My favourite piece of artwork - my periodic table

Ok, so I'm a nerd, I accept that, actually, its a compliment rather than an insult.
I love art, particularly real life photography, thats the kind of art I like to hang - but this giant periodic table is the best piece of art I have.  It is so huge it covers half of my study wall.

Why do I find it so fascinating, well if you REALLY don't know, I will tell you.

'The periodic table is basically the universal catalog of everything you can drop.  There are some things such as light, love, logic and time that are not in the periodic table, but, these things you cannot drop either!

The Earth - your PC - everything tangible is made of elements.  We are mainly made of oxygen with quite a bit of carbon jointing us, giving structure to the organic molecules that define you as an example of carbon-based life..... if you are not carbon based life, then greetings from the human species, nano nano.... 

Oxygen is a clear colourless gas, yet it makes up three-fifths of the weight of your body.  How can that be?  Elements have two faces, no they don't talk about you behind your back, they come in their pure state, and a range of chemical compounds they form when they combine with other elements.  Oxygen is a pure gas right, but when it reacts with silicon, they become together the strong silicate minerals which compose the majority of the earths crust such as Quartz, Feldspars and Micas.
When oxygen combines with with hydrogen and carbon, the result can be anything from water to carbon monoxide to sugar.  Oxygen atoms are still present in these compounds, no matter how unlike pure oxygen the substance may appear, and oxygen atoms can always be extracted back out and returned to pure gaseous form.

But (short of nuclear disintegration) each oxygen atom can never itself be broken down or taken apart into something simpler.  This property of indivisibility is what makes an element an element.  

Theodore Grey, Poster

The periodic table outlines every single element that is known to man, 94 naturally occurring and the rest man made.  Everything that makes up the entire Universe comprises of these elements, especially Hydrogen.

This poster is like a bible as well as a piece of artwork - the information it tells you is basically explaining everything about everything. 

"There is not anything which returns to nothing, but all things return dissolved into their elements"  Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, 50 BC

No such thing as time travel? Just look up!

I am probably telling you something you already know? I was just out looking through my telescope, however the conditions are not the best for viewing at the moment, so I just stood in the garden, starring up at the stars, thinking how amazing they are but also knowing that I was actually looking into the past.  When we look into the night sky, we see things as they were long ago, not as they are today. 
The investigation of deep space is also an exploration of deep time, how awesome is that!

Light is the fastest entity in the universe, but it does take time to reach us from the far reaches of space.  We see celestial objects as they were when they released the light that has subsequently travelled across the universe and reached our telescopes.

The further away an object is, the further back in time we see it, and unsurprisingly, the more distant an object is, the fainter the light.  As we push at the boundaries of time, it becomes that much harder to discern the objects in question, but we can see the dim and tiny glints of light from objects that existed more than thirteen billion years ago, when the universe was a fraction of its current age.

During the past few years, the Hubble Space Telescope has obtained long-exposure images of the faintest objects ever detected.  Some of these are galaxies in their early stages, when they were rich in young, hot stars.  To look even back through time, we will need a new generation of telescopes that can detect extremely low intensities of infrared light from the faintest and weakest end of the spectrum resolvable to telescopes with mirrors and lenses.

Even though that light was emitted in visible energies, it has been stretched by the expansion of the universe, and so appears to us as infrared light. 

Check out the Hubble website for some truly amazing pictures.

http://hubblesite.org  http://www.space.com/18317-universe-first-stars-light-seen.html

Biomes

I love Earth science, I love Environmental science, I love Astronomy, I love Geography, I love Sustainable development, I love Social Psychology - damn there's not much I don't love.  I also love to educate people who want to learn more on these subjects.  So when I decided to start a blog, I wanted to write about all kinds of topics on these subjects......  I seem to have spent some time on social psychological topics, so I think for my next several blogs I will pay a little more attention to some Environmental science - such a vast field of study its hard to know where to start.  This is what makes the study of environmental science so exciting though!  I thought this evening I would like to write about Biomes, the study of the way plants and animals are distributed across the globe.

This field of study is called Biogeography.  Climate and soil determine which plants thrive in a particular region, similar types of vegetation, as well as the animals associated with them, occur in places with climates that are similar.  These places, occupying large areas and identified by their vegetation types, are known as biomes.  For example, the belt of mainly evergreen coniferous forests that runs across Canada and northern Eurasia constitutes a biome known as boreal forest in North America and taiga in Russia.  The character of this forest is essentially the same throughout the biome, but the plant and animals species found there vary.  Im a recent blog of WA I wrote, I spoke about the fact that WA had plants that no where else in the world had.

There are twelve biomes in the world.  Although biomes can be identified by general vegetation types, the vegetation in any biome is in fact quite varied because of a number of local differences in land use and environment.  Tropical biomes occur between the tropics of Cancer (north) and Capricorn (south).  Temperate biomes can be found in temperate regions, and polar biomes are located near the poles.  Other biomes are more difficult to define precisely, because not all plant communities have clear boundaries.  The range of plants in each biome make it possible to draw the boundaries in different ways.

Around the poles, the polar ice biome supports no plant life.  The climate is exceedingly harsh and there is neither soil nor liquid water at the surface.  Bordering the polar ice is the tundra biome, where the ground is exposed and the temperature rises above freezing for a short time in summer.  Along its edges, tundra gives way to boreal forest or taiga.  Tundra and boreal forest are mainly confined to the Northern Hemisphere, because there is little land at the correct latitude in the Southern Hemisphere.

