In a not-so-distant possible future, Angus Macarthur sits at a table in a strongly-lit basement room somewhere underneath the Central Office of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation in Canberra. Two officers, Dwayne X. and Daryl Y., stand opposite him ( Read more... )

I find myself suddenly in the position of trying to understand the persistent identifier meme for our data centre. This is a perilous environment. DOI ("de-oh-eye"? "doiy"?) and their ilk are ostensibly about the more-perfect implementation of the scientific method - supporting reproducible research and acknowledging sources - but really seem to be ( Read more... )

Still no time to graph electoral preference flows this year, and very doubtful I'll manage before Saturday. Has anyone else bothered to look into these?

My memory is getting flaky. Someone posted thoughts of solidarity for protesters in TunBahrEgyptistan, and the same day I visited the swanky pregnant oyster. On a wall inside is a quote from Benjamin Franklin which seemed interesting in the face of globalised anti-oppression:
God grant that not only the love of liberty but a thorough knowledge of ( Read more... )

...what I don't understand is how Mr Assange thinks he will live longer by trickle-feeding us his secrets. (Currently released so far... 667 / 251,287). I know he says "to do otherwise would not do this material justice" but at this rate it will take two Internet decades to get them all out, and his servers will be shut down and he will be in jail ( Read more... )

The SA Senate candidates 2010 graph seems to show four blocs: left, right, fringe and way-out.

42 candidates, 19 groups, competing for 6 seats. Only first preferences are shown there; there must be a better way to convey what might happen when lower preferences are consumed.

Julia Gillard says it's a "good day for redheads". http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/24/2936439.htm

Now come the important questions: is she a real one?

A not-too-uncommon theme among the domino stones along the arc of the former Berlin Wall today is the banana. This was a symbol of luxury and scarcity in East German, generally only available to the elite or well-connected, imported from Cuba I suppose. These days I feed half a banana to A. every day, from Ecuador, Costa Rica, or the Dominican ( Read more... )

Dear US readers: Who can grab me a copy of this month's Mad magazine (#498, "Obama: the first 100 minutes") possibly in exchange for some hard-to-source-in-your-country thing?

On a chance visit to Auntie's web site, I trip over David Horton's "Bring out your dead". He advocates increased penalties for failing to show up on Election Day, restoring voting rights for prisoners, and allowing children, unborn foetuses and the dead to have the chance to have their say.