ENTITY OF CONTEMPLATION

Thoughts on everyday phenomena, albeit the occasional incoherent and eccentric approach.

[othergeeks]

Aviation Vectors by Joel James Devlin, a series of long-exposure photographs of airplanes.

[wildcat2030]

Communicating science to the public takes time away from busy research careers. So why would you do it? I here offer six reasons. First, we owe that understanding to the people who fund our experiments, the taxpaying public. Second, we can leverage our skills as scientists to inspire critical thinking in public and political dialog. Third, researchers are optimally positioned to stem the flow of scientific misinformation in the media. Fourth, we can explain the ways and the means by which science can (and cannot) improve law and social policy. Fifth, it is incumbent upon us to explain what science is and is not: while it is a way of thinking that upgrades our intuitions, it also comes with a deep understanding of (and tolerance for) uncertainty. Finally, we find ourselves in the pleasurable position of being able to share the raw beauty of the world around us - and in the case of neuroscience, the world inside us. I suggest that scientists are optimally stationed to increase their presence in the public sphere: our training positions us to synthesize large bodies of data, weigh the evidence, and communicate with nuance, sincerity and exactitude.

Eagleman Why Public Science Matters JNeurosci.pdf (via wildcat2030)

I wholeheartedly agree! Unfortunately, making science understandable is not an easy (or sometimes altogether even possible) feat.

(via scientiststhesis)

[thecoolsumist]

Everyday Objects Made Unusable by Giuseppe Colarusso

[calebbabcock]

Beauty

[bleu-et-vert-deactivated2014032]

Moscow, Pushkin Square, 1920s.

via.

[scientiststhesis-at-pillowfort]

Human beings have a lot of flaws. So, so many flaws. I’m not talking about character flaws, specifically, but rather cognitive ones. Our mess of a brain was not made to naturally do the kind of computations we have to make to reason correctly, and if we were an AI I’d give us 1/5 stars. Not...

[euruthmos]

I urge you all to read this. He has made the most impressive remark on our tendency to use words recklessly and how that leads to ridiculing the proposed ideas or thoughts, and many other things philosophy-related. It is magnificent. 

[euruthmos]

On Social Networks

I may or may not have been inactive for a while again.

At the moment I am mostly occupied by the bureaucratic work that I need to go through for studying a trinational course in, yes, three countries, so that's kind of maybe a legitimate reason for neglecting tumblr, I guess, perhaps. But looking at my past experiences with social networking sites - is it really?

The major cause for me to leave facebook and twitter was the amount of spam I was getting on my wall and feed - by spam, I actually meant people's live life updates.

Towards the end of the existence of my facebook profile, very few friends' posts made it to my wall. And before I figured out that I could simply unsubscribe from people's posts, I actually unfriended about a third of my facebook friends because I got so sick of reading all the crap and drama that were shoved in my face. Long story short, I didn't want to put up with all the pseudo-socialising anymore.

If you really pay attention to what people post on social networking sites, you'd notice that a lot of them do things for the sake of potentially writing about them on the internet. Yes, some of them are extremely entertaining to read, but it's kind of pathetic at the same time, that someone has put so much effort into making something such a big deal, just to show people across the internet "I'm witty because I notice funny" - no you are not, you are just someone who has developed an OCD to automatically add sarcastic comments in your head to everything that happens, in the hope that they would be hilarious enough to be put on the internet later.

But I guess, we all have that egotistical and superficial side in us that wants to be recognised, because likewise, I am being a hypocrite here by publicising my posts when they contain no educational values whatsoever - if I purely wanted to record my thoughts and life, I very much could do it behind the doors (of the internet) and just save them on Microsoft Word, no?

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It is a bit inconvenient for others if they had to send a separate message to my phone or email when I could be in a facebook group and save them the trouble. Not having facebook is a personal choice, and in theory, people should respect that, but I am in a dilemma where I feel I should compromise. Nowadays you can hardly find someone without a mobile phone. All the forms you fill in assume that you have a phone, just like people expect you to live in a house, that has got an address to it. A few decades ago, phones were not necessities and people's lives went on fine without them; this is not the case anymore in this generation of ours, and the same scenario is happening again, with social networks being the protagonists. 

You can choose to actively seek out opportunities and contact them yourselves, but when opportunities decide not to contact you, you can do nothing about it. I missed out on a few paid gigs because other musicians in my orchestra got the news firsthand on facebook and signed themselves up before I even knew about it - so should I get a facebook account? Hmm. As more and more things are gotten across via the social networking sites, they will eventually become essential to our lives and be one of the legitimate ways of communication. There may even come a day where CV ceases to exist and employers find all of the information about you on your facebook and twitter. Search #igotmyphd and you would find an endorsed video of the person's graduation ceremony by the institution. Doesn't sound like a bad idea at all huh. #savethetrees

[egedesign]

beautiful and smart design by Gökhan Eryaman 

http://www.haydanhuya.com/

[aberminimal]

Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.

Stephen R. Covey (via aberminimal)

[scientiflix]

The Braille Story

Learn how Louis Braille invented the system that sparked Helen Keller to say, “We the blind are as indebted to Louis Braille as mankind is to Gutenberg."

via Stuff of Genius.

[allthingslinguistic]

This video made me wonder how braille handles accented characters, since I’ve only ever seen it for English. Of course, Louis Braille would have spoken French, so sure enough there are also accented braille characters. I also learned from that link that braille has contracted symbols for common English sequences like “and", “tion" and “th". Cool. 

I get the impression that braille has gotten less common since screenreaders and audiobooks are easier to access these days than specially-printed braille books, but I don’t know for sure. 

