Kevin Rudd vs. the Tooth Fairy

Dave the Journo bewails the state of public Dental Care in Oz

The other day I forked out 185 bucks - for a straightforward filling.

I probably could have asked for a payment extension (being on a disability pension)-but it's a small country practice and the staff liked to be paid on the day.

As I parted with - to me - a significant amount of cash,I wondered what had become of Team Rudd's "Denticare" plan.

The hole in my tooth had been filled-but there was a 'hole' in my pocket which would never be ... filled.

The "voucher" scheme, which allowed the not-so-well-off fringe dwellers to get treatment up to a cap, sorry, of about $500 a few years ago, had been "Jeff-ed" in our state by Kennett, keen to upgrade a grand prix track in Melbourne.

It has never been re-instated.

A couple of years ago...I paid more than $1000 for a root canal (this time I asked and got a payment extension).

But suppose I had not got the extension?

Out with the pliers I guess (the waiting list in our district for public dental treatment is more than 3 years),

I recall Jenny Brockie,the caring host of SBS' Insight programme, being absolutely shocked when a couple of old-aged pensioners pulled out pliers from their pockets,showed them to the camera, and demonstrated to Brockie & the aghast studio audience how they had pulled out their rotting teeth because of the over-flowing public dental waiting lists.

And we live in a First World country.

But Team Rudd has not surprisingly 'side-lined' its "Denticare" proposal.

I don't think it is even being discussed in one of Kev's famous parliamentary committees.

So I suggest: Bring back the "voucher" scheme - until the Government comes up with a workable public dental programme.

It will cut back to some extent the ridiculously over-stretched waiting lists.

But,my gut feeling is that the uncomplaining disadvantaged will continue to suffer - well,not quite in silence. A toothache hurts like hell.

Forget social welfare bodies like ACOSS who only make noises around Budget time - and the crusading and well-paid author Tim Costello...who doesn't take up the cudgels for the really Good Fight - but comes over well on TV.

Quotable Tim fills a hole,sorry again, on a slow news day.

I guess,as Father Dave, notes-there's more wailing and gnashing of teeth over the death of Michael Jackson than thousands of folk waiting to get their teeth fixed.

Something "rotten" in our State?

Keith asks the Big Question!

My depression really kicked in recently (although thankfully I wasn't suicidal) and for a while there I almost lost my faith altogether. It's very annoying as although you can point to triggers there seems to be little relation to what's happening in my life and how I actually feel. My level of contentment seems to wax and wane of its own accord. It's particularly distressing as for a while there I almost completely lost my pastoral heart which is one of my chief gifts.

Theologically, my complaints centred on God's and particularly the Holy Spirit's seeming powerlessness: First of all in my own life - I seem to be at the mercy of my brain chemistry - but also in the lives of so many Christians who seem content to hold political views and pursue life styles that I think are so immature and antithetical to the Gospel.

My question is: If the Holy Spirit is there to lead us into all truth, then why the hell doesn't she?

Why are there so many Christians fixated in an adolescent Christianity that leads them to be so arrogant and judgemental? Why am I still so arrogant and judgemental? How can Peter Costello- happy to make the rich more comfortable and use racism as a political tool- and Tim Costello- living a sacrificial life and helping the most poor of the world and happy to have a hijab wearing Muslim girl volunteer in his Christian organisation- both claim to be active Christians???

They can't both be right. It perplexes and distresses me.

Stages of Faith?

Alfamax responds to Keith's post on Fowler's famous 'Stages of Faith' model, where different forms of faith are seen as reflecting different levels of maturity.

I can't help but think that maybe we should make up a stage theory about how psychologists come to make up theories of stage theory!

In many ways it's humans looking for a concrete and linear structure where none exists. Moments of spiritual transcendence can be experienced by anyone, at any age and at any time, which can be evidenced with the work of poets, musicians and in fact any person that expresses themselves through thought and ultimately their works.

Wise words on Global Sustainability from Jarey

Jarey's comments on the video 'Home' - a not-for-profilt film about the problem of global sustainability.

