tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83245969178415659752024-03-13T11:30:53.644+11:00The Periodic Table of ElephantsBook reviews, science talk, science-fiction chat and general geekinessBrendonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02955089150368490396noreply@blogger.comBlogger112125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324596917841565975.post-66776156176275696972015-07-11T12:42:00.002+10:002015-07-11T12:42:59.724+10:00I Love Laika<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Let's hear it for Laika, the first animal in space, chosen from a pack of candidates because she was compliant and photogenic. A few days before launch one of the engineers took her home to play with his kids because he knew it would be her one last chance for joy.</span><br style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><br style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">On the tarmac her launch was delayed for 3 days after being sealed in the capsule. She had enough food and the scientists pumped warm air in there through a hose to stop her freezing overnight.</span><br style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><br style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Her heart rate was monitored and jumped four-fold during launch. She died from heat exhaustion about 5 hours after launch.</span>Brendonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02955089150368490396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324596917841565975.post-6774802356684300732015-02-04T17:12:00.000+11:002015-02-04T17:12:06.289+11:00Book Review: "Alan Turing: The Enigma" This book has been on my radar for years now. I found it after one of those tipping points where you finally hit the nth reference to a person or idea and you find your ignorance about it embarrassing. By the way I find that these instances only increase with the more you act upon them. Ignorance really is bliss. Anyway, along comes the film starring Sherlock himself and I found myself highly entertained by the story and wanting to know more. So it was time to tackle this volume and I come to tackle the audiobook.<div>
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I feel that I should also say that I did enjoy the movie. As far as movies go it was entertaining and also a bit educational. But I guess going into this book I expected a bit more continuity. Cumberbatch's Turing is <i>not</i> Hodge's biography Turing.</div>
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Hodge's biography offers a traditional chronological look at Turing's life, from a short section on his lineage to his cremation on the last page. But there is a lot more in here than what you would bargain for. Turing's work and the work leading up to is is explained in great detail. Using the term 'in depth' may be a gross under exaggeration. There is also a large section focused upon the laws concerning 'perversion' a at the time, which Turing was convicted for. If you were to remove the sections concerning math, engineering and law you'll find a book that weighs only a small percentage of the original. </div>
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I guess what I am trying to say is that this book is not for the layman. I can only imagine that there will be a lot of copies of this book abandoned on planes, trains and bookshelves because a fan of the movie picked this book up wanting to know more, just like I did. The large sections on mathematical logic I did follow the gist of somewhat, helped along by my greater understanding of maths than the average person. Large sections of this book would only be completely understandable by people with degrees in mathematics. I chose more mathematics subjects in my science degree than the norm, so I have some sense of what is going on in these passages. I pity anyone trying to make it through without some knowledge of this type of maths. If you are a person who hates 'info-dumps' you are going to loathe this book.</div>
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But on the positive side, this was the right book at the right time for the right person. I have often found that there is no better way to learn about a person than to find the highest rated biography of that person on Goodreads that is at least 500 pages long. I have been stung with too many shorter biographies that leave me unsatisfied and finding out more information on the person's Wikipedia page. I wanted to know more about Turing and my god I found out a whole lot more.</div>
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Of course it's not all about volume. Both the writer and narrator kept me entertained for just over 30 hours. The writer was sympathetic to his subject and yet portrayed his great failings also. I really do feel that I met a person who I can call a hero (I hate that word and I am sure that there is a far greater compliment). Turing had great determination, a high regard for the truth in his work and personal life, and a scientific approach to everything he undertook. He may be known as being a mathematician, but he was an even greater scientist who straddled fields in a time when fields were clearly defined. He often found that there was no perfect audience for his papers and that some fields would only appreciate some aspects, while other parts would not be understood at all. He was converging the sciences with mathematics.</div>
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So despite all the negatives that I noted earlier, for me not only a book to be treasured, but an introduction to a man that is greatly misunderstood and hugely under-appreciated. I want a portrait of him up on my wall alongside my Darwin portrait. I am going to get my hands on some of his writing and try to get my head around more of the maths.</div>
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Brendonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02955089150368490396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324596917841565975.post-40176770739713007842014-12-27T12:37:00.003+11:002014-12-27T12:48:27.962+11:00Top Ten Reads of 2014Here are the ten best reads I experienced in 2014. They are in no particular order, nor were they all published in 2014 (but most were). These are just the ten best that I read this year.<br />
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The list is very personal, so expect a lot of Science and Science Fiction.<br />
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Lewis Dartnell achieves the near impossible by writing an instruction manual for rebooting civilisation. Sure there may be an awful lot of chemistry and science, but that is what civilisation is founded upon. Learn the best way to preserve food, make shelter and make everyday goods. A great read for scientists, science enthusiasts and doomsday preppers.<br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/820466673?book_show_action=false">See full review on Goodreads.</a><br />
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<a href="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1380218782l/18490637.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="18490637" border="0" height="200" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1380218782l/18490637.jpg" width="133" /></a>Jo Walton's charming and moving "My Real Children" will make great reading for both SF enthusiasts and even general readers. Much the same premise as the movie "Sliding Doors" we follow one woman through two alternate twentieth centuries as her life unfolds. Full of lovely characters and intriguing situations. Oh and it is wrapped up with great finesse.<br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/938528591?book_show_action=false">See my full review on Goodreads.</a><br />
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Jesse Bering, a homosexual evolutionary psychologist, pens yet another funny, insightful and thought provoking look at human sexuality. While his previous works have been great, this volume is more cohesive and presents a much stronger moral and scientific message than the others. Definitly not a book for gran, but one that deserves to be widely read.<br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1122953970?book_show_action=false">See my review on Goodreads.</a><br />
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<a href="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1410170894l/20729580.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="20729580" border="0" height="198" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1410170894l/20729580.jpg" width="200" /></a>Theo Gray is back "The Elements"-style with "Molecules". Another wonderful coffee-table science book that is pure nerd-porn in so many ways. Separate, the text or the illustrations or the luscious photography would be enough for a winning book. Together they make something wondrous. Buy it for a Professor or a 10 year old. Both will love it equally.<br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/910448421?book_show_action=false">See my review on Goodreads.</a><br />
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Colonel Chris Hadfield surprised us all with his autobiography this year. Not only did we get to learn more about the magnificent man, but Chris laid out advice from a successful career in space administration. And the advice is very general and applicable to most of your pursuits. I went in with a certain expectation and came out the other end humbled, motivated and endeared. Great inspiration for scientists, engineers or mathematicians.<br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/854233282?book_show_action=false">See my review on Goodreads.</a><br />
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<a href="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1415428227l/20518872.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="20518872" border="0" height="200" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1415428227l/20518872.jpg" width="133" /></a>Finally translated from it's original Chinese, English readers experienced Liu Cixin's "The Three-Body Problem" for the first time this year. This SF story tells of a first contact scenario unlike any other and is genuinely haunting and nightmare-worthy to anyone in the sciences. A fascinating read and I cannot wait for the following volumes in this trilogy to be published. A must read for SF fans.<br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1084229569?book_show_action=false">See my review on Goodreads.</a><br />
