Lev Lafayette's journal

Every week there are one or two new research papers released that used the UniMelb supercomputer that I work on. This week's really caught my attention; "The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on air pollution: A global assessment using machine learning techniques" published in Atmospheric Pollution Research. If there was a benefit of the pandemic (and they are few), one was the opportunity to quantify human activities on air quality; so modeling the effects in 700 (!) cities, they found that clean transport strategies in China and India would have the highest potential health benefit; whether or not anything happens will, of course, depend on public policy which is always a challenge. Today we managed to bring (almost) everyone into the office for a morning meeting summarising many of the utilisation and technology improvements we've had over the past year in high performance computing and use of the research cloud. I am increasingly of the opinion that given how broken our political economy is, which rewards the personality traits of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy, the main vector to generating any improvements in people's wealth and well-being is select technologies.

Speaking of which, I am visiting Perth after an absence of over two years! I'll be departing on Thursday 9 June and returning Tuesday 14th June and dear West Australians, yes I will be arranging for another of my famous visiting dinners at some cheap and cheerful Italian restaurant, as is my habit on Sunday 12th. To say that I have missed the immediate company of my Perth friends over the past two years is quite an understatement. Despite being a Melbourne person for more than half my life now, the importance of those I associated with in those heady and exciting years and their development in the decades that followed is a critical part of my life. Of course, I haven't planned accommodation yet, but I do know that over the weekend I'll be meeting a couple of senior politicians, people from a certain embassy, and visiting a manufacturing plant. All of which is sufficiently ambiguous at this point, but I think I'll be able to reveal a lot more publically within the next fortnight or so.

There is now only sixteen days before the Australian Federal election, which has been relatively quiet. I suspect from this point onwards however campaigns are going to go ballistic. Whilst the cost of living is increasingly becoming the single most important issue, it is important to realise that a major driver of this issue is the direction of public monies. Monetary theory teaches us that a government in charge of its own money supply can basically create money ex nihilo (fun fact: taxes don't fund federal government expenditure like the NDIS, etc) and the real limiting factor is whether productivity gains equal the increase in the money supply. Which, apart from the sheer disgust at nepotistic behaviour, events like Aspen Medical receiving more than $1 billion in government PPE contracts despite their lack of large-scale procurement experience (but well connected to former LNP health minister Michael Wooldridge and current LNP minister Greg Hunt). It just horrifies me, and I believe this should be a sackable offense. Clearly, some people just don't care about good and careful stewardship of public monies, and it stands as another reason why we need a Federal Independent Commission Against Corruption. There are simply too many examples of very questionable behaviour.

What I mean by having a cultural weekend is that, looking at in hindsight, it almost like going on a bit of a world tour. It begins with, courtesy of rangifer being pointed to the 1855 classic "English As She Is Spoke" (not the original title, but it may as well be), by one Pedro Carolinho who provides this Portuguese/English phrasebook despite knowing no English, but by taking a Portuguese/French phrasebook and then translating the French word-for-word into English using a dictionary producing a publication of great, albeit unintended, hilarity. But also a lesson for those who think that languages are easy. As one who has finally reached more than halfway on the Duolingo skill-tree for Mandarin Chinese, it also opportune to enroll in a basic Chinese-language course at Peking University. It is a necessary action for my Wild Flying Geese project, whose initiation document grows in size on a daily basis. It was a great pleasure to visit Anthony L., and Robyn M. on Saturday evening to further discuss the said project (among many other things) along with being introduced to the rocket fuel that is Moutai. I will admit to being of sober senses however when I applied to join the ACFS.

Dinner had been preceded by a very long lunch with my favourite local revolutionary francophile Jacobin and partner of Dutch extraction, Damien. Apart from discussion ranging from the French revolution, that famous evening of Socrates and Alcibiades, readings of some pretty salacious 19th-century French poetry, there was also some consideration of the homoerotic nature of the Australian notion of "mateship", of which the work of Australian war artist, Roy Cecil Hodgkinson featured prominently. Continuing to work backward through the weekend, Friday night was regular catch-up with caseopaya at our favourite local "cheap and cheerful" Italian restaurant. I am sure that some people may occasionally scratch their head on why we both catch up so regularly, given that we're no longer partners. But the reality is that there was a good and strong connection established over the seventeen years we were together that included similar tastes in aesthetics, in politics, and a sense of home life. Whilst our differences in élan, life-goals, and Weltannäherung would lead to our separation, there is still happiness and friendship in our mutual company, and that really is how it should be.

As I move onwards in life the lure of enjoying the company of others has touched upon the world of romance for its own sake (because it's an intrinsically valuable activity) to encounter the hearts of minds of others when one's life circumstances provide such an opportunity. I delighted, for example, in the factual attitude of a Singaporean engineer that I was recently in the company of. Perhaps even more so, the big-hearted and light-spirited dentist whom I seem to spending more and more time with "The Sailor Moon dentist" (nicknamed, thank you Janie G, on account of their diminutive physical stature and a hand-waved ethnicity). And, not to put too fine a point on it, there are others whom I shall not elaborate further on at this point. In other words, my dance card is pretty full which is in some ways surprising to me, but also very affirming. Could it be that a passionate and dedicated application of knowledge to making the world a better place also has the side-effect of inspiring people to be part of my life in some way? It is certainly an unintended side-effect and not the priority. This is just thinking aloud on a matter that I have not reflected too deeply on in the past.