Hello Cruel World
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
 
Science and Fiction
The science fiction issue
'I've seen things...'
www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,13026,1290561,00.html

Our expert panel votes for the top 10 sci-fi films

Alok Jha, Simon Rogers and Adam Rutherford
Thursday August 26, 2004
The Guardian


The science fiction issue
www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,13026,1290565,00.html

The war of the words

The world's best scientists nominate their favourite authors

Tim Radford, Simon Rogers and Adam Rutherford
Thursday August 26, 2004
The Guardian


There are some things man was not meant to adapt to musical theatre...
www.cthulhulives.org/Musical/cdinfo.html
A Shoggoth on the Roof HPLHS Cast Album. Available for a $12.50 donation to the HPLHS Committee for the Prevention of Cruelty to Shoggoths, plus $2.50 shipping/handling

One kind of alternative viewpoint
Middle East Media Research Institute - TV Monitor Project

www.memritv.com/Transcript.asp?P1=219

Iraqi Sheik Al-Sumide'i Tells of the Divine Spiders Sent by Allah to Assist the Muslims in the Battle of Falluja

Another very alternative viewpoint.
www.exopolitics.org/Study-Paper2.htm
An Exopolitical Perspective on the Preemptive War against Iraq

Research Study #2

February 3, 2003, www.exopolitics.org
© Dr Michael E. Salla


Abstract

Most, if not all, criticisms of the Bush administration's motivation for launching a preemptive war on Iraq focus on a combination of the imperial world views of conservative politicians in power in Washington, D.C., and the corporate interests that drive the political agenda of the Bush administration. This study will provide a radically different political analysis of the Bush administration's motivation for going war, and of the explanations offered by his critics. This study provides an exopolitical analysis of the policy dimensions of an historic extraterrestrial presence that is pertinent to Iraq and a US led preemptive attack. It will be argued that competing clandestine government organizations are struggling through proxy means to take control of ancient extraterrestrial (ET) technology that exists in Iraq, in order to prepare for an impending series of events corresponding to the 'prophesied return' of an advanced race of ETs. The Columbia Space Shuttle may well have been a high profile victim of such a proxy war intended to send a message to US based clandestine organizations over the preemptive war against Iraq.

In conducting this analysis, this study examines the available evidence of an historical ET presence in Iraq, and then applies this evidence to better understand the contemporary political situation in Iraq. The study will then analyze the motivations of the main political actors in the prospective US led preemptive war against Iraq. The study concludes by making some policy recommendations concerning how to respond to the legacy of an ET presence in Iraq and its contemporary political relevance.

 
Science and Fiction
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,13026,1290561,00.html
The science fiction issue

'I've seen things...'

Our expert panel votes for the top 10 sci-fi films

Alok Jha, Simon Rogers and Adam Rutherford
Thursday August 26, 2004
The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,13026,1290565,00.html
he science fiction issue
The war of the words

The world's best scientists nominate their favourite authors

Tim Radford, Simon Rogers and Adam Rutherford
Thursday August 26, 2004
The Guardian
_________

There are some things man was not meant to adapt to musical theatre...
http://www.cthulhulives.org/Musical/cdinfo.html
A Shoggoth on the Roof HPLHS Cast Album. Available for a $12.50 donation to the
HPLHS Committee for the Prevention of Cruelty to Shoggoths, plus $2.50
shipping/handling

http://www.exopolitics.org/Study-Paper2.htm
An Exopolitical Perspective on the Preemptive War against Iraq

Research Study #2

February 3, 2003, www.exopolitics.org

© Dr Michael E. Salla

Abstract

Most, if not all, criticisms of the Bush administration's motivation for
launching a preemptive war on Iraq focus on a combination of the imperial world
views of conservative politicians in power in Washington, D.C., and the
corporate interests that drive the political agenda of the Bush administration.
This study will provide a radically different political analysis of the Bush
administration's motivation for going war, and of the explanations offered by
his critics. This study provides an exopolitical analysis of the policy
dimensions of an historic extraterrestrial presence that is pertinent to Iraq
and a US led preemptive attack. It will be argued that competing clandestine
government organizations are struggling through proxy means to take control of
ancient extraterrestrial (ET) technology that exists in Iraq, in order to
prepare for an impending series of events corresponding to the 'prophesied
return' of an advanced race of ETs. The Columbia Space Shuttle may well have
been a high profile victim of such a proxy war intended to send a message to US
based clandestine organizations over the preemptive war against Iraq.



