Here's Why

YouTube - Monkey & Goat on rope [del.icio.us]

iwoolf — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:34:38 PST

Mountain goats have evolved to be able to move gracefully on precarious perches

Dresden Codak » Archive » A Thinking Apes Critique of Trans-Simianism (repost) [del.icio.us]

iwoolf — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:41:12 PDT

A beautifully sarcastic satire of protests and critiques against the Transhumanism movement and their Technological Singularity

grubby [del.icio.us]

iwoolf — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 23:53:04 PDT

Very funny series of emails dealing with an arrogant real estate agent from the man who brought you the seven-legged spider drawings

Thad Starner Home [del.icio.us]

iwoolf — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 00:17:56 PDT

Thad Starner is another wearable computer researcher like Steve Mann. He works at the Georgia Institute of Technology as Director of the Contextual Computing group. Augmeneted reality, mobile text entry, dual purpose speech, augmented conversation ebtween the deaf and hearing communities - good stuff!

Mirror-touch synaesthesia [del.icio.us]

iwoolf — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 01:09:17 PDT

People who literally feel the pain they perceive other people experiencing

pictures for sad children comic [del.icio.us]

iwoolf — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 01:17:26 PDT

Not everyone can handle the availability of immediate painless death

ABC iView Downloader - On the internet - Whirlpool Broadband Forums [del.icio.us]

iwoolf — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 22:07:17 PDT

How to download/watch ABC iView in every platform

iViewNapper Homepage [del.icio.us]

iwoolf — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 07:17:24 PDT

Tools to download ABC iView shows if your broadband connection isn't fast enough for streaming

Media favours Coalition, study finds - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) [del.icio.us]

iwoolf — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:30:07 PDT

Appointing a Howard man to the ABC board seems to have worked.

10daysofscience» When all the stars go away [del.icio.us]

iwoolf — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:46:52 PDT

My report on a talk by Lawrence Krauss about Dark Energy cosmology and the Dark Future he sees ahead for the Universe, given at the Ultimo Science Festival in 2009. Great photos and videos from the talk. Check out the rest of 10daysofscience.com while you're there.

My rocket powered brain in slow motion

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:49:07 +1100

My brain rocket car is shown at 21 seconds to 34 seconds of the video.

Rocketcar Day 11. Slow Motion Montage from sixty40 on Vimeo.

Driver suspended for refusing to drive bus with atheist ad [del.icio.us]

iwoolf — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 06:07:31 PDT

The Des Moines, Iowa, bus driver who refused to drive a bus with the Atheists and Freethinkers ad on it has been suspended from her job. Is this a freedom of speech issue or a freedom of religion issue, and for whom? Couldn't her employers have swapped her shift with a more tolerant bus driver?

Pitcher plant doubles as toilet for tree shrews - LiveScience- msnbc.com [del.icio.us]

iwoolf — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 23:38:12 PDT

Nepenthes Lowii changes from a carnivorous trap to a luxury toilet and nectar feeding station when it's vines climb trees. Amazing photos!

Natalie Rowland Living Locally

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:12:21 +1100

Natalie Rowland spoke to me at the Live Futures 2020 Festival at the College of Fine Arts in Paddington about the Live Local project.
download MP3

You Grow Girl™ - » Growing a Nepenthes Terrarium [del.icio.us]

iwoolf — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:20:58 PDT

Great instructions for building a cheap but pretty terrarium for growing Nepenthes indoors anywhere with good light.

Evil Howtoon

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 02:18:36 +1100

Evil Howtoon

Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

I recreated the paddle-pop stick and rubber band flick-knife I learned to make in primary school, for the HowToon workshop at the Live Futures Festival 2009.

Ingenious, no? I was bullied constantly but I never used my flick-knife on anyone.

Karaoke Therapy

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 17:45:07 +1100

I reasoned that karaoke therapy might help my fluent or "mild" aphasia, and a year after I had big improvements in my speech, the science was published explaining why it worked, and why joining a choir may help me and other people who've suffered "mild" aphasia even more.

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Designer Deborah Kneeshaw talks about creative thinking

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:24:29 +1100

MP3 download

I spoke with designer Deborah Kneeshaw about how the creative thinking philosophy of design can be used to solve the world's problems.
(This is the full version of the interview that was cut for size for Diffusion) Deborah regularly participates in the Foresight Innovation Sustainability Hothouse run by Future Journeys

Class Rooms

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:13:27 +1100

The Australian government, whichever party is in power, funds private schools with public funds, but fails to fund public schools with private funds. The result is that public schools are seriously under-funded and many are using photocopies of texts because they can't afford to buy books. All new funding is for infrastructure only. Strangely, private schools get more public funding than public schools.

This double-funding of private schools at the expense of public schools has been justified by the argument of "freedom of choice". Two freedoms are invoked. The argument runs that religious schools must be funded by public money because this supports the constitutional freedom to choose to be religious. However it was established in the High Court in 1981 that Australians do not have this freedom. The High Court established that the "establishment clause" of the Australian Constitution means that there is no separation of Church and State. Of course the other legal principle is that pupils in schools do not have the freedom to choose whether to be religious, or which religion they will practice. They have few rights at all. Their parents effectively own them as chattel, and are legally able to choose to have them attend compulsory religious instruction at a public school or a private school. The sole purpose of private religious schools is to indoctrinate children in the faith of their parents. There are no freedoms exercised here.

The other freedom claimed is a "freedom to choose a school". Lets break this one down and see what freedoms are being argued for. Who can exercise this freedom? A private school will have high fees which only wealthy people can afford. Are people arguing that poor people should be given extra money to pay private school fees? No, they're arguing that private schools should be able to charge any fees they like. So the real argument is for freedom of wealthy families to choose a doubly funded private school over a single funded public school. Worse, the government has chosen to fund private schools at a higher rate than public schools. The rich families are getting more school services from the government than poor families. This is justified by the "entitlement argument". Its asserted that wealthy parents pay more tax than poor families, therefore they are entitled to receive more government services than poor families. They are saying that wealthy parents should have more privileges in our egalitarian society than poor parents. Rich and poor are not the same before the law. The Coalition and the Labor party agree.

If it were just the fact that the wealthy familes are stealing school money from poor children, then this injustice might have become an
election issue - after all, the majority of voters are not wealthy. So why don't they rise up and protest?

The reason they don't rise up and protest is that class rooms are all about class. The wealthy people get privileges from government at the
expense of poor people. Traditionally in old Europe, you are born into a wealthy upper class, and you inherit your family wealth and atre able
to stay in the upper class. If you were poor there was almost no way to rise above your station, and it was wrong for you to try. This resulted
in revolutions that overturned the upper classes and brought equality to Europe.

In Australia we have the myth (like in America), that if you work hard and get an education, that you can rise above the class your were born
into, and become wealthy enough to buy the status of the upper classes and end up ruling the country. This myth prevents revolutions, because poor people can imagine that one day they might be millionaires and have the privileges and status of the upper classes. It doesn't matter that this never happens. If you do go to University and work hard and earn a comfortable income, you still don't have the status and
privilege of those with inherited wealth.

The real choice that wealthy parents are demanding to exercise is for their children to get better privileges than yours. Its whispered that if you send your children to a private school, that unlike you, they will do better than children who go to a public school. By attending an elite school it is hoped that your child will join the elite classes in society. How could this happen? Its been shown that the teaching and curriculum are the same, as they have to be by law. If you push a parent on why their child must go to a private school, you're told that its because of who they socialise with. The children of the privileged classes go to your child's school, so your children will befriend them, and be known to them when they are inevitably raised to positions of power. Your child will network their way to a higher class. Unfortunately this doesn't take into consideration the reality of school society. All the kids know how poor your Mum and Dad really are, and they know what their background is. Class is everything. So your kids won't get real leg up from socialising with children of the ruling class. The best they can hope for, is that they will have an accent to their English that reflects the wealthy suburb of the private school and the rich kids that attend, instead of the accent of the parents that aspire for a higher class for their children.

If the only true benefit of going to a wealthy private school is gaining a new accent, then I suggest that we train kids in public schools to speak with the accents of the posher suburbs. This way they can have a good education without driving their parents bankrupt, and still be treated as if they come from a higher class when they graduate.

The only choices on offer in the public school versus private school debate is for the wealthy, which is against any fair democratic principles. The only choice on offer by religious schools is for parents to indoctrinate their children before they are old enough to give consent.

I can't see any reason for private schools to exist. If the funding were put into public schools, then they would have all the resources our children need to take their place in society as good citizens. They could read books instead of photocopies of books. They could be trained to have a posh accent, so that they weren't be discriminated against. Any indoctrination in a religion of the parent's choice could happen after school hours, unless we set an age of consent for indoctrination, to avoid taking advantage of children.

Then perhaps we can either recognize that the same families get elected to govern each century, or we could create the equality so that this doesn't happen anymore, and create a genuine meritocracy.

