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Suzy McHale’s Journal: 2009

January

Saturday 3/1: 2009 begins; Columbia report released

Another year begins. Nearly at the end of this decade already.

The weather has been unseasonally cool again last week, not that I’m complaining (though others are – just stop whinging already!) – New Year’s Day 2008 was 41°C! Unfortunately it will warm up again all too soon.

I did nothing for New Year’s Eve as usual (never have); a lot of people use it as an excuse to go out and get drunk. Binge-drinking and violence stemming from it is in epidemic proportions – “Binge culture curses ‘lost generation’,” The Age, 3/1 – and these fools will have their health affected in a decade or two (brain and liver damage, etc.) and will clog up the public health system.

Prices for utilities and public transport are going up again, no thanks to privatization – I would personally like to see every minister in this useless State Government guillotined, as well as the former Premier, Jeff Kennett, who instigated the mass sell-off of public assets, which should be considered a criminal act! The assertion that privatization would “increase competition” and thus lower prices was a blatant lie. Unemployment is also set to rise, so there is nothing to feel positive about here.

Last week, NASA released a Columbia Crew Survival Investigation Report (16.2 MB PDF – press release page) of the events of the Columbia accident which describes in 400 detailed pages what the crew and orbiter experienced in those last few minutes. There are some “Redacted” sections; presumably containing details about the crew’s remains that the report authors didn’t want to be made public. There were reports of body parts found scattered over the landscape. According to Dad (yes I did ask, as he was an Airworthiness Investigator and attended some light airplane crashes), bodies that are found in pieces mean they have been shredded when in a fragmenting aircraft in the air; if not they turn into a “blob of jelly” when they impact the ground and all the bones shatter. So that’s some trivia you probably didn’t want to know!

I do watch the air crash investigation documentaries that are screened sporadically on TV, which have morbid interest as such accidents can happen to anyone who flies. One this week was about a small passenger jet that crashed into an airport hangar. The computer simulation showed this; what struck me was how fast it was going. Death for the passengers would have been almost instantaneous; there would still be a few seconds of transition. A quick search on YouTube brings up this short video of one of the passenger jets crashing into the World Trade Center. There’s 2 seconds from where it appears at the edge of the screen to its crashing into the building, and another second when it passes through and everyone inside is perishing.

Sunday 11/1: DVD annoyances; The Cole Protocol bought

I haven’t felt much like writing at all, though there is still a lot going through my head. I have nothing to say about world events anymore as I am weary of it all; it’s just the same conflicts and social strife over and over again.

I bought The Dark Knight DVD, but to my dismay found out, according to this article – “Collateral damage in video war,” The Age, 29/12/2008 (also here) – that the version of copy protection on it renders it unplayable in some PCs! I haven’t opened it, so I guess I’ll return it as I don’t want to risk finding out I can’t play it. I am thoroughly disgusted at the greedy film studios, and they deserve to lose revenue through pirating if they continue to inconvenience customers like that. I was hoping to get Ironman sometime too, but apparently that DVD has similar problems.

Borders bookstore had The Cole Protocol instore last week, which made me (temporarily) happy! It had some scenes with my favorite Halo aliens, the Sangheili. I am not interested in the Master Chief or the humans generally. I don’t have any computer games but can still visit websites. The forums, however, seem to be populated with immature semi-literate halfwits, so I haven’t joined any – spaceflight forums tend to be more civilized! The gaming community generally is not very female-friendly (meaning, sexist).

Tuesday 13/1: Stressful cities; overpopulation blog

The hot weather starts today with a vengeance: 37°C today, 39°C tomorrow, so I suppose those fools whinging about the unseasonably cool weather will be happy! I doubt firefighters are, though.

“How the city hurts your brain,” Boston Globe, 2/1. This article vindicates why I find cities such disagreeable places!

This research arrives just as humans cross an important milestone: For the first time in history, the majority of people reside in cities. For a species that evolved to live in small, primate tribes on the African savannah, such a migration marks a dramatic shift. Instead of inhabiting wide-open spaces, we’re crowded into concrete jungles, surrounded by taxis, traffic, and millions of strangers. In recent years, it’s become clear that such unnatural surroundings have important implications for our mental and physical health, and can powerfully alter how we think.

With the increasing world population, cities are only going to get more hellish to live in.

Regarding the Israel-Palestine situation, I was thinking that one (long-term) solution would be for Israel to give women in Gaza access to education and family planning! As noted in this article:

Gaza has become a giant warehouse of misery. It has no economic growth, no prospects, almost no civil order, yet about half the population is under the age of 17. The population has exploded amid economic privation. Women, living under Sharia law, are used primarily as breeding stock. Nizar Rayan, the most senior member of Hamas killed in the latest Israeli attacks, he had four wives and 14 children.

A Population Media Center blog entry, “Timely Book Puts Finger On Terrorist Attacks in the Gaza and Elsewhere,” reviews a book that addresses these issues.

Clearly as I read this book it is obvious to me after reading page 117 that the current Israeli Gaza attacks are certainly partially the result of Palestinian control of women who get little family planning and typically have 6 children. The 1950 population was 1 million, is now 3.1 million and could be 9 million by 2050. Sex and War reports, “Arab society is sexually chaste and few young men have sexual outlets prior to marriage but lack the financial independence to marry. Given the large pool of young men, the lack of opportunities, the sexual frustration and the inevitable resentment toward a dominant out group, it is hard to imagine a more perfectly conceived breeding ground for team aggression, in this case taking the form of terrorism.” Solution? First understand the problem, then take the actions suggested.

I thought I would try keeping an infrequent blog about overpopulation – “Populate and Perish” – which is at my Blogger account with my RuSpace blog. I have backposted some of this journal’s static entries from 2008.

Thursday 15/1: Train network woes; sore back

The hot day on Tuesday caused Melbourne’s train network to (yet again!) almost stop functioning, much to the exasperation of long-suffering commuters! Connex and the State Government are blaming each other, while Transport Minister Lynn Kosky remained as useless as ever. The editorial in The Age is scathing, noting that even a developing country like India has a decent public transport system:

As for the excuse of heat, how does one explain the miracle of reliable train travel in India? In Delhi, the summer heat is even more extreme. The pressures of demand are greater, too, as Delhi's population has tripled in three decades. Yet modern, air-conditioned trains run at 99.9% punctuality – more than a minute behind schedule is considered late – carrying 800,000 people a day. This after a year in which patronage rose 25%. By contrast, in all seasons, most Victorian lines fall well short of the levels of punctuality and reliability that their daily 550,000 passengers have been promised.

The policy difference is that by 2006 Delhi had spent about $3 billion in a few years on the first phase of a rail system that works. In Victoria, the promise of billions of dollars in capital investment to ensure better services over the 12 to 15-year terms of the 1999 privatisation agreements has not been delivered. As leaked documents showed this week, Yarra Trams even cut spending on badly needed track renewal works even as its profits grew significantly.

Privatization has been a failure – the companies spend as little on maintenance as possible in order to deliver maximum profits to their shareholders. The Government has continued to spend huge amounts of taxpayers’ money on new roads while doing little to update public transport. They both should be held criminally accountable!

As should those who engineered the break-up of the USSR: “Privatisation ‘raised death rate’,” BBC News, 15/1. The traumatic “shock therapy” and rapid privatization saw a great increase in the male death rate due to unemployment.

My lower back or coccyx suddenly begun severely bothering me again this week like it did in 2006 (see 31/8/2006 entry) – the only possible culprit is my office chair (a cheaper student version, not a luxury one), so this time I got one of those inflatable ring cushions to try; it feels better to sit on already (normal cushions were no help). I am so sore I can barely bend over! My lower back does seem to be a long-term troublesome area as I have hurt it occasionally over the years (muscle-related, I think, not spinal disks).

Wednesday 21/1: First surgery unsuccessful, need another

I saw the specialist today and I have to go back to hospital for another operation, as the first did not quite rectify the condition, so I’m almost back to where I started! The second operation is not as severe as the first. So more tedious waiting for I don’t-know-how-long on the public waiting list. I was lucky to get in relatively quickly last year. At least I know better what to expect this time (and I get to go under general anesthesia again, which I like!). I’ll be going to the same hospital (Sandringham), which is not far away and is reasonably nice (though the buildings need upgrading – they were built in the 1960s!).

So after that rather dismaying news, I am distracted from President Obama’s inauguration today.

Friday 23/1: Hologram world

My lower back has stopped being sore, so I don’t know what I did to it last week!

“Our world may be a giant hologram,” New Scientist, 15/1. weird things happening in the quantum realm. Bit hard to understand this, but space-time at the tiniest level is grainy. Quantum physics has gained a somewhat mystical reputation and following, as exemplified by “Is Reality a Hologram?” on an astrology site (the woman is the author of a fantasy novel I bought today that combines quantum physics with a fantasy world). A curious phenomenon is quantum entanglement, where a pair of photons can communicate instantaneously wherever they are in the Universe (an obvious application is interplanetary communications). ESA perfomed an experiment in 2007 which seemed to verify this: “ESA takes steps toward quantum communications,” 12/6/2007.

