Geoff Coupe's Blog

Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

Year: 2009

  • ISS Sighting

    The International Space Station is back in our night skies at the moment. I went out last night at 20:08 to watch it cross the sky from the SSW to the SSE. It’s just a light travelling across the sky, but I never fail to be stirred by it. What made last night’s sighting even more special was the fact that travelling behind it in convoy at about one degree behind it was a fainter light. That, I assume, is the space shuttle Discovery approaching the ISS.  
     
    If you want to see the ISS for yourself, go to Heavens Above, feed in your position (Latitude and Longitude) and you’ll be given the dates, times and positions in the sky when the ISS will be passing over you.

  • Health Warning

    This Pope is dangerous to your health. Perhaps the Eucharist wafers could be stamped with a health warning?
     
    Update: Joanna Bogle: part of the problem, not part of the solution.
     
    Update 2: Hank puts into words all the frustration and disgust I feel over this Pope’s abominable behaviour. If there really was a God, then this Pope would be recalled home very quickly.

  • The HULC

    In the spirit of turning swords into plowshares, I would like to think that consumer versions of the military HULC system will one day become available. It would be wonderful to be able to continue walking in the countryside well into my old age… But somehow, I think the possibility will remain, like the dream of a personal jet-pack, forever out of reach…

  • Abiogenesis

    A good video that sets out a clear description of one of the current theories of abiogenesis. It wasn’t lightning striking a mud puddle as some idiots would have you think.
     
     

  • Deborah Drapper

    Deborah Drapper is 13 years old. She is a bright, intelligent girl. She is also an evangelical Christian.
     
    BBC Three has made a one hour documentary about her (and her family of 10 brothers and sisters and her parents). It was truly cringeworthy stuff. Partly because of the cruel nonsense that she believes without question, but also because of the shallow nature of the documentary. The idiotic questions posed by the documentary makers ("do you know who Britney Spears is?") and the posing of the binge culture lifestyle as the only alternative to Christianity are simplistic and a lost opportunity.
     
    And I don’t think that I’m the only person to note that her eldest brother, Matthew, set off the gaydar alarm.  I kept hearing the tune and lyrics of ""There may be trouble ahead, but while there’s music and moonlight and love and romance, let’s face the music and dance".  
     
    The final few moments of the film show a vulnerable, bright 13 year old who has been completely screwed over by her upbringing. Heartbreaking.  
     
    Deborah has a web blog. Hopefully she will win through and come to realise that she is not a "wretched horrible person", just human, like the rest of us.

  • Witch Hunt

    Another article from Johann Hari to make you stop and think.

  • Mardi Gras

    Here’s a wonderful impression of this month’s Mardi Gras in Sydney by filmmaker Keith Loutit. He uses a time lapse technique coupled with tilt and shift focus that turns the parade into an animated film using toy figures. The end result brings a smile to my face.
     

  • Why Is Science Important?

    Back in 2005, I mentioned a survey of over 250 renowned scientists, science communicators, and educators – including 11 Nobel laureates – asking what they would teach the world about science and why, if they could pick just one thing. That survey, thanks to Alom Shaha, is now in video form. and here it is. Over 250 candles lit to beat back the darkness…
     

  • Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh

    This is not justice. This is shameful.

  • Sixth Sense

    A quite interesting demonstration of a new interface being researched in MIT’s Media Lab. I say "quite interesting" because despite the rapturous reception of a totally uncritical audience, it’s clear that there’s a long way to go in development, and many of the applications demoed beg an awful lot of questions about how practical this would be.
     
    The gesture interface in Minority Report is actually a lot easier to do than this one. For example, does the projector have an autofocus capability that will track the surfaces being used (hands, wrists, newspapers, wall, books)? Some of the mode changes also stretch credulity more than a little – for example, I expect that drawing a wristwatch on the back of one’s wrist will use the same gesture as used elsewhere in other applications – so the whole issue of mode changes is being skipped over in these demos. Still, as I say, it remains a quite interesting piece of research. Just don’t expect real-world results to appear quickly.
     
     
     

  • Duelling Philosophers

    As a bear of very little brain, I find philosophy simultaneously interesting and exasperating. That latter emotion often occurs when I read an argument that strikes me as being intrinsically daft, but don’t have the ready knowledge or the philosophical background to refute the argument quickly. Luckily, there are usually those much better-versed than I on hand to deliver stinging ripostes.

    A case in point has been the discussion over at the Talking Philosophy blog about Julian Baggini’s review of the recent book by John Polkinghorne and Nicholas Beale: Questions of Truth. Apparently, Baggini’s review for the FT had to be re-written, at the FT editors’ request, to be more "even-handed". That sounds, to my ears (and to others), to be a euphemism for “make it a positive review”. Luckily, Baggini posted parts of the original drafts of his review on the Talking Philosophy blog so that we could all read his objections to Polkinghorne’s and Beale’s exercise in apologetics. As a result, Nicholas Beale joined in the discussion on the post, which has led to a merry ding-dong of over 200 posts thus far. I have to say that Beale comes across as a not very pleasant character, but setting that aside, I remain unconvinced by his arguments.

