Billablog: January 2016

24 January, 2016

Thinking of linking

This week I have been mostly reading...

Australia:
People smuggler cash scandal: Jail for boat crew paid by Australian official to turn back

Hero cop Craig Campbell left behind by the Cronulla riots

Liberal plan for Bronwyn Bishop's seat decried as 'North Korean nepotism'

Unravelling the lies about refugees after Save the Children cleared of any wrongdoing

How decades of neglect ran the V/Line network off the rails

Whose Australia Day?

Tony Abbott asked Malcolm Turnbull to send Brian Loughnane to Vatican

What Tony Abbott can learn from Robert Menzies - Yeah, but Tony's already had his comeback from the wilderness and he wasted it.

George Brandis warned years before sex discrimination commission vacancy

Bunnings may mop up some Masters disasters

Malcolm Turnbull should have the government apologise ASAP to Save the Children over Nauru fiasco

Immigration department takes inspiration from expensive life coach Andrew Hughes - SRSLY?

Stan Grant: 'But every time we are lured into the light, we are mugged by the darkness of this country's history', Ethics Centre IQ2 debate - 2015

Air-pollution checks needed in Queensland mining towns, doctor treating allergies and illness says

Melbourne's happiest tram driver brings joy and connection to the daily grind

Book review: Peter Garrett’s memoir ‘Big Blue Sky’

US:
No, We Won't Be Safer If We All Go Buy Guns. Here's The Data.

An oligarchy has broken our democracy. It must be dislodged

Raving lunatic receives Republican endorsement from pouting simpleton

Palin Appears To Blame Her Son’s Domestic Violence Arrest On PTSD, Obama - Look, I don't doubt Track Palin has PTSD, and that shouldn't be trivialised just because his mother is an idiot. However, she is doing him and people like him no favours by using it to justify bad behaviour and blame Obama for it. There really is no depth to which she won't stoop.

Do College Grads Think Judge Judy is on the Supreme Court?

Bob Gates on the GOP field: 'They don’t know what they’re talking about'

Muslim Groups, Cher And Other Charities Supply Flint With Clean Drinking Water After Lead Crisis

How Jeb Bush became a player in one of the South's darkest traditions

The presidential candidates you've never heard of - Seems CNN is still good for something - gazumping The Daily Show.

A letter to my dismal allies on the US left

Sarah Palin Saves Feminism

World:
Oxfam: 62 richest people as wealthy as poorest half of world's population

Stop Trying to Save the World - Big ideas are destroying international development

Society:
What would happen if everyone joined the Oscar boycott? And what could Australian men learn from it?

Modern parenting isn’t working

Media:
Andrew Bolt's Channel Ten show The Bolt Report reportedly cancelled by network

Twitterati – Big Fish, Little Pond?

False Balance: ABC Directed Journalist To Target Labor NBN Plan For “Insurance” Against Coalition Attacks - This is actually pretty complex. The wider question is how responsible media should report a topic where one policy is clearly superior to another. Also, you kind of lose the ethics argument when you secretly record a meeting and take it to another publisher two years later.

Music:
Mott The Hoople drummer Dale Griffin dies aged 67

Glenn Frey, Eagles guitarist, dies at 67

The Man Who Fell From Fame

The Gizmotron is the strangest guitar device you've never heard of

Joanna Newsom at Hamer Hall

Abbey Road Recording Basics: How To EQ A Lead Vocal

Violent Femmes' First Album In 15 Years

Old music is outselling new music for the first time in history

How One Generation Was Single-Handedly Able To Kill The Music Industry

Bowie:
David Bowie, as remembered by…

Vatican newspaper pays tribute to David Bowie

Disgrace oddity - how I tried to help David Bowie become cool again

Henry Rollins on David Bowie

David Bowie's son breaks social media silence to share emotional thank you letter from doctor

Christopher Nolan remembers directing David Bowie in The Prestige

David Bowie made emotional final trip to London after terminal cancer diagnosis

Tony Visconti's Holy Holy Concert Becomes Strange, Mad Celebration After David Bowie's Death

