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tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7497302484466706892019-12-07T08:17:00.685+11:00The Cabbages of DoomA miscellany of musings from a science geek, would-be author and occasional creator/supporter of open-source bioinformatics software. Stuff I do, stuff I like... Because the Internet has a better memory than I do.Richard Edwardshttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-749730248446670689.post-29778613360410574792017-02-21T08:46:00.001+11:002017-02-21T08:46:13.959+11:00ARGH! How to give your journal a bad reputation
Received on 21 February 2017:

Dear Dr. Richard J Edwards,

Good Morning…..!

We are in shortfall of one article for successful release of Volume 3, Issue 2. Is it possible for you to support us with your transcript for this issue before 28th February? If this is a short notice please do send 2 page opinion or mini review, we hope 2 page article isn't time taken for eminent like you.

We are confident that you are always will be there to support us.

Await your response.

Sincerely,
Brittney Reeves
Advanced Research in Gastroenterology & Hepatology (ARGH)

Begging for a two-page article in a week from someone who doesn't even work in the field… ARGH indeed!
Richard Edwardshttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-749730248446670689.post-7395449601380026772017-02-05T08:25:00.002+11:002017-02-05T08:25:25.258+11:00An ode to Trump
There once was a Donald called Trump,
Who springs high when Bannon says jump,
His empathy's lacking,
His sanity's cracking,
A scary yet pitiful chump.
Richard Edwardshttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-749730248446670689.post-67749963782268541072017-01-27T20:56:00.000+11:002017-01-27T20:56:11.602+11:00In Defense of Science
From the Evolution Directory (evoldir) mailing list today:

Governmental scientists employed at a subset of agencies have been forbidden from presenting their findings to the public. We have drafted the following response for distribution, and encourage other scientists to post it to their websites, when feasible.

Graham Coop
Professor of Evolution and Ecology
UC Davis

Michael B. Eisen
Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology
UC Berkeley

Molly Przeworski
Professor of Biological Sciences
Columbia University

The message, for any affected US scientists out there:

We are deeply concerned by the Trump administration's move to gag scientists working at various governmental agencies. The US government employs scientists working on medicine, public health, agriculture, energy, space, clean water and air, weather, the climate and many other important areas. Their job is to produce data to inform decisions by policymakers, businesses and individuals. We are all best served by allowing these scientists to discuss their findings openly and without the intrusion of politics. Any attack on their ability to do so is an attack on our ability to make informed decisions as individuals, as communities and as a nation.

If you are a government scientist who is blocked from discussing their work, we will share it on your behalf, publicly or with the appropriate recipients. You can email us at firstname.lastname@example.com.

I've also heard a rumour that Michael Eisen is running for senate. That would be cool - we need fewer Trumps and more science-savvy politicians.
Richard Edwardshttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-749730248446670689.post-3902662615179883822017-01-26T19:29:00.000+11:002017-01-26T19:29:52.029+11:00Is it fair to compare "Alternative Facts" with "Alternative Medicine"
I came across this "meme" on Facebook today:

"The very concept of alternative medicine exists to create a double standard where the rules of science and evidence are stood on their head specifically to manufacture the result that is desired by cranks, charlatans, snake-oil salesmen, and self-proclaimed gurus. There is no alternative medicine. There is just medicine. Either it works or it doesn't work."
-Steven Novella

The inevitable retort was: but what about some "natural/traditional" medicines that have not been thoroughly studied. These might work. So, surely it's an unfair comparison?

My response to that is this:

When people bullshit based on their gut feelings, they can also be right sometimes. It's only when someone looks into it do we know whether it is actually fact or fiction. "Folk medicine" and natural products may have good (or bad!) effects but it is wrong to imply that they are medicine until we know whether/when they work.

In the same way that an opinion is not an "alternative fact", a natural product that somebody thinks might do something is not "alternative medicine".

Then, of course, there is the less generous - but even more apt - comparison of bare-faced lies with bare-faced fraudulent treatments like homeopathy - things demonstrably false that are being badged at truth under the label "alternative".

I just hope that the war on "Alternative Facts" is more successful than the war on "Alternative Medicine". The real problem with taking action based on made up stuff is that reality doesn't care how well-meaning you are, or how much you want it to be true. Hopefully, America will not suffer too much at the hands of reality before Trump and/or his cronies realise this.
Richard Edwardshttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-749730248446670689.post-73227644909657311092016-10-31T07:00:00.000+11:002016-10-31T07:00:36.313+11:00Happy Halloween!

From Off the Mark; h/t: WEIT.
Richard Edwardshttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-749730248446670689.post-52981108860483833942016-06-27T20:02:00.002+10:002016-06-27T20:02:45.832+10:00Stay angry Britain - but at your politicians, not each other

This is a call to voter on both sides: stay angry about Brexit and hold those ultimately responsible to account. I am not talking about Leave voters, or the Remain voters who won't shut up. I am talking about our political leaders who, despite often being pictured pint-in-hand for PR purposes, couldn't organise the proverbial piss up in a brewery.†

Donald Trump and Marie Le Pen aside, it is pretty clear that the Brexit affair is a national embarrassment. But I don't feel embarrassed by the decision itself - even if I think it's terrible - I feel embarrassed by the way that politicians appear* to have handed responsibility of the biggest political decision of our generation to the Great British public but then neither (1) adequately equipped to make an informed decision, (2) taken precautions to ensure that people were voting for what they thought, nor (3) put any plans in place to deal with anything other than the expected Remain victory. [*The vote was actually only a recommendation to parliament, who still make the ultimate decision.]

Remain supporters feel justifiably angry that the nation was duped into what they see as a calamitous decision of unprecedented proportions. But Leave supporters should feel equally angry. For, whilst you technically "won", the manner of your victory - underpinned by false promises and undermined by subsequent back-tracking and recriminations - removes any real mandate to act unilaterally on the outcome. Do you really want to hang onto a "victory" achieved only by cheating? Do you want to be the 1986 Maradona of British politics? Well, forgive me if I don't consider that in-line with a traditional British sense of fair play.

Democracy is about compromise but if we're not careful we'll end up with a compromise that makes no one happy - of exactly the sort that "Project Fear" predicted. As Boris has implied, Britain is likely to try hard to maintain free trade, which means no change to borders (that we already control!) or the influence of EU law, but leaves us sitting on the outside peering in, rather than driving reforms and agendas.

It is in the interests of both camps to acknowledge that this referendum was a terrible idea, poorly executed. Such complex and wide-ranging decisions should not be based on a single vote on a single day. Nor should either side be allowed to get away with telling blatant lies. We need to stay passionate about the legitimate issues behind the Leave success - housing, education, jobs and healthcare - and push our politicians together to come clean about the causes and the solutions. If it turns out that the EU and immigrants are not simply scapegoats, or if the real facts about immigration and EU interference still leaving you wanting to leave, let's vote Leave again and move forward together.

Above all else, let us drive for political reform to make Britain more democratic, which means abandoning first-past-the-post voting and replacing the House of Lords with an elected body, at the very least. I would also like to see voting become mandatory as in Australia, but with the option to abstain on the day.

To the politicians of Britain, I make this plea: don't follow through with Brexit purely because you are scared of appearing weak and undemocratic. That, ironically, is the weak and undemocratic thing to do. If you want to appear strong, and really want a democratic answer to the Brexit question, it is time to (wo)man up and admit that the whole way the referendum was conducted was a fiasco of gigantic proportions.

†Footnote. The exception to "Stay angry Britain - but not at each other" is the racist arseholes across the country who have taken the Brexit vote as a mandate to racially abuse anyone they don't like the look of. Leave and Remain voters must unite to counter this ugly trend and come together to make one thing clear: the person not welcome in my country is the British racist, not the target of their abuse.
Richard Edwardshttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-749730248446670689.post-26261099071352032302016-06-26T17:55:00.001+10:002016-06-26T17:55:21.487+10:00Asking for a second referendum isn't about being a "bad loser" or undemocratic - quite the opposite
So, the unthinkable happened and Brexit won. This has triggered many people to sign a petition calling for a second referendum. This is not a daft as it seems, as the referendum itself is not legally binding and had no firm actions attached to either result. Indeed, back in May Farage suggested that the Leave camp might do the same if Remain won by a small margin.

However, this request has triggered a flood of outcries from Leave voters, with accusations of Remain supporters being "bad losers" or failing to embrace democracy because the people had spoken. I saw this one on Facebook from a second-degree contact, for example:

Why is this even a thing?! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36629324

The people voted democratically and Leave got over 1.2million more votes. If you don't like that, tough, you lost. That's how democracy works. If you think that should be overturned, well maybe the voting system of North Korea will be more to your taste? I'm sure they'll be happy to have you.

Apologies for the rant, I just wanted to say something about these childish people who can't take "no" for an answer.

It is a valid question and, whilst I think it was meant rhetorically, here is my answer of why this is "a thing"…

The North Korea analogy is interesting. Imagine a vote in which leaders lie to the population, supported by propaganda machines of a biased and controlled media. Imagine this succeeds in getting the population to vote against their best interests. That is not democracy at work. That is a powerful elite, manipulating the political landscape to their own ends. That is major sections of the Leave campaign. (Not all: there were some genuine reasons for voting Leave. This is not about that - it's about whether the people voting Leave were voting for those genuine reasons.)

