Introductions suck. They are awkward, always formulaic, and usually boring. I would much rather begin spewing information your way like split pea soup (I expect much of it will be Green), and allow you to catch up with who I am and what I’m all about in the meantime.
However, I’m told that’s bad etiquette, and if you’re going to eat my soup you’ll need to know what it consists of.
There’s a fairly simple chain of events to follow leading up to MicroWombat. I could explain them in a linear way, which would be incredibly boring, or I could give you the bare skeleton of my existence and allow you to come to your own conclusions concerning details. I also think this will be useful in creating a persona that will be more easy to relate to in terms of anonymity; I could be anyone, you know.
I know very little about science. In the past, I saw no problem in this; I have a natural predisposition toward things like literature, music, art, etc. I’m awful at math, and even my science teachers seemed bored with the subject. Plus, they were terrible spellers and I just have such a hard time taking an ill-speller seriously; I know it’s close-minded and I hope you forgive me for that.
During my years as a lost and wandering agnostic, I ran across a very important idea: the fact that, thanks to youTube, one no longer has to attend an Ivy League institution to have access to lectures from some seriously hyper-aware minds. The Internet has the potential to be an awesome educational resource, as I’ve discovered, but it isn’t often used that way. Here I found my three ‘wise men.’
Carl Sagan (who I’d known fuzzily all along, his book Contact having become my very favorite movie), Richard Dawkins, and Lawrence Krauss introduced me to science! Of course, I knew it was there in a very vague kind of way…but I had no idea how interesting it could be.
As I’ve grown, I’ve gotten more interested in current politics, the state of the country, and I’m honestly very disturbed with what I see. I’m Green, I believe in civil rights, and I have very strong opinions. In listening to Dawkins and Krauss in particular, and exploring the concepts they put forth I’ve discovered the many ways that science and the public’s understanding of science affects our social and political realities.
So my objective here is to chronicle my exploration of science as someone who is a complete layman, but has been electrified by the ideas I’ve discovered so far. My hope is that you guys can follow along and learn as I learn, and hopefully I can instill in you some of the excitement that Drs. Dawkins and Krauss (whom I am amused to call my Science Jesus) have instilled in me. I also think it may end up being a pretty good example of the positive effects of The Out Campaign, and the good that those in the scientific community accomplish with their public speaking engagements. I would like to present myself as yet another example of why “those dreary and depressed atheists” really aren’t dreary or depressed at all; most of us are pretty ecstatic about things, and I would like to tell you why.

In the meantime, I encourage you to visit http://www.richarddawkins.net, http://www.outcampaign.org, and Dr. Krauss’s university page at http://krauss.faculty.asu.edu/.

an awesome coolio blog featuring some pretty nifty stuff and plenty of french culture fun. (I know, I’m a shameless francophile). Ch-ch-ch-ch-check out “Je ne suis qu’une pauvre plume” here. And so I leave you with the beautiful words of one Francoise Sagan.

You can generate you own awesome library lookin’ catalog cards here.

Yours truly,

Lili Darling

Here’s a new Symphony of Science re-mix called “Our Place in the Cosmos”. This one features Carl Sagan, Robert Jastrow, Richard Dawkins, and Michio Kaku. Once again, hats off to John Boswell of symphonyofscience.com for another wonderful video.

Enjoy this little musical number from of the worlds top atheists:

Courtesy of http://richarddawkins.net/articles/4652

Enjoy,

TWH

Thankful for great teachers like Carl Sagan.

Tony in Liverpool, his home town

♫♥♫♪♥

Tony has gone now. He was my friend. We talked, discussed and argued for years over the matter of consciousness.  The subject would come up time and again on the tinnitus forum, where we met some years ago. Tony developed cancer but never complained. He had guts. He never gave in to the pain of this terrible illness. He fought for his life, and we followed his daily battle  to win over the cancer, with amazement. Tony’s gargantuan bravery is a lesson to me.

Among his interest was his guitar that he played well.

-bye bye love

♫♥♫♪♥

Several of Tony’s post from the Tinnitus Forum

Hi Freddie & anyone else whose interested.

