After a rather dry Winter and early Spring,things have suddenly turned wet, with something like 50mm of rain in the last few days. You may remember me saying a few months ago that Dorrigo just east of us had about 800 mm of rain in few days. That's just risen by another 400 mm! Let's hope that Armidale has even more rain to give us and the local farmers a great start to the summer season. Our garden looked fairly brown until last weekend, but it has visibly perked up in the last few days. The only downside are the 'cold' temperatures ... about 17 degrees C. That might seem wonderful to my UK readers, but we were getting used to the low twenties until the rain arrived.
AS
Wednesday 28 October 2009
In an experiment, I've just signed up for Twitter, but haven't yet tweeted. Could you please let me know if you have aa Twitter account so that I can follow your tweets? For example, I tried to find Emily Sorensen and Rebecca Sorensen but you'd never believe how many of them have got accounts ... and none identifiable as my daughters!
By the way, my Twitter name is a boring: TonySorensen. To follow me, or anyone else, you need a Twitter account.
AS
By the way, my Twitter name is a boring: TonySorensen. To follow me, or anyone else, you need a Twitter account.
AS
Sunday 4 October 2009
Decoupling
I'm currently invovled in several projects which involve long-term scenario construction or more general forecasting. For me, the future has always been more interesting than the past.
I've just been reading about the awesome potential computing power of future quantum computers and am looking forward to the day when my computer with a few hundred qubit capacity could store more numbers than there are thought to be atoms in the universe!! And I'm writing an article with a colleague from the University of Queensland on wicked problems, social messes and the relevance of quantum mechanics for the solution of increasingly complex urban planning problems through the extension of the idea of private - public partnerships (PPP).
And, as consultant to Australia's cotton industry, I'm looking at the future of Australian agriculture. This is mind-boggling task, not least because I'm trying to balance still explosive population growth, a likely decline in productive agricultural land, rising unavailability (and price) of conventional fuels, galloping technolgical development (which are vast in agriculture alone), huge economic growth in south and east Asia (and the GRIC countries) with associated consumption of different agricultural commodities, the transformation of agriculture from family operation to corporate enterprise ... now well under way in Australia, and the globalisation of agribusiness (now also well under way here with Chinese companies now buying up the Australian farm so to speak. On top of this, Australia's population is now expected grow faster than the world's in the next 40 years ... the only developed economy in this position. Our current 22 million population is now forecast to be c. 36 million by 2050, with an annual growth rate >2%.
Well, all this is considerable fun, even if hair-rising. Perhaps my acute lack of hair reduces the fraught side of the equation. Anyway, I've long thought that strong future orientation is one of the elixirs of life, so perhaps i'm in the process of extending my life span by a decade or so.
AS
I've just been reading about the awesome potential computing power of future quantum computers and am looking forward to the day when my computer with a few hundred qubit capacity could store more numbers than there are thought to be atoms in the universe!! And I'm writing an article with a colleague from the University of Queensland on wicked problems, social messes and the relevance of quantum mechanics for the solution of increasingly complex urban planning problems through the extension of the idea of private - public partnerships (PPP).
And, as consultant to Australia's cotton industry, I'm looking at the future of Australian agriculture. This is mind-boggling task, not least because I'm trying to balance still explosive population growth, a likely decline in productive agricultural land, rising unavailability (and price) of conventional fuels, galloping technolgical development (which are vast in agriculture alone), huge economic growth in south and east Asia (and the GRIC countries) with associated consumption of different agricultural commodities, the transformation of agriculture from family operation to corporate enterprise ... now well under way in Australia, and the globalisation of agribusiness (now also well under way here with Chinese companies now buying up the Australian farm so to speak. On top of this, Australia's population is now expected grow faster than the world's in the next 40 years ... the only developed economy in this position. Our current 22 million population is now forecast to be c. 36 million by 2050, with an annual growth rate >2%.
Well, all this is considerable fun, even if hair-rising. Perhaps my acute lack of hair reduces the fraught side of the equation. Anyway, I've long thought that strong future orientation is one of the elixirs of life, so perhaps i'm in the process of extending my life span by a decade or so.
AS
Advance Planning
I had January River as the venue for the 2016 Olympics at about 5-1 on, and the outcome was no surprise. Indeed, I can't imagine how anyone in the world picked Tokyo, Chicago, or Madrid. Anyway, I have very good friends in Rio and humorously congratulated them by email on their win. I've met Ana and Scott every year for the last decade or more in 10 different countries on 4 continents (North America excepted) and we share common research interests. And now, as of this morning, Dot and I have an invitation to stay with them in Rio in 2016. That's good planning.
That sets me thinking. Would any of my UK readers be able to put us up in 2012 for the London games? As a quid pro quo, we run an open house here for those dropping by, but business has been a bit slow in recent years!
AS
That sets me thinking. Would any of my UK readers be able to put us up in 2012 for the London games? As a quid pro quo, we run an open house here for those dropping by, but business has been a bit slow in recent years!
AS
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