In conducting this analysis, this study examines the available evidence of
an historical ET presence in Iraq, and then applies this evidence to better
understand the contemporary political situation in Iraq. The study will then
analyze the motivations of the main political actors in the prospective US led
preemptive war against Iraq. The study concludes by making some policy
recommendations concerning how to respond to the legacy of an ET presence in
Iraq and its contemporary political relevance.


------------------------------------------------------------
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Wednesday, August 25, 2004
 
Eulogy for an Inanimate Object
A musical example: La Boheme (Puccini) Act 4

Colline
(addressing his overcoat, which he has just taken off:)
Dear old coat, listen, I stay here below,
but you must now ascend the mount of piety!*
Receive my thanks.
You never bent your threadbare back to the rich and powerful.

You have sheltered in your pockets like peaceful caves, philosophers and poets. Now that happy days have fled, I bid you farewell, my faithful friend, farewell, farewell.

[*Monte de Piete ]

Colline
(indicando il cappotto che si è appena tolto)

Vecchia zimarra, senti, io resto al pian,

tu ascendere il sacromonte or devi.
Le mie grazie ricevi.
Mai non curvasti il logoro dorso ai ricchi ed ai potenti.

Passar nelle tue tasche come in antri tranquilli filosofi e poeti.
Ora che i giorni lieti fuggir, ti dico addio, fedele amico mio, addio, addio.

Monday, August 23, 2004
 
Really Pretty night picture of Sydney City

tesla.csl.uiuc.edu/~ggopalak/Photos/Nature/sydney.jpg
You can see the list of other images and view each separately in the directory
www.comm.csl.uiuc.edu/~ggopalak/Photos/Nature
Thursday, August 19, 2004
 
FOOMMMP! FWAPP!! Kazzzam - and awwaaaaayyy! ** Apostrophe Man ** appears
from nowhere with his supercalifrag-o pen and wonder-erase-o eliminator,
aims the wonder-erase-o, which dissolves & sucks up the offending surplus
apostrophe into its constituent molecules (for later transfer to the pen for
reuse), then flies off to make communication safe for the oppressed &
confused everywhere English is written.



Another form of camouflage:

http://rhein-zeitung.de/on/03/01/28/ (under Anti-amerikanische Cola macht
Furore)

http://www.cunegonda.info/19meccacola.htm

http://www.boycottusa.org/news/news_detriotnews12Feb_03.htm if you prefer
English (NB: Not checked for grammar-porn, apostrophe-abuse, &c.)

http://www.aijac.org.au/review/2003/287/essay287.html (see second picture)

Mez

Wednesday, August 18, 2004
 
Obsolete? High Technology
From the Gallimaufry entry showing their
Worldcon schedule extract
We find the listing for this panel discussion with this question:
JK Monday 11:00am Obsolete High Technology: Bill Higgins, Jordin T. Kare, Robert A. Metzger, Charles Stross
What was the highest of tech in 1910? Radio and the Titanic.

The highest tech in 1910 was probably nuclear physics - just beginning. And it's 5 years after Einstein's annus mirabilis, where he "published a series of groundbreaking papers on Brownian motion (which convinced the doubters that atoms really did exist), special relativity and the photoelectric effect" (his first Nobel Prize paper). Its centenary could be interesting.

