Frankly speaking ...

COVID-19 Hospitalisations COVID-19 hospitalisation data are openly reported but the information provided is being misrepresented. Take, for example, the following Facebook post: Facebook 24 Jan 2022 While accurate with regard to the numbers, Peter is implying that vaccination does not work as more vaccinated people are in hospital than unvaccinated people. This is a misrepresentation because the emphasis Peter makes is on the absolute number rather than the rate of hospitalisations among vaccinated versus unvaccinated individuals. For example, let’s use data approximately based on the figures available from the same source as Peter’s, namely NSW Health data. # Population data (per 1,000 people for rate calculation) total_population <- 1000 vaccination_rate <- 0.929 # 92.9% vaccination rate in NSW, Jan 2022 vaccinated_population <- vaccination_rate * total_population unvaccinated_population <- (1 - vaccination_rate) * total_population # Hospitalisation numbers fr...

This article is a companion piece to From Code to Content: Automating Your Blogger Workflow with GitHub which focused on the Blogger API and The Art of the Repeatable Post: Why Structure Matters , which focuses on the importance of structure for a consistent and high-quality blogging workflow. This article ties together the concepts of automation and structure, showing how to build a CI/CD pipeline for your technical blog using GitHub Actions and Docker. The Hook: Escaping the Manual Blogging Loop For the modern developer, the desire to share technical insights is often hindered by administrative overhead. We spend our professional lives in code editors and terminal sessions, yet sharing those insights on platforms like Blogger often requires a return to manual labour. We find ourselves copy-pasting HTML, struggling with clunky web-based editors, and manually managing assets. This friction discourages regular contributions, often leading to stale repositories and abandoned drafts....

In my previous article , I explored the technical "plumbing" required to connect GitHub to Blogger.  It is  a powerful setup - especially once the heavy lifting is automated. But  automation can’t fix disorder.  If every blog post starts as a chaotic scramble of files and mismatched formats, you are still working harder than you should. The real magic happens when you move beyond just "automation" and start embracing a consistent project structure . Consistency is a Writer's Best Friend When you use a standardised repository structure—like the one found in the article-markdown repository—you are not just organising files; you are creating a mental shortcut. Because every post has the same folder layout, you never have to wonder where your images go or how to name your source files. Professional Rigour for Every Paragraph We often hear that we should treat "content as code". In practice, this means your blog benefits from the same discipline as a...

For the modern developer, the desire to share technical insights is often hindered by the "toil" of the publishing process. We live in our code editors and terminal sessions, yet sharing those insights on platforms like  Blogger  often means reverting to manual labour: copy-pasting HTML, wrestling with web-based WYSIWYG editors, and manually managing assets. This discourages regular contribution, often resulting in stale repositories and abandoned drafts. By adopting a "Blogging as Code" approach, you can replace manual copy-pasting with an automated CI/CD pipeline. By leveraging the  Blogger REST API v3  and  GitHub Actions , you can treat your blog with the same engineering rigour as your production software. 1. The API as Your Deployment Interface The core shift in this methodology is viewing Blogger not as a website, but as a deployment target. The Blogger REST API allows developers to bypass the browser entirely, enabling programmatic creation and updates o...

You are standing on a street corner when a sub-zero wind gusts against your face. You feel the sharp, biting sting  −  a raw, undeniable presence. Yet, from the perspective of neurobiology, there is only the dry arithmetic of sodium ions and neurotransmitters. This chasm between the objective "firing" and the subjective "feeling" is what philosophers call the "Hard Problem," and for decades, it has remained the ultimate stalemate of science. In an effort to break this deadlock, the world's leading theorists gathered in 2022 at the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness (ASSC) for what was essentially a debate on the nature of experience. The exchange revealed a field in crisis: experts no longer disagree merely on data, but on what phenomena require explanation. Are we looking for a broadcast, a mathematical structure, or a sophisticated 'best guess'  −  and can any single theory capture it? What emerged were the following provoc...

If you’re reading Superheavy: Making and Breaking the Periodic Table by Kit Chapman , it really helps to understand the concept of 'cross-sections.' However, the book's explanation is pretty brief. To help clear things up, I put together this summary of what cross-sections actually mean in the context of creating new elements. Cross Sections In nuclear physics, a cross-section is a measure of the probability that a specific nuclear reaction (like fusion) will occur. When scientists say the cross-sections get smaller as the atomic number (Z) increases, they mean that it becomes exponentially harder and less likely for two nuclei to successfully fuse and survive as a new, super-heavy element. Think of the cross-section as the “size of the target” you are trying to hit. As you try to create heavier elements, that target shrinks from the size of a barn door to the size of a needle’s eye. Infographic: The Challenge of Element Synthesis Why the Cross-Section Decreases The pr...