Dinosaurs!

We went to see Jurassic Park at the cinema last night. It's out on re-release for some reason, maybe because the film is now almost twenty years old - which is a scary thought - perspective like that really helps you appreciate just how old you are getting.

I must confess that Jurassic Park is probably my favourite movie of all time. Watching it again yesterday allowed me, for the first time, to properly appreciate the brilliance of it; rather than just going "OOOH DINOSAURS RAWR!", I was able to consider just how much creative effort must have gone into building the models and rendering the CGI of the monsters in the movie. I've seen films released in the past couple of years that have worse effects than Jurassic Park. Since this one, there have been a couple of sequels of declining quality - none of them come close to the visceral impact of the original.

The acting is brilliant too, especially from the two children, Lex and Tim - the way they portray fear and excitement is utterly and entirely believable, dragging you deeper into the world of the movie. Tim reminds me of myself at his age, actually: inquisitive, excitable, slightly awkward and goofy but eager to learn and explore.

But what makes me love this movie, and dinosaurs, so much?

Honestly, I have no idea.

I've always loved dinosaurs. They were a defining feature of my childhood, thanks partly to Jurassic Park, but also due to multiple trips to the highly impressive Natural History and Science Museums in London. The idea of a world filled with these giant monsters is utterly fascinating and bewitching.

When I say giant monsters, I mean it:

I do genuinely wish that some species had survived until today, imagine going on safari and seeing a Triceratops! Of course, they were pretty much all wiped out 65 million years ago, and the survivors eventually evolved into what we know today as birds.

Rawr!

More and more dinosaurs have been found in the past few years that exhibit evidence of having primitive feathers on their bodies, sometimes as a fluffy coat, others had them for dominance displays and gliding.

The Microraptor

Of course, everything that we know about dinosaurs has to be guessed at from fossil records or figured out by examining birds today, but that just makes them all the more intriguing and exotic. I think part of their charm is that we've had to build up our knowledge of them from scratch, and in doing so, they have become partly our own creations - ripe for use in all kinds of media, stories and childhood fantasy adventures.

The Third Sphere

Perhaps this blog has become a little too focused on art and science, I need to randomise it up a bit... but what other fields are there? Almost everything that interests me can either be broadly defined as art or science. Music, photography, sculpture and literature can be lumped together as the former, whereas astronomy, engineering, animals and nature, history and geography can be loosely associated with science, or at least, the study of those fields involves some degree of scientific approach.

Some things can be thrown onto the border between both definitions: architecture, cartography and even gadgets/electronics combine significant elements of each.

Perhaps only a few things fall outside of these two spheres.

One of these is religion and the spiritual world.

I guess you could say that science, art and spiritualism occupy the three most commonly referred to body parts; science is the brain, art is the heart, and religion has the soul. It's a neat way of looking at it, I think.

I am by nature a skeptic: I like proof and evidence.

This leads me, inexorably, to being an atheist.

I do not believe in a God, a Heaven or a Hell. There is no Devil. No sin. No spiritual afterlife.

There is a reason why no prayer has ever been answered; why there has never been any actual evidence of any kind of divine intervention; and why no miracles have ever been documented that could not be explained through scientific examination.

I personally feel that religion was invented as a way of explaining the world at a time when science was in it's infancy. It has done some good over the centuries, teaching morals and keeping records. Perhaps without organised religion, humanity would have remained barbaric and feudal, perhaps not. We'll never know.

However, the past good it may have done cannot justify the continued espousal of mystical conjecture and superstition as fact and truth. Religion was a crutch on which humanity could rely for so long, but now it is slowing us down. I respect your right to believe in whatever you choose, however I implore you to allow your children and those around you to choose for themselves as well. Indoctrination is dangerous and has no justification.

