They may be vapours, they may be spots, but before we assume that they are spots – which is what would suit us best – we should assume that they are fried fish [...] And whatever we wish to find we shall regard, once found, with particular mistrust. B. Brecht, Life of Galileo (1938) Cotton Building, Room 426 School of Mathematics and Statistics Victoria University of WellingtonPO Box 600 Wellington 6140 New Zealand work phone: +64 04 4636744 work email: martino "dot" lupini "at" vuw "dot" ac "dot" nz |