George Brandis is wrong, consensus on climate change is not an attack on free speech

In a recent interview George Brandis criticised the consensus view on climate change as an attack on free speech, citing John Stuart Mill in support. In Brandis misses the finer points of free speech Henry Martyn Lloyd argues that Brandis is wrong.

Brandis seems to think that it is necessary that debate continue until those in error come to accept their error. Mill had no such requirement and nor should he.

For Mill there is nothing in principle that prevents the forming of a consensus view on any matter, scientific, religious, or political. In fact, Mill held that the ideal of knowledge is true consensus. Ensuring liberty of thought and discussion does not prevent consensus, rather the opposite, the ideal of discussion is convergence on truth even though this convergence will always be incomplete and must never become dogmatic.

Thomas Piketty interviewed on his book and rising inequality

In The rise and fall and rise again of inequality: an interview with Thomas Piketty Jonathan Derbyshire talks to Thomas Piketty about his book Capital in the Twenty-First Century and the causes of rising inequality.

IMF warns that income inequality can reduce economic growth

In IMF Issues Income Inequality Warning, Suggests Ways To Slow It Christopher S. Rugaber reports that:

The International Monetary Fund warned Thursday that wide income inequality can slow economic growth and is proposing ways to reduce it.

Its recommendations include: Raising property taxes. Taxing the rich more than others. Raising the eligibility age for government retirement programs.

...

Government tax and spending policies can be effective in reducing inequality, the report said. Such policies have lowered the income gap by an average of one-third in advanced economies, mostly because of money transferred to the poorest households.

Last month, an IMF research paper concluded that countries with steep income inequality were more likely to have briefer and weaker periods of economic growth. It also argued that efforts to redistribute income don't necessarily hinder economic expansion.

Triclosan may enourage staph nasal infections

Beth Mole writes in Triclosan aids nasal invasions by staph that "Soaps that contain triclosan, a commonly used antimicrobial compound, could actually help disease-causing bacteria [staph] colonize the human nose".

Because triclosan usually kills bacteria, the finding was a surprise, says Boles, who works to understand why only some people harbor staph. A person carrying the microbe in his or her nose, he says, has a much higher risk of a staph infection, which can occur in the skin and blood and cause pneumonia and produce toxic shock syndrome.

In the study, 37 people, or 41 percent, had detectable levels of triclosan in their nasal secretions. Of the people that had very little or no antimicrobial compound in their snot, 27 to 32 percent had staph in their nostrils. This fraction fits with previous studies, which have found that staphcolonizes about 30 percent of the general population. But of the people with higher levels of triclosan, 64 percent carried staph.

"Because they used a 'short' integer, only 64 kilobytes worth of secrets are exposed."

Please Put OpenSSL Out of Its Misery pleads Poul-Henning Kamp: "OpenSSL must die, for it will never get any better".

How does your country's flag rate

The world's flags given letter grades - Grades by name of country.

So which are the best:

Gambia: A+ 90/100
Pakistan: A 88 / 100
Japan: A 87 / 100
Somalia: A 86 / 100
Cuba: A 85 / 100
Israel: A 85 / 100
South Africa: A 85 / 100
Switzerland: A 85 / 100
Turkey: A 85 / 100
Viet Nam: A 85 / 100

And the worst:

American Samoa: D- 39 / 100
Belarus: D- 39 / 100
Niue: D- 39 / 100
Falkland Islands: D- 38/100
Mozambique: D- 37 / 100
Turkmenistan: D- 37 / 100
El Salvador: D- 36 / 100
Brazil: D- 35 / 100
Guam: F 20 / 100
U.S. Virgin Islands: F 6 / 100
Northern Mariana Islands: F 2 / 100

Australia gets a C - 55 out of 100.

Mind you these are just someone's opinions.

Inequality leading to falling education standards

In Tide of inequity to blame for falling education results David Gillespie explains why the increasing market share of private schools is not a good thing.

But we are on the fast train to inequity again. And, as the studies have predicted, the more the tide of equity sinks, the worse our education results as a nation become.

