Random Stuff
esiegel | June 22, 2014“I call myself the Amusement Park. That’s because I’m funny and scary at the same time.” -Terry Crews
There's something to be said for the power of unique talents, or for combining a set of rare skills in a unique way. This weekend, have a listen to Murder By Death's interesting song,
You Are the Last Dragon (You Possess the Power of the Glow),
while I share with you a little bit of the story -- and my favorite awesome roles -- of former NFL'er and actor/entertainer extraordinaire Terry Crews!
Image credit: Andy Kropa, on the set of one of the Expendables movies, via http://movieswallpapers.…
esiegel | June 15, 2014“I guess I just prefer to see the dark side of things. The glass is always half-empty. And cracked. And I just cut my lip on it. And chipped a tooth.” -Janeane Garofalo
During the week, it's all about the natural wonders of the Universe here, about what we know and how we know it, and about our place as human beings in the grand scheme of things. But on the weekend, I hope to bring you a little bit of the joys and wonders that, as humans, we create for ourselves on this little blue marble. Have a listen to the Puppini Sisters’ wonderful interpretation of a Blondie classic,
Heart Of Glass,…
esiegel | June 8, 2014“I saw for the first time the earth’s shape. I could easily see the shores of continents, islands, great rivers, folds of the terrain, large bodies of water. The horizon is dark blue, smoothly turning to black. . . the feelings which filled me I can express with one word—joy.” -Yuri Gagarin
Most weekends, you can come here and count on me to provide you with a diversion from the science, space and astrophysics we normally talk about during the week. But this weekend, I've got something far too spectacular about the Universe to keep to myself. So have a listen to a classic from The Byrds from…
esiegel | June 1, 2014“I call it like the domino theory of reality. If you can go one step at a time and it seems to make sense, you can then take your audience into an area that is relatively outlandish.” -Ivan Reitman
There's a special joy that I get when you start with something very simple, make slight variations on it that progress little-by-little, and before you know it, you're in an entirely new, amazing world. Have a listen to the Pet Shop Boys on one of their hits from all those years ago,
Domino Dancing,
while you start thinking about one of the most humble toys in all the world: the domino.
Image…
esiegel | May 25, 2014“Some people think that the truth can be hidden with a little cover-up and decoration. But as time goes by, what is true is revealed, and what is fake fades away.” -Ismail Haniyeh
You might have thought that it's only human standards of beauty that are skewed by the rampant photoshopping of models and media figures, but the problem spreads far beyond those horizons. This weekend, have a listen to The National singing their one-of-a-kind song,
Fake Empire,
while I share with you the very fake empire of faked astronomy/space pictures.
Image credit: Justin Ng.
Some fake photos have a basis in…
esiegel | May 18, 2014“My therapist told me the way to achieve true inner peace is to finish what I start. So far today, I have finished 2 bags of M&M’s and a chocolate cake. I feel better already.” -Dave Barry
They say that the milk chocolate melts in your mouth, not in your hand, but the colored candy shell will seriously melt pretty much on anything even close to body temperature. As Great Lake Swimmers would sing, it's pretty difficult to avoid the
Changing Colours.
Image credit: Jenefur (presumably of her 3-year-old daughter) of http://jenefur.wordpress.com/2008/11/15/mms/.
But what if you're a bee?…
esiegel | May 10, 2014“If there’s one thing that I love as an entertainer, it’s a spectacle.” -JC Chasez
I know that about half of those of you who read Starts With A Bang regularly hail from outside the United States, but I was completely unprepared for the joyous spectacle that is the Eurovision song contest when I first encountered it last year. Have a listen to the best (not the winning) song from last year's contest, as Koza Mostra and Agathon Iakovidis sing their brilliant Greek entry,
Alcohol is Free.
But each year, the Eurovision song contest gives us some of the world's most interesting and entertaining…
esiegel | May 3, 2014“Every moment of light and dark is a miracle.” -Walt Whitman
To those of you who regularly enjoy clear, dark skies and the wondrous sights they bring, you have not only my envy, but the envy of a great many of us who long to have the wonders of the Universe directly accessible to our eyes. As the Jayhawks sing, you might be dreaming of
Stumbling Through The Dark.
But the way our modern world works, humans tend to be clustered together in heavily light-polluted cities.
Image credit: Google Maps / Blue Marble / NASA Earth Observatory, via http://www.blue-marble.de/nightlights/2012.
But that…
esiegel | April 27, 2014“Earth as an ecosystem stands out in the all of the universe. There’s no place that we know about that can support life as we know it, not even our sister planet, Mars, where we might set up housekeeping someday, but at great effort and trouble we have to recreate the things we take for granted here.” -Sylvia Earle
When you think of our Solar System, where does your mind go first? If it's like most people, once your thoughts venture away from the Earth, it's very likely that they'll turn to Mars. And if you start thinking about the red planet for very long, you might start thinking about the…
esiegel | April 20, 2014“Iron helps us play!” -The Simpsons
If you were to peel back the layers of a supermassive star, before it went supernova, what you'd find were a slew of layers abundant in the even-numbers elements up to iron, but little else. Well, this weekend, have I got a fun little find for you! First off, enjoy the sounds of Jeff Austin (and Chris Castino) as they perform the best rendition of
Flatiron Suite
I've ever heard. And then, when you're ready, prepare for a fun and addicting stellar-nucleosynthesis based game: Fe[26].