“You’ve mentioned Libet lots, but though I’ve never commented, I have been thinking about it plenty.

Just now I walked through the kitchen to the garden, and as I got to the back door I thought “Hmm, I just turned the kettle on as I passed it. How did that happen? I didn’t plan to do that. OK; now that it’s on I’ll make a cup of coffee”. So there’s an example of doing without consciously deciding to do and not realising until afterwards.

More on the case is getting out of the Bath.
I’ll be lying there dehydrating my skin, and think. “It’s about time I got out”, but I’ll be too comfortable to move.
Then suddenly some fifteen minutes later, I will be surprised find myself clambering out and reaching for a towel. The time interval is too long for there to be a direct link between the conscious decision and the action. And the realisation that I’m undertaking the action certainly happens a long time after the action begins.

I think that what happens is I prime the unconscious parts of my brain to take action whenever they are ready. Delegate. It is as if I ask Chris if she will get me a jar of coffee some time today. I prime the task, but leave the timing and detail to her. I find out that the task is completed some time afterwards. So it appears that the task was accomplished before I was aware of it, but I had primed it first.
I don’t think Libet is right that consciousness only has the power of veto. I think that consciousness has the power of initiation too.

I’m currently very interested in watching how many things I do, such switching the kettle on, without being aware of having consciously decided to do so.

Today wiring up the kitchen electrics. If not electrocuted I will phone u later.”
-Tony

But if this is so Tony, consciousness would be aware of that order

“I think that a lot of the time it is, especially when the time delays are big, like my example of me getting out of the bath.

When it is really short as in Libet’s experiment, I think the process might
1. Conscious tells the colliculus (or something) to watch out for the blip and report back. The mri lights up a little
2. the colliculus sees the blip and reports back
3. milliseconds later, consciousness gets the message, and the reward factor causes the mri to light up a lot.
4. When asked about the order of events, consciousness rationalises. Not understanding the technicalities it tells the researcher that itinitiated the event and then it happened, not realising that it was a further few miliseconds before the realisation that the job was done.

Certainly, as you’ll know already, a lot of events happen without conscious initiation. A badly behaving driver migh cause us to unconsciously take evasive action. In that circumstance it is quite clear that the sequence is (1) event, then (2) conscious awareness of action.

I’ll look at the John Moore’s course. I could do an MSc on the mechanisms of various disease curing drugs, but it is **** expensive at 1100 ukp per module.
What I’m curious about is the mechanisms by which cancers kill – something i know nothing about. I imagine some, like mine, are non-toxic and kill by simply getting in the way, blocking and squashing things. Others might give off neurotoxins, and others might even eat into healthy tissue somehow. Maybe – I don’t know.”
…..

“The first module of my OU degree was utterly brilliant. Taught me everything about neurons, second messenger systems, neuronal development, dna, key diseases like altzheimers, downes, parkinsons, conditioning plasticity habituation. It was life changing.
After that it was just courses to get the degree- chemical bonds and stuff. Not that gripping.
The final module, the high level one, was a lot like the first, not much more to it. It got me my degee, but also convinced me that some ‘dumbing down’ had been going on in the OU. Easier courses to entice more customers. So it has put me off a bit.”

……..

the Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us—there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a great height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries.

-Carl Sagan, Cosmos

November the 9th was the great Carl Sagan’s birthday – he would have been 75. His death in 1996 has been a great loss to the scientific community and to humanity. His message still lives on today in his many works, but particularly in his magnum opus – the wildly successful and unmatched Cosmos television series. Though it was broadcast to the world in 1980, its message – the grandeur of nature and the evolution of the cosmos still carries significance. It is an enduring message; that we are ways the universe can know itself.

In Cosmos, Sagan guides us on a personal journey from the beginning of time to the planets and beyond. All of science is unified into one seamless story of nature and the special effects allow us to catch a ride and be part of the poetic cosmic story Sagan weaves for us.

What is immediately striking when watching or listening to Carl Sagan is his passion for the cosmos and the science that has revealed it to us. He had a multi-faceted personality. That is why he is what such a great scientist – at once speculative about what might be, yet reflective and skeptical at the same time. Here was a man who knew that nurturing our innate curiosity is of the utmost importance. To Sagan, there were no stupid questions, for questions are the portals to knowledge and understanding.

