On top of the World?

It turns out, it's a little chilly in Chile. Scientists have sacrificed the warmth and oxygen of life at normal altitude for stargazing at 2,500 metres above sea level. Chapped lips, breathlessness and nausea have become a part of their fortnightly trips up Mount Paranal in northern Chile to work at the European Southern Observatory. Jonathan Smoker (professional stargazer, stupidly cool name) has personally experienced the extremes of a dry environment:

'You really feel it when you've been here a long time... Sometimes my hands start to bleed because it's so dry here.'

It turns out, work can actually make you sick. All in the name of human discovery eh? The lightweight atmosphere provides astronomers with the perfect setting for looking into space. And now they're taking us even closer to the action, building the Atacama Large Millimetre/Submillimetre Array (Alma) telescope 5,000 metres above sea level, near the Bolivian border in the Andes mountain range. This incredible technology will allow these space invaders to see into half of the universe that was previously hidden by space dust (the solar variety, not the popping candy). Scary. 

Seeing as I'm a lowly enthusiast, I'll leave it to a professional, John Richer, University of Cambridge lecturer and a project scientist for Alma, to explain:

"When a star forms, it forms in cold, dusty gas clouds. The moment it's formed it's shrouded in this dusty material, out of which only half of the light from a typical star escapes. Many other stars are formed in very dense clouds and their light is completely absorbed by the dust in these clouds."

The Alma telescope will be able to detect the radiation emitted by this dust when it is heated by nearby stars, therefore revealing previously unseen galaxies. When fully functional (completion is set for 2013), it is expected to unveil a new galaxy every three minutes, yet another show of the eternal human quest for knowledge and very impressive technological development. 

For a much more intelligent write up on the Guardian website of this mind-blowing adventure, click here. 

In the mean time, watch the space.. literally.

I wish to be a subject, not an object; to be moved by reasons, by conscious purposes, which are my own, not by causes which affect me, as it were, from outside.


Isaiah Berlin, Two Concepts of Liberty

Lonely Boy

"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them." 


Mark Twain

New Jack Peñate

No One Lied

madretsmA

There are two things I have deduced from my weekend in Amsterdam:

1. Look out for bikes.
2. Weed is the best discovery ever known to man.

For a way of life that is completely backwards to the rest of the world, Amsterdam seems to have it right. Walking along pretty canals in a content haze, looking at the beautifully tall buildings made Amsterdam a much more tranquil place than I was anticipating. I expected my weekend to be interrupted by beer-bellied Brits with their 'LADS ON TOUR' t-shirts and loud cries for naked women. (In all fairness, a quick detour into the red light district did not let me down.) But as we walked around the nicer canals and streets, I started to notice how content and happy people are. They are constantly singing and humming to themselves, nobody is in any rush, and it seems the hustle and bustle of a normal European city is also lost in a fogginess that is not just weather related.

And what a fog that is. Liberty Haze, Pink Kush, Tangerine Dream, White Widow.. The choices were endless. You know you are in a backwards place when adding tobacco to a joint is against the law and 'frowned upon'. Each of these coffee shops cater for all walks of life, providing a snapshot of so many different people and their habits. At first, I entered these places with a sense of naughtiness and rebellion, not knowing where to look or what to say. But then it soon dawned on me that this is a completely normal past time, out in the open, accessible to all and loved by many.

After a quick inhale of the vaporisers and ice bongs, we were off on a wander. We walked and walked and walked. I love a city you can wander around and it not matter where you're going. Everyone and everything is so tall and effortlessly cool. The only traffic on the roads (or what look like pavements but turn out to be roads) are bikes, the only interruptions I had were the words 'Are you lost?' uttered from pleasant locals happy to help, and the odd near collision with a cyclist.

All in all, a very, very successful weekend.. I think.

Amsterdam for the weekend

Hopefully I'll come back as cool as this guy.

Cindy Lue

Blackout!

I always love a good protest, particularly one I can take part in from the comfort of my own home.

