This will hurt me...

Friars Rock. Bruny Island, Tasmania. September 2013. Okay, an announcement. I've got 4,420 posts on this here blog. Posts have been pretty consistent since the end of 2007. But I'm bored. It's become a bit of a chore and the Internet has changed. So this is changing. I'll keep up the book reviews. Probably the Q and As. Maybe the weblinks (if I can be bothered). Otherwise it will be a bit more sporadic. All is not lost though, you can still Track my books on Goodreads . See my photos on Flickr . Watch my videos on YouTube . Link in on LinkedIn . Check out my pinboards on Pinterest . Tweet me on Twitter . Check the blog too, you never know when I might desire to share a poem or a Drabble...

The beer is nourishing. This one is drinking. This one does not drink. Have you got that ladies? If you hit the grog while breastfeeding, you'll have a contented and thriving baby, an abundance of milk, a plump and bonny baby, a fulsome bust and a healthy head of hair. However, if you choose to eschew a few flower vases of the amber liquid each day, you will surely develop a stoop, your breasts will sag, your hair will become lank and greasy, and you shall be guaranteed to have a sickly, miserable little Konstantin Chernenko-doppelgänger wailing at your increasing grotesque tit all the time. If this happens, you can be guaranteed that you will not be keeping your husband for much longer either! You've been warned.

Another ad from those pesky Chinese Communists. This time though, I want you to guess or deduce what this little girl is endeavoring to get the Chinese proletariat to do (or not do, as the case may be). So have a look, have a think, and then highlight over the lines below to see the answer. Please do not spit freely. Spitting freely is neither hygienic nor civilized. How did you do? You're welcome to tell me in the comments if you got it right (or spectacularly wrong).

The copy reads: Foster a correct spirit, resist the evil spirit, resist corruption, and never get involved with it. Say what you like, but modern-day ad execs have nothing on Chinese Communists when it comes to snappy slogans!

Did you get that? If you go without the caviar, yachts, diamond-studded rabbit feet and organic imported civit poo coffee for a few days; a poo old deceased third world child will rise from the dead . Or something.

Are YOU a woman? Do YOU wear a hat? Is YOUR hat tight? WARNING!!! WARNING!!! WARNING!!! Did YOU know that 'physicians' say that tight hats are [probably] responsible for all those bald men that you see? Think of THAT next time you find yourself strolling past the department store and have your fancy tickled by some snug-fitting feathery fascinator!

Does this mean that we should eat more semi-subsistence farmers too?

A couple of weeks back I arrive at work, and who should I find waiting for me, patiently and orderly in rows just across the road from the front door? The Royal Australian Navy , that's who! The HMAS Darwin is a long-range escort frigate [snigger snigger] that seems to be a jack of all trades vessel: area air defence, anti-submarine warfare, surveillance, reconnaissance and interdiction. In a potentially sexy turn of phrase, the ship is capable of countering simultaneous threats from the air, surface and sub-surface . Quite. The Navy refused to confirm or deny that the frigate [snigger snigger] was in town to prevent a flock of Mexican flying pigs from entering Tasmanian airspace and spreading the dreaded La temido gripe de cerdo Mexicana ! On that, actually, canny Swede Professor Hans Rosling has released a video well worth watching. Rosling has calculated the ratio of news article coverage versus actual deaths in the context of the recent La temido gripe de cerdo Mexicana ou...

Madame Curie and her radiation, Newton and his apples, Einstein and his zany hair, Hawking and that voice thing, Fermi and his particles, Maxwell and his electric fields, Salk and his vaccines, on and on it goes. What is the one thing that they had in common? A fondness for the gaspers , that’s what! Do people really believe that the confluence of the scientific revolution and the arrival of tobacco in Europe is a mere coincidence? Nothing says science than late nights, pizza, loud music and a smoke filled room. Look at this dude here in today’s ad, he’s like Bill Wyman strumming away on his bass with a ciggie in hand. Just like Bill wouldn't be able to strum out that funky and sleazy opening salvo of Miss You (let alone his sleazy come-ons to underage girls) without a handy Peter Stuyvesant , the Chesterfield that you see above is perfectly weighted to maximise the fiddling of the dial on the microscope you see. That’s where they went wrong in ye olden days (that and their at...

And here I was this whole time thinking that tequila was the medicine for regret!

Occasionally this job throws up a few interesting studies my way, and I thought that I’d share one with you. I’m preparing a document for a hearing on a liquor licensing application, and was trawling the literature looking for information on the correlation between outlet density and community outcomes (negative and positive). So the case study that I’ve been looking at involves Rodney King, angry youths and a burning sensation that one might feel downstairs after a top night out. I know what you are thinking, “what are you talking about, you stupid, stupid man?” Well, after the 1992 riots in Los Angeles that emerged from the verdict in the trial of the police officers charged with assaulting Rodney King, it was found that many liquor stores were looted and burned out. In fact, liquor outlets tended to be specifically targeted, and copped over and above the average when it came to rough treatment. For many local community groups this presented an opportunity to achieve something that ...

I’ve banged on about immunisation in the past , so I will refrain from doing so at length again. But I want to post this link from the Stats Blog (also featured previously ), which is about identifying and correcting scientific misinformation in the media resulting from bad science, politics, or a simple lack of information or knowledge. It disturbs me that the sort of simplistic thinking of many anti-vaccination campaigners has such carriage with a lot of people, especially when it threatens the health and wellbeing of kids. So I’m always about promoting evidence that undermines their cause. So if you’re at all interested, have a look at this quick read (with citations) about a number of measles outbreaks in the US among unvaccinated kids. The numbers of deaths pre-vaccination alone are telling, and well worth reminding people of when they resort to anecdote instead of hard evidence. NOTE TO SELF: Remember to include the link ! LATE LATE NOTE TO SELF [and the world], this is post num...

As an unapologetic man of science, I am (of course), an enthusiast of immunisation. Whatever the standpoint that I try to attack it from – historian, scientist, logician, economist, philosopher, parent or just plain old gambler working the odds off the pure metrics that we have – I can come to no other conclusion that immunisation has been a boon to human society. As it is my blog, I can assert this with total and utter unyielding authority. In this manner then, I always find that the best World Health Organisation campaigns are those that are blunt and to the point. Thus, I really, really like this immunisation campaign poster from 1975. I apologise for the poor quality of the image, but the pictures should be clear. Here we see two new mothers, one trusts the health worker and chooses to immunise her child. The second is not so sure and chooses to not do so. Of course, baby number one now has a glowing protective halo, and baby number two does not. When disease strikes (as it inevit...

No, I am not going to use one of those horrid icons that you used to see on every second web page in the mid-1990s. However, some of you may have noticed that I have been messing around with the format of the blog this morning. I expect to have a far niftier header up and running this evening, so consider this one a temporary one until I can get my hands on some better software.

Today’s ad is another one that all of you ladies out there should readily identify with. Ask yourself, do you ever feel flat ? Tired ? Worn-out ? Are you ever so exhausted that not even an invite to The Smiths can pep you up (Morrissey must have forgiven Mike Joyce if they’re gigging again!)? Did you used to be a lot of fun, but now your friends think that you are kind of a drag to be around? Are things not right at home? Are you turning into a peevish old woman ? This ad raises an important and timely issue, one that sadly even affects my own household. Despite my distinguished record as a husband and Jen's generally solid marks on the Crane marital scale , my wife always complains that she is tired. She thinks that maybe it is something to do with looking after a lively and demanding toddler all day long while being 28 weeks pregnant, but I am not so sure. That just seems too complex a reason. I have been wracking my brains looking for an answer and - to be frank with you dear ...