points of departure

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2013-08-27T00:55:00.001+10:00

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MOVING DAY

2006-02-02T11:46:00.000+11:00

I'm moving to wordpress. Follow me here. Change bookmarks, feeds, etc etc.

The trip to Wollongong

2006-01-31T17:26:00.000+11:00

North Wollongong station, deserted but for D and me. D thinks we've gotten off at the wrong place, but it turned out to be the right one.

View of the lighthouses from the beach. There's a nice walk along the beach going past rockpools.

Closer to the lighthouse, we came across a small inlet where the sailing boats came home to roost.

And here they are. Waiting.

Me and D at the Hindu temple in Helensburgh.

Some kids hanging out on the streets at Helensburgh, notice the weird cycle/car things the two boys are riding. Very cool.

christmas at the beach

2006-01-06T20:31:00.000+11:00

It was a most atypical christmas, in many ways. First, I've never actually been in the thick of christmas celebrations, on account of me not being christian for a start. Plus I've had a few passing encounters with christmas at other peoples' houses, but it was always a tangential thing. In Israel, the holy land, christmas is not even a holiday, and all the action happens near and in the palestinian territory. Last year, I was in the lab. I was in the lab this year as well, but only for a short time, just enough to feed some birds I'm taking care of, which is a post all by itself. But Diana was spending christmas away from home, and insisted on doing SOMETHING, so we had a small party/celebration in the house that we were taking care of for a friend of a friend. The only reason we were house-sitting was that this house was a ten minute walk away from the beach. The beach at Bondi. The favourite destination of Australians during christmas week. Despite the lingering tension in the air due to the riots the previous week,- indeed, we saw groups of police officers patrolling the streets and the beach- we decided to make it a christmas at the beach. Christmas is usually associated with snow, and not hot sun and deliciously cold sea water. I always avoided going into the pacific ocean, but this time I decided to brave it and spent 15-20 mins in freezing water, so cold that all my hair stood on end even underwater. In the sky above, a biplane lazily wrote cryptic messages, while a lifeguard told off kids for trying to swim in areas clearly delineated as not swimming areas. The meal we had was vegetarian. Gasp. None of the others had ever been subjected to such a blatant indignity, especially at Christmas time, but X cooked a really cool meal that more than made up for any burnt animal.

PS: cross posted here, a new blog service I'm trying out.

Hex blog: WMF Vulnerability Checker

2006-01-03T11:49:00.000+11:00

Attention, WINDOWS users. All hell is about to break loose. Basically there's a possibility of using mages to run a malicious program. You can get infected by just browsing a bad site, or by getting images in Email, or Instant messenger service or howsover you get images. Please go to the link and check if your computer is vulnerbale. Also there's a temperory fix available there (from the link). Do it NOW! This affects ALL versions of Windows, irrespective of browser/ antivirus software et al (any doubts,leave a comment or see the Wikipedia entry on this virus)
UPDATE: Microsoft has issued a patch.

Sydney New Years Eve Fireworks - New Year 2006 - 360 Panoramafoto QTVR Photo

2006-01-02T12:48:00.000+11:00

If you look carefully in this photo, you'll see me. Somewhere. Atleast, I'm sure I'm there. No, really.

Happy New Year!

some more slang

2006-01-01T15:09:00.000+11:00

From here: "See, it is currently illegal in Australia to record shows off the telly, or to transferbangle (Australian for copy) music from CDs to portable music players."

I did a search on google for this term 'transferbangle', and I checked my favourite aussie slang site, and I cannot find any mention of 'transferbangle'. Plus I've never seen it in the newspapers or heard it in casual speech, and since typically Aussie slang words are rather short and pithy, so I call bullshit on this one.

