There be dragons

I’m not sure if I’ve told you about the fantasy novel I’m writing with three women. I think I’ve briefly mentioned it but no details. All my life I’ve been a reader. Always have my nose stuck in a book. But mainly it’s been historical fiction, non-fiction history or popular science and biographies. I have a confession dear reader. You may gasp. I think I might be amongst a handful of people on this planet who has not read any Harry Potter books. And I’ve never even watched Star Wars. So here’s the ironic thing: me, writing a fantasy novel.

As I kid, I just didn’t like the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs business. Bambi was way too cutsey pie for me. I do remember reading Wind in the Willows and that has remained a favourite. But I never got into the whole fantasy world thing. But one day, I was asked by a woman in China to write with her and another woman who lives in Texas. They already knew each other and found me on Flickr, where I run a group. Both of them were well down the road of writing together. The woman in China is an American who is a published author and poet. Gulp. But we started off writing together. I provided the plot and away we went. Working collaboratively on a wiki.

Unfortunately, the woman in China had to return to the US because the Chinese changed their visa conditions for foreigners. Now she’s in California and too busy to write for the moment. So that left the Texan lady and me. She actually came to Australia last October to meet me. We get on very well and have continued writing.

Because I’ve never read any fantasy novels to speak of, I sought the help of a Gen Y person who promptly looked at me like I was an alien when I announced I’d never been into fantasy novels.  I was given the strict instruction that the number one author I should read is Robin Hobb. I was a tad worried that I was going to encounter mystical dragons, flying wands, magicians or a host of unbelievable creatures. I can cope with Avatar because there is a theme I can relate to: pillaging of the environment. But when it comes to talking dragons or cats that can morph into a human or shift shape, that’s harder for me.

So I bought the Farseer Trilogy and have been engrossed ever since. I have even missed my train stop a couple of times. I am staggered by Hobb’s imagination and how closely you can relate to the characters, including a wolf. I don’t understand why she is not as well-known as JK Rowling. Her writing is rich with visual imagery, action-packed and emotive. I plan to read all of her works. This trilogy has been a great way to dip my toes into fantasy writing but I seek your help dear reader.

No doubt many of you have spent years reading fantasy of all sorts. So I’d like some recommendations. What’s your favourite fantasy novel? Who is your favourite fantasy author? What should I be reading? Help!

Come play with me

I’ve been a bit side-tracked this week. I finished the first roll of film from my new Superheadz Pink Dress superfat lens camera and I’m starting to upload to my photo blog. The first photo is up and shows the Sydney Opera House from a slightly different perspective. It’s always exciting to get back your roll of processed film, especially when using a lomography camera. You just don’t know what to expect. And speaking of the unexpected. Have you seen the photos of cheetahs toying with a cute little impala?

I’ve been to Kenya I think four times, maybe three. I rode around for hours in one of those safari jeeps decked out with a zebra pattern. Around and around the Masai Mara, looking for cheetahs. Maybe a mother with cheetah cubs. I managed to get one shot of a cheetah speeding over the Kenyan landscape. All you could really see was this small blurry dot. So you can imagine how jealous I am of these photos.

So here you have three male cheetahs with a baby impala, who in some of those photos looks a bit like the deer in the traffic light. You can almost hear the antelope thinking: “How the hell did I get myself into this spot. Look at those, cheetahs. Dangerous, fast. Can I outrun them? Am I tonight’s dinner?”.  But apparently, the male cheetahs had full bellies from a previous hunt and were tired following their dash after prey. You know, the photos remind me of how you can feel in an organisation: senior management toying with employees. Will they fire me or won’t they? Will there be another restructure? Am I getting a salary increase? LOL.

Aren’t these just the most amazing photos.  The cheetahs knocked down the impala and played with it for about 15 minutes. Lots of licking and affectionate rubbing going on. Then it seems the impala made its escape (although I have read elsewhere that it ended up as a cheetah snack: let’s hope not). The photographers are Michel and Christine Denis-Huot. Sooooooooooooooooo jealous.