Running away from the public system is not the solution to Australia's education woes. It simply drives wedges into cracks in Australian society and replays the disaster movie our education system has seen once before. Any government that encourages that as a solution is looking after its bottom line, not your child's future.

Mispronuciations the engine of language change

David Shariatmadari in 8 pronunciation errors that made the English language what it is today explores some of the common errors of pronunciation we all make. He goes on to explain how common types of mistakes have led to permanent changes in English.

There are bound to be things we've read or are vaguely familiar with, but not able to pronounce as we are supposed to.

The term "supposed" opens up a whole different debate, of course. Error is the engine of language change, and today's mistake could be tomorrow's vigorously defended norm. There are lots of wonderful examples of alternative pronunciations or missteps that have become standard usage.

He goes on to document some of his favourite examples.

Criminal justice in Queensland is becoming more medievel

In The Great Leap Backward: Criminal Law Reform with the Hon Jarrod Bleijie Andrew Trotter and Harry Hobbs examine recent changes to Queensland criminal law. The abstract:

On 3 April 2012, the Honourable Member for Kawana, Jarrod Bleijie MP, was
sworn in as Attorney-General for Queensland and Minister for Justice. In the
period that followed, Queensland’s youngest Attorney-General since Sir
Samuel Griffith in 1874 has implemented substantial reforms to the criminal
law as part of a campaign to ‘get tough on crime’. Those reforms have been
heavily and almost uniformly criticised by the profession, the judiciary and the
academy. This article places the reforms in their historical context to illustrate
that together they constitute a great leap backward that unravels centuries of
gradual reform calculated to improve the state of human rights in criminal
justice.

Austerity can be deadly

In Greek austerity tragedy shows where not to make cuts Andy Coghlan writes:

Austerity can be bad for your health. Greece has seen drastic increases in infant mortality, suicide and depression since the government made deep cuts to healthcare and social support services between 2009 and 2012. These fallouts may soon be reprised in other countries that have embarked on tough austerity measures, such as Spain and Portugal.

Following the country's financial crash, Greece cut its hospital budget by 25 per cent cut and slashed funding for mental health problems by 55 per cent. An analysis of health statistics shows that as a result, suicides increased 45 per cent between 2007 and 2011 and, over roughly the same period, cases of depression more than doubled and infant mortality rose by 43 per cent.

Needle-exchange schemes and free condoms for injecting drug users were also cut. By 2012, new HIV cases in this group were 32 times what they had been in 2009.

The country has also had its first cases of locally spread malaria for 40 years.

A rising proportion of long-term unemployed is not good

In Our long-term unemployment headache Greg Jericho explains the long-term unemployed ratio and why we should be concerned about an increase in the proportion of long-term unemployed.

Repeal Day = Pseudo Reform

In Tony Abbott's pseudo reform on the spin cycle Ross Gittins writes that the Government's "repeal day" is more about spin than actual deregulation.

In the process, of course, we'll have changed the meaning of ''red tape''. It's meant to mean bureaucratic requirements that waste people's time without delivering any public benefit. In the hands of the spin doctors, however, it's being used to encompass everything from removing dead statutes to the supposed deregulation of industries.

Repealing redundant laws and regulations dating back as far as 1900 is mere window dressing. By definition they don't waste anyone's time - if they did they'd have been repealed long ago. Their primary purpose is to allow Tony Abbott to quote huge numbers: today I announce the abolition of more than 1000 acts of Parliament and the repeal of more than 9500 regulations. A trick you can pull only once.

Somewhere in there is some genuine, time-wasting red tape we're better off without, but it doesn't add up to much - hence the need for so much padding. Governments of both colours are always promising to roll back red tape, mainly because it gives people such an emotional charge.

Ross goes on to point out that what seems red tape to some may actually be important for the economy and country (e.g. "supplying information to the Bureau of Statistics").

The other problem with this "repeal day" is that it's hiding some controversial moves:

But the most objectionable feature of the whole red tape Repeal Day charade is the way it has been used as cover for rent-seeking by the Coalition's industry backers. It's an open secret the protections for investors provided by the Future of Financial Advice legislation are being watered down at the behest of the big banks, which want to be freer to incentivise unqualified sales people to sell inappropriate investment products to mug punters.

