Desert Pea

Sticky tape x-rays

2009-03-20T16:04:00.003+10:30

Here's a really cool story about how sticky tape releases x-rays -- really. They did little sticky-tape-sized x-rays of their fingers!Link: www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/10/23/2398928.htmJust marvellous.Categorised as: technology Technorati Tags: x-ray, UCLA , triboluminescence

Evolution in action

2009-03-13T11:03:00.008+10:30

Was watching a UK documentary1 about Charles Darwin the other day. In it Richard Dawkins was interviewing a prostitute in Kenya who apparently has immunity to HIV. There's a significant percentage of the population infected with HIV, a high rate of clients per day for Nairobi prostitutes who commonly don't use condoms so the odds against prostitutes there contracting HIV are really low. So

2009-03-13T10:45:00.001+10:30

I'm just testing out Ping.fm to Facebook, Blogger and Twitter...

Warning: 450ppm CO2 target would delay doubling of GNP by 6 whole months!

2008-09-08T14:28:00.009+09:30

Criticise him as a utopian leftwing pinko as you wish to, but Clive Hamilton has clearly highlighted how current governing structures and economic practices are ill-equipped to handle climate change legislation.Hamilton has pointed out that, in Australia at least according to Garnaut's modelling, a target of 450ppm of carbon dioxide is going to delay the doubling of Australia's GNP by only 6

Cold and nasty

2008-08-13T10:54:00.018+09:30

This morning I was trawling through the ABC News recent news archive to find some story about cold and nasty weather conditions in Victoria. Instead I was quite incensed to find a story about the cold and nasty organisers of the Olympics Opening Ceremony.Remember that gorgeous little girl in red who was dubbed the Nikki Webster of Beijing. (For those of you not Aussie enough to remember, Webster

Northern Lights: Adelaide cartoonified!

2008-03-19T12:29:00.018+10:30

The Northern Lights show of the Adelaide Festival this year has been one of the most brilliant and striking features. Any day I catch the train after 9:30 this is what I am seeing walking along North Terrace. Last week we took time to sit still and contemplate each projection and, frankly, I never paid such close attention to the architecture of these buildings even though I see them every day.

Why sticking to old ways of thinking is stupid

2008-02-25T17:03:00.005+10:30

I just read an article which tried to critique the Clive Hamilton view of affluenza, "Why Downsizing Won't Work" by Akshay Shanker. It's a relatively immature effort to defend the economic fetish with growth while paying lip service to environmentalism/conservation.His basic premise was that affluence (eg. in post-Industrial Britain) could create the awareness and general social conditions that

Well I failed, but Rudd government doing okay...

2007-12-04T17:14:00.000+10:30

First an update on Buy Nothing Day the Saturday before last... I failed miserably to buy nothing on Buy Nothing Day. Not only was it a Saturday but a day when the Howard government was chucked out after 11 years, meaning a celebration was absolutely in order!First I bought a sausage on bread at the polling booth where I volunteered because I was hungry. Second I bought some hommus to take to the

Balancing the senate

2007-11-23T13:35:00.000+10:30

It's a bit late to be talking about how we could vote tomorrow, but I think this is important so I'll write it anyway. I don't want to be politically partisan here. All I want to do is talk about how you COULD vote in the upper house.As we know, the senate is currently unbalanced. The Liberal party has enough senators (38 out of 76) to block any bill they desire. This is downright dangerous if

Buy nothing on election day!

2007-11-19T17:42:00.000+10:30

On Growth Fetish and Buy Nothing DayThis Saturday, apart from being election day, is Buy Nothing Day (BND). It's on the 23rd in the Americas, but the 24th elsewhere. Anyway, I will participate and encourage you to do so too, or even just think about what you're buying and the resources consumed to produce that product if you really must buy. NOT because I think a world without buying is

SOL: Is online democracy a reality?

2007-10-29T19:10:00.000+10:30

Thanks to Chris who recently sent an email titled True Democracy: Finally... true democracy has arrived that uses modern communication tools. http://senatoronline.com.au It's called Senator Online (or SOL) and it's a special breed of political party with almost no fat of its own. It has no opinions of its own, no real power of its own, and a rigorously transparent administration. Essentially it

Matildas outdo Socceroos

2007-09-22T14:48:00.000+09:30

Remember the excitement last year when the Socceroos got into the round of 16 in the FIFA world cup?Well, there isn't quite as much excitement about it around the traps but now the Matildas (Australian women's soccer team) have exceeded the blokes in the women's equivalent, the FIFA women's world cup, by getting into the quarter finals.Anyone notice the difference in media coverage?The game

The Chaser's war on ABC ratings

2007-09-13T13:16:00.000+09:30

Aunty is no doubt very proud of herself. Not only was the ABC Howard's choice of platform to announce that if he gets re-elected for the fourth time he'll be retiring (??!) but the proud sponsor of the Chaser boys whose show last night was apparently the most-viewed over all TV networks.While some of the stunts (such as attempting to load furniture on to a public bus) were weak as usual, the APEC

A little reflection on flying

2007-09-11T14:59:00.000+09:30

with 100mL bottles not safely tucked into clear plastic bags Previously I'd hated the way my skin would completely dry out from the air-conditioning in the plane and airports. So this time I bought a little 100mL mister containing rose-scented, vitamin-E-fortified water (something like the thing in the picture) to cope with the over 70 hours of flying I'd do for the return trip to Egypt. In

Polticial preference in the DNA?

