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Recently went to the Star Voyager exhibition at ACMI, which was immediately followed by the science-fiction classic Solaris. The former was a great historical exhibit from wild-eyed science fiction afficiandos to sober physicists (apparently there are some), the outright speculative to the eerily accurate. The latter was the 1972 Russian adaption of Lem's novel of the same name was true the period; a psychological thriller descending into madness, an existential exploration of consciousness and as elaborately detailed and as long as an early Yes concert.

The past week I've been on holiday and therefore working as a volunteer at Linux Conference Au, which officially finished today (LUV BBQ tomorrow). Whilst a more complete write-up will have to wait for a couple of days, in brief it can mentioned that as usual it attracted a good five hundred or so people with a fair number of international visitors. The talks that I attended were of a high quality, and was especially impressed by Bruce Perren's keynote highlighting the successful audacity of the free software movement and Jacob Appelbaum concerns on surveillance. There was an excellent mix of the technical and the social, along with an undercurrent of the "next big thing" being open hardware. Quite a honour to be the person responsible to introduce luminaries such as Jonathan Corbet, Matthew Garrett, Avi Miller and Dave Chinner etc.

Oh yes, and I'm 44 today. Huzzah.

As hinted on New Year's Eve, we have an addition to our animal family; twenty ratlings (01..04 in files) born just after midnight and within an hour of each other, courtesy of Tricky, Naughty and an somewhat indifferent father, Riff-Raff. The evening itself was a fairly quiet affair; a bottle of champagne (mais oui, francais), a couple of Hitchcock films (Psycho and Jamaica Inn). New Year's Day was sufficiently nostalgic with a visit to Melbourne's fine deco cinema, The Astor to see a truly great Bogart/Greenstreet double, Casablanca and the Maltese Falcon, both favourites of mine and always impressed by the roles played by Claude Rains (Captain Renault) in the former and Peter Lorre (Mr. Cairo) in the latter. After the films and when the crowds were clear took the opportunity to sneak into the ladies powder room to visit the aging resident cat, Marzipan.

The throat infection (uncontrollable coughing 4-5 times day to the point of near unconsciousness, occassional vomiting) I have had since before Christmas is finally going away. With the antibiotics course coming to an end without a change in symptoms I visited a second doctor who determined that I had a viral infection rather than a bacterial one. His solution was to provide preventative asthmatic medication instead of antibiotics. Both medicines have oral candidiasis as potential side-effects, which is just what you want with an existing throat infection (it's almost like being treated by homeopaths rather than real doctors). To be fair use of Seretide has led to great improvements.

The New Year is typically a good time for reflections and portents and I will endeavour to compose something of this nature in the near future. It has already however been quite busy with enrolment in a Grad Cert in Project Management, finally receiving material for second year seminary studies, and some delightful gaming events including Blue Rose, GURPS Korea (set during the last days of Han Emperor Shun, and a a New World of Darkness game that is a Tasmanian version of The Wicker Man.

Seasons greetings to all and best wishes for the great variety of justifications used for this period of the year. For my own part, I've spent the past two days a little under the weather with a chest cold (yes, it's midsummer, bleh). Planning an evening visit to Jenny P's hanukkah, followed by a day visit to Brendan E., some simple fare and our usual tradition of zombies. On topic, txxxpxx must be thanked for hosting their biennial christmas party which was - as always - a sumptuous evening. As another example, the Melbourne Unitarians held a good end-of-year concert with about one hundred people and performers in attendance - and over $1000 raised for Hanover Welfare Services.

It has been a few weeks with a modicum of Unitarian activity, which must include a visit to the home of the good Rev. Dr. Ian Ellis-Jones whilst in Sydney and delighted to discover we share a mutual interest in the philosopher John Anderson. This was followed with a visit to the North Sydney Unitarian congregation, Spirit of Life, the following day where Ian gave an address (PDF) on Buddhism.

