A.E.Brain

Rfc 1149 - CPIP - A Practical Implementation

2009-11-23T21:56:00.006+11:00

From the BBC :

A Durban IT company pitted an 11-month-old bird armed with a 4GB memory stick against the ADSL service from the country's biggest web firm, Telkom.

Winston the pigeon took two hours to carry the data 60 miles - in the same time the ADSL had sent 4% of the data.

Telkom said it was not responsible for the firm's slow internet speeds.

The idea for the race came when a member of staff at Unlimited IT complained about the speed of data transmission on ADSL.

He said it would be faster by carrier pigeon.

It was on April 1st 1990, that rfc 1149 was written. This rfc specifies a protocol for IP over avian carriers, CPIP (carrier pigeon internet protocol).

Earlier implementations on UNIX showed relatively poor performance :
Script started on Sat Apr 28 11:24:09 2001 vegard@gyversalen:~$ /sbin/ifconfig tun0 tun0 Link encap:Point-to-Point Protocol inet addr:10.0.3.2 P-t-P:10.0.3.1 Mask:255.255.255.255 UP POINTOPOINT RUNNING NOARP MULTICAST MTU:150 Metric:1 RX packets:1 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 RX bytes:88 (88.0 b) TX bytes:168 (168.0 b) vegard@gyversalen:~$ ping -i 900 10.0.3.1 PING 10.0.3.1 (10.0.3.1): 56 data bytes 64 bytes from 10.0.3.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=6165731.1 ms 64 bytes from 10.0.3.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=255 time=3211900.8 ms 64 bytes from 10.0.3.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=5124922.8 ms 64 bytes from 10.0.3.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=6388671.9 ms --- 10.0.3.1 ping statistics --- 9 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 55% packet loss round-trip min/avg/max = 3211900.8/5222806.6/6388671.9 ms vegard@gyversalen:~$ exit Script done on Sat Apr 28 14:14:28 2001

For routine, regular data transmission of large files between two fixed points no more than 100km apart, bursts of data via carrier pigeon (or more conventionally, motorcycle courier) remain competitive with optical fibre. They make use of existing infrastructure rather than requiring massive investment.

It would be interesting to see where the crossover point occurs in various countries and circumstances: the smaller the files, the longer the distances, and the larger the list of addressees, the less advantage physical data transfer accrues.

Two Bacteria Walk into a Bar....

2009-11-22T18:08:00.000+11:00

And other groanworthy Science jokes.

TDOR

2009-11-20T16:44:00.000+11:00

The Line

2009-11-18T23:11:00.004+11:00

Click to enlarge this story of two young women.

From subnormality.

I've been told in various comments on my blog that I feel a sense of responsibility about matters of injustice. That I always did. I suppose that's true. But it all comes down to this : Which side are you on?

And I'm not facing the guillotine.

Coming soon to an economy near you

2009-11-17T23:46:00.000+11:00

From CBS News:

It's another record-high for the U.S. National Debt which today topped the $12-trillion mark. Divided evenly among the U.S. population, it amounts to $38,974.34 for every man, woman and child.

Technically, the debt hit the new high yesterday, but it was posted on the Treasury Department website just after 3:00 p.m. ET today. The exact calculation of the debt is a 16-digit tongue-twister and red-ink tsunami: $12,031,299,186,290.07

This latest milestone in the ever-rising journey of the National Debt comes less than eight months after it hit $11 trillion for the first time. The latest high-point is not unexpected, considering the federal deficit for the just-ended 2009 fiscal year hit an all-time high at $1.42-trillion – more than triple the previous year's record high.

A Lunar Rainbow

2009-11-16T19:07:00.003+11:00

First, about Project "M" :

Project M is a JSC Engineering Directorate led mission to put a lander on the moon with a robot within a 1,000 days starting Jan 1., 2010.
...
When will Project M begin? Next month? Next year? No, Project M has been “go” since Monday, November 9th.

Why? From Air & Space Smithsonian

Five weeks ago a crater from the LCROSS impact formed on the Moon. The pre-impact build-up had been sensational, but the actual event was largely invisible to observers on Earth. It was a different story on the Moon. The slowly growing impact ejecta curtain threw water ice particles and vapor far out into space. When the crater formed, flying ice particles could have refracted the glare of unfiltered sunlight into an “ice rainbow,” similar to those seen through very high altitude clouds on Earth. For a very brief time, a rainbow might have been visible to an observer standing on the lunar surface. And like its namesake, this rainbow is a promise – a promise that the Moon is habitable. It is an invitation to humanity to extend man’s domain to our nearest planetary neighbor.

The LCROSS science team’s initial analysis of ejected impact plume data found evidence for water. It appears that several other species, particularly some carbon substances also found in the cores of comets, may be present. The new results suggest that some lunar polar volatiles may have their origins from outside the Moon, deposited there over millions of years by the impact of comets and asteroids.

It means that apart from (possibly) a Gamma Burster, we as a species will survive. There is another place, apart from Earth, where we can live. It has the chemicals. It has the (solar) power. We can make subterranean habitats, and apart from any long-term physiological problems due to low gravity, we can live there, grow and expand. Even a low-gravity problem can be solved with centrifuges with slightly canted floors. Ones a kilometer in diameter wouldn't have to spin very fast, and could be built as large underground railways with carriages the size of large rooms on tilted tracks, moving at a constant speed.

(Hmmmm... I wonder if that idea's worth a patent... haven't seen it in any SF literature....)

It means that a dinosaur-killer only has a few centuries at most to get us.

Third Time Unlucky?

2009-11-13T15:43:00.004+11:00

I live in Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT).

Twice now, the local legislature has enacted provisions that would parallel the "Civil Unions" or "Civil Partnerships" that are found in other countries, which are deemed an acceptable alternative to marriage when it comes to same-sex relationships, and marriage itself is forbidden.

Twice, the liberal (ie Right of Centre) Federal Government has stepped in, disallowing such legislation. They can do that, because the ACT is a territory, not a state. It's about the only significant difference between the two concepts. Such intervention has only been used three times in Australia's history, all by the previous government. Once against the Northern Territory's legislation to legalise euthenasia under very strictly limited conditions, and twice against the ACT on this issue.

The Constitution gives power to the Federal Government over marriage law: that at least is consistent, even if the various states and territories differ when it comes to deciding what sex someone who is TS or IS is.

Now we have "hope and change", a Labor (ie Left of Centre) government. One with a strong rusted-in Irish Catholic Socialist faction.... and a Prime Minister who takes his Christian Beliefs very seriously, as he's said on multiple occasions.

From the Canberra Times :

Greens leader Bob Brown has vowed to lead the charge against any move by federal Labor to disallow the new civil union laws the ACT Legislative Assembly passed this week.

The ACT Government backed a Greens Bill which gave same-sex couples the right to legally binding ceremonies under the civil union laws the ACT Labor Government introduced last year.

However, the new laws are likely to be disallowed by the Federal Government, which believes such provisions ''undermine and mimic'' marriage between a man and woman. Senator Brown, who is openly gay, said yesterday he would ''find it incredible if Kevin Rudd simply rubber-stamped John Howard on this issue''.
...
''He [Mr Rudd] would genuinely need to inform his Labor representatives in the Senate ahead of time because they will cop it, and I certainly will lead a Senate disallowance motion if it comes to that.'' Senator Brown said it was unreasonable for territory laws to be subject to federal interference.

The ACT Government and Greens believe the legislation passed in the Assembly on Wednesday is consistent with the Commonwealth's constitutional right to legislate exclusively with respect to marriage. Just to be sure, the amendments included a provision that excluded from civil union ceremonies any couple that ''may marry under the Marriage Act''. However, this provision has angered one same-sex marriage lobby group, Equal Love, which argues it could also exclude transgender people.

Equal Love's Canberra spokesman John Kloprogge said, ''Our concern there was that it was unnecessary and exclusionary and would prohibit heterosexual couples and transgender and intersex couples from having access to official ceremonies. ''The ACT Government has taken the wrong policy approach by putting forward a flawed Bill just to appease the Federal Government.''

Greens MLA Shane Rattenbury, who introduced the Bill, said his advice was that transgender persons would not be excluded by his legislation unless they had legally changed their sex, as this would entitle them to enter into a marriage under the Marriage Act.

I'm still married: but it's a really good question as to whether I've changed my legal sex. From the Federal viewpoint, I have - the cardinal document is my immigration record. At the Territory level though, they go by the Birth Certificate. And as my UK BC is unchangeable because technically I'm Intersexed rather than Trans... I haven't.