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Judith Schalansky has published "Atlas of Remote Islands" in English. Each double page is a map of a remote island followed by an interesting story about it's history or geography. Most of these islands are unable to be visited by us mere mortals and this volume may be the only way to reach them. A definite buy for map enthusiasts, armchair travellers and geo-nerds.<br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/937816821?book_show_action=false">See my review on Goodreads.</a><br />
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Ben Aaronovitch's Peter Grant series has been out for a while now and while I was a great fan of his Doctor Who writing I was reluctant to try his 'urban fantasy' as I tend to despise this genre. I did eventually get around to trying it and I am sorry that I left it for so long. While the series is not ground-breaking nor likely to win any literature awards the stories are fascinating and the characters are well-drawn. And mostly they are just damn good fun. Recommended for SF and Fantasy fans even if they are fussy and discerning.<br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1036589862?book_show_action=false">See my review on Goodreads.</a><br />
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Paul Bogard's, "The End of Night" is the author's lament to the dwindling night sky. Light pollution is taking over our skies and our lives. Paul takes us on a geographical journey from the brightest to the darkest night-times while along the way looking at how we deal with night culturally and biologically. A definite call-to-arms for those few of us that bother to look up.<br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/908007548?book_show_action=false">See my review on Goodreads.</a><br />
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Randall Munroe has published a collection of witty answers to seemingly impossible questions in "What If?" Famous from his webcomic xkcd.com, Randall brings hardcore science, yet light-hearted and funny answers to problems such as what if the sun would suddenly cease to shine and from what height you would need to drop a steak to cook it with its kinetic energy. Brilliant reading for nerds from 8 to 80 years old.<br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1061264321?book_show_action=false">See my review on Goodreads.</a><br />
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This list was difficult to decide upon and I feel I need to give honourable mentions to Andy Weir's "The Martian", "Moon Dust" by Andrew Smith and "Discovering Scarfolk" by Richard Littler.<br />
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Looking forward to new discoveries in 2015.Brendonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02955089150368490396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324596917841565975.post-20853603583012262692014-12-06T16:11:00.000+11:002014-12-06T16:11:33.828+11:00Book Review: 'The City on the Edge of Forever' by Harlan Ellison<a href="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1412096071l/23241668.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="23241668" border="0" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1412096071l/23241668.jpg" /></a>How do you create a new cut of a near 50 year old episode of Star Trek? In comic form of course.<br />
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I do not know the reason why the original author did not get the episode that he had written, nor have I seen the episode as I'm slowly working my way through Season 1 of The Original Series at the moment. So I guess that I am an unusual audience in that I am a Star Trek fan, who has been working his way backwards in the chronology and so I come across this new version of an old story before watching it myself.<br />
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And what a story! It is a brilliant read, with plenty of great Spock and Kirk moments and a very mature story for the series. It tackles some big issues without being cheesy or flippant. And the artwork is divine and very accurate. I guess the illustrator had the episode to choose stills from, but even then the likenesses in 95% of the cells are uncanny.<br />
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It's a pretty fantastic comic and a great way to while away a lazy Saturday afternoon. Maybe I'll be surprised by the differences when I finally get around to watching the episode.<br />
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Brendonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02955089150368490396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324596917841565975.post-25881855536388459672014-11-18T16:50:00.000+11:002014-11-18T16:50:04.894+11:00Book Review: "The Three-Body Problem" by Liu Cixin<a href="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1415428227l/20518872.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="20518872" border="0" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1415428227l/20518872.jpg" /></a>Originally published in it's native Chinese in 2008, The Three-Body Problem has now been translated for English speakers to read and enjoy. It is the first volume in a hugely successful SF trilogy that has proved to be a popular seller in China.<br />
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No matter what our opinions are on the government of China, we all know that they have a history of controlling the media. It was not so long ago that I was reading articles on how even SF stories may not be published if they contain certain themes or SF tropes that the government does not approve of such as time travel. Yet here we have a novel that Tor are willing to bring to an international English audience. So is it a matter of government restrictions being exaggerated or is it proof that art defies restrictions?<br />
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While I can think about these questions I do hit a brick wall after a short while. I'm no geography or political buff. I have no ideas on these matters. But I do know quite a bit about SF and I know a little more about science and I feel that these are the most import factors when reading The Three-Body Problem. Sure it would have been great to know what the hell was going on in those early chapters during the 'cultural revolution', but I guess I was lucky to follow the story when it delved a bit into quantum mechanics and orbital mechanics. And while a reader without this knowledge would not have a problem following the story at all and could easily skim those sections, they definitely were rewarding and offered a greater depth to the story. And I'm sure that someone with a knowledge of modern Chinese history would have felt the same.<br />
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Three-Body is essentially the story of two scientists, Ye Wenjie, an engineer working in a top-secret military base during the 1970's, and Wang Miao, a nanotechnologist in current day China. While events in current day China unfold for Wang, the story of Ye is told in alternate sections. The nature of the top-secret base is uncovered during the intricate story and don't worry, it's not a bad X-Files ripoff at all.<br />
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But I did find Wang's story much more interesting and frightening. It explores the idea of the failure of science. What happens if over time scientific endeavors consistently defy any conjectures or postulates, refuse to comply with any previously known laws and just keep on giving random and seemingly supernatural outcomes? It may sound a bit trivial here, but the more you think about it, the more frightening it is. And the author explores this and truly did convey the horror to me as the reader. The events of this book had me tense and on-edge at several points.<br />
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There really are some fascinating ideas pursued in this book and it is a thoroughly entertaining and thought provoking read in the style of SF greats such as Kim Stanley Robinson and Asomiv. The style of interchanging stories with historical aspects, as well as some of the style did remind me of Murakami, but I have no idea if this is being literature racist as this is the only other Asian book I have read other than those by Murakami. It also had echoes of Neal Stephenson in that it was an intricate and baroque plot full of subterfuges and technical writing. But maybe I'm just projecting two of my favourite authors onto another book that I enjoyed.<br />
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So here is one reader that is converted to the forthcoming volumes and possibly converted to reading more international SF. Both Stanislaw Lem and the Strugatsky brothers failed to take my interest, but Liu Cixin has managed to produce something that I really did enjoy and also made me think big thoughts.<br />
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<b>Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing for an ebook in the exchange for an honest review.</b><br />
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<br />Brendonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02955089150368490396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324596917841565975.post-79972706612736159922014-11-07T16:51:00.000+11:002014-11-07T16:51:09.063+11:00Book Review: 'Doctor Who: Lights Out' by Holly BlackThe 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who was widely celebrated last year and the Beeb teamed up with Penguin to release 11 short stories celebrating 11 Doctors. A year later and a Doctor later they have teamed up again to provide a new short story featuring the Twelfth Doctor.<div>
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So for completist sake, natural curiosity, hope and love for my Doctor I approached this new volume with some trepidation. How good could a writer capture the new Doctor when we have only just seen him unfold on-screen? And how would they go writing for one of the most complicated Doctors that we have met? There certainly no longer remains the facade of an upstanding moral fighter. There is a lot more ambiguity in the Doctors motivations these days.</div>
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Surprisingly 'Lights Out' is firmly set within the series with the Doctor travelling to a famous coffee-specialising planet in search for a couple of cups for himself and Clara after the events in Deep Breath. The Doctor soon finds himself a suspect in a hideous murder and meets a being called '78351' who was also witness to the murder. 78351 becomes his companion for the duration of the story.</div>
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While the plot itself is by no means new or original, Holly does manage to bring in some aspects of the Twelfth Doctor and more than just the physical eyebrows joke. The Doctor does seem morally ambiguous and does let events take a different course to what another Doctor may have done. He does seem nonplussed at the deaths themselves. There certainly is the Twelfth Doctor within these pages.</div>
