Wandering

Almost a month

2008-02-23T13:20:00.002+11:00

Almost a month since I last blogged. All of these things that I do want to do, but just don't seem to find the time for. Instead I eat, stare unhappily at my growing paunch, and pace. Nothing much productive recently. Certainly no interesting thoughts.

In my growing depression there's also an increased drive for order, schedules, reminders. I tear the post-its off my monitor, and set reminders in my email instead. I program my shifts in to my organiser and sync it with my phone. I check my budget every other day.

Paper is my enemy and I shall vanquish it. Bills touch no surface in my house before they are torn up and placed upon the pile of recycling. The pile of recycling, with increasing regularity, is removed to the bin. At work, documents digitized, my task bar swells. I need to learn how to Alt-Tab again.

Grampians

2008-01-28T18:40:00.000+11:00

We went to Grampians, I spent all my money for the fortnight (bank balance until Tuesday week: $0- scary thought.) Climbing was awesome. We are fucking awesome at setting up ropes. Albeit a little slow. Didn't get more than a little sunburnt. We barely camped. Spent a lot of time in the pub. This contributed significantly to my current fiscal problems. To finish off an awesome weekend, some random broke his leg. Lead climbing up a wall, about two metres up, hadn't clipped in yet. Fell awkwardly on some stairs. Why stairs underneath a cliff people climb? Plenty fucking stupid. I didn't see anything. Still feel a little sick thinking about it though. Going to take a little time to get back to full confidence, I think. We'd just set up our rope when he screamed. We pulled it straight down. Packed up the gear. Drove home.

A medical experiment

2008-01-20T19:05:00.000+11:00

I'm thinking of embarking on a wee bit of an experiment. It seems to me that, currently, health insurance just doesn't add up. I can't see myself being able to claim enough stuff to make the premiums worth while. Any emergencies would be covered by the public health system. Until our warped tax system makes it foolish to do otherwise, (ergo, when my taxable income exceeds $50k), I'm going to avoid it.

Instead, I'm going to put what I would have spent on premiums in to a bank account and pay for any medical procedures out of that. This is not a fair comparison, of course, because under health insurance I would still be paying an out-of-pocket excess. Speaking of which, Medibank Private - a government-owned private health insurer- makes it very difficult to know exactly what you're covered for. I would say that the web page allows you to believe that the entire cost is covered, which I do not believe is the case. Not impressed.

In any case, I shall review this arrangement when my taxable income (for Medibank Surcharge purposes) exceeds the relevant limit, or I turn 30 (whichever comes first.)

Helping out any way I can

2008-01-08T18:37:00.000+11:00

So I'm catching the Glen Waverley line home for work today. Strategically located as I am dead between two railways. A group of teenagers who all look like that have more money (from their parents) than sense gets on the train. One of them gets a message. I notice them because they have the same alert as me. They read the text. A message flashes that their battery is low. Still, there's enough juice for them to make a phone call.

"Hi Dad, could you pick us up from Box Hill? We can be there in 20 minutes."

Ah. Box Hill is not on this line. I happen to know from experience that it takes a lot longer than 20 minutes to get to Box Hill via Glen Waverley. The doors open at Richmond. The last chance to change. Are they aware that they need to? They don't seem to be moving. Their bags are sitting on the floor. One is trying to find a pen to do the Sudoku.

I look around. The man across from me is glancing up from his Palm Pilot, pen poised. He looks at the digital display at the end of the carriage. Is he on the wrong train? No, it's a Glen Waverley train. He looks at the teenagers again. Our eyes meet. We both know that they don't realise. Will either of us do anything?

We look away, uncomfortable. The doors close.

Time is moneys!

2008-01-05T14:09:00.000+11:00

Interesting week! Hamish was around on Wednesday through Friday. Feel kind of sorry for the little man. He spent $2000.00 on various computer parts, only to find out that- when their powers are combined- the result is a beast of a computer that crashes randomly. It looks pretty, especially when you're in the middle of a game and the screen goes one of a rainbow-selection of solid colours.

Lachie and Hamish spent 72 hours trying to debug the problem. They tested ram, they graphed temperatures, they formatted and did base installs, they swapped the case and PSU, and flashed BIOS's left, right and centre. All to no avail. What sucks is that they bought the parts from three different places, so it's not even clear that anyone is going to be willing to track down the problem. Or how much resolution will cost if they do. Especially since it may take longer than 3 hours to crash.

Now I don't mean to be negative, I'm sure Hamish will get his comp working, and when he does, it will be kicking rad. But looking at the effort they've put in to it, I know that I could never do the same. Very definitely in the too hard basket.

Updated!

2008-01-01T22:40:00.000+11:00

Well, it's a new year! Time to get out all my stationary and cross out "2007" and pen in "2008"- or maybe I should pencil it in, just in case I don't use it all up (again!) Being the forward looking person that I am, I'm inclined to talk about how awesome 2008 is going to be, but maybe I should spend a few moments on 2007 first....

How to sum up 2007? Well, to be honest, I got off to a lousy start to the year. One of those things where I went to extraordinary lengths to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Things picked up quickly with good espresso and good company for a couple of weeks in Seattle, before I jetted off to Mexico, for one final lovely detour on the way home to Melbourne. A couple of low months there before things got started, finding work and so forth, and the time since then has been settling in to a rhythm. Which has been slightly upset by a detour to Japan. All in all, 2007 has been a year of getting lost and slowly, slowly, slowly getting back on track!

Which brings us to 2008! Off to an excellent start involving fun on a beach and then coming home and throwing out my old pair of shoes! A new pair of shoes for a New Year!

New Years

2007-12-30T21:49:00.000+11:00

Now this might just be my bad attitude, but I tell you what, working through Christmas/New Years with only public holidays is a drag. 'Course, Jack doesn't even get Boxing Day. Even so, I chose a dud of a year to not plan ahead. Next year at least Christmas abuts the weekend and last year both Christmas and New Years fell next to weekends.

Lead Climbing

2007-12-23T18:25:00.000+11:00

Yesterday was our first experience of lead climbing, well, almost lead climbing. Practiced on lead with top-rope as backup. Lead climbing is hard! There's a heck of a lot more to think about. To warm up, I did the red 13 in the corner at Nunawading. Technically, a pretty easy climb, but it's on a bit of a killer overhang. Still, on normal top-rope I did it easily, climbing as confident as I ever have. Positioning was good, movements smooth. Later in the day, trying to same climb on lead- such a mess. Couldn't get the position right to clip, wasting a lot of energy. My communication with my belayer was non-existent, which didn't help none either.

Still, I took a bunch of falls off that wall and it didn't bother me at all. And after all, it was the first lesson. Looking forward to taking those same falls on lead rope for real. Be interesting to see how that is...

Eggs

2007-12-19T21:16:00.000+11:00

Eggs, apparently, are an engineering marvel. They are also a nutritious food.

This weekend we're going to get some lead climbing pointers from the talented and enormously tall Nigel. Hopefully some of his tips and tricks will also be of use to people of merely human height. This remains to be seen. In the meantime, I'm busy giving lengthy descriptions of all the different permutations of rope, climber, belay device, and belayer, to everyone- literally, everyone- who comes within ear shot.

I guess that's why people don't come to me with their work related queries. Climbing!

You know that list of things I was going to do?

2007-12-12T20:25:00.000+11:00

Check one off! Sort of. I was thinking of starting a blog about finance. Long term readers will remember my exciting series about negative income tax systems. Friends, colleagues, and staff at various temples in Japan will have heard me pontificate about the evils of investment properties. Why not go with the theme?

Because I find knowledge much more interesting that money! Thus studds knows, a blog about how to get information from one head in to another without the heartache.

Flickr

2007-12-02T11:16:00.000+11:00

I have been very happy with flickr to date. Yes, there are some problems. Some aspects of the interface are clunky, and the Uploadr app is unstable and a little clunky. You have to pay for it, of course, but I don't mind that. My needs are simple and I'm willing to pay a reasonable fee for a service that meets them.