Closer to the equator, deciduous trees become more common among the conifers of the boreal forest.  The biome changes and temperate deciduous forest becomes more widespread.  This biome is restricted to the continental regions with moist climates, while temperate rain forest is found only in the wettest regions.

As climates grow hotter and drier, the biome changes again.  Temperate grassland, the prairies, steppes, pampas and veld, replace the temperature deciduous forest.  In a few parts of the world there is a biome typical of Mediterranean climates, dominated by dry woodlands and chaparral shrublands.  A belt of subtropical deserts lies across both hemispheres.  Deserts vary according to their locations, with some found along western coasts and some in the interiors of continents.  Where climates are a little moister, subtropical deserts merge into savanna grassland.  On either side of the equator there are tropical dry forests and rain forests.  The last biome, mountain grasslands and shrublands, is not confined to particular latitudes.  

Pretty cool stuff huh, id encourage you to read up more on this fascinating topic, there is so much more to learn.....

Fremantle demonstrating sustainability leadership

Renewable energy resources offer many advantages to an energy-hungry world.  They can be used in many ways, offer minimal environmental problems, and can be harnessed with appropriate technology. They particularly offer hope to the developing countries who's economic growth rates are seriously hampered by high energy costs.

The potential offered by these resources is immense.  Everyday, the earth receives thousands of times more energy from the sun than is consumed in all other resources.  
In view of these facts, one might wonder why renewable energies have been so underused.  The primary reason is economics, especially competition with lowered-priced commercial fuels.  There have been technical and economic uncertainties, inadequate documentation and evaluation of the many solar projects that have been undertaken worldwide, lack of coherent government strategy, and just plain scepticism on the part of many energy decision makers - all obstacles to the employment of renewable energy.  

However, I am very excited about the City of Fremantle that is really starting to demonstrate sustainability leadership.   The city is doing this as part of their low carbon plan with a key focus on making the city a more sustainable one and doing this by being active leaders in renewable energy.

Our very active and sustainability focused Mayor of Fremantle Dr Brad Pettitt is one of the key players that is pushing the city in the direction of demonstrating sustainability leadership.  Here is a link to his blog to read the full story.

Onward and upward for Fremantle with the hopes many other governments will actively follow.

http://cofremantle.wordpress.com/2012/10/29/solar-on-the-town-hall/

October 29th - 1999, a day to remember in our history of natural disasters

Sometimes, our lives are so busy that we tend to forget about certain dates in history when devastating things happened.  Its not that we forget, its just we are so pre-occupied with our own lives that these events just simply vanish into the deep depths of our memory.

Early on October 29th, 1999, a super-cyclone swept out of the Bay of Bengal and devastated the Orissa   State Coastal region.  With some of the strongest winds ever recorded in the area ranging from up to 161 miles per hour (259 km/h) and storm surges up to 20 feet (6 m), Tropical Cyclone 05B was one of the worst storms in India's history.

Tropical Cyclone 05B slammed into the Orissa coast slightly north of the cities of Bhubaneshwar and Cuttack at about 5.00 am on October 29.  The Cyclone raveged for nearly 24 hours.  Over 1,500 villages were destroyed and more than 2 million people were left homeless and the death toll was over 9,900.  The Orissa state economy is based on agricultural industry that accounts for nearly 80 percent of the populations livelihoods and provides over half of the states income.  The massive tidal surge from Tropical Cycle 05B reached approximately 9 miles (14.5 km) inland, destroying some 800,000 acres of crops and polluting soils with salt and debris in the process.  The flooding caused massive livestock losses, vital to many families in the area.

The lack of fresh water, salvageable food, and the looming health threats from contamination and rotting corpses in the days after the cyclone hit led to hundreds more deaths by dehydration, starvation, and the spread of disease.  Anger over the slow and inadequate government response to the crisis let to looting and riots among the remaining survivors.

Surviving each type of natural disaster requires a different strategy.  Many disasters are difficult, if not impossible, to predict, and even so there may not be much opportunity to act.  Fate and chance play a very big role in determining the final outcome.  There is, however, a need for all nations to come together and assist in urgent and quick responses to such crisis to help save as many people as possible. This, again, is our ethical duty as a human species!

The making and death of stars

Its starting to get really hot here in Australia.  I cannot handle the heat - have lived here over 8 years now and still have not acclimatised... i'm not a fan of the summer in all honesty, most people think I am mad - their not far wrong :)

So, after this boiling sweaty day, it got me thinking about one of my favourite subjects Astronomy.  It amazes me that there are some people out there that still do not realise that our Sun is a star, seriously, but this is not their fault, maybe they didn't do physics at school, maybe they didn't go to school, maybe they didn't care or maybe just were not taught it.  It really doesn't matter why they don't know, but, I really think that a good understanding of our Sun and the fact that it is already middle aged, may give people a better appreciation of how lucky we are to be at the right distance away from, to us, a perfect sized star.  Anyway, I am going to share with you, in brief, how these billions of stars out there are made and what happens once they have used up all their energy.  I hope you find it as amazing as I do, if not amazing, I hope it makes you at least appreciate how amazing the process is.

