Qohel

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Day: May 29, 2009

Broadband Plans

May 29, 2009 / / 0 Comments

One of the promises made by the Labor party during the last election was that there would be more transparency in government. I guess that means being honest about information sources, advice received, funding, and who will benefit from what.

That was obviously a non-core promise.

Senator Nick Minchin discusses this in relation to the government’s vastly overpriced and already outdated fibre optic broadband plan.

Mr Rudd and Senator Conroy have repeatedly said they are simply following the advice of an expert panel and also the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Yet they have produced no solid evidence to confirm that to be the case. ..

Its refusal to release key advice in relation to this proposal makes a mockery of its pledge to deliver a new age of transparency. And despite the scale of this project and the billions of taxpayer dollars that will be risked on it, the Government arrogantly dismisses the need for a cost benefit analysis.  It claims this network will be commercially viable, yet has also failed to produce a scrap of credible evidence to support these evangelical assertions.

And the key problem with the whole dumb idea:

The Government has no idea how many customers may choose to use this network and how much they will have to pay to do so in order for it to be viable.

It is not as if we have a spare $43 billion floating around that we couldn’t use for hospitals, roads, schools, or research.

Dumb Or Greedy

May 29, 2009 / / 0 Comments

How to avoid being ripped off by scammers.

Don’t be greedy. Don’t be dumb. That pretty much covers it.

If an arabian princess emails you telling you she got your name from a friend, and needs you to help her smuggle $20 million out of Egypt, and she’s willing to give you $5 million for your trouble, and you reply, and end up sending her $10,000 to pay bank fees, are you an idiot? Yes. Are you a greedy idiot? Yes.

If you are selling a car and someone sends you a cheque for $2,000 more than the price of the car and asks you to wire $1,000 of that to a friend in Brazil, and you do, are you an idiot? yes. Are you a greedy idiot? Yes.

Also, don’t buy software from anonymous sellers in China.

Conservatives More Squeamish Than Liberals?

May 29, 2009 / / 0 Comments

I don’t think so.

Conservatives less likely to slap their dads, even if dad says its OK? Yes, that I can believe.

Conservatives have less confidence in their own wisdom relative to that of our forebears and fellow citizens. We are also less likely to make exceptions for ourselves – to say ‘ That rule applies generally, but not in my case.’ Consequently we give greater weight to laws and customs, and are generally more law abiding.

Nisholas Kristoff says studies show conservatives ae less likely to act in ways they perceive as disrespectful of authority. That’s a good thing in my view. But then, I would think that.

Kristoff also says studies show conservatives are more likely to experience feelings of disgust than liberals. That I do not believe. Unless it is disgust at liberals’ flouting the rules and disrespecting authority. But I don’t think that’s what he means.

Kristoff says that research show conservatives are more likely to feel disgust than liberals when stepping on a worm, or crawling through a sewer, or skinning an animal. He then extends this to feelings of moral disgust, and draws the conclusion that conservatives are less open minded.

That’s a pretty long draw in any case, but my experience is that it is liberals who are more likely to get upset about things being ‘yucky.’ And as for skinning an animal or working in a meat factory, let alone a sewage processing plant, or anything involving manure, forget it. Conservatives are far more likely to be the ones who roll up their sleeves, get out there and get on with it. That’s why we have red necks.

Can this be extended to moral/intellectual disgust/openness?

I don’t know, but again, my experience is that liberals (I used to be one) tend to talk to each other, and the discovery that people actually exist who do not share their opinions makes them angry. Look at the hate on people’s faces, and the tendency to violence, at leftist demonstrations, for example.

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