I am a supporter of the theory of evolution, and you only have to gaze into a chimp or gorilla's eyes in order to see that we came from the same place. I guess you could label my personal beliefs as Secular Humanism, which can be defined as follows:

Secular Humanism is a comprehensive life stance that focuses on the way human beings can lead happy and functional lives. Though it posits that human beings are capable of being ethical and moral without religion or God, it neither assumes humans to be inherently or innately good, nor presents humans as "above nature" or superior to it. Rather, the Humanist life stance emphasizes the unique responsibility facing humanity and the ethical consequences of human decisions. Fundamental to the concept of Secular Humanism is the strongly held viewpoint that ideology — be it religious or political — must be thoroughly examined by each individual and not simply accepted or rejected on faith. Along with this, an essential part of Secular Humanism is a continually adapting search for truth, primarily through science and philosophy.


I'm also a huge fan of Epicurus, a Greek Philosopher who lived between 341 and 270 BC. He taught that:

The purpose of philosophy was to attain the happy, tranquil life, characterized by ataraxia—peace and freedom from fear—and aponia—the absence of pain—and by living a self-sufficient life surrounded by friends. He taught that pleasure and pain are the measures of what is good and evil, that death is the end of the body and the soul and should therefore not be feared, that the gods do not reward or punish humans, that the universe is infinite and eternal, and that events in the world are ultimately based on the motions and interactions of atoms moving in empty space.

I don't feel that a rejection of religion must inevitably lead one to a path of spiritual emptiness. You have to learn to appreciate exactly what it is that makes each of us special - it is not because God put us here and gave us some instructions. It is due to a series of remarkable and beautiful events that gave birth to the Universe, our Galaxy, our planet and finally to all the fabulous life and wonders upon it, including us. Our time alive is but a fleeting moment in the history of the universe, and that is what makes it all the more special. To have this opportunity to explore, discover and invent, to love, laugh and cry, to gaze upon the stars and the majestic beauty of everything we know, is a precious gift, given to us by chance, and we should make the most of it.

You don't need to believe in an afterlife when you understand how truly fantastic this life can be, when you realise that the atoms and molecules making up your body, your eyes as you read this, have existed for billions of years, and were once part of a star, or a nebula, or another world, and will very likely be part of something else again, long after you have no need for them. The thing about that fact is that, well, it is a fact. It can be proven. To me, and I hope, to most, it is something far more beautiful and rewarding than any promised 'heaven', and it is tangible. It requires no belief, only knowledge, and that is part of its beauty.

Look.. I ended up talking about science again. D'oh!

Sometimes...

... you can think of nothing to post about and then a dozen brilliant topics turn up at once. I might make two or more posts today, to make up for recent slacking.

First of all, we were watching Scrapheap Challenge, a fantastic show in which teams battle it out to build the best contraption that must then defeat their opponents in a contest or two. The only resources at their disposal are what they can find in a scrapyard. I often feel I would really enjoy such an experience, despite having absolutely no practical skills whatsoever, and only a basic knowledge of things like engines, axles and so on.

In the episode I watched last night, they were attempting to build battleships, and one team decided to use Archimedes Screws to provide propulsion for their craft, which were powered by hydraulics.

This made me realise that I had completely forgotten the difference between hydraulic and pneumatic, and in case you have ever wondered what the difference may be, here it is.

Hydraulics in general refers to the applied science of managing the mechanical properties of liquids, based upon the theoretical foundation of fluid mechanics.

A hydraulic system is one that makes use of liquid fluid power to carry out work. This means that a hydraulic fluid (usually some form of petroleum oil with additives; edible oil or water is sometimes used in factories where food is produced) is pumped through tubes and hoses in order to provide force or torque multiplication. It is popular due to the ability to apply the force over a long distance, with no need of mechanical gears or levers.

It is a complicated technology with very simple principles: If you push on one end of something, the force will be applied at the other; by altering the pressure of the medium being pushed, it is possible to apply the force at a different rate. I shamelessly ripped the example below from Wikipedia, which, as I am sure you're aware, is where I have been getting most of the facts for my posts from.