References:

[PDF] AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT FUNDING TO PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS

Private School Funding: Time to Fix the Inequity -- John Kaye

Public funding of private schools | newmatilda.com

Green Left - Issues: Private schools: no government funding

Tim Matthews | IQ2 debate | no excuse for funding private schools

Private school myths

We're living in an age where the impossible is becoming possible

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 00:12:40 +1100

I had a cup of hot chocolate in a coffee shop with Futurist Janine Cahill from Future Journeys, about how we're living in an age where the impossible is becoming possible.
download MP3

14 public domain Cary Grant movies free to stream or download

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:16:48 +1100

	Penny Serenade Touching romantic comedy starring Cary Grant and Irene Dunne. Find out more about this film at its IMDB page. Keywords: romance; comedy Downloads: 123,454 Average rating: (7 reviews)
	His Girl Friday iPod - Howard Hawks Hilarious romantic comedy starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. Russell is rough and tumble reporter looking to get out of the news racket by marrying and becoming a house wife after her divorce from newspaper publisher Grant. Just when she is about to leave town with her husband-to-be the still lovesick Grant drafts her to cover one final breaking news sensation. Keywords: romance; comedy Downloads: 11,627 Average rating: (2 reviews)
	The Amazing Adventure - Alfred Zeisler, Robert Garrett, Otto Klement Cary Grant plays Earnest Bliss a rich socialite who makes a bet with his doctor that he can make a living for one year using none of his current wealth. Keywords: Romance; Comedy; Drama Downloads: 25,315 Average rating: (7 reviews)
	His Girl Friday Hilarious romantic comedy starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. Russell is rough and tumble reporter looking to get out of the news racket by marrying and becoming a house wife after her divorce from newspaper publisher Grant. Just when she is about to leave town with her husband-to-be the still lovesick Grant drafts her to cover one final breaking news sensation. Along with plenty of laughs and fast paced dialog this film provides a witty and cynical look at news business... Keywords: romance; comedy Downloads: 230,267 Average rating: (22 reviews)
	She Done Him Wrong From 1933, this features Mae West and Cary Grant. Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture, awarded by the National Film Preservation Board in 1996, and one of the films given as a reason for the necessity of the National Legion of Decency. Ms. West is a singer and nightclub owner, while Cary Grant is a member of the local temperance league trying off and on to get her and others to mend their ways... Keywords: Mae West, Cary Grant, Comedy, Best Picture Downloads: 11,981 Average rating: (6 reviews)
	Love Affair - Leo McCarey Directed by Leo McCarey, this 1939 romantic classic is the first and best version of the old warhorse of a fateful shipboard romance between an aimless playboy and a nightclub singer, both engaged but appearing to be destined to reunite on the top floor of the Empire State Building. The elaborate, shot-for-shot 1957 remake again directed by McCarey with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr is much better known, and Warren Beatty even saw fit to remake it yet again with his wife Annette Bening for a 1994 ... Keywords: Comedy; Drama; Romance; Irene Dunne; Charles Boyer Downloads: 3,086 Average rating: (0 review)
	Topper From IMDb: The fun-loving Kerbys, stockholders in the bank of which henpecked, stuffy Cosmo Topper (Roland Young) is president, drive recklessly once too often and become ghosts. In limbo because they've never done either good or bad deeds, they decide to try a good one now: rehabilitating Topper. Lovely, flirtatious Marion (Constance Bennett) takes a keen personal interest in the job. Will Topper survive the wrath of jealous ghost George (Cary Grant)? Will Mrs... Keywords: comedy; ghosts Downloads: 12,656 Average rating: (3 reviews)
	Hollywood Without Makeup - Ken Murray A collection of behind the scenes and home movies from the golden age of Hollywood. Hosted by Ken Murray with a Special appearance by Kirk Douglas. Features footage of: Eddie Albert, June Allyson, George K. Arthur, Mary Astor, Lew Ayres, Max Baer, Lucille Ball, Richard Barthelmess, Rex Bell, Edgar Bergen, Sally Blane, Humphrey Bogart, John Boles, Pat Boone, Eddie Borden, Hobart Bosworth, Clara Bow, William Boyd, Fanny Brice, Paul Brooks, Joe E... Keywords: Classic TV; Hollywood; Ken Murray; Movie Stars; TV Special; Home Movies; Behind the Scenes Downloads: 2,215 Average rating: (2 reviews)
	Howard Hawks' "HIS GIRL FRIDAY" movie trailer (1940) The original movie trailer of the comedy classic inspired by a play by Ben Hecht which was brought to the screen a couple of other times, with far less "panache", to say the least. More info on http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032599/ Keywords: His; girl; friday; howard; hawks; rosalind; russel; Cary; grant; ben; hecht; ralph; bellamy Downloads: 358
	Designing Woman - trailer Trailer. You can find more information regarding this film on its IMDb page. Downloads: 1,652 Average rating: (2 reviews)
	The Black Rebels (1960) Gang violece and racism among high school kids is the order of the day in this juvenile delinquent film with Rita Moreno making an appearece that Pre-dates her role in "West Side Story". Also known as "This Rebel Breed". Keywords: crime; racism; feature films Downloads: 513 Average rating: (4 reviews)
	Laughing At Life You can find more information regarding this film on its IMDb page. Downloads: 5,986 Average rating: (8 reviews)
	Made for Each Other - David O. Selznick Jimmy Stewart plays John Horace 'Johnny' Mason, a young lawyer who marries Jane Mason (Carole Lombard) after only know her one day. Keywords: Comedy, Drama, Romance Downloads: 20,625 Average rating: (6 reviews)
	Mysterious Mr. Wong, The - George Yohalem You can find more information regarding this film on its IMDb page. Downloads: 7,990 Average rating: (5 reviews)

Flying thingy at Barcamp Sydney 5

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 01:45:53 +1100

A remote controlled gyroscopically stabilised flying thingy, flying at the Australian Technology Park in Redfern for Barcamp Sydney 5.

Graham Nicholson explains Ciguatera

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 22:45:51 +1100

Zombie Fish poison! Associate Professor Graham Nicholson from the department of molecular and medical biosciences in the faculty of science at the University of Technology, Sydney spoke with Ian Woolf about the tropical fish disease Ciguatera and the fish you eat to consume the poison.
Download MP3

Introduction to Transhumanism

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:11:09 +1100

Transhumanism regards involuntary aspects of the human condition, such as disability, suffering, disease, aging, drudgery and death as unnecessary and undesirable. Transhumanists support the use of science and technology to improve human mental and physical characteristics and capacities, not just to bring the disabled up to average, but to bring anyone above average. This introduction will give an overview of the major themes, the history and politics.
This talk was given at Philorum at the Gaelic club on 6th May 2009.
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Militant Non-Smoking: A Modest Proposal by Ian Woolf

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Sat, 02 May 2009 20:42:13 +1100

This article was first posted to Usenet in December 1991, and you can see the hilarious replies here: alt.conspiracy, alt.drugs.

Most American usenet readers missed the "modest proposal" reference, and took me seriously. I just saw a Simpons episode that showed a character going around spraying water at lit cigarettes, so one of the writers has read this! Trolling old skool...

Militant Non-Smoking: A Modest Proposal
by Ian Woolf (1991 usenet post)

Rainforests are ravaged to produce cigarette paper, rivers are
polluted to bleach it white, the greenhouse effect is accelerated,
our streets and parks are littered with butts, and careless
smoker-caused fires result in millions of dollars worth of damages,
with innocent human and animal lives lost. Then there is the
cumalative carcinogenic damage done to the lungs of non-smokers by
"sidestream" smoke -- already there are documented cases of
non-smokers dying of lung cancer directly caused by someone else's
habit. Every smoker who burns their poison leaves and pollutes your
breathing air, is committing assualt with a deadly weapon.

The behaviour and attitude of smokers towards non-smokers has
changed, from "Mind if I smoke?" to "I'm going to smoke whether you
like it or not!". To counter this arrogant, aggressive and selfish
behaviour, I propose that non-smokers get ANGRY, and arm themselves
against this threat to their health and comfort -with water pistols!
You see a glowing bunch of leaves, and you squirt them to douse the
fire. You have a fundamental right to squirt, it can give you
pleasure, relieve your stress and discomfort, and it's environmentally
sound.To ask a smoker to refrain from burning his poisonous leaves for a
mere half-an-hour, will provoke a wrathful and self-righteous threat
of violence -- you're trying to deny him his Gods-given "right to
smoke". So of course there is a risk to your health, but that's
reduced if you squirt with a friend or two. Peer group pressure can
come to your aid if you squirt in groups. As you're going to be
threatened with violence if you even ask nicely of a good friend to
refrain from dirtying your lungs, why not go all the way, and take up
the new fun habit of squirting?

Replies recovered from google groups:

More options Dec 23 1991, 7:06 pm
Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy, alt.individualism, alt.activism, alt.drugs, alt.evil
From: kudw...@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
Date: 20 Dec 91 03:58:14 GMT
Local: Fri, Dec 20 1991 4:58 am
Subject: Re: Militant Non-Smoking: A Modest Proposal
Reply to author | Forward | Print | Individual message | Show original | Report this message | Find messages by this author

- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -
In article , iwo...@socs.uts.edu.au (Ian Woolf) writes:

> Militant Non-Smoking: A Modest Proposal

> Rainforests are ravaged to produce cigarette paper, rivers are polluted
> to bleach it white, the greenhouse effect is accelerated, our streets and
> parks are littered with butts, and careless smoker-caused fires result in
> millions of dollars worth of damages, with innocent human and animal lives
> lost. Then there is the cumalative carcinogenic damage done to the lungs of
> non-smokers by "sidestream" smoke -- already there are documented cases of
> non-smokers dying of lung cancer directly caused by someone else's habit.
> Every smoker who burns their poison leaves and pollutes your breathing
> air, is committing assualt with a deadly weapon.
> The behaviour and attitude of smokers towards non-smokers has changed,
> from "Mind if I smoke?" to "I'm going to smoke whether you like it or not!".
> To counter this arrogant, aggressive and selfish behaviour, I propose that
> non-smokers get ANGRY, and arm themselves against this threat to their
> health and comfort - with water pistols! You see a glowing bunch of leaves,
> and you squirt them to douse the fire. You have a fundamental right to
> squirt, it can give you pleasure, relieve your stress and discomfort, and
> it's environmentally sound. To ask a smoker to refrain from burning
> his poisonous leaves for a mere half-an-hour, will provoke a wrathful and
> self-righteous threat of violence -- you're trying to deny him his
> Gods-given "right to smoke". So of course there is a risk to your health,
> but that's reduced if you squirt with a friend or two. Peer group pressure
> can come to your aid if you squirt in groups. As you're going to be
> threatened with violence if you even ask nicely of a good friend to
> refrain from dirtying your lungs, why not go all the way, and take up the
> new fun habit of squirting?

To which the doused smoker will respond by beating the crap out of you...