His approach can be summed up in the following quote, from the opening stanza of Cosmos:

We wish to find the truth, no matter where it lies. But to find the truth we need imagination and skepticism both. We will not be afraid to speculate, but we will be careful to distinguish speculation from fact.

Sagan wove great tales about the cosmos because he could tap into the core of the human experience of the infinite. Cosmos was not a story of separation, man vs universe, no, Cosmos is tale based on the human species coming to the realisation that “the cosmos is also within us, we are made of star stuff. We are ways the cosmos can know itself”. This was perhaps the most life affirming aspect of Sagan’s work. We are all connected. In the first stanza of Cosmos, Sagan continues:

The cosmos is full beyond measure of elegant truths, of exquisite inter-relationships of the awesome machinary of nature… some part of our being knows this is where we come from; we long to return.

From the infancy of our species, people have looked to the heavens and sought to find the meaning of questions such as “what is a star?” – the question that Sagan himself became engrossed with as a curious youth in New York. Sagan was adept at explaining not only what we know but the incredible journey from ignorant and superstitious beings to sending space missions to other worlds. The power of his explanations lay in how he could weave narratives by bringing all of science together to present an integrated and beautiful story of nature. He succintly related the unfathomable immensity of space to our little cosmic home and even the atoms that make up our bodies.

Another striking realisation one may chance upon when watching Cosmos is the cosmic perspective at once affirms the pettiness of human affairs and also the significance of our species. The realisation that we are just a speck in the cosmos – situated in the countryside on the outside of a fairly average galaxy – just one of billions of galaxies each containing billions of stars- is a humbling perspective, yet an ennobling one also. For we are as part of the cosmos. Sagan is far from cynical about the human mammal. He is upbeat about our prospects while recognising that some of our instincts, when nurtured, can flourish to our detriment:

If we capitulate to superstition or greed or stupidity we could plunge our world into a time of darkness deeper than the time between the collapse of classical civilisation and the Italian Renaissance. But we are also capable of using our compassion and our intelligence, our technology and our wealth to make an abundant and meaningful life for every inhabitant of this planet.

And that is this mans lasting message that can’t help but reverberate from within each of us. We are the cosmos, albeit a small part of it, yet an important part because we are the eyes of the cosmos. Perhaps we are just one of a multitude of civilisations across the vastness of space. And since there is no division between us, all other forms of life and the entire cosmos, then there are grand implications to that view. Above all, I think Carl Sagan’s message to his own species is that when science surplants superstition and questions are elevated above easy and comforting answers, the human mammal is at its most alive.

Interesting Carl Sagan site: Be sure to take a peak at this site – Symphony of Science – where Sagan and other luminaries sing the poetry of nature.

Por Ícaro

Escrito pelo renomado físico e astrônomo Carl Sagan e publicado no Brasil, no meu conhecimento, duas vezes, O mundo assombrado pelos demônios é um dos livros mais interessantes que já tive a oportunidade de ler (valeu Jacques!). O autor, como visto na própria capa e comentado na contra capa do livro, tenta iluminar com a vela da ciência uma escuridão de ignorância que mais uma vez tenta obscurecer o mundo, muitas vezes com pitadas de um bom humor sarcástico.

Ao longo dos seus muitos capítulos, Carl Sagan comenta sobre casos de paranormalidade, fé, UFOs e muita, mas muita abdução alienígena. Sua visão científica sobre os casos de abduções detalhados é muito empolgante, o que considera como uma “moda”. Em uma de suas reflexões, ele diz que muitos dos casos de abdução alienígenas acontecidos no século passado, afinal neste século não houve mais nenhum relato, creio eu que a “moda” passou como Carl Sagan achou, foram induzidos por psicanalistas, o que não deixa de ser verdade, afinal como minha uma amiga minha diz, psicólogos/psiquiatras possuem poderes estranhos, eles podem fazer você acreditar que foi molestado por um familiar seu durante sua infância e você realmente pensar isso.