Image credit: screenshot from http://newbrict.github.io/Fe26/.
Go read…
esiegel | April 13, 2014“I feel very adventurous. There are so many doors to be opened, and I’m not afraid to look behind them.” -Elizabeth Taylor
You know how important music is to me, and for many of you it holds a similarly prominent place in your lives and in your hearts. A big part of that experience, going back to our youths, is that of the album cover and liner notes, something that's often lost here in the digital age of music. Have a listen to one of Nick Drake’s unique songs,
Things Behind The Sun,
while I share with you one of the most amazing art projects I've ever seen.
Image credit: flickr user…
esiegel | April 6, 2014“The contemporaries and rivals of Zeuxis were Timanthes, Androcydes, Eupompus, and Parrhasius. This last, it is said, entered into a pictorial contest with Zeuxis, who represented some grapes, painted so naturally that the birds flew towards the spot where the picture was exhibited. Parrhasius, on the other hand, exhibited a curtain, drawn with such singular truthfulness, that Zeuxis, elated with the judgment which had been passed upon his work by the birds, haughtily demanded that the curtain should be drawn aside to let the picture be seen. Upon finding his mistake, with a great degree of…
esiegel | March 30, 2014“Ten percent of the big fish still remain. There are still some blue whales. There are still some krill in Antarctica. There are a few oysters in Chesapeake Bay. Half the coral reefs are still in pretty good shape, a jeweled belt around the middle of the planet. There’s still time, but not a lot, to turn things around.” -Sylvia Earle
Each and every weekend, I'm committed to bringing you a unique and wondrous story about the Universe, along with a song to take you through it. This weekend's song comes from Laura Veirs, who sings about the beauty of a little piece of the world at night in
Ocean…
esiegel | March 22, 2014“It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and, as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it.” -Anais Nin
You know the expression that you should believe half of what you see and none of what you hear, don't you? After all, illusions are prevalent everywhere we look (or listen), and perhaps Thievery Corporation got it right in their song,
The Supreme Illusion.
But what do you do when what you see and what you hear confound one another?
Image credit: Esther Wiersinga-Post (edits by me), via http://www.…
esiegel | March 16, 2014“[M]y goal is to always come from a place of love… but sometimes you just have to break it down for a motherfucker.” -RuPaul
We've all had to face the dilemma, when we can't easily afford something, whether to forego it, or whether to obtain it through means that don't compensate the original content creator. There's a great Donna Summer song that I think applies here:
She Works Hard For The Money.
When I was a kid, we'd tape songs off the radio or movies off the TV, when I was in college, we'd download bootlegs off the internet, and now pirating music, movies and television is easier than…
esiegel | March 9, 2014“I love that moment just before the curtain goes up…It’s a thrill that’s unequaled anywhere.” -Joel Grey
Seven of the greatest and most entertaining achievements of human ingenuity.
I don't know how many of you have ever come across the French television show Le Plus Grand Cabaret Du Monde (The Greatest Cabaret in the World), but it's devoted to providing a platform for some of the most amazing talent I've ever seen. I've only just discovered it, and I still have no idea -- as Beirut would sing -- what happens
After the Curtain.
But I did find seven amazing performances in many different…
esiegel | March 2, 2014“Experience is not what happens to you; it’s what you do with what happens to you.” -Aldous Huxley
Phrases that only came out of one man’s mouth because of his kids.
It's common knowledge that I myself don't have any children, but have spent the better portion of my adult life educating children of all ages, including elementary, middle and high school children, as well as college students and adults. Have a listen to the band Midlake’s interesting sounding song about children,
Children of the Grounds,
while I introduce you to the artwork of frustrated dad Nathan Ripperger.
Image credit:…
esiegel | February 23, 2014“It is not the beauty of a building you should look at; it’s the construction of the foundation that will stand the test of time.” -David Allan Coe
As the population of cities continues to grow, real estate runs out fast. But one innovative solution may be the wave of the future: building down! Have a listen to Turin Brakes as they go through their remarkable song,
Building Wraps Round Me,
while we go through four remarkable, innovative solutions to real-estate shortages being implemented around the globe!
Image credit: Getty Images.
1.) Japan's automated underground bicycle parking. Every…
esiegel | February 2, 2014The world’s first suspended traffic circle… for bicycles!
“I would like to propose slow cycling. Commute by bike. At a stroke, you remove the need for and absurd cost of public transport. Cycling is almost completely free. There is no longer any need for the gym as you get fit by cycling. And you can go at your own pace.” -Tom Hodgkinson
I’ve been living in Portland, OR for more than five years now, possibly the most cycling-friendly of all the major cities in the United States. But even Portland still has a ways to go before we solve all of our traffic-related problems, and make the roadways…
esiegel | December 28, 2013"I had seen birth and death but had thought they were different." -T. S. Eliot
Time passes, and things grow; that's the way of the world, so it seems. 2013 was no exception, and as Joshua Radin (featuring Patty Griffin) would sing,
You Got Growin Up To Do.
Well, the world grew again this year, in a multitude of ways. Approximately 134 million new human babies were born worldwide, and in back in February, the largest extraterrestrial object in more than a century merged with the Earth. It's been quite a year for new additions.
Image via: http://www.zingzoo.com/2013/02/15/falling-meteor-…