More lazy blogging

I could write something serious here, lord know's there is plenty of seriously nasty stuff going on in the world at the moment. Instead, I'm going to post a bunch of photos I took of an amazing sunset here in Innsbruck the other day....

By the way, can anyone tell me why sunsets are so amazing after thunderstorms? I'm guessing it has something to do with high humidities and subsequently larger amounts of refraction in the atmosphere. I can't quite put my finger on it... Something to do with the red light being refracted more than the blue... Okay, that is probably the answer, but if someone has something better (i.e. they have thought about it for longer than it took me to write this sentance) I'd like to hear it.

Just before sunset there were these two amazing rainbows arcing over the whole valley. It was totally amazing, I couldn't get the whole thing into the one shot. What I wouldn't give for a fish-eye lens...

I know I should be more serious but...

I know that I should write something serious and political here today, but I really don't feel like it. I'm feeling a bit apathetic. Maybe it's because I'm avoiding all the junky right-wing blogs. Maybe I've just eaten too many cashews? Maybe I just don't feel like it because a whole lot of people died in today Baghdad and New Orleans is underwater? Or maybe it's because I'm just getting back into the swing of things at work? You decide.

Anyway, I'll get back to it in the next few days. In the meantime, go and check out the new improved Webdiary. Alternatively, go and check out Road to Surfdom, which operated by Tim Dunlop, the guy tipped to replace Margo Kingston at smh.com.au.

I'm back from holiday!!!!

Crap. Back from holidays...

Sorry everyone no hard-hitting blogalism today. Just worked my way through the inbox and, well, it took most of my day and my brain is fried.

Though, to keep you all reading this blog, here are some cool pics from my travels.

To begin with here is a photo of my brother and sister (half pissed) in a not-so-typical but totally cool english pub:

Now, next is an obligatory tourist shot of me and Sarah by the Thames. If you look closely (well, not too close actually), you can see "Westminister", "Big Ben", and the "London Eye" in the background.

And finally, I ended my holiday by visiting Sarah's home town, "Bad Laasphe", where they were having their "stadtfest" (for those non-Germans out there, it's basically just a big pissup that the whole town goes to). Oh yea, Germany can be really pretty when it wants to be.

I'm on Holiday!!!!

I'm now on holiday! Yay! I'm going on a real, proper, holiday this week. Tomorrow my girlfriend and I are flying to London to meet up with my sister (who lives in London), my bro, and my bro's girlfriend (both of which are en route to Vancouver). It should be absolutely awesome. I haven't seen them all since March.

I was planning to post a bunch of hard-hitting articles on issues including: multiculturalism, global warming, industrial relations, and "negative quantum information" but screw it, the world can wait a week can't it? For the next week or so as I don't intend to do anything more taxing than trying to decide which Indian restaurant to have dinner in...

Stay tuned for much more ranting and raving in the following weeks...

Oh yea, if anyone is interested in my brother's travels they should go here.

Fightbacks in frisbee (The Lovers lost again :-()

*FRISBEE POST*

So, for all of those out there that care, the UQ lovers lost the "Dog Cup" final last week. The team went down 11-9. It sounds pretty close but from what I gather the team started slow, got behind and spend the rest of the match playing catch-up. Nice try though guys. Really, from what I've heard there was some great play and you put on a bit of a spectacle for the crowd. I heard that a lot of the crowd were backing the Lovers to take the cup home this year. I still wish I could have been there, I'm sure a bunch of the ex-Lovers would have liked to be there screaming "GO LOVERS" from the sidelines... Oh, and Jill took some photos at the match here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Debate question:

I wish I could get some stats on how many games of frisbee are won by teams that get a lead and hang on to it. I can't remember too many games that I've played in that have had a successful fightback. I've been in plenty of fightbacks, but normally you tend to miss out by a point or two. Basically, you always end up hitting the time-cap. I also wish I knew how much fightbacks are related to the team in the lead running out of legs versus this team running out of motivation. I guess these two things are related, but is there a general rule about which comes first?

On a related topic, is it smarter to come out onto the field "all guns blazing", totally pumped up to win the first few points - and then suffer the inevitable adrenaline/energy crash; or to come out calm and just hope that you win the first few points and save energy for later in the match? If it is true that frisbee games are often won when a team gets a lead at the start then you could mount a pretty convincing argument that says that you should go out onto the field without any notion of energy conservation. That is, put the best 7 on the line and tell them to run their pants off for a few points. I'm sure this doesn't work at the elite level, that is when two equally matched teams are playing each other, but maybe it isn't such a bad idea as a tactic early in a tournament?

If anyone has thoughts on this issue drop them in the comments box. I'm really interested in hearing what people have to say about this.

Frisbee training schedule

*Frisbee post warning!*

Last night I played in the weekly frisbee scrimmage between the Old Sox and the Flying Circus. Well, it wasn't so much "between" the teams last night as "with", we kinda mixed up the combos for a bit of fun. Anyway, to the point... I was asked by one of the players how much training I do each week, kinda after a point involving some pretty crazy sprinting. So I figured I'd write a bit of a post about my training regime. It isn't a perfect regime. It isn't even that great for frisbee. I know a lot of places where it could be better (especially with running and skills training). I'm also not doing a very serious regime at the moment either because I'm not getting ready for any tournaments any time this year that I'm taking very seriously... But if you want to comment on ways I can improve it would be more than welcome. So here goes.

Loosely, this is what I do in a good week that isn't interrupted by the shear craziness of life:

1. 3 gym workouts
2. 3 running sessions, 1 day dedicated to running
3. 2 frisbee scrimmages/training sessions

Ok, I should explain a lot more.

Gym sessions

I have 3 gym sessions a week, each works out different muscle groups. I do vary the workouts a bit, especially if I've been doing the same thing for a few weeks and I'm bored. For each exercise I normally do 3 sets of 6, 8, 10, or 12, it depends how long I've been doing the exercise. As is typical, when I start a new workout program with new exercises I start doing reps of 12 with a low weight, and then every few weeks I increase the weight and drop the repetitions.

Here are the three different workouts:

Chest and tri's

• Warm up chest with off-the-wall pushups and stretches (5 mins)
• dumbbell benchpress (or normal benchpress, I switch between these every now and then)
• Incline benchpress
• Tricep exercise 1 (Normally tri-pulldowns with a rope)
• Tricep exercise 2 (tri-pulldowns with something solid)
• Tricep extensions alternating with barbell bicep curls
• Abdominal exercises (2 or 3 different exercises, depending on how tired/bored I feel)

Legs and Shoulders

• Warm up, probably running or cycling
• Squats
• Deadlifts
• Lunges
• dumbbell shoulder press
• 1 arm bent over dumbbell shoulder rows (the ones where you but a knee on a bench and lift the dumbbell up to your side)
• Lateral raises
• Abdominal stuff

Back and Biceps

• Incline bench rows (dumbbell or barbell, depends on my mood)
• Lateral pull downs
• Seated row
• Standing barbell curls (aim for power)
• Seated dumbbell preacher curls (low weight, aim for better form)
• Back extensions

Ok, like I've said. I normally do an ab routine when I go to the gym. I vary it all the time, I've found that if I stick to the same thing week-in week-out I get bored and I don't gain that much after a few weeks. Normally I do 2 or 3 different exercises. There are a million different exercises that one could choose...

Running sessions

Ok, this is a little more random than my gym workouts. I try to do 1 day a week where I do nothing but running and stretching. Lately this has taken the form of a 10km or so run along the In river (the river that Innsbruck is built on). I chose this route mainly because it is a really nice run and has nothing to do with trying to train on flat ground vs hills or anything (something that I sometimes do think about).

When I get closer to a big tournament I tend to drop the distance running and spend some time working on sprint training. Normally I either do hill sprints (anyone who's been to Innsbruck or Brisbane would know that you can do this anywhere...) or I do some sort of shuttle run things.

The other running sessions that I do are mixed in with my gym sessions. Sometimes I have some quality time on the treadmill at the gym (normally when the weather is pretty shitty) where I run for 4 or 5 kms and try to do a pretty decent time. Other times I run to the gym, do my workout, and run back. This is actually a pretty good running session. I have a 1 km downhill followed by a 1 km flat on the way to the gym. This gets me nice and warm for my workout. Then I have a 1 km flat and a 1 km uphill home. This is a pretty serious workout on its own. The hill is an absolute bastard...