Check out, as a quick example, these two timelines (there are probably even more storylines in the history there than were used in Copenhagen).
Nuclear & Particle Physics Timeline
Quantum Mechanics Timeline

Tuesday, August 17, 2004
 
Sometimes all you need is the air that you breathe
Asbestos mainly affects the lungs and the membrane that surrounds the lungs. In the early 1900's, doctors in Europe knew that asbestos workers were dying from respiratory ailments. In 1924, Dr W E Cooke reported in the British Medical Journal cases of pulmonary fibrosis (asbestosis) in workers employed in the asbestos industry. Unfortunately it took many years for this information to be acted on.

NOTE THE DIFFERENCE between Asbestosis (a dust disease, like pneumoconiosis or Black Lung in coal miners) and Mesothelioma (a cancer). To develop asbestosis takes breathing fairly high levels of fibre for a fairly long time. To develop mesothelioma you only need a single exposure at a moderate or light level of fibres, though it may then take twenty or more years for the tumour to become apparent.

Asbestosis
Asbestosis is widespread scarring of lung tissue caused by breathing asbestos dust.
Breathing high levels of asbestos fibres for a long time may result in scar-like tissue in the lungs and in the pleural membrane (lining) that surrounds the lung. This stiffens the lungs and makes breathing difficult.

People with asbestosis have difficulty breathing, often a cough, and in severe cases heart enlargement, and the disease can eventually lead to disability and death. There is no cure

Malignant Mesothelioma
Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma - Persons exposed to asbestos either within or outside the asbestos industry may, after many years, develop malignant mesothelioma. This cancer occurs in the cells of the pleura covering the surface of the lung and lining the inside of the chest wall and diaphragm. Crocidolite (blue asbestos) has the most potent effect in producing this cancer. This tumour may eventually totally envelope the lung, with a malignant growth sometimes several centimetres thick. The tumour is irreversible, poorly responsive to any current cancer treatments, and often fairly rapidly fatal. It may be accompanied by chest pain, fluid in the chest cavity (pleural effusion) and breathlessness. In rare cases combined surgery and chemotherapy may prolong life. Mesothelioma tumours have no relationship with tobacco smoking.

Peritoneal Mesothelioma - Around the outside of the coils of intestine and also lining the abdominal cavity is a membrane (the peritoneum) similar in character and thickness to the pleura. It is similar tissue to the pleura and, like it, can give rise to a malignant tumour called peritoneal mesothelioma, which is also related to previous asbestos exposure. This disease usually progresses slower then pleural mesothlioma..

(Information from the Australian Lung Foundation, HealthInsite - from Department of Health and Ageing, the Merck Manual (2nd Ed), Cancer Council of Victoria )
Thursday, August 12, 2004
 
The Tangled Web
They say story is a force of nature. Reality certainly turns up some strange stories.

There was a distressing abduction of a 24-day-old baby named Montana recently in a Melbourne (Victoria, Australia) car parking station. Her mother had put her into the baby capsule in the car, and was loading shopping into the car boot with an older child. A man hit & grabbed the mother while a woman took the baby, then they ran to another car and drove off. Being in a shopping centre car park, there was some security camera vision of a middle-aged couple they thought were involved.

Lots of shock & horror from the public. Distressing scenes with the family. Naturally, from experience of other cases, first thoughts were some domestic custody dispute, but this was quickly dismissed by the police, though only the mother and her relations seemed to be on the media pleading to the kidnappers.

Then it was found that the father was a Barbaro, part of one of the Melbourne criminal families. His cousin had been assassinated not long back as part of a recent spate of killings in that milieu. Thoughts turned to possible revenge/warning/feud motives.

It was very soon after that, however, that Montana turned up, placed in a derelict house used as an occasional drug squat. Much relief.

Not long after that, a couple were arrested. In their committal hearing it was said that they'd had six children, were 'desperate' to have another, had unsuccessfully tried to adopt, and this was a random grab to try and get another to bring up. You can just imagine them hearing about the baby's relations and realising that they'd grabbed a bundle of trouble.

They were put in a special glassed-in dock, and it was asked that they each be put into prison special protection units -- like witnesses in danger or child molesters or imprisoned police -- to protect them from possible revenge by associates of the Barbaros. Guiseppe (Joe), the father, was seen mouthing threats to them across the court.