“It’s time literally to go green,” 23/1. Trees and plants in urban areas help absorb carbon emissions and cool down the surrounding environment. Ignore the ugly barren “designer garden” fad and put in a proper garden!

Tuesday 27/1: Hellish heatwave

This week will be hell as the weather is to be in the 40s for several days! Predicted forecast:

It will be the worst hot spell for 100 years. There is no predicted rain. No doubt there will be power failures, so I will probably have to keep my computer off in the afternoons (this is where a laptop would be useful!). And avoid using the train system if possible – there have been the by-now usual cancellations and failures.

Thursday 29/1: Low 40s

43°C yesterday, already 43°C today. Power failures in various parts of the State. None at home, yet! Wish we had solar power but it is just too expensive. I don’t function very well in this weather.

There is an “I hate Connex” Facebook group which has over 7000 members already – a lot of frustrated commuters! Connex are the private company “running” the trains (and doing a poor job of it). I know now to avoid using the trains on hot days, if I can avoid it!

Saturday 31/1: Three days of 40°C

That was three days of hell! Three days of 43°C, and the state went into “meltdown,” as the media expressed it. There were power cuts in many places, though my suburb has so far escaped these. Today and next week will also be hot, though not so intensely, into the 30s. The unfortunates living inland are still enduring temperatures into the 40s.

There was a minor furore last week over retail employees posting gripes against customers on Facebook. I know all too much about how they feel! Seriously, retail is one of the Jobs From Hell, and I hope it will one day be automated!

February

Wednesday 4/2: Surgery failure; Avatar movie interest; a surfeit of sarcasm

It’s 8 weeks and 1 day since my operation, and the condition that was supposed to be fixed, isn’t. I feel like a failed experiment.

The really hot weather isn’t quite over yet, unfortunately – an over-40°C day is forecast for Saturday. A lot of plants got badly-burnt leaves from last week’s heatwave, so the upcoming day won’t help.

There’s an intriguing-looking James Cameron film coming out near the end of 2009 called Avatar. There is frustratingly little information about it so far, and a few pictures of the aliens have been floating about on the Internet, none of them accurate (the only indications are that they are tall, somewhat humanoid and blue-skinned, and are called the Na’vi). The io9 blog also has several entries about the film (I generally find io9 to be irritatingly trite – and obsessed with, erm, human mating activities – but occasionally it has good posts).

“No Laughing Matter,” Newsweek, 21/1. “A critic for The New Yorker explains how serious public conversation is being ruined by sarcastic, snide remarks.” I also get irritated at this trend, which seems endemic across the Internet. If you try to be serious, inevitably someone, somewhere will mock and deride you. The comments at the io9 blog I mentioned above are just one example – most try to outdo each other in coming up with the “cleverest” remark. MetaFilter is another offender, though its users are generally more intelligent than other communities. Slashdot is just nasty and childish. I often don’t bother to read the comments sections of blogs as so many are inane.

Saturday 7/2: Extreme heat

One more hot day for today – up to 44°C 46.4°C! – though it is to be cooler next week. Today is being described as Victoria’s “Worst fire threat in history”. Doesn’t help when arsonists go out and deliberately light fires!

Outside thermometer temperature – 46°C!

Today was Melbourne’s hottest day since records began 150 years ago. A cool change is coming through now (5:47 p.m.). The poor plants are burnt and suffering!

Tuesday 10/2: Bushfire horror

Saturday being Victoria’s worst fire threat in history was no exaggeration – massive bushfires throughout the state wiped out whole country towns and the death toll so far is 173! That is expected to increase as more bodies are found in burnt-out houses. The bushfire deaths already exceed “Ash Wednesday” (16 February 1983, 75 killed) and “Black Friday” (13 January 1939, 71 killed) combined, with thousands more left homeless. There’s even a headline giving 300 deaths as a potential figure, as well as thousands of native and domestic animals. There are a lot of burns victims.

Aid has been generous; unfortunately there are also opportunistic scum: “The ACCC warned people to be wary of potential scammers exploiting the fires by posing as representatives of fake charities, saying that similar scams occurred after the 2003 Canberra bushfires.” These people (like the arsonists) deserve the death penalty!

Climate change scientists earlier warned that fires would become more intense and destructive; this fire is some evidence of that. There are many letters in the newspapers blaming the Greens political party (presumably for opposing burnoffs), but if such people had their way, all the forests would be felled! Housing has impeded on bushland as population has increased, so more damage and fatalities are inevitable.

Some (hopefully permanent) links:

Friday 13/2: Mouthguard fitted; high bushfire toll

I went to the dentist today to be fitted for a mouthguard, as I have been clenching/grinding my teeth sporadically, and that’s probably the cause of the other problems I developed last year (receding gums, sensitivity, TMJ). I have been under stress (mainly from the operation), but I have encountered stress previously in my life and never had that reaction as far as I know, so I don’t know why I have developed it now. He gave me a prescription of Diazepam to take in the meantime – I have become that desperate! I do not sleep well. Meditation does not work for me – too much going through my head.

Smoky morning red sun

There is an acrid smell of smoke and a smoky haze over the sky today from various bushfires, which are still raging across parts of Victoria. The death toll stands at 181, but is expected to increase. A death toll that high is not something you expect in this era from a natural disaster in a First World country! A lot of residents apparently did not make proper preparations for bushfires, and were caught out when they tried to flee at the last moment (when the fires had reached them). There is a lot of blame and anger (Greens/environmentalists being a popular target), but if people choose to live in fire-prone areas, there is risk. And, no, you can’t chop down all the trees to make a region safe (as much as some people would want to) – the trees have as much a right to exist. The habitat of animals is destroyed when trees are felled.

Tuesday 17/2: Ironman watched

I watched Ironman today (borrowed the DVD from the library), which I enjoyed! A little implausible, but good fun, with some exhilarating scenes of the main character zooming all over the sky (though he would in reality be turned into jelly after impacting the ground at high speed), and blasting the crap out of unpleasant Central Asian mercenary/terrorist types. (I want my own “Ironlady” suit [in blue-and-silver]! I would so enjoy blasting the crap out of teenaged vandals who tag everywhere and smash glass bus shelters [one done down a nearby street last weekend].) The computer graphics and holograms depicted were really cool to look at. I wasn’t so impressed with the weirdly-named female assistant “Pepper Potts” (seriously!) who spent much of the film tottering precariously in ridiculously high heels.

There is still a smoky haze in the sky from bushfires. The sun was blood-red on Saturday morning. The death toll is currently 200 (revised today).

Saturday 21/2: New mouthguard; vicious chimpanzee

I got my mouthguard yesterday, and it feels a bit odd to wear, but I slept in it OK, so I hope it will be effective!

I don’t like primates generally, and a report of another chimpanzee attack this week reinforces that. The friend of a woman who kept one as a pet was mauled after it turned on her – she had much of her face ripped off. The woman had a rather bizarre relationship with the chimp – “Owner, Travis the chimp had unusual bond,” MSNBC.com, 19/2 – dressing it up and treating it as a surrogate child (incidentally, I detest the fad of dressing up animals such as dogs – it’s degrading). Travis was 14 – a teenager – and chimps can get nasty and unpredictable when they enter adolescence (like humans). In fact, chimp behavior is very like that of humans as they are our closest genetic relatives – but they don’t have the capacity for self-restraint. Scientific American also has an article on the incident, “Why would a chimpanzee attack a human?,” which should put anyone off owning one!

Are captive chimpanzee attacks on humans common?

Yeah, definitely common. Most of the time they attack through cage bars. They bite off fingers. It happens more often with people they don’t know very well and people who aren’t familiar with chimpanzees. But it has happened to many of the best scientists and researchers, who are now missing digits. The reason we have them behind bars in zoos and research settings is because chimpanzees can be very dangerous – it’s to protect ourselves. This was a sort of free-ranging chimp, which is much more dangerous.

But chimps in the wild are not used to people – they’re afraid of them. That’s why Jane Goodall had to habituate them. So, really wild chimps don’t attack people. But in captivity, they have learned in the meantime that they are stronger than humans.

How strong are they?

The chimpanzee has strength for a human that is utterly incomprehensible. People watch pro wrestlers on TV and think they are strong. But a pro wrestler would not be able to hold a chimpanzee still if they wanted to. Chimpanzee males have been measured as having five times the arm strength as a human male. Even a young chimpanzee of four or five years, you could not hold it still if you wanted to. Pound-for-pound, their muscles are much stronger. And the adult males, like Travis – unless his were filed down – have big canine teeth. So you have a very dangerous creature in front of you that is impossible to control.

Do chimps in captivity show more aggressive behavior than those in the wild?

In the wild they’re pretty aggressive. They have warfare among groups, where males kill other males, and they have been known to commit infanticide. Aggression is a common part of the chimpanzee behavior, whether it’s between or within groups.

They can show tremendous mutilation. They go for the face; they go for the hands and feet; they go for the testicles. To outsiders, they have very nasty behaviors.

Having a chimp in your home is like having a tiger in your home. It’s not really very different. They are both very dangerous. […] A chimp in your home is like a time bomb. It may go off for a reason that we may never understand. I don’t know any chimp relationship that has been harmonious. Usually these animals end up in a cage. They cannot be controlled.

