old neighborhoods

it's weird thing to live one's life in long-term chunks in various parts of the world, especially in childhood, especially when the cost of a plane ride is too much to allow for visits. each time i was somewhere, past haunts were filed to memory, transformed into myth -- another dimension. i am often never sure if they were, maybe, a dream.


wilmington, de
i left my house, a tiny place in a lower-middle class neighborhood in wilmington, DE in 1980 and revisited only twice, for a few brief moments only each time. here, it looks exactly as i left it, except maybe the A/C is gone, as well as my mother's lush little greenhouse in the backyard. it looks like it's up for sale.

i lived a lot of grief in this place.

montreal, canada
i haven't seen an image of this elementary school since 1971 -- i just looked it up. my memories from this neighborhood are fleeting -- bits of imagery and tiny, defining moments. it was at this corner when i first realized what an impatient person i am. and it was in this kindergarten when i had my first conscious moment as an atheist, as i insisted that there was no santa claus.

i've been spending some time 'walking' around both neighborhoods. they look much smaller than i remember them, but then, i was just a kid.

how funny is it that these places don't change after several decades.

street view in google maps is wonderfully bizarre -- it's such a shame it's not allowed in greece.

©2010 toomanytribbles

my favorite photographers: LJ.

i'm not brave enough to shoot pictures like these... but i'm sure glad LJ. is.

for the insatiable:
lee's photostream on flickr.

©2010 toomanytribbles

moonrise at sounion - june 26, 2010

the full moon has come to mean that, work permitting, i'll be out chasing a moon shot. yesterday, i met up with mr.G, anthony ayiomamitis and chris kotsiopoulos at [surprise, surprise] sounion. anthony's calculations were exact!

my image with a canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM lens and a canon EF 2x II extender:


like it? click!
i don't have video capabilities on my 40D, but i did make a video sequence of a series of stills, in an attempt to convey the feeling at the first moments of moonrise:

music: porcelain, a band i saw, live, in beijing. view video on flickr.

mr.G's shot, with a bresser refractor telescope:

click!

anthony's with a takahashi FSQ 106/f5 refractor telescope:


click!

©2010 toomanytribbles

clip from bad boy bubbly

'there is no god. there can be no god.'



via atheist movies

george carlin - the american dream

i'm glad to embed this with greek subtitles, as it knows no boundaries:

born yesterday...

like it? click it!
... or thereabouts.
focus on the nose or eyes? c'mon, we haven't got all day.

this little guy was entertaining everyone at the taverna at falasarna... so he gets a spot on the map.

©2010 toomanytribbles

dan ariely on our buggy moral code

this makes me understand more about the crisis in greece as well...



thank you, dilipmurthy.

©2010 toomanytribbles

let's fade into the sun

like it? click it!
i want to fly away...



©2010 toomanytribbles

a little bit of fry and laurie

tortured with crete:



and all over youtube (short playlist):



i'm loving them both, then and now.
fry
laurie

©2010 toomanytribbles

pale blue home

the view from the road leading to falasarna, and the title, a reference to pale blue dot:


like it? click it!
i've placed this on flickr's map.

i read this this morning and it's had a terrible effect on me. it's one thing to have my personal suspicions, and quite another to see someone with serious credentials state them so publicly.

often, i feel like i'm watching a film documentary about what happened to those beings called humans who knew where they were headed, but did nothing to save themselves.

i posted a link on facebook...

anthony ayiomamitis said, it seems rather optimistic we will be gone so quickly. really a flash.

and scott said, a fate we don't exactly not deserve. ;-) i'm sure the dolphins will be glad to "get their life back."

ken suggested i watch earth 2100.

life is ubiquitous and tenacious on earth -- extremophiles have been found in the most hostile of places -- and it most probably will continue on, oblivious to our presence... or lack of it. some might say that it doesn't matter whether we're here or not... but that's not true. as carl sagan said, we are a way for the cosmos to know itself.

notice he said a way and not the way -- maybe one way of many populations of sentient beings, somewhere...

anyway, i'm all over the place with this.

here's carl, reading from pale blue dot:



and yet again, i offer das rad:



more of my images dedicated to pale blue dot.
©2010 toomanytribbles

matt D rants...

i love a good matt dillahunty rant...



you can watch the entire episode's playlist here or go to the source at the atheist experience to subscribe to podcasts and view archives.

because of the time difference, i download these on monday mornings and listen on my way to work.

