ABCTV had a role to play in failure - if only it knew what role

Copenhagen non event - ABCTV will clearly be remembered for being part of the problem - not part of the solution.

On the eve of the greatest moral imperative of the century, the ABC puts a proud blogger up against a highly qualified scientist who lists references on very page of his very big book. 2 nights in a row.
Andrew Revkin doesn't undertstand about deduction, so he is happy to stick pedantically to mere facts ;
No wonder Austrailans are increasingly skeptical of ABCTV -At least a few of them are educated in these matters and can see this is not debate, this is pressure hot air .
Lea Sales tonight asks the dumb question without realising how dumb it is - "Nations have had plenty of time to make sure they would come somewhere near a consensus - why haven't they ?" . The hot air that has driven this debate has run out of hot air.
Obama's speech on the subject was just a lot of hot air and he better hope thinking people don't recognise it as such !
What about us _ Putting on their weekly report from the worried has only increased the doubt about the ABC 's sanity and equity.
The expensive stalemate - the Copenhagen non event - ABCTV will clearly be remembered for being part of the problem - not part of the solution.

Scientists can handle debate; Clearly ABCTV cannot

How does our public broadcaster get away with allowing journos and polys to run the discussions on current affairs ( 7:30 report and latelinetonight ) . Let alone the science ones !!!

Tonight we learn nothing but that those who run these shows are mainly interested in point scoring- not the issues of truth that go beyond the games of those speculators and nonscientists who get to join them to agree to get stuck in some clause of misplaced concreteness that's currently their favourite .
Pity they didn't watch the grumpy old men where the old team were so right about the modern disease of reporters in "me control mode"
Take tonights program on Lateline . Instead of establishing that we can/can't actually measure the temp changes in the atmosphere and interpret their significance ( both are critical to the validity of the numbers) the english journo gets to push the only point he understands -the measurement system .
That Plimer appears to disagree with the authors basic conclusion is common and fair because he's not talking so much about the measure, but the numbers it produces - their interpretation and significance .
Scientists watching can handle debate
Clearly the ABc cannot .ABCTV wouldn't keep letting nonscientists report when the issue in the public mind in december 2009 is clearly " what do scientists really say " ABCTV just don't want to let it happen .
And What a finish too tonight ( after lateline) - signs of desperation. Since when did the church get such authority and respect on scientific matters. Following closely on offering the same status to journos and american polys. The clever country ? no

Ever changing agendas- the proponents are simply unbelievable .

RE lateline with Tony Jones : The man from NASA undermines the super trade talks . The man from NASA is not playing the game, or is he ?.

So now Copenhagen is not trying to do what's needed. If Politics is about compromise, it is also in this case about being totally ineffective - let alone totally incredible .

Like Rudd, these quick fiz merchants and fearmongers are prepared to compromise on what would have cost us the earth, to fix up what they said was fixing the earth . Totally incredible-that's what they are!

How can this be? Tony Jones and our polys take themeselves too seriously - after all, what do they know? . A big picture scientist up the front on Lateline would probably not answer Jones standard repeat question ; "will you please say yes or No " - he would probably take so much time to answer the question that it would be "time to move on "- how convenient, how convenient a truth is the way we talk about the truth ?

Well , we've moved on alright, and current affairs on the ABC have run out of time running the same old same old reactionary agendas .

Did James from NASA deal effectively with any of the questions? ; lets just say without being greek, that he ducked and dived in the same way a man looking to defend misplaced concreteness would be expected to do.
As a scientist I didn't learn a thing, but that NASA are employing scientists , like they do here, to defend the blinkered views they have of how the world works .

The fact that NASA and CSIRO can't be trusted to give us more than what comes from the school of mere description, ( including the now infamous schools of wild speculation and monitoring ) shows just how sorry the state of objective science is in both places in some areas.

To say anymore would be to miss the point of these very words !

Reading the tea leaves

Leigh Sales seemed reluctant to accept tonight that politics can be more than bluff and bluster. Does it come from being in church too often, or is the possibility of some truth telling just too much of a shock.


Fortunately the democratic spokesperson was a little less interested in the tealeaves and like the other guests , made the real position of representatives a lot clearer. The combination of hype ,spin and substance is, like hot air, not subject to experimental observation.


Very interesting that both sides of politics on the ETS are using words like "credibility and effectiveness".
---The ETS could fail simply because the case has not been put very well .
---Has the ABC helped or hindered the debate over an ETS?

---Will the ABC be blamed by both sides of politics for the crisis of confidence that is now widespread.
---Too many tea leaves and not enough quiet and "effective" ( to use Malcolms word) teaching on a subject that takes more than a mere tax grab and a best intention to be effective?

Some good stuff

I wish I could do this more often, ...but the ABC have done very well to bring us LILIES -the reason for this post; its so good because it doesn't make light of personal challenges to change and review and its heroes are young people . Keep up the good work.
While I am at it thanks too for GEORGE GENTLY,COLLECTORS , MIDSOMER,THE WIRE. reruns of old movies on ABC2 and quite a few other things.

When the highest art is really the lowest

Mark Stone might be congratulating his team for being adventurous at the Andrew Olle lecture, but I've seen much better entertainment for YOUNG PEOPLE than the ABC provides at the school concert ( yr 8,9) this week .
Its time Mark Stone got serious about dealing with the cynics and wooses in his highly predicable and reactionary old spaceship I will call RAGE on indefinitely.

The compares on the stage at school were exceptionally original, funny, clever and realistic. The girls danced and sung a treat ,kept their clothes on , and the drama got everyone in to laughing and sharing big time.( nurds, nasties and naughty got to act and laugh at themselves and with the audience together - very therapeutic))
Here was a school where everyone enjoyed being there - wow! When are the ABc going to put that sort of video on?
Mark Stone might be congratulating his team, but many many Australians are looking for something better than they get on Wednesdsy nights. Maybe his staff can't get beyond their own cynicsm- contract some new ones before our young people become completely overwhelmed !

That much more balanced show called the Simpsons has some lessons for ABC management about dealing with the depth of an issue, not just the depression of an issue.
Mark Stone might be congratulating his team for being adventurous, but simply pulling down everything is a dopy dead end strategy . Good Comedy deals with serious concrete contradictions and doesn't live on careless condemnation of the other side . Constant Condemnation , criticism and crucifixion is indeed a dead street with nothing but the Devil to play with at the end of it .

Fence sitters on 4 Corners? Which fence ?

Sarah Ferguson's interviews with the malcontents on FOUR CORNERS on Monday night threw up something quite unexpected; esp to those who fancy themselves as agents of the predictable; the sure bet ,the need for change; the need for hype - the happy hedge merchants of the team. Short term gain mate -long term pain .

Here we have .....a party that THINKS ; now wouldn't that wake up a few marginals who think noone in the party does THAT any more.I for one was quite impressed by the range of views presented and their reasonability . Had a calming effect . Clearly Labor are all sitting quietly and reverently in church. The not so pushy party talk is good .
The 4 corners program was a good program in that respect - more clarity from the 4 corners of the ring ? lots of diversity in both opinion and commitment. We were sharing for a change, rather than sermonizing and point scoring . Sharing the reality that amongst the public and the scientists, there are a wide range of views . Healthy. The big guy might be throwing the punches but he is just warming the air?


Nobody likes to be pushed, but some leaders clearly don't know that - they tend to be the more dangerous sort of leaders ; They can be like some 2nd hand car salesmen, always claiming the vehicle has been "fully checked by those that know - those in our payroll" .
Naturally this bad and suspect behavior by our leaders pushes the not so stupid public to greater and greater doubts about where we are all going in this god forsaken rush to bridge the problem with the solution.
They can't even corner the problem - let alone the solutions!
Wong doesn't know where she is going wrong; her biggest and dumbest contribution on Monday was to fall for the olde " THEY are the ones with the ideological chains on " ;projection at work I suggest

Fighting with bubble bullets
Karoly is silly enough to mention the amount of licenced paper as a litmus test of authority . If you know what you are doing YOU only use ammunition of the right size and target it well. Bring out only big guns mate. Same with lining up the Institute clones ( "institute " is a word in modern use that is highly sus - eg AMI on our TV screens each week) . who knows? the public may well ask - The answer is an interesting one - even the children know . The reason we don't hear the story is because as Barnaby says the left have left off trying to convert us by branch stacking - they've build a bully base in the bureaucracy . Non reactionaries and conservatives ( those quiet achievers who studied and kept studying instead of reacting and reacting) give up trying to get a word in edge ways .like carter and Plimer you have to spend years of your life telling kindergarten stories when fellow geoscientists are too busy working . Unlike Wong's ever searching substance seekers they have found ways that work and were not just researching, but creating sustainable solutions . Who can compete with the media too-- when its on a downer .

Wong should give up selling - at least a 2nd car salesman would know --never ever change the car you first hit on . If Wong keeps "researching solutions" ( her words) we will all leave the car yard and wonder whether any of the cars have wheels on them . The children in the street have spoken, the cars have no wheels and many of the drivers want to hide their bodies from the shame .

