A tension between scientific veracity and the magic of television By Niraj Lal In 2018 I was invited to be the Guest Physicist for an episode of Aussie Inventions, a series produced by Northern Pictures for Foxtel. The episode focused on the Australian father and son team of William and Lawrence Bragg and their discovery…
theknews.org Things we once knew – in support of distilled knowledge and persistent wisdom. A place to find and contribute the best knuggets of wisdom on any #topic. – Niraj Lal, Nick Binnington, August 2016 not for profit. Knuts and bolts on how it works theknews.org will one day store the best available…
An Areopagitic oath for journalism A first attempt by Niraj Lal, July 2016 Borrowing from: L. Lasagna, “The modern Hippocratic oath”, 1964, Tufts University, USA. G. Monbiot “A Hippocratic oath for journalists”, 2011, http://www.monbiot.com/2011/07/11/a-hippocratic-oath-for-journalists/ J. Milton “Areopagitica”, 1644, A speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing to the Parliament of England. London. W. Williams, “A…
Congrats on finishing your undergrad. Getting a university degree isn’t easy and is probably harder now than before with the pressures of part-time work, tenuous housing and future massive HELP debts. Being smart – you’re likely aware of the option to study for a PhD. Maybe your honours supervisor has approached you about doing one,…
noisevssignal.org Scaremail Bulk surveillance is employed by governments because it is easy. Computers are able to quickly and cheaply scan our electronic communications, automatically raising alerts for potential threats (however defined) to pass to human agents. Trained humans are expensive – so most work is automated; the low cost of computing is what allows bulk…
This Easter, millions of kids around the world will go on an Easter Egg Hunt and have a ball doing it. My chickens recently taught me why. Exactly forty-six days before Easter Sunday, devout Christians embark on Lent – a period of religious penance that traditionally includes abstinence from eating rich foods including meat,…
noisevssignal.org Noise vs Signal is a form of digital protest against bulk surveillance. Who is opposed to targeted surveillance? No-one sane. But the bulk untargeted surveillance of all digital communications is dangerous, unethical and unconstitutional. Must we forego use of the internet to avoid surveillance? Perhaps. Must we route all digital traffic through the…
Prime Minister Tony Abbott vows to cut funding for ‘wasteful’ research. Coalition spokesperson on Scrutiny of Government Waste, James Briggs MP suggests Australian research should be “about the better future for our country, not about funding some interesting thought bubble that some academic sitting away in a university somewhere has come up with”. There are…
By Niraj Lal, WikiLeaks Party National Council member, March-December 2013 with images by Banksy Original article here (with images retained): http://www.wikileaksparty.org.au/why-i-support-wikileaks-and-the-wikileaks-party/ No longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and the duress of small groups of dominant men. –…
The greatest threat to democracy By Niraj Lal In 2010, Washington D.C. elected a robot to public office. This robot wasn’t a bland product of party politics but one Bender Bending Rodriguez, the drunken suicidal robot from Futurama, a cartoon series by the creators of The Simpsons. The election was run by the Washington D.C. Board…
Niraj Lal 