Ristan Greer

Veterinarian, epidemiologist, C172/182 pilot

[Bones of LaSalle 💀⚜️ @bonesoflasalle]

The left is having a hissy fit because French people are doing French stuff. Pay €80 & you get a 4 course feast, unlimited wine & lots of singing & conversations. However, they serve pork, sing patriotic songs & just enjoy the company of their countrymen.

[Anthony Khallouf @ausvstheagenda]

Dr. Anna Cody, Australia's Sex Discrimination Commissioner just said:

If a transgender woman (man) is denied a job because they said they intend to have children, then this is discrimination “on the basis on POTENTIAL pregnancy.”

Oh my god.

[Richard Freedman @R1CHARDFREEDMAN]

Legit whinge.....
Please....can all raceclubs put some TVs in the horse stalls so the staff can watch the races. They cant leave the horses. They devote their working life to putting on the show. The least we can do is let them watch it. Dont just take them for granted.

[Ihtesham Ali @ihtesham2005]

An MIT professor taught the same math course for 62 years, and the day he retired, students from every country on earth showed up online to watch him give his final lecture.

I opened the playlist at 2am and ended up watching three of them back to back.

His name is Gilbert Strang. The course is MIT 18.06 Linear Algebra.

Every machine learning engineer, every data scientist, every quant, every self-taught programmer who actually understands how AI works learned the math from this one man. Most of them never set foot on MIT's campus. They just opened a free playlist on YouTube and let him teach.

Here's the story almost nobody tells you.

Strang joined the MIT math faculty in 1962. He retired in 2023. That is 61 years of standing at the same chalkboard teaching the same subject to 18-year-olds.

The interesting part is what he did when MIT launched OpenCourseWare in 2002. Most professors were skeptical. They worried that putting their lectures online would make their classrooms irrelevant. Strang did not hesitate. He said his life's mission was to open mathematics to students everywhere. He filmed every lecture and gave it away.

The decision quietly changed how the world learns math.

For decades linear algebra was taught the wrong way. Professors started with abstract vector spaces and proofs about field axioms. Students drowned in the abstraction. Most never recovered. They walked out believing they were bad at math when they had simply been taught in an order that nobody's brain is built to absorb.

Strang inverted the entire curriculum.

He started with matrix multiplication. Something you can write down on paper. Something you can compute by hand. Something you can see. Then he showed his students that everything else in linear algebra eigenvectors, singular value decomposition, orthogonality, the four fundamental subspaces was just a different lens for understanding what the matrix was actually doing under the hood.

His rule was strict. If a student could not explain a concept using a concrete 3 by 3 example, that student did not actually understand the concept yet. The abstraction was supposed to come last, not first. The intuition was the foundation. The proofs were just confirmation that the intuition was correct.

The second thing Strang changed was the classroom itself. He said please and thank you to his students. Every single lecture. He paused mid-derivation to ask "am I OK?" to check if anyone was lost. He never used the word "obviously" or "trivially" because he knew exactly what those words do to a student who is one step behind. He treated 19-year-olds learning math for the first time the way he treated his own colleagues. With patience. With respect. With the assumption that they belonged in the room.

For 62 years.

The result is something that has never happened in the history of education. A single math professor became the default teacher of his subject for the entire planet.

Universities in India, China, Brazil, Nigeria, every country with a computer science department, started telling their own students to just watch Strang's lectures. The University of Illinois revised its linear algebra course to do almost no in-person lecturing. The reason was honest. The professor said they could not compete with the videos.

His final lecture was in May 2023.

The auditorium was packed with students who had never met him before. He walked to the chalkboard, taught for an hour, and at the end the entire room stood and applauded. He looked confused for a moment, like he genuinely did not understand why they were cheering. Then he smiled and waved them off and walked out.

His written comment under the YouTube video of that final lecture was four sentences long. He said teaching had been a wonderful life. He said he was grateful to everyone who saw the importance of linear algebra. He said the movement of teaching it well would continue because it was right.