Sorry, but since the average smoker tends to be of the Arnold
Schwartzenegger type up until old age, I think I'll pass on squirting them
and probably pissing them off. (You've seen the smoker without cigarettes; old
scenes of smokers going out to get tobacco even with mad psychopaths running
around outside hardly does the reality of the matter justice!)

Leo

2. K. Shane Hartman
View profile
More options Dec 23 1991, 8:32 pm
Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy, alt.individualism, alt.activism, alt.drugs, alt.evil
From: k...@ai.mit.edu (K. Shane Hartman)
Date: 23 Dec 91 01:54:07 GMT
Local: Mon, Dec 23 1991 2:54 am
Subject: Re: Militant Non-Smoking: A Modest Proposal
Reply to author | Forward | Print | Individual message | Show original | Report this message | Find messages by this author

In article sw...@skat.usc.edu (Rob Sweet) writes:

> The behaviour and attitude of smokers towards non-smokers has changed,
>from "Mind if I smoke?" to "I'm going to smoke whether you like it or not!".
>To counter this arrogant, aggressive and selfish behaviour, I propose that
>non-smokers get ANGRY, and arm themselves against this threat to their
>health and comfort - with water pistols! You see a glowing bunch of leaves,
>and you squirt them to douse the fire. You have a fundamental right to
>squirt, it can give you pleasure, relieve your stress and discomfort, and
>it's environmentally sound. To ask a smoker to refrain from burning
>his poisonous leaves for a mere half-an-hour, will provoke a wrathful and
>self-righteous threat of violence -- you're trying to deny him his
>Gods-given "right to smoke".

And then smokers will arm themselves with .357 magnums in order to
ventilate the brain pans of militant non-smokers armed with water
pistols. Is that what they call an airhead?

-[Shane]->

3. Joe Pollock
View profile
More options Dec 23 1991, 9:11 pm
Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy, alt.individualism, alt.activism, alt.drugs, alt.evil
From: poll...@milton.u.washington.edu (Joe Pollock)
Date: 23 Dec 91 04:32:07 GMT
Local: Mon, Dec 23 1991 5:32 am
Subject: Re: Militant Non-Smoking: A Modest Proposal
Reply to author | Forward | Print | Individual message | Show original | Report this message | Find messages by this author
In article k...@ai.mit.edu (K. Shane Hartman) writes:

>And then smokers will arm themselves with .357 magnums in order to
>ventilate the brain pans of militant non-smokers armed with water
>pistols. Is that what they call an airhead?

>-[Shane]->

Water pistols can hold more than water... (but check the solvent's effect
on plastic, first)

What? Me make a flamatory suggestion? Naw... 8-]

4. Ian Woolf
View profile
More options Dec 23 1991, 10:07 pm
Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy, alt.individualism, alt.activism, alt.drugs, alt.evil
From: iwo...@socs.uts.edu.au (Ian Woolf)
Date: 23 Dec 91 10:23:48 GMT
Local: Mon, Dec 23 1991 11:23 am
Subject: Re: Militant Non-Smoking: A Modest Proposal
Reply to author | Forward | Print | Individual message | Show original | Report this message | Find messages by this author
k...@ai.mit.edu (K. Shane Hartman) writes:

>And then smokers will arm themselves with .357 magnums in order to
>ventilate the brain pans of militant non-smokers armed with water
>pistols. Is that what they call an airhead?
>-[Shane]->

Maybe in your violent country, but that's illegal here in Australia. Very few
people legally own guns, let alone carry them. In the US, maybe you have a
problem with a ridiculous attitude to weapons, but shouldn't smokers be equally
worried that the non-smokers whose lungs they have violated may pull a gun on
THEM? What's sauce for the goose...
If tobacco really makes people that violent, then maybe it should be controlled.

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5. Ryan Craig
View profile
In article iwo...@socs.uts.edu.au (Ian Woolf) writes: > Militant Non-Smoking: A Modest Proposal > Rainforests are ravaged to produce cigarette paper, rivers are polluted >to bleach it white, the greenhouse effect is accelerated, our streets and >parks are littered with butts, and careless smoker-caused fires result in >millions of dollars worth of damages, with innocent human and animal lives >lost. Then there is the cumalative carcinogenic damage done to the lungs of >non-smokers by "sidestream" smoke -- already there are documented cases of >non-smokers dying of lung cancer directly caused by someone else's habit. >Every smoker who burns their poison leaves and pollutes your breathing >air, is committing assualt with a deadly weapon. > The behaviour and attitude of smokers towards non-smokers has changed, >from "Mind if I smoke?" to "I'm going to smoke whether you like it or not!". Oh, this is too good, I just have to flame it, and watch it go up in smoke (pun entirely intended). This is total unmitigated balls and bullshit. I smoke Canadian cigarettes, made of Cdn grown tobacco, rolled in Cdn produced paper, the amounts of which are produced, compared to the fine white writing paper that everyone use, are minimal. And if they can produce paper without using bleaches, they can do so for cigarette tubes. Also, I usually dispose of my butts in the proper place, and even if I don't, they are biodegradable. Yes, they can start fires, but so can candles, matches, faulty wiring, etc.. And, as far as second hand smoke goes, I, and most smokers I know, go out of our way not to bother others. If you don't like the smoke in bars or other public places, don't go there, nobody's forcing *you*. Well, I'll shut down the flamethrower for now. -- +--------------------------------------------------+-------------------------+ |Ryan Craig: Comp Sci Co-op, Dalhousie University | Disclaimer: My opinions| |cr...@ug.cs.dal.ca are mine, all mine, and you can't have them| +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
More options Dec 24 1991, 7:42 am
Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy, alt.individualism, alt.activism, alt.drugs, alt.evil
From: cr...@ug.cs.dal.ca (Ryan Craig)
Date: 20 Dec 91 13:07:44 GMT
Local: Fri, Dec 20 1991 11:07 pm
Subject: Re: Militant Non-Smoking: A Modest Proposal
Reply to author | Forward | Print | Individual message | Show original | Report this message | Find messages by this author

In article iwo...@socs.uts.edu.au (Ian Woolf) writes:

> Militant Non-Smoking: A Modest Proposal

Oh, this is too good, I just have to flame it, and watch it go up in smoke
(pun entirely intended). This is total unmitigated balls and bullshit. I
smoke Canadian cigarettes, made of Cdn grown tobacco, rolled in Cdn produced
paper, the amounts of which are produced, compared to the fine white writing
paper that everyone use, are minimal. And if they can produce paper without
using bleaches, they can do so for cigarette tubes. Also, I usually dispose
of my butts in the proper place, and even if I don't, they are biodegradable.
Yes, they can start fires, but so can candles, matches, faulty wiring, etc..
And, as far as second hand smoke goes, I, and most smokers I know, go out of
our way not to bother others. If you don't like the smoke in bars or other
public places, don't go there, nobody's forcing *you*. Well, I'll shut down
the flamethrower for now.
--
+--------------------------------------------------+-------------------------+
|Ryan Craig: Comp Sci Co-op, Dalhousie University | Disclaimer: My opinions|
|cr...@ug.cs.dal.ca are mine, all mine, and you can't have them|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

6. bpharmon
View profile
More options Dec 24 1991, 7:42 am
Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy, alt.individualism, alt.activism, alt.drugs, alt.evil
From: bphar...@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu
Date: 20 Dec 91 13:57:04 GMT
Local: Fri, Dec 20 1991 11:57 pm
Subject: Re: Militant Non-Smoking: A Modest Proposal
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In article , iwo...@socs.uts.edu.au (Ian Woolf) writes:
> Militant Non-Smoking: A Modest Proposal

> The behaviour and attitude of smokers towards non-smokers has changed,
> from "Mind if I smoke?" to "I'm going to smoke whether you like it or not!".

fooey. Tremendous overgeneralization

To counter this arrogant, aggressive and selfish behaviour, I propose that

> non-smokers get ANGRY, and arm themselves against this threat to their
> health and comfort - with water pistols! You see a glowing bunch of leaves,
> and you squirt them to douse the fire. You have a fundamental right to
> squirt, it can give you pleasure, relieve your stress and discomfort, and
> it's environmentally sound.

>GROAN<

> To ask a smoker to refrain from burning
> his poisonous leaves for a mere half-an-hour, will provoke a wrathful and
> self-righteous threat of violence -- you're trying to deny him his
> Gods-given "right to smoke".

Another outrageous generalization about smokers.

> So of course there is a risk to your health,
> but that's reduced if you squirt with a friend or two. Peer group pressure
> can come to your aid if you squirt in groups. As you're going to be
> threatened with violence if you even ask nicely of a good friend to
> refrain from dirtying your lungs, why not go all the way, and take up the
> new fun habit of squirting?

Whee. I'm sure that will do absolutely nothing to correct the problems
assosciated with smoking. :(

-Brian
Miami U.
If I spoke for someone else, they'd surely deny it.

7. Peter R. Cook
View profile
More options Dec 24 1991, 8:08 am
Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy, alt.individualism, alt.activism, alt.drugs, alt.evil
Followup-To: alt.conspiracy
From: c...@vcsesu.enet.dec.com (Peter R. Cook)
Date: 23 Dec 91 14:21:07 GMT
Local: Tues, Dec 24 1991 12:21 am
Subject: Re: Militant Non-Smoking: A Modest Proposal
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In article , iwo...@socs.uts.edu.au (Ian Woolf) writes...
>There's a huge difference between cars on the road, and someone indoors
>sitting within 3 metres, and causing your eyes to water, your throat to
>constrict, and your asthma to endanger your life. I don't know about your
>country, but we don't run cars inside buildings, so there's no similar
>problem. In the privacy of your own home, or with the permission of those
>who share your breathing space, fine, but how dare you impose your nasty
>habit on other people? What about the right to choose NOT to smoke? What
>right does a smoker have to make a carcinogenic choice FOR me?

We solely exist to end your life. So you will be reduced to
laying in a hospital bed with your life draining away through
broken lungs while we stand outside the window and laugh at
you while you die.

See you in hell.

