Arc Tangent

I returned from an awesome weekend in Melbourne on Tuesday afternoon, to find Canberra absolutely, bitterly, butt-freezingly cold. From shopping, awesome food and coffee, Winter Sound System, over a cramped and uncomfortable flight of stomach-churning turbulence, into the throes of what feels like an icy Northern winter from hell.

Aaaaaaawesome. (Sarcasm! How very original!)

I called in to work to tell them I was working from home today, owing to having been exposed to people who were coughing or exhibiting flu-like symptoms on Sunday. Better safe than sorry, right? I feel fine though, so I work merrily away.

Lunchtime rolls around, and one of my friends (who was down in Melbourne with me) SMSes me to let me know he’s feeling awful and heading off to the Doctor for testing.

Uhohs.

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As I was nodding off last night, thinking about an article I’d read in the paper earlier in the day which irritated me  – because it wasn’t good journalism. The exact article and its source aren’t relevant to this discussion – lets just take it for granted that in a world of media outlets like Fox News (“it’s Infotainment!”) there’s a certain question hovering over the idea of journalistic integrity.

The status quo makes it very easy for the media to get away with publishing whatever the hell they want to. Most media outlets are in the hands of a small number of companies; they have vested corporate interests in being loud, controversial and highly debated. There is very limited incentive – other than altruism on behalf of editors and journalists – to report factually and honestly.

It happens. Many articles are written with every intention of telling the truth, as it’s known to the reporter. Journalists aren’t all evil bastards, and not every reporting mistake belies a conspiracy. It just doesn’t happen enough, and provably consistently.

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You might be surprised to find yourself at this blog. There’s a few sites hosted on this machine, which recently suffered some very serious hardware trauma. Our hosting providers have worked incredibly hard to sort the issue out, and we’re in the process of restoring some damaged data from backups.

If you expected to be somewhere else, and found yourself on my blog – I apologise! The issues will be sorted out shortly. In the meantime, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Watching 60 Minutes is a mistake, sometimes. Other times, it manages to make me think. Of late, it’s almost always sensationalist tripe.

Tonight’s major story was what I would call a fluffy PR piece on the Riot Squad up in Sydney. Their job – at least according to 60 Minutes – is to ‘keep the streets safe’ from ‘increasing street violence’ by employing ‘aggressive tactical behaviours’. My first problem with the 60 Minutes piece is the claim of increased street violence without some sort of backup.

ARE RATES OF VIOLENT STREET CRIME IN NSW INCREASING?

According to the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research’s NSW Recorded Crime Statistics Annual Report 2008, rates of violent crime excluding robbery reported in NSW have increased from 70 incidents per 100,000 population around 1994 to around 140 incidents per 100,000 population in 2008 (with peaks around January, doubtless the New Years Eve period). These do not include rates of robbery, which change the picture a bit – and do include domestic violence, so it’s not clear how much of this is ’street crime’.

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A gorgeous and brilliantly put-together 12 minute video. Possible contender for most touching and wonderful thing I’ve seen all month. Go to it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy0HNWto0UY

The Right Reverend Professor Tom Frame responded to my email – and quite a nice response it was. He’s given me permission to publish it here. A big thank-you to him for engaging!

Dear Andy (if I might be informal)

Thanks for taking the trouble to write to me after a busy day.

It might help you to know that I didn’t produce the “extract” that appeared in today’s SMH. It was put together by the publishers (UNSW Press) and the editor of the Op Ed page. In fact, I wasn’t aware that it was appearing this week until I began to receive email this morning. As most of the email has been abusive and combative, your carefully considered email was a pleasant change.

The sentences to which you refer do not appear in that order in the book, they are from two separate chapters and were merged to give an impression you won’t find in the book. I am pleased that you intend to acquire a copy (which is some 110,000 words in length) and examine the arguments that I present in the depth and in the order that I present them. It is neither anti-Darwin nor anti-evolutionary theory.

There is one matter I want to touch on here. In a forthcoming book on unbelief in Australia (it will appear in Nov 09) I have identified and differentiated the two common strains of atheism in Australia: positive
atheism and negative atheism. Positive atheism contends that God does not exist whereas a negative atheist is someone without a belief in God. You are plainly a negative atheism whereas many of the people who have emailed me today are positive atheists. It is difficult to have a conversation with a positive atheist and, these days, I don’t even try.

