… otherwise I’d have steam coming out of my ears over this. It’s this kind of thing that gives diversity a bad name.
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Why the Bleep Should I Care?
Oh dear, another piece of pseudoscience trash hauls its scummy carcass onto the screen. I’m talking about "What the Bleep Do We Know" – a film that has taken America by storm (why am I not surprised?), but now threatens to do the same in Europe.
Supposedly a film about quantum physics, it’s actually about pushing the message of Ramtha – a "35,000 year old warrior spirit from Atlantis" being "channelled" by a housewife from Tacoma, Washington. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
But, hey, don’t take my word for it, go and read Skeptico to start with, and then today’s Guardian piece (but Professor Greated should be ashamed of himself).
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The [Widget], the [Wadget], and Boff
The mind is an amazing thing. I spent much of last night, both awake and asleep, with that phrase – the [Widget], the [Wadget] and Boff – running through my head. By this morning I had recognised it as the title of a Science Fiction story. A quick Google, and I had established it as a short story by Theodore Sturgeon from his “The Joyous Invasions” collection.
Now why I should be thinking of that phrase, I have no idea. The last time I probably read that story was when I bought the Penguin paperback (complete with a front cover painted by Alan Aldridge, the fashionable illustrator of the time) way back in 1967.
So I’ve just got the book out of the library upstairs (yep, I still have the book) to re-read. Perhaps that will give me a clue about last night.
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The Piano Man
Fascinating story in the news today (here and here) about a man who was found wandering, dripping wet, by the sea last month. Unable, or unwilling, to speak, his only method of displaying his emotions thus far is by playing a piano in the psychiatric unit where he is being cared for. Do you know who he is?
Update: This is who he is…
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Becoming Human
One of the most interesting stories (to me) is how did we become human? What were the triggers that developed our culture and set us apart from the other animals? One web site that explores these ideas in an engaging way is Becoming Human.
Check it out…
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Lazy Day
Having a lazy day today. Have been trying to drum up enthusiasm to continue assigning and correcting keywords on my photos, but without too much success. The weather hasn’t helped, it’s been overcast and miserable for much of the day so far, but there’s some blue opening up now. So I’ll head off on the bike soon in an attempt to blow the cobwebs away.
I also need to think about dinner this evening. I think I’ll do slices of breast of chicken with black pudding in a tarragon and muscat sauce, on a bed of spinach with a few steamed potatoes lightly flavoured with carraway seed.
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Friday the 13th, April 2029
What are you going to be doing on Friday 13th, April 2029? Well, according to NASA, you may be thanking your lucky stars that the Earth did not get hit by asteroid 2004 MN4. It is, however, going to be a close call. I hope I’m around to see it.
2 responses to “Friday the 13th, April 2029”
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Nice Blog!Good reading.
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Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.
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Flickr Adds IPTC Support
Back in February, I wrote the first of a series ( number 2 and number 3) of posts on managing photo libraries. In the first post, I mentioned Flickr as an example of an online service, but noted that it did not yet support the (to me) all-important metadata standards of IPTC/XMP.
Well, blow me down, on the 11th May, Flickr announced support for IPTC metadata:
“IPTC support (finally)! Friends, today there’s another good thing in Flickrland, and that’s support for IPTC data embedded into your photos. Keywords become tags! Captions become descriptions! Marvel as one framework’s terminology is swapped for another! Smile as the location fields in IPTC become Flickr tags!”
This may prove to be the trigger to make me upgrade my free Flickr account to a Pro account, so that I can share all my photos with friends and family.
MSN Spaces needs to catch up with Flickr – the lack of support for IPTC/XMP, not only in MSN Spaces but also in any Microsoft product (from operating systems to digital photography applications) should embarrass Microsoft.
One response to “Flickr Adds IPTC Support”
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I think it’s only fair to add that, as of today (November 2007), Microsoft have actually addressed a lot of their shortcomings. the Vista operating system does now support XMP metadata, and while there are still some gaps (built-in support for the full IPTC4XMP Core schema, for example), it’s still a great step ahead from when I originally wrote this post back in 2005.
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Two Data Points on Family Values
Data point (a): Chile lesbian loses child appeal. "The Chilean court said her children’s development was at risk because she was living in a lesbian relationship".
Data point (b): Joe Valentine’s parents. Joe Valentine is a successful baseball player who happens to have been raised by two lesbians.
When will people realise it’s the quality of parenting that matters to a child’s development, and not the sexual orientation of the parents?
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ELP Laser Turntable
For those audiophiles amongst you who continue to insist that the analogue LP is superior to digital CDs comes news of the ELP Laser Turntable. Forget about the wear and tear of using an old-fashioned stylus – this turntable uses a laser. It even looks like a retro CD player.
The ELP web site is very coy about saying what the price is, which led me to suspect that it would be a case of "if you have to ask, you can’t afford it". And yep, sure enough, prices (depending on the model) range from a cool $14,999 up to a staggering $18,999.
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Tutankhamun’s Face
Why do I keep thinking of the art of Pierre et Gilles when I see this?
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Pop-Up Books
I came across this site describing the history of Pop-up Books. Now, those who know me well, know that I love books – and pop-up books are a particular weakness of mine.