But now I'm not. I've forgotten my password. It's what I do. Keys, passwords. Gone. All the time. Not a problem, normally. But with Yahoo it is. Firstly, the password reset form 404s half the time. When it does load, it asks for my personal details- DOB, address, etc- details that I probably lied about when signing up. And then it asks for the name of my first school- and the spelling has to be identical to that originally used when signing up. Two years ago. This despite the fact that they have my gmail address listed on file, and every other web service on the planet would happily send a reset password to that address. Excellent system guys.

Moreover, when I do fail to get through the automated check, they don't link to any backup. You have to dig through their site to find any contact information, and two days later, I still don't know whether I'm going to get anywhere down that avenue.

So right now, Yahoo has my photos, and because my Pro account expired, I can't even access the high-quality versions. I'm not entirely satisfied with this situation. Yahoo is not a company I care to trust with my data, to be honest, and I'm not sure why I did.

I'm trusting a number of commercial entities to store more and more of my data, so that I and others can access it. Yahoo, Google, Facebook (whoever owns that). The problem is that none of these companies have any obligation to continue these services, or if the services should fail, to make my data available. I'd like to have greater guarantees, or at least the ability to keep backups of the data they have.

Things this holiday has motivated me to do

2007-11-28T21:06:00.000+11:00

Go on more holidays
Rediscover my centre
Go on more weekend trips
Start a finance blog
Ride my bike!
Start fiddling with electronics, robots, and/or woodworking
Go to France
Learn more languages
Take more photos

Toilets

2007-11-19T12:22:00.000+11:00

Japanese male toilets often seem to be designed without privacy in mind. This doesn't bother me because I'm far from modest. But it goes further than that. They often seem to be designed so that passer-byes have to look in. These guys are kinky.

Also, having a jet of water sprayed up your arse is weird.

Hostel

2007-11-18T10:29:00.000+11:00

We're staying in Sakura Hostel in Tokyo. There's English speaking staff and Christian imagery in the stairwell. Creepy.

Japan 2

2007-11-15T12:10:00.000+11:00

I don't usually travel in groups. It's completely different to travelling alone. Being in Japan with and Anime fan who has learnt more languages from TV than I speak and five people variously familiar with Chinese writing certainly makes things easier. At the same time, though, travelling in such a large group can be a little to comfortable.

Not that everything is going smoothly. I think I'm largely responsible for this. I have an aversion to planning. This aversion is the partial cause of us not having planned sufficiently. With one night to go, we had nowhere to stay in Kyoto. All of the places we preferred were full, and the one place we found was a 20-person dorm. This was not to the liking to all.

Thankfully, Chris- owner, operator and chef at the excellent Yougendo guest house- intervened to save us from our incompetence and found us a lovely guest house on the outskirts of Kyoto. To my mind, this is an excellent travel outcome. We're experiences people and places that we wouldn't have and couldn't have planned.

Not everyone agrees with me, though. To some in the group, this is a parable for why you should meticulously plan your holidays, especially if travelling in a group. Which is exactly why I don't usually travel in groups.

Photos!

2007-11-13T11:33:00.000+11:00

I am taking some, but I am definately not alone. There's not many photos of people where those people don't also have cameras. It's rare to see anyone at all without a camera. Technology will empower us all, but are we maybe too empowered already?

Japan

2007-11-12T11:27:00.000+11:00

I'm in Japan! So is the majority of my readership! I can highly recommend Guesthouse Yougendo. It's most excellent.

Yesterday...

2007-11-07T21:13:00.000+11:00

.. all my troubles seemed so far away. Now it seems as though they're here until Friday. When I go to Japan! Not that's news to anyone. Seriously though, yesterday was great. Pretty much ignored the race. Went around my parents house. They're planning some modifications, but every builder or designer they get in has different ideas. Things were easier when interest rates were at 17%. The cheapest design from the cheapest designer, thanks.

So I said, "Why not take a photo and draw it in? That way you can see what it will look like." Now, at this point, I could have waited for a response. Instead, I took the damn photo, grabbed my sister's paint set, and set to it! "Voila!" with a flourish, "My 'artists' representation." And on the strength my artistic abilities, my preferred design took the lead.

My brother pointed out that there are "CGI photo composite" packages that will do much the same. I'm sure Bob could have whipped something up. I just turned on the TV in time to watch Efficient come from two lengths behind to win the Cup. Then tore up my ticket.

Voted!

2007-11-06T11:14:00.000+11:00

Well kids, I have now exercised my democratic rights. I voted for the Democrats for both houses! Only somewhat of a sympathy vote. My reasoning is as follows. Generally, the 'Crats have fallen farther from grace than is probably deserved, and in any case, Australia does need strong minor parties. So why not vote greens? Because I disagree with their non-environmental policies. Plus, their environmental policies often seem to be little more than grand-standing.

Despite this, for the House of Reps, I preferenced them second, after the 'Crats. This on the assumption that neither candidate has a chance in hell and my preferences will flow to Labor, my third preference, but whom I don't really like that much. Fingers crossed that not too many people think like me and knock out the Labor candidate, leaving the Liberal guy to win over Greens or 'Crats. I guess you shouldn't try to game the system. This may lead to voters' remorse.

For the Senate, I realised that I don't know nearly enough to number 1 to 64 below the line, so I put a "1" against the 'Crats on the assumption that they would distribute the preferences in a relatively sober and conservative way that I can probably live with.

Raining days

2007-11-04T19:23:00.000+11:00

Daylight-savings combined with the already long days. A heady mix. Who would have thought that it's already after 8? Today, before the skies cleared in time for us all to wave bye to the sun as it sank below the horizon, I saw a couple of kids flying a kite in the rain. I remember riding my bike in the rain as a kid, just for kicks. Should do that more often.

Ugh

2007-10-29T21:35:00.000+11:00

Due to a careless, albeit slight, OD with my uppers on Sunday I didn't manage to fall asleep at all until half an hour before my alarm went off. The good news is, my alarm clock is also a phone, and I used it to call in sick!

Woah

2007-10-28T13:28:00.000+11:00

Due to a careless, albeit slight, OD with my downers on Friday night I didn't feel like I'd be able to handle my uppers on Saturday morning. And I slept. All day. And then all night. The good news is, today is Sunday, and I'm right back on the uppers, looking forward to next Friday night!

Another friday night

2007-10-26T18:35:00.000+10:00

It's Friday night and I'm already wondering whether I should pull a sicky on Monday... is that a bad sign?

I need to get me some of these

2007-10-24T21:39:00.000+10:00

Advil: for today's powerful pain

Is today's powerful pain any different from yesterdays powerful pain? Maybe the fact that it's often a product of our own decisions rather than of war, famine, disease, lack of knowledge about hygiene standards? The pain of a hangover compounded by anger born of the fact that it's your own dumb fault?

Work

2007-10-22T21:13:00.000+10:00

Work is like some sort of giant brain sap. Especially when working late shifts... working 10.30 to 7pm drives me crazy. I don't know how people do it. I did enjoy riding to work though!!

Voting

2007-10-17T23:09:00.000+10:00

Persons who, say, happen to be going to Japan while the election is on can vote early at the AEC divisional office on Lonsdale street after the 5th of November. Yay!

Awesome Idea

2007-10-08T20:05:00.001+10:00

We need some awesome landscape art to hang on our apartment wall. Any volunteers to help paint a mural?

My work has an email culture where you try to cram the entire message in the subject. What's your email culture like? Regards, Daniel eom

2007-10-02T23:32:00.000+10:00

NetAlert!!!

2007-09-23T20:06:00.000+10:00

Watch out everyone, the internet is out to hurt you! For serious coverage of the Australian government NetAlert ads, click here for an exposé of the government's amateurish deployment of statistics and half-truths to whip up parental panic.

