ESA CAVES 2012

Totally taken by the preparation for ESA CAVES 2012. Next week will be performing dry runs in Sardinia with the instructors and scientists, and the week after the Training Readiness Review board will check if I've prepared things right. And on September 2nd it'll take off, with a crew of six international astronauts.
I'll write about it on the @ESA_CAVES twitter account. In the meanwhile enjoy the CAVES 2011 video.

rocks and minerals

"There is something breathtaking about the basic laws of crystals. They are in no sense a discovery of the human mind; they simply are; they exist quite independently of us. The most that any man can do is to become aware, in a moment of clarity, that they are there, and take cognizance of them."
M.C. Escher

a speleothem nursery

Photo by Marco Marrosu

Men are at times very artistic, but mostly create ugliness and desolation. Give it enough time, and nature will make it all look beautiful again. Some droplets of karts water and an underwater tunnel can become a nursery for handsome speleothems. What will it take for us to learn to allow beauty to exist?

amazed by education

Are you not amazed by the beauty and power of education? Since I was young, I always thought what a pity it is when people cannot have the wonderful chance I have been given to go to school, learn, read, and now access the internet and watch documentaries and educational lectures, and of the sort I simply adore British ones. Because they seem to be done for the listener to be able to grasp and learn, rather than for the speaker to show off.
This is not a common concept in the Italian system, and surely not in the Italian television. And if it has ever been, not any longer, after the ridiculous decline provided by the media empire of a ridiculous middle class dwarf empowered by mafia collusion and black money.
Maybe not in some parts of the world, maybe not in younger generations, but in Italy, and amongst people of my age, and sure amongst older people, television is still the main source of information, or I should say opinion, cheap entertainment, and trash.

Enjoy some quality lectures here: http://www.richannel.org/

changing perspectives

apple time machine logo

It's all about changing perspective. So little we learn about changing perspective, seeing things with different eyes, through the experience and viewpoint of someone else, through critical thinking, untrusting our judgments, with curiosity and open mind.

We live in a prescriptive society, where all is driven by processes and procedures, by rules and templates. And all those are based on experience, and allow us to be guided through the world. 

But when we get stuck in them, and become unable to think and innovate, then we fail to handle crisis, which is indeed the world we live in.

And if we change out time perspective, we realise how crisis really has been the routine. Only at different time scales. And we may not be able to restore the backup.

A nice documentary: http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/time-machine/

playing demiurge

Systematical use of trial and error (evolution) has made us, stubborn beings, interested by displays and keyboards, curious and addicted to bricolage. Some more stubborn and perseverant than others, some more systematic, some just better organised. And of course, we all love LEGO. And alchimia.
You mesh it all up, and a web of intricate logic sprouts into existence. And we play demiurge, with life as the coach, and topic, of the lesson. Isn't that fantastic ?
With open source, and a growing registry, it's all out there for artisan biologists and computer addicts to play with http://partsregistry.org/.
The outcomes ? I'd say ... 42 !

A glimpse here: http://documentaryheaven.com/playing-god/

it's all about teaming up

Image from USCG

Say what you want, it's all about teaming up and playing, for the sake of survival first, and then efficiency. Life is the essence and result of escaping dangers, cooperation, trial and error, specialisation, and bitter competition.
How it all came into being is a story of adaptation, niches, opportunities. And us, with all our preoccupations for decorations, fashion, make-up, faster cars, silicon implants, are supposedly the end result? Hardly believable. If conscience has evolved to make sense out of it all, evolution must somehow have a weird sense of humour.

A couple of interesting documentaries:
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/david-attenboroughs-first-life/
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/earth-making-of-a-planet/

redefining reality

Beau Lotto's illusions and his street science somehow redefine what is reality, and how being part of the ecology of the systems we observe, we can't really separate ourselves from them. These are powerful examples of how much our past shapes our perceptions and therefore our judgments. I'm thinking of using some of these examples for either the lesson on Situation Awareness or a new lesson on Cultural influences.

loving documentaries

l'Abisso

Short of doing things myself, the next best option is learning and becoming smarter about the world. Other than TED, and some online courses, the best way to learn about the world for somebody as visual as myself are documentaries. Amongst them the ones I find consistently good are the BBC documentaries. And amongst those, the ones presented by professionals who know the topic seem the best.
I thrive for knowledge and understanding, and I'm always looking for new sources of good information. I'm wondering what would be of me if the internet wouldn't exist ...

Some of my sources:

http://documentaryheaven.com/
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/
http://science-documentaries.com/
http://www.richannel.org/
http://watchdocumentary.com/
http://www.documentary-film.net/
http://www.documentary-log.com/
http://www.online-documentaries.org/
http://freeonlinedocumentary.com/
http://www.documentary24.com/
http://www.documentarywire.com/