On the subject of caring individuals, some 180 people are missing as a boatload of asylum seekers sank off Java on its way to Australia. It is predictable that in the wake of this tragedy not only has the language changed from "illegal immigrants" to "asylum seekers", but also there have been calls to reintroduce offshore processing (Malaysia, Nauru etc). Whilst it is true that offshore processing does act as a deterrent to asylum seekers (the numbers certainly show that), it is quite something to suggest that this be conducted in a place where asylum seekers have no minimum legal rights, although I do note that Nauru is now a signatory to the UN Convention - times have changed. It is particularly frustrating to watch the events reach a political impasse.

As a member of the Labor Party, you soon get used to losing; if you're a member of the Left you really get used to losing. Of course, being a member of a political party - indeed any organisation - is always an experience of imperfection and compromise, and it is more the case when that organistion is significant enough to be the government of a country. The three day ALP National Conference, true to the Prime Minister's promise, was indeed full of "fair dinkum" debate although the outcomes, due to various factional allegiences was fairly obvious. On all the controversial matters the votes were roughly 215 (Right and Gillard/Ferguson Left) to 180 (National Left and independents), with a little bit of slippage on specific issues (I am increasingly impressed by the Victorian branch of the National Union of Workers, for example).

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Overall much of the conference was uncontroversial, and what was uncontroversial was good. From those issues where there was significant debate the outcomes were much less than optimal, but not so bad to be utterly disastrous (uranium sales and party reform issues were the worst decisions). Whilst in Sydney I also managed to engage in a small number of social activities and plenty of reading - however that will have to wait for a subsequent post.

Have completed a brief essay for seminary on Leibniz's The Monadology. Apart from the standard monthly essays on the various world religions (about 5,000 words each) and a monthly short essay on a chapter from Felder's reconstruction of the ten commandments (yes, really), we also have a short essay on any reading from the Sacred Text's archive; my next pieces will be on The Bird Parliament and (tell me you're surprised) The Last Days of Socrates.

Spent a fair portion of the day at the IT Enables conference and will do so again tomorrow before heading to the Tutankhamun exhibition. Accessible IT, especially for public-facing matters (email, websites etc) is something that I have been an almost dogmatic advocate over many years (indeed I presented at said conference last year on such a topic (slides, notes)). Accessibility is a concern not just on a human rights level, but also on a technical level to ensure platform and device independence.

Big social gathering of the week was tenth anniversary drinks at the delightful Rendez-Vous for a_carnal_mink and kits_the_dm. Somehow caseopaya and I managed to get through three bottles of wine, engaging in animated conversation with many old friends from the aus.culture.gothic days. Last night's showcase event for work at ACMI was a little more civilised in comparison, although I am looking forward to seeing the Star Voyager exhibition, also at ACMI.

Have returned from a very enjoyable visit to Adelaide. Stayed in the delightful Horsham House as a stop-over on both legs of the journey. We spent a few days with Paula and Craig's beachfront home at the rather stunnning location of Port Willunga, and taking a couple of short trips down the road to visit several of the local wineries at McLaren Vale. Specifically we loaded up the car with Fox Creek verdehlo, Maxwell cabernet, some Lloyd Brothers rosé and olive oil, some desert wines, cabernets from D'Arenberg and an incredible mead from Dennis.

Port Willunga was also a great place for some animal watching; specifically dolphins in the harbour and a pair of falcons that would come out on a very regular basis. It made up for the excessive roadkill spotted along the journey in western Victoria. On a related topic our cat has decided the house needs some young birds. So far he's brought two in; not injured but rather stressed from the experience - they've both been rushed to Lort Smith. In other news little Lucky had her tail caught in a door, resulting in a partial degloving. She's perfectly fine having received appropriate first aid but caseopaya is still beating herself up over it.