Capa da versão que li, da editora Cia das Letras

Tenho que salientar ao menos um fato interessante que me é descrito no livro. Em um dos mais absurdos casos em se tratando da falta e conhecimento das pessoas que já havia lido, é em que ele cita as chamadas que a polícia nos EUA recebem diariamente/mensalmente sobre seitas de satanismo. Pessoas desesperadas ligando para os oficiais sobre encontros de pessoas estranhas. O “satanismo” dito na verdade não passa de pessoas ligadas ao catolicismo, islamismo, budismo, judaísmo, religiões africanas e qualquer outra religião, então uma pessoa sem a mínima noção de cultura e conhecimento facilmente alega ser algo satânico.

Recomendo a qualquer um que tenha um pouco de ceticismo, é um excelente livro para se ler e ter. Infelizmente, Carl Sagan não mais vive conosco desde 1996, uma perda significativa, principalmente na minha opinião aos EUA, um país tão conservador e tão falso moralista.

The mighty Roland JP 8000

My friend Rand left his cool Roland JP 8000 in my attic. The sounds are awesome in this thing. It sounds like the soundtrack to every John Carpenter movie.

I have accumulated some other new gear since my last post:

Troutface Recorderson

bobby the mixer

Drew the drumset

I was hanging out in my attic, drinking beer and playing with the arpeggio settings on the JP 8000 when I picked out this melody line:

After some tweaking, I came up with this about a week later:

I had planned on just posting the MP3 up here, but it turns out you have to pay money for that. So I put the finished MP3 into windows movie maker and threw some visual embellishments on top. Check out those stunning transitions!

keep pressing record,

dr. blankTape

When you make the finding yourself –
even if you’re the last person on Earth to see the light –
you’ll never forget it.
Carl Sagan

As some of you may know, and many of you may not, November 9th would have been Carl Sagan’s 75th birthday. My local group, FLASH, along with the local CFI chapter, the JREF, and Broward College sponsored an entire day of speakers, planetarium viewings, Cosmos episode showings, exhibits, games, and more in honor of this spectacular scientist and visionary. In a time where science is being put on the back burner, it was great for skeptics and science-lovers to come together as a tribute to someone who inspired so many people with his brilliant mind and admiration for the cosmos. And, as far as I know, this was the first Carl Sagan Day celebration held anywhere – something that needed to be done sooner, but I’m glad I was a part of the first.

From www.carlsaganday.com :

Carl Sagan was a Professor of Astronomy and Space Science and Director of the Laboratory for Planetary Studies at Cornell University. He served as an advisor and consultant to NASA, and played a major role in the establishment of SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). He was a Pulitzer Prize winning author and most familiar to the public through his COSMOS series on PBS. In addition to numerous awards, recognitions and honorary degrees for his outstanding contributions, he is acknowledged as one of the most effective public faces of astronomy and space science throughout the world. Sagan died in December 1996.

The event was held on November 7th, 2009 at Broward College – Davie campus. This is roughly thirty minutes north of Miami and just west of Fort Lauderdale in southeastern Florida. It was an all-day affair, starting around noon and running until well after dark. My father (who is just as crazy about science as I am) and I arrived around 1:00pm and wandered around the main area where they had booths for the various sponsoring organizations, tshirts commemorating the event, and books by Sagan for sale – as well as some written by the speakers in attendance.

The master of ceremonies for the day was DJ Grothe, a program director for the CFI (Center for Inquiry). He began the series of speakers with a nice background of Carl Sagan’s impact on science and education and did a great job ‘hosting’ the program. Grothe passed the mic to one of the organizers of the event, Dr. Jeanette Medea, a chemistry professor at Broward College and head of a local CFI chapter here in Florida. She also spoke a little of how this day came about and her hopes in turning this into a bigger event year after year.