some slang

2005-12-23T20:26:00.000+11:00

In the early days, when the house was still bare, and I'd just about managed to fill a tiny corner with an old analog TV that I'd bought for a ridiculously cheap price. The woman on the phone had said,- it's an old TV, but it works, so on the strength of that conviction, i'd said yes to the TV, especially because the woman was kind enough to offer to drop it off at the house. Anyway, the TV came, and I saw that it was so analog that it didn't even have a remote, and nor did it need an antenna to work. The woman saw the state of the house, bare from wall to wall, and in a spasm of compassion offered to sell us a futon at a damn cheap price. Subsequent negotiations over the futon- the thing was beastly big- did not function as smooth and eventually, we lost touch. But what struck me during the entire affair was the fact that the woman seemed to be using an aussie slang term- "No Dramas", meaning, "No Problem", all the time. When I asked other locals whether this term meant what I thought it to mean, I was met with blank looks. Nobody seemed to have heard of it, not even the Internet. So I put it down to yet another misheard phrase, and forgot about it.

Flash forward to 8 months later, and I pick up Bill Bryson's "Down Under" and there, right there on the third page or so, he documents its usage. By an Australian, no less.

canberra meanderings

2005-12-09T18:26:00.000+11:00

It's been almost a year since I visited Canberra last, and I'm happy to report not many things changed on this trip. I stayed at the same backpacking place, my destination was the same both times. Only, this time I went there by car and to attend a special spider symposium. It felt good to be in a room full of arachnologists, and hear spider stuff all day.

On the way, to keep myself amused and awake, I wrote down names of roads and creeks and fields that we passed. The rule was simple- I would write down only the names that suggested a back story. Therefore I could not include any of the aboriginal names, because though they might have fascinating backstories, as they usually do, these stories are more or less inaccessible to me. So i hereby present to you, dear reader, a list of place names:

Black Bob's Creek; Hanging Road; Winfarthing Road; Boxer's Creek; Murray's Flat Road; Run-o-Waters Creek; Stillwater Road; Willow Tree Creek; Collector Creek; Brooks Creek; Macs Reef Road; Oldbury Creek; Blacksprings Creek.

Closer to Canberra, we passed Lake George. Unfortunately, the lake is lake in name only, it looks more like a shadow of a lake. Apparently the water disappeared from the lake almost overnight, and I can imagine some vast realignment of the underground water table forcing the lake to give up its up-worldly existence and the lake is now a vast field of golden yellow grass, dotted by sheep.

I saw this painting (Alfred Ducôte’s E-migration, or, A Flight of Fair Game) at the National library of Australia, they had an exhibition called National treasures of Australia.

obscure movie meme

2005-11-27T17:25:00.000+11:00

From here. I don't see many obscure movies, but anyhow.

1. Black Cat White Cat
2. Dark City

La Virgen De Los Sicarios

2005-11-25T16:34:00.000+11:00

A movie where death is arbitrary but has a definite pattern at the same time, where you can predict a death coming by the sheer number of them. There were a few intriguing scenes in the movie which struck me, but for the most part it's a depressingly cynical look at violence in Colombia. I'll let an academic type explain all this while I just point out the scenes that I liked:

1. The protagonist visits a church he was always afraid to go to before, because he believed that if he entered the church he would die. Inside the church he experiences a strong deja vu feeling, that he had known how the church would be, and we also know this, because the film shows snippets of a dream of his where he sees the interior of this church.

2. There is a church where the assassins go to, in order to get their bullets 'blessed', by heating the bullets till they are red-hot, and then cooling them with holy water. The local killers believe that 'blessed' bullets do not miss.

3. Every time there's a new set of assassins out to kill the protagonist's companion (Alexis- who's also an assassin), there's a warning given to Alexis by a punk.

small changes

2005-11-24T11:29:00.000+11:00

So I discovered delicious's linkroll script, and added it to the blog. If you look at the sidebar, under quicklinks, I will be posting the one-off links that I stumble upon. and devote the main blog to longer pieces. I think I will be writing short pieces again, but enthusiasm is a bit lacking these days. Haven't been travelling much either, so basically I'm scraping the bottom over here. I think I'll put up atleast a book review every now and then. Just to indicate that the blog's still alive.

just checking a new cool thingy

2005-11-23T12:51:00.000+11:00

Ojos azules

Personality Test

2005-11-13T18:42:00.000+11:00

One click personality test. Brilliant!

my advisors

2005-11-11T17:35:00.000+11:00

my advisors
Originally uploaded by dinrao.