[lilfluff]

Audiobooks are growing, both commercially and through State Library and the Library of Congress’s Braille and Talking Book programs. That said, my view from the sidelines is that braille is not dead yet. New books are still being produced in braille, and the same software that powers specialty screen readers for the blind can also direct output to braille displays. My sister makes use of both a screen reader and a single partial line braille display (it displays IIRC twenty characters at a time and has both horizontal and vertical scroll wheels). The braille display proves useful for double checking spelling or checking the screen when having the software read things vocally would interfere with other audio.

I vaguely knew about braille contractions from comments my sister made, but first truly learned about them from an interesting article in an issue of The Perl Journal on Braille Contractions and Regular Expressions (http://collaboration.cmc.ec.gc.ca/science/rpn/biblio/ddj/Website/articles/TPJ/1999/vol4_3/tpj0403-0003.html).

It’s also worth noting that the DAISY digital talking book file format supports output of text to braille displays as well as playback of audio. The files contain both audio and marked up text to allow things like reading line-by-line and reporting where you currently would be in a particular print edition of the work.

[allthingslinguistic]

That article is indeed very interesting! Go check it out to learn cool things about the connections between Braille contractions, phonological rules and optimality theory, and regular expressions (regex, often used in Natural Language Processing). Summary: 

This article is about how I used regular expressions to turn common English text into Braille, correctly using all the possible shorthand-like contractions and abbreviations that Braille provides. This is basically a case study in how a messy problem got solved straightaway with Perl - but along the way I’ll mention some of the new features to be found in Perl 5.005’s regular expressions, which I used along the way; and in the end, I find a surprising commonality between regexes and natural language writing systems.

[euruthmos]

Day 16 - A Classical music piece that you used to love but now hate

Vivaldi is very easy to the ear, so when I first heard the suite I thought it was lovely, but clearly many people, including broadcasters, have similar opinions - it's one of the much-hyped classical music repertoires that are played way too often on the radio.

I don't hate it, but I do give an inner eye-roll when I hear it being played. It's occurrence is almost as frequent as Pachelbel's Canon, and we all know how annoying it is when people think that that is all there is in classical music: "Yes yes The Four Seasons - The Spring this one isn't it? Yes yes it's very nice, I really like Vivaldi, I listen to him all the time. He's good, his music is good classical music."

[justinmullet]

[euruthmos]

Justin Mullet

[euruthmos]

Day 15 - A Classical music piece that describes you

There are many ways one can interpret a piece of music and how it represents something or someone. I chose this because, well, it's Tchaikovsky so I will try my earnest to let it fit me. Just kidding.

As much as I love analysing classical music, this, however, I can't do very well. There is no simple way to describe a person with one piece of music alone - we experience so many emotions, go through so many phases in life, that it's impossible to capture all of them and condense these ideas into one. But if I am allowed to give an uncomplicated account for my personality, then Tchaikovsky's Pezzo capriccioso would do a decent job.

Notice how the music changes at 3.23, and then back to the previous style at 4.30 again; if you care to wait for long enough (sometimes not very long at all), that rather crazy side of mine will eventually be unraveled, and it would be done in a similar fashion - at a blink of an eye, with an unexpected frenzy of [insert appropriate/inappropriate term]. I'd grant myself a few adjectives if I could, but words are very limiting as they do what they are worst at in this respect: creating presumptions. It is for certain that my tumblr gives an unrealistic idea of me to you in one way or another, but trying to topple the idea would be equally ludicrous as well.

Either way, enjoy Tchaikovsky and keep chilled. Literally. I am dying from the heat here.

[allthingseurope]

Öschinensee, Switzerland  (by Feffef)

[euruthmos]

Day 14 - A Classical music piece that no one would expect you to love

I do hate the flute. That penetrating screech that literally destroys your eardrums makes me wonder why this instrument was ever created in the first place. But Emmanuel Pahud, this impeccable musician, this harmony bringer, this this wonderful human being, has so successfully rescued the rotten reputation of  the flute.

Isn't this part of Carmen just so beautiful? The flute player we had when we played this was not bad, but she was perhaps nervous about the solo so her performance wasn't consistent. Anyway, what I really don't like about the flute is that it makes the listener, ie. me, feel so tense- apart from Pahud, I don't think I have ever heard any flautist producing a relaxing sound that's not forced, or doesn't contain any air (that wind-y noise, if you know what I'm talking about). Those noises just make them sound so... clumsy.

Enough of the rant. I am in no position to criticise anything since I am currently ONE DAY BEHIND THE CHALLENGE AHHH. The stress. 

[euruthmos]

"We only live once." - On the Road

I should have anticipated this.

[euruthmos]

Day 13 - A Classical music piece that is a guilty pleasure

There's a reason why Julia Fischer is one of my favourite performers. I mean, just listen to that perfect technique and execution... such clear tone quality yet still bursting with emotions. I don't know how she did it, but there was never a squeak or a split of sound in her playing, much like Hilary Hahn who is also perfect technique-wise. The thing with both of them is that even when they attack the strings they still sound pleasant. How?!

The very circumstance that this is a violin concerto is pretty self-explanatory as to why it's a guilty pleasure, since I am a viola player. I have been loving this piece for as long as I can remember and this is probably my favourite violin concerto as well, if not my favourite concerto. It's also one of those pieces that I tend to preach about - if this is not enough a guilty pleasure then I don't know what is! 

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06.10 is absolutely transcendental. I had it as my alarm for a while and everyday I woke up feeling like god.  And please excuse the lacking yesterday, but I don't have a band that I hate.