A Roll in the Universe

Wordless Wednesday

I was wondering why this moved me so much. And then it occurred to me: Their smiles. Their trust. Their courage. There is a bit of pity on my part, I have to admit that. However, it is a testament to the human spirit that people get on with their lives in spite of what their bodies are like, and that, really, is what we all need to remember: We are never our bodies, nor are our bodies us. We need to remember this: People don't pay us compliments because we look perfect to them. They pay us compliments because we look beautiful to them. We are not the tool we use. We are how we use the tool. We are whatever makes us share what's inside of us: Our courage, our need, our joy. Our smiles.

Wordless Wednesday

Dr Amit Goswami, a quantum physicist, discusses spiritual searching, consciousness, ego, free will… The whole shebang.

A commenter to this movie on YouTube wished hawks were like dogs so you could pet them when they do stuff like this. That's what I was thinking! Birds of prey are both so beautiful and so graceful. Just how graceful is shown in this BBC video. I'm also fascinated by how feathers move in slow-motion.

35 years ago I saw "Rocky" for the second and last time—until now. I am surprised at how much I've forgotten about the movie, and what I did remember no longer matters. So many icons came out of this movie: The trumpet fanfare of the theme song, the personal triumph run up the front steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Rocky's "Yo, Adrian!", manual meat-tenderizing. My 15-year-old self thought Carl Weathers was gorgeous and his character Apollo Creed fantastic. She liked Rocky himself, and his turtles, but didn't much care for any of the other characters, except for Adrian. The scene where Rocky drinks five raw eggs got loud "eww"s in the movie theater. The girl herself only freaked when watching Rocky for the second time, from the front row because the scene where they cut Rocky's eye lid to ease the swelling and the blood squirts out got a little too bloody when seen 10 feet away from a big screen. 35 years later, the movie is at...

A scene from work: My boss comes over to talk to me, and I am typing something, and continue to do so as I look up at him to answer him. He stares in horrified fascination at my fingers accurately producing words on the screen without me looking, and finally can't stand it any more and orders, "Look down! Look down!" It became a running gag between us. Me, I can't remember when last I saw another person typing with all ten fingers. Touch typing. I see a lot of typing, but it's all done with two or four fingers, evenly distributed between two hands. I did have another boss who typed with four fingers and he was as fast as me with my ten (nine, actually. I don't use my left thumb.). I know how to touch type because my family advised me to take typing classes in school. I discovered I sucked at typing itself—never getting beyond 30 words per minute if I wanted to avoid mistakes—but I was very good at the non-typing stuff: Adjusting margins, changing ri...

Black and white and grainy video is very forgiving. Now I know how Rolf Harris did it, but as a child, I was completely baffled by how he got that third leg to act like, well, a third leg. In spite of knowing the secret now, I must say that this bit still makes me laugh. I can better appreciate both the funny lyrics and the visual gags.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

I own the extended DVD set of "What the #$*! Do We (K)now!?" , also known as "Down the Rabbit Hole". I can't remember now how my browsing the internet today started, but I ended up learning a lot about the science in "What the Bleep": It's terribly inaccurate. There are other inaccuracies or downright errors, but for the most part quantum mechanics only work on quantum levels, not at sizes like a basketball or a universe or even a mere atom. And that spoils all New Age claims that it is quantum physics that explain the Law of Attraction or any other woo-woo belief, like spontaneous healing, psychic phenomenon or near-death experiences. Dang. I was so hoping science could explain these things by now. My surfing has brought me to The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry . There I have found good writing, and proper skepticism. Not the finger-pointing pooh-poohing of beliefs, but rather a behind-the-scenes look at some claims and what's factually ...

If you're my age *cough*, enjoy this spoof of Beyoncé's hit. Don't be mad when you see your skin don't fit. LOL!

Well, sort of. I wasn't actually there. But on the top of Mauna Kea is where Tom works and where he takes so many of his gorgeous pictures of the sunset. I have now learned that he has been goofing off (according to the gentleman on this video) when doing that. He should have been inside getting ready for work. ;-) (Found via www.sixtysymbols.com .)

