Australian F1 GP: yet another balls up

There’s no compendium this week. The reason? I’m too busy with my work. Sorry.

It’s 15 days to this year’s Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix. And there’s big pressure on the Grand Prix Corporation to reduce the event’s loss. It can’t increase revenue. Because the beast’s ailing. So reducing cost’s the go. What does the GP Corp do? Axe the gala ball [1]. Gee whiz. Good one. A ticket to last year’s ball cost A$795. And even then they couldn’t run the damn thing at a profit. (Otherwise why did they ditch it.) Probably too many freeloaders with their snouts in the trough. So thank you, sucker taxpayers. Great use of public money. GP head honcho Ronald J Walker denied the ball’s demise was to cut costs – Major Events Minister Louise Asher contradicted him – and proclaimed it was ‘hard to create new ideas every year for a function like that’. Oh diddums, Ronnie. Losing our imagination are we. The Age also reported the Corporation ‘is attempting to pare back at least A$1M in costs’. Given the 2010 stated loss (almost certainly much less than the real loss) was A$50M, a 2% reduction’s piss weak. The government and its GP Corporation should hang their heads in shame. Will they? Don’t answer that – it’s a rhetorical question. By the way, the cost cutting drive hasn’t stopped the Corporation donating 50% of the Thursday general admission ticket revenue to a children’s research institute [2]. Warm and fuzzy stuff, that. Should net the Institute enough dosh to buy a couple of test tubes.

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

A monumentally shortsighted and stupid decision

On 21 June 2009 I wrote I was thinking of stopping work when I turn 65 [1]. Then my 65th birthday was three years off. Now it’s under half that. For as long as I can recall – at least from 1969 when I graduated – retired doctors in Victoria could obtain restricted registration by the Medical Board of Victoria, and restricted medical indemnity cover. This allowed them to write prescriptions and also referrals to specialists. In short, to provide limited medical services. But this arrangement, which allowed retired doctors to be useful and to retain a link with their profession, was anathema to the Medical Board of Australia which last 1 July took over from State Medical Boards, registration of doctors and regulation medical practice [2]. Its reason’s that doctors providing occasional medical services can’t do it safely. Or at least not as safely as doctors who provide the same services more frequently. Yet the Board can’t provide a shred of evidence to justify its decision. The decision’s the antithesis of inclusive and the embodiment of dismissive, and it’ll load more work onto already overworked non-retired doctors. Not unexpectedly, this decision has irked, and continues to irk, doctors who’ve retired since l July, and those who’ll retired soon [3]. It’s a monumentally shortsighted and stupid decision. I doubt it’ll be reversed. But you never know. If it’s not, I hope those myopic bureaucrats who’re responsible for it, come to regret it. Will they? Don’t answer that – it’s a rhetorical question.

Agog over abject madness

This week the medical [1] and non-medical [2] media have been agog over this research article [3] in the 15 November MJA. Titled ‘Perceived practice change in Australian doctors as a result of medico-legal concerns’, it’s the survey responses of 2,999 Australian doctors. The findings are startling: due to the risk of medico-legal proceedings (i.e. being sued or complained about), 32% of responders are considering reducing their work hours, and 40% are considering early retirement. Naturally those who had personal experience of medico-legal proceedings were more likely to contemplate this action. Some 65% of the responders had such experience, with 14% having a current matter at the time of the survey. I’m one of this 14%. I have been since May 2008 [4]. Also the fear of medico-legal proceedings is driving health care costs up: 43% of responders said they referred more patients, and 55% said they ordered more tests. I appreciate society needs checks and balances. But the current situation’s nothing short of abject madness. And it’s a vicious cycle: the more doctors who reduce or stop work due to medico-legal proceedings against them, the greater the pressure placed on the remaining doctors. And thus they’ll be at increased risk of having medico-legal proceedings brought against them. The solution? I don’t know. But reducing the involvement in medicine of politicians, bureaucrats and lawyers would be a great start. Will it happen? Don’t answer that – it’s a rhetorical question.

