Well hey there!
So, it was kind of a big news weekend in that the Government finally announced the intricacies of the new carbon tax. Not to mention NASA’s final space shuttle launch. Those things are always beautiful to look at. And to think we only invented flight at the beginning of the 1900s!
A quick congratulations to the Diamonds, Australia’s netball champions who beat New Zealand in a nervous extra time world championship last night.
Anyhow, you were probably out sunning yourselves or having fun so here’s a recap of the news you may have missed:
1. The carbon tax details were announced…
If you missed the basics, catch up on our cheat sheet on the main page. Or on the link above!
2. NASA launches final space shuttle.
Sad. The last manned space shuttle by NASA was launched over the weekend delivering 3.5 tonnes of food to the International Space Station. Atlantis is the final shuttle in a 30-year program of manned space flight and will be retired to the Kennedy Space Centre and put on show. From now until America’s private space industry takes off, NASA will send astronauts into space using Russian rockets.
3. Health professionals in WA say 18-year-olds are too immature to drink
The Clinical Senate of Western Australia has recommended the legal drinking age be raised to at least 20 years old because 18-year-olds just can’t handle the responsibility. The Senate contains 75 elite health professionals and made the recommendation to the state’s health minister. They said the driving age and drinking age were too close together. So, what do you think? Old enough to go to war, old enough to drink? Or is that way of thinking out the door?
Just ... a little ... closer.
4. Mel Gibson has a secret gay brother … who says he’s not a bad bloke.
Mel Gibson’s gay brother Andrew has spoken of his troubled brother and explained he was supportive of him when he came our decades ago and that he had ‘never heard him say anything anti Gay’. Cool. Glad we cleared that up. Oh, except for everything Gibson has said on the public record.
5. The running of the bulls is over for another year.
Just out of curiosity, why are we still doing this? The Darwin awards certainly get a work out here. Anyone else always barracking for the bulls here?
6. We have a new country … South Sudan!
South Sudan gained Independence from Sudan at the weekend and has already attracted plenty of congratulations. There has been much celebrating in Australia’s Sudanese community, many of whom voted in the referendum to separate. Australia has offered $16 million in foreign aide to the new country and will shortly be setting up diplomatic relations. How lovely.
7. Mother gives birth to 16lb baby boy in Texas
Yup, everything’s big in the great American state of Texas, including the babies. Who are giant. Mum Janet Johnson gave birth to her bub JaMichael Brown who weighed 16lb, or about 8 kilograms. It was by caesarian (luckily?) and the bub has now been nicknamed The Moose. Check out the vid:
Comments
49 Comments so far
Too immature to drink at eighteen? There are many people who are too immature to drink at ANY age!
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Truth is probably that the USA is so broke and near to collapse that they have no more money to put into such programmes. You will see many changes in US policy as they pull back from their high profile around the world. Europe is not far behind either, so let’s hope some good decisions are made….and very very soon!
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the US is only broke because the government is horrible with the budget and is spending more than $600 BILLION in Defence (i.e. fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq)
The US has plenty of money, it’s just about how they’re spending it.
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spot on den.
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I had someone whinge about Australia giving sixteen million dollars to South Sudan, complaining ‘these muslims will buy guns with it!’. When i told him they were mainly Christian, and wasn’t it better to help them survive and prosper in their own country without having to risk their lives by boat to come to an alien land and end up in a detention centre, he changed a bit. Actually sixteen million is peanuts to what it would cost for them as refugees for that matter, and probably a little bit on the mean side. But see how they go, and maybe other countries will support them more.
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This time last year, I ran with the bulls and it was an amazing “once a lifetime experience”. I’d guesstimate 1 in a 100 runners being female and as I made it the end of the run at the Plaza de Toros (sp), the roar of the crowd was unforgettable.
The run itself didn’t seem to me as aggravating to the bulls compared to the shenanigans in the Plaza after the run. They release 6 bulls (one at a time) into the ring with hundreds of young men (mostly still drunk from the festivities the night before) and they coax the bull into charging at them. It becomes a case of who can get closest to the bull. Being flung into the air scores massive points with the excitable crowd. The bulls seem confused and angry.
