Playing Doctor

Super bowl

So I went to a bonafide real American super bowl party last weekend. It is serious business. There was an interview with President Obama in the two hour long preamble to the game, yes the super bowl is even bigger than the president.

The guest list at this party was more concerned with getting together on a Sunday afternoon/evening and enjoying some food and time together, and maybe the super bowl ads. But the message was clear that even people who aren't into football do this. Football is huge here, they screen regular season games on televisions in the departure lounges of airports as some sort of public service.

Buffalo Wings are compulsory and obligatory on super bowl Sunday. There are catering firms that just pump out x amount of wings on the Sunday for super bowl parties. They're ok, but some people take it too far. The guacamole is also an important fixture.

The half time performance is kind of big deal. I complied when The Boss demanded I step away from the guacamole dip, which I was reaching for with a corn chip. A lively performance ensued, with the E-street band, which included a very well dressed saxophonist. There was a lot of speculation in the group on how high and or drunk the nearly sixty year old Bruce Springsteen was. This only intensified after Bruce managed to hump the entirety of the US. My friend's new 60" plasma, Tivo, and slow motion have burned this image on to my retinas for eternity.

Inauguration

America's first black president has been sworn in. It took about 233 years but I'm glad I was able to witness it. I'm very jealous of a well connected friend who managed to acquire tickets to attend the event in the flesh. I saw it on television, in a nice warm building. An acceptable trade since it was below freezing and threatened to snow in D.C.

It was the first presidential inauguration that I had actually bothered to watch. I'm probably a bit caught up in the Obama hype. It was over pretty quickly especially after all that time and effort Obama spent trying to get into office it is a bit surreal that he finally is president. I'm so glad he is, given the alternative. I don't know if I could have coped with that. The honeymoon will probably be over pretty quickly when the promised change takes a long time to come and inevitable compromises are made. In any event the world could be convinced that there were good reasons for the compromises to be made not merely incompetence or greed. At least he seems to be off to a good start with the Guantanamo Bay trial suspensions (although now they are being held without trial even longer!), and new rules for whitehouse staff.

I thought the inauguration went pretty well but I could have done without Rick Warren or that particular poem that Elizabeth Alexander chose. Most of all I am happy to finally have a world without Bush. Even if the consequences of his (Cheney's) disasterous 'leadership' still stain the globe.

Free Copy

NY Times for 9/4/2009 on 11/12/2008
Originally uploaded by phdstudent

Walking through Times square, there were two guys handing out free copies of the New York Times. Although most people seemed to be ignoring them, It seemed harmless enough. I took one.

Turns out it was something a little different. At first I thought it was a regular thing by some really far left group to raise consciousness in a very right leaning country. Turns out it was the Yes Men! These guys do some great stuff.

US election

I am so glad that Obama won. How could anyone vote for that utterly non-sensical republican ticket? People were yelling in the street on the evening of the 4th after the election was called for Obama. Things felt different here on the morning of the 5th. I felt different. It really did seem as if a tangible hope filled the air and everyone knew it.

The day the campus stood still

According to the University, the storm damaged 70 buildings across campus from minor to extensive. The campus is closed tomorrow too. No classes or anything except emergency circumstances until Friday.

Another much smaller storm with some patches of very heavy rain came through before. I hope they got tarps up over all the holes in the roofs.

Am I using this forced time away from experimental work productively? Of course! I've been writing at home since 11:30 am.

The aftermath

So the ANU campus is closed today. The storm last night damaged a lot of buildings, including RSBS. I wanted to do mass spectrometry today but we weren't even allowed into the building. There were people at the door saying 'You can't come in'. Even when we tried another entrance!

The campus is closed today, 28 February 2007, due to storm damage. Staff and
students are urged to stay off campus while safety and damage assessments are made.
Further updates will be posted on ANU Billboard throughout the day at
http://billboard.anu.edu.au/news.asp 

Professor Lawrence Cram
Acting Vice-Chancellor 

At home writing today then.

The ride through town was interesting too. Front end loaders were scooping hailstones off the street and dumping them onto trucks to haulage. There was some heavy rain just a moment ago as well. The Canberra Center was also closed because of storm damage. It seems our leaky house stood up pretty well compared to other buildings around campus.

Big storm

  Hail Storm
  Originally uploaded by phdstudent.

There was the most ridiculous storm here this evening. It started off like a dry electrical storm, heaps of sheet lightning. Then it rained heavily shortly followed by golf ball sized hail stones. They were being thrown hard into the south side of the house. It was very loud. The hail bounced off and around the balcony while I tried to get my laundry in. It hurt a bit when a few stones hit me. They were really whizzing around.

Water started dripping through a light fitting upstairs. The light was off, but the filament glowed dimly. We cut the fuse to the lighting. There are tea-lights on around the house in appropriate containers at the moment.

The hail blocked drains and water flowed over the spouting in great torrents all around the complex with the heavy rain. The ground was white with hail. The air became thick with a herbaceous smell from the tree foliage that had been shredded by the hailstones.

It was a mad hour of weather. It's over now, but the hail is still lying out there.

Cruel and unusual: Megumi Ogawa's Struggle for Assessment

It's a strange and stressful time for most PhD students, getting into the last months of their scholarship and enrolment. I'm not sure if I've heard of a case worse than Megumi's though. It's not been helped by Australia's legendarily humane immigration system.

Australia unable to last until extra time

The Azzurri are triumphant, as many thought but dared to hope against. It is extremely unfortunate that the match was decided by a poor referee decision. The bad decisions went both ways though: the Italians playing the second half with only ten men due to a questionable red card. Both of these rulings added much tension to the proceedings and both the Italian and Australian crowds bayed for the referee's blood at each of these judgements.

The quality of the officiating on Australia's path has been the subject of much discussion. First, the perception that referees were too hard on Australia, possibly because they were thought of as rough thugs. Notably, the match against Croatia where one Croatian recieved three yellow cards before being sent off. On top of this the penalty goal shot awarded to Italy where none existed, blatantly.

Interest in the game must have grown in Australia and this is certainly the sort of thing that gets written about for a while to come. Football really was the winner on the day, neither the Australian or Italian teams seemed to really deserve the win.

When all is said and done however, the match was very entertaining to watch. I was quite taken up in it, my heart racing as goals seemed tantalisingly close on both sides repeatedly. Australia's lacakadasical approach to attack was extremely frustrating however.

To see the Australians lose one - nil during the 95th minute, in such a fashion was terrible. They did deserve, at least, some extra time at the World Cup.

Soccerwhos?

The media reports that Australia is currently going bonkers with 'football fever', that what was previously 'wogball' is now a national obsession (despite the banal alliteration). This is all thanks to the Australian soccer team qualifying for the world cup, amazing enough in itself, but more so because they have continued to play well enough to survive the group play and make it to the group of sixteen. Now they face Italy and almost certain elimination, but it's been fun so far. Of course, it is all because of Guus Hiddink, he worked magic for the Koreans and he is doing it again. What a difference a coach makes! (Laurie Mains where are you!?)

Interesting for me (and a source of some consternation for my fiance) is that I have been cheering for the Aussies. I think it natural to want the underdog to win, except in the upcoming bledisloe cup matches where I sincerely hope that the Wallabies will be trod into the mud.