A Zero Carbon Plan for Australia: Boy, what a no-brainer

Governments are stupid. Lacking balance. Lacking perspective. Lacking concern for their constituent populations. That’s politics for you: The art of compromise. The art of pandering to sectional interests. The art of granting rewards for favours bestowed; for donations given. And the art of maximising the probability of re-election; of retaining power. So I’m not surprised that – in this age of imminent or current Peak Oil, and in this age of rampant global warming – my nation’s government has decided to direct the future of Australia’s motor manufacturing industry to improving the efficiency of infernal combustion engines, rather than to innovative technology; especially zero emission technology, e.g electric, hydrogen fuel cell [1]? And it has the temerity to call its handouts the Green Car Innovation Fund [2]. What greenwash [3]. And hogwash. Talk about a dinosaur mentality. But unlike our government, some of our leading scientists are creative, innovative, and unafraid to aim high. The University of Melbourne’s Energy Research Institute [4] has just published a Zero Carbon Plan for Australia [5]. It’s a 10-year roadmap for 100% (yes, 100%!) renewable energy, at a cost of A$8 per household per week, using technology that’s available today. Should we implement it? Boy, what a no-brainer. Will we implement it? Don’t answer that – it’s a rhetorical question. Ho hum.

Birds of a feather...

Moshe Weinbereg, Yossef Romano, Ze’ev Friedman. David Berger. Yaakov Springer. Eliezer Halfin, Yossed Gutfreund, Kehat Shorr, Mark Slavin, Andre Spitzer, Amitzur Shapira. Who are these 11 people? They’re the athletes (apart from US citizen Berger, all Israelis) massacred during the 1972 summer Olympics [1, 2]. The Munich attack’s terrorist mastermind, Mohammed Daoud Oudeh (‘Abu Daoud’) [3] wrote an autobiography, Palestine: From Jersusalem to Munich, which won the 1999 Palestine Prize for Culture. In it, Daoud reveals that Mahmoud Abbas (‘Abu Mazen’) – PLO Chairman since late 2004 and Palestinian National Authority President since early 2005 [4] – provided the funds and instructions to Black September for the 1972 Munich attack [5]. Daoud reiterated this in a 2002 Sports Illustrated interview [6]. Though you’d reckon Daoud would know Abbas’s Munich role, the fact is Abbas wasn’t targeted by ‘Operation Wrath of God’ [7] or ‘Operation Spring of Youth’ [8]. But Daoud and Abbas were close: After Daoud died last 3 July, Abbas wrote in a condolence letter: ‘He is missed. He was one of the leading figures of Fatah and spent his life in resistance and sincere work as well as physical sacrifice for his people’s just cause’ [9]. Do you think the man who wrote that three months ago could be, by any yardstick, a genuine partner in peace negotiations? Don’t answer that – it’s a rhetorical question.

P.S. h/t to Elder of Ziyon for the graphic top left [10, 11].

This week's compendium

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

1. our old friend the offensive misogynistic has-been ex-footballer [1a, 1b] was in the news again [1c]. As was a current footballer [1d] and swimmer [1e]. What is it with these sportspeople? (Don’t answer that – it’s a rhetorical question.)

2. an Aussie consumer advocate called for a host of green-car incentives [2]. Don’t hold your breath, mate.

3. treehugger.com wrote of the Eco Urinal which saves water by using handwash water to flush the urine [3]. Clever, eh.

4. demonstrators threw shoes and eggs during Tony Blair’s book signing in Dublin [4]. Have these people no respect for free speech? (Don’t answer that – it’s a rhetorical question.)

5. National Seniors Australia revealed that 56% of Australians aged 65+ have never used the internet [5]. It adds that internet use would improve their mental health.

6. a small study foiund that metformin, a medication heretofore used in type 2 diabetes, helps prevent cancers including lung, colon, prostate and breast [6]. Then people live longer and get Alzheimer’s.

7. Google launched ‘Google Instant’ – a faster way of searching [7a, 7b]. You must be signed into a Google Account to use it.

8. salon.com published a long piece arguing in favour of hyperlinks and against ‘delinkification’ [8]. What the hell. Don’t like links, then don’t click on them.