It was an experience indeed
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I was in Spain at the time in 2009 and yes, thought it would be this ‘once in a lifetime’ awesome thing to do! That was until I heard about the cruelty which is inflicted upon the animals before the run! (Force fed alcohol, kept in the dark for at least a day before the run, and having something on their eyebrows shaved, which inhibits their senses! Basically a whole lot of crap to make them disorientated)
Suffice to say, I now do not support this yearly event!
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My second son was 10lb, 11 1/2 oz, born naturally after a 1.5 hour labour. I thought he was baby-sized because I was used to lugging my then 2 y/o about….It’s all relative I guess, though I feel for this poor 16lb little fellow
It appears his mothers Gestational Diabetes must have been poorly managed which can be dangerous.
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My grandfather was 15 pounds when he was born in a village in Scotland. They thought he would die, so wrapped him in newspaper and put him under the bed and concentrated on saving my great grandma (who was, understandably, not in fabulous shape). She rescued him in due course, and he was fine.
Ouch. Glad mine were a bit more normal sized!
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They finally remembered he was there when he sang out’ hoot mon where’s ma porridge, and have ye got anything else ta read, this paper’s a week old?’
My grandparents were born in Edinburgh and migrated around 1915 and it was great finally getting to Scotland in 2002 to get back to my true home!
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Ok just read the 7 is in reference to his number when playing for Man united.
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Something else you can add to the list of news, just read the Beckham’s had their daughter, named her Harper Seven Beckham.
No idea what the 7 is for?!
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So very pleased to see a call out to the netballers on here. The Herald Sun has NOTHING about the fact Australia has female world champion sportspeople on its pages – appalling!
In fact, I am so not a ranting ‘girl power’ person normally but this made me really cranky, most of last night’s TV news didn’t even carry a story on the fact the Australian netball team was vying for a world championship! Now if it had been soccer, rugby, cricket, etc it would have been all over the place! Makes me a bit cranky that STILL women’s sport is struggle to get the coverage it deserve, particularly in a sport Australia invented!!
But kudos to the coverage the Matildas championship tilt received.
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I was pissed off that I literally only found out about it because I was channel surfing on the menu on the telly and the One HD listing said Netball. So used to it getting treated like shit nothing surprises anymore. HoHum.
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I dont think changing the legal drinking age will make any difference. I know of quite a few teenagers that were buying their own alcohol at 16, then I know of a couple who are almost 18 and still haven’t touched a drop. I think this is becuase of the way they were raised as well as the group mentality of their social group. The ‘drinkers’ mentality was ‘the more you can drink the more we will respect you and the cooler you will become.’ as where they kids who dont drink, haven;t seen their parents absoloutely rotten, and its just not on their radar as how to have a good time.
I have to admit that I was a good girl who never drank unless my parents had allowed me but I believe its just not in my nature as a 26 year old, I still dont drink alot (maybe three times a year?) and never to excess. To me, its just not worth it the next day when you have no money and feel like crap.
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18 – too young to drink AND too young to go to war.
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I’d be against pushing up the legal drinking age. Notice the argument isn’t based on medical science or health, but ‘maturity’?
Whenever you see an argument about maturity in teenagers and the brain, be skeptical. Societies that don’t have high school, don’t have teenage ‘rebellion’ issues. As soon as people are required to enter employment and interact with a wider slice of society that involves people from different age groups, they mature.
Children have a super strong reliance on adults. Adults have to deal with members of the public of all ages. Teenagers, we lock up with other teenagers in a prison called ‘high school’ for six years and wonder why shit happens? They interact with no one outside their age range, their social status is linked – without exception – to teenage social standards, then blame them when they don’t understand the wider ramifications of their actions?
I’m not saying ‘get rid of high school’, I think a far better idea is to expose teens to other age groups early on. Kids who volunteer from an early age are more resistant to peer pressure than other kids. That’s why churchies often seem more balanced. It’s not God, it’s interaction with people outside 12-19.
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So smart. I love this.
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Not smart, read it somewhere. I have never had an original thought.
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not many of us do. the older you get, the more you’ve heard it all before
it becomes entertaining to watch people who think they are being creative suggest things that have been “created” by every generation recorded in history….
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Ha!!
