Audiosurf looks like a freakin’ awesome game, and I want it, but it’s Windows only, so no sale.

Bring out a Mac version and we’ll talk.

This is a counter rant, so please excuse me. It regards a YouTube video parody turning a David Lynch comment on tiny cellphone screens being used to watch movies, into an iPhone commercial. A sensible debate in the ghettos of the YouTube comment system is beyond fanciful, so this gets a blog post instead. Take a look;

Ya think? Look here, cranky (all of Lynch, the person who made this parody and the person who posted it), no one is going to exclusively watch a worthwhile movie on the iPhone. If they do, they are indeed missing out. No one in their right mind does that. When I get an iPhone or an iPod touch, I’m going to have videos, cartoons and maybe even movies on it. Not because I think I’m experiencing the media in the manner the creator intended, but because I’ll be experiencing entertainment on a portable device in a manner I see fit. Quite frankly, with the horrendous drivel coming out of Hollywood these days, I don’t think I’d be missing much watching most movies on a 4″ screen. Either that or there’s some kind of special magic I’ll rob myself of, if I don’t watch Napoleon Dynamite or Borat in a theatre.

Get off your pretentious high horse you arrogant fucks, no one cares what you think. All we care about is having a sexy phones (this goes for any of the new generation phones with those nice, big, bright, gorgeous screens) with the ABILITY to play video. End of story.

Sorry about all that, here’s something to lighten the mood (since it’s so freakin’ awesome). God is a DJ;

Sweet zombie jesus, what the hell was that wooshing sound? 2007 you say? What? The whole year? Done? Crap.

As difficult as it is for me to believe, it’s two thousand and eight. That being 2007 years since an arbitrary date picked by a monk called Dionysius Exiguus (or Dennis the Little in the common tongue). Let me quote from Wikipedia to illustrate just how arbitrary our year numbering is;

When he devised his table, Julian calendar years were identified by naming the consuls who held office that year — he himself stated that the “present year” was “the consulship of Probus Junior [Flavius Probus]“, which he also stated was 525 years “since the incarnation [conception] of our Lord Jesus Christ”. How he arrived at that number is unknown.

So he could have, in all probability, simply pulled out a number he thought sounded about right straight out of his cushy monk arse and decreed it year 1, rather than year 0 (which doesn’t actually exist, but would have been much more sensible and useful).

2007 was good.
In terms of things geological; I got my MSc research done, went to Hawai’i to show the world what I’d achieved and launched my geology-themed blog goodSchist around the same time my favourite snowboarding mountain erupted.
In terms of the internet, I got locked into a YouTube battle I should have thought twice about before entering (not because I can’t hold my own, but because very few people online know how to have a fucking scientific debate without resorting to school-yard name calling). I was deeply saddened by the untimely passing of Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe co-host Perry DeAngelis. I also discovered and then proceeded to waste unseemly amounts of time on Facebook – a site I will become more and more dependant on in order to keep in touch with my friends as I branch out into the world.
In terms of my life in general; I joined a gym and lost quite a few kilos before I took off to Hawai’i, but I’m pretty sure they’re all back on now (though they’ll no doubt disappear as I trek through the Aussie outback in the next couple of years). I remained dirt poor throughout what was my last full year as a student. I was instrumental in winning a lawn bowls competition at the beginning of the year, landing me and 7 other geologists with a pallet of beer (that’s 120 dozen, or 1440 individual bottles/cans), which we are still trying to finish. I also met a girl (and that’s all you need to know about that : )

So all in all, a pretty tip top year.

2008 brings us many hopeful prospects. First and foremost, it’s the International Year of the Potato (apparently) and closer to my interests, it’s also the International Year of Planet Earth (about time I reckon). 2008 is also the year I’ll finally hand in my MSc thesis and get my life back on track by starting a career in the mighty world of geology (most probably related to mining up the Australian outback). What started more than 5 years ago with the thought “I should probably get back to getting a degree”, is almost at a close with the thought “I should probably get a damn job”. Before I can make the final steps towards the latter of those thoughts, I need to finish my thesis, so I’ll leave this combined retrospect/prospect post here and get back to writing about magnesium isotopes.

I hope everyone out there has a fun and happy 2008 without putting too much more CO₂ into the air.

Yep. My research has taken me to many places. The electron microprobe laboratory, the geochemistry lab, and my office. All of which reside within a massive 30 metre radius. But later today, I’m on a plane, off to Hawai’i for the Lunar and Planetary Institute Workshop on the Chronology of Meteorites and the Early Solar System (MetChron 2007), (and here’s a link to the pdf of my abstract, if you’re interested).