Labyrinth child star Toby Froud shares video tribute to David Bowie - This is beautiful

Culture:
Will Smith joins Oscars boycott: 'It’s going in the wrong direction'

HBO finally makes seven-hour edit of ‘The Godfather’ films available again

Science:
Birds That Fly in a V Formation Use An Amazing Trick

'Dark noodles' between stars in the Milky Way could be missing matter

10 Reasons Why Hidden Cancer Cure Conspiracy Theories Fail

Tech:
Royal Melbourne Hospital attacked by damaging computer virus

New – AWS Certificate Manager – Deploy SSL/TLS-Based Apps on AWS

Scott Ludlam’s Top Five Tips On Dodging Tomorrow’s Data Retention Laws

Literature:
One Bear's Opinion -- Death in the Truffle Wood

Humour and satire:
Palin Brings Much-Needed Intellectual Rigour To Trump Campaign

Rebunking Conspiracy Theories

The Badly Drawn Stick Figure

Clickbait of the week:
Man Apologizes To Elephants After Disturbing Them With Motorbike In Thailand

The Worst Film Extras In Movie History

Cat Refuses To Leave Supermarket No Matter How Many Times He's Kicked Out

21 Jokes So Clever That You Probably Won’t Get Them…

15 Funniest Things People Have Said In Their Sleep.

The least boring photo on my camera roll:

Every minute of every hour...

16 January, 2016

Thinking of linking

This week I have been mostly reading...

Bowie:
Exit Bowie, discreetly: 'He thought it honourable to become invisible'

David Bowie was the vanguard of popular music

Bowie returns to home planet

David Bowie returns home - Not sure which of these two came first

Was David Bowie saying goodbye on Blackstar?

The Nobituary: David Bowie

Message from Pete Townsend

Eno reveals content of Bowie's final email

“Under Pressure” Is a Reminder That David Bowie Could Also Be Wonderfully, Powerfully Human

How David Bowie's Let's Dance shone a light on Australia's Indigenous struggle

Joelene King: The dress a reminder of 'amazing man' David Bowie and of 'what can be achieved'

William Boyd: how David Bowie and I hoaxed the art world

When Suzanne Vega Met David Bowie

David Bowie fan Bruce Butler recalls meeting his hero including a barbecue at Molly Meldrum’s house

David Bowie’s ISP, as remembered by the guy who helped create “BowieNet”

David Bowie Lives! The Cunning Exit of a Post-Modern Lazarus

Losing Heroes

Don’t deride those who are mourning David Bowie – this grief is serious and rational

Our collective response to Bowie’s death is as real as it gets

I Can’t Seem to Get Over the Loss of David Bowie

David Bowie Planned Post-'Blackstar' Album, 'Thought He Had Few More Months'

Arcade Fire and Pres Hall hosting second line for David Bowie

'That was David: life and death were art for him' – Mike Garson remembers his friend

David Bowie's Business Genius

David Bowie

Henry Rollins: Bowie's Blackstar Is on the Level of Low and Heroes

David Bowie’s bandmates explain just how he got them to sound like that

Jemaine Clement On Writing Flight of the Conchords’ ‘Bowie’s in Space’

Front pages around the world pay tribute to David Bowie

British Airways pays tribute to David Bowie

David Bowie’s ‘Lazarus’ Video Isn’t Just A Goodbye, It’s A Harrowing Warning

Arcade Fire’s David Bowie parade shuts down New Orleans

David Bowie memorial second line in the Quarter

Have A Listen To David Bowie’s 2 Hour 1979 BBC DJ Set

David Bowie on The Don Lane Show, 1983

David Bowie's last days: an 18-month burst of creativity

Australia:
Shooting the Gayle-farce breeze "You’re sick of hearing the kind of reaction generated by Chris Gayle’s sideline chat up of Mel McLaughlin on Monday night? I’m sick of it too. Been sick of it for 32 years and counting. "

The real problem is not the lamb ad but the militarisation of Australian nationalism

Until men change, nothing will

Coles, Kogan to offer exchanges for Dick Smith cards after retailer enters receivership

Jamie Clements saga: The politics of sexual harassment a bipartisan affair

For our oversupply of lawyers, blame the cult of the celebrity barrister

Refugees, sex abuse victims take back seat to cricket’s bad boy

Public service retirees set for pension shock

Young, educated and underemployed: are we building a nation of PhD baristas?