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

Jeff Kennett: he'd make anyone depressed

Jeff Kennett. The record shows I’ve mentioned him in five prior Farmdoc’s Blog posts. Nothing I’ve written about him’s complimentary. He’s not one of my favourite people. Nowhere near it. Even though he’s founder and chairman of beyondblue – which glibly calls itself ‘the national depression initiative’ [1]. (Oh. I thought it held itself out to be an anti depression initiative.) Before today, the latest time I mentioned Mr Kennett was on 14 April in a post related to his beyondblue chairmanship [2]. Last Thursday, over three months after 14 April, a man named Jim, who I don’t know, wrote a heartfelt comment [3].

The day before Jim commented, the media reported that anti gambling campaigner Senator Xenophon, noting the link between gambling and depression, urged Mr Kennett to resign his directorship of a company that services gambling machines, or else sever all connection with beyondblue [4]. That was a week ago. Mr Kennett responded to Senator Xenophon’s call – in his trademark bullying, disparaging manner. But he hasn’t resigned either role. He says there’s no conflict of interest in him holding both roles concurrently [5]. Does the man have the hide of an elephant? Don’t answer that – it’s a rhetorical question. Eh, Jim.

Their smoke, my ersatz depression

You’d think it’d be common knowledge, even in this civilisational backwater called Tasmania, that fires put carbon into the air and so add to global warming and climate change. But that doesn’t stop Forestry Tasmania and Gunns Limited undertaking 200 planned burnoffs in Tasmania each autumn – ostensibly to germinate seeds in the ground after the chainsaws, excavators and skidders have done their work. These aren’t minor burns, mind. Their smoke plumes resemble nuclear mushroom clouds. The burns not only load the air with carbon, their particulates reduce visibility and, more importantly, aggravate lung diseases like asthma and emphysema. But does that stop the forces of darkness (pun intended)? Don’t answer that – it’s a rhetorical question. They even have a website, don’tcha know [1]. Recently some environmental activists highlighted Forestry Tasmania’s arrogant, woeful and arguably negligent disregard for the public and planetary good. Here’s the background [2, 3], and here’s their creative response [4]. Will it do any good? Oops, that’s another rhetorical question. I find it all so depressing. Which reminds me of this wonderful article in the 1 March New Yorker, titled ‘Head Case” Can psychiatry be a science? [5] The author writes that the US National Institute of Mental Health estimates over 17M Americans suffer from depression. And he quotes a psychologist who thinks this number’s ridiculous — not because people aren’t depressed, but because in most cases their depression’s not a mental illness but rather a sane response to a crazy world. Yessir.

farmdoc's blog post number 682

Apartheid. It’s an Afrikaans word (from apart apart + -heid –hood) dating from 1947, and defined as a former policy of segregation and discrimination against non-Europeans in South Africa. Now it’s being extrapolated to Israel. Welcome to Israeli Apartheid Week [IAW]. But hold your horses: Israel’s Arab citizens have full rights including full voting rights. Thirteen Arabs sit in the current 120-member Knesset. But factual evidence of non-apartheid in Israel doesn’t stop the lunatic fringe continuing their bleeding heart support of totalitarian theocracies. If these myopic halfwits were genuinely concerned about apartheid, they need look no further than their darling Palestinian Authority [PA] and Hamas. Are there Jews living in Gaza? (That’s a rhetorical question, folks.) The PA’s called Jewish West Bank settlements an obstacle to peace. To them Jews shouldn’t be citizens of a possible future Arab West Bank state. Well if that’s not apartheid, I hop to hell on a toothpick. This is the sixth IAW. Starting in Canada, it’s metastasised like the evil malignant cancer it is. It’s university-based. The responsible (pun intended) student morons should go to more classes – because IAW (N.B. Week) spans two weeks (from 1-14 March). And the prize-winning poster (above left) gives its dates as 1-7 March. Recently Ontario’s legislature condemned it. Unanimously. A legislator said ‘If you're going to label Israel as Apartheid, then you are also... attacking Canadian values…The use of the phrase IAW is about as close to hate speech as one can get without being arrested, and I’m not certain it doesn't actually cross over that line’. Yes sir.