Oh to be a pig

Dear international reader.  When you think of Sydney or Australia – what comes to mind? The sparkling blue of Sydney harbour? The constant sunshiny days? Exotic wildlife and man-eating koalas? Blonde babes in bikinis or guys with windswept hair on surfboards? Good food? Laid back life style?

Well, tick all those, you’re right. But I bet you didn’t say: trains that you find in the third world. And I bet you also didn’t say that pigs are treated better than humans in Australia.

Sydney has been experiencing a fairly humid summer. It has not been unusual to have 35º/95 ºF or higher days. Now, you would think that a developed, sophisticated country like Australia would have air-conditioned trains wouldn’t you? Ah, well nope, not exactly.

A couple of weeks ago, it was a shocker and I had to catch a train from Wynyard to Central (two stops). Into the station rattled a silver set train that looks like this:

Old and tired. I boarded and became convinced that CityRail (who runs the Sydney train network) is trying to kill passengers. There was no air-conditioning and the outside temperature was around 35º. Hot, cranky, sweaty passengers were crowded in the vestibule area.  Some windows were open but were blowing in hot air. By the time we reached Central, most of us rushed out gasping for air (must have been at least 38º in the carriage I was travelling in).

Sydney’s trains can often be crowded and about a third of the network I believe is not air-conditioned. So here we all were, stuck together like sardines in a heat-soaked tin can train, shunted from station to station.

Now, if we were pigs, we would be transported in air-conditioned luxury. Yep, that’s right folks: there are rules and codes of practice aplenty for the transportation of pigs but none for the transportation of the victims of CityRail trains.

The Parliament of Australia Senate Committee on animal welfare recommends that piggies are never to be transported during temperatures of 38º or higher; the Code of Practice (Vic) for the land transport of pigs says that piggies can suffer temperature stress when the weather hits 30°C or more;  and the National Farm Care Council of Canada has a very handy fact sheet for the handling of pigs, which recommends that housing for pigs should never reach temperatures higher than 34°C.

Yet, CityRail seems to think it’s fine to transport humans in crowded carriages that can reach 34°C or higher. Hello? CityFAIL.

It’s not crap Tony

I said somewhere in a recent post that 2010 will be a battle ground for climate change. Climate change deniers are popping up everywhere harping on about climate change being an hysterical pseudo-religion, dangerous alarmism, indoctrination or bunkum. You can read about 10 top climate change deniers and their arguments here. In Australia, we have Tony Abbott, the leader of the Opposition (Liberal Party), who is probably our most vocal climate change skeptic. His very scientific consideration of whether or not our planet is heating up is: “climate change is crap“.

Don’t know about you but I’d rather our leaders were more measured in their evaluation of the most serious global crisis we currently face. I’d rather they listen to the climate change scientists (who surely have the expertise to assess what’s going on) and if there is a remote possibility that climate change is happening, act collectively with other countries to do what can be done.

But seems the battle is heating up (so to speak) because a recent poll revealed a steep decline in Americans’ belief in global warming. 57% of Americans think there is solid evidence the world is getting warmer, down from 77% in 2006.

The problem is that scientists aren’t great at communications and working with the media. It’s difficult to communicate complex scientific ideas to the general public. The climate change deniers on the other hand are good at propaganda. If you look at the Top 10 deniers, most of them are politicians, journalists, people with degrees in areas other than science, lobbyists or people who have a hand in the back pockets of oil companies. So it’s somewhat easier for the deniers to win the propaganda war.

But there are consistent reports emerging that point to climate change occurring. The most recent I’ve found is from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (gee, they probably have some serious pointy-headed scientists there – I’d rather listen to them than a politician like Tony Abbott who holds extreme views on so many topics). NASA’s analysis shows that in the Southern Hemisphere, 2009 was the warmest year since modern records began in 1880. And overall, 2009 was the second warmest year since record-keeping began and January 2000 to December 2009 was the warmest decade on record. Although the tropical El Niño-La Niña cycle causes year-to-year variability of global temperature, the analysis suggests that global warming is continuing unabated. The figure below highlights how Earth’s surface temperatures have increased since 1880, with the last decade experiencing temperatures at the highest levels ever recorded:

And this figure shows the largest temperature increases are in the Arctic and the Antarctic Peninsula:

The analysis suggests that average global temperatures have increased by about 0.8°C (1.5°F) since 1880. Rising levels of carbon dioxide are not the only factors. Changes in the Sun’s irradiance, oscillations of sea surface temperature in the tropics and changes in aerosol levels can also cause slight increases or decreases in the planet’s temperature. Temperatures tend to decrease when La Niña is around, which is what has been happening recently in Europe with the icy weather. But the El Niño phenomenon takes over and scientists are predicting that 2010 could be the warmest year on record.

Here in Australia since about November, Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne and Sydney have experienced temperatures around 40℃ (104 ºF) if not higher and hot weather conditions have been declared “catastrophic fire alerts”. Maybe I’m getting to be a really old goat but I don’t recall growing up with such extreme weather conditions. We even have 40℃ days followed by a dramatic drop in temperature so the next day might be 26℃ (78.8 ºF).

The analysis also points out that volcanic eruptions have not counteracted global warming during 2009. Volcanoes spew forth sulfate aerosols that reflect incoming solar radiation back into space and this helps to moderate global temperatures.

If you want to read more pointy-headed scientific stuff, check out this interview with a climatologist, discussing surface temperature record. And you should also read the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration global analysis. The NOAA concluded that global land and ocean temperatures for 2009 tied with 2006 as the fifth warmest year on record. NOAA puts the year at 0.56°C above the 20th century average. The NOAA have produced a chart showing global significant weather and climate events for 2009.

You can view a larger visual here. Some highlights are:

• Alaska had its second warmest July on record.
• Australia had record-breaking heatwaves (ah yeah, I felt them).
• China suffered its worst drought in five decades.
• East Africa: drought led to massive food shortages affecting 23 million people.

So Tony – you might just want to check out some of the serious scientific stuff before you declare climate change to be crap.

Girlfriend: you ‘aint Jessica

Occasionally, I let fly at dumb ass people. Today is one of those days. Prepare yourself.  Firstly, I think we’d all agree that Hollywood star, Jessica Alba, is pretty hot – gorgeous olive skin, almond shaped eyes, stunning body, hair blah blah. Oh to be born again like her. But would I undergo serious plastic surgery to look like her? Would I try to morph from an Asian woman into Jessica? Hell no.

But there is a dumb ass person who is trying to do just this. And she has a dumb ass boyfriend she should have given the flick to a loooooooooong time ago. Here’s the sorry story.

A 21-year old Chinese woman, identified as Xiaoqing (probably way too embarrassed to give us her real name), has been running around Shanghai sporting a blonde wig and false eyelashes and wondering why on earth people have been laughing at her. Here’s a clue girlfriend: you look ridiculous.  Apparently, Xiaoqing’s boyfriend is obsessed with Jessica Alba and has demanded that Xiaoqing do her make-up like Alba and even go to bed wearing said make-up.  Girlfriend, here’s another tip for you: dumb ass boyfriend is probably some creepy, stalker dude with an altar to Alba in his house somewhere, run away NOW.

Dumb ass boyfriend gives Xiaoqing the blonde wig for Christmas and rather than tossing it in his face, she decides to wear it on the streets of Shanghai. Xiaoqing cries: “I love him very much…. That’s why I always followed his opinions. I don’t want to lose him.” The opinions of this dumb ass boyfriend are apparently so important to Xiaoqing that she is prepared to undergo extensive plastic surgery to turn herself into Jessica.

Hint number three girlfriend: we are all born with different features, personalities, bodies and so on. No amount of plastic surgery will make you Jessica Alba. But dumb ass Xiaoging says: “I’m a psychologically weak person. I want to do something to challenge myself and build a strong personality through it.” How about seeing a psychiatrist girlfriend?? But no, she’s thinking that submitting herself to eyebrow lifting, eyelid reshaping and nose reconstruction will please her boyfriend and give her an instant personality transplant. And it appears that the Shanghai Time Plastic Surgery Hospital will do the slicing and dicing job for free. Why I wonder?