Australia snubs US request to ramp up response to IS terror

Immigration spends more than Defence on medals for its staff

US:
American Presidential Candidates Are Now Openly Promising to Commit War Crimes

Dear Open Carry Activists: Your Entire Ideology is an Absolute Joke

Occupy Democrats graphic oversimplifies Trump's inheritance

The Brutalism of Ted Cruz

Ted Cruz is not eligible to be president

Yes, Ted Cruz is a ‘natural born citizen’

Oregon militants want you to stop sending them dildos - Well we can't send them brain cells!

I'm Voting for Donald Trump. Here's Why.

Facts of the State

Cut From Fox Debate, Rand Paul Turns To Alex Jones For Help

The Daily News Just Made One Helluva Statement About "New York Values"

Emails prove Carly Fiorina campaign has been illegally coordinating with super PAC - Well I never!

Authorities make first arrest in Bundy standoff by nabbing militant driving a federal vehicle to grocery store - Are we beginning to think they might not have thought this through?

The father of a boy killed at Sandy Hook gets death threats; some people say the shooting was a hoax

Bill Cosby and His Enablers: Even victims of discrimination can look away from—and thereby enable—other forms of violence.

Greens MP Mehreen Faruqi stopped and interrogated at LAX

UK:
Band Squeeze's 'message' for PM on Marr show

Noel Gallagher launches scathing attack Jeremy Corbyn's Labour leadership - Stop talking, Noel

What planet is David Cameron on? PM savaged for telling the poor to save for a rainy day

Have you got it yet?

World:
Where Were the Post-Hebdo Free Speech Crusaders as France Spent the Last Year Crushing Free Speech?

Media Frenzy Over Sean Penn’s El Chapo Interview Obscures Brutality

Three reasons the West is losing the war with Islamic State

Jakarta bombing: Authorities had been expecting deadly attacks, Julie Bishop says

(Other) Music:
Virgin Australia break guitars... and keyboards

Stop Pandering To Triple J, Says Legendary Aussie Studio Engineer

Society:
Is it sexist against men? First Dog moonsplains sexism. Again

Canadians more polite than Americans on Twitter, study says

The Dictatorship of Libertinism

Studying the spread of ignorance - "Proctor explains that ignorance can often be propagated under the guise of balanced debate."

Media:
Six easy ways to tell if that viral story is a hoax

Calling People Idiots: A Practical Guide

New Charlie Hebdo cartoon suggests dead 3-year-old refugee Alan Kurdi would have become sexual attacker - Let's be clear: Charlie Hebdo suffered an unspeakable atrocity for which there can be no justification, but that doesn't mean they're not a bunch of utter dicks. ‪#‎jenesuispascharlie‬

Charlie Hebdo cartoon on dead Syrian child sparks anger

ABC tech editor claims broadcaster “gagged” his NBN coverage

Did the ABC really stifle discussion on the NBN?

Culture:
Jar Jar Binks actor opens up about ‘painful’ fan backlash

After Outcry, Disney Launches New Rey Toys For Star Wars Fans

Alan Rickman admits editing 'terrible' script with friends in Pizza Hut behind backs of writers on Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

Faith:
Muslims and Christians worship the same God - that shouldn't be controversial

Mental health:
Social Anxiety Disorder Isn’t Fun

Science:
This suspected supernova is 570 billion times as bright as our sun

Striking views of our Solar System

Dogs recognize dog and human emotions

Language:
Do you know your dashes?

Vale:
Alan Rickman, giant of British screen and stage, dies at 69

Why I cried when I heard about Alan Rickman…

The Rickman Scale of badness

The saddest photo on my camera roll:

12 January, 2016

He played one final trick on us.

I’m not here to eulogise. Millions have done that already and they’re all right. I just want to recognise Bowie’s brilliant media manipulation even in his absence.

