bobquasit | Reading

I was going to quit running the East Fork Lewis after the last lap when my back hurt when I landed from Sunset falls and hurt even worse landing from Horseshoe Falls. Those drops are about 12 feet and 25 feet tall respectively. The trick is to not land flat, to reduce the compressive forces on your spine. But both of those drops make you land flat, or at least, try to. Anyway yesterday I had someone else run my 9R through sunset, that saved my back. Then at Horseshoe we scouted and I ran the left line as planned even though the water was 1000cfs higher than I usually see. The line is stragihtforward but uncontrolled: you drop into the sluice and the water buries you before you even plug into the white at the bottom, and then while you're under water some strong currents hit you and you get flipped end for end before even resurfacing. I hit my left elbow on the boat while underwater, and the twisting of the boat wrenched the paddle in my hands, hurting my left wrist. I resurfaced upside down and rolled up on my second try, mad, because I was in pain. Funny how pain pisses me off. This morning, the day after that adventure, I'm OK, but still kind of pissed/sad about the fact that my body can't take the beating anymore. Whitewater kayaking is very much about this question: can you take the abuse and still roll up. The better you get, the less abuse you take, but it's still hard on a body and I'm about to turn 60.

liveonearth

These questions were suggested by

that_one_girl.

1. What did you want to be when you were a kid? Dead. Or gone. Homelife was no fun. Couldn't figure out what to be.

2. What is your proudest accomplishment so far? I've become a decent human being.

3. What is your dream job? Writer, teacher -- elder?

4. Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Dead. Or maybe still here, doing similar stuff.

5. What does it take to make you happy? Having both good/real friends to process and do fun stuff with, and enough time alone to find my center again.

liveonearth

I just read in the Times that the olympic crowd booed JD Vance, and that the Italians are in the streets protesting against ICE. Our pussygrabber in chief has sent his paramilitary to Europe and they don't like it either. My apologies to the Italians; it's bad, we know. The Americans have morphed into the likeness of our president who is a criminal and a demented, mentally ill man in the final stages of his devolution. Wish we could have sent you something better. Keep the faith; decency may not prevail but we can at least maintain small pockets of humanity where compassion and kindness are known.

tcpip

Ten years ago, when the Spartan HPC system was launched at the University, it was small, innovative, and experimental, its very name a laconic reference to the funding provided (i.e., not much). But the tricky combination of traditional HPC flexibly supplemented by cloud VMs for single-node jobs worked, and over the years, it would become one of the world's most powerful supercomputers, supporting thousands of researchers with the computational power required in engineering, astronomy, mathematics, economics, climate science, and especially the various medical and life sciences. One of the decisions we made at the time was that Spartan would be open and collaborative; researchers could come from anywhere in the world, as long as the project's principal investigator was from the University of Melbourne. It was an openness that has allowed hundreds of researchers to access the supercomputer resources.

There has been, however, a change in policy and not one to my liking. Now each project requires a university supervisor, and each external collaborator requires a University email address, with the supervisor making a separate application for each individual. This is an overly bureaucratic procedure, in my opinion, and if there's anything IT workers hate doing, it's wrangling systems to meet unnecessary bureaucratic requirements. It's wasted work and time that provides no change in outcome; mathematicians would describe it as "inelegant", engineers would call it "suboptimal", economists would call it "damaged goods", you get the idea. My unfortunate role this week has been to get a list of active non-University researcher accounts and craft individual emails to each of them and their university supervisor, informing them of their need to apply for new email addresses. Due to nuances that I won't go into (such as one user many projects) it was not a matter of just making a single SQL database extraction, but rather required several steps of data wrangling.

The procedure was a bit of an annoyance, an interesting technical challenge, but the real moment of joy was achieved by going through the various projects: ecosystem population connections in tropical oceans, molecular modelling of novel antivirals against SARS-CoV-2 proteins, cosmic birefringence from the South Pole telescope, subterranean dark matter studies - and so it goes on. It is the range, diversity, and importance of these projects that inspire me, a quest for objective knowledge without partisanship, in a world where universal norms are betrayed by the influences of power and wealth, and aesthetic expressions are either trite or manipulative rather than sincere expressions of the imagination. As I tell researchers in my introductory class, you are the people who will make the discoveries and inventions that hopefully will make the world a better place. I'm just going to show you how to harness the resources of a supercomputer to make this easier for you. So even when I'm deeply engaged in a project I find grossly and even offensively unnecessary, there are still some parts that bring joy and hope.

Current Mood: discontent
Current Location: The Rookery
Current Music: Scann-Tech, Unyt

mark posting in

dw_maintenance

Hi all!

I'm doing some minor operational work tonight. It should be transparent, but there's always a chance that something goes wrong. The main thing I'm touching is testing a replacement for Apache2 (our web server software) in one area of the site.

Thank you!

tcpip

Walter Benjamin, with his usual brilliance, observed, "Scholarship, far from leading inexorably to a profession, may in fact preclude it. For it does not permit you to abandon it." The first part suggests that a scholar never ceases learning and, as a result, does not settle into a single profession. The second part indicates the difference between a student (who does lead to a profession) and a scholar (for whom learning is a lifetime, evolving, and intrinsic behaviour). Well, after over a month of international travel and then followed by a few excellent celebratory gatherings, it is well about time that I return to the matter of scholarship. In these parts of my life, there are three current vectors.