What a facinating video, a really grand tour of the earth and the people living on it. Much better than wasting an hour and a half watching the usual drivel on TV. Makes you wonder how much time and effort went into the production of it.

But... As beautiful and interesting as the photography is it paints a pretty dismal picture of the future of the earth. It would seem that it is already too late to fix the problem and that the only apparent solution is the elimination of mankind and it's insatiable need for an ever diminishing supply of food and energy. If that somehow happened the earth would eventually replenish itself, or not.

There is speculation that the 'global elite' desires a reduction in the world's population to about 800 million, rather than the current 6 billion, through war, famine, genocide, or whatever it takes. They, of course, would be the recipients of this new sustainable paradise.

We can only believe that God has it all under control, otherwise there is no hope.

Capitalism and its effect on the development of gym equipment

Alfamax offers some left-of-field thoughts on whether communism actually had a positive effect on the development of gym routines and equipment in Easter bloc countries.

It fairly widely known by anyone who's been around in the gym for a while that the Russians pretty much made most of the important discoveries in the area of strength training. They then went onto to refine their methods and dominated the Olympics throughout the mid and latter part of the 20th century, all this while living under communism.

Conversely the west, living under capitalism, made popular the modern gym’s which have been filled with machines that largely offer little in the way of effective functional resistance training - that is equipping the body to perform a particular movement as opposed to merely concerning themselves with aesthetic appeal.

This is one example and I'm not saying communism is a wonderful thing, but my question is this: Has capitalism created a situation where things are predominantly done for financial gain by, in this case, withholding valuable information about truly effective training methods and concepts to the general public in the hopes of selling them a gym membership?

Alfamax questions how future generations will pay for our current government's 'economic stimulus' handouts

I wonder where the money will come from in time. What worked in the 20th century won't work into the future. 

I see two forces at work here, namely;

• An ageing population 
  
• Fertility rates are falling 
  

Brink Lindsey explains... 

The inevitable Ponzi endgame is now obvious in the rich countries of the industrialized world. In the United States, for example, average life expectancy at birth was only 61.7 years in 1935 when Social Security was established -- lower than the original minimum retirement age. Today, U.S. life expectancy stands at 76.5 years, and is expected to climb to around 80 over the next 20 years. For most other industrialized countries, current and projected life expectancies are even higher. Meanwhile, fertility has dropped sharply. With the single exception of Ireland, birth rates in all the advanced countries are now below the replacement rate of 2.1 children per woman. In Japan, the fertility rate is only 1.68; in Austria, 1.45; in Italy, a mere 1.33. Continued declines in fertility are expected. 

The upshot of these demographic trends is a steady erosion in the funding base for social insurance benefits. In 1950, there were 16 workers in the United States for every retiree; today the ratio is only 3 to 1, and in 20 years it will have fallen to 2 to 1. Elsewhere the outlook is even bleaker: By 2020, worker-to-retiree ratios are expected to fall to 1.8 in France and Germany, and 1.4 in Italy and Japan 
Source 

So the point here is that if the governments are struggling to pay pensions then everything else is in big danger. 

Small companies like Fighting Fathers have a socialist ethos and provide a service to the public, often to those who are marginalised. 

The companies that should be let go are those that serve no useful purpose. The car, rightly done away with the blacksmith and horse shoe. Those who would have been blacksmith’s probably work as bankers or car mechanics. The world moves on. 

If they ever make it so cars don't need tyres, I won't lose too much sleep over the tyre manufacturing industry going bust overnight or the fact that I have to shell out $700 for new rubber for the commodore. 

Words of Wisdom from Father Ted

Ted responds to the suggestion that, in England, the 'charismatics' are 'the good guys'.

A Very Poor Assessment! The good guys are in every kind of churchmanship over here, such as the lovely lady who leads the parishes I looked after in the Welsh/English Borderlands. The Anglican tradition isn't really, I suspect, about churchmanships. Much rather it is about serving those around us as best we can whether as laity or with the special charismata of ordained ministry.

