A Collection of Daily Wisdom by Dennis Sylvester Hurd since September 2003.

Okay, a blog is merely an electronic blank sheet. What one does with that can really be anything. A blog could be a diary, a place to spew venom, or a place exercise the freedom of expression. But dare I say most personal blogs are just cheap, vanity press?

In pondering the importance of the space program in my life, I realized that many of the students that I'm currently teaching are around 20 years old. This means the first steps on the moon occurred fifteen years before they were born. It's a fair bet that the event, although historic, does not hold a fascination for them.

It was important for me, however. I was within days of turning 10 years old. The hop off the ladder onto lunar soil happened on July 20, 1969 and my birthday is on the 23rd.

With geeky glasses and the nerdy hair, I guess the love of space was inevitable!

Labels: glasses

Somehow this week's much-heralded photos from Mars didn't make as large an impact on me as they should have.

So, I spent quite a bit of time searching around the Internet for the historic event event mentioned in yesterday's entry. Then, I needed to convert the clip so that it'd play over a non-broadband connection. I quickly discovered a new appreciation for the rich, colour photos that the Mars Rover Mission has snapped. Still, they pale in comparison to the emotional impact of this event:



Click the player to watch a 1:01-minute, b&w, broadcast clip of man's first step on the moon. (This Windows Media Player file requires the minimum of a solid 56K modem connection.)

Labels: Mediaplayer

President Bush hadn't recently been in personal contact, I swear! So, how'd I know that space exploration would be in the news today? Why'd I write about space exploration exactly fifteen hours before this article was released? Let's rack it up as a grand sense of premonition.

CNN.com - Bush space dream - Jan. 10, 2004

Labels: blogging

Undoubtedly, the current news of the Mars Rover Mission has prompted a rekindling of my interest in space.

When I was growing up, there was a concerted effort to involve kids in the study of science and, more specifically, the space program. When I was in elementary school, I remember NASA came to the gym where my most vivid memory involved the guest scientist playing with liquid oxygen. If I can write about it today, it was surely a high-impact demonstration. At home, I can recall assembling a plastic model of the Apollo LEM. The first moon landing occurred during the summer before I entered Grade 5. Because cassettes hadn't been perfected yet, I captured TV audio on my small reel-to-reel tape recorder. Educational interest in space seemed nearly universal during my youth.

The very year I graduated from high school, Voyager escaped the bounds of earth. Now, twenty-six years after the fact, it's the most distant human-made object in the universe. Those words look simple enough; but imagine, nothing touched by a human has ever gone as far! Although we're still in contact, it left our solar system a few months ago and is speeding into the blackness in excess of 40,000 miles per hour. I fear trying to fathom its 8.5-billion mile progress is next to impossible.

What I also find fascinating is the Golden Record of humanity that Voyager contains. (Voyager 2, hot on its twin's far-flung heels, contains a duplicate.)

NASA's Flash Animation and Site

Some of the Recording's Content

Physical Aspects of the Recording

Because we are so used to CD's and DVD's nowadays, we have to remember that Voyager's 12-inch, metal disk is more akin to an old LP. It is analog and contains a stylus and set of intergalactic, 'pictograph' instructions on how to play it. Voyager has been journeying for about 60% of my life and this seems long to me. However, it will be 40 to 60 thousand years before it approaches another planetary system!

Labels: analog

Simple chores, such as getting the groceries, took on added difficulty during the recent spate of bad weather. How do they cope in Winnipeg?

Labels: food, weather

It's back. Warm, comforting, clean, enjoyable rain has returned.

If you listened to Monday's audio, perhaps you're now ready for another. While you're doing work at your computer you can multi-task by listening to a report in VOA's special English.

Many of you may find that this file opens in your Windows Media Player. If this is the case, and you'd rather not spend 14 minutes listening to this, then go to NOW PLAYING -- > ADJUST SPEED SETTING. I reckon that the recording engineers at VOA electronically slow down the audio. A setting of about 1.2 puts them back in the realm of ordinary human beings!


This audio from VOA is saved in WMA format.
If you click this image, you will hear another
14-minute file.

Labels: Mediaplayer, sharing

Imagine, I only met my new class once and we needed a full day to recuperate! It started snowing around 8:00 am and the forecasts predict 10 cm (4 inches) of snow today. Fortunately, around these parts, that's enough to call off school!

So, I've been granted a bit of time for an extra blog entry. On January 4th, I linked to an article by columnist Rohit Gupta. His writings can be found at the online version of Mid-Day from Mumbai, India. I jotted out a very quick email note saying that I'd linked to his article entitled, Science of Bollywood.

