It might be almost 30 years old but it’s awesome. It’s the best grounding in science, philosophy and (astro)physics that you can ever hope for. It’s dated, sure (check out his turtle-neck jumper), and it’s very out-of-this-world in places (Sagan was a dreamer), but it’s so, so awesome in its entirety. It’s the kind of thing I would force my children watch as soon as they can read and write. With matchsticks to prop their eyes open.

Cosmos got me thinking. A dangerous pastime, I know. [Name that musical...]

We all seek solace in wildly different things.

Why?

Solace means, literally, ‘to solidify’. Consolidation, console, solid — they all have the same Latin root. Finding solace is finding solidity in the world. Solace is when you feel stable. Finding solace is searching for that ‘rock’, that bastion of hope, courage, safety — whatever — it’s something that makes you feel safe. Solace is discovering that reserved spot in the world’s cosmic parking lot that no one can take away from you.

No one’s doubting that everyone wants solace. Heck, we might even need it. Most people go through life looking for it and when they finally find it they don’t (can’t?) let go. Scarily, people seem much more fatalistic once they find their real solace. It’s as if our life purpose, as humans, is merely to find a place to live, reside, be. Then once we get there, we can weather an awful lot with our solace-powered resolve.

But what is the driving force behind that resolve?

It seems to vary from person to person, which is odd. You can easily imagine the preacher undergoing extreme duress and displeasure, while seeking solace in his God. But what about the man that derives his strength from science, from the knowledge that we are no more than physical meatbags that are predestined at birth to live, exist and eventually die. Harder to imagine, eh? I think the usual argument here is that we’re ‘programmed’ to seek faith and mysticism… but why are some people are satisfied with no repentance, no God, no afterlife?

The obvious question you then have to ask is: have there always been people that can’t find solace in faith alone? Throughout history have there been agnostic solace-seekers? You can certainly have faith in science, that’s for sure — that’s kind of a prerequisite for scientists — but maybe the various churches throughout history were too strong, their mysticism too alluring?

For the first time in history science is pitched in a fair fight against religion. The mysticism of religion is at an all-time low. Scientific understanding of the cosmos is at an all-time high.

I think the underpinning of solace is belief. There has to be something you really, really believe in. Be it science, god, philosophy, money, love, it doesn’t really matter. The problem for religion is that it’s becoming harder to believe in. There have always been those that found some solace in science, but the church quashed them. Or burnt them. Either way, belief in non-deity was disallowed (were emperors deified for this reason?)

Nowadays religion is a bit easier going: you’re free to believe in God (or whatever else) while it makes sense to, while you see through a rough spot perhaps. It’s very easy to believe in faith and mysticism (we’re programmed to do so, remember?) so it just comes naturally — having problems? head down to the church! But now, without the draconian Churches, without the belief-under-duress, wouldn’t it make sense to seek solace in something else, something tangible, something like… science? A lot of people are doing it. Dare I say there are more atheists and agnostics than ever before. Why don’t religious types cave and listen to the truth of science?

It would make sense to move on, no? No. People don’t like to lose their solace.

I’m sure you’ve heard stories of those people that have ‘lost God’, or the love of their life. They’re broken. Disbelief really shatters you. It seems solace is highly conservative. When was the last time you heard of a devoutly religious person dropping the word of God in favour of Darwin? I mean a happily-engaged-and-solace-fully-sought practitioner, not a neophyte or extremist, incidentally. It would seem you only get one solace — one love-of-your-life — unless you are forcibly sundered.

Once the older generations die out and today’s children, our progeny, are free to seek a solace of their own choosing, the end of religion and the rise and dominion of the machines — er, science — might actually be upon us.

Related posts:

1. Culture has stagnated for 10,000 years and won’t change soon
2. The basics of belief
3. We’re all racists. But it’s not our fault.

The last couple of months have seen me trying to use my 50mm and 100mm lenses a lot more. I don’t know why — probably because I used my landscape lens almost exclusively for the first half of the year. I guess you can get bored of one particular style of art, if you do it enough and don’t mix things up?