©2010 toomanytribbles

summer wine

like it? click it!
waiting for the sunset at falasarna beach at chania, crete in greece. it's on the map.

natural colors, minimal processing.

©2010 toomanytribbles

DSLRTV

the season finale of 'house' was filmed with canon's 5D mii dslr and various lenses, most especially the 100 mm f/2.8 macro USM.



wish wish wish wish

©2010 toomanytribbles

happy june solstice! -- sunset at falasarna, chania, crete

like it? well... click!
i shot these at falasarna (sometimes spelled phalasarna) beach in western crete on saturday. i'd visited this beach... oh, say, 25 years ago... and remembered a specific restaurant that had an unbelievable view. i found the restaurant, and enjoyed two lovely days' worth of swimming in crystal clear, refreshingly coooold water.



i knew i'd have zero time to shoot the sun today... so here's how it looked on june 19th.

i've placed the location on flickr's map.

get out and watch the sun set!

©2010 toomanytribbles

my favorite photographers: anthony ayiomamitis

i discovered anthony ayiomamitis' work several years ago and have been an enthusiastic fan ever since, to the point of creating a dedicated label for posts which feature his pictures. his imagery includes highly challenging objects such as galaxies, nebulas, quasars and black holes... but the ones i love best are the ones that are readily accessible by anyone, in the sense that they are visible with the naked eye, such as shots of the moon and the sun, eclipses and the milky way -- and most especially when they are combined with landmarks of human heritage.


click!
anthony has inspired me to try my hand at this type of photography -- at the most rudimentary level. @anthony: thank you!

for the insatiable:
a small sample of his work on flickr
and all his glorious images, on his website, perseus.gr

check out more of my favorite photographers here.

©2010 toomanytribbles

ch5 - spoofing and secrecy

two days ago, i marked the fourth anniversary of beginning this blog.

i didn't forget -- i just have sporadic internet access for a few days.

four years... it doesn't seem that long. and it does.

this blogversary finds me in a funk. while keeping this blog has helped me discover a great deal about gullibility and skepticism, i find myself feeling drained in futility. although i hope and suspect that we humans are making progress in understanding our universe and ourselves and that we are helping each other build better lives, i sometimes wonder if this is truly the case, or if we are [as the greeks would say] digging a hole in water.

generations pass, new individuals replace the old and lifetimes of lessons have to be relearned, anew. lack of education only proves george santayana's 'those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'

as per my tradition to quote a bit of each chapter from carl sagan's the demon-haunted world: science as a candle in the dark, this is from chapter 5:

over the years i've continued to spend time on the UFO problem. i receive many letters about it, frequently with detailed first-hand accounts. sometimes momentous revelations are promised if only i will call the letter writer. after i give lectures—on almost any subject—i often am asked, "do you believe in UFOs". i'm always struck by how the question is phrased, the suggestion that this is a matter of belief and not of evidence i'm almost never asked, "how good is the evidence that UFOs are alien spaceships?"
- carl sagan

i've been thinking lately about how often we give theists a free ride, even in the questions they pose. the existence for god is, as richard dawkins says, a scientific question. consider substituting some words from the above paragraph:

over the years i've continued to spend time on the issue religion. i receive many letters about it, frequently with detailed first-hand accounts. sometimes momentous revelations are promised if only i will call the letter writer. after i give lectures — on almost any subject — i often am asked, "do you believe in god". i'm always struck by how the question is phrased, the suggestion that this is a matter of belief and not of evidence i'm almost never asked, "how good is the evidence that god exists?"

anyway, ♫♪♫happy blogversary to me.♫♪♫

©2010 toomanytribbles

revelation

like it? click it!
it is a contradiction in terms and ideas, to call anything a revelation that comes to us at second-hand, either verbally or in writing. revelation is necessarily limited to the first communication — after this, it is only an account of something which that person says was a revelation made to him; and though he may find himself obliged to believe it, it cannot be incumbent on me to believe it in the same manner; for it was not a revelation made to me, and i have only his word for it that it was made to him.