First of all, some basic facts about our Sun:
Our Sun is a G2 V  type main sequence dwarf star (medium sized), at the centre of the solar system and  contains nearly 99.9% of the solar systems mass.  It is a near perfect sphere with a diameter of ~1.3 km.
The colour is white but appears yellowish due to the scattering of blue light in the atmosphere.  It is a population I star, rich in heavy elements ( a high metallicity).  The Sun was probably formed from a high proportion of material from prior supernova events (death of super massive stars way bigger than our own).  Its composition is ~74% Hydrogen, ~24% Helium, ~0.8% Oxygen, ~0.3% Carbon, ~0.2% Iron.  Its gravity is about 28 x Earth and is about 150 million km away from Earth, or just over 8 light minutes.  Pretty cool so far huh?

Each star is different, but starts life the same way in clouds and dust called Nebulas, stella nurseries for stars.  To name a few you may have heard of before, Orion, Eagle, Horse head.....
To make a star, all you need is gravity, Hydrogen and time.

Gravity pulls the Hydrogen gas into a swirling vortex.  Gravity brings matter together and when you 'squeeze' things together in smaller spaces, they heat up - with me so far?  Basically when you compress something, you drive the temperature up.  Over 100's and 1000's of years the cloud gets thicker, a large spinning vortex as big as our solar system and at the centre a large dense spinning ball where the pressure builds until large jets of gas burst out at the sides.  Eventually a star ignites, throwing off any remainder gas out.  This is at a temperature of 15 million degrees at the core, atoms of gas fuse together.  BOOM! A star is born :)

So, we now know how a star is created, what about what drives a stars energy then?  Atoms of Hydrogen smash into each other, this process is called fusion.  Hydrogen atoms naturally repel one another, chemistry 101, but if they travel fast enough, really fast, they crash into each other, fusing together to make Helium, there go - heat with a small amount of pure energy.  The Hydrogen gas weighs slightly more than Helium, it looses mass during the collision and this mass turns into energy.
Stars are huge, and to drive this you need gravity to compress the star to create nuclear fusion at its core.  

What happens when the fuel runs out?  Well, eventually it will run out, bigger stars use their fuel more quickly so the bigger the star the shorter life.  Gravity is in a constant battle with the stars fusion process that they balance each other out, however gravity eventually wins the battle. Our Sun is no exception.  Every second it burns 600million tonnes of its Hydrogen fuel.  As Hydrogen gets used up, the core slows down giving gravity the edge, with less fusion pushing outward, gravity pushes inward and as fusion fights back the star begins to expand.  This is called the red giant stage that consumes all the inner rocky planets, and most likely even the Earth.  This is the end of our Earth at this point.  

With no Hydrogen left to fuel it, the star starts to burn Helium and fusing it with Carbon.  Blasting energy from its core to the surface, these energy waves blow away the stars outer layer, slowly, it disintegrates into a white dwarf.  White dwarf is so dense, that is a sugar cube amount was placed on Earth, it would fall right through!!  Astronomers believe that in the core of a white dwarf is solid Carbon, literally a diamond in the sky!

This is the outcome of our star, but what about bigger ones?  Larger stars have a much more violent ending than our G type star.   The gravity of these stars are so massive that they can smash together bigger and bigger atoms.  The core of these stars are like factories, manufacturing heavier and heavier elements which leads to the stars destruction.  Gold, Silver, Nickel and other elements are all created in these stars.  The next time you wear your gold chain or ring, just think, it wasn't created here on Earth, but in the death of a super massive Nova - how bloody cool is that huh!!!

Once the star starts making Iron, this is the end.  Iron absorbs the energy in a 1000th of a second, robbing it of its remaining fuel until gravity wins and the star collapses.  It creates such a huge explosion, a supernova, the single most violent event in the Universe.  Spewing everything out into space.  Then, the whole process of star formation begins again.  If it wasn't for these massive explosions, our Sun wouldn't be hear, therefore so wouldn't we.

There is only so much Hydrogen in the Universe, Astronomers believe that eventually, the entire universe will simply run out of the star forming gas and eventually, the lights will all go out.  Thankfully, we will not be around to see this, nor see the death of our own star in about 4.57 billion years, its already 4.57 billion years old, middle aged.  We have a long time to appreciate it and, also complain about it when it feels too hot - but, really, its not the suns fault that I am hot today, it is our atmosphere and environment that causes the temperature - really we should just be thankful that its rises, sets and rises again, because without it - its goodnight sweetheart :)

Carbon, Oxygen, Iron in our blood

Everything around us came from the belly of a star

We are in a 'golden age' of the universe

A good time to be here, seeing the best of all stages of the universe, filling the darkness with light

For we are all made of stardust 

Janine Marshall

We Are Children of the Pleistocene

I want to share another beautiful poem with you... I love it:


Whether it is clear to us or not we are a children of the Pleistocene
Our genes give us away
Nearly invariant over more than one hundred thousands years of deep time

We remain connected to nature in many fascinating and mysterious

Vision connects us with our universe 
Children playing
Star light
Sunrise and set

Natural sounds make us feel alive
Music of frogs at night flow of stream over pebbles on streamed
Swish of water on the beach 
Rustle of leaves from wind crunch of grass from foot steep
Howl of wolf
Scream of mountain lion
Shriek of hawk
Rattle of snake
Scratch of predator claw on rock

Quiet places comfort us deep valleys
Forest floor
Snow covered wild land
Silence of night

Smells awaken our senses
Wet forest soil following rain
Salty air kicked up by waves
Morning mist
Fresh barriers
Our loved ones
We are more at ease in nature than with the horn screech of tires and jackhammer

Fire provokes an image of contentment safety and community
We dance play instruments sing and tell stories about other tribes and predators perhaps another football team around a fire as we always have

Hike with a group during the day we spread out
At night hike we group together with flashlights on
We feel safer when closer together

We walk our property
Making territory with signs and acts

We seek romantic places such as meadows beaches or forests to be with our mate at intimate times

When we are not connected to nature we deprive ourselves and our children of our heritage and our souls suffer
We are children of the Pleistocene
Embrace our heritage and our souls sing


E.A. KELLER

Has change brought progress?