Captain Tony - mutiny is always a risk

On a day when Ray Martin has followed George Negus into rejecting much that Current affairs so called " problem solving" has done, Tony Jones keeps alive the old format; hunting the poly/bad guy with pay up now questions.

At 9:30pm he would do better to try something new, He'd have some chance of getting to a decent subject and some "drawing out" time before time is up. Instead he wastes 30 minutes on old boat stories . Questions that drag out old predjudices just drag the program out . Maybe the questions could only be about non news issues- for a change at least ?
Very few insights into the public interests of politicians were gained. - largely only points to those who want to poke fun at them .
Sure we get to see some new sides to our leaders, but the guests would be much more interesting ( love to hear more of bertina )if the subjects were of actual interest to them . Why weren't they asked questions of genuine public interest -" Are you concerned about porn on the net and are we doing enough to limit it" . " What do women really want (Bertina) and rest of you - secret ballot before the show and then discuss it" ?

Does the ABC believe a bit more consensus might be nice at 10;30pm? No wonder our kids don't take politics seriously - when the HOST's "moving around" is only to ensure ringside entertainment for those who want yet another chance to beat up the other side with a lot of predictable old taunts.
as jonathon hinted, the real problem is often not "out there" , but in the room. Maybe many are just saying what they think they should say .
A CONSENSUS of sorts ( took a while- too long -as usual it was at the end )
Bertina, Jonathan and the "where's the motivational speech man " said it all - you've overplayed your hand, you spin merchants .
Even Bill Shorten chimed in, in a sort of a way, by overplaying the number ( rather than the quality) of the REAL things the government are doing.
Bill was sounding a bit like Father christmas Kevin i thought - maybe its Worse than father christmas -offering gifts before he asks us to pay a huge new tax in the new year ? -

Maybe labor is not seriuos; just doing what the program guests are doing - just talking about it ; talk just makes the leaders sound good; maybe the public are not seriuos either ; talking about it just makes them sound good. Lights and mirrors ?

One good gift ,like one good reason, is all we need to follow. If an ETS is so good for us - where's the speech Kevin or Peter or Penny ! Like Q&A maybe, its nearly all just talk.

Slick but not satisfying.

LATELINE can be good. On Thursday last they reported a range of views at Ryde protests over having a convicted man living in the neighbourhood. What commercial media would let the man be properly heard ?
Letting the "exterminate" advocate speak is part of recognising what starts trouble and exactly where it starts . As a result, Australians are reminded that we do have people( incl non muslim's and those in living rooms ) who use a genuine threat as their excuse to throw in a truly terrorist type one. Predjudice about the non human nature of other people isn't always reinforced and thats to the ABC's credit. The Eugenics societies of the 1930's were not only popular in Germany - they were big in England . Simple predjudices are dangerous in trying times .Safety is not in the facts ( there are too many of them ); the safety is in hearing both sides of the argument.
The home grown nature of terrorism and politicization of science (interpreting gene mechanics to promote eugenics) must be faced - if we are to stay out of wars we can't win and effectively target a tougher change in attitude that would go beyond quick fix. We have choices and we must not use nature as an excuse to deny them or to justify cheap tricks on the way . That would be to make all of us less than human .
George Gentlys (ABCTV that night )great final words to his apprentice also reflect on this truth that we are talking about a call beyond nature -not a call to just "come under nature". His question -why did the young man learn to hate? Good science is only good when it talks possibilities and is not stuck or conveniently lost in some soup of mixed recipe facts.

The Lateline team can do a good job - But science talk is not ABCTV 's strong point. They still think that Barry Jones is the archtypal scientist when he's really the achetypal priest of the school of mere description - the ideal agent for those who insist the part is the whole. We will do better using wikipedia .
If presenters and their guests are to stay out of naive discussions that go nowhere they need to see the danger of the dialogue being held within the walls of misplaced concreteness. ABCTV won't win any hearts against blind predjudice in one night by talking facts ; They won't establish confidence in a situation of no confidence using that tired old cringe culture recipe : a new book and a new foreign expert
A change in attitude is always beyond science, The breath of fresh air the ABC needs is where the various sides of an argumnet can be properly heard . ( Where too is the respect for home grown science? ).

For example , Lea Sales was very competent in asking some really good questions on climate change's credibility problems ...But they went nowhere ..the well groomed respondent was there to defend a position - not the policisation of science in general .
Lea was asking the wrong person - A good book/ author on the real problem of disinterest in objective science- the title (and its politicisation ) WOULD not have made the mistake of playing the political hot football issues of evolution and climate change ;Such a person would have actually talked the physics through in a way that no ABCTV guest has done to date .YHIFOB
Someone who didn't want to join the political confusion would have drawn the audiences attention to the billions going to fad science research over the last twenty years ( salinity , ozone ) Such an independant scientist/author would have gone to the lessons of history and the technological fix that has eaten the heart of sound pure science research for the last twenty years.

If the book says something new, I will eat my hat;
If this is news to you - well you just aren't hearing from the right people- when will the ABC realise they are letting SBS run rings around them by letting the people who know talk, rather than controlling the discussion.
The wastage is evident. ABCTV allow themselves ( and the long suffering ABC audiences) to be further confused by letting the pedants close off while the reality of real life mirror moving politics moves onto yet another fiddle ( art /science , predjudice and practice, media manipulation by those desperate to maintain power and avoid any hint of their own confusion).

The good life isn't about heavy hearted stoicism

COMPASS -so disappointing and so distracted. Same old same old, 30yrs of reactionary medicine that has no balm.
Nothing proves that going back some new version of the Platonic is dead, than when some reactionaries try to revive it. Typical reactionaries - don't know the difference between a long term good idea and one that's come around again, but is just old and inadequate
For those who , like Peter Singer, think Peter Singer is ahead of his time , its paradoxical to find him trying to revive something from the past ;something from the past that doesn't work .
I say, leave the technologically ineffective optimism of the past where it belongs - a relic of history and rich people's rhetoric .
Dostyevsky was right - if there is no God , there is no need to think beyond yourself. Kick against the pricks as much as you like Peter, but you will need more than your predjudices to get beyond a failed logic system . You can't put wheels on a car that confuses guilt offerings , absolution and righteousness, and then gives no logical context to any of them .
Does Singer believe he can do what Emperor Julian could not ?
The only thing that works is not a natural optimism, but a supernatural optimism . Lets see guests with that sort of attitude do the talking in that time slot .That would make a welcome change thanks .

Like many Australians, I wait up sometimes on Sunday night in the hope of meeting a mature person with something deep to share.
THE PROGRAM IDEA IS GOOD
Geraldines new COMPASS program promises much, but offers little ( I assume the ABC are putting the best foot forward) - she's not asking the right people -
Geraldines idea of whose interesting is just Geraldines a idea of whose interesting; Why do the ABC continue to let her do it? ABCchurch is boring and predictable . Geraldine knows the majority of her audience are cyncial about overt spirituality , but her alternative of passionless morality preaching is plain obnoxoius - as it always has been.
No more so than Peter Singer who seems to have changed little from his early days looking for a place on the screen; he still seems preoccupied to find that place.
How else do you explain him going where naturalism has gone before and not realizing it ; an old cul de sac he's driving us all down-
Peter's staid stoic stuff has about as much long term appeal as it did in Platos time and since.
Geraldine too , appears afraid to ask the obviuos - "what's happened to that strong preacher of highly deterministic doctrines" ......that have little public appeal. "Have you changed?"( might be a standard question on such a program) After all , at the end of the show its " you appear to line up with the religious"? A new age priest or just a new angle?
Geraldine didn't see the point that the Jewish concept of justice is much more powerful, practical, dynamic and life affirming than Pete's tired old 60's accounting rhetoric -The antipharisee has become the new age pharisee?
Peter probably used the same lines when he was 25 . The point is that, like so much of that token interest in poverty reduction, its just not well targeted and therefore not convicting , and just not effective . A religion without a clear vision of what works never works . Why suffer the tax of 5% when its so badly targeted? The test results of 50yrs are there to be seen ; For all the talk over those years , there has been scarce little light added. Even the .3% my generation have done little but offer old tokens to poverty reduction .
As they hinted , maybe industry and trade have done more - this need not/ should not be so .
To treat Povert Reduction as if ecomia is a accountancy problem might suit the PCorrect of the moment , but it is totally unconvincing from someone who promotes himself as a leading philosopher. Good philosophy is effective at dealing pointedly with practical issues. including clearly identifying both tokens and targets !

If Peter was going to win more comittment from thinking people, he needs to be convincing about how we should use such a tax ;
A working model and grown up view of dealing with poverty issues labels the issues properly and effectively. Like Rudd's energy tax , the tax idea runs a real risk of being just terribly ineffective; a temple tax
In this context of wishy washy wanderings it needs to be said to those who really care that much of the intransigent poverty of the world is clearly in rural areas and can be dealt with . A lot can be done about building resiliance - but not in the old half baked ways the pied Peter was suggesting ( eg NGO's are best ) .
Playing a old version of a durge Peter didn't name the structural solutions that exist , or give the better targeting of private and public tax one mention- the really big known issues of targeting poverty .His durge is just trite old 60's stuff that has done little to change poverty and solution perceptions for 50yrs - even at .3%.