“Chimp victim moved to face transplant clinic,” MSNBC.com and “Why the Stamford Chimp Attacked,” TIME, give more details about the attack. There’s also a 2005 MetaFilter post about an earlier attack.

The ownership of exotic pets (non-domesticated animals) should be banned worldwide; unfortunately there is a lucrative market for them.

Tuesday 24/2: Taliban troubles

I watched “Pakistan on the Brink” on Four Corners last night, about the Taliban infiltrating parts of the country. A nasty mob of barbarians they are (pity the women who live in the regions controlled by the Taliban), and they’re difficult to combat as they merge with the general population. Religious fanatics can’t be reasoned with, only ruthlessly eradicated. All civilized countries should get serious and form a special task force to combat these fanatics.

“Russians warn of Afghan parallels,” BBC News, 14/2. Incidentally, last week marked 20 years since Russia withdrew from Afghanistan. I don’t think the country would have been worse off now had Russia won the war and stayed. The USA backed the resistance which later became the Taliban, in retrospect the worst foreign policy mistake they ever made, but as always future consequences couldn’t be forseen.

Wednesday 25/2: Overpopulation concerns

There was actually some rain this morning, and I even got wet on my morning walk – what a novelty! There hasn’t been any good rain since December (when I was in hospital).

“Gene could allow lab-grown teeth,” BBC News, 24/2. The gene responsible for the growth of enamel has been located, which means that it could be regenerated or whole teeth regrown in the future – unfortunately, as always, bringing this into reality is some distance into the future (my guess: 10 years or so).

I’ve been doing frequent posting on my “Populate and Perish” blog (“RuSpace” is a bit neglected as I haven’t felt inclined to write about anything space-related). I do have despairing thoughts that, though there are many people concerned about overpopulation, this is a lost cause – few if any influential people in power (i.e. governments, corporations) are similarly concerned, and just wish to continue “business as usual” though this is destructive to the planet and humanity’s ultimate survival.

I just want to immerse myself in my fantasy world and escape reality, as it is a dreary and frustrating place.

March

Wednesday 4/3: Cavity fears

I’m going to the dentist yet again on Friday because my teeth hurt and are awfully sensitive; I fear I have yet another cavity in my troublesome lower molars. I am really sick of going there (and of writing about it!) but I am so paranoid about my teeth now. I used to have such good teeth!

“Malaysian plan to tackle suicides,” BBC News, 3/3 – by making attempts illegal! As if that will discourage depressed people. Suicide is apparently illegal under Muslim law (Christian law used to take a dim view of it also) – a contrast to Japanese Samurai attitudes where suicide was seen as a honorable method of death. I take the view that a person’s life is their own and suicide can be a rational decision in some circumstances.

Saturday 7/3: Earth tremor; no more cavities

Melbourne had a tremor last night! 4.7, around 8:56 p.m., for around 5 seconds; I felt it when lying watching TV in bed. The epicenter was in South Gippsland. I haven’t felt an earthquake that strong for a few years (see my 23/10/2006 entry).

Went to the dentist yesterday; no cavities, but he did put another side patch on a left molar to cover a sensitive spot.

“Stars in our eyes,” The Age, 7/3. Article on the harmful effects of light pollution and what people are missing out on when they can’t see the starry night sky. I can barely see any stars from my suburb due to light pollution.

I got a discount DVD of Jason X and watched it. Trashy gory fun! It’s one of the Friday the 13th series (which I haven’t seen) and predictably gets bad reviews, but I enjoyed it, as I do space horror movies – one of the main attractions is to see how many gruesome ways the hapless characters get killed. (Somehow, I don’t think it’s in the onboard library of the ISS, though.)

Monday 9/3: Halo Wars graphic novel want

The latest Halo item I am coveting is the Halo Wars: Genesis graphic novel. Unfortunately …

  1. It only comes with the Halo Wars Limited Collector’s Edition ($100-$120 in Australia);
  2. HW is only available for X-Box, annoyingly (not a PC);
  3. I don’t have the disposable income for an X-Box (and probably would not buy one even if I did);
  4. So hopefully some kind person will scan it and put it online. Just hoping :-).

Tuesday 17/3: Rain at last; Formula 1 extravagance

There has been some good rainfall at last! Not enough to even begin filling the reservoirs though – we would need a year or so of constant rain to achieve that. The gardens and plants are slowly recovering from the awful 40°+ heat of 5 weeks ago.

“$47m fee a formula for easy profits,” The Age, 14/3. I was infuriated to learn that that the Formula 1 head, Bernie Ecclestone, is being paid obscene amounts of taxpayers’ money by the Victorian Government for the dubious “privilege” of hosting the race here.

But now, a European publication, Formula Money, has revealed that Victoria paid Mr. Ecclestone an estimated $42 million for the privilege of hosting its 2008 race. Sanction fee contracts have a 10% per year escalator written into them, meaning the cost to taxpayers this year will be close to $47 million. The price is well above the average sanction fee for an F1 race, now $37 million, up 74.3 per cent since 2004.

Effectively bribe money. The obnoxiously arrogant little prat (as I regard him) has far too much influence – bordering on corruption – and I wish all governments would refuse to pay him bribe money and tell him where he can shove his car race.

Wednesday 18/3: Another earth tremor

Another earth tremor this afternoon! (See 7/3 entry.) At 4:30 p.m., 4.6, from the same area (epicenter in Korumburra).

There used to be volcanoes in Victoria up to 7000 years ago – according to that linked article, they might erupt again one day!

Saturday 21/3: A disturbing suicide

Today is quite warm – 34°C – but the sun is at a lower angle so the heat does not seem as intense as the heatwave of last month. Autumn is my favorite season as it means the awful heat of summer has passed, and the leaves on the deciduous trees turn red and gold as the mornings become chilly (though there won’t be much of a display this year as the heat made many trees drop their leaves early).

Evelyn McHale after her suicide

“Who were you, Ms. McHale?,” Ask MetaFilter. No, not about me, but for obvious reasons I found this rather disturbing! The lady in question, Evelyn McHale, is noted in history only for a photo of the aftermath of her suicide, where she crashed onto a car after jumping from the Empire State Building on 1 May 1947; she landed in such a way that she looked remarkably serene and composed (instead of a bloody mess – the photo shows what damage the impact of a body does to the roof of a car).

I wonder if she could have been a very distant relative (there were some McHales who went to the USA, but I don’t know if they are related to the McHales in my family – Dad’s father and paternal grandfather; the latter was born in Ireland). McHale is not a common surname. Incidentally, I am the last in my family to bear it (after Dad) as my sister married and took her husband’s surname. I had better do something to make me famous so that the name can be remembered! (Preferably not by jumping off a building, though!)

I had a rant on my “Populate and Perish” blog today, and emailed two letters to The Age, so I will see if they get published!

Wednesday 25/3: Halo Wars comic attained

I managed to acquire the Halo Wars: Genesis graphic novel (see 9/3/2009 entry) via an Australian gaming site, found after some Googling. I sent off a money order last week to someone who had it for sale, and it arrived today. A bit risky ordering something from a stranger like that, but in this case it worked out well! I paid $20 (+ $4.50 for the money order); better than spending $100 on a game I can never play!

Sunday 29/3: Teeth grinding; random bashings; The Dark Knight watched; site hosting concerns

Daylight Savings ends next week; it has crept up to nearly 6 months in duration now, which is ridiculously long. If I had my way I would abolish DS; it is an unneccesary twice-yearly disruption.

“Headaches? Dental problems? Like millions, you may be a secret teeth grinder,” Daily Mail, 23/3. The frustrating thing about the condition is that it happens unconsciously while you sleep, so a lot of damage can be done, and there doesn’t seem to be any effective way to stop it. The Botox injections look promising, but I have seen no mention of them in Australia – if there were medical trials, I would sign up for them!

“There’s no glamour in real violence,” The Age, 28/3. Tale of a random bashing by some young male thugs, an all-too-common occurence in Australia now. The victim did, however, seem remarkably unprepared or unable to defend himself. If you see such young males, assume they will be aggressive and prepare to defend yourself! But let them make the first move, then retaliate with force – you can claim self-defence.

I ended up buying The Dark Knight after all (as part of a set with Batman Begins, which came out to $12.50 each); it did play on my computer (see 11/1 entry). I did enjoy it as much as the previous one, though it was much grimmer and intense. Very long also, at 2½ hours! (And I do wish Melbourne had a Batman to deal with the aforementioned male thugs!)

I have as-yet empty blogs set up on my Wordpress account, but am still undecided as to whether to move my Blogger blogs there. The main annoyance with the hosted WP is that only subscribed users can edit a template’s CSS file – Blogger, in contrast, is completely customizable. WP otherwise seems mostly better to use, though I don’t know how permanent WP will be as many free hosts either disappear or change their conditions-of-use. AOL Hometown, for example, was shut down in November 2008 and a lot of users saw years of online memories disappear (an obvious incentive to keep a backup on one’s home computer, which many people there did not seem to do):

My question is like those above. Is there anyway still to retrieve my journals and homepages? I tried before the deadline but nothing happened. These are my memories. Things I wanted to remember about my kids. And when I tried to access them before the deadline I was unable to. Otherwise I would have printed it all out. Please help.

