Like death and taxes, the gullible are always with us

Protestors in the Capital. Now the horned man, Jacob Chansley says he’s coming to terms with events leading to the riot and asked people to “be patient with me and other peaceful people who, like me, are having a very difficult time piecing together all that happened to us, around us, and by us. We are good people who care deeply about our country.” 

Karen Douglas, Professor of Social Psychology, University of Kent wrote a short note for The Conversation on Internet conspiracy theories before it got really serious. 

She said:

...rather than increasing belief in conspiracy theories generally, the internet plays a crucial role in fostering distinct and polarised online communities among conspiracy believers. Believers share their opinions and “evidence” with other believers but are less willing to share with people who are critical of conspiracy theories. So with the internet, conspiracy groups become more homogeneous and their beliefs become even stronger over time. 

Goes a long way to explaining the Jan 6 Capitol crowd and the Australian state capital protesters last weekend

For some reason Canberra's equivalent on the edge of Lake Burley Griffin was a lot more constrained...didn't even need the presence of the police.

Flattening the curve

  As we slowly transition back to something approximating normality, it is worth getting some perspective on our response to the epidemic. Here are some graphs I found rather shocking...the Australian Health authorities got it right compared to other countries. 

To pick two examples, cumulative deaths from COVID-19 per million for both the UK is now 144,000 and the US is over 774,000. Australia has had less than 2000 deaths. But, to allow for those countries' large populations, I have chosen to graph the deaths per million.

The second graph shows the "Total Excess Deaths" per million...that is the difference between the normal death rate in a period and the deaths during the pandemic times. Unlike the US or UK the Australian deaths, at times, actually fell.

Australia "flattened the curve".

 

For an interesting Twitter thread based on the same COVID-19 dataset see Edouard Mathieu

EV or not EV: that is the question

The difference between a dream and reality. 

Tesla is in the throes of opening a showroom in Canberra and locals are checking the goods, dreaming of owning an electric. A big QR code on the Civic shopfront invites for a test drive.

The reality is that the cheapest Tesla available in Canberra is $62,517 when the average cost of a vehicle in Australia is $40,729

Xioami's latest has roughly
the same specs as the hire eScooters

Canberra's electric vehicle of choice trundles by the showroom in the photo. The Neuron Mobility and Beam Mobility companies have put nearly 1,500 rental e-scooters on the city's streets since November 2020.  Inexpensive and popular, these take advantage of Canberra's broad walkways and cycleways to make "last kilometer" travel easy.

eScooter adoption has not been without trouble. A lot of people have landed themselves in hospital so the special laws governing their use are being modified to better deal with drunks and drug-effected. But then most of the accidents have proved to be single persons...inebriated scooter riders aren't as much of a danger to other road users or pedestrians.

Overall the scheme has proved to be good way of getting people out of cars. Approval has just been given for the hire scheme to be extended to the other Canberra city centres. 

Private ownership is also possible.  Models sell online and through retailers. However the hire scooters have continued to be preferred because they don't need to be secured and tend to be magically nearby and fully charged when you find yourself late for a meeting.

 

Meme Oz

The broadcast that started it all.

The month before "Brandon" Canberra had its own meme take off. Originating as a mistake by Sydney TV caption writer, Mitch Bowey, who failed to spot the auto-speller interpretation of "Canberrans" in a serious message by the Chief Minister Andrew Barr. Canberras immediately saw the humour and the meme soon spread throughout the ACT.

It then was amplified as a running joke for all Canberrans during the dark days of the Delta lockdown, appearing on badges, t-shirts, road signs and even promoted by the local beverage makers

The Canberra Raiders became the Ken Behren Raiders

Canberra's local Capital brewer gave Ken a face

And even the ACT Health campaigning made light

The Christmas Rush

Some birds are less than enthusiastic about the Season

Meme USA

Well crafted report by ABC Peter Marsh about the latest US Right Wing in-joke: 

In early October, at a NASCAR race at the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama, Brandon Brown had won his first Xfinity Series and was being interviewed by an NBC Sports reporter.

The crowd behind the 28-year-old was chanting something at first difficult to make out. 

The reporter suggested they were chanting "Let's go, Brandon" to cheer the driver. But it became increasingly clear they were saying: "F--- Joe Biden." Here's the clip...fair warning for some coarse language, obviously.

The clip took off online, and the "Let's Go Brandon" meme was born.

NASCAR and NBC have since taken steps to limit "ambient crowd noise" during interviews.

Now it is sweeping through the US and even set to music

For a linguist’s eye view of its place in the the progress of English and how it is being politically countered by the left, see this short article in the Atlantic

Funding shipping’s green transition

The International Maritime Organization is considering a $100/tonne levy on ships' CO2 emissions. Funds would finance alternative fuel networks. Maersk, who has been particularly vocal about the need to move, estimates it would add 10 cents to pair of sneakers. Wall Street Journal has the full story but the detail is behind a paywall and starts out:

The International Maritime Organization is mulling a new tax on shipping to help build a global network of alternative fuel stations for vessels and subsidize developing countries facing higher export costs.

The proposal calls for charging vessel operators $100 for each metric ton of carbon dioxide emitted per trip. The shipping regulator said the levy could raise around $1 trillion over the next three decades, according to a World Bank study submitted to the IMO in September.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise, the IMO has been working on a number of ways to curb the outrageous pollution caused by world shipping for some time. 

...a reduction in carbon intensity of international shipping (to reduce CO2 emissions per transport work, as an average across international shipping, by at least 40% by 2030, pursuing efforts towards 70% by 2050, compared to 2008); and that total annual GHG emissions from international shipping should be reduced by at least 50% by 2050 compared to 2008.

Maersk, one of the world's biggest shipping lines, has been busy in other ways. Says Søren Skou, CEO of A.P. Moller-Maersk:

...we are embracing the [decarbonising] challenge, working on solving the practical, technical and safety challenges inherent in the carbon neutral fuels we need in the future. Our ambition to have a carbon neutral fleet by 2050 was a moonshot when we announced in 2018. Today we see it as a challenging, yet achievable target to reach,” 

Maersk will take delivery of its first carbon-neutral ship in 2023, seven years ahead of schedule. While the vessel will be able to operate on standard fuels, the plan is to operate the vessel on carbon neutral e-methanol or sustainable bio-methanol from the start.

A new study says shipping could be responsible for 17% of global CO2 emissions in 2050 if left unregulated,