That was it. No book promotion. No farewell speech. No legacy management.

The man whose teaching is the foundation of modern AI just thanked the audience and went home.

20 million views. Zero ego. The entire engine of the AI revolution sits on top of math that millions of people learned for free from one quiet professor in Cambridge.

The course is still on MIT OpenCourseWare. Every lecture, every problem set, every exam, every solution. Free.

The most important math course of the 21st century is sitting one click away from you. Most people will never open it.

[Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 @DrewPavlou]

West Sydney Islamist extremist councillor made a video attacking us for investigating fraud in West Sydney.

Ahmed Ouf used to run a West Sydney NDIS business right up until the start of last year.

He only migrated to Australia in 2010.

Within 2 years of migrating to Australia he travelled to Gaza to meet with the Hamas military wing in 2012.

He wasn’t even a citizen when he met with a listed terror organisation.

After gaining citizenship, he then called for jihadist struggle against Australia, telling a crowd of Islamists that they must learn to resist and fight like Hamas and the Palestinians, “resistance has to continue.”

Deport.

[World Affairs @World_Affairs11]

BREAKING:

🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia fully restores East-West oil pipeline, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz and pumping 7,000,000 barrels per day.

Saudi Arabia says it needs no more strait of Hormuz.

[Ocarina Jones 🇮🇱 🐝 @OcarinaJones]

From facebook:

Bob Katter ·

HOW DARE YOU, CANBERRA

War is atrocious.. momentary decisions are made often with a gun pointed at your head.
Often the choice is kill or be killed.
HOW DARE YOU!!!
HOW DARE YOU, JUDGE!!!
HOW DARE YOU, SPEND $300 MILLION TAXPAYER DOLLARS ON SOME WITCH-HUNT!!!
HOW DARE YOU, SO PUBLICLY ARREST AND CONDEMN AN AUSTRALIAN SOLIDER!!!
Our whole judicial system based on judgement by peers … Ben Roberts-Smith has been judged by a faceless few, sitting in a Canberra air conditioned pleasure palace - those judging are not peers.
Ben Roberts-Smith has already been judged by his soldier peers, indeed he has been revered and celebrated by his peers with the highest of accolades the Victoria Cross.
CONTEXT is everything… in wartime soldiers can’t and shouldn’t be held to civilian standards… they have been scarred from the atrocities seen, starved, dehydrated, sleep deprived, stripped of almost all of the basic pleasures of life…..
Because of their sacrifices we enjoy a free and democratic society, the ability to work, have a family, grow wealth, receive education and welfare….
His peers gave him a Victoria Cross… that speaks volumes of his courage, bravery and acts of heroism…
Whilst the woke condemn, I STAND WITH BEN ROBERTS-SMITH.
“Ben, thankyou for your service and your sacrifice. If ever Australia goes to war, God help us if we don’t have many, many soldiers like you by our side.”

[Colin Brazier @ColinBrazierTV]

“In engineering, you are peer reviewed by reality”. From Rory Sutherland, in this week’s Spectator.

[Daniel @VoteLewko]

Dear @AlboMP. I'm sorry you and Tony Burke were nearly lynched at Lakemba Mosque this morning. I guess issuing 3,000 visas to Gaza, recognising 'Palestine' and throwing millions of dollars at certain groups didn't pay off.

On behalf of the Jewish Community, I'd like to invite you to any Synagogue in the country tonight for the Friday night service. Sure, a huge number of the Jewish Community are deeply upset at you and disgusted by the direction of this country. Really, really upset. However beyond some murmurs from the crowd you won't be in any actual danger. None.

You'll even get a glass of wine and you can even leave your police protection detail outside. Or in the car as usual because they know you would be safer inside a Synagogue than walking through Bondi. Plus they will get to keep their boots on this time!