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So while this is a light and unsurprising read, the surprise is in how the Twelfth Doctor comes across on paper - much like he does onscreen thankfully. While I have not had a chance to read the three full-sized novels recently released featuring the Twelfth Doctor, I can say to anyone looking for some Twelve in print that you have come to the right place.</div>
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Brendonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02955089150368490396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324596917841565975.post-85882717776458910232014-10-27T12:44:00.002+11:002014-10-27T12:44:33.392+11:00Book Review: 'Molecules: The Elements and the Architecture of Everything' by Theodore Gray<a href="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1410170894l/20729580.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="20729580" border="0" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1410170894l/20729580.jpg" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Moving on from his wonderful books on DIY chemistry experiments (</span><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6398447.Theo_Gray_s_Mad_Science__Experiments_You_Can_Do_At_Home___But_Probably_Shouldn_t" style="background-color: white; color: #666600; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" title="Theo Gray's Mad Science: Experiments You Can Do At Home - But Probably Shouldn't by Theodore Gray">Theo Gray's Mad Science: Experiments You Can Do At Home - But Probably Shouldn't</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">) and his glossy, beautiful and somewhat erotic (well us chemists get our kicks where we can) </span><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6678064.The_Elements__A_Visual_Exploration_of_Every_Known_Atom_in_the_Universe" style="background-color: white; color: #666600; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" title="The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe by Theodore Gray">The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">, Theo takes us a step up in complexity and deals with the realm of molecules in his latest glossy coffee table book to end all coffee table books.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Sure there is less structural narrative here than in 'The Elements' because we lack the periodic table, but the themes selected by Theo are great and do tie together somewhat. What you find are sections on soaps, sweeteners, dyes, aromatic compounds and a variety of others. Each section is contains the beautiful photography of Nick Mann as well as lots of structures and weird facts. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Another aspect that I love about Theo's books are that I am not bored reading them and despite my wide reading and years of education and educating in chemistry there are still a variety of weird facts that I come across in his books. Admittedly I was a little bored in the first couple of chapters of 'Molecules' because it did lay down the foundations of what molecules are and how the atoms bond. But it is always great to read how another greatly intelligent person explains these basics to a non-educated audience. It is part of my job to do this for fresh faced university undergraduates. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Yes I am possibly a bit biased being both a chemist and a big fan of Theodore's previous books but 'Molecules' kept me fascinated for hours and it is a book that I will revisit quite often. It may not be quite as catchy and as structured as 'The Elements', but close to perfection is still a commendable achievement.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span>Brendonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02955089150368490396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324596917841565975.post-45511299573310419472014-10-21T15:16:00.003+11:002014-10-21T15:17:27.183+11:00Book Review: 'Ebola: The Natural and Human History of a Deadly Virus' by David QuammenFor the last few months now our news cycles have always had a little snippet of Ebola news hidden somewhere between the wedding of George Clooney and a dog that got stuck up a tree. The only visuals are dusty hut, a dirty warehouse that is supposed to be a hospital and some people with paper face masks. And while it seems like a big story, you know that it is being downplayed because it is in Africa, still the dark continent in the 21st century. Yet the story has been there for months. Enough for some alarm bells to ring, hey this might be serious. But oh wait, Miley Cyrus just did something.<br />
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Usually by this time I'd be Googling Ebola, or buying a New Scientist with a special set of articles on the subject, but I haven't. But luckily I had a quick browse on NetGalley and came across this book. So I approached this volume hoping that all my curiosities would be quelled; what is Ebola exactly? How is it transmitted? What effects does it have on the body? Where does it hide in it's downtime?</div>
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Were my questions answered? Not exactly. But through no fault of the author's at all.</div>
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I had <i>no</i> idea how little we know about Ebola. </div>
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David starts his new book acknowledging that it is a rehash of a section from his previous book from 2012 'Spillover' that looks at zoonoses or an infection that is transmissible from animal to human. The majority of this book is not new material and is taken heavily from the aforementioned volume, but it has some small sections updated until early September 2014 regarding the new outbreaks. And while cynics will see this as a cash in on a new range of deaths I saw this as being far from it as it was an informative piece of writing that answered all the questions that it could regarding Ebola and introduced me to a writer who I had never read before and will probably go on to read in the near future.</div>
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The small book takes us through a short history of Ebola outbreaks ever since the first recorded outbreaks in the 1970s. It is also interspersed with a first hand account from David when he traveled through one region that had previously had outbreaks with a biological survey. So not only was the overview of the history of outbreaks fascinating, but it had personal stories from the people affected inbetween.</div>
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But the most astonishing aspect of the disease is how little is known about it for various reasons. When you have a virus that stays dormant for years in a non-human host, and then sudden outbreaks happen in the most remote places of Africa, where there are minimal survivors, and those that are infected die very quickly you have a very hard virus to study. Not only that but it is one of the most deadly viruses known and studies done with samples in laboratories require large amounts of risk minimisation and therefore large amounts of funding. So while a known set of symptoms are present the exact mechanism of how the virus interacts with the body still requires a great deal of work. It is known to devastate the patients immune system and also cause uneven clotting in the cardiovascular system so that clots appear in some areas while other bleed uncontrollably from the slightest rupture say of a needle.</div>
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David presents a short volume that is engrossing, horrific and truthful. I have come away with a much greater understanding of the complexities of the situation in these west-African countries and how their political and belief systems are exacerbating the situation. However I also know that the rest of the world could be putting in a greater effort and not dismissing it as yet another plight of the African or having undue panic and believing that it is a sign of the oncoming apocalypse. </div>
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Thank you to Netgalley and Random House UK for a copy of this book to review.</div>
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Brendonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02955089150368490396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324596917841565975.post-48701853285754848322014-10-19T21:30:00.002+11:002014-10-19T21:36:13.176+11:00Podcasts: The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth ReynoldsI came to know the name of Dave Anthony through Wil Anderson's FOFOP podcast which I am a great fan of. Dave was one of the most prevalent guests on the podcast and I enjoyed his humour and interaction with Wil.<br />
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But Dave has his own newish podcast that is just something that you have to hear to believe. It's hard to put some great adjectives to, but it really does appeal to me in so many ways.So the format is that Dave investigates a story, event or person from American history and presents it as a story to the audience and Gareth. Gareth is totally out of the loop to what the story is. OK sounds a bit dull? Sounds like Civil War reenactments right?<br />
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Well it does all come down to the stories that Dave picks. These are not your average events or people. To use the term 'quirky' is just so inadequate. And they are also helped by their fine sense of humour. Basically these are some of the most WTF stories you will come across.<br />
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<a href="http://assets.libsyn.com/content/7591575" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" class="postImage" src="http://assets.libsyn.com/content/7591575" /></a>I'll use a couple of examples, but I have to be really mindful about spoilers. I knew about one of these obscure people that had an episode dedicated to his shenanigans. I came across his story briefly while reading a chemistry book. Davis Hahn was a special boy who was really into science, kind of like I was. But I didn't have the sheer willpower of David's nor did I have access to weapons grade plutonium.<br />
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I listened to an episode yesterday that dealt with John C Lilly, a neuroscientist during the fifties and sixties who pioneered work with dolphin intelligence. Unfortunately it all came to a head during his experiment with a woman and a male dolphin living together for 40 days.<br />
