Random Stuff
esiegel | March 17, 2013"Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life." -Terry Pratchett
Whether it comes from without or within, there are few things in this life that captivate our attention better than a brilliant, hot and colorful display. This weekend, have a listen to The Roots with John Legend, as they sing about
The Fire.
Deep off in the depths of space, although you won't find any stars burning a bright green color, you will find stellar remnants, or star corpses, glowing a brilliant green.
Image credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage…
esiegel | March 10, 2013"When it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry. The poet, too, is not nearly so concerned with describing facts as with creating images." -Niels Bohr
Although I may write to you exclusively in English, I am fully aware that around half of my readership comes from outside the United States, and that English is the first language of only about 40% of you. Like most Americans, I learned Spanish as my second language when I was in school, and then studied a few other in college, formally, and tried to pick up the language of any country I traveled to. But I am by no means fluent…
esiegel | March 3, 2013"I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit." -John Steinbeck
One of the great joys I've gotten to experience from my life has gotten to come not only from teaching, but from watching what my students do long after they've left my classroom for good. It's not a joy (with its ups-and-downs) exclusive to me, as Musiq Soulchild would sing you with his song,
Teachme.
Yes, I've had former students who are currently…
esiegel | February 24, 2013"When you have seen one ant, one bird, one tree, you have not seen them all." -E.O. Wilson
Sure, there are entire worlds within our world that we never even give a second thought to. There's an entire subterranean Universe to explore, and you might get the feeling to do it if you listen to Mecca Bodega's rumbling sound, in
Underground.
But as soon as those tiny critters begin invading your house, the wonder goes right out the window. In fact, you probably haven't thought much about them in terms other than how-to-poison-them in a long time.
Image credit: © 2013 Cool Exotic Pets.
But as a…
esiegel | February 17, 2013"There are some things we do much better than computers, but since most of chess is tactically based they do many things better than humans. And this imbalance remains. I no longer have any issues. It’s a bit like asking an astronomer, does he mind that a telescope does all the work?" -Vishy Anand
It used to be no contest. Even if a computer could perform million, billions, or trillions of calculations per second, a game like chess surely got too complicated too quickly for a computer to compete with humans. At least, that's what we used to think, but some things just don't stay the same, as…
esiegel | February 10, 2013"To run away from trouble is a form of cowardice and, while it is true that the suicide braves death, he does it not for some noble object but to escape some ill." -Aristotle
"I think suicide is sort of like cancer was 50 years ago. People don't want to talk about it, they don't want to know about it. People are frightened of it, and they don't understand, when actually these issues are medically treatable." -Judy Collins
The fall of 2007 wasn't so long ago; maybe you can remember where you were clearly for yourself. For me, I had recently finished graduate school, had even more recently met…
esiegel | January 27, 2013"In any field, find the strangest thing and then explore it." -John Archibald Wheeler
Sometimes, things get difficult. Sometimes, there are challenges you have to face that you never even expected, much less were prepared for. And sometimes, it seems like there's no point in even holding on to hope that things will get better. But as long, as The National would tell you, as you're no
Runaway,
you've still got something worth striving for. Even if there's something newer, shinier, and more powerful than you.
Image credit: NASA / Hubble Space Telescope.
Even on Mars.
Nine years (and three…
esiegel | January 20, 2013"Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words." -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I don't always have all the answers, but every weekend I strive to bring you something interesting -- in some form or other -- to help remind you that whatever it is you may be most passionate about, there's a diverse world (and Universe) out there for you to discover, no matter how you look at it. And one of the best parts of that (at least for me) is music, something I try and share with you every week. The new song I'…
esiegel | January 12, 2013"Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time." -Thomas Merton
Whatever your creative outlets are -- music, painting, photography, drawing, or even writing, to name a few -- I hope you get to enjoy them frequently. There's nothing like engaging your imagination and creativity, although I have to admit that I speak of this only from my own anecdotal experience, not from any scientific knowledge that I have. That's part of why each weekend I give you a song to listen to; today I give you Josh Harty's unique Roots/Americana composition,
Last Known Address.
But this…
esiegel | January 6, 2013"The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men." -Alice Walker
This weekend -- perhaps inspired by the growing friendship between our new dog and our old one -- I've got a surprising find along with a sweet White Stripes song for you,
We're Going To Be Friends.
