My poor neglected livejournal!

[tcpip]

Been over a week since I posted an entry...

I have almost, almost, almost finished section 3-4 (Data Security) for my thesis. It should be on the web in draft form by this time tomorrow. I'm pretty happy with it as a summary of the history of Internet fraud, anonymity and encryption, intellectual property and computer hacking. I'm also thinking of combining the following two subchapters ('The Public Sphere' and 'Technical Standards') into one - this chapter is already close to 50,000 words and I don't think it needs to be much longer!

Aside from writing myself into the ground, I've tinkered a bit with the Australia Pacific Journalism Centre website (no, that work is not mine), something that I should also have finished by tomorrow as well. Regrettably my amusing attempt to have a new employer per week hasn't come to fruition as January 21st came and went without offers :/

Next Sunday I'm speaking at the Melbourne Unitarian Church on (quelle suprise) "A Man of Great Spirit: The Life and Philosophy of Dr. Jim Cairns", so if anyone's in town it starts at 11am. Speaking of that half-way house to infidelity, I spent my birthday (Jan 20) on a road trip with said people to Daylesford, spending some time among natural springs and parklands, a very fine second-hand books, records and video store and dropping into a art gallery built out of a former convent. Hahaha. We love our irony. Had a great theological conversation with one of the members aptly helped by a three volume Systematic Theology written by a lecturer in such material from Princeton University in the 1880s.

I've also started rereading Roger Peyrefitte's 'The Keys of St.Peter', a little something I picked up which I though severina_242 would be interested in being a fellow apostate and all. However, she's currently engrossed in the land of hobbits and elves, so such realistic reading may be an uncomfortable diversion. Personally, I think Peyrefitte is one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, and certainly one of the best French authors. To be sure, I think Alain Robbe-Grillet is a clear winner on matters of style (the new french novel), but Peyrefitte wins on his scandalous realism and impeccable research.

Spent most of Invasion Day at the Melbourne Museum in Calton gardens which, in the decade I'd lived in Melbourne, had never been through even though I'd walk through the Carlton gardens on almost a daily basis. A pleasant experience, quite enjoyed the exhibits, especially the mind/body section.

Oh, and for Jan 26.. Happy birthday Slammer Worm!. Speaking of which, heads up for a new little virus,

In the "Democracy, but only if it gets the results that we want" department, some expected news. The AFA acts on the
gay marriage poll.

The world's most dangerous
geek has new plans. Heh.

I recently had a debate with angel80 on the proposed banning of religous symbols in state institutions by the French government. Whilst that was over the hajib it seems that Sikh's are now also are target:
Paris Sikhs alarmed at proposed turban ban.

How to keep an eye on the Queensland election. My good friend Billy Bowe, always with a very sharp sense of political nous, has created this beauty. Speaking of which, bloody Mark Latham has a livejournal.

Finally, just to keep us all happy and to sleep well at night, can anyone please find fault in the following article which suggests we'll have to pack up from the planet by 2050?

Comments

[rustythoughts.livejournal.com]

Fellow apostate: I refer to myself as apostate, (with occasional gratuitous references to the Byzantine emperor, Julian the Apostate), it upsets some of my Christian workmates, seems to slip away through inattention is more bearable to them than the idea of a conscious considered rejection of once professed faith. The Keys Of St. Peter goes onto the reading list.

As to the article, those kinds of numbers have been pushed for a while, new data consistantly seems to reinforce.

I've come across a few countrary arguments, mostly coming down to it's a problem but it's not my problem, including:

• New technology and untapped resources will compensate, (faith in technology and the cult of the white coat).
  
• When the problem becomes more confronting change will happen, (as if it's okay to allow abrupt disruptive change because of a reluctance to apply a little foresight).
  
• That will be their problem then, I wouldn't suffer for a stranger now so why should suffer for strangers in the future?
  
• Sure some resources degrade, but they often become useful in different ways, lost forests becoming agricultural land, and that leaves open the opportunity for sustainable aggriculture. There may be no wild land, but managed land may still be rich and fertile.
  
• Demonstrate that biological diversity is important and make all wilderness a human managed resource, stopping treating wilderness as valueless resource and liquidation will stop being an economically sensible option.
  
• Coping with one resource collapse may drive practices that simply prevent collapse in other resourcs. If the use of one resource drives the use of another, then the collapse of one may serve to prevent the collapse the others.
  
• Resource collapse problems are not likely to hit in a coordinated single event. Societies are likely to have opportunity to apply the lessons of coping with changes in resource usage learned from one resource to the next, perhaps learning from earlier experiences ways to minimise the impact of further change.
  

Interestingly, the article is more bold than some older ones I've read in that it highlights that living resources don't just streadily run out, they collapse abruptly, they require a critical complexity and volume to maintain their integrity. Add exponential curves to the costs of extracting non-living finite resources.

It ain't easy being green.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I refer to myself as apostate

Ahh, but there's also a thing called an 'official apostate' where you get your baptism and confirmation officially annulled.

The Keys Of St. Peter goes onto the reading list.

You'll like this one. It's full of unbelievable relics (a sneeze of the Holy spirit, the prepuce of Jesus etc) which have been part of the faith, causes and means of collecting indulgences and so forth. It is sublime in its ridiculousness.

mostly coming down to it's a problem but it's not my problem

Hmmm.. I suspect that sort of reasoning has contributed substantial to the problem in the first place.

[rustythoughts.livejournal.com]

'official apostate'

Sounds like the wonderfully accomodating Catholic Church.

Protestants like to keep score by counting numbers of converts, so having an official system for getting yourself off of the score-card is not really sporting.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Sounds like the wonderfully accomodating Catholic Church.

Got that in one ;-)

Protestants like to keep score by counting numbers of converts, so having an official system for getting yourself off of the score-card is not really sporting.

??? Don't Protestants count those they've baptised?

[rustythoughts.livejournal.com]

They count the baptisms, yes indeed, (although not all protestant denominations baptise).

I was suggesting they don't like to uncount those who have subsequently gotten away.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

And here I was thinking the Protestants would have been more careful with numbers than those slacker Catholics... Shows you how much I know..

nota bene to other readers: Unitarians (the Melbourne ones anyway) don't baptise. They don't confirm. They haven't even had a priest of any description for over thirty years.