Why Heatwaves Are So Deadly, And Climate Change Is Making Them Deadlier At 44℃ you die. Not 44° air temperature, but 44° core temperature—the temperature of your major organs. At a core temperature of 37℃ you’re fine, and at 44℃ you’re dead. That’s the narrow range between good health and death, and it’s why an […]
The ABC continues its proud tradition of climate-change-denial, and I propose a time-saving template for future denialist articles.
An opponent is someone with whom you have a shared understanding and agreement about the rules, and system. Regardless of who wins, the system survives. An enemy, by contrast, wants to destroy your system, and they’ll do it by pretending to honor the rules, and breaking them whenever convenient. Lying, cheating, rigging, propaganda, bribery, imprisonment of competitors, whatever it takes.
A brief musing on environmental myths. I’m writing this in response to a number of prevalent and recurring myths or assumptions that permeate discussions about the environment. Broadly, I’d describe them as: In slightly more detail: the myth of perfection presumes that the way the world is now—or was—say fifty, or a hundred, or five […]
Once upon a time the tabloids would fat-shame women in the public eye, but apparently the latest fad is muscle-shaming. The victim is still women, though, not the industries that they work in.
A musing on the root-causes of Roe-v-Wade’s overturn—Senate malapportionment and bad faith—and proposed remedies. Not a discussion of Roe v. Wade.
How “right” and “wrong” are equivalent for the ABC’s fact-checkers, who cherry-pick their results.
Every election, and oftentimes in between, there are calls from people who regard either the major parties or political discourse as too far Right or Left. These people will call for a party to represent the “Sensible Centre”, or lament what they perceive as polarisation in politics, which is failing to represent what they contend […]
A frequent criticism of government ministers is that they have absolutely no experience or qualifications in their portfolios. Can we take that criticism seriously? Let’s look at the high-level list of portfolios: AgricultureEnvironmentDefenceEducationEmploymentFinanceForeign affairs HealthCustomsIndustryScienceEnergyResources(Attorney-General) TransportCommunicationDevelopmentSocial ServicesTreasuryVeteran’s Affairs(Prime Minister) What are the chances that, of the MPs elected, the party or parties forming government will […]
A Facebook acquaintance recently posted the meme above, and I was surprised at both the variety and vehemence of the responses. Some agreed, and others absolutely disagreed. What interested me in particular was the remarkable illogic of those disagreeing, and it so irritated me I decided to write this rebuttal of their counter-claims and arguments. […]
With the LNP it’s not “better late than never”, it’s “always late – or never” Water bombers- never Bushfire fund – never ICAC – never Quarantine – never Vaccines – late Rollout – late Local mRNA – still late NSW lockdowns – late Boosters – late RATs – never, then late Do you remember Morrison […]
The “all headline” front page has led to an explosion of clickbait, but deliberately misleading headlines are worse.
Links to a British Medical Journal article censored by Facebook, if you want to “fact-check” the article yourself rather than rely on well known medical experts, Facebook.
The asymmetry of propaganda warfare. Brief thread. It’s a truism of warfare that defenders have to succeed every single time, while attackers only have to succeed once. It’s true, for example, of cybersecurity, but it’s also true of propaganda. This is because there are infinitely many lies that can be told, many of them plausible, […]
infinite8horizon - peter d barnes 