This is not about being bad losers. This is about being passionate about the terrible decision that we are on the brink of. This about genuine fear of economic collapse, fragmentation of the UK and Europe, the rise of right-wing nationalism and xenophobic/divisive agendas, the collapse of the Northern Ireland peace process, the loss of workers rights as we "deregulate" and hand more power to the powerful. Look at America with its lack of decent holidays, parental leave or free healthcare. Not for Britain, thank you.

Imagine a bus and the occupants had voted to jump a ravine as a "shortcut" - despite mechanics, physicists and engineers warning that it probably won't make the jump, and geographers pointing out that the probable landing point is further away from the destination. If you were in that bus and convinced it was about to plunge you all to destruction, you would scream pretty loud to reconsider.

Nor is this about elitist arrogance of the middle classes. Being confident in the overwhelming consensus opinion of experts who have studied certain fields for years - including all the uncertainty of outcomes - is not arrogance. Some rich privileged bloke in a suit, who studied Classics without any formal training in economics or law, believing that he knows better than those experts - that's elitist arrogance.

Regular laws in the UK go through several readings and often get sent back to the Commons for a second vote. This has much more far-reaching consequences and unlike those laws cannot be undone, so the idea of some reflection and an "are you sure?" vote is not remotely undemocratic.

Democracy is about the will of the people, it is not about blindly seeing through the results of every single vote no matter what the consequences. If, as I and many others feel, a vote does not truly reflect the will of the people then damn straight it is our democratic right and responsibility to fight the result. (Politically, not physically, of course.)

The request is not to keep voting until Remain wins - it is to keep voting until there is a big majority. It is asking for people to be certain of their choice. If the Leave campaign are so confident that the people have spoken, they should have no problem with letting them speak again.

We, the people, all want what's best for our country, not for our "leaders". I suspect the majority on both sides actually want the same things - the disagreement lies in how to achieve them. When the leaders of the "winning" side have demonstrably lied about the consequences of their victory (and are now rapidly back-tracking, having not expected that victory), the anger, frustration and ire at the reaction of the "losers" would be better directed at those leaders, who now need to be held to account.

Should we give those who now realise they were mislead the chance to change their mind? Should we give those fools who feel that they should have voted and now regret not doing so the chance to undo their mistake? Normally, no. They would get their chance come the next election, and maybe they will have learnt their lesson. But here, there is no next election, no chance to make amends for a mistake - hence we are asking for one.

You may feel that people do not deserve a second chance. You may feel that we should be stuck with the decision even if it transpires that a majority actually oppose it, once they are in a position to make an informed decision. After all, them's the rules, right? Well, that would be a victory for bureaucracy, but it hardly seems in the spirit of democracy.

Perhaps we Remainers are wrong. Perhaps the Leave supporters really do understand the implications of their choice and would do the same again, now that the reality is beginning to bite. Perhaps the EU and immigrants are not just scapegoats for problems with different solutions. So be it. But let's not be so gung-ho as to sell our nation's future down the river because it would be too painful to take a long, hard look at the manner in which we have just conducted the most important political decision of our generation.

To get Britain out of its current mess is going to take both sides working together. That means talking to each other, not shouting at each other. To have a chance of success, that solution needs more that 52% of the nation on board. So, do the democratic thing: keep the conversation going until we reach national consensus. Sign the petition.
 Richard Edwardshttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-749730248446670689.post-44899768954286460942016-05-10T22:53:00.000+10:002016-05-10T22:53:24.676+10:00Please sponsor me Running for Premature Babies in the SMH Half Marathon - only 5 days to go!
You may have noticed a slight lack of posts recently. This is in part (or a lot!) due to a major lifestyle change that took place in the beginning of March, when we became first-time parents. One of the things advertised in the hospital was the "Running for Premature Babies" in the Sydney Morning Herald Half Marathon. This seemed like a good motivator to get back(‽) in shape, and raise some much-needed cash for the Royal Women's Hospital Foundation at the same time.

The good news is that they have raised the $108k for a new X-ray machine and everything raised from now will go on research, which obviously appeals to me as a researcher. Anyhoo… if you can spare a few bucks, it would be much appreciated - and if you are in Sydney on Sunday, do cheer on the folks in pink! (Not the best photo, I know! I'd just run 18km for the first time in my life!)
Richard Edwardshttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-749730248446670689.post-30879053216911204002016-03-29T21:05:00.001+11:002016-03-29T21:29:09.718+11:00If you are British, please fight the government plans to make all schools into academies
If you don't know the problem, read Mark Steel's excellent column:

Thank God our schools have finally been liberated by our national free spirit George Osborne

Now, please sign either or both of these petitions:

Hold a public inquiry and a referendum over turning all schools into academies

The government has announced that every school in England will become an academy. This was not in their manifesto and is therefore a completely undemocratic move.

Scrap plans to force state schools to become academies

State schools are accountable to parents, the local community and to local authorities. By forcing schools to become academies the accountability will be to a trust and to accountants. Her Majesty Chief Inspector of schools has concerns over education provided in academies and so should you.

I hate posting so much about depressing politics but blame the Tories. I simply cannot comprehend how they can think this is good for the children or the country. The only plausible explanation is pure self-interest and greed, wanting to give even more to their rich mates. How this can happen in a supposed democracy is terrifying. If nothing else, it has highlighted how sick the system really is.

In the modern age, there really is no excuse for hands-on democracy with the people voting (electronically) on important issues like this. (The problem, of course, is that the people with the power to change things are the ones who will be most disadvantaged by giving up some of their power.) https://petition.parliament.uk/ is a start, I guess.
Richard Edwardshttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-749730248446670689.post-65078334970514069252016-03-27T14:16:00.001+11:002016-03-27T14:16:46.608+11:00Are data scientists just "research parasites"?
Although it passed me by at the time, the New England Journal of Medicine - a highly respected top-tier medical journal - featured an editorial on data sharing1 in January. It was so bad, that the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) felt the need to respond in the most recent issue of PLoS Computational Biology2. I'm glad they did, for the editorial was awful.

It starts quite well:

The aerial view of the concept of data sharing is beautiful. What could be better than having high-quality information carefully reexamined for the possibility that new nuggets of useful data are lying there, previously unseen? The potential for leveraging existing results for even more benefit pays appropriate increased tribute to the patients who put themselves at risk to generate the data. The moral imperative to honor their collective sacrifice is the trump card that takes this trick.

But then rapidly goes downhill:

However, many of us who have actually conducted clinical research, managed clinical studies and data collection and analysis, and curated data sets have concerns about the details. The first concern is that someone not involved in the generation and collection of the data may not understand the choices made in defining the parameters. Special problems arise if data are to be combined from independent studies and considered comparable. How heterogeneous were the study populations? Were the eligibility criteria the same? Can it be assumed that the differences in study populations, data collection and analysis, and treatments, both protocol-specified and unspecified, can be ignored?

Many of us who have actually conducted data analysis would retort: if you have concerns about the details then you should be making those details clear. If choices are important, explain them! For sure, you cannot just blindly combine multiple datasets that have different biases etc. but what decent scientist would do that (without an explicit caveat regarding that assumption)?

Longo and Drazen seem to be implying that all data scientists are bad scientists. As I've said before, Bioinformatics is just like bench science and should be treated as such. If you are making dodgy assumptions about data, you are doing it wrong. (Though people do make mistakes - the data collectors too.)

It gets worse:

A second concern held by some is that a new class of research person will emerge — people who had nothing to do with the design and execution of the study but use another group's data for their own ends, possibly stealing from the research productivity planned by the data gatherers, or even use the data to try to disprove what the original investigators had posited. There is concern among some front-line researchers that the system will be taken over by what some researchers have characterized as "research parasites."

Apparently, some people might think I am a "research parasite" because I sometimes analyse other people's (published) data without talking to them about it. I'm glad the ISCB called them out on this. Newsflash: science only makes progress by people trying to disprove what other researchers (and, ideally, themselves) have posited. Science is a shared endeavour. If someone uses your data to do something (good), good! If you don't want that, embargo the data or delay publication. Then question your motives; if glory is what you seek, perhaps you're in the wrong profession?

A researcher frightened of "stolen productivity" is perhaps a researcher struggling for ideas. (I'd love someone else to answer some of the questions I have kicking around so that I could move on to the next thing!) A researcher scared of someone trying "to disprove what the original investigators had posited" has bigger problems.

The rest of the editorial is not so bad, as it tells the tale of a fruitful collaboration between "new investigators" and "the investigators holding the data". Of course, this is the ideal scenario, short of generating the data themselves. The fact that the authors felt the need to stress this - and the language used of "symbiosis" versus "parasitism" - demonstrates that Longo and Drazen are utterly clueless about the modus operandi of the disciplines they discredit. Whilst ideal, direct collaboration is not always feasible. Sometimes - when the original investigators are too attached to their pet hypothesis or conclusion - it is not desirable.