The trouble with a purely rational view of the world is that its not big enough; It doesn't believe the impossible is possible . As a priest of "the new order of natural optimists ", Peter is happy to limit his modus operandi to an overindulgence tax of 5%.
The problem is, as Julian found out , all the money in the world is not enough to motivate the people to be pious. Only an effective form of absolution can get the people to do the absolutely impossible, and impossibly - enjoy it . (Copyright EA Sept 12th 2009)

The questions and answers must link together

Tony Jones is unaware that all his efforts at control tonight on Q&A gave the people's vote to Christopher Pyne and Piers Ackerman and those who would never get to speak on his shallow, overcontrolled show.
He was also clearly unaware of the answer to his own question - why this alignment between the radical elements should occur .Maybe it has something to do with the churchiness of the ABC ?
This unstable moment in the control of hot air is at least partly because ABCTV and abcchurch generally is not a vehicle for generating the confidence needed to carry a sound science and practice debate forward. It's a big task for any media organistion - point is ----its not the job of the presenter: its the job of the ABC to put scientists up front and they haven't been doing it . Indira is not a scientist - where are the scientists whose expertise in in sustainability ??? Tell me one that's been on the ABC! I know one and he won't need 5 years to work out some biosequestration targets!
This control thing was always going to end this way. While welcome, Tony's pursuit of the farmers questions was appreciated, but we shouldn't be relying on him to cut to the quick .Despite his interest, he predictably didn't get anywhere near the crux of the matter and neither did Sharon -point is why didn't others note this!
In history, the politicitization and dumbing down of science on ABCTV will greatly tarnish its once good reputation. There is nothing more absurd than having Sharon Burrows talk about sustainabaility jobs when the people who trained to advance that cause are increasingly unemployed. So predicatably of course, Tony didn't notice that Burrows vain hope of sequestration was just another distraction into vanity and hot air . Why do i say this cause i know biossequestration very well - apparently Labor are going to give someone like me 3-5 years to sort out what I already know - sounds normal for those who can't admit their ignorance but would rather be seen to be gadflies than dinasaurs . Sharon - get it right ; the issue is not technology jobs, but science jobs . You fail to put first things first and millions of jobs won't do more than create waste .The right investment at the right time will help carbon dependance move well -never "the right politics"

Interestingly , the conspiracy ghostbusters ( almost filling the hall) turn out to to be the biggest conspiracy agents (Pyne did very well to remind them so) Clearly Tony has been standing in the road of progress by ignoring Peirs Akermans major point - you have too many polys and not enough scientist on the panel to make this grand design credible. If I was Tony I would be wooried that in my selection of audience/clips I was doing little more than breed the sort of cynicsm and ignorance ( eg Thatchers game as mentioned but not recognised in its real identity )that focuses on others ( "the right" ,"america and industry" ) rather than the grand potential for change that exits by following cuttingedgescience and thereby ensuring we all share in looking after the earth
The discussion result shows how all Tony and his producers effort were unable to disguise the total incompetence of Labors position on ETS. The more Craig and Sharon said , the more we all lost confidence in their grand new tax.
One suspects that this major leakage from the temple of grand intentions may well be noted by many ---before the next election.

Refreshing exposure of real authors on QandA

Attempts by non ABCchurch members to gain a credible hit on ABCTV have in large measure been comfortably dealt with by carefully editing after interview, or discrete painting of portraits with out of place mouth actions.
This is news to the high priests - what opposition is there?
The ABC doesn't need a war on everything program because it largely runs a war on everything nonchurch .
Not so QandA Thursday when it allowed and encouraged exposure to unbelievers --the young people were great and the tension allowed US to get to know Julia Gillard and Malcolm Turnbull in a way which was at least, helpful .
How much more helpful though would it have been if the audience had time to hit home their scathing critique of labors education revolution and the liberals pay the teacher better birdbath song . We might have heard them say some real good stuff on how to keep teachers teaching .
Even some of us oldies know the fabians revolutionary talk to be largely the noise and signage outfront of the revolving door building of their highly reactive and non revolutionary style of politics.
"Revolutions we can handle" all the young people(YPs) said, but yours is not one of them. How right they are!

The classic outcome of the evening was our shared joy at the young person's humorous pulling down of this heavy stone idol of revolution and direct targeting post modernism - the real legacy of the left ;- As both YP on the panel said - "Your god is not real - we know where real revolutions occur, and even if we didn't we know, we know your focus to be what it is , superficial. Your actions speak louder than your words !

Like abcchurch, the old reactionaries on the panel had fully fallen for the appearance of revolution ( the monuments ,the gymnasiasms, the computers ) and forgotten about the kernel and more importantly , YP love of the kernel ( people and the ideas who make it happen ) .- The old leaders, if they were thinking, would have been talking to that audience about ideals, not images !
Lets hope Malcolm's mates ( after he clearly made the most of the awakened elephant/ empty chair in the room) wake up to the Libs new opportunity to make the most of labors worship of dumb and expensive idols- idols that even young people can see. Go deeper please- everyone of the older audience .
In a typical post modern page ,the man who did a very good job generally on the night,(MR Tony JONES ) let the talk wander so widely "that time ran out"..... again - its always doing that!!!!!- If Tony wants to avoid it happening too easily yet again ,why didn't he ask the audience beforehand "Ok - I am aware of your heart felt concern about adults behaving like children - So how about we quarantine playing petty games over Malcolms recent failures OK ????/ "- what happened? He didn't and we wasted half the program on it .
So, we the patient audience are tempted to believe that maybe the children were in charge --preferring the petty after all?
Are the children in charge ? Not much fun to watch MR JONES! Same old sermon material and foraging faults again
"We have run out of time again -we have got no more time for real and new authors; we here at ABCTV have more important things to do ,like hearing yet again 7:30 report host talk Kerry O Brien talk about his own authorship and what a great experience it is for him .3 minutes of same old same old

3min to introduce new authors like the young panel guests would give ABCTV the edge over SBS in their runaway success with storytelling .
.

Depressing determinism

Got to hand it to Jennifer Byrne( Bookclub intro this week ) - her honesty is refreshing .
Why? The mood is one of , if not paranoia , depression? Someone has to say it - "we're stuck !" Depression is hard to admit, but if you are in a cul de sac , maybe just maybe , there is a way out ! Logically though , you have to acknowledge what signposts you were ignoring on the way in !!!

Like Emperor Julian , there are always those who think Plato and the old Greeks knew it all . "That those Christians are rejecting the rational in favour of .???? the truly unbelievable " .....some other time! Like a broken record -----prove what ? I do not care to prove everything !

The point is ---Its not very exciting for those of us who enjoy our daily speculation beyond the material, to see the Julian type Emperors at ABCchurch still thousands of years later grieving for a system of thinking that is not scientific but stultifying, circular and clearly stuck in the earths' own mud.
As One old Roman convert of the time put it when he started reading into the signposts - you know - point TO counterpoint is OK , even for a scientist, but its tiring and its not everything ---there is a great enjoyable space beyond such things !)

Totally Unconvincing

The most ridiculous thing about the ABC's over promotion of the grand agendas is that they don't realise, if SCIENTISTS were really seriuos about influencing any needed change debate - they most certainaly wouldn't do it in the same old ways that they have been led to do it by the new damnation and salvation sellers - for what is now 4 or so years?
The fearmongers haven't got it have they - a scientific way to be convincing!
The " new " whole long speech from london school of whatevers trick isn't working and just because the man has learnt a few things about the campaigns mistakes, doesn't mean he's not still making them . Calling greens black is careless talk too!. The science of education calls for consensus across the board ----dummies !

What does clive hamilton know about motivation? Giddens, when pushed by Sales about targets ,talked about schools - well; have we got time to wait for education campaigns in schools? - I thought we left teachers the task of teaching . Oh dear, what a mess ! Are we teaching science in schools ?

Lee Sales asked some good questions tonight, but they went absolutely nowhere because the ABC is not really interested in debate ( only the appearance of it ). Lee will wonder why clive hamilton got another guernsey when his own defence of the fear cul de sac is the same as all these salvation advocates have driven themsleves into . Just like Gore, giddens is trying to play the media game (get a new angle) .
The more Giddens spoke on yet another of the ABC's free to hot air ads, the more it was clear he wasn't ready to fight - Mr gore is right about one thing - you aren't convincing if you aren't convincing. You aren't serious or scientific if don't identify the enemy and the means of warfare . Giddens ended his puff of wind with a call to more patchwork - maybe he's more suited to craft work?

So yet another ABC lateline program dedicated to let the new saviours put their point of view - The idea that we need to change is Ok, but what absolution do we get from responding to this new gospel .Its not gospel perhaps?