If you'd like, you can address the congregation. Perhaps a line or two about 'social cohesion' or perhaps the huge contribution the Jewish Community have made to Australia. Maybe something about Passover. That always plays well.

Or perhaps announce you're chucking another few million dollars at Jewish security, rather than chucking a few people out of the country.

Anyway, let me know what time we can expect you.

Good shabbos.
Daniel Lewkovitz.

[Ristan Greer @TorusRMG]

@scottiebateman As a low hour Cessna pilot it’s great to be able to touch down one main into wind then two main then nose wheel last

[Sama Hoole @SamaHoole]

The Merino sheep changed world history.

Originating in Spain, developed through centuries of selective breeding into an animal producing wool so fine, fibres measuring 15-24 microns in diameter, compared to 30+ for most wool, that it feels like cashmere against skin, wicks moisture more efficiently than synthetic alternatives, and regulates temperature in both cold and heat.

Spain recognised what it had. For three centuries, exporting live Merinos was a capital offence. The wool trade was state-controlled. The Mesta, the sheep farmers' guild, had legal powers exceeding those of most institutions. The Merino was a strategic national asset.

When the ban eventually broke down in the 18th century and Merinos spread to Australia, the Australian wool industry that developed became the economic foundation of the country. The phrase "Australia rode on the sheep's back" described two centuries of export income that built the infrastructure of a nation.

One breed of sheep.

Capital offence to export.

Built a country.

The Merino is currently on a hillside somewhere converting grass into fibre that surgeons use in operating theatres, that aerospace engineers use in thermal management applications, and that is quietly superior to every synthetic alternative anyone has produced.

Nobody has made a documentary about the Merino.

The Merino does not require a documentary.

The Merino has the wool.

[Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 @DrewPavlou]

Blind Australian kids are being cut out of the NDIS while the worst scammers in the world abuse the scheme to incinerate billions in taxpayer money.

Help @PeteZogoulas and I clean up this mess. Petition here: https://t.co/OXTVwctofS

[The Husky @Mr_Husky1]

Back in 1952, a baby was born at a hospital in New York. The room went dead silent. The infant was blue, limp, and silent. Panic began to settle over the medical staff, and for a terrifying moment, it looked like they might give up. Then, a steady, calm voice cut through the tension.

«Let’s score the baby,» the woman commanded.

That woman was Dr. Virginia Apgar. That single, simple instruction changed the course of modern medicine forever.

Virginia Apgar’s path wasn’t easy. She originally wanted to be a surgeon, but in the 1940s, the doors to operating rooms were firmly shut against women. She was told plainly that no hospital would hire a woman as a surgeon. Many people would have quit right there, but Apgar simply shifted her focus. She moved into the field of anesthesiology. It was a career pivot that would eventually save millions of lives.

While working in the maternity ward at Columbia-Presbyterian, Apgar watched something that broke her heart. She saw newborn babies dying within minutes of birth because doctors didn’t have a standardized way to check if they were healthy or in distress. It was all guesswork. There was no system, no set of rules, and no shared language among the staff.

One morning in 1952, Apgar decided to solve the problem herself. She sat down with a piece of paper and a pen. She developed a simple, five-point test to evaluate a newborn’s health based on heart rate, respiration, muscle tone, reflexes, and skin color.

She called it the “Apgar Score.”

The medical community didn’t just accept it; they embraced it. Within a decade, nearly every hospital in the United States had adopted her method. Because doctors finally had a universal language to assess a newborn’s health, they knew exactly when to intervene. The infant mortality rate plummeted. Infants who might have been left for dead in the past were suddenly being resuscitated and kept alive.

Virginia Apgar didn’t stop with that one test. She went on to get a degree in Public Health and worked tirelessly with the March of Dimes, becoming a global advocate for mothers and their children. She spent her life breaking barriers, not by shouting, but by being the most capable person in the room.