They end:

How would data sharing work best? We think it should happen symbiotically, not parasitically. Start with a novel idea, one that is not an obvious extension of the reported work. Second, identify potential collaborators whose collected data may be useful in assessing the hypothesis and propose a collaboration. Third, work together to test the new hypothesis. Fourth, report the new findings with relevant co-authorship to acknowledge both the group that proposed the new idea and the investigative group that accrued the data that allowed it to be tested. What is learned may be beautiful even when seen from close up.

This sounds OK - and the described model may even be data sharing at its best - but the implication that anything short of this ideal is somehow inadequate is naive and unhelpful.

First, one person's novel idea is another person's obvious extension. And anyway, why should having one idea give you automatic rights to all obvious extensions?! Why should the rest of us trust the data gatherers to do a good job - especially if they exhibit attitudes towards data akin to these authors?

Second, identifying a potential collaborator does not guarantee collaboration. Ironically, the kind of paranoid narcissist that would use a term like "research parasite" is unlikely to be open to collaboration.

Thirdly, citation is a form of co-authorship that acknowledges "the investigative group that accrued the data". Wanting full co-authorship where additional intellectual input is not required is just greedy. (And a note to the narcissist: self-citations are generally seen as lower impact than citations by wholly independent groups.)

Longo and Drazen should stick to commenting on what they know, whatever that is, and leave data scientists to worry about how they conduct themselves. With this editorial, they have done everyone - not least of which themselves - a deep disservice.

Longo D.L., Drazen J.M. Data Sharing. N Engl J Med, 2016. 374(3): p. 276–7. doi:10.1056/NEJMe1516564.

Berger B, Gaasterland T, Lengauer T, Orengo C, Gaeta B, Markel S, et al. (2016) ISCB's Initial Reaction to The New England Journal of Medicine Editorial on Data Sharing. PLoS Comput Biol 12(3): e1004816. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004816.

Richard Edwardshttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-749730248446670689.post-57752960975205378752016-03-26T14:36:00.001+11:002016-03-26T14:36:34.445+11:00Meet the world's newest lifeform: Syn 3.0
Every now and then, a piece of science is done that is truly ground-breaking and world changing. One such piece is:

Hutchison III CA et al. (2016) Design and synthesis of a minimal bacterial genome. Science 351(6280): aad6253-1. DOI: 10.1126/science.aad6253

Science has a summary here but it's worth reading the whole paper. Syn 3.0 itself is pretty impressive, but what's even more impressive is the approach taken to make it. In addition to using current knowledge of fundamental biological machinery, the Venter group used large-scale transposon mutagenesis and selection to identify additional genes that were either essential (i.e. no growth without them) or "quasi-essential", where removal resulted in a major growth deficit.

They also had to overcome the problem of redundancy: even in a genome as reduced as the Mycoplasma species, there can sometimes be multiple genes that do the same thing. Removing one makes little difference but removing both is lethal - something hard to identify when knocking out single genes at a time. Whatever the Intelligent Design crowd would like to believe, biology is messy.

Of course, Syn 3.0 is just the start, as the goal was making a "minimal cell":

"A minimal cell is usually defined as a cell in which all genes are essential. This definition is incomplete, because the genetic requirements for survival, and therefore the minimal genome size, depend on the environment in which the cell is grown. The work described here has been conducted in medium that supplies virtually all the small molecules required for life. A minimal genome determined under such permissive conditions should reveal a core set of environment-independent functions that are necessary and sufficient for life. Under less permissive conditions, we expect that additional genes will be required."

Robust life will therefore need a lot more genes. It will be interesting to see how many are required for autotrophy - life that needs only inorganic chemicals and an energy source.

Even within the "minimal cell" concept, Syn 3.0 represents a somewhat arbitrary end-point. In identifying the "quasi-essential" genes, a judgement had to be made regarding what constitutes an acceptable growth rate*. Whittling down to 473 genes is impressive, but this number could no doubt be even smaller if slower growth rates were accepted. (Modern life is in competition with lots of other highly evolved organisms. Early life would have been able to get by with much lower growth rates, so this is not a "minimal cell" in that context.)

There is also a lot of exciting potential ahead for manually reducing the number of genes by true intelligent design. Fusing interacting gene products together, for example, might eliminate the need for so many genes contributing to core processes. (Looking for apparent protein fusion/fission events in evolution is a reasonably successful method for predicting protein-protein interactions.) With time, we might be able to "wind back the clock" and remove some of the unnecessary complexity that has probably crept into the system due to the underlying evolutionary process.

I also wonder how many of the current crop of genes of unknown function - a surprising 149 genes - can be replaced over time with genes of known function. (In other words, how many of them represent convergent evolution of functions we already know about but are not recognisable.) And how many of the rest are genome-/condition-specific?

Like all of the best science, this work opens the door to more questions than it answers! Some exciting times ahead, I think.

[*The important but oft-overlooked concept that any assessment of life is context- and environment-dependent exposes another flaw with Intelligent Design as a testable hypothesis: designed to do what? To assess how well-designed something is, one needs to know its purpose and/or the acceptable design traits. To hide from the fact that Intelligent Design is Creationism, supporters often make the argument that the identity of the designer (Creator) is not important - but without knowledge of the designer, how can one predict the motivation behind the design?]
Richard Edwardshttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-749730248446670689.post-58265518613951966472016-03-26T10:24:00.001+11:002016-03-26T15:28:48.002+11:00The blood of dinosaurs
Courtesy of sciencegasm. Remember this when you see any cute Easter chicks*...

[*Yes, I know it's not a baby chicken. Some kind of gull, maybe?]
Richard Edwardshttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-749730248446670689.post-68089114346929040212016-03-25T15:01:00.000+11:002016-03-25T15:01:56.250+11:00The solution to extremism is not more extremism
Like all civilised beings, I was dismayed (if not shocked) at the recent events in Brussels. Until our world is rid of religious extremism, I fear that such terrorist atrocities will always be a part of it. However, the way to combat religious extremism is not political extremism.

Terrible as these events were, the damage and death toll are slight compared to a natural disaster, or even a bad plane crash. Just as we do not stop flying, or living in earthquake zones, neither should we go for a Trumpesque (albeit temporary) ban on muslim immigrants nor a right-wing blame-immigrants-for-everything backlash against refugees.

Caitlin Moran nailed it with a tweet:

Always good, on days like this, to remind everyone that the guys blowing up Brussels are THE PEOPLE THE REFUGEES ARE RUNNING AWAY FROM
— Caitlin Moran (@caitlinmoran) March 22, 2016

Of course, some people missed the point, retorting that the terrorists were home-grown extremists - even more reason not to blame the refugees - or that not all of them are fleeing ISIS. To me, though, the sentiment is sound. Caitlin is not talking about those specific guys, but rather the kind of regressive human who sees indiscriminate violence (whether motivated by religious or political ideologies) as an acceptable means to their desired end.

More recently, the poet Brian Bilston summed it up even better, with the preface:

Here is a new poem entitled "Refugees".

Please bear with it.

If the terrorists succeed in making us lose our humanity and sink to their level, they win. If we live in a climate of fear due to an inflated sense of the risk posed by a scattering of abhorrent individuals, they win. Surely, a civilised society can do better than that?
Richard Edwardshttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-749730248446670689.post-37928122478214531122016-03-23T22:02:00.000+11:002016-03-23T22:03:28.443+11:00Cassetteboy has done it again
Normally, the phrase for this kind of thing would be: "It's funny, because it's true." However, being true makes this tragic. (But still funny at the same time.)

Emperor's New Clothes rap | Cassetteboy
Cassetteboy - Emperor's New Clothes rap
Posted by In My Newsfeed on Monday, 21 March 2016

And if you missed it the first time, check out Cassetteboy's prophetic Cameron's Conference Rap from 2014:
 Richard Edwardshttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-749730248446670689.post-60843498711991035732016-03-22T09:57:00.002+11:002016-03-22T09:57:59.248+11:00A vote for Brexit is a vote against the next generation
At its heart, is "Brexit" really any more complicated than whether you are self-centred and introspective (leave*) versus you care about the world and the next generation (stay)?

There is only really one thing in this world worth really worrying about, and that's Climate Change. Make no mistake: this really could destroy civilisation. Really. Unless it is either stopped or mitigated, all that other stuff - jobs, health, education, even wars - is just polishing a turd.

Fighting climate change needs increased international cooperation. It needs national governments being held accountable through international agreements and organisations. The Brexiters and Trumps of this world are happy to feed off everyone else's misery to line their own pockets. They will hopefully be dead before the shit really hits the fan. Hopefully, so will I. Our children won't.

Humanity has progressed greatly over the past few hundred years. Knowledge, healthcare and the potential for political influence has been opened up (in developed countries, at least) to the masses. Let's not support individuals who hark back to mythical "glory" days in which only the established elite had anything. In former times, when America or Britain was perceived as "great", this was always at the cost of the poor and minorities. It was about lording it over your (perceived) inferiors, both nationally and internationally. It was about the status and riches of ruling classes. It was about powerful people sending powerless people to die in their millions for pointless causes. It was about gaining superiority in the game of "us versus them".

In the 21st Century, greatness must mean something different. It must be about the state of the lowest citizen, not the highest. There is no "them" - there is only "us". Nations and countries are arbitrary boundaries, drawn up for bureaucratic and political reasons, with no actual basis. Race is a myth. People are people, the world over.

