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Is being left-handed - something also caused by unusual neurology - a mental health issue too? If not, why not? What about cases like this - a girl with 5ARD, meaning she's undergoing a natural sex change at puberty - and desperately doesn't want it. Is that a "mental health problem"? http://home.vicnet.net.au/~aissg/2010_FamCA_237.pdf What about boys in the same situation - born looking female, naturally changing to look male later, and welcoming it. Are they "mentally ill" for wanting the change? I note that in the new ICD-11 manual, this whole syndrome is being moved out of the mental health section.

Or we could all just be in Tommy Westphall's head. That is the problem when you start bring things other than science into the discussion as you pointed out, frankly anything is possible. Personally I like George Carlin's "Great Electron Theory" myself, it doesn't hear you, see you, or care, its just....well a really great big electron.

A reduction in fertility isn't enough to stop exponential growth. 500 million, 2 billion, 5 billion, 10 billion... Global population since the industrial revolution. citation

But as a counter to my own point. xkcd

It's kinda like a snow globe filled with lithium and cocaine.

Like, wasn't that just all a dream or something?

Interestingly enough "Comprehensive spelling reform aimed at mass literacy was one of the first acts of the democratic provisional government in the 1917 Revolution" according to http://home.vicnet.net.au/~ozideas/wrussref.htm, so my statement seems to be correct.

Of course, you are right that Bolsheviks took a lot of credit for the reform.

Btw, I think that Lenin became incapacitated in 1922-1923, not earlier. Certainly, around 1920 he was very active.

That's what Australia is for.

Many birds do have the ability to mimic sounds - The Australian Lyrebird is one - it's been known to mimic everything from steam whistles to typewriters (complete with the little bell at the end of a line and the sound of the returning carriage) and chainsaws.

I once visited a wildlife park that had a group of aviaries where were kept larger predator-type birds like Kookaburras, Magpies and Butcherbirds. The Butcherbirds and the Magpies could both laugh like the Kookaburras. They would start laughing back whenever the Kookaburras started doing their schtick.

I had a really incredible experience with birds mimicking different sounds, in a geeky kind of way - it all started when I was playing with VirtualDub for the first time. I was mucking about trying all the different compression types, filters and everything and the video I had chosen to play with was a clip of the opening titles of Doctor Who.

The title sequence was from the middle years of Tom Baker's stint as the Doctor. There's a clip of it here.

So, with all fiddling about I was doing, the music for the titles got played a lot that afternoon. I mean a lot. Try one set of filters, with one particular type of compression, process it, play it several times examining the results, change the filters/compressor, process, play another several times, over and over again.

The thing was, when I was playing the results, I tended not to play the whole clip, but just the first 13 seconds or thereabouts. That much of the clip includes the first measure of the melody line - the first four notes.

Some time later, I realised that I could hear what sounded like the music from the clip coming from the garden outside the window. I discovered that two different species of birds had copied different parts of the theme and now my front garden was echoing with the sounds of Doctor Who!

There was a songbird of some sort out there that was repeating the first four notes of the melody line, while a family of Indian Mynas gathered in a grove of trees were mimicking what I can only describe as the the "sparkly" bits - not the bass riff, but the ascending scale of sort of tinkly sounds.

It was really, really cool.

Many birds do have the ability to mimic sounds - The Australian Lyrebird is one - it's been known to mimic everything from steam whistles to typewriters (complete with the little bell at the end of a line and the sound of the returning carriage) and chainsaws.

I once visited a wildlife park that had a group of aviaries where were kept larger predator-type birds like Kookaburras, Magpies and Butcherbirds. The Butcherbirds and the Magpies could both laugh like the Kookaburras. They would start laughing back whenever the Kookaburras started doing their schtick.

I had a really incredible experience with birds mimicking different sounds, in a geeky kind of way - it all started when I was playing with VirtualDub for the first time. I was mucking about trying all the different compression types, filters and everything and the video I had chosen to play with was a clip of the opening titles of Doctor Who.

The title sequence was from the middle years of Tom Baker's stint as the Doctor. There's a clip of it here.