Any form of elective surgery should be considered VERY seriously. I plan to age gracefully (or ungracefully as the case may be). No Botox-wielding, scalpel waving plastic surgeon is going to get near me. But contemporary society’s obsession with celebrity, gleaming white teeth and the perfect body has led to some recent untimely deaths that Xiaoging might want to take note of.

Former Miss Argentina and model, Solange Magnano, died after gluteoplasty, which is liposuction intended to give a better shaped butt, apparently by lifting it slightly. Magnano was 38 years old and left behind a husband and eight year old twins. This is how she looked before the cosmetic surgery that killed her (liquid injected during the procedure somehow traveled to her lungs and brain):

Now unless my eyes are seriously letting me down, Solange was gorgeous. She was a former Miss Argentina and model, ergo she was a beauty, yet she felt she needed a butt lift.

Both Nigeria’s First Lady, Stella Obasanjo and Kanye West’s 58-year old mother allegedly died following complications from cosmetic surgery. And American novelist, Olivia Goldsmith, died during a facelift operation. These are the high profile cases but then you hear about a 32-year old woman who died during a lunchtime tummy tuck procedure; the 42-year old woman who went into cardiac arrest following a facelift; or the 25-year old man who died after liposuction.

These are all very sad and unnecessary deaths brought on by the desire to look younger or slimmer. But when it comes to an Asian woman voluntarily submitting herself to the knife because her boyfriend is obsessed with Jessica Alba…well, that’s beyond dumb ass IMHO. Girlfriend: follow the links in this post and think VERY carefully. The procedure will be irreversible and you may not come out of the operating theatre alive. And also think VERY carefully about your boyfriend who might benefit from a trip to a psychiatrist.

End of rant.

No blue fairies

I saw Avatar the other night. I was wondering if I’d bother because I’m not a great fan of animation in films. Yep, Bambi and the whole Disney thing never appealed to me. But the premise of the film looked intriguing, so when a great friend said let’s go and see Avatar (plus Invictus) in one blockbuster evening, I was all for it. I am a great sci-fi fan but glimpses of those 10-feet tall, cat-like blue creatures in Avatar posters had me a bit worried that the film might be full of nasty aliens (why is it that our fear of the unknown is always played out in sci-fi as predator-like aliens out to destroy humans or conquer Earth?).

Anyway, I have to say that Avatar is mesmerising for its visual effects. And the blue aliens are no Tinkerbell-style blue fairies. If you haven’t seen it, rush to the cinema theatre now. I had a few minutes of hassle with the 3D business and trying to eat something whilst having the 3D glasses on in a dark theatre (we were in comfy Gold Class – the only way to watch a film). But after this, I was pulled into the Pandoran world. When the jellyfish-like creatures floating to and from the Tree of Souls are seemingly in front of your eyes, it’s quite an experience.

Aside from the fact that James Cameron is clearly some sort of genius for coming up with the 3D fusion camera system, the film is multi-layered and in my view concentrates on the notions of imperialism and complexity (because of the premise that the trees on Pandora form an intelligent, interconnected network and the Pandoran people are a part of this neural network).

It might depend on your country of origin as to how you view this film. I found it VERY uncomfortable, for example, watching the Tree of Voices come crashing down. There was a clear reference for me to the Norse story of the tree Yggdrasil, which supports the cosmos and, as it collapses, so does the universe. But if American, I can well imagine you viewing this as the World Trade Center toppling. Personally, I felt it was an indictment on globalisation and population explosion – our need for more space, more food, more everything means that the Amazonian rainforest is under threat and the habitats of remote tribes are shrinking due to urbanisation and the need for more farming land (for Maccas burgers).

I sensed references to some classic stories: Journey to the Center of the Earth with its imaginary, dangerous world full of giant lizards, subterranean oceans and humongous mushrooms; Dances with Wolves or The Last Samurai and the notion of a disenchanted army officer learning about a gentler culture and eventually protecting and fighting for that culture; and the Emerald Forest. Really, it’s the ultimate noble savage tale.

