earthshine: the crescent moon and venus conjunction

i walked out of my office this evening and bam! in front of me, i saw this!


you gotta click this..
lucky for me i had my trusty camera with my little white lens and my very cool tripod.

right then and there, on the sidewalk, with people looking at me like i was nuts, i took a bunch of shots. it was the blue hour and the earthshine was bright.



when i got home, i hooked up the camera to my laptop and tried remote live view to focus tighter. there was a slight haze in the sky but i did get the crescent venus!



and a crop on the moon:


man, i gotta get myself a bigger lens.

EDIT: see jon shock's version over santiago!

all about this astronomical event at the bad astronomer!

and even more at astropixie: the moon and venus, goodbye "evening star"

church bells imagine no religion

at the examiner:

'amid growing controversy, church officials stand by their decision to allow their church bells to toll john lennon's imagine.'

the rest....

imagine by john lennon:

imagine there's no heaven
it's easy if you try
no hell below us
above us only sky
imagine all the people
living for today

imagine there's no countries
it isn't hard to do
nothing to kill or die for
and no religion too
imagine all the people
living life in peace

you may say that i'm a dreamer
but i'm not the only one
i hope someday you'll join us
and the world will be as one

imagine no possessions
i wonder if you can
no need for greed or hunger
a brotherhood of man
imagine all the people
sharing all the world

you may say that i'm a dreamer
but i'm not the only one
i hope someday you'll join us
and the world will live as one

i think it's funny, but i'm all for it!

via the jewmanist.

great DoF and bokeh...

click pic to source
... wonderful capture!

why william shatner loves science fiction

at IGN:


click pic to source
'i was always a scifi fanatic. i was reading all those guys who came to write for us on star trek several years before star trek existed. those great science-fiction writers of the 50's and 60's and 70's, they were brilliant storytelling minds, and the fascination, for me, is imagining a world that you'll never see, you'll never be a part of. in 2020, when the last bubble of methane comes out of the arctic lake, what's going to happen? what's going to happen in 100 years when what the planet has planned now goes through its many manifestations? it drives me crazy that i will not know what's going to happen. it's like a child growing up and going off and you don't know what becomes of them. you yearn for a letter. write home! yet they never do. and that's the tragedy of death. one of the fears of dying is that you won't know what's going to happen – not just the next minute after you die, but what'll happen in 50 years when all your relatives are dead and a new set has come along. who are they? will there be a cure for cancer? will there be interplanetary travel? will we find answers to all these incredible questions that plague me? what is dark matter? what is the essence of light? the very questions that scientists are asking themselves today, and are striving to find the answers to, what's driving them is an outrageous curiosity as to the nature of our world… somebody was able to transport a molecule… now, that's interesting. they got a molecule, which means they can do two molecules. and then…what? you know the adage that if you can imagine something, it's possible? it's true. because what's really out there, we can't imagine. that's the most fascinating part. instead of straight-line travel, it's all bent. so if you think in bent-line terms, nothing makes sense. maybe the galaxies are speeding up. the mystery of everything! but i hate mysteries. but that drives my interest in science-fiction…if you think finding life on mars is going to be a big thing, the day we find that the speed of light isn't the law of the universe, that'll be something!'

via io9

lulin

no, i haven't seen it. the light pollution in athens is terrible. thank goodness for apod:





clicking on a picture will take you to its source.

james randi speaks about carl sagan

via the bad astronomer

ni xiang bu xiang gen wo yi qi he yi dian cha?

like it -- click it!

visitors to china tend to buy very ornate tea sets as souvenirs and gifts. i bought these.

those audio mandarin lessons are coming along fine.

squares

like it? gotta click, then.

they are trying to take away your freedom of speech

via pharyngula and RD

NASA announces 2009 astronomy and astrophysics fellows

click pic to source
'NASA has selected fellows in three areas of astronomy and astrophysics for its einstein, hubble, and sagan fellowships. the recipients of this year's post-doctoral fellowships will conduct independent research at institutions around the country.