Pity too ( if he was seriuos about science based extension solutions) that Giddens is not urgent about one critical method (accepted widely but not used_) ; a scientific way to address the cynics - have a debate .
Until the ABC do debate properly ( don't they realise journos are under threat?) the ABC heads too will be part of the problem rather than part of the solution to being convincing about difficult issues of resource use . Standing in the road of a bigger discussion .

Spicks and specks

When you are on a good thing ( as S&S and rockwiz is), find out where the good bits come from- otherwise it tends to be inflated rhetoric from inside yourself ( ask anyone who knew the real Michael jackson.etc...)
The holey infatuation that went on last night ,spoils the spicks and specks that we try to enjoy. When Its often not much beyond fart jokes for adults ,its weak as piss and just as desperate. Alan brough's failure to agnowledge where his talent probably comes from, is my case in point.
The challenge too for "Thank God He's not there" will revolve around the same paradox about real entertainment and the dangers of soft sell.
Because guests on TGYH are clearly not warned about the dangers of promoting lifestyle choice under the guise of bottom line gags, the characterization is lost to cheap lifestyle gags and we wonder if adam hills is too seriuos about promoting something commonly sold cheap ( relationships and respect ) Such poor aim maybe currently popular but it won't last ( esp by those who use it) because its like the bloke you meet at a party who goes down to that level all the time - he's depserate to gain an audience and prove his funnyness.
I Don't mind an "in character sexual proccupation" , but the lack of head room in the innuedo departmnet was rather obvious amongst the leaders last night. Aim higher and we'll all be happier.

Comedy festival QANDA

Jones may not be aware of it yet, but the genre of his high brow conversation starter is all the more entertaining than its relation (the footy show) because of where it starts ......and where it finishes. The structure means the audience gets a look in and the truth, sometimes, comes out . The idea is great especially because Jones is not really in charge and those in the chairs are nervous and vulnerable - unable always to hold onto that persona that makes CurrentAffairs on the ABCTV so predictable .
for eg noone wanted to hear " what did you learn about death " but it yielded the peaceable fruit of reality therapy on the board . The girl was serious - why is the ABC unable to put anything seriuos on - (And while talking about overplayed records , why stuff up some good stuff on ABC2 in evening with repeats of the NIGHT before - are you seriously in the death throws ;Nothing else to show us than repeats of gruelling gruen . Does no one review your tenure ? - we nearly watch more SBS and ABC2 than boring old ABCchurch .
Adam Hills doesn't know how to be serious, so he's seldom funny. He could learn, like a lot of the immature men on the screen a lot from about being sexy ( eg host of Rockwiz) by not always talking about sex .
David Marr is so seriuos he's hard to take seriuosly. Whose liberated and whose not? ? Big questions for those who hate to see anyone put something unreactionary on their little screens . Take it from us, we old ABC soaks have found other things to do than watch you lot all the time.

I said as I said so many times before on your program ---nothing

Sycophantic old Jones spends YET another half hour asking Ms WONG another set of SOSO questions he's asked many times before - not a single answer worth listening for . " I said as I said before" she said - nothing , but that we are masters of naming the best intentions.
Mistaken value systems are the depression pills of the modern west. depressingly real nonsense that bears no real connection with ecology or economy.

The challenge from the scrapheap

What's new ? Well we hope the ABc catch on before its too late - before the news team and there same old same old view of other people's stories gets the axe .Many of us clearly have been looking to find something far better and more real in the way of reporting between 6:30 and 8pm for years! Reality TV--- we can't get enough of it . As for reporteres telling us what the reported are supposed to have said - we have had enough!!!
Hiden from view too is some of the good stuff . Good things can come from unexpected and unpredictable places and are not all are secular in origin .eg The Junkyard of industry and the junkyard of progressive ideas?

Take the huge bit of gobsmack for the elite churchmen of our time ? >" How do churchmen ( of the very old kind) like Rudd and Obama get to run things??"" I thought we had ditched all that religiuos stuff and were progressive Believe me, when it comes to understanding, especially in crisis of faith times for secularists like these, its either you believe in democracy ( wisdom of the people) or you believe in aristocracy( the dumbness outside my own church) ( so what choice did you make ? --manne and hichins ( ontony's segment )are too lonely a pair of figures to be hiding behind at times like these -- are their profiles really ones of worth, or are they just joining the big badbogemen brigade to hide their hurt over the sacredness of the secular being ignored - yet agin??

Why waste time watching ABC News etc?

Obamas victory speech . Unreported !
Why waste time watching the ABC NEWS? They struggle to find a good story ( cf SBS)and they manage to miss reporting the story on this day of all days - Nixon and Brumby got the time Obama should have got - and for why - she's leaving!!!!How long to give the highlights (Obama's speech was only 14 minutes long and we had to go to America to get it!)

I'm embarrased to be Australian when our media men cringe in cynicsm at raw emotion. Why don't they do their job TOO and stay out of the picture!

I spent an hour waiting to hear the key bits of an emotional speech of a brave man
attempting to lead the most powerful country in the world and all I heard was the word "emotional"( several times infact) . Simkin said the obvious and Kerry , while choosing a competent commentator ) takes time to talk to the treasurer - as always riveting reworking of very little ! Kerry couldn't find a less convincing conversationalist than Smith and he does it tonight - Kerry-- how out of touch !

Mark Scott - Sack/ sideline the ABCnews producers/ editors before they make the ABC totally irrelevant in the new age of .......( why would we tell you what the answer is, till you recognise the need . )

I do not want to hear others telling anothers story .Esp this one !
In future I will tune in to SBS and find something else to watch between 6:30 and 8pm .There must be heaps wanting to AVOID THE OVERLY CYNICAL AND UMOVABLE CONTROLLERS WHO PUT THEIR OWN SPIN ON EVERYONE ELSE'S STORY - people who talk up reporting BUT DO NOT tell us what the newsmakers SAY and waste our time telling us what they think. We already know what you think -tis not news and its certainly not worth 90 -120 minutes of our evenings !

"Out of time" - in real time -this time ---our time ?

The Naked Vicars show

QANDA High priests: Bob Carr and Germaine Greer 14th August

When is a visit to ABCchurch good for the soul? When you, despite all the fun of lampooning some other person or idea , go away thinking; "I need something more substantial ". I am sure I wasn't alone after qanda last thursday. Pontification, while funny to watch,..is dangerous pedantry.

ABC's splashing around in a sea of predjudice and self justification based on animal behavior maybe nothing new to the spectre of thursday night TV , but its no adventure beyond child's play and the birdbath. Lets hope the ABC build on it .
?
Everyone gets to tell us what they think . With all that attention to shallow noisy and distracting stuff , you gotta go away wanting , thinking.... there has to be ...something more.
When the preacher throws the baby out with the bathwater - and nobody notices (inc Arts man)--you are clearly in church .Clue SBS has got the lead on the ABC...5 billion stories and growing .

Preachy and predictable By ditching the narrative,the chameleon showed how out of synch she is with real truth telling tensions.

Hypocritical The fanatical Greer rails against the dangers of idealism, but labours to defend the silly simplistic and failed idealism of complete self determination; Tell us... donna quixote - Is government interference in our/ their lives a sin or something?
With her, we are never quite sure which part of the revolutionary cycle she's travelling on - the ideal or the real? She said realism comes first, but where does that leave us? I thought linearity was essential to the survival of secularism ? Maybe marcus 's mirror too would work a bit better if he stood back from the revolving doors and the windpower deniers.

If only Germaine could be both a consistent realist and idealist; we could agree that nothings perfect ( reality therapy ) without going overboard with rage about everything;
Its right to be concerned at the power of the wind, but denying us our use of it is dumb. Waving her arms in the air is not as effective as using the air rationally.Her faith is not very practical because she targets the medium and forgets the message !

How doctrinally devious dead and simplistic can religion get? Was quite a good meeting as far as such meetings go.


What's also hard to work out is: Why does a man with a growing respect for narrative ( history) , and the intellect and experience of a Bob Carr and not recognise the worn out clothing of an old reactionary like Germaine : and why haven't The Age found anyone better to idolize .in their quest for someone with ideas ( bit of an "idealistic" anomaly there --- don't you think? ). The problem ---Stuck as Keating said " with no overarching narrative ???? " ...that's what we old orthodoxy ones think .

Greg thankfully put the big picture. Yes ....... ideas and ideals are dangerous , but beware : one day you may have to live with your own .
So after all that hot air I went to the narrative business ..
Give me an Esther , a Ruth, a Hannah or an Elizabeth , even a Jane (A) over a Germaine G anyday .
Clearly some patterns for liberated women have yet to be seen by those who are too blind to see. copyright EA

Worst debate in ABC history

But it was good for a laugh! While qanda is a great idea, Tony Jones needs to take his own rhetoric seriously if he really wants to make QANDA a vehicle for conviction ; to make it more than entertainment, a good laugh at the compliant choir, and great free publicity for aspiring prime ministers .
Turnbull did well because Flannery was all over the place as a scientist. Surely you can find a scientist who doesn't use use the word " pretty" to describe his convictions , can't stick to the scientific points on sensitive population predjudices , and who , when desperate, causes us to fall to the floor laughing by suggesting we watch a film written by a politician -esp one who won't (MLy) be paying a carbon tax......Convince whom, eh ?