The annoying aspect of the Internet is that it is so ephemeral and impermanent. Domain names and hosts can only be retained by paying providers for them, otherwise the websites associated with these disappear forever.

April

Wednesday 8/4: Waiting for surgery re-do

I am still not on the waiting list for my next surgery (despite telephoning the specialist’s secretary and the hospital 3 times so far), am in quite a bit of discomfort again, and am feeling pissed-off. Maybe he wants nothing more to do with me as I am only a low-priority public patient. I don’t know where else I can go, though. An advantage of being wealthy is that you could get whatever health treatment you needed, without delays.

Thursday 9/4: Curious bird

A new bird has appeared in my parents’ backyard in the last few weeks; after looking on the Australian Birds in Backyards site, I think it is an Eastern Spinebill. It is a similar size to the other bird which I still haven’t identified (smaller than a sparrow, olive-grey in color, white ring around eyes).

Sunday 12/4: Website stuff

It has been perhaps 2 years since I redesigned my website; I have not felt inclined to try a new design, and don’t have new ideas in any case! This design seems to display well in all browsers I have tried. It is not imaginative, but is basic, neat and functional, so I guess I will leave it, aside from minor tweaks.

I have imported my two blogs to the equivalent WordPress accounts I have, and changed any internal links. I am still undecided as to whether to commit to WP, as the main annoyance for me is that users can’t edit the CSS without a paid account – so I am stuck with whatever templates and color schemes they have (I can only upload a header image). Other than that, WP is better to use than Blogger; it seems to be much neater in layout – I can also export my entries as a backup (which I can’t with Blogger).

Correction – I found that Blogger has an export function after all! Described on this page. So I guess I’ll stay with Blogger for the time being.

Saturday 18/4: Blood test, B12 deficient; foolish pursuits

Went to the GP last Tuesday for various things, and I had a blood test done. The only abnormality was a vitamin B12 deficiency (149 when it should be 180), so she recommended I should have 3-monthly injections. (Curiously enough, Mum has the same deficiency.) I have not noticed any major symptoms though; only depression and lethargy (which I’ve had for years and could be from many causes) and the occasional migraines I get (I did get a mild one after the blood test, with an annoying blind spot). I eat plenty of animal products (mainly dairy foods, chicken, and a little fish and red meat), so I don’t know why I am deficient.

Still not on the hospital waiting list, despite the doctor ringing them up last week!

I watched an ABC documentary, Solo, about the adventurer, Andrew McAuley, who tried to cross the Tasman Sea in a kayak. It was rather harrowing, especially the recovered video footage (he endured 33 days crammed into a kayak, and through severe storms and high waves) – he almost made it, but contact was lost only 30 nautical miles off New Zealand, and only his canoe was found. He seemed to be driven to such dangerous adventures as though he were possessed, despite having a wife and child.

This documentary is troubling for several reasons. Mostly it is witnessing the fragile mental state of McAuley who is demonstrably not ready for this kind of danger-seeking test of wills.

He sobs uncontrollably as soon as he shoves off from shore, not ready for the task of crossing the Southern ocean in his tiny craft.

This is a tale of goal-oriented obsession and selfish desire; his responsibilities be damned. He was a family man. There is nothing wrong with challenging oneself in nature, physically and finding personal limits, but when others depend on you and love you, some of these “tests” are downright self-indulgent exercises in futility.

– “Review: Nat Geo Solo: Lost at Sea, and for what?”

“Mountain Climbing Bad for the Brain,” New York Times, 20/10/2008. I happened to come across this article which only confirms my bemusement at people risking loss of fingers, toes and brain cells just to climb a mountain! A retired astronaut, Scott Parazynski, is currently attempting to climb Mt. Everest. The study in the article is for those who climb (or dive) repeatedly over the years, so the effect is cumulative. I don’t believe partaking in such endeavours is worth that damage to one’s brain.

On scans, the climbers showed a reduction in both white and gray matter in various parts of the brain. Overall, the researchers found that the cognitive abilities that were most likely to be affected were the climbers’ executive function and memory.

Six of the nine climbers had lower than average scores on the Digit Symbol test, which measures executive functions. Three out of nine scored lower than average on memory tests, while four scored below average on a visual-motor function test. The study authors noted that the results “are most likely to be due to progressive, subtle brain insults caused by repeated high-altitude exposure.”

Other studies have shown links between brain problems and repeated exposure to extreme conditions. The British Journal of Sports Medicine reported in 2004 that scuba diving may have long-term negative effects on the brain, particularly when performed in extreme conditions, such as cold water, more than 100 dives per year, and diving below 40 meters.

“Women at war face sexual violence,” BBC News, 17/4. This is a review of a book on the experiences of U.S. women soldiers in Iraq, who seem to face as much danger from their comrades as from the enemy! I don’t know what the solution is – perhaps an all-female battalion? Putting a lone woman amongst a group of young men is asking for trouble.

Sunday 26/4: GeoCities gone

“Yahoo pulls the plug on GeoCities,” BBC News, 24/4. Yahoo’s free website hosting service, GeoCities, is to close later this year, after 15 years, as it is no longer cost-effective. The service was never that good – measly webspace and bandwidth – but it did provide a starting point for many websites (including mine), so a lot of web history will be lost. An old version of my site – which was an Australian domain, au.geocities.com – is at Archive.org, but the internet archiver seems only to save some pages, and not all images, so it is inadequate for historical records. Archive.org is a non-profit organization run by donations, which is a precarious way to survive; there should be some sort of international government- or U.N.-funded web archiving organization.

The trend now seems to be toward blogs and social networking sites – but none are as satisfactory as being able to code and organize your own HTML pages and have complete control over these.

I am slowly going through my “Kosmonavtka” site checking for broken external links – there are quite a lot of these! Annoying, but that is the nature of the web, unfortunately.

Wednesday 29/4: Swine flu; gruesome tattoos

The swine flu has overtaken economic gloom in the headlines since it emerged from Mexico a week or two ago. It is not a declared pandemic yet, but is spreading to other countries, mainly due to international air travel. Governments should have banned all unnecessary travel to the outbreak country as soon as the virus was confirmed, and screened all travelers coming from that country – but too late now.

“On the cutting edge,” The Age, 26/4. Body piercing and tattooing are apparently passé; the latest fad is now scarification (and for the more extreme, flesh removal/skin peeling! A local anesthetic is for wimps, apparently).

Cobra’s line of work also involves, among other things, filing down people’s ears teeth?! into sharp points, injecting their eyeballs with tattoo ink to turn the whites into different colours and splitting their tongues into halves – the image of one of his customers lying on the workbench with long cuts and blood trickling all over her back would make a fitting promo shot for a splatter flick.

Injecting eyeballs?! That sounds more like Mengele-style torture!

Body modification does have a purpose in tribal cultures, where it marks rites-of-passage, but in Western/modern culture it is a rather meaningless fad, and for that reason I find it facile. In my view, modification is wrecking your body and skin (my only “modifications” are an earring piercing on each earlobe!).

May

Saturday 2/5: B-12 injection; enjoyed 2008 The Day the Earth Stood Still

I had my first Vitamin B12 injection last week, and did it hurt! I have had several blood tests done and the injection was not too bad, but an intramuscular injection is something else! (I haven’t had one of the latter for many years.)

I saw The Day the Earth Stood Still(2008 version) and thought it was quite good (unlike most critics!).

The use of electromagnetic pulses (EMP) in the film is a weapon I would like to have – to use against idiot car drivers! It would ideally be a small size – one that could be carried on a keyring – and would use a narrow laser beam to direct the EMP at the offending car, and disable its electronics.

Wednesday 6/5: Fusion lasers; Facebook friends

“NIFty lasers will create fusion, energy,” MetaFilter. Nuclear fusion is one of my favorite technologies (along with nanotechnology), and the National Ignition Facility is set to do an experiment involving using lasers to initiate a fusion reaction (but nothing viable for actual energy use). “Energy of the Future: Igniting a Star With Laser Light” at Wired.com has photos of the NIF, showing the massive array of lasers and equipment required to ignite a beryllium sphere that is smaller than a grain of rice.

The Large Hadron Collider has faded from public attention; it is not due to resume operations until this September.

I seem to have acquired quite a few friends on Facebook in the last few weeks! Some I knew already as visitors to my site. Facebook is, though, annoying to use – it is Javascript-reliant, which means it takes a few seconds to load each page and has to pull in all sorts of scripts from various places; there are too many widgets cluttering the layout.

Thursday 7/5: Blogger spam oddity

Rather oddly, I received an email from Blogger saying my blog had been identified as a potential spam blog!

Your blog at: http://ruspace.blogspot.com/ has been identified as a potential spam blog. To correct this, please request a review by filling out the form […]

Your blog will be deleted in 20 days if it isn’t reviewed, and your readers will see a warning page during this time. After we receive your request, we’ll review your blog and unlock it within two business days. Once we have reviewed and determined your blog is not spam, the blog will be unlocked and the message in your Blogger dashboard will no longer be displayed. If this blog doesn’t belong to you, you don’t have to do anything, and any other blogs you may have won’t be affected.

