Botanical Jazz and Entropic Fathoming @botanicaljazz-blog - Tumblr Blog

On the Saturday 15th November, I had the immense privilege - thanks to an invitation from the Premier of Queensland - to attend the remarks by the President of the United States, Barack Obama, at the University of Queensland during the Group of 20 Leaders Summit in Brisbane. Ironically, in February this year I had the honour to touring the White House, yet Obama came all the way to my home city and my own university to deliver a historic speech on American leadership in the Asia-Pacific region. President Obama was both articulate and elegant, both sincere and at time humorous, both targeted and principled, both inspirational and grounded in his oration. Some highlights:

"I love Australia -- I really do. The only problem with Australia is every time I come here I’ve got to sit in conference rooms and talk to politicians instead of go to the beach."

"This city, this part of Australia, is just stunning -- beautiful one day, and then perfect the next. My staff was very excited for BrisVegas. When I arrived they advised I needed some XXXX. You have some."

"Now, this week, I’ve travelled more than 15,000 miles -- from America to China to Burma to Australia. I have no idea what time it is right now."

"But despite that distance, we know that our world is getting smaller. One of Australia’s great writers spoke of this -- a son of Brisbane and a graduate of this university, David Malouf. And he said, “In that shrinking of distance that is characteristic of our contemporary world, even the Pacific, largest of oceans, has become a lake.” Even the Pacific has become a lake."

"As we develop, as we focus on our economy, we cannot forget the need to lead on the global fight against climate change. Now, I know there’s been a healthy debate in this country about it. Here in the Asia Pacific, nobody has more at stake when it comes to thinking about and then acting on climate change."

"Citizens, especially the next generation, you have to keep raising your voices, because you deserve to live your lives in a world that is cleaner and that is healthier and that is sustainable. But that is not going to happen unless you are heard."

"We will stand up for our gay and lesbian fellow citizens, because they need to be treated equally under the law."

"I believe that the best measure of whether a nation is going to be successful is whether they are tapping the talents of their women and treating them as full participants in politics and society and the economy."

#barack obama #university of queensland #g20brisbane #president of the united states

I am afraid I have no dramatic answer to offer: only that if these ultimate human values by which we live are to be pursued, then compromises, trade-offs, arrangements have to be made if the worst is not to happen. So much liberty for so much equality, so much individual self-expression for so much security, so much justice for so much compassion. My point is that some values clash: the ends pursued by human beings are all generated by our common nature, but their pursuit has to be to some degree controlled—liberty and the pursuit of happiness, I repeat, may not be fully compatible with each other, nor are liberty, equality, and fraternity.

Isaiah Berlin.

25/11/1994.

Randomness is a very difficult concept, of which probability theory attempts to make some sense. The Greek word ``στόχος" (stokhakistikos) has the right conceptual idea of our project -- it means `capable of guessing' from the word stokhastes, a `diviner'. In a sense, probabilities are our `best guess' under an information set, though few probabilists would still claim divination powers. This attempt to give structure to that which we inherently cannot see, the world of \emph{random events} has required mathematical foundations - from set theory to measure theory to optimization to geometry.

"Approximating Laplace Transforms of Heavy-tailed Distributions" by D. J. Gibbons, MSc (UQ).

#randomness #probability theory #mathematics

From Little Things, Big Things Grow preformed by Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody at Gough Whitlam memorial service in Sydney Town Hall (05/11/2014).

Vale, Gough Whitlam. 1916-2014.

Prime Minister of Australia. 1972-1975.

"The country would change for ever. The modern, cosmopolitan Australia finally emerged like a technicolour butterfly from its long-dormant chrysalis." - Noel Pearson, Aboriginal-Australian advocate.

So many highlights from the service -- from Kerry O'Brien's insights to Noel Pearson's eulogy and from Cate Blanchett's reflection to the performances of music pre-selected by Gough by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

My grandfather -- Grandpa Jack, a former solider, labourer, and President of the Queensland Transport Workers Union -- had the privilege of serving as an industrial relations policy advisor to Gough when he was the Federal Leader of the Opposition. Grandpa Jack, who was actually the same height as Gough Whitlam at the very tall height of 6'4" feet, said that Gough was a man of fierce passion and love of the common human and the last great political visionary.

#australian politics #auspol #gough whitlam #progressive politics #australian labor party #gough #it's time

Blackadder and Churchill.

Have no mean hours, but be grateful for every hour, and accept what it brings. The reality will make any sincere record respectable. No day will have been wholly misspent, if one sincere, thoughtful page has been written. Let the daily tide leave some deposit on these pages, as it leaves sand and shells on the shore. So much increase of terra firma. This may be a calendar of the ebbs and flows of the soul; and on these sheets as a beach, the waves may cast up pearls and seaweed.

Henry David Thoreau. Journal. 06/07/1840.