To convince the public you need to be convincing - stand back ; have mostly scientists on the panel and let them go . Directing traffic to your old mates and away from the person responsible, was irresponsible . Where has Tony been intellectually all these years . Why would we be inspired to act by simply listening to poly talk ?
Instead of some highly paid scientist from Wongs treasury of green paper verse we have - , you guessed it, my old mate " the aUSSIE of the year" mr flannery -- the token scientist .

Qanda has been good initiative of the ABC, but its clear Tony Jones won't be able to look back on his repeat reintroduction of " the gag" to TV , without thinking of his compliance in wannabe incontrol at its worst.!

Forgive me for breathing

Penny Wong was totally unconvincing on Lateline . Virginia was on the ball with her simple question about cost -
The answer ? There was none - there are huge costs and the greens think a tax on everyone is fair - Like a pox on everything ? ? Perhaps its a bit like - when you can't see the target shoot the messenger or just anyone in the direction that upsets you ?
Got news for the gun lobbyers. Shoot straight or you'll hit the innocent .you are hitting the innocent . You will lose your licence and go to jail . Whatever happened to targeting the polluter, the rich and careless? The dummies don't know how to balance incentive with admonition . The fine line between pleasure and pain is also a mystery to them .

How long do you think the chicken run circus of hot air on hot air is going to last you dummies? No use finding an even bigger reason to scare people into action . Coercion has a way of backfiring on the public -esp when many of us scientists too have had it up to here with the politicization of science .Funding your own fancies - thats what you get !.

Nelson has finally nailed the heavenly minded harries who try to put wheels on a car they haven't got an engine for . Nooone who is seriuos about a problem as costly as carbon controls would talk to the problem when they haven't got a clue about the solutions. This is the sort of stuff of nightmares . predictable ones.

The carbon trading idea is no more than an idea. One that we have said before was born in kindergarten where the advisers don't know carrot from stick cause they have never worked in ecomia . We have told you before, but no you say "scientists say " when you listen to only those who say what you want them to say .Penny Wong is unconvincing . King kevin hasty visit to the sea can't be compared to Canutes - Canute did not go to learn, but to educate the ignorant advisors . I wonder who is leading who and where ?
Canute knew the limits of economics and science, and was a great leader. Centuries later, we ought to be advancing the revolution in ecomia but are we? --- goverenmnets in their haste in the last few years have thrown out many economic ecologists--- thinking perhaps they were mad to show their leaders the very size of the sea and its power ?
Luckily I am not threatened - if there is a problem with C02 . There are big eco challenges. However, I am not swayed by all the unproductive noise in the henhouse . If anything they are giving the threats , and the real threats -----a bad name.
The greatest evil is done in the name of the best intention . Why ? often because illinformed intention distracts attention from the true targets for resistance . Conservationists- get serious, not sentimental and shallow-- like so many you see on TV .

How long do you think they can continue to make us feel bad - just for breathing?

Infoentertainment - Is it facts or fighting we're hanging out for?

QUANDA and THE FOOTY SHOW have much in common (Thursday nights ). They are about exposing prominent people and their ideas ; really exposing them. Its all good, cause there is just so much political correctness out there .
Sam Newman, for all his faults, is not afraid to call out in church and call a spade a spade . How refreshing.
The dumb questions also have away of exposing the participants more than they realise .
Joe Hockey, like The Libs leader, needs to realise that the future of the Liberal party ( if it has one ) has to be more than "good bloke talk" and pathetic kindergarten repetition of "a safety net for stopping greed" . Dear boys, the people can see through the big holes you are leaving - why can't you? Its called prevention and is small and beautiful . Your net is not small enough!

Let me give you a clue: I too want smaller government, more liberty and less lecturing from the left. We all do , so what's wrong here? Perhaps, like the members of the hastily convened quanda board , they don't really know HOW but are afraid to say so - pity they all, to a man,( sorry Nicola) think intelligence resides now permanently outside the public service . How stupid is that when you claim to be trying to run a efficient and effective house full of cats . A consultant run ecomomy is not one any party can afford . Is Joe no more that an advocate for the big cats?
The cringe mentality is clearly the biggest handicap Canberra and the wannbes have got at the moment . If COAG doesn't work maybe GORE can switch ON a few lights to expose some more of the inconvenient truths we all seek to know about .NOT . NO THE HOW ( for big issues) is not wisely the focus of infotainment. We all want a big splash , but not while we are trying to solve problems ( something we do during the day - if we are rational)

Most important for anyone listening or wannabes who think the ship is sailing well (with little noise ) , is this fact : when the wannbes are too out of touch , nobody is game to tell em so .It often very quiet before a storm .

The lady who spoke so well about the practicalities of what works in rural and remote Australia summed it up . It s not big, its small .COAG can't do everything and its madness to think it can . Much money is being wasted in propping up regional centres when a focus on the small and not so noisy is what's needed .

Libs could win a election if they worked out THAT they too have given up on an intervention policy that works . Both parties ( They not all "going to the right " - they have both lost to will to fight - you heard it first on blogger ) All parties need to find a clever way back to a good stouch and making the most out the scrapyard . Small is beautiful and more rigourously responsible .
Neil leweellyn too, cut to the heart of the crap, by hammering away ( laptops and childcare) at the wannabes failure to recognise their achiles heel - their woosiness. The children are indeed in charge of the household because the noisy ones still get the good oil .
Giving kids new computers and childcare must come after support for the quiet care of the small, and not so noisy . In our town, the targeting of something so obvious( we already have the best computers) means the wannabes throw us a bomb, when we just need some bullets.

On the whole, The ABC should be congratulated for finally doing more to take the set piece off the stage like SBS's jennie and australian story has been doing for years.
Compass is an example one sided reporting that's lasted 20 years - nothing good's been happening in churches - why do you send your kids to church schools then?
How many old lefties have gone "right", but just can't admit it ! Copyright Emperors Academy

A wanna throw up

The trouble with Jones church (Qanda )is, its oh so boring and predictable,( even the audience react in a predictable way say to charlies outrage )
The younger chasers war is even about the same old , same old: aid to church schools . Me thinks he protestith too much.....maybe he is indeed a protestant by nature ?

Thankfully Prue was there this time to put the record straight , but if it takes a lot of her energy to get past first base on the subject of "where education should be going",and where the real enemy is , where is the rest of my evening going ? .

Wouldn't it be good if the club had got past the old hypocritical point of moral indignation ( and apparent threat- ) to what might have been Jones main thrust of the night " why don't thinking people want to send their kids to secular schools - and what the hell do we do about it " . Wouldn't be church meeting though, would it.
Loved the swipe at Rudds touting at windmils and the evidence that even next to her there is something festering. --about what meat to eat .

Whose really serious about petrol

Virginia TONIGHT on LATELINE. She's seriuos -its a powerplay that's as big as ben hur . Will the public vote for higher taxes on fuel or not?

The government are up to the challenge - they think its seriuos too (and so does bob brown).
So the govt send in the Minister for childrens services to put the story...........

Don't think so Miss . Maybe you/we would have a better idea of whose serious if we could have the cabinet view Try here for starters !
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When will ABC presenters let competency rule

When they see everyone laughing at the Emperor with no clothes on as they did on TV tonight . Who started the laughing ? Who were the magicians who told him to talk trading schemes ? mr garnaut and the very idea of carbon trading schemes goes happily out the window .

Cool little club that

Thankfully the atmosphere is not always cool -FIRST TUESDAY BOOK CLUB
You see there is nothing like dissent to spice up the predictable old ABC .
You are getting a bit too keen on comfy conversation mate - save that for home - your home?

Well done Peter Fitzimmons . Got me really interested in listening for more - but only with the proviso that you keep the strirrers on . I bet there is more on the cutting floor on many HOSTAGE HOST SHOWS that would make better television than what they put to air .I learnt lots about the books ( i trust )and to respect the skills of those who truly seek to help us write well and with some punch .
So much fun to hear all those adjectives being thrown round too - Thats where we all need those armchairs and our very own book club .
Trouble with the TV version is that: We expect clones and friends of the ABC to turn up - I mean these comfortzone conversationists might just not want to tell you , or the hungry for more, out there, what they want to hear? @Your books@ dear jennifer - not as big a risk taker as you make out?

Full marks to peter for playing the game hard - it was as it always is goodTV- open and it provided a great way to give us insight into Hardy , Featherstone and Steger's consderable skills as well . Good night out .

What makes the ABC think we wanna listen to them

The dreamy ,but very flat , world of media wannabes.
QANDA is So dull and predictable that even Jones wanders off into "when will you become PM" speculation .
QANDA - Don't the abc CA producers realise how dumb and otherworldy the very idea of QANDA is ? What real world question would ever get very far with a tired old format that will so predictably generate nothing but angst amongst the indianna jones types who turn up, let alone those welded on ABC hopefuls who still cling on in hope of something better. - watch the ratings tumble .

