So I decided to go catch the Brian Dunning and Rebecca Watson talk last Wednesday. Awesome! A ton of skeptics were there, including the Victorian Skeptics and University Secular Society of Uni Melbourne. Possibly other groups. Anyways, friendly people. Some let me sit at their table! Anyways, Dunning, from Skeptoid spoke on "Strange Sounds" recorded underwater, from numbers stations, and backwards masking, etc. Fun talk! Rebecca, from The Skeptics Guide to the Universe and Skepchick gave a hilarious talk on "How to Ruin Christmas." I chatted one-on-one after the Q&A session with Brian, totally cool guy!
-Matt
Showing posts with label Skeptics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Skeptics. Show all posts
Friday, December 3, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Bitten
So I had a pretty interesting day. It started off with me missing the tram I was hoping to score, and then taking another tram. But, if I didn't take the alternative one, I wouldn't have seen the dude ralphing into the trash can. Definitely an awesome wake-up for the morning! Well, it wasn't a lot of spew, just some orange crap into the trash can. Looked like he was just spitting when I caught him.
THEN! After work I went to the Victorian Skeptics meeting where Lynne Kelly gave her mega-awesomeness thesis on Stonehenge. Freakin' amazing! I was utterly overcome by the way cool research she has conducted. Amazing speaking skills too. I later realized that my research has an easier means of expressing results, numbers! I can show the efforts of my research via measurements and not historical "facts" that are related against multiple cultures!
After that awesome and quite enjoyable lecture, I decided to walk home. In doing so, I strolled through the Carlton Gardens, it wasn't terribly cold so the walk was rather peaceful. Anyways, I came across two females in the park, apparently possum-whisperers! They were feeding possums in the park! A bunch of Australia-style possums (not the Virginia Possum), some in the tree, the others on the ground. Well, at least one in the tree. One had a baby on its back! Well, I strolled up, quietly, to the girls. I had to greet a possum! One of the ladies gave me an apple to feed the possums. The little critter mistook my finger for the apple and bit me, not hard. It was so cool! It made my night! And you know what, it was a little later after I was back on the trail home, that I realized. Life should have a unique definition per individual. However, as a species, we have a few traits that we have yet to evolve from. Mainly, it seems many of us, including myself, and probably most people in corporate America, turn into robots. Like fearing change, we do the same thing every day. Robot. However, it seems a trait that has been ingrained in our species is that of the enjoyment for sheer experience. So my definition of life is merely the following: experience, and learning. The possums opened my mind!
-Matt
THEN! After work I went to the Victorian Skeptics meeting where Lynne Kelly gave her mega-awesomeness thesis on Stonehenge. Freakin' amazing! I was utterly overcome by the way cool research she has conducted. Amazing speaking skills too. I later realized that my research has an easier means of expressing results, numbers! I can show the efforts of my research via measurements and not historical "facts" that are related against multiple cultures!
After that awesome and quite enjoyable lecture, I decided to walk home. In doing so, I strolled through the Carlton Gardens, it wasn't terribly cold so the walk was rather peaceful. Anyways, I came across two females in the park, apparently possum-whisperers! They were feeding possums in the park! A bunch of Australia-style possums (not the Virginia Possum), some in the tree, the others on the ground. Well, at least one in the tree. One had a baby on its back! Well, I strolled up, quietly, to the girls. I had to greet a possum! One of the ladies gave me an apple to feed the possums. The little critter mistook my finger for the apple and bit me, not hard. It was so cool! It made my night! And you know what, it was a little later after I was back on the trail home, that I realized. Life should have a unique definition per individual. However, as a species, we have a few traits that we have yet to evolve from. Mainly, it seems many of us, including myself, and probably most people in corporate America, turn into robots. Like fearing change, we do the same thing every day. Robot. However, it seems a trait that has been ingrained in our species is that of the enjoyment for sheer experience. So my definition of life is merely the following: experience, and learning. The possums opened my mind!
-Matt
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Whore, Skeptics, Wombat, Nerds Oh Myyyyy!!!
Sooo, in-lieu of meeting people, I have been fairly prevalent. So lets see, where should I begin.
Well a few nights ago, a rather cute young woman caught me waiting to cross the street, near the street corner where I live. She was nice, and it was cold out, and she made mention of the cold weather. This cute young woman then asked if I was looking for a girl. My hoe-meter immediately turned to "ALERT ALERT POSSIBLE STDS IN THE VACINITY." I basically said I was going home, and walked away. She was nice, and I was quite flattered that such a nice question was presented to me, I assume she was a prostitute, but that might also be my bias or my American preconceptions coming out. She was nice, cute, and well I can't say that she actually looked like a rent-a-chick, but all of her questions/statements (cold weather and am I looking for a girl) just seems to me to be a hint of something I want nothing to do with. Either way, I am still flattered.