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There are cults, rainbow wigs, vampires, navy mishaps, french orphansand so many others,<br />
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The Dollop is my favourite podcast because it exemplifies the old saying that truth is always stranger than fiction. You just could not make this shit up. And not only is it informative, it's hilarious.<br />
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I urge you all so much to download an episode. Start with the David Hahn episode.<br />
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You can get The Dollop at <a href="http://thedollop.libsyn.com/">libsyn.com</a> or via <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/dollop-dave-anthony-gareth/id643055307?mt=2" target="_blank">iTunes</a>Brendonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02955089150368490396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324596917841565975.post-46854579659358835022014-10-19T20:59:00.002+11:002014-10-19T21:00:56.424+11:00Book Review: 'The Chrysalids' by John Wyndham<a href="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1303902615l/11228582.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="11228582" border="0" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1303902615l/11228582.jpg" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">It is certainly easy to classify John Wyndham's </span><em style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">The Chrysalids</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">as old school YA fiction, from before YA fiction needed a label, but it offers more than your average after school special between covers in that it treats the reader as an intelligent and reasonable person, and that while there is a touch of the 50s to the book, it was certainly way ahead of its time.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">David Strorm is the only living son of a patriarch of an ultra-religious post-apocalyptic community. Faced a level of mutation in the their farming stock, both plants and animals, the community has twisted the christian faith into a fundamentalist view that any variation is a sin against god and must be burnt. This is handled by the community and by appointed inspectors. A few plants that don't quite grow to perfection and a whole crop is burnt to the ground. While this may have helped a little curb the proliferation of any mutagens that may be harmful to humans, it has certainly held back any natural selection processes. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Unfortunately the rules do not end at the farm. Any human born not in god's image is not certified by the inspectors and is taken, hushed up and forgotten. There is also an unspoken rule that a female who produces offspring three times that do not get certified is taken away and quite possibly treated like the livestock that also do not produce. It is a frightening and terror filled community, one that brings back memories of Atwood's </span><em style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">A Handmaid's Tale</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">So everyone in this community has a stamp of approval that they fit the image of god in all their looks. But what happens if there is a variation that an inspector cannot see? David learns from an early age that he can communicate with a small group of others telepathically. This small group of children band together in their fear and strategise to hide their differences in fear for their lives. But all is changed when people notice their strange behaviour when one of their kind is hurt and they come to their rescue with no seemingly way of knowing that the person was injured.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">At a guess I have probably read </span><em style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">The Chrysalids</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"> about a dozen times. Mostly in my teens as I worked my way through whatever John Wyndhams I could find in my local and school libraries after discovering </span><em style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">The Day of the Triffids</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">. So any John Wyndham is a comfort read for me. A mix of good sturdy SF with nostalgia. Truthfully this book probably deserves a 4 star rating, but it means a lot to me. It was the Wyndham that made me that much more confident as a teen who did not fit in. It introduced me to religious fundamentalism. And it also made it OK to be a daydreamer. I think all the John Wyndhams that I read as a teen have made me a better person in the long run. I certainly wouldn't be the same person had I not read and loved them.</span>Brendonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02955089150368490396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324596917841565975.post-58818783191263878692014-10-11T21:38:00.001+11:002014-10-11T21:38:35.012+11:00Book Review: 'The Martian' by Andy Weir<a href="http://scriptshadow.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/themartian.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://scriptshadow.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/themartian.jpg" style="-webkit-user-select: none;" width="263" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">So I'm completely too late for the <i>'The Martian'</i> bandwagon. It seems everyone has already read it with a smattering of really likes to the 'meh' verdicts. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">What decided it for me was that one 'meh' from one of my friends on Goodreads said "Too much chemistry".</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><i>What?!</i></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Being the huge chemistry nerd that I am it was a calling sign that I was probably going to enjoy it.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">And boy was it fun.</span><br />
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<em style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">The Martian</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"> tells the story of Mark Watney, abandoned for dead by his martian crew mates after an emergency when all his life signs showed he was dead. While they rushed back to Earth, Mark wakes up in his very damaged suit to find himself alone on Mars with no hope of survival and no way to communicate with Earth. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">And so </span><em style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">The Martian</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"> is a suspenseful tale of survival. Watney is a trained botanist and mechanical engineer and he certainly uses his skills to the most. While the character is sarcastic, snarky and a bit immature, on the other hand he is humorous and entertaining. I often thought <i>"Is this what a NASA astronaut would say? Is this how they would act?"</i> And the answer is probably no. NASA astronauts tend to be calm yet charming people. If this is true through selection processes or as a result of running through simulations of terror for years and years we can only guess. But Mark Watney is far removed from Chris Hadfield. And while I may have found the story of an astronaut like Chris Hadfield fascinating, it may not have been a commercial SF success. Mark Watney is the perfect fusion of entertaining protagonist with smart and resourceful astronaut. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">And while the story is full of suspense, it is by no means unpredictable. A quote on the cover does liken it to the recent film <i>'Gravity' </i>which is a fair call.<i> 'Gravity'</i> was a fun, suspenseful and predictable romp just like this novel. But I'd argue that this book is much more scientifically accurate and has much more heart. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">So despite these concerns, <i>'The Martian'</i> kept me turning those pages in complete fascination. I was perched on the edge of my chair. I was cheering at Mark's victories, and concerned at with the disasters. And the science was wonderful. Top marks to Andy Weir especially if he isn't a qualified engineer or scientist. It passed my chemistry scrutiny with flying colours.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">So I'd recommend this SF to lovers of science and SF. Some may say there is too much science, but others like me will bask in it.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span>Brendonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02955089150368490396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324596917841565975.post-55686529799212329352014-10-06T18:20:00.003+11:002014-10-06T18:23:20.438+11:00Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don't: Doctor Who 'Kill The Moon'<img src="http://static.bbc.co.uk/programmeimages/608xn/images/p027ryx8.jpg" style="-webkit-user-select: none;" /><br />
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The Doctor has certainly come a long way. From the Fourth Doctor's dilemma in Davros' bunker; does he, the Time Lords or anyone have the right to decide upon genocide for the greater good? To the Tenth Doctor in <i>Water of Mars </i>having an egotistical view that since he is the last Time Lord he has the right and privilege to rewrite time. Both of the actions taken had their consequences, especially those of the Tenth Doctor.<br />
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<i>"I don't want to go."</i><br />
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<b>Damned if you do.</b><br />
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This weeks episode, <i>Kill the Moon</i>, sees the Twelfth Doctor in a similar dilemma. The moon has gained mass (handy for the BBC budget) and is causing widespread destruction on Earth due to increased tidal activity. NASA, in it's death throes, sends one last mission to the moon that has a cargo of nuclear weapons in the aim to blow up the moon and reduce it's mass.<br />
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Meanwhile the Doctor is in trouble from Clara for telling Disruptive Influence, hang on I'll Google her name, Courney, that she is not special. Courtney being a teenager is upset, as a teenager might be, but Clara is angry at the Doctor for telling the girl this. Why? Protection. I have no idea. So right from the outset the Doctor is in strife for pointing out the truth.<br />