This image is part of a Uni Ad campaign to entice new students to join the Uni. The two pictured, in mock X-files style, are my thesis advisors.

The Worst Jobs in Science

2005-11-03T13:57:00.000+11:00

"Pain, Tedium, Danger, Disgust, Humiliation—It's all just part of the average workday for the (often proud, more often smelly) members of our third annual honor roll of the Worst Jobs in Science"

secret places

2005-10-31T15:31:00.000+11:00

If you leave the botanical garden by the other entrance, especially when dusk is just falling and there are hardly any other humans around, you will find yourself on a small street that winds down the hillock to the sea. You can't actually see the sea from there, but you can see that the land dips away suddenly and you catch a glimpse of the scores of waterfront restaurants. If you then follow the street a little way down, you'll notice that the street suddenly splits into two, circumventing a rise in the ground. It's grassy, and with some odd rocks here and there. Avoid the single bench standing in a nook in front of one of the rocks- there are signs of frequent usage- a cup, some food debris and the embers of a half forgotten fire. Instead go to the peak, so to speak, of the hillock, and among the bulky eucalyptus trees, and the herd of sulphur crested cockatoos, you will come across a statue to the poet and story teller, Henry Lawson. He's standing up there, deliberately not facing the sea, but instead looking up the street. He has a dog and some other guy with him. You may not know anything about him, but that doesn't stop you from building your own story. Lay yourself down on the grass little away from the statue, and settle down for night to come. Look back over your shoulders into the darkening garden. As the light vanishes, hundreds of fruit bats take to the sky. Watch them wing around in ever widening circles, as they begin to realize where they are, and start their nightly flights. There is no other order or pattern, and they don't even fly agilely, if you watch them carefully, you will even see that they have several near misses with each other, and if you're really lucky, you might even see a collision. After a while, the bats start thinning- there are fewer of them- and after a while their silhouettes are harder to see against the night. Turn around now, and look at the cityscape opposite. The buildings across the water are all lit up, looking like hollow structures lit up on the inside by candlelight. Watch the first stars appear across the cut-out city, and feel the cool night breeze.

Lagaan

2005-10-31T13:17:00.000+11:00

"Bhuj is a dusty, walled fort town in a remote corner of north-western India. With plenty of soldiers. Pakistan is only 70km away, and given the delicate nature of relations between Islamabad and New Delhi, the Indian government regards the area as 'highly sensitive'. So all foreigners are required to register with the police. In big letters, my little registration card reads: 'Please note that landscape photography is prohibited.' Interesting. Did anyone tell them we have come here to shoot a film?"

I saw Lagaan yesterday, so here's a link detailing the (mis)adventures of one of the british actresses.

Obligatory opera house photo

2005-10-23T17:59:00.000+10:00

I really am in Sydney, ya know...

the bee whisperer

2005-10-19T20:08:00.000+10:00

(a tip of the hat to AH)

It's not an easy task to get the bees to do my bidding these days, because the weather is fine and there's tons of good food hanging about, just waiting for the taking. No self respecting bee is going to prefer the dry and rather insipid sugar water solution that I use in my experiments when all the flowers, with their cunning born of millions of years of evolution, are calling the bees to come to them. Sure the sugar water is easy, and it's so handy, just outside the hive, but ask a bee and they'll go for the flowers any day. Meanwhile, one cannot wait till the weather goes bad, I have to try all sorts of weird hijinks. For example, when the stingless bees were disoriented in their new location, I put a few drops of the essential oil of frangipani to attract them and get them accustomed to their new home. I even have tried to add pure honey to the feeder just to make it easier for the bees to get there. The bees are not in a mood to be placated by these sops. It's going to take more than a few bribes for them to do what is needed. I will have to call in the Bee Whisperer.

UPDATE: I GOT STUNG TODAY!!! I HATE BEES!

