Monthly Archives: March 2011

Of billionaires and sporting superstars

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I was contemplating writing a post about an ignorant, self-interested op-ed by billionaire mining heiress Gina Reinhardt until I asked myself the question: what’s the point?  It’s a question whose answer increasingly constrains my blogging output after almost 9 years at the game.

However, one of Reinhardt’s particularly stupid “cookie-cutter” RWDB observations was this:

Our crime record is unacceptable: we should all be able to live safely in our homes and suburbs …

In fact, with the noteworthy exception of non-sexual assaults, crime rates in Australia have mostly fallen significantly over the last decade or so.  Moreover, as far as one can tell (international crime rates for most categories aren’t comparable because they’re compiled on radically different bases in different countries) Australia’s crime rates are not high by world standards; about the same as Canada, Japan and the European Union but significantly lower than the US.

I was going to muse about the reasons for the anomalously increasing assault rate.  Experts think it’s partly an artefact of changing collation methods (domestic violence is now classed as an assault whereas police didn’t previously classify those offences as assaults!), and partly a result of increasing binge alcohol and party drug consumption by young pub and club-goers.

However, I can’t help wondering whether another reason might be an increasing trend for police to simply charge people with assault without any exercise of commonsense discretion, where previously no such charges would have been laid.  What aroused my suspicion was the apparent facts surrounding rugby league superstar Benji Marshall’s alleged early morning assault of  a loud-mouthed yob:

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Background on Japan’s stricken nuclear reactor — Fukushima Daiichi No 1

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According to recent media reports an explosion has blown the roof off an unstable reactor north of Tokyo. The reactor is Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station’s unit no 1. World Nuclear News reports:

Television cameras trained on the plant captured a dramatic explosion surrounding unit 1 at around 6pm. Amid a visible pressure release and a cloud of dust it was not possible to know the extent of the damage. The external building structure does not act as the containment, which is an airtight engineered boundary within. The status of the containment is not yet known.

Here’s some background on Fukushima Daiichi and the events leading up to the incident.

Number of reactors: The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station has six reactors. According to the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), when the quake hit three of the reactors were shut down for periodic inspection (units 4, 5 and 6). The other three (1, 2 and 3) were shut down in response to the quake.

Type of reactor: The reactors at Fukushima Daiichi are boiling water reactors (see diagram below).

According to the US Energy Information Administration:

In a typical commercial boiling water reactor the reactor core creates heat, a steam-water mixture is produced when very pure water (reactor coolant) moves upward through the core absorbing heat, the steam-water mixture leaves the top of the core and enters the two stages of moisture separation where water droplets are removed before the steam is allowed to enter the steam line, the steam line directs the steam to the main turbine causing it to turn the turbine generator, which produces electricity. The unused steam is exhausted to the condenser where it is condensed into water. The resulting water is pumped out of the condenser with a series of pumps, reheated, and pumped back to the reactor vessel. The reactor’s core contains fuel assemblies which are cooled by water, which is force-circulated by electrically powered pumps. Emergency cooling water is supplied by other pumps which can be powered by onsite diesel generators. Other safety systems, such as the containment cooling system, also need electric power.

What caused the problem?: After a reactor is shut down it needs to be cooled. According to Ron Chesser, director for the Center of Environmental Radiation Studies at Texas Tech University:

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Should we lose sleep over the Japanese earthquake?

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How did you sleep last night? Thousands of kilometers away in the cities of Japan, people are trapped under rubble crying out for help. According to recent news reports 1000 people may have died in yesterday’s earthquake and the tsunami that followed.

If 18th century philosopher Adam Smith is right, you probably slept just fine. In his book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments he imagined what would happen if the whole nation of China was swallowed up up by an earthquake. How would "a man of humanity" in Europe respond? According to Smith, he might express great sorrow, reflect on the precariousness of human life, speculate how the disaster might affect trade and then go happily about his business:

If he was to lose his little finger to-morrow, he would not sleep to-night; but, provided he never saw them, he will snore with the most profound security over the ruin of a hundred millions of his brethren, and the destruction of that immense multitude seems plainly an object less interesting to him, than this paltry misfortune of his own.

Smith wasn’t worried about this — in fact he thought it was a good thing. He goes on to complain about whining moralists "who are perpetually reproaching us with our happiness, while so many of our brethren are in misery". This self imposed misery just makes people unpleasant to be around and according to Smith it doesn’t serve any useful purpose.

So is Smith saying it’s OK to just ignore other people’s suffering and do nothing to help? No he isn’t. What he’s arguing is that in situations where there is something practical we can do to help, moral behaviour doesn’t depend on strong feelings of sympathy. We don’t need to respond more strongly to other people’s suffering than we do to our own to do the right thing. If there is something we can do to prevent or ease other people’s suffering, most of us won’t sit by and do nothing.

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Teacher incentives don’t improve student achievement – at least in this case . . .

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Abstract:
Financial incentives for teachers to increase student performance is an increasingly popular education policy around the world.  This paper describes a school-based randomized trial in over two-hundred New York City public schools designed to better understand the impact of teacher incentives on student achievement.  I find no evidence that teacher incentives increase student performance, attendance, or graduation, nor do I find any evidence that the incentives change student or teacher behavior.  If anything, teacher incentives may decrease student achievement, especially in larger schools.  The paper concludes with a speculative discussion of theories that may explain these stark results.

I believe very little of what I read in the Sunday mail …..

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Thus reads the first of so far 113 comments on the Qld Police’s Facebook page in response to a story in the Courier Mail.

John Howard took to talk-back radio to give him a direct line through the compulsive world of spin that is the mass media.  Now the Qld Police are showing how Facebook gives them the same capacity. Here’s a story from the Sunday Mail outlining how the coppers froze to death some cute puppies under their care.

police dog puppies

As you can see, there was even a picture of the puppies. Well, not the puppies but puppies like the puppies. This was the story.

HE Queensland Police Service will be investigated by the RSPCA after a litter of dog squad puppies froze to death for want of a cheap heating box.

The Sunday Mail has learnt five newborn german shepherd puppies died in Brisbane’s police academy kennels at Oxley after a bitterly cold night last winter.

Sources have revealed the squad was down one of its two kennel hands so could not maintain a 24-hour watch on the animals, as done for previous births, and no one was on duty the night the pups were born.

By the time the pups were discovered about 6am the next day, their body temperatures had plunged and they had suffered organ failure.

RSPCA chief inspector Mick Pecic said he would investigate whether there were any breaches of animal welfare laws, which carry a maximum $30,000 fine or a year’s jail.

At least from what the Police say on their Facebook site, this was mostly nonsense.

Some of you may have read about the deaths of some puppies at the QPS Puppy Development Program last year. We thought you might like to see some of the facts surrounding this sad incident which weren’t included in the story. . . . Continue reading →