I just find the ads funny!

One reads "Playing online leads to straying online" (.pdf, 341kb) and has a picture of a boy who is being insidiously corrupted by the internets. The boy is the agent! He is straying.

Another reads "Talking online leads to stalking online" (.pdf, 183kb) with a picture of a formally innocent little girl. Applying the same grammer logic, we must conclude that exposure to the internet has turned a 14 year old girl, the grammatic agent, into a base stalker! Quel horreur!

The third reads "An innocent game can lead to something less tame" (.pdf, 192kb) and is simply proof that the advertisers were told to come up with three rhyming couplets and ran out of inspiration, budget, or both.

2007-09-21T23:49:00.001+10:00

Well, suckers, I don't think this blogging thing is going to work. You'd think that when there was a computer in Lachlan's room and Lachlan is a wimp that I would beat him up and take his computer so as to blog. And yet no. Not yet, anyways. Thus, no blogging. Nor, for some reason, am I reading any sort of news. I am horribly, horribly out of touch with the universe at large. It's disturbing when I hear about major events, days after the fact, for the first time, and I have absolutely no idea it's happening.

So, tell me, who would be more self-righteous if the toddler was abandonned by the mother as compared to the toddler's mother being murdered and the toddler abandonned by the father? Father who murders mother is criminal, afterwards abandons child? Merely practical. Mother abandons child? Inhuman. Anyone else sense a bit of a double standard, some sort of gender bias in their gut reaction?

Four

2007-09-04T23:59:00.000+10:00

Who knew you could browse the web, write emails and blog posts all from the Wii? Not me! It's kind of slow so expect short messages. Or maybe it's possible to plug in a key board? but I do need the practice aiming with the Wiimote for Resident Evil. On the other hand again, my RSI is already playing up...

2007-09-02T18:18:00.000+10:00

Back at home for father's day! After 20 minutes with the family, I'm taking time out to spend with the Internet, whom I've also been neglecting. I have so much to catch you up on, that I don't really know where to start. This is where my procrastination kicks in. So I'll leave you with a couple of thoughts.

Thought the first: On Saturday, I watched both the sunrise and the sunset. Sunrise in the car on the way to Mt Buller, and once in the car coming down. Breathtaking! I'm all for swerving to the side of the road for photo-ops, especially where it causes the car behind you to recall that paying attention to the road is important. Tip: don't leave your camera's memory card in the Wii.

Thought the second: Living in a more urban area in Melbourne- that is, Hawthorn- has changed how I see the city. I see a greater connection between the outer suburbs and a country town than there is between them and the inner suburbs. Though, there may be little more to that vision than the angle of the light, the colour of the sky, and the particular scent that hung in the air when it entered my head.

Moved out!!

2007-08-05T20:19:00.000+10:00

Well, I have successfully moved out. Initially, due to stupidity, I thought the power hadn't been turned on, because out of two switches, I only saw the one that was clearly labelled "Main H.W.S," and not the unlabelled one that actually turned the power on. Yay for electricity!

All my stuff is moved in, and insured! Lovely! I'm spending one last night at the olds' place, because I have to return the moving truck tomorrow, and then I get to try and achieve some semblance of order.

Lachlan, if you're out there, and you haven't been killed by a harem of Malaysian hookers, our house is awesome! But you shall almost certainly hate the couches... err... tough? I guess? If you have been killed by Malaysian hookers, I hope they were female for real, and not just in appearances.

Indian police dossier?

2007-08-02T07:10:00.000+10:00

Is it real? Does he have links to Al-Queda? Who knows. It could be a fake, it could be dodgy police work- dodgier than Australian police work? Perhaps not. Despite Peter Russo's assertion that Haneef has no links to Al-Queda, I'm beginning to suspect that I may have acted hastily in signing a partition in support of Haneef. What if he's guilty?? Well, that doesn't excuse his treatment, of course. And if he is guilty, foreign minister Kevin Andrews most definitely acted with too great haste. Sending him home in an effort to end political criticism of having abused executive power.

What we really need is some sort of system that has a presumption of innocent (what Andrews lacks) and also takes steps to ensure the accused sticks around for the case to be heard by independent arbiters. Wait a minute......

Furniture

2007-07-31T19:45:00.001+10:00

Now that I'm moving out this weekend, my complete of living room furniture is starting to seem problematic. Why are you doing this to me, eBay???

2007-07-29T22:11:00.000+10:00

Would you, were it possible, purchase a UK television license so that you could legally download programming from the BBC?

Doing my part....

2007-07-28T08:39:00.000+10:00

... well, not really. I signed a partition in support of Haneef* and thanked the crazy hippies for the great work they are doing. Felt vaguely guilty for being such a passive participant in this somewhat run-down democracy of ours. But, gotta look after number one, yeah? Gotta go to work 9-5, to pay for climbing shoes and couches. In that order.

*See Karan's blog for all the latest, and more developed incense then I can muster.

Customer Service

2007-07-24T18:35:00.000+10:00

I really want to help you. Really. But please stop yelling at me.

Leaving home!

2007-07-17T19:44:00.000+10:00

Well, for those who I've been too damn lazy to tell, Lachlan and I have secured an apartment in Hawthorn! It's awesome! A reasonably spacious "newly renovated art deco delight", with modern bathroom and kitchen that remain in keeping with the style of the house. We move in on the 7th of August, or possible the Saturday following. Well, I do, in any case, but Lachie will be in Kuala Lumpur.

2007-07-15T11:25:00.000+10:00

I am absolutely livid and ashamed to be an Australian. From The Sunday Age:

[Dr Mohammed Haneef] faces up to 15 years' jail for "recklessly" giving a mobile telephone SIM card to the people who planned the June car bomb attacks in Britain.

Dr Haneef had been in detention without charge for over 12 days prior to this ridiculous, beat-up charge was laid. He gave the SIM card to his second cousin, who is implicated in the recent attacks. This is being portrayed as support of a terrorist group. If this is legal, the law is wrong. If Australia permits this, then Australia is immoral- regardless of whether Dr Haneef is ultimately found to have perpetrated any real crime.

2007-07-10T22:10:00.000+10:00

I have completed my tax return! 10 days! New PB!

The single

2007-07-08T13:24:00.000+10:00

Ever since Napster, probably before, people have been saying that it's wrong for the record labels to force people to buy the whole album when they only want one song. In this day and age of digital distribution, the album is- or should be- dead. Is this anything more than rabid information-wants-to-be-free fanboyism? I think the single is a singularly unsatisfying way of experiencing music. Listening to thousands of one-hit-wonders on shuffle, with no regard for genre or tone- how can that compare to a carefully crafted album? How many of you actually download singles?

Quiet

2007-07-07T16:18:00.000+10:00

No blogger in the history of the blogging has posted better posts than I have posted over the last two weeks- in my head. The problem is this: as a rule, I avoid posting non-content posts, because on other blogs I've noticed that they tend to precede long periods with absolutely no content. I broke that rule on the 25th of June, to ask your opinions on design directions for Itinerant Thinker, and- predictably- that post triggered the current dry spell. This, the second non-content post in a row, can only exacerbate this situation.

A question of design

2007-06-25T12:29:00.000+10:00

Apparently this season geographically apt header or background images are in vogue, and so I think that- once everyone has moved on the next big thing- I may well do something along those lines. Does anyone notice that the photos in the sidebar update every three months or so when I upload photos to flickr? Does anyone click through? Or is my content so compelling that you fail to notice? Comments, suggestions?

(Mostly) De-toxed

2007-06-24T09:32:00.000+10:00

I drink coffee mainly to fill the hours. Consequently, now that I have less hours to fill, I'm drinking a lot less coffee- maybe two coffees this week, weekend excluded. This is a Good Thing. I can almost feel the years returning to my life span. Also, being able to sleep at night is nice.

