Can’t see a Coelacanth? Me neither

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Caspar Addyman

coelacanth_hideandseek

oldschool

These designs just popped into my head. Will someone please make them for me?

Sadly, it turns out that these beasts aren’t just ellusive, they are now also really endangered :(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coelacanth

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A physicist’s take on the meaning of life

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Caspar Addyman

Sean Carroll is a theoretical physicist and a science communicator. He’s a cosmologist with a particular interest in understanding what time is. He is also a vocal atheist who spends a fair bit of his own time arguing with philosophers and theologians. Here’s what he has to say about the meaning of life.

.. the absence of meaning “out there in the universe” does not mean that people can’t live meaningful lives. Far from it. It simply means that whatever meaning our lives might have must be created by us, not given to us by the natural or supernatural world. There is one world that exists, but many ways to talk about; many stories we can imagine telling about that world and our place within it, without succumbing to the temptation to ignore the laws of nature. That’s the hard part of living life in a natural world, and we need to summon the courage to face up to the challenge.

From Particles to People: The Laws of Nature and the Meaning of Life | Cosmic Variance | Discover Magazine.

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Carlton Mansions Eviction

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Caspar Addyman

Lambeth council are acting very unreasonably towards my neighbours in Carlton Mansions. Brixton Buzz have the story here.

I’ve written to the Coldharbour Ward councillors.

Dear Councillors Anyanwu, Heywood & Parr,

I am writing to express my concern and disappointment with the way the council is treating my friends and neighbours in Carlton Mansions. The council appears to be acting with unnecessary and possibly even vindictive haste, attempting to evict residents at extremely short notice after a recent fire assessment. As i understand it the residents intend to dispute the assessment but have not been given any time to prepare their case.

The Carlton Mansions co-operative represents a successful and extremely long standing example of community living. As I understand it the tenants have already agreed that they will be moved on nearer the time of the redevelopment of Somerleyton Road. This action unnecessarily disrupt the lives of the families in Carlton Mansions. At least one child under two will be affected by this eviction. The council makes much of its claims to be a ‘co-operative council’. Therefore, I cannot see why the council is chosing to act in this manner. It makes me feel like the interests of developers are being put ahead of the interests of long term members of the community.

Moreover, this callous and high-handed way of dealing with residents sends an ominous message about the councils commitment to a genuinely community -based redevelopment of Somerleyton Road. I for one will now be watching all your actions a lot more carefully.

Yours,

Caspar Addyman
Southwyck House
Clarewood Walk
London
SW9

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Help Yourself

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Caspar Addyman

I wrote a novel.

HelpYourself.cover.v2.smaller.front

HelpYourself.cover.v2.smaller.back

Help Yourself - Amazon.co.uk

Help Yourself (Kindle) – Amazon.co.uk

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weeeeee

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Caspar Addyman

tumblr_mlarcwRVAH1s2yegdo1_500

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Slow burner

Posted on March 9, 2013 by Caspar Addyman

Around 25 years after first attempting it, I have finally learned how to smoke.

There’s hope for us all.

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Poorest hit hardest as Rio prepares to profit from World Cup and Olympics

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Caspar Addyman

A couple of independent filmmakers have released this partially completed documentary charting the corruption connected with Rio’s megasports preparations. Favelas are being cleared by very underhand means with the police and militia illegally forcing people out of their homes so that developers can build and profit from the forthcoming World Cup 2014 and Olympics 2016. The film is unfinished because the story is still unfolding but they need money to keep going. Telling the story as it is happening may also prevent even worse injustices from happening. Please watch and share.

Public Domain (Domínio Público) – English Subtitles from Paêbirú Realizações on Vimeo.

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Sometimes?

Posted on November 25, 2012 by Caspar Addyman

 

Sometimes I drop a ONE DOLLAR BILL at the intersection so a stranger will find it and think it is their lucky day.

.. But SECRETLY I’m hoping they get hit by a car.

PostSecret: Sunday Secrets.

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From Disney Imagineer to killing thousands of mice with cancer

Posted on November 24, 2012 by Caspar Addyman

It seems unlikely that supergenius Danny Hillis was unhappy with his time as a Disney ‘Imagineer’ . Where, according to this week’s Nature, he got to do very cool things like design themepark rides. But I wonder what Mickey thinks about Danny’s new job; killing a lot of mice with cancer.

Cancer research kills a lot of mice but in the following video Danny explains that he’s going to another level. It’s the result of a pinoneering approach that applies big data to bioscience. Together with oncologist David Agus, he’s bringing data science wizardry to proteomics, the study of the proteins associated with gene-expression.

First they built robots to automate and replicate blood protein analysis on level of unprecedented detail and precision. This prompted a holistic approach to solving cancer. “Cancer should be a verb”, argues Hillis because cancer is a process not a thing. The disease model of medicine works for problems caused by “things” like viruses or bacteria but it will break down for some like cancer. Cancers are  more  a kin to a process running out of control, so it doesn’t make sense to treat all brain cancers and say liver cancers as seperate groups based solely on where they occur. But to track the differences and the similarities you need data. a lot of it. So enter Danny’s army of tens of thousands of doomed mice. (Skip to 34:45 to hear about the dead mice.)