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The Doctor attempts to make Courtney special by making her the first female on the moon and lands on the surface in 2049. There they intercept the NASA mission and the Doctor learns the truth of what is happening to the moon. The moon is an egg and it is about to hatch. What does this mean for the Earth? Well possible destruction from the shell fragments, which the Doctor points out may not be harmful at all and any mass that does approach the Earth will burn up on entry.<br />
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Here the Doctor does something that he hasn't done very often at all. He gives the power of the decision whether to destroy the moon and the lifeform and the knowledge that Earth is definitely safe or whether to risk the unknown to the three human females present; Clara, Courtney and the astronaut. He even leaves in his TARDIS abandoning them to their decision. And while Clara umms and ahhs over the decision getting angrier and angrier at the Doctor, the astronauts sets the timer for the nuclear arsenal making her argument clear, while Courtney is on the side of letting the lifeform hatch. It's obvious what side Clara picks, and the Earth is all OK due to the egg disintegrating and the life form laying a new egg is it's place.<br />
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This is definitely a bold a new move from the Doctor. And I am sure his motivations of letting the humans take control of their own future also has a large part of letting Clara mature and make the right decision. And she does eventually. But this results in her being angry at the Doctor because she felt abandoned and in charge. Something that she has never felt with the Doctor before.<br />
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The final scene consists of Clara yelling at the Doctor to get out of her life and that she never wants to see him again. It is reminiscent of when the Doctor was helping Ace mature in season 25 and 26. And the thing is that the Doctor is astounded. He stands back with a look of lack of understanding and astonishment. He is quiet. </div>
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Last week's <i>Caretaker </i>revealed that the Doctor was stand offish towards Danny not only for him being a soldier, but also for his care of Clara and wanting whoever Clara loved to be good enough for her. This week we see the Doctor trying to make Clara grow up a bit more and make the tough decisions. But she failed. And he failed. And Clara has left the TARDIS in a huff and a bit of a childish tantrum.</div>
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Many have said that the Twelfth Doctor is too alien, rude and not likeable. I think he is the most human. Unlike his predecessors it seems like Twelve is striving for more than a play-date. </div>
<br />Brendonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02955089150368490396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324596917841565975.post-66902076451555352412014-10-05T17:13:00.000+11:002014-10-05T17:27:19.466+11:00So, Long Time No SeeThis weekend my partner and I had a lovely trip down to Canberra to see one of our favourite comedians (more hers than mine), Bill Bailey. We do love our comedy and we do try to make an effort when an international act that we love decides to visit our far away and mysterious country. One decision that we sometimes have to make, if the artist is doing a multitude of cities, is where to see them. Or do we want to drive 80 km north to Sydney, deal with the traffic, pay a heap for parking, have the smell of urine constantly surrounding us, stay in a $300/night hotel and stumble back in teh morning OR do we want to go 200 km down to Canberra, a leisurely 2.5 hour drive with wonderful scenery and stay in a nice hotel for $200 right next to the venue and visit the great bookshops and yummy restaurants around the city and maybe take in a sight or two.<br />
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We often see people in Canberra.<br />
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People often know Bill Bailey from his most famous role as Manny in Black Books, but others may also know him as a regular guest on QI. He is a sometimes surreal comedian (but not on the level of Noel Fielding), sometimes political and always has his instruments with him. Yes he is a musical comedian and while I agree this often means a shit comedian, Bill is the only one I like. <br />
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Bill was great last night and I had a lot of fun. But he did cover versions at the end of his set, 'Poker Face' by Lady Gaga and 'Wrecking Ball' (maybe) by Miley Cyrus. I'm sure they were great, but I don't know these songs. I don't listen to top 40 type of music, not just because I'm getting old, but I have never liked it. And I really don't want to come across as a snob, because Bill asked us if we knew Dancing With the Stars (he was asked to go on it) and the audience booed and he called us snobs. I find it amazing that there is any overlap between Bill Bailey fans and Miley Cyrus fans. But I guess people just hear this stuff on their radios. But he did a cover of ABBAs 'Waterloo' as Rammstein. It was great.</div>
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While we were down there we visited one of our favourite second-hand bookstores, 'Canty's'. Canty's is in a weird industrial section of Canberra know for porn and fireworks. Look, both are really fun in moderation, but books are our thing. Some may say Canty's is a bit expensive, but they do have a great range of books and most of the expensive books are great quality. So new paperbacks that have been read once and look nearly new tend to go for $9.50. When you can buy the same thing online new for $13 or so it does make it a tough decision. But still greatly cheaper than the $24 or so that you would pay in chain bookstores in shopping centres (if you are even lucky to have one of those around). So I mainluy like to go for possible out of print finds or they have a great selection of remainders that are pretty cheap compared to other remainder places.</div>
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I picked up Theo Gray's 'Mad Science 2' in hardcover for $13. <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/676431455?book_show_action=false" target="_blank">I got a e-copy to review last year and loved it</a> and I have been meaning to get a softcover copy for a while. So this was a great find. I also found a hardcover of Dana Mackenzie's 'The Universe in Zero Words' which I have read some great reviews from Goodreads friends (<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/751848970?book_show_action=false&page=1" target="_blank">David's review of 'The Universe in Zero Words'</a>).</div>
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While in Canberra I also like to hit up <a href="http://www.thegamescapital.com.au/" target="_blank">The Games Capital</a> in the city and also <a href="http://impactcomics.com.au/cbr/" target="_blank">Impact Comics</a> which is a couple of shops down. I have a great games store in my city now, but before it came along I was limited to my visits to The Games Capital. They are friend;y and have a great range. The only downfall to this is their popularity. Sometimes they might not have the game you wanted in stock because they have just sold out. And I have also gotten great recommendations from the staff over the years.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YyVHvHNyHd4/VDDgQTZPsUI/AAAAAAAAAw0/O6IxH0ry0P4/s1600/Showcase_Presents_The_Great_Disaster_Featuring_the_Atomic_Knights_TPB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YyVHvHNyHd4/VDDgQTZPsUI/AAAAAAAAAw0/O6IxH0ry0P4/s1600/Showcase_Presents_The_Great_Disaster_Featuring_the_Atomic_Knights_TPB.jpg" /></a>Impact Comics is just a really good comic book store. Not too many surprises and just what you'd expect from one. Also not overpriced from what I have seen which can be common. I picked up another volume in the DC Showcase range called "The Great Disaster Featuring the Atomic Knights". These volumes are thick phone book like reprintings of comics from the 50s,60s and 70s that may not have stood the test of time, but damn are they entertaining in their pure schlock and badness. This volume revolves around stories set in a post-apocalyptic setting with Hercules thrown in and other shenanigans. I read the first couple of stories last night after Bill Bailey and boy were they hilariously and entertainingly bad.<br />
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So this morning I made my partner happy and we visited a couple of markets, one with mainly hand-made stuff in the same location as the Bill Bailey concert the night before and we also went out to The Old Bus Depot Markets which we have been to before, and that is mainly food and some dodgy art.<br />
The hand made market was fairly cool and big for that type of thing. There was plenty of naff earring and handmade jewelery but there was also some innovative stuff like funky dolls houses made from vintage suitcases and some nice wood worked stuff that didn't scream elderly retiree.<br />
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Overall a fun trip. We're doing it again in three week to see Brian Cox.Brendonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02955089150368490396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324596917841565975.post-21556468754568974772014-04-23T18:06:00.000+10:002014-04-23T18:06:11.854+10:00Someone's taking the PissIn the early morning of the 16th of April a teenager from Portland in the U.S. drunkenly peed into one of the city's drinking water reservoirs. The trouble is that he did it in front of a security camera and this footage has gone public. The city's solution: <b>drain and dump 145 million litres of drinkable water. </b><br />
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A spokesperson from the governing body stated that it was understood that there was no risk from the urine but it was decided to dump the water due to the public's "perceived difference"or as I like to call it "ignorance".<br />
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This action is unimaginably wasteful and pandering to the lowest common denominator. Take a look at this reservoir or indeed any reservoir. Dead animals, algae, rubbish, particulates. Are we really worried about that amount of pee?<br />
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Lets do some quick calculations.<br />
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Wikipedia states that most bladders hold between 500 - 1000 mL. Lets go for the worst possible scenario and say 1L of pee went in. So essentially the the pee is diluted 145 million times. Or if you take a glass of this water, you may drink 1.7 nanolitres of this guys piss. You probably drink a larger volume of your own pee after you go to the toilet, wash your hands and eat something from your hands. <br />
