Accounting collides with Botany

I suppose this means we need at least 12 billion of these trees to offset humanities breathe…

CSIRAC – World’s oldest computer

At the heart of Melbourne Museum, there’s an exhibit that looks like a set of old metal gym lockers, stuffed with racks of valves, wires and other old electronic equipment. It’s actually a computer, Australia’s first and only the fourth built in the world. Despite its humble appearance, in the minds of many, it’s the most significant computer around today. Because it’s the only machine of its era left on the planet.

“Of the handful of computers operating before 1950 it’s the only one still intact,” says Peter Thorne, of the sprawling behemoth. “Also, we’re pretty confident now that it was the first computer in the world to play computer music, which is essentially the birth of multimedia. That happened in 1951, exactly 50 years ago.”

Called CSIRAC – after the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (later CSIRO) which built the machine in 1949 – it weighed a couple of tonnes and sucked enough electricity to power an entire suburban street.

“It used vacuum tubes or valves which lit up,” says Thorne, recently retired from Melbourne University’s computer science department and an expert on computer history.

“These were the electronics of the time and they weren’t terribly reliable”. Indeed, compared to computers available today, CSIRAC’s grunt seems laughable. It ran at 0.001 megahertz, with 2000 bytes of memory and a mere 2500 bytes of storage. By comparison, a typical desktop PC today has a processing speed of 500 megahertz, with 64 megabytes of memory and a hard disk containing 10 gigabytes (10,000 million bytes) of storage.

Nonetheless, to the people who used it, CSIRAC was magic.

“Before CSIRAC, if you wanted to do mathematical calculations in Australia, you hired a person, usually a woman, who used a calculating machine – either mechanical or hand-cranked,” says Thorne.

“He or she could do about one operation a second, whereas CSIRAC could do 1000 operations a second. You only used CSIRAC for an hour at a time but you could do the amount of work that would otherwise have taken 20 people a week.”

The newfound computational power was initially used by scientists researching everything from the thermal properties of buildings to the mysteries of the cosmos. It had a hand in the design of several early Australian skyscrapers and was instrumental in performing the river flow analysis needed to build the Snowy Mountains hydro-electric scheme. And it substantially increased the reliability of weather forecasting.

Later there were commercial applications, such as loan repayment calculations – the kind of thing a bank can do for you now as you stand at the counter, but which in those days was considered quite remarkable.

But it was CSIRAC’s ability to play music that has helped ensure its place in computing history. It seems the first tunes were played between 1951 and 1953, and these are now believed to be the earliest played anywhere in the world.

By 1954, however, things were changing. A new generation of faster computers was on the horizon. The transistor had been invented and it was clear any move to build a transistorised version of CSIRAC would be a very substantial project. Despite its impressive record, CSIRO subsequently terminated the project.

After the computer project in Sydney was terminated, CSIRAC was transferred to Melbourne University where it was used by university and CSIRO staff for another nine years. It was here that its circle of influence widened, with the first computing courses run for people outside the university.
Word got out to the ordinary citizens too, although early expectations were not always realistic. Staff were often besieged by calls from the public wanting answers to questions in the television quiz shows that were popular at the time, for example.

While other early computers were cannibalised so their parts could be used for later models, CSIRAC’s use as a computing workhorse actually helped ensure its survival. By the time it was turned off in 1964, it was the oldest working computer in the world.

Sadly, it’s not an option to make CSIRAC operational again today. Time has taken a toll on this fragile dinosaur.

So what exactly would happen if anyone tried to relive the magic by switching it on?

“A lot of its components would not stand having voltages applied to them again,” says Thorne. “I think it would probably catch fire.”

http://www.abc.net.au/science/slab/csirac/

Graduate seminar at the half way point

As part of the Graduate Seminar subject, all students take a turn in running a class. You also get to choose what topic you are going to present. That means there is a widely varying range of topics that we are being exposed to. So far we have looked at: The role for nuclear energy in biodiversity conservation, safety assessment of GM plants, next generation monitoring using environmental dna, human population reduction and environmental problems, antibiotic resistance and environmental contaminants and restoration and ecosystem services and biodiversity. Wow – what an eclectic bunch of environmental issues to cover. Then last week, we had my favorite two topics to date: Bias in the media, and Uncertainty in science.

The first paper we looked at demonstrated that US prestige-press coverage of global warming from 1988 to 2002 contributed to a significant divergence of popular discourse from scientific discourse. This failed discursive translation resulted from an accumulation of tactical media responses and practices guided by widely accepted journalistic norms. Through content analysis of US prestige press (New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the Wall Street Journal) the paper focused on the norm of balanced reporting, and showed that the prestige press’s adherence to balance actually leads to biased coverage of both anthropogenic contributions to global warming and resultant action.

Next we looked at how uncertainty is pervasive in ecology where the difficulties of dealing with sources of uncertainty are exacerbated by variation in the system itself. Attempts at classifying uncertainty in ecology have, for the most part, focused exclusively on epistemic uncertainty. In the paper, uncertainty was classified into two main categories: epistemic uncertainty (uncertainty in determinate facts) and linguistic uncertainty (uncertainty in language). In particular, the authors demonstrated the importance of recognizing the effect of linguistic uncertainty, by developing a clear understanding of the various types of uncertainty, how they arise and how they might best be dealt with.

After Shakespeare exhibition

On 23 April 1616, the poet and playwright William Shakespeare died, at the age of 52. To mark the 400th anniversary of his death, the Baillieu Library’sAfter Shakespeare exhibition explores the author’s legacy, both in terms of writers who imitated or adapted his works (that is, literally wrote ‘after’ his style) and in terms of Shakespeare’s reputation and significance in the four centuries after his demise, with a particular emphasis on how his work has been received in Australia.