So it looks like there's a possibility that, had I wished to dissolve my existing marriage, I could either get a same-sex Civil Partnership with a man under territory law, as I'm deemed male as far as the ACT is concerned, or get married to him under Federal Law, as to the Federal government, I'm female. The alternative is that I could get enter a "heterosexual" civil union with another woman, (it wouldn't be "same-sex" under ACT law as I'm male to them, remember) while being prohibited under Federal law from re-marrying the woman I'm married to currently if we divorce.

This illustrates once more the whole foetid absurdity of these legislative acrobatics, the loops, convolutions and exceptions, the lack of common-sense and basic humanity when it comes to institutionalising bigotry. Because stripped of all pretence and hypocrisy, that's what it is.

While claiming to "preserve the sanctity" of what I believe firmly is a genuinely sacred institution, the bigots make of it a mockery and a farce. Any argument that would otherwise be plausible about "preserving traditional concepts" of marriage, that it's a matter of respect for pure, simple religious belief is exploded by this whole nonsense. They just don't like gays, and don't like them so much, that annihilation of our basic human rights is acceptable. "Collateral damage" if they're charitable, a "Consummation devoutly to be wished" if they're not.

And incidentally, once again, Trans and Intersexed people get the shaft.

Xoie (pronounced Zoe)

2009-11-11T14:10:00.000+11:00

High Drama in the Mojave. From MSNBC :

The contest reached its climax on Friday, when Masten's Xoie rocket made its million-dollar flight. "The drama has just been unbelievable," Stuart Witt, general manager of the Mojave Air and Space Port, told me when it was over.

The rules for the Lunar Lander Challenge's Level 2 contest required rocketeers to guide their remote-controlled craft through a complete round trip between one launch pad and a different boulder-strewn pad more than 50 meters (164 feet) away. Each leg of the flight had to last at least 180 seconds, and the rocket had to rise at least 50 meters above the ground. All this had to be done before time ran out on a 135-minute period.

Friday's launch came after days of ups and downs: Communication glitches twice ruled out launch attempts on Wednesday, and a fire that broke out on the launch vehicle spoiled the Xoie rocket's maiden flight on Thursday. The blaze was quickly put out, but not quickly enough to avoid doing damage to Xoie. That damage meant Xoie couldn't get all the way through the required course.

On Thursday night, the Lunar Lander Challenge judges said they would let the Masten team make repairs to the rocket overnight and give them one more chance to fly. The team worked all night to get Xoie back in shape.
...
The program, one of NASA's Centennial Challenges, was aimed at encouraging the development of new rocket technologies that could potentially be used in future spacecraft. The kind of power required to win the contest would also be enough for a lunar landing and ascent. But the current contestants don't expect to provide NASA with honest-to-goodness lunar landers anytime soon. Rather, they see the prize as an extra incentive to build vehicles capable of taking up suborbital space tourists, or putting small payloads into orbit.
...
Scorpius' average landing accuracy on Sept. 12 was about 34 inches (86 centimeters). The unofficial figures for Xoie were around 11 inches (28 centimeters) for the first leg of the round trip, and 4 inches (10 centimeters) for the second. The resulting average of 7.5 inches (19 centimeters) was enough to move Xoie ahead of Scorpius.

So private enterprise has not one, but two capable proof-of-principle demonstrators for the technology for Lunar landing. And all for the cost to the US Taxpayer of less than $2 million.

While the significance of a "proof-of-principle" prototype should not be over-estimated, and costs of a production model (even for cargo) would be many hundreds of times greater... it's still a small fraction of what it would have taken NASA to achieve. A very small fraction.

It's beginning to look like the relatively simple problems in Rocket Science are best solved by this philosophy. Certainly it should be tried. Scaling it up to hard problems, like high-capacity boosters is another matter, but there's lots of such (relatively) easy problems as this one which will require solution for us to go into space - and stay there. And it looks like we can solve them for 1% of the money that we thought it would cost.

Priorities

2009-11-10T23:41:00.000+11:00

As reported in the New York Times about the events at Ford Hood, General Casey said:

"Our diversity, not only in our Army but in our country, is a strength....And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that's worse."

This "diversity" doesn't include Gay or lesbian soldiers of course. Far better to have someone with Islamofascist sympathies who might engage in a massacre than have loyal Americans in the US Army - if said loyal Americans are Gay.

From the AP some have a different view about diversity:

"The homosexual agenda is destroying this nation, OK, it's just a fact," (Oklahoma) Rep. Sally Kern said recently to a gathering of fellow Republicans outside the Capitol.

"Studies show no society that has totally embraced homosexuality has lasted, you know, more than a few decades. So it's the death knell in this country.

"I honestly think it's the biggest threat that our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam, which I think is a big threat," she said.

She's not alone.

(Colorado) Sen. Scott Renfroe, R-Greeley, went further, quoting Bible verses to argue that the state should not be condoning homosexual relationships. He called such relationships a sin, equal in some sense to murder and adultery, and noted one Bible passage says homosexuality is punishable by death.

And in Utah, Senator Chris Buttars said:

They’re mean! They want to talk about being nice — they’re the meanest buggers I ever seen. It’s just like the Moslems. Moslems are good people and their religion is anti-war. But it’s been taken over by the radical side. And the gays are totally taken over by the radical side.
...
And I believe that they’re, internally, they’re probably the greatest threat to America going down I know of.

Now you may believe that Homosexuality is a sin, based upon religious convictions. But to reject Gays from serving their country, while allowing Islamofascists to infiltrate because they're a lesser danger... seems to me to have your priorities askew.

Some for the Reference Library

2009-11-09T23:52:00.000+11:00

Some excellent Definitions, and a really cogent exposition of the "True Transsexual" philosophy, where there are only two sexes, and TS people are unfortunately born with the body of the opposite sex. I happen to think that this is a reasonable first approximation, but only that. I disagree on what some would consider minor details, and others, vital ones.

It is the view that I used to hold before my own transition, by the way. It's convenient and simple, captures most of the truth, and is generally useful. Generally. Just don't look too closely at the fine details.

Anyway, although I don't agree with this simplification, Purple Speaks is a very good blog to learn about the HBS movement. Written by someone sane, rational, polite and witty. e.g. This one, that brought a smile:

There are people who do not know the difference between the medical condition of True-Transsexualism and the choice and perversion of transgenderism. That includes those who are ignorant, practicing perversion, Wikipedia writers, and people with agendas

On to Transsexual Surgery, its Pros and Cons by Anne Lawrence. To say that Dr Lawrence is "controversial" is like saying the core of a supernova is moderately warm. I disagree with her views completely on Autogynephilia (AGP) theory, and believe she is trying to universalise her own personal experience to everyone else. Views of her own experience that were the result of painfully honest introspection on her part. I also believe she's been most unfairly treated by many in the TS community, especially as regards allegations of personal misconduct which, after some investigation, I believe were the result of prejudice.

That doesn't stop me from believing that while she's excellent at data gathering, her conclusions are usually very iffy. But she has Integrity.

Anyway, it's about time I was a little less monocultural myself. If my opinions are valid, they can do with a bit of challenging.

Intersex Solidarity Day

2009-11-08T21:29:00.000+11:00

From Intersex News:

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Intersex Solidarity Day - November 8

Herculine Barbin’s Birthday

The Organisation Intersex International would like to invite others to join us each year by commemorating November 8 as Intersex Solidarity Day. All human rights organizations, feminist allies, academics and gender specialists, as well as other groups and individuals interested in intersex human rights, are invited to show their solidarity by organizing workshops, lectures, discussions and other activities which deal with any or all of the following topics:

•the life of Herculine Barbin
•intersex normalisation treatments without consent
•the violence of the binary sex and gender system
•the sexism implicit within the binary construct of sex and gender

Please show your solidarity with the intersex community. Intersex rights are humans rights. Also, please sign our petition:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/solidarity-with-the-intersex-community.html

Identity Kit

2009-11-06T17:30:00.004+11:00

What is Identity? If an axe had had several new handles, and one or two new heads, but there was always continuity, is it still the same axe?

Consider the painting, the Mona Lisa. Is a photograph of it the same as the thing itself? How about an exact and indistinguishable copy in the pigments of the time, brushstroke for brushstroke? Since the thing itself is not at Absolute Zero in a bose-einstein condensate, the arrangement of the individual atoms and molecules of the Mona Lisa now and the Mona Lisa now would differ over the time interval between your reading of the two now's. Does that make them different entities?

Today's Battles

2009-11-05T23:55:00.002+11:00

Again, more like this week's.