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<br />Brendonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02955089150368490396noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324596917841565975.post-50382026779555914432014-04-15T12:15:00.001+10:002014-04-15T12:15:27.004+10:00Theo Gray's Periodic Table of Elements Cards<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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For all of you not in the know Theo Gray is an element collector and author of several amazing works that I adore. He takes beautiful photos of the objects and he has published them in one of his earliest works <a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Elements-Theodore-Gray/9781579128142" target="_blank">'The Elements'</a>. After the success of this book he has since put out other books, a jigsaw puzzle, calenders and this deck of cards. </div>
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Like all of his work they are a combination of great visuals, great design and a smattering of great and accurate information. </div>
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Of course Theo didn't just design these as flip cards, but as decoration and playing around with. So this morning I found myself moving some furniture and constructing a periodic table with these cards. It left a this science nerd very happy.</div>
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<br />Brendonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02955089150368490396noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324596917841565975.post-35118779731604626352014-04-09T12:39:00.002+10:002014-04-09T12:39:42.111+10:00Straight Lines, Straight Lines and Straight Lines<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If you wanted to travel from point A to point B (there's ice-cream at point B) what route would you take? You're real hungry so you may choose the green route because the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Or you may be a daydreamer like me and choose the red route and see some cool clouds along the way. </div>
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That's all fine for the math textbook, but let's name points A and B. Say there is REALLY good ice-cream in Hawaii. So point A we designate to Sydney, Australia and Point B is Waikiki, Hawaii. </div>
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Straight line between the two points gets us there right?</div>
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Google, what are you doing? I put the red dotted line in myself. Are Google daydreamers like me? Maybe. But I certainly don't think that airlines are. Longer routes equal more fuel used equal less profits. Maybe there is something about Australian planes, or pilots. </div>
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Nope. It seems that everyone is flying on curved routes. What the hell is going on? </div>
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<b>We all live on a sphere.</b></div>
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Firstly, a straight line across the surface of a sphere is always curved. Put a string along the surface of a globe and you have a curved string. There's just no way to put a length of string across the surface of a globe and have it completely straight (let's not go into calculus people).</div>
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Secondly the maps that I am showing and the Google uses <i>are</i> flat. They do not show the real world, they show a projection, parts of the globe are distorted. Therefore straight lines will also be distorted and curved. </div>
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The trouble all happens when we take a straight line on along the surface of a sphere, a three-dimensional object, and try to draw it on a flat two-dimensional sheet. It just doesn't work properly.</div>
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One of the greatest examples of straight lines appearing curved is one that is constantly in our skies, the moon. Have you ever thought about the phases of the moon? We know that one part is light, and one part is dark and they intersect in a curved line apart from the half moon.</div>
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The line between light and dark (known as the terminator) is a straight line, well as straight as you can get on the surface of a sphere. But it is a straight line from the north to the south pole of the moon as the moon is always half-lit by the sun. We just see it as curved when we see it at an angle, we see differing amounts of the part in shadow throughout the month. But the line is always straight!</div>
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Taken to the extremes straight lines around a globe can look quite curved. Have you ever watched a movie with the NASA control centre in it, like 'Apollo 13'? They often have a large map up on the front wall with the orbital path plotted over a projection of the surface. It's always a wave isn't it? It appears to be very far from a straight line. But it is!</div>
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If we use the International Space Station for example, it has an orbit which when viewed in it's side is a straight line. It goes in a circle around the earth in a plane.</div>
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But project this onto a two-dimensional surface and you get a lovely sinusoidal wave. And because the Earth turns relative to the International Space Station, the next orbit is slightly offset and it passes over different territory.</div>
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So you can see that straight lines are not that straight sometimes, and even curved lines can be straight in three-dimensions. In a <a href="http://www.cntraveler.com/daily-traveler/2014/04/twenty-thousand-mile-great-circle-sail-maphead" target="_blank">recent blog article</a>, the wonderful Ken Jennings shows us another straight line across the globe.<br /><br />Did you know that you can sail from Pakistan to Kamchatka in a straight line? </div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oDcD9ut3400/U0SrKLBbflI/AAAAAAAAAuM/DwlRkiamp0k/s1600/cn_image.size.maphead-great-circle-sail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oDcD9ut3400/U0SrKLBbflI/AAAAAAAAAuM/DwlRkiamp0k/s1600/cn_image.size.maphead-great-circle-sail.jpg" height="320" width="640" /></a></div>
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Just like the orbits, it certainly doesn't look straight. And it is an awfully long way, it's definitely the scenic route. Don't believe me, check out the video animation.</div>
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So is the shortest route between two points a straight line? I hear you your brain groaning over that question now. But the answer is still yes. It's only no when we put a restriction on it. And what is the one restriction that has been put in place in all these above examples? That you travel on or above the surface of a sphere.<br /><br />Theoretically you could tunnel through the earth from one point to another in a straight line that is the shortest distance between these two points. </div>
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You don't need to pass through the centre of the earth unless you are going to the exact opposite side of the globe. And if you were you're likely to come out awfully wet. With 70.8% of the surface of the earth being water you are more than likely have to pack a pair of trunks. The lucky and dry centre-earth tunnelers live in Chile and Argentina, Malaysia, Philippines, China, Indonesia, Greenland, far north Canada and some of Antarctica. Oh and some of New Zealand corresponds with Spain.</div>
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So what route will you now choose?</div>
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Brendonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02955089150368490396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324596917841565975.post-54224849912663491942014-03-07T11:12:00.001+11:002014-03-07T11:12:37.804+11:00Book Review: 'You Are Not So Smart' by David McRaney<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This great work boils down to: "Despite millions of years of evolution your brain is a jumbled mess of neurons that covers up it's downfalls by lying to you constantly. Here are just 46 ways your brain is being an asshole."<br />
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Just like Dawkins argues against a creator in showing that evolutionary adaptations can be flawed and seemingly badly designed, David McRaney shows in this work that despite those claims that the human mind is one of the most complex structures in the known universe, it's shoddily put together, with bits that don't work together and bits that were added on at the last minute and that the only way it 'works' is that it constantly lies to itself about the reality it exists in. You have in your head a used car salesman.<br />
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David demonstrates the limitations of our brains by picking out these 46 different ways our brain lies to us and writing a small chapter on each. Each lie is well researched and refers to different published studies for evidence. For example the chapter on why you have too many Facebook friends talks about studies about the limitations of how many people you can hold in a social circle in the physical world and compares these figures to the data on Facebook. He also talks about the reason why you 'befriend' all those people using the internet.<br /><br />Most interesting are the chapters that highlight the limitations in vision and the comprehension of sensory input. You are not a little person in a box watching a ultra high definition surround sound movie of your existence. More like your homonculus watches a scratchy silent movie from 1908 with no sound and missing film cells, a friend tells them about the soundtrack over the phone.<br /><br />There are also great chapters on how you think you are better than everyone else out there. He actually gives statistics on how many people think they are better than average drivers and how many people think they have a better than average IQ. The figures will astound you.<br />
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I highly recommend this fun and enlightening read. It certainly will make you question everything you think and perceive, which is a practice that all science endorses strongly. This book is so much more than your average pop-psychology book that litters the popular science section of bookshops and libraries. It holds no punches and approaches the subject from a critical standpoint. Weeks after reading this book I'm still laughing at my brain when I know it's lying to me.<br />
