Maths in Nature
Excellent demo of how numbers play out in nature. Click the image below to watch.
Nature by Numbers from Emanuel Stanciu on Vimeo.
Nod & Wink
Jaco at his absolute best
Five years earlier, he was on top of the world. Jaco Pastorius with Weather Report.
Jaco 'interview'
Jaco Pastorius, one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century, in a rare and bizarre 'interview'. There are around 8 parts to this that you can pick up on youtube. This video used to sell under the counter in some music shops for around $100.
Copyrights in space
Astronomer Carl Sagan wanted The Beatles song Here Comes the Sun to be included on the Voyager Golden Record, copies of which were attached to both spacecraft of the Voyager program to provide any entity that recovered them a representative sample of human civilization. Although the Beatles favoured the idea, EMI refused to release the rights and when the probes were launched in 1977 the song was not included.
I guess aliens will have to use a file-sharing app, just like everyone else.
Inner Space
We are made of atoms and atoms are mostly empty space. If you took out all the space and condensed the actual matter that makes the atoms that make all 6 billion humans on the planet, it would be the size of a sugar cube.
Image shows a helium atom representation, an ångström is 1/10,000,000 of a millimetre.
Make a Carl Sagan Pie
If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.
Carl Sagan
The Beatles music available online
No one is quite sure what is going on, EMI are suing, so if you want to get hold of The Beatles music for 25¢ per song, now is your chance.
Update: Did you blink? It's gone.
Meme 2009
This is just too funny for words. David has been to the dentist...
Is this real life?
Miles Away
Funny what you find on the web these days, that's me pretending to play guitar in a field.
Concreting Suburbia
As councils become more aggressive with parking restrictions and fines, residents of many of the outer boroughs are opting to install a driveway and erect a parking space in their front gardens. This is supported by law, so councils have no choice but to allow homeowners to do this. The council also provides the required modification of the pavement.
The net result of this breaks down as follows:
- A garden is now a car park
- The pavement is wonky
- The bit of road in front of the drive-way is now in effect reserved and cannot be used by any one else for parking
The results are easy to see in satellite imagery – London is becoming grey. Trees and gardens are being uprooted to make space for cars. The parked car now needs to cross the pavement several times a day - a dangerous manoeuvre. Not only does this look ugly, it's bad for safety, bad for the environment and costs us all a fortune.
The Solution
The solution looks simple, but requires a change of the law at the national level. Just skip steps 1 & 2! The council should simply allocate the same bit of road that the driveway would have required to the homeowner. No need to ruin gardens, trees and pavements – all you need is some yellow paint.
The net result is as follows:
- The garden is still a garden
- The pavement is straight and safe
- The bit of road in front of the drive-way is now in effect reserved and cannot be used by any one else for parking
The Lyre Bird sings a sad song
David Attenborough's incredible footage of the lyre bird imitating the sound of chain saws destroying its own habitat.
The Ascent of Man
A milestone in TV science documentaries from 1973 – the Ascent of Man provided the inspiration for Sagan's Cosmos. A must watch. Let's just hope Bill Gates doesn't buy this one...