a tale of two hemispheres

at apod:

tunç tezel and stéphane guisard (TWAN)
click image to source

spock is not impressed with my photos

join me on google+!

from just for fun

website | blog | facebook | google+ | twitter

©2011 helen sotiriadis

which would you choose?

which is the best image for the cover of rolling stone?

a. b. c.

ricky gervais picked a.
rolling stone picked c.
although i like a. the best, he did something similar on easter, and i dislike repetition. so i'd go with b.

via the friendly atheist

the 2011 richard dawkins award goes to christopher hitchens

yesss!


'this year, richard dawkins himself will present AAA’s richard dawkins award to christopher hitchens, who may accept in person or in absentia as his schedule permits.

christopher hitchens is one of the most prolific modern writers and exponents of atheism; he has appeared on every major news and political television show offering opinions on political and social issues.  he has contributed to vanity fair, the nation, slate, the new york times book review, and atlantic monthly, among many other publications.  his books include hitch 22: a memoir, god is not great: how religion poisons everything, and the missionary position: mother teresa in theory and practice.

hitchens was born in portsmouth, england and educated at the leys school in cambridge and balliol college, oxford. he holds an honors degree in philosophy, politics and economics. hitchens emigrated to the united states in 1981 and became an american citizen in 2007.  in june 2010, hitchens was diagnosed with esophageal cancer.

nick lee, president of atheist alliance of america said, “the atheist alliance of america is proud to recognize mr. hitchens for his prominent role in the public debate over the impact of religion in modern society.”'

rapture

by timescapes

the federation will not be televised

viral video of the day



via trek movie

brian cox -- science: a challenge to tv orthodoxy

this should be required viewing.



thank you, scott glancy.

spock is not impressed

finally, a meme i can love...

resistance and austerity in europe

and its parallels in the united states. richard wolff on the real news.

50 renowned academics speaking about god

speakers in order of appearance:

1. lawrence krauss, world-renowned physicist
2. robert coleman richardson, nobel laureate in physics
3. richard feynman, world-renowned physicist, nobel laureate in physics
4. simon blackburn, cambridge professor of philosophy
5. colin blakemore, world-renowned oxford professor of neuroscience
6. steven pinker, world-renowned harvard professor of psychology
7. alan guth, world-renowned mit professor of physics
8. noam chomsky, world-renowned mit professor of linguistics
9. nicolaas bloembergen, nobel laureate in physics
10. peter atkins, world-renowned oxford professor of chemistry
11. oliver sacks, world-renowned neurologist, columbia university
12. lord martin rees, astronomer royal
13. sir john gurdon, pioneering developmental biologist, cambridge
14. sir bertrand russell, world-renowned philosopher, nobel laureate
15. stephen hawking, world-renowned cambridge theoretical physicist
16. riccardo giacconi, nobel laureate in physics
17. ned block, nyu professor of philosophy
18. gerard 't hooft, nobel laureate in physics
19. marcus du sautoy, oxford professor of mathematics
20. james watson, co-discoverer of dna, nobel laureate
21. colin mcginn, professor of philosophy, miami university
22. sir patrick bateson, cambridge professor of ethology
23. sir david attenborough, world-renowned broadcaster and naturalist
24. martinus veltman, nobel laureate in physics
25. pascal boyer, professor of anthropology
26. partha dasgupta, cambridge professor of economics
27. ac grayling, birkbeck professor of philosophy
28. ivar giaever, nobel laureate in physics
29. john searle, berkeley professor of philosophy
30. brian cox, particle physicist (large hadron collider, cern)
31. herbert kroemer, nobel laureate in physics
32. rebecca goldstein, professor of philosophy
33. michael tooley, professor of philosophy, colorado
34. sir harold kroto, nobel laureate in chemistry
35. leonard susskind, stanford professor of theoretical physics
36. quentin skinner, professor of history (cambridge)
37. theodor w. hänsch, nobel laureate in physics
38. mark balaguer, csu professor of philosophy
39. richard ernst, nobel laureate in chemistry
40. alan macfarlane, cambridge professor of anthropology
41. professor neil degrasse tyson, princeton research scientist
42. douglas osheroff, nobel laureate in physics
43. hubert dreyfus, berkeley professor of philosophy
44. lord colin renfrew, world-renowned archaeologist, cambridge
45. carl sagan, world-renowned astronomer
46. peter singer, world-renowned bioethicist, princeton
47. rudolph marcus, nobel laureate in chemistry
48. robert foley, cambridge professor of human evolution
49. daniel dennett, tufts professor of philosophy
50. steven weinberg, nobel laureate in physics

via open culture

sam harris on christian terrorism and islamophobia

from his blog:

'the emergence of “christian” terrorism in europe does absolutely nothing to diminish or simplify the problem of islam—its repression of women, its hostility toward free speech, and its all-too-facile and frequent resort to threats and violence. islam remains the most retrograde and ill-behaved religion on earth. and the final irony of breivik’s despicable life is that he has made that truth even more difficult to speak about.'

the entire piece here.

don't mess with mother nature

on marriage and driving licenses

lawrence krauss says:

'religion is a powerful force, and it has held sway against nature in many cases for millennia. but whenever religious dogma tries to overcome the facts of nature, be it the age of the universe, the existence of a big bang, evolution as the source of biological diversity, or the inner workings of human biology, knowledge and reason will slowly whittle down resistance, and reason will win out. religious fundamentalism, as powerful a force as it often appears, is unsustainable in a world driven by science and technology.

ultimately, the fundamental lesson of science is quite simple: the universe is the way it is, whether we like it or not. our job as humans is to figure out how it works so that we can tailor our philosophy and our actions as biological entities sharing a planet with the rest of nature, to maximally benefit from our knowledge.'

the entire piece here.

the unreasonable beauty of mathematics

on scientific american:



'if you shut yourself in a room and devise some abstract mathematics for the sake of sheer intellectual fascination, you might not expect your scribblings to have any relevance to the real world. your parents would probably bug you about what you were doing with your life. and yet time and again, scientists find that the creations of pure thought match what they discover in nature. does it mean the world at its deepest levels is somehow mathematical? does it simply mean that scientists are good at cherry-picking the conceptual tools they need? mathematicians, physicists, philosophers and others debate that question, as astrophysicist mario livio describes in the august issue of scientific american. whatever the answer may be, we can still marvel at the beauty of mathematical structures.'

slideshow

via the RDFRS

H+

when humanity goes +ffline

how much would you pay for the universe?

neil degrasse tyson speaks....

the milky way over abandoned kilns

on apod:


click image to source
photographer: tom mcewan

B

or not a B?

athens by twilight

like it? click it!
view in the dark

mr.G and i drove over to lycabettus hill to get a view of the sunset over athens. this view is due south, overlooking the main part of the city, towards the sea.

©2011 helen sotiriadis

what's the largest radio telescope in space?

pop quiz!
answer below...




RadioAstron (or Spektr R) is a russian orbital radio telescope, and currently the largest space telescope in orbit. it is funded by the russian astro space center, and was launched into earth orbit on 18 july 2011.

thanks, cleo.

rough outline for theist/atheist discussions

well, they don't all go like this, but many are permutations on these themes, and most include some of these elements. and, of course, there are some shining exceptions to the rule.

at blonde nonbeliever:


click through to read the outline.

via the friendly atheist

contact: opening sequence

a friend on facebook just shared this -- i loved seeing it again.

atlantic re-enters the atmosphere

as seen from the ISS.
from NASA.


click to view large at source

space shuttle: the complete missions

30 years' worth

steven sharp nelson: the cello song

with 8 cellos.
love the cloning... check out the bow throw at 2:30!

stand your ground

directed and produced by hannah white, edited by stuart york



has this happened to you? it's happened to me, in athens, several times.

- security personnel trying to stop me from taking a picture of an office building [i was standing in the street -- not even the pavement]. they tried to intimidate me, but i didn't stop shooting.
- police just ordering me to stop.
- even one guy who was miffed because i was shooting some flowers in front of his house (not even from of his garden or fence).

people get paranoid around cameras.
i found this floating around google+

free information is a threat to religion

books, at jesus&mo


click image to read at source

approaching the nest... some afterthoughts

approaching the nest, the national stadium, beijing, china.
(edit:  this was, literally, the first time i approached this structure.)

i started shooting in 2007.

i spent 17 months in beijing, and i needed to document what i saw in this amazing city. i knew next to nothing about photography and the only tools i had were a canon eos 350D with a sigma 18-200mm lens.

my friend, jonathan shock, mentioned something about something called HDR and some stumbling around the internet rewarded me with a few how-tos. this process was almost miraculous! i knew next to nothing about photography, but i could still produce (what seemed to me at the time) striking images. most of my shots from china are processed as HDRs with photomatix.

i look at them now, and i'm not really impressed -- but i suppose most photographers cringe when they look at their early work...? i've saved all the RAW files, so i sometimes think that when i'm old and decrepit, i'll sit down and reprocess them (as i've done with a few already when i had no inspiration to shoot).