 

Nature Megadata: The odd couple 

 


Danny Hillis talks Proteomics & Personalized Medicine – YouTube.

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Language learning tools and tips

Posted on November 13, 2012 by Caspar Addyman

Here are few tips, tricks and useful sites that I am finding helpful in learning Brazilian Portuguese. I’d be interested in hearing your suggestion too.

1. Self paced learning

a.Don’t if any one saw this article in the Guardian today (http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/nov/09/learn-language-in-three-months) It promotes a scientifically proven way of learning vocabulary efficiently and a website that lets you do the same.  http://www.memrise.com/

I’ve only started using it but it seems quite good.

b. Smartphone users can get software that does the same thing. On Android I use a flash card program called Wise Cards (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ch.tea.wisecards) which varies the items it tests you on according to how well you are learning them. The app costs a few pounds but then lets you link to websites that have loads of sets of vocab cards (the Quizlet site seems best Top 1-500 Words Portuguese is good as is Portuguese Irregular Verbs.)

I’ve used this program a lot for learning Dutch and now Portuguese. It is a brilliant tool to let you learn on the go. If anyone wants me to, i can demonstrate it on my phone and show you how to get it working.

2. Language Immersion for Google Chrome.

If you use Google Chrome and want to sprinkle a bit of Portuguese through your regular web browsing  I recommend this extension

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/language-immersion-for-ch/bedbecnakfcpmkpddjfnfihogkaggkhl

Install it, select your chosen second lanuage and your current level of expertise. Then for every site you visit it will use google translate to change some of the words into portuguese. this way you are learning whenever you are reading online. If you don’t know the word you can click on a word or phrase shows you the original English.

Video explanation here.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/02/google-language-immersion-chrome-extension/

3. Google translate.

Hopefully everybody has already found this :)

http://translate.google.com/

4. Subtitles for music and tv

Like Jana said, listening to songs is a great way to learn a language This site is a good place to go.

http://letras.mus.br/

It has loads of Brazilian music videos, all with a full set of lyrics and most with subtitles.

Meanwhile, if you watch a lot of downloaded tv or fims. Why not add some Brazilan Portuguese subtitles? This site is very handy for finding subtitles for american TV series.

http://legendas.tv/

5 Soap Operas.

How about getting hooked on Brazilian soap operas? I’ve started watching the recent hugely popular Avenida Brasil. The country virtually ground ot a halt when the last episode aired in October. I don’t understand much of what is said but it’s so melodramatic that you usually guess what they mean even if you don’t know what they are saying. It’s very entertaining and exposes you to real Brazilian Portuguese.

You can find all 90 episodes online here

http://www.filmesonlinegratis.net/assistir-avenida-brasil-todos-capitulos-novelas-online.html

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What molecule is this?

Posted on September 19, 2012 by Caspar Addyman

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Geometry as art and maths

Posted on August 22, 2012 by Caspar Addyman

Spherebending with Bill Thurston (RIP)

via Cosmic Variance

Paper Engineering with Matthew Shlian

via Colossal

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Couchsurfing with a 5m tall puppet

Posted on July 20, 2012 by Caspar Addyman

Couchsurfing.org is wonderful. I have had all sorts of fun, friendly and enthusiastic people staying with me. Their enthusiasm for London has reinvigorated my own love for the city. It seemed only natural to host a few more people over the Olympics. It took less than a day to fill the calendar for the whole period. None of them have arrived yet, but it has worked out even better than I hoped. I will be hosting some Poles, Costa Ricans, Brazillians, Americans, Germans, a French girl and 5m tall glowing white puppet. This fellow..

Actually, he’ll sleep in the car while four of his operators take over my spare room for a few days.

Dundu – Der sanfte Riese.

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Simian songbook

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Caspar Addyman

Brother Earl from Randy & Earl’s Old Record Club has put together a wonderful mix of monkey related goodness. Thought you might like it.

Jungle VIP

King Of The Swingers « Randy & Earl’s Old Record Club.

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The Quietest Place on Earth Will Drive You Insane Within 45 Minutes

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Caspar Addyman

This Gizmodo story makes a nice follow up to saturday’s prose poem. Maybe that wasn’t fiction after all?

There’s a small room in Minnesota that blocks out 99% of all external sound. That’s an impressive number! Also impressive: nobody can take more than 45 minutes alone in the room before they go nuts.

The Daily Mail describes Orfield Labs’ anechoic chamber—perfect for making extremely sensitive audio measurements. But also perfect for sending you into a hallucinatory hell so hellacious you’ll need a chair:

 

‘When it’s quiet, ears will adapt. The quieter the room, the more things you hear. You’ll hear your heart beating, sometimes you can hear your lungs, hear your stomach gurgling loudly. ‘In the anechoic chamber, you become the sound.’ And this is a very disorientating experience. Mr Orfield explained that it’s so disconcerting that sitting down is a must. He said: ‘How you orient yourself is through sounds you hear when you walk. In the anechnoic chamber, you don’t have any cues. You take away the perceptual cues that allow you to balance and manoeuvre. If you’re in there for half an hour, you have to be in a chair.’

 

via The Quietest Place on Earth Will Drive You Insane Within 45 Minutes.

 

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