- thomas paine, the age of reason, part first, section 1

©2010 toomanytribbles

happy picard day!

always worth seeing again:



and there's a first view for every video -- sir patrick stewart on sesame street:

30 years ago today

a young woman of 18 approached athens by plane and peered out the window:



her heart sank and it has yet to resurface.

©2010 toomanytribbles

drive to delete personal religion information from registries in greece

click!

loosely translated:

"
- because religion is a personal matter and does not concern the state,

- because a person's registered religion often does not correspond to his/her true convictions,

- because many of us were indoctrinated into a religion as children, before were were mature enough to make a deliberate choice,

- because many of us feel religious but do not identify with a particular church or denomination,

- because we don't want our personal beliefs to be used as a justification for churches to exercise power in our name,

mass deletion of religion from the registries 06/18/2010, on atheia.
"

©2010 toomanytribbles

xenobiology

a friend shared this with me on FB:

xenobiology by abiogenesis


click to large image at source
and i commented:
that's excellent -- now, why does hollywood need to serve us such mind-numbing renderings like the disgraces in 'avatar': alien lions and alien tigers and alien bears, oh my! such utter crap.

©2010 toomanytribbles

do you like science fiction?

i bet some of us wouldn't recognize it if we saw it.



©2010 toomanytribbles

STTNG: the outcast

it's not the gadgets or the effects or even the science itself.

science fiction, at its finest, shuffles parameters and extremes, in order to allow us examine aspects of ourselves. it doesn't have to be an elaborate production or thick tome -- short stories can do just as nicely.

to those that say that star trek is not good science fiction, i say bull.

©2010 toomanytribbles

LOLcharles

'we have known for a long time that prince charles' empty sails are so rigged as to be swelled by any passing waft or breeze of crankiness and cant. he fell for the fake anthropologist laurens van der post. he was bowled over by the charms of homeopathic medicine. he has been believably reported as saying that plants do better if you talk to them in a soothing and encouraging way. but this latest departure promotes him from an advocate of harmless nonsense to positively sinister nonsense.'

christopher hitchens' charles, prince of piffle, on slate.

reverse perspective

trippy



via boingboing

michael shermer: patternicity

on TED

a class divided

on google video.

the creationist debate is over

says christopher hitchens

kingsley's cosmos

by bruce kingsley:

preserve your memories...

...they're all that's left you.


if you like it, click it!
i'm coming up on several milestones and feel a crisis emerging -- so i'm sifting through old photos to maybe find myself.

this is me, circa 1989 1990 at our apartment in athens.

i shot this with a canon T60 analog camera with a kalimar 28-200mm f/3.5-5.3 macro lens. i still have them. if i remember correctly, i bought them in a huge rush at a shop on times square in new york city with my friend, andrea, after attending my 10-year high school reunion in wilmington, delaware.

'why can't i own canadians?'

a question asked in ernest:

'1. leviticus 25:44 states that i may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. a friend of mine claims that this applies to mexicans, but not canadians. can you clarify? why can't i own canadians?'

all ten, on betty dodson's blog.


©2010 toomanytribbles

my favorite photographers: p r i m e r / kevin saint grey

click!

here, i grasp for boundless space, linger through expanses of time and experience piercing moments of heightened awareness.

for the insatiable:
kevin's photostream...
... and profile

©2010 toomanytribbles

stories first, gadgets later

'star trek had no 'magic formula' unless you consider respect for the audience and hard work a formula. it has been my opinion for years that science fiction, like any other story, should be mainly about people with hardware being secondary. it seems to me the networks and stations have wasted a lot of money seeking some mysterious formula in star trek when really you make your science fiction the same way you make any other good story and there are no shortcuts.'
- gene roddenberry, in a letter to a fan.

from letters of note.

the just-world fallacy

'the misconception: people who are losing at the game of life must have done something to deserve it.

the truth: the beneficiaries of good fortune often do nothing to earn it, and bad people often get away with their actions without consequences.'


pictures click through to source
'it is infuriating when lazy cheats and con artists get ahead in the world while firemen and policemen put in long hours for little pay.

deep down, you want to believe hard work and virtue will lead to success, and laziness, evil and manipulation will lead to ruin, so you go ahead and edit the world to match those expectations.

yet, in reality, evil often prospers and never pays the price.'