On Monday I went to the Victorian Skeptics meeting (a branch of the Australian Skeptics group). Nice group of people. The speaker, Don Hyatt, spoke on the "Problem with Education." The latter being an perspective of the Australian educational establishment. His talk should be available on their site. It was a fantastic talk, however I was kinda hoping more for the Intelligent Design vs Evolution in school talk. It was little on that, which I inferred from the agenda posted online. I won a chocolate (not vegan) treat "Freddo" for asking a question. I kinda just let the chocolate sit on the table as if I forgot I had won something. I met some really cool people there, and even ran into one of the board gamers from the meeting last Saturday.
After leaving the Skeptics meeting, I needed to score some bread. Not money, but actual processed flour concoction. Unlike the states, and Mitch from the local hackergroup concurs, the ingredients on Australian food products is much shorter than all the bullpoop we put in the American stuff. Why? Probably because we Americans have to have chemical crap in all of our foods to monetarily benefit the big-wigs of the food-producing world. How else could we peddle off flouride, or get rid of depleted uranium? Ok ok thats the mini-conspiracy-Matt coming out. Anyways, as I was on the way to the store I saw, what I first thought might be a racoon, or maybe a fox, but as I got closer, it was some creature I had never seen in the wild before, I think it was a wombat! Sweet! It was mega-cute and chill, kinda like opossums in the states. I think it was a wombat, maybe a wallaby instead?
And then tonight, Tuesday, I attended the Connected Community Hacker Space (CCHS), a local Melbourne hacker group. It was so cool. I met Mitch and George on the tram and they directed me to train system, and to the house where the meeting was. They walk like they are on a mission, their iron-legs. I felt totally weak in their presence. They were much fun, and lots of cool people were met at the space! They were all totally welcoming, and Mitch really made me feel welcome by saying he thought I would fit in well. Really he and George have been great help just talking with them over the net. The space had a makerbot, and made a police whistle deal, with the ball in the middle! Cool device. I suggested making a Cap'n' Crunch Whistle to generate useless bluebox tones (2600Hz). I also thought it might be cool to fabricate a whole nativity scene out of toast. That might do nice on ebay. Kinda like one-upping the "holy" images that people claim to have been presented to them by their toaster. Seems like a humorous message to me. If the toaster here starts sending me messages, like a holy-fax-machine of processed carbs, that might freak me a tad.
Well a few nights ago, a rather cute young woman caught me waiting to cross the street, near the street corner where I live. She was nice, and it was cold out, and she made mention of the cold weather. This cute young woman then asked if I was looking for a girl. My hoe-meter immediately turned to "ALERT ALERT POSSIBLE STDS IN THE VACINITY." I basically said I was going home, and walked away. She was nice, and I was quite flattered that such a nice question was presented to me, I assume she was a prostitute, but that might also be my bias or my American preconceptions coming out. She was nice, cute, and well I can't say that she actually looked like a rent-a-chick, but all of her questions/statements (cold weather and am I looking for a girl) just seems to me to be a hint of something I want nothing to do with. Either way, I am still flattered.
On Monday I went to the Victorian Skeptics meeting (a branch of the Australian Skeptics group). Nice group of people. The speaker, Don Hyatt, spoke on the "Problem with Education." The latter being an perspective of the Australian educational establishment. His talk should be available on their site. It was a fantastic talk, however I was kinda hoping more for the Intelligent Design vs Evolution in school talk. It was little on that, which I inferred from the agenda posted online. I won a chocolate (not vegan) treat "Freddo" for asking a question. I kinda just let the chocolate sit on the table as if I forgot I had won something. I met some really cool people there, and even ran into one of the board gamers from the meeting last Saturday.
After leaving the Skeptics meeting, I needed to score some bread. Not money, but actual processed flour concoction. Unlike the states, and Mitch from the local hackergroup concurs, the ingredients on Australian food products is much shorter than all the bullpoop we put in the American stuff. Why? Probably because we Americans have to have chemical crap in all of our foods to monetarily benefit the big-wigs of the food-producing world. How else could we peddle off flouride, or get rid of depleted uranium? Ok ok thats the mini-conspiracy-Matt coming out. Anyways, as I was on the way to the store I saw, what I first thought might be a racoon, or maybe a fox, but as I got closer, it was some creature I had never seen in the wild before, I think it was a wombat! Sweet! It was mega-cute and chill, kinda like opossums in the states. I think it was a wombat, maybe a wallaby instead?
And then tonight, Tuesday, I attended the Connected Community Hacker Space (CCHS), a local Melbourne hacker group. It was so cool. I met Mitch and George on the tram and they directed me to train system, and to the house where the meeting was. They walk like they are on a mission, their iron-legs. I felt totally weak in their presence. They were much fun, and lots of cool people were met at the space! They were all totally welcoming, and Mitch really made me feel welcome by saying he thought I would fit in well. Really he and George have been great help just talking with them over the net. The space had a makerbot, and made a police whistle deal, with the ball in the middle! Cool device. I suggested making a Cap'n' Crunch Whistle to generate useless bluebox tones (2600Hz). I also thought it might be cool to fabricate a whole nativity scene out of toast. That might do nice on ebay. Kinda like one-upping the "holy" images that people claim to have been presented to them by their toaster. Seems like a humorous message to me. If the toaster here starts sending me messages, like a holy-fax-machine of processed carbs, that might freak me a tad.
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