+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
Peter Cook Quoth the Raven, "Eat my
Digital Equipment Corporation shorts, man!"
200 Forest street
Marlboro, MA. 01752 "1984 has past, forget about Big Brother,
508-467-6936 welcome to the 90's where the government's
Mystic Powers infoline: your mother!" - Scatterbrain
508-562-9516
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

8. Peter R. Cook
View profile
More options Dec 24 1991, 8:12 am
Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy, alt.individualism, alt.activism, alt.drugs, alt.evil
Followup-To: alt.conspiracy
From: c...@vcsesu.enet.dec.com (Peter R. Cook)
Date: 23 Dec 91 14:23:54 GMT
Local: Tues, Dec 24 1991 12:23 am
Subject: Re: Militant Non-Smoking: A Modest Proposal
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In article , iwo...@socs.uts.edu.au (Ian Woolf) writes...
>kel...@aimhi.enet.dec.com (The Bill Of Rights, Void where prohibited by law!) writes:

>Yet you expect non-smokers to put up with pain and health damage without a
>murmur. This is exactly the reaction I expected from smokers, physical
>intimidation.

I won't assault you, I'll take you to court.

> Doesn't this tell you something about yourself, and most other
>smokers, that you all feel its okay to beat people up because they tried to
>stop you smoking at them? You're just a bully, a violent thug that can give
>discomfort but can't take it. You dirty MY lungs, you expect me to grin and
>bear it; I wet your poison leaves, and you think that gives you the right to
>assault. Typical of the sort of person who smokes.

You're nothing but a militant f*cking butthole. Where do you get
off dishing out threats? You threaten, people threaten in return
and you get upset? What did you expect?

Life is give and take. If you violate people's space by blasting
them with a water gun, they will beat your body repeatedly. It's
a natural reaction. Of course I wouldn't assault you, I'd take
you to court and make your life a living hell.

In short, get a life.

Photographer

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:15:48 +1100

Photographer

Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

Did I mention that my new Pentax Optio M60 arrived 2 weeks ago?

Easter show fireworks 2

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:11:47 +1100

Easter show fireworks 2

Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

You can catch a glimpse of the laser show at the bottom.

Easter show fireworks 1

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:08:25 +1100

Easter show fireworks1

Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

The first time I can remember actually staying until everything closed so that I could see the fireworks.

Zipper

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:05:51 +1100

Zipper

Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

The Zipper at Sydney Easter show. I don't actually ride any of these, I just like the way they look.

Sky view

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:03:50 +1100

Sky view

Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

The Sky view ferris wheel at the Sydney Easter show.

Buried Alive!

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:03:50 +1100

Buried Alive!

Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

People seriously contemplating whether or not they should Experience The Fear Of Being Buried Alive at the Sydney Easter show, only 10 coupons.

Sea Explorer

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:03:50 +1100

Sea Explorer

Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

The Sea Explorer runs aground at the Sydney Easter show.

Demons at the Easter Show

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:59:49 +1100

Demon

Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

The sentinel at Horrorwood Cemetery at the Sydney Easter show.

Trivia apprentice

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:29:28 +1100

Trivia apprentice

Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

The lovely Helen - assistant to Trivia mistress Reta at the Duke hotel, holding the celebrity faces question sheet.

We really need someone to join our team who can answer some of these questions with more than "would" or "wouldn't".

Reta

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:28:00 +1100

Reta

Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

Playful Reta is the Trivia Mistress at the Duke Hotel in Enmore and the Malborough Hotel in Newtown. She knows how to run a fun trivia game!

Interview with Futurist Janine Cahill

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 01:19:13 +1100

MP3
We all have an interest in the future because its where we'll spend the rest of our lives. I spoke with Futurist Janine Cahill from Future Journeys.

sign of the times

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 02:17:46 +1100

sign of the times

Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

sign of the times at the March in March protest against internet censorship at Parliament House, Canberra

@nathanielB and @purplefae

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 02:16:51 +1100

@nathanielB and @purplefae

Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

@nathanielB and @purplefae at the March in March protest against internet censorship at Parliament House, Canberra

@nathanielB at #nocleanfeed rally

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 02:15:56 +1100

@nathanielB at #nocleanfeed rally

Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

@NathanielB at the March in March protest against internet censorship at Parliament House, Canberra

Three Ladies

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 02:14:59 +1100

Three Ladies

Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

Three lovely ladies at the March in March protest against internet censorship at Parliament House, Canberra.

#nocleanfeed March in March

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 01:15:49 +1100

#nocleanfeed

Originally uploaded by Allyeska.

@NathanaelB doing an interview with @IanWoolf. at the March in March protest against the Australian Federal Government's internet filter censorship regime.

Join me at the March in March!

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 21:49:16 +1100

Teen wankers caught on video

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:58:49 +1100

Here are the video clips referred to in Assault by teen wankers

This first guy is the one that came up to me from across the road trying unsuccessfully to provoke a fight while making violent threats:

They were intimidated by the camera like vampires faced by a crucifix, so they sent their main neanderthal, who shoved us and threw a milk crate at us.

Note the kid claiming his "rights" against being photographed in public while committing assault.

New Scientist response podcast

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:52:24 +1100

Here's a podcast of my response to the New Scientist headlines about "How People Can Think Themselves Sick - how chronic fatigue syndromes are triggered by people's mindset".
MP3

How psychiatrists can think themselves rich

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 13:23:09 +1100

New Scientist have just published an interview with psychiatrist Simon Wessely with the irresponsible headline "When illness is mostly in the mind" which is advertised in their email PR as "How People Can Think Themselves Sick - how chronic fatigue syndromes are triggered by people's mindset"

I immediately wrote a comment about the unscientific interpretation of the data which I'll reproduce here.
His list of published work is here:on pubmed

I don't know which research he refers to in the interview.

Simon Wessley And CFS Sufferers Hurt By Wrong Headline

Simon has only shown that 33% of patients have recovered from CFS without knowing it and are merely de-conditioned from CFS, and 33% have been over-cautious with an illness that gives time-delayed feedback to activity, while the remaining 33% are managing their CFS exactly right and have no detectable psychiatric problem. At best 33% are "thinking themselves sick". There's nothing new in this, but it does prove that CBT and graded exercise doesn't cure 66% of CFS. If his research is correct.

I notice that Simon Wessley never uses the phrase "mostly in the mind", and in fact never in the interview says that CFS is "triggered by a mindset." Where do these exaggerations come from?. Sadly its the exaggerated headlines and summaries that people will remember, not the carefully worded answers given in the interview.

One counter-example is all that is necessary to prove a scientific theory wrong. 66% of patients are not cured by CBT and graded exercise, therefore the theory is wrong. 33% not only aren't helped, but they are likely to have been MADE SERIOUSLY WORSE by the application of CBT and graded exercise. Given that this is the defining symptom of the diagnosis of CFS, why wasn't the question asked? How many people were hurt by being made to do exercise that made them sicker? 33% is a high number, and can't be dismissed the way Simon appears to.

His own research proves that his theory is wrong for 66% of patients. He should interpret this to mean that there are a small sub-set of people who have recovered from CFS and can be helped by CBT and graded exercise, and the remainder are sick for reasons his theory can't explain. Only half of those who don't recover respond to graded exercise and CBT with "good improvement", and half do not respond well to this treatment. This would be an accurate and fair interpretation that would not lead to CBT and graded exercise being the "cure" for all.

Whoever chose the headline and the short summary that appeared in the New Scientist PR email should apologize to both CFS sufferers and Simon Wessley for misleading everyone.

Assault by teen wankers

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 04:06:12 +1100

Saturday night I was standing on Woolworth's corner opposite Sydney Town Hall with some friends. A teen-aged boy came up and asked me if I was the one that had disrespected his mate. It was like falling into a bad British TV drama. There was nothing in the boy's eyes but the wide hope of violence. I looked around at his crew, and as he started threatening violence, my friend brought out his phone and started videoing the encounter. The thugs reacted immediately by pulling up their cowboy-style neckerchiefs to hide their faces, and the guy without a scarf pulled up his shirt to his nose. The yelled "stop filming us, we got rights!" at the same time as they were shoving us and threatening worse. Intimidated, they called in their largest neanderthal, who started shoving us while playing with himself with his other hand. It was surreal. We moved away from the wanking maniac, but he followed us while telling us to go away. The gang's teen girlfriends came to try and calm him down, but it was too late. The neanderthal hrew a milk crate at us, in front of a bouncer from the bar next door, who called the police.

We walked away while they postured and shoved with other teens.The police quickly drove up with a paddy wagon. We were called back as possible witnesses, in time to see two of the teenage thugs on the floor fighting the police and demanding that the police stop touching them. As the boy started crying, we were told they'd tried to run away. His two friends were laughing and high-fiving each other that they hadn't been arrested. They'd traded shirts to try and fool the police video cameras and any confused witnesses. I was ready to point them out, but the police didn't want to talk to any witnesses and had all the video evidence they needed, so we left. I'll link to my friend's video if he decides to post it to youtube. He had his phone backing up over the internet while he filmed, in case the phone was taken from him.

Apparently the teenage gangsta wanna-be's just don't understand where they are. Sydney is now full of high definition video surveillance cameras, and Woolworth's George St is just a few doors up from a police station. We were told by the bouncer that the masturbator who threw the milk crate would be caught that night because of all the video footage, but that he and his friends were under-age, so would be released without penalty. Obviously with the cowboy-neckerchief fashion, they're ready to start attacking random strangers while masturbating again.

The bouncer reckoned the kid had been watching American gangsta videos and thought that by touching his penis, he was insulting us before hitting us by making his hands "dirty". Or making us more afraid to be hit because of the insult. While some of the other behaviour was stolen from British hooligan TV.

It later turned out that one of the 2 metre tall friend of a friend who was with us was actually still a teen, and had exchanged from across the road teen cultural signals indicating he disliked someone's Emo fashion statement, and this prompted the gang to cross the road and attack us slightly shorter people, instead. Nobody was hurt.