Since I’m getting my tickets paid to and from Hawai’i, thanks to travel grants, I’ve also decided to spend a few days bumming around on the beaches on Maui and the Big Island while I’m there. It’d frankly be a waste not to waste time on the beach. Double negatives aside, I’m quite excited I’m getting overseas again. The last time I departed the sweet shores of Aotearoa was back in 2002 on my fourth trip to the UK (a pretty sweet trip, but so many years ago).

Here’s the thing. I’m going to be living cheap. Really cheap. I’m a lowly student with little cash to spend on luxuries like accommodation or washing clothes. That combined with my OCD-like minimalist philosophy mean I’m obsessing with packing as little as possible to survive for the 12 days I’ll be away. Since I’ll be living cheap, I want to take as few valuables as I can deal with, to the extent I’m considering leaving my precious (now fixed) iPod at home and going music-free for almost 2 madness-inducing weeks. At the moment I’m taking as many hole-free pairs of boxers and socks as I can find, combined with a few t-shirts, 3 pairs of shorts and pair of jeans. I may even take a towel, but I’m still debating whether that sensible or not….

I want a single small bag to carry everything, but taking one small carry-on bag on a trip for two weeks will no doubt arouse suspicion with those overly-paranoid goombas at customs. So rather than risking the rubber glove, I’m going to “pack” all my clothes into a bigger backpack, check that through into luggage, and then discard it once I get to Hawai’i, along with my less-liked clothing once they’ve been worn to a point where they’d normally need washing. If I need more clothing I’ll just go to the “WalMart, which I believe is where all the cool kids in the America States get their clothing.

So, now I’ve no doubt set off red flags in the governmental agencies which read blogs, with my talking of buying clothes at WalMart, I’m going to get back to “packing”. I’ll try and keep updates going if I can get to the internets while on the islands.

Woo, that just gave me a huge stroke of déjà vu for some reason. I should get some sleep.

A couple of weeks back I launched goodSchist, a blog dedicated entirely to my interests in earth science. I decided I wanted to be part of the Accretionary Wedge – an earth science themed blog carnival. Rather than putting my posts here with all the other bullshit I post about, I thought that making a new site, with a layout I’ve been working on for ages (originally intended for another site I “run”), would be the way to do it.

I’ve got a podcast in the works (or, as I’m calling it, a podClast – just to stick with the geology puns). I’ve also got a few articles I’ve been working on for this site, getting closer to a state where I can post them on goodSchist.

So, if you’re interested in geology or science in general, take a look at goodSchist. It’s good shit.

I just accidentally broke the screen on my 4 GB iPod Nano. I fucking loved that thing. It’s now a worthless 4 GB iPod shuffle. What a waste.

Apple are supposed to be unveiling some new iPod today, though, as luck would have it, so maybe I can save up some extra cash and buy one of those when they come out. Stupid breakable electronics….

Richard Dawkins’ latest Channel 4 series, and sequel to Root of all Evil? is entitled The Enemies of Reason. In it, Dawkins takes a scientific look at the enormous industries of alternative medicine, faith healing and other rubbish superstition. Channel4 in the UK has posted both episodes on Google Video, which means I can post them here. Enjoy.

Part 1 (48 Minutes from http://video.google.com/)

Part 2 (48 Minutes, from http://video.google.com/)

There are few things in this world that get me genuinely angry. Religion and anti-intellectualism are two of them and pseudo science is another. It is the latter this article concerns.

Neal Adams is a world-famous comic book artist, renowned for his work on the comic books Green Lantern and Batman. He is also a prominent supporter of the expanding earth hypothesis – a hypothesis that was superceded by the theory of plate tectonics more than 40 years ago.

Eccentric artists are fine by me, but when someone comes out and starts making claims that a large portion of science is wrong, offering nothing more than some fancy animations to support such claims, real scientists like me have to step in. Neal Adams not only thinks plate tectonics is wrong, but through our extensive discussions on YouTube (yes, I know, YouTube is the bottom of the barrel), has stated the following beliefs;

• The moon is hollow, rings like a bell
• An Elephant defines the maximum land animal size (tell that to mammoths)
• If elephants walked like other animal with bent legs their bones would snap
• Planets don’t orbit the sun because of gravity, they do so because of the sun’s magnetic field
• The moon is held in orbit by the earth’s magnetic filed
• Mountains have been growing for only the last 50 million years
• The planet increases in size exponentially
• All of Geology supports a growning Earth (none of it does)
• Geology theory says the silicates get DENSER going down (strictly speaking, no)
• A day can’t get longer without Earth getting bigger (the day length relys on the Earth-Moon gravitational system and the angular momentum thereof)
• COLD comes from deep and rises
• Heat does NOT rise
• Earth’s centre of gravity is at the planet’s core
• Magnetic fields travel faster than light
• Rocks that form the Himalayas have always been above the sea
• COMET Schumacher Levi 9 was an asteroid
• Comets don’t fracture.
• Water was and is made in the core of the Earth
• Earth and the other planets did not differentiate
• Elements heavier than iron aren’t made via fusion
• …and many other baseless, stupid claims

To put it lightly, his claims and refusal to accept he’s wrong make my blood boil. So much so that I’ve produced two video replies to him.