'to be sure, you would like to live in a world where people in white hats bring people in black hats to justice, but you don’t.'

i've tried talking about this with others, with great frustration.

this perception of the world is expressed in endless forms, from the secret to concepts of heaven and hell, from followers of islam stoning rape victims to the feeling of entitlement that so many people have.

read the entire essay by david mcraney.


©2010 toomanytribbles

northern mcnaught

comet C/2009 R1 (mcnaught) in andromeda by anthony ayiomamitis:


click pic to source for details

robert m. price: christian apologists are not historians

link

stephen hawking: science will win because it works

at abc news with diane sawyer:

michael sandel – the lost art of democratic debate

on TED

plywood voyager

by peter hennessey


click to embiggen at source
also: hubble, mission control, and the lunar rover.
via boingboing

a crude awakening

trailer

moonset at the very large telescope

picture by gordon gillet:


click to source on facebook

how did escher do it?

i clearly had trouble following the american mathematical society's instructions for the last two steps...



thanks, dim.

©2010 toomanytribbles

my favorite photographers: tony eccles

click!
tony's photography is about interesting ideas, creativity and fun. he expresses one of my firmest beliefs: that the most intelligent people don't take themselves so seriously... and are able to just play.

for the insatiable:
tony's photostream
tony's blog

©2010 toomanytribbles

ISS transits the sun

by a favorite photographer of mine, anthony ayiomamitis:


click picture to source
also at epod and astronomy.com

ayaan hirsi ali on colbert

'i prefer jon stewart to jesus christ.' - ayaan hirsi ali

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Fox News

via RDF

morgan freeman on CNN

and his references to science and religion



love this interview.
you don't have to believe in god to play him...
nice.

©2010 toomanytribbles

ESO: a space opera

Starring: helix nebula, gliese 667, stellar cluster NGC 2467, R coronae austrinae, protostar HH34 (orion), chamaeleon I complex, eagle nebula, lagoon nebula, southern milky way band, trifid nebula, the first image of an exoplanet (2M1207 system)... as seen by the very large telescope (VLT).

my co-irresponsibility

i'm rarely out and about without some petty cash... but this week was extremely busy and i didn't have the chance to get to an ATM.



so here i was, stuck with a few euro only and i was running low on gas.

i pulled up into a station, and asked if they accepted credit cards.
- no, sorry.
- no problem, thanks.



i kept an eye out for ATMs on my way -- one where i could safely stop without obstructing traffic, that is -- but none in sight. this went on for four more stations, a couple of times passing by BP as i didn't want to give them a cent. not that the others are better, but this is my knee-jerk emotional response.



in the meantime, i was running dangerously low and close to inexcusably late for work. so i thought -- next station that accepts a card, i'm in.

unfortunately, it was a BP. i filled up the tank, and gave them 57 hard-earned €.



clicking any picture will take you to the originals at the big picture at boston.com, where you can see more horror.

©2010 toomanytribbles

symphony of science: the case for mars

here's the latest installment of the symphony of science, featuring zubrin, sagan, cox & boston!



©2010 toomanytribbles

if it was my home

visualizing the BP oil spill disaster over athens:



via flowing data

©2010 toomanytribbles

brian cox: why we need explorers

on TED



with references to cassini, carl sagan and the pale blue dot.

its end i cannot see

via jonas

everything nice

like it? click it!

©2010 toomanytribbles

night over cerro armazones

i'm so dizzy...

spiral-tuality xlvi

blink... blink


click image to source

sir patrick stewart

click pic to source
i'm not a fan of titles, but stewart certainly deserves a tribute for his talent and work.

thanks, dimitri

battletrek galatica nine

very cool mashup illustrates similarities between these two shows, as well as comments made by ron moore on how BSG was borne out of his experience with ST:DS9.



read up on it at trekmovie.com

(EDIT: oops... fixed the above link)

i know many people aren't fond of DS9 but i try to accept incarnations of trek for what they are and find the positive points in them.

one of the ideas that i remember most vividly from DS9 is the prophets' existence outside of linear time. in one episode where capt. sisko has a lot of interaction with them, he kept being flung to a moment in his past, where he lost his wife. he asked them something to the effect of: why do you keep bringing me here? and they said: we do not bring you here... you exist here.

it's actually helped me cope with the loss of my mother last october. i don't believe in souls or the afterlife and i take comfort in that she exists within her slice of time.

©2010 toomanytribbles