You might not think that an academic computer science course could be classified as an export of military technology. But under the Defence Trade Controls Act – which passed into law in April, and will come into force next year – there is a real possibility that even seemingly innocuous educational and research activities could fall foul of Australian defence export control laws.
The CIA 119
Years and years on, abuses continue. Only in December 2014 did the US Senate Intelligence Committee release its summary of its report into the The CIA’s kidnapping (“rendition”) and torture programme.
It took nearly ten years after the fact for an official report to arrive.
The lower classes of things
Everything is free to move across borders, except… some lesser things, like human beings.
Why your calculator (and computer, and phone…) is a weapon
The Australian government may have classified your calculator — and phone, and computer, and every electronic device you own — as military weapons.
The Lost Art of Integration Impossibility
Integration is less a science and more an art form. It high time we shed some light on this lost art.
Contact topology and holomorphic invariants, Tokyo Feb 2015
On 18 February, 2015 I gave a talk at Tokyo Institute of Technology. The talk was entitled “Contact topology and holomorphic invariants via elementary combinatorics”. Slides are available.
Is the Victoria Police Act a step forward?
(This article also appeared on the website of the Police Accountability Project.) Law Institute Journal considers the new Victoria Police Act — a step forward? A feature article in the most recent Law Institute Journal, In Search of Certainty, examines
Strings, fermions, curves on surfaces, ANZMC Dec 2014
On 11 December, 2014 I gave a talk at the 8th Australia New Zealand Mathematics Convention, at the University of Melbourne, as part of the Geometry and Topology session. Slides are available.
To mathematics champions
In November 2014, I spoke at the Victorian prize ceremony for the Australian Mathematics Competition.
The G20 and the Sanity Deficit
There is an important summit being held in Brisbane this week. At this summit, some of the most important issues facing humanity will be discussed: economic issues of growth and sustainability; the environment and climate; the rights of indigenous peoples