Australian PM blasts Obama...

Last Exodus

jlew24asu wrote:

why did you make 2 threads?

Guess i could have posted on the old one. oh well

macgyver06

RainDog

cincybearcat wrote:

Om my this is ironic. I look forward to the 180 degree turn on many things by many here.

I thought world opinion mattered?

The thing is, if the right doesn't want the "180" applied to itself as well, they're going to have to defend Obama.

And, for my part, I will say that world opinion does matter. You can listen to an opinion and still call it wrong; that doesn't mean it doesn't matter.

inmytree

cincybearcat wrote:

Om my this is ironic. I look forward to the 180 degree turn on many things by many here.

I thought world opinion mattered?

That's why I'm changing my vote....:)

here's my guy:

http://www.hughcort2008.com/

cincybearcat

RainDog wrote:

The thing is, if the right doesn't want the "180" applied to itself as well, they're going to have to defend Obama.

Yep...I know that diggity dog.

Scubascott

searchlightsoul wrote:

If you look at education particularly in Science and technology we are seriously lagging behind the rest of the developed world because there is no investment or governemnt support-departments are run on shoe strings-particularly difficult in innovative areas not currently supported by industry. This is completely myopic economic managment.

Don't get me started on research and education funding. . .

Oh and VSU! Thank you very much Mr Howard for that little gem. All the services, pubs, sporting clubs etc at my uni have gone completely down the crapper since VSU was imposed on us. The slimy bastard said he was giving students the right to choose. If he really wanted to give students the right to choose he would have let the NSU hold a referendum on the matter.

Scubascott

Jeanie wrote:

You'll get the Phd finished, you're probably close to the finish and suffering burn out yeah? What kind of bacteria anyway? Oh! And can it be a really basic explanation, I'm a bit scientifically challenged!!

Yeah. Suffering from burn out. That's why I'm here and not in the lab where I should be. The bacteria are the ones that live on coral and may or may not be causing disease, which kills the corals and affects the overall ecology of reef systems.

So far what I've learned is:

A. Corals are absolute bastards of things to work on.
B. Trying to do research with no funding sucks.
C. Don't start a PhD just because it sounds like a good way to do a lot of diving for free.

Jeanie

Scubascott wrote:

Yeah. Suffering from burn out. That's why I'm here and not in the lab where I should be. The bacteria are the ones that live on coral and may or may not be causing disease, which kills the corals and affects the overall ecology of reef systems.

So far what I've learned is:

A. Corals are absolute bastards of things to work on.
B. Trying to do research with no funding sucks.
C. Don't start a PhD just because it sounds like a good way to do a lot of diving for free.

Yeah, a PhD will do that to you, so I've noticed by observation!
Oh!! Yeah, me thinks I've heard a little about these critters of which you speak! How very cool!! You don't think they are a little germ left behind by the Crown Of Thorns? Or maybe the Crown Of Thorns feeds off the bacteria?
Well it's sounds like hard work scott and I'm sure hideous some days, but I'm VERY glad to hear you are struggling on fella. I do so love coral.

Jeanie

Scubascott wrote:

Don't get me started on research and education funding. . .

Oh and VSU! Thank you very much Mr Howard for that little gem. All the services, pubs, sporting clubs etc at my uni have gone completely down the crapper since VSU was imposed on us. The slimy bastard said he was giving students the right to choose. If he really wanted to give students the right to choose he would have let the NSU hold a referendum on the matter.

They were too organized!! Too vocal!! Can't have that!! Nope if the VSU had to be squashed it's because it was a threat! Stupid old fart thinks that just because he's deaf people aren't screaming at him!! Well he'll know soon enough.

Scubascott

Jeanie wrote:

Yeah, a PhD will do that to you, so I've noticed by observation!
Oh!! Yeah, me thinks I've heard a little about these critters of which you speak! How very cool!! You don't think they are a little germ left behind by the Crown Of Thorns? Or maybe the Crown Of Thorns feeds off the bacteria?
Well it's sounds like hard work scott and I'm sure hideous some days, but I'm VERY glad to hear you are struggling on fella. I do so love coral.

Nope the COTs are a different issue altogether. They're actually very uncommon down in the subtropical area that I work in. I've only ever seen two. We do have a few ideas about what kind of vectors might spread the disease, but as yet I've still been unable to nail a single pathogen that causes it. The problem with coral is that its inclined to die as soon as you take it out of the sea and put it in the lab, so its very difficult to tell whether it died because of something you did to it deliberately, or if it just died because it was homesick or something.

Jeanie

Scubascott wrote:

Nope the COTs are a different issue altogether. They're actually very uncommon down in the subtropical area that I work in. I've only ever seen two. We do have a few ideas about what kind of vectors might spread the disease, but as yet I've still been unable to nail a single pathogen that causes it. The problem with coral is that its inclined to die as soon as you take it out of the sea and put it in the lab, so its very difficult to tell whether it died because of something you did to it deliberately, or if it just died because it was homesick or something.

I've only ever seen them on the tele. Oh and I think I may have seen them in a tank in QLD once. They are certainly a problem though. Evil little buggers!

vectors? Sorry, got most of that Scott but what's a vector?