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I agree, I think you can see the same effect in sports clubs
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I agree. My daughter is about to start single sex Catholic high school, because I believe that single sex education is better for girls. However, lots of people have said “but how will she meet boys”. Arrrggghhh. Like they are an alien race or something. She has boy cousins the same age and older and socialises with them and their friends, and she trains 3 nights a week with boys. They are just not a mystery to her. At the moment they are “stinky and stupid” (her words) but in time I guess she will appreciate their niceties lol
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Clever. Never thought of it like that. Makes perfect sense to me…
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I mentioned this theory in the office and someone said “Dur, Every high school is Lord of the Flies” but no one really notices.
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as a cog scientist in training, though, have to say that there is a difference in the development of the frontal lobes between 18 year olds and older adults – this difference is more pronounced for boys, who mature later, but is evident across cultures around the world.
This is why cultures around the world do have ways of managing the behaviour of young “adult” males, because they are less able to control their risk-taking and other behaviours than they will be later. My personal favourite is the one where young men undertake a very energy and time-intensive training routine (thus preventing them from doing other mischievous/dangerous things) before having to bungee jump using jungle vines that may snap/stretch and so land them on their heads in the sand.
Rumours of the lack of teenagerness in other cultures are sorely exaggerated (Margaret Mead actually invented the observations on which this theory was based…..). Only in the very smallest of communities, like < 50, do age groups not start to hang around together. Even in cultures where children do most of the child-rearing of other children, it is pre-pubescent kids who look after the little ones, not teenagers. When teenagers go off to help with chores etc., they do not have the same expectations on them as adults.
Anyway. It's an argument, but I think the main thing against banning alcohol for 18 year olds is the practical one – it's harder to oversee what they're doing/police it if they're trying to hide it. The American example shows that raising the drinking age doesn't really do much to prevent the dangers associated with alcohol use by 18-21 year olds. It just makes them be more inventive in getting it.
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Oh, great response! Obviously I’m a layman, happy to bow to those who actually look into it. I did try and be a google expert prior to posting the comment but came up blank.
But I’ve got a million questions, if you don’t mind!
How does the rise in female deliquency come into this? Or have girls always been out of control vixens and I only noticed when I turned 35?
Also, doesn’t high school make this situation with “dangerous males” more pronounced? Removal of all old cultural brakes and replace it with nothing? (Dare I say, Idleness?)
What about this shift of typical ‘teenage’ behaviour into the twenties? If it was all brain development type stuff, why does the high risk taking last longer?
Or am I a victim of forming uninfomred opinions, of which I can say I am an expert at doing?
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Idle dad you really are basing your arguments on uninformed opinions sorry. There is little doubt in the medical or scientific community that alcohol harms developing brains, and if we could put it off till 30 it would be much better. Well put it off forever ideally!!
Try Drink Wise Australia for some great research.
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Hey Anon,
My opinions may be uniformed, however my logic still works. The article and recommendation from the Clinical Senate of WA reads that it is based on the maturity of our citizens, not neurological damage from drinking. Plus, they recommend increasing the drinking age two years to twenty.
I understand why children shouldn’t drink alcohol due to medical reasons, however, that is not the argument being put forth here. The argument here is about social maturity of legal adults.
The CSofWA is saying two more years would transform immature adults into mature adults. Somehow.
Willaway has reasonably put the record straight about risk behaviour in young males, and I’ve got follow up questions.
Your point, however, isn’t valid within the context of this discussion.
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totally NOT an expert – but here’s my take:
there are multiple factors affecting all of these questions – biological and cultural. Conveniently, they interact in tricky ways. So, for us to say that males do develop self-control later, we have to see this effect over a range of conditions, in a significant size of effect. That is what has actually been found – despite all the variations in culture (herding teenagers into high school, prolonging teenagerdom through putting off adult responsibility, bungee jumping, mining at 14….), there is this effect of later frontal lobe development and less self control of impulses. This is related, but not the same as, risk-taking behaviour in males. Jury is out on what actually causes risk-taking behaviour, but we know that the lack of self-control doesn’t help to curb it/apply reason to it.