At first, the Na’vi—the humanoids indigenous to Pandora – look pretty weird but by the end of the film, you start to see them as attractive, which I think is the really clever thing about the film. These are not alien creatures to be feared and reviled; these are creatures that are expressionistically human. Should you be inclined, you can now learn Na’vi, which has about 1,000 words and was created by Paul Frommer, a professor at USC with a doctorate in linguistics. I’m planning to check it out as the language was very credible and quite beautiful. I’ve never liked the sound of Klingon as it doesn’t sound credible (sorry Klingon fans).  But I have to say the English used in the film grated on me: full of phrases and cliches that are so 2010 and not what you might imagine could be from 2154, the year the film is set in. In this sense, the narrative was somewhat limited. And couldn’t we have had a non-white male as the protagonist?

In fact, there were aspects of the story I found disappointing or predictable:

• evil corporate dudes (and IMHO a miscasting of Giovanni Ribisi) who have plundered Earth’s natural resources and have travelled to Pandora to get their hands on Unobtainium. Pandora is full of spiritual, nature-loving types. Obvious big cat fight ahead between evil humans and gentle, noble savages;
• an over-the-top psychopath, Colonel Quaritch, a marine hell bent on getting revenge on Jake Scully, the Na’vi, or anyone in close proximity to him;
• an inconsistency with Sigourney Weaver’s character (and how good does she look for a woman aged 60. What the hell? she’s 60??). She starts off in the film as an angry, cigarette smoking scientist, with shades of Ellen Ripley, but ends up as Earth Mother;
• Michelle Rodriguez playing….well, Michelle Rodriguez. Sneers, brooding looks, fabulously toned arms, toting guns and shooting bad guys – you get the picture;
• Sam Worthington – I didn’t take to him. Bland, very one-dimensional;
• an inconsistency in the storyline – at first we think Evil Corporation are after Unobtainium because they’ll rake in the profits but at the end of the film, we discover that Unobtainium could have saved the Earth;
• the animals were a bit predictable: horses with six legs with some funky colours added;
• but the plant life was impressive (particularly the phosphorescent Tree of Souls) and the long hair-braids of the Na’vi people, which allows them to create a physical link to the animals of Pandora and to their Na’vi ancestors through the Tree of Souls was genius.

Personally, I think Cameron’s Titanic is a far better film but Avatar sets the standard going forward for 3D films. I would have liked a less thinly written storyline. I also wasn’t keen on the film’s music or theme song by Leonna Lewis, which was cringingly like Titanic’s ‘My Heart Will Go On’. I don’t think this film is as mind-blowing as reviewers are saying but it’s visually breathtaking – so see it for that reason.

What does China censor online?

With Google slugging it out with the Chinese Government, I wondered what websites or keywords China actually censors. A spot of research and voilà, I found this nifty visual of the Great Firewall of China.

You can view a larger visual here (and I’m sure this website will be added to the black list). The visual shows censored sites and search terms the Chinese want to keep hidden from their citizens, stuff like Democracy, Oppression, Tiananmen Square, Falungong, persecution, independence. God forbid Chinese citizens ever encountering these words!

But look more closely – what else do you see? Seems the Chinese have something against LOLCats because the imageboard website, 4chan, is banned. Some say that LOLCats originated on 4chan. The BBC is shafted, along with usa.gov and Facebook. The Pope and the Vatican are banned and Disney is given the heave-ho. Yeah, don’t let little Chinese kids catch sight of Bambi or Cinderella – that could wreck them forever.

If we see the Internet as a catalyst for political change, then in their minds, the Chinese Government needs the defense of a Great Wall to keep out the gwailos or foreign devils.  They fear that online activism could move onto the streets.

Of course, I do find the American carry-on about free speech somewhat amusing – given the penchant for warrantless wiretapping that goes on in the US.

It’s the ultimate battle really - the US, which believes in free speech and constitutionally guarantees it; and an inward looking country that believes censorship is all legal, no problem. Check out this article in Xinhua for the Chinese perspective.