Unless we realise this, we are all doomed. When the wings fall off and the plane crashes from the sky, it doesn't matter whether you're in business class or economy.

* There will of course be some UK "winners" in the Brexit scenario, who will benefit from the removal of competition and/or want to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond. However, to think that Brexit serves the nation's self-interest, you probably need to add "deluded" to the attribute list, as John Major makes clear.
Richard Edwardshttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-749730248446670689.post-88062692364540792752016-02-29T20:01:00.001+11:002016-02-29T22:04:42.274+11:00Thank YOU, PLOS ONE!
There are many flaws with the peer review system but it remains the best system we have for ensuring a certain degree of quality control prior to publication. One of the ways that the system could be improved is better recognition - and therefore motivation - for reviewers.

Ideally, there would be some form of payment, but I find it hard to see this happening any time soon. (It is difficult enough to get funds to publish papers - getting funds to get papers reviewed when they might well end up getting rejected is going to be way harder.)

The next best thing is some kind of reward or recognition. Some journals give discounted publication fees to reviewers, which is a great idea. Another great idea has just been put into action by PLOS ONE*: public recognition for reviewers:

On behalf of PLOS and the PLOS ONE editorial team, I would like to thank you for participating in the peer review process this past year at PLOS ONE.

We know there are many claims on your time and expertise and we very much appreciate your valuable input in 2015. With your help, we have continued to publish an influential, lively and highly accessed Open Access journal. Simply put, we could not do it without you and the thousands of other volunteers for PLOS ONE and the other PLOS journals who graciously contributed time reviewing manuscripts.

A public "Thank You" to our 2015 reviewers – including you – was published earlier this week.

(2016) PLOS ONE 2015 Reviewer Thank You. PLoS ONE 11(2): e0150341. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0150341

Your name is listed in the Supporting Information file associated with the article. I hope that you will be able to use this letter, along with the article citation, to claim the credit and recognition you deserve within your institution for supporting PLOS ONE and Open Access publishing.

The article itself is short but sweet:

PLOS and the PLOS ONE editorial team would like to express our gratitude to all those individuals who participated in the peer review process of submissions to PLOS ONE over this past year. During 2015 PLOS ONE published over 28,000 research articles. This would not have been possible without the contribution of more than 76,000 reviewers from around the world and a wide range of disciplines.

The names of our 2015 PLOS ONE reviewers are listed in S1–S5 Reviewer Lists. Thank you to all our reviewers for generously sharing your time, insight and expertise with PLOS ONE authors in the evaluation of their work. Your efforts are a key reason for PLOS ONE's success as an innovative and influential publication.

It's nice to be appreciated. One more reason to be a fan of PLOS ONE. (Which I am, despite those who look down their noses at the journal because of its "scientifically rigorous research, regardless of novelty" policy.)

*The other PLOS journals did it to but I did not review anything for them this year.
Richard Edwardshttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-749730248446670689.post-39943376220939263062016-01-05T08:24:00.001+11:002016-01-05T08:24:55.019+11:00Hooray for rain radar!

With all the doom and gloom of climate change, over-population and the stresses of "the rat race", it's easy to forget how amazing the modern world is thanks to advances in science and technology. On Sunday, we were in the city for a spot of sales shopping and a visit to the Australian Museum. When we went to leave the shopping centre for the bus, we looked outside to see it tipping down. I'd brought umbrellas but it was a bit windy. Should we risk a soaking, or wait and see if it would blow over?

In the past, this would have been a bit of a gamble, possibly combined with some kind of superstitious activity to try and alter the outcome. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I just had a quick look at the Sydney Rain Radar, saw it was blowing over: and we went and got a (very nice) coffee instead. After coffee, another quick check of the radar confirmed that the rain had moved on. Home and dry!

Of course, the rain radar doesn't always tell you what you want...

It's going to be a wet one!
Richard Edwardshttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-749730248446670689.post-4343620801243390402016-01-04T21:24:00.000+11:002016-01-04T21:24:54.999+11:00Earthworks 2014 Barossa Valley Shiraz

Today's You-app task was to "think positive" and make a note of something positive. This was actually my chosen "keep-it-up" habit-forming activity, so I had to do it twice. Fortunately, living in Australia gives you many positive things to think about, even on a rainy day like today. One of them is the wine - and one of the wines to be positive about is Earthworks 2014 Barossa Valley Shiraz, which is rich and velvety without being too in-your-face like some Aussie wines can be. (Not that I have a problem with that!)

It's on offer at Vintage Cellars at the moment, so that's two things to be positive about in itself!
Richard Edwardshttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-749730248446670689.post-28218525674539491122016-01-03T22:42:00.001+11:002016-01-03T22:42:33.883+11:00Making it a positive 2016
One of my Christmas presents this year was Jamie Oliver's new book, Everyday Super Food. As well as having some delicious-looking recipes, it also contains some advice for healthy living. One of the things recommended was the YOU-app for small steps in mindfulness, food and movement for health and happiness.

The basic idea is to make a positive change to your life through "micro-actions", which are quick and simple to perform, rather than setting big goals that are hard to meet. The actions come in four flavours: mind, food, move and love. So far, I like it, and it's inspiring me to make 2016 a year of making positive blog posts wherever possible. The first is this: check out the You app. It's free!
  Richard Edwardshttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-749730248446670689.post-58415783642968112362015-11-21T23:13:00.001+11:002015-11-21T23:14:48.006+11:00Is this the shortest abstract ever?
I'm currently writing a new program as part of a comparative genome analysis, which has the working title of "Snapper". Unusually (but not uniquely) for me, this is not an acronym, but is instead a simple contraction of "SNP Mapper".

Before doing too much, it is always wise to check for existing tools with the same name, especially if they might do similar things. A quick Google search for "Snapper bioinformatics" threw up this paper:

Kolesov G, Mewes HW & Frishman D (2002). SNAPper: gene order predicts gene function. Bioinformatics 18(7):1017-9.

The abstract:

SNAPper is a network service for predicting gene function based on the conservation of gene order.

AVAILABILITY:
The SNAPper server is available at http://pedant.gsf.de/snapper. SNAPper-based functional predictions will soon be offered as part of the PEDANT genome analysis server http://pedant.gsf.de.

I know that Bioinformatics application notes are pretty concise - the idea is that the described software has the documentation you need - but that has to be one of the shortest abstracts that I have ever seen!

SNAPper itself is not an acronym, although the SNAP part is: Similarity Neighbourhood APproach. For such a common acronym as "SNAP", that one needs some work, I think.

PEDANT, on the other hand, is a full ORCA-worthy acronym: Protein Extraction, Description and ANalysis Tool. It reminds me a bit of a defunct classic of my own, PIRATE: Protein Identification, References, Annotation and Tissue Extraction (or something like that, lost in the mists of time) that was basically just a parser for Uniprot entries that tabulated certain data, after I discovered that a PhD student in the department had spent several days copying and pasting data from Uniprot into Excel. Happy days!
Richard Edwardshttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-749730248446670689.post-84700295080501267792015-11-18T15:10:00.001+11:002015-11-18T15:11:42.374+11:00My number one exam tip
Answer the question! (I've said it before but some things are worth repeating.)

Click here for more exam tips.
Richard Edwardshttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-749730248446670689.post-13237198751294038262015-11-17T22:35:00.002+11:002015-11-17T22:35:41.601+11:00Creamy mustardy lentils with bacon and squash
This is another repeat favourite, based on a Waitrose recipe, Rosemary-roasted squash with ham hock and lentils. Aussies are more into cow than pig products, so it's not so easy to get decent ham/bacon etc. However, this recipe does just fine with some fried bacon chunks rather than the (cooked) ham hock in the original. The original also used frozen squash.

You can pre-roast the squash for this recipe.

Ingredients

~1kg Butternut Squash

2 sprigs fresh rosemary, chopped

250g puy Lentils

1 tsp olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

100ml Single Cream

180g pulled ham hock or cubed bacon

25g sunflower seeds

20g pack flat leaf parsley, chopped

100g frozen peas

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 200C, gas mark 6. Cut the butternut squash into large chunks (e.g. quarters) and spread in a single layer on an oiled baking sheet. Sprinkle with the chopped rosemary. Bake for around 45 minutes until tender and lightly browned, tossing in the oil about halfway through. Cut into something resembling even cubes. Bitesize chunks, if you will. (Don't obsess too much - there's a chance the squash will, well, squash to mush anyway.)

Cook the lentils in a pan of boiling water for 15–18 minutes until tender. Drain.

If using bacon, fry the bacon cubes in a bit of oil until cooked.

Heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan and cook for 5–10 minutes until good and soft.

Stir in the mustard, cream and some seasoning and bring to simmering point.

Stir the cubed squash, drained lentils, bacon/ham hock, sunflower seeds, parsley and peas into into the cream sauce.

Heat through gently until everything is hot.

Check seasoning and serve.

