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The Write Way 8 August 2003 Chin-ups on the Milky Way
Greetings, One of the best things about living in an old land (as opposed to an old country or nation), is that there are vast areas where all the "good bits" (read "exploitable") have worn away. Australia is one of the oldest continents on this lovely old planet of ours and we have very few earthquakes, volcanoes or other newfangled active geological forces messing about with the countryside. And because it's so dry, there's little change caused by that other great shaper of modern landscapes, water. As a result we have fossils of some of the oldest life forms known - these were found in the Ediacara Hills, an area in the Flinders Ranges in South Australia.
Read more about totemism here. (You can register with Britannica for 72 free hours to read the article or you can read it for free anytime here. ) Don't you think this is a wonderfully simple way to make children aware of their connection to the land? I wish I'd thought of this when my own kids were born, but I've started looking around for totems for my grandchildren-to-be already! Kids miss such a lot when they spend most of their time in air-conditioned buildings and cars, tethered to a video screen, munching chemically laden snack foods out of plastic bags and never coming into contact with the natural world at all. Every now and then we all have to surround ourselves with open sky. I was watching an interview with a chap called Dick Kimber last week. He's lived much of his life in Alice Springs and this is how he summed up the appeal of the Outback: "I think the beauty of living in Alice Springs is that you can be only 10km out or 1,000km out in the deserts that surround here, and there's a sense of absolute beauty and vastness of land and sky, but also a wonderful sense of silence. The sense of the night sky, the dazzling brilliance of the stars, you really could just about do chin-ups on the Milky Way or reach up and pull down pendants of brilliant stars. But it's better to leave them up there and just enjoy it." Source If you can't get to the Alice to do your own chin-ups on the Milky Way, here are some great photos of what you're missing here. And the Alicecam gives you a bit of an idea about why the night sky is so clear here. What better way to lead into this little ditty by Piet Hein, Danish philosopher, mathematician, scientist and author ? Astro-Gymnastics Do-it-yourself grook Go on a starlit night, stand on your head, leave your feet dangling outwards into space, and let the starry firmament you tread be, for the moment, your elected base. Feel Earth's colossal weight of ice and granite, of molten magma, water, iron, and lead; and briefly hold this strangely solid planet balanced upon your strangely solid head. Isn't that t'riffic? Albert sent it to me and that spurred me on to find more. Here's another: Shun advice There are lots more here you can read a little about Hein here. A "grook," since you've asked, is a pithy piece of wisdom ... philosophy in a nutshell ... an aphorism. The Road to
Wisdom We all have our own beliefs about life, the Universe and everything so why not have a go at writing your own grooks? This week's quiz: Some words to toss about when you're chatting with your palaentology mates: echinoderms, bioluminescence, paleobathymetry, taxonomy, petrify, Vendian, bivalve, amoeba, articulated, oviparous 1. a microscopic, one-celled animal consisting of a naked mass of protoplasm 2. a mollusk having two shells hinged together, as the oyster, clam, or mussel; or any animal with two halves to its shell such as an ostracode or brachiopod. 3. sea animals covered with calcite plates or spines 4. the production of light by living organisms 5. to convert into stone or a stony substance 6. the science dealing with the identification, naming, and classification of plants and animals 7. animals that hatch from eggs 8. the latest period of the Proterozoic era, spanning the time between 650 and 544 million years ago - sometimes referred to as the Ediacaran period is distinguished by fossils representing a characteristic collection of complex soft-bodied organisms found at several localities around the world 9. joints still connected 10.the study of ocean depths and topography of the ocean floor in the geologic past Here's a definition of that term so beloved of scientists who delve into the deep, dark, distant past: Half Life "The span of time required for a thing to deteriorate to 50 percent of its original potency: about 24,000 years for plutonium atoms... a few centuries for great civilizations... three weeks for a hit song... four days for a child's enthusiasm over a new $90 toy... 24 hours for the fresh sense of purpose acquired at a motivational seminar... 15 minutes for the warming afterglow of a "feel-good" movie... ten seconds for a sudden impulse to shove the papers off your desk, slug the boss, and board the next plane to Tahiti." (Thanks to Jim for finding this Out There in cyberspace) It's tax time Down Under so how's this for something that ties together this week's topic with topicality? I want to find a voracious, small-minded predator and name it after the IRS. (Robert Bakker, paleontologist) And the following is for anyone with a degree: The graduate with a
Science degree asks, Last week's quiz: Some terms you can drop into the conversation to impress your mates: synchronisation, resolution, aperture, panning, microphotography, exposure, photomicrography, selenium, halation, emulsion 1. micro-thin layers of gelatin on film in which light-sensitive ingredients are suspended; triggered by light to create a chemical reaction resulting in a photographic image - EMULSION 2. production of "halos" round bright spots in an image, by light reflecting from the back of the film-base - HALATION 3. concerted action of shutter opening and closing of electrical contacts to fire a flashbulb or electronic flash at the correct moment to make most efficient use of the light output - SYNCHRONISATION 4. light-sensitive substance which, when used in a barrier-layer construction, generates electrical current when exposed to light. Used in exposure meters. - SELENIUM 5. hole or opening formed by the metal leaf diaphragm inside the lens or the opening in a camera lens through which light passes to expose the film - APERTURE 6. the ability of a lens to discern small detail - RESOLUTION 7. moving the camera so that the image of a moving object remains in the same relative position in the viewfinder as you take a picture - PANNING 8. the quantity of light allowed to act on a photographic material; a product of the intensity (controlled by the lens opening) and the duration (controlled by the shutter speed or enlarging time) of light striking the film or paper - EXPOSURE 9. the process of making minute photographs of large objects - MICROPHOTOGRAPHY 10.the process of taking photographs of minute objects using a camera and a microscope - PHOTOMICROGRAPHY Speaking of aphorisms (as we were and will), these are doozies: Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you recognize a mistake when you make it again. (F P Jones) Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. (Douglas Adams) Gentility is what is left over from rich ancestors after the money is gone. (John Ciardi) Art is long, and the talk about it is even longer. (William J. Locke) Add your pin to the map of the world: http://pub37.bravenet.com/guestmap/view.php?usernum=3170114826 If you received this newsletter from a friend and you'd like to have your very own copy delivered to you on Friday, just click here: mailto:WritingTips-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and why not spread the word? Send your friends a copy and invite them to join our merry band - we number over 7,000 now. A Little Something Extra An illustrated dictionary of dinosaurs and paleontology (or palaeontology as I prefer to spell it!) here. University of Berkely glossary of terms for paleontologists and biologists - if you can't find the word here, it doesn't exist! Here. Word of the week: Aphorism (n) brief saying embodying a moral; a concise statement of a principle or precept given in pointed words; an adage This word has come a long way, via French, Old French, Late Latin ... but it started as Greek. It's derived from the ancient Greek: aphorizein (to delimit, define). Oxymoron of the week: educated guess This week's Latin phrase is really only one word ... a new name for a dinosaur: Megapnosaurus (Big dead lizard) [meg-AP-noh-sore-oos] Regards, Jennifer P.S. Want to donate to the upkeep of this newsletter? Here's how: 1. Pay by PayPal:
2. Click here to subscribe for a full year OR 3. Use your credit card on my secure order form: http://www.write101.com/fund.htm (You can also access the PayPal subscription link from this page if the link above didn't work for you. With PayPal, you can use your credit card, PayPal account or pay online using your own cheque account.) OR 4. Send a cheque (made payable to Jennifer Stewart): http://www.write101.com/fund.htm To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: mailto:WritingTips-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com or go to the web site, at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WritingTips This menu will also let you change your subscription between digest and normal mode. |
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