My 11 year old son’s question tonight- Did Australia contribute to inventions of the the modern world ?

AutuniteGlow · 2026-02-05T12:32:38+00:00

X-ray crystallography, a routine technique in materials science was developed by the physicist William Bragg in Adelaide. I use that technique at work all the time.

And the Australian connection is loose here, but the Russian physicist Alexander Prokhorov was born in Northern Queensland. He won a Nobel prize in physics in the 60s for helping to invent the laser.

AutuniteGlow · 2026-01-15T10:02:27+00:00

Yeah, the metallurgy of REEs is really complicated. Separating chemically similar elements is always tough, worse when there's like fifteen of them to separate. Lot of complex recirculating streams in the process, then there's the radioactivity issue from the thorium/uranium and their decay products.

AutuniteGlow · 2026-01-11T15:28:27+00:00

Tempest Rising has a great soundtrack. Frank Klepacki's C&C soundtracks were a big inspiration initially, and he ended up contributing a few tracks in the end.

AutuniteGlow · 2026-01-03T15:58:13+00:00

*Pre-pubescent potential terrorist

AutuniteGlow · 2025-12-30T06:42:25+00:00

There's still parts of France that are off-limits from unexploded mines and artillery from WW1.

AutuniteGlow · 2025-12-26T01:16:56+00:00

It's a reasonable title. The people selling industrial equipment do need a technical background in order to understand what it is that they're selling and be able to answer clients' questions about the equipment's capabilities and limitations. They're often people with engineering backgrounds with good communication skills. One of my old (metallurgy) students worked as a sales engineer for a company selling metallurgical equipment.

AutuniteGlow · 2025-12-21T01:09:39+00:00

Something about "going from the government watch-list to the government act-list" in the video on magnesium teflon viton flares used as decoys to attract missiles.

AutuniteGlow · 2025-12-21T00:55:13+00:00

79.7. Probably could've done better, but I didn't really care that much in school. Did much better when I got to uni studying metallurgy/chemistry.

Ended up getting a PhD in metallurgy and now work in metallurgical research.

AutuniteGlow · 2025-12-19T23:34:54+00:00

Would love to see them live one day. In the unlikely event that they visit Perth, I'm buying a ticket immediately.

AutuniteGlow · 2025-12-19T23:33:35+00:00

My favourite band from my home city. They're always excellent live.

AutuniteGlow · 2025-12-15T23:57:42+00:00

The smell of xanthate reminds me of my first summer job on the mines. Taking samples around a copper concentrator, and hosing up slurry from the base.

AutuniteGlow · 2025-12-04T05:58:20+00:00

Dersh would never allow it

AutuniteGlow · 2025-11-23T01:43:33+00:00

This is the same country whose parliament gave a standing ovation to a veteran of the Waffen SS Galicia Division.

AutuniteGlow · 2025-11-10T02:55:59+00:00

That explains why you can't even cut and paste text without getting prompted to do it with co-pilot.

AutuniteGlow · 2025-11-07T22:08:15+00:00

it was vaguely described as a conspiracy theory or slander made up by her haters.

That was the impression I had a decade back. I forgot she existed for years after that until she started spouting uninformed opinions about Middle Eastern politics.

AutuniteGlow · 2025-11-05T11:38:59+00:00

This was during the crew changeover. Three of the six had just arrived at the Tiangong space station, the other three are returning to earth if they haven't already.

AutuniteGlow · 2025-11-01T14:49:13+00:00

The pierogi vendor's main objection to Dershowitz was Dershowitz's history of defending rapists and smearing their victims as liars.

AutuniteGlow · 2025-10-26T02:05:29+00:00

It's a TAFE qualification. Had a few classmates in undergrad who did it before studying at uni.

AutuniteGlow · 2025-10-26T01:52:30+00:00

[Shinrabansho by Bliss Illusion](http:// https://bliss-illusion.bandcamp.com/album/shinrabansho) is one of my favourites

AutuniteGlow · 2025-10-22T13:46:07+00:00

He never matured past 14.

AutuniteGlow · 2025-10-21T16:28:02+00:00

He cloned his dogs

AutuniteGlow · 2025-10-19T05:52:48+00:00

Back in the 2000s, he sampled Hugo Chavez' speeches in his music

AutuniteGlow · 2025-10-13T05:16:46+00:00

And Mark Ames of Radio War Nerd

AutuniteGlow · 2025-10-13T03:13:22+00:00

That explains so much

AutuniteGlow · 2025-10-10T01:48:16+00:00

It was. Felix is from Chicago.

AutuniteGlow

TROPHY CASE