I hope you find the book useful. It is, in essence, an account of the influence of evolutionary theory on Australian thinking and popular culture. What appeared in today’s newspaper was not an accurate reflection of its objective. I would be interested in your thoughts after reading the narrative.

Tom

WARNING: This post talks about Atheism and religion. I am an Atheist. If you feel you might be offended, or are unable to tolerate the idea of anyone questioning your particular religion, I would encourage you to skip this article.

For the first time in a long time, I felt moved to write a letter in response to an article I saw on the Sydney Morning Herald’s website. I’m not normally the type to engage, especially on this particular subject, but I felt that there were some serious misrepresentations of the standard Atheist position in the article (which I would encourage you to read first, if you plan to read this blog post).

Dear Right Reverend Professor,

I read with interest your article in the online version of the Sydney Morning Herald, an extract from your book ‘Evolution in the Antipodes’ (http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/questions-darwinism-cannot-answer/2009/02/08/1234027847281.html, accessed 9/02/2008). Whilst I have not read your book (yet!),  I find your stance on the subject of evolution refreshing.

However, I fear I must make an objection to some of the views you expressed in the article. Specifically (and I quote):

“A dedicated Darwinian would welcome imperialism, genocide, mass deportation, ethnic cleansing, eugenics, euthanasia, forced sterilisations and infanticide. Publicly, he advocates none of them.”

Only a madman could truly agree with any of these policies! As a staunch atheist (despite a dedicated Catholic upbringing) and what you might call a ‘Darwinist’ (though I might object to that title myself) I can only object to the ‘logical conclusions’ you think Darwinism should take us to.

Evolution goes a long way to explaining the way the world around us is now, but it does not take into effect future societal factors – our development of symbolic reasoning, which in turn has given us technology (of all sorts), has freed us as a species from the normal effect of evolution. The laws of evolution apply only loosely to human beings now – medical science gives us the ability to survive all manner of illnesses which would once have proven fatal (and this is surely for the best).

We are no longer primates swinging from the trees; as a species, we plant, harvest and cultivate the trees. Of course, our technology does raise certain problems – to express the situation harshly, there are individuals passing on their genetic information who would not have had a chance to do so, two thousand years ago. Some illnesses which would once have been fatal to a given expression of genes (ie. a valued individual of our species) no longer have an evolutionary effect, and are becoming more prevalent.

One could draw the conclusion that these people should not be saved, if one was to take a ‘harsh’ Darwinist stance. However, I would argue that the same technologies that save these individuals gives us the opportunity to eradicate these diseases; given that we have the means to make life better for ourselves as a species, and as individuals, there is no need for genocide, eugenics, ethnic cleansing or the like (all of which are reprehensible acts, Darwinism or no).

Of course, whether or not we should use those technologies raises still further debates – which I shall not enter into here!

Further, you state the following:
“Crudely naturalistic science leaves no room for poetic truth, refuses to honour any spiritual element in physical things and cannot accept the existence of a human soul.”

Again I must object – Atheism does not preclude God; rather, an atheist usually takes the position that there is (as yet) insufficient evidence for God’s existence. Science cannot prove a thing’s non-existence and God may very well exist, but atheists choose to live their lives on a different basis than assuming he does. This does not make us cruel or terrible people – every life is still unique and valuable to the whole, whether or not it was divinely crafted or not. Nor, I feel, does atheism reduce in any way the beauty or aesthetic value of a sunrise seen from Mt Buffallo, or trivialise the feel of sand between ones’ toes on the beaches of Queensland. Whether these experiences are divinely crafted or not, they are experiences unique in all the Universe; each moment is valuable and precious whether or not God planned it to be so.

Finally, I would argue that science may indeed be incapable of asking if life has any intrinsic meaning, but this frees us to ask if we want to give it any particular meaning as a species. Navel-gazing about our divine origins boots us nothing; what matters is how we treat the people around us, and whether we choose to make life better for the denizens of our planet. A sense of divine entitlement can only be detrimental to our attitudes towards the unique world we find ourselves inhabiting – we should, as ever, approach the world with a sense of humility, and ask not whether God has given it to us (or not), but ask what we can give back to the world to make it a better place.