When will the ABC realise that the future of the medium is in competency , not collective drivel .


Let's assume they got the idea of QANDA from CWHyou -----which works
Ok so We're Here To Help (Can we help you) works - the reason it works is not because some ABCTV producers know what they are doing, but because the show actually ask people who know .
Collectors too . Tasmania may only have a few people down there but clearly being behind the times isn't all bad.
Can't be too hard can it ? To do things the way you were taught ? Looks can be decieving . Skin deep ---thats what so much ABC current affairs is.
Elli Moore does look good-- its true and so do Alan Kohlers's graphs -He smiles though while the average punter waits for the good oil -if they should be so lucky .

Respect for what really works in real caring and precision decisions.

ABCTV CA desperately needs some new producer blood - who else would be dumb enough to run a Q and A session with polys and a token time slot commitment to do everything but nothing .

Why doesn't ABCTV employ producers who know what really get's the mind working - Surely the current crop are not in control of the ageing presenters who clearly need a rest . Give us something that actually works, and doesn't impose or direct like dying ABC current affiars has been doing for decades .
The tied old half baked plagerized and uncreative formats come no where near the sponteniety and drive that keeps SBS way out in front in current affairs.

Walking in their shoes

FOUR CORNERS
Another great report on some Australians who are doing far far more than their fair share of genuinely mind and body breaking caring. Surely in this day and age Governements can provide relief ( if not the sort of devotion that was evident there)
RUDD, ROXON and MACKLIN - put in place the mechanisms that should be there to give relief – and make sure they are effective and build into a sense of confidence for carers ---that its not just ”dumping their loved ones ”. Clearly the carers have a good idea of what caring for them entails ....and its not just a bucket or a recipe .


Maybe the loudest "give give me's" , haven't always been the most needy either- how elese do you explain their isolation from effective help .

Humor-- a funny way to get to the stuff of science

Berner does great job of making the ridiculous sound good . The INVENTORS boasts a funny man too to sell what appears to be the stuff of new knowledge . What's really going on here? Is straight science too serious? The shows are good entertainment but not if you are a scientist and like to see scientists embarrassed. Its a party and we are all invited?
Berner can be so funny and reedeming, especially when the whole idea of presenting sound science on EINSTEIN FACTOR or ABCTV is still locked into some time warp of an often silly ( what was the name of a very very obsure fictional man known only to you and a few others ?) a pedantic trivia game show. ITs relaxing yes, but why do the panel of experts even show up ? CATALYST for all the expense sells the same quick fix story of science .
Does science need a lift, or are we just not presenting it in its own best light ?
The panel get so many answers wrong- thats to be expected. Yet they don't question the ridulous framework for this knowledge talk itself - presenting in line withy the myth that the show is about science by talking - their achievements in gene science ,biographies etc etc The experts seem blissfully unaware they are falling for the modern media myth ( that we KNOW it - THAT we create what we know about the world and all that is in it ? Bit over clever---- all of you?
Not to say the scientists aren't intelligent . Perhaps not wise to the bigger picture.
What these game show and the unresolved talk of "science", seems to say is that we don't really love science but something it brings us. Ellul was of course right; that the western world is always in danger of worshiping not science but the thrill of presumed knowledge and advantage.

Point is on the eve after 20-20 SUMMIT it is not good for the clever country to be so confused about the big picture road to progress with science - it NEEDS no quick fix its needs a world view of patience - the many mishaps and unproductive research before a winner arrives .

The last word on trying to make science popular? ---stop trying to make it popular.
( you heard it first on blogger)

New ideas are ALSO not in what the audience can see Mr Rudd , but in what the audience ( and therfore possibly most politicians and other wannabes) cannot see.
Let the debate continue -has it started or is there any tension and therefore any intension ? To really move on from old ideas like einstein factors and old inventions , we need tension, not just good intention

Intervene and give someone other than Jones a go

Tony Jones is not one to shirk a tough question - or so it seems? . The trouble with the ABc is celaerly that they ( unlike Brockie ) think that real discussion ( is a luxury - something to only do when the sitauation is really bad .Their ecozone credentails shown to be suspect .
Like a nicer version of 60 minutes, the ABC probe the very private lives of others with persoanl with the "how does it feel" questions that probably make the participants throw up when they realise they might have all done it for the satisfaction of some audience ---out there.
Yes tony you are right - just as 60 minye and ACA are - "the audience want some answers". Some conveninet answers? I hope you heard the clear ones within the noise and confusion- that is if you believe ther can be direction - afte all thats what these kids need - boundaries ad direction .

Just in case you didn't notice ( no more supergroup models was ) the answers given in the program were pretty clear - reduce the politicall predicatable wastage of the system and grant the money to the people acting like parents and teachers in the world beyond home. The case workers on the street.
A problem properly described is a problem half solved.
Its not homelessness thats the issue --its kids finding a home.

Give the money to those who even now go out of their way to put in the tough boundaries that are not able to be put by all the dogooders and project dreamers who talk about these things from the comfort of their own offices . There has been progress over the last 20years. Every home has individual people in it and casework and care solution they devise-- must be the key .

NEW LOGO

Comeon fellas, The new ABC 1 is intrusive and unsubtle - a logo it is not. The winding symbol is excellent and irreplacable.
So why not use it . My version is not finished add some shadow and see through pin holes and you have a least 3 easy adaptions that can be very easily used for identification . ABC 1 2,and 3
. Send any commissions to Empire awardees. Copyright Emperors Academy February 17th 2008.

East Timorese people on Compass

First class reporting – give them another assignment . They certainly know how to take the job seriously --by reporting people------ not reporters.

Life On Mars

What a welcome surprise from the BBC ( only ever seen tonights edition on the "it must be football related" scenario ). Someone over there in Wales can still write sound drama without getting lost in the soup of personal ( The -new- Bill) and the drab of
dissection( so much other stuff) .

Where are the australian writers who can report the stuff of dilemma and paradox in our own worlds? ABC ads " Time for change" you bet - yes someone who reports !

As for switching on Auntie TV again regularly like we used to
--
---Yes if they find more of The Monarchs and
-- never waste our time with the pedantic predictability of trying to make ladies - --I mean whoever commissioned that stuff should not get another chance - its cuts nowhere and goes nowhere - let alone the sloppy plagerism in structural terms.

What is worth watching on the ABC?

Really enjoyed Henry V and Compass stories of real people in monasteries, but what a drought during the week. Worse , it goes from drought to desperation.
Australians are very good at getting the technical bits right; they know from the yin pedants, that reality is tops , but they forget that, on the yan side, some reality is really the pits and we already spend enough time there . Watching people in the pits is not entirely pointless ( if we want to be technical ) but its clearly only of longterm interest to those who haven't got the point .

The ABC version of Shameless (The librarians ) might make some of the audience feel better about their home/work life, but the producers should not be under any illusion about why they will not have a job in ten years. You must have a script and you must not go to sleep at the tripod - this pitstop stuff is adding rivets to the industrys coffins.

How long before U tube takes over?

What do Landline and The Abbey have in common ?

---Both in cloisters-one group just doesn't recognise it
Political discussions affecting farmers are all around the subject, but not on it . The terrible tragedy for rural producers is that noone on LANDLINE (ABCTV) yesterday ( even the reporters on Landline) was aware that they MUST get beyond the uneccesary and relentless pressure of dumb simplicities ----to what really threatens farmers interests. The topics were short term , drawn from the panic pressure agents. Droughts and abuse of animals will come and go, but idealists ( vegans, guilt projection and exploitation of the weak ) will go on forever .

By the time these limited vision myopic distracted conversations are over , the too hard basket of middle ground on sustainability discussions ( and their abuse in driving idealist causes )will again be avoided.

The Nationals ( and the Libs ) would do well to go into retreat for 33 days just to see whether they are truly radical disciples of a living liberalism: are really supporting sound science on sustainability (look at the way the fed waste money on the bleeding wasteful) Are the conervatives just retreating to some dated old and familiar rickety structures- defenders of some form not substance that only vaguely resembles reality - suffering with age the dangers of tired and inadequate institutional and religious constraints.
Where is the living faith of liberalism, or is it NOW just the dead face of opportunism and greed ?
Farmers , (like markets) , aren't perfect, and its only a matter of time before the Nationals policy of " pretending they are perfect", calls the Parties relevance to truth telling on the tough questions of sustainability into question .
Farmers need friends who can face the truth ---not more fantasy or holy huddles and ignorance ( see below) or even worse, the recognition by the opposition that the whole story is not being told and that " you are hiding something" . There isa way out for rural communities and its not one the nationals are putting wheels under ! Beware those force motion and who don't really care that there is some middle ground and sound science to build on .