A political upshot of the journey was establishing a new Isocracy group which immediately took up the idea of acting as a bit of a think-tank (there's some very clever and practical people there) and running regular 'politics in the pub' sessions in the coming year. On the way back from Adelaide I was also invited to a brunch held by the Wimmera branch of the Labor Party, possibly one of the most conservative electorates of Australia, who nevertheless conducted a very intelligent discussion on the relationship between the Party and its members (an issue touched upon by the PMs opinion piece today). On that topic the challenge to the FPLP by myself and two others for breaching the party platform on asylum seekers has been delayed until after National Conference.

With the change in weather I've taken up cycling to work again, such as is possible in stormy Melbourne - the only place where I've encountered a 'White Christmas'. Although only a 20km round trip half is a little ardourous, the result of living at one the highest points in the metropolitan area. Whilst I've only injured myself once so far (the derailleur skipped a gear and down I went), the more interesting story involved encountering a rather athletic lass in a short dress on a windy day; the inevitable happened of course but more surprising was the fact she wasn't wearing any knickers! (If she was they were a g-string at best). As a divvy van turned the corner she found it necessary to tuck her skirt under her bum, the best she could. Such is the lifestyle of the frolicsome.

Earlier this week the Carbon Emissions Price was passed by the House of Representatives, and is certain to pass the Senate. The big issues relating to this is how (a) it is not a tax, despite the conservative media reports and (b) how it deals with the matter of externalities and (c) how it deals with reducing Australia's growing inequality problem. I am currently writing a brief piece on these issues.

A day later the amendments to the Migration Act, the so-called "Malaysian solution" were dropped. I received a 'phone call from the National Secretariat to say that my submission would be considered as it "does disclose an arguable case". Later that morning the parliamentary caucus met and decided not to proceed with the legislation, especially after it became clear that Tony Crook from WA would not support it (I wrote to Tony congratulating him on his principled stance).

Later in the day made a submission to the Federal government's Advisory Council on Intellectual Property against "innovation software patents". Software patents are particularly anti-innovative as they are effectively a patent on mathematics and a typically used do derive nuissance monopoly profits. Was also asked for comment by IT Wire on the passing of Dennis Ritchie, the co-author of the C Programming language and the UNIX operating system, two venerable elements of computer science. On the same day, received comment in the same journal for LUV's planned chapter in Shepparton.

Last Sunday conducted the service for Nigel Sinnott's excellent address on "Why Truth, Reason, Dissent and Skepticism Matter" (which I'll post soon), which argued quite cogently that by itself each could could be problematic but in combination were useful. At the beginning of the week completed my first assignment on Hinduism and attended the Chicago-based 'phone conference afterwards. Next assignment is on Buddhism.

Many would already be aware that I made a submission to the Disputes Tribunal of the ALP concerning an alleged breach of the Party rules by the Prime Minister. I include the letter to the State Secretary and a media statement for your consideration, which were submitted just after attending (for the first time in years) a meeting of Labor for Refugees. The dispute was picked up by the ABC News on Saturday night with both a report and video and a report (referring to my position in Linux Users of Victoria) in IT Wire. The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre provides a very blunt assessment of the Act, with Andrew McLeod having some strong words on the subject as well.

As mentioned in the last post, I had nominated for Deputy Chairperson of the local Unitarian church. The AGM was held on Sunday with turnout of around 55 people, but with 49 voting members with the result being 25 votes for the incumbent and 24 votes for myself. I give thanks to those who came and supported me, and wish the best for the successful candidate for the coming year. On a very related topic I have recently applied, and have been admitted, into The New Seminary of Interfaith Studies in New York; I'll be taking a two-year course by correspondence which includes ordination (recognised by the UUA) at the end of the study programme. Next Sunday I am giving an address at the Unitarians on "Difficult Moral Choices: The Morality and Politics of Humanitarian Intervention", which will then be followed with a Philosophy Forum discussion on "The Irrational Mind: Individual Desire and Mass Psychology".

My poor livejournal (aka dreamwidth account) has been neglected over the past fortnight which of course is the surest sign that I have been a little bit busier than usual (or I've been sick as a dog). It does mean a lengthier than usual post, which I assure gentle readers is relatively interesting.