We find spam by using an automated classifier. Automatic spam detection is inherently fuzzy, and occasionally a blog like yours is flagged incorrectly. We sincerely apologize for this error. By using this kind of system, however, we can dedicate more storage, bandwidth, and engineering resources to bloggers like you instead of to spammers. For more information, please see Blogger Help: http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=42577

So if the blog becomes inaccessible, that’s the reason! (I have already responded to the request; I still have a backup blog at Wordpress.) Wonder what triggered that alert? There’s certainly nothing offensive on the blog (it’s G-rated!), though I do have a lot of links – but that’s necessary to comment on news articles and such.

Friday 8/5: Blogger blog back; next-door extension; Orthodox revival

My RuSpace blog at Blogger seems to have been restored as I was able to post there again.

Next-door home extension

The next-door neighbors on the south side of my parents’ home have decided to add a rear extension as there is a family living there but the house (a post-WW2 weatherboard like ours) only has two bedrooms; small by today’s standards. Unfortunately it means the view to the south will be mostly obscured! We seem to be getting increasingly hemmed-in. Makes going into the backyard feel awkward as I dislike the feeling that neighbors are looking.

“Soul of Russia,” National Geographic, April 2009 [Archive.org link also]. An article on the revival of the Russian Orthodox Church in post-Soviet Russia. This invokes a bit of dismay as it means a lot of superstitious nonsense has also been revived.

Orthodox priests and nuns

I have to admit I like the costumes, though! The photo below is from the online gallery. The bearded man looks like a sorcerer from a fantasy novel, and the girls in black robes are dressed exactly like Alia Atreides in the Dune novels (as depicted in the first Dune film – in fact, I wonder if the costume design was taken from Orthodox clothing!). (Also if anyone could supply me with the actual Russian names of all the clothing, I would appreciate it!) I reckon dressing up in all those cool robes must be a secret thrill for some (a change from boring modern clothing)!

Sunday 10/5: LASIK horror

“LASIK Surgery: When the Fine Print Applies to You,” NYT, 13/3/2008. A few years ago I thought that I would like laser eye surgery if I could ever afford it (I am myopic with some astigmatism), but after reading this article – and related tales of woe – I would not have it now if I were paid to! It is not worth the irreparable damage to one’s eyes: permanent dry eyes, night blindness, dimmed vision, halos and starbursts, among other adverse effects. Vision changes throughout life, so a person who has had LASIK surgery will likely need reading glasses when they get older anyway – those who don’t have such surgery may not need reading glasses until later in life than those with normal eyesight (some compensation for being myopic!). I do a lot of close-up work and would not want to lose that ability to see close-up without glasses.

Myopic (nearsighted) people who are close to the age (mid- to late-forties) when they will require either reading glasses or bifocal eyeglasses may find that they still require reading glasses despite having undergone refractive LASIK surgery. Myopic people generally require reading glasses or bifocal eyeglasses at a later age than people who are emmetropic (those who see without eyeglasses), but this benefit is lost if they undergo LASIK. This is not a complication but an expected result of the physical laws of optics.

Thursday 14/5: My surgery date set

The date for my surgery arrived in the mail today, at long last! It’s for Thursday 18 June – 5 weeks away (assuming it is not canceled). Same hospital as before – Sandringham. I have to be there by 11:30 a.m., so I don’t have to rush to get there like last time (7:00 a.m.).

Tuesday 19/5: Early surgery

I received a phonecall from the hospital booking office that another patient had canceled, so could I come in for surgery this Thursday?! Pre-Admission is tomorrow. So of course I agreed to, though it is a bit unexpected! In the public health system, you have to grab an opportunity like that. Unfortunately I have to endure that awful purging again which I have to do tomorrow. It’s the third time I’ve had to do that ordeal over the span of 8 months, and I am a bit tired of it (I would, seriously, rather undergo waterboarding). Also I can’t have anything other than clear fluids from now (I had lunch around 11:00 a.m.). I just hope the surgeon will go carefully and not hurry!

Assuming no complications, I can expect to stay 3-4 nights.

Thursday 21/5: Fasting disagrees with me

Fasting (clear liquid diet) is really disagreeing with me. Got a migraine yesterday, threw up twice then, and once this morning (so far). I feel very debilitated. Hope this doesn’t get me disqualified for surgery.

Friday 22/5: Back from surgery

In contrast to last time (16/12/2008 entry), I am back home from surgery already! It went OK (though they said that last time). I didn’t have to do the awful purging. Unfortunately I think I may have cracked a tooth during or after the general anasthetic – I woke in the recovery room and shivered uncontrollably, with my teeth chattering, and one (a lower pre-molar) is sore if I chew on it. (Have to see about it later once I have healed up.) I had a restless and uncomfortable afternoon and night, with nausea and retching. The painkillers began to become effective in the early morning (around 4:30 a.m.) and I was well enough to go home in the afternoon, though I am still sore and have to take painkillers and follow a high-fiber diet with supplements until my digestion functions normally again. I won’t be riding my bicycle for a few weeks, either.

When it comes to health care, I am so glad to be living here and not many other countries. I’ve had two major surgeries in 5 months and haven’t had to pay for them (except through taxes, which I don’t mind being used for such services). The downside is the lengthy waiting times many have to endure because of an under-resourced system (no thanks to Federal and State Governments), but it’s better than nothing. I just wish basic dental services were Medicare-covered, too!

June

Friday 5/6: Website back; after-surgery progress

So, it looks like my website is back online, hopefully! The server had a hardware failure and my host had some trouble getting the correct spare parts for it. That’s why I don’t want to have everything hosted on the one site – it is better to keep my other blogs on separate sites (I have a WordPress site as a backup for these links).

15 days after surgery. I am somewhat better than I was – the pain has mostly gone – but am still uncomfortable in ways I would rather not describe! My possibly-cracked tooth still aches a bit. I would sell my soul for a new body – even for the body I had 10 years ago. If I make it to old age (in 40 years I will be 78) I plan to have myself euthanized if my body becomes too decrepit, not wither away in a nursing home (assuming access to these is still available). My body is no longer whole and healthy, but feels like it is beginning to break down (structural failures), and this is not a pleasant realization.

Victoria seems to have become the swine flu capital of the world – or Australia, at least – with 752 diagnosed. The flu is still the mild version.

“I, Robot,” Newsweek, 25/5. An interview with Ray Kurzweil, who wants to utilize nanotechnology to enhance his body, should this technology ever become viable. The article portrays him in a very negative light, though (there’s an entry on the article at the Accelerating Future blog). I want that technology too! I want nanotechnology (especially medical!), artificial intelligence and all the rest of it (I guess that makes me a Transhumanist?), but it remains tantalizingly in the future, and there is uncertainty over whether any of it can be made viable. H+ magazine has an article, “How Close Are We to Real Nanotechnology?” – which gives a timeline of 20-30 years away. Not close enough!

Wednesday 10/6: After-surgery progress; Avatar anticipation

Still no better, 20 days after surgery; feeling uncomfortable and unpleasant. This version of the operation is worse than the first (which was through my abdomen), in my experience. I see the specialist in 3 weeks, but am frustrated because I would have liked him come to see me the day after surgery, even just for a few minutes, and explain what I could expect, what symptoms were normal and what weren’t. I suppose I can’t expect much, being only a public patient, but the “operate and vanish” method is not satisfactory! I don’t know what the private system would be like, but it is not an option for me.

One thing I have learned is not to go hunting on the Internet for more information as I end up more fretful and worried!

Various entries about James Cameron’s Avatar movie are at this film blog. Information is coming out in tantalizing bits and pieces. I like the premise of the film as the main human character ends up siding with the aliens, and the alien world looks interesting. Though I don’t know how plausible having a habitable moon orbiting a gas giant is – this would make day and night more complicated (those living on the moon would be in the shadow of its planet for a period of time, as well as having normal day and night from rotation). The same premise of a habitable moon was used for Allen Steele’s Coyote series, but I never saw this factor mentioned.

Thursday 18/6: Surgery concerns

I went back to the specialist surgeon two weeks early because of concern about an unpleasant side-effect from my surgery (4 weeks ago now). He referred me to a physiotherapist to see if they can help. I hope they can, because I am dreading the prospect of more surgery! (There is also a chance the condition itself could return.) I have lost confidence in the surgeon (I think he must be tired of me!), but don’t know where else to go. This saga has been dragging on for over a year now and I am sick of it.

The Avatar film is being released in Australia on 17 December (according to this site). It is the only event I am anticipating this year.

Tuesday 30/6: Disturbing dream; degrading women

Last night I had a peculiar dream about being in hospital (I have inevitably had these since my two operations): I was sitting on the edge of a table and some nurses were taking my organs out and laying them on the table! One kept asking me if I wanted to donate organs. I was feeling increasingly uncomfortable at seeing my organs and wanted them back.

I was as stunned as anyone else by Michael Jackson’s death on Friday. I had a major crush on him in my early teens (1980s), and Thriller was one of the first cassette tapes I bought (shows how long ago that was!), listening to it over and over again. There were posters of him pinned to my bedroom walls, and I even got the doll for a birthday present (all, alas, long since gone in one of my purges). I can’t add anything to the reams being written about him, only express disgust at the tabloids who have pounced on this like vultures.