Out of the whirlwind

John Hartigan ( Andrew Olle's memorial lecture Sunday )gave a very entertaining and exemplary testimony to the mystery of authorship in the real world. It was amazing to hear,despite all the noise of mere words that surrounds him, to have him picture with some clarity ,the business of purpose and perspective for witnesses;
Like Hughes had done in documenting/ reporting Tom Browns schooldays in the hour before , Hartigan repeated the age old truth about where you will find it; The business of reporting what really happens is a responsibility, that, while appearing to limit our own creativity (surely the great temptation for all his staff and those at the ABC ) the very laying of one's hand upon one's mouth and the proceeding no further (than reporting to editorializing or spiritualizing with eg - worm type subscience) gives authors authority.
Power and authority are often confused . Knowledge is power . Who has percieved the breadth of the world ?Job Who knows the worlds limits? Certainly not the predictable old priests at the ABC who restrict our diet to a dull reactionary and dry monism; One that clearly limits the passion for creativity. He who recognisies the world limits has made a good start to the adventure of authorship and creative vision. Time the ABC did what Hartigan suggested and get practical scientists reporting on the air waves .( you thought they did that? - listen to what he said and look at the kindergarten level of science and rhetoric study on ABCTV )

Hartigans counsel of words with knowledge about Rupert Murdoch were a gift many of us appreciated. We want Murdoch to do well and encourage the freedom that routes out evil and doesn't just sit on it . We want Rupert to follow in his mothers footsteps; build up and not tear down the heritage of freedom that is hidden from so many in the West ; the heritage of free speech and full authorship . The recognition that evil is not just in raw power in the US(eg in that predictable but pathetic ABCchurch chant) but resides much closer to home.
Good perspective brings the recognistion that even if we could control governments we have not the power to set bars and doors for good in governance- maybe even in our own households . The power of the words of truth are not ours to control . The power is truly in the hands of His people. Dostyefsky might have said. "If there is no God, there is no good government" .
After all Rupert is only a man - but how a man of power percieves that gift can help determines just how much freedom many potentially great minds have to thinking positively about faith , freedom and the very wonder of authorship itself .
Well done to all involved .

ABC rivers run dry

It was the 3rd item on the news on friday, but was it news? The reporter on this most seriuos issue of climate change and its implications on Rivers was a retired expert from business . Presumably retired experts from business have more credibility on salinity and risk management than anyone else in the State. Not sure what he was worried about but he better hope his boat is ready for the return period .
It seems that Everyone is allowed to comment on important envirmatters on the ABC- esp if it has a climate change angle .
Expertise is not a issue really when it comes to telling the story
Helps explain why the Sydney agrrement will mean very little. Grist, at least , are taking the problem of unprofessional conduct and supernatural expectations on environmental agendas seriously. For more than hot air on environment , you need to report only experts !

The savage irony of using image makers to win arguments

Cousins and his page limited colegues are losing the battle because they have forgotten where real credibility on the environment comes from . The real world is 3 dimensional, but most arguments about the environment are 2 dimensonal- superficial ( Julia G and G cousins speak on lateline in last few days )Labor would win hands down if they stopped playing dumb falt earth games on complex questions like earthscience- like even the incumbents do .

There is something deeply paradoxical about the Cousins crass campaign to overturn Turnbull over the Tamar -its not going to work because Cousins is playing a game that doesn't win hearts and minds. True converts to the big picture need to confess and repent of using the image game. While Turnbull may play a slightly different version of quick fix, it works better than a pile of mere words and makeover merchandise. - the section of the audience relevant to changing the mood only have to smell sus and they are off with thye cando merchants - esp when eco development is in the wings and the fearmongers are on the prowl .Nice picture but nasty cop hidden away! The emdia can talk up a earth issue as damngerous as a paper mill but if doesn't present facts of risk its bound to fail - even in this religiously media driven age.

Those who get labelled as anti -industry ( the above mentioned characters ) need to be seroiulsy countering the talk with competence , but do they ? The reactionares seem to throw away the really pointed arrows ( the risk scientists) and use the superficial- Geoffrey Cousins use of famous faces will carry about as much weight as their alterative: the very hot air stragegies .
The paradox is that, in being writers themselves they have allowed the 3 dimensional image to be lost to the more "common man" game of 2 dimensionsal arguments using "over the bar" beligerance - Both the left and the right are playing the same game and likely to lose to just one person who knows the real risk , makes decsions and stands by them .This not ought to be so -Conservation needs harder heads and better targeting- otherwise both sides of politics will fine tune nothing to work better( the real aim of consrevation )

Rudd and Garrett too , ought to dig a bit deeper before they hitch their sails to the superficial - what is said to be gospel on paper and is built largely on puffs of hot air in the media . Last election Labors eco credentials brought them undone - why won't there eco superficality bring labor undone again this election esp when the true 3d of environment is such a potential winner - esp when the libs can still play their simple silly old accountancy games on ecosytem management. Why ? - because the opposition don't seem to be able to do anything deeper themsleves.

Turnbull is winning the war of words on the environment, not because he is necessarily right, but because he make s decisions not points of order ;

The new /old left haven't worked out their own intellectual and process weaknesses on the deep matters of ecos - they prefer to win a point on a piece of paper and in doing so allow the crowd to lose sight of the purpose .the 3 dimensional purpose - The left, like last time, when latham left himself open down in tassie FORGET that economic credibility ( their well known weakness) is rightly linked to an even deeper eco credibility ( their unknown weakness-- though they may fool many by talking so much about it )

Rudd and Garret better watch out - One slip on envir talk is probably more damaging to their eco credentials than they realise !Copyright Emperors Academy

Midwinter Sunday night blues

It seems it takes a commercial rerun like midsummer murders to get ABC Tv management to stop preaching at us on sunday nights .
Great to hear the ABC public telling (ON 774) that they feel starved of substance on sunday nights ( and the traditional sat and sun nights) . Boy have we been waiting for a while!
Not a ABC limpit in the country has been happy with the stale old cynical church service preoccupations of the ABC left on sunday nights. No hope just grumpy old cynics? The sermons are always about "whats wrong with the world" ( the old world that is ; the predictable period drama that is revisionist history - mcluhan would turn in his grave at the media abuse );always the same old theology - "we know better than the past"( why buddhism is better etc etec ) Give us a break !!!!!

Robin hood was good - it raised the spectre of evil; a reality ABcchurch has yet to come to grips with.
As for midsummer murders - we love it ; we don't mind a bit of population control - No we are not finding new ways to deal with problems and reducate ourselves into a tis. We like to remind oursleves before we agian hit thge real world running on Monday about what our SOLID education has prepared us for the week ahead.

The Club -more interested in how it looks, than how it works?

Thwaites and Bracks resignation is interpreted by ABC Lateline panel last night as "good timing" - not even a hint from the cool cats club of “political realists” that "something is wrong" .Why?

Does it not disturb the thinking public that men say they want to leave politics for the same reason they appear to have been there in the first place –personal reasons - the high values in our society are ........ Is the world of politics now just like the world of business – a world where only self is worshiped and glorified. May explain a lot about the grinning going on on last nights church.
Not a word, for example, from these clever critics about “public good”. Has post modern politics come to this – a façade.
Perhaps what we witnessed on ABCTV was a hastily called meeting of the Machiavellian Club –more interested in how it looks, than how it works .

Bracks is happy, Kroker and Cameron are happy, but should the people be happy?
What is Brumby going to do ?
Grinning like Cheshire cats maybe neither of the cool cats of political observers are really across the landscape– maybe the universe is bigger that they think – maybe they are a bit limited by the world view of mere cats whiskers . Copyright emperors academy .

Swindle -

Tony and Robin have reason to panic
1. --if they threw all they could at the the swindle film , their panel of supporters was not convincing
2-- Popular maybe? they so like so many our society are vulnerable to simplicities and the desire to simplify
-- In relation to 2 they need to read the maladaptive tendencies of the modern media age ( outlined in the towards 2000 telecom report)
--In relation to 2 above ABC needs to recognise the poor standing of scientists ( the panel wasn't mostly scientists as the film mostly was!) and the irrationality of having a high standing of technological fix in our culture ; common confusion of science and techno fix as the same thing.
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--Both of them ,as organisers, failed the test of good debating - they got too involved in the subject and they had no adjudicator .
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Will the ABC ever regain its ability to hold debates?

Much is expected of Tony Jones tonight . Will he bring the ABC back from the brink of predictability. When will ABC managemnet stop the ageing reactionaries from their withering vines of pedantry: from stifeling us with the same old same old .
ABC managemnet seem at last to be stopping the wannabe prophets of the future from getting their way - when will the ABc realise we the audience, are really switching off ( even on wednights after S&S) ,to nothing , or even occasionally SBS for some relief from their boring deterministic diatribes ( almost like the ABC wants to just like some clone of something predictable ) .

Hopefully JONES won't get distracted . If he's not a scientist he may well be distracted by those who industry is distraction .Lets hope he gets with the new age and says "At end , well the debate appears to only have started , if you are interested , you can follow real debate more closely ( Heresy and horror ---- abcchurch is not the final word on gospel ) on following blogs .Wow wuldn't it be great if it happened . Time the lumbering logomachists supported scientific not journo debate- greek idol bleeters who are not scientists . bleeters who quote scientists to suit ONLY their part of their argument- adding to the story instead of reporting what is said ------ with its limitations

The question TONY ( and stick with it till you get and answer) "Is co2 clearly linked to the warming and HOW " .


