This week's compendium

Here’s this week’s compendium. This week…

1. the Australian parliament got hung, courtesy of voters [1]. At least it wasn’t hanged.

2. for his ignominious burnout [2a] F1 driver Lewis Hamilton was fined A$500 but not convicted [2b]. His contrition was without conviction. I wouldn’t expect anything more from someone earning his living from F1.

3. Victorian Police’s Chief Commissioner Simon Overland, who last March was detected carrying bullets on to a commercial plane [3a] was labelled careless (by the Office of Police Integrity (!)) but otherwise exonerated [3b]. As per s.23(2A) & (2B) of the Civil Aviation Act 1988 [3c] it’s a strict liability offence. Mr Overland should be imprisoned for 2 years.

4. the BMJ reported that increasing the daily intake of green leafy vegetables significantly reduced the risk of type 2 diabetes [4]. Maybe the reduced risk’s due to less junk food rather than a direct positive effect of the vegetables.

5. Get-It-Done Guy discussed ‘How to Make Hard Decisions’ [5]. Scenario Decision Making sounds a good method.

6. following my two posts on medical myths [6a, 6b], House Call Doctor wrote of three more [6c]. The more, the better.

7. Sotheby’s announced that next 23 September it’ll auction baskets of heirloom vegetables for US$1,000 each [7a]. It’s for two fine cause, though [7b].

8. Artist as Family [8a] did a marvellous interview about the Food Forest, on 702 ABC Sydney [8b]. Fantastic, AaF.

Finally, I wish you, dear Farmdoc’s Blog readers, a wonderful week.

Updates on recent posts

Today’s Farmdoc’s Blog post comprises updates on post in the last few months. Links to the original post are in square brackets:

1. Yesterday the ram we bought on 10.4.10 met his 35 new girlfriends [1].

2. I haven’t yet sent the billy goat hiring saga to the Randy Cohen the NYT’s Ethicist [2].

3. F1 driver Lewis Hamilton’s been charged for his pre Grand Prix burnout on a public street [3].

4. Thus the rule of law’s been applied. But not to police chief Overland for the bullets affair [4].

5. My number of unlistened-to podcasts is down from 29 a month ago to 13 now [5].

6. I haven’t yet read Les Carlyon’s two Great War books, or watched the ANZACS film [6].

7. And I haven’t yet read The Man Who Left Too Soon [7].

8. I haven’t yet bought a hand-operated flour mill [8].

9. Our pantry’s mouse free. There were only two mice. The pantry smells sweet again [9].

10. Catherine Deveny’s not been hired by another media outlet after the Age sacked her [10].

11. I haven’t yet asked Sweetheart Vivienne what her primary love language is [11].

12. I hope to survive my flight to Melbourne this morning [12]

13. I haven’t taken the Marshmallow Challenge (pictured) [13].

14. No feedback yet from the 22.4.10 fox scat seekers [14].

Greg Baum - you're My Man.

Have you ever watched paint dry? Or grass grow? If so, you’ve done something infinitely more interesting and edifying than viewing F1 motor racing. There’s little that’s more brain numbing than observing noisy wheeled billboards driven repetitiously in a circle. So unsurprisingly the main story of the Australian F1 Grand Prix eight days ago wasn’t the race. Rather it was an F1 driver – Mr Hamilton, a Briton – doing a burnout [1] in a sponsor’s Mercedes, on a public street. The police impounded the car but neither charged nor fined Hamilton. Another F1 driver – Mr Webber, an Australian – leapt to Hamilton’s defence by calling Victoria a ‘Nanny State’ because it has too many rules and regulations, adding he’s ashamed whenever he returns here. Also leaping to Hamilton’s defence was Australian Grand Prix Corporation chairman Mr Walker who dismissed Hamilton’s burnout as youthful exuberance. To me, that the police didn’t treat Hamilton as they would’ve you or me had we done what he did, is another deplorable abrogation of the Rule of Law [2]. The whole saga’s beautifully summed up in a piece [3] in last Saturday’s Age by Greg Baum (pictured) [4, 5]. Hard-hitting, incisive, acerbic journalism laced with irony’s always a delight to read. It’s infinitely more interesting and edifying than watching paint dry or grass grow – let alone F1 car racing. Very well done, Mr Baum. I hereby add you to my list of favourite journalists [6, 7, 8].