Followup/Distraction

2005-10-15T15:26:00.000+10:00

"Distraction is necessary. Minds need to wander to get anything done. But the Internet is sort of the mental equivalent of the snack aisle at a convenience store, filled with satisfying fatty chips and tasty cream-filled cakes."

sculptor and head

2005-10-15T14:23:00.000+10:00

sculptor and head
Originally uploaded by dinrao.

This was taken in Fremantle, in the town square like area. Most of the photos this time sucked, so I have put only around ten up on Flickr. I really should invest in a different camera. And oh, I also added some photos of bondi beach in Sydney

| Unicef bombs the Smurfs in fund-raising campaign

2005-10-09T12:56:00.000+10:00

"The people of Belgium have been left reeling by the first adult-only episode of the Smurfs, in which the blue-skinned cartoon characters' village is annihilated by warplanes."

tales from freo

2005-10-08T17:57:00.000+10:00

I landed in Freo in the middle of the night...I didn't anticipate that it would take me so long to find a willing airport shuttle driver, and I walked the streets looking for a place to stay. Freo felt safe enough to walk around at midnight...but there were suspicious characters loitering about. As I reached what turned out to be the city centre, there were packs of kids lolling about, like feral dogs. It was quite surreal. Deserted town, middle of the night and all these teenagers. And on a monday night! I wandered around till I found a backpacking place that was open and crashed for the night. But right next to this place was a cafe that was open all night! I cannot stress enough how rare this is in Australia. In the rest of the country all shops tend to close around 5 or 530, and in Freo they have all these cafes that go way into the night and open on Sundays as well. I noticed that a lot of shops had the sign "open 7 days" on them and it turned out that there's a concerted effort to keep businesses open for longer, a concept that is as natural as night in the rest of the world. The best thing about Freo (and for that matter, Perth) is that they have this free bus system called the CAT service which goes around the city centre. The bus stops in Freo were painted with wild colours and themes, but sadly I forgot to take any photos of them, so ...well too bad.

The conference itself was quite good. It was held in what I guess is Freo's biggest hotel, but apart from the fact that the screen was so high that everybody suffered from neck-aches at the end of the conference, everything went smooth. I was ill at ease till my talk got over, unfortunately it was on the last day...so I really started relaxing only when everything was almost over.

All of us were staying in a charming beachside cottage that was at the very end of the main road in Freo. It was just a few minutes from a nice white sand beach, but the weather was absolutely un beach-like. Chilly and windy and intermittently rainy, so regrettably I didn't spend much time on the beach. The one time I did venture to take a look at the Indian Ocean from the other side, my only companions were gulls battling to keep their place in the wind. The highlight of the trip was the visit to a really strange pub/ micro-brewery called the Little Creatures. The pub was IN the brewery, so we had beer sitting amidst these huge silver coloured metal canisters that looked all the world like missile silos. The beer was strange but nice, and the food was even more eclectic. I also spent a lot of time in one of Freo's markets, in my quest for a wooden ring, but it proved to be fruitless.

After the conference i headed to Perth. I think I overdid Perth- I walked everywhere, from the awfully domesticated King's Park Botanical Garden (this link doesn't work in FireFox for me...) to all the museums. I touched a meteorite. Many meteorites actually, apparently, there was this big shower some time ago and the Museum of Western Australia has a whole bunch of them. Very interesting to see the pockmarks made by the heat from the entry into the atmosphere. They also had a preserved specimen of one of the ugliest sharks -the Megamouth- I'll ever see, and one of the most rare as well. I think only around 5 specimens have ever been seen worldwide.

MIscellaneous notes: Saw Serenity, (★★★) read Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (★★★★★) and Charlie Stross's Singularity Sky (★★★).

some phrases

2005-10-04T15:03:00.000+10:00

Here are some phrases that I noted down from the conference. Taken out of context, they become touchstones (or points of departure, if you will), and set off trains of thoughts. Here are some of those nano-stories.

the frog's dilemma
parasitising the attractiveness
mosaicism
system frozen in time
fossil language
attractiveness research
warp scores
fewer dimensions than traits
dispersal is a creative force
genetic swamping, genetic rescue
self compatible
ill-behaved regions
serpentine miner
leaf-mining guru
cue transfer
casual trait
engineered focal males