Tastier than it looks (with my food photography skills, at least) and makes good leftovers too.
Richard Edwardshttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-749730248446670689.post-15751846877967455412015-11-15T17:03:00.000+11:002015-11-15T17:03:52.673+11:00Humpbacks ahoy! Whale watching off Sydney
We've been meaning to go whale watching since we moved to Sydney and today we finally got round to it. The weather was not the best - and the sea was a bit choppier than ideal - but it was a fantastic morning, well spent. Best of all, we got to see humpback whales!

It was only a small pod - a mother and calf, plus "escort" - but we got some reasonably close up views when one of them was having a play.

As well as a couple of breaches, this included a couple of good tail slaps.

Amazing animals. We saw some birds too - and, of course, some great views of the cliffs around Sydney harbour. All in all, a recommended half day trip.

Richard Edwardshttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-749730248446670689.post-16219677853710282172015-11-02T17:49:00.000+11:002015-11-02T17:49:10.715+11:00ICBCSB 2015: Another scam conference comes to Australia
I am a bioinformatician working in Sydney, Australia. I recently helped to organise the ABACBS2015 conference in Sydney, where ABACBS stands for the Australian Bioinformatics And Computational Biology Society, of which I am a member. I am also part of the New South Wales Systems Biology Initiative. You may therefore find it surprising to know that I found it surprising to find out that in December, Sydney NSW will be host to "ICBCSB 2015 : 17th International Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational and Systems Biology".

This is not the only surprising thing about ICBCSB 2015. For Sydney is actually at least the 15th 17th International Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational and Systems Biology (ICBCSB 2015). Next week, the conference is being held in Madrid. Last month, there was the 17th International Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational and Systems Biology in Bali. And Prague. And Chicago. And Istanbul. The 17th International Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational and Systems Biology (ICBCSB 2015) has also been in Venice, London, New York, Berlin, and Geneva and will be held in Penang and Dubai. And that's just in the first two pages of a Google Search - there are more (including Lisbon and Stockholm).

This makes OMIC Group Conferences look positively legit. Indeed, the organisers of all 15+ ICBCSB 2015 conferences - the World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology (WASET) - seem to be basing their conference business model on that of OMICS. Or perhaps it was the other way round. Either way, if you replaced the WASET logo on the website with OMICS Group, nothing would seem out of place.

If you have ever attended a (real) scientific conference, pick one of those past conferences at random, for example Berlin, and click on the conference photos page, then tell me if you have ever seen anything so depressing in your life. And remember: these are the photos they chose to put up, so presumably show the conference in its best light. Given the number of group photos of (all?) the delegates, I wonder whether they had time for much else other than publicity shots. And in case you are thinking: "those are probably just the invited speakers", I would bet good money that the delegates were all invited - and still had to pay top dollar to attend.

Finally, in case you have any doubt, just Google "WASET scam". It does not make for happy reading.

If you are in bioinformatics or systems biology, please spread the word far and wide about these conferences and why they should be avoided at all costs. The sooner we starve the likes of OMICS Group and WASET of naïve unsuspecting scientists to prey on, the sooner these parasites will f#@k right off. There are plenty enough legit conferences to choose from. (Yes, it makes me angry.)

And if you have already signed up for Sydney ICBCSB 2015, do not despair. As luck would have it, there is a real bioinformatics event being held in Sydney that same week: BioInfoSummer 2015. It's more of a workshop than a conference but there will be plenty of opportunities to discuss science with some excellent bioinformaticians and systems biologists. At least that way, you won't waste the plane ticket and hotel costs, even if WASET won't give you a refund for pulling out. (Not likely!)
Richard Edwardshttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-749730248446670689.post-88195073825808624562015-11-01T19:14:00.000+11:002015-11-02T00:28:24.033+11:00A tale of two conferences - #ABACBS2015 and #AGTA15
Two weeks ago, I attended the awesome double-header of ABACBS2015 and AGTA15. In some ways they were chalk and cheese - ABACBS was cheap and cheerful, where as AGTA was expensive and (therefore) exclusive - but both were great and highlighted some of the very best features of successful academic conferences.

As part of the ABACBS2015 organising committee, I needed to collect my thoughts for a debrief, so I thought I'd got down some thoughts here. (Thanks to grant writing, the post itself got a little delayed!) As with biology itself, most decisions are trade offs and the following comparison is not to criticise - I just find it interesting. As with the awesome ABiC14 conference last year, I mainly want to document good practice for future reference. (Some of these will no doubt be repeats of my ABiC14 thoughts!)

Size. Both conferences were, for me, the perfect size - around 180-190 people. This is enough to give the conference a good buzz and ensure that there are sufficient interesting people to listen to and posters to visit. Critically, though, it was small enough that you could find and speak to the people you wanted to. (Even if I didn't fully get the chance at ABACBS2015 because I was busy, and managed to miss some people at AGTA15 because time ran out!)

Venue. ABACBS2015 was run on a budget and we were very fortunate to have the Garvan Institute provide a free venue for the conference. The Garvan lecture theatre is lovely, with a great AV system and comfy seats. The only negative for a conference of that size - and we got close to our 200 person limit - is that the space outside the theatre for breaks and posters does get a bit cramped. In contrast, AGTA15 was held in the Crowne Plaza at Hunter Valley, which is a pretty luxury hotel in the wine region of New South Wales. It took me a while to warm to the main conference setup, with seats around tables in a large, wide room with a screen each side of (and a long way from) the podium. However, the "trade exhibition" space where the breaks, lunch and posters were, was excellent. I am big fan of having the posters up all the time and in the same place as the breaks.

Location. ABACBS was held in the city centre at a research institute. This kept the costs down and made it easy to get to. (We did not organise accommodation.) It also made it easy to escape from, which might have affected evening social numbers. AGTA was out in the sticks, which made it harder to get to and may have put some people off attending - it essentially added another day to the length of the conference. The plus side of this was that everything was on one site and it was not so easy to disappear or go home, and so most people were around most of the time, I think. (Although there was the temptation of wine tasting on the doorstep!)

Goodie bags. I'm pleased to say that both conferences went down the reusable shopping bag route (pick above). Being budget, we got UNSW to sponsor us with some canvas bags for ABACBS. (Complete with the scary statistic that plastic bags take 15-1000 years to break down.) AGTA was (a) a bit more upmarket and (b) in wine country, so they provided wine coolbags!

Trade exhibition. We binfies are a cheap lot - and I don't mean tacky or miserly, I mean that we don't need a lot of money to do great things. As a result, it is hard to attract trade sponsors: we just don't spend (or often even have!) any money! Genomics is clearly a different matter, as you literally cannot do it without lots of expensive kit. The AGTA trade exhibit was therefore pretty big and bustling. Again, putting it with the food and posters made for some great…

…Breaks. Breaks really do make or break a conference. One of the few criticisms of ABACBS2015 was that the breaks were a bit too short - we were somewhat hemmed in for time because we needed to leave people enough time to get to AGTA in the afternoon of the second day. We also tended to over-run a little, because people would be enjoying the breaks and take a bit of time to filter back into the theatre for the talks. My advice for conference planners: (1) make all breaks 5-10 minutes longer than you think they should be (e.g. 40 minutes for coffee and over an hour for lunch); (2) build in some dummy time into the program to soak up delays; (3) Make sure you have a bell or something to signal that the next session is starting! Being a more leisurely multi-day conference, AGTA had nice long breaks, including a session off for posters etc. after lunch. Lots of opportunities for mingling and looking at posters.

Invited speakers. Both conferences had outstanding invited speakers that gave really interesting talks. I know some of the binfie crowd would have enjoyed a bit more about the methodology in ABACBS2015 - and we should perhaps brief our speakers a little better in future - but personally I was blown away by the quality of the science presented. Both fields are rapidly changing as technology opens up opportunities and there is some really cool stuff going on out there! AGTA in particular seemed to have a lot of invited speakers, talking about really cool stuff - possibly part of the reason it's so expensive. (It must be said: the quality of the selected abstracts was good too!)

Gender Equality. Both conferences did pretty well on the gender front, I think. ABACBS2015 in particular nailed it, with a 50% split of invited speakers and over 50% female speakers overall! (The latter wasn't deliberate as such - there are just loads of good female bioinformaticians in Australia who submitted interesting abstracts!)

Twitter. (And #confBingo.) I have mixed feeling about live tweeting at conferences. This year, I decided to throw myself in a bit more and, on balance, I feel that I got more out of it than I missed. It is true that sometimes I missed something a speaker was saying because of a tangential Twitter conversation (such as #JediKelpie) - but I also learnt stuff and picked up on things that I had missed thanks to the Twitter feed. The #confBingo thread was also quite entertaining a fun, and helped networking and building community spirit, which is what a lot of a good conference is ultimately about.

Coffee. Unfortunately, we were unable to attract the barista sponsor from ABiC14 to sponsor ABACBS2015. AGTA did have a sponsored barista, though. Roche (I think) gave out three tickets with registration for the trade exhibit barista. Not quite as good as unlimited but it hit the spot. My other top conference coffee tip: bring a reusable cup! It' so much easier/safer if you want to take coffee into the talks and generally cuts down on spills - and refills! (Next year, I am hoping for ABACBS Keep Cups in the goodie bags!)