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<br />Brendonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02955089150368490396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324596917841565975.post-57512176634769898982014-03-05T09:36:00.001+11:002014-03-05T09:36:54.676+11:00A Manual For CivilisationI am a great fan of <a href="http://longnow.org/about/" target="_blank">The Long Now Foundation</a>, a group of people that foster long term thinking and projects within the framework of 10,000 years. They believe it counterbalances the rise in short-term thinking and planning that has arisen in the 21st century, where people can only think ahead to the next iphone model or the next election.<br />
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A great quote by Daniel Hillis is given for part of the inspiration of the foundation:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20.880001068115234px; text-indent: -5.567999839782715px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>"When I was a child, people used to talk about what would happen by the year 02000. For the next thirty years they kept talking about what would happen by the year 02000, and now no one mentions a future date at all. The future has been shrinking by one year per year for my entire life. I think it is time for us to start a long-term project that gets people thinking past the mental barrier of an ever-shortening future. I would like to propose a large (think Stonehenge) mechanical clock, powered by seasonal temperature changes. It ticks once a year, bongs once a century, and the cuckoo comes out every millennium."</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.880001068115234px;">This clock is now being manufactured and situated in the Sierra Diablo Range west in western Texas with the prototype on display in the London Science Museum.</span></span></div>
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Another project undertaken by the Foundation consists of curating a library with the intention to hold volumes that would act as a manual for civilisation. While Long Now does not predict the downfall of all civilisation in the near future, they think it is a great premise for a collection of physical books to complement their new office and meeting space in San Francisco. They are aiming at a 3000 book limit with a breakdown of types of books given:<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YOV2YtfPQ0g/UxZR11zZFeI/AAAAAAAAAr4/o8JoHnNQ1l4/s1600/CategBreakdown1-14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YOV2YtfPQ0g/UxZR11zZFeI/AAAAAAAAAr4/o8JoHnNQ1l4/s1600/CategBreakdown1-14.jpg" height="304" width="640" /></a></div>
Image Source: The Long Now Foundation.<br />
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Mechanics and Civilisation includes technical books on how to build things and how to find and refine natural resources. In essence all of the technical know-how. Cultural Canon is a series of books believed to show the essence of human civilisation including Plato, Shakespeare and others. The Science Fiction component will consist of works of speculative merit where possible futures and big ideas are discussed. Futurism will consist of non-fiction speculations upon the future of the human race with an emphasis on our history.<br />
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The collecting has already started with suggestions being made by famous Long Now supporters such as Brian Eno, Neal Stephenson, Neil Gaiman, Hugh Howey, David Brin and Bruce Sterling.<br />
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Last month I read an advance copy of <a href="http://periodictableofelephants.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/book-review-knowledge-how-to-rebuild.html" target="_blank">Lewis Dartnell's "The Knowledge"</a> which aimed to be a technical manual on rebooting civilisation after collapse. I think this book would be a great addition to the Mechanics of Civilisation section.<br />
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<b>What books would you like to be added to such a collection?</b><br />
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<br />Brendonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02955089150368490396noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324596917841565975.post-90866783905066053052014-02-26T14:27:00.001+11:002014-02-26T18:00:17.451+11:00The Oldest Rocks on Earth<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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At 200 X 400 micrometres this zircon crystal extends the limits of our understanding of early Earth back to 4.4 billion years ago, a mere 100 million years after the Earth was formed and only 160 million years after the Solar System formed. This discovery pushes back the date for when Earth first had a solid crust and weakens the theory that at this time the Earth was hot and entirely molten. It seems the conditions were much milder much earlier than we thought. There are two methods of dating these minerals, via radioactive dating methods and using atom probe tomography. The research group who dated this sample used atom probe tomography, but I am going to talk about radioactive dating methods.<br />
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Zircon crystals are brilliant for radioactive dating because of two reasons. Firstly they're tough, they last a long time and can withstand an amount of tectonic pressures. Secondly, and most importantly, they form with radioactive uranium in their structures AND they do not form with lead in their structures. Why is this significant? Radioactive uranium degrades into lead. So we can say that any lead present in the crystal is due to the decay of the uranium and nothing else. Zircon crystals are special in another way. They form with two different radioactive isotopes of uranium which both degrade at their own independent rates into two differing isotopes of lead.<br />
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Radioactive decay happens with precise timing. We know how radioactive decay works and at what rate it happens at. It's an exponential decay that is as regular as clockwork. Whether this happens over billions of year, hours, minutes or microseconds, all radioactivity follows exponential decay that is given in a simple mathematical expression.<br />
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So essentially zircon crystals are like clocks that were set to zero when they solidify from molten rock. Actually more like two individual clocks in each crystal because of the two different radioactive decays. All we need to do is to look at the ratio of uranium to lead to tell what time it is, just like looking at the two hands of an analogue clock. And the beauty is that we have two clocks running simultaneously and confirming each other.<br />
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So you start off at time zero with 100% of the parent isotope. This degrades at an exponential rate to a daughter isotope. For example:<br />
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We can say how fast each radioactive decay occurs by a concept called 'half-life'. A half-life is defined as the time when half the amount of the parent isotope has decayed into the daughter isotope. So at time zero there is 100% parent isotope and at the half-life there is 50% parent isotope and 50% daughter isotope. And because this decay is exponential, at 2 times the length of the half-life the parent isotope is at 25% and the daughter at 75% and so on.<br />
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Each radioactive decay happens at its own rate. For example the half-life of uranium-235 is 704 million years, the half-life of uranium-238 is 4.5 billion years, while ruthenium-106 is 1 year, carbon-11 is 20 minutes and lithium-12 is 10 nanoseconds. So for the two uranium decays in zircon you can see that the decay from uranium-235 happens at a much faster rate than that of uranium-238.<br />
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Scientists trying to age a zircon crystal look at how much of uranium-238 versus lead-206 there is and how much uranium -235 versus lead-207.<br />
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You can use these ratios to back calculate ages of the crystal. Looking at uranium-238 there is nearly a 50-50 mix of parent to daughter isotopes, so therefore it is just under the age of its half-life of 4.5 billion years. With the uranium-235 you can see that most of it has decayed to lead-207 and there isn't much uranium left at all. It has gone through many half lives. In fact we can calculate it has gone through 6.25 half-lives and 6.25 multiplied by 704 million years is 4.4 billion years. So you can see how the correlation of the ages calculated of these isotopes are a powerful tool with both results pointing to 4.4 billion years or so.<br />
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The same method of looking at the ratio of parent to daughter isotopes is used for all radioactive dating. The other type of dating that you may have heard of is radiocarbon dating or carbon-14 dating. This method looks at the amount of carbon-14 in a sample which could be some bones of animals or humans or trees or other living things. Because all living things have a large amount of carbon in them, some of the carbon is naturally occurring carbon-14 (as opposed to the normal carbon-12). When a living thing dies it does not absorb any more carbon into its system and the carbon-14 that remains decays. So the amount of carbon-14 left in a biological sample tells us how long ago it died. The half-life of carbon-14 is 5,730 years and so if we find half the expected carbon-14 in a sample is must be around the age of 5,730 years. This method is limited to around 60,000 years or 10 or so half-lives. After this time there is only 0.1% of the parent isotope left and the error becomes too large to be reliably date a sample.<br />
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So you can see how radioactive decay is a useful tool to date objects. You cannot use every type of radioactive decay out there to age objects, it is limited to systems where you know the concentration of one isotope at time zero. But luckily there are several systems where this occurs and knowing this fact gives us a glimpse into the distant past.<br />
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Just for the hell of it here is a zircon crystal from my own collection. It's probably nowhere near as old as 4 billion years as it is large and was from a location in the Northern Territory that is not renowned for it's age.<br />
