a few tips

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photo license: creative commons.
blog post: ©2011 helen sotiriadis

dihydrogen monoxide

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image license: creative commons.

dihydrogen monoxide:

is called 'hydroxyl acid', the substance is the major component of acid rain.

- contributes to the 'greenhouse effect'.
- may cause severe burns.
- is fatal if inhaled.
- contributes to the erosion of our natural landscape.
- accelerates corrosion and rusting of many metals.
- may cause electrical failures and decreased effectiveness of automobile brakes.
- has been found in excised tumors of terminal cancer patients.

despite the danger, dihydrogen monoxide is often used:

- as an industrial solvent and coolant.
- in nuclear power plants.
- in the production of styrofoam.
- as a fire retardant.
- in many forms of cruel animal research.
- in the distribution of pesticides. even after washing, produce remains contaminated by this chemical.
- as an additive in certain 'junk-foods' and other food products.

source: wikipedia

blog post: ©2011 helen sotiriadis

the atheist experience with... ray comfort

this is the full 1-hr episode of the atheist experience with matt dillahunty and russel glasser with guest, bananaman ray comfort. it's entertaining, or mind-numbing: your choice.

is warp drive possible?

the interviewer at the world science festival asks lawrence krauss about his book, the physics of star trek, warp drives, and where star trek got it right, and wrong.



EDIT: erm... that doesn't look like a balloon to me...

it's a drag to always be the lonely skeptic in the room

i state my case and watch the room grow silent as a tomb.



via the perplexed observer

the architecture lab

click image to source

via architechnophilia

finale

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my DoF is way too shallow here -- should've tightened the aperture.
license:  creative commons.

this is the same flower, a few days earlier:


©2011 helen sotiriadis

sub zero - winter night timelapse

by randy halverson



via phil plait

a new leaf

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i enjoy sharing cool stuff, ideas and imagery, so i'm going to start an experiment.

starting with a new leaf, i'm going to start uploading some of my new images under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-sharealike license. this means that you can copy, distribute, transmit the work, and/or remix and adapt the work, provided that you attribute the work to me specifically by name, not use it for commercial purposes, and if you alter, transform or build upon my work, you may distribute your work under the same or similar license.

if you use this... i'd love to hear about it.
thoughts?


blog post: ©2011 helen sotiriadis

hans rosling and the magic washing machine

this is the third video with hans rosling that i'm linking to in this blog -- i think i must create a label for him. in hans rosling's hands, data sings.



©2011 helen sotiriadis

toot your own

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©2011 helen sotiriadis

you bloody fools

on the telegraph, godless in tumourville:

snip

has he ever shared larkin’s yearning for faith?

'no,’ he says. 'there isn’t the evidence and i don’t see why anyone would want it to be true. a permanent, invigilated, regulated dictatorship which you are told is for your own good. i can’t think of anything worse.’

and does he share larkin’s fear of death?

he cannot pretend that he hasn’t been giving this some thought lately. but he approaches the matter elliptically. the philosopher david hume, he says, said you are not afraid of the time before you were born when there was nothingness, so why should you be any more concerned afterwards? 'lucretius put it more simply, saying you’re not going to know you’re dead so there’s nothing to be afraid of. what larkin was saying was, you bloody fools; that’s exactly what i’m afraid of – annihilation.’ he pauses. 'it is a disagreeable thought.’

/snip

hitchens expressed these thoughts in hitch 22, and they've been mine as well since i was a young girl. leave it to hitchens to find others' thoughts and bring them together so well.  i find so few people who understand this.

do you?

when i was reading his memoir, i was moved to take this picture. i don't know why.  i hadn't planned it out, but immediately, i saw it and knelt down to capture it.  to me, it expressed my recession from life:

jill bolte taylor's stroke of insight

i listened to this when it first came out. as clips of it were recently included in symphony of science's ode to the brain, i thought i should share its entirety.




©2011 helen sotiriadis

mr. mccluskey's method

by otto deschk -- marketing gone mad.

animals that are better than you

fighting speciesism



via the radula

ode to the brain

from symphony of science:



more symphony of science

christopher hitchens is unwell

at vanity fair: 'christopher hitchens is undergoing radiation treatment and wasn't able to write this week's column on his usual schedule. he hopes to file soon.'

so he will no longer be able to say that he never missed a deadline. just one week away, and he is missed.

i hope he feels better soon.

CIA's facebook program

an excellent tool, according to... the onion


CIA's 'facebook' program dramatically cut agency's costs

...am i sure it's humor?..

the aurora

on vimeo

rogier van der heide: why light needs darkness

on TED

sprung

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texture by brenda starr

©2011 helen sotiriadis

a great impression of william shatner

and some really bad ones.



80? 80??
happy birthday to william shatner, and happy talk like william shatner day.

via boingboing

EDIT: and the winners are........

specs

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nix wanted the kool shades shot, i wanted the portrait. deal.



©2011 helen sotiriadis

blinky tm

the poor little guy doesn't have a positronic brain.

lego antikythera mechanism

at naturevideochannel

parthenon moon

click!
this shot was taken by my friend, anthony ayiomamitis in january, and it's being featured on today's astronomy picture of the day.

perigee supermoon

... from last night, at sounion...

the moon transformed night to day.


like'em? then click!



these images are a collaboration between my friend, stavros makris and myself. we mounted my little white and my 10-22 lenses on his canon 7D and prepared shots together.