An interesting argument I’ve seen recently is that the US could take on China by filing a complaint with the World Trade Organisation.  The argument goes like this: China is a member of the WTO and is in breach of international trade rules. The Chinese firewall is an illegal restraint on international trade because it bars foreign companies from competing in the Chinese market (nearly 400 million users) via the internet.

So there could be a WTO discrimination claim, for example, because China imposes harsher filters and restrictions on Google (a foreign service) than Baidu and this would be contrary to its commitments under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (Gats).

Now this could shape up to be an interesting cat fight. The WTO has ruled against China several times, the latest being a ruling against  an appeal by China in a dispute over its restrictions on the distribution of US printed books, films and music. But how would the WTO classify a search engine?

I guess it would be a smart way for the US to go if it takes on China via the legal processes of the WTO. A direct confrontation with China would be avoided and neither the US nor China would need to argue the higher moral ground of freedom of speech.

UPDATE: Interesting article from WSJ on the history of information control in China.

Oh hai! Happy Anniversary

Well, who would have thought. Three years ago to this very day, I started the ThinkingShift blog – and I’m still ranting and raving about this and that. At first, I thought I’d struggle to find things to blog about. But nope: that hasn’t happened. In fact, there’s too much to talk about.

Occasionally, I consider giving blogging the toss because it takes time and discipline to blog regularly; research topics; and write the (yeah, let’s face it) overly long pieces I do. I had hoped that Twitter, with its limit of 140 characters, might force me to be more concise with my posts. Alas, that has not happened. You might find that the TS blog takes a whole new direction in 2010 but I’ll save this news for a later time.

Meanwhile, January 26 is Australia Day so happy Aussie Day to all Aussie readers. Did you know that Australia Day has only be celebrated as a public holiday on January 26 since 1994 and that it wasn’t until 1935 that all States and territories started using the name “Australia Day” to mark the date? During the 19th Century, it was referred to as Foundation Day or First Landing Day. On January 26 in 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip, commander of the First Fleet of eleven convict ships from Great Britain and the first governor of New South Wales, landed at Sydney Cove. And like the Americans with Thanksgiving, convicts and children of convicts, began celebrating the colony’s beginnings with an anniversary dinner or an emancipist festival.

In 1826, during the anniversary dinner, the word “Australia” started to be used during toasts to the colony. By 1837, fierce loyalty to the new continent of Australia was evident during the anniversary dinner which could only be celebrated by the Australian-born.

After Federation in January 1901, conservative Australian and State governments (fearing that federation might weaken ties to the Mother Country of Great Britain) started celebrating Empire Day on May 24, which marked the late Queen Victoria’s birthday. There was also debate over moving Foundation Day to April 29, the day Captain Cook first landed on the east coast at Botany Bay in 1770. And during World War I, July 30, 1915 became Australia Day.

By 1938 Australians were still 98% British in background and, with the support of the Prime Minister and State premiers, there was agreement for the first time over the name of the day and the timing of the celebration. And so Australia Day started to be celebrated uniformly throughout the country.

Get the kid off the list

What the? The Transport Security Administration (TSA) in the US has clearly lost the plot. Instead of putting effort into sharing intelligence and stopping terrorists before they even get to the airport, they prefer to see an 8-year old cub scout as a potential terrorist.

No joke, this is an excellent example of the stupidity of the climate of fear we are now living in. The young chap in question, Mikey Hicks, shares a name (Michael Hicks) with someone on the TSA no-fly list. Apparently, when Mikey was a little baby, he was denied a seat on a plane to Florida because his name was on the “selectee list” so he was classified as suspicious. And the poor little chap was frisked by airport goons at the age of two. Apparently, the selectee list is not as bad as being on the no-fly list but it still triggers off a round of frisking and grilling for people because they have to go through security screening hoops.

Mikey and his parents were on their way to the Bahamas in the New Year when Mikey was once again hauled aside and frisked. His mother says:

“Up your arms, down your arms, up your crotch — someone is patting your 8-year-old down like he’s a criminal….A terrorist can blow his underwear up and they don’t catch him. But my 8-year-old can’t walk through security without being frisked.”

Mikey’s father is also named Michael Hicks but was only hauled off for questioning for the first time as they were heading off to the Bahamas.