DJ Grothe

Now, this is the part of the day where it started to get REALLY fun. It was just before the beginning of the first main speaker that I learned the entire presentation was broadcast live via UStream courtesy of the lovely gentlemen over at weirdthings.com…. big thanks to them! Anyway, the first of several special guests was Russell Romanella, the director of the International Space Station and Spacecraft Processing Directorate at NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida. He had 250 slides as part of a Powerpoint show, some of them so beautiful I couldn’t describe them if I tried. He was extremely well-spoken and told us all about the current and future projects that NASA has planned. Did you know that the three space shuttles are being retired next year? Only five more trips up to the station and they’re out of commission. If you live anywhere near Cape Canaveral – I’d go see a launch before it’s too late! Anyway, big thanks to Romanella for his great presentation.

Romanella & the Mars Rover

Next up we have a personal favorite of mine, Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer. Plait actually sat through every speaker we had, which I found particularly awesome. The guys over at weirdthings joked to the internet crowd that when Plait came into the auditorium all of the women were throwing themselves at him. If my father weren’t around – I might’ve! Anyway, Plait’s shtick was pulling apart movies, such as Armageddon, that were totally, completely, factually, and scientifically WRONG. Not only that, the potential risks of asteroid/meteorite damage to Earth was also a focus. He was ridiculously funny and a real treat to know that he’s just as amiable in person as he is on his blog.

Phil Plait *swoon*

After Plait, we had a special guest in David Morrison via satellite (Skype actually) since he couldn’t make it in person. Morrison is the senior scientist at the NASA Astrobiology Institute, NASA Ames Research Center and was a student of Sagan’s. He spoke on their professional relationship as well as Sagan’s impact on science back then, and still today. Shortly after Morrison started, the lights were dimmed in the auditorium so we could see him a little better on the screen. This turned his view of us quite dark and he joked that at least now he couldn’t see if we were sleeping or not… of course, none of us were!

hey... no sleeping!

The best was definitely saved for last. No offense to any of the former speakers, because they were all so gracious and amazing, but to have the final guest speak on Carl Sagan the person, and not just the scientist, was very appropriate. James Randi, Sagan’s dear friend, stepped up to the podium of a packed auditorium and we all listened intently. James Randi has an international reputation as a magician and escape artist, but today he is best known as the world’s most tireless investigator and demystifier of paranormal and pseudoscientific claims. Anyhow, it was so apparent on this dear old man’s face how much he loved Carl Sagan, and still does. He told us how they first met, anecdotes of their times together, and how he still sometimes turns to call him even though he passed 13 years ago.

The Amazing Randi

All in all it was one of the best days I’ve had in a long time. It was a nerd’s paradise, if only for one day. I’m so glad I got to be a part of this momentous occasion and hope it continues every year forward. In fact, November 9th is officially Carl Sagan Day in Fort Lauderdale, FL now – so it absolutely HAS to continue! Oh, and I almost forgot… I came home with something super special…

weeeee!

-TGC

Carl Sagan was completely awesome.

There’s a lot of people talking all over the internet today about how they wouldn’t be a part of the skeptical movement if it weren’t for him. There might not even be a skeptical movement comparable to what exists today if not for Sagan’s influence.

I imagine he’s a big part of the reason I’m so involved in it too, but only indirectly. Aside from being fairly indifferent to the film based on his book Contact, I was fairly late to the party on this front. I think it was only last year I read The Demon-Haunted World, after being told so often what a vital part of the skeptics’ library it was by so many scientists and critical thinkers I’d come to admire. I’ve still only seen a few brief clips of Cosmos online.

But goddamn, that guy was awesome.

Today would have been his 75th birthday. He died in 1996. In his absence, we’re calling it Carl Sagan Day. Phil Plait’s been talking about how that’s going here.

He was a great writer, a wonderful speaker, and an insurpassably inspirational presence. Watching him talk is like drinking a liquified warm fuzzy. I don’t even know what that means, but listen to him explaining the universe for a while and maybe you’ll get some idea what I’m on about.

Pale blue dot.

The 4th dimension.

A glorious dawn.

And because I’m not good at straightforward, non-ironic sincerity, here’s a funny video about a pigeon.