Cylinder C1 is one inch in radius, and cylinder C2 is ten inches in radius. If the force exerted on C1 is 10 lbf, the force exerted by C2 is 1000 lbf because C2 is a hundred times larger in area (S = πr²) as C1. The downside to this is that you have to move C1 a hundred inches to move C2 one inch.
(lbf or 'pound-force' is a stupid unit, by the way, and is equal to exactly 4.4482216152605 Newtons)

The units and measurements of the components is unimportant from a theoretical perspective; the ratio is what matters here. At the other end of C2, you will need an actuator such as the brakes on your car. This is not one of those fancy engineering subjects that has very few real world applications: Hydraulic machinery is used in all kinds of situations, most notably on the linkages of heavy equipment such as excavators, diggers and earth movers.

You can see the darker hydraulic cylinders all over the arm that work as linear actuators here. Yes, I know, it's a big one.

Pneumatics, on the other hand, revolves around the use of pressurized gases in order to achieve a similar effect of mechanical motion to hydraulics, but with one or two differences. Pneumatic systems use any easily compressible gas such as air or pure gases like nitrogen or carbon dioxide.

Compared to hydraulic machines, pneumatic ones are simpler to design and control, and more reliable with a longer operating life, because the gases used are compressible whereas the liquids used in hydraulics are not, meaning excess force caused by a shock to the system can be absorbed by the gases, but not by the hydraulic liquids. Of course, this also means that energy is lost in the transfer of force, due to the compressed gas absorbing it. Hydraulics are capable of exerting far more force due to the incompressibility of the liquids at work.

So basically, there you have it: Hydraulics uses liquids and is slow and powerful, whereas pneumatics use gases and are quicker but weaker.

Pneumatics should not be confused with the pneumatic class of humans from Gnosticism. The pneumatic saw himself as escaping the doom of the material world via the secret knowledge, and outsiders could only know these secrets by joining a gnostic group. To be a gnostic is to believe in three planes of existence: the pure unknown (demiurge), the material world of coitus and comfort, and the pure spiritual realm of ascension or escape. Pneumatics were the highest class of humans, above psychics and hylics, the latter of which were the lowest and concerned only with the physical and material world... but that's another blog post.

The Lion Monument

Yet another sculpture I have randomly stumbled across that struck somewhere deep inside me. It's not often that a piece of stationary visual art really moves me; music and film do, plenty, but paintings and sculptures less so. However, I am pleased to be discovering more and more objects and pieces that enthrall and inspire me, and this is surely one of them.

This monument is located in a former sandstone quarry in Lucerne, Switzerland, and is dedicated "Helvetiorum Fidei ac Virtuti", or "To the loyalty and bravery of the Swiss". It portrays a dying lion protecting a shield which bears the fleur-de-lis coat of arms of the French Monarchy, and beside it is another shield bearing the coat of arms of Switzerland.

It was hewn in 1820-21 by Lukas Ahorn, having been designed by Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. It commemorates the hundreds of Swiss Guards who were massacred during the French Revolution of 1792. The Guards were a group of mercenaries that were attached to the French monarchy from the early 17th century, and they were guarding the Tuileries Palace in Paris when the building was overrun by revolutionaries. Outnumbered and low on ammunition, many were killed in the fighting, and more were murdered after their surrender. What was left died of their wounds in prison or were executed during the September Massacres later that year, bringing the total to around 760 men. About 100 escaped Tuileries and a 300-strong detachment survived by being in Normandy at the time.

Below the sculpture is engraved the names of the officers and the approximate number of soldiers who died (DCCLX = 760), and survived (CCCL = 350). The sculpture was initiated by Karl Pfyffer von Altishofen, an officer of the guards who was on leave in Lucerne at the time of the fighting.

It remains a sobering testament to, what I feel, is the entirely unnecessary loss of life in the course of following one's perceived duty, orders or ideals. Sometimes violence is necessary to achieve some form of greater good, but the wanton massacre of prisoners and the murder of those who have surrendered to you is utterly inexcusable.

