Just not Cricket

As White Australia and The Empire goes, so goes cricket. Someone is trying to resuscitate it. Old boys' private club is steadily killing international cricket

Bye Bye Macca's ?

Wow - this photo was taken in the Campsie mall - and _this was once a McDonald's_. I hadn't been to this mall since we moved to a different area. This McDonald's *always* had a line (ahem; _queue_), so I'm sure it didn't move for lack of business. This is the second McDonald's I've seen close around Sydney - the other one was in Cronulla, which was also a busy location. The linked article below may have some clues... _burgers are becoming more popular in Sydney!_ This trend cannot come too soon for my tastes. I am boggled at the number of mediocre to poor gyro shops trying to compete for business. There are two categories where immigrants seem to get into business with little interest in what they're selling - gyro shops (Middle Eastern / Mediterranean immigrants) and bakeries (Vietnamese / Chinese immigrants). Come to think of it - there are a lot of businesses in Australia where the proprietors don't seem to give a shit about what they're selling - it's just a living for them, and I'm amazed they're able to stay in business with their attitude towards quality. Burger wars: McDonald's makes rare exit from Sydney CBD

Colonial burden

After encountering a psychopath and a highly positioned incompetent, I've come to the conclusion that England's colonial experiments are still playing out. To the new lands of North America went religious fanatics and businessmen who chafed under England's hierarchy. To the new lands in the South Pacific went not just criminals, but authorities who had taken their power a bit to far and engaged in questionable practices and pompous authoritarianism. After all, dealing with criminals required a degree of authoritarianism, and what safer place for pedophiles than in a colony containing only adult prisoners? (never mind the local savages)

Fast forward 250 years... [Former Headmaster Ian] Paterson stated that he was not aware that it was a crime for a teacher to grope or sexually proposition a student. ...current headmaster John Weeks stated that the school had changed considerably since the end of Paterson's period in the role and that Knox's Paterson Centre for Ethics and Business Studies would be renamed. [Weeks] was questioned over why he had not sacked the teacher who was arrested in 2009 despite having received allegations in 2007 that the teacher had behaved improperly with a student during the 1980s. -Royal Commission Hearings

In the United States, I have worked for some rather lackluster businesses who investigate complaints of wrongdoing by Supervisor X by going to Supervisor X and asking "Are you having any problems?"

Of course Supervisor X says, "No - no problems! And I know who reported this, I'll take care of them." The messenger is shot and the company continues its slide into less than mediocrity. Imagine an entire country whose bureaucratic heritage and ongoing despotic lineage is composed of those who were politely asked to leave England. ‘He Touched Us All,’ Knox Grammar Pays Tribute To Paedophile Teacher

Disease burden is the impact of a health problem as measured by financial cost, mortality, morbidity, or other indicators. It is often quantified in terms of quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) or disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), both of which quantify the number of years lost due to disease (YLDs). - Wikipedia

Lyme disease, scientific literacy, and the internet

Lyme disease. Real? Hypochondria? Medical conspiracy?

I decided to venture down the Lyme disease rabbit hole after two events. The first was an alarmist Australian television program doing what the medium does – dramatically appealing to human interest with conflict and a sometimes contrived journalistic ideal of presenting “both” sides to every story. The program screamed that Lyme disease was an emerging Australian epidemic officials refused to do anything about. I shrugged it off as typical hype, and typical complaints about government indifference.

The second event was a later casual foray into the GoFundMe web site, where I was unintentionally side-tracked reading stories about people needing thousands of dollars for Lyme disease treatment. My curiosity was regarding how these thousands might be spent. What was their prescribed alternative course of treatment? And a later search – how many people have turned to GoFundMe for their Lyme disease medical catastrophe that requires cash? Thousands. Thousands of people looking for thousands of dollars each – and that’s only on the GoFundMe site – people who aren’t quietly paying out of pocket, but hoping someone will take pity on their predicament. How many on GoFundMe have legitimate medical crises, and how many are outright fraudsters? Some of the photos and situations seemed a bit contrived - “Our family wasn’t just stuck by lightning – we were struck by lightning TWICE!”

The challenge is that we seem to be entering an era similar to the patent medicine era - a time when physicians and pharmacists saw each other as competition. The causative agents for many diseases were being discovered, but well-defined cures were still experimental. Physicians might offer advice, but pharmacists and travelling salesmen could dispense elixirs – opium, cocaine, alcohol, and mystery ingredients guaranteed to make the patient feel better if not cured. Patent medicine might be cheaper than a visit to the physician, though in hindsight, neither offered an actual cure.