Bilimin popülerleşmesini (batıl inançlar yerine bilimsel gerçeklerin kitleler tarafından kabulü), SETI projesini (UFO kuşkuculuğu) ve doğmalarla savaşı (dini, politik ve kültürel dayatmaların yıkılması) senle özdeşleştirmiştik. 75 sene önce bugün başladın bu savaşa ve senin ardından bizler ilerliyoruz. Savaşımını yaşatacağız, dogma, kandırmaca ve yanılgıya karşı!

Pra quem ainda estiver nos ouvindo…

Feliz Dia do Carl Sagan!

Carl Sagan famously uttered the title, sans question mark.  I’d say he is in the right direction, as a corollary to Ockham’s Razor.  Things that are especially unusual or impactful deserve more scrutiny.

But I prefer Greg Koukl’s take, which is that extraordinary claims require adequate evidence or justification.  Just because the Bible makes claims of miracles doesn’t mean God needs to perform one for you on demand. 

I’m glad to stack up the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus — even just the parts that almost all historians agree with – against the atheistic theories about the creation of the universe and how life came from non-life.  Those are wildly extraordinary claims that go begging in search of evidence.  They not only don’t have extraordinary evidence, they have no evidence at all — just atheistic presuppositions. 

Sadly, it appears that Carl ignored the evidence for God:

Romans 1:18-20 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

So if anyone quotes the title to you, be sure to point out who has the best evidence for their extraordinary claims. 

More information

Could life have emerged spontaneously on the early Earth?  Short answer: No.  But that doesn’t stop some from believing it.

Does God exist? Is there any scientific evidence to prove that God exists?   Yes and yes.  We not only have scientific evidence, but logical, historical, moral and more.

Manuel ha publicado en su Blog  (un planeta con canas) un post con este video que realmente maravilla lo que la tecnología puede lograr, así que gracias por compartirlo conmigo y gracias a David que nos llevó al Yosomo’s Blog que aportó otro de estos videos. Increíble!! Espero les guste.

Fuente: http://oldearth.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/todos-estamos-interconectados/#comment-15663

Lamentablemente este no está la traducción pero del que sigue está en el Blog del cual lo saqué

Letra:

Sagan]
Para hacer un pastel de manzana desde cero
primero tienes que inventar el Universo

El Espacio está lleno de una red de agujeros de gusano
podrías aparecer en algún lugar del universo
en algún otro momento en el tiempo

El cielo nos llama
si no nos autodestruimos
un día viajaremos a las estrellas

Nos espera un amanecer aún más glorioso
pero no una salida del sol, sino una salida de galaxia
una mañana repleta con 400 mil millones de soles
el amanecer de la Vía Láctea

El Cosmos está lleno, más allá de cualquier medida, de verdades elegantes
de interrelaciones exquisitas
de la asombrosa maquinaria de la naturaleza

Creo que nuestro futuro depende estrechamente
de cómo de bien entendamos este cosmos
en el que flotamos como una mota de polvo
en el cielo matutino

Pero el cerebro hace mucho más que recolectar
compara, sintetiza, analiza
genera abstracciones

El pensamiento más simple como el concepto del número uno
implica una lógica elaborada
el cerebro tiene su propio lenguaje
para probar la estructura y consistencia del mundo

[Hawking]
Desde hace miles de años
nos hemos preguntado sobre el universo
se expande para siempre
o hay algún límite

Desde la Gran Explosión a los agujeros negros
desde la materia oscura a una posible Gran Implosión
nuestra imagen del Universo actual
está llena de ideas que parecen extrañas

[Sagan]
Qué suerte tenemos de vivir en esta época
el primer momento en la Historia de la Humanidad
en el que visitamos otros mundos

La superficie de la Tierra es la orilla del Océano Cósmico
recientemente nos hemos adentrado un poco
y el agua nos invita a continuar

Traducción de Victor R Ruiz

http://rvr.blogalia.com/

Fuente: http://yosomos.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/sagan-y-hawking-cantando-a-duo/

Good evening all,

Well, the kid in me just has to say… one more sleep.
That’s right… tomorrow evening, the wife and I will be flying to South Africa for a whistle-stop tour of the coastal cities. Not really, but hell… I think that it really is going to feel that way after a few days. On our list of places to go is Johannesburg (admittedly, only the customs queue, but if they are having a strike… as they have had the last FIVE times we have flown through… it FEELS like forever.), East London (where the bulk of the visit takes place) and a family road trip that will take in Knysna and some other places in the Eastern Cape. Lastly, we get to fly to Cape Town to hook up with our old roommate, his girlfriend (soon to be wife) and their sprog.