farmdoc's blog post number 527

My eldest darling granddaughter [EDG] is ill. She has been for a few days. With a rash (pictured), a fever, and malaise. And anxiety – because she’s usually well and active, but now she’s not. I was consulted early on – by phone and also digital image email attachment. When I was a medical student over 40 years ago, dermatology wasn’t taught at all well. So I’m not a dab hand at rashes. With an acute rash, as in this case, my strategic plan’s to first rule out a serious cause; and once that’s done, to treat it as skin manifestation of a general illness, to treat it accordingly, and to reassure the patient. Some rashes are pathognomonic, i.e. the rash’s features make diagnosis easy. But this one wasn’t. I thought EDG’s rash was most likely insect bites, or alternatively the rash of a non-specific viral illness. It’s hard enough to diagnose a rash in the same room let alone from 622 km away. So I began the above plan; and by phone twice a day I checked on progress. EDG’s mum – darling Kate – consulted a doctor at the local hospital who diagnosed a viral rash. Whew! My second horse had come home; though my first’s still wandering free in someone’s back paddock. So far treatment has settled the itch, fever and anxiety. A bit. But the rash is unchanged. I expect full recovery by week’s end – thanks to Mother Nature, Father Time and EDG’s immune system. But with two schoolgirls and a childcare toddler in the family, the next medical help call to me is likely not too far in the future. I can hardly wait. For can there be a greater joy in life than helping one’s grandchildren? Don’t answer that – it’s a rhetorical question.

farmdoc's blog post number 520

It’s about 31 years since I completed my PhD thesis. Titled Fractured Neck of Femur - An Operational Study, it’s a presentation of my research which used fractured neck of femur as an indicator of how the health service was performing. That is, as a tracer condition. According to this concept, I view supermarkets as a tracer for our society at large. And ‘buy and large’ (pun intended) it’s not a pretty picture. I’ve written here of some of tricks and ploys supermarkets use to entice people to buy what they don’t need. Buying what isn’t needed, is the ethos and rationale of the materialism/capitalism paradigm. Which is why the supermarket is such a superb tracer for society. Then in yesterday’s Age I read, and was appalled by, this article. Screens and GPS devices on shopping trolleys! Yikes! It’ll be expensive to implement. But if, as US trials suggest, the sales in participating stores rose by 10% and sales of featured products rose by 30-40%, the initial outlay will be recouped soon enough. I swear that if this gear’s in a supermarket where I shop, if I don’t use my indelible marker pen to good effect, I won’t look at the screen on my trolley. And if that’s the way society in general is headed, then I despair. Screw MediaCart. Whatever will they think of next? Don’t answer that – it’s a rhetorical question.

farmdoc's blog post number 435

The Brain That Changes Itself. This is the fourth time in the past nine Farmdoc’s Blog posts I’ve mentioned this wonderful book that I began reading 12 days ago. Which tells you I think it’s an amazing book. An important book. And a book that’ll change the way I’ll live my life: what I will do (more exercise; more new skill challenges, including learning the banjo, fingers arthritis permitting) and what I won’t do (sitting all day on my bum, working). Challenging mental activities (i.e. those requiring genuine concentration) prolong the life of brain cells, and promote the creation of new ones). And aerobic activity ditto, perhaps by increasing brain oxygenation. Whilst the age range 35-55 is the peak of creativity in most fields, people in their sixties and seventies, though they work at a slower speed, are as productive as they were in their twenties. David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, taught himself ancient Greek in old age. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Guggenheim Museum at age 90. At age 78 Benjamin Franklin invented bifocal spectacles. When cellist Pablo Casals was 91-years-old, a student asked him ‘Master, why do you continue to practise?’ Casals replied: ‘Because I am making progress’. Who couldn’t love a book that includes these words and sentiments? Don’t answer that – it’s a rhetorical question.

farmdoc's blog post number 369

I don’t know when AFL (then VFL) football turned from a sport into a business. But I know the prime architect was a certain Mr Samuel (of whom I’ve previously written). As a lad I’d gone to many matches, with my Dad and his brothers. They were Carlton supporters, so we mostly went to Princes Park. Our possie was behind the goalposts at the Royal Parade end. We’d take a wooden fruit-box for me to stand on. And I ritually had a meat pie at half-time. A Collingwood-supporting family friend, Bruce Andrew, pitied me as a Collingwood supporter attending Carlton matches, so he took me to some Collingwood games, at Victoria Park, the holy-of-holies where opposition teams feared to tread. Carton played at Princes Park from 1897 to 2005, and Collingwood at Victoria Park from 1892 to 1999. Over a century of club history and pride, summarily ended by Mr Samuel. Now it’s emerging that the desertion of local club grounds for mega-stadia has been a financial disaster for the clubs. Surprise, surprise. For the very same corporatist, Mr Samuel, was prime mover of the 1996 decision to merge the Victoria State Opera into Opera Australia, which has proved an artistic and financial debacle. Thanks partly to him, I no longer attend the football or the opera. As Pete Seeger sings: ‘When will they ever learn?’ Don’t answer that – it’s a rhetorical question.