Now, according to the TSA, no kids on are the no-fly or selectee lists. So how are they explaining constantly traumatising an 8-year old cub scout?? For goodness’ sake, the poor kid was born less than a month before 9/11, so logic and sense (what the TSA seems to be missing) would tell you that Mikey is not likely to be a terrorist. So how the hell does he get off THE LIST??

It reminds me of a list I’m on.  Five years ago, I was given a laptop at work to use on the train or when I work from home. But four years ago, I gave up the laptop (never seemed to work remotely) and told the IT dudes to take me off “the list”. But once a year, I get an email from the finance types asking me to declare how I’ve been using the laptop (for tax purposes). My response is always the same “I haven’t been on this list for four years.” This year, I had a hissy fit and emails flew everywhere – I’m hoping I’m off THE LIST.

Why is it that lists are seen as a way of containing, controlling, monitoring? The underwear bomber’s name (Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab) was one of more than 500,000 in a broad terror data base at the National Counterterrorism Centre. Despite being a suss person, neither US Intelligence nor airport security hauled him aside – he waltzed onto a plane. So clearly the list that contained his name was ineffectual.

BTW: notice how in the media Abdulmutallab is referred to as the “underwear bomber” or his exploits are called “The Christmas Day bombing” (albeit with the words “failed” or “attempt” following). But the media hypes up the illusion that there was a bombing when in fact there was not. This herds the populace into believing that they should fear “terrorists”, fear people with foreign (most likely Middle Eastern) names, or fear 8-year olds. And the result of this is what has emerged from a recent Pew Research poll – Americans have been been whipped into a frenzy with 58% believing the government has not gone far enough to protect against terrorist attacks compared to 27% who believe it has gone too far in restricting civil liberties (had I been surveyed, I would have been with the 27%).

This contrasts with an earlier 2009 poll where 40% said the government was not doing enough to protect against terrorists and 36% were more concerned about civil liberties.  Then the underwear bomber comes along (escapes through the clutches of US intelligence yet doesn’t actually bomb anything) and you get a whole heap of sheep willingly giving up constitutionally-guaranteed civil liberties.

What I don’t understand is why people don’t challenge the circus of “watch lists”, “selectee lists”, DNA databases and so on. Why not ask Governments to provide security through means other than lists and databases that haul 8-year old kids aside to be frisked.

I have a suspicion that the notion of “civil liberties” is not understood well. It’s not about your freedom to choose not to eat meat or drink coffee instead of tea. I suspect that people don’t think deeply enough about what civil liberties refer to, so are quite willing to allow the Nanny State to x-ray us at airports, frisk us, place our names on lists, monitor us.  This has me thinking – expect a long post soon!

Coffee and group think

This post is a minor hissy fit. I’ll start off by telling you what triggered my hissy fit. I had breakfast the other day in Sydney. I usually (but not always) like to have coffee with a touch of flavouring, like vanilla or hazelnut. I know the coffee purists roll their eyes at this because I’m adulterating the coffee with yeegads, flavouring! But having been a tea drinker for most of my life (and still am), I find coffee often bitter, especially in Sydney or Melbourne where baristas tend to make coffee so strong it would put hair on your chest.

Back to the hissy fit. I ordered a cappuccino on skim with a touch of vanilla – the waitress didn’t blink an eye. But then, up scurried a barrista, who knelt down by my table and whispered that the makers of the coffee had directed the cafe owner not to provide any flavourings in their coffee. There was a moment of stunned silence on my part as I considered launching into tirade about my democratic right, my customer right to ask for what I wanted. But occasionally I’m astute enough to know that would get me nowhere. So I asked instead for the name of the coffee makers and ordered a cappuccino without flavouring (I was assured by the barrista that I’d enjoy a fabulous cup of coffee without flavouring – sorry but I found it pretty ordinary coffee).