The phone video camera is a potent self-defense device, and one that thugs are obviously intimidated by. As they should be when you can now stream your video live from your phone and let people around the world see who is attacking and what they say and do.

It reminds me of Edison Carter in "Max Headroom", that old 80's TV series, an investigative reporter who was able to fearlessly report because he had a live satellite network link from his portable video camera. There was no point trashing him and the camera, because the pictures had already been sent.

I need a phone capable of live video streaming!

Where's the future we were promised? Just look!

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:04:26 +1100

On twitter, @bigyahu said "this is not the future I was promised.
no 1-piece silver suits,
no atomic-powered flying car,
no meals in pill form or robot housekeeper"

So I had a quick look in google and was able to reply:

1 piece gold suit can be found here: http://twurl.nl/ny2sze,

your flying car is sold here: http://is.gd/kVlM ,

a meal in a pill can be ordered here: http://twurl.nl/5563de,

and a robot housekeeper is sold here: http://is.gd/kVlg

The future we were promised is here, you just have to know how to look for it.

Questions for Creationists

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 23:45:26 +1100

Today I found a Christian Theologian attacking Richard Dawkins in the Sydney Morning Herald The article was actually an advertisement for the Creationist's new book. Was it a free ad? Or was he a paid contributor?

It was no surprise that an article entitled "Questions Darwinism cannot answer" was written by a Creationist. "Darwinism" is a word only used by Creationists. Perhaps the article should have been labelled as the advertisement for his book that it surely was?

What are these questions for "Darwinism"? After slogging through a personal attack on Richard Dawkins and implying that every atheist is an evil murdering fascist, it turns out they're Christian Apologetic questions and not scientific questions at all. I'll start with the questions and get to the slog afterwards.

The first question was "When does design become domination?" If the Universe is an artificial artifact as Mr Creationist insists, then it emulates a wild natural environment extremely well and we are living in The Matrix. If we are living in The Matrix, then any "Act of God" like a murderous bush fire is an infringement of free will - which is domination. The administrators of fake reality would be cruel and unethical to impose so much suffering without the consent of the free beings who inhabit the fake world.

This question assumes that that the world we are informed of by our senses, our instruments and each other is fake. If the world is a simulation then its either being run by non-human aliens, or its being run by our post-human descendants as an ancestor simulation. If the persons running the simulation impose suffering and limit choice, then they are dominating.

"Why did God create human beings, lay a good life out before them and then include the capacity to behave otherwise?" he asks. Again this assumes that the evidence of our senses is faked. Evolution and geology and nuclear physics show that life developed through small changes over very long periods of time. They show that the universe is full of things moving around in random ways, except where humans create artifacts. Humans were not created, they evolved from earlier forms of hominid and the hominids from earlier primates, the primates from earlier mammals, all the way back to the earliest self-replicating molecules that weren't properly alive. However, as good theologians we should ignore the evidence. If we didn't have free will we'd be zombies who just reacted to stimulus from a pre-programmed script. That answers your second question. If we live in a simulation as Creationists insist, then the persons who run the simulation didn't want zombies. There's no evidence that we live in The Matrix.

Finally, "Would knowing why there is something rather than nothing make a difference to life?" Darwin's answer is that curiosity is a behaviour that promotes the spread of genes, so it was selected for in the random evolution of our ancestors. Most of us want to know the answers of our origins, and we are not satisfied with silly stories about a stork or a dove.

Mr Creationist claims that evolution cannot explain the origin of life. We have seen self-replicating molecules start replicating from non-living matter. We have found the organic molecules essential for life in distant clouds of interstellar gas. We can scientifically explain the origin of life. He concludes that evolution cannot cast light on life's destiny. Evolution shows us that life doesn't have a destiny, the Watchmaker is blind. Evolutionary processes can build eyes up, or blind them, depending on the environment that animals live and breed in, but the process is random, and the environment changes randomly.

"Evolutionary theory" does NOT require or imply "continuous creation" Mr Creationist. Evolution doesn't require any intervention by magical persons at all, its the inevitable outcome of mutant survivors of disasters breeding their inheritable traits into the next generation. Mutation and sexual recombination produce variation, predators and changing environment provide the random selection. The inevitable outcome is that some variations will breed more than others and species change over very long periods of time.

Mr Creationist, quoting notable people is an Argument from Authority. With your high academic station, you surely know that its a logically invalid argument, so why did you use it? "These lines of reasoning do not prove God's existence". Could it be that you simply don't have a valid argument?

Ad Hominem attacks are not valid arguments, either, but this doesn't stop you from personally attacking Richard Dawkins. Of course the attack is simply a disguise for the same vilification of atheists as mass murdering fascists as used by Toongabbie Anglicans a few weeks ago in their sermon "Does God exist?". Mr Creationist vilifies atheists as supporting "imperialism, genocide, mass deportation, ethnic cleansing, eugenics, forced sterilisations and infanticide." He then admits that reality doesn't match his opinion, because his vilification is false. Instead of apologising and explaining his error, he accuses Richard Dawkins of lacking commitment, courage and philosophical conviction. It looks like a classic case of Freudian projection.

Mr Creationist uses arguments which he admits are invalid, vilification which he admits is invalid, claims of definition which are easily shown to be invalid, and questions which are for his contradictory Creationist cosmology and not validly for Darwin at all. Perhaps Mr Creationist lacks the courage of his own philosophical convictions? Could he have abandoned valid methods of argument and persuasion because he doesn't believe his position can be validly argued? Or is this just the usual request to open your wallet?

Michael Cortie SCEP interview

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 23:35:24 +1100

MP3
I spoke with Professor Michael Cortie about his research using lasers to zap gold nano-particles to kill cancer cells and parasites, at the University of Technology, Sydney.

Science Communication Education Project

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 02:50:42 +1100

I'm the Project Officer for the Science Communication Education Project in the Faculty of Science at the University of Technology, Sydney. I've recorded 11 radio interviews with cutting edge researchers at UTS as audio podcasts, and Shannon Jones has recorded 4 video interviews.

The aim of the project is to stimulate first year science students to write a personal response writing assignment based on their favourite interview. By hearing good science communication in the interview, and by attending some lectures on science communication, the science students will learn valuable communication skills while learning about the fascinating research happening just down the corridor.

The podcasts will also showcase UTS scientific talent as the audio interviews have been broadcast on Diffusion Science Radio on 2SER 107.3FM, and are being released as public podcasts. I will be releasing the podcasts seperately here while working on a separate page for the SCEP project. I'll link it here once its ready.

The size of planets

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:57:00 +1100

Today show celebrates 2001

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:40:33 +1100

Back in 2001, the Today show promoted the re-release of 2001: A Space Odyssey by filming science fiction fans giving movie reviews. The reviewers: Cat Sparks, Iain Triffit, Garfield Barnard, Stephanie Lennon, and me.

updating Movable Type

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 14:57:50 +1100

I'm presently upgrading from 4.01 to 4.23 of Movable Type, hang on for fixing of commenting and anything else that broke.

Separation of Church and State?

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 21:23:27 +1100

In America, the separation of Church and State was made law by the Establishment Clause of the US Constitution.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

This is why they don't have prayer in State schools and why they don't have prayer in Congress or the Senate. In Australia, we also have an Establishment clause in our Constitution that separates Church and State:

116. The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth.

The problem is that in Australia the law hasn't been enforced. So we have not merely prayer, but enforced scripture periods in State schools, and compulsory Christian prayer in Parliament. As well as highly questionable activities like donations of hundreds of millions of dollars from the Federal government to the Catholic Church, but to no other non-profit organisation.

It would be interesting to see the Secular Party challenge breaches of this part of the Australian Consititution in court.

Of course, its also a shame that Australia doesn't have freedom of speech and of the press, the right to assemble and the right to bring grievances to the government also protected by our constitution. Amnesty International and GetUp have started an online campaign to inform the Federal Government that we'd like our human rights protected. Given their record on the only right we have, it may not make much difference.

Sydney Censorship protest

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 20:25:24 +1100

protest5

Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

December 13th 2008 Protest against internet censorship

Internet censorship protest

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 20:02:23 +1100

protest2

Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

December 13th 2008 Protest against internet censorship

Spider killer

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 19:50:13 +1100

Spider killer

Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

This is a photo from outside my front door. The wasp is dragging the spider UP to the roof. At least I'm guessing its a wasp...?

Simpsons Censored

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:19:01 +1100

The Simpsons are illegal in QLD http://is.gd/b8Z7 and NSW
http://is.gd/b8XX since every show portrays a child strangled or hit,
and by the new definitions, everyone who watches any of it is a child
abuser. This is the kind of logic that will apply to the New Censorship.
Rudd and Conroy pretend its business as usual, but it bans harmless cartoons loved by millions, and makes criminals of us all.

Chookmobile

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:03:12 +1100

Chookmobile

Originally uploaded by jbimages.

This looks just as distracting as Ian Bryce's Popemobile, but the police don't bother them.

Atheist Apocalypse

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 14:50:28 +1100

Thanks to @misswired for this!

Stilgherrian interview

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:53:25 +1100

MP3
Stilgherrian is a survivor of the first dot com boom and sometime tech writer for Crikey.com. I spoke with him about the Australian government's plan to censor the internet.

Read Stilgherrian's blog: Stilgherrian or follow him on twitter

Electronic Frontiers Australia: No Clean Feed

Electronic Frontiers Australia: Protecting and promoting online civil liberties

Digital Liberty Coalition: No Censorship

Twitter hastags: #nocleanfeed

Laurel Papwoth: No Clean Feeds video

Irene Graham: The Net Labelling Delusion
Saviour or Devil

OverClockers Australia:Wiki page collating media articles & other info on the debate

New Matilda: Conroy's Web
ABC Unleashed: PG Nation

ABC Unleashed: How the cold creeps as the fire dies at length

Get UP: Save The Net

Paul Sheehan SMH: A piddling offence and much worse

Syd Walker: Clive Hamilton & I: Getting Personal about Sex, Lies, Hate & Censorship

Richard Baker & Nick Mackenzie SMH: Police hire private spies to snoop online

Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre UNSW: Forum: Internet filtering and censorship proposals

Glenn Milne, in The Sunday Times: Rudd will need a stiff upper lip

Liam Tung, ZDNet.com.au: NSW calls Conroy on Euro filter fudge

Clean feed or Church feed?