Today, thousands of sites have taken part in a 'blackout' move of defiance against the SOPA (and PIPA) bills. Ironically enough, I've used one of these sites to provide definitions of both. (Even more ironically, my good friends in Brixton ended their day yesterday with an actual black out.. spooky.) Initially, I turned to Wikipedia for clarification of the death of a notorious Italian director (after reading this rather heart-warming Telegraph article), and found myself faced with a black screen and small, formal looking text. I thought to myself 'Finally! They've had enough of everyone ignoring their pleas for money at the tops of their pages.' Then I took note of the message they were imposing on me. At the same time, my good friend showed me this rather thought provoking press release from The Pirate Bay. Here is my favourite bit.

''The reason they are always complaining about "pirates" today is simple. We've done what they did. We circumvented the rules they created and created our own. We crushed their monopoly by giving people something more efficient. We allow people to have direct communication between each other, circumventing the profitable middle man, that in some cases take over 107% of the profits (yes, you pay to work for them). It's all based on the fact that we're competition. We've proven that their existence in their current form is no longer needed. We're just better than they are.

And the funny part is that our rules are very similar to the founding ideas of the USA. We fight for freedom of speech. We see all people as equal. We believe that the public, not the elite, should rule the nation. We believe that laws should be created to serve the public, not the rich corporations.''

Deep. They go on to explain that Hollywood justifies their complaints by saying that they provide us consumer folk with 'culture'. This leads to one quite obvious question: If all Hollywood want to provide is culture, then why stop the majority of the public from accessing these beneficial works of art? If movies as intelligent and mindblowing as Cowboys and Aliens or those deemed necessary in the name of 'art' (such as those mentioned in the Telegraph) are classed as 'culture', then please, please, I beg you, let them pass this bloody law. The less I see of Keira 'Ikea' Knightley (geddit? flat and wooden?) and Richard 'silver-haired fox here to save hopeless woman' Gere the better.

Somebody That I Used To Know

Karmic Chameleon

I find myself struggling to post things nowadays, and this evening is no different. Every word I type is laced with whimsy and general apathy and yet, ironically enough, it still consists of a post.  Not only do I risk becoming one of those many bloggers who spend their days pouring their hearts out to their adoring subscribers, but I am also considering deleting this entire paragraph in a vain attempt to write about something poignant or thought-provoking.

And then I thought to myself - actually, I am tired of provoking thought. Why not indulge in some mindless chit-chat? Particularly when just that is few and far between. It's all about liberty(or lack of) and death (which there's plenty of) nowadays.

The particular news articles that got me today was of an 18-month-old boy genuinely being swallowed by the ground, a particularly miserable news story. I know most of us have wished to be swallowed up by the earth beneath us after an embarrassing episode, but I would hope an 18-month-old child did not reach such levels of desperation till at least puberty showed its marvellous face. A casual trip to Iran to see your Grandparents can leave you facing the death penalty. I am exasperated. Nobody is safe from Karmic injustice.

But there's no need to panic, because The Sun is a 'real force of good' to us all. Phew. Here was I thinking that morbid curiosity in the superficial and material things in life is the thing that has led us down the dark road of self-destruction, but of course I must be mistaken. If the self-deceiving editor genuinely believes he has contributed positively to modern-day society then hurrah! We are all saved. I must go out and buy this wonderful contribution to literature and maybe once and for all I will understand all those complicated articles about what Abby from Newcastle wants to do after finishing her Media degree and her breasts become too saggy to photograph.

Oh look! This post has substance. Excellent.

Pokey LaFarge and the South City Three

A very wet New Year's Day

Happy New Year folks. I spent my last hours of 2011 and first hours of 2012 at an awesome night at The Book Club in London, with lots of great soul, funk and disco to start, and a phenomenal reggae set from the Specials legend Jerry Dammers to finish. What an awesome way to start the year, long may it continue.

I thought this song was appropriate for today, in a very rainy London, and Gwen McCrae is one of the many soul divas DJ Format played last night. Happy days.