"the new fellows are among the best and brightest young astronomers in the world," said jon morse, director of the astrophysics division in NASA's science mission directorate in washington. "they already have contributed significantly to studies of how the universe works, the origin of our cosmos and whether we are alone in the cosmos. the fellowships will serve as a springboard for scientific leadership in the years to come, and as an inspiration for the next generation of students and early career researchers."'

and

'the sagan fellowship, created in september 2008, supports five scientists whose research is aligned with NASA's exoplanet exploration program. the primary goal of this program is to discover and characterize planetary systems and earth-like planets around other stars. the NASA exoplanet science institute, which is operated at the california institute of technology in pasadena, in coordination with NASA's jet propulsion laboratory, also in pasadena, administers the sagan fellowship program.'

the list of sagan fellows and full information, at NASA.

you say 'galazio', i say 'blue'

from physorg:

'dr athanasopoulos explains: “our language forces us to cut up the world in different ways. greek speakers systematically use two different terms to refer to blue: the sky is ghalazio (light blue), never ble (dark blue), and a blue pen is ble but can never be ghalazio. english speakers would have no problem calling both the sky and a pen blue in an instant.”'

and

'the researchers found differences in visual processing of light and dark blues between greek and english speakers as early as 100 milliseconds, suggesting that indeed, speakers of different languages literally have differently structured minds.'

the rest just a click away.

poor ray

he thinks he's haggling over a knock-off handbag in a bargain basement.

btw, don't worry about the linking -- i'm using a no follow tag.

what's this about? well...

to reiterate:
'i am not in this for the money. my interest is in getting the banana man to part with $100,000 of his money so that that money will not be available for buying animatronic dinosaurs with saddles, or other similar nonsense. the fact that he would be making a substantial donation to a charity dedicated to reason and science adds to the humour of the situation.' - richard dawkins

bullets

click pic to source

stolen

like it? don't just look... click!

arreh

if you like it, click away!
it's easy to get stuck in a rut -- keep taking the same kind of picture over and over again.

i don't like ruts.

so i'm taking -- and posting -- stuff that might not be great, but it's a way to get out of my (very thin) comfort zone.

photography posts

long-time followers of this blog will have noticed that i've been obsessing over photography for the past year or so and i've been posting at least one or two photographs here over the past few months.

i've been getting requests for information about photography either via the comments or by email, sometimes over the chatbox, so i've been wondering: would anyone be interested in my starting to post tidbits and links that i've found interesting/useful for picture-taking? should i add them to this blog or create a separate one?

are my pictures welcome or getting on your nerves?

i'd appreciate any feedback.

kthxbai.

the one-minute astrology test

tyson is awesome.

via the friendly atheist.

it was all chinese to me...

... until i actually learned some.


click pic to see it large at strange maps.

amygdalia

if you like it, please click!
a year ago yesterday i started taking pictures obsessively. this is fun.

david merrill: siftables, the toy blocks that think

the four horsemen, on youtube

a chat with christopher hitchens, daniel dennett, richard dawkins, sam harris, from september 30, 2007, now on youtube in two one-hour parts.



'on the 30th of september 2007, richard dawkins, daniel dennett, sam harris and christopher hitchens sat down for a first-of-its-kind, unmoderated 2-hour discussion, convened by rdfrs [the richard dawkins foundation for reason and science] and filmed by josh timonen.'

via RD
previous post.

put your money where your banana is

exhibit a:


exhibit b:
lolz

the challenge:
bananaman offers richard dawkins $10K to debate him.

the answer by richard dawkins:

snip
$10,000 is less than the typical fee that i am ordinarily offered for lecturing to a serious audience (i often don't accept it, especially in the case of a student audience, because i am a dedicated teacher).
it is not, therefore, a worthwhile inducement for me to travel all the way across the atlantic to debate with an ignorant fool. you can tell him that if he donates $100,000 to the richard dawkins foundation for reason and science (it's a charitable donation, tax deductible) i'll do it. a further condition is that it will be filmed by josh timonen for my website, richarddawkins.net, and distributed by josh as a dvd, if he thinks it is funny enough.
endsnip

and, when offered $20K instead,

snip
$20,000 is closer to the fees that i am customarily offered. however, i am not in this for the money. my interest is in getting the banana man to part with $100,000 of his money so that that money will not be available for buying animatronic dinosaurs with saddles, or other similar nonsense. the fact that he would be making a substantial donation to a charity dedicated to reason and science adds to the humour of the situation.
endsnip

pz myers says: got $100,000?

via RD!

pegged

if you like it, please click

omg, is fulla starz

click pic to source at lolcats
via asproula

thunderf00t's deleted video: part2

clicheh

like it? click it!
just wanted to try one.

三六五北京

like it? click it!

right before your very eyes

like it? clicketyclick!
can you tell i was lazy yesterday?

hitchens debated this guy again...