Overall, I had a lot of fun helping with the conference organisation - and would recommend it - and even more fun attending. Australia has some great science going on and a really strong/vibrant bioinformatics community, and I am proud to be part of it.
Richard Edwardshttp://email@example.com


text:
COVER STORY QUT discrimination case exposes Human Rights Commission failings
CANBERRA OBSERVED Triggs in the gun: loaded section 18C to get overhaul
EDITORIAL First Brexit, now Trump - it's the economy, stupid!
ANALYSIS What is possible to a Trump Whitehouse
MANUFACTURING Foreign ownership no sole reason for breakdown
ENVIRONMENT Billionaires bankroll U.S. anti-coal campaign
LIFE ISSUES Abortion trauma link to male suicides
NATIONAL AFFAIRS Commission's "Get Pell" campaign fails on facts
GENDER AND POLITICS Pronouns, ordinary folk, and the war over reality
NAVAL MILITARY HISTORY A WWII encounter that deserves remembrance
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS China builds Great Wall in the South China Sea
MUSIC Dylan's Nobel prize causes song and dance
CINEMA Humanity within inhumanity: Hacksaw Ridge
BOOK REVIEW Bill is $500 billion and counting
BOOK REVIEW Arguments and facts: the man who remade Russia
POETRY Sunset at the Perth War Cemetery
After months of declaring section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act a side issue, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has launched an inquiry that is likely to lead to a change in the law and possibly an overhaul of the Australian Human Rights Commission.
Ironically, a key culture wars issue that both John Howard and Tony Abbott managed to avoid, has become a Turnbull issue as a result of persistent pressure from News Limited – The Australian newspaper in particular – an incompetent Human Rights Commission, and a high-profile case that the Federal Court eventually threw out and that appeared to be (at best) a vexatious case of alleged discrimination.
Mr Turnbull has declared the issue worth considering in order to restore what he calls "balance" in the Racial Discrimination Act.
Section 18C of the act makes it unlawful to "offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate" a person or group on the basis of race, colour or national or ethnic origin. It puts the onus on the accused to argue that they did not offend the person making the complaint.
The controversial nature of section 18C was highlighted by the Andrew Bolt case. The journalist lost the case brought against him for comments he wrote about fair-skinned Aborigines.
Many MPs inside the Coalition believe that the words "offend" and "insult" should be taken out because it makes it absurdly simple to use the Racial Discrimination Act as a weapon to stifle or shut down legitimate debate and public discourse.
The Parliamentary inquiry will be undertaken by the Joint Committee on Human Rights. The committee's chairman, Ian Goodenough, has indicated he personally favours removing the words "insult" and "offend".
Labor and the Greens argue that the inquiry is a gateway for "hate speech" in Australia and claim that Mr Turnbull is now beholden to the far right of the Coalition.
The terms of reference are broad. The inquiry will examine whether the relevant part of the Racial Discrimination Act imposes "unreasonable restrictions upon freedom of speech" and, if so, how it should be reformed.
It will also look at the Human Rights Commission's handling of complaints, especially those that appear to have no reasonable chance of success, as well as finding ways to speed up its cumbersome processes.
The commission itself is in large part to blame for the predicament it finds itself in, being over-eager to find cases and encouraging anyone who might come to it with even the most dubious of complaints.
For example, the commission appeared to encourage a complaint against a provocative Bill Leak cartoon in The Australian, featuring an Aboriginal father who didn't know his son's name, even though there should be little chance of success as a result of the public interest protection provision in the act.
And its handling of the case involving students and a staffer at the Queensland University of Technology, where a dubious complaint was lodged after the students were excluded from an Indigenous-only IT area, seems shoddy at best and reckless at worst.
Liberal backbencher Julian Leeser has put forward suggestions for improving processes at the commission; and even the commission's controversial president, Gillian Triggs, admits there may be scope for reform.
Asked if she thought the clause could be made stronger by replacing "offend" and "insult" with "vilify", Professor Triggs said: "I would see that as a strengthening, it could be a very useful thing to do."
In the meantime, on Wednesday, November 9, Hedley Thomas reported in The Australian that Tony Morris QC, who had been acting for the QUT students, was requiring from Professor Triggs a retraction and an apology, to "make no further 'defamatory' comments about the students, and pay damages and costs".
Professor Triggs had said on the ABC's 7.30 that, while some cases were vexatious or frivolous, "this was one that had a level of substance". "The complaints were ones that attracted a certain measure of concern about the nature of the comments that were made," she said. "I won't repeat the language but it was worrying and troubling."
Mr Morris said her statement suggested that the students' Facebook posts were "so abhorrently racist that it could not with propriety or dignity be repeated on a mid-evening television program run by the national broadcaster". He said that the claim that his clients used language of such a racist character that she felt it unseemly to repeat on air was "palpably false".
Labor is happy to "frame" Mr Turnbull as a stooge of the far right, but there is strong evidence that the act requires some tightening.
The danger for Mr Turnbull is that any tinkering with the Racial Discrimination Act will raise the ire of some ethnic communities, and Labor will be happy to fan the flames.
Ironically, Mr Turnbull may have a chance to stand up for a truly liberal cause – freedom of speech.
Join e-newsletter list
COVER STORY Murray-Darling Basin Plan based on debunked science
NATIONAL AFFAIRS Cardinal Pell's appeal to go to High Court
COVER STORY Extinction Rebellion: So, it's goodnight to us and a big welcome to mega-bucks
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM ABC survey finds majority agree there is unfair discrimination against religious Australians
South Park Calls Out Transgender Takeover of Women's Sports
EDITORIAL A second chance to secure Australia's future
TECHNOLOGY Beijing's push to dominate world supply of electronics components

subset: commoncrawl


text:
I'll start off by specifying that there are three fish photographed here. A female grass, and two of her male offspring. (F1) The male guppies are just a few weeks out of the fry stage, so very young. I put them in the same tank for photography purposes. When I came back to look at these photos, I noticed the female's tail was clamped a bit. So I checked my fish room and her tail was fully opened. She appears to be completely healthy and was closing her tail because she was in 2″ of water and could barely turn around.
I got a line of these because I've been making an effort over the last year to add guppies that have bigger and wider tails. I think I saw these for the first time in the 1990s on Luke Roebuck's website, and have liked them ever since.
I believe these would be entered in the blue / green bicolor category. The males have dorsal fins that are large and fan shaped, which isn't in line with the flag shaped dorsals of the ideal IFGA fish. And the tails are a bit wide for IFGA. However, I think you could probably still enter these in IFGA without any major issues (from what the original breeder of these told me).
These are usually advertised as throwing both red and blue grass. But what I think is actually happening is that they're all about the same, except maybe half of the offspring have extra red in their tails. The red males I have actually look blue when the lighting is just right. I'm planning on weeding out the reds and re-enforcing the blue traits. I'm not crazy about red guppies because they often look like a tomato red instead of a fire engine red.
One issue with the females in this line that I haven't seen in ages — they can be aggressive or territorial. Oddly, they only act this way with females they are related to. I had to separate females to keep them from constantly fighting each other. But when I add say a regular snakeskin female to the same tank, everyone gets along. There must be some aggression just in this line, and it only comes out when confronted with other aggression. (i.e., most other female guppies would just move out of the way instead of nipping back). Back in around 2000, I had a female guppy that was very aggressive. I thought I'd teach her a lesson by introducing a female from another line, a giant female probably twice her size. That way the larger female would keep the aggressive one in her place. It didn't work out as planned. They both locked jaws and swirled in combat, and I ended up separating them because they were not planning on quitting until one of them died. I have a line of black Moscow guppies and the females are aggressive, but not territorial, if that makes sense. It's mostly food aggression. They attack flakes of food like they're killing them. And in turn, they also quickly eat any fry in the tank as fast as they can. This is the main reason I'm phasing out these females. They are otherwise a really nice, hardy line of guppies. I have a line of black AOCs that will probably take their tank space. The aggressive Moscow females usually have those longer dorsal fins, which I actually like. But I can't deal with that level of fry eating.
If I had to recommend the perfect guppy for someone starting out, this line of blue grass would be either my top choice, or one of the top choices. They are a really hardy fish. The females are large and colorful. You might be able win the female category at IFGA contests with these. I haven't had any problems with these fish at all. They produce a lot of fry. And the males are very nice looking fish. This is the kind of guppy that when your friends and family visit (who all think you're crazy for having so many fish) — they will remark that it's a beautiful fish.