This letter in The Age, 27/6, makes a good point about double standards, and I agree with her views about the degradation of women in Western society (I am sick of seeing scantily-clad women in films, advertising, etc.):

Distorted revolution

The French President’s recent denunciation of the burqa (The Age, 24/6) as a sign of female enslavement has made me think. As a person who was born and lived many years in South Asia, I have been exposed to moderate forms of Islam and have developed deep appreciation of the values it promotes. But I don’t deny that when used as a tool of oppression, religion can be deadly.

However, the belief in the superiority of the Western cultural values promoting liberty and equality that underlies Sarkozy’s promulgation leaves me unconvinced. I have lived in the West for 13 years and its abject sexualisation of women makes me uncomfortable.

Female sexual power and autonomy asserted in the capacity to do whatever a woman wants with her body has made me wonder whether we are in fact witnessing a distorted revolution! Indeed, I believe that in many ways women are being reduced to the status of mere sexual objects, with their “power” really depending on their ability to ignite and satisfy men’s desire! This is an insult to all women who ought to be respected for who they are – their character, values and intelligence. This irony should serve as a stark reminder to anyone who unquestioningly assumes moral and cultural superiority of the West and denounce Islamic practices.

– Nive Achuthan, Brunswick

July

Wednesday 1/7: Twilight thoughts

“I love you” is not a phrase I can ever bring myself to say, regarding it as mawkish. This poster at MetaFilter (a community blog/forum) complains that her partner never says the phrase out loud, though he shows affection in other ways. I felt quite annoyed at her (as did some of the respondents) and thought her selfish.

I have read all the books in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series. I would not describe myself as a fan, but I do not hate them either (there are a lot of virulent and rather tedious hate sites devoted to the books, as there are for the Christopher Paolini’s Eragon series). A lot of women in my age group are rabid fans – not only teenagers – yet I felt neutral about the novels (I don’t know how I would have felt as a teenager). Vampires and other supernatural creatures do not interest me (they are a much-overdone trope), and I grimace with disgust when I see bookshelves devoted to paranormal romance; I am more inclined toward science fiction.

I generally do not find romantic novels interesting, as the “mating rituals” that are their subject bore me! I much prefer action scenes and technology (in video/DVD movies, I sometimes fast-forward through the romantic scenes). If I am bored/desperate enough, though, I will read anything (reading is my addictive drug).

Friday 3/7: Journal returned; escapism

After much dithering, this journal is back again (rather like I deleted my website two years ago – see my 10/3/2007 entry); I just feel attached to it. I can’t decide what to do. One idea is to just archive this on my site and continue on at Blogger. I have gone and backposted some of the entries I wrote since last week.

My lower back is still bothering me; it has been so since I mentioned it in January (15/1 entry) – it suddenly became so sore for a few days that I could barely move, then settled down. I think the first operation last December aggravated it somehow, and the second one made it worse! It is sore when lying down in bed, and getting up, but not when standing and moving around. It is, however, not a priority now.

“Grown-up movies are an endangered species,” MSNBC, 11/6. This article laments that “grown-up” serious movies are ignored in favor of more escapist fare such as the new Star Trek or Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. For myself, I want escapism – I get enough dreary reality in the real world! Nearly all the DVDs I own are science fiction-themed, and a few historical.

November

Sunday 1/11: Journal returned; sore back; building up; goodbye Geocities

After 5 months (!) and much dithering, this journal is back again (rather like I deleted my website two years ago – see my 10/3/2007 entry); I just feel attached to it. I will perhaps reserve the Blogger version for more focused entries (I am still keeping the Russian spaceflight and overpopulation topic blogs there).

I reinstalled Windows yet again, as I do once or twice a year, after erasing the disk. Reinstalling all my programs and settings is a pain, though.

There was a big electrical storm on Friday night (from 11 p.m.), with sheet lightning flickering almost continuously and heavy rain. The weather has turned unpleasantly humid since Thursday, which is normal for this time of year, but an unwelcome reminder that another hellishly hot summer is not far away. At least there were some good rains in October.

My lower back is still bothering me; it has been so since I mentioned it in January (15/1 entry) – it suddenly became so sore for a few days that I could barely move, then settled down. I think the first operation last December aggravated it somehow, and the second one made it worse! It is sore when lying down in bed, and getting up, but not when standing and moving around. I am weary of going to specialists, though (and can’t afford it anyway!). I do seem to be turning into one of those tiresome people who complain about their health all the time! I guess the surgeries are an unpleasant revelation that my body is no longer young and parts are breaking down. Transhumanism can’t come fast enough! I don’t really want to upload my mind, though (assuming that would even be feasible); just to use nanotechnology in the future to repair my body and restore it to full health (though this would probably be only available to the wealthy).

Next-door extension

The neighbors on the south side of us built an extension to their home (which is the same type as ours) earlier this year; unfortunately it means our view south is blocked and there is less privacy – there is an outdoor deck where they can sit and look over the fence. We are getting more hemmed in as time passes, no thanks to population growth. They also cut down some trees along the fence perimeter, which is annoying as the trees provided some shade and bird homes.

Neighboring oversized house

The Big Ugly House diagonally north-west (see 22/6/2008 entry) was finished; below is how it looks, with two evaporative air conditioners perched on top like oversized mushrooms.

The Geocities websites were discontinued last week, so a large part of web history is no more (this weblog entry has a list of archive sites). I deleted my sites when I moved to a domain, so none of mine are there. The problem with the Internet is that it is so ephemeral, and digital data is easily lost. (A relevant Time article this week: “What Happens to Your Facebook After You Die?”) Paid domain names and hosting are also a concern; if the user dies and can no longer maintain payments, their website will vanish. I thought that governments should offer all their citizens a taxpayer-funded web service; everyone could have an allotment of site space and this would be maintained for perpetuity (though there would obviously be some restrictions on what could be uploaded).

The weblogger Jason Scott is concerned with such issues, and has entries on “Eviction, or the Coming Datapocalypse” (on the AOL shutdown last year) and “FU*K THE CLOUD,” on the danger of relying solely on corporations to store valuable personal data on their sites, rather than on one’s own computer. Such storage is useful as backup only.

Monday 2/11: Upcoming Russian module launch

One week until I turn 39! I am not ready – I do not mentally feel that old (though my body is beginning to!).

The next Russian ISS module – Poisk, «Поиск» (“Search”) – launches the day after, 10 November, as part of Progress M-MIM2/M-MRM2 («Прогресс М-МИМ2»). The previous module to launch was Pirs, way back on 15 September 2001, just over 8 years ago! NASA has, in comparison, flown up ISS components nearly every year, and they get the majority of publicity.

There has been a lot of images and videos released for the Avatar movie since I last wrote; I made a page at my main site for it. Update 25/10/2010: Since removed

Saturday 7/11: Mind-reading machines

A few days of warm-to-hot weather ahead (low 30s). I hate summer!

Went out yesterday with my parents to an “all-you-can-eat” restaurant in Frankston (one we visit occasionally). The food is nice (it is a self-serve restaurant, which I prefer; formal restaurants make me uncomfortable), but I would not want to eat there frequently as I would get rather large! (I have enough trouble with that already.) I do notice a lot of overweight – as in obese – people around, including children.

The Firefox browser really annoys me sometimes. On occasion it freezes up (usually when installing an update) so that I have to eventually turn off my computer as nothing else will respond (I had to reinstall Windows a few weeks ago onto a new hard drive when this happened, as the previous one got corrupted after a freeze-up). It is getting bloated (over 10 MB download now) like the browsers it was supposed to improve on. The only reason I keep using it is because of its add-ons such as Adblock Plus – without these, visiting many sites is unbearable because of all the popup and Flash-animated ads.

An interesting and weird new technology development – displaying images created by the mind:

Machine to read our minds

A mind-reading machine that can produce pictures of what a person is seeing or remembering has been developed by scientists. The device studies patterns of brainwave activity and turns them into a moving computer image.

While the idea of a telepathy machine might sound like some thing from science fiction, the scientists say it could one day be used to solve crimes.

A US team scanned the brain activity of two volunteers watching a video and used the results to recreate the images they were seeing. The results were crude, but the technique was able to reproduce the rough shape of a man in a white shirt and a city skyline.

Professor Jack Gallant, who did the experiment at the University of California in Berkeley, said: “At the moment when you see something and want to describe it, you have to use words or draw it and it doesn’t work very well.

“This technology might allow you to recover an eyewitness memory of a crime.”

The experiment is the latest in a series of studies designed to show how brain scans can reveal our innermost thoughts.

Using an MRI scanner normally found in hospitals, the team scanned the brains of two volunteers while they watched videos. The results were fed into a computer which looked for links between colours, shapes and movements on the screen, and patterns of activity in the brain. The computer software was then given the brain scans of the volunteers as they watched a different video and was asked to recreate what they were seeing. According to Dr Gallant, the software was close to the mark.

In one scene featuring comic actor Steve Martin in a white shirt, the computer reproduced his white torso and rough shape, but was unable to handle details of his face. In another, the volunteers watched an image of a city skyline with a plane flying past. The software was able to recreate the skyline but not the aircraft.