For those of you that aren’t photographers, a little lesson on lens ’sizes’: your natural eyesight is about equivalent to the view arc/angle of a 50mm lens — i.e. the photos that were taken with a 50mm lens look most like you would see with your own eyes. We call the 50mm the ‘normal lens‘.

If you go wider than 50mm you approach ‘wide-angle’ and ‘landscape’ lenses. At 35mm things still look fairly normal, but towards 15-20mm things become very ’stretched’ or distorted, because you are trying to focus almost 180 degrees of view onto a flat plane.

If you go narrower into the telescopic range — anything over 80mm — the field of view shrinks to just a few degrees. Telescopic photos feel very ‘condensed’, or even just ‘dense’ or ‘thick’. It’s all an effect of the light, and quite hard to explain — but just remember that depending on what kind of lens you use, you can get a very different feeling in the photo. There’s a reason portraits are taken with 50 or 80mm lenses. If you ever see a portrait that feels ‘weird’ it’s usually because they’ve been shot with a weird lens (alien-head is a classic example, if shot from above with a landscape lens)

Anyway, after shooting lots of very compressed and tight photos (at least by my standards, as I’m a landscape kiddie really) with the 50 and 100mm lenses, I whipped my landscape lens out (which is 16mm!) and headed into the countryside to take some photos. If you’ve seen yesterday’s 11 of 52, you’ve already seen one of the photos in this set, but I’ve included it for a sense of completeness. The whole set will eventually find its way to my online gallery, if you wish to buy a print (or two). In my humble opinion, I think the entire set would look rather spectacular on YOUR wall.

Without further ado: It was Autumn, the last few leaves barely clinging to the boughs. It was sunset and there were actually pretty clouds for once. I think the results speak for themselves. I bet you had no idea England could be so pretty but without being GREEN. So, with hints of orange, russet and pinky hues, I give you Tuesday’s Landscape Photogasm (#1).

Note: Titles or extra details can be found by hovering over each image.

That’s all for this week. Tomorrow… hm, I’m not sure yet. Oh, and if you’re interested in buying a print of one of these, let me know — I will be offering some kind of Christmas/Festive Season discount soon, so I might as well start it with your purchase…!

Related posts:

1. Tuesday’s Photogasm
2. Looking through the window
3. A new camera, HDR, and playing around with Photoshop

You look around and you’re sure there’s a few more than last time.

One by one everyone’s becoming a geek. Eventually there’ll just be you and your infatuation with reality TV — everyone else will be happily geeking away.

But what’s this? You want to become a geek? You don’t want to be the last one boozing and partying and subsisting away the best years of your life? ‘Let me on the band wagon!’ I hear you scream.

Well, certainly sir, I have good news! It’s easy to become a geek — a better person, by all accounts. A geek is merely someone that is intensely interested in some aspect of life or living. Rather than let life wash over them in an ineffectual, apathetic fashion, a geek grabs something by the horns and shakes violently. Why? When? Where? these are the kinds of questions that geeks asks of the world in general. These five ways to become a better person will encourage you to be more inquisitive of your surroundings — and thus, eventually, a geek.

1. Be honestly interested in computers

You must learn about computers. You must not merely use them. Start with the basics — the actual hardware — and go from there. Find out how your computer does something. Discover the best ways of doing something with a computer, rather than just a way. There is always at least two ways of doing something in any computer program — most people will settle with the first one they find, or what they’ve been told. Not good enough! To become a geek you must understand computers.

Computers are the recent past, present and the only future of civilisation. Until we wipe ourselves out in some kind of nuclear war or we’re smashed to smithereens by a comet, computers are it. They’re not going anywhere, trust me. Computers are your access point to a wealth of knowledge unimaginable by those only a generation or two before us. To not understand how they work is like trying to be a builder without understanding basic physics or how mortar works. If you don’t know how a computer works, you should find out. Right now.

