Jazzoos news and views: September 2007

Thursday 27 September 2007

Two weeks holiday and graduation!

Tomorrow is my last day at work for two weeks!! This coming Monday (1st October) is Rebecca and my first year anniversary. As it is a public holiday, and my dad is arriving next Wednesday morning for my graduation on Friday, I decided I might as well take Tuesday off as well. I plan to show Dad around Armidale on the Wednesday and Thursday, including showing him some of my PhD field sites to the west of Armidale. Then on Friday I graduate!! YAY!! I get to wear a red cape and a big puffy hat!! I will then be hailed Dr Jarrad Cousin and all will kneel in my presence... BWAHAHAHAHA.... On the Saturday, I will take Dad to the amazing New England National Park on our way to Bec's house for Saturday night!! Then on Sunday, I drive back to Armidale as Dad leaves on Monday morning back to Perth!! he has to start work on Tuesday at 6am!!

As the week following graduation, I am taking that off to spend with Rebecca given that she has finished her 10 weeks of prac. We are going to Yamba (north coast) for 3 days to unwind and get away from everything. Can't wait. For those of you not familiar with this side of the country, I have included below a map showing the drive I undertake every weekend to Rebecca's place in Nambucca Heads. It is by far and away the most scenic drive I have ever driven in Australia, and therefore recommend it highly. It is not called "The Waterfall Way" for nothing, with MANY opportunities to see stunning waterfalls in deep gorges and along steep rainforest on the drive down Dorrigo mountain. I recently took some photos along the section from Nambucca Heads to Dorrigo... I will post them as soon as I can find my camera cord to get them off the camera (?).

I have also included this map below showing the location of Yamba in relation to Armidale, Nambucca Heads, Port Macquarie, Byron Bay, Brisbane etc etc. Do you know that Armidale is closer to Brisbane than Sydney!??? Note that I don't notate the location of Tamworth to the SW of Armidale.... because it sucks.... too many Acubra Hat wearing, tight jean wearing, yee haaing rednecks for my liking.... I will post pictures of my graduation and announce other things in my next post.................

Monday 17 September 2007

Mmmmmmm.... blogging

To all those who read this... I have entered the magical world of blogging!! I am from Perth, Western Australia. I am however living in Armidale, New South Wales, Australia; approximately 3,955km (by road according to Google maps) from home.

Since leaving Perth in 2003, I have pledged on MANY occassions that I would keep in contact with friends and family in Perth in one form or another. However, being the busy (yeah maybe lazy, depending on your point of view) person that I am, I have rejected my friends throughout the years in this regard. As a method of attempting to redeem myself *on the ground grovelling miserably*, I will endevour to update this blog as often as possible (i.e., when something exciting happens, or I have something to rant about). In the next few days, I will attempt to contact you all to inform you of this blog... there is much exciting news coming soon, so please watch this space!!

My life is interesting... it's just I don't have enough time to share every aspect of it with you all!

Random fact...

The gravity of a black hole is so strong that it prohibits light from escaping the collapsing star that created it, so given that light can't escape, it is effectively dark, thus the name 'black hole'. There is a 'boundary' between the black hole and the non black hole called the event horizon. Now, in an idealised theoretical world, imagine a situation where an astronaut was floating toward this event horizon from an orbiting spacecraft while sending messages (light signal, beeps etc) back every second. To the astronaut, as he/she approached the black hole event horizon, and even as he/she crossed the event horizon (space and time don't officially exist beyond the event horizon, I think, but say for now it does), he/she would continue to observe, every second, a message being sent to the crew waiting on the spacecraft! HOWEVER, to the crew on the spacecraft, the length of time that passed between messages from the astronaut would slowly lengthen as the astronaut approached the event horizon. Once this event horizon was crossed, the spacecraft would no longer receive any messages, as the gravitational field is so strong that NOTHING can escape. So the important thing to get from this (apart from the absurdity of actually wanting to approach a black hole), is that not only is time affected by gravity, but time is relative to the observer. What seems like a long time to one person has the potential to be experienced differently by another. Experiments in the 1960s using caesium clocks (very, very accurate nuclear clocks) found that the slight difference in gravity at the top of a 30m high tower compared to the ground resulted in time running slightly slower at ground level. This is known as 'gravitational time dilation', although the amount of time we are talking about is in the order of nano-seconds (0.000000001 secs). This occurs as gravity has the effect of slowing time! Interestingly, this effect is significant enough that the Global Positioning System (used in GPS units and in-car navigation units) needs to correct for its effect on clocks aboard artificial satellites orbiting the Earth!!

What I'm reading...

A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking (256pp. - 1988)

My dad had this book years and years ago, but I never got around to reading it. I saw it the other day in a Borders bookstore and decided to read it. It is the original 1988 edition, although since then there have been at least two other versions, including a 1996 version that includes a lot more figures to help explain the complex mathematical and physics concepts.

A Brief History of Time attempts to explain a range of subjects in cosmology, including the Big Bang, black holes, neutron stars, light cones and superstring theory to the nonspecialist reader. Its main goal is to give an overview of the subject but, unusual for a popular science book, it also attempts to explain some complex mathematics. Suprisingly, Stephen Hawking has an often comical way of writing, suprising given his amazingly superior intellect!

Half way through the book at the moment, and finding it hard to grasp some of the concepts; may require a couple of reads!!

What I'm listening to...

Tame Impala - EP (2008) - psychedelic/indie rock band from Perth (where all good bands originate), making it big in Australia!
The Presets - Apocalypso (2008)
Massive Attack - 100th Window (2003)
mmd_as - mmd_as (2009) - a collaborative electronica album showcasing mr_mark_dollin and Alex Strain. Download the album and info here
Radiohead - Kid A (2000)
Arvo Pärt - Arvo Pärt: A Portrait (2005) - Arvo Pärt is an Estonian composer (1935 - )that is heralded as pioneering the mystic minimalism style of classical music

Featured websites...

Litoria Consulting - This is the environmental consultant company that I work for as a Senior Ecologist. We're a specialised environmental consulting firm, with professional capabilities in the areas of environment, economics and planning; my specialty is fauna ecology, especially birds.

Nuts about Natives - promoting a small contract-based plant propagation business providing private, community, government and commercial agencies with superb native plants for everything from promoting the benefits of gardens with native plants to revegetation projects. Operates just south of Perth, and happens to be co-owned by my sister!

mmd - the official website for the music from artist and close friend Mark Dollin. Peruse through pages of interesting philosophical essays on his blog, while downloading and listening to hours of music described as everything from ambient pop to highly technical ambient soundscapes to quirky electronica!! Check it out!!

About me...

My name is Jarrad Cousin, although also go by jazzoo, buddhahead, helmet, dr jarrad, jizzdog, j-rad or jezza...

I am 32 years old, married with a young son, loving life and loving work! I am patriotically Western Australian, having lived the first 24 years of my life in Perth. I moved to Armidale NSW to undertake my PhD in 2003, and having completed that, I moved to Brisbane, where I worked at Griffith University as a post-doctoral research fellow in avian ecology, and am now Senior Ecologist at Litoria Consulting!