The traditional view of the changes that have occurred in human societies has been one of steady progress with constant improvement in human lifestyles.  Many people now question this view, pointing out that former societies and cultures were not necessarily inferior but that they were unable to withstand the military or industrial strength that other societies developed.

Hunting and gathering, for example, is often portrayed as a constant struggle to obtain enough food to survive.  This view is based on observations of the few hunter-gatherers that continued to exist into recent times.  These hunter-gatherer societies have been pushed into some of the most inhospitable places in the world as agriculture has taken over more and more land for farming.  It is to be expected that such displaced people would find life difficult.

If we look at reports of the lifestyle of hunter gatherers before Western influence we see a different picture.  Foe example, Sir George Grey, an Englishman who explored Australia in the early days of European settlement was a keen observer of the Australian Aboriginal people.  In 1883 he wrote in his journal:
"Generally speaking the natives live well; in some districts there may be, at particular seasons of the year, a deficiency of food, but if such the case, these tracts are at those times deserted.  I can only say that I have always found the greatest abundance in their huts....In all ordinary seasons they can obtain in two or three hours a sufficient supply of food for the day." (Journals at Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-west and Western Australia during the years 1837, 38)

The observations of Grey say that a mean of three to five hours per adult day spent obtaining food is seen to be the norm.  Far from being a constant struggle for survival it seems that hunter-gatherers had a much more relaxed lifestyle than people in our society.  In Palaeolithic times, when hunting and gathering was the only form of society, the proportion of people in the world who were undernourished must have been much less than it is today.

As population densities rose towards the end of the last ice age, hunter-gatherer band were forced to adapt pastoral and horticultural practices or else find ways of limiting population growth.  As farming developed, the farmers' population would have increased so that they drove away or 'killed off', groups of hunter-gatherers.  Therefore, hunter-gatherers did not give up their lifestyle for a better one; they were forced away except those who were wanted by the farmers.

Agriculture brought deep social and sexual divisions, poorer nutrition, disease and rule by a ruthless elite.  Contrary to what we expect, there is evidence that the health of people did not improve with the adoption of pastoralism and horticulture but this will be a whole other blog as there has been many reasons suggested.

The change in farming also brought about deep divisions within society.  Hunter-gatherers do not store food; they live mainly of plants and animals they collect each day.  If food is stored, or if there is a large source of food like a field of grain or a herd of animals, a ruling class can develop by feeding on food taken from others.  One advantage is that the ruling class enjoy an improved diet.  We can see from present day societies that the rulers are usually better fed than the peasants.

Can it be said that the evolution of human societies as been a process of continual improvement?  Certainly we, in developed countries, enjoy many advantages and pleasures that were not available to ancient humans.  But, at the same time the evolution of society has brought huge inequalities between peoples, conflicts, sometimes on a world scale, and degradation of the environment that may be irreversible.  Hunter-gatherers were able to live in harmony with their environment, avoid severe inequities and conflicts and at the same time cater for everyone's basic needs.

Societies throughout the world have become increasingly interdependent, a process known as globalisation.  Today there is an accelerated rate of cultural diffusion which is leading towards a global culture.  Unfortunately globalisation is not leading to reduction in inequalities between industrialised countries and the poorer nations.  The lifestyle that we in the wealthy, developed nations enjoy is profoundly different from that in the developing countries.  We must help them along the way, it is our ethical responsibility as a human race.

Surviving Progress Documentary

"Surviving Progress presents the story of human advancement as awe-inspiring and double-edged. It reveals the grave risk of running the 21st century’s software — our know-how — on the ancient hardware of our primate brain which hasn’t been upgraded in 50,000 years. With rich imagery and immersive soundtrack, filmmakers Mathieu Roy and Harold Crooks launch us on journey to contemplate our evolution from cave-dwellers to space explorers."

http://survivingprogress.com 

Individuals, groups and the nature of nature

One of my previous blogs was about groups, what a group is and what groups we would put ourselves into, and today I have been thinking about to what extent does our behaviour depend on these groups of which we are part of?
We are social animals, the cultures, groups and families of which we are part get 'under our skin', they become part of the way we think, feel and behave, from the attitudes we hold to the way we view ourselves.  The tendency to behave in groups in ways that can seem 'out of character' appears to be very much a part of our character.

People's behaviour in groups clearly differs qualitatively from their behaviour when they are alone.  In another sense, we are never actually alone at all.  We are always living with mental representations of the people who matter to us - people we love, admire, hate and interact with every day.  
We are always in the presence of real or imagined others.

Cultures that get 'under our skin' and so powerfully influence everything we do are so rapidly changing.  In the twentieth century, we witnessed the most momentous period of social change in human history, as the vast majority of the world's people shifted from agriculture, nomadic or hunter-gatherer societies to industrial nation states.  Not since the rise of agriculture thousands of years ago has the structure of human society changed so dramatically, and never as rapidly as the present epoch.  A century ago, most people lived with their extended families and believe in the values of their parents and ancestors.  Within a few brief generations, traditional values and beliefs have broken down and technology has advanced beyond anyones wildest predictions.