2. Befriend other geeks

Whether you’re taking up a new hobby or becoming a born-again Christian, it helps to make friends that are similar to you — or similar to how you want to be. Having geeky friends gives you two things – a) something to aim towards and b) egging on. If you ever start flagging, if you’re ever uncertain about your geeky development, you need friends to fall back on! Just like that time you spent at Alcoholics Anonymous or drug rehab, a mentor of some kind can be really helpful. It’s not a necessity by any means, but if you can surround yourself in geeks and geekdom, your geekification will proceed a lot faster.

As for ’something to aim towards’, it obviously depends what kind of geek you want to be — and then again, some people just want to be general geeks (like me), which is merely a higher state of being. But if you want to become a specific kind of geek, your geek friends must be good role models. There’s no point in befriending maths geeks if you want to be a musical theatre geek! Though if you’re already a musical geek, and decide to branch out into maths… go for it!

3. Travel

See the world! Taste the planet’s smorgasbord of flavour! Experience life as it is lived by others in other countries, surrounded by different climates and cultures.

This is all about observing the world from a different angle. Shaking up your preconceptions. Garnering enough experience and knowledge that you can distil into wisdom – something you can only do with more than one point of view. I like to think of travelling as ‘plotting more points’ — if you only have one point on a graph, what do you have? Nothing. No direction, no context.

Travelling is all about exploration, a topic you probably know is very close to my heart. This particular step on the path to geekdom is all about dispelling prejudice, about opening your eyes rather than living life in some kind of blind, apathetic stupor.

4. Don’t try to fit in

Be yourself (or ‘be true to yourself’). This is starting to read like a self-help book, eh? But it’s true! Geekdom is about being comfortable with who and what you love. Geekdom is about being happy in your own skin. This doesn’t mean you have to be unkempt and wear trashy clothes — though if you want to, that’s your choice. Likewise, plenty of geeks are ‘fashionable’ or trendy. Geeks span almost every walk of life and rightly so! Geeks can be anything. Geekery is a way of living life not merely an obsession with Star Trek or comics.

Do you think any of our greatest scientists or explorers tried to fit in? They probably went in the other direction even — they tried to stick out! Or rather, if convention suggests one direction, they went in the other. The world is flat! No it’s not. You’ll die if you climb that mountain! Yeah? Let’s see about that! – I’m not suggesting you hole up in your basement and prepare for the quantum apocalypse, but you should try your best to avoid implied or moral obligation. You should do something because you want to, not because your parents tell you to or because all the cool kids are doing it. If you would rather stay at home and pore through Wikipedia, do it! Don’t do something because you have to. Ugh.

5. Become an expert

This is what everything here is building up to. Fulfil the other four criteria and you’ll quickly find yourself becoming an expert in one field, or many. To become an expert — that is: someone whose opinion is both valued and authoritative — you must become a master. Mastery is achieved through experimentation, observation, critical thinking — basically, if you can interact with something in some way, you’ve done it. To be a master of sex, you must have experienced everything sex has to offer. To be a master chef, you must know more than just one style of cooking — you must know it ALL! Think of a geek you’re acquainted with — what is he the master of? A particular computer language, a genre of video game, a specific TV show? He will be masterful at something (or many things), that is guaranteed!

It is only through trial and error and the discarding of a vast amount of almost- and false-truths that you become an expert in a given field. When you finally come an expert — when people start coming to you for advice — then you’ll know you’re a bona fide geek. It’s your choice what you become a master in of course. But one thing’s for certain: the world needs more masters of every variety.

* * *

Resources

OS Data’s basics of computer hardware

Jan’s computer basics (software and hardware)

Geek 2 Geek (a geek friendship/dating website)

Travel Supermarket (go explorin’!)

Related posts:

1. Ask Me Anything: Volume 5 — The Love & Relationships Special
2. Why geek GIRLS are awesome
3. If I were a geek…

And with that geek-squeal out of the way (really, it’s that good) — this week’s Golden Oldie is…

Why LAN parties are awesome and clubbing is crap

If you don’t know what a LAN party is, it’s defined in there. Why am I choosing that story in particular? Because next Friday I’m off to another LAN — and if you want to see my report/experiment from the previous LAN party, start with this blog entry, where I introduce Dr Sebastian House…

More pretty, autumnal photos to follow — either over the weekend, or on Tuesday.