So, with all fiddling about I was doing, the music for the titles got played a lot that afternoon. I mean a lot. Try one set of filters, with one particular type of compression, process it, play it several times examining the results, change the filters/compressor, process, play another several times, over and over again.

The thing was, when I was playing the results, I tended not to play the whole clip, but just the first 13 seconds or thereabouts. That much of the clip includes the first measure of the melody line - the first four notes.

Some time later, I realised that I could hear what sounded like the music from the clip coming from the garden outside the window. I discovered that two different species of birds had copied different parts of the theme and now my front garden was echoing with the sounds of Doctor Who!

There was a songbird out there that was repeating the first four notes of the melody line, while a family of Indian Mynas gathered in a grove of trees were mimicking what I can only describe as the the "sparkly" bits - not the bass riff, but the ascending scale of sort of tinkly sounds.

It was really, really cool.

In no particular order..

Perhaps it doesn't appeal to the stereotypical geek, but the vibrator. The pocket calculator as well as; The calculator/remote control/radio controlled/FM radio *wristwratch* (surely the pinnacle of minitiaturization!).

Of course, the bonefone: link. The transistor radio. The world receiver radio. The wind-up/clockwork radio/charger. The intimidating maglite flashlight. Glowsticks! Neither electonic, nor moving parts, but who can resist luminecence!

7" 33 1/3rpm vinyl gramophone records; or I can do you even better than that - 7" 33 1/3 rpm plastic gramophone records that were given away as inlays with MSX Magazine, that you'd dub on tape, and you'd "load" programs off of the tape using the regular "data cassette recorder".

CB (Citizen's Band, 27 "megacycle") radio. ZX80. C64. Nuff said. The lava lamp! Duh! The strap-on (wait for it) keyboard (keyboard guitar).

The hearing aid. The answering machine remote control/handheld DTMF tone dialer. Also; the blue box! The minox sub-miniature "spy" camera (as seen in james bond). The SLR Single Lens Reflex camera. Automatic tweezers (They don't work particularly well, but they have a gadget-esque movement)

The portable DVD player. Toys robots (remote controlled, especially; the robosapiens is a good stab at the concept). Magnesium firestarters. (I'm the firestarter!)

Personal Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons (P-EPIRBs) RC cars, helicopters. E.g. The translator pen (scans text when you move across it, translates) The penman robotic plotter and of course the closely related concept of the Logo turtle..

The random movement printer (If and when it becomes widely available..) Lego mindstorms (programmable bricks..)

The most important hand-helds historically; the Smith&Wesson and the AK47.

Also, though not an autonomous device, nor mechanical, nominated for achievements in disrupting the global economy, I'd like to recognize bubblejet printer ink, for costing more than its weight in gold or oil.

Aerosol spray canisters; specifically,
every graffitti artist's friend: spraypaint and every gadget-minded geek's friend: deodorant (especially the miniature cans) and of course; aerosol cheese! Also, perhaps slightly more
palatable, mace pepper spray.

The electric toothbrush (with induction-loop-charging-circuit magic!)
Not the greatest gadget in history until you consider it's "dual use" nature, and the fact it's marketed so widely.

Sattellite TV. Not the most portable of gadgets, but come on! Windscreenwiper glasses. (Though more of a chindogu) The mac. The iMac for doing it twice. The aibo.

The "orgasmotron" (actually just a head massager, not at all naughty) Stylish pin clock. The keyghost hardware keystroke logger.

The digital camera. The digital photo frame.
The credit-card sized Anything, but in particular, the cre

what aspects of science? I often wonder about factual content of *drama* television. If you talk to real scientists discussing CSI this year on www.RRR.org.au (radio live to web) you would get comments like 'equipment product placement', 'test that take days, weeks are solved in hours', 'people who happen to have expert knowledge in too many areas'. I cant find the exact link to the show but a couple of forensic scientists working in St Vincents Hospital, Melbourne ripped the shreds as to the factual content let alone scient content.