Maybe it will be possible to record people’s night-dreams – I would certainly like to record some of mine! They are far more imaginative than what my consciousness can make up. Also I would like to reproduce some of the images in my mind which I find so hard to draw.

If there is one trope I detest in speculative fiction (aside from vampires) it is telepathy. This is perhaps the most overused element, even in otherwise “hard” science fiction (Anne McCaffrey and Star Trek, for example, are notorious for this), yet there is no scientific evidence for it – or other psionic powers. A brain produces very weak electro-chemical signals – what mechanism would be used to “project” these? And how would it be directed? A radio signal goes in all directions, so I don’t see how a single mind could be targeted.

Synthetic telepathy might be possible, though (as noted on that Wikipedia page) – “Synthetic Telepathy For US Military Borg-Style,” “Nerve-tapping neckband used in ‘telepathic’ chat” – where a neural implant or neck collar converts thought impulses into radio signals that can be transmitted.

“1 Million Spiders Make Golden Silk for Rare Cloth,” Wired.com, 23/9 (via MetaFilter). This has to be one of the more exotic fabrics yet made – literal spider silk! The golden orb spiders were collected (ugh!) and their silk harvested, then they were released. The silk is naturally that lovely gold color. I would very much like clothing made of spider silk, but I guess it would be expensive.

Monday 9/11: 39th birthday; odd dream

My last year of being in my 30s. Time is going too fast!

Very hot again today – this unpleasant weather is to continue until next Sunday. We have barely recovered from the last summer! There is a Facebook group called I Hate Summer, so I didn’t hesitate to join :-). I don’t have air conditioning in my bedroom, so I have to turn my computer off if the air gets hot.

Had a weird dream last night that I was undergoing liposuction surgery, with scenes of lying on a trolley – obvious memories from my two surgeries. I have had a few dreams like these. I have no memory of being under anasthesia, though (which is to be expected), and that is weird – like there is a gap in my consciousness, as though I died for a while (in normal sleep there is still a sense of time passing, though it might be distorted). I found a MetaFilter thread, “I had surgery, it made me unstable, to say the least. Help!” and being under anasthesia can result in depression, etc. for months afterward, though as I was already depressed I have not noticed much change there.

I tried to take a photo of myself, but I look awful in them (I am not photogenic), so I’ll forgo uploading them.

Friday 13/11: My letter published

The hot weather continues. Summer has come too early – an unpleasant change from the cooler weather of last week.

I had another letter published today (see Letters page), on my usual topic of overpopulation. It’s rather cool to see my words in print! I probably sound a bit obsessive, but as far as I’m concerned, most social and environmental problems would be alleviated by a smaller population.

Monday 16/11: Overpriced books

“Books decision a windfall for Amazon, says Fels,” The Age, 12/11. In disappointing news for Australian bookreaders, the Productivity Commission decided not to remove import restrictions, meaning publishers can still gouge consumers with ridiculously high book prices (AU$25 for a mass-market paperback – $23 USD or £14 at the current exchange rate – is common here). Ordering online from overseas is not a viable option for me, unfortunately (no credit card, distrust of Internet security, hassles with currency conversion and freight costs). Departments store books are a bit cheaper (reduced by a %), but their selection is limited and you can’t order books.

“Malaysia moves on Islamic fashion market,” BBC News, 6/11. I actually like the design of this clothing – for women with a less-than-perfect figure, it covers you up nicely. Having bits of pudgy flesh bulging out of skimpy clothing is not a good look!

“Amazing Pictures, Pollution in China” – not so much amazing as horrifying; an example of how unregulated development, corruption and overpopulation can devastate the environment and genetically damage the hapless people who live in it. China is an extreme example, but certainly not the only country guilty of such environmental crimes; in the USA for example, Mountaintop Removal Mining is devastating the environment in the state of West Virginia.

Thursday 19/11: Halo Encyclopedia

More hot weather :-(.

I had a look through the Halo Encyclopedia at Borders bookstore (it can be exasperatingly tardy at importing new books, and also marks up the prices), but decided against buying it (the $80 price tag was another factor!). Most of the images used were blocky computer graphics from the games, and much of the information can be found (in more detail) on the Halopedia site. A collection of stories, Halo Evolutions, is coming out at the end of this month (in the USA), so that looks more appealing.

Saturday 21/11: Sleep is uncool, apparently

“Parisians rue the end of the good nightlife,” The Age/Telegraph, 20/11. Another article dispaying the baffling attitude that people wanting a good night’s sleep are somehow “uncool” or wowsers (see 3/6/2008 entry).

“Over the past 10 years, Parisian musical venues have paid a heavy price due to Parisians’ growing desire for ever-greater tranquillity,” the petition, initiated by an electronic music collective, said. If nothing was done, Paris would be “relegated from the City of Light to the European capital of sleep,” it said.

Oh, the horror! And this is bad, how …? A lack of sleep, endemic in industrial society, can lead to many health problems (“Is 24-hour lighting putting us on a path to depression?,” DM, 23/10; “Cancer risk prompts call for review of shift work,” SMH, 8/1/2008). Humans are not nocturnal animals, and it’s time this ridiculous antipathy towards sleep was challenged.

“Single molecule, one million times smaller than a grain of sand, pictured for first time,” Daily Mail/New Scientist, 28/8/2009. From back in August, photos of an actual molecule (a collection of atoms), of pentacene, comprising 22 carbon atoms and 14 hydrogen atoms. They make neat little hexagons (a shape molecules seem to like, and I do too!). A lot of it is still empty space.

Thursday 26/11: Avatar anticipation; the Hadza

It’s that time of year when there is humidity and thunderstorms, and there were some today. At least we have had rain to make up for the last 2 weeks.

3 weeks/21 days until Avatar opens! I still have not seen any books or toys in stores, frustratingly, though these are on sale in the USA.

“The Hadza,” National Geographic, December 2009 issue. These people in Tanzania are still managing to live the hunter-gatherer existence they have sustained for 10,000 years, though they are inevitably under threat from outsiders who want to “civilize” them – it seems impossible for outsiders to leave such people alone if they wish to be. If civilization were to collapse, it is these people who would survive best.

What the Hadza appear to offer – and why they are of great interest to anthropologists – is a glimpse of what life may have been like before the birth of agriculture 10,000 years ago. Anthropologists are wary of viewing contemporary hunter-gatherers as “living fossils,” says Frank Marlowe, a Florida State University professor of anthropology who has spent the past 15 years studying the Hadza. Time has not stood still for them. But they have maintained their foraging lifestyle in spite of long exposure to surrounding agriculturalist groups, and, says Marlowe, it’s possible that their lives have changed very little over the ages.

For more than 99 percent of the time since the genus Homo arose two million years ago, everyone lived as hunter-gatherers. Then, once plants and animals were domesticated, the discovery sparked a complete reorganization of the globe. Food production marched in lockstep with greater population densities, which allowed farm-based societies to displace or destroy hunter-gatherer groups. Villages were formed, then cities, then nations. And in a relatively brief period, the hunter-gatherer lifestyle was all but extinguished. Today only a handful of scattered peoples – some in the Amazon, a couple in the Arctic, a few in Papua New Guinea, and a tiny number of African groups – maintain a primarily hunter-gatherer existence. Agriculture’s sudden rise, however, came with a price. It introduced infectious-disease epidemics, social stratification, intermittent famines, and large-scale war. Jared Diamond, the UCLA professor and writer, has called the adoption of agriculture nothing less than “the worst mistake in human history” – a mistake, he suggests, from which we have never recovered.

The Hadza do not engage in warfare. They’ve never lived densely enough to be seriously threatened by an infectious outbreak. They have no known history of famine; rather, there is evidence of people from a farming group coming to live with them during a time of crop failure. The Hadza diet remains even today more stable and varied than that of most of the world’s citizens. They enjoy an extraordinary amount of leisure time. Anthropologists have estimated that they “work” – actively pursue food – four to six hours a day. And over all these thousands of years, they’ve left hardly more than a footprint on the land.

It is a surprisingly informal type of society, and women are not subservient like in some other h-g cultures. They live off the land entirely, with no need for agriculture. It is a hard life, though, and would be difficult for one brought up in civilization to adapt to.

There are things I envy about the Hadza – mostly, how free they appear to be. Free from possessions. Free of most social duties. Free from religious strictures. Free of many family responsibilities. Free from schedules, jobs, bosses, bills, traffic, taxes, laws, news, and money. Free from worry. Free to burp and fart without apology, to grab food and smoke and run shirtless through the thorns.

But I could never live like the Hadza. Their entire life, it appears to me, is one insanely committed camping trip. It’s incredibly risky. Medical help is far away. One bad fall from a tree, one bite from a black mamba snake, one lunge from a lion, and you’re dead. Women give birth in the bush, squatting. About a fifth of all babies die within their first year, and nearly half of all children do not make it to age 15. They have to cope with extreme heat and frequent thirst and swarming tsetse flies and malaria-laced mosquitoes.