In the current era, especially in the US, the reputation of Big Pharma has taken a hit. The success of vaccines has become ubiquitous and invisible (though measles and whooping cough outbreaks are enlightening portions of the population). The financial margins of hospitals, physician groups, and insurance companies are seen by many (and each other) as taking priority over medical concerns, with the physical, financial, and psychological wellbeing of patients taking backseat. Into this mix the internet swirls with diagnoses, cures, advertisements, and conspiracy theories. I’m not going to provide the URL to the web site where a very scientific-looking article claims that Lyme disease is a government experiment being covered up by the Centers for Disease Control. Some in the tech sector view the FDA with the same disdain Uber has for taxi driver unions – protecting entrenched interests and blocking progress. With physicians pushed to see as many patients as possible; give ‘em a pill and get ‘em out; antibiotics and drugs have been overprescribed and the carefully built reputation of the field is taking a beating.

Though it’s fairly documented that exercise, eating fruits and vegetables, and sufficient sleep go a long way towards preventing some diseases, a fairly intelligent portion of the population perceives that as a religious ideal that can never be fully achieved. Remedial supplements have surpassed prayer, which was the avenue to health when disease was believed to be caused by sin.

Among this swirling mess of competing financial interests, hype, advertising, information, and misinformation: Lyme disease. In the US, it’s fairly well known that Lyme disease is related to ticks and got its name from a cluster of cases that were noted around Lyme, Connecticut. It’s also known that a small percentage of doctors are quacks, promote themselves to hypochondriacs, and many mainstream doctors don’t have the time or would rather not bother with patients having vague symptoms that never seem to go away. Insurance companies also would like to shun anyone who’s an ongoing drain to their bottom line. Alternative practitioners and supplement manufacturers make up for this lack of love. In the realm of conspiracy theories, alternative practitioners and supplement manufacturers seem to get a free pass. Efforts to certify supplements as actually containing what’s on the label add to the cost, and may easily drive the casual purchaser to the less expensive, uncertified brand. Why spend excessively on a vague concern? Say an extra Hail Mary and throw the cheaper brand in the shopping cart unless you’re convinced you need the real deal. Either way, the supplement industry rings up a sale, and cash brings political clout and impacts regulation.

Another aspect of the Lyme disease challenge is that some consumers have a simplified understanding of diagnostic medicine – a test result means either yes or no, this pill solves that problem. A time graph of the rise and fall or persistence of IgM, IgG, or IgE antibodies is beyond the scope of anyone who struggled with algebra. A New York Times editorial argues that maybe we shouldn’t even subject most students to algebra. The physician says “trust me;” the alternative practitioner says “no, trust me!”, and someone without the tools to fully understand the data makes the decision based on what feels right.

And so… Lyme disease in Australia? The government says the organism that causes the disease is not found in local ticks. The ticks are different; the causative agent hasn’t been found. Are all the cases from Australians who acquired it outside the country? The Lyme Disease Association of Australia doesn’t think so. As an American, the crazy part of this is learning that Australia has a tick that creates problems worse than Lyme disease – the paralysis tick - Ixodes holocyclus. Ixodes holocyclus has been known to cause paralysis and death in dogs, sheep, and babies. But a good meme is hard to put down. Like Americans, Australians’ first thought when they see a tick seems to be Lyme disease. Effects of the paralysis tick are more immediate, and potentially more severe – yet Lyme disease seems to be getting all the glory.

The Lyme Disease Association of Australia acknowledges that there are other diseases and conditions spread by Australian ticks that may potentially be the source of undiagnosed medical symptoms. This is more discretely placed in their subtitle “Tick Borne Disease Awareness & Advocacy”. Even though a variety of other diseases are spread by Australian ticks, Lyme disease – the one government investigations have shown is not present – gets the spotlight. In the antipodean land that, outside of the tourist industry points with pride to it’s myriad venomous spiders, snakes, and jellyfish, why are so many Australians convinced they have an ailment caused by something that’s native to the US and Europe? Why does Lyme disease seem to get all the press and love?