I fear this is probably sounding very “secularly humanist”, and if so, it’s an accusation I’ll happily take on the chin. Nevertheless, I thank you for your writing, which I found edifying and engaging, and look forward to reading your book.

Thank you for your time!

-Andy White

That’s right, I’m back on the Internet! Refreshed, rejuvenated and ready to dive back into the mayhem. I’ve returned to Canberra, Australia after two and a bit weeks in Thailand. I fully intend to blog a bit about my experience over there, with pictures – I took copious notes about what I got up to, but I’ll probably just summarise some of the best bits for posterity.

My priority for the moment, however, is getting a bit of freelance work done so I can pay the bills and feed myself; an equal priority is polishing up my resume and getting that off to a bunch of recruiters so I can track down a new job.

I’m not sure where I’m going to end up – which is both exciting and daunting – but I’m thinking about making a move to Melbourne, providing there’s a good job on offer. I could also stay in Canberra for 3 months, to save a bit of money before I make the big move. All options are on the table.

I queued this one up before I left for Thailand; while I’m on hiatus, pleasy enjoy my 2008 retrospective!

Copying Pascal who stole it from Nathanael who stole if from Fiona, here’s a quick rundown of 2008, ques­tion and answer style:

Q: What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?
A: Got out on my own. I was much less fearful of making my own way; for example, up in Sydney, I went out clubbing on my own (and made a few good friends) without any other company. I guess I’m feeling a lot more confident! I ran LGS mostly alone for a while (hard!).

Q: Did you keep your new year’s res­o­lu­tions, and will you make more for next year?
A:I don’t make New Years resolutions as such. I will aim to blog more this year, though, find myself an awesome new job, get out of Canberra, and focus my time more effectively.

Q: Did anyone close to you give birth?
No, but someone close to someone close to me did? And a few friends of mine came up pregnant – 2009 looks like having a bumper crop of new humanlings.

Q: Did anyone close to you die?
A: No. Wonderfully death-free, last year. Hopefully this year will follow suit.

Q: What countries/states did you visit?
A: I was only in Australia.

Q: What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
A: A motorbike (mine was stolen in Jan 08). A challenging new job, a bit more financial security, and a lot more travel.

Q: What was your biggest achieve­ment of the year?
A:The facetious answer is “surviving it”. In seriousness though,  I closed down my first business. Most people would consider that a failure, and in some ways it still feels like one, but I’ve learnt so much from the process and become a much sharper person for the experience.

Lower down on the list – co-producing my first track, Grip – a mix of dance music and heavy metal, which has had pretty good reception with those we’ve played it to. (Not released yet, but we’ll drop it on you all sooner or later).

Q: What was your biggest failure?
A:Not making it to Europe. A contract I was relying on for money fell through, and that was the end of that. In many ways that worked out OK – life would have been very different if I’d gone to Europe, especially where LGS is concerned.

A close runner-up would be my complete failure to follow up any of my research ideas or hardware development plans – time just ran out.

Q: Did you suffer illness or injury?
A: A few little bugs, but overall I was much healthier in 08 than I was in 07. The nice new house made a real difference.

Q: What was the best thing you bought?
A: Probably my iPhone. I do hate the hype that surrounds these things, in many ways they’re just a darn phone; but they’re a relative joy to use compared to many alternatives, and show that a slick, usable interface can overcome a lack of features a lot of the time.

Q: Whose behav­iour merited cel­e­bra­tion?
A: My business partner Evan, for finally pulling the pin. Hard call but it needed to be done. Dad, for making it through a whole lot of crud that he never deserved.

Q: Whose behav­iour made you appalled and depressed?
A: Senator Stephen Conroy. Easiest. Answer. Evar.

Q: Where did most of your money go?
A:Statistically? Rent and food. In terms of disposable income … I’m not as sure as I should be (there’s an idea for 09 – keep better track of my spending!)

Q: What did you get really, really, really excited about?
A: A possible job for tech startup Palantir which, sadly, didn’t come through. The interview process alone was enlightening though, so I’m richer for the experience. I really want to work with these guys one way or the other – we’ll see how we go.

Q: What song will always remind you of 2008?
A: Grip – Daniel Nardi and Andy White. Hopefully you’ll hear it before too long. :)

Q: Com­pared to this time last year, are you:

• happier or sadder?—probably happier, albeit a little more concerned about my immediate future;
• thinner or fatter?—about the same, more muscle and a scooch less fat;
• richer or poorer?—slightly better financial position if you ask my about this very second, but the near future is looking a bit tense.

