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.