I'm not the romantic kind. My version of romance doesn't involve notes, flowers, boxes of candy or trinkets because that's just not exciting enough for me (of course, it does depend on what you put in the note ;-) ). Laughing or crying together over a shared memory or adventure is much more my style, and the following video fits that perfectly. It turns out that even the universe has a romantic bent (at least as seen from Earth), so for the first time in history, I am sending out a Valentine's greeting. Enjoy - and Happy Valentine's Day ! (Found at http://www.sixtysymbols.com/videos/024.htm )

This brilliant film is making the rounds. I found mine over at A Pacific View . Here's the comment I left there after seeing this video: Absolutely stunning video! Finally one that clearly gave me an idea of scale. Especially going back home. If any aliens are visiting us, it must be purely by accident, because finding us is like finding a needle in a haystack. Or more like finding a partial needle in a 1000 haystacks. Thanks for posting this, Tom! So if you aren't impressed with the story of three wise men following a star, this journey through the stars ought to give you a nice sense of awe (play the HD version at full screen for best effect!):

Hah! I'll bet my blog post title made you take a second look! But I woudn't give up sex. No, it's the title of the song embedded below. In connection with the release this week of a rock-and-roll encyclopedia covering the last 50 years of music in Bergen (Bergen actually headed the rock-and-roll revolution in Norway back before my time), this blast from the past got some airtime. So not only was this band ("Blind Date") Norwegian, it was from Bergen! Yay! And I love the song - still.

I first saw a computer in the 1970's and my first job out of high school was for a manufacturer of so-called mini-machines: The size of a washing machine, with storage and memory measured in kilobytes, not megabytes, and running BASIC. Barely 10 years later, I was an expert with WordPerfect on an IBM PC, after several years of using a Wang (look it up), and what I learned about Lotus 1-2-3 back then has helped me use Excel ever since. Then came e-mail. What fun! Then came the internet, and I got hooked up at home in 1997. More fun! I even learned HTML and designed my own webpages. I became an eager user of Usenet. I even figured out IRC and took an entire course via ICQ. Web 1.0 was good to me. Web 2.0 came along with interactive applications embedded in the web browser. Some were cooler (and more useful) than others. I like del.icio.us and still use it, and Twitter and Facebook are also in use. And blogs and Blogger, of course! I found a good use for Google Docs the day I ...

After Protege turned me on to Anggun via the hauntingly beautiful "Snow on the Sahara", I decided it was time for payback. Oddly, both Protege and I felt lost during the 90's musically, but there were gems then, too. "All I Need" (from Air's album "Moon Safari") is from the same year as Anggun's song - 1997. I hope you like this, Protege!

I was tagged on Facebook . Since I prefer blogs to notes in Facebook (where a complete stranger who isn't my friend (hmm) can't read me), the movie tag is posted here. Rules are: Don't think, just write down 15 movies that left a lasting impression on you. If you want, tag 15 people. In no particular order: Saturday Night Fever. It bored me to high heaven. I still think it's crap. JAWS. Especially because of the T-shirt. Pulling that thing off over your head was SCARY. Young Frankenstein. First time I laughed out loud in a movie theater. Tron. I just liked it and the effects. Still do. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Marvelous special effects, wonderful dead-panning from Ford, and a plot and pace that still takes my breath away. The snakes sent my friend under the movie theater seats. Kewl! (I was more bugged by the spiders at the very beginning.) Quigley Down Under. I have no idea why this movie seems to have missed everyone's radar. A weste...

The Norwegian national tourist board has as its slogan "Norway. Powered by nature." It's an apt slogan. Most of what makes Norway rich is due to natural resources, including fish and petroleum. Most of what makes Norway worth seeing is not what the humans have done, but where they have done it. It seems to me that no area is too remote to live in, no mountain too rugged to climb and no body of water too wide to row. So yes, Norway is powered by nature. But Norway is also powered quite literally by it: Almost 100 % of our electric power comes from water . This promotional video shows scenes from all over Norway, and from several seasons. Enjoy!