Peter Hill Explains

This has been very much the one of the most amazing reads for me. I absolutely love that I am reading a discard book, and it tells the story of our understanding of Arab astronomy being rescued from a Victorian discard box. "Penny a box" The Prophet gets poisoned by a lamb roast. I did not know that. A cube, "Kaaba" with a pagan meteor "The Black Stone" in the centre just hurts my head to find out about. The maths riddles and astronomy puzzles in the Holy book is a really fascinating angle. I really haven't done the author justice with interruptions and just plain running out of energy. I do however feel that this is so intelligently written that this book is also a phenomena of nature, the presence of which requires some sort of peace to begin to process it. On closing, I finally gave up and did not do as I should and think and think away. I looked it up and the day night boundary is called the Terminator. MP4 recording     MP3 recording -- -- Your browser does not support the audio element.

I found the story of Ricci in China demonstrating the working nature of Western Astronomy by correctly predicting an eclipse after the local effort failed captures the power of authentic science I wish to capture in what I call Ricci projects. Ricci 1: The Einstein de Haas quantum turner is clicking to the beat. I describe nailing the torsion pendulum with four strands of cotton bottom to top and nestling the ferite in the middle. The solid state relays from an unfortunately named Hong Kong company "Goodbang" will get the neighbors tongues wagging about shipping sex toys. The name is all explained on their web site:"Get a bang for you buck". It is all designed for the return of my favourite power supply. I feel the cosmos as it rocks, others say of course, but I will work on this. Ricci 2: Thomson tap dancing has just quietly processed itself into existence . Here is a photo of concept wind, you can hear me flicking through the options as I drive and I am pleased to say it really solved itself when I built the next one while watching the kids in the pool. Ricci 3: Coming along fine, but the key here is to change modes to float the idea upward. The real Ricci story puts all of this in the shade. MP4 recording     MP3 recording -- -- Your browser does not support the audio element.

This is just an absolutely amazing chapter on Chinese Astronomy. The fundamental idea that the heavens reported on the deeds of the people, rather than predicted likely events was just mind blowing. Sort of police/god state gone made. The politics are so rich, the intrigue so intense. David Cohen is saying the Chinese government is covering up Western traders from 1500 BC. Silk star map caps . . . now this is hard to believe. The story about Ricci and eunuch and the mis aligned astrolabe was one of the most powerful I had ever heard. I would dismiss it if it weren't so similar to what I have experienced visiting other labs, not the eunuch but the piece of lab equipment out of place or set to the incorrect reading. The prediction of eclipses was an astounding story. MP4 recording     MP3 recording -- -- Your browser does not support the audio element.

This is a podcast while walking and I meet builders and an old friend. I outline the education activity I am working on . It is now morphing into a dual Star wars theme scales of science book for boys, and a whole of world model galaxy for girls. Actually having done the basics of professional data analysis as one would do in any scientific endevour, having done it with several classes at high school I can see gender patterns but honestly think the stereotyping and the pop airport departure news agency psychology is frankly amateur. I go into the deconstruction - competitive-sumative and the constructive - cooperative - formative dichotomy but feel that a sound educational approach is create a rich focused experience. Again, I was planning on another walk so this may be hard to decode. Good luck. MP4 recording     MP3 recording -- -- Your browser does not support the audio element.

This is probably a very difficult Podcast to follow. Rather than stereotyping and attributing a gender model of behavior, I look at the interaction bandwidth of teaching areas. You have deconstruction of ideas for competitive interaction, while constructive approach allows cooperative learning. Simply put it is good idea to cover both. The Earth as a 1 to a trillion scale galaxy has both concepts built in, but it is going to be hard to sell this advantage to anyone who is the mind that they have all the answers already thank you very much. MP4 recording     MP3 recording -- -- Your browser does not support the audio element.

The second half of "Enter the Greeks" This is just a thoroughly fantastic book. I did not Rhodes and its Colosus was a sun cult island. It is so much richer knowing Aristotles 55 sphere cosmos was an upgrade of the 27 sphere model. The insights are deep here an well worth having. MP4 recording     MP3 recording -- -- Your browser does not support the audio element.

