June 12, 2008 | Graham

What would pigeons make of Henson or Leda?

I’ve always found the claims for what you might call Human Exceptionalism a little absurd and over-blown. Over the years I’ve had some quite close relationships with non-human animals, and I don’t think I’m practicing anthropomorphism in saying that they’ve been more rewarding than some of the relationships I’ve had with human animals.
Life, intelligence and emotional depth are all continuums with huge overlap between species, both absolutely, and over the lifetimes of individual members. One such overlap is captured in this press release from Japan’s Keio University:

Japan’s Keio University scientists have shown that pigeons are able to discriminate video images of themselves, paintings of certain painters (Van Gogh vs Chagall) and more. The video image discrimination ability is higher than that of a 3-year-old child.
Prof. Shigeru Watanabe of Keio University and Tsukuba University graduate student Kohji Toda trained pigeons to discriminate real-time self-image using mirrors as well as videotaped self-image, and proved that pigeons can recognize video images that reflect their movements as self-image.
Self-recognition is found in large primates such as chimpanzees, and recent findings show that dolphins and elephants also have such intelligence. Proving that pigeons also have this ability show that such high intelligence as self-recognition can be seen in various animals, and are not limited to primates and dolphins that have large brains.
Through various experiments, it is known that pigeons have great visual cognitive abilities. At Prof. Shigeru Watanabe’s laboratory, pigeons could discriminate paintings of a certain painter (such as Van Gogh) from another painter (such as Chagall). Furthermore, pigeons could discriminate other pigeons individually, and also discriminate stimulated pigeons that were given stimulant drugs from none.
In this experiment, pigeons could discriminate video images that reflect their movements even with a 5-7 second delay from video images that don’t reflect their movements. This ability is higher than an average 3-year-olds of humans who have difficulty recognizing their self-image with only a 2 second delay.

Over on our general forum, C J Morgan wants to know why there aren’t any Christians defending Henson. I’m not sure that this is a theological issue, but thoughts of pornography and birds and Christianity reminded me that Rubens’ Leda and the Swan was painted to hang in a Cardinal’s robing room. Apparently while you couldn’t paint a man and a woman making love, you could paint a woman making love with an animal. Now what would Hetty Johnson think about that? Or a pigeon?

Posted by Graham at 8:53 am | Comments (5) |
Filed under: Science

June 09, 2008 | Graham

For the Liberals, how many is a majority?

The Queensland Liberals are busy polling their members on whether or not they want a merged party. The plebiscite is non-binding and is extra-constitutional.
There are some potential problems with the plebiscite. The largest is what exactly members are voting for. The voting paper is fairly bald. The proposition is:

Do you support merging the Liberal Party of Australia (QLD Division) and the National Party of Australia – Queensland into a new merged entity called the Liberal National Party of Queensland, a Division of The Liberal Party of Australia?

The ballot paper is accompanied by a loaded pamphlett entitled “Our opportunity to win back Queensland” and contains a number of propositions which relate to the draft constitution as currently worded.
New Liberal President Mal Brough has indicated that he wants to see changes to the draft constitution. I have not heard yet whether he has been successful, but if he is successfull, the result will be that it will be anyone’s guess what the plebiscite actually favours. It is reasonable to think that most will use the pamphlett as a guide to their voting decision, so any change in the arrangements will tend to qualify the result.
That is apart from the fact that the document is obviously prejudicial to the “No” case.
All of which leads to the question of whether a majority vote of the plebiscite is enough to lead to the Liberals amalgamating.
Mal Brough has said words to the effect that he doesn’t want to see a large rump left behind.
At the same time many grass roots members who may have been holding their peace are apparently finding their voice. If they amount to 25 to 40 percent of the membership, and there is a change in the terms of the draft constitution, where does that leave the party?
Could the majority, in all conscience, support a merger under those conditions?

Posted by Graham at 3:57 pm | Comments (3) |
Filed under: Australian Politics

June 05, 2008 | Graham

Martin Ferguson is right.

I have a bet with a close friend that oil will be more expensive in around 18 years time than it was 2 years ago (it’s a two year old bet). My money’s looking pretty safe at the moment. Not that I necessarily think that oil prices are going to stay as high as they are for the next few years.
Nor do I think they are going to drop precipitately either, although I was surprised to see a share analyst valuing oil company shares going out a few years on the basis of prices for a barrel of oil as low as $60.
There will be a correction in the price of oil. We’ll economise and they’ll find some more, but with maybe only 15% of the globe enjoying fossil fuel mobility comparable to ours, and at least 42% – China and India – wanting it, and being in a position to do something about it, the retreat won’t last for long.
However, we will buy some time converting coal and oil shale into liquids. (It shouldn’t hurt my bet because for them to be competitive they still need a price for oil somewhere over where it was when I made it).
So Martin Ferguson was right to be spruiking coal and gas to oil and petrol conversion.
The problem with carbon credit markets is that they can only work effectively if there is an alternative to carbon based fuel. At the moment there isn’t. So any carbon trading scheme at this stage is likely to be seen for what it is – a tax on the public without any environmental pay-off.
That seems to have been one reason that Boris Johnson won the mayoralty of London – Londoners were tired of paying environmental taxes that didn’t improve the environment. Australian Labor is not going to be so stupid, particularly if they listen to ministers like Ferguson.