People cope with social change in many ways.  Some embrace new ideologies, technologies and values.  Others, coping with spiritual unease or feelings envy, inferiority and hatred of the dominant cultures that swept away their traditions, search for the future in the past, embracing fundamentalist ideologies that rigidly define good and evil, eliminating ambiguity and offer a 'blue print' for how to live.  
Another strategy for coping with social change is to combine the old and new, to preserve a continuity with the past while somehow mooring one's identity in the future, as was Gandhi's path.

These responses to the social and political realities of our age lie at the intersection of our brain, behaviour and culture.  The aggression that fuels conflicts between nations.  We all share a core of human nature rooted in biology.  But the way that nature develops and expresses itself is as diverse as the cultures and individuals who populate the globe.

The geomorphic evolution of the Swan Coastal Plain, Western Australia

A change of blog subjects this evening.  Two of my passions is Earth Science and Astronomy, I study these at Uni along with Sustainable Development and social psychology, yet I haven't seemed to be writing any blogs regarding those topics.  So, I decided that I would like to share with you, the geomorphic evolution of the swan coastal plain in WA.
Many people are not aware how fascinating the geological history of the place is!  To many, WA looks very dry, sandy and a rough terrain, people wonder how we could live here, but when you here about the fascinating history of the place it gives you a new appreciation.  If any of the terminology I use is unfamiliar, just google it as this blog will be a fair length as it is.... 

Most of the landmasses that constitutes South-western Australia consists of metamorphic and igneous rock known as the Yilgarn block, which is about 2.5 to 3 billion years old - the Earth is about 4.5, so these rocks are extremely old.  The south-western portion of the yilgarn block which encompasses the Darling Plateau and which is separated from the Swan coastal plain by the Darling Scarp.

During the palaeozoic era, about 500 million years ago, Australia was part of the continent Gondwana. Australia was joined to both India and Antarctica.  The Porongorup range in the south-west is thought to have been formed during the bonding of Australia and Antarctica 1000 million years ago - pretty cool so far huh!

Some subsiding of the yilgarn block during the early permian took place.  During the Triassic period, 230 million years ago rifting and faulting of the yilgarn block caused further sinking and caused rift valley developments.  Sediments accumulated in this low lying region which is now the Perth Basin - this is why our soil is made up mostly of sand. 

The coastline of WA was also much further inland and marine erosion was responsible for eroding sediments in the Perth basin.  However, the very hard rocks of the yilgarn block in the vicinity of the Darling fault resisted erosion.  Just google WA and check out the satellite image and you can distinctly see this.  

During the early mid tertiary, 20-50 million years ago, south-west Australia had a warm, wet, tropical climate.  High rainfall and warm temperatures brought intense chemical decomposition of rocks.  The climate changed 10 million years ago and this dehydrated and hardened the upper iron rich zone of the laterite profile.  Think yellow looking rocks and orange coloured sand!

The geomorphology of this area has been strongly influenced by a series of sea level fluctuations which have occurred during the last 2 million years, caused by tectonic activity, resulting in the tilting of huge areas of rock, land rose and shores were exposed.    About 2 million years ago the shoreline was 80-115 meters higher than today.  As the seas retreated, a wide expanse of sand was exposed.  This is how many of WA's dune systems have been formed such as the Bassendean dune system and the Ridge hill shelf to name a few.

The last glacial period in the world commenced 110,000 years before present and at glacial peak the sea level was 10km west of Rottness.  Australia has never been covered by ice and is very tectonically inactive, therefore the land has never been renewed such as the lands of the UK.  West Australia has plant species that have only adapted to live in WA and are not seen any where else in the world.  So, the next time you think that WA looks a bit rough and the terrain unexciting and dry - I hope you will now appreciate just how amazing this place really is and the amazing geological history it has gone through - it is a beautiful, unique place and I for one love it!

Beliefs and Ideas

Since going to University, I am seeing the fine art in having constructive debates, especially in the Environmental sciences and sustainable development areas.  Why do people feel the way they do? Why does everyone not agree on the same thing? Why is it, for example, that some people deny such issues as Climate Change when others don't?

It is due to our established beliefs.  Our beliefs and ideas govern how we think and listen.  Religion, politics, class, gender, nationality and health are all minefields of reaction, as most of us feel fairly strongly about such areas and in some instances we can be very uncompromising about such matters.

Whenever we feel that our established and cherished beliefs or ideas are threatened by others, we either refuse to listen or our emotions may block and interfere with the process of listening.
Communication breaks down, arguments develop, relationships become strained and tolerance and patience are thrown to the wind, usually because of poor listening skills.

We need to be aware of our emotional attachments to beliefs and ideas, and realise that others are just as attached to entirely different and even opposing notions. We do not have to agree with something, but we should learn to listen to and respect opinions that are different from our own.

This is how things get done.

Innovation

Not so very long ago, there were no information technologies, television companies, airline travel was rare and luxurious.  Our parents were born into a world even more different from today, where television had yet to be invented.  When our grandparents were born, there was no internal combustion engines, aeroplanes, cinemas or radios.  Our great grandparents lived in a world with no light bulbs, cars, telephones, bicycles, refrigerators, and their lives probably had more in common with a Roman peasant than with our lives.
In a relatively short period of about 150 years, our lives at home and work have been completely transformed.  The reason - through Innovation.

