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Several Days of Computing and Politics
Nov. 22nd, 2022 05:03 pmAs the title says, computing and politics have been quite prevalent in my life over the past several days. This included three days of particularly well-attended high-performance computing training workshops, including one on Mathematical Applications and Programming. It's been a year since I've run this particular workshop, and I always feel a little rusty when I do so (which compares against the monthly provision of the HPC essentials and scripting workshops). Nevertheless, the feedback I received suggests that the smorgasbord approach (shell, expr, datamash, R, Octave, Maxima, Julia, Gretl) with "common best practices" seems to work. These are probably the last courses for the year with the exception of getting a mentorship programme up and running and getting the content onto the University canvas system.
There is, of course, an election coming up in the fine state of Victoria and I have made some very rough comments about probabilities. Whilst the opinion polls show some narrowing, there are still serious concerns with the fitness of the opposition to govern, or at the very least there should be. There is the question of Matthew Guy's chief-of-staff regarding a questionable donation, continuing problems with the takeover by theocrats in the party, outright racists, all a combination leading the Liberals to be "in ruins". One only has to look at Guy's behaviour when he was actually in power as Planning Minister to think of what it would be like if he would ever be Premier.
Apropos the political, with a social aspect, I attended the FriendlyJordies floods fundraiser event entitled "A Tale As Old As Rome" (best seats in the house, courtesy of some epic networking skills of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lei_loo). I was delighted with his scholarly knowledge of Roman history and how significant to the European culture and economy the Republic and Empire was, along with supportive recognition that Julius Caesar's opposition from the "optimates" was largely due to Caeaser ensuring public lands for the "populares". A dictator he may have been, but Caeser's opposition were slumlords and land speculators and when they were in control matters were often worse for most people. The fact that this was all mixed with a truly clever delivery ensures that next time there is an event I will attend again.
There is, of course, an election coming up in the fine state of Victoria and I have made some very rough comments about probabilities. Whilst the opinion polls show some narrowing, there are still serious concerns with the fitness of the opposition to govern, or at the very least there should be. There is the question of Matthew Guy's chief-of-staff regarding a questionable donation, continuing problems with the takeover by theocrats in the party, outright racists, all a combination leading the Liberals to be "in ruins". One only has to look at Guy's behaviour when he was actually in power as Planning Minister to think of what it would be like if he would ever be Premier.
Apropos the political, with a social aspect, I attended the FriendlyJordies floods fundraiser event entitled "A Tale As Old As Rome" (best seats in the house, courtesy of some epic networking skills of
lei_loo). I was delighted with his scholarly knowledge of Roman history and how significant to the European culture and economy the Republic and Empire was, along with supportive recognition that Julius Caesar's opposition from the "optimates" was largely due to Caeaser ensuring public lands for the "populares". A dictator he may have been, but Caeser's opposition were slumlords and land speculators and when they were in control matters were often worse for most people. The fact that this was all mixed with a truly clever delivery ensures that next time there is an event I will attend again.