    For a condensed rebuttal of the arguments, A. C. Grayling’s review of Questions of Truth does a very good job. Not for nothing is the subtitle of the review: “AC Grayling rips into the latest attempt to bridge the God-science gap”.  This is not duelling pistols at dawn, this is a 12 bore shotgun against a toy gun.

  • Facing Death

    Johann Hari has another thought-provoking column in today’s Independent. This time, his theme is how we have forgotten how to face death. It’s worth reading. And he has given me a reminder that I really should invest in a copy of Julian Barnes’ "Nothing to be Afraid of" by quoting Barnes:
    "It is difficult for us to contemplate, fixedly, the possibility, let alone the certainty, that life is a matter of cosmic hazard, its fundamental purpose mere self-perpetuation, that it unfolds in emptiness, that our planet will one day drift in frozen silence, and that the human species will completely disappear and not be missed, because there is nobody and nothing out there to miss us. That is what growing up means. And it is frightening prospect for a race that has for so long relied on its own invented gods for consolation." 

  • Mr. Darwin

    Here’s a winner of the Darwin Day Science song contest – a rather charming, typically British, little ditty…
     
     
     
    I am currently re-reading Darwin’s Origin of Species and discovering again what a thoughtful, delightful author he was. In addition to making his world-changing discovery, of course.
     
    (hat tip to the Science and Religion News blog)

  • Sita Sings!

    I’ve mentioned Nina Paley and her wonderful Sita Sings the Blues several times before. And now (hooray!) the film is finally finished and released as a full-length animated feature. I love the way the shadow puppets argue over the story… And Nina has even released it under a Creative Commons licence.
     
    And as an additional incentive to support Nina, I hand you over to Rheinhard on Pharyngula:
    Also of great importance about this film: The reason that you can only see this film on the net this way and can’t buy it on DVD is because of the insane copyright law in the country. The film uses a number of late 1920s jazz recordings by Annette Hanshaw which, although the recordings are in the public domain, the songs she is singing are still in copyright to various holding companies. The composers of these songs are long dead and this music should have been in the public domain years ago, but because of the ridiculous permanent extension of copyright (thanks Disney!) these companies have demanded exorbitant sums (over $50K!) from the broke indie animator Nina Paley to show or distribute the film. The only reason PBS can show it is because it has different rules regarding copyright permissions! Please, if you care about this film and the ability of artists to have their work seen by the public, check out QuestionCopyright and Nina Paley’s blog for more info!

  • Playing With Magnets

    As a boy, I used to play with magnets – I find them fascinating. In those days, the magnets available to small boys were not very strong. As I’ve grown up, so has the technology. These days it’s possible to get very strong magnets indeed. And as the strength grows, so does the risk of accidents. Here’s Dirk’s story. Ouch!
     
    (hat tip to the Bad Astronomer)

  • An Inside Look at the Palestinian West Bank

    Google run a series of lectures called Tech Talks. A somewhat misleading title, since the topics are not always related to technology. Here’s a riveting example: Pamela Olson talking about what she observed during her time spent living in the Palestinian West Bank. She gives her commentary in a calm, quiet voice, but the effect, coupled with her photographs is devastating. Please watch this.
     
     
     
    (hat tip to Eric Vieth, over at Dangerous Intersection, for the link)

  • Won’t Someone Put “Horizon” Out Of Its Misery?

    I know I’ve complained about the dumbing-down of the BBC’s Horizon before, but I keep on trying to watch it in the hope that its decline might be reversed. However, last night’s edition on the body clock seems to have been the nadir of a once great television series that had a mission to “educate, inform and entertain”*. I say “seems to have been”, because I confess I only lasted about five minutes before I turned it off in utter disgust at its crassness (flashy graphics, stupid ideas, loud music and a bad script). Luckily, someone who was paid to watch the whole thing, reports today that I was not wrong to do so. As Lucy Mangan says:

    …the time has come for the BBC’s once-flagship science documentary series to be officially demoted, possibly to "weekend sailboat", more probably to "patched and ailing dinghy".

    Frankly, I think it would be kinder, and more useful, to take it outside, shoot it, and boil the body down for glue.

    * Lord Reith, the first Director-General of the BBC, famously summarised the purpose of the BBC in those words: “educate, inform and entertain”. It is perhaps telling that the BBC’s current mission statement reverses the order to be “entertain, inform and educate”. I can’t say I’m totally surprised as a result that Horizon is no longer worth watching.

  • Fun With Technology – Part III

    Sometimes, what you think is obvious does not always turn out to be the case.

