rachel.blog

Category: Journal

  • Fairness in voting

    In less than a week, Australians will vote for their choice of prime minister in a federal election. I have always been interested in fairness but where voting is concerned, it can be very difficult to devise a fair voting system. Australia uses a preferential ballot system where voters rank candidates in order of preference.…

  • Possible practical applications in pure mathematics?

    The place we’ve rented in York is unfurnished so we’ve had to find things to sit on, lie on and eat from. Most of this stuff has come from second-hand furniture shops. In one place, I found a cool old trunk which I immediately decided should be our coffee table/toy box. Here it is: I…

  • Anthropologist debunks paleo diet

  • Watching the drip drop

    My old university, The University of Queensland, is home to the world’s longest running experiment. Things are just about to get exciting because a very rare event, the drip of a tar-like substance called pitch, is imminent and in the 83 years of the experiment’s life, only 8 drips have fallen. No-one has witnessed any…

  • Don't sleep with mean people

    This is the new campaign of Canadian rapper Baba Brinkman who is crowd-sourcing funding for a music video with the slogan don’t sleep with mean people.   His inspiration was an ancient Greek play called Lysistrata, in which the women collectively withhold sex from their husbands and lovers as leverage to get them to end the Peloponnesian…

  • Migraines and preservatives in food

    Recently I have been conducting some animal experimentation. The animal under investigation is me. I get migraines, frequently. They are not always terrible, but still unpleasant and usually accompanied by vision impairment. The vision impairment is debilitating because for the 30 minutes or so that it lasts, I cannot read, write or drive. A few…

  • Questions from my son

    I had a couple of questions from Daniel – who is 6-years-old – yesterday afternoon. One of the questions is quite profound, the other, profane. I’ll let you guess which is which. NB: Freud is our dog. Question 1: What would happen if I put my finger in Freud’s bottom and took it out and…

  • A high-five is worth gold

    There’s a great TED talk from the “That’s absurd!” playlist which is delivered by comedian and creator of Improv Everywhere, Charlie Todd. Improv Everywhere is a New York-based group of individuals who go about creating “scenes of chaos and joy in public places”, one of the most famous being the no-pants subway ride which is…

  • Rewilding

    I thought this short video about rewilding was rather lovely and so I want to share it. Rewilding is about restoring natural ecosystems – reintroducing missing plants and animals and letting nature take over. If you think the idea of elephants roaming Europe is odd, apparently biologists are already considering restoring Britain’s lynx population. Maybe…

  • The future of cycling?

    Could this bike be the future of cycling?   The levitating bike is an entry into the 2013 Hi-MACS annual design contest. It captures the energy from pedalling, stores it in a battery and then allows you to subsequently plug this energy back into the grid. It can also charge small devices via USB, like…

  • The river of myths

    I discovered this clip yesterday. It’s a very clever and visual illustration of the incredible progress made by “developing” countries in saving the lives of children. It’s delivered by Hans Gosling – Swedish medical doctor, academic, statistician and cofounder of Gapminder. There are more world trends presented in a similarly compelling way at Gapminder.

  • Should politicians choose what research to fund?

    When should politicians decide which research to fund and which research not to fund? NEVER. Because if we let our politicians shape scientific enquiry, it will become skewed, biased and will lose the innovation and creativity of a discipline that ought to be driven by curiosity and the search for truth. So imagine my surprise…

  • New Zealand legalises gay marriage

    On April 17th, 2013, New Zealand parliament cheered in song with the passing of a law which allows homosexuals to marry their partners. This is a fabulous outcome and a celebration of love and the tradition of proclaiming our love for one person through marriage. If two people wish to engage in a mutually consensual…

  • Peer review and hot cross buns

    Ben Martin is going to explain how academics get their work published in peer-reviewed journals. He is Associate Professor of Mathematics at the University of Auckland. He is also an associate editor for the Journal of the Australian Mathematical Society and has himself published a number of peer-reviewed papers. Rachel: Let’s say, you’ve written a paper. You…

  • Blog statistics

    Something I love to do is read my blog statistics, which give me information about the people who read my blog, like which country they come from, what links they clicked and how they got to my blog in the first place. How they got here is my favourite part. If they landed on my…

  • Bare feet are for cavemen

    Bare feet are for cavemen

    I’ve noticed a change in the weather this week. The nights have become cooler and suddenly, I’m sleeping really well. Maybe it’s just a coincidence. I can wear jeans again and I love jeans. I could live permanently in jeans. The best thing though, is that I can wear my socks and slippers once more.…

  • Am I more like Amy or Penny?

    Ben and I are devoted fans of the American sitcom, Big Bang Theory. There are two female characters in the show  – Penny and Amy – and I have been wondering who I’m most like. Penny is the fun, cool, beautiful, man-magnet, actress-wannabe who works in a cafe. Amy is the nerdy, insecure, intelligent, neurobiologist…

  • My unsolicited advice – read at your own risk

    To pregnant women: Take the epidural. Ask for it early. It’s called labour for a reason. To Wellingtonians: Leave while you still can. No city in the world is worth the disaster that awaits yours. To parents of babies: Comfort your crying baby. You’d want nothing less for yourself as an adult. If they don’t…

  • Monkey in a rocket

    I feel sad today. A photo I saw this morning is to blame. It’s the widely publicized photo of a wretched monkey, restrained and sent into space in a rocket by the country of Iran. All the media articles I’ve read talk about fears that Iran may now possess the technical know-how to fire missiles…

  • How to save the world by bicycle

    I have a solution for all of society’s ills. It involves getting fat arses out of cars and onto bicycles. If I were Prime Minister, I’d redirect our colossal spending on roads and motorways to spending on cycling infrastructure instead. When I say cycling infrastructure, I don’t mean painted lines on roads or share-and-care footpaths,…