Related posts:

1. This week’s golden oldie IS…
2. Oldie Of The Week
3. A fun new photo project: 52 Weeks

(Click for larger… if you you like detail…)

She’s quite pale, but you’ll have to trust me: she’s Japanese.

I have used the mug for other things too. But I’ll leave the specifics to your imagination as I don’t think the world is quite ready to look in to the receptacle. That would be disastrous for my reputation… and your psyche…

As always, more ‘too much information’ is over on Lilu’s blog this Thursday.

Related posts:

1. My waterbed brings all the girls to my yard
2. What I’ve learnt about love and girls
3. Secretly, when no one’s looking, I still practice my ballet

Unfortunately

It’s crazy stuff — really bat-shit crazy. The story doesn’t really go into the why, as we don’t know the answer yet — it’s amazing enough that a group has finally been formed to look into it (pharmaceutical companies, the ones with all the money when it comes to research, obviously want the placebo response to just… go away. ASAP.) – Since the beginning, the placebo has been Big Pharma’s number one enemy. To pass drug trials a new product has to beat out the placebo effect by a significant margin. In the olden days, this was apparently quite easy.

Today… well, the expert that the story focuses on, William Potter, goes as far to say that in during modern-day tests, Prozac is being beaten-out by placebos, and thus would never make it to market, if it had been invented today. The story actually begins with a story about Merck, a big pharmaceutical company: they’re testing a new anti-depressant (MK-869), and they just can’t seem to beat the placebo effect. Both the drug and the placebo effect had an equal success rate! The placebo effect is so strong at the moment that very few drugs are making it through testing and into the greedy, self-medicating hands of the public.

It’s definitely a weird one that needs to be sussed out. It’s sad that it has been ignored for so long because the body’s self-healing functions are the enemy of pharmacology. Pharmacology’s sole purpose is to dominate the central nervous system, not to aid or assist it in its curative powers. What has caused the increased placebo response? Now this is the funny bit: in realising that placebo response is different, depending on where you are in the world, Big Pharma is actually going to other countries where the placebo effect is weaker, to get their drugs approved.

It would seem that the placebo response is based on culture, society. It’s long been known that we have more faith in the trustworthy, the responsible, the professional. If I tell you I’m going to fix your computer, you’re relieved and walk away happy. If I tell you I’m going to remove your tooth, you’re going to adversely react, scream, run away — and rightfully so!

The story seems to surmise that it’s the pharmaceutical’s massive marketing campaigns that have pushed up the power of the placebo. We’re surrounded by so many reports and surveys and commercials that tell us of the efficacy of anti-depressants that we will them to work: if it works for him, it will work for me — of course, the funny bit is that most drugs have side-effects, and the placebo does not… so with placebo tests we’re told that we’re taking Prozac, our body expects it to work… and so it works. Without any of the side-effects.

And it turns out that doctors have long been prescribing placebos to patients! This one might shock you a little. If you’re on anti-depressants right now… you might actually not be on them. Doctors have long known the power of confidence and good bed-side manner. Doctors often prescribe under-powered doses to patients and tell them that it will work. And, unsurprisingly, it works — with all the potency of actual, drug-based medication. Awesome.

We can walk away from this story with two great things under our belt: a) we’ll be seeing more research into the placebo effect and the body’s self-healing powers. We’re not talking about the body’s ability to fix physical damage, but when it comes to biological imbalance, brain chemistry and ‘rewiring’, we’re capable of a lot more than we think — and b) don’t stop believing in medication. It is your belief in the power of anti-depressants that make them work, not the chemical compound itself.

If that’s not food for thought… I don’t know what is.