Posted by Graham at 10:32 pm | Comments (6) |
Filed under: Environment

June 05, 2008 | Ronda Jambe

A Nice Way to Spend the Morning

Spiral is a group set up 38 years ago in Canberra. A newcomer to town saw that many older people were isolated, and what started out simply as a casual gathering has become a weekly event. Volunteers, some of them in their 80s, pick up other elderly people and take them to a Uniting Church hall. There they have morning tea and listen to a guest speaker, or singer, or other visitor. The founder, now in her early 80s, is still a key organiser. She was a delight to meet and talk to. Many of my role models are younger women, but some of them are older treasures.
Today the guest was me, doing my little song and dance about climate change. It was a variation on my usual spiel, because the data projector was wouldn’t take a thumb drive, a CD or the available DVD. So it was just a show and tell, without the benefit of fancy stats and scary photos of people drowning in floods.
Before we got down to the issue of climate change, I led them in their seated exercises, off a list provided by a guest physiotherapist. There were smiles all around, and I thought of my own mother, of a similar age and half a world away, and of the Senior Citizens club she attends. She called this morning to talk about Obama’s pretty near complete candidacy for President in the US, but I didn’t have time to chat.
As always, I tried to link the presentation to their own lives. I told them Spiral is an example of social capital, of a caring society, of volunteers’ generosity over many years. We can all hope to go back to this future, where a warm and sunny place awaits every Thursday. Without visuals, I passed around some of the green magazines that accumulate in my study.
The science of global warming is simple enough, and the consequences are becoming fairly well known too. No one who has lived in Canberra for a few decades, as most of us in the room have, doubts that our very local climate has changed considerably. And not for the better, as the bare straw coloured hills remind us daily.
We talked about food and how people grew lots more once upon a time, and may do so again. We talked about solar panels, about population, about public transport and why Canberra’s newest town centre has hardly any jobs. While a few dozed off, quite a few were pretty knowledgble, at least as well informed as many other groups in Canberra.
Trevor Kaine, who was once Chief Minister in the ACT, died last week. He was not much younger than some of this group, and I wondered if he had been troubled in his later years with the unsustainable direction this little city state has been taking.
I told them about my doll house, and how I am trying to make it green. They didn’t think it silly that I held an eco party for 5 year olds in my garden. They understood how something as serious as our environmental problems can also have a fun side. We had some laughs, and then the morning was gone and it was time for us all to leave. For just a little while, we had shared some tea and cakes, a few thoughts, and glimpsed at each other’s lives. It was a pleasant experience, and for that little while, I felt like I really was a green fairy.
green fairy.jpg

Posted by Ronda Jambe at 3:43 pm | Comments Off on A Nice Way to Spend the Morning |
Filed under: General

June 02, 2008 | Graham

Senator’s pitch for amalgamation

We’ve heard a lot from Senator Brandis about the proposed merger, and little from other senators. Ian MacDonald is one of the moderates in the Queensland Liberal Party, he’s also a long-time proponent of merger. This is the text of a letter that he sent to party members and supporters today.

TO MERGE OR NOT TO MERGE?
On the weekend, I sat through every hour of the two day Liberal Party Conference which principally dealt with the proposed merger in Queensland of the Liberal Party and the National Party.
My impressions were that the merger had very broad based support and goodwill from the Party Membership although, as always, the devil is in the detail. But I was surprised by the unanimity of the general approach.
As I remarked in my address to the Convention, in the last five or six Federal and State elections we have run to each election with one single leader, and one set of policies.
Some say that there are irreconcilable policy differences between the Liberals and the Nationals and cite the recent example of the Single Desk Wheat legislation. But already in the Liberal Party, there are very diametrically opposed views on this issue which will be accommodated. And as you know, in the Liberal Party members can cross the floor if they believe that the Party is heading in the wrong direction.
Many people currently in the Parliamentary Liberal Party have far more ‘right wing’ views, than many members of the current Parliamentary National Party. A number of prominent National Party members supported the Republican proposal, and indeed many National Party members have a more liberal view than many Liberals on some of the social conscience issues that have come before the Federal Parliament in recent years.
As Bob Menzies always said, the Liberal Party is a broad church and I believe the policy approaches of both parties can be accommodated in a single new entity.
Some people were concerned that the formation of a single party in Queensland would result in a rump rural Party, around Bob Katter, Tony Windsor and the old One Nation Party. In my view, that grouping is already in existence and the formation of a new Party will in no way exacerbate that situation.
There is a lot of work for both parties to do between now and the proposed Constitutional Convention at the end of July. It will require a great deal of good will and support from members of both parties to their leadership negotiating teams. But after the weekend, I am hopeful a sensible and mutually acceptable vision can be negotiated, that will, for the first time in a long time, put real pressure on the incompetent State Labor regime.
The principles and philosophies of fairness, justice, the individual, self reliance and mutual obligation that are so dear to all Liberals will continue in the new Party. I am confident no former National Party member would have any objection to these principles and philosophies

Posted by Graham at 8:59 pm | Comments (5) |
Filed under: Australian Politics

June 01, 2008 | Graham

Mission accomplished?

Yahoo news picked up the irony. Australian troops have started arriving home from Iraq at the same time that Iraq has its most peaceful month for four years. I never thought that invading Iraq was the best idea, but I did agree with Colin Powell that “If you break it you own it.”
On that basis I was opposed to a premature withdrawal of Australian troops from Iraq.
On the basis of these reports, perhaps the withdrawal of troops is no longer premature.

Posted by Graham at 8:34 pm | Comments (2) |
Filed under: Australian Politics
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