Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Calair (talk | contribs) at 23:32, 20 October 2004. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

I'm a professional geek, of the maths/engineering variety. I work in the contact lens industry, but I don't post much on that subject - partly because a lot of my professional knowledge is commercial-in-confidence, but mostly because I come to Misplaced Pages for a break from work.

I'm a dual US/Australian national, born in California and living in Sydney.

Due to occasional stalker problems (none current), I prefer not to use my real name in a searchable venue, so I pinched 'Calair' from a favourite roleplaying character.

I try to keep my edits NPOV, but so the curious can better judge whether my edits are Fair & Balanced, some information on me and my biases...

I love science, especially when it's mathematical.

I detest 'factoids', those catchy little bits of trivia that everybody hears, believes, and repeats, without checking to see whether they're actually true. Stuff like "Glass is a slow-flowing liquid, that's why old windows are thicker at the bottom". I would rather remove a false fact from Misplaced Pages than add a true one. This doesn't mean I don't make mistakes myself :-)

I'm a member of the Australian Greens. This doesn't mean I'd want them running the country tomorrow; it means I'd like to live in a country where human rights issues are taken as seriously as economic ones, and long-term environmental issues get more consideration than they do, and at present I see increasing the Greens' influence as the best way to do that.

In US politics I'm reluctantly pro-Kerry and wholeheartedly anti-Bush. When I try to describe the US electoral system, words like "pathological" spring to mind.

Speaking of human rights, that includes LGBTI rights. IMHO, the State's job is not to make choices for adults, but rather to assist them to make their own informed decisions. On gay marriage, my preferred policy would be to divorce the legal aspect of relationships from the religious one altogether - put the government in charge of legal partnerships to facilitate things like inheritance/child custody, and let each church and religion decide for themselves whose relationships they'll recognise as 'marriage'.

I am the step-parent of a twelve-year-old child.

I try to be courteous to people, but I have a tendency towards snarkishness. This is not something I'm proud of; if you see me doing this, do me a favour and point it out so I can fix it up.