Then there's the strange case of the Charity Commission,which was set up only recently to reduce inefficient regulation and red tape. It's to be abolished despite the objections of most charities, presumably because the Catholic Church doesn't like it. It's being claimed all these dubious doings will ''drive productivity, innovation and employment opportunities'', not to mention ''creating the right environment for businesses of all sizes to thrive and prosper and to drive investment and jobs growth''.

Ross also asks show the Government came up with the supposed savings of $700 million a year:

Yeah sure. The claimed savings of $700 million a year (don't ask how that figure was arrived at) are equivalent to 0.04 per cent of GDP, and yet they'll work wonders. Must be an incredible multiplier effect.

The Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect

There are plenty of sites that quote Michael Chrichton explaining the Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. For example:
http://seekerblog.com/2006/01/31/the-murray-gell-mann-amnesia-effect/
http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2011/08/media-credibility-and-the-murray-gell-mann-amnesia-effect/
http://gellmannamnesia.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/whats-with-blog-title.html

Basically, imagine you're reading an article in the newspaper. You know something about the topic of the article and so you know the article is totally wrong (I think everyone with some level of specialist knowledge has experienced this). However, you continue reading the newspaper and accept everything else in it as correct. That's the Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect.

Increasing inequality may be inevitable

In A Relentless Widening of Disparity in Wealth Eduardo Porter looks at the work of Thomas Piketty who argues that our economic system will see a rise in inequality and increasing concentration of wealth in the hands of a few.

Mr. Piketty’s is based on data. He just has much more: centuries’ worth, from dozens of countries. He distills from them a simple historical regularity. The rate of return to capital — understood broadly to include machinery, land, financial instruments, housing and everything else — is usually higher than economic growth.
This was particularly true before the Industrial Revolution, when economies didn’t really grow, but it prevailed even after economic growth took off in the 19th century.
This means that the income from wealth usually grows faster than wages. As returns from capital are reinvested, inherited wealth will grow faster than the economy, concentrating more and more into the hands of few. This will go on until capital owners decide to consume most of their income and stop reinvesting as much.

Is there a solution?

Is there a politically feasible antidote? Professor Piketty notes that the standard recipe — education for all — is no match against the powerful forces driving inherited wealth ever higher.
Taxes are, of course, the most feasible counterweight. Progressive wealth taxes could reduce the after-tax return to capital so that it equaled the rate of economic growth.

Spotting a liar

In So you think you can spot a liar? Stephen Dawson, a former police officer, details how most of us aren't as good at spotting liars as we think we are.

We think we can look into the eyes of someone and know when they are lying, or when they are being truthful.

Indeed, some of us can for some people. The problem is that none of us really knows with certainty who we can "read", and who we can't. And both game theory and evolution suggest that it will always be neck-and-neck between the ability to tell lies that can't be detected and the ability to detect those lies.

There are advantages to any group of people for all to be (reasonably) truthful. But there can be even greater advantages to an individual if he or she can lie and get away with it. There lies the ability to be a free rider on the efforts of others.

As some people are better at spotting liars than others, so some are better at telling lies than others. Some can be very good at it indeed.

At a TED presentation Pamela Meyer gives some tips on How to spot a liar.

Could antibiotics be making us fat?

Pagan Kennedy looks at the link between antibiotics and obesity in The Fat Drug.

Base-load electricity from renewables

In Renewable energy finally makes economic sense Mark Diesendorf argues that renewable energy can reliably supply base-load electricity. On those rare occasions when additional electricity is needed he advocates biofuelled gas turbines.

Solar to beat coal

Evan Beaver in Crushing Solar Optimism argues that the continuing improvements in the efficiency and cost of solar will put coal fired electricity generators out of business.

Voter Id in Australia

In "A fix for what’s not broken: why Australia doesn’t need voter ID" Jennifer Rayner looks at the issue of voter identification and multiple voting. She rightly points out requiring voters to provide identification won't prevent anyone from voting more than once.

Gittins on economic rent

In Who's taxing who, and who pays the rent? Ross Gittins explain the concept of economic rents.