It’s well known that during what would become his final tour in 2004, Bowie suffered a serious heart scare. After that, he went extremely quiet. There was an appearance at David Gilmour’s Albert Hall Concert, a guest part in Ricky Gervais’s Extras, and then… nothing.

For want of further information, we assumed he was in seriously poor health. Unlike many of his contemporaries, it was unusual to go for more than a couple of years without a new Bowie album. After forty years of redefining his image, he was now leaving it to us to define his image. We filled in the gaps as best we could.

Then, just on three years ago (was it really that long ago already?) he surprised us with a new album, The Next Day. The lead single, the introspective Where Are We Now? had Bowie looking and sounding extremely frail, which went some way to confirming our suspicions that he wasn’t at all well. However, the rest of the album rocked like a beast in places. He certainly looked ten years older in the videos but aside from that, he seemed fine.

To be honest, The Next Day was not quite the work of genius it was greeted as. It was a fine Bowie album for sure, but if the exact same album had been released in 2005, when a new Bowie album might have been due, critics would probably have said, ‘Meh.’ By 2013, the world was so thankful that he was alive and well that five-star reviews were guaranteed and it became his highest charting album in decades. Well played, Dave! Well played.

While The Next Day was fairly standard Bowie, the new single that come with the cheekily titled 2014 compilation Nothing Has Changed was something different entirely. A 7-minute experimental jazz track called Sue (or in a season of crime) showed that Bowie was still interested in uncharted musical territory.

The release of ★ indicated that his return was complete. The Next Day was not a one-off. Bowie was back and ready to push the boundaries even further.

And then he goes and dies on us. Like a real-life Ziggy who implodes at the height of his powers, he left us. Many of us feared he had been dying for years, and just when we were starting to believe he wasn’t, he did.

It was described as an 18-month battle with cancer, which means the diagnosis would have come well after The Next Day, but there would surely have been illness before that. Perhaps he really was as sick as we feared for the last ten years, or maybe it came up suddenly. We may never know and it’s none of our business anyway. We never really knew who David Bowie was. That was all part of his genius. In the final decade, his mystique has become self-perpetuating and he just left it to us to define his persona.

As his friend and producer Tony Visconti wrote, even his death was a work of Art.

There are so many lyrics that can be quoted at this time...

Turn and face the strange changes...
Can you hear me Major Tom? Can you hear me Major Tom?
I ain’t got the power any more...
Knowledge comes with death's release...
There’s a Starman waiting in the sky...
‘It’s time we should be going...’
Ashes to ashes...
And I’m gone, like I’m dancing on angels...
Where are we now?
Look up here, I’m in Heaven...

But I think the best one to remember is the line from Ashes to Ashes:
I’m happy, hope you’re happy too

Farewell, you crafty old bugger!

10 January, 2016

Thinking of linking

This week I have been mostly reading...

Australia:
First Day: The pioneering surgeon who came to Australia on a leaky boat - If you only read one thing this week, make it this one.

Briggs admits sharing photo of public servant

Samantha Maiden: Jamie Briggs booted for being fool

Entire Canberra suburb to be dedicated to Australian’s music legends

NYE Above the Harbour organisers apologise for $500-a-head party flop

"That was in if you want to challenge it."

Jamie Briggs affairs opens factional wounds in Liberal Party

Turnbull’s hard truth on Briggs

WA's rooftop solar so popular power privatisation not an option, says expert

Peter Dutton left red-faced after texting mishap

On witches, sexism, and Peter Dutton's misdirected text

'Deluded Neanderthal view': a victim caught up in the black arts of Canberra leaking

Taking out the trash is a job half done for Malcolm Turnbull - "gropers, leakers, fibbers, fools, frauds, dickheads and dopes."

Jamie Briggs affair shows need for high standards: CEOs

Shaming And Blaming The Victim: Why The Jamie Briggs Controversy Continues To Escalate

Well, Jamie, shit happens

Labor moves into election-winning position in Western Australia

Opinion: Queensland alcohol management laws in no way similar to Bjelke-Petersen regime - "You had to live through the 1980s to know how dark the Sunshine State really was."