At the Belfast Post, quite a piece of work by one Aaron Tinney:

Meet the TRANSSEXUAL rape counsellor who saw vulnerable victims while wearing HIGH HEELS, LEGGINGS and LIPSTICK. Burly Keira McCormack, 47 — who used to be a quantity surveyor known as Kevin — was employed at the Nexus Institute in Belfast from 2005 to May this year.

The CAPITALS!!! are his.

My comment didn't make it through moderation. Others did though. Almost universally condemning the article.

This is the most scurrilous and disgraceful piece of transphobic reporting I have read in a long while. It totally breaches the PCC Code of practice when referring to transsexual people.
...
Keira is actually an extremely good counsillor, and really helped me after my rape experience, her manner and approach were always very professional.
...
This is an awesomely bigoted piece of writing. Really, really staggering. Ill informed, prejudiced, prurient, insulting, really jaw dropping. What century are you living in? What planet are you livingon that you think it is OK to write with such ignorant hate?
You know nothing of the history of this person, their qualifications, their abilities, who they have helped, why they were employed. Your vile assumptions are truly breathtaking.

Such comments would have been the exception, rather than the norm, just a few years ago. We're making progress.

From 365gay:

With Lindsay Lohan and Ellen and Rosie it’s starting to feel like becoming a lesbian isn’t quite as weird and rare as it used to be. But for an entirely different part of the LGBT community, the struggle is still in its early stages.

When I started dating women, it was far less controversial and scary to come out. The older lesbians I meet share their war stories and the histories I read make it clear to me how difficult the process could be, but it wasn’t part of my experience. Not to say things are perfect, but younger gay women in large cities – especially on the east coast – have to admit, things are a lot easier.

But, my generation also has seen a new visibility for the transgendered community. And that process – gaining access to hormone treatments, deciding on surgery or more than one surgery, coming out to parents and friends, navigating relationships when genders change – is one that is still very controversial and scary.

And there sure aren’t a lot of role models out there.

That's at least partly because like Lynette Nusbacher, if they're in a high-profile Television job, narrating military history, should they transition then their services areb "no longer required".

From my comment, when some homophobic trans individual berated the GLB(t) cause for being distinctly unhelpful, in the main, to trans people:

I’m homophobic too, just not to the same extent. I had no connection with the GLBT community until I transitioned, and have had precious little since then. I’m straight, and cisgendered. Boringly binary and conventional in everything but my body.

Three differences from her view – the first is that while it’s unfortunate that neither my partner nor I are lesbian, she didn’t abandon me, nor I her. Neither of us are attracted to each other, nor other women, we’re both straight. But love each other just as much as the day we married. Otherwise I’m one of the right-wing “secondaries” she despises.

The second difference is that having been dragooned into a “GLBT” camp against my will, I consider this a blessing, despite my homophobia. I’ve met so many good, courageous people who I never would have met otherwise. Yes, there’s the transphobic gays and lesbians like Julie Bindel, but there’s just as much homophobia in trans circles too, as exemplified by MelissaG. Just as some gays get riled by people who assume they’re “breeders”, so she gets riled by people who assume she’s gay, when she’s a straight female. Given HRC’s betrayal of trans people last year over ENDA, I can’t blame her overmuch, despite disagreeing strongly. The fact is, that as seen in New Hampshire recently, where Trans people were denied the rights that gays have had for a decade on the same day that the senate approved gay marriage, we’re often expended to further a gay-only agenda. Traded off for the greater good.

The third difference is that I see my homophobia as a personal failing to be overcome, not embraced.

You know, my partner and I pretend to be a standard lesbian couple in public? We’re closeted in that regard. Think of what that implies when it comes to how trans people are treated.

Ironically, technically I’m not even trans, but intersexed. I used to look male. I now look female. But I’m a protandrous dichogamous pseudohermaphrodite, one of the few humans who get a “natural sex change”. Not that it’s complete in most cases, some degree of medical intervention is usually required to clean up the ambiguous mess that can result.

If you think that trans people are marginalised, othered, and rendered invisible, just see how IS people are treated

Talking about Julie Bindel, her article in Standpoint is a monument to vitriolic transophobia. Some higlights :

Last year, I was nominated for the Stonewall Journalist of the Year award. This seemed fair enough since I write prolifically about sexuality and sexual identity. But I guessed that Stonewall would not dare give me the prize, because a powerful lobby affiliated with the lesbian and gay communities had been hounding me for five years. Six weeks later I, along with a police escort, walked past a huge demonstration of transsexuals and their supporters, shouting "Bindel the Bigot". Despite campaigning against gender discrimination, rape, child abuse and domestic violence for 30 years, I have been labelled a bigot because of a column I wrote in 2004 that questioned whether a sex change would make someone a woman or simply a man without a penis. Subsequently, I was "no platformed" by the National Union of Students Women's Campaign, a privilege previously afforded to fascist groups such as the BNP.

Hmmm... I wonder why that could be?

As a leading feminist writer, I now find that a number of organisations are too frightened to ask me to speak at public events for fear of protests by transsexual lobbyists.

Oh I see, it's because we're such a powerful and violent group, everyone's afraid of us. Gotcha.

Transsexualism, by its nature, promotes the idea that it is "natural" for boys to play with guns and girls to play with Barbie dolls. The idea that gender roles are biologically determined rather than socially constructed is the antithesis of feminism.

I wrote: "Those who ‘transition' seem to become stereotypical in their appearance — f**k-me shoes and birds' nest hair for the boys; beards, muscles and tattoos for the girls. Think about a world inhabited just by transsexuals. It would look like the set of Grease."

Nothing denigrating there is there? That's just halfway in page 1 of a 5 page rant.

Recently, an 18-month-old baby in Denmark was diagnosed as suffering from GD.
...
A trans-sexual "woman" will always be a biological male.
...
There is a handful of radicals in the world today who have dared to challenge the diagnosis of transsexualism. Those who do are called "transphobic" and treated with staggering vitriol.

Just as there is a handful of radicals in the world today who have dared to challenge the "lie of the Holocaust". Those who do are called "anti-semitic" and treated with staggering vitriol. Because, you know, that's what they are.

I had some support, some from those who had also experienced a transsexual-led witchhunt. I heard from post-operative trans-sexuals who had been railroaded into surgery and now regretted it. "Do not publish my name," said one, "but if anyone questions the validity of sex-change treatment you are sent to Coventry by the ‘community' elders."

A police officer who, during the course of his duty, was unfairly accused by transsexuals of "transphobia" was driven to a breakdown by their vicious campaign. An eminent medical ethicist who had dared to defend a fellow professional who had questioned the diagnosis of GD from a scientific point of view almost lost his career and reputation. And several women from feminist organisations have been bullied and vilified for challenging the "right" of male-to-female transsexuals to work in women-only organisations.

No names of course. Just like the "18 month old baby diagnosed with GD".

In a world where equality between men and women was reality, transsexualism would not exist.
...
Sex-change surgery is unnecessary mutilation. Using human rights laws to normalise trans-sexualism has resulted in a backward step in the feminist campaign for gender equality.

*SIGH*

It's not only lesbian feminists with regular columns in national newspapers, and thus quite considerable powers that dislike icky trans people. Though I think she has to be the only one who's so paranoid about their power.

From politico:

The federal government would be banned from funding sex change operations and other services for transgender individuals if social conservative activists get their way.

There’s no sponsor yet for an amendment to the health care overhaul – and it may remain in the dustbin of unrealized wedge issues – but culture warriors are shopping the proposal to Republican senators.

The language is written: “None of the funds authorized or appropriated under this act (or an amendment made by this Act) shall be used to cover any part or portion of the costs of any health plan that includes coverage of” any sex or gender reassignment procedure, surgery related to such a sex change, hormone therapy for a sex change or pre- and post-operation treatments for a sex change.

A senior aide to a Republican senator said that a public insurance plan could easily end up covering sex-change procedures if that’s not specifically banned in the bill.

And that would be truly terrible, right? If someone gets complications from the surgery, and has a haemorrhage, then obviously they should be allowed to bleed out. Seves 'em right.

Fortunately, even here the comments are largely supportive of trans people. Larded with facts and education rather than appeals to emotion, too.

Finally, to the New York Times Magazine, and the article Gender Identity in Kids, which deals with the knotty issues of providing guidelines for children. "Where is the line between pushing your child and following his or her lead? Not just when it comes to gender, but to any preference in their life?"

Indeed.

My comment:

It doesn’t matter if you raise a child in the wrong gender. You can’t affect things significantly.

If they’re boys, they’ll know it. If they’re girls, they’ll know it. Sometimes at 3, usually by 7, always by 10 no matter what you do or how you treat them. Just let them mix with other kids, and it will be obvious to them which group they belong to.