Real science is about discovery, measuring, observing then (the kicker) do some experiments, observe and write it up. The closest I see on television that emulates this is the BBC nature programmes started by David Attenborough. Though Americans may probably be more familiar to that other David, Canadas own David Suzuki.

Watch a show from one of these blokes and you will see the difference b/w the candy-coated hollywood version and the real messy world. Which leads me to my next observation ...

inbetween miami vice and the simpsons

Today, the machine requires track to be laid. Tomorrow, it will walk onto the site and self-balance, compensating for its flexion and so on.

Some people have little or no money but need a computer (for their kids to study, whatever). In such cases our Linux User Group get donated old 486s with 16Mg RAM and small hard disks and install a small distro of Debian Woody that is configured to look as Windows like as possible.

In some cases users require Windows. This is where this type of thing is useful.

Found here:

Telomeres are found on the ends of chromosomes. They are a small sequence of DNA repeated many times. They act as protective "caps" and help to prevent chromosomal instability and damage. However the telomeres gradually shorten over the lifetime of the organism because they are not fully copied during cell division. The exception to this are germ-line cells, where telomeres are maintained so that full-length telomeres are passed on to the next generation.

Pretty interesting.... I didn't know that myself. Anyhow, don't thank me, thank google.

As terrible and horrific as it's been, I really can't stand that people are labelling it the "worst ever". Not being from the eastern side of Australia probably has something to do with the way I feel about this (yes, people west of Qld, NSW and Vic feel like they're in a different, neglected country), but it seems that people are forgetting that *the* worst fires *ever* were Ash Wednesday in SA and Vic on February 16, 1983:

2545 Buildings destroyed
75 People died
>390,000 Hectares burnt

source: http://sres.anu.edu.au/associated/fire/IUFRO/CONFL AG/ASHWED83/AW83.HTM

Don't get me wrong, the current predicament is terrible and serious, but please don't forget history or act like NSW is the only state that matters.

These are also some pages descibing that day:

http://www.abc.net.au/dimensions/dimensions_in_tim e/Transcripts/s678221.htm
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~gscfa/ash.htm
http://www.nre.vic.gov.au/4A25676D0022F2EE/BCView/ FAAF080E6756F7904A25679300155B2B?OpenDocument
http://www.historysmiths.com.au/CentFedPlayKit/eve nts/nature/1983_ash%20wednesday%20bushfires.htm

Google will help you find more.

My Bad, It was in Australia

except for when you get a Peregrine Falcon in full dive and it clocks up +150 kmph.

In a Melbourne street, just before dawn on Tuesday 12 September 2000, television cameras recorded a significant event in Australia's political history. Baton-wielding police, from the paramilitary Force Response Unit, swooped upon 50 citizens who were holding a political assembly on a major public issue. The police wore helmets and visors, making their faces unrecognisable. Furthermore, most had removed their personal name tags from their jackets, thereby becoming unaccountable.

The 50 civilians were sitting passively and quietly on the pavement at a vehicle gateway outside Melbourne's Crown Casino. ...

Read this, the best and most accurate report about the first "violent" protest in Australia, the unfortunately named "s11" protests on the 11th of September 2000.

The police were indeed mad, there were thousands of protestors, all as calm and determined as could be, and successful. The first day they were forced to ferry in the conference candidates individually by helicopter. Bill Gates called off his .NET speech at the nearby conference centre. On the order of a hundred thousand protestors, all behaving themselves, standing in front of the gates to the site.

Violence - one or two people wanted to attack the police lines, they were well and truly calmed down by a dozen to half a dozen people each.

Anyway, read the article. It's all true afaik.

Read this, the best and most accurate report about the first "violent" protest in Australia, the unfortunately named "s11" protests on the 11th of September 2000.

The police were indeed mad, there were thousands of protestors, all as calm and determined as could be, and successful. The first day they were forced to ferry in the conference candidates individually by helicopter. Bill Gates called off his .NET speech at the nearby conference centre. On the order of a hundred thousand protestors, all behaving themselves, standing in front of the gates to the site.

Violence - one or two people wanted to attack the police lines, they were well and truly calmed down by a dozen to half a dozen people each.

