Antony Green’s Blog – Well, who wouldn’t want to follow the god-like Antony as he discusses elections?
Aurora Comms> – From the website: “Aurora is a healthcare communications agency that executes creatively targeted campaigns, which demonstrate clear insight, deliver against marketing objectives and guarantee optimal return on investment.
The agency was established in 2005 by friends Neil Crump and Claire Eldridge.”: I met Neil through twitter
So, it’s been a while since I last blogged, and I want to apologise for that. I have about 10 things to blog about, and they’re sitting in a list on my desk. I don’t even know where to begin, but I thought I’d do a shout-out to Cory who emailed me about a wonderful organisation called oSTEM – out in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. I haven’t forgotten you, I will write you soon. But, if you’re in the field and looking for new queers, this might be a good start.
Talking of Engineers, I had rather sad news on the 16th of last month, my Supervisor, a wonderful and supportive man, dropped dead with an aortic dissection on the 15th while at home. He was a brilliant man who had endless amounts of time to spend with you, always pushed people further, and tried to make everyone understand not just the basics, but WHY. He was 46, and has a young wife and two early-teen boys.
I took the news particularly badly, and spent about two weeks in a wilderness of thought and philosophy, as I’ve not really experienced death so close to me before, with the exception of my Grandfather, who was 95 and had spent years lost in his own world. I am getting closer to accepting and discussing the matter, but it put quite a stop on the PhD for a while.
Last week, I went to the Universities Australia conference in Canberra, where I became thoroughly disheartened about the value of a University degree. I can explain the policy in detail, but essentially we are all now just consumers, shopping for a degree that we shall get, meeting the minimum standards, and resulting in an over-degreed, under-qualified population where the job prospects shall be scant.
I also got more heavily involved in my own local student organisation, which many will find humorous, as I re-wrote standing orders, examined submissions to Government on different things, and generally had a ball.
I guess I’ve been doing some other things as well, but I’ve not really had the time. And yourself?
Many of you know that I am excessively involved in student politics. Ridiculously so. I recently was at a conference in our nation’s fine capital, representing the national postgraduate association, where I was reminded of the fact that our humble Postgraduate Association at my dear belov’d University was SUPPORTING the rallies against Barack Obama for being a warmonger.
I don’t support war, I wish to make that clear. The needless death of thousands, both those fighting, and the “collateral damage” of the civilians caught in the crossfire, is tragic, and when it comes to the usual pissing contest between two leaders, I feel that we need to stop the actions. I feel that, from my perspective as a commentator who regularly views shows like the wonderful Rachel Maddow and the high-larious Jon Steward, I have a fairly good grasp on what is happening in America, and do firmly believe that Obama is fighting a tide of opposition to try and finish the three wars Dubya got America into. So, from a personal level, I believe that the rallies are more anti-America sentiment that anti-Obama.
It may have had to do also with the fact that the person who brought the motion for support to the table was a member of the despicable Socialist Alternative (SAlt) party. Or maybe that the reason for supporting this is that the Association is against war. But, whatever the reason, the room was in near unanimous support to protest Obama to the fullest extent, with the motion passing 6-1 (I opposed).
Which then leads into my question. When do you leave the defined role of an organisation and move into protesting for everything else. As a student association, our mandated role is to represent the views of students, assist with their rights, and help them negotiate the minefield of the University. I interpret this as meaning:
Representing the students in a balanced and apolitical manner to the University
Working with students in the broader community to assist with direct student needs such as Youth Allowance and housing
Forming submissions to the Government on behalf of students to present a balanced view on their policies and how best to assist students
In some instances, providing social events for networking, either as a whole, or as part of equity networks
Student Associations should not be making a point of trying to work too far outside the University or Education portfolio. In my mind, the following should never happen:
Students for Palestine: I am particularly incensed with this, given that this isolates all Jewish students within the University. Furthermore, this is not OUR problem, this is a problem the British and Americans caused, and we should try to keep our collective noses out of it. Not to mention that, should this be a solidarity issue, they should, in turn, be supporting us. Last I heard, gay men weren’t so popular in Gaza.
General immigration laws: Whilst we should be speaking to allow for all to have a fair and equal education, we should not be telling the Government that we should have unlimited immigration (a point put forward by one member of Executive).
Marriage Equality: Whilst I, for one, would love for full marriage equality to exist one day, I don’t see it as our place to be fighting the Government here, especially given the hundred of other fights we should be doing. It was mentioned that CAAH were unsupportive of Equal Love NSW, which is leading me to believe all the rallies that happen up and down George St really aren’t the flavour of the month, not to mention that they’re about as useful as throwing pebbles at Parliament House from the other side of Lake Burley Griffin.