Because doctors finally had a universal language to assess a newborn’s health, they knew exactly when to intervene. The infant mortality rate plummeted—studies have estimated that the implementation of standardized neonatal assessments contributed to a significant decline in neonatal deaths, with some regions seeing mortality rates for high-risk infants drop by as much as 40 to 50 percent in the years following its adoption.

Infants who might have been left for dead in the past were suddenly being resuscitated and kept alive.

When people asked her how she managed to thrive in a world that didn’t want her there, she would offer a small, knowing smile. She once explained her resilience by saying:

«Women are like tea bags—you never know how strong they are until they’re in hot water.»

Dr. Virginia Apgar passed away in 1974, but her work remains invisible yet essential. Every two seconds, somewhere on this planet, a baby takes its first breath. In that moment, a doctor or a nurse silently calculates a score.

That number is a tribute to a woman who refused to give up—not on the babies, and certainly not on herself.

She proved that one person with a pen, a clear vision, and a refusal to back down can rewrite the future. She taught us that your circumstances don’t define your impact; your actions do.

Most people will never know the name of the woman behind the score they receive at birth. But every life she helped save is living proof that you don't need fame to be a hero—you just need to leave the world better than you found it.

[Eyal Yakoby @EYakoby]

Senator Kennedy:

“UK was founded by geniuses. Today it's run by idiots. Getting advice from Keir Starmer about war, is like getting advice from a nun about sex.”

[Ristan Greer @TorusRMG]

@GinieSigonney Did jamming or spoofing have any role?

[ClarksonsFarm @ClarksonsFarm1]

If you invented a machine that could:

- Restore degraded land
- Build topsoil
- Sequester carbon
- Produce fertiliser
- Create complete protein
- Generate its own fuel
- Reproduce itself
- Require zero electricity

You'd win the Nobel peace prize.

Instead, we blame them for climate change.

These cows will be tending to their fields as they always have, while city-based career politicians discuss their impact on national climate agenda.

[Hot Rails — oz/acc @hot_rails]

The Littoral Combat Ships currently helping keep the Strait of Hormuz open were designed in Australia and built in the United States by Austal USA, the American subsidiary of Australian shipbuilder Austal. U.S. law requires American warships to be constructed domestically, so the vessels are assembled in Alabama using an Australian-developed design.

The ship’s distinctive trimaran hull evolved from Austal’s high-speed commercial ferries. That configuration delivers three advantages: sprint speeds of over 40 knots, a shallow draft of about 4 metres that allows operations in waters too restricted for larger warships, and an unusually large flight deck and internal mission bay. The result is effectively a small aviation and robotics mothership rather than a traditional surface combatant.

Those features enable the ship’s most important mission: mine countermeasures (MCM). Older minesweepers had to enter the minefield themselves, putting both vessel and crew at risk. The Littoral Combat Ship instead remains outside the danger area and deploys unmanned surface and underwater vehicles, as well as helicopters equipped with mine-hunting sensors, to locate and neutralise mines.

The ship is also armed with a 57 mm naval gun, short-range missiles, and helicopters capable of engaging fast attack craft - the kind of small-boat swarming tactics long emphasised by Iranian naval doctrine in the Strait.

In short, keeping narrow waterways like the Strait of Hormuz open is precisely the mission the Littoral Combat Ship was built for.

So next time you fill the tank, thank the Americans operating the patrols - but spare a thought for the Australian naval architects whose ferry design ended up guarding one of the world’s most important shipping lanes.

🇺🇸 🤝 🇦🇺

[Ristan Greer @TorusRMG]

@rftte Superb skills

[RFTTE @rftte]

Katherine Floods, NT - Gutsy Cop & Master of the Cyclic! A passing-by R44 pilot dropped a police officer to help a stranded driver and passenger, then went back to retrieve their dog...
IF IT'S FLOODED, FORGET IT.
📷 NT Emergency Service - Katherine Volunteer Unit #ntfloods