The bands are playing Waltzing Matilda all over Australia this morning over ninety years on from that first Anzac day. And still young Australians are fighting far from home in today's conflict zones, while in the Middle East yesterday's battlegrounds now witness the slaughter of citizen protesters by their own rulers.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
A professional journalist !
The CSIRO last week released their report on the Home Insulation Program begun in 2009.
As many would know, the reality of the Home Insulation Program (HIP) was always very different from that suggested by easy, sensational media headlines. Using the CSIRO data, Possum Comitatus here provides a model for how the MSM could have reported this important public policy in a numerate and objective way. He has found that :
the Home Insulation Program reduced the short term fire rate by approximately 70% compared to what was happening before it. It was over 3 times safer than the industry it replaced in terms of the numbers of fire experienced within 12 months of getting insulation installed.
the long term rate for the post-12 month period is already starting to average around the 0.66 fires per 100,000 houses installed mark, compared to the 2.06 fires per 100,000 houses installed seen from the pre-HIP industry installations.
In short, the HIP was safer over both the short term (the fire rates over the 12 month period from installation) as well as the longer term (the residual long term fire rates that occur from 12 months after the insulation was installed).
Another enlightening Possum blog.
Update: See also here (Grog's gamut--Shouting fire from a pre-Budget theatre.)
As many would know, the reality of the Home Insulation Program (HIP) was always very different from that suggested by easy, sensational media headlines. Using the CSIRO data, Possum Comitatus here provides a model for how the MSM could have reported this important public policy in a numerate and objective way. He has found that :
the Home Insulation Program reduced the short term fire rate by approximately 70% compared to what was happening before it. It was over 3 times safer than the industry it replaced in terms of the numbers of fire experienced within 12 months of getting insulation installed.
the long term rate for the post-12 month period is already starting to average around the 0.66 fires per 100,000 houses installed mark, compared to the 2.06 fires per 100,000 houses installed seen from the pre-HIP industry installations.
In short, the HIP was safer over both the short term (the fire rates over the 12 month period from installation) as well as the longer term (the residual long term fire rates that occur from 12 months after the insulation was installed).
Another enlightening Possum blog.
Update: See also here (Grog's gamut--Shouting fire from a pre-Budget theatre.)
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Remembering Yuri
50 years ago this week Yuri Gagarin became the first man to journey into space, thereby launching the space race and a decade of competition between the USA and the USSR to explore space, to reach the moon and eventually to collaborate on space stations and work together beyond earth in space. This was truly one great step for humanity.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Making budget cuts (US Style) 2
There has been a lot of attention this week on the possibility of a shut-down of the US government because of deep political divisions over budget cuts. And it did seem that the final bargaining appeared to be more about ideological issues than about monetary cuts.
However, this battle is a mere skirmish compared to what is likely to occur, if the next Republican Budget plan is any guide. This (Ryan) plan proposes:
$4.3 trillion in spending cuts over the next 10 years.
The enormous cuts do essentially nothing to balance the budget: 98% of the proposed savings from spending cuts go to finance new tax cuts.
For good measure the Republican plan also repeals the Dodd-Frank reform of financial regulations, passed (July 2010) after the recent GFC meltdown.
However, this battle is a mere skirmish compared to what is likely to occur, if the next Republican Budget plan is any guide. This (Ryan) plan proposes:
$4.3 trillion in spending cuts over the next 10 years.
Two-thirds of these cuts come from programmes aimed at low-income Americans: Medicaid, food stamps, grants for low-income students etc. [Medicaid cuts of $771 billion, $1.4 trillion from repealing the health reform law's Medicaid expansion and its subsidies to help low-income people purchase health insurance etc]
$4.2 trillion proposed in new tax cuts
The top rate goes from 35% (under Bush) down to 25%, lower than at any time post New Deal.The enormous cuts do essentially nothing to balance the budget: 98% of the proposed savings from spending cuts go to finance new tax cuts.
For good measure the Republican plan also repeals the Dodd-Frank reform of financial regulations, passed (July 2010) after the recent GFC meltdown.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
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