Now comes another twist. Because the baby's father was seen on television at the committal hearing, he was recognised as the father of two children in Canberra (Australian Capital Territory), from a current relationship of seven years' standing, with another woman. Neither woman had any idea of the other.

Sigh. People.

*** UPDATE ***
(More twists than a barley sugar cane)
Joe (Guiseppe) was in custody in Victoria, but had been let out on bail. The New South Wales police were annoyed that they hadn't been informed by Victoria Police or the courts that he was on bail, because they had warrants out on him, which they could have served if they'd known he wasn't in custody.

[It is apparently rather tricky to keep track of all the family because of the traditional naming practices. Every branch and generation has at least one each of a Giuseppe (Joe), Antonio (Tony) & Francesco (Frank).]

Meanwhile the one joke I've heard so far referred to a movie called 'Raising Arizona' where a couple kidnapped one child of sextuplets from a rich & powerful family in order to raise it as their own. This version was, naturally, going to be called 'Raising Montana'.

A friend's comment:
Not too late to sign up with the Carbonzo Crime Family!
At present Carbonzo Olive Oil are searching for enforcers, olive runners, runners, bet boys, fast talking shoe shine lads, goons, registered goons, numbers runners, sweaty leerers, "Yeah Sayers" and squealers. Join NOW!
(Top market rates, special floral arrangements at all passing out ceremonies.)

Yours
Alfresco Carbonzo,
Soup Course.

 
Sally Loane (ABC) on Fish Markets redevelopment plans
You seemed a bit doubtful about the doubts of Andrew from The Glebe Society's about the Master Plan for the Fish Markets.

Perhaps you also see the markets as mainly a tourist attraction rather than a living local amenity. If you've travelled, it's the difference between walking around Melbourne's 'authentic' Victoria Markets and finding yourself in the food court of the new Bondi Junction shopping centre. Yes, they each have their place, but your basic shopping centre can be anywhere, while the Fish Markets grew out of Sydney Harbour. Yes, we'd like to see improvements, but experience has shown such plans are not particularly likely to connect to or benefit the surrounding districts.

If you talk to people who've been local for more than a few years, nearly everyone who isn't just another property speculator, but who hopes to live in the place happily long-term, is deeply suspicious and frequently quite scarred by the last seventeen years of struggle to get a decent, high-quality, livable community as a side-effect of this most recent rush to extract as much money as possible out of Ultimo-Pyrmont. Check with Shirley Fitzgerald, the historian.

Alas, it's getting more & more difficult to actually consult with & contact the community, or for the community to discuss things with itself. Both the Pyrmont & Ultimo Precinct Committees have now been shut down, and the replacement information sessions and quarterly public meetings were abandoned by the new, enlarged council for a single annual meeting.

Some are hoping, perhaps forlornly, that once the rejigged council has got itself together, they will look at how other large councils organize information, feedback, consultation & representation through precinct committees or other community bodies.

There are, luckily, some people able to try and continue privately with community action groups, but I worry that they will either be easily ignored, as they may not have official recognition, or be private pressure groups for particular interests, like the business representative/chamber of commerce style of body, rather than being accountable, public, & for the general good.

This is not just a problem in Ultimo-Pyrmont, but possibly a problem of local representation in Australian society overall. It may contribute to the whole cynicism & disillusion with politics at all levels by average citizens who find themselves unable to get their concerns recognized, except the portions that correspond to, or can be twisted to fit into, the agenda of some group of influence.
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
 
A line of toys from the Insane Asylum for Abused Plush Animals?
http://www.parapluesch.de

 
A Nicer Pyrmont Fish Markets Experience
Quick hint to avoid nasty Bank Street crossing & car park obstacle course if
you are going to the Pyrmont Fish Markets by light rail (or even by bus).