To truly appreciate the work of the Lion Monument, simply cast your eyes over the Lion of the Confederacy, a sculpture in Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, Georgia.

The lion, which guards a field containing the remains of unknown Confederate and Union dead, was carved by T. M. Brady in 1894, and is a very near copy of (or at least, greatly inspired by) the Lion Monument from Lucerne. However, it has far less impact, despite being a monument to an equally tragic and powerful event. I feel that this is almost entirely due to the setting. The lion in Georgia is vulnerable and weak; it has been dragged out into the open to die alone in a field, surrounded by enemies and vultures. Compare it to the other Lion, which is at rest; although dying, he is safe and secure, having made his way to a favourite place in which to spend his final moments at peace. He may have been killed, but he is strong enough to die on his own terms, in the place that he chooses, knowing that he did his best. Perhaps Mark Twain summed it up better:

"The Lion lies in his lair in the perpendicular face of a low cliff — for he is carved from the living rock of the cliff. His size is colossal, his attitude is noble. His head is bowed, the broken spear is sticking in his shoulder, his protecting paw rests upon the lilies of France. Vines hang down the cliff and wave in the wind, and a clear stream trickles from above and empties into a pond at the base, and in the smooth surface of the pond the lion is mirrored, among the water-lilies.

Around about are green trees and grass. The place is a sheltered, reposeful woodland nook, remote from noise and stir and confusion — and all this is fitting, for lions do die in such places, and not on granite pedestals in public squares fenced with fancy iron railings. The Lion of Lucerne would be impressive anywhere, but nowhere so impressive as where he is."

Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad, 1880

Anger Management

If you're ever angry or annoyed, vexed, enraged or frustrated, simply look at a penguin.

Marvel at the absurdity of such a creature. Bask in the ridiculousness of those tiny legs, the big, flappy wings and the beady little eyes that betray a beautiful, almost child-like naivety. You cannot imagine a penguin ever being malicious or cruel. Cheeky and naughty maybe, but never mean.

Look at him, just chilling out. He doesn't have a care in the world, and neither should you. Life is far too short to waste it on worries, anger and uncertainty, so just chill out and roll with it. He gets it, and so does the next one.

He's so cool, so utterly unconcerned with anything. He'll just stand there all day, head cocked to one side in a pose that would take fashion models years to perfect. Isn't he beautiful?

This penguin will kick your ass without even moving. He's just that awesome. You wanna fight him? You wanna be angry and aggressive and waste your life being mad at things you can't control? Look into his eyes. He understands, and he empathizes with you; but he has no time for your silliness, he's too busy just being an awesome penguin.

Maps

In my previous post on peanut butter, I mentioned that I love old maps, but this isn't quite true.

I love all maps.

Cartography (from the Greek chartis = map and graphein = write) is a wonderful art, a method of viewing the world that combines both skill, passion, attention to detail and dedication. To relay information about reality in a format that is easy to understand, portable and accurate has long been a goal of explorers and civilizations all over the world, and maps are the ideal way of conveying such data.

Map of the world centered on America prepared by the American atlas publisher Joseph Hutchins Colton in 1852

I think the adoption of ships as the main form of transporting huge amounts of goods from the New World back to the central powers in Europe was probably the largest catalyst for cartographers. Maps and charts were vital in order to give the trip the best chance of survival; sure, you might still die on the voyage of scurvy, pirates or unfriendly locals, but at least your chances of getting lost, and therefore journey times, were drastically reduced - and the less time you spent at sea, the faster you could make money from your goods and the less chance you had of dying.

It is thought the very first maps date from 8,000 years ago, and they have grown in complexity and beauty ever since.

If you look at the image of the map from 1852 above, you'll see the legend 'On Mercator's Projection'. This means the map uses Mercator's cylindrical projection system in order to display the Earth in a simple way that is most useful to sailors who need the charts for navigation. A set of complicated equations is needed to alter the position of objects such as continents from a spherical surface onto a uniform cylinder. This leads to some distortion, which becomes more and more exaggerated as you head towards the poles.