(You know we’re looking forward to seeing all the new additions to the Bear Family Squire.)

So, things have been a little busy, what with the list of jobs and niggles that need to be squared away before our trip. There is some rule that even though we won’t physically be here, we still need to pay rent on the place. (Which sucks.) And the bills need to be paid whilst we’re away. All of our classes at school need to be prepared for while we are not here and some substitute teacher takes them. (Of course, this rule doesn’t apply to everyone, and I actually was left with a class for THREE days by a colleague.. and the bastard didn’t even leave me a fucking book. Thanks “bru”. Assbag.) Still, the wife and I are getting things set up so that there is a minimum of fuss for when we return.

Let’s see. In other news, I have now received the money for the sale of my bike, and all the paperwork has cleared too. As a result of selling my bike, I have been going about on Shank’s Pony for the last week. This isn’t all that bad, as it is a 4 block walk to the MRT (Subway) station from my place, and then just a one-stop ride to my destination station, and then literally door-to-door service from the MRT to my school by bus. The trick of course is simply to work your way through a bus timetable. In Chinese.
(Is it just me, or are bus timetables the world over deliberately obtuse? When I lived in Ireland, the bus timetables there would regularly confuse the crap out of me. And there is little worse than bouncing around in sub-zero temperatures waiting for a bus that is ALREADY late, and you’re not sure will be coming anyway.)
Of course, all of this public transport has given me the chance to get re-acquainted with my iPod. Yes yes, I am one of those “anti-social” people who ignore everyone else when they travel. I’d get defensive, but more than likely, I simply don’t want to talk to you.

I am most likely NOT going to be online very much while I am in South Africa. Let’s face it, the South African concept of “broadband” in the household is that black rubber band that holds the braai wood together.
Yeah yeah, all my South African friends are going to have something to say about that, but I am going to miss the 10Mb line I have here at home. (For which I am paying a princely R180 a month for. Uncapped.)
This means that you will be without these regular blog updates for a while. As a make-up for the desertion, I will upload some semi-decent holiday shots on the next blog back.

One last bit of personal news – Bunny and JebbX have made it to the three year mark. Congrats guys.

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This week’s musical contribution comes from Carl Sagan and Steven Hawking.
Enjoy.

1. A computer error gave two women in America called Patricia the same social security number. When the two women were brought together in an office to rectify the blunder they discovered that they had both been born with the names Patricia Ann Campbell. Both of their fathers were called Robert Campbell. Their birthdays were on 13th March 1941. They had both married military men in the year 1959 (within eleven days of each other). They each had two children aged 19 and 21. They both had an interest in oil painting. Both had studied cosmetics. Both had worked as book-keepers.

10. Businessman Danie de Toit made a speech to an audience in South Africa – the topic of his speech was – watch out because death can strike you down at any time. At the end of his speech, he put a peppermint in his mouth, and choked to death on it!

This week’s PURE AWESOME video is this.

And now? PEEKCHUZZ!!

Thank you symphonyofscience.com

To continue the unabashed posting of YouTube videos in lieu of real content here’s another song in the tune of science:

Good to see Mr. Nye gets his due in inspiring folks to think beyond the tube. Go look at the stars, kids.

This guy. This -unbeeelievable- guy. THIS guy. What moxie!

Carl Sagan has worn many shoes over the decades of his life, and I think most of us are aware of at least some of them: Author, screenwriter, actor, scientist (to put it mildly and to some extent inaccurately), all of these things, and more.

What amazes – and amuses – the hell out of me is the fact that this guy just won’t quit…

More than a decade after his death, Carl Sagan has become what I’m pretty sure is the world’s only posthumous rock star. Check out the link. I’d recommend looking at glorious dawn first.

Oh, and give credit where credit is due, I first found out about this from my friend (and blogging mentor) Badger. His blog, here.