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<br />Brendonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02955089150368490396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324596917841565975.post-40006449213051088892014-02-26T10:25:00.001+11:002014-02-26T10:25:30.595+11:00Massive Solar Flare<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Photo from NASA / Solar Dynamics Observatory<br />
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These are a series of images taken of a massive solar flare that occurred on Monday the 24th of February. The images are of the same flare at the same moment but differ in that they are taken at different wavelengths. Kind of like if you took a photo of a butterfly at different wavelengths and one photo displayed all the red on the butterfly, another green, and so on. But these images are of light at smaller wavelengths than we can see, and at a much higher energy.<br />
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The wavelengths are given on the images in Angstroms or 10^-10 m, 100 million millionths of a metre. The light we normally see ranges from 3900-7000 Angstroms and these pictures are taken at wavelengths shorter than this. 1600 Angstroms is in the near UV spectrum, while 94 Angstroms is in the extreme UV. The actual colours shown in this photo are false and are just used to help visualise the images better.<br />
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While this is the largest recorded flare for this year, the scientists at the Solar Dynamics Observatory state that the effects were minimal here on Earth due to the location of the flare on the surface of the sun being directed away from us. No pretty aurora from this ejection.<br />
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Source: <a href="http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/" target="_blank">The Solar Dynamics Observatory Website</a>.Brendonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02955089150368490396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324596917841565975.post-65193163113677720432014-02-21T13:56:00.002+11:002014-02-21T14:00:31.034+11:00Ronald E. McNair: Physicist and Astronaut<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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George Takei just shared this wonderful video on Facebook. It tells a story told by Ronald E. McNair's brother about an incident that happened in their childhood. Ronald E, McNair later became a physicist and astronaut. He was selected for the astronaut program in 1978 and later flew on the <i>Challenger</i> mission STS-41-B in February 1984. He was later selected for the ill-fated <i>Challenger</i> mission STS-51-L of January 1986 in which all crew died 73 seconds after liftoff.<br />
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The video is made by a group called 'Storycorps'.<br />
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<br />Brendonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02955089150368490396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324596917841565975.post-57386572921078067362014-02-20T12:38:00.000+11:002014-03-11T13:14:01.699+11:00Watching a DemolitionSo it's not everyday you get to witness the demolition of a 200 metre tall smoke stack in your hometown. But today I had the privilege and it was quite a spectacle. Everyone who wasn't at work at the time and even those at work flocked to many sites, hilltops and the mountains to watch the stack come down. I watched it from a far off vantage point, up at a look-out on the mountain escarpment.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lrwPl5WPwM0/UwVWHycEcdI/AAAAAAAAAp4/dXhU_Xp8nFE/s1600/Port_Kembla_Copper_Stack.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lrwPl5WPwM0/UwVWHycEcdI/AAAAAAAAAp4/dXhU_Xp8nFE/s1600/Port_Kembla_Copper_Stack.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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The stack is what remains of a copper ore processing facility and was built in 1965 which was the height of industrial activity in Port Kembla, mostly dominated by a large steel plant. All throughout it's life the region has dealt with pollution concerns. In fact, in a brilliantly naive decision, the facility was built next to a public school. The solution once awareness was greater to install toxin monitors and alarms. The generation who saw it built and who had a hand in it's construction are still around. While most are proud of the great industrious work they did, it is hard to ignore the 40 year contribution of pollution in the region. As I was growing up in the 80's and 90's there were constantly news articles about pollution and acid rain in the region. The surrounding region would be covered by a film of fine metallic dust high in lead and other toxins. <br />
The plant finally closed in 2003 and the facility has remained dormant since. Application for demoltion was sought in 2010 and demolition was postponed until asbestos could be safely removed before demolition.<br />
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It was amazing that everyone was out to see the event. I heard that all the nearby beaches and coastline was full of onlookers. Even my vantage point, a small tucked away look-out, was full of other like-minded people. There were retirees, couples and families all out to see this great event.<br />
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The aspect that astounded me most is how long it took to fall. I could have sworn the initial explosion (noticed by sight) happened 4 or 5 seconds before a noticeable lean in the stack. It came down very slowly and only left a small dust plume. I was probably about 10 km away from the tower and the sounds of the explosions had a significant delay which was quite hilarious in it's own right. A little lesson in relativity.<br />
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There were several helicopters and planes filming the event and here is footage taken by Channel 7 Sydney:<br />
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<br />Brendonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02955089150368490396noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324596917841565975.post-64912380944731891732014-02-19T10:33:00.002+11:002014-02-19T10:33:44.381+11:00Braigo: The Braille Printer Made of LEGO<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">Shubham Banerjee, a 7th grade student from California has made a braille printer from a LEGO Mindstorms kit. If that is not enough, it is a great innovation in that other braille printers can cost $2000 for a basic version and a LEGO Mindstorms kit costs $350. In a world with a large portion of people with seeing impairment being from developing countries, this innovation may open the doors to educating vision-impaired people from those areas. Not only that but if these kits are donated, the communities may also benefit by providing children experience in programming and innovation. It wins on so many levels. While the development is only in the early stages, with only the english alphabet being programmed, Shubham is carrying on his great work expanding into programming numbers into the system. He has also made available to everyone his plans and programming in a gesture of great goodwill. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #404040; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #404040; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">It just goes to show how great LEGO and young minds mix. They can change the world.</span></span>Brendonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02955089150368490396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324596917841565975.post-36385363786278126782014-02-16T20:19:00.001+11:002014-02-16T20:19:10.664+11:00Book Review: 'An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth' by Colonel Chris Hadfield<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KQ7crYpDolw/UwB7NRa_rDI/AAAAAAAAApY/FdiMunBPK74/s1600/18170143.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KQ7crYpDolw/UwB7NRa_rDI/AAAAAAAAApY/FdiMunBPK74/s1600/18170143.jpg" height="400" width="260" /></a></div>
Most of us nerds got a good idea of who Chris Hadfield is from his youtube videos last year filmed on the International Space Station. For the last few years the Mars rovers have been the sexy at NASA with the demise of the shuttle, the hitchhiking on Russian craft, oh and that psycho cross-country drive diaper caper really doing a number on NASA astronaut public image. But then Chris Hadfield and mustache came along and fixed it all up again. After a gap of 20 or so years I find myself wanting to be an astronaut when I grow up again.<br /><br />So I approached this book with some delight, expecting some fun stories from his time in space; how they go to the toilet etc. Which is what you get, to some degree, but you get so much more. The same man who has enough passion to make those videos and promote space exploration so well in that medium can also write a hugely inspiring, humble and insightful work on his life, his philosophies and the universe.<br />
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Dotted between the stories of Chris' years working at NASA are wonderful insights into behavior such as how to take criticism, how to learn not to worry and plan instead, how to constructively think negatively, how to keep yourself inspired and set and achieve goals. And most importantly how not to be an asshole while doing it. These lessons meant more to me than other 'life lessons' that you see in the bookstores under self-help or inspiration. This advise made more practical sense than any quote I have seen attributed to the Dalai Lama or some such. But I don't think this type of inspiration is for everyone. I think it will be most applicable to the engineering/scientist type mindset, just like Chris himself.<br />
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So this book comes most highly recommended. I felt at times that I was right alongside Chris in parts of his journey and I listened intently to his wisdom on how to be a person with integrity, humility, determination and a sense of humour.<br />
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<br />Brendonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02955089150368490396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8324596917841565975.post-50355168235398429582014-02-11T10:00:00.001+11:002014-02-11T10:00:47.519+11:00Two fish are in a tank. One turns to the other and says "How do you drive this thing?". Like this.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Brendonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02955089150368490396noreply@blogger.com0