...and i don't know why. his argmuments all come down to 'see all this good stuff everywhere? christianitydidit'...

ok, i guess i'm glad -- at least it's a chance to see hitch go. i don't agree with everything he says, but on religion, he nails it.

christopher hitchens and dinesh d'souza at macky auditorium, CU boulder, january 26, 2009


christopher hitchens and dinesh d'souza at cu boulder from justin leddick on vimeo.

via rd

thunderf00t's deleted video

thunderf00t has created one of my favorite series on youtube, why do people laugh at creationists?, as well as many other fine videos. he has been repeatedly targeted by malicious votebots to decrease the ratings of his videos. in his last upload, he addressed youtube's handling of the issue, and youtube deleted it. thankfully, it's being re-uploaded by many users:

evolution

via onegoodmove

four seasons of bokeh

if you like it, please click it!

reflect / refract

like it? gotta click!
exploring science at the planetarium and museum, at the evgenidio foundation in athens, greece.

the galileoscope

click pic to source
this looks cool... and i just ordered one! it's perfect for kids like me.

'the galileoscope™ is a high-quality, low-cost telescope kit developed for the international year of astronomy 2009 by a team of leading astronomers, optical engineers, and science educators. no matter where you live, with this easy-to-assemble, 50-mm (2-inch) diameter, 25- to 50-power achromatic refractor, you can see the celestial wonders that galileo galilei first glimpsed 400 years ago and that still delight stargazers today. these include lunar craters and mountains, four moons circling jupiter, the phases of venus, saturn's rings, and countless stars invisible to the unaided eye.'



via cosmic log

hitchens vs tharoor - freedoms of speech

in 9 parts:

daisy at home and at work

please click to its flickr page.

yellow

yougottaclickit!

before time, before space

monkey morality

from new scientist:

'monkeys and apes have a sense of morality and the rudimentary ability to tell right from wrong, according to new research.

in a series of studies scientists have found that monkeys and apes can make judgments about fairness, offer altruistic help and empathise when a fellow animal is ill or in difficulties. they even appear to have consciences and the ability to remember obligations.

the research implies that morality is not a uniquely human quality and suggests it arose through evolution. that could mean the strength of our consciences is partly determined by our genes.'

read on...
via pharyngula

t00t

like it? click it!

dawkins' 7 wonders of the world

click pic to source
richard dawkins explains his picks for the seven wonders of the world in this program from 1997.

streaming

like it? clickaway!
everywhere i look, i see decorations for carnival.

athens nightline

if you like it, click!
the acropolis, flanked by lycabettus and philopappou hills. this was taken from the prophet eliah above castella, in pireaus. this picture has been geomapped, on its page on flickr.

obama promotes science and remembers darwin

via pz myers

if i didn't have you...

click it! you know you want to!
'but with all my heart and all my mind i know one thing is true
i have just one life and just one love and love that love is you
and if it wasn't for you
baby you
(i really think that i would)
(have somebody else)
oh yeah
(if i didn't have you)
if i didn't have you someone else would do
(someone else would surely do)
- picture inspired by tim minchin and his lyrics

scintillation

you're going to love this....

'this is an experimental film made up of over 35,000 photographs. it combines an innovative mix of stop motion and live projection mapping techniques.'


scintillation from xavier chassaing on vimeo.

atheist buses in wisconsin

more bus ads, this time in madison, wisconsin.




click pics to their source

more ads and info at the freedom from religion foundation

via the friendly atheist

witty

click pic to source
large at jesus&mo

heavenly spheres

zodiacal light vs. milky way:


click pic to source on apod

this is one of the most stunning moon images i've ever seen... and i've seen a lot:

circle 'round the moon:


click pic to source on apod

<3 apod <3

defrag your hard disk

at the moment i've got one internal hard disk and three external disks hooked up to my laptop -- maybe it's time to defrag something...