The first is my doctoral studies at the University of Euclid. This week I have have completed the first part of a course on "Global Energy and Climate Policy", which is shared between the University of London and with the major project with Euclid University. The content was quite good, looking at the necessity of moving away from GHG energy sources, alternative energy sources (including nuclear), the Paris Agreement itself, and energy security and sovereignty. For the major paper, I'll be looking at "Optimal Energy Choices for Pacific Island Nations Under the Paris Agreement". I am especially interested in looking at the expected climate changes, the likely demographic changes, technology options, and the application of NDCs of other countries.

In addition, in a completely different vector, I have taken up studies for a Cert IV in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). Now, this may seem a bit strange for someone who already has a Master's degree in Higher Education, but in my profession, my teaching is normally more than 50% of students from non-English-speaking backgrounds. It is extremely helpful for me to modify my presentation so it is more easily understood, even when the technical content is quite advanced. The course itself, through the Sydney Higher Education Institute, is thankfully very attentive to not just language learning, but also cultural differences. Whilst the course is designed to be taken over a year, because it's self-paced I'm hoping to get it done in a few months.

The third part is quite out of leftfield. About fifteen years ago, I ran a lengthy RuneQuest Prax campaign. As I often do, I kept extensive notes and even constructed a series of letters from one of the characters, Praxilites, as he developed from a young initiate of the sun god to reaching apotheosis. How is such fantasy storytelling scholarly? Well, apart from delving deeply into what can only be described as the deeply mythological metaphysics of Glorantha, our main character's story is very much in the style of Marcus Aurelius' "Meditations", a subject that I have written about in the past. Of course, it will not be just Marcus whom I'll be drawing from, but also Diogenes, Zeno, Seneca, Epictetus and even a dash of Laozi. Anyway, with more than 35000 words already written, it is proving to be quite a joy to delve down a path of scholarship that is also entertaining.

Current Location: The Rookery
Current Music: Yello, The Video Hits Collection

tcpip

The Invasion Day long weekend (really, just change the date and adopt something less gross for the national holiday) featured three events of note in my life. The first included a short-notice visit from Adam and Lara from Darwin; we went to Balloon Story, which had some amusing moments, but really was something for the kids. It was nevertheless marvellous to catch up, albeit for a shorter time than usual, and I am sure there will be a next time. Afterwards, I ventured out to the Thornbuy Bowls Club, where my friend of almost forty years, Simon S., was celebrating his birthday party. With a collection of over a score of migrant friends from Perth, the cycling and motorcycle community, and various nerdish characters of various stripes (which much crossover), Simon's plan to hold a relatively low-key gathering was stymied by his friendship circle, who came out in spades.

The following day was my own gathering of the same sort (and yes, it included several people from the day before), with the additional theme of South America and Latin America from the recent trip. With over 30 people visiting my apartment throughout the day, I provided a wide variety of dishes from the different countries I visited (plus a couple from Ecuador, which I did not), various favourite beverages, and music. All along with a slideshow of photos from the trip. I actually didn't end up making everything, but have endeavoured to do so in the following days because, as usual, I overcatered. Blessed with an incredible variety of often brilliant friends, the gathering was really quite lively, and I am rather overwhelmed by the support and enthusiasm that everyone contributed to the day. Photos will be forthcoming, but for now, "Lev's Solar Orbit, South America and Antarctica Voyage" included the following food, drinks, and music:

Los Platos
- Fainá (Uruguay): Chickpea flatbread with parmesan and mixed herbs
- Aji Amarillo Salsa (Peru): Yellow capsicum with milk, vinegar, lime juice, jalapeño, mustard, garlic
- Llapingachos (Ecuador): Potato cake, cheese and spring onion
- Salsa de maní (Ecuador): Peanuts, milk, onion, cumin, coriander, red chilli
- Torrejas De Espinaca (Peru): Fried tortillas with spinach, spring onion
- Ensalada Negra Inca (Peru): Apichu (golden sweet potato), avocado, black beans, quinoa, and chard (silverbeet)
- Salsa Criolla (Argentina): Capsicum with tomato, onion, garlic
- Pastel de choclo con carne (Chile): Maize with beef, tomato, onion, milk, basil, paprika
- Pastel de choclo sin carne (Chile): Maize with soy TVP, tomato, onion, milk, basil, paprika
- Ceviche (Peru): Ocean fish with red onions, tomato, cucumber, capsicum, lime, coriander, jalapeño
- Empanadas (Argentina): Pastry with gorgonzola cheese and puerro (leek)
- Tortillas fritas con Dulce de Leche (Uruguay): Tortillas, ice cream, milk, sugar, cream, chocolate

Las bebidas
- Café de Galeano (Uruguay): Coffee, dulce de leche, cream, amaretto
- Caipiroska (Uruguay): Vodka, lime, sugar
- Piscola Eléctrica (Chile): Brandy and Pepsi blue
- Pisco Sour (Peru): Brandy, lime juice, egg white, sugar, bitters
- Terremoto (Chile): Pineapple ice cream, red wine, pomegranate juice
- Tierra del Fuego (Argentina): Tequila, Campari, spiced vodka

La Musica
- Jorge Morel (Argentine classical guitar)
- Astor Piazzolla (Argentine founder of nuevo tango)
- Los Prisioneros (Chilean post-punk)
- Los Buenos Muchachos (Uruguayan alt-rock)
- Dengue Dengue Dengue (Peruvian electronic-industrial)
- Föllakzoid (Chilean electronica)
- Vangelis, Antarctica movie soundtrack

Current Location: The Rookery

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bobquasit

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The Diary of A Simple Man

Why?

Reading

Kayaking can be hard on the body

Friday 5 (questions answering on Saturday)

My apologies to Italy

Data Wrangling and Advanced Projects

Minor operations; testing new serving path

A Return to Scholarship

The Age of Aguardiente

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October 2025

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