Thanks for your words about respecting women, Mr Turnbull. Now show us your deeds

Men behaving badly

Cricket Star Fined for Propositioning TV Reporter During Live Interview

Chris Gayle, Mel McLaughlin and why we fight

'I'm ready to lead': Barnaby Joyce set to become deputy PM but not everyone's happy - yeah, um, nah.

FitzSimons gives passionate rant to Gayle backers

Not in my name: On racist white knight rubbish

Why was Tony Abbott so unpopular? - Partly correct, but it sure wasn't for his honesty.

Being free from sexual harassment is a basic human right

Memo to drunk male MPs: You can't get away with it any more

Spin doctors and marketing gurus clean up with taxpayer-funded advertising

Monika Radulovic's Weekend Sunrise hug from Hamish McLachlan sparks sexism debate

US:
Political blogger with 'guts to say what others wouldn't say' C.B. Forgotston dead at age 70

Trump helped draft will that excluded his brother's children

John McCain’s cold-blooded revenge on Ted Cruz

Blunt Political Assessments in Bill Clinton Transcripts

Leaked Wiretaps Reveal Netanyahu Bribed Republicans To Sabotage Obama’s Iran Peace Deal

Success of US anti-tobacco campaign has lessons on how to fight illegal drugs

The EPA Finally Admitted That the World’s Most Popular Pesticide Kills Bees—20 Years Too Late

The real owners of North American soil condemn ‘clown’ militia men for demanding the land be returned to them

No, Obama is not violating the second amendment

Canadian Born Ted Cruz Gets Taste Of His Own Birther Medicine And The Law

Tulane University bans hoverboards on campus - I remember when there was freedom

Ted Cruz Rehashes Debunked Lie to Exploit the Graves of Dead Soldiers

Why the Feds Punk Out When Confronting White Rightwing Insurgents

Traffic camera captures images of snowy owl in flight

UK:
Away from the reshuffle, Corbyn quietly dismantles Cameron at PMQs

I'm 92 and I've lived through 16 prime ministers – here are five things David Cameron must do in 2016

Saudi arms sales are in breach of international law, Britain is told

Keep Calm and Carry On – the sinister message behind the slogan that seduced the nation

World:
Vatican Officially Recognises Palestine as a State

Saudi Arabia's mounting security challenges

'That's not how things are done here': How Frankfurt stopped Uber

Here's North Korea's official hydrogen bomb statement. It's a doozy.

Why We Can’t Stay Silent on Germany’s Mass Sex Assaults

How to deal with the New Year's Eve sexual assaults in Cologne and Hamburg

Music:
Weird Al Yankovic, Palais Theatre, Jan 3, 2016

Robert Stigwood, mentor to the Bee Gees, Eric Clapton and Cream, dies at 81

Boulez in his own words

Bowie back in the spotlight, still refusing to play along

Jeff Lynne's ELO On World Cafe

Jean-Michel Jarre & Laurie Anderson in conversation

Society:
A Plea For Women To Sit Down on Public Toilets

What does it actually mean when somebody complains about political correctness?

Parking Is Hell: A New Freakonomics Radio Podcast

When Teamwork Doesn’t Work for Women

Media:
ABC reminds staff 'only actual words' to be used on air

The 2015 Crikeys: Andrew Bolt sook of the year - He really should be disqualified just to give someone else a go.

John Cleese returns as Basil Fawlty in Specsavers ad

Tech:
Australia 'may do dumb things' with crypto in 2016: EFF

Science:
Discovery and Assignment of Elements with Atomic Numbers 113, 115, 117 and 118

History:
John Menadue. High Court judges.

180,000 items in Digital Collections are in the public domain

Epicure:
Chef Jake Kellie joins new Pakenham restaurant the Lakeside Mill

Humour and satire:
Peter Dutton Accidentally Texts His IQ To Journalist

Draconian New Gun Laws Require Americans To Count To 10 Before Buying Firearms

Statesman, Scholar, Bowl Of Porridge: A Very Serious History Of The Life And Times Of Peter Dutton

Clickbait of the week:
This Faux-Inspirational Ad About The “Struggles” Of A Sydney Uni Law Student Is Way Too Real

This Twitter spat between Emo Kylo Ren and Very Lonely Luke is what the Internet was made for

Which Marauding Barbarian Horde are you?