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 13:41:11 +1100

Senator Conroy is basing this on a Church-circulated petition that he brought to parliament: http://stilgherrian.com/politics/petitions_drove_filtering_policy/
The list of sites to be censored, and the identity of who will make the decisions are questions that the Senator has refused to answer. He has said that the policy is to make a deep inspection of every internet packet for any content relating to real violence, cruelty and sexual violence, because he claims that these are already illegal content in every other media. All adult pornography would be banned. Family First are pushing for gambling sites to be banned as well, and the Churches and right-wingers are lobbying for more and more extensions. Senator Conroy also refuses to rule out ruling out anything for future censorship. Of course if they can't tell what's in your packets, then they will assume they are naughty packets and block them. Too bad if you're testing new technology.

If this was extended to TV, all news, current affairs and history would be banned content. High school curricula would be banned material. Rape victim counselling, etc, etc.
Besides, if this is all to protect children from child porn, is there any evidence of children searching for child porn? The Federal Police have found that disrupting the social networks, not the technical networks, is how they most effectively fight people who make and distribute child porn. Its has nothing to do with censorship.

This is a purely right wing religious ideological push for total control of the Australian internet experience. Child porn is a red herring, to distract from their political censorship. There are no checks or balances planned to make sure politcial sites are not "accidentally" blocked. Its all secret closed room stuff like China, Syria, and Iran. There is nothing stopping further stuff being blocked, and its invisible, because its digital machinery. Voice over IP would be included packets, so be careful what you say, or your phone call will drop out.

Its about Churches taking over what Australians can see and discuss on the internet, by only allowing content that they deem safe for children. This makes children of us all, with somebody else's secret Church as our parents.

Braunstein's teleportation part 2

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:52:25 +1100

MP3

Continuing my conversation with Dr Samuel Brainstein about quantum teleportation, entanglement, encryption, eavesdropping, and true love. Dr Braunstein is Professor of Informatics at the University of Wales in Bangor, England. This is part two of a two part interview

Braunstein's teleportation part 1

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:33:48 +1100

MP3

I spoke with Dr Samuel Braunstein about quantum teleportation, why there can never be two Captain Kirks, and how to teleport by fax. Dr Braunstein is Professor of Informatics at the University of Wales in Bangor, England. This is part one of a two part interview

Brian Lennon prints up solar power

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:26:52 +1100

MP3
Brian Lennon has the last word from the Live Futures Festival, talking to Ian Woolf about solar power you can print, and the consequences of cheap, abundant energy around the world. This is part 3 of a 3 part interview from the Live Futures Festival in Newtown.

Brian Lennon talks about veggy cars

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:01:32 +1100

MP3
Brian Lennon speaks about his vegetable oil powered car and how he plans to make it solar powered, at the Live Futures Festival in Newtown. This is part 2 of a 3 part interview.

Brian Lennon and the Fab Lab from the Live Futures Festival part 1

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 23:43:46 +1100

MP3
At the Live Futures Festival, I spoke with Brian Lennon about the Fab@home 3D printer/fabricator/rapid prototyper, the Fab Lab that can build anything, and solar power you can print at home. This is part 1 of a three part interview recorded live from the Live Futures Festival in Newtown.

Cityrail apologises for the delay, but the train along-side us is on fire

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 02:26:38 +1100

Last night 18th September, at around 10pm, the train had stopped at Summer Hill and not moved for a ong time. I could smell burning. Eventually I heard the announcement" "Cityrail apologises for the delay, but the train along-side us is on fire." I couldn't see any flames or smoke, so I didn't take any pictures. Some passengers wanted to leave immediately, and some wanted to stay and wait for more announcements. Eventually, just as we were about to give up and leave, the doors closed and we moved on to Ashfield. I'm sure if you phone Cityrail they'll be delighted to tell you what happened to the train on fire.

Postponing Doomsday

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 13:51:21 +1100

At 5:30pm AEST, the Large Hadron Collider will be switched on and there will be a giant party in Bicentennial Park at the end of Glebe Point Road, to celebrate that we're still alive. However if you check out the source, the time-table for destruction doesn't match what's in the news.

Protons have already been injected into the LHC.
Today is the first time protons will have made a complete circuit.
In October they will switch on the GRID, a super-fast network replacement for the internet.
Some-time un-named, but expected to be before 2009, the LHC will have enough oomph to finally start circulating proton beams in opposite directions to make a collision. Its the collisions that have people worried that micro black holes will be created that will gang up and eat us.

This explains why Dr Karl won't be giving his talk at the Footbridge theatre at Sydney Uni until 7pm.

Here's a video of the black hole from CERN:

Here is an online test of whether the LHC has destroyed the world: http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/

The Prime Minister Is A Creationist

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 14:02:47 +1100

"For me, it's ultimately the order of the cosmos or what I describe as the creation.
"You can't simply have, in my own judgement, creation simply being a random event because it is so inherently ordered, and the fact that the natural environment is being ordered where it can properly coexist over time.

"If you were simply reducing that to mathematically probabilities I've got to say it probably wouldn't have happened.

"So I think there is an intelligent mind at work.''

When Rudd says he believes in an ordered created world and not a natural world, he is declaring himself a Creationist. The "intelligent mind" line is a nod to the "intelligent design" literature of the Creation Scientists.

When he says "the fact that the natural environment is being ordered where it can properly coexist over time", he is saying that not only is the world artificial, but that it would break down without intervention from the Creator.

Now "design" is no good without implementation. Its no good designing things unless you can make them. Applied design is technology and manufacture. So there must be factories and technology that can make universes, planets and life. We know that we can discover the nature of anything with science, so we can understand how this was done. Therefore we can build the technology, and make our own universes, planets and life.

Of course the question is who are the "intelligent minds" who used the technology to artificially construct our universe? There are only two options. Either people from Earth did it, or people not from Earth did it. The "intelligent mind" believers all say humans didn't do it. Therefore the only option left is extraterrestrials. This would mean the Raelians are right. If the "intelligent design" crowd are unhappy with that perfectly probable and reasonable conclusion, and insist on a magical conclusion, then we are left with the result that the technology is witchcraft and sorcery. So I for one applaud their attempt to have witchcraft and sorcery made compulsory parts of the school curriculum. Magical sacrifices 101, bring your own goat. The kids will love it! Harry Potter can become a textbook.

For the record, science points to evolution by natural selection from non-life to present day. Not from a starting point of an artificial life-form that appears from nowhere. You can't have artificial creation by natural selection, its a contradiction.

The cosmos is as natural as all the evidence points to, or its constructed with technology by wacky aliens (the Matrix), or its constructed by magic aliens from another universe, using witchcraft that we can learn and use (or else their technology wouldn't work here and no creation).

The mathematical probabilities point overwhelmingly to a natural world.

Pneumatic tube

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 20:32:07 +1100

Pneumatic tube

Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

My local supermarket uses a pneumatic tube system for moving cash and documents around the shop. This is one of the canisters that whizzes around the store, like something out of The Shadow.

My first crop!

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 20:26:51 +1100

My first crop!

Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

My first crop of sugar snap peas are growing on the vine!

The Strangers

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:23:46 +1100

I saw a sneak preview of The Strangers tonight. The Strangers was appalling, and I say that as someone who enjoys bad cult movies. Don't waste your time.The movie had no redeeming features at all. The best thing was that it was a free ticket, and it was a preview so I can warn people. Maybe they thought they could capture the charm of badly written and produced movies and get a cult hit? Fail!

Live Futures Festival August 17th

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 13:58:14 +1100

Do you care about the future? If yes, then... on August 17 at Newtown Square (corner of King St and Enmore Rd opposite Newtown Station) THIS IS A FREE EVENT!
Join us at Live Futures. Explore the future with others online and in the real world. Part of National Science Week, and supported by the Futures Foundation, Live Futures 2020 is a walk into the future. Meet futurists, scientists, designers, performers, artists and film-makers. Be provoked and inspired! Workshops, films, co-creation and expression spaces, live theatre. TWO film festivals - Scinema and the portable film festival (this year more portable than ever before!). Explore the universe with the world wide telescope. Explore how open innovation enabled by the net is changing our world. Hear how we can return carbon to the soil, and climate projects we can do ourselves. No matter what your interests we all care about the future. Lets co-create it.

The answer to "Eternity"?

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 14:49:14 +1100

The answer to "Eternity"?

Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

Chalked stencil seen about 6 times around the bay run & at about 5 times on the Victoria road inbound bus stops in Drummoyne & Rozelle.

Graffitti with URLs!

Dr Stephen Graves CFS interview

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 22:44:38 +1100

MP3

Dr Stephen Graves, Director of Hunter Area Pathology and the Australian Rickettsial Reference Laboratory spoke with me about the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Conference held in Cambridge in July 2008. What is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome? What are the causes, and what is it like to be struck down by the illness? Why is it still the invisible illness so many years after its discovery in the 1980s?

The interview was broadcast on Diffusion Science Radio on 2SER on the 4th of August 2008 You can download the whole show here.

ABC unveils six-channel internet TV

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:19:36 +1100

ABC unveils six-channel internet TV - TV & Radio - Entertainment - theage.com.au

The Age reports that ABC have opened their broadband TV service where you can watch anything from ABC1 or ABC2 from the last 30 days as a stream in your browser for free.

iiNet currently are the only ISP who don't meter your ABC downloads. For iiNet customers, its like getting a free set-top box to watch ABC2, and a free ABC-only DVR - in your browser.

This is going to change the way many people watch and record ABC. Why record, when its waiting for you online?