Frisbee training

Ok, obviously this depends a lot on what the team (Flying Circus) is doing and what season it is etc, but at the moment our team has a training session followed by a scrimmage every Sunday. Every Wednesday people in our team drive to a nearby town to play the Old Sox in a scrimmage. Thursday nights people play beach ultimate, I pretty much always skip this though. At the moment this is pretty light frisbee training for me. Back in Brisbane I'd play at least 2-3 days a week and would do skills training at least 2 days a week. I'm not doing as much here basically because I don't have the time and there aren't so many people here banging down my door asking if I want to o do some skills training with them...

Ok, so that's it. Like I said, it isn't perfect or even that intense. I've taken training much more seriously in times past, especially when training for Australian mixed ulti championships last year with the Lovers. I guess I'll take it more seriously at times in the future as well...

Go the Lovers!

My old frisbee team, the UQ Lovers, are playing in the Brisbane MAL (Men's A-League) final tomorrow. I am totally stoked that they made it! They knocked off the top seeded team (that they had never beaten) in the semi-final to make it into the final. We did exactly the same thing last year! I swear that semi-final was one of the best games I had ever played in. The final wasn't too bad either, 'cept we lost by 1 point after time-cap....

Anyway, good luck guys! I expect emails telling me how the game went!

For those of you that are interested in nostalgia, here is a photo of our team taken after the final last year (aren't our campy 70s style shirts uber-cool?):

Anyway, good luck again guys. Go one better than we did and bring home the "Dog Cup"! I will be sleeping in my Lovers jersey tonight to bring you guys some luck...

Oh yea, whoever is marking Matt, stay on him like a shadow. Whoever is marking Mike, um, good luck...

And one more piece of advice, play a tight game! Any long swill will be eaten by Mike (but it isn't as though Guns won't have said this already!).

Am I an angst-filled rock star?

In order to counterbalance yesterday's rant, my posting today will contain almost nothing political and hopefully will make you all feel happy and balanced (maybe, except for Helene as there are photos of her drunk in this post - but she never leaves comments here so I don't care :-).)

For those of you that don't know, I turned 27 last Friday. For those of you that did know, thanks for the birthday wishes.

(Speaking of well-wishers, Lora (from the US) email me about playing frisbee in Innsbruck. We are always happy to play disc with new people here :-).)

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Last Friday I turned 27. For those of you that know your angst-ridden rock star history you'll know that most of them seem to die at the age of 27. One could pose the question, "am I a rock star?". This might seem like a stupid question to ask, but at least one person in the last 2 weeks has asked me this question - some guy came up to me on the bus a week-or-so ago asking if I wanted to be in his band because he thought he'd seen me playing before... Weird doesn't begin to describe it... Anyway, if I die in some unfortunate circumstances this year I guess I was really meant to join that band and be a rock star...

OK, that's more than enough smack-talk for one day.

I had a great birthday and lot of people helped me to celebrate it. I was a bit worried (as was my Mum) that my first birthday in Europe would be a bit of a lonely affair. Well, that didn't happen as I seem to have found myself some really nice new friends, not to mention the efforts of some really nice old friends that also conspired to make me smile a lot.

Some special mentions include my girlfriend who started the birthday shenanigans for calling me at midnight to wish me a happy birthday (though not forgetting my mate George who messaged me 4 days in advance :-)). Another goes to my new(ish) flatmate Karolene (who's name I've probably misspelled) who baked a totally awesome birthday cake for me. I woke up to find that my three flatmates had organized cake and coffee for breakfast. It was a really nice way to wake up. Here is a photo of the three of them (Helene, Maria, and Karolene):



In the evening we cooked a serious Thai food feast (kinda inspired by me going crazy and buying everything in the Asian grocer downtown). The green vegetable curry was great but I was disappointed by my attempts at a laksa (if anyone has a good recipe, send it to me!). The dinner was made extra-special because an old friend of mine from home, Pat, happened to be in Innsbruck on my birthday and could make it to dinner. It was really cool to catch up with him. Anyway, here's a photo us all about sit down to the feast (from the left: me, Maria, Georg, Maria, Stefan, Helene, Pat and Karolene was taking the photo...):



The only down-side to my birthday was that the following morning one of my flatmates, Helene, moved back home to France after spending her summer here working with the experimental BEC group here in Innsbruck. Helene was a lot of fun to have as a flatmate, and as I threatened her I would, I'm posting some photos from her "going away" party last week:

Here is a photo of Helene madly preparing food for the 30 guests that were agout to burst through our front door:



Here is a photo of Helene at about 2 AM after she drank more glasses of wine than she could accurately remember (note the beanie she's wearing, this was a gift from the BEC group that she received that night, she was very proud of the beanie...):

I think I feel sick

This editorial that has appeared in today's Australian makes me feel sick. There is nothing at all rational about the argument for voluntary student unionism. In the editorial a paragraph is devoted to attacking National party senator Barnaby Joyce, I quote:

In effect, student unionism has been little more than a playground and training
facility for Senator Joyce's political enemies. He has a short-sighted view of
his own interests if he throws it a lifeline.

What exactly are Senator Joyce's interests? Does he believe in democracy? Do you think the editorial would read the same if the Labor party were in power and they were making efforts to destroy the National Farmers Federation, the AMA or any number of other breading grounds for Coalition members of parliament? How exactly is it in the interests of the country if it decided that it is okay for a government to blatantly economically destroy their political enemies. It's really nice to see that the editor of the Australian believes that the government doesn't need to win political battles by, gee I dunno, providing arguments and evidence for there point of view.

What's next? Maybe they should make payment of membership fees to the Labor party voluntary.

As for the argument that VSU is about implementing a "user pays" system of service and support in universities, well, this is just plain bullshit. This argument that "only a fraction" of students use student union facilities is total crap. Apparently:

students are grown-ups and perfectly capable of choosing what they wish to spend
their money on.

Again, total crap. Student unions are mini-governments. In fact, they aren't even so mini. My old university had a population of about 50 000, the student union organizes and provides services for these 50 000 people. This is not a union, it's a government. The notion that student unions are purely left-wing political organizations is also complete crap. Students VOTE FOR THEIR LEADERSHIP is it the left-wing organizations fault that THEY WIN THE ELECTION. Students don't want Liberal party leadership of their unions. They don't like the Liberal party. So students are being made to suffer because of their political preferences.

Would the Liberal party be happy to let student unions change their name to student governments? Maybe then the "union fees" could be called a "tax", which everyone should be forced to pay. The point I'm trying to make is that the student unions ARE GOVERNMENTS. The argument that they are unrepresentative can equally be made about any government at any level. It is bullshit, they are representative.

There is one more extremely disturbing point to the arguments put forward in this editorial. The editor tries to argue that good universities will get more students, will have more funds, and will subsequently be able to chose whether or not to spend money from their budgets to spend on services. It seems like a reasonable argument. I know plenty of pro-VSU people who put this forward. Again, it's complete crap. I'm going to bypass the whole "they probably won't use the money for services because they are broke anyway" argument and get to the real problem. The pro-VSU camp likes to say this is all about choice. They are giving people the choice to spend their money on what they want to spend it on. In short, they are not being forced to subsidize the union.

Where this argument falls down is that by letting universities decide how to allocate support budgets they have completely taken away the only control that students had over their money. It could be countered that all services on campus become strictly "user pays", thus letting economics become a quasi-democratic process. Well, this might happen, but it is unlikely. I believe it is much more likely that services will be subsidized by the university as as attempt to try to lure more undergraduate students. Universities with nice campuses, good facilities, and an active student life will attract more students therefore the big, wealthy, universities will introduce a service budget which won't be controlled by student unions but nevertheless will control services (especially sporting clubs and counseling services etc) that were previously administered by the student body. Democracy is definitely vanquished by choice. With student unions, students can vote for a party that decides on how money is allocated. With VSU, the university administration is the sole arbiter of service funds.

It's meant to be bloody summer!

It freakin' snowed here last night. It's August and we are in the middle of summer. This is nuts...

Here are some pictures I took today:

The world gets one more doctor

Yesterday Marc Hein successfully defended his thesis! Congratulations Marc!