I know I’m in the minority here: Student politicians are usually there to start their political careers (Tony Abbott, Joe Hockey, et al. started that way) and this means that they espouse the views of their party indiscriminately of what the students they purport to represent actually want; or because they see student organisations ways of getting funding for their endless rallies (SAlt). I think that, whilst individual students may have views for or against issues, the most important thing is that Student Organisations, which work on consensus and agreement, should be representing the views of ALL students, not just the far left or far right. And when they come to a head over things like supporting rallies against Obama, or spending ANOTHER $700 on printing posters for another useless march down George St, and then turn around and struggle to pay their staff, let alone make it through the year, there is something rotten in the House of Denmark and it’s the fucking politicisation of students, fighting for everything and achieving little.
Keep your fucking noses out of it, it’s none of your business.
I am often the target of unusual spam – people who contact me wishing to do a PhD in Australia, usually specifying USyd. Now, this is unusual, because at no point on any of my email addresses would it suggest I was in anyway involved. Today, however, was one to top them all:
Dear professor,
Iam very pleased to write you, iam student and i receivd Master in biology and pharmacology at University of Abobo-Adjame in COTE D’IVOIRE/ Africa.But i want to up grade my education in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at your University.Please ,may you help me to find someone to direct or to be my supervisor?
As remender i have a drugstore where i give some cares to patients suffering from many diseases such AIDS, CANCER .With all results , iam sure , i will receive NOBEL PRIZE , but i wish that will be at our university.
Thanks for your grateful.
Irie bi Tra Olivier
01Bp 13290 Abidjan 01/COTE D’IVOIRE
Home phone : (225)20379805
Work phone : (225)20379808
Private phone (225)08896308/66457234
E-mail: ibitraol@yahoo.com
iritrao@yahoo.com
So, as far as I can tell, that is not a valid address, but 225 is the country code for the Ivory Coast. Now, their desires are noble, and USyd has had its fair share of Nobel Laureates, as well as wanting to help with AIDS, CANCER. But, the clincher is me being referred to as Professor. I’m not even a Dr yet!
As I flicked my eyes over this morning’s paper, I cam across this tidbit from Australia’s answer to Glenn Beck, Miranda Devine: Climate Alarmists out in the Cold.
As the wheels keep falling off the climate alarmist bandwagon, it’s suddenly become fashionable to be a sceptic. Out of the woodwork have crawled all sorts of fair-weather friends.
Now, I will be the first to admit that Sydney has been having unusually cool weather for Summer. Few 38+ days, lots of rain, etc. It’s called a la niña cycle, and used to occur in balance with the el niño cycles we had every other year. At last count, we had 8 el niño cycles to 2la niña cycles in the past 10 years.
Climate Change does not mean that the world is simply getting hotter, it is far more complex than that. This winter, lizards in Florida were spotted freezing to death and falling from trees (giving new meaning to raining cats and dogs). If this doesn’t sound normal to you, you’d be right. In the North Atlantic, an enormous current cycle exists, whereby air and water moves from England, down to Spain, across to Florida, up to New England, and then back across to England. This vortex moves the heat around, but when the air is hotter, air currents are less effective; and when the ice in the Arctic melts, more fresh water is there which slows down the sea.
North Atlantic Current
Essentially, put it this way: No hot air will make it to Europe or New England. Washington DC is expecting huge snow this summer, but it will melt and warm up. If the ocean currents stop, there’s nothing to make the area warm again. This article was published mostly about the phenomenon at the beginning of 2003: Abrupt Climate Change.
In Australia, the weather cycles are different. National Geographic put together an article about the el niño cycle, El Niño/La Niña: Nature’s Vicious Cycle. Wikipedia has quite a good resource too.
Bah, I am just getting more and more annoyed as I read more things to put into this post. CLIMATE CHANGES DOES NOT MEAN THAT EVERY SINGLE SQUARE INCH OF EARTH GETS HOT YOU FUCKWADS. Climate Change is due to a combination of factors, both man-made and natural, that are fucking with the planet, and if you can’t see this, then look a little bit harder. And, for the love of God, please, do something rather than just bitch and moan in the newspaper as you chai-sipping capitalist corporate conservative are want to do.
GAH!!!!!!!
And so it came to pass that on the 10th day of January, in the two thousand and tenth year of Our Lord, the University of Sydney completed the re-brand. Costing in excess of $5Million, the University has “refreshed” its logo, updated the website (and changed the url), made us change all of our emails and signatures, and erected some phallic objects at entrances that show we are a University.
