Author Archives: GovWorldMag

Botanica Mathematica

From the Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee :

Botanica Mathematica
D’Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum
2nd – 30th June, Fridays 2 – 4.30pm

The D’Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum at the University of Dundee re-opens to the public for the summer season on 2 June and will be open every Friday 2-4.30pm until 1 September. Throughout June there will be a special addition to the displays – an exhibition of knitted artworks inspired by mathematical biology.

Botanica Mathematica is a textile taxonomy of mathematically inspired plant forms. Its creators, Julia Collins and Madeleine Shepherd, have combined ideas from D’Arcy Thompson’s On Growth and Form, computer science, fractals and hyperbolic geometry. The specimen collection consists mainly of crowd-sourced contributions of Binary Bonsai trees. 

Generative instructions and algorithmic knitting patterns are the genetic code of these creations; textile techniques are their metabolism. These patterns were released into the wild to evolve and change as makers around the world interpreted them. 

The elegant structures, rich textures and fascinating patterns that arise have been collected and classified, with the aid of taxonomist Jo Macrae, as if they were specimens in a botanical herbarium. 

The exhibition features Binary Bonsai, Fibonacci Flowers and Hyperbolic Chanterelles displayed throughout the museum. 

Madeleine Shepherd will be in the museum on 2 June to meet visitors and discuss her work. You can also find out more on her website here.
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Fraser Macpherson

The Hugo Chavez factor

Others have reminded us that Jeremy Corbyn is an admirer of the late Hugo Chavez, the author of Venezuela’s current economic and social misfortunes. Mr Corbyn praised his socialism and singled out for favourable comment the way Mr Chavez shared wealth and changed Venezuela’s society. He has been quieter about all this over the last couple of years, as Venezuela has slipped into deep recession, hyperinflation, and social disorder. There are no official economic numbers because they are too embarassing, but the IMF and others think GDP fell by more than 10% last year and continues to fall. Imports halved and supermarket shelves are often empty.

Mr Chavez nationalised a large number of businesses, including the all important oil industry. Venezuela used to be a relatively well off economy, based on huge oil reserves exploited by commercial companies and taxed by the state. As nationalisation tightened its grip on Venezuela’s oil they fell behind in paying contractors, in getting work done to expand and replace, and in pumping enough oil for Venezuela’s financial needs. This week they are in the news because a government which has run out of foreign exchange has had to sell deeply discounted bonds to Goldman Sachs to raise some dollars, bonds issued by the nationalised oil company backed by the very oil revenues that are needed for the future bills of the Venezuelan state. There are regular reports of massive food shortages with people going hungry. Now we are told of state violence on the streets against the opposition who seek a change of President and policy.

Mr Chavez gave large sums to the poor by borrowing and by taxing others more heavily. Today this generosity has been badly eroded by rapid inflation, and made worse by the physical scarcity of basic goods to carry on a normal life. Is this really the better way, the socialist dream, that Mr Corbyn recommends? Surely it should be a warning to us all. Nationalising might end up with bad malfunction, as with Venezuela’s crucial oil industry. Too much generosity with printed money may just destroy the many through hyperinflation. If people go hungry and are unable to change their government by normal democratic means you do not get an egalitarian paradise, but an authoritarian government trying to stop a civil war born of desperation.

Perhaps Mr Corbyn would like to revisit his enthusiasm for Mr Maduro, the heir to Mr Chavez, and tell us what he has now learned about socialist policies. They were as well intentioned as his, but they have miscarried mightily. Venezuela shows you cannot make the poor rich by making the rich poor. You end up making the whole society poorer, whilst the very rich and the large companies simply leave or stop investing.

Published and promoted by Fraser Mc Farland on behalf of John Redwood, both at 30 Rose Street Wokingham RG40 1XU

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John Redwood MP •

Fully-automated Yanfang Line set for test run in June

China’s first home-grown fully-automated subway line Yanfang Line will undergo a test run in June after the construction of the route was completed on May 25. The line is expected to be put in operation at the end of 2017.

Yanfang Line, from Suzhuang to Yanhua, has nine stations and a total length of 16.6 kilometers and can run at a maximum speed of 80 kilometers per hour at the initial stage with a carrying capacity of 1,262 passengers.

The train’s every aspect — arrivals and departures, door opening and closing, cleaning, and more — will be entirely automated.

The automatic train operation system, built on the basis technologies of computing, communications, control and system integration, is a new generation of the urban rail network.

The train is driverless and the handling of emergency is fully automated without any on-train staff. Meanwhile, the staff of the train operation center will watch the running of trains, ensuring the safety of passengers.

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East Asia