Last night we went out to celebrate. This might have something to do with why I thought the "yogurt fresh" magnum ice-cream I ate this morning was the greatest thing I've ever eaten. It is probably also the reason why I desperately craved a kebab for lunch, and then really regretted eating one. It might have also had some small influence on why I've been struggling to look at my computer all day and why I keep falling asleep on my desk...

Orwell would be proud (actually amazed, but you get the idea)

Today the Oz government tells us that they didn't sign the Kyoto Protocol because it doesn't go far enough. A new report, entitled Climate Change: Risk and Vulnerability has just been released by the government basically claiming that everything that all of us hippie-scientific-fear mongers are actually right and that the greenhouse effect is nasty, real, and going to create a whole lot of serious problems.

The report claims that all measures that the international community have taken to limit greenhouse gas emissions thus far will be completely ineffective for halting climate change, which might be very true. The government is claiming that this is the reason why they have failed to support the Kyoto protocol and other efforts, now this is a total lie. For years John Howard has been saying that the reason Australian won't sign is primarily economic. It is true though that he has muttered stuff about enough not being done, exceptions for developing countries, and the policies of China and India with regard to global warming, however, the primary reason why NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE is economic.

The government's new position raises some interesting questions that no-one is going to ask. If we are so concerned about the Kyoto protocol not being enough to halt climate change, where are the reports suggesting alternatives? Has Australia been involved in diplomatic work that is trying to establish a new and better standard for greenhouse gas emissions not to mention the development of technology that might fix these problems?

I wonder how much of this is related to George Bush's recent quasi-position reversal on the issue of climate change. It appears that the republicans have decided that maybe us little humans have actually created a problem with our environment. At least Bush is tough enough to admit that the reason the US isn't really interested in doing a lot about it at the moment is that it would be bad for their fossil-fuel driven economy. In the days leading up to the G8 meeting there was a step up in the rhetoric coming out of the US about finding "technological solutions" to climate change, as everything else is ineffective. I guess Australia is going to tow this line now as well.

If they are serious about "technological solutions", and not just shifting position a little to escape criticism, we should see an injection of funds into alternative energy sources (no guys, uranium doesn't really count as "alternative", though I see it took about 20 minutes for someone to bring it up already in response to this new climate change report) and greenhouse gas management policy development. What's the bet that this will go into the "too hard" basket?

Anyway, I love the Orwellian nature of this debate. I mean, there is soooo much double talk and position reversal going on at the moment. It's really interesting to see that the right-wing bloggers and commentators seem to have gone quiet on this issue. Some of them have gone on some amazing rants about this issue, talking up divisions within the scientific community (which pretty much don't exist) and making out that scientists like to scare the population because it brings in more funds. Will they ever take back their words if Howard and Bush keep talking up being the champions of the anti-global warming movement?

THE CROCS ROCK!!!

SERIOUS WARNING! THIS IS TOTALLY A FRISBEE POST AND ABSOLUTELY WON'T MAKE SENSE TO NON-FRISBEE PEOPLE. IT PROBABLY WON'T MAKE SENSE TO MANY OF THEM EITHER...

Holy Shit!!! The Australian mixed ultimate team competing at the World Games just beat Canada! I really wish I was there. The final score:

Australia 15 - Canada 14

That's right people... it went to cap! They were all tied up at 10, then 11, then 12, then 13, then 14... For a while there it looked like Australia might coast it in! We had them at 9 - 6 then Canada came back to level at 10s! You can check out "when-who-threw-what-to-who-to-score" by clicking here.

General match info for all the games can be found by clicking here.

So what does AUSTRALIA BEATING CANADA mean for the World Games tournament? Well, if Australia wins one game tomorrow then they will definitely make the final. Tomorrow they play the USA (who haven't lost a match) and Germany (who haven't won a match).

Here's hoping I can catch the final on Eurosport 2.

Oh and, I'm a dumbass (not that this piece of information wasn't on the public record already) because I COULD HAVE BEEN THERE. My girlfriend lives a 30 minute train ride away from the fields. I decided to "do the right thing" and not visit my girlfriend this weekend because she has exams in a week... I'm a dumbass I should have gone anyway...

To celebrate, here is a photo of Jonathan Potts, the Australian captain:

This photo was taken at the Australian mixed nats tournament in 2004. Oh Jonathan is the one on the right. The one on the left is Anna, she lives in the states but was in my team at mixed nats (and she's a damned good mid - and like most people who have ever played for a Queensland team, she's fun to drink with). Coincidently, she and I were trading sms's when AUSTRALIA BEAT CANADA. We were both watching from our computers at the time and could have been sending emails, using Skype, msn messenger, or anything else, but we chose to send international sms's (nice and cheap...). Again, I'm a dumbass.

More frisbee cutting advice

Further to my last post, I thought I'd add a bit more advice for cutting effectively.

Before every game the coach should pull the runners in the team aside and go through the following dialogue with them:

Coach: What are your legs?
Runners: Springs. Steel springs.
Coach: What are they going to do?
Runners: Hurl me down the field.
Coach: How fast can you run?
Runners: As fast as a leopard.
Coach: How fast are you going to run?
Runners: As fast as a leopard.
Coach: Then lets see you do it.

Any Australians reading this might recognise the dialogue as coming from the Peter Weir movie Gallipoli. It pretty much epitomises my philosophy towards cutting. You've got to run hard and have confidence that you can always beat your defender.

Oh and I was reminded about Gallipoli when I saw it in a dvd store here in Innsbruck the other day.... go figure. I wouldn't have thought you'd find an Australian film from the 80s being sold here but I guess it's a pretty small world.

Words of advice for young people

WARNING! ACHTUNG! This is a frisbee post, it won't make any sense at all to non-frisbee folk.

Parinella has been playing frisbee for ever and has been involved in coaching and explaining to people how to play frisbee for almost as long. He recently posted his rules for cutting. These rules are awesome. Any self-respecting mid should memorise them and recite them about 200 times a day. Here they are:

1. Cut sharp.

2. Cut hard.

3. Cut decisively

4. Think, but only before or after the cut.

5. Know when to just run.

Parinella expands on what he means by each of these rules. Read his explanations, understand them and make endless yards on the field...

Oh, and my team here in Innsbruck, the "flying circus", has a new website.

Photos from my holiday

I was going to write a post about why I think Tim Blair is a wanker this week, but I decided to chill and instead post up some pics from my holiday a couple of weeks ago.

Here is a photo taken from Prestwick (in Scotland) International Airport's train station:

not bad eh?

Oh, and for those of you that know Nick:

I was in Scotland for his wedding. That's Nick in the middle, I took this photo about 5 minutes before the wedding...

Anyway, more photos to come later.

By the way, has anyone else noticed that Blogger has a new cool photo upload feature. You don't have to use "Hello" anymore...

People suck

rant mode on

So, today some absolute arseholes decided to launch a terrorist attack on London. I'm pretty much speechless. Less than 24 hours after London was awarded the Olympic games in 2012, they decide to unleash hell on in the middle of peak-hour.

I mean, let's look at the symbolism of this attack. The fundamental principles of the Olympic movement are spelled out in the preamble to the Olympic Charter:

1. Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in
   a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind. Blending sport
   with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life
   based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good example and
   respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.
2. The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the
   harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a
   peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.
3. The Olympic Movement is the concerted, organised, universal
   and permanent action, carried out under the supreme authority of the
   IOC, of all individuals and entities who are inspired by the values of
   Olympism. It covers the five continents. It reaches its peak with the
   bringing together of the world's athletes at the great sports festival, the
   Olympic Games. Its symbol is five interlaced rings.
4. The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must
   have the possibility of practising sport, without discrimination of any
   kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding
   with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play. The organisation,
   administration and management of sport must be controlled by
   independent sports organisations.
5. Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person
   on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is
   incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.

Now, does anyone have a problem with these principles? Why attack a city that is in the midst of a celebration of these principles? It doesn't make any sense.

I guess you can say the attacks were due to the G8 meeting in Edinburgh, but then why attack London?

Are you trying to send a message to Blair? Give the guy a break, he has spent the last month or so trying to work out a way of saving Africa from destitution and to fix the massive problem of global warming. He might have screwed up on Iraq BUT NOW HE IS TRYING TO DO THE RIGHT THING!