Mercator's Projection is the one we are most familiar with; however, distortion has led to the effect that Greenland is the size of Africa, whereas Africa is in fact 14 times the size of Greenland. Alaska appears roughly the same size as Brazil, but the latter is actually 5 times larger than Alaska. However, for something devised in 1569, it's not a bad attempt.

Since then, dozens of people have attempted to combine mathematics and common sense into producing a suitable, accurate map that displays the Earth, which is curved, on a flat surface. A list of them can be found here. My personal favourite has to be the Polar Azimuthal Equidistant Projection, mainly because it is such a great way to view the world: we are all spread out evenly, with no one continent given preference over any other. You may have seen it before, on the emblem of the United Nations:

Maps are not just required on a global scale.

We need them to get around our cities and countries, to find suitable routes to work or the fastest way to get to your holiday destination. Since the advent of aeroplanes, large maps for mass travel and transportation between continents have become less crucial, but cartographers are still able to busy themselves with producing the most accurate and detailed local maps they can.

What started thousands of years ago with carvings on walls and tablets has culminated in projects like Google Earth and Bing Maps, as well as Sat-Nav and GPS, arguably the some of the most useful tools ever created.

But what next? Now that we have satellites and aircraft equipped with cameras that can map the world for us,  where do we go from here?

Easy: Space. There are hundreds of bodies out there that need mapping for us to better understand them, just as creating a map of our world helped us to know it better; and when that is done, you can always fall back on fantasy, simply creating maps and charts of imaginary worlds for the fun of it. I do this quite often - a doodle can turn into an entire planet with continents, countries, cities, rivers, seas and islands, all waiting to be explored and described in my head...

Peanutter

'Peanutter' is the word I used to use until my early teens when talking about Peanut butter. Apparently, two words was simply too much to bother with, but I am happy to say that I have grown out of that habit; however, I have not grown out of loving the sweet, nutty paste that is the source of so much joy and wonder around the world.

Peanut butter is possibly my favourite thing in the world, right up there with chocolate, the space shuttles and old maps.

As the name suggests, it is a buttery paste made from crushed peanuts, the origins of which date back to the Aztec Native Americans centuries ago. It wasn't until the late 1800's that modern processing methods and the addition of vegetable oil made it a smooth, spreadable foodstuff, and several patents from that period exist for different methods of peanut butter production.

Today, peanut butter is popular in North America, the UK, the Netherlands and parts of Asia, with the world's biggest exporters being the U.S.A. and China. It is available in two forms: Smooth and Crunchy. I find myself quite firmly planted in the 'Smooth' camp - Crunchy is yummy enough, but the bits get stuck in my teeth and it's just slightly more annoying to deal with in general.

The U.S. actually has a law about Peanut butter that determines exactly what it is and what may or may not be put into it. Read it here (if you like that kind of thing).

I actually eat the stuff pretty much everyday, on toast or in a sandwich, and I never, ever get bored of it. My favourite brand of Peanut butter is definitely Skippy, but that stuff is hard to find over here (luckily, because it is really quite bad for you...)

When I was a kid, seeing this tub in the shopping bag was like Christmas had come early

The healthiness of Peanut Butter depends entirely upon the type of oil used in the manufacturing process; avoid those that make use of hydrogenated vegetable oils, that are rich in trans fatty acids. Naturally, peanuts contain protein, vitamins B3 and E, magnesium, folate, dietary fiber, arginine, and high levels of the antioxidant p-coumaric acid, and this good stuff is passed on in peanut butter, making it really quite a useful addition to the diet.

The peanut plant is susceptible to the mold Aspergillus flavus which produces a nasty carcinogenic substance called aflatoxin. Since it is impossible to completely remove every instance of aflatoxins, contamination of peanuts and peanut butter is monitored in many countries to ensure the levels of this carcinogen remain safe for human consumption.

