Lev Lafayette's journal

Public transport academic and advocate Paul Mees Paul Mees has died. With some mutual friends, mutual politics, and a common bus-ride home, Paul and I shared a number of energetic and involved discussions spanning the nature of the democratic and less-then-democratic left in Victoria, the consistency in how successive Victorian governments failed to address the needs of public transport users or to learn from other international examples (Zurich was a prominent example), and even occasional forays into religious aesthetics. Paul always expressed his opinions with enthusiasm and humour, with a rapier wit. He serves as an inspiring example of a principled and dedicated individual, and sadly, one who had died too young. There was still many years of great work that could have come from his deeply analytical and creative mind.

Enrollment in my fifth degree has occurred, a Postgraduate Diploma in Economic Policy at the University of London. First course will be in public revenue, which I think I know a little bit about (and will discover how little I really know), but especially interesting in seeing the application in developing countries. On a somewhat tangential matter have been working through an excellent older essay on nanosocialism, and a review of the political tendencies in transhumanism. Apropos to other education matters, feedback from my major assignment and tutorial participation for the Graduate Certificate in Tertiary and Adult Education at Murdoch University (degree four) has been received; marks are sufficiently good that it makes a High Distinction grade very probable.

Gaming-wise, last Sunday witnessed the third session for the ongoing battle for the ruins of Warsaw for Twilight 2000 as the wicked Baron Czarny and his mercenaries marches tanks and troops towards the brave civilian milicya in their barricades. Even after nuclear war, there are those madmen who think they can become a ruler of a wasteland! Thursday ran a session of Savage Worlds (Deluxe) with the one-shot Viking scenario, as a break from our usual Eclipse Phase game. It went quite well, and the game does satisfy the claim of being "fast, furious, and fun". There are a couple of quirks in the rules, and we made a couple of minor mistakes, but overall it's quite good. More extenstive discussion at the Melbourne Roleplaying Salon thread. Significant work has been made on RPG Review issue 20, which specialises on monsters, aliens, and the other. Also, my review of The Morrow Project has been posted on RPG.net.

Last Tuesday night another one our rats died, Pierrot, one of our 2012 NYE ratlings. Her short (1.5 yr) life came to an end due to an unnoticed malignant tumour. Her rat housemates (Picador and Prankster) however seem to be in good health. In better news of this ilk (and location), a certain individual didn't make it on the estate committee of management which is quite a fail for a former MP, perhaps something to do with prior history running puppy farms (TW: animal abuse). Meanwhile, to quote Katharine Murphy at The Guardian, twit Senator Cory Bernardi "has once again raised the spectre of decent folks rushing off to marry the family cat should gay marriage be legalised", because apparently same-sex marriage leads to polygamy, which leads to bestiality. What? You didn't make that logical leap?

As part of our ever-increasing menagerie, caseopaya and I acquired an eastern-long necked turtle (chelodina longicollis) who comes with the name "Issac Yetrle" ("Issac" being the previous owner's name from Issac Newton and "Yertle" being from, of course, the famous Dr. Seuss book).



ARCS took its Melbourne staff out to Ginza Teppanyaki on Tuesday. The food production show itself was impressive, but when they started lobbing food and plates around it started to get a bit boorish. The FAQ I wrote for Access Grid is now part of official documentation. Excellent article distinguishing cloud and grid computing.

I am obsessing slightly over the upcoming public transport forum. With a member of parliament, an economist, the secretary of the PTUA and the secretary of the railway division of the union as key speakers the scope of this gathering is not be under-estimated. Further, it is likely to the launch of a wider alliance of activity, especially given the impending upcoming contract. This is perhaps one of the most important opportunity for individuals to help shape this agenda.

Significant changes recently in S and E Asia; North Korea has ended the fifty-seven year peace-fire on the peninsula; South Korea and U.S. forces move to def con 2. Reihana Mohideen provides a fair summary on why the LTTE lost the civil war in Sri Lanka; overlooks that they used a conventional army system and utilised a terrorist strategy - a recipe for failure.