Author Archive for toomanytribbles

life through time

stunning..........

frans lanting: a lyrical view of life on earth:
'in this stunning slideshow, celebrated nature photographer frans lanting presents the life project, a poetic collection of photographs that tell the story of our planet, from its eruptive beginnings to its present diversity. soundtrack by philip glass.'



diagoras told me!

storytellers for pangea day

'in a world where people are often divided by borders, difference, and conflict, it's easy to lose sight of what we all have in common. pangea day seeks to overcome that – to help people see themselves in others – through the power of film.'



this year, one of my heroes will be participating:

'cassini imaging lead scientist to provide cosmic perspective for millions around the globe

when the worldwide film event known as pangea day launches this saturday, may 10, cassini imaging team leader and veteran imaging scientist, carolyn porco, will be present to provide an inspiring perspective on humanity's place in the cosmos.

pangea day is a global event intended to bring the world together through film and will link six locations around the world for a live program of powerful films, live music and visionary speakers. the entire four-hour program will be broadcast in seven languages to millions of people worldwide on television, on the internet and over mobile phones.

known for her passionate advocacy of space exploration, porco was asked by event organizers to kick off the program with a grand and sweeping view of humankind's cosmic place, providing the context for the human stories and songs that will be featured on pangea day.

"this will truly be one of those inspiring, hands-across-the-water events that will be remembered for years to come," said porco, "...a day when each of us will be able to see the world through someone else's eyes. i encourage everyone who hopes for peace to come to the world to tune in."

other speakers include cnn's christiane amanpour, queen noor of jordan, journalist lisa ling and former-soldiers-turned-peace-activists from many conflicts across the globe. there will also be musical performances and the airing of the 24 short films that were chosen from thousands of entries from over 100 countries around the world.

porco will present from los angeles. the other live broadcast venues are in cairo, kigali, london, mumbai and rio de janeiro.

american audiences will be able to take part in pangea day beginning at 2pm eastern daylight time (11am pacific daylight time) on may 10 by viewing the live broadcast on television, online, in public and private venues and on mobile phones. the event will be broadcast live on cable television in the united states by current tv and youtube will be donating its homepage to the event. the program will be available globally on a full-screen broadband web-stream courtesy of akamai and msn in some 100 countries, including china, india, indonesia, malaysia, australia all of latin america, the us, britain, france, italy, and ireland. it will also be streamed on the event website http://www.pangeaday.org.

additional information about the event and how to watch and/or participate is available at the event website.

images from nasa's cassini and voyager spacecraft are available online at http://ciclops.org.

the cassini imaging central laboratory for operations (ciclops) is the operations center for the imaging team of the international cassini-huygens mission to saturn -- a cooperative project of nasa, the european space agency and the italian space agency. the imaging team consists of scientists from the u.s., england, france, and germany.'

my personal experience has seared into my consciousness the necessity for these kinds of events. i'll be watching from china.

pareidolia galore


click pic to source
this and more... secular... visions on faces in places

helen fisher: the science of love, and the future of women

god, the universe and everything else

'this is a candid discussion between world renowned physicists and thinkers. keep in mind that this was video taped sometime around 1988 when hawking's book was first published and red-shift had yet to be confirmed by hubble as it was not in orbit then. despite the absence of seemingly essential components in scientific understanding, the idea that the universe is void of theistic explanation if not deity itself still remains. carl sagan's foreword to hawking's book is exemplary, and by similar methods you will see how these minds are able to create the truer nature of our understanding of celestial bodies, as laplace made clear, without any assumption of godly intervention.'

playlist of 6 videos:

building a bird’s nest

the national stadium in beijing:

building a bird’s nest

the national stadium in beijing:

piclens

i <3 piclens

piclens
(my flickr looks great on it.)

gegenschein

gegenschein
click pic to source on apod

evangelical manifesto


from by the book comics

living with star trek: gene roddenberry’s humanist adventure!

on equal time for freethought:

'a discussion with author lincoln geraghty on the many humanistic themes of the various star trek television series and films, what star trek had/has to say about american culture, and how trekkies and trekkers (and others) have been affected by roddenberry’s utopian message.'

i just finished listening to it -- it was an hour well-spent. download it and play it on your ipod... or whatever...