If you go past the 'official' fish market tram stop to the one just before
the Wentworth Park viaduct ( see map at href="http://www.metrolightrail.com.au/Artwork/MetroNetworkMap/MetroNetworkM
ap_r15_c10_f2.gif">
http://www.metrolightrail.com.au/Artwork/MetroNetworkMap/MetroNetworkMap_r15
_c10_f2.gif), walk back to Pyrmont Bridge Road and cross at the lights,
directly opposite the Wentworth Park corner there is a pedestrian entrance
which takes you along the shore where the picnic tables are at the back of
the 'main' fish market building.
By bus, since they stopped running the 459 along Pyrmont Bridge Rd, in most
cases you need to get off the 441, 442 or 501 under the freeway, then ,
depending whether your bus was heading in or out of town, cross the road(s)
towards the markets, *walk up around the corner* and enter via the Pyrmont
Bridge Road entrance.

Later, if there isn't room to sit in the markets you can cross back and sit
in the shade or sun in Wentworth Park. There are also some nice small parks
if you head out of the markets towards Pyrmont, e.g. between the rail line &
Bulwara Street behind the freeway sound barrier (near the 'official' Fish
Market tram stop), or at the corner of Harris & Pyrmont Bridge, opposite
Cromwell's Auctioneers & the Quarrymen's Arms, close to bus stops & with
tables, seats & a bubbler. You can also explore along Bank Street towards
the

Monday, August 09, 2004
 
Purrscilla's Scrapbook
Purrscilla's Scrapbook
A whole slew of furry feline photos. There may be more of these on the net than nekkid ladies (well, getting close).
Sunday, August 08, 2004
 
The Infinite Cat Project - Cats watching cats watching cats. Hey! It's a concept!
The Infinite Cat Project - Cats watching cats watching cats. Hey! It's a concept!
In case you're wondering what the heck this site is all about...

It all began innocently enough when a user on an Apple help forum posted a picture of his cat, Frankie, contemplating the beauty of a flower. Shortly afterwards another user posted a picture of his cat bristling at the image of Frankie on the monitor. I decided this was too much fun and advanced the concept as The Infinite Cat Project which is, simply, cats regarding cats regarding cats in an electronic milieu.

I'll be happy to post a picture of YOUR cat as long as it is shown looking at a monitor which bears the image of the latest picture in the sequence.

 
My Cat Hates You
My Cat Hates You
 
Simulaids - Basic Sanitary Dog
Simulaids - Basic Sanitary Dog
The world has many things stranger than I have imagined.
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
 
The modern Trojan Horse
Though people object to particular examples of how this "Free Trade Agreement" may affect us badly, I'd ask you rather to look at the ideology at its base.

This Trojan horse provides a legal way to lock us into an extreme economic kind of fundamentalism. The same as in a world trade agreement rejected a year or two ago.

The ideology also affects any government or charitable ("non-profit") regulation or involvement in almost any part of society, including public schools, hospitals, heritage, arts, the environment & natural resources or national parks, even parts of defence, and calls it "unfair" or "subsidies". Eventually things like the Trade Practices Act, and many other legal protections for the land & the people (PBS, OH & S, etc) are struck down as "anti-competitive".

It says that the basis of society and democracy, particularly the Australian version*, is wrong. That public good and public service should only ever be a by-product of the drive to private profit; that the "best and highest" use of human effort and intelligence is to serve that aim, not to improve the world, express humanity, or whatever.

Any improvement or service provided in order to make money is to be the least possible, produced as cheaply as possible - whatever this means for your staff, your providers or the natural resources you use - for the highest possible price (called "efficiency" and "productivity"). This, for example, drives farmers to poor long-term land management to meet short-term price & supply demands from a buyer with the whip-hand, a situation common in Third World countries and becoming more common in Australia.

Another example will be the future history of NRMA, originally set up as acommunity based, though private, non-profit service-provider. Most of its recent troubles have been conflict over changing from that to this other basis of operation.

The costs - human, social, environmental - may be dumped on whatever poorly-funded government services are left, or in an ironic twist, also used as a source of profit, say by setting up a services company to bid for tax money provided (because government responds to public pressure) to help with the damage, as government services are cut, corporatised or privatised to follow this managerial ideology.