Of course Lyme disease exists. The question is whether it’s as prevalent as the internet buzz suggests, and whether it’s more than extremely rare in Australia, and when occurs is due to visits to the US or Europe. In the marketing sense, Lyme disease seems to be taking off like the gluten-free movement. While Scientific American says that only about 1% of the population would actually benefit from a gluten-free diet, the market for gluten-free products reached $1.77 billion in the US. In order to boost sales, McDonald’s, which hesitates to even offer a vegetarian burger, began gluten-free offerings in Britain. There are people who truly need to avoid gluten due to their medical condition and there are truly people who have Lyme disease. But considering that a tick needs to be carrying Borrelia burgdorferi and remain attached for 36-48 hours to transmit the disease(thoroughly studied in mice), what are the odds that a human with modern hygienic practices leaves a tick attached for the duration necessary for transmission?

A pediatrician in Western Massachusetts, near ground zero of where the cause of Lyme disease was discovered, named, and is still prevalent sees many patients – children – who have ticks attached, no ticks, or vague suspicious symptoms. He describes the course of investigation and treatment – which often involves monitoring the patient with different blood tests repeated over a period of time. He has a name for the so-called Lyme-literate physicians who stray from the accepted path of diagnoses – Lymlits. His frustration is that the Lymlits don’t follow evidence-based diagnosis and treatment, and they imply or make the outright claim that most doctors are Lyme illiterate.

Given the hype surrounding Lyme disease, not only are most Americans and many Australians aware of the disease; it seems farfetched that most American doctors are Lyme disease illiterate. What’s much more likely is that given the pressure to crank through patients, and given the tendency of many patients to not follow orders, blood tests don’t get performed on a timely basis and follow-up investigations are likely to be missed. In most cases, the onus is on the patient to follow through, and that doesn’t happen. Of course anyone paranoid about Lyme disease is going to follow through. But for the thousands of less diligent patients – if Lyme disease were as prevalent as the paranoid patients believe, there truly would be an epidemic – consisting of all the patients who never bother going for their blood test or follow-up blood test. Because… no one enjoys getting their blood drawn. A Science News article sums up well the odds: Five reasons to not totally panic about ticks and Lyme disease.

But what about the Australian situation? As I mention before – Australia has plenty of reasons to be paranoid about ticks. But for Australians on the east coast, the paranoia should be more focussed on the hazards of paralysis ticks. And for Australia as a whole, there are plenty of native toxins and diseases that cause vague symptoms, arthritic, and neurological conditions. Australia also has a problem with algae toxins, which can be deadly and have recently been implicated in Alzheimer-like neurological symptoms. An article from Canada provides telling statistics about the Lyme disease industry; researchers sent 40 test specimens to two labs advertising advanced Lyme disease testing. The specimens were from patients who had no symptoms, were from areas where Lyme disease does not exist, and had not visited areas where Lyme disease is prevalent. One of the labs reported that 11 of the specimens were positive for Lyme disease. For patients who do have symptoms, and are frustrated with mainstream health care system’s lack of concern, the article also mentions a much more productive route. British Columbia Women’s Hospital & Health Centre has a Complex Chronic Diseases Program,and Todd Hatchette, an infectious disease doctor believes every Canadian province should have a similar clinic. In the US, health care is very profit driven. Of course in Canada and Australia there is competition for research dollars and other forms of competition, but in countries with public health systems like Canada and Australia, it makes sense to refer difficult cases to research facilities where they can be compared and investigated more thoroughly. Rather than buying in to the Lyme disease hype, Australia would be well-served by thorough investigation of what may be local, undiscovered, or poorly understood disease agents.

Other resources:
• Tick Removal
• Definition of Lyme disease
• How do you ethically prescribe a placebo?
• FDA Advisory on Lyme disease testing

James Lamb is a California licensed Clinical Laboratory Scientist. Over the years he has spent much time in outdoor pursuits and removed many ticks from his body. To his knowledge, he is not and never has been infected with Lyme disease.

Lines on a map and moral exemptions

Last night I was watching a documentary about mining in Papua New Guinea. One PNG official was excited about how the wealth from mining would enable locals to have modern amenities. Apparently, the locals weren't consulted and were forced to move to a different hill; one they considered inhabited by bad spirits. They were offered money to move; some took it willingly, others resisted, but eventually all were relocated and most not so happily so. There was also a question of the effects of mining waste that would be pumped into the ocean. Modernization, with all its benefits (minus a few environmental regulations).

For some reason, I woke up remembering that in grade school we were all required to read All Quiet on the Western Front - a book about the idiocy of trench warfare. Trench warfare - the heroic effort to move an imaginary line. Where fashion is a matter of life or death (what color uniform are we wearing today?)