January 24th is National Peanut Butter Day in the United States, and I think the entire world should have a holiday to celebrate this fabulous stuff, where we can bathe in it, throw it at each other in the streets and where we are forced to spread it over everything we eat. Peanut butter and chicken salad, anyone?

'Vader' is Dutch for 'Father'

It should have been so obvious.

Also, I can't be the only guy out there who thinks a zombie/Star Wars crossover is the most fantastic idea since... well, since the wheel?

The Pale Blue Dot

"Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar", every "supreme leader", every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there - on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known...

... Stare at the dot for any length of time and then try to convince yourself that God created the whole Universe for one of the 10 million or so species of life that inhabit that speck of dust. Now take it a step further: Imagine that everything was made just for a single shade of that species, or gender, or ethnic or religious subdivision. If this doesn't strike you as unlikely, pick another dot. Imagine it to be inhabited by a different form of intelligent life. They, too, cherish the notion of a God who has created everything for their benefit. How seriously do you take their claim?"

Carl Sagan, 1994

Carl Sagan is one of my heroes, mainly because of these passages from his book Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space. The image he refers to was taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft in 1990 at a distance of about 6 billion kilometres from Earth, just as it was leaving the Solar System. It was Sagan who requested the image to be taken, and it remains a fabulous reminder of the utter insignificance and fragility of our world and its inhabitants - something I feel it would be very beneficial for everyone to remind themselves of once in a while.

The Apennine Colossus

I saw this picture randomly the other day and I was utterly awe-struck. For a start, the doorway below is about the height of a person, and it has three floors of rooms inside. Imagine conceiving and sculpting something this huge. What an epic task.

This beautiful work of art is situated in the gardens of what was once the Villa di Pratolino, a Renaissance patrician villa in Vaglia, Tuscany, Italy. The villa and gardens were constructed between 1569 and 1581, and the Colossus came into being between 1579 and 1580. The villa itself was mostly demolished in 1820, but the gardens survived and are still open to the public today. The Apennine Colossus, or Appennino, was created by legendary Italian sculptor Giambologna (1529 - 1608), who is responsible for well-known works such as various versions of Mercury, plus Samson Slaying a Philistine (1562), Rape of the Sabine Women (1574-82) and Hercules beating the Centaur Nessus (1599).

His first major commission was given him by the nephew of Pope Pius IV, which was to create the bronze figures of Neptune and the others on the Fountain of Neptune in Bologna, which was finished in about 1567. On that fountain, I particularly like the lactating figures around the bottom. Those renaissance types sure knew how to add a touch of class to their town squares.

The Museum

Yesterday, I visited the National Museum of Scotland here in Edinburgh. What a fantastic place!

It's free to get in, and is absolutely stuffed with cool things to gawk at.

Some of the items there include:

Ancient Egyptian writing tablets 

Blue Whale jaw bones

A Black Knight rocket

Native American tribal dress

A ski-doo

A skeleton cast of a Giant Sloth

A huge 1950's telescope from the Royal Observatory

Stunning geode formations

At least one set of bagpipes

It really is a brilliant collection, the museum itself is beautiful, having just undergone extensive renovation. One of the most fascinating exhibits, to me anyway, was Sir Alexander Fleming's impressive collection of awards and medals, particularly his 1945 Nobel Prize for Medicine. It was the first time I have ever seen a Nobel medal in the flesh, and it was an awe-inspiring moment to gaze upon objects that once belonged to such a brilliant and important person - it has been estimated that his discovery of penicillin has helped save over 200 million lives in the last 50 or so years.

You can search and browse the Museum's collections in a surprisingly well-made and easy to use catalogue here: http://www.nms.ac.uk/collections/

I have absolutely no doubt that we'll be going back again soon - even a few hours there was not enough to see everything - and maybe next time I will remember to take the camera with me...