And don’t be misled by play that doesn’t conform to traditional stereotypes. Yes, if a child likes to climb trees, play with toy guns etc then it’s very likely they will end up being attracted to girls. And if a child prefers playing with dolls and make-believe house, it’s likely they’ll end up being attracted to boys.

There’s no evidence that discouraging these play patterns, or forbidding them, has any effect. These things are set neurologically, before birth. What is important is not what the child is allowed or encouraged to do, but what comes naturally to them.

Usually, children with feminine bodies will end up being women. Some who are more than just Tomboys will end up being lesbian instead. And a few are actually boys who just look like girls, neurologically they’re male. Even if they were dressed in pink bunny suits when young, as Chaz Bono was.

This isn’t just trendy PC philosophising or ideology.

See seminar s10 at the APA’s annual meeting:
S10. The Neurobiological Evidence for Transgenderism
1. Brain Gender Identity Prof. Sidney W. Ecker, M.D.
2. Transsexuality as an Intersex Condition Prof Milton Diamond, Ph.D.

This doesn’t come from some “Gender Studies” or “Feminist” or “Leftist” group with a political agenda, but from fMRI scans and autopsies of neuro-anatomy.

So parents can take comfort - even if you get it wrong, you can do no great harm. Just as long as you don’t use extreme measures to fit a square peg in to a round hole when it becomes obvious that your initial assumptions were wrong. Just love your children, guide, but don’t stunt..

Some of the other comments were even better. It's not just that I'm no longer alone in fighting these battles, others are more skilled and more talented than I.

Maybe I can take a rest for a while. Goodness knows I could do with one.

Sometimes....

2009-11-04T22:16:00.003+11:00

Sometimes, not always, maybe even not often, the Good Guys win.

I posted about the Same Old Lies a few days ago.

Now I'll quote from Trickster108 on the same issue. While I would have used less semantically-loaded words, what she says is true.

5. Florida: This state was the scene of one of the ugliest campaigns aimed at distorting the facts. The Gainesville City Council was to vote on amending their discrimination policy to include transgender protections. The culprit here is the hate based organization called Citizens for Good Public Policy. Their dirtiest trick was the creation of a video featuring an undesirable man in men’s street clothes lurking by a public bathroom in a park frequented by children. After a five or six year old girl goes into the bathroom, he is seen following her in. The footer reads “Your City Commission Made This Legal”. There is nothing to suggest their odious proposition that passing trans protections will legalize this kind of victimizing behavior. In a side note, one of the antagonists in this campaign of hate and lies, a CVS manager, admitted to filming women in his store’s restroom. Talk about perverts…
...
8. Maryland: As mean-spirited and nasty as Gainesville, FL., Montgomery County Maryland in metro DC was the scene of an equally disturbing battle. Like Gainesville, the dirtiness of the tactics was extreme, but perhaps even more scary was the degree to which bigots will go to defend their intolerance. The hate-spewing group here calls itself Maryland Citizens for a Responsible Government. In its attempt to undermine the County’s gender identity inclusive law about to take effect, the group and its president Dr. Ruth Jacobs allegedly collected 25,000 signatures to force a referendum. Sadly, they used illegal tactics to bolster that list of names, and Maryland’s highest court ruled against the referendum. One of the sleaziest tactics used by MCRG was to send a hetero male, dressed in drag, into a local health club to incite fear and panic. Their ploy was discovered and this group’s cover was blown.

Here's where they dressed an associate professor of Nursing in a Lab Coat and portrayed her as a "Doctor". Not incorrect, but obviously designed to mislead.

She doesn't actually live in Kalamazoo, but in Texas township nearby. On the other hand, I'm in no position to criticise: I live in Australia!

This explains her reasons for making this commercial:

Mary Ann Stark, a Western Michigan University associate professor of nursing, said she experienced “emotional upheaval” when she learned a man who was transgendered presenting as a woman shared her locker room at a local health club.
...
Stark said she is “sympathetic to people trapped in a gender they don’t identify with,” but wants to protect privacy rights.

“To me, this is the deal-breaker in this ordinance,” said Stark, who lives in Texas Township and cannot vote on the city ordinance. “I’m empathetic to the few people who don’t identify with their (biological) gender. But the rest of us still have rights to privacy and the sanctity of our rights not being defiled because they’re uncomfortable with their bodies.

This is a case where their rights would step on my rights.”

I think it's more a case of "we're uncomfortable with their bodies". But no matter.

Here's what I wrote to her:

Dear Professor Stark,

As someone who's Intersexed, I no doubt have a very different view to you on the "bathroom issue".

Be that as it may, now that 1856 has passed in Kalamazoo, how can we allay your concerns.

When a woman with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) and somewhat masculinised genitalia shares a locker room with you, how should we deal with the problem of your discomfort? You have just as much right to privacy as she does.What about a man - or a woman - with a female birth certificate, but who has 5alpha-reductase-2 deficiency (5alpha-RD-2) or 17beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase-3 deficiency (17beta-HSD-3), and masculinises from a mostly female appearance at puberty? As a clinical researcher in obstetrics, I'm sure you're familiar with such cases, and know just how many babies are born with overt disorders of sexual development. Perhaps you're not so familiar withn the many cases where Intersex conditions don't manifest symptoms till long after birth.

We need a comprehensive method of dealing with such problematic issues, ones that have obviously traumatised you in the past. Possibly a third, single-stall room, where people who are discomforted by the presence of those of a different race, or unusual genitalia, or of a different religion, can be assured of privacy. They have rights too.

Meanwhile, my sympathies on you having suffered such a terrible trauma, and my genuine admiration for having the courage to speak up for the rights of all who think as you do.We may differ on many issues, but your dressing in a lab coat in a medical setting, and passing yourself off as a "doctor" will no doubt cause you some issues in your profession. MDs tend to be rather jealous of mere PhDs, even if the PhD is in nursing, a medical profession I personally consider more demanding than theirs. May I hope that the issues are soon forgotten, and that a way can be found that means you feel safe once more.

Best Regards
Zoe E Brain
(who is a PhD candidate herself, so can only admire those who have made it through the other side!)

I meant it too, this was no hypocritical facetious attack. Being on the wrong side of many Human Rights issues has given me a degree of tolerance I didn't have before. To realise that those I see as wrong and even dangerous have human rights too, just as I do. Because I'm seen as wrong and dangerous by so many myself.

Anyway, the Result of the dirty tricks in Kalamazoo?

With only absentee ballots outstanding, 65 percent of Kalamazoo voters have approved Ordinance 1856 by a vote of 6,463 to 3,527, adding protections for gay and transgender people to the city’s nondiscrimination ordinance. This margin is larger than the number of outstanding absentee ballots that are currently being counted.

They voted nearly 2:1 for trans people's rights. Not against, for. And no 51:49 or even 55:45 margin either. 65:35.

My Politics

2009-11-03T13:29:00.003+11:00

Finally, the good folks of Rebellion, a neo-Confederate site (according to them slavery wasn't all bad... most of the darkies were happy knowing their place...) have come up with a phrase for such as I. Charles Johnson put it together, and although I don't agree with everything he believes (for example, I'm an anthropogenic global warming (AGW) sceptic), close enough.

I too am a "dangerous Neocon pro-war left-globalist secular revolutionary manipulator". Oh, and a Zionist too, even if I am a Shiksa.

Media Release

2009-11-02T23:02:00.004+11:00

Further to a previous post, I'm a member of Sex and Gender Education Australia, and have given presentations to University students with Stefanie Imbruglia in the past.