The first half of "Enter the Greeks". What a truly fantastic introduction to astronomy. We have only just got up to Aristotole but there are some really good bring it all together insights. He really teased out what was so different and new about the Greeks. Rather than observation only, sensing patterns of sorts and direct link to the mystical they introduced some kinds of mathematical concepts, namely spheres, spheres and more spheres and the ideas that it was made of stuff, not earth, possibly water, most probably air, but don't forget there has to be fire. We are about to hear about the bigger and grander Aristotle, however we find out about Pericles Socrates and Plato. The Australian translation of Plato, "Well built wrestler" is probably "Iron Man" I think the author has fallen into the trap we call "Sparks Notes" these are high school notes that summarize any topic enough to swot on to get you through with a pass, but not honours. For the latter you would have to had actually read the sources and done the hard yards. The sad thing is that so few people do this nowadays any ways. Pythagoras just really needs to be read in full. To summarize is to trivialize, its odd not because it lame but because there are so many other things making an odd-i-verse. Pythagoras famously had a golden thigh, but to really get your mind around this the Greeks seriously reported this as they would any other obvious fact. He also ran a kind of ancient game show in which you had to be silent for 5 years before you could become part of the studio audience. You really have to read widely to see that ancient Greece was a kind of Silicon Valley of the ancient world, but not with companies, but colonies and talent could flow from one to another when conditions were not right. This is just my take on it from studying a MBA and the classics. You got a real feel from the state of play when a dude, possible Thales, but I don't think so was shown a meteorite that fell in broad day light, and he concluded as you would that there was material of sorts in the heavens, possibly the Sun. He was nearly put to death as an atheist. This is where this book is so brilliant as you in the earlier chapters get the great minds like Jung going to primitive tribes and getting an understanding of what make people so hung up about how the stars are hung. Standing back, Astronomy with just a tiny fraction of information is a real exercise in lateral thinking. That group of stars is a fish. It just looks like to points to me. It is a bit like finding account books nice because they have all that red in it. But you can see although lateral thinking gives you a real edge as it is effectively random thoughts that would make you totally unpredictable to your enemies. You can also see that you would have to put a lid on it and only have the leaders doing lateral thinking and the followers doing prescribed conformal thinking. You can also see, that you would have to have the odd public execution of someone caught lateral thinking when the plan was conformal thinking. At any rate I can see this as a kind of Rosetta stone to decode why my local environment has its eyes firmly fixed on the horizon and Facebook. MP4 recording     MP3 recording -- -- Your browser does not support the audio element.

This was an excellent article. It laid out the sequence clearly and talked you through the various crises. I learnt that life generated methane warmed the planet, and when oxygen came along it wasn't the production that eliminated the carbon dioxide, but rather the reaction with methane that removed this beneficial green house warming. The inclusion of the cooling of the core, then plate tectonics, then erosion, then removal of carbon dioxide is also key. The dates for complex life in the Cambrian explosion was interesting at 541 mya with the first land plants at 470 mya, land animals 440 mya with NBD non bird dinosaurs 250 mya. MP4 recording     MP3 recording -- -- Your browser does not support the audio element.

Finally, I give the blow by blow account of making the Einstein de Hass pendulum, which is one of the three practical project challenges out there. The ferrite core twists to the beat of a magnetic field that flips trillions of electron gyros that then kicks the ferrite on its way. I really wasn't expecting such instant success, I am used to months chasing phantom low signal and sneaking up on some really obscure effects. You may find it interesting to hear the struggle with simple things that were one by one won over to the cause. Note to self: don't hang your glasses next to your lapel mike while walking. MP4 recording     MP3 recording -- -- Your browser does not support the audio element.

Rather than thinking "I'm so clever" after a while the solution to experimental problems evolves and you think "That's a rather clever way to go" For the Einstein pendulum we have flux shaping to stabilize the pendulum, and the use of a soft drink bottle as a might fine mandrel. For the Thompson effect using the expansion of the metal under test as a thermometer measured by microscope breaks the back of this problem. The quality of the podcast is also solved a little by placing the pickup mike in a particular and unusual configuration. Still miles of slog ahead. MP4 recording     MP3 recording -- -- Your browser does not support the audio element.