Every once in a while, I'll run across something in the natural world that wholeheartedly surprises me. I remember watching a nature documentary about lions, where I saw a wounded, pregnant lioness leave her pack to give birth…
esiegel | December 30, 2012"When you're a little kid you're a bit of everything; scientist, philosopher, artist. Sometimes it seems like growing up is giving these things up one at a time." -Kevin Arnold, The Wonder Years
Like many who grew up around the same time I did, The Wonder Years was one of my favorite shows, putting on display much of the awkwardness, anxiety, hope and powerlessness that comes along with being a pre-teen/teenager in this world. And like many, I had a secret crush on Winnie Cooper, played by Danica McKellar. To accompany this post, with a modern twist, here's the Easy Star All-Stars singing…
esiegel | December 23, 2012"Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring -- it was peace." -Milan Kundera
It's the holiday season, and for most of us, that means spending time with loved ones, having some type of feast-day, and in many cases, giving and sharing gifts with one another. To spread a little holiday cheer, I present to you my all-time favorite Christmas song, Run-DMC's classic,
Christmas In Hollis.
Those of you who've been following Starts With A Bang since the…
esiegel | December 16, 2012"The vastness of the heavens stretches my imagination. It does not do harm to the mystery to know a little about it. For far more marvelous is the truth than any artists of the past imagined it." -Richard Feynman
What did you think about, wonder about, and dream about the first time you saw the true magnificence of the night sky? Did you wonder about planets orbiting each of the thousands of points of light you saw? Did you think about the possibilities of rocky worlds with liquid water, of life, and even of intelligent aliens? Or did you perhaps think on even larger scales, about what stars…
esiegel | December 9, 2012"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and man." -Mark Twain
While it's hard to imagine for me now that I have one, there are plenty of people out there who have never known the rewards and joys that come with rescuing an animal. This week, I present to you a song by six future Soundgarden-and-Pearl Jam members back when they were part of the band Temple of the Dog,
Call Me a Dog.
And while there are many internet jokes out there about dogs driving cars...
Image credit: Kathy of http://www.petswelcome.com…
esiegel | December 2, 2012"A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting." -Henry David Thoreau
Every day that we have free or leisure time, there's this great conflict as to how we spend it: working to better ourselves and improve our knowledge, and taking the time to enjoy our lives in whatever way we see fit. Sometimes, this goes horribly awry, as the B-52s would attest in their (relatively) new song,
Funplex.
But there's often no better way to combine these two pursuits than by reading a good book.…
esiegel | November 24, 2012“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, 'Wow! What a Ride!'” -Hunter S. Thompson
For those of you who've never experienced exactly what it feels like to alter your perceptions, and for those of you who have but don't want to spend hours and hours experiencing the effects, your options have traditionally been limited. Perhaps a song might provide a window into the experience for you, such as M. Ward's…
esiegel | November 17, 2012“Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real.” -Niels Bohr
One of the most amazing recent technological innovations is the advent of 3D Printing, where any shaped or textured object can be accurately reproduced with the right software and printing materials. The things that I've seen made so far have been so creative that I thought the right song to take you through what I'm about to show you is Ween's upbeat (and amusing) song,
Voodoo Lady.
Over at the fantastic do-it-yourself website, Instructables, they're currently having a competition called Make it Real,…
esiegel | November 11, 2012“There is no such thing as magic, supernatural, miracle; only something that's still beyond logic of the observer.” -Toba Beta
It might be hard to believe, but science tells us truths about the Universe that we might never have intuited or philosophized about if the Universe itself didn't reveal them to us through investigation. Bap Kennedy alludes to this in one of my favorite songs by him,
Mostly Water,
and this is certainly true of Einstein's relativity, which details just how the Universe behaves when we move close to the speed of light. This is notoriously difficult to visualize or gain…
esiegel | November 3, 2012"Only the knife knows what goes on in the heart of a pumpkin." -Simone Schwarz-Bart
With Halloween just behind us, the only things that pumpkins may mean to you now are pie, soups, or -- as John Prine would sing you -- a condescending term of affection, as in,
Daddy's Little Pumpkin.
But I recently came across the most amazing Jack-O-Lantern I've ever seen, where someone turned a pumpkin into a working, playable game of tetris!
Image credit: "Pumpktris" by Nathan at http://www.hahabird.com/.
This idea -- and the design -- is nothing short of brilliant. The pumpkin itself was an intricately…
esiegel | October 28, 2012"Where there is no imagination there is no horror." -Arthur Conan Doyle
Halloween, for those of you who've been here a while, is my favorite holiday. Every year for the past dozen years now, I've dressed up as whatever I've wanted for Halloween. And -- if you haven't seen the pattern yet -- it's almost always a partially-clothed, revered hero (or villain) from when I was a young child. In case you haven't figured out what character I've chosen for my Halloween costume this year, maybe this piece of music will make it more clear, from the video game
Street Fighter II.
It takes a bit of courage…