It is a sad thing that observing Anglican charismatics over the last thirty years or so, it seems to me that most of them are people high on their own adrenalin and confusing that experience with the effect of the Holy Spirit who is the only source of charismatic experience (by definition, I believe). They seem to be more "wonder-workers" than anything else. Alas in many cases failing to work any wonders other than in the emotions of anyone present susceptible to such things. The understanding of charismatic life by the Pentecostals and by the Orthodox Churches is rather different, but perhaps more accurate.

Sorry to be so cool about the matter, but the whole problem lies in the egocentricity which can be engendered in the old-fashioned Anglican tradition of every incumbent being "a pope in his own parish."

The Happy side of things is that behind all the attractions - charismatic phenomena (bending over backwards so that the minister can push you over more easily to become yet another "slain in the spirit"), management policies and jargon, "New Church" initiatives, appalling hymns and droning worship songs (every age has had them) - the vast majority of clergy get on with the job of shepherding their flocks.

Stephen on Algae and the Energy Crisis

Single-celled algae can grow very rapidly in low quality water, producing biomass at 10 to 30 times the rate of terrestrial plants. They can do this mainly because the cells are immersed in a medium providing all their needs, including physical support, and so the cells have no need to build infrastructure to move materials and to support themselves.

A pond 60km by 60km (less than 500,000ha) well stocked with a vigorous microalga would go close to producing sufficient biomass to meet most of Australia's liquid fuel needs.

Furthermore, algae have remarkable biochemical abilities: some strains produce oils that could be used unmodified in diesel engines.

Indeed, there is good evidence that many of the world's vast reserves of fossil liquid fuels are the products of ancient algal activity.

The demands of algae are simple: sunlight, warmth, water, nutrients and, most significantly, carbon dioxide, the much maligned gas that is a major contributor to global warming.

Australia has more sunshine and warmth than any other developed country, and seawater is common, thanks to our extended coastline. Augmentation of seawater with waste water from sewage treatment plants could completely satisfy algal nutrient demands and would have the side benefit of treating the wastewater.

Significantly, carbon dioxide can be delivered to the algal cells either direct from the atmosphere or in a concentrated form from cement factories and electricity stations.

The algae can also be engineered to convert waste carbon dioxide to produce valuable products, such as liquid fuels.

Consequently, this process has much greater economic potential to be an economic option than, for example, carbon capture and storage, which, other than the carbon credits, produces no useful product. In addition to the production of liquid fuels, the algae can be used in other ways: there is potential for the cells to be pyrolysed to char for burial, which effectively removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, or they could be used as animal food.

Jarey recommends that Mushrooms May Hold Key to Energy Crisis!

Forget Corn: Mushrooms May Hold Key to Energy Crisis!

As unlikely as it may sound, a solution to the world's energy problems may lie in a Chinese mushroom. A Danish company's scientists in China, Brazil, Denmark and the U.S. are testing mushrooms and lichen to find one that will turn corn cobs and sugarcane stalks into biofuel. Earlier this year, record-high prices for corn and wheat undermined government support for biofuel, which depends on subsidies, and caused shares of enzyme makers to drop.

The U.S. has diverted a large portion of it's annual corn crop to the manufacture of bio-fuel. An affordable alternative to gasoline made from plant waste would end concerns that global hunger for energy is driving up food prices worldwide, resulting in a great deal of hunger for those living on the economic fringes, as well as rising food store prices for everyone.

Fungi like mushrooms and lichen make enzymes to eat rotting logs and decaying leaves. Biofuel producers use the proteins to break down the complex carbohydrates in plant cells into a soup-like mixture of simple sugars that yeast can eat. In a process much like making beer, yeast ferments the mixture, producing ethanol. Enzymes now on the market can't break down the tougher parts of plants effectively enough to be affordable.

The search for enzymes is daunting because of the sheer number of fungi. Researchers have amassed 480,264 different kinds and say as many as 1.5 million species may exist. Each specializes in feeding at specific points in the cycle of decay, and can have anywhere from two to 100 different enzymes. Some fungi grow worldwide, while factors such as temperature, soil type and altitude limit others.

The foregoing information was edited from a Bloomberg.com article.

And some of the mushrooms are really quite beautiful as well! For example look at this one!