In this belief-system representative government and accountability are, like following the letter of the law, perhaps necessary evils, but to be used as sparingly as absolutely necessary. Law-makers should be lobbied &/or "donated" to, to make the laws, including tax, as favourable as possible.

It is thought to be better to pay this, or lawyers, public relations firms and advertisers to give an impression of a "good company" than pay the same money on being a "good company". That might set an expensive precedent, and not be noticed by those consumers who would prefer to use a "good company". Sponsorship should similarly be not just tax deductible -- so tax money is either paying much of it or is reduced by that amount so public services are disadvantaged -- but the splashiest for the money, not necessarily applied in the most useful way, or to the neediest cause. (Sally's "spin doctors" will confirm this, but use their "spinning" language to justify it).

Don't let people tell you "it's inevitable". So was the Thousand Year Reich, so was the Divine Right of Kings, and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. Those who say that do because they want you to believe it & give up. They say: "Don't ask 'Who moved my cheese, and who has it now?' "; just accept it & adapt. But remember evil can only triumph when good people do nothing.

It's taken between 500 and 1000 years of struggle to get a legally-bound and legally-removable ruler, representative government with voting rights for all adults, support for the mentally & physically ill, injured workers & their families, legal rights for women & ordinary people, and everything that distinguishes a decent human kind of society from the rule of "strongmen" & their enforcers - the human equivalent of a baboon troop, ruled by force,fear & furtiveness.

Why prepare to throw away all those blood-bought lessons? Why knowingly step back down that path when we've seen, over & over,how destructive & brutal it is? Yet this is just what underlies this kind of agreement, opening up our agreed social contracts to legal challenge.

[* Australian version - A Tale of Three Prison Camps. During the Pacific war (there's an oxymoronic name), perhaps in Singapore, the Japanese army set up three camps for prisoners-of-war from British, Australian, then Americanforces. They provided better supplies to the officers in each camp. The British camp kept its distinctions & privileges, with antipathy between officers & enlisted men; The American camp descended into 'free trade' of rations, medicine, etc, so that some ended up sick, poor, without help, andothers became "King Rats". In the Australian camp, the officers & men shared and each helped the other, so the survival rate at the end of the war was better than the others.

This is the legend, and I'm sure it's simplified, but it points to the best purpose & moral foundation of Australian society as evolved from the mid-nineteenth century until about the 1980s, when the "Free Trade" push --so reviled for many years for things like exporting wheat from Ireland during the Great Famine, because English markets could pay for it and starving Irish couldn't -- made a comeback.]

Tuesday, August 03, 2004
 
US-Australia FTA, the Trojan Horse, and a Tale of Three Camps
[TO BE FINISHED]
Though people are objecting to particular examples of how this "Free Trade Agreement" may affect us badly, I'd ask us to look at the ideology at its base. This Trojan horse provides a legal way to lock us into an extreme economic kind of fundamentalism. The ideology also affects any government or charitable ("non-profit") involvement in almost any part of society, including public schools, hospitals, heritage, arts, the environment & natural resources or national parks, even parts of defence, and calls it "unfair" or "subsidies".

It says that the basis of society and democracy, particularly the Australian version*, is wrong. That public good and public service should only ever be a by-product of the drive to private profit; that the "best and highest" use of human effort and intelligence is to serve that aim, not to improve the world, express humanity, or whatever.

Any improvement or service provided in order to make money is to be the least possible, produced as cheaply as possible - whatever this means for your staff, your providers or the natural resources you use - for the highest possible price (called "efficiency" and "productivity").

An example will be the future history of NRMA, originally set up as a community based, though private, non-profit service-provider. Most of its recent troubles have been conflict over changing from that to this other basis of operation.

The costs - human, social, environmental - may be dumped on whatever poorly-funded government services are left, or in an ironic twist, also used as a source of profit, say by setting up a services company to bid for tax money provided (because of public pressure) to help with the damage, as government services are corporatised or privatised to follow the managerial ideology.