I think this all has me kind of pissed. Maybe it's because my sister lives in London and I'm having a brotherly bout of "you pick a fight with my sister you're picking a fight with me" syndrome. But maybe it's because I think this is a really despicable act that is designed to ruin a celebration of something that I believe should be celebrated.

rant mode off

Holidays and apathy

Hey blogland, sorry for my lack of posting. I could say it is because I went on holiday last week. I could say it is because I've been snowed under at work (side note: it actually snowed here in the mountains around Innsbruck yesterday! Oh, for the "Strayans" - it is the middle of summer, kinda weird). But the real reason is nothing more than apathy. Lots and lots of apathy.

Does anyone have a good apathy cure?

More blogging soon, I promise.

Homesick (I wanna go to the Valley Fiesta!)

Crap, it's a Saturday afternoon and I was busily working (aimlessly surfing the net), when I realized that in a couple of weeks my home town, Brisbane, has it's annual Valley Fiesta. Damn, I wanna go home so I can spend the best part of a week drunk wondering around watching good bands, going to art exhibitions, eating good food and checking out cool fashion.

Oh, I haven't explained what the Valley Fiesta is yet have I, well normally it's a weekend where you wonder around drunk watching good bands, going to art exhibitions, eating good food and checking out cool fashion....

The "Valley" is an area of Brisbane that has a bunch of pretty decent nightclubs (Okay I'll admit it also has a bunch of pretty crap nightclubs as well, but no-one remembers them and they don't survive long...) packed into a fairly confined area. It also has numerous art galleries, lots of fashion boutiques (so you can get clothes to wear to said nightclubs and exhibitions at aforementioned galleries). Oh and the Valley music scene is famous for churning out great Australian bands, they are particularly supported by clubs such as Rics, The Troubadour, The Rev, and The Zoo.

Anyway, the Valley Fiesta is normally a weekend where Brisbane celebrates, well, The Valley. All the clubs run good gigs, the fashionistas do their fashion parade things, and the artsy people appreciate art. The city council chips in by shutting down some streets to whack up some stages for the biggest bands. Basically, it's one big party. This year it is running from Wednesday the 6th of July to Sunday the 10th (in Bris Vegas weekends are a bit flexible). Last year the Hilltop Hoods headlined, and about 200 000 people showed up to watch... It was a pretty crazy night...

Damn I wish I could just fly home for a week...

What's awesome on my ipod this week

This week I'm totally into a "best of" Billy Bragg album I bought on the weekend:

Must I Paint You a Picture: The Essential Billy Bragg - by Billy Bragg

OK, so normally I just focus on a song or two, but this week I'm changing the rules (Billy would be happy about that). If I were to focus on a song or two (or, more precisely, three) it would be hard, there are a hell of a lot of really good songs on this album. But just to be quirky:

To have and have not - by Billy Bragg

To have and have not - by Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards

I've chosen this song, and the wicked cover by Lars and the boys, because it sums up what Billy is all about. Politics, dammit, politics. Billy is pissed, and still is, that this is a world where people can work hard, try to do the right thing, and still end up getting screwed over. This has been his fight all along. He spent the best part of the 80s fighting Thatcherism in Britain, specifically he played a large part in encouraging the youth to get politically active. Anyway, musically the song rocks. The singing isn't perfect, but you don't care because the emotion is all there and it all just fits into place. I guess that's what good folk music is all about. The punked-up cover by Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards (pretty much Rancid in disguise, at least for this song), is pretty much perfect. As Lars put it - the song seems to be written for them by Billy, even though they didn't exist when he wrote it.

Anyway, I said I wasn't going to post about individual songs. I guess I lied a bit. The reason I love this album is because it reminds me so much of my angry, angry political youth (anger is additive, two angers is bigger than one). The first time I got into Billy Bragg was when I was about 17, a really good friend of mine (Dim, to all those that know me) introduced me to his music while we were camping on an island just off Bris Vegas. At the time I was a pretty vehement anarchist. I had spent way too much time reading about history and politics and I was pissed at the world. Billy, was perfect.

A great thing about Billy's lyrics is his ability to punch out catchy one-liners. In Sexuality Billy professes,

"Safe sex doesn't mean no sex, it means use your imagination.".

Another classic, which speaks volumes the more you think about it, comes from A new England,

"I saw two shooting stars last night. I wished on them, but they were only satellites. It's wrong to wish on space hardware.".

My favourite line though comes from Waiting for the great leap forwards, where Billy emphatically exclaims,

"The revolution is just a t-shirt away.".

Actually, Waiting for the great leap forwards, is far and away my favourite Billy Bragg song. Everytime I hear I'm filled with regret. Any regular readers should, by now, realize that I'm an idealist. I'm always torn between what my instincts are saying I should do and what the world around me is telling me I have to do. Politics is my passion. I've been obsessed by it since I was about thirteen years old. However, I'm a physicist. I chose this path as a purely pragmatic decision. I always wonder if I didn't turn my back on something important, that maybe politics is what I should be spending my time doing.

Billy's song is aimed at me. Well, it's aimed at all of those who yearn for a real change in our society, yet seem to be unable to find it within themselves to actually work to change it. I'm pretty sure Billy puts himself in the same camp. Ultimately there is something, but I can't work out what, that seems to temper our spirits. If we want change, we have to start with ourselves, but this is something that seems impossibly hard. It is also something that is probably very easy.

Why do I think Billy feels as though he is unable to grasp this sense of change himself? Well it's pretty much because of this line:

"Mixing pop and politics, he asks me what the use is? I offer him embarrassment and the usual excuses. While looking down the corridor to where the van is waiting, I'm looking for the great leap forwards. ".

Oh yea, for all the physicists out there, hopefully this line will get you thinking,

"And in the Soviet Union a scientist is blinded by the resumption of nuclear testing and he is reminded that Doctor Robert Oppenheimer's optimism fell at the first hurdle.".

So does anyone out there think that I made the wrong decision? Should I be doing politics or physics????

Shout out

Ok, so I have to give the Paris Hilton of Physics, Caolionn O'Connell, a major shout out for successfully defending her thesis. Well done Caolionn!!!! Oh, and if you didn't want to be known as the "Paris Hilton of Physics" you should never have used the phrase in your blog! :-)

Which leads me to wonder. If I was a "celebrity of physics", who would I be?

Public (dis)service announcement

So, for some time I've been thinking about this post. Should I put it up, should I keep it under wraps? But, in the end I've decided that censorship is a bad thing. People have to decide to use information as they see fit and I do not have some divine power to know what is and isn't good for people. So, here goes.

My list of PhD killing websites:

1. PhD comics. This website is a masterpiece. A comic strip about unmotivated grad students for unmotivated grad students. Brilliant on so many levels....
2. Homestarrunner. Again, absolutely brilliant. This website is what the internet was supposed to be. It's funny, quirky, updated regularly and continually innovative. Particularly awesome is "Strong Bad's emails". These are updated every two weeks and are frequently hilarious - though, not everyone finds it funny, and you kinda have to have a tortured mind to really find it side splitting. Oh yea, you should also try playing "Peasants Quest".
3. Stick cricket. You can spend hours on this site. Though it will pretty much only appeal to grad students from countries that play cricket. The game is pretty damned hard and pretty damned addictive.
4. Quantum Diaries. This is a collection of blogs by particle physicists put together for the "year of physics". There is a hell of a lot of reading on this site.
5. Webdiary. This is pretty much for Australians. It's an online bloggish forumy type thing mainly about Oz politics. Once you get absorbed in one of the arguments you can watch your day disappear. Particularly controversial articles will often get 100+ comments. It takes a long time to read all of them...

Okay. That's enough for now. Sorry if I've destroyed anyone's PhD's. I know at least a few you are writing up now - please try to stay away from these sites!!!! For the rest of you, well, enjoy them if you haven't been to them already.

What's awesome on my ipod this week

This week on my ipod I'm featuring:

I wrote Holden Caufield - by Screeching Weasel

and to accompany it I strongly recommend the following book:

The Catcher in the Rye - by J. D. Salinger.

Screeching Weasel are a punk band from Chicago. I wrote Holden Caufield was the last song of the album "How to make enemies and irritate people". In my opinion it is their best album, though I haven't heard anything of theirs post-1997. "How to make enemies and irritate people" was an interesting album, the style of punk is very poppy, a lot of beach boysish sounds and lots of feel good not-so-serious music. Most of the songs are short and snappy with some amusing subjects. One of my favourites is "99", an ode to the girlfriend of the 70s spy-spoof character Maxwell Smart.