Large project management

2007-06-22T19:14:00.000+10:00

One thing I'm foolishly trying to get my head around at the moment is the mechanics of large project management. So I google "large project management" and, worryingly, most of the people who write about managing large projects apparently don't know how to use the spell checker. Either real project managers are too busy to write about it, or I just uncovered why large projects are hard to manage: the managers didn't pass primary school English.

Work conditions, racism and torture

2007-06-18T21:41:00.000+10:00

The news is cheerful today! First off, a story on Four Corners about how increasing pressures on Telstra worker's may have contributed to two star employees deciding to take their own lives. Next up, Media Watch highlights the sickening level of racism in Australian society and how it is defended as free speech. And finally the Australian's editorial asking whether, in a post-September 11 world, torture is justified.

In every previous era regimes that have tortured governed without the consent of their citizens and relied on fear to stay in power. ... [Today,] instead of an act of oppression, it is possible -- possible -- to argue that there can be cases in the age of terror where torture is an act democratic governments could be obliged to undertake, not in so-called defence of abstractions, be they "the people" or "divine justice", but to save the lives of ordinary citizens.

The Australian concludes that a state should not be able to torture with impunity, but perhaps it might be OK to torture with judicial oversight, in accordance to certain principles set out in law. I fear however that the stakes are too high for such a system to work. How can we trust our politicians- who will never have to take responsibility for the torture that is conducted- be trusted to define the conditions strictly enough? How can we trust that these laws will not be subverted, stretched, or misread, when no-one involved in executing these acts will be held responsible?

Perhaps there are situations where torture is necessary, but to ensure that our society does not become cruel, those who torture must take responsibility for their actions. It must be illegal, and bear heavy penalties. Agents of our government who believe torture is necessary to save the citizen's of the country they serve must be willing to also carry the cost of that decision- a hefty jail sentence if caught. Only in this way can our society show the proper respect for human life.

Work

2007-06-17T12:49:00.000+10:00

Work is consuming most of my brain cycles and also newspaper reading time, so until I build up the self-discipline to adjust my newspaper reading schedule, I might not be posting so often, because that's where the majority of my material comes from!

This is how my brain works

2007-06-11T12:09:00.000+10:00

Last night I yelled, quite loudly, at that dastardly Archie, because he was barking at people who had already been accepted by a member of the pack. So I went all Alpha and let him know who was boss, that is, me. Effective! However, yelling is tiring! And also, I can't help but think: this undermines my position on Iraq. Normal people would say: you can't equate yelling at a miscreant pet with invading a nation. And they'd be right, I guess- but, fundamentally, they are both cases of using aggression to achieve a desired end.

Now I think it was a mistake to invade Iraq- diplomatic means should have been exhausted first. So why then is it OK for aggression to be my first response when it comes to reining in my annoying dog? I might be wrong, but I tend to think that aggression is the only thing that will get Archie's attention. So is it correct to conclude from my behaviour that I actually believe aggression is OK in cases where the other party does not listen to you? Is that a reasonable position? Isn't it just "might is right"?

Flaw

2007-06-05T21:16:00.000+10:00

So I'm clicking through The Age website, and a headline catches my eye: We lead the world in green initiatives, an opinion piece by Federal Minister for the Environment and Water Resources. Malcolm's previous careers in journalism and law, and as a founder of OzEmail, qualify him well to comment on water and environmental issues. Nevertheless, when I read that headline, my first reaction is: that's blatantly false. And it's a real struggle to go and read it- what am I going to get out of it, other than frustration? I've clicked through, it's sitting there in a tab, waiting to be read, waiting for me to form an informed opinion, but I just can't bring myself to do it. This is a problem.

The committee

2007-06-03T10:45:00.000+10:00

Well, I was wrong. While we don't yet know the government's response, it seems that for once they succeeded in fixing a committee's findings, and no greenhouse gas emission reduction targets have been recommended. I was wrong about another thing, too: unless Howard decides to do a double back-flip with a triple twist, and ultimately announces targets before the election, I now have no option but to vote for Labor.

I might add that we shouldn't protect aluminium smeltering. Our aluminium industry is more polluting than in other parts of the world, including the developing world, precisely because it is already too heavily subsidised. Further subsidies remove any incentive for the Australian industry to adopt best-practice, and will result in an industry that pollutes heavily while producing very little, if any, net income for Australia.

Update: A reference for the above claims regarding the Australian aluminium industry. The TAI is a left-wing think tank, but the figures seem reasonable, prima facie. Note that the figures given by the Aluminium Australia Council are for direct emissions, not indirect emissions. I'm not sure if the high level of indirect emissions stem from inefficient use of electricity within the smeltering industry, high emissions from the coal-fired power plants, or both.

Sigh

2007-05-28T22:48:00.000+10:00

The next thing you know, I'll be voting Liberal. Julia Gillard says that the only equitable system is to get rid of AWAs altogether. This is highly unimaginative. Firstly, it's bad politically- Howard is in a much better positions by claiming he'll make the same system fairer. The ALP have put themselves in a weak position, politically, by insisting that the you must replace a known system with a completely unknown system, rather than tweaking what we have. I say, better the devil you know than the devil you don't. The polls disagree with me, to date, and I wouldn't be surprised if my instincts were out of tune with the public.

Secondly, it just doesn't make sense to me. I haven't seen a compelling argument why AWAs, with appropriate requirements, could not achieve a reasonable standard of equity. Why can't you maintain AWAs with an appropriate fairness test? What is the fundamental and unbridgeable difference between AWAs and the ALP's statutory agreements? If AWAs are so bad, why is it OK to keep them, in certain circumstances, until 2013? How is this not political posturing?

I don't like Howard, nor many of his ministers. I do not think they have distinguished themselves as leaders or planners- or even economic managers. Nevertheless, I think that many of the things I hold most dear- for instance, climate change mitigation- are so self-evident as to be unavoidable, regardless of who is voted in. Of course, under excellent leadership, Australia could achieve new heights, but Rudd's Labor does not seem to very far surpass Howard's Liberals. I think that certain programs will be accelerated under Rudd, and he continues to have my support. But recent events have tempered this support, and I would say on climate change Labor will gain us less time then we might hope, and that while they do need to win the next election, unless they lift their game, they don't deserve any more than two terms.

Belief

2007-05-27T18:17:00.000+10:00

Cheryl Lawrie, of the United Church, argues that Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion disregards the value of religion. She speaks of a Christianity where a personal God is not central, and says instead that "there is a power at work in the universe on the side of life and all its fulfilment. Christianity is simply about aligning one's own life with that power..."

Yes, the case for God is pretty flimsy. It's based on beliefs and experiences that can't be measured or proven or validated. But it also offers a promise of a story beyond the one the world would have us know: that there's a force at work in the world, bringing life — right here, right now — richer and more extraordinary than we can imagine.

Dawkins speaks of this type of God, Einstein's God- a God that is not a personal, sentient being, but rather some unspecified Power- belief in such a God might just be healthy wonder at the beauty of the Universe. Dawkins objects to this use of the word God, claiming it is misleading- and it is. But he does not seem to necessarily have an issue with the sentiment. Dawkins book really does not apply to Lawrie, at least as she presents herself in this article, because she really does not seem to believe in God.

Review: Pirates

2007-05-26T00:56:00.000+10:00

Keira Knightley is hot and therefore Pirates of the Caribbean: The End of the Earth is a good film- after all, it is a pornography. Unfortunately, it's the kind of porno that involves cross-dressing, uninspired speeches, vague homo-eroticism, and not nearly enough Johnny Depp. One star.

Group interview

2007-05-24T12:42:00.000+10:00

I have a problem with democracy. My problem is this: there's absolutely no barrier to prevent unqualified individuals from winning election. George W Bush, before entering politics, hardly had an impressive CV. Ordinarily, not a man one might expect to become the leader of the free world, and I'm sure it will not be overly contentious to say that there were far better candidates. Equally, we might question the suitability of Pauline Hanson for the Senate. I don't wish to detract from the value or social contribution of running a small business, but I'm not sure that running a fish and chip store qualifies one to play a part in a nation's governance. Of course, it shouldn't exclude you, but perhaps we should be asking for more from our representatives, some sort of proven track record of having the necessary skills.