There is an ongoing conversation, mostly in the media, about Carbon Capture and Storage, as part of the more major Clean Coal Phenomenon. Here’s a song to put you in the mood:
Let me put this to you now. Clean Coal is a myth. Clean Coal still requires mining the coal in the first place, as well as transporting it. Both of these use energy. When the Coal is used, admittedly, it is gasified, which does ensure more of the energy from the coal can be used, but much of the coal cannot be gasified, so it is sent to landfill, and what is burned still produces CO2 which needs to be dealt with.
Here’s how the Department of Energy in the US puts it together, with beautiful images, pictures of trees, my word, I feel like masturbating over the beauty of our Energy system:
Clean Coal and Geo-sequestration
Even when you start to look into the process, it seems brilliant, look, this one produces a wonderful superfuel! *Masturbates some more*
Coal Liquefaction
Oh, we’ll just ignore that there are still carbon emissions, and all that sulphur, not to mention the ammonia, nitrates, and other impurities. Oh, and we’ll ignore the energy that goes into producing this. Oh, and we’ll ignore the necessary quantities of cooling water required for all this. No worries, really.
Any engineer, scientist, or even pleb worth half a grain of salt can see that this is not a solution for anything other than explaining why we should MAINTAIN our devotion to coal. Coal is, especially in Australia, one of our major exports. According to the Australian Coal Association, coal exports in 2006-7 was about $22.5B, more than any other raw material we wrestle from the ground and pump onto a ship. In 2004, Australia produced 28% of the world’s coal supplies, more than the whole of Europe and North America, or equivalent to the whole of Asia.
Australia will continue to worship at the temple of Coal until such time as it can be shown that we don’t need $22.5B or any of the 37 coal-fired power stations. If each one runs as efficiently as Munmorah Power Station, Australia produces more than 200M tonnes of CO2 from power stations alone. Of course, that’s not the case: Earing and Bayswater, both in the same region of the Hunter, each produce 20M tonnes of CO2.
According to CARMA (the Carbon Monitoring for Action Group), Australia is the 8th largest carbon emitter in the world from power stations; And Maplecroft reported in September 2009 that Australia is the largest per capita with 20.5 tonnes per person. Australia produces 1 tonne of carbon for every MWh of power (leaving two 60W light globes on for a year is roughly 1MWh)
I’ve gone off onto a rant about carbon emissions now, I apologise. Let me bring this back to the point: Australia is addicted to coal, which provides for more than half of our annual carbon emissions.
But clean coal will change all of that, you cry. Hopelessly.
Clean Coal failed when I first brought it up because it still uses energy to use, produce, quarry, transport, etc. But, the real kicker, the absolute goal scorer, is in sequestration.
No, not that sequestration. The storage kind. Go on, click on that first link there. Have a read. I’m patient, I’ll be here when you get back. It’s only Wikipedia.
So, basically, they (being the gods of coal and energy, and usually politicians) believe that rather than pumping out ALL of the carbon emissions from a coal-fired power plant into the atmosphere, a portion can be captured and stored, as it were. Like it was before we raped the earth. (For more on this, see the Carbon Cycle). Sequestration comes in three basic forms:
Biosequestration (sometimes called terrain sequestration) meaning to store the carbon into plants and trees and things. Algae. Yeah, that stuff.
Geosequestration, meaning using rocks and holes in the ground, and the like
Aquatic storage. Because pumping more CO2 into the Ocean seemed like such a good idea at the time.
Let’s take these one at a time:
Biosequestration
The average healthy tree absorbs 13lbs (or about 5kg) of CO2 in a year. Pretty good. Except, that at current levels, Australia would require 4.48 billion trees – about 220,000km2, or 18 times the size of Greater Sydney, or nearly 1470 Royal National Parks. So, trees might be out.
I did a report in 2007 for a course I was doing where an algal pond was considered for biosequestration. Taking Munmorah again, if the whole of Lake Munmorah was covered in algae, I seem to recall less than 10% of carbon would be absorbed.
Of course, both trees and algae have benefits. Trees provide recreational areas, can provide wood if grown in a sustainable way, and only burns to a crisp every other year in a bush fire, undoing the goodness of storing…. oh, never mind. Algae can be harvested and used as their own fuel source, usually by… burning… them… oh, never mind.
Geosequestration
Methods for Geosequestration
Look at that. Isn’t it beautiful? It would make strong men cry. All those thousands of tonnes of CO2 being pumped into the rocks, where they shall just sit peacefully and never ever escape or do harm to anyone again. Lake Nyos was just a fluky weird chance thing caused by nature.