EDIT: a pretty nice tune. just because.

behe’s kids don’t go to public schools

so... what does he care?



via evolved and rational

a mayday at sounion

last year i spent may 1st on tian an men square. i was fairly new in beijing and it seemed like the most fitting thing to do.

this year the mayday week coincided with orthodox easter so i escaped to athens to be with family and friends.

sunset at sounion

may 1st for me is two basic things -- a celebration of spring and the international worker's day. this time i unwittingly managed to combine the two as i wanted to visit poseidon's temple at cape sounion, because of the area's stark, natural beauty, fitting for a spectacular spring day, but the temple was actually closed. well, in greece they say it's a strike, not a holiday.

no matter. i've been there before and i'm planning to be there again. it's one of my favorite places on the planet, and a must-see for visitors to athens.

sunset at sounion

here are two shots from afar and more past, present (and hopefully future) pictures on my sounion tag on flickr.

daniel dennett: why darwin’s idea was so dangerous

from the atheism tapes, derived from footage originally taken for jonathan miller's a brief history of disbelief.

figment



found at pharyngula

homer simpson answers pascal’s wager

Homer Simpsonsuppose we’ve chosen the wrong god. every time we go to church we’re just making him madder and madder!
–homer simpson




diagoras of melos uses the devil's invention, calculus, to prove humanity's done for.

richard dawkins on studio 4 in vancouver

in 5 parts:



via RD

the fallibility of memory

has this ever happened to you?



i remember two examples.

the first is when i had a bunch of visitors over from the u.s. in athens. i clearly remember one very good friend being there -- and she insists she wasn't.

the second is when a friend described a horrific story of how he went skydiving and was videotaping the process, and another couple who was diving with him (first-timer and trainer, together) fell to their deaths because their chutes didn't open. i'm sure i saw the video. i remember their trying to open the main and secondary chute. i remember the panic in their movements. but no, i hadn't seen it.

these are just two instances that i'm sharply aware of. i suspect much of my life is a figment of my imagination...

from sociological imagaes

apocalympics 2012

planning ahead:



via io9

back stabber



via the stubborn curmudgeon

i just flew back

and boy, are my arms tired.

what'd i miss?

spiral-tuality xviii

NGC 6050 and IC 1179:


click pic to source on apod

stormy weather

at ciclops:


click pic to source
'it is no great red spot, but these two side-by-side views show the longest-lived electrical storm yet observed on saturn by cassini.'
and
'cassini imaging scientists believe the storm to be a vertically extended disturbance that penetrates from saturn’s lower to upper troposphere.'

separation of church and plate

the colbert report: the word

work on the parthenon

the parthenon

the evolution of the eye



by expelled exposed

putting out brush fires

'when creationism flares up in the united states, the NCSE is there to put out the fires.'



on expelled exposed

lolescherkitty



via asoee

40 indiscreet questions

διαγόρας is paying me back, i fear, for past tagging:

1.name
toomanytribbles

2.birthday
it's me and dubya

3.zodiac sign
usually i get asked by someone who thinks it means something. i usually say (random sign). i then get told how much i am like that particular sign. when i say, i was joking, i'm really (another random sign), i get a giggle and am told that that's closer to how i really am. when i admit i'm not the second sign either, i really piss them off.

4.hair color
in dire need of a stylist (? colorist? what do they call them today?)

5.eye color
green

6. ever been in love
i imagine so

7.what music do you listen to
dark

8. disney/wb character
daffy duck

9.most long-distance friend
depends. where am i?

10.first thing you think of when you wake up
that's easy, morbid and intense. i remember i'm going to die.

11.something you keep with you all the time
dslr

12. what's on your wall?


13.what's under your bed?
dust

14.if you were home alone and heard a vase break, what would you do?
wonder what happened.

15.favorite number:
5,672,973,584,573.6417

16. favorite name:
the little one's

17. hobbies:
irritating people

18.where would you like to be now?
somewhere warmer than this

19.a wish for the future:
to be in a position to wish for the future

20.if you could travel through time and go to the past, what era would you go to?
i'd like to go forward, not back

21. fire! grab something to take with you:
pictures -- paper and digital

22. favorite flower:
lilacs. they're around for a brief time in spring and i always look for them at first whiff

23. favorite series:
something old: star trek. something new: BSG

24. favorite movie:
-

25. favorite song:
-

26. favorite book
-

27. favorite animal
human

28. favorite article of clothing
a long, black coat

29. favorite performer:
moi

30. favorite color
black

31. favorite food:
smoked salmon

32. what cartoon character do you identify with?
still daffy duck

33. bad habit:
responding to tags on my blog

34. personality trait you like
intelligence

35.personality trait you dislike
my tendency to overestimate people

36.favorite line:
sta diala

37.job you would like to do:
astronaut

38.greatest fear
wouldn't you like to know…

39.best pizza:
the one in front of me when i'm starving

40.you believe pets are…:
great masters

for fear of retaliation, i'll not pass this on to specific bloggers. liked it? give it a go.

galaxies gone wild!

at ESA:


click pic to source
'fifty nine new images of colliding galaxies make up the largest collection of hubble images ever released together. as this astonishing hubble atlas of interacting galaxies illustrates, galaxy collisions produce a remarkable variety of intricate structures.'