the vast incompleteness of our knowledge, recent research suggests that most people think that they know far more than they actually do. We freely admit to not knowing everything about how a helicopter flies or a printing press prints, but we are not nearly modest enough about our ignorance." Frank Keil

"It turns out that size really does matter. Or, to be more precise, it’s the size of matter that matters. Scientists are manipulating matter at the nano scale (one billionth of a metre) and finding that common materials assume radically different properties compared to their larger scale counterparts. The new nanotechnology is being heralded as the next industrial revolution that will redefine life as we know it. But who asked for their life to be redefined?" John Hepburn

"Long-term economic progress comes mainly from the invention and spread of improved technologies. The scientific revolution was made possible by the printing press, the industrial revolution by the steam engine, and India’s escape from famine by increased farm yields – the so-called “Green Revolution.” Today’s era of globalization emerged with the spread of computers and the Internet. Thus, when we seek solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems, they, too, are likely to be found, at least in part, in new technologies that can resolve old and seemingly intractable problems." Jeffrey D Sachs