farmdoc's blog post number 310

In the US some years ago, on TV I watched some sessions of stand-up comedy by Dennis Miller (pictured). His specialty’s the rant — a stream-of-consciousness diatribe monologue railing against whatever’s currently bothering him. Miller’s rants typically begin with ‘Now I don’t want to get off on a rant here, but...’ and end with ‘...of course, that’s just my opinion. I could be wrong’. As regular Farmdoc’s Blog readers know, my favourite rant topic is motor racing, and especially its highest profile variety – Formula 1. So here’s another F1 rant: I think F1’s so blighted, immoral and anachronistic that nothing done in its name can be divorced from commercial rapacity. Following the Victorian bushfires earlier this month, last week the Australian Grand Prix Corporation has changed its 2009 marketing slogan – from ‘Melbourne fires up’ to ‘Melbourne gears up’. I think it’s a transparent and pathetic attempt to feign a social conscience, by an organisation that couldn’t give a tuppeny hoot about the societal impact of its activities. Does the Corporation think it’ll gain Joe Public’s respect and approval – and patronage – by changing its slogan? Sorry, that’s question’s rhetorical. And what’s London’s Science Museum doing putting on an exhibition titled ‘Fast Forward: 20 ways F1™ is changing our world’? It’s sold its soul to the devil. Shame on it. Of course, that’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.

farmdoc's blog post number 155

Captain Edward A Murphy (1918-1990) was a US Air Force engineer. He was working on a project to determine how much sudden deceleration a person could stand in a crash, when one day he discovered a wrongly wired transducer. He cursed the technician responsible and said: ‘If there is any way to do it wrong, he’ll find it’. The project manager, who kept a list of ‘laws’, added this one which he called Murphy’s Law. I was reminded of Murphy’s Law last Thursday when I was splitting some firewood. I knew there was a buried water pipe in the vicinity, but I didn’t know exactly where. Well now I know, because one of my downstrokes went right through the piece of wood and up shot a gusher. I quickly stanched the flow by turning off the header tank’s gate valve. Then after digging up the pipe I inspected the damage which I mended with a joiner. Our Mole Creek property is 78.16 hectares (193.14 acres), and I hit the jackpot. (Un)lucky me. Talking of stanching the flow, Murphy’s Law has done the opposite, i.e. spawned a multitude of other laws – similar but different. I wonder which one of these will test me next. And why couldn’t that infernal technician have wired the transducer properly? Don’t answer that – it’s a rhetorical question.

farmdoc's blog post number 101

Last Wednesday night when I was flying from Launceston to Melbourne, to the plane’s left was a perfect winter sunset. Right then, fittingly and sublimely, my headphones were exuding the erotically exotic strains of the Bolero by Maurice Ravel. Which turned my thoughts to Bo Derek, who was exquisitely perfect when at age 23 she starred in the 1979 film 10. I wondered what she looked like now (at age 51), and I hoped she hadn’t succumbed to cosmetic surgery. If I could understand why Dolly Parton would have cosmetic surgery at her age (now 62) – which I can’t – it’s totally beyond me why Julia Roberts would at hers (now 40). My darling daughters assure me Angelina Jolie hasn’t been scalpel-enhanced. They’re either right or wrong. As a lad I thought the young Brigitte Bardot was beautiful and sexy. Now aged 73 and wrinkled, she remains surgically unaltered. Good for her. But I was disgusted, revolted even, that Terri Munro, winner of Big Brother Australia 2008, intends investing some of her A$250,000 winnings on a facelift. She’d get a better return on her shares in the current bear market. If Helen Mirren (pictured) doesn’t need the scalpel at age 63, why would Ms Munro at age 52? Don’t answer that – it’s a rhetorical question.