First of course was the ANZUUA conference in Brisbane. It was of course a pleasure to meet the various attendees from different congregations yet again and the theme of "Standing on the Side of Justice and Compassion" was certainly valuable. I was disappointed with the the process-based workshops which struck me as being gimmicky and lacked sufficient focus on the main agenda. I was further disappointed with a decision (after months on non-decision) to adopt a very minimal "leadership sessions" for those who were interested in formal interfaith ministry-level training, which I had been advocating. I nicked off early from the conference on the final day with a couple of other truants to spend time ferrying along the Brisbane River and lunching at the University of Queensland. The ICUU conference next year will be held in the Philippines, which I certainly will endeavour to attend.

Returning from Brisbane, the next major event was the two-day audit of the company's quality management system which I am responsible for co-ordinating, and perhaps the first practical test of my recently acquired MBA. I am pleased to say that recertification of ISO9001:2009 has been achieved with a minimum of issues. Despite this there is a lot of room for improvement, including the general realisation that quality management systems is about having a management system (that reaches quality) and that the auditing of a QMS is really about checking. Show me that you have a system to manage your organisation, show me evidence that that you use it, and show me evidence that you improve it. That should be a feature for all organisations, regardless of size.

Last weekend developed an article responding to an older article by Andrew Bolt's on the climate change predictions, along with responding to some follow-up questions. I find the lack of comprehension and disdain for science from "Australia's most read political columnist" to be quite disturbing. I can only begin to speculate why he is a fully-paid up member of the chattering class. Apropos, an old friend Alan Austin has recently been published with an appropriate article entitled News Corporation: Time to Go. On a related note redragdiva refers me to Conservapedia's decision that words are too liberal.

Tuesday night was the Linux User's of Victoria AGM. I was re-elected (unopposed) as President, giving an overview of the activities and strategic direction of the group as my report. Attendance was somewhat lower than other AGMs in recent years, but nevertheless it was enthusiastic with a great new committee. Big events coming up include Software Freedom Day and a chapter to be established in Shepparton (of all places) in October. On a somewhat related subject, I co-ordinated a discussion on Sunday of some 25 people on the development from artificial intelligence to artificial consciousness. To put my mind where my mind it, I have also taken up the opportunity to enroll Stanford University's Introduction to Artificial Intelligence.

There has been some pretty interesting things in the field of Science! (I blame GURPS for this expression). In a hat-tip to strangedave, the spider-goat returns with the invention of artificial bullet-proof skin. In the pretty-sparkly-science side of things, there is the discovery that candle-flame produces millions of tiny diamonds. Finally, a thirteen-year old discovers a more efficient solar array by using an example from a nature which also requires the sun; a tree-based design.

In the world of the arts, caseopaya and I attended a great triple-gig last Friday night at The Palace (a lovely building but with poor acoustics); The Clouds, The Wonderstuff and Jesus Jones. Each of these bands were pretty significant in the late-80s and early 90s and the crowd certainly reflected people from that period. The Clouds, who have always reminded me of a punk version of Enya, played well but were plagued by very ordinary mixing. Less prone to such problems due to the style, The Wonderstuff, performed an expected beer and cider swilling and stomping set (was it at all surprising to discover that the former drummer of PWEI has joined them?). Finally, my preferred band of the set, Jesus Jones provided their impressive and energetic combination of indie-rock and electronica. I've always appreciated how on the ball for their time they were with broad social and technological change.

Much of the world has been abuzz, understandably, with the changes in Libya. It would seem that "the rats", as Gaddafi has called the National Transitional Council, have taken most of Tripoli. I take the opportunity to point at Lizzie Haw-Haw, an apologist for the Gaddafi regime who spouts complete nonsense. Keep a copy of the promises of the NTC as the new government takes over. Not surprisingly, the people of Syria are now asking for similar assistance, which is pretty much what I predicted some months ago.