In the last three songs of the album the mood changes dramatically. The music style is still pop-punk with a surf edge, but the subject matter gets a lot darker. "Kathy isn't right", "Kathy's on the Roof", and "I wrote Holden Caufield" seem to be an exploration of the effects of depression and mental illness.

The final song, "I wrote Holden Caufield", gets it's title from the main character of J. D. Salinger's famous novel "The Catcher in the Rye". The opening line of the song is pretty powerful:

I loved you for the minute that you decided to tell me the truth, I heard you,
and that night I cried for you.

If you would like to know more about Screaching Weasel you might want to check out Ben Weasel's blog.

The reason I chose to feature this album is that I just finished reading "The Catcher in the Rye". The book is a story told in the first person about a few days of a 16 year old boy's life. The boy, Holden Caufield, is struggling to come to terms with the death of one of his brothers several years earlier. He finds it hard to get emotionally attached to anything and lies continuously to avoid getting too close to anyone.

It's a funny thing reading emotionally powerful books like this. I always find myself getting drawn into the book. I get pretty obsesive about it. I find that for the period over which I read the book it kinda becomes my life and the mood of the book dominates my thought processes. It's one of the reasons that I don't read as much as I probably should. I get into a book, and then I can't put it down for a couple of days and then it's over again.

I'm a madman sometimes. I really am.

Postcard from East Germany

Sorry for the lack of posting lately. No good excuses, just me being slack.

Last weekend I visited Leipzig with my girlfriend, Sarah (in blue). We went there to visit her friend Marlen (in red). It was a really fun weekend. The weather was spectacular, most of the time the temperature was in the 30s, not something I really expected.

On Friday we went to a lake near Leipzig to just chill out and soak up the sun. I took this picture while we were there:

Notice the power station on the other side of the lake. It's all a bit different from what I'm used to and it's really easy to make jokes about East Germany and pollution and all that, but the reality of it all was that it was a really fun day.

Probably the only down side to the weekend was travelling home. Something that is really cool about Germany is this website. Basically, this website is an organized form of hitchhiking. People post to it if they are driving somewhere and have space in their car and then you can ring, sms, or email these people to get a lift. It's a cool idea. Anyway, I had a lift from Leipzig to Munich on Sunday arvo. It's about 400 km or so. It took 7 hrs and 35 mins to get to Munich!!! The roadworks were crazy. We spent more than half the time stuck in traffic jams. Fortunately, it only took 7 hrs and 35 mins. If it had taken 7 hrs and 40 mins to get to Munich I would have missed the last train to Innsbruck and would have been sleeping at the station!

Project SafeCom

Okay, I'm still not calmed down after my angry rant however I just read the story of Jack Smit and his battles against Australia's immigration department and the continuing erosion of Australian's (and non-Australian's) civil rites. After his disgust at the Tampa incident in 2001, he set up Project SafeCom. If you feel, as I do, disgusted by the behaviour of John Howard and his neo-con buddies, then go an have a look at the Project SafeCom website, it might not make you feel better but you may come away with some things to think about.

I'm not a fan of Australia's immigration department

Rant mode on

I just read a very depressing article by Mike Carlton on some of the many horrific debacles that the Australian immigration department have instigated. I'm not going to begin to explain some of the junk that has surfaced this week with regard to an Australian woman who was wrongfully deported four years ago or any of the stories about Cornelia Rau, another Australian woman wrongfully detained for nine months - it's all over the media and the webdiary has hundreds of posts on this issue. These are just two stories of many that are out there.

This department has been locking people up and kicking them out of our country for years, and they answer to almost nobody. Immigration minister Amanda Vanstone, and before her Phillip Ruddock, should be thoroughly ashamed of the way in which the immigration department has operated in the last five or so years. They will never be held accountable though, as John Howard is refusing to launch any inquiry into the immigration department that has any legal authority to compel people to give evidence or to prosecute officials for illegal behaviour.

What the hell is wrong with these people!!!! Don't they have hearts!!!

Rant mode off

New semi-regular article: What's awesome on my ipod this week

Okay, this is an experiment that I'm sure I'll get sick of soon. I'm going to start posting a bit more about music. For those of you that know me, I'm pretty into my music. Anyone who's been dumb enough to give me access to their stereo with my ipod have copped many-a-sermon about the virtues of "The Clash" and that eternal question, "Why doesn't John Butler write more short songs?".

Anyway, on my trip to the big smoke on the weekend I bought the "Bob Marley and the Wailers" compliplation, "Legend". It's damned good. So, this week on my ipod I'm featuring:

Redemption Song - by Bob Marley and the Wailers.

Redemption Song - the cover by No Use for a Name.

Both versions are awesome. Joe Strummer (one of the leads in The Clash) was a big fan of Bob Marley. So, I'm also featuring an awesome track:

Junco Partner - by Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros.

The track is recorded live and appears on the Hellcat Records compilations "Give em the boot IV". Damn, I wish I could have seen Joe Strummer play live...

One of the may reasons why I'm an idiot

I successfully navigated the German rail system (the Deutsch Bahn) all the way to Duesseldorf and back. Well, successful in that I made it and didn't miss any trains.

I won't mention the little mistake I made by accidently sitting in a 1st class seat for an hour or so on one train. It wasn't intentional, I swear, I'm not smart enough to take advantage of the system like that. Thankfully the ticket guy who busted me realised this pretty quickly after he asked, "Where's your 1st class ticket?". To which I replied, "Why would I need one, this is a 2nd class carriage?".

Apparently I can't tell the difference between the numbers 26 and 27.

Anyone who's played frisbee with me wouldn't be surprised by this too much. I'm normally the guy screaming on the sideline, "We only have 6 on the line!".... (a bit of silence) This is normally followed by, "Dude, how can you do physics if you can't count to 7.".

Oh yea, it rained and hailed and the mercury didn't ever get much above 0, but it was still a really fun weekend.

I'm off to Deutschland this afternoon

This afternoon I'm catching the train to Duesseldorf to visit my girlfriend for the weekend. Yes, I realize it's a Wednesday, tomorrow is a public holiday and, well, I'm taking a day off on Friday. It's going to be really interesting to see what Germany is like, this is the first time that I'm visiting my girlfriends home. I finally get to put faces to so many names that I've heard so much about.

Travelling to Duesseldorf should be interesting. I'm pretty hopeless when it comes to trains, I always find train stations very confusing objects. They are kinda like airports, except with a lot less security and a lot less organisation. Anyway, I'm travelling Innsbruck to Munich, Munich to Cologne, and Cologne to Duesseldorf - total travel time is just a tad over 8 hours...

There are a whole lot of stories about famous theoretical physics results that were derived on similar train journeys, I'm beginning to realize why. I have a stack of papers to read on the train and a whole lot of math to work through. I will be stuck in the one place for 8 hours or so - this will pretty much guarantee that I will finally put pen to paper and try to solve some of the problems that have be floating around in my head for a few weeks now. Oh yea, there is also no internet and no meetings, so distractions should be at a minimum!

And yes I did just mention physics in my blog, I am actually a physicist - not just some frisbee playing politics guy.

And now the gloves come off...

Wow, Australia's (evil) health minister has just demonstrated that the gloves are absolutely off in the leadership dispute between Prime Minister (the lying rodent) Howard and his deputy, treasurer Peter Costello. OK for those of you who don't follow Australian politics closely, let me give you a quick refresher course.

1995:

Costello is deputy leader of the Liberal party, he steps aside to let Howard have a clean bid at the leadership of their party in the leadup to the federal election - which Howard then wins. Apparently they make an agreement that Howard will stand down after a term or two and give him the leadership.

1996 - 2004:

Costello proves he's a pretty good treasurer, he keeps Australia's economy going strong through the Asian economic crash of the late 90s. He is a dedicated economic rationalist that is anti-union and very pro "user pays" arguments for everything. I don't like him, but plenty of people on his side of politics do. Howard is a pretty popular Prime Minister, he's shrewd and power-hungry. He appeals to neo-con crazies and those that wish Australia was still in the 1950s (somehow not letting any side of the conservative bandwagon believe that their various philosophies contradict each other in many ways). While this is happening, Tony Abbott gains a reputation as Howard's chief head-kicker. He's the guy who does the dirty work that Howard wants done but doesn't want associated with him. Abbott is a neo-con. He's a relatively young fundamentalist Catholic renowned for his ruthlessness. Again, the right loves him (and so does Howard).