One skill that I think is of paramount importance to good governance is the ability to work with other people as part of a large and complex organisation. And so I propose that only those people who are nominated by an equally large and complex organisation- be it a company, a not-for-profit, a social club or so on- only those people who have demonstrated the ability to work effectively in such an environment be allowed to contest a seat.

The problem with overcentralisation

2007-05-21T16:36:00.000+10:00

The Age is running a story by Jane Holroyd about grey water's stumbling block. The problem is that grey-water capture on private property is reducing sewerage flows, leading to increased sedimentation, which in turn leads to increased odour and blockage. Holroyd presents this as a problem with the adoption of grey water, but it's really a problem with centralised sewerage treatment. It simply doesn't make sense to treat sewerage in a remote location, when it can be effectively and affordably treated in localised biogas plants.

Another Saturday night

2007-05-19T23:28:00.000+10:00

Plans for Japan are proceeding apace, which is good, because I must admit that I'm beginning to feel rather stagnant. All the same, it would be most excellent to get out and see some more of Australia. Any ideas for weekend trips that cost in total, including any necessary carbon credits, less than $150?

Sigh

2007-05-16T00:35:00.000+10:00

Rain falls heavy on leaves-
I cannot find sleep.
Anticipated moment.

No seriously, don't call me

2007-05-13T20:13:00.000+10:00

The communists over at The Age are whining about how the Do Not Call Register thwarts charities. Apparently, people mistakenly believe that the register should prevent calls from charities, which is not the case- charities, amongst other organisations, are exempt. Ms Scott, of the Cerebral Palsy League, says that "a fair amount of education that needs to happen out there" in order to correct this misunderstanding. But it is Ms Scott who has misunderstood: whether or not her organisation may legally call is irrelevant. The people have spoken, and they do not want her calls. The reaction of people who think they are protected is an indication of how little they appreciate her work "in the public interest."

"Private beneficence is totally inadequate to deal with the vast numbers of the ... disinherited." - Jane Addams

Future Fund

2007-05-12T10:21:00.000+10:00

The Future Fund is a good idea: let's quit pretending we have our employees' super covered, and actually cover it! Awesome! I'm not sure I get this whole Future Fund for Education thing, though.

Super funds seem to work on the assumption that the individual members are going to die in a timely fashion, so you can allow them to draw down on their share of the capital. If they don't die in time, tough! Money's gone! Universities, though, don't seem to have quite the same predisposition to die. So you can't spend the capital, but only the interest, after allowing for the growth in CPI. Is this worthwhile? Considering the amount of capital kept out of the economy, it will be a reasonably modest benefit.

Moreover, what happens when the economy turns down? Tax revenue drops, but so will the capital value and income from the education future fund. The already small bonus will become even smaller, just when it is most needed. Costello has said that the reason he cut spending on education in 1996 was because there was no money to spend. We should note that spending on education, as a percentage of GDP, is still lower post-education fund than it was before Costello's original cuts, but I guess we can count on a Costello government to cut education spending still further, if faced with economic downturn, the future fund notwithstanding. Why then bother with this model of future fund, if it is of no help when help is needed most?

Typical conversation

2007-05-11T13:08:00.000+10:00

Office pleb one: It's a beautiful day out today.
Office pleb two: Yeah, but we could really use some rain.
Office pleb one: Yeah.
Both office plebs turn to look wistfully through tinted plate glass at the unemployed people frolicking joyously in the sun.

I haven't been this excited since the Academy Awards

2007-05-08T20:01:00.000+10:00

Harvey Danger's free album is the best album I've ever downloaded without fear of prosecution. Check it out. Thanks for the link Jack! One thing's for sure, it's a lot catchier than Costello's conservative, let's-steal-ideas-from-Labor budget. Stay tuned for them to release their carbon trading scheme presently. I'm expecting them to introduce carbon trading, but to ignore their committee's specific recommendation for an emissions reduction target, and instead set conservative, short term, "soft" limits. They've essentially ruled out genuine action. The pundits are predicting more spending leading up to the election, to be paid for out of future budget surpluses ($50 billion over four years.) I say, why the hell not.

At the moment, it's still a no-brainer to vote for the ALP. The coalition have not shown themselves to be serious about climate change. However, with the conservatives stealing from the left's play book- and it's not like they could realistically go further right- unless one or the other party grows some balls and suggests some genuinely interesting policies, this is shaping up to be a close battle, with voter apathy taking Howard to a fifth term.

Egoism

2007-05-07T15:53:00.000+10:00

Christopher Scanlon claims that "DIY journalism is not a real alternative."

Quality journalism requires enormous amounts of skill and money. Expecting the same depth of reporting by committed amateurs is fanciful.

Chris is certainly right if he's talking about my crap, but I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel. Establishment journalists have been criticised for simply reprinting corporate or government press releases, so depth of reporting cannot be claimed for all (and perhaps not even most) journalists. I'm sure there are a bunch of awesome amateur bloggers out there who would give the pros a run for their money. Anyone care to provide some links?

Ugh

2007-05-06T20:58:00.000+10:00

It's severely embarrassing to live in a country with the worst greenhouse gas emissions per capita in the world, a country that refuses to do anything substantial about it.

Let's shut down Hazelwood and the heavily subsidised, economically marginal aluminium smelting industries already.

OLPC

2007-05-03T20:59:00.000+10:00

I might be being unfair, but I find it hard to get excited about OLPC. Firstly, how's about getting rid of the guns first. Secondly, one laptop per child? Isn't that a little excessive? What ever happened to group work? Sharing? Thirdly, I'm sceptical of laptops in schools in rich countries, let alone schools in poor countries. They're certainly not vital, and they can possibly even detract from education. The temptation is to say, "Look, we're spending all this money on technology- it must be having a positive effect on educational outcomes. Therefore, we don't need to measure this effect and justify this spending."

Starbucks

2007-05-02T18:37:00.000+10:00

Today I met up with Addy and went to Starbucks! I'm against Starbucks generally, but it's not like I have any standards of coffee left. And here's the kicker- unlike the Starbucks I saw in the States (I haven't been to Pike Place Market one though) the Swanston St one is actually pretty good. Ignoring coffee quality and paper cups, the decor is nice and the food options reached cafe standards. The end!

A harder question

2007-05-01T18:17:00.000+10:00

A governmental department has sensitive information about citizens. It wants to protect it in such a way that: the minister, with the knowledge and approval of the departmental secretary, can access any record at any time; senior staff can access at any time certain records that they have been pre-authorised to access; and approved staff can access an individuals record but only with that individuals permission. How could this be achieved?

Shopping

2007-05-01T16:54:00.000+10:00

$49 Kenji white business shirt, on sale for $25, chosen primarily for its property of being the cheapest shirt in the first store I walked in to. Good or bad buy?

Let's all achieve the baseline!

2007-04-29T19:17:00.000+10:00

A 60% reduction seems so far away, but it's really quite achievable! Especially in Victoria, thanks to our terribly polluting brown coal power plants. Brown coal, at best, releases 1.22 tonnes per MWh, whereas gas plants release 0.45 tonnes per MWh, a saving of over 60%- and if the gas plant is a co-generation plant, it will also reduce electricity demand. Coal power plants generate half of Victoria's energy, including petrol and everything, so just replacing these power plants as they are retired represents a saving of 30%- that's the baseline. Between increasing energy efficiency, geothermal, solar, wind, tidal, alternative car fuels, increasing density, increased public transport patronage etc. the other 30% should be easy.

A "fair go" for Australians

2007-04-29T13:16:00.000+10:00

Labor promises 2 years guaranteed unpaid parenting leave, one year for each parent, to be taken sequentially. They also propose to guarantee all employees the right to flexible work arrangements until their children reach school age. Finally! This is good news.

