So, driving the little one home from her ballet class, she asks me, daddy, is ballet a sport?

Sheesh - good question! Is ballet a sport? I was inclined to say no, but could see that ballet can be/is competitive, it is active, it is a form of exercise, so while not actually being a game, it shares a lot in common with a sport.

Thoughts?

Imagine you have sun - earth - moon - mars, all lined up, in that order. That's what we've got right now. Not only does that mean it's a full moon, but it's also a "full mars". And it means mars is pretty much as close to the earth as it gets. AND ... it also means it's really easy to see mars... - it's the "star" that's quite near the moon, but ( Read more... )

Some of you will have seen these on my facebook, but to those others of you -

Here are some shots I took recently at Cape Byron in New South Wales. The cloudscapes over and around the cape are magnificent.


( Read more... )

As some of you are probably aware I've been sans hiking for a good long while now, due to family commitments. However, I managed to get away for a three-dayer last weekend and now I sit here, stiff and sore, but feeling great to have been out in the fresh air again. Some photos of the trip: -

( Read more... )

OK, so it goes like this:

Mum dies. 5 months later brother Andy comes back to Aus from Canada with his family for Christmas and he and I go on this nostalgia trip with mum's ashes. We take her to all the old houses we used to live in (yeah, I know I did this a while back by myself, but this time I did it with Andy and mum - much more fun :) ) and we ( Read more... )

In February 1983, as a late-teenager and part of the Scouting movement, I went up to Mt Macedon, just a short drive from Melbourne, to assist in loading houses onto trucks. Houses burned and smashed and destroyed. The famous (and ironically timed) "Ash Wednesday" bushfires had destroyed many communities, killed 47 people and thousands of other ( Read more... )

Thanks to drocera for this, my first meme :) lfinder, there's one for you at 43.

1. Started your own blog (if LJ counts)
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee ( Read more... )

This is a wonderful movie, put together by some Aussie, interviewing (and I mean *really in-depth interviewing) most of the small number of humans who have been to the moon ( Read more... )

Hi all, specifically to my US friends.

Please take a while to consider your (our) future president's position statements on key issues of science here:-

http://www.sciencedebate2008.com/www/index.php?id=42

I know you're all thinking voters.

Cheers,
stb

"She sat listening to the music. It was a symphony of triumph. The notes flowed up, they spoke of rising and they were the rising itself, they were the essence and the form of upward motion, they seemed to embody every human act and thought that had ascent as its motive. It was a sunburst of sound, breaking out of hiding and spreading open. It had ( Read more... )