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You thought it was all hype, didn’t you?
Some people have been wondering out loud if the influenza pandemic is more hype than substance. Maybe this chart will help.
Keep in mind we’re only up to September – all the data isn’t in for this year (although we are past the peak flu season).
(source: http://www9.health.gov.au/cda)
blogging hiatus -for real man
At the end of this month this blog will go on extended haitus. I’ll put up a placeholder page or something to entertain passersby.
Christian Rossiter
Paraplegic Christian Rossiter died today of a chest infection. He had recently won a court case demanding the right to refuse food. In other words, he wanted to die and he wanted the right to allow himself to die.
He was in a lot of pain and wanted to end his own suffering. Today his wishes were granted.
Euthanasia advocates are all over the story, with people like Philip Nitschke, Australia’s own “Doctor Death”, declaring it a win for their cause. It’s not, and here’s why.
First, Mr Rossiter’s wishes were granted within the existing legal framework. What’s the point in reforming the law when the law is already delivering the desired result?
Second, Mr Rossiter exercised a personal human right to not eat or be fed. While it was a sad and tragic situation, we can respect that right, and the state did respect it. That’s not the same as a social worker submitting a report to a bureaucrat recommending that a health official give a doctor permission to give him a lethal injection.
Those two things are not the same at all. One is an expression of freedom of choice by an individual. The other is an example of the state sticking its long nose into the business of intimate, personal decisions.
But besides all that, it’s just tacky to exploit such a situation for political purposes. The guy got what he wanted. Let him rest in peace.
Tagged euthanasia, liberty, Philip Nitschkeshock headline: musician defends music industry
UK singer Lily Allen has hit out (also reported here) at rich old musicians like Nick Mason of Pink Floyd and Ed O’Brien from Radiohead, who support file sharing and free exchange of music tracks.
The Featured Artist Coalition also says file sharing’s fine because it “means a new generation of fans for us”. This is great if you’re a big artist at the back end of your career with loads of albums to flog to a new audience, but emerging artists don’t have this luxury.
She’s completely right. File sharing erodes the market for music, by making it impossible to charge for your products and services – even if you stipulate that you don’t want to give it away for free. It’s one thing for some retired boomer multi-millionaire who’s already become rich and famous through the system to say they don’t care if people copy their music. But what about a musician who does care? Don’t they have the right to make money from their art, or do we now have to live in an artistic socialist utopia where people do things just out of the intrinsic joy of giving to the universe?
Art is at leat partly an entrepreneurial activity, and if people want to make money from making songs, then they should have that opportunity.
Allen in a follow-up post:
Please, please, please go and see a film in the cinema instead of buying it in Tesco’s car-park , buy a c.d. or album off itunes if you really like it, and god help us, keep buying books . If we do this, i really think we can make a difference.
In other words, consume! Consume to make the world a better place.
I happen to agree.
A hot woman advocating capitalism? I think I’m in love!
In a totally platonic sense of course. Married, middle aged men like me don’t have fantasies about young female rock stars. That would be wrong.
Anyway, here’s Lily Allen “The Fear” on youtube.
*sigh*
Tagged culture, IP, lily allen, musicGet your zinc
Up to 2 billion people suffer from zinc deficiencies, risking cancer and other health problems. Vegetarians are particularly at risk, as zinc in plants is much harder for the body to absorb than zinc in meat.
Not that being a vegetarian is necessarily wrong. But it’s good to know about these things.
it’s bad for babies
Terminating unwanted babies raises risks for later pregnancies. When you do actually try to go “all the way”, future babies will be more likely have low birth weight and be born prematurely, which of course lowers their chance of survival.
That doesn’t mean it’s wrong… just that it has health consequences. It’s good to be informed about these things.
journalism student gets a lesson
A journalism student contacted a real journalist as part of a university class assignment. Here is the email she wrote:
hi my name is Sarah and I’m a bachelor of journalism student. I was wondering if i could please conduct a short phone interview with someone for a news story i have to write as part of my assessment. your time would be greatly appreciated. looking forward to your reply
Here’s the response.
may have to close up shop
For various reasons, I’m considering wrapping this blog up. It’s got nothing to do with getting tired of blogging – it’s more of a conflict with work commitments. Decision to be made soon.