Random KM

As Long as We are Curious, We Still Have Hope

Posted on March 19, 2023March 19, 2023

This image of the rose-coloured star forming region Messier 17 was captured by the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. — Region Messier 17 captured by ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile

I have an interesting history with science. My earliest science memory was being in year 7 chemistry class. We were dealing with very diluted acids and I managed to spill some all over my then boyfriend’s crotch and stained his jeans. It’s one of those things that still haunts my thoughts many decades later. In high school we had physics class, and the teacher let everyone cheat because the majority of the class was on the football team and he was the coach. I didn’t learn much there.

Yes, I Actually Do Like Cricket

Posted on February 20, 2023March 20, 2023

Michael Hussey takes on a delivery from Shaun Pollock (Creative Commons Attribution)

I grew up in the US but have lived in Australia a very long time. However, it absolutely blows people’s minds that I’m into cricket and I regularly get questions about it, because well… Americans don’t know cricket. (They actually do have a team now but it’s definitely not commonplace.) It all started for me in New Zealand, actually.

In Defense of Absurdism (for a Fiddly Brain)

Posted on February 13, 2023February 13, 2023

Like many people, I have fiddly brain chemistry. When depression is kicking my ass, and everything matters TOO much, I’ve found one solution. Absurdism. Depression convinces one that they’re psychic and can predict the future… a future where everything sucks. A dose of absurdism is a reminder that it’s possible for things to NOT make any sense. Look…it’s a man dressed as a banana, did you see that coming? No? Well then you aren’t psychic, are you.

The Dawn of Everything

Posted on February 12, 2023February 12, 2023

“Humans may not have begun their history in a state of primordial innocence, but they do appear to have begun it with a self-conscious aversion to being told what to do.”

This book by a British archaeologist and an American anarchist anthropologist did nothing less than blow my mind. In short – it’s about where we came from in terms of the the organisational structure of society, and how we got stuck in our current quagmire of inequality and bureaucracy. It proves that throughout history there have been other ways of doing things and so many of them had tangible benefits that have since been thrown away.

Photography

Posted on February 11, 2023February 12, 2023

A landscape of Otago, New Zealand — Otago, New Zealand

When I was in high school I took a course on photography. This was before the days when digital cameras were ubiquitous, and I used my mom’s old black and white camera (I forget what brand but it was old even at the time.) I have vivid memories of the excitement of waiting for my film to develop, and making prints by hand in a dark room, with lots of wetness and finger crossing.