Related posts:

1. Culture has stagnated for 10,000 years and won’t change soon
2. Thoughtful Tuesday: Shattering the infinite loop of racism
3. Exploration, the only frontier

Continuing in the same vein as last week, here’s another photogasm! This week was helped along by a powercut on Sunday. For three hours. It’s amazing how little you can do when you have no electricity — but it’s also humbling to realise just how much you can do too! (How deep was that…?)

Of course I sat on my laptop for an hour, until the battery ran down. Used my mobile phone to connect to the Internet even! But when the screen finally blinked out to black, I had to do something. It is at times like these that I really love being a photographer: I just grab my camera and go outside. And below… you can find the results of the powercut photo session!

But first, yesterday’s 10 of 52, in which I balance a pumpkin on my face:

Normally I would just link you to the project’s blog but this time… well… you can probably imagine why I want to share it here on the front page of this site.

And with that out of the way — and yes, it really did hurt as much as you think it did — on with the rest of the Photogasm.

Upcoming projects: Still not much. I have some more money coming in from some clients that are finally paying (when is six months ever an OK period to settle invoices…?) — and the tech blogger writing job thingee is going to be more lucrative than I thought (I seem to be quite good at it — who woulda thunk it?) — soooo… I will have money to frame some prints! And hang them in places! And sell some more photos before Christmas! Or failing that, give everyone photos for Christmas!! My actual photographical skill (is that the right term?) is coming along at an alarming rate. It’s almost as if each photo I take is better than the last. Scary. How good will I end up…?!

Ah, yes, and one of the girls I was meant to photograph is proving elusive. More on that later.

And now… the gasm itself:

As always, each photo has some kind of note attached — hover your mouse over each one to find out more! Again, some ‘blog exclusives’. Some will turn up on Flickr, some won’t.

(I love the moss in the foreground in both of those shots)

(Which one do you prefer…?)

And to finish… because, let’s face it, I’m a big, fat narcissist… another self-portrait from my dark dining room — long exposure, but super-steady hands!

Don’t you just love the phone on the wall?

I actually have more self-portraiture to come but two is quite enough for one blog post. Keep an eye out on Flickr for the rest.

Related posts:

1. Tuesday’s Photogasm
2. A fun new photo project: 52 Weeks
3. Home alone at last; naked and un-American

Think about it for a moment; think about just how far we’ve come since the dawn of art and culture 10,000 years ago. Or how far we’ve not come, as the case actually is. Sure, we have technology. Sure, we have philosophy. But are we actually any different? Is it the way we do something that defines us? The way we ‘think’ about something? Or is it deeper than that? Let’s go back to the beginning and have a look.

There is — and was — a split between the east and west. The split goes far beyond skin colour or hair type, but it is the very same environmental differences that caused the West/East genetic and cultural schism.

In the West, we hit things. We hit things so that we may survive a little longer but at the expense of others — other humans, other animals. We spend our entire life killing.

In the East, we cogitate. We cogitate until the tides of cosmos take us from the land of the living. We spend our entire life thinking.

And then occasionally, but on a fairly regular timer, as if it’s running to some kind of universal schedule, religion pops up.

The funny thing is, despite any misgivings you might have, religion is actually the injection of aesthetics. It’s as if killing or thinking can only take you so far down the track of social and cultural development — and ultimately modernity of civilization. Killing puts food on the table; you subside, day after day, year after year until you die — but at least you survive. It’s the same with the Eastern sitting-and-thinking: pondering stuff certainly doesn’t put food on the table, that’s for sure, but perhaps through sifting and thinking and thought permutation you come up with ways for future generations to put food on the table.

The West are in the now and the East are in the future and the past. But neither of them move — not by themselves, anyway. There’s no impetus. No driving force.

Then, after a long period of subsistence, something snaps and faith enters stage right: the Western gods of War and Famine and Wine; the Eastern gods of Creation, Knowledge and Maintenance. The singular, unified, vengeful God didn’t come into existence until much later, after plenty of intermingling and amalgamation of West and East — unsurprisingly, through the body of land we call the Middle East, though it is actually… the middle. Middle West-East doesn’t quite spill from the tongue so easy, eh.