Nationalism? Loyalty? I gave up a well-paying job, a sense of purpose, to live in a country that forced me to pay to verify who I am, and my credentials, and then tells me my experience and credentials are worthless. I pay more to an institution where I feel people are being abusive, and they say I am the one with the problem, because... I am from the other side of the border. I need to be taken down a few notches.

At this point in the history of humans, loyalty to imaginary lines and fashion are more important than loyalty to principles. But if you change your mind, please fill out the proper form. Americans can renounce U.S. nationality in the proper form at U.S. embassies and consulates abroad.

Gary Numan - which country has more thugs?

Every country has its share of bullies and idiots. Oddly, I feel that in spite of being known for daily shootings, the gun culture of the US has produced a subtle difference in its thuggery. Oddly, a recent reading of Gary Numan's Wikipedia page brought this difference to mind.

Following the apparent harassment of his wife while his family was walking on a high street in his local area, and his feelings following the 2011 London riots Numan filed papers to emigrate to the United States Santa Monica, California. Numan said "Every village and town in England has a bunch of thugs running around in it. The riots were the nail in the coffin".

In the September 2011 Q&A section of Numan's official web site, in answer to the question "Is it true you now hate England and want to leave?" he replied, "No, that's utter rubbish." He explained that he had "never been abused in my local high street," and has "made no firm decision about leaving the UK" but thugs are helping make such a decision, pointing out that the rioting "makes us look like a country of ignorant savages, beating up people already injured, pretending to help while stealing their things, hitting old men, killing them." He went on to explain that soundtracks may be a logical step, as he gets older and since "in the UK we have no meaningful film industry to speak of," a move to the US might be more reasonable. He concluded by saying his family are highest priority and, "If I see somewhere that seems safer, happier, and will give them a better life than the UK, I'll take them there if I possibly can." --Gary Numan - Wikipedia

My sense is that the US has less a problem than Australia (and the UK) with people getting into drunken senseless fights; people punching strangers in the face. Due to the availability of firearms, what would be a fist fight or punching a stranger in the UK or Australia would be a shooting or armed robbery in the US. The trade-off of eliminating mass shootings or a fair number of random shootings has been more hand-to-hand combat. Having lived with both, in a neighborhood that had two drug-related shootings a few blocks from one of my US addresses, and feeling like I might be the recipient of a punch in the face by a drunken Australian, there are some situations where I'd prefer the asshole to have a gun, and other situations I'd prefer if they be forced to punch me.

Nuclear sunglasses

This is a bit of trivia I just learned yesterday and love! Though Australia has only one nuclear reactor* (for medical isotopes), their Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPASA) sets the standards for sunglasses :-) Because - hey - UV radiation! If only everyone had this level of understanding of the word radiation. And... solar radiation is a serious issue in Australia.

*in spite of having huge reserves of uranium

FREE KETCHUP!!!

The lack of providing free ketchup with chips (or fries, as we call them in the US) is one of my pet peeves in Australia. McDonald's does it. Few other small restaurants do. They charge a dollar or two - huge markup / source of revenue. Here - at Hungry Jacks - not only is it provided free (I had to ask twice) - but it's called ketchup, not tomato sauce!!

Tea Wars!

One of the first customs I was struck by in Australia was "morning tea" or "afternoon tea". These phrases are used synonymously with "morning break" or "afternoon break", but when I was with a group of older Australians it was really accompanied by the consumption of hot tea - even in summer.

What about cold tea? Surprisingly, when I first arrived, the only cold tea that was universal in convenience stores and fast food was bottled Lipton tea. It seems cold tea was just not a thing in Australia.

Casting about for things I might do here (since employment seemed to be difficult to come by), I thought maybe I could promote ice tea? Alas, I returned to the States and worked six months (easier to get a job, and higher pay in my profession). But I'm back. And what do I discover? Hungry Jacks now has ICE TEA in their soda fountain.

I predict that within two years, ice tea will be much bigger in Australia. There is already a wide variety in many convenience stores, but it hasn't filtered into restaurants - only Hungry Jacks and, apparently McDonald's (haven't been to one yet). But what's behind this? First of all, Lipton, the bottled tea that's universal here? It's owned by Unilever. And the tea at Hungry Jacks is Fuze Tea, owned by... you might guess - Coca-Cola. So yeah, to imagine that I might introduce iced tea to Australia... and compete with Unilever and Coca-Cola? Of course, there's the craft, home-brew, whatever... but they're not going to take that from an American. They'll only roll over for the big guns. (defeatist? My brother says I should become the Granola King of Australia, since I found granola to be boutique-y and overly priced. Honestly? My motivations lie more in the social justice, nonprofit direction. Coca-Cola’s Fuze Tea arrives in Australia

Barnaby Joyce barking up the wrong tree ?!