Representative government and accountability are, like following the letter of the law, perhaps necessary evils, but to be used as sparingly as absolutely necessary. Law-makers should be lobbied &/or "donated" to, to make the laws, including tax, as favourable as possible.

It is better to pay this, or lawyers, public relations firms and advertisers to give an impression of a "good company" than pay the same money on *being* a "good company". That might set an expensive precedent, and not be noticed by consumers who would prefer to use a "good company". Sponsorship should similarly be not just tax deductible, so tax money is either paying much of it or reduced by that amount so public services are disadvantaged, but the splashiest for the money, not necessarily applied in the most useful way, or to the neediest cause. (Sally's "spin doctors" will confirm this, but use language to justify it).


[* Australian version - A Tale of Three Prison Camps. During the Pacific war (there's an oxymoronic name), perhaps in Singapore, the Japanese army set up three camps for prisoners-of-war from British, Australian, then American forces. Being hierarchical themselves, they provided better supplies to the officers in each camp.
In the British camp, the officers used the enlisted men to build themselves better quarters, kept their own rations, gave themselves better medical treatment. The enlisted men resented this, were as unco-operative and insubordinate as they could be, and were punished for this.
In the American camp there was fierce "free" trading in food, cigarettes, medicine, so that some ended up sick & poor without anyone to help them and others became "King Rats".
In the Australian camp …

This is the legend, and I'm sure that there was some bad & good behaviour in all of them, but it points to the best purpose & moral foundation of Australian society as evolved from the mid-nineteenth century until about the 1980s, when the "Free Trade" push -- so reviled for many years for things like exporting wheat from Ireland during the Great Famine, because English markets could pay for it and starving Irish couldn't -- made a comeback.

Don't let people tell you "it's inevitable". So was the Thousand Year Reich, so was the Divine Right of Kings, and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. They say that because they want you to believe it. Remember evil can only triumph when good people do nothing. It's taken between 500 and 1000 years of struggle to get a legally-bound and legally-removable ruler, representative government with voting rights for all adults, support for the mentally & physically ill …

 
Self-organizing systems & cornstarch in water
chaos.ph.utexas.edu/~rddeegan

Robert D. Deegan
Research Associate, Center for Nonlinear Dynamics & Department of Physics
University of Texas at Austin

Corn starch movie (4 Mb Windows Media file)

Research: Simple systems driven from equilibrium will spontaneously form patterns. For example, a thin layer of liquid heated from below develops hexagonally ordered convection cells. The Earth is a system driven by the constant flux of energy from the sun and geothermal processes, and we see around us an enormous variety of organized structures: hurricanes, the earth’s magnetic poling, and the Devil's post pile. Are these structures like the patterns of simple systems: an inevitable product of the forcing? Is life itself a generic manifestation of driven systems? These are fascinating issues that research on nonequilibrium systems and pattern formation will hopefully one day answer.

My research focus is patterns in fluids and solids. I discovered that vibrated shear thickening fluids--fluids that become more viscous as the shear rate increases, e.g. cornstarch in water--can support holes and can develop large finger-like protrusions, and I'm now trying to understand these structures. Recently, I designed and built an apparatus to fracture single-crystal silicon at 77o K in order to test the theoretically predicted velocity gap, a range of velocities in which crack propagation cannot occur in the absence of thermal fluctuations. I also examined two different fracture instabilities: wavy cracks in thermally quenched silicon, and the oscillating path of a crack in rubber, such as when a balloon is popped.

As a graduate student in Professor Sidney Nagel's lab, I studied the glass transition and patterns formed by the precipitation of solute from a drying drop. The starting point for latter project was the observation that coffee stains are always ring shaped, i.e. darkest along the perimeter.


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 / . Lives in Australia/New South Wales/Sydney, speaks English. Eye color is hazel. I am what my mother calls unique. My interests are photography, reading, natural history/land use, town planning, sustainability.

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Australia, New South Wales, Sydney, English, photography, reading, natural history, land use, town planning, sustainability.