MEDIA RELEASE: 30 October, 2009: For immediate release. Sent on behalf of Stefanie Imbruglia and Sex And Gender Education (SAGE). AUSTRALIAN PASSPORT OFFICE ISSUES APOLOGY TO TRANSSEXUAL WOMAN Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade (DFAT) agrees to issue appropriate passports to sex and gender diverse people and changeoffensive terminology in its training material to be more inclusive of diversity. In July 2007, Stefanie Imbruglia, a 42-year-old transsexual woman (cousin of singer Natalie Imbruglia), applied to the Australian Passport Office to get a female passport so she could travel to Thailand for Sex Realignment Surgery. While she was registered as male at birth she had been living as a female for two years. To her amazement she was told by the passport officer at the counter that she would only be allowed to travel on a male passport even though she had lived as female for two years and had letters from her medical specialists confirming she had been undergoing treatment for sex and gender dysphoria. Over the past 20 years the Australian government has issued a one-year limited passport for people registered male at birth, who lived as transsexual females who were going abroad for surgery. Under the Howard government the Minster of Trade and Foreign Affairs rescinded that right secretly in 2007 without any consultation with any specialists in the field, service providers or any members of the sex and gender diverse community. It is dangerous for transsexual women to have to travel abroad on male passports as they could be subjected to stop and searches, intimidation, arrest, violence and embarrassment. Stefanie was subjected to ridicule by a passport officer, who insisted on calling “Sir” even though she had on a skirt and jacket and presented as female. When Stefanie arrived in Thailand for her surgery at the airport she was stopped by a passport control officer in front of all the other passengers on her plane and called to account for the discrepancy between her female appearance and male passport. The incident was highly embarrassing for her and forced her to have her medical history disclosed to the public against her will. Exactly what she warned the Australian DFAT would happen, did happen. On returning to Australia, after surgery, Stefanie as a member of SAGE (Sex And Gender Education), a political lobbying group for sex and gender diverse people, decided to bring a case against DFAT with the Australian Human Rights & Equal Opportunities Commission (HREOC) now the Australian Human Rights Commission) AHRC). The case was that DFAT had knowingly placed Stefanie in danger by refusing to issue her with a passport that reflected her identity. It was in Breach of Article 12 of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) under the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986. The United Nation’s convention on human rights requires countries to issue citizens with documents of safe travel in and out of their countries. Stefanie also filed a complaint that DFAT had been guilty of sex discrimination under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984. Since it had issued her with a female passport on her return from Thailand but refused to issue her with one before she went, it had discriminated against her because she presented as the same person on both occasions. The complaint also encompassed the way she had been mistreated by the officer at the passport office. Over the ensuing two years the AHRC sought conciliation between the two parties. In the interim the AHRC had published its project in 2008 that looked into the human rights difficulties faced by people who were sex and gender diverse and concluded that many government departments needed to adopt a more positive and accommodating attitude to all sex and gender diverse people. For far too long this group of people has been excluded from fully taking part in society as government bureaucracy has failed to keep up with scientific knowledge and human rights. Within the past few weeks the conciliation between both parties has drawn to a close to end the case. What DFAT agreed to: 1. A complete unreserved written apology to Stefanie for the way she had been treated. 2. The restoration of the right for people going abroad for sex realignment surgery to be given a passport in their appropriate sex and/or gender. 3. The recognition that some people who are intersex, transexed, transsexual, transgendered or any of the other sex and gender diverse identities may not be suitable to have genital surgery. They may, however, live in their preferred sex and/or gender roles. 4. That such people upon presentation of a letter from a medical professional would be able to have a permanent passport in their needed sex and/gender. Not all people are able to change their birth certificates or cardinal documents to reflect their identity. Each case would be considered on case by case basis. 5. That the phrase ‘medical professional’ would be interpreted as meaning a doctor, gynaecologist, endocrinologist, urologist, psychiatrist, endocrinologist, psychologist, psychotherapist, counsellor, sexologist, and social worker; in accordance with international standards of care for helping sex and gender diverse people. 6. An alteration to DFAT’s training material for employees that lumped all sex and gender diverse people under the umbrella ‘transgender’, which is offensive to many sex and gender diverse people. They changed their terminology to address Sex and Gender Diverse people’s needs and allowing those people to identify as they needed under the Sex and Gender Diverse label without discrimination. 7. The removal of an offensive training handout to employees that gave wrong and misleading information about sex, gender and sexuality diverse people to its employees. 8. That people presenting with no sex or gender on their cardinal documents may be considered for a passport that does not state sex or gender. This clears the way for parents of intersex children who do not wish to be forced into registering their children as male or female when that child may be strictly neither or both. Some adults identify as neuter and wish their documents to reflect that status. Stefanie wishes to thank AHRC for its part in brokering the conciliation, DFAT for readjusting its position to afford equal human rights and appropriate passports to all sex and gender diverse people, to SAGE for its assistance in bringing the case before AHRC, and Dr Tracie O’Keefe DCH, ND, for her assistance in helping Stefanie bring the case. More information can be found on Stefanie’s website www.stefanie888.com FOR MEDIA INTERVIEWS AND COMMENTS: Stefanie Imbruglia: Ph 0414 835 352 Dr Tracie O’Keefe, DCH, ND (SAGE spokesperson): 02 9571 4333 or 0403 398 808. SAGE website www.sageaustralia.org

I'm more into education than activism. But sometimes the authorities won't let you not be an activist.

Here's what I wrote when I was in the midst of my own fight, but at last it looked like I was going to win after all, if it came to a full-blown court case:

It's important to step back, and think about what this whole situation is about.

It's about simply getting a Passport, something that by the Australian Passport Act, every Australian has a right to. I'm no Criminal, nor someone with dodgy citizenship, nor a Passport Trafficker or Terrorist. I already had a UK passport with the same correct details in. I needed to go overseas for surgery, there was a growing risk of cancer. I have a congenital medical problem, nothing particularly unusual, and that's all.

At a time when I was under great stress, when I was most vulnerable, I was treated
worse than a Murderer - they can get passports. I was ordered to Divorce before a
passport would be granted, something that was a gross abuse of power, and blatantly
discriminatory. Had I not recorded it on my blog, as it happened, it would seem
inconceivable that anyone could be treated this way.

For many months I faced the possibility that I would not be allowed back in the country to see my little son. The sleepless nights, the vast amounts of time spent writing letters, or waiting (sometimes for hours) at the Passport Office, all that was totally un-necessary. Pain and Suffering is an exact description of what was inflicted on me. I think many in a similar situation would not have coped. I came very close to losing it, as was reflected in my writings.

Now that there may be some light at the end of the tunnel, I can let my outrage at
being treated like dirt show. I'm crying now, trying to get rid of the pain, the
anguish, the frustration at the unreasonable and unconscionable conduct of some of
those who had me at their mercy. HOW DARE THEY DO THIS TO ME? I'm Human.

I'm Human. I'm human. No human being should be treated like that.

I intend to make sure they don't ever do it again. That they never order anyone to
Divorce. Victimised, I refuse to be a Victim. They don't have my permission to
de-humanise me. Revenge is not in order, but Recompense, and Retribution, is. If I
can swing it.

A good Barrister has been recommended. Hopefully it won't come to Court. I have no
wish to see people suffer, but I do wish to give such aversion therapy that they
never, ever, do anything like this again.

Steph's fight was over a different issue - things got worse before they got better, and her treatment appears to be in direct retaliation for us not lying down and surrendering. But yes, those who persecuted us are no longer in a position to do so, and DFAT has had a cultural change, even if it took years of legal "aversion therapy". They've genuinely reformed.

An Apology from the APO

2009-10-31T20:36:00.002+11:00

From the Sydney Morning Herald :

A Transsexual has won a written apology from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for the distress she experienced as a result of having to travel on a passport that identified her as a man.

Stefanie Imbruglia, 42 - a first cousin of the pop star Natalie Imbruglia - has also secured the department's agreement to other measures that amount to fairer treatment of transsexuals who apply for passports.

Ms Imbruglia had lived for two years as a woman before applying for a passport to travel to Thailand for sex realignment surgery in October 2007. She wanted her passport to identify her as a female. But the Howard government rescinded an established practice of issuing transsexuals who were to travel abroad for surgery a one-year limited passport in their nominated gender.

Forced to travel on a passport that identified her as a male, Ms Imbruglia said she was subjected to ridicule by an Australian passport officer who insisted on calling her ''sir'' even though she was wearing a skirt and jacket.

When she arrived at Bangkok airport, a passport control officer asked her to account for the discrepancy between her appearance and the gender on her passport.

''At the top of his voice in front of a hall full of people he looked at me and looked at my passport and said, 'Male or female?' Everyone turned around. It was scary.''

Ms Imbruglia said it was dangerous for transsexual women to have to travel abroad on male passports as they could be subjected to intimidation, violence, and arrest. The one-year passports were instituted, she said, after an Australian transsexual, forced to travel on a passport that identified her as male, was arrested in Singapore.

''My greatest fear was being detained in a male prison,'' she said. ''The danger the government put me in was huge.''

One correction: she's not a "Transsexual", she's a "woman". One with a transsexual past.

Because of the data sharing between immigration authorities worldwide - notably that between the UK and USA - I still face that danger because of the mismatch between my female UK and Australian passports and my male UK birth certificate.

However, I got my own written apology from the APO before Steph got hers. My issue was different, but the cause, rampant, bloody-minded and Kafkaesque transphobia at the highest level, was the same.

I've since had clear and convincing evidence that the APO is now one of the more trans-friendly government departments, reasonable and accommodating of both trans and intersexed people. Now. It took Steph's court case over another passport issue, and other women making themselves incredibly irritating to the APO in their persistence to cause this sea-change, but we did it.