This situation highlights how estranged I feel from Australian politics and (if true) perhaps a fair portion of the Australian people.

For those unfamiliar, some backstory... It came to light that the officials in charge of dog racing were not only aware that there was widespread abuse of animals, including prohibited use of live rabbits for bait, but were fairly complicit in the ongoing violation of rules over which they were charged with enforcing. For this reason the State Premier Mike Baird *banned* greyhound racing.

Now, Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce is blaming this ban for the Liberal Party losing several seats in local elections.

Personally, while I'm not a dog racing fan, I'm for the humane treatment of animals, and I believe laws that people disagree with should be changed, not just ignored; overall, in the grand scheme of governmental policy, I see dog racing as a *side issue* not something to make or break a candidate.

I would like to think that the constituents of a major party base their decisions on something more than dog racing. Granted, I don't agree with many of this party's policies. I should be glad to see them losing seats. I agree that a sport that has demonstrated widespread corruption should be ended, especially since it is more about gambling than love of the actual sport. But what Barnaby Joyce is saying here is that a lot of Liberal supporters care nothing about general governmental policies and everything about the continuance of a sport that has demonstrated corruption top to bottom? That they would throw out their politicians due to ending dog racing and no other reason? Barnaby is making the supporters of his party sound like incredibly unintelligent punters (Australian-speak for someone who spends much of their spare time drinking in a gambling establishment). This also speaks for the American method of making voting optional, not mandatory, if the only thing voters are enthusiastic about is dog racing?

I want to give the voters more credit. I'd also like to give the people they elect more credit. I don't like a number of Baird's policies (in spite of his good decision on dog racing), and would like to think that's the reason people are voting his party out. Maybe Joyce doesn't want to admit the voters are bothered by something more substantial? Maybe I should realize this is a guy who made international headlines for barking at Johnny Depp's dog??

side note: the marks on his face are for skin cancer treatment, not getting punched. At least he is showing some common sense in getting treatment.

Barnaby Joyce blames Mike Baird's greyhound ban for local election results

Welcome back to work

A bit of insanity...  The place I'm now working (or orienting) has 10 hour shifts.  Which is nice for work if it's not a crazy draining 10 hours.  But...  They're having me *train* on 10 hour day shifts,  which start at 5am.  Which happens to be about midnight in Australia.  So you might say I'm starting out on 10 hour night shifts,  though I did have a week of reacclimating to daylight here.  But that was daylight -  not getting up at 3am to be to work by 5?  And now with the daylight savings change,  I'll effectively be getting up at 2am? (or 11pm Australia?)  Welcome back to work! 

And training? It's like waking someone in the middle of the night and saying "hey -  remember this",  but the list is 100 items long. 

Of course the upside is having three days off a week. Due to scheduling, I get four days off this week  but on my first day off I automatically woke up at 3:15 am. That's good in terms of acclimating to my schedule (for the first month -   but then I'll go to evening shift. 

Of course in this small town,  what's open at 3am? Maybe a gas station. And will I remember *anything* I  attempted to stuff into my head in this time warp and after four days off?  There are the tests I haven't done for 30 years... Some of them are surprisingly the same,  but for the most part there's automation involved.  And while the automation in itself is supposed to make things easier,  it replaces the parts that are familiar with whole new layers of unfamiliar computer interface and machinery to be learned. Granted,  once these interfaces and machines are learned,  this will all be quite automatic -  but for now it's five layers of screen menus;  hundreds of new little icons (some so small and poorly rendered they're just tiny blobs recognized by color pattern and position; and maybe six new login / passwords? 

What's interesting is that the new automation technology is getting good enough that a sophisticated battery of tests might be run by a high school graduate -  except the machine interfaces and sequence of steps through the interfaces,  as well as as the multi-systems interfaces and middleware are so complicated that it's a whole different type of expertise!  And it's not programming,  it's a combination of chemistry,  statistics,  and systems administration. At some point,  someone could sort through all this,  make all the interfaces more logical and straightforward,  and improve the intercommunications between the machines with better  middleware visualization. But the economic incentive seems to be to pay people like me (whose training is mostly the science end,  and the programming end more a hobby and acclimation to modern reality). 