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©2011 helen sotiriadis

typtych

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yesterday, i  was very lucky to meet up with flickr user kazunori yokoi who is visiting athens from kyoto, japan. we had a tasty lunch at avissinia, wandered around for a few pictures at monastiraki and finished with an ice coffee at an outdoor cafe under the acropolis in plaka.

i saw this old typewriter outside a shop just across our table and i couldn't resist attempting a shoot. kazu didn't mind.

©2011 helen sotiriadis

[< 3]

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spotted at IPPO

©2011 helen sotiriadis

名字

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texture by keely o'shannessy

海伦.
i shot these late february, before snow hit athens.

©2011 helen sotiriadis

stephen fry: revealed vs discovered truth

stephen fry was awarded the 2011 lifetime achievement award from the humanist chaplaincy at harvard univeristy.



full event playlist

christopher hitchens: well, fuck that.

a great little clip from the afterlife discussion at the jewish tv network (posted here):

red scarf

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outside pan jia yuan, in beijing, in 2008.

©2011 helen sotiriadis

a.c. grayling: god and disaster

on RDFRS:


click to source
'how, in the face of events which human kindness and concern registers as tragic and in need of help – help which human beings proceed to give to their fellows: no angels appear from the sky to do it – can they believe such an incoherent fiction as the idea of a deity?'

the entire piece here.

orange

as i greedily peel an orange,
i look down at my hands
and understand
that my experience is identical
to that of other apes,
with oranges.

©2011 helen sotiriadis

making her own luck

click!

photo by mourlegovits

danny hillis on richard feynman

on TEDxCaltech



via discover

the american nones

the profile of the no religion population in america, including those that do not identify with organized religions: atheists, agnostics, and the 'spiritual but not religious'.

somehow, i find this chart very interesting and wonder how it correlates with indoctrination:



more info and source: sociological images

wonders of the universe episode 1

on BBC



stunning imagery -- i recommend full screen.

george hrab: god is not great

singing with the choir

deb roy: the birth of a word

the largest home video collection ever made. the data, the visualization, and the implications.

国家大剧院

click!
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my last panorama... for now.
i think.
this one was 7 images.

yes, it's the national grand theater, beijing, again.
from 2008.

previous edit:


©2011 helen sotiriadis

eclipsoid

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the grand national theater, beijing, china.
again, a panorama -- this time, 7 images. shot in 2008.

previous edit:


©2011 helen sotiriadis

up

up, up and away



how hard can it be?



up

equals?

james bond supports international women's day 2011



'the two-minute short, specially commissioned for international women's day, sees 007 star daniel craig undergo a dramatic makeover as he puts himself, quite literally, in a woman's shoes.

directed by acclaimed 'nowhere boy' director/conceptual artist sam taylor-wood, scripted by jane goldman ('kick ass') and featuring the voice of dame judi dench reprising her role as 'M', the film will be screened in cinemas and streamed online in a bid to highlight the levels of inequality that persist between men and women in the UK and worldwide. it is the first film featuring bond to be directed by a woman.'

equals?

pinched from phil plait.

jesus & mo & templeton

click to view at jesus&mo

outside in

a demo reel for outside in, a project to make an IMAX film animated using hundreds of thousands of still images taken by the cassini spacecraft:



more info at outside in.
via io9

wake up, discovery

with a twist

national grand theater, beijing

click!

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or the egg.

shot in 2008. i lacked a wide-enough lens back then, so i had to take three shots and then stitch them together.

previous edit:


©2011 helen sotiriadis

christopher hitchens on 60 minutes

video and transcript

the video is not embedding very well, so please click the link to view at CBS

pale blue dot / old spice

via celebrating sagan

molly lewis propositions stephen fry

too good not to post



via pz myers

tian an men

view in the dark

from 06/2008.

previous edit:



©2011 helen sotiriadis

the trouble with tribbles

from the original series:



and more tribbles, more troubles, from the animated series:



yesterday, a student of mine asked me, what's a tribble...
i don't know how long these videos will be up, so enjoy'em while you can.

star trek convention nyc 1973

with isaac asimov, d.c. fontana, leonard nimoy and fans discussing the meaning of star trek.



via io9

spiral-tuality liv

M63, or the sunflower galaxy:


click image to source

JR's TED prize wish: use art to turn the world inside out

can i?



more info: insideoutproject

the prince's fears

proceeds from CD sales are donated in the fight against AIDS

tim minchin: thank you god

it's extremely clear



via pharyngula

m.c. lego

images inspired by m.c. escher, made of legos!


click image for more!
more fun at richard wiseman's blog.

the great debate: what is life?

oh, joy... enthralling, fast-paced, funny -- please listen to this discussion at TSN:



'richard dawkins, j. craig venter, nobel laureates sidney altman and leland hartwell, chris mckay, paul davies, lawrence krauss, and the science network’s roger bingham discuss the origins of life, the possibility of finding life elsewhere, and the latest development in synthetic biology.'

this discussion combines cutting-edge thinking with humor, science, star trek -- you name it, it's got it.

thank you, RDFRS!

dancing with shackles on

on vimeo



via danwei