For all our technological prowess, are people in modern civilization any happier? More and more to me, the civilization I live in seems sick and dysfunctional; obsessed with consumerism – getting more “stuff” – in a quest to fill an inner emptiness. In the process of this, the environment is being irreparably polluted and damaged, the sixth mass extinction of species silently continues, cities cover the Earth like metastasizing cancers. I almost wish this civilization would collapse, if only to save what is left of nature. Is achieving spaceflight worth destroying the planet we live on? People are not going to leave Earth in droves anytime soon (despite the wishful thinking of “Space Cadets”), yet contempt for environmental concerns is endemic on the space forums I visit (NASASpaceflight.com members, I mean you).

I feel disgust at governments and business (obsessed with the religious cult of this age: the Economy), and despair for the future, which I and the descendants of my generation will have to endure. The predicted disasters – overpopulation, water and food shortages, climate change, destruction of ecosystems, etc. – are already happening, yet governments are only making token efforts at change, such as instigating a dubious “Emissions Trading Scheme” which only benefits parasitical investment bankers (one of the most useless “professions” ever).

Avatar is quite pertinent as it deals with the themes of natives vs. invaders, destruction of the environment, living in harmony with nature, and so on. Though the hunter-gatherer Na’vi in the movie appear somewhat sanitized (I doubt there will be a scene showing the equivalent of eating a baboon’s brains!), not to mention idealized (all tall, very thin, attractive).

The marketing of the movie seems at odds with its philosophy though: it is being sponsored by a well-known soft drink.

“Avatar shares the same aspirational, edgy and unconventional brand values as Coca-Cola Zero,” noted Chip York, worldwide entertainment marketing director at the Atlanta-based beverage giant. “Working so closely with the studio and filmmakers has allowed us to create authentic and exclusive content that provides fans unique access into the world, deepening their Avatar experience.”

That sort of meaningless jargon-infested talk would be utter bullsh*t to the Na’vi (and the real-world Hadza above).

Friday 27/11: Stupid young males

I have a loathing for young males in high-performance cars (matched only by my equal hate of SUV drivers), and this was reinforced yet again on my walk this afternoon when I saw an idiot male in a blue car deliberately tailgate then swerve past a learner driver in order to intimidate the latter. Oh, if only I could carry a shoulder-launched missile weapon, then I would take great satisfaction in blowing up the idiot and his bully-car into his component atoms. Such cars (the ones with the growly engines) should be banned anyway – there is no justification for their being on the roads at all. In the learner driver’s position, I think I would get out and punch the stupid male.

December

Tuesday 1/12: Annoyed at Avatar critics

Those who criticize the movie Avatar’s theme of colonial oppression as being clichéd or no longer relevant should be shown stories like “The World of China Inc.” (TIME magazine, 7/12), where this is still happening – in this case, Chinese companies exploiting Papua New Guinea for its natural resources, despoiling the environment, and some of the native tribal peoples fighting back.

Saw my first TV ad for Avatar last night! I still haven’t seen any merchandise here, though, frustratingly.

The Large Hadron Collider begun operations last week, though it won’t get up to full power until next year.

Tuesday 15/12: Avatar tickets bought; 1 year since first surgery

I bought my ticket for Avatar (next Tuesday at 10:30 a.m.) but am not going to enjoy wearing the 3d glasses – they are not particularly comfortable when worn over prescription glasses! $19 for a ticket (with a concession) is also extravagant; I will therefore only be seeing the movie in the cinema once. I am not sure now if I feel enthusiastic for it anymore as, unlike District 9 (which I saw on 25 August), the story is not particularly original (though I agree with the sentiment), and the blue alien boobage (in the form of Neytiri) irks me.

Last Tuesday marked 52 weeks or 1 year since my first surgery (a waste of effort as things turned out, as I needed a second). Thinking about my hospital stay, the one thing I would have liked most was my own private room! Even a ward with solid partitions between beds (not flimsy curtains) would have been preferable. I found the feeling of being exposed quite unpleasant. I happened to read about Bimaristans (Muslim hospitals in medieval times) and they seem quite pleasant places; better than many modern hospitals!

I have not changed my website design since early 2008! In fact, I am a bit out-of-practise with coding. I am content with the design, and have no new ideas for a different look, so the current one will remain for a while yet.

Saturday 19/12: A gruesome tale

Something that comes under the “Ewww!” (morbid) category – a photo found in my wanderings around Wikipedia:

Finnish soldiers displaying Soviet soldiers’ skins near Maaselkä, on the strand of lake Seesjärvi during Continuation War on the 15th of December in 1942. Original caption: “An enemy recon patrol that was cut out of food supplies had butchered a few members of their own patrol group, and had eaten most of them.”

– Vihollisen vakoilupartio, jäätyään muonalähetyksiä vaille, oli teurastanut pari saman partion jäsentä ja syönyt niistä suurimman osan.

The photo isn’t too gruesome (it’s in black & white, and looks like a hanging rag). They must have been really hungry … haven’t they heard of hunting, though? Though it looks to be winter so I guess game would be hard to find.

Avatar is getting mainly positive reviews; the general opinion seems to be that the story is a bit clichéd and predictable, but the movie is visually spectacular. (Keith Cowing at NASA Watch enjoyed it.) I’ll be finding out on Tuesday. Hope I’ll be able to see it through two sets of glasses! And not get the world’s worst migraine afterward.

Tuesday 22/12: Avatar seen

Saw Avatar today. As I am not good at writing reviews, some random thoughts:

Non-specific-movie related:

In general, though, I enjoyed the movie. It was very different from District 9, and the two can’t really be compared (aside from the basic scenario of a man siding with aliens, which I have no issue with). D9 was more original in plot.

A lot of people seem to be going to repeat viewings, but I don’t know if I will – movies are expensive!

Those of a Conservative political view are taking great offense to Avatar, mainly because of its pro-environmental, “Humans Are Bastards” theme. According to them, environmentalist = Communist. While the message was not too subtle, caring for the environment and not trashing it would surely be just basic common sense (i.e. not fouling one’s own nest, especially the only habitable nest we know of), a view that should transcend politics. I might also add a big “F*ck you” to novelist John C. Wright and his sycophants (and all others of similar views); he has predictable taken offense to the movie’s themes, being a Conservative/Catholic. (I really shouldn’t visit his Livejournal as it tends to raise my blood pressure …)

Tuesday 29/12: Big explosion (in space)

“Anniversary of a cosmic blast,” Bad Astronomy blog (and Wikipedia). Something I never knew at the time: just after the tsunami on 26 December 2004, there was a major event much further away – the radiation from an explosion on a magnetar (a neutron star with an exceptionally powerful magnetic field) reached Earth after traveling for 50,000 years from the other side of the Milky Way. Even from that distance the x-rays and gamma rays were still strong enough to affect several artificial satellites. I thought of this quote from Firestarter by Stephen King:

Last word: Are you sure you want to continue these tests? Lately I just have to think about that kid and I start to get very antsy. I start thinking about things like pulsars and neutrinos and black holes and Christ knows what else. There are forces loose in this universe that we don’t even know about yet, and some we can observe only at a remove of millions of light-years … and breathe a sigh of relief because of it. The last time I looked at that film I began to think of the girl as a crack – a chink, if you like – in the very smelter of creation. I know how that sounds, but I feel I would be remiss not to say it. God forgive me for saying this, with three lovely girls of my own, but I personally will breathe a sigh of relief when she’s been neutralized.

“Life ‘meaningless’ for one in 10 teens,” Metro, 4/1. Found through another blog entry. Such disaffection is endemic in modern industrial consumer societies, which are dehumanizing and dysfunctional. For those who are not successful, life can be bleak. It’s not only teens who are affected – but once you get past a certain age (around 25 or so), society gives up on you.

I found 5 of my cousins’ children (Mum’s brother’s grandchildren) on Facebook. I will not friend them though as they have not met me at all (they probably regard me – if they think of me at all – as some weird eccentric relative), and I would be too embarrassed at my own dismal failure at life. They are in their teens and are strangers to me. I noted that one of the boys has an Avatar movie poster for his profile, so he obviously enjoyed it. Pity I can’t ask him about it, but oh well.

Thursday 31/12: Year’s end thoughts

Yesterday and today have been very hot (nearly 40°C), so as usual I am nearly non-functional.

This year has generally been dreary and unpleasant for me. The prospect of turning 40 next year does not lighten my mood. 10 years ago I was only 29 and still relatively young and healthy. I keep obsessively thinking, “If only I could time-travel back 10 years … 20 years ….” and forewarn my younger self of what was to come. I am nearly half-way through my life (if I live to 80) and have nothing to show for it so far. I have become not unlike the “hikikomori” described in “Shutting Themselves In”:

As a hikikomori ages, the odds that he’ll re-enter the world decline. Indeed, some experts predict that most hikikomori who are withdrawn for a year or more may never fully recover. That means that even if they emerge from their rooms, they either won’t get a full-time job or won’t be involved in a long-term relationship. And some will never leave home. In many cases, their parents are now approaching retirement, and once they die, the fate of the shut-ins – whose social and work skills, if they ever existed, will have atrophied – is an open question.

My sister gave me the Star Trek (2009) DVD for Christmas. I enjoyed it – I was intending to see it in the cinema, but it opened too soon after my second surgery.