2004 - 2005:

The Howard and Costello team wipe the floor with the Labor party in an election in late 2004. They get control of both houses of parliament. All of a sudden, they can do anything they want. Their party has a hell of a lot of idealists, economic rationalists, neo-cons, and just plain cons. It gradually becomes apparent that a lot of tension has been simmering for a long time between these factions, this tension has never really created any problems before because they have all known that they can't implement idealist policies without control of both houses. Now they have it and they are realizing that their various ideologies contradict each other in several crucial ways. This is now beginning to show publicly.

Now:

Costello is the king of the economic rationalists. He feels he is owed the Prime Minister's job after being loyal for years, and, well, he was promised it and it's time for Howard to deliver. Howard is realizing that he could just hold on to his job, he's damned popular and he likes the idea of finally being able to do what he wants. Abbott now has a lot of support from the Howard camp, a lot of people on the crazy-con side of their party like him a lot more than Costello, as does Howard. Anyway, on the weekend Howard dropped a bombshell on Costello - he said that he wouldn't mind having a go at the next election in three years time. He says this a week before the budget is to be delivered by Costello, now Howard has hijacked the press cycle in the lead-up to the budget.

People have been debating for days now as to whether this was a mistake (very rare for Howard) or intentional. My guess is it's intentional. Why do I think this? Today Tony Abbott said this:

"I don't always get my own way, not even the Prime Minister even gets his own way, it's part of being a team," he said.

"Now sometimes different members of the team would prefer to do things one way rather than the other way, in the end it all gets worked out and people support the decision."

Basically, he's very publicly trying to suggest that, Costello, the ultimate team player who has always stuck by Howard, isn't a good team player. He's forcing his hand. He's publicly attacking him in order to see what he does. It's the political equivalent of walking up to someone in a bar and shouting "What are you looking at!". It tells me that Howard's comments are planned. Howard wants Costello to have a go at the top job because he still has the numbers. Costello will probably lose, and probably be disgraced in the eyes of the party. He will have to stand down as deputy and Abbott will get the job. It's the classic "put up or shut up" political play. If Costello does nothing, he's admitting that he's been acting like a spoilt brat who has designs on the top job but without the heart to put anything on the line to take it. If he acts, he loses. Howard wants to get rid of him and his faction of the party. It's going to be an interesting few weeks...

Thanks for making me homesick Dan...

One of my frisbee friends from back home who studies "conversational" biology recently went on a field trip to Stradbroke Island. "Straddie" is an island in Brisbane's Moreton Bay. An absolutely beautiful place, lots of forests, 20 km of beaches, great surf and great fishing. Anyway, he has posted some pictures he took on his field trip. They have definitely made me feel a bit sorry for myself...

Yay! The Reds aren't as bad as they could be...

WOO HOO!!! The Queensland Reds won another game! I wish they televised the Super 12 in Austria... If they did I might actually own a TV.

Sorry

Sorry everyone for my lack of posting lately, I've been pretty busy.

I gave a talk on Wednesday, in which I presented an overview of the work that I did in my PhD. It went okay. I've given better talks, but I've also given worse. I don't think anyone fell asleep, there were a few who came close though...

Brrrr

Ok, Innsbruck is really pretty with the mountains and all that, but damn it can be cold here! I did frisbee training last night in the rain with the air temperature about 9 or 10 degrees. Tomorrow night I have training again and they are forcasting sub 5 degrees and more rain. I really like my new team but playing frisbee in this weather is pretty damned painful. It isn't much fun playing with numb fingers all the time.

Coming soon: posting about physics...

Where I live now

I have now fully moved in to my new place, it's in a part of town called "Hoetting", which is up in the hills. The house has some spectacular views. I've posted here the view from my bedroom window. The scary thing is that this view isn't anywhere near as good as the view from the living room...

The view from my bedroom window - yes boys and girls, the white stuff is snow (and yes it is cold, though everyone here keeps telling me it isn't).

Quantum phase transition

So, for those of you who don't know: a little over a week ago I submitted my thesis, threw all of my stuff into boxes and bags, jumped on a plane, and found myself in Innsbruck, Austria. Transitioning from one time in your life to another is an interesting thing. Two weeks ago I was madly writing my thesis, it now seems an eternity ago, pressures about writing have been overcome by pressures of finding a new home, learning a new language, and making new friends. For the last month my life has been rapidly lurching from one state to another, I think today is the first time in what seems like forever that I've been able to take a deep breath and realize that my life has completely changed.

Arriving in Innsbruck

Democracy is not a spectator sport!!!

Ok, I'm frantically trying to finish my thesis right now so this will be kept short. Just wanted to point out a few places on the net with good surf (isn't it funny that no-one ever talks about "surfing the net" any more.). I'm very pro-political action today, check out:

1. Caolionn O'Connell from Quantum Diaries wrote an excellent post about contributing to the science funding lobby. Check it out here.
2. Margo Kingston and some of her friends have just launched the "Your Democracy" website.

I must submit before Mike Slackenberry!!!

I'm guessing everyone that reads this blog has at some stage been exposed to the comic strip Piled Higher and Deeper. The main character is Mike Slackenberry, he's an eternal PhD student working in some tech-driven field. Anyway, after years of making procrastination look like an art form, it looks like Mike is going to submit his thesis very soon!

So, now I have a goal: Submit my thesis before Mike!!!!

The thread on Mike's "thesis defence" starts here.

Bob Brown is the shiznit!

Bob Brown is the leader of the Australian Greens. Sometimes the man is brilliant and demonstrates his intelligence and devotion to his ideology. Sometimes though, he politically misses the mark, he gets a little driven by his ideology... Not that I think that's a bad thing, I'm driven by ideology all the time. It's just that sometimes his ideological rants leave him stranded without a lot of voters, something you kinda need in a democracy.

So why do I care? Well, if he had a bit more electoral support he'd be able to control the attention of the media a bit more and there would be more intelligent debate in this country. For instance, today he came out with this brilliant quote (from ABC news):

"Prime Minister Howard's quite prepared to spend millions of dollars sending
another 450 Australian troops to Iraq in the name of democracy but he's not game
to even use the word democracy when he meets President Hu Jin Tao in Beijing."

If only people were actually listening to him...

Oh my God 2!!! The Reds win a game!!!

I've just read that the Queensland Reds rugby team have won their first super 12 game of 2005. Yay!!! It's about damn time! They beat Waikato Chiefs 20 to 6.

I think I should point out that they did it when Nathan Sharpe was captain, instead of Elton Flately...

Oh my God! Someone is hiring theorists!!!

The QiSci group at UQ has just advertised a new research fellowship for senior(ish) scientists working on quantum information theory. It looks to be a pretty sweet position If only I were a few years older and actually good at physics...

UQ has also advertised a new round of UQ postdoctoral fellowships. If any of you are thinking of doing a postdoc with the QiSci group here at UQ, you should defintely apply for one of these.

Come on, you all know that you want to join this group... Just look how pretty we are:

.

It's official: Queensland rugby is in trouble

The Queensland Red's just got pasted by the Canterbury Crusaders, 59 to 24. Things are looking very bad for Queensland this year. They are pretty much out of finals contention in the Super 12 just three weeks into the tournament!!!! I think the years of poor administration of Queensland Rugby is finally beginning to show on the field... It's nice to see some Queenslander's, like Jeremy Paul and Gene Fairbanks, are at least doing well with the Brumbies. It's sad that both players were told they would never be good enough to make the Queensland team...

Inspirational music

The Quantum pontiff posted an article about working to music. This is something that I do a lot, I especially use music as motivation. Today the song "Breathless" from Nick Cave's "Lyre of Orpheus" album is getting me through the day. Those of you familiar with Cave's work are probably scratching your heads thinking "Nick Cave as motivation?". Well, it seems that in Nick's old age he is mellowing a lot. While normally I'm a fan of Nick's older, and totally "unmellow" music, this song is probably by favourite song of 2004. This song is also a great example of Nick Cave's masterful lyricism.