To me, the concept of pumping CO2 into the ground is flawed for many reasons. First off, CO2, when placed in water, causes the formation of a highly acidic solution, making the soil around it acidic, and polluting the ground water. Whilst scientists promise the carbon dioxide will be more than 1km below the surface, gases have a nasty habit of moving, especially if they get into ground water. Ground water also provides the oceans, further acidifying the oceans which is not a good thing. Whilst “they” maintain that there is no chance for leakage, another major flaw in the plan is that you will eventually fill each site and need to find a new site. Some scientists believe they have found enough storage for more than 500 years of carbon dioxide.
Aquatic Sequestration
This one just makes me mad. The Oceans are already struggling to survive absorbing all the excessive crap we pump out, and now we’re going to cut out the middle man and just push it straight in. One idea was to form like a lake, a layer of the ocean which would be liquidified CO2. Never mind the fish who might swim into it. Oh, and the atmosphere and oceans will eventually equate back, so the oceans will begin “producing” the CO2.
What people miss out from all of this is that Carbon Sequestration is labelled time and time again as MITIGATION. Delay, put off, deal with in the short term, if you will. It does not solve the problem. It’s like that boss at work who just keeps giving you the shit jobs to do. The other issue is that CO2 is not the only greenhouse gas, it is not the only thing that is produced when burning coal. Methane is worse, for example, but it can be burned for more fuel and the production of more CO2.
Any solution proposed by a government is not going to solve all the problems of the world. But, when I read that Australia is investing $120M into pre-feasibility assessments for four CCS sites, and then turn the page to see Britain investing 75B Pounds in wind turbines to produce 25% of power needs, I know who is further ahead, and who needs to pull their head in. Australia cannot continue to work on this coal culture.
I’ve been approached by a person from the University of Virginia about a survey she is conducting. At this time, it is only for couples in the US (sorry Aussies ) but please get in contact with her if you have any questions.
Engaged volunteers needed!
I am looking for volunteers for a study of attitudes towards marriage and parenthood among engaged couples. The study consists of a 25-30 minute online survey. To qualify for the study, you must be 20-35 years old, live in the U.S., and plan to marry or have a commitment ceremony within the next 365 days. You and your romantic partner must not have children, and this must be the first marriage for both of you.
You can:
-Help a doctoral candidate;
-Increase the pool of scientific knowledge;
-Support research on marriage and families; and
-Spend some time thinking about your relationship!
I am working with Dr. Charlotte J. Patterson, a Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia. This study has been approved by the University of Virginia Institutional Review Board #2009025800.
If you and/or your romantic partner are interested in participating or want further information, please email me at survey.couples@gmail.com. I will send you a link that you can use to access the study.
Thanks!
Cristina Reitz-Krueger
Doctoral Student
University of Virginia
(434) 243-8558
survey.couples@gmail.com
Here we sit, watching the the big balloon going up in the sky. Of course, in Sydney it looks more like this:
It’s been a funny year, 2009. I did so many things I’ve not done before, I’ve done other things that I do all the time, and some things I normally do but didn’t this year. It’s all very exciting.
I got my eyebrow pierced, I went to two student conferences, I got engaged, I continued my PhD, I became a councillor with SUPRA, I became Secretary of SUPRA, I became a councillor with CAPA, I became Queer Co-officer and National Secretary, I worked as an electoral official, I came out to a number of people. I did a hundred things I wanted to, and missed many things I wanted to.
Where does that leave me?
Well, it leaves me here, on NYE/D. We’ve been watching films. And so, in interests of swelling this post, i provide an overview of the films:
The Proposal
There was only one thing worth watching this film for:
Otherwise, it was a shallow waste of celluloid reminiscent of every film from Green Card to Pretty in Pink.
The Alphabet Murders Eliza Dushku plays the part of an investigator in Rochester, NY investigating murders for children with double-letter initials and found in places which have the same letter (Like Kristina K. Keneally). It was dark and distrubing, though has Eliza somewhat typecast in the role she played in Tru Calling. It was, however, not all that well written or directed, and I thought it was really flat.
The International
Like a lobotomy with a pencil, this film was painful and made no sense.
I have lots to do, but I don't know where to start... so I'm not doing any of it. 8 hours ago
@chrislhayes Being in Australia, I'm a little delayed with all this, but I loved you on @maddow last night. You're a great presenter :) 8 hours ago
Contact
Should you want to contact me for any reason at all... question? query? bored?
Email janek (at) theengineermuses (dot) com. Note the email address will need to be modified, because I know you're all bots out there, reading my blog.
) but please get in contact with her if you have any questions.
Eliza Dushku plays the part of an investigator in Rochester, NY investigating murders for children with double-letter initials and found in places which have the same letter (Like Kristina K. Keneally). It was dark and distrubing, though has Eliza somewhat typecast in the role she played in Tru Calling. It was, however, not all that well written or directed, and I thought it was really flat.