I won’t name the coffee makers because the point of this post is to talk about group think. So later that day I emailed the coffee company to ask them was it correct – do they direct cafe owners not to supply what the customer wants (flavouring) because it adulterates their coffee? Here is the reply (from the director of the company no less):

“Thanks for the feedback Kim. I can appreciate your view – we do not want to project ourselves as being so snobby. With our accounts, we do not order them to keep it pure. However, we do not supply flavourings either as part of our wholesale strategy, as we believe the coffee has enough flavour as it is. Of course, it is the customer’s right to ask for flavourings, and we are not trying to be purist snobs, but we cannot accommodate every single request. Our systems and benchspace are built around efficiently supplying our time short customers with their coffee as quickly as possible. Once we were to introduce a flavour, then we would have to introduce the whole range of 20 syrups with 5 flavoured sugar options. I am sorry you are disappointed, but the system is built with our customers time being the central focus, and bench space efficiency as a priority as well.

Our internal and external studies show that below 0.5% of the coffee drinking public drink flavoured coffee. I would suggest the mocha, as it is flavoured with chocolate and very popular, at 7% of our beverages sold.

We hope this answers your query. We do not like disappointing people – and please understand we are not aiming to be snobby purists – but more we are aiming to satisfy our customers as efficiently as possible.”

Do you think I’m satisfied with this? Well yes and no. It was a polite exchange but here are my issues:

• it took me 5 minutes to get that cappuccino (so much for the efficiency argument)
• they probably only need to supply the most popular flavourings – vanilla, caramel, hazelnut
• they don’t need to turn themselves into a Starbucks with all the sugar options
• anytime someone uses the word “but” it means they are negating what they just said IMHO…”we are not aiming to be snobby purists – but “….yes, we really are snobby purists
• I’d like to see their research because a lot of my friends and colleagues, including my Deputy Chair of Standards Australia KM Committee like nothing better than a flavoured coffee. We both used to enjoy a flavoured cuppa together during our regular catch-ups before he took off to Dubai!
• it was rather insulting for this person to think I wouldn’t know what the heck a mocha is
• but the pièce de résistance is the 0.5% of the coffee-drinking public

Now, I like nothing better than being in the minority. Better than being a sheep but….it caused me to reply that probably only 0.5% of the coffee-drinking public prefer flavoured coffee because the flavours aren’t widely available because of ….group think.

Clive Thompson in Wired, recently had a nice little piece about how group think rules what we like. He refers to research conducted by Duncan Watts, the network-theory pioneer, who wanted to test the strength of self-fulfilling prophecies in pop culture. Thompson provides the example of Madonna – if you rewound history would Madonna be famous because of innate talent or the lucky break of being in the right place at the right time?

So Watts created a music-downloading site and uploaded 48 songs by unknown artists. People logged onto the site, listened to the songs and rated them. Other users could see the ratings and the research suggests they were influenced by what they saw. Some songs became popular whilst others wallowed at the bottom of the ratings partly because of social pressure.

Watts ran the experiment many times with over 12,000 participants. Each new group listened to the same 48 songs and the result was that different songs were popular with different groups. Watts concluded that about half of a song’s movement could be attributed to intrinsic appeal. The rest was luck.

Now it’s a slightly different suggestion but what happens when a coffee company decides it’s a snobby purist and doesn’t provide cafe houses and barristas with coffee flavours? All you can “download” is the coffee they provide – espressos, cappuccinos, double-shot short blacks etc. So groups of people trying out the coffees can only rate the popularity of what’s available and soon the message becomes “sorry, only 0.5% of the coffee-drinking public like flavoured coffee”. And that message is compounded by the fact that people who like flavoured coffees don’t end up going to this particular cafe I went to because they refuse to serve coffees with flavours. But what would happen if flavourings were widely available at all coffee houses? Would you still get the 0.5% statistic thrown in your face?

I did a spot of research. It seems the International Coffee Organization thinks flavoured coffees are a fast growing area of the coffee market. Fredericksburg Gourmet Coffee gives the finger to the snobby coffee purists and offers 44 gourmet flavoured coffees, Coffee Direct (UK) offer up Amaretto, Brandy, Rum and Cinnamon flavoured coffees and Nestlé Australia produce flavoured lattes. So guess they’re not worried about the 0.5% statistic.