The bad news is collective bargaining. I'm all for collective bargaining, having been on the receiving end of an AWA. (The negotiations went something like this: "Sign this." "Hrm, what value should I put in this field for guaranteed minimum number of hours?" "Just leave it blank and sign it.") Union bosses don't deserve a fair go. They really don't seem to care about balance, and they focus narrowmindedly upon a very small range of policy options.

Not that I support castrating unions and leaving employees to fend for themselves, as the Liberals would propose. A Labor that doesn't strengthen the unions is the better option. But unions are clearly an anachronism, and it would be nice if one or the other party would come up with a new model to protect workers' rights so that we can rid ourselves of this mill stone.

Australia's energy future

2007-04-28T19:13:00.000+10:00

A vote for Howard is a vote for a nuclear Australia. It's not that Australia shouldn't consider nuclear- it's that we shouldn't be committing to it without considering other options (especially geothermal) and we certainly shouldn't be committing to a nuclear-only solution.

My major problem with nuclear is that I don't think it will match future load-patterns in Australia. Solar is often criticised because it is not a baseload solution, but this will be less relevant once PV cells reach grid parity- the point at which it's cheaper per kWh to put cells on your roof than to get electricity off the grid. BP predicts that we will reach this point in 10-15 years, the same time frame as any nuclear plants will come online.

Once PV cells are cheaper than the grid, it will be more economical for residential and commercial users to meet their day-time needs using solar, and use the grid only at night and as a backup. This will further push up the cost of power from nuclear and coal, because these have to burn 24 hours a day- they have to burn during the day even if no-one is buying them. Essentially, the daily load profile for this type of plant will be reversed. This increase of cost will push more people towards PV cells, make electricity storage more affordable, and encourage businesses to shift as much load as possible to day-time hours.

This will all happen regardless of government intervention (unless coal and nuclear generation is very highly subsidies, and even that can only delay the time when grid parity is achieved.) Beyond grid-parity, it will be very hard for base-load stations to compete. In an undistorted market, they will inevitably lose ground to more flexible generation methods, and there's a good chance that hasty investment in nuclear will be wasted.

This is a stand alone paragraph.

2007-04-27T11:20:00.000+10:00

Speaking with Addy, who I've co-opted as muse and sounding board, came up with what I think is a sensible idea. An agency, modelled on WorkCover, that will inspect work places and work with companies to suggest potential ways to increase productivity, profitability and international competitiveness. Things like reviewing factoring layout, daylighting, and so forth. The agency would have two roles, firstly, to discover potential methods through research and site visits, and secondly, to disseminate this information- education is the cornerstone of a liberal democracy.

Wankers

2007-04-24T13:04:00.000+10:00

Firstly, Archie is a wanker, because he randomly bit a sales guy that came to the door. This one wasn't even obnoxious! Actually very polite.

Secondly, the person(s) that stole my brothers bike from Mitcham station are wankers. The next time I see somebody riding my brother's bike, I'm going to clothsline them. And as my brother can attest, that hurts!

I am in good company

2007-04-23T14:00:00.000+10:00

Total number of unemployed persons in September 2006, according to the ABS: 520,600.
Total number of active job seekers on the 30th of September 2006, according to workplace.gov.au: 1,159,000.
Discrepancy: 638,400 persons.

Obviously the ABS' definition of employment as 1 hour in a month accounts for much of this discrepancy, but how many hours are on average worked? What percentage of those 1,159,000 persons subsist below the official poverty line? Why is it so hard to find good data?

Update: According to the ABS, at the same time, there were 554,000 underemployed people, people who worked part time and would have liked more hours. That accounts for much of the difference. But I'd still like to know more about their household situation.

One or many

2007-04-23T11:06:00.000+10:00

Your sensible environmentalist will say that many solutions are required to solve global warming- wind, solar, geothermal, natural gas- even, grudgingly, for political purposes only, clean coal and nuclear- although the latter is not needed in a energy rich country like Australia.

I'm wondering if this applies to car fuels as well, though. You have diesel and LPG, yes, but these are largely minority fuels. Private transport is largely standardised on petroleum. Are we going to have a greater number of fuels in the future, or will we standardise on one of the competing fuels?

LPG: Cars designed to run on pure LPG emit less carbon dioxide (and other nasties) than the most efficient hybrids, and they cost less. Diesel can make the same claim, but it smells, so it loses to LPG. LPG hybrids would be even more efficient. Perks: The technology and infrastructure is already in place. Cons: Uses Australian technology and so will be largely disregarded by policy makers. Not coal.

Biodiesel & ethanol: I'm not talking about ethanol from food. Clearly not a solution at all. Cellulosic ethanol, by contrast, would be a genuine solution, and is technologically feasible, though currently too expensive. It does rather look like it will become economically competitive in the near future, however. Perks: Technology largely exists, and infrastructure is already in place. Carbon neutral fuels, unlike LPG. Cons: In order to be carbon neutral, agri has to convert to biodiesel and fuel crops cannot be treated with petrochemicals. These are large systemic changes, fraught with difficulty.

Hydrogen: Hard to transport, hard to use, expensive, but futuristic! Perks: Futuristic. Cons: The technology to produce, store, transport and use hydrogen is still in development and expensive. None of the infrastructure is in place. A fuel which requires new infrastructure cannot compete with one that doesn't. Not necessarily carbon neutral, depending on energy source (coal, natural gas.) Some models rely on carbon sequestration, another unproven, expensive, potentially risky or unstable solution.

Electric cars: All depends on the energy source. Largely competing with hydrogen cars: which is the more efficient storage technique? Next gen plug-in hybrids take us to a very sensible place with electric cars. Perks: Infrastructure and technology largely in place. Cheaper per mile than petrol. Cons: Recharge times (doesn't apply to plug in hybrids.) Worse emissions than petrol if charged using electricity from coal. Existing electricity transmission infrastructure probably doesn't have enough capacity for everyone to charge electric cars, and your roof may or may not have enough room for sufficient solar panels.

Well that was a longer post than I intended.

2007-04-22T22:33:00.000+10:00

I want to go on a bike ride!

Producing

2007-04-21T16:23:00.000+10:00

a kilogram of wheat uses 1,010 litres of water
a kilogram of corn uses 576 litres of water
a kilogram of paddy rice uses 1,550 litres of water, a kilogram of white rice uses 2,385 litres of water
a kilogram of cotton uses 5,300 litres
a litre of milk uses 600 litres of water, a kg of butter 18,070 litres (Is margarine better? How does soy milk stack up? Soya uses 2000 litres per kilogram)
a litre of wine uses 360 litres of water (does beer use more or less? I'm guessing more, because of grain use.)
a litre of citrus juice uses 780 litres of water
a kilogram of chicken uses 3,500 litres of water
a kilogram of steak uses 50,000 litres of water (does it make a difference if it is grain or grass fed?
a kilogram of wool uses 171,500 litres of water, a wool suit uses 685,000 litres

Sources: CSIRO, CTV

Entertaintotron

2007-04-20T10:57:00.000+10:00

Good morning! I just caught myself practicing "The Discard" with my mouse. It must be the weekend! To Lachie's!!

Bathtub Challenge

2007-04-18T12:00:00.000+10:00

Your sensible greenie says that it's very difficult to improve the sustainability of your lifestyle if you're flying blind. Even if you limit yourself to four minutes in the shower, you can still use a lot of water in four minutes. Moreover, it's hard to know, day to day, if you're using the same amount of water or less in that four minutes. If like me you don't wear a watch, without any feedback on how much water you've used, it's easy to inadvertently stretch those four minutes in to, say, half an hour.

One way of dealing with this is to get a fancy schmancy shower that tells you exactly how much water you've used. Another, if your shower is over your bath, is to put the plug in the bath and make a quick guestimate as to how many cubic centimetres you've used. 1000 cc is one litre. Today I think I used around 30,000 cc, 30 litres, which is just under what you should use for a four minute shower.