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Bosnia – voting for the devil you know4 Comments
The Bosnian electorate failed to make a choice that would bring real change, in spite of signs throughout 2014 that the discontent for the current political set-up was about to reach a tipping point. "Voting for moderate parties, which would … Continue reading
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Great development property located on GA Hwy 133 South. High traffic area on a paved 4 lane road. Located close to Spence Field, home of the Sunbelt Expo, Calico Arts & Crafts Show, car shows, and several other events. Lots of recent new business growth close by with more in the planning stages....6.67 Acres : $466,900
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Monday, March 14, 2011
Deep Thoughts
Here's Jimmy Stewart performing a "handie," which seems to be a visual character played by using your hands and face. There's another one that's even more racist than that one. The caption (from 1936) says it's a "new game" but also says Stewart will be "directing" handies. I have looked for more information but I've got nothing. Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on? Any of you older types remember doing this on the playground? Is this how you used to pass the time when you weren't swappin' toads for buffalo nickels?
Yanks @ Sox, 7:05, NESN.
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There are currently no listings in Parmer Lane Heights.
Click SAVE THIS SEARCH to receive email notifications when properties become available.
Parmer Lane Heights rests right in the center of North Austin, near Mopac Expressway and Parmer Lane. Parmer Lane Heights is a small, established community, with homes built in the 1970s and mature trees covering the community. With homes priced in the $100s and $200s, Parmer Lane Heights is an attractive community for those looking to be part of the North Austin scene. Via Mopac Expressway, residents can be found shopping the plethora of retail shops at The Domain and the Arbor Walk, or grabbing lunch with friends at one of the mall's many restaurants. As for the outdoors, Walnut Creek Metropolitan Park is great for hikers, bikers, and dog lovers alike! After a day exploring the 15 miles of trails or swimming at the park's pool, locals flock to Cafe Java and Opal Divine's, where they bring their dogs and listen to live music on the patio. Parmer Lane Heights is great for commuters, as well, as it sits in the Tech Corridor, and is only twenty minutes from downtown Austin.
Parmer Lane Heights Location and Map
- 23.1 mi/27 mins to Bergstrom International Airport
- 12.1 mi/15 mins to downtown Austin
Parmer Lane Heights Real Estate
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For Historical Sales Data or to learn if there are Coming Soon or Pocket Listings in Parmer Lane Heights, please contact us. Alternatively, expand your search to the entire North Central Austin area.
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|School District:
|Austin Independent School District
|Elementary School:
|Pillow Elementary School
|Middle School:
|Burnet Middle School
|High School:
|Anderson High School
Note: Neighborhood school assignments change regularly. For the most current information, please contact us.
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Want to learn more about North Central Austin communities? Below is our complete list of North Central Austin neighborhood profiles. Part of Parmer Lane Heights is located in Central Austin, so visit our Central Austin page to learn even more about the area.
- Allandale
- Allandale Condos
- Allandale Estates
- Allandale Park
- Avery Ranch
- Bellaire
- Bellaire Heights
- Bowling Green
- Bratton Hill
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- Century Park Condos
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- Cottages at Scofield Ridge
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- Davis Spring
- Dean Terrace
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- Enclave at Gracywoods
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- Flats at 935 Condos
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- Pearson Place at Avery Ranch
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For Parmer Lane Heights, austinhomelistings.com Recommends
The information being provided is for consumers' personal, non-commercial use and may not be used for any purpose other than to identify prospective properties consumers may be interested in purchasing.
Based on information from the Austin Board of REALTORS® (alternatively, from ACTRIS) from December 6th, 2019 at 5:16pm CST. Neither the Board nor ACTRIS guarantees or is in any way responsible for its accuracy. The Austin Board of REALTORS®, ACTRIS and their affiliates provide the MLS and all content therein "AS IS" and without any warranty, express or implied. Data maintained by the Board or ACTRIS may not reflect all real estate activity in the market.
All information provided is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified.


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text: Blockchain nowadays is a trend we cannot stop hearing about. For several years already, its popularity grows up by second. Here we are to do small inside for the blockchain technology provides you with the most comprehensive exploration possible of blockchain's applicability across the business and government landscape to know what is that, why it's… Continue reading Blockchain: what, why, where and how? Reliable facts and remarkable predictions


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The accidents or natural disastrous things can come at any point of time in life. But the difficulties begin when one needs to restore all the damage made by these. So what can be the appropriate solutions to deal with such problems?
Any damage to the residential or commercial property should be immediately treated and for this it is very important to hire professionals and experts. In order to find companies for Water Damage Restoration Las Vegas, some research needs to be done. For example if the agency is certified, licensed and good enough to handle all the restoration work.
What kinds of Water Restoration Services are offered by these companies?
- 24/7 availability- the professional teams work on 24/7 basis. This factor is very important when it comes to the restoration. In such cases, a person should not think for a second before calling the professional teams to get the re-modeling done immediately. This instant action taken can also save a lot of money.
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ATLANTA — Jonathon Niese is gaining confidence as the season comes to a close. The difference is obvious to Mets manager Terry Collins.
"That's the Jon Niese we know," Collins said. "That's the guy who pitches to contact, makes pitches, locates it, moves it around, changes speeds. He pitched a nice game."
Niese shut down the slumping Atlanta Braves and the Mets got home runs from Dilson Herrera and Curtis Granderson in a 4-2 victory on Saturday night.
Atlanta has lost seven of eight to drop to 4-13 in September. Any combination of two Pittsburgh wins or Braves losses will eliminate the Braves from the NL wild-card race.
Niese (9-11) allowed two runs and seven hits in 7 1-3 innings. The left-hander also struck out five and walked one while improving to 1-1 with a 2.14 ERA in his last three starts.
Niese said he feels better now than he has at any point since returning July 21 from a strained shoulder and three weeks on the disabled list.
"My shoulder feels great, my elbow feels great," he said. "For the most part I was able to throw all my pitches for strikes today and kind of mix it up well."
The Mets have won three of four.
Niese, who was just 2-4 with a 5.65 ERA in his previous six road starts since June 21, retired nine straight batters before loading the bases on consecutive singles with one out in the eighth.
Collins brought in Josh Edgin, who gave up a two-run single to Freddie Freeman. But Carlos Torres retired Justin Upton and Chris Johnson to end the threat.
Jenrry Mejia then worked the ninth for his 27th save in 30 chances.
Braves starter Mike Minor lasted just one inning, leaving with left shoulder discomfort after the Mets went up 1-0 on Lucas Duda's sacrifice fly.
Minor (6-12) dropped to 0-8 in his last nine September starts. He missed the first 27 games of the season with shoulder tendinitis.
"Yeah, it's the same thing, so it's kind of frustrating because I don't feel like it's anything serious," Minor said. "It's nagging pain that won't go away. It's there every pitch. I felt it the last couple of starts more and more. Tonight was worse than the others."
David Hale came in and fell behind 3-0 in the second on Herrera's third homer, a two-run shot just inside the left-field foul pole.
"I like early runs," Niese said. "I don't want to say it helps me relax but it's nice to have that run support. It's a good feeling knowing that one mistake won't cost me the game."
Granderson's 19th homer, coming off David Carpenter, made it 4-0 in the eighth.
The Braves (76-78) fell two games under .500 for the first time since they were 2-4 on April 12, 2012.
"It's just one of those weeks, months, years that nothing's going our way," Freeman said. "It's kind of getting repetitive."
Mets' Niese stifles slumping Braves
ATLANTA — Jonathon Niese is gaining confidence as the season comes to a close. The difference is obvious to Mets manager Terry Collins.


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Sport Obermeyer
Pratyusha Lakshmi Puranam
Executive Summary:
Obermeyer offers a broad line of fashion ski apparel, including parkas, vests, ski suits, shells, ski pants, sweaters, turtlenecks, and accessories. Parkas are considered the most critical design component of a collection; the other garments were fashioned to match the parkas' style and color. Their products were offered in five different genders: men's, women's, boys', girls', and preschoolers'. The company segments each "gender" market according to price, type of skier, and how "fashion-forward" the market was. Within each "gender", numerous styles are offered, each in several colors and a range of sizes. In the current situation, Obermeyer is facing two major issues: inability to meet the demand of retailers during peak sales and a confusion of where to produce the garments – Hong Kong or China. The best way to mitigate the inability to meet the demand of retailers during peaks sales would be to forecast the demands with either past data or with the help of a forecasting committee. It would be idea for Obermeyer to forecast future demand with the help of a forecasting committee. To come over the confusion of which city to continue production in, Obermeyer should choose to continue short term production in Hong Kong but the Long Term production should be in China. Sport Obermeyer has the following main problems:
Inability to meet the exact demand of the retailers of the latest fashion which is actually a result of poor forecasting of the jackets: Sport Obermeyer depends on the Las Vegas show to determine what fashions were going to dominate the season coming up and then produce the best fashions. This was a problem because the gap between the show and the production of final product and making it available to the retailer takes time and meanwhile anything can happen. Thus a rigid and accurate forecast must be made based on data as well as experience. They are in a dilemma of which location to continue their production in – Hong Kong or China: Raymond Tse had built the new factory in China where the cost was less but the quality had to be compromised. Moreover, the labor had to be trained and a higher minimum order was required. These issues were addressed by the Hong Kong facility where quality of product was good, the labor could multitask, a lower minimum order size was required and the time of production was low. But the overall cost was high. Recommendations:
In order to overcome the forecasting issue, effective forecasting methods like forecasting with the committee should be adopted. The calculations can be based on the newsvendor problem and will help to forecast the optimum requirement of products. To overcome the dilemma of where to produce, the production initially continue in Honk Kong andshould be eventually moved to China. Later, Hong Kong should be used when the minimum order size does not suit that in China. Supporting Analysis:
Sport Obermeyer has the issue of lack of stock during peak sales of certain types of parkas. This is very similar to the New Vendor problem. The newsvendor problem is a classic in management science partly because selecting an optimal inventory level in the face of uncertain demand is an important problem but also because the solution is so elegant and intuitive: the inventory should be selected so that the probability that the vendor stocks out should be set equal to the ratio of the item's unit cost to its unit price. Precisely, the Newsvendor Framework is:
One chance to decide on the stocking quantity for the product you're selling Demand for the product is uncertain
Known marginal profit for each unit sold and known marginal loss for the ones that are bought and not sold Goal: Maximize expected profit
P(x)Marginal Profit – (1 – P(x))Marginal Loss = 0
i.e. P(x) =...
Bibliography: http://www.hbs.edu/research/facpubs/workingpapers/papers2/0102/02-024.pdf
Please join StudyMode to read the full document