All economic and social progress ultimately depends on new ideas with possibilities for change and improvement.  Innovation is what happens when new thinking is successfully introduced by companies and organisations, ideas that have been realised and implemented in practice.  The reason why innovation is so important has to be seen in relentless demands   made of contemporary organisations as they face the challenges of a complex and turbulent world.

Most attempts of innovation fail.  History is littered with unsuccessful attempts to apply, often very good ideas.  Innovations are found not only in the activities that organisations do, but how they do them.  The innovation process is rapidly going through a period of change largely through opportunities in using new internet and visualising technologies that can access ideas from around the world.  This means the potential sources of innovation are growing rapidly.  There are more scientists and engineers alive today than in the past years - now it seems that knowledge is now ever more valuable than physical assets.  

Innovation is becoming more internationalised, with important new sources emerging from China, India and elsewhere.  Our understanding of innovation, developed over the past century or more, might be applied to deal with the restless transformations and turbulence that we WILL witness in the global economy of the future.

We need innovation, we should thank all those innovators and students of innovation, smarter governments, Universities, businesses, smarter individuals who are willing to step outside the box who make our journey so exciting and rewarding and that is essential to our social and economic progress.  The future of innovation - where its benefits flow and costs are reduced - lies in the wise organisation of knowledge.

Perceiving People, Communication and Group Dynamics in Brief

For a long time I have been interested in how people view what reality is, why they think the way they do, why they act the way they do, and having a natural, shall we say, skill, when it comes to people, led me to start a minor in Social Psychology along with my other two majors.  I guess it has only since being at University, and experiencing a whole new array of people and groups, it has opened up a whole new level of interest in social psychology.

Perceiving objects or actions around us is one thing, but what of our perceptions of each other?  How accurate are we in judging people's intentions, motivations, personalities and attitudes? The question is an important one because it relates to our communication behaviour in most social situations, including interviews, meetings and even casual conversations.  Do we tend to see good qualities in people we perceive to be like ourselves and critical of those we perceive to be different?  By stereotyping others into certain 'Groups', are we missing in seeing the unique qualities of these individuals?  

People are not consistent in their behaviour from one situation to another.  We may be friendly at work, sociable at parties are reserved at home?  In judging others we tend to use our own 'personality theories'.  Do you think, for example, that an intelligent person will be polite?  A moments reflection will reveal that the two do not necessarily go together.  If we meet one person with a positive quality, say friendliness, we may see other features of the person as equally positive and vice versa.

Some symbolic and communication theorists say that the meaning is not personal at all, but is created and sustained by interactions in social groups.  This approach is a sociological one not a psychological one.  Symbolic interactionists define society as a group having common culture, that is a similar way of communicating.  Within the group we engage in 'role-taking'.  This is a process in which we identify with someone else's feelings or opinions.

Most of us live our lives in the midst of groups.  Of the billions of people populating the world, all but an occasional hermit? outcast? or recluse? belong to a group.  I question these terms as I do not want to put these terms across in any stereotypical way.  Every way we turn we run into groups, families, committees, clubs, support groups, teams etc.  The world is literally teaming with groups. 

Groups are a fundamental component of our social lives.  We live our lives mostly surrounded by groups, groups we try to get in to and groups we try to get our of, we can become so accustomed to them that their influence on our behaviour goes unnoticed.  We take our groups for granted, so much that we must learn to look at them from a new perspective.

So, what precisely is a 'group'?  What would you include if you were to name all the groups in which you were a member?  Would you list your family?  Your neighbours? Your University? Your organisation? Your political party? A bunch of co-workers you go out with for a beverage after work? Are all these collections of people groups? What kind of social collectives qualify as groups?  I find this really hard to answer but I think that we need to look at these interactions with people and develop a deeper understanding of the people who inhabit the world.  A better understanding would lead to a better way of communicating and a better way of understanding human behaviour, as human behaviour is often group behaviour.    These 'groups' are a fundamental component of society.

If we wish to understand ourselves, others or our society better, we must understand groups.

"Your too sensitive"

"Your too sensitive for your own good".. I get told this a lot.  I was only just speaking to a friend and this very phrase yet again fell upon my ears.  For anyone who, if like me, has heard this all too often, it can make you feel that there is something quite different about you.  It's probably inherited, or has stemmed from life's experiences.  I have heard that being a "Highly Sensitive Individual" occurs in about 15 percent of the population.It means that I/We are very much aware of subtleties in our surroundings, a great advantage in many situations.  It also means that we become more overwhelmed when we have been in a highly stimulating environment for too long, bombarded by sights and sounds until we feel exhausted in a nervous system sort of way.  So being sensitive has both advantages and disadvantages.
So, I took some time to think about these advantages and disadvantages, and decided to write them in my blog - to help me understand it more, and anyone else whom happens to stroll upon this blog and feels the same.I hope that at the end of it - we will see that there are more advantages to have this trait than there are not, and that being a highly sensitive person can benefit us in many ways, in our personal and professional lives.
So, to sum up how I see the world goes like this:


I seem to be very much aware of my environment. 
Other people's moods effect me. 
Im rather sensitive to pain.
I can get easily overwhelmed with things such as bright lights, strong smells, loud uncomfortable noises.
I dont like honeycomb expresso (this is just for a laugh incase a certain someone reads this :p ).
I have a rich, complex inner life.
I am deeply moved by arts and music.
I am conscientious.
I get rattled a lot when I have a lot to do in a short amount of time.
When people are uncomfortable in a physical environment, I tend to know what to do to make it comfortable.
I get annoyed when people try to get me to do many things at once.
I try hard to avoid mistakes or forgetting things.
I make it a point to avoid certain violent movies or things I know will play on my mind.
Changes in my life can shake me up.
I notice and enjoy delicate fine scents, tastes, sounds or works of art.
I appreciate the amazing beauty of nature.
I love to hear the rain and the smell afterwards.
I make it a high priority to keep my life in order.
Better at spotting errors.
Able to concentrate deeply.
Overactive, vivid imagination.
Im a morning person.
I have a high sex drive.
I am passionate and romantic.
I am very creative.
I can truly show real empathy towards others.
I love to laugh.
I get easily stimulated by things.
I love to be touched.
I have trouble shutting my brain off to sleep.
Spend a lot of time thinking about the Universe and the meaning of life.
I am prone to anxiety.

