Jim McGovern's Personal Blog

The RTE TV News story of Friday 27th April 2012 about the Lough Foyle sonar illusion struck me as being rather strange. There seemed to be far too much of the symmetry of some sort of ship in the sonar image for it to be an ‘illusion.’ Symmetry in an image of the sea bed implies the same symmetry on the sea bed. I would find it difficult to believe that this symmetry is just an illusion or that it is not in some way related to the shape of a ship-shaped object, or collection of objects, of sleek proportions. My curiosity is aroused and I would be very interested in a plausible explanation. The diagram above is a quick trace I made of the main symmetry lines I could see in the image on the RTE News web site.

This blog is now published under the Creative Commons BY 3.0 license. Others may copy, distribute and transmit the work, adapt it or make commercial use of it, but must attribute it to me.

Amazingly, a fire in derelict buildings in Benburb Street has disrupted Dublin’s LUAS light rail system for what will be a week tomorrow, Saturday 24th March 2012. Apparently, some of these building are listed for preservation. Therefore thousands of commuters and other public transport users are discommoded for a week and enormous costs are being incurred. There appear to be dozens of staff from the company that operates LUAS on duty to manage the disruption as well as possible. Very expensive and painstaking work is being done to make the buildings safe, while dismantling them to the minimum extent possible. These derelict buildings could probably have been leveled in a few days and huge unnecessary costs (direct and indirect) could have been avoided. Based on experience, the likelihood is that once made safe, the unoccupied derelict and buttressed buildings will be left indefinitely to grace the sub-skyline of Dublin city. Business cannot thrive in such an environment, valuable space is being wasted and a derelict area is unlikely to be safe for those who might wish to pass through.

Currently works are underway at Newbridge railway station, Co. Kildare, to improve access. This is to be welcomed. Temporarily, the already inadequately sized canopy shelter on the platform for Dublin bound trains is partially fenced off, leaving a band near the platform edge. On a wet and windy morning, like this morning was, passengers have a stark choice. They can advance further down the platform to where the train will stop, where there is no shelter, or they can stand under the shelter with their backs against the temporary fence. Once passengers are standing in this manner any additional passengers who arrive and wish to advance down the platform are almost obliged to walk outside the yellow line. This situation could be dangerous or unsafe.

I was shocked by reports last week, e.g. Lara Marlowe’s article in the Irish Times, of George W Bush's admission that he approved of and, indeed, ordered torture. Torture is wrong. Not to be tortured, physically or mentally, is a fundamental human right. When things are totally wrong there is no point trying to compare magnitudes. The magnitudes of the impacts of wrongness may vary or may be immeasurable, but all things that are totally wrong are equally totally wrong.

Unlike me, George W. Bush is a religious man. I believe in love not hate, positivity not negativity, respect not disrespect, fairness not unfairness, justice not injustice, equality not inequality. I believe in freedom of thought, freedom of expression, freedom from oppression, liberty, the security of person, recognition everywhere as a person before the law, effective remedy for those whose human rights are violated—in fact, I believe in all thirty articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. My personal concept of God is very much identified with good not bad and with right not wrong.

The danger of supporting what is wrong is that there is no knowing where it may lead. I believe that any leader who advocates torture offends not just those who are tortured as a result, but all those they lead.

I have written this blog simply because it is right and feels necessary for me to declare that I believe torture is wrong.

The railway station in Newbridge is beautiful and quaint, persisting from another time. I appreciate beauty and form and function. However, I am an engineer of today, who is keen to address the needs of today’s society. I believe it is right and proper to dismantle (let me be blunt, destroy) beauty that has outlived its era. Let’s log it, digitize it or store samples of it in heritage parks or museums. The Earth is not big enough to leave our former built environment in place as we continue our development.

I need to digress momentarily. In my view, the beautiful stone bridge in the photograph is highly dangerous for the citizens of Newbridge who use it as a road. Newbridge has expanded greatly in recent years and that small narrow bridge without footpaths now links large housing estates to the town and schools of Newbridge. Children and parents with babies walk over the bridge in great numbers and are in danger from the two-way traffic.

I had been thinking about how one might take a sample of suds floating on the surface of a river. The photo to the left shows suds on the Liffey at Newbridge, Co. Kildare, Ireland. It was taken on my mobile phone from the upstream side of the bridge at Newbridge, looking down on the water. The water level and the rate of flow on the river were quite low at the time: 16:53 24 September 2010.

With a small container on a string it would be easy to take a grab sample of the water. However, I felt there was a possibility the water itself was very pure and that the suds floating on top were of entirely different composition.

Yesterday I saw a a fly fisherman wearing waders in the river a short distance upstream from the bridge in Newbridge and at another time I saw a swan swimming there. They were both surrounded by these suds. I do not know whether or not the suds disturbed them. I just imagine that they did, because they did disturb me.

‘Suds on the beautiful River Liffey and a dog’ is a 39-second-long movie on YouTube with a wonderful actor in the starring role that highlights, presumably mild, pollution consisting of suds on the River Liffey at Newbridge, Co. Kildare, Ireland. River pollution is an engineering issue that can and should be addressed. The technical failure to resolve the problem over an extended period of time points to a failure of regulation. This video was shot on 12^th September 2010 from the bridge over the Liffey at Newbridge, which is shown in the photo above. The pollution was mentioned by Jim McGovern at an international conference on sustainable energy and environmental protection in August 2009 (see http://arrow.dit.ie/engschmecoth/8/). The dog in the starring role swam unexpectedly into the movie frame and transformed a dull technical exhibit into something rather more appealing.

In today’s England vs Germany match in the World Cup an English goal was disallowed by the referee and match officials, even though millions of viewers around the world could see that the ball had clearly entered the goal. Would it not make sense for FIFA to ensure, as far as reasonably possible, that decisions are seen to be fair?

A somewhat special experience I currently enjoy happens when people who know me (more or less well) refer in one friendly way or another to the fact that I have returned to being a senior lecturer—a true academic and practitioner—in my field of Mechanical Engineering. Very often the exchange begins with the person, of whom I am an acquaintance or friend, commenting that I seem far more relaxed or happier since I returned to the lecturing role. Judging from what people say to me, it sounds as though I appeared uncomfortable, unhappy, or both in the role of Head of School. Overall, this would not capture how I actually felt generally while I was in the role, although I am sure I felt like that on occasion. I felt proud and honoured to be in a role of serving learners and colleagues. I do not regret the time that I spent as Head of School and there are many memories that I cherish from that period.