Yesterday,  a brilliant guy was having trouble with the middleware communicating. He tried resetting the software several times and resending; no go.  He called IT,  but a few minutes later,  a late-70s-era-looking guy with a pony-tail just happened to be in the lab for something else -  and the guy with the problem said "hey -  Bob -  you're an IT guy aren't you?"  (meaning in his past that's what he did). Deadpan "Yeah.  Did you try unplugging the bus?"  I walk over with the guy to where there are about three RJ11 / RJ45 (?) to serial connectors and a modem.  The guy unplugs one of them,  points to the other one and says "Don't ever unplug that one.  Last time it was unplugged,  it took them a week to reset everything." 

Rowing?

Bad timing? I enquired about rowing at University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) when I first started classes (two and a half years ago). They had rebuilt the clubhouse, opened the new restaurant, and installed poker machines. But when they were in the process of rebuilding the boathouse, they laid off all the staff and had yet to hire new ones. So the only rowing allowed were the top-level athletes. No plebes allowed. Even though I had rowed on San Francisco Bay, I needed to be "taught" how to row here (because the coriolis effect might confuse me?) That was just the first of my many disappointments with UTS, which led to me not only dropping out, but leaving Australia to accept opportunity back in my homeland. Now, they've finally hired staff to oversee rowing (because volunteers just wouldn't do?) Learn to row at UTS

Incentives to cure?

The Boston Globe article Hepatitis C drug costs leave many without care tells of how state-administered Medicare programs in the US are struggling to fit the cost of hepatitis C treatment into their budget. If you look a little deeper, the issue is also a good contrast between how various countries deal with health care costs, and how that's changing. In the US, prior to the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies might have considered hepatitis C a pre-existing condition and offered no coverage at all. Treatment would be either be by cash payment, or for indigents in government programs, covered as the article describes - depending on the budget and how it was allocated. As the article cites, that often translates into no treatment at all. Now that the Affordable Care Act is in place, insurance companies cannot refuse coverage for pre-existing conditions. However, a quick search reveals that insurance companies may only pay for specific drugs, require co-pays, deductibles, etcetera - bottom line, the patient may still be stuck paying a huge cost if they want treatment.

In other developed countries, hepatitis C is considered a serious public health hazard, and the goal is to treat as many people as possible to reduce spread of the disease. These countries negotiated a contract with the manufacturer to make the drug available to everyone in their national health plans. While in the US, the drug is in some cases being denied to those still using drugs, according to HepatitisAustralia There are no restrictions applied to people who inject drugs as they are a priority population for hepatitis C treatment. Also people in prison are a priority population for hepatitis C treatment. Contrast that to the US, where those who are at high risk are less likely to receive treatment (thus continuing the spread of the disease).

While the profiteering of the US system encourages innovation (in some cases to the point of promoting quackery), it is not so well engineered for preventing the spread of contagious disease (in this case, hepatitis C). Innovation still occurs in other countries - researchers in the UK are claiming the new medicines are based on their work. In India, the drug was licensed to about twelve generic manufacturers for distribution within the country. Meanwhile, rather than the drug being distributed to prevent the spread of disease in the US, it is going to those who can afford it, and being rationed to the most desperate cases in public health programs. Obamacare is still a work in progress.

Got a hall pass?

I could have renewed my passport at the US consulate in Sydney faster than it would be processed in the US, but I didn't think of it until last minute. So I felt oddly trapped in the US when I had to mail in my passport for renewal. It's back now, and I'm free to leave the US, and free to stay in Australia as a permanent resident. The new ones have a thicker cover, but it still seems like cardboard, and don't know how it will wear if I stuff it in my pants pocket like the old one.

Is Canada closer to Australia than to the US?

This is an interesting conversation about the territoriality of nations, and the conversation shifted into the realm of relations between the US, Canada, and Australia. Keeping Sea Lanes Open

The Best

When something claims to be the best in Australia,  you gotta look at how many are in the set to compare (sometimes a pretty small number).  When an institution in the US claims to be the best in the US,  it's almost always hype. Claiming an institution is the "best in the country"  at X niche is a common and often ridiculous assertion. Just cite some statistics and follow it with "we're good at this".

