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Category Archives: General

A long friendship – dogs and humans

August 11, 2009 – 8:22 pm

Dogs and humans have a long history together. Recent archaeological finds indicate that the relationship between dogs and humans may be at least 15,000 years old, and possibly much longer. Dogs can see in the dark, and drowse, watching over a group of people at night effectively. They are warm, and can help with hunting. [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Personal | Comments (36)

Archaeology, uninterrupted

August 6, 2009 – 6:44 pm

Via the indefatigable Tim Train comes notice of this amazing site, which provides a continuation — albeit in an eccentric direction — of my earlier post on the slow death of Motown. This time, however, the structures have acquired a festering but somehow majestic encrustation of greenery, such that they appear to have taken on [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in Economics, History | Tagged , , | Comments (3)

A rose by any other name

June 23, 2009 – 6:14 pm

What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet…
(Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, 1594)
Or not. I remember when a friend’s husband was employed by a large telco, he was asked to change his Islamic sounding name to “Michael” when taking calls from customers. Being a very easy-going fellow, [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Australian internet filter, Society | Tagged , | Comments (81)

That Pig Won’t Fly

May 3, 2009 – 6:00 am

In which I present, the REAL cause of the swine ‘flu outbreak…

… suggest that the current risk analysis might be flawed …

… and point out that all the protective measures in the world still wont be much help unless you read the instruction leaflet.

There is no evidence of the swine flu virus spreading in a [...]

By DeusExMacintosh | Also posted in Funnies, Public Policy, Science, Skeptics | Tagged , , | Comments (4)

Bushfires

February 9, 2009 – 6:54 pm

The smoke from the Victorian bushfires is casting a pall over the mountains today, providing a sombre reminder of the devastation which occurred on Saturday. Elvis, the fire-fighting helicopter, has a flight path which goes just above my parents’ house, and has been going back and forth constantly.
Saturday was the hottest day recorded in Victoria [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Law | Tagged , , | Comments (12)

Opinions and argument

December 17, 2008 – 3:54 pm

Catherine Deveny has written an article today entitled “Most people are idiots – even the ones who agree with me”. If one was feeling uncharitable, the response would be: “And so are you.”
To be fair, Deveny has some arguments with merit: namely, that we should challenge our beliefs and that we should debate important questions. [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Blogging, Media | Comments (22)

Now this is nifty stuff with numbers

October 28, 2008 – 6:57 am

… Maps exploring the demographics of dog ownership (yes, it’s true, working class people do own pitbulls, while the rich prefer labradors and poodles), the demographics of death in Britain (I always thought the worst gulf in life expectancy between groups was rural Aborigines and urban whites in Australia. Not so – the biggest gap [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in Economics | Comments (1)

Caffeine, not rosemary, is for remembrance

October 27, 2008 – 9:03 am

Dave over at Balneus alerted me to an interesting article which looks at sleep deprivation and false memories. In passing, the article says:
Sleep deprivation at retrieval, but not sleep following learning, critically enhanced false memories of theme words. This effect was abolished by caffeine administration prior to retrieval.
Dave wonders whether witnesses in trials should be [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Law | Comments (8)

Old friends

October 19, 2008 – 8:02 pm

I caught up with a friend of mine from my UK high school today. We calculated that we hadn’t seen each other for almost 10 years. But it seemed like yesterday that we’d last seen each other, and there were no uncomfortable pauses in conversation (unless you count the moment when my daughter ran in [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Personal | Comments (1)

Hurrah for the demise of the low-doc loan

September 21, 2008 – 12:07 am

Apparently lenders are leaving the low-doc loan market in droves. Hurrah for that! As someone who worked for lenders and repossessed houses on their behalf, I saw loans that should never have been made in the first place. Low-doc loans are irresponsible: by the very nature of the beast, the borrower is likely to have [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Law | Comments (29)