The service is geographically locked by IP, which means if you're not living in Australia, you'll need to know how to spoof an Aussie IP to watch. Alternatively you could settle for downloading the many shows ABC have made available as video podcasts.

Burning stake

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:04:02 +1100

Burning stake

Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

Edwin at the Heretic's BBQ during World Catholic Youth Day Week in Centennial Park. What's a BBQ without a burning stake?

Chris Watkins explains Appropedia

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:38:19 +1100

MP3
Chris Watkins spoke to me about the Appropedia project to make information about sustainable technology freely available where-ever its needed.

Twitter fun

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 22:54:47 +1100

I'm getting a lot out of running twitter thanks to Matthew Hall @aDb who put me on to the Sydney Twitter Underground Brigade STUB or @stub on twitter. They're a very interesting bunch of people, and they meet up in meat space very often. I'm using the very creative nick of @IanWoolf.

Twitter is a 140 character microblogging platform. The experience is a little like instant messaging, because people who follow your entries in the twitter window are able to reply to you and have a conversation. Unlike mailing lists you don't have to read every single message, and it doesn't clog your inbox. You can sample what is going on in your spare moments of rest or in the background. However unlike instant messaging, every tweet on twitter is a broadcast unless you flag it as a direct message. When you tweet a message on twitter, you don't just broadcast to every person who is following you, but also to the web at large. This means if someone is running a keyword search and you trigger a flag on their search, then they will notice you.

In my first week on twitter, I had just upgraded to Firefox 2.0.1.4 and it wasn't working. After spending most of a day trying to resurrect my customised profile, I complained on twitter. Straight away someone from Mozilla replied with a suggestion to fix things. I had a conversation and shortly restored my browser to working order. They had a constant search for all mentions of "firefox", so I just had to complain and the Gods of Mozilla heard my whine and came to my rescue.

I also have my twitter feed piped through to my facebook status timeline, so that my facebook friends also receive the messages I send. I'm currently following 79 people, a large number of whom I've met at STUB meetups or technical conferences such as PubCamp and BarCamp. Not all of these people follow me back. Such as @MarsPhoenix who tweets updates from Mars. In the same way I don't follow all of the people who follow me.

You can send and receive twitter updates on mobile phone as well as on computer, either by SMS, email, or internet. I just signed up for the beta version of a message by voice service as well, so if I get stuck in a lift again like I did the Wednesday before last, I will be able to broadcast my call for help to my twitter and facebook friends, and not have to rely on the indifferent service of the hotel staff or the lift company.

The social networking world is crazy with services in beta at the moment, all invitation-only while they get the bugs out, like gmail used to do.

Diffusion moves to Monday 6:30pm tonight!

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 19:56:41 +1100

Diffusion broadcasts tonight in its new Monday 6:30pm timeslot on 2SER for the first time.

Whose moon is it anyway?

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 22:13:56 +1100

MP3
After 35 years of neglect, there a new race to the moon. A look at who is going, and why.

Interview with Professor Barry Vercoe

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:36:21 +1100

MP3
I spoke with Professor Barry Vercoe of MIT Media Labs about the One Laptop Per Child Foundation at the Sydney Mechanic's School of the Arts. In the background you hear the delighted cries of people playing with the XO laptops.

I figured it out

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Fri, 23 May 2008 16:51:38 +1100

Employees who earn $450 or less per month with any one employer, are not entitled to compulsory superannuation like every other employed Australian. Superannuation Guarantee Charge Amendment Bill 2002.This seems like discrimination against the working poor. Does it seem that 9% of $450 per month would be too small to justify the administration?

I worked out that 9% of $450 X 12 months = $468 per year
@ 12 % interest compounded over 40 years Compound Interest Calculator gives you a total on retirement of:

$462, 765

Thats a cool half a million dollars. Thats enough to make a big difference to the working poor when they hit retirement age and the Federal government has promised that there will be no age pensions in the future. The people who need the superannuation contribution from their employer the most are the people who are excluded from getting any.

And if it so happens that you have several part-time jobs with a many different employers, then the superannuation you are missing is much, much higher.

So I'd like to see the start of a campaign to change the law so that there is NO minimum amount for compulsory superannuation contributions. Include those earning $450 or less from any particular employer in the new super economy!

Centrelink has the gear

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Thu, 22 May 2008 16:23:41 +1100

Centrelink has the gear

Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

These containers of cool gear were at the Centrelink exhibit at CeBit 2008. They have their own power supply and solar panels, WiFi, servers, virtual PCs, everything they need for disaster response IT support. They booth guy told us we'd be surprized by how much disaster management Centrelink handles, and we were.

We were also in awe that all of this equipment was developed IN HOUSE.

3D at last

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Thu, 22 May 2008 16:21:00 +1100

3D at last

Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

This 3D TV/monitor screen at CeBit 2008 was the most impressive thing I saw. They have software to convert 2D movies into OK 3D, and software to generate great 3D directly. If they put a processor into the monitor to convert 2D movies to 3D on-the-fly whule you're watching, they'll sell millions of them. Everyone with two eyes will want them. Since they use stereo for the 3D effect, its no use to people with only one eye. They'll have to wait for the holographic TV sets. Unfortunately the exhibitor was in the Aus Events exibition next door, so I couldn't ask how it worked.

XO and me

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Thu, 22 May 2008 16:09:37 +1100

XO and me

Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

If you look closely, you can see me captured on screen taking the photo. At the Open Source discussion, every developer was carrying an XO laptop. My interview with one of the inventors Professor Barry Vercoe will be broadcast soon.

Chocolate desire laid bare

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Wed, 14 May 2008 23:40:44 +1100

MP3
Are you chocolate desiring or chocolate indifferent? The reason lies in your guts.

Police state of work and school

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:32:20 +1100

MP3

In Australia, the Federal government plans to set companies policing employees email, and in NSW the State government encourages schools to scan children's fingerprints for roll-call every day.

Policing at Work

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:52:39 +1100

Policing at Work

So Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard has announced that companies need to be able to read employee's email whenever they want, in order to prevent emails being used to commit massive crimes like breaking essential services. This means repealing the Telecommunications (Interception) Act, 1997 which says that only ASIO can intercept emails, and only if they have a warrant from the Attorney-General. In this they went further than other liberal democracies where a warrant from a judge is required, instead of just a government minister.

Since companies are fictional people, who are the bosses that will have greater powers than ASIO? What will separate the police from the policed? Will it be managing one employee? Managing five? There will be national outcry that bosses shouldn't be doing this, and bosses will say they need police to do this. Does it make sense for managers to have more policing powers than ASIO? So the government can back off and just give ASIO and the Federal Police these powers to wiretap without a warrant, and the public will feel they've been saved from the evil spying bosses. Certainly if a MacDonalds supervisor can read our emails, then ineveitably ASIO and the Federal Police will have equal powers.

At present if ASIO makes a horrible mistake using its email interception powers, the responsibility lies with the minister who granted the warrant. If this law is changed, then the government has no responsibility for anything that goes wrong.

Of course if you were to read your boss's email and blow the whistle on criminal plans, then you would be the one to go to gaol.

Technically there are two ways that bosses could read your email. Either they set up a system where they hire people to read all incoming and outgoing emails, in the same way as a country at war. This means a special internal police force. This slows down email traffic and costs a lot of money. Its not going to happen.

The other is to give bosses the power to search your inbox and sent mail folders whenever they want. They will inevitably use Outlook which by default automatically executes macros embedded in emails and automatically opens attachments. This is how viruses are spread. The bosses will spread more viruses this way. It would be simpler to have software anonymously filter emails for attachments before they reach the employee - without anyone reading them.

We are told we need to protect essential services that are in private hands from electronic attack. The only known case of an essential service going down due to abuse of a private network is the rolling black-outs caused in california. However the criminals were not the employees, but the executives of Enron. The executives criminally caused blackouts to generate a fake demand for electricity that allowed them to justify increasing the cost of power. Giving email reading power to the executives is like giving the keys to the henhouse to the fox.

Perhaps emails could be sent to or by employees using code. If so, it would require ASIO or Federal POlice to crack the code, not bosses. When the dust settles, we may be expected to welcome ASIO and the Federal Police being given these overkill powers over email, just to stop the bosses from getting them.

In reality, an electronic attack on a company is more likely to come from a Denial Of Service Attack. This is usally done by saturating the computer with so many requests for service, whether that be a web page or a credit card authentication, that the computer has no time left over to service legitimate requests. The email equivalent is spam. So is the Deputy Prime Minister proposing to classify email spam as a terror crime?

Tapes Show Enron Arranged Plant Shutdown

Denial of Service Attack

Electronic Spam

Science Puts Enron E-Mail to Use

Goat Warriors and Uri Gellar

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:30:55 +1100

MP3

Goat experiments by the British Navy and the US Army, and the link to Uri Geller through Jon Ronson's wonderful book The Men Who Stare at Goats

Story by Ian Woolf, questions by Patrick Rubie.

RepRap Revolution

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:23:46 +1100

MP3

Desktop-sized factories that can print any 3D design out of plastic, including the parts to make another 3D printer. Welcome to the world of the replicating rapid prototyping machine or RepRap. Anyone can have a factory! Disruptive technology, coming your way.

Super fast wireless

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 22:42:59 +1100

Get a DVD beamed into your phone in seconds!

MP3

NICTA have invented a 5 gigabit per second wireless meshing network chip that will sell for only $10. Soon every gadget will talk with all its friends.

Cockroach eater

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 17:56:41 +1100

Cockroach eater

Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

My Nepenthes Truncata digesting a cockroach it prevented from entering my house.

The plant was grown from a cutting made when I had to cut it free from the trellis at my old flat. Its grown bigger traps than its parent. My friends have asked me for years to grow a plant that would catch their cockroaches, and now I have.

More cuttings will be made as soon as I have the peat moss.

Chalk and talk no more

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 18:47:48 +1100

Gaming, aiding and training brains

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 11:15:50 +1100

MP3

A game controller reads your mind,
Make a circuit to entrain your brain and help you become a lucid dreamer,
Use Memory Goggles to record, index and search what you've seen.

