Do not attempt this at home (greenhouse policy explained)

In their inimitable style, John Clark and Brian Dawe make the current state of Australian climate change politics crystal clear, right here.

Radiation Dose Chart

The news from Fukushima and the continuing drama about whether the six reactors can successfully be brought to a safe and stable condition has, quite understandably, got people all over the world worrying about the hazards of nuclear radiation. 

The hazards from an uncontrolled event are very real. There is no safe dose, and no-one should fall for the silly and irresponsible material that has been circulating on the web and in the twittersphere to the effect that small amounts of radiation are good for you. They are not.

On the other hand, we are exposed to ionising radiation every moment of our lives, and the modest risks associated with low doses or with infrequent higher doses under controlled conditions are something we all need to live with. In a wide range of medical circumstances the risks of exposure to ionising radiation are the better part of the risks of failing to make a timely diagnosis.

Most people are aware that medical radiation can be harmful, but very few are aware of the small doses we receive every day of our lives, or the relativities of the different sources of radiation.

The Radiation Dose Chart at http://xkcd.com/radiation/ sets it out very nicely. There are many things to be discovered here; I will point out just a few. By way of background, the standard unit for absorbed dose is the sievert (Sv), hopefully measured in millionths of a sievert (microsieverts μSv) or thousands of a sievert (millisieverts mSv).

Now for some comparisons. According to the data painstakingly compiled on the chart:

-  Living for a year within 50 miles of a nuclear power plant for a year (0.09 μSv) involves just under twice the exposure you get from sleeping next to someone (0.05 μSv), and slightly less than you get from eating a banana (0.1 μSv)

-  If you live within 50 miles of a coal fired power station for a year you will absorb 0.3 μSv, more than three times the exposure  of someone who lives within 50 miles of a nuclear power station for a year (0.09 μSv)

-  That in turn is less than a third of what you would receive from an arm X-ray or using a CRT monitor for a year (1 μSv)

-  These in turn are only a tenth of the dose from background radiation received by an average person on a normal day (10 μSv)

-  Which is only a quarter of what you would receive taking a single flight from New York to Los Angeles (40 μSv)

- Living in a stone, brick or concrete building for a year involves higher exposure again (70 μSv)

-  All of which pale into insignificance alongside a single mammogram (3 mSv, i.e., 3000 μSv), which is roughly comparable to the normal yearly background dose (about 3.65 mSv)

The fact is that just about everything is radioactive to some degree.

Vale Lewis Harold Border

It is with great sadness that I reproduce below a death notice which appeared in The Canberra Times, 19 March 2011:

 BORDER Lewis Harold AO, MVO.
Former Australian Ambassador
16.4.1920 - 11.3.2011
At home. A long life, well lived in devotion to his family and service to his country.

Beloved and loving husband, father and grandfather. Privately cremated, at his request.

Lewis Border, with whom I had some dealings when he was Deputy Secretary, Department of Foreign Affairs in the early 1970s, was at The Armidale School (TAS) with my father and shared a room with him and another TAS old boy, Ken James, when the New England University College opened for classes in 1938.

Lewis Border appears at top left of the photograph of the New England University Rugby Team 1939.

Residential arrangements, NEUC, 1947

The following is an extract from The New England University College Calendar 1947-8, issued November 1947.

7. – THE RESIDENTIAL SYSTEM

“Residence at university age is absolutely essential to an all-round education.” – (Truscott).

Students at The New England University College are required to be in residence at the College unless they are married or unless they live in Armidale with their parents or legal guardians. The New England University College is unique among universities in Australia in being almost completely residential, and its students gain more from this corporate life than is possible at other universities in this country. It is interesting to note that Melbourne University in 1947 embarked on a similar scheme, establishing a residential branch at Mildura for first year students only in the Faculties of Architecture, Dental Science, Engineering and Medicine.

There are at present twelve university residences. Within the university grounds students live in the old mansion, “Boolominbah”, and in two small cottages, the Lodge and the sub-Lodge. The remainder of the students live in Armidale in nine large houses, eight of which are leased by the University and the ninth, “Comeytrowe,” was bequeathed to the University by the late Mrs. J.J. Bliss. All meals, other than supper, which is provided in each residence, are served in the dining hall at “Booloominbah”, and students living in the town houses are transported to and from the university each day in university subsidised ’buses. A regular service is also maintained by the Armidale ’bus proprietor between the city and the University.

 Special classes are conducted during term for first year students in residence. Non-resident students may attend these classes on payment of £1 per term for one subject, £1/10/- per term for two subjects, and £2 per term for three or more subjects.

