farmdoc's blog post number 545

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

1. I learned that a man’s reason for not attending an appointment with me, was that his daughter had changed their clock’s time for daylight saving, and in error she’d changed the clock’s date too. Daylight saving started on Sunday 4.10.09 [1]. His appointment with me was on Wednesday 7.10.09.

2. a US study found that exposure to nature helps people to value community and relationships more, and to be more generous [2]. I’m not surprised. It’s something I’ve intuitively felt for many years.

3. Professor Ada Yonath, an Israeli working at the Weizmann Institute of Science, was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. She’s Israel’s ninth Nobel Laureate [3] – which given Israel’s population and economic and military situation, is a remarkable achievement.

4. darling Jarrah celebrated her sixth birthday with a cupcake party [4]. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there.

5. GetUp! released its iCoal 2.0 advertisement [5]. Clean coal’s an oxymoron. It’s never going to happen. It’s an abomination that the coal industry will be compensated in the proposed emissions trading scheme.

6. the Australian Grand Prix Corporation announced a loss of A$40M for the 2009 F1 event [6]. Though the 2009 loss is miraculously the same as the 2008 loss, it’s an absolute waste of public money. It’d fund 400 $100,000 p.a. jobs, or 800 $50,000 p.a. jobs.

7. a comparison was published of the administration of Barack Obama, and that of Josiah Bartlet in The West Wing TV series [7]. Let Bartlet be Bartlet.

8. the invitations went out for Sweetheart Vivienne’s book launch [8]. Also the media interviews began. Her excitement and success are mine too. How very wonderful she is.

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

farmdoc's blog post number 450

You’d think that as a man whose father died 40 years ago today, I’d be old and wise enough to have things sorted, and to know why things happen. But I don’t. For example, I don’t know…

why prime minister Rudd, having said Sorry so eloquently on 13 February 2008, thinks tourists should be allowed to climb Uluru against the traditional owners’ wishes. [1]

why Tasmanians drive like there’s no tomorrow, having no regard for weather and road conditions. Six deaths last Thursday brought Tasmania’s road toll so far this year to 45 compared with 40 for the whole of 2008. [2]

why governments persist is supporting clean coal rather than genuine clean renewable energy. Clean coal’s the mother of oxymorons. [3]

why left wing liberals support Hamas which is, no doubt, a regime of fundamentalist religious totalitarianism. Yet Israel, which is a parliamentary democracy with a free press, is their knee-jerk nemesis. [4]

who exactly ex-footballers Rex Hunt and John Newman think they are. Hunt was recently convicted for road rage; and last Friday police interviewed Newman about an alleged road rage incident. Did I just use the word ‘think’? Oops. Sorry. [5]

In Paul Simon’s Kathy’s Song, there’s a line:

‘And so you see I have come to doubt all that I once held as true.’

I don’t know if I’d understand these things any better if I talked about them with my Dad. But I’d give everything I own to find out.