Rocket Car Day X - Jumbo edition

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 03:14:13 +1100

This was powered by the carbon dioxide from a fire extinguisher. It was the biggest and slowest car on the day! Rocket Car Day X was held in Sydney Steele Rd Marrickville, NSW, Australia. http://www.rocketcarday.com

Access ID card still lives

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 23:48:12 +1100

Centrelink are asking Pensioners to register with their website to claim an increase in the telephone allowance to help with internet service provider fees being paid after 20th March 2008. They do give you the option to send them the answer by post. However if you naturally decide to use the internet to ask for the internet allowance, then you will be asked to validate your identity in exactly the same way as was planned for the Access ID card as outlined on the Attorney-General's website although many of the documents about the Access card Bill have been taken offline. The Office of Access Card is still online and has been updated.

Let's play the Identity Game and see how high a level we can reach.

They want your passport number, your driver's license number, and your medicare number. Then they want you to set up five personal secret questions and answers that will always be true and be known only to you - and Centrelink.

They want your Internet Service Provider's name - presumably to verify that you are a genuine customer? That's a lot of administration.

Even then, all of this only gets you to level 3 of validation of your identity. No identity card here, but they can only raise you to level 4 internet access to your Centrelink services if you validate all of your Identity Documents in person.

Sweeney Todd performed on Youtube

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 13:37:04 +1100

Someone has digitised the telecast of the Los Angeles production of Sweeney Todd on Youtube:

Here's the complete Youtube videos of the play:
part1
part2
part3
part4
part5
part6
part7
part8
part9
part10
part 11
part 12
part 13
part 14
part 15

Lachstock interviewed

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 18:47:34 +1100

Ian Woolf interviews Lachlan Hardy about freeing the net in Australia with Meraki wireless meshing routers. Sharing is caring!

MP3

Read more on Lachlan's blog http://lachstock.com.au

Cloverfield

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:55:00 +1100

I just saw "Cloverfield" on its opening night. It looks like Hollywood was gearing up for the writer's strike and tried to make a film without any writers. As the Point Of View character holding the camera said "Its terrible".
At least the special effects guys had read Lovecraft.

After the movie just stopped, we waited through the titles for the punch-line that would make the movie worthwhile, but it never came.

Saucers under the Stars

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 21:58:41 +1100

This looks fun:
Saturday 19th January

An Evening of original vintage 16mm UFO documentaries from the Mu-Meson Archives. Jaimie and Aspasia will present the evening in the classic drive-in theater style with an introduction and hopefully a lively discussion. Although you will not be able to sit in your car you will be out under the stars as the films are projected above your head and onto the screen.
UFO Fact or Fiction 1972 B/W Roger Climpson fronts a challenging documentary on UFO incidents within Australia and in particular from the Sydney Metropolitan area that must have been ground breaking in its day. This is a time capsule of Australian Ufology that documents the early 70's interest in the subject. UFO's Do You Believe late 60's Color American documentary that takes in the major cases of its time with interviews from many key researchers, scientists and eye witnesses.

PENRITH REGIONAL GALLERY & THE LEWERS BEQUEST - 86 RIVER ROAD, EMU PLAINS NSW AUSTRALIA 2750
Phone: 02 4735 1100 / Fax: 02 4735 8334 / E-mail:
OPEN DAILY 10am - 5pm ADMISSION FREE

Location Location
Time Time 8.30pm
Cost Cost Free BYO Picnic & Rug.

Woohoo!

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 18:00:25 +1100

After a long series of unfortunate events, I've finally visited the far side of the bell-shaped curve. I won a free laptop (when I desperately needed but couldn't afford a new computer), and it was delivered on my birthday!

I have 10 metres of ethernet cable to keep me mobile until I get a wireless connection at home. Now I just need a remote control (unless there's one hiding in the packaging?).

It comes with video out, so I can run GeeXboX on it.

The machine is a Dell Vostro, and the bank running the promotion which required no skill or virtue was ING.

Internet goes sideways

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 22:20:33 +1100

Pssst, wanna share some internet? If you like your internet cheap, fast, and out of control; then wireless meshing networks might be for you.

MP3

Ian Woolf finds that if we all bring a pump and a pipe to the party, then the data can flow like beer. Plug in and turn on.

You can find out more about the free Sydney Meraki wireless meshing network at Free Sydney Wireless

No Comment

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 21:46:35 +1100

There were over 2300 attempts to post comments to my blog on Saturday alone,
from a broad range of IP addresses. I'm turning commenting off, for now. It looks like an attack, as the comments were empty of spam.

Ants by the sea

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 23:54:56 +1100

Ants by the sea 6

Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

Giant metal ants attacking a car at Bondi Beach

Riotsquad

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 22:07:57 +1100

Riotsquad

Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

Public Order and Riot Squad at the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney. I snapped this on Tuesday, after watching the car scream up George St in full siren and flashing lights. It was followed by a police car. I'd be very interested to find out what disturbance in Public Order they were attending to in the QVB.

Make a solar cell from scratch

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 22:45:23 +1100

Over at scitoys.com they have detailed instructions on how to make your own solar cell at home from ingredients you can buy from a hardware shop.

Basically you buy some cheap copper sheeting. Cut two pieces.
You heat one piece for 30 minutes until its covered in thick blackness.
Let it cool slowly for 20 minutes in the air, so the blackness will flake off easily.
Gently remove the black bits under the tap. Don't scrub or it won't work.
Attach an electrical lead to each copper plate with an alligator clip.
Put the two plates in a container with hot water with table salt dissolved in it.
Clip the heated copper plate to the negative and the clean copper plate to the positive terminal of your ammeter.
Expose to sunlight and watch your panel generate microamps of electricity with no fuel!

The flat panel version uses a CD case for the container

How much power does it generate? Simon Quellen Field says:
"Don't expect to light light bulbs or charge batteries with this device. It can be used as a light detector or light meter, but it would take acres of them to power your house. The 0.0000125 watts (12.5 microwatts) is for a 0.01 square meter cell, or 1.25 milliwatts per square meter. To light a 100 watt light bulb, it would take 80 square meters of cuprous oxide for the sunlit side, and 80 square meters of copper for the dark electrode."

src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~s/HeresWhy?i=<$MTEntryPermalink$>"
type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8">

Connected

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 23:46:48 +1100

I now have a landline and ADSL2+ connected, but I accidentally let the magic smoke out of my computer, and they tend not to work so well after that. I bricked my hard drive while shorting out my power supply. Fortunately I have an old small hard drive I can boot up using Ubuntu linux. No space for downloads or editing, but I have basic computer functions. I can use the internet and write and print and play media.

This will slow down getting my podcasts edited and into the feed. I'll shop for the specs I need for a new PC while this one limps along. It looks like laptops are getting as fast and cheap as desktops. A silent PC is a high priority. It would be nice if I could run a linux that has drivers for my camera and scanner as well, and Ubuntu doesn't do that yet.

We apologize for the interruption in service

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 16:49:34 +1100

I've moved house, and I don't have broadband connected yet. My landline was connected last week. I finally managed to unpack the dial-up modem and get it working today. I'll be posting more regularly real soon.

WorkChoice Identity Card

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 12:36:53 +1100

A little-known aspect of WorkChoices is that everyone who works is assumed to be guilty of crimes against Immigration law until they can prove themselves innocent. The assumption is that even if you're born here and have worked all your life, that you don't have a work visa, so you are illegally trying to work. You slacker!

I started two new casual part-time jobs recently (with the approval of Centrelink and my doctor), and they both were required under the WorkChoices legislation to provide the Immigration Department proof that I wasn't guilty of NOT having the legal right to work in Australia. One required a passport, the other settled for a birth certificate, although they had to check why they weren't allowed to accept a driver's license.

So we now live in a country where everyone has to provide papers on demand to prove that they aren't committing an Immigration crime. If only we all had wallet sized photographic Government validated documents, perhaps with electronic keys to all our documentation so that it was easier to start a new job, both for employees and employers? The Howard Government created the fake need in WorkChoices, and next year it will introduce the fraudulent solution to identity policing in the form of the Access Card.

The Family Benefits Tax Rebate will be paid from Centrelink next year instead of the Tax department. This means that you will need an Access Card to police your identity even if you're a stay at home mother, not even covered by WorkChoices. Everyone who deals with Centrelink will need the Access Card, and anyone who works but doesn't have a biometric passport will need one as well.

That leaves only employers free of having their identity policed and completely accessible.

Not that we have a class system in Australia, its just that employers are more equal than others and don't need police identity papers.

The Access Card is not good enough

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 17:26:49 +1100

So the draft legislation was NOT tabled at parliament before the break, but just shown to journalists.

It's not designed to save any money lost to welfare fraud, so its no good for that.

They've removed the medical information option, so its no good for that.

Police and ASIO no longer require a warrant to access private information.

No technological protection of private information is required by the legislation. This makes the smart cards dumber than the magnetic stripe card it replaces.

The Access Card office and the Australian Government Information Management Office have been working closely to make sure that the face-recognition data on the card is compatible with the Closed-Circuit CCTV security camera system. This lets the government pick your face out of the crowd, without a warrant.

So the card doesn't achieve its stated purpose, yet it will costs several billions of dollars more than the old system. Legal and technological privacy protections are to be stripped away by the new legislation.

Perhaps the only thing the Access Card is good for is an Identity Card, however often the government protests otherwise.

References:
Access Card re-draft fails to meet critics' concerns
Access Card Debacle Continues
'Rushed' Access Card Bill raises suspicions
Govt toughens access card privacy protections
Access card could link to surveillance
Exposure Draft of the Bill
Access Card is not a national ID: Govt
Is Big Brother Stalking You?

Camel jockey

iwoolf@gmail.com (Ian Woolf) — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 15:00:08 +1100

Camel jockey

Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

Super-Cipher putting the pedal to the camel at Winter Magic.

(No capes!)