These videos are the first of many I hope to make, time and gusto permitting. The first video is Neal’s first expanding earth film and my nit-pick on the details he presented regarding the southern hemisphere.

Neal’s Video:

My response:

There was a very flattering (to me) and damning (to Neal), post over at postpolitical entitled Mud From Space.The article also archives a long discussion series from the YouTube comment thread where I take to task a couple of Neal’s supporters. At times when I post enraged comments directed at some people, I think I’m behaving like a complete dick. But being able to read through a thread as posted previously makes me feel quite a bit better about my angry defence of science.

My second response concerns a second video of Neal’s which claims Pangea couldn’t have existed due to a straw man he built based on an appeal to personal incredulity. I’ve been working on this reply for some time, even before I posted the previous reply. A page summarising my reply can be found here: RE: Neal Adams Pangea

Neal’s Video:

My response:

My efforts will not change Neal’s mind, because from what I can tell, he is unconcerned with evidence counter to his own claims, or listening to people with any experience or expertise. My hope is my efforts will prevent people from subscribing to Neal’s baseless, ridiculous pseudo-science and help encourage scientific enquiry and skepticism in the face of loud, scientific ignorance.

Neal Adams is to geology what Kent Hovind and Ken Ham are to evolution. Completely irrelevant and a good belly laugh for anyone with a clue.

I had the dubious “honour” of coming across this video on YouTube today, watch it and keep your scientific wits about you. Actually, the slightest shred of common sense will suffice;

Let me spare you the torturous, septic YouTube comments that resulted and tackle a few points about this video (most comments were anti-muslim, or racist or outrageously retarded regarding the age of some of the commenters).

Firstly, as should be blindingly obvious, this guy doesn’t have a clue about science. There’s no magnetic “zero” zone on earth, because the Earth’s magnetic field flows in a single vector around the planet. Here’s a brief run-down on the magnetosphere from the American Geophysical Union. If you’re in the southern hemisphere, your compass needle still points to the north. The only time it’ll point to the south is during geomagnetic reversal, in which case everyone’s compasses point to the geographic south (which becomes the polar north).
Secondly, the basalts around Mecca are not the oldest rocks in the world, that honour is awarded to zircon crystals from the Jack Hills in Australia. Mecca sits on the Arabian Shield which formed during the late Archean, at ~2500 Ma (at least according to the Saudi Geological Survey). The Jack Hills zircons are ~4100 Ma, so maybe Australia should be Islam’s most holy site? I didn’t think so

The rocks from the temples around Mecca are not made from pre-solar material. The chances that the only major, preserved pre-solar material fall in the world being the material those temples are made from is, excuse the pun, astronomical. Even if it were pre-solar material, there’d be a huge amount of pre-solar material elsewhere on Earth, and I’d probably be studying it.

There is no “infinite” radiation being emitted from Mecca. Infinity doesn’t exist for one thing. Secondly, if this is radiation pointing to heaven, then heaven changes its position every second of every day of every year. We live in a heliocentric solar system, not a geocentric universe.

I have an equally low respect for Islam as I do for all other religions. But I have an even lower respect for people pretending to be scientists (I’ll be taking to Neal in a later post) and others believing the bullshit they spin.

I’m out.

via Astronomy Buzz;

COROT has provided its first image of a giant planet orbiting another star and the first bit of ‘seismic’ information on a far away, Sun-like star, with unexpected accuracy.

The ESA (European Space Agency) satellite COROT (COnvection ROtation and planetary Transits) is designed in part to measure the variations in light waves from stars when an exoplanet transits its stellar parent. This can be summed up simply with the following image from the ESA;

The first planet imaged is a gas giant with a radius 1.78 times that of Jupiter (or 127,255 km), which completes an orbit of its star every 36 hours.

The exceptionally cool thing about these results is the accuracy to which this luminescent variance has been measured. So accurate that imaging a planet the size of the Earth is possible. From the ESA Portal;

The unanticipated level of accuracy of this raw data shows that COROT will be able to see rocky planets – perhaps even as small as Earth – and possibly provide an indication of their chemical composition.

Measuring the variance in the light frequencies is a good way of determining the composition of something as light passes through. This means that determining the make-up of a rocky exoplanet’s atmosphere is perhaps possible with COROT.

COROT could herald a new age of exoplanet discovery, which is awesome. We need a new home.