If you are feeling reflective today, I suggest taking the time to read the lyrics and to ponder what the subject of the song is:

It's up in the morning and on the downs
Little white clouds like gambolling lambs
And I am breathless over you
And the red-breasted robin beats his wings
His throat it trembles when he sings
For he is helpless before you
The happy hooded bluebells bow
And bend their heads all a-down
Heavied by the early morning dew
At the whispering stream, at the bubbling brook
The fishes leap up to take a look
For they are breathless over you
Still your hands
And still your heart
For still your face comes shining through
And all the morning glows anew
Still your mind
Still your soul
For still, the fare of love is true
And I am breathless without you
The wind circles among the trees
And it bangs about the new-made leaves
For it is breathless without you
The fox chases the rabbit round
The rabbit hides beneath the ground
For he is defenseless without you
The sky of daytime dies away
And all the earthly things they stop to play
For we are all breathless without you
I listen to my juddering bones
The blood in my veins and the wind in my lungs
And I am breathless without you
Still your hands
And still your heart
For still your face comes shining through
And all the morning glows anew
Still your soul
Still your mind
Still, the fire of love is true
And I am breathless without you

Why do some people fear knowledge??

John Howard our notorious Prime Minister today put forward another good reason for me not to like him. He's encouraging year 10 students disenchanted with school to drop out and do a trade. Why would he do this you ask? Well, two reasons as far as I can tell:

1. He's getting his arse-kicked about the economy. He needs to divert attention from the bad figures released last week. He has raised this non-issue because of the perceived economic issues related to a skilled labour shortage that is about to hit this country (which is largely a result of his government failing to adequately fund training institutions for the last 10 years.... but that's another story). His solution, students that are feeling down on school probably aren't suited to it and they should be encouraged to quit and do a trade. It'll get the op-ed pages of the newspapers to focuss on this debate and not on rising interest rates!!
2. He hates education. For every extra year that someone is educated, the probability that they will vote for his conservative style of politics diminishes. He knows this too well. It's why he enforces the view that universities are primarily vocational training institutions. It's why he dismisses academics as out-of-touch elites.

Enough of my ranting. To see a great rant on this topic see Andrew Hines' blog.
Oh yea, just for fun. Here's an old school photo I found of Andrew to lighten up the mood a bit:

Andrew Hines in his senior year of high school... he was school captain by the way... I think I've stirred up the hornets nest now. I can only hope I have more embarassing photos of him than he does of me!!!

Interested in visiting Queensland???

Any early career scientists or grad students interested in visiting the University of Queensland's quantum information science group should check out this post from Michael Nielsen's blog.

Our group is offering visiting fellowships to postdocs and grad students who are working in quantum information science or a related field. There are approximately 20 fellowships available for travel in 2005! Successful applicants will receive a return airfare to Brisbane and have accommodation provided for a 3-5 week stay.

The first round of applications are due March 18.

Oh yea, the weather in Brisbane is absolutely awesome from the end of March pretty much straight through to December (when it begins to get damned hot!).

Motivation, PhD's, and running marathons

Caolionn O'Connell posted an article yesterday about her difficulties motivating herself through the tail-end of her PhD.

It's kinda nice (though I don't think "nice" is really the right word) to see that someone else is going through the same thing as me. It seems that whenever I have some success with my writing, my brain takes its foot off the accelerator and decides that I should spend a whole lot of time, bored, depressed and surfing the net. I know this is bad, I know this is dumb, but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot that I can do about this.

I'm finding that all the analogies between PhD's and marathon running aren't that wide of the mark. I've done a bit of both and now I'm at the end of my PhD I'm definitely feeling things that I've felt when at the end of a long run.

If you are going to run a marathon, you spend a hell of a lot of time training. You watch what you eat. You drag your arse out of bed in the morning to go for runs. You spend your evenings at the gym. Basically you focus a lot of your life to get ready for a race. The first few years of a PhD is a lot like this lead-up time to a race.

In the last few weeks before the race starts you make plans. You decide on the time that you want to run. You develop a strategy. You spend a lot of time talking to other people about how the race is going to go. Then, comes race day...

The race is where it all gets very tricky. You are excited, you have big plans for how the race is going to go. With some luck it all goes to plan and you come away feeling tired but good and you cross the finish line with a brand-spanking-new personal best time. Maybe though, things don't go to plan. You might find that you are a kilometer away from the finish with no energy left, your hamstrings burning, calves cramping, a pain in your hip-flexors that you never imagined was possible, and a really nasty case of chaffing! All of your wonderful plans have come down to "run for 100 paces, walk for 100 paces".

In your mind you are cursing some day weeks ago when you didn't stretch properly and pulled a muscle. You probably didn't even think about it then, but now you are a few steps away from tearing that muscle in two. Your plan for a personal best is reduced to "I just want to make it over the line" and maybe, "geez I hope I'm actually running when I get to the line and not being carried over by some ambulance officers".

I'm finding that now, at the end of my PhD, I can see the line though I'm all out of energy. I put in a sprint and I get a bit closer but by the end of the sprint I'm thinking that it is too hard, I'll never make it, and I want to collapse. Then I slow to a walk and after a while my stubbornness convinces me to try again. Not long after that I'm sprinting again, and praying that in this sprint I will make it to the line because I'm not sure if I have the determination to give it another go if I don't.

Luckily, I'm also noticing that as I get closer to the line there are a lot of friends in the crowd cheering me on.

New blogs worth a mention

Hey, just thought I'd advertise a few new blogs while I'm busy procrastinating.

ReasonAndRhyme is Mohan Sarovar's new blog. He definitely thinks too much and likes music that is far too whingy - aside from these things his blog is a great read :-).

three-thirteen is Andrew Hines' freshly unpacked blog. Andrew is Mohan's office mate, they both inhabit the fabled Rm:313 (though "club qi" is far cooler). If Hinsey's blog sounds like mine it's probably cause we've only known each other for about 12 years... Nice to see he's keeping up the tradition of starting a blog just after starting to write his thesis!

I'm guessing both of these blogs will discuss a healthy amount of politics, physics, music, rugby, cricket, and maybe even ultimate frisbee in the coming months.

And the bastards will get away with it...

Alan Ramsey gives a great example of how the Murdoch press works with conservative parties to achieve political means in this article in today's Sydney Morning Herald. The most distressing aspect of this example is the complete lack of noise in the media about this.

With any luck come the next Oztastic election Margo Kingston's efforts to give democracy a jump-start in this country will be successful. To read about her plans to circumvent the media and the political obstacles that occur in the current party-political system check out her new website.

Can the internet revolution foster social change in any non-economically driven way? I guess we'll just have to wait and see - though history tells us that the printing press did, radios did, as has television...

By the way, I'm still not finished my thesis so I shouldn't be posting - but the political animal in me is strong, and I have a small index finger.

His daydream, my nightmare

I promised I wouldn't post again till I finished my thesis, but I saw this article by Christopher Pearson in today's "Australian" and felt sick to the stomach.

While I'm away...

While I'm busy not posting to this blog, I suggest that any of you reading this from a quantum computing background should go to Michael Nielsen's blog and read his post on "Geometry and Quantum Circuits". It is a REALLY interesting topic. Oh, I'm not just writing this because Michael is my supervisor, anyone who has read any of my papers or a draft of my thesis would know that I find this stuff very interesting. Then again, my scientific tastes have definitely been shaped by Michael, so I guess I am telling you to read it because Michael is my supervisor... You guys can decide...

I'll be back soon

To everyone out there in blogneyland,

You may have noticed that I haven't posted much lately. I'm currently in the final stages of writing my thesis and should be finished damn soon. In a few weeks I'll be able to devote some time to writing some half-decent articles from my soon-to-be new home in Austria...

Mental health tip for the day

If you would like to sleep soundly dreaming pleasant dreams about beaches, surf, and other general things in the "raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens" category - DO NOT under any circumstances spend a weekend working on your thesis, stressing out, and then drift off to sleep while watching a late-night documentary on Edvard Munch's iconic (and I'm realizing now, horrific) painting "The Scream".