Activist? Moi?

2009-10-31T17:09:00.004+11:00

At My Apologetics, a comment to me:

Zoe

I see that you have a whole bag full of quotes ready to cut and paste.

Let us save each other some time by you posting the web links only.
That way those who wish to read the campaign sheet can do so at their own leasure.

Your last statement filled with random thoughts special pleadings and non-sequiturs makes me wonder whether have a point at all. I now you have an agenda. But a clear and understandable point seems to be missing.

My Reply:

OK, some of the "campaign sheets" as you call them:

Male-to-female transsexuals show sex-atypical hypothalamus activation when smelling odorous steroids by Berglund et al Cerebral Cortex 2008 18(8):1900-1908;

Male–to–female transsexuals have female neuron numbers in a limbic nucleus. Kruiver et al J Clin Endocrinol Metab (2000) 85:2034–2041

Sexual differentiation of the human brain: relevance for gender identity, transsexualism and sexual orientation. Swaab Gynecol Endocrinol (2004) 19:301–312.

A sex difference in the human brain and its relation to transsexuality. by Zhou et al Nature (1995) 378:68–70.

A sex difference in the hypothalamic uncinate nucleus: relationship to gender identity by Garcia-Falgueras et al Brain. 2008 Dec;131(Pt 12):3132-46.

A polymorphism of the CYP17 gene related to sex steroid metabolism is associated with female-to-male but not male-to-female transsexualism by Bentz et al Fertility and Sterility , Volume 90 , Issue 1 , Pages 56 - 59

Association study of gender identity disorder and sex hormone-related genes by Ujike et al, Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2009 Oct 1;33(7):1241-4.:

Androgen Receptor Repeat Length Polymorphism Associated with Male-to-Female Transsexualism by Hare at al in Biol.Psych. Vol65, Issue 1, Pp 93-96

Are You A Boy or A Girl? Contesting the Uncontested: Intersex and Genders a PhD thesis, Stephen Kerry held by the University of Newcastle, NSW.

Biased-Interaction Theory of Psychosexual Development: “How Does One Know if One is Male or Female?” M. Diamond Sex Roles (2006) 55:589–600

Changing your sex changes your brain: influences of testosterone and estrogen on adult human brain structure by Pol et al, Europ Jnl Endocrinology, Vol 155, suppl_1, S107-S114 2006

Neuroimaging Differences in Spatial Cognition between Men and Male-to-Female Transsexuals Before and During Hormone Therapy by Scoening et al J Sex Med. 2009 Sep 14.

Clinical implications of the organizational and activational effects of hormones. M.Diamond Horm Behav. 2009 May;55(5):621-32

Disorders of sex development expose transcriptional autonomy of genetic sex and androgen-programmed hormonal sex in human blood leukocytes : Holterhus et al, BMC Genomics 2009, 10:292

Autogynephilia in Women. Moser, C. Journal of Homosexuality (in press).

Psychiatric Misadventures P.R. McHugh The American Scholar (1992)

The atypical brain development of transsexuals Swaab, NBC Handelsblad (a non-academic summary)

Re Kevin – Significant Findings Of Justice Richard Chisholm In Respect Of The Expert Medical Evidence In That Case As To The Causation Of Transsexualism And As Strongly Affirmed By The Full Court (Australian Family Court) On Appeal. Deakin Law Review 2004 v22

That will do as a start. Once you've read them - and some are fairly heavy going, which is why I only give selected highlights - I'll give you the other batches. It's only going to be a surperficial treatment of the subject, as much of the works are dead-tree only, or pay-per-view.

I've never actually encountered a Fundamentalist Post-Modernist before, who viewed scientific journal articles as nothing more than "activist campaign sheets".

I eagerly await the evidence you had for forming your own, contrary views.

...but I'm not holding my breath.

The Same Old Lies

2009-10-30T23:40:00.002+11:00

A Group in Gainesville, Florida made the following commercial. It has no resemblance to the truth, but that didn't stop them.

Since the ordnance was passed, none of the dire predictions have come to fruition. They know that. Everyone knows that, and wonders what gave them the idea that such lies could possibly be true.

Now in Kalamazoo, a like-minded group have made another commercial.

It may work this time. Tell the same lie over and over again, and some will think that it might be true.

From the Dr. Oz Website: When the Sexes Collide

2009-10-29T23:15:00.004+11:00

A program about Intersex. Click on the play icon on the middle, then at the bottom left if it says the program is unavailable.

It's a program showing the ignorance of one non-specialist medic that so often leads to surgery that blights lives. When the Intersexed woman in the audience speaks, just look at the expressions of discomfort in those around her.

And then listen to what the Mom of an IS child has to say at the end.

I think my hormones are out of balance at the moment, because I'm crying now as I type this. But then again, maybe not.

Ares 1-X Launch

2009-10-29T14:27:00.004+11:00

It's not the Ares 1, but the Ares 1-X. Something that resembles the final model, but is completely different in many, or even most, ways.

It's not a complete waste of time, as many have said. Sure, the upper stage is a dummy. And the lower stage is completely different from the planned one. But they got to test some important things, that while not glamorous, are still necessary. The more you do on a mockup-launch, the less uncertainty there will be with the real thing. Things like hose-connectors. Retention bolts. Paint. The launch pad itself. The tracking systems. The basic aerodynamics up to 130,000 ft.

Because the upper stage is just a dummy, after booster separation, both first and second stages just tumble close to one another. The solid booster was recovered by parachute - after all, it's an unmodified Shuttle component, unlike the real booster, so this is proven technology already. And the rest of it is boilerplate that splashed down in the Atlantic, downrange. I won't say "re-entered", because it never left the atmosphere, separation was at 130,000 ft.

Anyway the launch removes some possible surprises, and without such a launch beforehand, the first launch of the real thing (if it ever happens) will be a measureably riskier proposition. So it's not a complete waste of time. Not quite.

Genes and Transsexuality

2009-10-28T23:15:00.001+11:00

From Association study of gender identity disorder and sex hormone-related genes by Ujike et al, Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2009 Oct 1;33(7):1241-4.:

To investigate the biological mechanism of gender identity disorder (GID), five candidate sex hormone-related genes, encoding androgen receptor (AR), estrogen receptors alpha (ERalpha) and beta (ERbeta), aromatase (CYP19), and progesterone receptor (PGR) were analyzed by a case-control association study. Subjects were 242 transsexuals (74 male-to-female patients (MTF) and 168 female-to-male patients (FTM)), and 275 healthy age- and geographical origin-matched controls (106 males and 169 females). The distributions of CAG repeat numbers in exon 1 of AR, TA repeat numbers in the promoter region of ERalpha, CA repeat numbers in intron 5 of ERbeta, TTTA repeat numbers in intron 4 of CYP19, and six polymorphisms (rs2008112, rs508653, V660L, H770H, rs572698 and PROGINS) of PGR were analyzed. No significant difference in allelic or genotypic distribution of any gene examined was found between MTFs and control males or between FTMs and control females. The present findings do not provide any evidence that genetic variants of sex hormone-related genes confer individual susceptibility to MTF or FTM transsexualism.

Compare and contrast with Androgen Receptor Repeat Length Polymorphism Associated with Male-to-Female Transsexualism by Hare at al in Biol.Psych. Vol65, Issue 1, Pp 93-96, as described rather breathlessly by the popular press :

Background

There is a likely genetic component to transsexualism, and genes involved in sex steroidogenesis are good candidates. We explored the specific hypothesis that male-to-female transsexualism is associated with gene variants responsible for undermasculinization and/or feminization. Specifically, we assessed the role of disease-associated repeat length polymorphisms in the androgen receptor (AR), estrogen receptor β (ERβ), and aromatase (CYP19) genes.
Methods

Subject-control analysis included 112 male-to-female transsexuals and 258 non-transsexual males. Associations and interactions were investigated between CAG repeat length in the AR gene, CA repeat length in the ERβ gene, and TTTA repeat length in the CYP19 gene and male-to-female transsexualism.
Results

A significant association was identified between transsexualism and the AR allele, with transsexuals having longer AR repeat lengths than non-transsexual male control subjects (p = .04). No associations for transsexualism were evident in repeat lengths for CYP19 or ERβ genes. Individuals were then classified as short or long for each gene polymorphism on the basis of control median polymorphism lengths in order to further elucidate possible combined effects. No interaction associations between the three genes and transsexualism were identified.
Conclusions

This study provides evidence that male gender identity might be partly mediated through the androgen receptor.