Organizational assumption: automobile

Things you forget being in an area well-served by transit: outside of those bubbles, which is most of the USA, everyone just assumes automobile ownership. I found housing that allows me to walk to work. So I call to make an appointment for orientation and find it's several miles out of town. Then there's another task to be accomplished a mile away from that location. I mention taking the bus (because I've scoped the area and know the bus route), and the person acts as if taking the bus is unprecedented, but can be accommodated. This makes me suspect they'll have me run across town again for a upcoming, somewhat trivial task that could easily be accomplished on site. Welcome back to the work world - where the work is not the actual work (at least not yet?)

One downside of taxpayer funded health

This is one of the downsides of having a national health system. In the US, if you can find the money, you can probably find a doctor who will do just about anything. Whether it's an effective treatment or not is another matter, but doctors perform a lot of questionable procedures in the name of income, and supposedly for "rare cases" or potential cures outside of orthodoxy. There's a lot more latitude for quackery, but there's also a lot more latitude for experimentation. When the government and taxpayers are paying for it, you have to draw the line on what's considered effective - you can't be funding questionable procedures for everyone; funneling lots of money to potential quacks. But as this article illustrates, a cabal of orthodoxy conspires to bully others in support of where the line is drawn.

The Australian system could be improved by allowing more self-funded experimentation - meaning, the government won't necessarily pay for it, but if someone wants to try it in Australia, it should be allowed on an experimental basis, with the patients' full knowledge that it's considered experimental and there could be serious hazards or side-effects. If someone is dying, they won't care. People with money are going outside Australia for treatment, where even more questionable doctors claim more questionable practices are actually effective.

Top neurosurgeon Dr Charlie Teo says Sydney Children’s Hospital refuses to let him operate on sick children

Family life

Where I'm from, people believe that having children and a family is the be all and end all of life. They believe it so strongly they think that if ever sperm has a chance to meet egg, the parties involved should be forced to join the club. Considering society there pretty much revolves around the family, people with little interest, broader interests, or even delayed interest in procreation leave to seek adventure elsewhere.

On the shuttle bus to the San Francisco airport, I met a guy from Malaysia who said "San Francisco is the only American city I like." In many ways, San Francisco is the opposite of the mindset of where I grew up. Rather than being insular, it is open and full of people who read widely and travel internationally. People successfully raise children there, but the cost of real estate makes it a challenge, and a swath of middle class families with children does not exist there. Travelling internationally is a challenge when it requires buying a six-pack of airline tickets.

A friend recently posted a link to an article that discussed the subtle or not so subtle prejudice felt by a woman not wearing a head scarf in an area that is veering back to more fundamentalist leanings. What is this small town venom - where people use shunning and gossip freely about neighbors, but can't discuss politics openly because it would only lead to dangerous friction? There are places where conformity is valued above diverse viewpoints and civil discussion. On the right, it is the small town or insular mid-size cities. On the left, it is political correctness that stifles healthy discourse. Both sides have their bullies that directly or indirectly enforce conformity and shun outsiders.

Physics - did they know more in 1910?

Now that it's later in the antipodean summer, I'm realizing other aspects of how well this house in Sydney is designed to deal with heat. The winter sun shines on the front porch and heats the bricks. The summer sun is blocked from shining on the front porch. By 10 am in the winter, the front bricks would be warm. Now, 10 am in the summer, they're still cool. 1910 - when there was less technology, and better knowledge of simple physics.

What's the fuss over firearms?

After living in Australia for three years, I had almost been convinced by Australian media that the United States was a primitive country with gun fights daily in the streets and mass murders occurring on nearly a weekly basis. My recent visit back to the US provided a helpful reset button to the hype that I feel is due to a combination of Australian nationalism and media amplification. Note that in the link underlying media amplification, other countries in the Americas are left out.

Did any violence occur while I was in the US?
Yes. During a week in Miami Beach, a stabbing occurred and police gunned down a mentally ill man. The stabbing made international headlines; the police video went viral, but didn't make mainstream national news. Both were within blocks of where we were staying. While I was in Indiana, 14 people were killed and 22 seriously injured in San Bernardino, California. That situation evolved into being described as an act of terrorism.

Did I personally witness any violence?
No.

During my month there, did I ever feel threatened?
No.