Year of physics

2005 is the year of physics. It is the 100th anniversary of Einstein publishing his celebrated papers on quantum theory and the theory of special relativity. The Australian Institute of Physics is having a conference (throwing a party) to celebrate. The conference is on in Canberra next week and the speaker list looks pretty sweet. I wish I wasn't stuck here in Brisvegas writing my thesis and was going to the conference like the rest of the qinfo group. At least Tony Leggett (2003 Nobel prize winner) is visiting our department today and I get to see him speak - hopefully that will get me my physics fix.

JJJ Hottest 100 - final for today

The hottest 100 has been and gone now for another year. Kinda sad, kinda happy, kinda makes me wonder where I'll be listening to it next year.

So, as for my predictions of a few minutes ago. All of them were pretty spot on except the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds prediction - it was always a long shot anyway.

Now what about the ones I missed. Bloody Powderfinger got into the top 10 again. That band has some seriously loyal fans... I shouldn't knock them too much, they have written some excellent music in their time. But, sort of like U2, they seem to be now producing a lot of songs that all sound the same and aren't that extrodinary. On a high note, The White Stripes cover of the Dolly Parton song "Jolene" came in at number 10. I'd forgotten that I voted for that song, it's a live recording reminded me how good The White Stripes are live. I also missed an Eskimo Joe song, but I never have really rated them even though a lot of people seem to love them.

Anyway, here's the whole list:

1 franz ferdinand - take me out2 missy higgins - scar3 eskimo joe - from the sea4 the killers - somebody told me5 spiderbait - black betty6 missy higgins - ten days7 john butler trio - something's gotta give8 little birdy - beautiful to me9 powderfinger - bless my soul10 the white stripes - jolene (live)11 modest mouse - float on12 the dresden dolls - coin-operated boy13 the killers - mr brightside14 evermore - it's too late15 ben lee - gamble everything for love16 grinspoon - hard act to follow17 butterfingers - yo mama18 the streets - fit but you know it19 the streets - dry your eyes20 spiderbait - f***kin awesome21 william shatner - common people22 green day - american idiot23 scissor sisters - take your mama24 jet - look what you've done25 john butler trio - treat yo mama26 grinspoon - better off alone27 sarah blasko - don't u eva28 beastie boys - ch-check it out29 franz ferdinand - this fire30 dresden dolls - girl anachronism31 kings of leon - the bucket32 eskimo joe - older than you33 the bees - chicken payback34 machine gun fellatio - what the fuck?35 scribe - not many {remix}36 jeff buckley - forget her37 ben folds - adelaide38 u2 - vertigo39 the killers - smile like you mean it40 little birdy - this is a love song41 faithless - mass destruction42 lior - this old love43 dogs die in hot cars - godhopping44 scissor sisters - take me out {cover franz ferdinand}45 wolfmother - woman46 rammstein - amerika47 the living end - i can't give you what i haven't got48 elliott smith - memory lane49 missy higgins - casualty50 franz ferdinand - the dark of the matinee51 john butler trio - what you want52 regurgitator - my friend robot53 placebo english summer rain54 waifs, the bridal train55 hives, the walk idiot walk56 xavier rudd shelter57 evermore for one day58 scissor sisters laura59 xavier rudd solace60 your wedding night lachlan61 deep dish - flash dance62 eskimo joe - smoke63 n.e.r.d. - she wants to move64 epicure - self destruct in 565 chemical brothers - galvanize66 devendra banhart - little yellow spider67 black keys, the - 10am automatic68 powderfinger - process this69 freestylers, the - push up70 starsailor - four to the floor (remix)71 the von bondies - c'mon c'mon72 polyphonic spree - hold me now73 panda band, the - sleepy little deathtoll town74 interpol - slow hands75 the spazzys - paco doesn't love me76 interpol - evil77 snow patrol - run78 little birdy - tonights the night79 dallas crane - dirty hearts80 the dissociatives - young man old man81 end of fashion - rough diamonds82 mylo - drop the pressure83 dallas crane - numb all over84 dogs die in hot cars - i love you cause i have to85 regurgitator - the drop86 the unicorns - i was born (a unicorn)87 sia - breathe me88 a perfect circle - imagine89 jet - get what you need90 greenskeepers - lotion91 decoder ring - somersault92 scissor sisters - comfortably numb93 john butler trio - hello94 the vines - ride95 placebo - twenty years96 after the fall - mirror mirror97 gyroscope - safe forever98 gomez - catch me up99 the butterfly effect - always100 fabienne delsol - i'm gonna haunt you

JJJ Hottest 100 again

Okay, business end of the hottest 100. They are about to hit the top 10 songs. My predictions for the top 10:

• At least 2 missy Higgins songs.
• At least 1 more from The Killers.
• "Take me out" by to make it's second apearance in this years hottest 100, this time the original by Franz Ferdinand and it will make the top 3.
• Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds to get 1 song in the top 10. I hope so anyway cause they released one of their best albums ever this year (actually 2 albums in 1, but whatever) and no songs from it have made it in yet.
• Spiderbait's cover of "Black Betty" to get in there.

JJJ Hottest 100

The triple j hottest 100 songs for 2004 is on today. Oh yea, it's also Australia day but that somehow doesn't seem as important to me...

Here is the list of songs at the halfway point:

49 missy higgins - casualty50 franz ferdinand - the dark of the matinee51 john butler trio - what you want52 regurgitator - my friend robot53 placebo english summer rain54 waifs, the bridal train55 hives, the walk idiot walk56 xavier rudd shelter57 evermore for one day58 scissor sisters laura59 xavier rudd solace60 your wedding night lachlan61 deep dish - flash dance62 eskimo joe - smoke63 n.e.r.d. - she wants to move64 epicure - self destruct in 565 chemical brothers - galvanize66 devendra banhart - little yellow spider67 black keys, the - 10am automatic68 powderfinger - process this69 freestylers, the - push up70 starsailor - four to the floor (remix)71 the von bondies - c'mon c'mon72 polyphonic spree - hold me now73 panda band, the - sleepy little deathtoll town74 interpol - slow hands75 the spazzys - paco doesn't love me76 interpol - evil77 snow patrol - run78 little birdy - tonights the night79 dallas crane - dirty hearts80 the dissociatives - young man old man81 end of fashion - rough diamonds82 mylo - drop the pressure83 dallas crane - numb all over84 dogs die in hot cars - i love you cause i have to85 regurgitator - the drop86 the unicorns - i was born (a unicorn)87 sia - breathe me88 a perfect circle - imagine89 jet - get what you need90 greenskeepers - lotion91 decoder ring - somersault92 scissor sisters - comfortably numb93 john butler trio - hello94 the vines - ride95 placebo - twenty years96 after the fall - mirror mirror97 gyroscope - safe forever98 gomez - catch me up99 the butterfly effect - always100 fabienne delsol - i'm gonna haunt you

Thesis writing

Caolionn O'Connell over at Quantum Diaries for her first blog post mentions the hellish topic of thesis writing. She mentions the sensitive topic of the "how long/much do you have left?" question. I've learnt the hard way that this question is really hard to answer. I feel really guilty now about asking some of my friends this question (a lot) in the past. If any of you are out there reading this, I'm sorry!!!

We need a new leader, we broke the last one

Mark Latham has just resigned as leader of the Australian Labour Party. I can't make up my mind as to whether this is a good thing or a bad thing for the Labour Party...

Thesis distractions II - revenge of my ipod

Question: When does 8=13?

Answer: When no-one knows where to start counting from.

So, I clocked my ipod's battery life on Wednesday to be a little under 8 hours. I recharged it that night and repeated the experiment on Thursday and squeezed about 13 hours out of the battery. After a bit of internet digging I found a few websites suggesting that a lot of ipods need to go through a complete charge cycle, that is a complete discharge and recharge, in order to properly calibrate the power meter for the battery. An incorrectly calibrated meter has the following two symptoms:

1. The ipod display registers an empty battery when there is really about 3 hours of play time left.
2. The battery meter registers "full" when the battery isn't. This leads to playback times that are a lot less than the device is capable of.

Anyway, a few websites suggested that ipods have to be re-calibrated every few months to maintain a decent amount of playback off your battery. It'd be nice if they included some of this stuff in the manual.

It'd be nice if they put that in the manual...

Thesis distractions

Thesis distraction for the day:

Testing my ipod battery!

My new ipod's battery indicator has been indicating 0 for 2 hours now. It's been running continuously for 7.5 hours, it's meant to be able to last for 12. Any bets on when the battery will die???