'when files are being rewritten on your disk, with time the data is scattered on the disk and not in one location, thus in order to read the data the disk must revolve more times than before. a defragmenter puts all these files in order.'

lots of info, at computerboom

the origin of morality

another great video by thunderf00t, part of the series: why do people laugh at creationists?

spiral-tuality xxviii

click pic to source
from hubble
thanks, demetrios.

baseball memento

like it? well, then, click it!
just something i've got lying around the house.

new fruit

here, have a pomegranate.

a party of five

yougottaclickit!

focusing on my origin

tomorrow -- thursday, february 12th -- marks 200 years after the birth of charles darwin and 150 years after the publication of on the origin of species by means of natural selection.

darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection put us Homo sapiens in our place, demolishing our direly arrogant stance as divinely conjured masters of the universe.

his work offered us the exuberant awareness that we are connected to all other living organisms on earth in a fluid continuum of life.

his explanation helped us to comprehend that we can find naturalistic explanations for our cosmos, freeing us from the shackles of dark superstition.

brilliant minds now build upon darwin's legacy with the hope of a better future.

i took this picture of my copy of origin, richard dawkins' the selfish gene -- and my reading glasses to remind me of my mortality and to value my time and my mind.



i couldn't decide between the above and this - more extreme, as per my taste - version:


like it? then please click it!

celebrations for darwin day abound. visit darwinday.org to learn more about this international recognition of science and humanity.

darwin aloud

a worldwide celebration of charles darwin's 200th birthday

from the website:

'you are invited to participate in an international celebration of science by honoring the father of the theory of evolution, charles darwin.

people from all over the world will be videotaped and filmed reading from the origin of species near famous landmarks in their countries. the footage will be assembled after march 23, 2009 into a film dedicated to one of science’s greatest figures, charles darwin.'

the text to be read is in this pdf.

we need one in greece, at the acropolis. i'm going to try to organize a reading. interested?

a special spiral-tuality xxvii

my spiral-tuality label is a collection of images of spiral galaxies that are so excruciatingly beautiful hat they remind me that spirituality, for me, is the sense of awe and wonder i have when i look to the skies -- and that i'm truly connected to the universe.

'in some respects, science has far surpassed religion in delivering awe. how is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, "this is better than we thought! the universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant. god must be even greater than we dreamed"? instead they say, "no, no, no! my god is a little god, and i want him to stay that way."' - carl sagan, from pale blue dot

NASA's great observatories celebrate international year of astronomy


messier 101 by hubble, spitzer and chandra. click pic to source
'galileo first turned his telescope to the heavens in 1609, marking the dawn of modern astronomy. to commemorate 400 years of exploring the universe, 2009 has been designated the international year of astronomy.

in conjunction with galileo's birthday on feb. 15, NASA is releasing images from its great observatories -- the hubble space telescope, spitzer space telescope, and chandra x-ray observatory -- to more than 100 planetariums, museums, nature centers and schools across the country.

the selected sites will unveil a large, 9-square-foot print of the spiral galaxy messier 101 that combines the optical view of hubble, the infrared view of spitzer, and the x-ray view of chandra into one colorful, multiwavelength picture. "it's like using your eyes, night vision goggles and x-ray vision all at the same time," said hashima hasan, lead scientist for the international year of astronomy at NASA headquarters in washington.'

continue reading at NASA

darwin now in athens

at the british council:



'celebrating darwin’s legacy in the 21st century
we are delighted to invite you to our darwin now exhibition, which explores the impact of charles darwin’s remarkable legacy in the 21st century.

the exhibition takes a fresh look at how darwin’s theory of evolution continues to influence biology and other branches of science, and provides an opportunity for people to explore some of the most fundamental of questions about the origin, nature and distribution of life.'

information here.

sony releases new stupid piece of shit that doesn't fucking work

from the onion news network:


Sony Releases New Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn't Fucking Work

you and me

if you like it, click it!

dubai's construction grinding to a halt...

...and thousands of cars are being abandoned at the airport as expat workers abandon the country.

the ripples have been felt by yours truly, as the financial bubble around dubai extended to athens and beyond.

via boingboing.

TVCC on fire

breaking news from absurdity, allegory and china: CCTV's television culture center (the mandarin hotel) is on fire.


click pic to source
pictures here.

an eyewitness is saying, 'huge chunks falling off.'

UPDATE: lots of explosions are being reported, and there are reports that this was started by fireworks, olympic leftovers that were set off to the east of the building.

btw, today is yuanxiao jie, the last day of spring festival, where the remainder of fireworks are set off.... for hours.

UPDATE-2: more images on picasa.


click pic to source



more videos.


click pic to source for picture and videos

UPDATE 3:

several links... i don't know if these belong to the same mandarin:

fire rages at unfinished beijing mandarin hotel: february 9, 2008
fire at the mandarin hotel in boston: march 10, 2008
fire at the mandarin hotel in thailand: september 5, 2007

this is how i saw it in april 2008:

click to my page on flickr

THE MORNING AFTER:


picture taken by fuzheado. click pic to source