There are so many fruits growing from the trait of sensitivity, that it makes our minds work a little different.  I hope by now that you are seeing your trait as a positive term, I know I am.  It becomes either an advantage or a disadvantage only in certain situations, but it must have a high value in many circumstances.  I use to think that if I had the choice to turn off my sensitivity with an off button, that I would immediately do so, no hesitation.  But as I have got older, although it can in some way limit my life to a certain extent - I don't think I would be without it, because I wouldn't be me, and I wouldn't be doing what I am doing now.  So, any of you out there that may be the same, try to embrace what you have been given and use it to your advantage.

Thrive in an overwhelming world :)

People Who Share

We can learn a lot from each other.  We can all share our experiences - good or bad.  Sharing your successes and failures helps others think about themselves and their lives differently.
Don't discount your experiences, don't down play your successes, and always be open when someone is asking you how you got to where you are, because who knows who you will inspire along the way.

This is why I accepted to give a speech for new students starting at Murdoch University, mainly as external students.  I was asked to 'share' my story in front of what turned out to be about 150 students preparing to make that transition into University life.

We learn from one another's stories because we can see ourselves in the choices of other people, and we can try and avoid mistakes if someone has already made them.  If you ask questions to the people you meet - and you in turn open up about the questions that they ask you - you never know what someone is going to learn.  You could be inadvertently changing someone's path.  Give back a little of your experience's when asked.

Heres parts of the speech that I made.....

"My name is Janine, and I have been invited here to tell you my story, and I’m sure all of you sat here in this room, have a story to tell.

So, here’s mine... and a very brief account it will be....

I'll start from the beginning, I am from the UK, a place called South Yorkshire.  I am 31 years old and I am just starting my second year at Murdoch.

Back in the UK, I went to a normal comprehensive school, the school leavers age is about 15, I completed my GCSEs however I didn’t really do quite as well as I could have done.  During this time my mother had a very bad stroke, which disrupted my studies rather a lot, and also, I was too busy just being a young girl at school, I didn’t feel the need to stay home on an evening and study. After my exams had finished, I really wanted to progress onto further education.    In my day you either had to have done extremely well in school to get accepted into University, or, have lots of money, I didn’t have either, so this was not an option.  However, I really wanted more out of life, so, I did a 2 years college diploma in Sports and Beauty Therapy. 

I did very well in this, I was one of the top students, and since completing the course, I ran my own very successful beauty salon straight out of college, and have always done beauty therapy since.  This really did teach me some excellent communication skills, which have been of great importance later on in life.

Although I wasn’t a grade A student at the time, I feel that it has been my life’s experiences and the fact I went to college and worked within my industry all that time that it gave me an open door into University.  I thought it would be impossible for me to do, but it really isn’t! I decided to go to University because of quite a few factors.  

Since living in Australia I have had personally, quite a rough time.  Leaving home was the hardest thing I have ever had to do, I did not really want to move here in the beginning, as all of my family are still in UK , and to leave everyone and everything I knew, and my business, was very hard and didn’t really hit me until later on, but I did leave for reasons that I wont go on about today.  Since then I have had my fair share of ups and also a fair share of downs.  Not to dwell on the past, as past is past, but I am here to share my story with the hopes that some people can relate, so share I will.  To mention but a few, I had to endure a miscarriage and also had the responsibility for caring for 2 elderly and ill family members for about 2 years, all this whilst working to save to build a house and going through my own anguishes and anxieties, which I think had stemmed from my mothers stroke, leaving home, having to deal with loss and being a carer for someone terminally ill, things build up until one day you don’t know where or who you are anymore. It was a very hard time and life just seemed to plod along.  I couldn’t see a way out. 

But one day I just realized and thought, without any help and advice from anyone else, what the hell am I doing with my life, I had been doing the same job since school and was getting very bored with it, I had achieved everything I could achieve in this industry and was yearning for something else.   I moved to Australia for a new life and look where I was…. I asked myself, what is it I am truly interested in, what, if any subject I could study, what would it be.  Well, science, in particular Environmental Science, had always been of great interest to me along with sustainable development too, however I was always under the impression that I was no way near clever enough to get in, but I had to try.  I sent off my application, which I thoroughly and carefully compiled and sent it off.  I GOT IN!  It was the single greatest and proudest day of my life.

The only challenge that I had to face was actually overcoming my own fears and doubts about my ability to do this.  As I was a mature student I was concerned I wouldn’t fit in, or I wasn’t clever enough etc.  This I now know was so unnecessary.  The fact that I stepped out of my 'comfort zone', and hey we all have them,  and also having to deal with anxiety issues and the fact I had shut myself away for so long, it was a very scary situation to be in, but I had done so well to come this far.  