Died because it was homesick! That's a nice turn of phrase. Coral is such amazing stuff. Very interesting. I hope you can save it, scott. It's excellent work you are doing.

Scubascott

Jeanie wrote:

I've only ever seen them on the tele. Oh and I think I may have seen them in a tank in QLD once. They are certainly a problem though. Evil little buggers!

vectors? Sorry, got most of that Scott but what's a vector?

Died because it was homesick! That's a nice turn of phrase. Coral is such amazing stuff. Very interesting. I hope you can save it, scott. It's excellent work you are doing.

By vector I meant something that carries the disease-causing agent (whatever it is) from one coral to the next. We've done experiments to show that it can't travel through the water by itself, even over a distance of just a few cm, so it must need a vector. The most likely culprit would be an animal that feeds on the coral. We do have one candidate in mind. I found a little nudibranch (sea slug) on one of our corals that grazes on the coral tissue and seemed to be carrying something that spread across the coral, causing it to die, even after the nudibranch was removed. You can read all about it here if you're really bored

http://www.springerlink.com/content/36185170x60637t1/fulltext.pdf

The only problem is that we've never seen another one of the little buggers! So I can't investigate the possibility any further.

Jeanie

Scubascott wrote:

By vector I meant something that carries the disease-causing agent (whatever it is) from one coral to the next. We've done experiments to show that it can't travel through the water by itself, even over a distance of just a few cm, so it must need a vector. The most likely culprit would be an animal that feeds on the coral. We do have one candidate in mind. I found a little nudibranch (sea slug) on one of our corals that grazes on the coral tissue and seemed to be carrying something that spread across the coral, causing it to die, even after the nudibranch was removed. You can read all about it here if you're really bored

http://www.springerlink.com/content/36185170x60637t1/fulltext.pdf

The only problem is that we've never seen another one of the little buggers! So I can't investigate the possibility any further.

Ooh!! Nudibranches! I've heard of those!! Bit hard to forget really! Such a memorable name!! Anyway, I've added the site to my favorites scott and will go back and look later, when I get bored! Which is sooo not now!!
Running around like a headless chook here!! :eek:
Thanks for this info though. It's a really interesting subject, and very interesting about the sea slug being the culprit!

soulsinging

Scubascott wrote:

How about the fact that our population is about 5% the size of America's? So if we were to make a contribution (which we shouldn't have) it should be about 5% of America's. Of course that's a completely lame argument, because we sent 50,000 troops to Vietnam in support of another stupid american war, and our population was significantly smaller then.

A better explanation is that our contribution is just a token show of support by our Bush puppet of prime minister, designed to keep that anal passage well lubricated while not provoking too much outcry from the australian public.

the latter is what i was getting at. though even 5% of america's forces would be more than 1000 troops... american has about 100,000 i think. bottom line is, this guy's an idiot.

Jeanie

At the risk of being further probed by ASIO, anybody else be voting for Johnny at the next election? Anybody got any theories about what he's trying to deflect attention from with his Obama comments?

catefrances

soulsinging wrote:

the latter is what i was getting at. though even 5% of america's forces would be more than 1000 troops... american has about 100,000 i think. bottom line is, this guy's an idiot.

hate to burst your bubble, but one thing john howard is not, is an idiot. he is a shrewd poliitican who has on several occasions taken advantage of the australian people's sentiments and prejudices to further his career. attacking obama was a just foolish thing to do.

catefrances

Jeanie wrote:

At the risk of being further probed by ASIO, anybody else be voting for Johnny at the next election? Anybody got any theories about what he's trying to deflect attention from with his Obama comments?

i suspect something to do with the water crisis. maybe he's getting ready to privatise something. i wouldn't be surprised of anything really.

catefrances

there's also the groundswell of support for the release of david hicks to quash.

soulsinging

catefrances wrote:

hate to burst your bubble, but one thing john howard is not, is an idiot. he is a shrewd poliitican who has on several occasions taken advantage of the australian people's sentiments and prejudices to further his career. attacking obama was a just foolish thing to do.

then you could say the same about george bush. he's a shrewd politician yada yada yada. but i think that'd be wrong. they're both idiots. good at what they do maybe, but idiots nonetheless.

Jeanie

soulsinging wrote:

the latter is what i was getting at. though even 5% of america's forces would be more than 1000 troops... american has about 100,000 i think. bottom line is, this guy's an idiot.

Our PM you mean ss?

I guess maybe what scott is trying to say, not that I wish to speak for him, is the majority of us here do not support sending our troops to dangerous war situations in support of America when we don't agree with the battle.

And maybe we have only, by American standards, sent a small amount of troupes, but seing as how we are only a nation of around 18million, even small troupe numbers for stupid reasons is too much. And not something we need to be feeling ridiculed for. Not that I'm saying you are. BUT there seems to be that kind of sentiment from some of the posts I'm reading and I find it offensive, to those we have lost, in support of stupid American policies.

And before you get all cranky with me, I'm not having a go. Just saying my peace. As proven by WW2, we have no problem supporting America into battle when it is obviously a fight that needs to be had. But just because we are small doesn't make us or our contribution insignificant.