Even with religion, we don’t stop with the killing or thinking though. Religion doesn’t stop us from our age-old rites and customs. It just gives us something to attribute our acts to. This is where the phrase ‘practising’ enters the equation. Are we killing an animal for food, or are we practising our religion and sacrificing an animal for Zeus? Are we raping and pillaging for gold and glory, or are we you cleansing the world of disbelievers for God?

Ultimately, we are still killing. We are still thinking.

We continue to seek solace and recompense and meaning for our actions in religion.

We are not moving. Just grinding our gears.

What we are today is the build-up of thousands of years of repetition, contagion, custom: mother to daughter, father to son. Our cultures might now change, given that the geographical division between West and East has been blown to pieces by technology. But it will take time, an awful lot of time. For now, we in the West are stuck with our incessant need to kill, to win.

Related posts:

1. We’re all racists. But it’s not our fault.
2. Knowledge is power, but don’t dis what you don’t know
3. Exploration, the only frontier

(Click for larger — you’re going to want larger…)

The second of my multimedia TMIs. Actually, it’s my third if you include the frozen-peas-down-boxer-shorts (though that might be pushing towards ‘dude… enough now, really.’)

As with last week, take it with a pinch of salt. But not too much salt… er, um… cough.

I believe there are other pictorial TMIs over on Lilu’s blog this week too, so be sure to check them out!

Related posts:

1. Secretly, when no one’s looking, I still practice my ballet
2. Notes from the small islands: girls
3. Where I’ve been with only one pair of boxer shorts

Imbube… imbube… imbube…

Last night, Eric, our blind cat, died. It was quick. He died at peace, asleep. Fourteen good, solid, there’s-a-good-cat, mouse-catching, rabbit-snarfling and pigeon-scaring years.

Earlier this year Mango, Eric’s sister, died. Eric himself is survived by his brother, Sammy, who is now the last surviving member of a very long line of beautiful cats that we’ve been lucky enough to rear or look after. Fourteen years is pretty good for a cat. I suppose I should tell you the story I’ve always avoided telling… because it’s sappy.

I’ve always referred to him as ‘the blind cat’ — but he hasn’t always been that way! Quite the opposite. For 13 years he enjoyed life to the max. But the funny thing is, we don’t even know what Eric did for nine of those years. He disappeared when he was just out of adolescence – we hadn’t neutered him, you see. We figured he’d run off, become one with nature, the woodlands, feral. Days, weeks, months passed — it was obvious he wasn’t coming back.

And then 3 years ago… he reappeared. First we saw fleeting glimpses of a cat that looked ‘a bit like Eric’ — but we assumed it couldn’t actually be him. He’s hardly unique in appearance. We figured it was just another cat. Then, after a few months of skulking about, he just wandered into my grandmother’s house next door… and sat. She fed him. He hung around. Eventually he came back to our house and settled back into his old home, as if he’d never left.

How crazy is that?

And crazier… someone had snipped his balls off. Eric had actually lived with another family for all those years. And then come back to us! What the hell. Maybe he was close-by all those years — or maybe he just went for a walk one day and spotted a house that looked vaguely familiar, or a rabbit hole that he used to frequent… and came to investigate. Who knows, to be honest. I’ve never really bet a ‘pet person’, but in this case… I really would like to have known Eric’s story. Maybe those that looked after him for those 9 years will find my website and get in touch.

So this page is dedicated to you, Eric. Eighth and last kitten of Madonna’s (don’t ask) mighty brood.

And of course, who can forget his most famous escapade: Eric, the blind cat, chooses a competition winner:

We have just one cat now. He’s quite young though, and very healthy (i.e. fat) — he’s also very pretty. But who wants pretty when you can have character instead? Why should I make do with fat-and-lazy when I used to have rugged-and-soulful? Bah.

RIP Eric. You were a good cat.

Related posts:

1. The die is cast, the votes counted and the blind cat UNLEASHED!
2. Independent adjudication and the phantom sister
3. There’s water in the box, so please don’t tell the authorities