Notes: Wednesday, August 1-Tuesday, August 14, 2012

1. "the introduction of no-fault divorce, child support payments, anti-discrimination laws, government funding for childcare and a paid parental leave system": Another summary of the victories of Feminism

The quotation in that headline comes from "'Gender tax' a grim reality - Summers", from The Sydney Morning Herald's website, by Stephanie Peatling, dated July 29, 2012:

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/gender-tax-a-grim-reality--summers-20120728-232te.html

Labels: feminism

2. "New data from last year's census shows that women aged 40-44 years in 2011 were nearing the end of their reproductive years with 1.99 children each", which "makes them the first cohort of women to reach this age group with fewer than two children on average"

The quotation in that headline comes from "Second child one too many for career mums, census figures show", from The Australian's website, by Patricia Karvelas, dated June 30, 2012:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/two-kids-proves-too-many-for-career-mums-census-figures-show/story-fn59niix-1226412748535

(That article came to my attention via the version of it which was published as "Second child one too many for career mums", by the same author, pp. 1 and 7, The Weekend Australian, June 30-July 1, 2012, Second Edition, No. 14849, ISSN 1038-8761, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited.)

Labels: demography, families, social trends

3. "I[, Christine Forster,] want you to know I'm a small 'l' liberal and a big 'L' Lesbian"

The quotation in that headline comes from "Ready, steady, creditors", from The Sydney Morning Herald's website, by Margot Saville, dated July 28, 2012:

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/private-sydney/ready-steady-creditors-20120727-23049.html?skin=text-only

(That article came to my attention via the version of it which was published as "A Moore or less worthy line-up", by Margot Saville, the "PS PRIVATE SYDNEY" section of p. 22, The Sydney Morning Herald, Weekend Edition, July 28-29, 2012, No. 54542, ISSN 0312-6315.)

Labels: Christine Forster, G.L.B.T.

4. The findings of some research into tiredness among mothers up to eighteen months after giving birth

"Physical Health and Recovery in the First 18 Months Postpartum: Does Cesarean Section Reduce Long-Term Morbidity?", by Dr. Hannah Woolhouse et al., in the journal Birth, DOI: 10.1111/j.1523-536X.2012.00551.x; the article was first published on-line on July 3, 2012, and some information on it is available here:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1523-536X.2012.00551.x/abstract

See also "New mums struggle with exhaustion for months", from the Sydney Daily Telegraph's website, by Susie O'Brien, dated July 31, 2012:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/new-mums-struggle-with-exhaustion-for-months/story-fndo2dsc-1226438890073

(which came to my attention via the version of it which was published as "DREAMING OF SLEEP", no by-line, p. 03, the Sydney Daily Telegraph, Tuesday, July 31, 2012, Vol. 1, No. 2606, ISSN 1038-8745, published by Nationwide News Pty. Ltd.) and also the press release "One in five new mothers experiencing exhaustion", from the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute website, dated July 31, 2012:

http://www.mcri.edu.au/news/2012/july/one-in-five-new-mothers-experiencing-exhaustion.aspx

Labels: economics, families

5. Mr. Palmer is "[a] practising Catholic who says he attends Mass weekly"

The quotation in that headline comes from "Thoughts of Chairman Clive", from The Sydney Morning Herald's website, by Deborah Snow, dated August 4, 2012:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/thoughts-of-chairman-clive-20120803-23ks6.html?skin=text-only

(That article came to my attention via the version of it which was published as "LUNCH WITH CLIVE PALMER", "Thoughts of Chairman Clive", by the same author, p. 5 of the "News Review" supplement in The Sydney Morning Herald, Weekend Edition, August 4-5, 2012, No. 54547, ISSN 0312-6315.)

Labels: Clive Palmer

6. "It is the first time that a prime-time Aussie drama[, viz. House Husbands,] has featured a gay couple raising a child."

The quotation in that headline comes from "Grantley brings down house in new role", from the Sydney Daily Telegraph's website, by Siobhan Duck, dated August 6, 2012:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/tv/grantley-brings-down-house-in-new-role/story-e6frexlr-1226443410397

(That article came to my attention via the version of it which was published as "Gyton's new role is a gay change of pace", by the same author, p. 10, the Sydney Daily Telegraph, Monday, August 6, 2012, Vol. 1, No. 2611, ISSN 1038-8745, published by Nationwide News Pty. Ltd.)

Labels: G.L.B.T., House Husbands, social trends

7. Some points of interest from "Call for free abortions as needy women priced out of procedure", from The Sydney Morning Herald's website, by Adele Horin, dated August 6, 2012:

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/call-for-free-abortions-as-needy-women-priced-out-of-procedure-20120805-23o1u.html?skin=text-only

• Women receive a Medicare rebate for terminations but out-of-pocket costs are high for many.

• Marie Stopes International (Australia), the local arm of a worldwide, not-for-profit women's health service, runs 15 clinics, including five in NSW.

• For women on Centrelink benefits with a healthcare card, the out-of-pocket cost of a surgical abortion starts at about $340 under 12 weeks' pregnancy and rises with each week to about $610 at 14 weeks and $1365 at 19 weeks.