It's been said, and I agree that firearm ownership plays a big role in American culture. I think attitudes have evolved (and not for the better). My own family illustrates a range of attitudes. My siblings and I grew up being taught responsible gun ownership. While the crazy neighbor boys were shooting each other in BB gun fights, our parents used BB guns as a test of our level of responsibility (*manufacturer now recommends for ages 10 and older). Toy guns were toys, but if we could treat a BB gun as if it were a real weapon, we could graduate to a 22 caliber rifle or shotgun. I left home while my sister was still young, and don't think she went through the gun training process, but she now owns a handgun (she didn't know what caliber). One of my brothers was never into hunting, but one of his sons is an avid deer hunter. My other brother has guns, but it doesn't seem that any of his sons are into firearms. I had guns when I was young, but when I joined the military and started traveling around, it seemed too much of a hassle to bring firearms and keep them secured. Thus, I haven't owned guns for over 30 years. I've also lived in urban areas where firearms are more clearly the cause of major problems.

My parents live in a poor, rural area with known drug dealing going on in the neighborhood. The police wanted to install a surveillance camera on their garage. They consented, but then the police realized they would need to cut a tree, and my parents objected. No camera. My father owned primarily hunting guns but was concerned that someone in the neighborhood might steal them - so he sold them. Better to get the money than have them stolen, and he spends his time fishing rather than hunting. An attempted burglar walked into my sister's house once when my brother-in-law was home. The attempted burglar was a casual thief, and after an awkward conversation with my brother-in-law he left. Their house now has security cameras and my sister sleeps with a gun in a safe next to the bed - with the key nearby. It's easy to understand why she wants a gun, and she keeps it secured to prevent either thieves or her children from getting their hands on it.
When I was growing up, firearm ownership was more about hunting. My father taught us about rifles and shotguns, but for safety reasons, didn't want us to have handguns. Since guns were all about hunting, handguns were somewhat irrelevant. The shift in attitudes that I perceive in the United States is that as natural areas have been converted to suburbs, firearms now seem to be less about hunting and more just a hobby, about gun rights, or for personal protection.

As I mentioned, my father sold all of his firearms, but the stories he mentioned drove home why so many people in suburban and semi-rural areas insist on owning firearms for protection. We went for a drive by the house of a man who worked from home as a gunsmith and was killed by burglars. Over time, a FedEx delivery person learned the nature of his business, and returned after hours with accomplices, killing the man and stealing weapons from the house. I noticed one version of this story decided to be kind to FedEx; leaving their name out of the story. My parents mentioned another home invasion story where a pregnant woman was killed by two home invaders. Both situations happened in 2015, and if you look at the stories (linked in previous sentences), they reinforce fears that those living in predominantly white areas have about race.

Those who are against gun ownership point to statistics showing that people or their family members are more likely to be killed when there's a firearm in the home. It's interesting the different attitudes between the generations of my family. In the face of possible burglary, my father sells his guns; my sister purchases a gun. I think part of this is the change in attitudes regarding firearms for hunting versus for protection. Another part of it is that my parents see the daily activities of their neighbors as perhaps misguided, but they don't feel particularly threatened; whereas my sister, based on prior experience does.

None of my family members live in urban neighborhoods where gangs and gun violence are a frequent occurrence - they see this as something "out there" in neighborhoods that they avoid. There is also the notion that the overall statistics include a lot of people who don't have appropriate training and are not keeping firearms secure - people who leave guns where they shouldn't be. And so, in the spectrum of attitudes about guns, the dichotomy is largely one between urban and rural lifestyles, with the sprawling suburbs being a grey zone depending on one's roots and experiences.

Scary spiders of Australia

Or was it a spider? A couple of days ago, felt just a normal, minor scratch on my neck. But in the next hour or so, as I scratched the same spot three or four times, it started feeling raw, like I'd accidentally scratched the surface off my skin. Not burning, mind you, just raw. I look in the mirror and oh. A circular patch of redness with a mark in the middle. I'd been bitten or stung by something; most likely a spider.

The next morning, when I took a shower and the water streamed on my face, there was a weird sensation - my lip and chin on the side of the red mark. Hard to describe, it wasn't really numb, but as I moved my mouth around, I could tell the lower muscles on that side were something less than normal responsiveness - mind you, I had mostly forgotten about the bite until then. Uh oh. Time to look things up on the internet. The scary spiders of Australia?

A couple of articles calmed my nerves. It seems there are mostly two spiders that are serious business. The funnel-web and the redback. The funnel-web's venom causes an immediate reaction. The redback's bite is sharply painful. Nope. Nope. And unlike the brown recluse in the US, there are no Australian spiders with venom that causes delayed necrotizing. In spite of my unnerving symptoms, my mind was set at ease.

Day three - the red mark is still there, but the weird muscular symptoms have subsided. They never reached a point where there was an actual loss of control. I am convinced I have escaped the worst scenario.