another interesting thing is that my lens wasn't really wide enough to capture most of the architecture as i liked, so i had to take several exposures and stitch them into one image with autostitch (i didn't know how to use PS for that). doing that with the intent of processing them with photomatix meant that i had to take a lot of shots to produce just one image. if i remember correctly, this example required 15 shots -- 5x3, which often resulted in this curvy, fisheye-type projection. i know people do that on purpose and produce amazing images -- for me, it was necessity.

i see a lot of wrong in this shot -- the stitching isn't really the greatest, so i've got some double lines. i knew next to nothing about layers, which would've helped get rid of the ghosted images and the intense halo around the stadium. still, when i look at it, i like the overall look, so it's become one of my favorites, warts and all.

cross-posted on google+

reflecting on the life of carl sagan

carl sagan archives, part 3 -- 1hr 13 mins

shy away

like it? click it!
view in the dark

yesterday evening, two of my students brought me flowers during the break. just 'cause.
so i shot a macro!
thanks, girls.

©2011 helen sotiriadis

obvious to you

amazing to others

america could've had the moon

instead it got afghanistan.


click image to source

via pharyngula

that's greece

a positive view, by the british hellenic chamber of commerce.



thanks, julia.

calamities of nature: the mind of an artist

exactly.


please click to read at source

the purple hour

like it? click it!
view in the dark

are you on google+? let me know and i'll add you to my circles!

 ©2011 helen sotiriadis

dave turley: do you believe in god

have you noticed that i haven't posted an image in a few days?

i joined google+ a few days ago (and i'm loving it). somehow i've connected with lots of photographers, and i've been browsing through their work, commenting back and forth and hanging out in... the hangouts!

viewing others' work -- and if you have the opportunity, talking to them -- is an important part of learning how to do what you want to do, so this is very valuable to me, especially at a time when i want to find new directions.

here's one by dave turley, used with permission (thanks, dave!):


click image through to his website

good vibrations

cymbal



guitar strings

anthony ayiomamitis: selene rising at sounion

i had to teach 'till late, so i couldn't chase the full moonrise today... but not to worry, anthony ayiomamitis, genius photographer, was on duty!
feast your eyes, my friends:


click image to source

this is the full moon rising beyond poseidon's temple at my beloved sounion.

can't get enough? here's more!

belief in evolution vs national wealth

at calamities of nature:


click to view large at source

the final countdown

the heart of the matter, covered by john oliver at the daily show.
special guest star, tom hanks.

The Daily Show - Final Countdown
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

go ahead... outsource your hopes and dreams.
then sit back and wait to see what happens.

the world map of useless stereotypes

some images i just link to on FB or G+ -- some i need to have on my blog.

at abstract sunday, NYT:


click to view original size

via flowing data

the genius of photography

episode 1, in four parts

rise of the planet of the apes international trailer

when i saw the original planet of the apes in the late 60s i was a kid, and its impact lingers... but the sequels were decreasingly excellent*

this trailer looks promising, although i doubt they'll be able to pull off emotion of the kind evoked by the final plot twist of the original movie.



*phrase credit: douglas adams

rebecca mackinnon: let's take back the internet

the expanding struggle for freedom and control in cyberspace

michael shermer on colbert

discussing the believing brain

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

via the radula

voyager: humanity's farthest journey

transcript from the video description:

'from NASA JPL marking the passage of the twin voyager spacecraft beyond our solar system. we knew we were on a journey of discovery when we launched the voyager spacecraft, but we had no idea how much there was to discover. 


we had a sense that we knew what it felt like to be magellan or columbus. 


time after time we were surprised by seeing things that we had not expected or even imagined. from volcanoes erupting from the moon io to the possibility of a liquid water ocean under the icy crust of europa. titan, where we found an atmosphere. uranus' small moon miranda, which had one of the most complex geologic surfaces we'd seen. even at neptune, triton, 40 degrees above absolute zero, even there there were geysers erupting. 


it's the only spacecraft that's gone by uranus. it's the only spacecraft that's gone by neptune. everything we know about those planets we know from voyager. 


to see those first pictures coming in from the outer solar system, for the first time what had been a point of light in the sky was a place. 


i really credit the people that designed the mission, both the engineers and the mission planners and scientists because not only did they build an extremely robust, durable spacecraft, but they had the vision to send it on a path such that it could get out into interstellar space and carry a gold record. 


and here was this noah's ark of human culture that was being sent to the outer planets and then beyond to wander in the interstellar darkness for a billion years. on valentine's day 1990 voyager 1 looked homeward. and what did it find? not the frame-filling apollo earth, but, instead, that one-pixel earth. that's here. that's home. 