Q: What do you wish you’d done more of?
A: Parkour, travelling, paying attention to my friends and family. And I only got to sea kayak once last year, while I was in Perth. For shame!

Q: What do you wish you’d done less of?
A: Pining over things that were not meant to be? Hahaha. Cryptic!

Q: How did you spend Christ­mas?
A: With my family at Mum and Dad’s house in Palmerston, and then relaxing on the couch (but feeling frustrated because I had little to do!)

Q: Did you fall in love in 2008?
A: I both kept being in love AND fell in love anew in 2008. It didn’t quite go anywhere romantically, but I made an awesome new friend and had a great time as a result.

Q: How many one-​night stands?
A: Oh goodness, this is a bit personal isn’t it? Visualise me blushing. Three. Ahem.

Q: What was your favourite TV program?
A: Doctor Who. So cheesy, so many badly written episodes (exit, stage left, Russell Davies!), but the good ones were great and full of hope and wonder.

Q: Did you make a friend with anyone that you didn’t know this time last year?
A:I made quite a few new friends!

Q: What was the best book you read?
A: The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. An odd tale, set in the far far future, but the first novel I’ve read where I truly felt I was inside the character’s head.

Q: What was your great­est musical dis­cov­ery?
A: The music editing software Ableton – thanks Dan! But otherwise, the Presets rocked and I got into a lot more Dance music.

Q: What did you want and get?
A: An iPhone.

Q: What did you want and not get?
A: A whole slew of things. A job at Palantir is #1 on the list, followed by a new motorbike.

Q: What was your favourite film of this year?
A: Iron Man,comic book shlock at it’s heart, but done well and with a slightly less cheesey take on the hero.

Q: What did you do on your birth­day, and how old were you?
A:I fell afoul of the law. It wasn’t the best year, 2008. :P

Q: What one thing would have made your year immea­sur­ably more sat­is­fy­ing?
A:Having a motorbike? I do go on about that a bit, don’t I?

Q: How would you describe your per­sonal fashion concept in 2008?
A: Eclectic. Subtly trendy, but not so trendy as anyone would really notice.

Q: What kept you sane?
A: What is this sane you speak of? All of my friends, but especially my housemates, Brett and Andy. Paul. Nyssa and Chris. James and Pascal.

Q: Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
A: I don’t do the celebrity thing usually!

Q: What polit­i­cal issue stirred you the most?
A: The use of electronic voting machines in the ACT Legislative Assembly Elections. Grrrrrrrr.

Q: Who did you miss?
A: Ruz and Nyss.

Q: Who was the best new person you met?
A: Paul, my new gymbuddy! We kept each other smiling this year.

Q: Tell us a valu­able life lesson you learned in 2008.
A: Sometimes things don’t work out, and you can’t keep trying at that one specific thing… but that doesn’t mean you should give up altogether. “Try, try again” doesn’t mean “repeat the same mistakes mindlessly”.

I’m also skipping the last question about song lyrics, because it’s way too hard and I need sleep!

Well, so much for my to-do item marked ‘Update blog’. Oops. Between family reunions, shutting down LGS, Christmas and New Years and looking after a friends’ dogs, some uncomfortable legal wranglings, freelancing to pay my bills, trying to get long overdue and extremely critical work done… the blog sort of fell by the wayside.

I’ve got wonderful plans for a few informative blog posts in the new year, but my first priority is to take an extremely overdue holiday to Thailand for 2 weeks. I haven’t had a proper break in 3 years. I often found myself turning down holiday opportunities because I didn’t have the cashflow at the time, and felt too responsible for my small business to let go for that long – LGS never quite made it to the point where any of us could step away for any length of time.

Sadly, the result has been one very burnt-out Andy. There have been days where even glancing at a computer screen felt physically painful, and coding has gone from being fun to being a chore more often than I would like to admit.

So, for the next 2 weeks, I’m off the grid. I won’t be contactable by phone. I won’t even look at my email (well, maybe small glances to check if my family and friends are OK). I’m hoping to go entire days without even sighting a computer.

On my return, things should liven up around here a little more – but until then, best of luck everyone! I might cast a thought your way while I enjoy massages on the beach. :)