The residence fee for the academic year (normally 28 weeks) is £60, payable for convenience in instalments of £20 within the first week of lectures of each of three terms. An additional Residential Entrance fee of £2 is charged when the student first comes into residence, and at present each student is required to contribute 11/- yearly to a medical fund, which entitles him, under certain conditions, to free medical treatment.  Except for the Christmas period, students may be permitted to remain in residence during vacations at a charge of 35/- per week.  All students should allow for a probable extra four weeks at this reduced charge to cover the period of the annual examinations. These residence fees cover all furniture, linen and equipment, but do not include personal laundry. Laundries and laundry equipment are available to students in all residences.

University residences are normally supervised by a member of the teaching staff or a senior student acting as “sub-warden”, and by a housekeeper. Students are required to enter into residence at the beginning of the academic year and to remain in residence during the remainder of the year in which they enrol, vacation periods excepted. No student may go out of residence before the last day of lectures each term, or be out of College overnight, without the permission of the Registrar.

Formal launch of CRC-ACS

Friday 25 February 2011 saw the formal launch in Melbourne of the Cooperative Research Centre for Advance Composite Structures, which was re-funded from 1 July 2010 to 30 June 2015 in the latest Commonwealth Government CRC Round.

Under revised corporate governance arrangements for the CRC it has a skills based board with two independent directors, of which I am one.

I have placed a full post on CRC-ACS on the AADI Defence Pty Ltd blog – access it here.

SMH on Emma Buzo

A rather nice piece on Emma Buzo was published in the Monday 21 February edition of The Sydney Morning Herald. Unfortunately it does not seem to be in the online edition, so I reproduce it in full below.

For an earlier post on Emma and the company she founded to promote her father’s work, see The Alex Buzo Company.

A father’s legacy takes centre stage

Natalie Muller

Few people follow in their father’s footsteps to the extent that Emma Buzo has done.

The Sydney-based actor and theatre producer has moved to Armidale to teach at The Armidale School, where the late Australian playwright, Alex Buzo, first discovered his love for language and drama about 60 years ago.

She is also teaching his first play, Norm and Ahmed, which rose to national prominence in the late ‘60s after being at the centre of a fierce censorship battle, being banned in three states.

Now the work is part of the HSC drama syllabus and year 12 students at The Armidale School would be hard pressed to find someone more qualified than the author’s own daughter to teach it.

“They’re being taught by the daughter of the playwright at the school the playwright went to,” Buzo says. “I know the background and can talk about the inspiration behind it that hasn’t been published anywhere.”

After the theatre great’s death in 2006, Buzo founded the Alex Buzo company and produced several plays, including Norm and Ahmed, under its banner. Then she lobbied to get the text included in the 2010-2012 HSC syllabus.

The play’s themes of racial tension, as valid today as they were in the 1960s, are talking points in the classroom. “It’s eerie, the journey of that play,” Buzo says.

“Since 9/11 and the Cronulla riots, it’s only gathered momentum.”

Buzo says exposure to theatre was lacking in regional schools.

Besides teaching drama, she will also manage the school’s Hoskins Theatre, a 200-seat performance space, where she is hoping to bring theatre professionals from around Australia.

Buzo says she is excited to evoke the potential in her students.

“It only takes one teacher who sees the potential in a student,” she said. “I hope I can light the flame, because once an interest is established they’ll seek more.”

The school’s headmaster, Murray Guest, says her experience in the industry is a plus.

“That means a lot for the boys, that she is not a teacher pretending to be a theatre producer, she’s the real thing,” he says.

Buzo has been a teacher for the last 15 years and has taught at NIDA and the Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP).

Greg Mitchell’s list of WikiLeaks revelations

US blogger Greg Mitchell, who has been following the WikiLeaks story very closely (blogging developments in real time since the beginning) has recently posted on Huffington Post (www.huffingtonpost.com) a list of the major revelations that have come from the cables released so far.

It’s quite a list, and should dispose once and for all with the claim that there is “nothing new” in the WikiLeaks cables.

Among my favourites in Mitchell’s list is the fact that in 2009 the UK promised to protect US interests in the official Chilcot inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the start of the Iraq invasion – just in case you thought that this would be a no holds barred quest for the truth.

Another is the fact that Israel wanted to bring Gaza to the brink of economic collapse – just in case you thought that Israel wasn’t into collective punishment of the hapless citizens of Gaza.

A somewhat surprising revelation is the fact that Iraqi government officials see Saudi Arabia, not Iran, as the biggest threat to the integrity and cohesion of their fledgling state.

The fact that Saudi donors remain the chief financiers of Sunni militant groups like Al Qaeda is one “revelation” that genuinely does come under the rubric “nothing new”.

For Mitchell’s full list, click here.