the voyager spacecraft are in the outer layer of the heliosphere, the giant bubble the sun creates around itself with its supersonic wind. voyager today is headed for the edge of interstellar space. that's the space between stars, and it's filled with material that has been injected by the explosion of stars,matter which came from a particular direction, creating a wind,which has shaped the bubble in which the solar system is surrounded. 


voyager really has changed our view of the solar system. this will be a milestone in space exploration: leaving the solar system,leaving the bubble and entering interstellar space for the first time.'

trek in the park

this made me smile from ear to ear... i'd love to see the whole thing. this is the first five minutes of mirror, mirror, performed in portland's woodlawn park.



via trek movie

pink, green

click it!
view in the dark

©2011 helen sotiriadis

greece a dress rehearsal for the united states

i have long tried to provide links to posts on the financial crisis worldwide, most especially on my facebook page. i tend to concentrate more on the two countries with which i'm most familiar -- greece and the u.s.

the similarities in trends between these two countries is striking. many american friends echo 'same here' when i discuss the conditions in greece.

make no mistake -- we are trending towards private ownership of common resources... including the state. and that is the heart of fascism.

greece a dress rehearsal for the united states on real news

steven pinker: language as a window into human nature

this is just as much about the gatherings in syntagma square in athens as it is about elevatorgate.



via ophelia benson.

i think i remember you

like it? click it!
view in the dark

this is a slightly shifted view of the shipwreck i posted a few days ago, shot earlier in the evening. this is a 25-sec exposure to smooth the water. i liked the idea of muted tones.

btw, i was very excited to finally have shot some star trails -- i'd attempted before but they were either too short or a complete fail. after i posted, i got many messages asking me about how i did it, so i decided to write up how i did it in a blog post. check it out and tell me what you think -- and be sure to read the comments, as i've asked for feedback, ideas and more tips.

©2011 helen sotiriadis

star trek as shuttle bookends

star trek expresses the heart of humanity's common drive to explore space.  it was there before the shuttle, it'll be there long after the shuttle.

i keep reading about the death of the space age -- no way.  we can't rest... we're explorers, and no government bureaucrats can keep us down.

visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

many thanks to trek movie for the video.

happy star trails

click it!
i had many requests to explain the technical side of my starship picture, and i decided that, instead of responding individually, i'd write up a DIY. now, i'm no photo expert, and this is just how i did it.  if you have a better idea or information you'd like to contribute, or if you think i've made a mistake somewhere, please let me know.  i'm not here to teach -- i'm here to learn!

this method does not take one huge long exposure -- it uses a bunch of 30-second exposures which are subsequently stacked to form a final composite image.

this post assumes you know how to change camera settings (or have your manual to read up on how).  it also assumes you know basic photoshop skills and perhaps something about layers and layer masks.

so, on with the show...


gear

• a camera capable of shooting with manual settings. i used a Canon EOS 40D.
• a wide-angle lens, to taste. i used a Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM.
• a tripod, beanbag or other object capable of keeping a camera motionless for long periods of time. i lurve my manfrotto.
• a remote release that locks in the shoot position. i'm not fond of wireless... i use a Canon Remote Switch RS-80N3.

conditions

• a very, very dark sky, preferably on a moonless night.
• something interesting in the environment -- a building, a landmark -- to frame the sky.
• creature comforts, a blanket, flashlight, ipod, snacks, drinks, company (i had ever-patient and supportive mr.G), bug spray or warm clothing, depending on the season.

before the shoot

• get there before dark and find a good location.
• get comfortable.
• set up your gear -- mount your camera on your tripod, hook up your cable release, compose and focus your shot.  
• when composing, find a way to make the sky look interesting. imagine what your trails will look like. if you're facing north, you'll most probably get a shot of the north star and cocentric circles. southern skies have broad arcs.
• focus manually just a breath before infinity. try to find a distant point of light or use the horizon, and focus on that. hint: i find it helpful to focus with live view at a magnification of 10X.
• without worrying about camera settings (you can set to auto) take a few test shots to decide on the best composition.

shooting settings

maximize light and minimize time between shots..

