Me & Jan are currently obsessed with the latest American series of So You Think You Can Dance. I am downloading it from the States immediately after it goes to air, the first time I’ve done that for a reality show. Unfortunately I have discovered the chances of getting spoiled are MUCH higher for reality shows. Sadly I keep accidentally finding out who has gone as the file is downloading. Bloody AfterEllen.com keep putting it in the ACTUAL TITLE of the post, so that there is no way to avoid it, apart from avoiding one of my favourite websites.

Anyway here are some of my favourite dances from the series so far:

Robert Muraine - Popper Audition
Mind blowing popper! Never seen anything like it!

Joshua and Katee - Bollywood
Funky groovy Bollywood greatness!

Read the rest of this entry »

Have just upgraded the site to WordPress 2.6. It looks pretty schmicko here in Admin let me tell you! Must get around to making the site work in IE too… cursed IE. Oh, and posting something, that would be good too.

I have been struck down with a cold - just sneezing a lot, feeling achy of bone, and generally crapola. Struggling on doing a bit of work but it is very hard to concentrate on programming when your head is filled with snot. Archie’s been home from school also. And worst of all, last night I had to cancel my planned evening of beer and Lego Star Wars on the Wii at Ned’s house! Alas!

So tonight, it will be pizza, Big Brother, maybe a bit of So You Think You Can Dance - yes, really high brow stuff - as I lie on the couch and feel sorry for myself.

Well, June was a bit of a write off in terms of blogging. I had end-of-semester exams which pretty much took up every spare moment. The physics exam went pretty well I thought, but calculus was a nightmare! An hour and a half is not enough time for an examination!! I didn’t finish it and am pretty sure that I failed, unless everyone else did really badly as well. Never mind! There’s got to be one paper that you are severely tested on, and Calculus is definitely mine. If I have to repeat it at summer school, so be it.

Yesterday I slipped over on a piece of Lego (thanks, kids!) and whacked my forearm really hard on the wooden arm of the sofa. It really fracking hurt and was very tender, so I got Jan to take me to the hospital, just in case. Embarrassingly, it didn’t even hurt by the time I got there (after having ice on it on the way there!) The doctor was very nice to me though. It is still very tender today and gets a bit sore if I use the computer for too long. Still, I predict a full recovery!

Excited this weekend about my first weekend with no studying for a long time! It’s my Aunt Deborah’s 60th birthday and we are going out for a big family dinner tomorrow night which I am very much looking forward to. We even have a babysitter! Also we are going to see Kung Fu Panda tomorrow morning - Archie has been looking forward to it for about two months and watching the trailer on the internet at least ten times a day. Should be good!

Just in time for my exams, adult swim have released the third installment of their insanely fun online game, Amateur Surgeon. There is something immensely satisfying about cutting someone’s stomach open with a pizza cutter and then stapling and cauterising them back together again… give it a go!

[UPDATE:] My god, the first level is insanely hard! I’ve killed poor Trent about ten times… those scorpions… argh

The sky was a funny red colour tonight after raining all day. Australian skies are definitely different from NZ. I felt like I was on Mars!

A great lecture by a brain researcher who herself suffered a stroke. And it’s a good chance to see a real human brain on a platter!

There are lots of other great talks on the TED website as well.

Jill Bolte Taylor got a research opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: She had a massive stroke, and watched as her brain functions — motion, speech, self-awareness –- shut down one by one. An astonishing story.

I watched this movie last night, and after hearing numerous bad reports, I was prepared to be disappointed. But I thought it was fantastic! As a big fan of the books, I appreciated that the adaptation was pretty faithful, aside from toning down the religious overtones a bit. Nicole Kidman was perfect as Mrs Coulter and everything was beautifully rendered… so I heartily recommend it, but if you haven’t read the books yet, do yourself a favour and read those first because they ROCK!

Astounding photos today of a tribe found in the Amazon, in Brazil, that are as yet uncontacted by “civilization”. The pics were taken by a Brazilian government department which is in charge of such tribes, and keeps the land around them untouched in “Ethno-Environmental Protected Areas”. Apparently in this one Area there are 4 different tribes who know nothing of each other or of the outside world.

Here’s one of the photos:

Smile, you’re on Candid Camera! I mean, if you’re not going to contact these tribes, why the f fly over them in a plane taking happy snaps? Surely that rather gives the game away?

It’s an interesting ethical dilemma though. Obviously the Brazilians have decided it’s best to not contact these tribes and leave them to their own autonomy. But is there a duty to contact them and bring them the benefits of modern medicine? Or is the likely outcome their decimation by foreign microbes anyway? I guess it’s never turned out well in the past. But how long can you keep these people uncontacted? Will they never be integrated with the rest of humanity?

My favourite uncontacted tribe are the Sentinelese, who live on an island in the Andaman Islands near India. Whenever anyone from the outside attempts to land on the island, the Sentinelese immediately attack and kill them - most recently two fishermen in 2006. They even drove off the helicopter that was attempting to collect the bodies with a hail of arrows. Thus it is assumed that they pretty much don’t want to be contacted, so they are now left to their own devices.

Check here for a full list of known uncontacted peoples.