I got stupid on me and now I'm wiping it off on you:
Barnaby Joyce: I hope we don't become too politically correct after Briggs, Dutton affairs ...says the bloke who had a hissy fit over two dogs.

10 Songs To Skip Now That The Beatles Are Streaming - This is some high-grade multi-purpose stupid!

The least boring photo on my camera roll:

How to behave in mixed company

Between Jamie Briggs, Chris Gayle and Hamish McLachlan, there has been a lot of talk about what is appropriate behaviour between men and women doing their jobs.

Predictably, this has led to a bunch of would-be contrarians whose emotional development ceased some time before 1985 to complain about their favourite straw-man, “political correctness.” They will complain that you can’t even give a woman a compliment, or a friendly peck on the cheek (which may or may not be a euphemism for sucking on her neck) any more.

For those who need to be told, here’s a quick and easy way for men to tell if their behaviour towards women is acceptable or not:

Just think* about what you’re tempted to say to or do with the woman, and imagine you were saying or doing it to a man. Would it get you punched? Would it at least be socially awkward? If the answer is Yes, then DON’T DO IT! Don’t even think about doing it unless it’s been made perfectly clear that such an approach would be welcome. Here’s another hint: it’s not perfectly clear that it will be welcome just because someone is female and breathing.

Some people will say that if it were a woman doing the same thing to a man, then it would not be a problem. It’s true that it’s easier and more acceptable for a woman to offer a man a kiss on the cheek or a friendly hug in a wider range of situations. Is this a double standard?

Damn right it’s a double standard!

But if you want to talk about double standards, let’s look at the other side of the coin. Men get to walk from a bistro to their car after dark without having to worry about whether they might be raped. Men don’t have to consider contraception even if they’re not sexually active, just in case the worst happens.

If you want to moan about double standards, there’s your starting point. Once we have stamped out sexual violence for a generation or two, then that friendly hug or peck (if that really is all you intend) might be taken in the spirit in which it’s offered.

Until then, back the hell off. It’s not that hard.

* Most of the time, just thinking ought to be enough.

09 January, 2016

Don’t wait to be told

It’s just over a week into 2016 and we are already well ahead of schedule on our production of stupid.

Today’s stupid was produced by Malcolm Knox where he slapped on the literary equivalent of black-face with the intention of teaching West Indian cricketer Chris Gayle a thing or two about prejudice.

I’ll give Mr Knox the benefit of the doubt that his column was well intentioned, in the same way that the millennial who mansplained how to do feminism better in New Matilda was. Both are cases of editors going for controversy over responsible commentary. Unfortunately, Knox’s point could easily have been made in a couple of sentences.

In summary, Mr Knox seems to be saying that Mr Gayle (who I have only known of for a day longer than I’ve known of Knox), being a black Jamaican, ought to know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of prejudice – which is casual racism in itself. He then rattles off every Jamaican stereotype in the book, in a way that seems to expect Mr Gayle to say, “Thanks, boss! I get it now.” In a spectacular rhetorical own-goal, he not only claims the white male privilege of being the only type of person to not experience prejudice, but also explaining it to those who do on behalf of those who do.

So, for those who need to be told, here’s a handy guide:

People of any race have the potential to be sexist.
People of any gender have the potential to be racist.
People of any race or gender have the potential to be homophobic.
People of any sexuality have the potential to be racist or sexist.
People of any religion or non-religion have the potential to be racist, sexist and homophobic.

In short, bigotry is not the sole domain of white males.

The “how would you like it?” angle is a fair point, but Malcolm Knox lays it on with a shovel and sounds like he’s enjoying it way too much. Many people will have decided to stop reading long before he gets to the point. Yes, it was ironic, but as they said in Drop the Dead Donkey, just because you know it’s crap doesn’t stop it being crap. And it comes from someone who has probably never been told he’s doing privileged white male wrong. Way to turn a douche into the victim, Malcolm!