The rise in female delinquency (if there is one) is cultural. In fact, there is quite a bit of evidence that female delinquency hasn’t increased (in crime stats, contact with police etc) – just irritating antisocial behaviour across the board has. So, the rise in female delinquency is a combination of mis-interpreted visibility of more girls being painful/extreme and media hype.
High school may do what you think, or it may not – not sure of studies here. It will almost definitely depend on the individual, the area, the socioeconomic status, the kind of high school, what kids are doing after school….. Young men have always hung out in groups with young men, and in all kinds of cultures. High school is just one institutionalised manifestation of that. Not sure what the old cultural brakes are – high schools have been around for a while, and when more teenagers left school for work, they still demonstrated risky behaviour etc – both at work and not at work. varying with other factors….
The shift of teenage behaviour into the twenties – there has been a deferral of responsibilitiy among some 20-somethings. But among others, there’s a strong work ethic and a more adult lifestyle than 20-somethings 20 years ago (i.e. me) were adopting. And the high risk taking isn’t documented to be lasting longer, I don’t think, than at other times. There is greater access to better ways to take risks, and culturally, more riskier risks are now seen as the way to go than old-fashioned risks. But most of the risks are basically the same. Sex, drugs, alcohol, driving. Etc. Same old same old.
If you keep digging, none of us really know anything, so I’d say your opinions are as informed as the next guy’s – just by different stuff
diplomatic? uncharacteristically?
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I have always found it odd that the day you can get your licence you cam walk into a grog shop and buy booze. I don’t know what the answer is though. Scarily I’m finding that my friends are drink driving more now in their mid twenties. When we were younger it was simply drink OR drive – now it’s turned into ‘i’ll just have a couple’ and drive – I’m worried their getting on the roadrunker affected than they think they are
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Yes! And until they brought in proof of age cards, you used your licence to prove your age! I think youngsters drink drive more too.
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Having trained and served with 17 and 18 year olds, I think they would do well to raise the age of being able to join the defence force AND the drinking age.
That huge baby is 2 and 1/2 times what my daughter was! And still about double her weight now. Geez!
Oh, said daughter had her first netball experience last night – she’s just discovered her voice and volume, so had a great time making a racket! Nailbiting extra time games between us and the Silver Ferns are really becoming par for the course, aren’t they?
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Sadly, the netball got very little attention in Singapore. There was no hype like there’d be in Australia. I guess it’s because it’s just not a sporting nation, a shopping nation but not a sporting nation. Still, the expat community supported the event.
So glad Katharine enjoyed it!
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Yes, Mum and I were wondering about the choice of venue – Singapore aren’t exactly a powerhouse of netball, are they??
Bring on Sydney 2015!
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My blood pressure is only just returning to normal after the game. What a cracker!
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I know. Every bloody game!
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I wonder if the moose’s mum had gestational diabetes…..
It’s sad about the space program, I wonder how Russia can afford it…
Let’s hope south Sudan (and ?north Sudan) are much more peaceful as separate countries than as one.
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I just can’t get those dodgy communist era cars out of my head, and keep thinking of their spaceships being the same. Reminds me of the Simpsons when Homer’s looking at budget cars at the dodgy car – yard and loses control, with the salesman yelling “Put it into H!” LOL
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The thing about those “dodgy soviet cars” is that you go to Poland or Romania and a lot of them are still running! Sure they’re not the prettiest things, but they were definitely built to last, haha.
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Also, they can be repaired MacGyver style, with coathangers and rubber bands!
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Haha, I literally lolled then.
Well, it wold make those space emergencies easy to fix then – a packet or 2 of paperclips and they should be sweet!
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Yes, there ARE advantages in only using everyday things in manufacturing. Space age? Try this paper clip and chewing gum wrapper for size!
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Soviet-era Polish car joke: “The horse behind us is winking – I think he wants to overtake.”
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Didn’t you see the 60 mins program about all the gold (and other) mining going on in Siberia? That’s how Russia can afford it!
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the poor little baby. he’s not yet able to breathe unassisted. it would be nice if they waited until he was out of the woods to allow cameras in to report on his size.
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Ugh! That’s like giving birth to a toddler!
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Did she get a push present???
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My Mum likes to regale us with the tail of my brothers birth, who was 8lb. She thought he was a monster. This baby being double that, I’m not surprised she had a c-section. Too big to push out!
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