Anyway, read the article. It's all true afaik.

In 1970 to avoid some silly wheat quotas a bunch of australian farmers got together and officially gave our government the finger.

One friday afternoon they declared war on Australia and then accepted peace the following monday; declaring their independance. Of course our government hasn't said anything publically stating their position on the whole thing; they don't want to give the hutt river province any publicity.

Now they have over 13 000 citizens across the world (you can get mail-order citizenship), they avoid all government taxes, they have their own currency and are working on getting a seat in the UN.

The Hutt River Province is about the size of hong kong.

Of course there's heaps of sites about it on google including what i think is their official site

==

They played by the rules. Without doubt, they are a sovereign nation (check the history of Sealand if you don't believe me).

Sealand is about a sovereign as the Hutt River Province (i.e., not at all).

Citing a web site full of self-serving assertions does not "prove" anything.

They might have a chance at being considered effectively sovereign when they are admitted into an IGO, exchange accredited diplomats with someone - even North Korea, for heaven's sake - or, say, own some land which is not already the territory of another nation (i.e., the UK).

Here are some more, from Victoria.

what really scares the bejeezus outta me is modified smallpox.

to summarize the article, some guys in australia discovered by genetically modifying mousepox (pretty weak, like chicken pox) that they could turn it into a far, far deadlier virus which was pretty much immune to vaccines (!).

now, this kind of genetic modification isn't easy. but a vaccine-resistant strain of smallpox which kills somewhere up to 90% or so of people infected would really suck.

then again, maybe such a modification wouldn't work on smallpox like it does for mousepox. i hope.

I know the problem with the Ozone layer isn't strictly global warming (rather "global environmental change"), but it does strike me that this has caused real, physical harm to numerous people in australia/NZ. Someone else may have posted this (but ive been reading +3 ;-), But it also seems relevant to the argument "these scientists are making it up for polotical reasons blah FUD blah" or "I can't see it therefore it isnt real".

In the 1980's scientists warned of an increasing hole in the Ozone layer at the poles, which allowed increasing levels of UV light through. This vastly increased skin cancer rates, particularly in NZ/Australia.

The scientists said, stop using CFCs, and we did. And now the ozone hole is getting smaller again. But alot of people still dont trust the climate scientists!

Then open up a spreadsheet and figure out the financials yourself.

http://www.principality-sealand.net/en 00.htm
http://www.fruitsofthes ea.demon.co.uk/sealand/factfile.html

Sealand exists because it was "captured" in 1967, before the UK extended the range of its offshore authority. As a result, a British judge ruled that the UK govt. had no authority on the "island". The previous business deals which have involved the prinicipality (it's a principality due to an odd regulation stating that no one may be convicted of treason for aiding a prince in gaining his land, much like the Hutt River Province in Australia) have been a little shady, and the platform was once attacked by helicoptors sent by a business associate of "Prince" Roy.

Sealand exists in a bizarre position: I don't think the UK considers it independent, but they cannot legally do a damn thing about it.

Even the simplest tracking strategy, raw bandwidth use, is problemmatic. A large percentage of net traffic never goes through any of the concentrated access points, and as more private companies expand their networks, this will increase. If they cannot even track bandwidth, they certainly cannot monitor the content of that traffic to a sufficient extent to determine what is commercial and what is not.

To some extent, they could assess incorporated businesses which ship products ordered over the Internet, but this is just an extension of mail order. And much Internet commerce involves services which are not shipped at all.

At the moment, only a small percentage of commerce happens on the Internet, as compared with traditional stores, mail and telephone order. But over time, this will certainly increase to a point where a considerable portion is online. And if governments seek to shift the tax burden to non-connected businesses, it will only accelerate this trend.

Ultimately, taxes on commerce will become impractical altogether. At this point, a return to land assessment will become a very necessary alternative.

For some economic & political implications of this, you may find some of the following links interesting:

EarthSharing Homepage

Dan Sullivan's essays:
Real Libertarians and Royal Libertarians
Greens and Libertarians