The results were identical for the CYP19 and ERβ genes. The samples sizes were comparable. But the results appear to differ for the AR gene.

Maybe not. One experiment, the one showing no evidence of correlation, examined only exon 1 of the AR gene, the one for which tests are most easily available as it has an association with prostate cancer and certain other conditions. The other appears not to have confined itself to exon 1. If so, then instead of a contradiction that casts doubt on the original findings, we may just have narrowed down the area that could make someone slightly more susceptible to being TS. And it is a slight susceptibility, 10% more likely at most. Again, compare and contrast to exposure to the anti-abortifacient drug DES, an estrogenic (female sex hormone) compound during the first trimester of foetal development. There it's not ~10%, it's ~50,000%.

We can also have greater confidence that neither the CYP19 nor ERβ genes play any role.

A Visual History of Space Exploration

2009-10-27T23:14:00.001+11:00

From National Geographic : Click to (greatly) enlarge.

Why do they have to cut so deep, Martha?

2009-10-26T22:00:00.003+11:00

From On The Issues:

On a November night in 1958, I was playing in the bathtub in the cheery, country home of my childhood. I was six years old. My mother came in and sat on the edge of the tub, her kind face looking worried. I glanced up at her, wondering, "Time to get out so soon?" She told me that I had to go to the hospital the next day for an operation. I knew this was about something between my legs. My chest felt tight and there was a rushing sound in my ears. I begged not to go. Please. But my mother told me only that I must. Not a word was said about what was going to happen or why. The next day, it took the surgeon 30 minutes to make a U-shaped incision around my half-inch clitoris, remove it, and put it in a specimen dish to send to the lab. He then closed the wound and stitched the skin up over the stump.

Take no comfort in the fact that this took place 40 years ago. Today, most parents and doctors in this country are still unable to see that a child has a right to her or his own sexual body, even if that body is deemed "abnormal" by their standards. If a parent is uncomfortable, a doctor can be found who will be willing to make irreversible changes in the child's body, in order to ease that discomfort. My gynecologist told me about a case in which he had been involved the year before: A woman brought her five-year-old daughter to his office in Minneapolis; the mother felt that the child's clitoris was too big. He examined the girl and assured the mother that her daughter would grow into her clitoris, which was no longer than the end of his little finger. The mother left. A few weeks later, he was called into an operating room to help another doctor who had run into trouble during a surgical procedure. On the table, he found the same little girl he had seen earlier. She was hemorrhaging from a clitorectomy attempted by the second doctor, from instructions he had read in a medical text. My physician stopped the bleeding, and managed to keep the girl's clitoris mostly intact.
...
Doctors then told Angela's parents that if she didn't have surgery she might kill herself when she found out that she was different from other girls. It had happened to another patient, the physicians said, and it could happen to Angela. Although such speculation is not a lie, it is also not the whole truth. In my talks with scores of people with atypical genitals, it is those who have been surgically altered as children and left alone with their trauma who most often become suicidal. The isolation from others who have experienced what we are going through, the loneliness, is what kills us. Angela's parents were justifiably frightened and agreed to the surgery.

Doctors then told Angela's parents that if she didn't have surgery she might kill herself when she found out that she was different from other girls

The final lie was to Angela herself, with her distraught parents' complicity. She was told, at her physicians' suggestion, that her nonexistent ovaries could become cancerous and that she would have to go into the hospital and have them removed.

In 1985, at a leading children's hospital in Chicago, doctors removed the testes from Angela's abdomen. The clitoris that had brought her so much joy was not merely shortened, it was all but destroyed. She woke up and discovered the extent of the deceit: "I put my hand down there and felt something like the crusty top of some horrible casserole, like dried caked blood where my clitoris was. I wondered why no one told me and I just figured it was the kind of thing decent people don't talk about."
...
In 1965, Annie Green, then three years old, took a car trip with her father from the small town in Idaho where she lived to Spokane, Wash. She sat in the back seat with her stuffed animal, unaware that she was on her way to the hospital. The next day doctors removed her inch-long clitoris. She was never given any explanation of her surgery. As she got older, her attempts to find pleasure in masturbation failed, and she began to suspect that she was very different from other girls. Then, during a visit to her sister's house as a teenager, she found the book Our Bodies, Ourselves: "I studied the female anatomy and read about sex from that book. That was when I learned I didn't have a clitoris. I remember looking at the diagram, feeling myself, and reading what a clitoris was over and over. My God, I couldn't figure out why I didn't have one. I couldn't fathom anyone removing it if it was that important. I was stunned, and I held it all in. I was only 14. I became depressed. I was disgusted with my body, and I thought there was no hope that I would ever be loved by anyone. I became a little teenage alcoholic. I drank heavily every weekend. I really blew it because I had been a really good athlete and an honor student."
...
John Gearhart, a pediatric urologist at Johns Hopkins, has said, "To compare genital mutilation of young girls in Africa to reconstructive surgery of a young baby is a giant, giant leap of misrepresentation." But neither Dr. Gearhart, nor anyone else, has ever bothered to ask those of us subjected to clitoral surgery as children if being taken to the hospital without explanation, having your healthy genitals cut and scarred, then left alone with the results feels like mutilation or "reconstructive surgery." Gearhart's mistake is to judge surgery only by the surgeon's intent, and not by the effect on the child. I spoke with a woman recently who is young enough to be my daughter. With great effort, she told me of her clitoral surgery as a child. She implored me, "Why do they have to cut so deep, Martha? Why do they do that?"

And that is why the paper Pink or Blue? A Rights-Based Framework for Medical Intervention with Intersex Infants (PDF) by the Tasmanian Children's Commisioner for the 5th World Congress on Family Law and Children’s Rights is so important.

AISSG Australia has published72 a Preferred Treatment Paradigm For Children With Intersex Conditions:.
The AIS Support Group Australia supports calls for a moratorium on non-urgent medical intervention in children with intersex conditions. This includes gonadectomies on children with AIS and clitoral recession, but does not mean all surgeries should be stopped completely. The preferred treatment paradigm of the AIS Support Group Australia is simple:
1. Obtain an accurate diagnosis from an expert in intersex conditions – preferably an experienced Paediatric Endocrinologist.
2. Raise the child as a boy or a girl - depending on medical advice and with the complete support of the parents.
3. Give parents complete information about their child’s condition. A booklet describing the condition is best so they can refer to it if they have any questions between doctor visits.
4. Offer the parents and any other family members peer support and professional counselling.
5. If surgery is medically required, discuss all treatment options with the parents including the consequences of not having the surgery. Ensure parents are given the opportunity to ask questions and seek support and counselling. A period of several weeks to consider alternatives is also advised if medically possible.
6. Ideally a child should be educated about their condition in stages as they become old enough to understand certain concepts.
7. When a child with an intersex condition is around 12 years old (or just prior to puberty), they should be given professional counselling and told about options to treat their condition. Counselling should also include an opportunity for the child to openly discuss their gender. This will give those raised in the incorrect gender an opportunity to voice this to the counsellor.
8. From this point on, the child’s consent should be given for any further medical intervention, including hormone therapy.
9. If the diagnosis of an intersex condition is made later in life, doctors should still provide their patient with complete disclosure and offer the contact details of the AIS Support Group Australia.

...
To the AISSG list I would merely add
10. If irreversible surgery or irreversible endocrine therapy is proposed to commence before the child’s 18th birthday, that an application be made for the authority or approval of a suitably informed and expeditious Court or Tribunal of competent jurisdiction including as parties the parents, the child and an independent representative for the child’s separate interests.

The Commissioner for Children is an independent, statutory office responsible to the Parliament of Tasmania. The Commissioner’s functions include promoting the rights and well-being of children and young people, examining and advising the Government on policies, practices and services provided for children and laws affecting their health, welfare, care, protection and development.

Please read the whole thing.

The Crazy Years

2009-10-25T21:01:00.003+11:00

From Spider Robinson

"In 1939, the greatest science fiction writer who ever lived, Robert Anson Heinlein, produced one of the first of the many stunning innovations he was to bring to his field: he sat down and drew up a chart of the history of the future, for the next few thousand years...

"And in Heinlein's Future History chart, the last decades of the twentieth century--the ones he wrote abut and discussed as seldom as possible--were clearly and ominously marked: 'the Crazy Years.'