Or if you do that one well ---"Isn't there a risk if you proponenets of cahneg continue to us ethe medai the way you do that the momentum for real cahnge will be lost ?' more on here

Well done Noel

Your beauty mate . It wasn't racist but respectful truth telling and about time !

Denton does well

The home of sell, sell sell is no place for any of us to easily overcome our fear of people who come across too strong. Those who by their very vehemence can be expected to ignore people, logic and reason .
Denton could well have presented a case that they are all mad, and got away with it . Yes, Faith people are dangerous especially those “Christains” who “ believe the impossible-“ - and can you believe it " they have heard from God personally" . Andrew did well to both present and let us hear what he heard from that strange group .

Be realistic unbelievers - It's a wonderful story that these salesmen are selling It's a story that's almost too good to be true—an advertisers dream ??? Some relief from the cynicsm of your friends ;
Forget the label - were' all religiuos . Like people who believe in strong government, for all the right reasons -there is lots of careless words. There are lots of careless words said by those who take Christ's promises seriously too , but that rather should draw reporters to what the man said - not what his followers say .especailly when they celarly insist on obedience to those words - not the speculation beyond them .
Thankfully the key salesmen was pretty clear about the dangers of false faith and the sufficiency of His revelation Cynics trying to paint his followrs all mad don’t get anywhere accussing them of using more dangerous weapons than reporters think they are prepared to use ( passion and idealism) - seems to me they hold more cards than the poor people they cut and paste into their pictures and should just " report them " .
You also don’t win the reason war by ignoring the ammunition esp when Christianity is ready and willing to fight stand and stay on words alone. words that are known known known

Zapruder have done well to demonstrate that at least one of the fears of many Australian non believers , is not sound . The fear of those who “hear God personally” is generally well constrained by the very clear teachings of Jesus (even across the book to the author of Genesis) on the sanctity of every human decision - and that includes the sanctity of the lives and minds of all men and their freedom to chose what they believe.

Punching questions -if only

O Brien ( 7:30 report) asked the question of the century , but Chaney didn't really answer it .I wished for a moment that we had Carleton back. Australias bureaucarcies and the change for changes sake merchants need a big bomb under them - noone seems game or competent in their questioning, even when given a good lead like Chaney gave. We don't need change; we need competence and consistency.
Trioli ( lateline ) didn't ask the tough questions of the leader of the Wentworth group , maybe because she is in awe of professors . I used to be too, Virginia , until i worked out in the real world . Be like richard(afternoon in shep ) and doyle - (in a tinnie ) ( 774); Get out in the real world and meet a few experts who haven't got tickets on themselves and who don't cause the people to stumble because they have.

Government guaranteed investment

Every thinking person since the dawn of history knows that good intentions provide the fodder for the greatest waste and disaster .

When ministers of the people play merry careless hell with tax incentives its even worse because they start a drip feed they can't stop .Sure they get results but not ones that put plannattaions where they make the most sense. The market will decide they say hypocritically knowing that tyhe taxincenetives make such discretion unlikely and maybe even uneccsray - they can afford the best land when theu need to use the marginal land .
MIS will be one of those types of investements because it fits the bill of goverenment guaranteed = giuranatedd that by the time the goverenmnet realises the long trem rate of return is sus and all the the smarties ( managers ) who run them , have made their killing,
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Thwaites was as keen on the idea as Hawker was and thats the rub - they are only bubs . They did not throw their own money but allowed billions at a rash of rural invetsement that t will do little to reteurn anything like a good return to invetseors in the long term . Good intentions that slash and burn the rural areas where they are now located.

With care these wannause power merchants might have encouraged the david jenkins of this world to add value to their farms . Now we have a hotch potch of monocultures and mediocre products that are unlikely to ever pay for themselves

Pay for themselevs in ways which unlitimately goverenmnets are supposed to manage money.

Listen to earth scientists , not scaremongers

I used to think Foreign Correspeondent checked whether they were running hype instead of real reporting. I won't watch it as much now knowing its wastes listeneres time by not listening close enough when they go visisting islands overseas . supporting sensstaionalist trivailiazation and plain ignoring of tentonic activiy on the pacific faults . The flooding or sinking of islands is all down to global panic indeed. The big picture of the pacific islands and risk out there was not mentioned , neither was the risk term pretensioning.

I'm sure the Solomon Islanders this week wished reporters spent their time supporting effective warning systems about known and real risks rather than looking for evidence of dangerous and man induced global underwatering which they themselves are in no position to sort-- fact from fear, big picture from mere fact .

Roxon - a definite Labor handicap

Lateline . Unable to address the proper processing of accusations and deal with the issues -Lateline forum FRIDAY was little more than a vehicle for a noise fest from an incompetent wannabe trying to get her word in edgeways - and in the way of anything deep, she got !
This is a woman who aspires to be attorney general!??

Crisis driven consensus

(McMullan gets the experts to solve the watercrisis all in 60 minutes - a mirror of the quick fix going on the election stage at the moment .
Crisis driven consensus- using pressure but not one that would offend our new Pc way of working ?
If such resolutions happened at your home it would seem too good to be true.perhaps these stage sets are for fantasy distraction and entertainmnet . We resolved something really difficult without anyone getting heated- we must be more evolved than our parents ?
The solution : Everyone will just pay more for water --unfortunately its more predicatable than it looks - such a bucket brigade would really help their 4 causes The audience just pays bigger taxes and the money would come to them! The leaders are right and we pay to be wrong . The wonders of consensus .

Perhaps there is no crisis - its just a media and cause driven fundraiser ; water is getting to SA's in the driest period on record , the only bit of the dead Murray to get an unchallenged option was its dead mouth -something it has often had in its long history. lots of recently failed innovations (water trading and focus on rice ) ignored and Cullen unable to talkk about something real and deep like flooded cities or bare paddocks

Why didn't Cullen hit home with the amount of irrigated land likely to go out of production in the next twenty years. He choose rather to ignore the dig at the careless rice critics and refer to some dying red gums .His advocacy of the ricing mechanism suggests he is more an engineer and market sycophant than an economistwith an ecology focus .They might as well call the new Murray Darling commission the J curve interpreters because they will have little time for little else if they try to price water .
Why did the Wentworth guru advocate market solutions when the bucket is empty one day and full the next. why does he talk diversity not the myopic monocultural market motivation theory - different economic paradigms apply to rainfed, rooffed and riverfed.maybe thats the idea - agree to fund more research - the outcomes are less important .
I suggest The only ones to benefit from higher water prices will be the institutions and the speculators. The only ones to feel the pinch ( as mike young so willinly admitted re cities )
will be the producers who will get their options and security slashed and their methods of using the stuff increasingly questioned . When the economists and non practicals in that group couldn't even admit to the ravishing stupidity of a monocultural market solution that has already proven its incompetence and can't put diversity of apprach into prcatice the people who alerady have tanks and mange water well will,sure as eggs, be cut savagely and unfairly .
And its all in the name of winning the election - is it not?

BONO was great ---Enough Rope

RE Making poverty history in semi arid areas

The question: What stands in the road of the future?

The glass is certainly more than half full, but if we are going to kep the momentum going ---lets be realistics the glass does have some leaks .
What stands in the road of the future? Sometimes the audience themselves. That means aid agencies and the media don’t even know what they do wrong . I know may caring people in the system who do not know or see the dangers of misplaced interest in the rural poor in particular.

Do good but do it well

Learning to cope with drought

Hopefully the city will learn to cope with the drought

STATELINE Friday --While Ted came out tops, he did it for a reason - he was more reasonable . Bracks, and top of the tops ABCites were not tough enough or targeted enough to touch base with the real world as well as he did .
It didn't matter that the questions were toughly put - the substance on water conservation ,for example, was shallow, secular and superficial. The sort of stuff we expect from the margins , not from our ABC .
Bracks was nervous, as he should be , about whether even the logic of his advisors is right? ; he didn't even take his cue from that leading question on logging.

Shower roses- Very nice to give us a little shower lecture during a drought, but as any country person could see, the crowd in that studio talked more like a bunch of big birds splashing around in a birdbath; leaders using a vessel small enough, but clearly not deep enough, to avoid the dunking they deserved . Selling such simples may please some of your city folks , but you can restassurred that something will come back to bite you boys - and it won't be just be the mossies from your million dollar meddling with tanks .
Lesson 1 on droughts and really dry times. If you going to really solve environmental imperatives and manage risk from rainfall ( not just talk about a problems existence etc etc etc ) you need proper ecosystem advice - otherwise you risk being sucked in by mere tokens, tritethings and terrible things.

Sustainability is the stuff that works year in year out -- water and resource conservation is bread and buter ---it has to work for us each and every year -WE plan for the occassion, not necesarily spend up big when it arrives.
SO plan for those mozzies - that way you may learn to cope with change like we can every year!
People who encourage those sorts of solutions are profligate; unworthy to be called conservationists, unworthy of governing in the interests of the country.