If you missed Lateline’s story on the Health Care Complaint Commission (NSW) handing down some adverse findings for the fringe anti-vaccination group the AVN here it is:
Now the obvious dangers of this group are that they could/are? contribute to a fall in vaccination rates. They appeal to emotion, misunderstand the evidence surrounding vaccination and spread this misunderstanding.
Their extreme views, do have the potential for detracting from debates/discussions that we really need to have about commercial entities involved in producing pharmaceutical products,and the influence of private, profit driven research on health.
Discussion like the following bought to us by the Token Skeptic podcast.
Token Skeptic #23 – On Big Pharma – Interview With Dr Leslie Cannold and Michael McRae
To be frank the Us vs Them mentality that the AVN’s behaviour fosters shits me. I want careful discussion and debate from “qualified” people not from irrational people who jump in the pond and do nothing but muddy the water.
Long time readers will remember me covering this horrible story in these posts -
When you enable rapists it might just hit you where it hurts…
Three heads roll in Toowoomba school rape case
Toowoomba catholic teacher “rape case” update
It’s not often that we get good news when the story centres around the Catholic Church and child rape so allow me to bear good tidings via the Australian
THE Catholic Church has made a sweeping admission of legal liability for the rape and abuse of girls at a Toowoomba primary school.
In one of the most comprehensive wins for victims of child abuse in Australia, Toowoomba bishop Bill Morris has formally admitted liability and opened the door to a massive compensation payout to 13 schoolgirls in a proposed mediated settlement to be overseen by former High Court judge Ian Callinan QC.
[source]
One of the parents of the abused children wants full disclosure of church actions in addition to any compensation they might be ordered to pay, so that the church’s actions (or lack thereof) will be on display.
Bishop Morris has suggested a mediation process overseen by a High Court Judge in order to protect the victims and their families from enduring further hardship. Is it too cynical for me to believe that this process might also have advantages for the church?
Intro: Saturday Steampunk is an irregular blog topic that I post on, sometimes it even occurs on a Saturday. You can see other Saturday Steampunk posts here .
Today’s post is a bit of a collection of things I have stumbled upon over the last week.
Steampunk Cupcake holders
First we have Clockwork cupcakes for those of you into exploring the culinary delights with a bit steampunk flare, or indeed if you are hosting a Steampunk party. A hat tip goes to The Steampunk Home for discovering these cute little decorative peices available from Geekinesis’ etsy store.
Dr. Grordbort’s: XENODEFUGIO SUBTILTUS
For those Steampunk aficionados out there with deeper purses than I, you might want to check out Weta’s range of Venutian insectoids.
To the left is the The Xenodefugio, or as it is more commonly known Gumbolt’s Wind Rat a limited edition hand sculpted alien insect mounted behind Perspex. It can be yours for $395 US – slightly more than the cupcakes.
Project Gutenburg:
Well of course I have known about this project for some time, but the advent of e-reader software, particularly kindle for pc, has made the free books here infinitely more accessible.
I have been checking out some old titles like Jules Verne’s A journey to the Centre of the Earth and The Time Machine by HG Wells. Do yourself a favour, get some e-reader software an download some classic now.
According to ABC online:
Prosecutors have dropped assault charges against eight men who had been accused of staging an exorcism, in exchange for restraining orders.
Adelaide Magistrates Court heard each of the men denied the allegations, despite agreeing to restraining orders.
[source]
I commented on the original story here in July of last year. As it stands the 8 men involved in the “alleged” exorcism have had the following charges against them dropped -
- False imprisonment
- Assault
in return for consenting to restraining orders.
I am curious as to why the charges were dropped
- lack of evidence?
- 8 men’s word against a teenage victim?
- the effects of challenging respected elders within a small community?
- a young victim who just wants the whole incident to be over?
I will be trying to find out more information on the case, when and if it’s transcribed. But I think its safe to say I won’t be wearing any atheist paraphernalia the next time I go wine tasting in the Barossa.
South Australia academic Dr Sue Knight has been selected as the independent evaluator of the NSW Ethics trial. Her bio can be found here and you will note after a quick read through she appears to be eminently qualified to tackle this task.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports, that at least one church is prepared to remain non-committal on her appointment:
‘We are glad there has been an appointment to the independent evaluation,” said Jude Hennessy, the director of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine for the Wollongong diocese.
”We know little about Dr Knight. We hope she will be independent.”
One wonders what is meant by that last statement - “we hope that she won’t suggest an implementation”?
Of course it would have been nice if the various churches aligned against the trial (which was, by no means all of them) could have managed to be non-committal about the trial process.
Dr Knight will be tasked with:
- Canvassing the views of major stakeholders, including the religious faiths opposed
- Evaluating the viability of the St James model for wider use
- Evaluating the trials efficacy in improving student’s understanding
- Suggesting improvements
So here’s hoping that we will see no more whining or attempts at interference from the churches, they will have a chance to state their case to Dr Knight. Here’s hoping that the trial was beneficial for the children involved and if it was that NSW can become a leader in promoting ethical education in Australia’s state schools.
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