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Thursday, May 16, 2013
Yarnbombing the gallery
Elizabeth Carnaby and Sue Kennedy have completed yarnbombing the gallery. Thanks to Sue for driving this project and for Elizabeth for her commitment to making this happen with Sue. The project has had important contributions from Debby Fuller and Jean Halvorsen, and many donated sections from knitters in the community. This is a project driven by our volunteers and community members. Thanks to everyone involved in marking the gallery's 45th birthday in such a exciting way.
Posted by Ararat Regional Art Gallery at 8:17 PM 0 comments
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McAfee: Social Media, Mobile, Apple Devices Most Vulnerable to Security Threats in 2011
Security vendors 2011 Threat Predictions report predicts cybercriminals will attack shortened URL services, geolocation sites and Internet TV.
January 4, 2011
D.H. Kass: More stories by this author:
Related Articles
Cybercriminals will attack popular platforms and services such as Google Inc.s Android and Google TV, Apple Computer Inc.s iPhone and the Macintosh operating system in greater numbers and with more vehemence in 2011, according to researchers who compiled McAfee Inc.s 2011 Threat Predictions report.
Weve seen significant advancements in device and social network adoption, placing a bulls-eye on the platforms and services users are embracing the most, said Vincent Weafer, McAfee senior vice president.
These platforms and services have become very popular in a short amount of time, and were already seeing a significant increase in vulnerabilities, attacks and data loss, he said.
The security vendor recently offered its prime targets for security threats in the coming year:
-- Social media sites with abbreviated URL services, such as Twitter, will be primary targets for cybercriminals because masking malicious web addresses is easier using shortened URLs. McAfee said that it figures some 3,000 shortened URLs are generated per minute, making social media sites housing them a fertile ground for spam, scams and other nefarious activity.
-- McAfee also expects that an uptick in the use of geolocation services available at Facebook, Gowalla and foursquare, will enable cybercriminals to gain users' personal information to better position a targeted attack.
-- The booming popularity of mobile devices combined with a shaky cellular infrastructure and lagging encryption make the segment a potential hotbed for cybercrime, in particular compromising user and corporate data, McAfee said.
-- The security company said that Apples days out of the crosshairs of cybercriminals are over, predicting that the popularity of the iPhone and iPad in business settings will prompt an outbreak of Apple botnets and Trojans in 2011.
-- Internet TV platforms such as Google TV will offer tempting ground for suspicious and malicious apps, McAfee said, owing to the growing popularity of those apps.
-- Emails and files containing malicious content designed to fool users will become more sophisticated and prevalent in 2011, McAfee said. So-called signed malware that mimics legitimate files and attacks that appear to come from friends but actually are viruses will remain favorites of cybercriminals, the company said.
-- More sophisticated bots better able to bypass security and law enforcement monitoring will boost botnet activity for data gathering and data removal rather than simply sending spam, McAfee predicted.
-- State sponsored targeted espionage or sabotage carried out by cybercriminals for other than financial gain will become more than an isolated event, McAfee said. The security vendor said that companies of all sizes with involvement in national security or the global economy should prepare themselves to come under continues advanced persistent threat (APT) aimed at email archives and vital information warehoused in databases.
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Cityhostel Berlin
Cityhostel Berlin is the perfect place for you!
We are right in the centre of Berlin just a few minutes walk from all the main sights in Berlin!
Availability & RatesTo view availability and prices please select dates and click 'Update Dates'
Hostel Facilities & Policies
- 24 Hour Reception
- Bar
- Bicycle hire
- Bicycle parking
- Book Exchange
- Breakfast Not Included
- Credit Cards Accepted
- Elevator
- Telephone/Fax Facilities
- Free City Maps
- Free WiFi
- Games Room
- Internet Access
- Key Card Access
- Laundry Facilities
- Linen Included
- Security Lockers
- Luggage Storage
- Meeting Rooms
- No Curfew
- Non Smoking
- Outdoor Terrace
- Parking
- Postal Service
- Taxes included
- Towels For Hire
- Towels Included
- Wheelchair Friendly
Cancellation PolicyThis property has a 1 day cancellation policy. Failure to cancel within this time will result in a cancellation charge equal to the first night of your stay.
Must-Read Hostel InfoThis property has specific Terms & Conditions.
Under 18 years old?
Guests in the age of 16 or 17 need a written confirmation from their parents that they are allowed to stay in our hostel. This form needs to be shown at the check-in. Furthermore we need a copy of the passport of the parents (bot pages). It´s not allowed to stay in a dorm if you are under 18 years old, unless you book the entire room.
Breakfast is not included and costs 5.50 EUR.
Citytax not included.
DirectionsShow MapHide Map
from Hauptbahnhof:
- S5, S7 or S9 just one Station to Friedrichstrasse.
- change in to U6 direction Alt- Mariendorf.
- get off after 2 Stations at Stadt Mitte.
- walking distance from there to the City Hostel Berlin takes 3 min.
from Airport Schoenefeld:
- S45 direction Westend.
- change at Suedkreuz to S2 direction Bernau
- get off at the Potsdamer Platz and change there to U2 direction Pankow
- get off at Mohrenstrasse
From Airport Tegel:
- Bus X9 to Zoologischer Garten.
- change to U2 direction Pankow.
- get off at the Station Mohrenstr.
- you will find us directly at the exit.
Located Near
Friedrichstr., Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gate, Parlament Building, Potsdamer Platz


text: Bossington Hall is an elegant holiday rental home found in Allerford, UK. Found in the Porlock Vale area, the charming property features 15 bedrooms, 14 bathrooms, and can sleep up to 30 people. The country home was originally built in 1911 and was converted into a holiday home in 1982.


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The June Bank Holiday weekend didn't produce many classics this afternoon.
There were five games down for decision as we start to reach the business end of the provincial championships.
Today, we had action in the Ulster and Leinster SFC as well as the Munster and Leinster SHC.
To follow our live blog as it happened just click here.Tweet


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These are the best Galaxy S9 cases to protect your phone and keep it looking nice and new. With a big 5.8-inch AMOLED display with curved edges, a case is highly recommended. In our buying guide we'll go over the many different cases available and what they each have to offer.
Samsung's phone has a huge edge-to-edge screen and tiny bezels. It looks great, but it's also more fragile. Don't worry though, we've found durable cases from brands we know, use, and trust.
Read: 10 Cool Things the Galaxy S9 Can Do
Our list offers everything from thin cases, clear cases, cheap options, heavy-duty protection, and even wallet cases. You'll find cases as low as $10 which is much cheaper than spending $150+ to fix a broken screen. Or, spend a little more to get the most rugged cases from reputable brands. Additionally, we have official Samsung cases for around $45. We'll continuously update this list once more cases become available.
Galaxy S9 cases come in a slew of different styles, colors, and protection levels. And while we recommend investing in a quality case from Samsung, even cheap $5-$10 TPU case on Amazon is better than nothing. Cheap TPU cases offer plenty of protection in a thin package. The more expensive cases use thicker and durable materials or a premium design with more features, like a wallet or kickstand.
Keep in mind that while the Galaxy S9 looks nearly identical to the Galaxy S8 from 2017, they are different. Galaxy S8 cases will not fit the Galaxy S9.
Read: 15 Best Official Galaxy S9 Accessories
We hear people say they'll skip buying a case because they don't want to cover up the premium design or loose features like wireless charging. Most cases work fine with wireless charging, and we have a few clear cases in our roundup as well. We're expecting more options from top brands in the near future.
Samsung's latest Galaxy S9 is a beautiful phone, but it's very fragile. A case will help prevent damage or scratches to the beautiful screen, and keep the fancy camera lens safe. Just know that you have plenty of cases to choose from. All the biggest brands like Spigen, Incipio, Speck, Otterbox and more have great options at affordable prices. Pick a new Galaxy S9 case from our slideshow below.
Spigen Neo Hybrid ($16)
Our first recommendation is the Spigen Neo hybrid. Spigen is one of the most popular smartphone accessory manufacturers, and they have some of the best cases on the market. This is one of the best Galaxy S9 cases available.
The Spigen Neo Hybrid case offers a premium dual-layer design. The entire case is made from a durable and impact-resistant flexible TPU material for drop-protection. They've added a new textured pattern on the back too, for improved grip.
What makes these cases special though, is the reinforced hard pumper polycarbonate plastic frame that goes around the outer edge of the Galaxy S9. Which, by the way, is where most damage starts from drops. The bumper frame has a faux brushed metal design for added styling too. It comes in black, with 5 different accent colors.
Buy it Now for $15.99 on Amazon