• A $30,000 fund from the Bessie Smyth Foundation was used for several years to subsidise abortions for poor women and to provide advice and referrals. But the funds, derived from the sale of an abortion clinic, ran out at the end of 2007. Attempts to secure government assistance failed.

• Ms[ Margaret] Kirkby[, "spokeswoman for the Women's Abortion Action Campaign",] said NSW was the only big state to lack a government-funded information and referral service, similar to Queensland's Children by Choice.

Labels: abortion

8. Mr. Muehlenberg on the aims of Gay and Lesbian activists

"When the Activists Spill the Beans", by Bill Muehlenberg, dated August 1, 2012:

http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2012/08/01/when-the-activists-spill-the-beans/

Labels: education, G.L.B.T., marriage

9. A. N. "Wilson is among those to see in Hitler the triumph of enlightenment or scientific rationalism; the enlightenment's tool of abstraction is fundamentally dehumanising and what Wilson describes as the "reverence for the starry heavens above us and the moral law within" do not register with it. Wilson is also right when he explains Hitler as a thoroughgoing creature of modernity from his appropriation of technology to his anti-clericalism."

The quotation in that headline comes from "Accidental dictator of Wagnerian scale", from The Australian's website, by Baron Alder reviewing A. N. Wilson's Hitler: A Short Biography, dated August 11, 2012:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/accidental-dictator-of-wagnerian-scale/story-fn9n8gph-1226446807405

(That review came to my attention via the version of it which was published under the same headline and by the same author, pp. 24-25, the "review" supplement of The Weekend Australian, August 11-12, 2012, Second Edition, No. 14883, ISSN 1038-8761, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited.)

Labels: Adolf Hitler

10. More on a new initiative for propagating the Darwinist worldview

Following are some points of interest from "Thinking big", from The Australian's website, by Bernard Lane, dated August 11, 2012:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/thinking-big/story-e6frg8h6-1226444008323

(That article came to my attention via the version of it which was published under the same headline and by the same author on pp. 20-23 of The Weekend Australian Magazine, inserted in The Weekend Australian, August 11-12, 2012, Second Edition, No. 14883, ISSN 1038-8761, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited.)

• This is Big History, a bold attempt to create the first universal syllabus of history, able to be taught anywhere in any language. It starts with the Big Bang and compresses 13.7 billion years into a one-year course. Kids encounter space dust before humans, and Homo sapiens before the warring tribes of French, Germans or Australians. Its mission is to try to explain the remarkable success, and looming problems, of the human race. To do this, the course zooms in for "Goldilocks" moments, when conditions are just right for, say, farmers to edge out hunter-gatherers or for the scientific revolution to make things awkward for the Church. Big History is a storyteller's pitch to the imagination of kids otherwise turned off by school. It's an attempt to surprise them into critical thinking as they piece together fields of knowledge typically disjointed across the curriculum.

• "The response of many historians and anthropologists has been to think that the big picture itself is toxic," [Prof. David ]Christian[, Big History's author,] says. "That's completely wrong; we desperately need the grand narrative." If classrooms serve up only fragmented pieces of the story, he says, students will look elsewhere. "Why is creationism alive and well in the States? Smart students want the big picture, they go to their church and someone is offering the big picture. It's a big mistake for people in the sciences and humanities not to look for what unifies modern knowledge."

• On his blog, [Bill ]Gates turned evangelist: "My favourite course of all time is called Big History, taught by David Christian. Big History literally tells the story of the universe, from the very beginning to the complex societies we have today. It shows how everything is connected to everything else. It weaves together insights and evidence from so many disciplines into a single, understandable story

• Gates sought out Christian, who happened to be teaching in the US and was on the point of returning to Macquarie. It was a meeting of like minds, at the end of which Gates declared that Big History really ought to be taught in school. "I'd thought that for years," Christian says. The historian and the businessman-turned-philanthropist joined forces in the Big History project, which is run out of a small office in Seattle, Washington. They hope to have the first universal history syllabus available free online towards the end of next year.

• Today it's origin stories or creation myths, those grand, improbable narratives spun by peoples to explain how their civilisations came to be. "It gives you a broader perspective, and makes you realise one person's perspective isn't everything," says [one of the pupils taking the course].

• In creationist circles, his course may seem, well, unChristian. The project website highlights the conflict even as it seeks to defuse it: "Big History takes up the same profound questions that many religions wrestle with - how the universe, Earth and humanity came to be. The course offers explanations for these questions based on scientific evidence, which we consider important for all students to understand independent of their religious views." So far, the project says creationism hasn't been an obstacle.

• [Big History] got approval in NSW as a philosophy course, a story in itself and one to do with curriculum politics. The traditional subjects may stay but [Bernie ]Howitt's hunch is that Big History kids will approach them differently, with a sharper eye for evidence. "We were doing origin stories and one of the girls - she's a B-stream kid - asked me, 'How can people believe in religion if you're using all this evidence?' I said, 'That's the idea of faith.' I can't see what's going on in their heads but for her to ask that question shows me that the idea of thinking critically is starting to permeate."

See also item 6 of this Notes post.

Labels: David Christian, education, evolution, history, secularism

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Vigil of the Assumption of Our Lady, and the feast of St. Eusebius, Confessor, A.D. 2012