Woops

2007-04-18T10:52:00.000+10:00

Because I'm a conceited idiot who won't listen to nobody, I've previously questionned the entirely overused phrase "rent money is dead money." Because I'm a careful conceited idiot, I checked my working, and it turns out that I was wrong. If you can afford it, and you ever plan living outside of your parents home, buy a house already.

Here's to dole bludgers

2007-04-17T11:20:00.000+10:00

Last week Treasurer Costello said somewhere that a certain level of unemployment, perhaps 4.5%, perhaps less, was necessary to keep wage pressure down which would in turn keep inflationary pressure down which would in turn keep interest rates down. That is, Costello pointed out that the long term unemployed are largely responsible for the efficiency of our economy, low inflation and low interest rates. That the unemployed are providing such a sterling service for all Australian's really ought to be recognised through appropriate compensation. Performance pay, if you will.

2007-04-15T17:58:00.000+10:00

Now I know many of my hardcore readers, as in, readers who are hardcore, not people who read my uninspired drivel all day- although I know who you are and I'm trying to arrange professional help- are wondering, "How can I keep my rock climbing callouses under control without ruining my hardcore image by owning a pumice stone."

Angle grinder.

Pointer

2007-04-13T21:03:00.000+10:00

I'm sure this is news to no-one, what with me having repeated this ad-nauseum for the last... four years, but it is becoming increasingly clear, indeed, inescapably, depressingly clear, that a Bachelor of Arts is probably the single most worthless qualification you could possibly get. With this in mind, I have three tips if you or a friend, or your children, or your children's children, or your friend's children's children ever consider doing an arts degree.

Don't do an Arts degree.
If you insist on doing an arts degree, major in economics, IT or something remotely worthwhile.
If your true passion is something esoteric like the history of middle eastern horse shoes, then you should definately persue it- all the way to Centrelink.

This is not a cloaked title.

2007-04-06T12:27:00.000+10:00

Good news, everyone! Scientists have created a design for an invisibility cloak that will bend light around a person, vehicle or building. Limitations are currently that it only works for a single light frequency, but the scientists say that it could, in theory, be used by soldiers to cloak themselves from night vision goggles. Hell yes, when I'm trying to stealthily make my way across the rough terrain of a battle field, I want to be cloaked by a cylindrical device made up of doubtlessly robust nanoscale needles, precisely arranged. I wouldn't be at all concerned that a speck of dust would render the needles useless.

But then, it's for the US army. They like equipment that is finicky and prone to failure in the field. (via)

Looking out on the lost and found

2007-04-05T10:58:00.000+10:00

Looking out the window at the moment, over a fine leafy suburb, with suspended power lines. It's their nature to be straight black line-y things. This window has a fly screen, made out of some sort of plastic mesh of straight black line-y things. The combination of power line-y things and fly-stopping line-y things is that when I don't move my head, I can't see the power line at all! However, when I do move my head, thanks to the parallax effect and some fancy brain circuitry, the power line-y thing is perfectly perceivable, and more-over, despite the fact that I can't see, in the sense of photons hitting my retina, the line-y-ness, the line-y-ness is obvious when I move my head!

A justification of Plato? The potential applications for clever cameras? Go.

Work! Put your back in to it.

2007-04-03T16:16:00.000+10:00

How did we become so blasé about our government's constant half truths? The official unemployment rate is at 4.6%, which is supposed to be low but seems rather high to me, not as compared to historical rates or the OECD average, but in terms of the number of Aussie battlers it implies.

But of course, the official statistics bely the fact that an increasing chunk of people who are employed are marginally employed, and are not earning a living wage. Not to mention the people who aren't working but aren't counted because they haven't registered with Centrelink. In fact, taking in to account the number of part time workers, if everyone were working full time, there would be only enough work for around 62% of people.

This is concerning, because it is very difficult to live on less than a full time wage. Obviously, for very practical reasons, we need to be concerned about this and attempt to increase the amount of work available, not just the number of people doing it. But we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that what we actually want to achieve is not necessarily a full time job for each person, but rather a comfortable and fulfilling lifestyle, including meaningful work.

If the Australian economy and society was as vibrant and healthy as Howard and Costello would lead us to believe, the high number of part-time workers would be cause for celebration.

Job search

2007-03-30T12:49:00.000+10:00

With 10 applications in, and one rejection received, by the time you read this, I'll be well on my way to centrelink. I'm going to need to put in one application per day for perhaps a very long time, so does anyone want to nominate some companies that look like that need my services?

I should just self medicate

2007-03-29T10:28:00.000+10:00

So I go to the doctor yesterday, at the behest of my parents, because they're concerned that my cough isn't clearing up after 9 days. Now, when I move out? Yeah, I'm really not going to look after myself. So I go to the doctor, answer his friendly questions, say ahhh, breath deeply. And everything is fine. Just a post-viral cough or something. Again my perverse desire to buck the odds by having something really obscure and deadly is thwarted. And I can see the doctor thinking, "What a wuss... why do people come to see me about common colds?"

I am never going to the doctor again!

God knows

2007-03-28T08:45:00.000+10:00

Who fills the role of the priest in modern society? Social workers? Community house managers? Psychologists? John Laws? It has been clear for a long time that the supernatural aspect of priests' role lacks credibility, but is it possible to have a secular "priest" who fills that role within a community?

Anyone want to help arrange a petition?

2007-03-27T09:03:00.000+10:00

The fourth report from the International Committee on Climate Change indicates that it is almost certain that climate change is caused by human emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The Stern report indicates that the costs of continuing as normal will be devastating to the world economy. We must take action now to lower our greenhouse gas emissions.

More than half of Victoria’s emissions come from electricity generation. Victoria is home to the most polluting coal-fired power station in the world, Hazelwood, and on average brown-coal power plants, which make up a majority of plants in Victoria, emit 1.34kg carbon dioxide equivalent per kilowatt hour- more than any other plant type. Even in the highly unlikely case that so-called clean coal technologies cut these emissions in half, the emissions will still be 20% higher than emissions from proven natural gas base-load power stations, which emit 0.55kg/kWh.

Australia does not need new coal-fired power plants in light of our plentiful resources of both natural gas and geothermal energy. The argument is advanced, however, that countries such as China do need brown coal, and Australian investment in cleaning brown coal will result in a stabilisation or reduction of emissions in China. However, if this is the aim, State and Federal Governments should invest directly in projects within China.

Call on State and Federal Governments to commit to no new power stations with carbon dioxide equivalent emissions greater than 0.55kg per kWh
Call on ESAA and electricity retailers to endorse such a policy, or if Governments should fail to put such a policy in place, to commit to refusing to purchase electricity from new power plants with emissions greater than 0.55kg per kWh
Call on the State and Federal Governments to redirect funding from “clean-coal” projects within Australia, where they are not needed, to “clean coal” project in China, where they are more critical.

No time travel

2007-03-25T08:56:00.000+10:00

Now I know you all think you escaped yet another boring post on physics- misinformed post, moreover!- but I relish the chance to tell you, oh multitudinous readers, that you were mistaken!

In Paul Davies' science fiction novella, How to Build a Time Machine, the unnamed protagonist combines the twins paradox with wormholes to create a time machine!

The twins, in this case, are Luke and Lucy. Lucy gets in a spaceship and travels near the speed of light to a star 10 light-years away, and then turns around and comes back. Luke, more sensibly, applies for the dole and does not move for 20 years. For Luke, Lucy's trip appears to have lasted 20 years, but for Lucy, it appears to have lasted only 3 years and in fact, Lucy has aged only three years. Lucy has traveled forward in time 17 years!

A wormhole, as you will all know from such science fiction classics as Contact and Stargate is a shortcut through space, the existence of which is not explicitly prohibited by the laws of physics as we know them and therefore, according to political liberalism, must be allowed.