2007-09-10T17:22:00.000+09:30

I found this article fascinating... Apparently ethics and principle don't play any role in adopting a political preference. It's merely about how well one's brain adapts to breaking a routine! ...Dozens of previous studies have established a strong link between political persuasion and certain personality traits.Conservatives tend to crave order and structure in their lives, and are more

Differences in human parallel processing

2007-07-30T00:30:00.000+09:30

I feel like I spend a lot of my time looking at and learning about the world, in some ways more of a passive observer rather than an active participant. Much of the time I feel like reality is so complex I ought to make sure I understand it properly before formulating my ideas about, making comments or taking action. But there are so many issues and so many perspectives, and perspectives of

Victoria Square bubbles

2007-07-11T09:16:00.000+09:30

I just wanted to write a serious post to make up for not having posted for 2 months. Since I last posted many interesting political twists have taken place, given it's an election year, including the grand Howard plan to ban pornography and alcohol in Aboriginal communities in an effort to vilify Aborigines instead of paedophiles tackle the child sex abuse in indigenous communities. More on that

Boycott Zimbabwe cricket match? Only if it doesn't hurt the economy!

2007-05-16T11:20:00.000+09:30

Recently there's been a lot of discussion about the quandary of the Australian cricket team as to whether they should fulfil their contract obligation to play the Zimbabwean team in Zimbabwe or to boycott the match or request for it to be played elsewhere to avoid giving the Mugabe an "enormous propaganda boost",[source] which would likely impose a $2 million fine on the team from the ICC.While

Costello budget 2007: Will he add a stripe of green?

2007-05-02T14:48:00.001+09:30

In the lead-up to Costello's May 8th, election year budget speech, Greenpeace is asking you to guess how many times you think he'll mention climate change (if at all), given he's never mentioned it since he started doing budgets eleven odd years ago.Take a punt on Peter Given the fact that Australia is still the world's largest exporter of coal, he may just be able to manage it once or twice with

How broad is broadband? Not a problem of breadth but universality!

2007-04-19T16:47:00.000+09:30

A really good article in Crikey yesterday that cuts through all the bullshit surrounding claims about broadband in Australia. The fact is that the broadband in my city-centre office is fantastic, fast and affordable for business, but drive and hour outside and it's not. "Better broadband" isn't about Australia performing better against some international benchmarks, but simply providing more

Unprogramming my brain

2007-02-17T14:14:00.001+10:30

It's breaking all the conventions I normally keep for this blog but a bit over a week ago I was finally convinced get back to doing face/body studies, and since then I made agreements with at least three friends to practice with their faces. I find people like the idea of getting a portrait done for free and I like the idea of getting to practice drawing faces of people I feel I know so

Man attacks shark!

2007-02-16T10:52:00.000+10:30

Thanks to the sharp eyes of one who comments here as jair, a jaw-dropping story of when you know you've had too much vodka to be out catching squid! An Eyre Peninsula man is the talk of the town after catching a bronze whaler shark in his hands and wrestling it up onto a jetty.Phillip Kerkhof from Louth Bay was at the local jetty when the 1.3-metre shark began chasing squid lures.He says he

Under Southern Stars rates well under 5 stars

2007-02-05T13:01:00.000+10:30

Amanda Vanstone's freshly penned patriotic song is several stars short of a Southern Cross to me! Under Southern Stars just rings hollow to me and I would be disappointed to see it infiltrated into schools.So here's my uninvited and likely unwelcome critique: Home to first Australians / Joined from near and far / Shining light for freedom / Under southern stars This is a nice acknowledgement

I'm dreaming of a whiiiite new year!

2006-12-29T15:10:00.001+10:30

My blog post here is in large part inspired by Geoff of Radwaste's happy Christmas post which links to Dame Edna's Christmas message. The Dame ends of in customary style "I wish all of my possums..." blah blah blah "...a very wet New Year." Apt, given, as Geoff points out, this Christmas was the coldest in Radwaste recorded history, and in my personal memory. In Melbourne and Adelaide people were

In defence of space budgets: Bold steps may accidentally solve humanitarian problems

2006-11-17T17:45:00.000+10:30

A friend rhetorically asked me why humans are still putting great resources into researching and developing weapons, space programs and a plethora of "useless gadgets". It's a point well taken, but I feel like there is a part of the thinking process missing. Let me try to explain it.From the time of the (European) industrial revolution onwards, the old adage that "need is the mother of all