The University Library exhibition After Shakespeare brings together early folios of Shakespeare’s works (1632, 1685), 19th-century playbills and costume sketches from State Library Victoria and a unique prompt book for a slated goldrush-era performance of Antony and Cleopatra in Melbourne. Drawing on items from the University’s extensive cultural collections, including the Rare Book Collection, the Baillieu Library Print Collection and University of Melbourne Archives  After Shakespeare is evidence of the enduring importance for audiences of the English language’s most influential writer.

The exhibition has been presented by the exhibitions team from Research and Collections at the University Library, with expert advice from Dr David McInnis, Gerry Higgins Lecturer in Shakespeare Studies in the University’s English and Theatre Studies Program. Dr McInnis says the impact and influence of Shakespeare’s work is global and far-reaching in the way it has changed literature and language. “The 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death allows us to pause and reflect on the endurance of his legacy and the way contemporary life still finds affinity with the stories, language and insights of the Bard,” Dr McInnis said.

“Shakespeare’s plays were amongst the precious few books brought to Australia by Captain Cook on his ship, The Endeavour,” he said. “His plays were performed consistently in Australia throughout the 19th and 20th centuries and have a strong role in shaping Australian literary history.”

The exhibition reflects Shakespeare’s huge body of work alongside objects that provide ready prompts for stories. The exhibition features unpublished works from the Germaine Greer collection at University of Melbourne Archives. Dr Greer completed her thesis on issues of gender, love and marriage in Shakespeare’s works. It also includes a rare script prepared for The Barry Humphries show on BBC TV ‘Edna takes us to Stratford on Avon’, which open new avenues for discussion.

Also on display are costumes and objects from the Melbourne Theatre Company amd programs from the Melbourne University Shakespeare Company and Union House Reperatory Theatre. After Shakespeare offers a rare glimpse of important Shakespeariana from Melbourne and Australia.

Its a gas – dentistry and cartoons

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‘It’s a gas!’ is a common expression meaning ‘it’s hilarious’ or ‘it’s funny’. The origin of this phrase might be the effect of nitrous oxide (commonly referred to as ‘laughing gas’) on one’s behaviour. Nitrous oxide gas was first used to anaesthetise a dental patient in 1844, transforming dentistry, bringing significant improvements to patients’ wellbeing, and changing the way dentists could work. But people still fear the dentist, and this profession continues to be the brunt of many jokes. This ambivalence is reflected in a rich history of cartoons and prints on the subject. The exhibition It’s a gas traces the history of dentistry through illustrations and cartoons dating from the 17th century to now. Themes illustrated in these include fear, relief, pain and vanity.

Political cartoons: The forerunner of the political or social cartoon was the caricature which derided the individual by exaggerating his or her physical features. In France, when the government banned political caricature in 1835, satirical magazines like Le Charivari turned to publishing satires if everyday life. The image of the patient and dentist progressed from the slapstick humor of the dentist at work to dental practices – especially extraction – as a parody of political process. Political cartoons appeared in Australian newspapers from the 1830s. Melbourne Punch began in 1855, soon followed by editions in other colonies. The Bulletin appeared in the 1880s and took satirical commentary to a new level, exerting extraordinary influence over political debates until after Federation. In political dental; cartoons, the politician under criticism is usually portrayed as the dentist (often smiling or disconcertingly enthusiastic), and the public as the hapless patient.

 

This cartoon critiques the relationship between Russia and England in 1898. The wise bear (Russia) tries to extract teeth from an anxious leopard (England) but the caption reveals that England’s are completely worn down and ineffectual – there is nothing to extract. At this time, the French were very keen for an Anglo – Russian alliance to balancing the rising power of Germany, but felt England was incompetent in the process. La Silhouette was renowned for its belligerent satire.

 

This cartoon represents the French government’s efforts to suppress the media in 1877. President Jules Simons is the dentist extracting teeth from different newspaper journalists. When Simons came to power, his government prosecuted two newspapers for publishing anti-government stories.

 

Puck was the USA’s first successful satirical magazine. It was the first newspaper to use the technique of the full-colour lithograph. Here, Uncle Sam symbolises the USA, while Samuel S Cox was a congressman and diplomat who represented Ohio followed by New York. He was known as a quiet, calm fellow but also an effective politician, hence the sign for the Washington Dental Association stating that ‘S.S Cox’s Laughing Gas: Mild and Harmless’. Uncle Sam’s large fang is Mormonism, the senate and House of Representatives are adopting heroic measures (the frightening forceps) to remove it. Mormons were seeking statehood for Utah at this time, but Congress opposed this, passing various anti-Mormon laws.

 

Malcolm Fraser was the Prime Minister of Australia from 1975 to 1983. Here he is portrayed as a dentist looking at a shelf of jars of extracted teeth. Fraser is looking back in time, as the jars represent important issues from his time as Prime Minister, including the privatisation of the Medibank universal health insurance scheme, budget cuts to the ABC, conflict with Joh Bjelke-Petersen over Aboriginal autonomy at Aurukun, and discussions with Sir Frank Laker on the introduction of budget airlines.

 

La Depeche is a regional daily newspaper published in Toulouse with a reputation for a left wing social commentary. This cover mocks the elitism and cost of visiting the dentists at the same time. A dentist has accidently driven over a man, now gaping in pain, but the dentist interprets this as a request for a consultation, telling his victim he does not do consultations in the street.