    So it was when I decided to connect my Tablet PC (an HP Tx2000ed) to my audio amplifier (a Denon AVR-3808). I was driven to this step by the fact that trying to browse through the music libraries stored on my Media Servers while using the interface on the AVR-3808 was an exercise in frustration. The performance is absolutely abysmal.

    But then I thought, why don’t I use the GUI of Windows Media Player to browse my music libraries?  I can use my Tablet PC running Windows 7 to browse the libraries (the browsing performance is good), and if I play back the tracks on the Tablet PC, and connect via the digital S/PDIF interface to the AVR-3808, then I will send a high-quality digital audio stream direct to the 3808 amplifier, and have the best possible results.

    It seemed like a good idea, so I found a cable that had a 3.5mm jack on one end (to plug into the Tablet PC) and a Coax plug on the other (to plug into the 3808) and made the connection. The trouble was, nothing happed – no music emerged from the amplifier. I tried all the settings on the interfaces at both ends – the Tablet PC and the AVR-3808. Result: nada, zilch, nothing – no sound at all.

    Luckily, Google is my friend. I entered the search string “HP tx2000ed S/PDIF problem”, and the very first result told me what was wrong. I had assumed that the 3.5 mm jack socket on the front panel of the Tablet PC was for a coaxial connection of the digital signal. After all, the other two 3.5 mm sockets alongside it are also for copper-wired connections. Nope, wrong; it’s actually an optical connection, and doesn’t use copper but fibre-optics. There is, of course, absolutely nothing in the HP documentation to point this fact out. Thank you Google*.

    HP – pull your socks up and produce decent documentation.

    * Of course, entering the same search string into Microsoft’s Live Search produces no results at all. Sigh. Live Search still sucks.

  • Paradise Lost

    There was an extraordinary documentary on BBC 2 last night: Trouble in Amish Paradise. It followed the story of two Amish brothers, Ephraim and Jesse Stoltzfus, who started questioning the rules of their Amish culture, and as a result ran into problems with their church, and faced total rejection by their friends and family.

    It has to be said that many of the rules that are followed by the Amish look bizarre and ridiculous to outsiders – perhaps because many of them are, when you really get down to it. A rule that forbids you to ride a bicycle that has pedals and a chain, for example, does seem to be pushing into la-la land. It’s probably because the countryside where the Amish live looked to be relatively flat to me that this rule still survives, with the Amish scooting about on pedal-less bikes. But the laws of natural selection do seem to have applied to other rules: the widths of hatbands and the manner of wearing suspenders (men’s braces) have evolved into a veritable cornucopia of varieties, each sported by a different Amish sect.

    However, Ephraim and Jesse weren’t really bothered about these sorts of rules – indeed, Ephraim, who came across as a most personable man, looked upon them with self-deprecating amusement – no, the one that really bothered them was the fact that the Amish Bible has to be in old German, which hardly anyone understands anymore. The rule is that an English translation is not allowed, so the rank and file of the Amish simply cannot read the Bible for themselves, they have to rely on the church elders. Ah, politics, politics, ‘twas ever thus… As a result of the two brothers’ desire to bring the bible back to everyone, they ran the risk of excommunication from their church, and the shunning of their friends and neighbours. And, make no mistake, “shunning” is no little thing amongst the Amish, it has real consequences both for the shunners and shunnees…

    As I say, Ephraim was most personable, as was his wife and their four children. They are very nice people. Yet, to me, their unquestioning belief in God led them into risky situations. For example, they gave all their life savings to a family whom they judged needed the money more in the unshakeable belief that God would provide for them in times of need. So when one of their daughters fell ill with leukaemia, and they were faced with hospital bills of $3,000 a day, that belief was put to the test. In this case, their friends and neighbours did relent their shunning and rally round, but they could have just as easily held true to shunning the Stoltzfus family, and let them go to the wall.

    The unquestioning belief was also seen in Amanda Stoltzfus in a scene in the hospital with her daughter. She was totally accepting of the possibility of her daughter’s imminent death, if that was what God willed. Part of me thinks that is admirable (and much better than the “why me?” attitude of some religious believers), but part of me can’t help but find it misguided, in the sense that, by my lights, what she’s doing is crediting her own inner strength to a non-existent outside agency. I also couldn’t help but roll my eyes when the parents said, in the hospital, that their daughter would pull through if God willed it. It seemed as though they gave no credit to advances in medical science or the efforts of the doctors and nurses.

    Still, this was a sympathetic portrait of a sympathetic family, and I could not help but feel empathy with them. I would happily have them as neighbours. What I couldn’t do is have that unquestioning, unshakeable, unblinking belief in God. After it was over, I wondered what would have happened if I had, through an accident of birth, come into being in an Amish family. As a gay man, I certainly would not have found it easy. I wonder whether I would have survived, physically or mentally. The outriders of authoritarian societies are usually destroyed or rejected.

  • Flushed With Success