My first day was great and all the worries I had had just diminished into nothing, and the fact that I had absolutely fantastic tutors really helped me to fit in with much ease and enthusiasm.  Since that day, I have achieved a hell of a lot here at Uni and now working along side some of the most inspirational people I will ever meet.  

All I can say to anyone who is wanted to further their education but think it’s impossible is don’t, because it’s not.  Test yourself, step out of your comfort zone and believe in yourself.  There is so much in life to do than to sit and wonder what if, if you want to do something, do it!  You can find a way around things in order to succeed and Murdoch is very flexible, no matter what your circumstances are Murdoch can facilitate.  Give it a go it will be the best decision you can make.  If I succeed, fantastic, if I don’t, at least I have no regrets, as life is way too short for regrets, I have learnt this through tough lessons.  If something feels good and feels right, it must be good and right.  It’s all character building and any experience is beneficial.

Whatever reason you are here for, I can guarantee you one thing, that this experience, this journey, will be a positive one! 

It is changing me in so many ways, and all positive ways too, my confidence is growing from strength to strength and I am getting involved in things I had only dreamed I would be a part of.

Being mature age is really a good thing, when it comes to study anyway, as we already have well developed communication skills, and we are here because we want to be, so take advantage of the skills you already bring with you and use them to your advantage.

There will be times when it is challenging or overwhelming, but my advice is always ask for help.  Get to know your teachers; they are the ones that will guide you.  Be sure to keep communication with them at all times, studying externally can be every different from internally, I study some units internal and some external and there is a difference, so it is very important to keep close contact.

Be sure to check your University online website everyday and also be a part of the online communities, that way you will feel part of the group. 

So if you ever think to yourself “ I can’t do this!” well, you are here and you ARE doing this, and I’m a prime example that you can.

Enjoy this journey and good luck

Thank you

Sundown is the hour for many strange effects

There is nothing I love more than to sit on the beach, watching the calm waters and the sun going down.  Some very beautiful views that I love sharing. I took this photo several weeks ago at the beautiful shoalwater beach in Rockingham, Western Australia.  I cannot resist these beauties of nature which speak through my heart & soul.  I go out purposely to take photos and to just be alone with my thoughts......

Each and every time it stimulates my emotions with its sheer beauty.   Alone, or time spent with loved ones, during a sunset, sat just few meters away from the shore, I cannot think of anything better.  I feel at total peace, I feel calm, I feel passionate, I feel alive and I feel blessed to be alive to see its beauty.

What I am also fascinated in, about this amazing natural optical phenomena, is the scientific explanation of how it occurs.  During the twilight period of the day, when the sun is in the horizon, the clear sky around the solar disc takes on an orange-yellow glow.  The colours in the red/yellow end of the spectrum dominate because the optically thick intervening air has scattered out all the blue wavelengths from the sunlight before it reaches our eyes.  Dust and other particles enhance the reddening, and the more large particles in the air mass between the sun and the observer, the redder the sunset/sunrise.  The effect can be even more dramatic when clouds are present as they add texture to the sky colour producing various shades and shadows.

As the sun sets, the sky above it glows a pale yellow.  As twilight progresses towards sunset, the twilight arch becomes pink with yellow and orange beneath.  When the sun drops below the horizon, as in my picture above, only the red wavelengths remain, the longer wavelengths that have more atmosphere to pass through.  

As twilight continues, the twilight arch slowly flattens, and the sky above darkens from blue-grey to deep blue before merging into the darkness of night.

Now, that may be of interest to you or not, but next time you see one, just sit for a moment and have a think about the amazing atmospheric and optical phenomenon that is taking place to create such beauty.

Altruism

After my last post about "Life's Purpose", and how I felt that my purpose was to help, it got me thinking about the reasons why I felt like that.
So after doing some research on psychological behaviourism's, I found the term 'Altruism'.

It is a behaviour that appears to have very few negative associations and brings people together.  It is behaviour that helps other people with no apparent gain or with potential cost to oneself.  A person who donates blood, volunteers or even risks death is displaying altruism.  It seems that many forms of altruistic behaviour are so common that we simply take them for granted, such as holding a door open, giving a stranger directions or such as yesterday, whilst walking to my car I directed a driver, who was looking for a space to where I was, and gave her my parking ticket that still had two hours left on it - I mean, why not, I didn't need it.

For a long time now, it has been debated whether any prosocial act - no matter how generous and unselfish it may appear on the surface - is truly an indication of altruistic behaviour.  When people offer money to a homeless person in the street, is their actions motivated by a pure desire to help, or are they alleviating their own discomfort. There are many theories that underpin the understanding of altruism which I have not looked into yet, but what I will say is that I believe their is a truly genuine altruism in all of us.  Humans have a natural compassion for one and other and that the only reason why they do not always behave compassionately is that society beats it out of us.  What makes people more or less likely to show genuine altruism.  I think amongst a lot of things, it can also depend on the people who you let into your life.

People seek out and spend time with others for many reasons.  Sometimes it is an interaction to accomplish goals, raising money for charity or meeting over dinner to discuss business.  Sometimes during these meetings, can influence interpersonal attraction, or a physical attraction, attracting people like magnets.  You choose to be around people for many reasons, but the main reason is because they make you feel good, and hopefully you make them feel good too.  You are more likely to make selfless acts is you are happy within yourself.

Whether or not something is "genuine" altruism is missing the point.  Even if other motives are operating, if a persons ultimate goal in helping another is to benefit that other person, then the behaviour should be considered altruism.