Mr. Rohit answered my email so I've taken the liberty to include a bit of his response as it regards to our topic of discussion:

---

Koi Mil Gaya, clearly a remake of Spielberg's E.T. with elements from Big (Tom Hanks), may have introduced a lost genre to Bollywood yet again. After the long ago success of "Mr. India" based on The Invisible Man, directed by Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth, Bandit Queen, The Four Feathers), no one even ventured near a sci-fi concept in Bombay. Even in Koi Mil Gaya, the name of this alien is Jadoo (in Hindi: magic) which obfuscates the science-fiction and trades it with the more traditionally familiar concept of magic.

A notable film, not a product of Bollywood but some advertising people from Calcutta, is Patalghar (The Underground Chamber). It's lovely, but loses grip after the interval. www.blackmagicmovies.com/htm/films.htm.

---

I'd like to thank him publicly for taking the time and effort to answer personally. This really proves how collaborative a venture blogging can be!

Labels: India, weather

The following information is being pulled in from a different website. These three entries appear at Yahoo Top Stories This is an example of syndication. The data provided here will automatically change when the foreign data is updated. When a site provides an RSS feed, its words may appear on other web pages as well as for those who have subscribed to the channel via a news aggregator. (See the related entries posted on December 31 and January 2.)

Out on this coast, we are generally spoiled by pleasant winters. Okay, Vancouverites will eventually admit that it rains a lot. Generally, this just means that the grass stays green all winter.

This year, however, is proving a bit different. It will be around -7 C (19 F) tonight. We are due for a storm tomorrow and snow has been on the ground for a week! We know that this part of the province doesn't abut Arizona, but we're not used to this! Brrrr.

Labels: weather

This afternoon I begin teaching a new class. I am always looking for material to be used during computer-lab time.

I have been aware of Voice of America Radio for a long time. I learned the international broadcast service was started by the US government in 1939. When I worked overseas in the 1980's and 1990's, I heard their news in "special English". I always thought is sounded very silly! Rather than adjusting the sentence structure and vocabulary, the announcers just read the news items very ... S ... L ... O ... W ... L ...Y !

Apparently, VOA is still alive and kicking and on the Internet too. All audio and video materials they produce are public domain. I will try using some of the science and business audio during lab. I suppose I should not pass judgement until I hear what my ESL students think about VOA's "special English".



This audio from VOA is saved in WMA format.
If you click this image, you will hear a 14-minute,
medium-bandwidth file.

Labels: computer lab, Internet, Mediaplayer

One of yesterday's entries was about an old, science fiction movie. It got me thinking: Could the United States of America have realized a manned mission to the moon in 1969, had it not been for the cheesy, space sci-fi films of the 40's and 50's? In other words, do dreams of a future actually help create one?

I was introduced to Hindi movies when I first worked in the Persian Gulf in 1981. India has a tremendously prolific film industry. Bombay (now Mumbai) cranks out over 1000 films annually. The term Bollywood combines Bombay plus Hollywood. By the way, the production of Tinseltown, USA cannot match that rather ambitious number of titles. Typical Bollywood plots can be rather predictable though. There are a frighteningly small set of characters, topics, and situations. Nearly all contain obligatory dance numbers, and in recent years these inevitably seem to take place in front of landmarks in foreign countries. (Is this so the cast and crew get free holidays?)

One missing genre has always been science fiction. What does the future hold for a country without celluloid sci-fi? Here are two interesting details that I found while searching the web:

Number One - Others have considered how sci-fi films might affect Indian society.

Number Two - Times are changing! The biggest hit of 2003, Koi Mil Gaya, featured a mentally challenged boy who makes contact with an alien!

Labels: India, movies, sci-fi

Yesterday I said a movie was on the PVR. Last mentioned here on September 7, the device in the middle is a digitial (personal) video recorder / satellite receiver. It is not as advanced as TiVo in that it doesn't anticipate viewing needs. TiVo is not available in Canada. Anyway the Bell ExpressVu PVR is a darn-sight better than a VCR. First, there are no tapes as programs are recorded on an internal hard disk. More importantly, no messy scheduling is required as the system displays the upcoming, three days of programming for all channels. It will record when the viewer selects a future program from the channel guide. Lastly the recording stays all digital and that means the picture is clear!


Purchased in 2002, the PVR has completely changed the way we 'do'
television. It gives the ultimate freedom to watch whatever --
whenever. This is an older model so it holds just 25 to 30 hours of
programming.

Labels: PVR, television