I have been collecting them for a little while. Most of them are from the 1980s and later – for example – Jan Pienkowski’s Robot. Actually, I think that that is the book that got me started. Along the way, I’ve been collecting Nick Bantock’s series of Nursery Rhymes and books for the "older" reader such as the Pop-Up Book of Phobias. I don’t have any examples earlier than about 1950 – the one book that I have using the mechanisms of Lothar Meggendorfer is a 20th Century reproduction with a foreword by Maurice Sendak.
I do like the creations by Ron van den Meer – who has worked on a series of education books such as The Architecture Pack, The Art Pack and the Brain Pack. I have refused to acquire The Parascience Pack because I refuse to support Uri Geller’s pseudoscience rubbish.
But at the moment, I think one of the foremost paper engineers working in this field has to be Robert Sabuda. His Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland are magnificent examples of their kind.
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The Young Are A Foreign Country…
…They do things differently there.
Yes, I know that the original quote (L. P. Hartley, the Go-Between, 1953) had "Past" in place of "Young"), but it seemed absolutely aposite for the experience I’ve just had. I was idly perusing the statistics to see if anyone out there actually looked at my blog, and I came across a link that showed that a 14 year old girl in the East Midlands, England, had dropped in. I followed the link back, and found this:
Hiyaz today was funny at skul lata on but begginin was bad !
kirsty told every1 bout me n chris lol n now every1 nos
but in english me n kirst were playin catch wid ma pen n kirstys rubber lmao which den got tuk offf us by chelsea cuz i hit her wid it lmao
but den we managed to get anotha one loln den in science we had to do an experiment n i was washin dese goggles unda da tap lmao n i flicked water at kirsty n miss caught me lol n den we was messin bout wid da acid n stuf n we all had to sit down n get a lesson on how to behave in a lab lmao
n trust me ! i dun sumut rly dangerous acordin to miss lmaoso now im very bored on msn talkin to chris bout stuf
i dno wot to say god help me lol ! ! !
amy tried to help but i cant do it man seriously !anywayz im gonna go now laters
xxxx bye xxxxHello? Does one need any more evidence that evolution exists? This is clearly not a strain of English that I was brought up on. I remember in primary school sitting in a class, and another boy came in to ask the teacher something. He said something along the lines of "The headmaster wants to know if any of the kids saw [an incident in the playground] this morning".
The teacher drew herself up to her full height and said: "Child, ‘kids’ are the offspring of goats – there are children in my classroom".
Deckchairs on the Titanic, anyone?
2 responses to “The Young Are A Foreign Country…”
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well hiyai thought considering you didnt have any comments i willl comment you sooo hiyabye
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Well, thank you, UnscathedDarkShadow – I appreciate it! 🙂
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Where’s the NSPCA When You Need Them?
I hold onto just one thought – the person who makes these photographs may be heading down the road trod by Louis Wain.
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Why I Have No Patience with “Alternative Medicine”
Read the story of the Orange Man and understand why alternative medicine that is ineffective is not harmless.
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A Riff on Vending Machines
Seeing that Boing Boing posted a sighting of a vending machine for iPods got me thinking.
Last week, in the Barcelona Metro, I saw a vending machine selling paperback books. Not understanding Spanish, I could not judge whether the books represented literature (haut cuisine) or Jeffrey Archer (fast food trash). I would like to believe the former.
And I remember a few years ago in the neighbourhood was a vending machine selling bunches of flowers (only in Holland?). Alas, long since gone the way of me-tooism – the beige-coloured global culture that I sometimes think I’m drowning in.
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Oh, F*ck – it’s the Day After Tomorrow
According to The Sunday Times (OK, stop sniggering at the back), climate researchers have detected the first signs of a slowdown in the Gulf Stream – the "mighty ocean current that keeps Britain and Europe from freezing".
If this is true, perhaps our future plans should not be merely to move to higher ground within the Netherlands, but to up stakes and head south to Spain… Quick, where’s that Spanish course?
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Bad Science
And hard on the heels of Phil’s paean to Science and the scientific method, comes a perfect example of really bad science (courtesy of Skeptico).
Laydeez an genelmen, I give you: Femo2 – the "water with more". More what? – you ask… Well, apparently, according to the web site, it’s "pure food-grade oxygen to levels up to 120 mg/litre". Golly gee, and what, precisely, is "food-grade oxygen" when it’s at home? It’s clearly something different to "industrial-sludge-grade" oxygen, that’s for sure. Sounds to me more like the marketing department were smoking something when they worked on this campaign.
But wait! There’s more! Along with the food-grade oxygen (I have to confess that’s so bad, it’s good), Femo2 is energized and magnetized (you will note the North American spelling – I thought that this meant that the US was to blame for this nonsense as usual. But no, in the deathless phrase of South Park: Blame Canada). Er, excuse me, what do these terms mean when applied to Dihydrogen Monoxide? Oh, look, there’s a FAQ (frequently asked questions). Let’s take a look:
Q: What is energization? A: Answer coming soon.
Q: What is magnetization? A: Answer coming soon.
Q: How do you keep the oxygen in the water? A: Answer coming soon.
Dear lord, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel.
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The Lure of Science
Over on the Bad Astronomy Blog, Phil (the Bad Astronomer) gives us his paean to Science.
Wish I’d written it. It’s damn good.
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Geoff Coupe's Blog 
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