Emily Dickinson #26

Palmyra, Syria (photo by Bernard Gagnon, 2010)

“This quiet Dust was Gentlemen and Ladies,
And Lads and Girls;
Was laughter and ability and sighing,
And frocks and curls.
This passive place a Summer’s nimble mansion,
Where Bloom and Bees
Fulfilled their Oriental Circuit,
Then ceased like these. ” – Emily Dickinson

Eurovision 2012

Once again, it’s Eurovision time – televised, on this occasion, from Azerbaijan (thank you, SBS). Some high votes were more or less as I expected – Spain for Romania (10), Greece and Cyprus for each other (12), votes within the Balkan bloc, and votes for Turkey and Russia. The big votes, however, were for Sweden’s Euphoria (I preferred Serbia, which came in third, but Sweden were the favourites going into the final).

Many of the songs this year seemed to be about tragic breakups, and when Germany’s Roman Lob sang “guess we knew this was coming on ... I’m standing still as you leave me now,” I took that as a metaphor for the inevitable departure of Greece from the Eurozone.

Something old, something new, something borrowed

I recently watched (in UK English) Arrietty, from the great Studio Ghibli. The film is based on the 1952 children’s novel The Borrowers. I was looking forward to this, and it was rather fun.

Dry Storeroom No. 1: a book review

Dry Storeroom No. 1 by Richard Fortey

Richard Fortey’s Dry Storeroom No. 1 is a book in praise of museums. Specifically, of the Natural History Museum in London, where he worked behind the scenes (sadly, I missed this venerable institution on my various trips to England).

The Natural History Museum, South Kensington (photo by “Valérie75,” 2007)

Founding father Richard Owen’s vision of the museum is described by Fortey as “a kind of paean to the Creator, a magnificent tribute to the glory of His works, a roll call of the splendid species created by His munificence and love for mankind.” A worthy goal, indeed!

Every museum needs a dinosaur – and founding father Richard Owen coined the term (photo by “Drow male,” 2008)

In a short story, Roger Zelazny once wrote that “museums mirror the past, which is dead, the present, which never notices, and transmit the race’s cultural heritage to the future, which is not yet born. In this they are near to being temples of religion.”

Museums “transmit the race’s cultural heritage to the future” (photo by Etan J. Tal, 2012)

However, museums of natural history also have a critical research role in scientific classification, and Fortey provides an inside view of how this works. For example, by 1980 the Natural History Museum had over 22 million specimens – just of insects!

In this behind-the-scenes photo, one can almost smell the formaldehyde (photo by “Loxlie,” 2006)

The book contains several interesting historical anecdotes, such as the story of the man fired for chasing the Loch Ness Monster.

The Museum did not look kindly on staff hunting monsters here at Loch Ness (photo by Sam Fentress, 2005)

One of the Museum’s treasures (described in the book as locked away, but now on show in an exhibit called “The Vault”) is an amethyst donated by Edward Heron-Allen and allegedly carrying an ancient curse – or so Heron-Allen’s letter says.

The Heron-Allen amethyst, “cursed and stained with blood” (photo from the Museum)

Overall, a well-written book, and a great read (if you love museums).

Dry Storeroom No. 1 by Richard Fortey: 3½ stars

Emily Dickinson #25

Public domain photo by “CuteHappyBrute,” 2007

“Adrift! A little boat adrift!
And night is coming down!
Will no one guide a little boat
Unto the nearest town?

So sailors say, on yesterday,
Just as the dusk was brown,
One little boat gave up its strife,
And gurgled down and down.

But angels say, on yesterday,
Just as the dawn was red,
One little boat o’erspent with gales
Retrimmed its masts, redecked its sails
Exultant, onward sped! ” – Emily Dickinson

3... 2... 1...

SpaceX are about to launch the second of their COTS Demo Flights, using the Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon spacecraft (as they did in 2010). Launch is scheduled for 1 hour and 30 minutes from now, and a webcast will be available at www.spacex.com.

The 2010 launch

Update: the launch was aborted just after ignition, and is tentatively rescheduled for 22 May.

Ready for a launch that didn’t happen, May 2012

Update 2: the launch succeeded, second time ‘round.

SpaceX.com coverage of launch: lift-off at 44:43, spacecraft separation at 54:10, solar array deployment at 56:20, tear-wipe at 58:31

Update 3: on 25 May, Dragon docked with the International Space Station. Well done, guys!

Religious change in the US

A few years back, blogger Michael Bell produced this clever visualisation of some US Pew Forum data, specifically changes in religious affiliation from childhood (top) to adulthood (bottom).

Image from here, with follow-up here. Click to expand.

Notice that Atheism (red) is growing, although half of those brought up Atheist convert. Catholicism (green) is losing people both to Atheism and Evangelicalism (immigration keeps their total numbers up). Evangelical numbers (yellow) hold steady, but with a great deal of churn.

Bell also points out that most religious life decisions are made by age 23.

Machine Gun Preacher

I recently watched Machine Gun Preacher on DVD. The film is based on the story of former drug-using outlaw biker Sam Childers.

The story begins with Childers’ release from prison to rejoin his wife (converted during his absence: “How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband?”), but mostly describes his work among Sudanese children orphaned by the LRA. An important topic, although the film could have been better-edited and was not quite as good as it could have been. Still, it was certainly informative, thought-provoking, and worth watching.

Hymn for the day

From the Liturgy of St James:

“Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
And with fear and trembling stand;
Ponder nothing earthly minded,
For with blessing in His hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
Our full homage to demand.

King of kings, yet born of Mary,
As of old on earth He stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture,
In the body and the blood;
He will give to all the faithful
His own self for heavenly food.

Rank on rank the host of heaven
Spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of light descendeth
From the realms of endless day,
That the powers of hell may vanish
As the darkness clears away.

At His feet the six wingèd seraph,
Cherubim with sleepless eye,
Veil their faces to the presence,
As with ceaseless voice they cry:
Alleluia, Alleluia
Alleluia, Lord Most High!”