"I discussed this with him several times before his death in 1988. He had decided--half a century in advance--that a combination of information overload, overpopulation and Millenia Madness were going to drive our whole culture slug-nutty by the end of the century." pg. 4, "The Crazy Years: A Mission Statement"

From the (Right Wing) Free Republic :

An official announcement by the Obama administration disclosing the reality of extraterrestrial life is imminent. For several months, senior administration officials have been quietly deliberating behind closed doors how much to disclose to the world about extraterrestrial life. Dissatisfaction among powerful institutions such as the U.S. Navy over the decades-long secrecy policy has given a boost to efforts to disclose the reality of extraterrestrial life and technology.
...
(Comments)
...
It is to solidify atheistic beliefs among the sheeple.
...
Desperation has taken hold when the administration ‘lets it out’ that extraterrestrials are among us,....in order to divert attention from their screw-ups.
...
Yea no doubt that these so-called aliens will bring us a message about how we can save the earth from capitalism created global warming or climate change.

The left-wing base would be so thrilled to hear Obama and even Gore rush to the forefront in front of the United Nations to usher in a New Day of alien enlightenment for all of mankind.
...
A brick in the wall of denial for the rapture.
...
“It is to solidify atheistic beliefs among the sheeple.”

The most serious answer yet. Makes sense.

Still I spewed beer all over my keyboard reading most of the other posts so far.

But I appreciated that I got a serious response right off the bat.

Strange article.
...
There is an old paperback book titled Being...written by Michael Redfinn. It’s a story about Aliens visits, a half alien, half human that become a powerful world leader. There is a biblical part of the story too...the aliens are really satan and his minions that begin the tribulation. Find it and read it....its an ineresting scenario and a good read. What better way for satan to take over and cut across all cultural and religious barriers than to pose as a powerful extraterrestrial
...
Yes, I have seen good cases made for the possibility that the explanation for the disappearance of millions of people will be that beings from outer space came and took them away so that the real enlightened ones, the progressive people of the world, could finally have their utopia without primitive Jesus freaks standing in the way. Now it appears more and more likely as though that will, indeed, be the official "evidence" presented to the world for what will actually be the Rapture.

Now that we see that a big announcement may be imminent, that there may be an acknowledgment by "important officials" that, indeed, there is extraterrestrial life, and, of course, these beings are completely benign and only want to help mankind, Satan may be taking his deception to a new level.

Will UFOs Ride In To Save The Day?

The UFO Demon Connection

This announcement, if it turns out to be true, is yet another piece on the Bible prophecy chessboard that is being maneuvered into place.

If you are a person who knows Jesus Christ as your Savior, there has never been a more exciting time to be alive!
...
It looks as if they already may be.

Through Scripture, and Christ Himself, we know that the real power behind human governments are Satanic. Satan knows his fate, he knows the Bible and he knows when the time will get close for Jesus' return.

Governments will "get cracking on this" when the puppeteer directs them to.
...
Surprise, surprise,

they are behind the chip ID implant . . . that OThuga has had put in the health care bill—no care without the chip implant.

Can you spell MARK OF THE BEAST?

Walk on by . . . nothing here.

The Assoc. for Biblical Astronomy
is a Ministry of the Mantua Country Baptist Church

This site is devoted to the historical relationship between the Bible and astronomy. It assumes that whenever the two are at variance, it is always astronomy—that is, our "reading" of the "Book of Nature," not our reading of the Holy Bible—that is wrong. History bears consistent witness to the truth of that stance.

The Hamas Charter, Article 22 :

'The enemies have been scheming for a long time ... and have accumulated huge and influential material wealth. With their money, they took control of the world media... With their money they stirred revolutions in various parts of the globe... They stood behind the French Revolution, the Communist Revolution and most of the revolutions we hear about... With their money they formed secret organizations - such as the Freemasons, Rotary Clubs and the Lions - which are spreading around the world, in order to destroy societies and carry out Zionist interests... They stood behind World War I ... and formed the League of Nations through which they could rule the world. They were behind World War II, through which they made huge financial gains... There is no war going on anywhere without them having their finger in it.'

Comments on a petition by the Chicago Surrealist Movement to "Stop NASA from bombing the Moon" :

When I heard about this I was deeply disturbed-in shock in fact. I figured it must be a joke because the idea of it is so incredibly freakish. The desire to disrupt such a vital element of our universe shows just how tragic humanity has become. Let's not let this happen. The Moon belongs intact, and I certainly don't want the travesty to be hanging over my country's head.
...
I think it's ridiculous that most people are only just learning about this and some still have no clue. We should have been asked about this. The moon is not the property of nasa. We should all be able to have our say and I believe the majority would say this is absolutely stupid and unnecessary. Many cultures worship or hold a reverance for the moon and this is disrespectful to say the very least. The moon is a vital part of our life on earth, we should be protecting it not doing anything that may possibly cause it damage.
...
Since I was a little girl I have always felt a strong connection to our Moon, I found comfort, strength, and a strange sense being one with the Moon. Before bed each night I would stare with wonder at the bright silver globe that positioned herself as a silent guardian in the night sky, watching over us with her protective glow. Now, at 40 yrs of age, I still have that tradition of looking up at the Moon before sleeping, because, when you think about it, the Moon has always been there since the dawn of time, and even amidst an ever-changing world filled with violence, chaos, deceitfulness, devastating natural disasters, never-eding wars, and death, She has been the one constant in the lives of humans. Everything else has changed in one way or another, but not Her, not our Moon, she has remained the same for eons of time, and now, mankind has yet once again decided on an insanhe course that can only leave in its wake extreme, devastsing effects on our beloved Mother Earth and the human race that will be irreversable. Why are they doing this at all? So, why, in a time when we are all on the downside of a financial catastrophe, have over-populated countries, hungry, homeless people, and no where near enough money to solve the financial problems we are facing worldwide, why, are they going to waste billions of dollars to blow a hole in our Moon? The stupidity of mankind and their poor choices never fail to astonish me, and as for "our President Obama", what happen to his big talk about change? But then I guess we will all see a massive change worldwide when he allows the bombing of the Moon to actually occur. If you want to know wher Obabma stands inregards to his sympathy for the American peoples plight and the continued stability of the Universe and the Moon, just look into his eyes when he is speaking about love, peace and unity for all of mankind, the eyes belie his impassioned words. May the Goddess protect us all from this insanity. Love to you all.
...
"If the true intent of the LCROSS mission moon bombing is a hostile act by NASA against known extraterrestrial civilizations and settlements on the moon, then NASA and by extension the U.S. government are guilty of aggressive war which is the most serious of war crimes under the U.N. Charter and the Geneva Conventions, to which the U.S. is subject.
...
I dont believe, that any government of any country on planet Earth can think Moon belongs just to them and they can bomb it or do anything on it! Planet Moon is minimally the "property" of all governments on planet Earth, and also not just of people, but as well animals, plants and all life - as all Earth life depends on it! You disbalandce just a part of this harmony, and chain reactions of disaster after disastre will come. Stop to behave so egoistically and foolishly, please!
..
There are so many things that the moon has impact on. Once that changes there will be a reaction. PLEASE don't allow NASA to bomb the moon. Some things we just don't need to know.

I'd say Heinlein was right. I originally thought that the majority of the comments were in jest - but follow-ups indicate otherwise. From Is America Falling Off the Flat Earth?

Despite the unprecedented explosion of scientific knowledge that has occurred in recent decades and its pervasive impact on our lives, a 2004 National Science Board survey revealed that almost 30% of America’s adults do not know that Earth revolves around the sun, 22% do not know that the center of Earth is very hot, and over half do not know that electrons are smaller than atoms. Only half the population is aware that dinosaurs and humans never coexisted. Another poll indicated that at least 25% of American adults believe in astrology—no doubt more than believe in the principles of astronomy. And, according to a NASA survey, fully 15% of America’s adults do not believe that humans have gone to the moon.

From Answers in Genesis :

The high number of Australian university students who admitted in a poll that they accept the Bible’s account of creation as literally true has unsettled the poll-takers.

Up to one in every five first-year biology students said they believed the Genesis account of creation and rejected the theory of evolution.

Results of the Australian Institute of Biology poll were released in June. They revealed that 4,255 students at 17 universities responded to the survey on attitudes to creation and evolution. Of these, 535 said they believed ‘God created man pretty much in his present form at one time within the last 10,000 years.’

President of the biology institute, anti-creationist Professor Roger Kitching, said he was opposed to the book of Genesis’s ‘primitive mythology about life on earth’.

‘We can’t have science with mysticism built into it’, he said.

Of concern to Christians were the 43 per cent of students who said they believed life had arisen through evolution and that God had taken no part.

The Sydney Morning Herald, June 13, 1992.

The West Australian, June 23, 1992, p. 4.

A Gallup Poll in the United States last November found that 47 per cent of those surveyed believed God had created humans in their present form within the past 10,000 years.