Now, Davies' protagonist takes one end of a wormhole and zooms it around near the speed of light for 20 years, while keeping the other end stationary, chugging along through normal time. Now by the time the protagonist is done, because at the end which is going at most of the speed of light time appears, in a mathematical sense, to have slowed down, he has created a time machine, which will allow a person to travel backwards or forwards in time by 17 years!

No. Think about this a little and you'll realize that, logically, it just doesn't make sense. Yes, Lucy is biologically younger than Luke, but this does not mean that she time traveled. The same appearance could be achieved by freezing her. But now ask what would it mean if the wormhole was zoomed about for 20 years? In Lucy's case, we zoom her around for 20 years and she ages only 3 years, but she still ends up in the same time as Luke. If we zoom one end of a wormhole around for 20 years, the matter will have only 'aged' 3 years, but it will end up in the same time as the other end of the wormhole.

If you will imagine that all energy and matter is composed of tiny little strings or loops or globs or whatever else you want- call them quanta- and you imagine that these quanta have a clock-speed of c, and can perform at most c operations per unit of time.* One operation would be moving. Others would be changing state or relationship to another quanta. But if you are moving at c then there are no operations left over to change state or react with other quanta- that quanta, and all the quanta moving with it, would appear to be frozen until they slowed down to a speed less than c. That's what I think is happening.

* Inside the computer there is no time, only the clock speed. Likewise, inside the universe, there is no c operations per unit of time, just c. I only need to say "c operations per unit of time" because the theory as given here is not a relativistic theory. In a relativistic quantum theory, I predict that t will drop out.

Cross promotion

2007-03-23T07:47:00.000+11:00

Who's excited about the promise of a fibre roll-out Australia wide? I know I am! Actually, no, strike that, I really don't care. It's good for the bush, yes, but whatever the hell connection I'm on at the moment is fast enough.

Now, I guess that shows my disconnection from this whole technology thing. Killer apps! Supply the bandwidth and someone will supply the killer apps! Eventually, if anyone comes up with an idea, aside from pirated video. Being a law-abiding citizen, I'm cold on pirated video, and I'm not going to hold my breath and expect the Double Ay's to condone the supply of reasonably priced content.

Another reason I'm not excited is that, despite the huge influx of government funds, the safe money says that Australians will be paying through the nose to Telstra or G9 or Macquarie for the privilege of accessing something that we own half of anyway.

(Don't even get me started on proposals to line rich investors' pockets in attempt to "provide low-cost housing". Seems as though no hot-button social issue is worth solving unless the rich can simultaneously get richer courtesy of a large chunk of tax-payers' money.)

Back in Australia, eh

2007-03-21T11:26:00.000+11:00

You know I never noticed saying "eh" in Canada, but now that I'm back I'm constantly choking on it.

For the record, Australia is awesome. I have been out walking a couple of time, I heartily approve.

Nothing much has changed, except a few things that were broken around my parents house are now fixed, and a few things that were working are now broken. The kettle has become quite a tease. Dodgy connection somewhere. You jiggle it so it starts, and then walk away. Soon as you leave the room, it stops. Re-enter the room, and it starts again.

It's a fun game that also reduces my coffee intake. Better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick.

We've got to get out of this place

2007-03-16T13:34:00.000+11:00

I wasn't wrong. LAX is a really shitty airport. Spoilt by SF, Seattle, NYC, I've grown a soft spot for the states. LA is always here with a timely reminder that the USA have a dark side.

Overheard in New York

2007-03-15T11:31:00.000+11:00

Australian tourist asks for directions. Directions are given. Then:
I bet your blue eyes are really popular with the ladies. You have a nice day.

I also played a game of chess against a random stranger today in Central Park. Good times. I lost really quickly (as expected.)

It's true: New Yorkers are total assholes.

Going up

2007-03-12T05:44:00.000+11:00

So just how do you work on the 14th floor if they're aren't three dimensions? You take the elevator. A dimension, to me, suggests something defined, something bounded. The three dimensions of space are not so. They can be arbitrarily rotated and translated and flipped any which way you want. Time, if it is a dimension, is rather different. It has only a single observed direction, and cannot be swapped with any of the dimensions of space. Time is unique and independent in a way that the X, Y and Z axis are not. At the very least, it is misleading to group the four together under the single heading, 'dimensions.'

So yes, you can have three dimensions of space if you want to, but are they really present in reality, or is it just a useful framework for reference? Just how do the three dimensions work at the quantum level? I move that they don't work at the quantum level- they would simply be meaningless. An amalgamous blob of energy may well be three dimensional but this does not imply that it has three meaningful dimensions.

Snow Angels

2007-03-10T04:00:00.000+11:00

Just to prove that I'm doing more than read Australian newspapers and be contrarian about accepted physical phenomena. For the record, there's a movie of me making a snow angel, but it's classified. I apologise for the lack of soundtrack and commentary.

Ramblings on Mexico

2007-03-08T07:05:00.000+11:00

The photos from Mexico pretty much sum everything up. Lovely weather, beach, swimming. Lots of fun. And some awesome stuff in Mexico City. So I won't go in to that.

The most striking thing about Mexico was the difference between rich and poor. Apparently Mexico city has the greatest separation between rich and poor of any city in the world. Now we did drive past the poor areas, but it's not like we got out and walked the beat, so I don't have any idea what that's like really. What I saw was the other side- lots of servants.

In fact, in Acapulco, we had a maid who cooked and cleaned for us, Lucia. This was weird. The food was delicious of course; the cleaning unnecessary. I realise, though, that the system whereby I and my poor college friends have a maid looking after us is predicated on those bitterly poor people being bitterly poor. Without that, the whole system breaks down. Should I feel guilty, or just lucky?

I think there are two broad schools of communism*. One says, tear everything down until everyone has the same. The other says, build everything up until everyone has the same. Would it ever be possible to build up to a world were everyone can experience, from time to time, that kind of easy living? What would we be building? What would that world look like?

* I am not a communist

Press too quick to judge?

2007-03-07T07:14:00.000+11:00

Meanwhile, the Government has acknowledged the reality that a modern economy cannot be run on renewable energy and is willing to look at all options, a path the community appears to be sympathetic to. The longer Labor delays acknowledging these facts the more it will lose credibility on this issue. (The Australian- Editorial- 07/03/07)

If a modern economy cannot be run on renewable energy (over the long term) then we're all in a lot of trouble (over the long term.) Statements like this, which dismiss out of hand the viability of a modern, plentiful and sustainable economy need to be much more rigorously argued and supported by reference.

Why I need to do a grad. dip. in physics

2007-03-07T06:38:00.000+11:00

When I was a wee lad I was very excited when I first heard that time is the fourth dimension, kind of sort of interchangeable with- or at least analogous to- the ordinary three dimensions of space. Time travel! According to Paul Davies, since Einstein this has been the accepted wisdom amongst physicists. When you approach the speed of light, time itself is dilated.

And yet I find myself quite convinced (with, I admit, no good reason) that time is not a dimension and in fact it does not exist as a primary property of the universe at all, and therefore cannot be dilated (in the same way as a man with no eyes cannot have dilated pupils.) Having denied one dimension, as a point of principle I then deny that there are any meaningful dimensions in space, and the three with which we are familiar are but a convenient notation: those who like dimensions seem to like a lot of them, so I feel that in not liking them, I should get rid of them all.

The question to ask is not, "Why does time slow during motion, compared to rest, as measured by accurate clocks?" but rather, "Why does the transition between the two energy states of the ground state of an atom of Caesium-133 slow during motion, as compared to rest?" More confusingly, why does it slow when affected by a strong gravitational force?

The problem is, I have no idea about the mathematical basis of any of this, and I am not wholly certain that anyone is actually asserting that these things exists, or if they are just put forth as a convenient notation. Hence the need for a grad. dip. as an introduction.