• set your camera to JPG -- avoid RAW. normally, i shoot in RAW but i don't want the camera to spend a lot of time saving a large file between shots.
• turn off  your in-camera noise correction.
• use as fast a memory card as you have.
• turn off image preview. you won't need to be chimping between shots anyway.
• your camera should be on manual. 
•  you need a large aperture to get as much starlight in your image as possible -- i opened at my widest value of f/3.5.
• dial up your ISO to increase sensitivity, but not too much. this depends on your camera. to avoid noise, i set my camera to 400 -- beyond that, it's way too noisy for my taste.
• set your shutter speed to 30 seconds.
• white balance set to daylight (this, courtesy of anthony ayiomamitis' comment).
• set your drive mode to continuous shooting.
• if your camera strap has an eyepiece cover, place it on your viewfinder.
• if your lens has image stabilization, turn it off.

wait... until... it gets dark...


shooting

• as soon as you think it's dark enough, press and lock your cable release. your camera will start continuously shooting 30-second exposures. for how long? as long as you have patience for, as long as your battery lasts, as long as you have room in your memory card.
• stay away from your tripod. i moved it slightly midway, causing a shift in the arcs.
• relax and enjoy your surroundings. when you've had enough (i lasted 1hr-50mins) unlock your cable release.

extra shots

• before or after the shoot, take an extra-long exposure (on bulb) of your composition to use as an extra layer for the surroundings in photoshop.
• if there's no hope of getting any detail from your surroundings that way, you have two options: either do a long exposure shot with your flashlight to light it up a bit or decide that any objects will just have to be dark silhouettes.  in my case, the top part of the ship was lit slightly from some buildings over a hill behind me. i was lucky.
• pack everything up, check that you're not leaving something behind with the flashlight.

image stacking and post processing

• copy all your shots onto your computer. put the full sequence of shots into one folder, except for the extra-long exposures for your environment.
• download this star trails photoshop action.
• start photoshop and load the star trails file onto your actions palette. i usually just drag-n-drop the ATN file onto photoshop which automatically loads it.
• create a new, black image with the same pixel dimensions as your JPGs.
• go to file > automate > batch.  select the source directory, none for output directory and hit OK. wait until the action processes all the images.  when it's finished, you'll have a flat image with your star trails!
• layer on your extra-long exposure and use a layer mask to hide the sky so that the star trails will show up from the layer below.  flatten the image.
• go ahead with any other post-processing you might like, to taste.

and you're done... wooohoooo!

if you do experiment with this, i'd love to see it... add a link below on the comments.

happy startrails to you!

©2011 helen sotiriadis

ithaca

c.p. cavafy. read by sean connery. music by vangelis.

women atheist activists

paula kirby, bobbie kirkhart, anne marie waters, tanya smith
from the world atheist convention in dublin in june 2011



via why evolution is true

complements

like it? click it!
view in the dark

loved the freshness of this place.

©2011 helen sotiriadis

johann hari on free speech and religious fundamentalism

i'm not familiar with johann hari's general work -- i still have to read up on the issues to which he refers at the beginning of this video.

however...

having seen only this, i'm proud to embed hari's impassioned speech, from the inaugural independent voices 5x15 event from the independent, on my blog. if you have the time, please view it.

gytheio reflects

like it? click it!
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a loooooong exposure (119 secs) of gytheio from the churchyard across the bay (on flickr's map).
at this focal length, the new moon looks like an artifact -- but it's there!

©2011 helen sotiriadis

the story of us

children of africa, by melody sheep, the tenth instalment of the symphony of science



this features jacob bronowski, alice roberts, carolyn porco, jane goodall, robert sapolsky, neil degrasse tyson and david attenborough.

starship

like it? click it!
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the shipwreck, aghios dimitrios, in gytheion, greece, continues its travels through the universe.

i've written up a DYI on how to shoot star trails -- check it out here!

oh, btw, i'm 49 today!

website | blog | facebook | twitter

©2011 helen sotiriadis

stephen fry on star trek and ancient greece

and other stuff too.



via trek movie

sea breeze

like it? click it!
view in the dark

chillin' out at gytheio, greece.

©2011 helen sotiriadis

atheists are fed up

by gregory paul on the washington post:

snip

'... make no mistake: nontheists are not meekly asking for full acceptance and citizenship any more than blacks did after the world war ii, or gays did after stonewall. we are telling you observant christians, jews, muslims, et al., to be as respectful to us atheists as you are to other believers. do the right thing! after all, remember what thomas jefferson said in 1787: “question with boldness even the existence of god.”'

/snip

victor stenger: why science and religion are incompatible

parts 1 and 2.

the finale:

'the reason for much of the mistrust of science is the fundamental incompatibility of science and religion and the religious know that. at least evangelicals are honest about it. they recognize science as the enemy. liberal and moderate believers, on the other hand, are fooling themselves if they think that can be both religious and scientific without being schizophrenic.'

ask sam harris anything #1

sam answers questions posted on reddit.com