RobinEdgar's profile - StumbleUpon

Last login: 26 hours agoRobinEdgar: Robin is a 47 year old single guy from Montreal, Quebec, Canada.; Likes 3,716 pages, 91 videos, 351 photos • 877 fans • Received 170 reviews; Member since Jan 20, 2006

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May 11, 9:20am: cbc.ca/montreal/media/audio/radionoon/phonein_fri_part2.ram [cbc.ca/montreal/media/audio/radionoon/phonein_fri_part2.ram]

This is a RealAudio file of the second part of last Friday's CBC Radio Noon show in Montreal. The subject was astronomy and I called in to inform listeners about the upcoming August 1st, 2008 total solar eclipse which will be visible in Canada's far north.

Here is the first part of the show in case you want to listen to the whole thing. The audio files will be available until next Friday.

cbc.ca/montreal/media/audio/radionoon/phonein_fri_part1.ram [cbc.ca/montreal/media/audio/radionoon/phonein_fri_part1.ram]

May 7, 6:19pm: dpreview.com/reviews/nikond300/ [dpreview.com/reviews/nikond300/]

dcresource.com/reviews/nikon/d300-review/index.shtml [dcresource.com/reviews/nikon/d300-review/index.shtml]

kenrockwell.com/nikon/d300.htm [kenrockwell.com/nikon/d300.htm]

Well I went a bit camera crazy and bought a brand new Nikon D300 DSLR with a slightly used 18-200mm VR zoom lens this morning. . . My kit of Nikon mount lenses were languishing since I did not have a Nikon DSLR in my kit since the theft of my Nikon D70s digital SLR camera last summer. Now I had better line up some more photography assignments or stock photo sales in order to justify my recent splurging on DSLRs. . . ;-)

May 5, 4:42pm: popphoto.com/cameras/5112/camera-test-pentax-k20d.html [popphoto.com/cameras/5112/camera-test-pentax-k20d.html]

dpreview.com/news/0801/08012311pentaxk20d.asp [dpreview.com/news/0801/08012311pentaxk20d.asp]

The latest addition to my extensive camera kit. Just bought it today to complement the Pentax K10D that I bought several months ago to replace my Nikon D70s that was stolen last summer.

Apr 22, 6:18pm: Oops. . . Looks like the better part of a month and the better part of Earth Day slipped right by me.
I will do some more Stumbling soonish but for the time being it is well worth browsing through my archives.

NASA - Solar Eclipse Search Engine: Mar 25, 1:54pm 1 review astronomy, maps, eclipses, total-solar-eclipses, solar-eclipses
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEsearch/SEsearch.php; An eclipsologist`s dream. . .

I recently made some inquiries with NASA about obtaining accurate maps of the paths of ancient solar eclipses, I was particularly interested in accurate maps of the paths of ancient total solar eclipses occurring over the Nazca Lines in southern Peru since I have good reason to believe that the Nazca Lines were an ancient religious response to the total solar eclipse Eye of God and other eclipse phenomena such as the bird-like pattern that is seen in the sun`s corona during some total solar eclipses. Fred Espenak, NASA`s front-line eclipse expert who goes by the monicker Mr. Eclipse, sent me an email today directing me to this NASA web site that can generate accurate maps of solar eclipses from 2000 BCE to 3000 CE. I believe it is in the public interest to share what Fred Espenak said to me in his email and I have little reason to believe that he will object to my doing so -

If you need to see a map of a particular eclipse in higher detail, you can use the "Five Millennium Solar Eclipse Search Engine" to generate a table of eclipses for a desired time interval. The Calendar Date of each eclipse in the generated table is each a link to a Google map with the eclipse path plotted on it. You can then scroll and zoom in to any part of the eclipse path you are interested in.

From the page: Solar Eclipse Search Engine

Search the Five Millennium Catalog of Solar Eclipses

This tool allows you to search the Five Millennium Canon of Solar Eclipses: -1999 to +3000 (2000 BCE to 3000 CE) for all eclipses over a specified date range and that possess certain characteristics. Enter a date range, choose the eclipse type(s) and select any of the optional parameters.

NASA to World Atlas of Solar Eclipse Paths: Mar 25, 1:51pm 1 review astronomy, maps, eclipses, total-solar-eclipses, solar-eclipses
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEatlas/SEatlas.html; An essential tool for any eclipsologist. ;-)

From the page: The following atlas of world maps show the path of every total, annular and hybrid[1] solar eclipse visible from Earth during the five millennium period -1999 to +3000 (2000 BCE to 3000 CE[2]). The maps are broken down into 20 year intervals. Each map is stored in GIF format with a typical file size of 130 kilobytes. Note that each of these eclipses is also visible as a partial eclipse from a much larger geographic region. The regions of partial eclipse visibility are not shown on the maps since it would make them too difficult to read.

Equinox of Insanity & Since We're All Talking About Richard Dawkins These D…: Mar 25, 1:30pm 1 review religion, science, blogs, god, richard-dawkins
http://equinox-of-insanity.com/2008/03/since-were-all-talking-about-richard-d...; The thumbs up is for my comment. ;-) The supreme self-righteousness of this blog post deserves a thumbs down.

From the page: Well you certainly do seem to have quite accurately sub-titled your blog as "the supremely self-righteous website of Nima Yousefi". The self-righteousness of this particulr post is self-evident. . .

The basic concept of "Intelligent Design" is by no means "ridiculous" nor is it "crap". There is actually fair bit of scientific evidence of various kinds that strongly suggests that the Universe is more likely to be the product of Intelligent Design than coming into being as a result of pure random chance. The "God Hypothesis" may not be necessary to purely secular science but it cannot be ruled out either. I do not see a huge difference between scientifically seeking evidence for the existence of an Intelligent Designer (as it were) and seeking evidence for the existence of alien intelligent life elsewhere in the Universe.

Richard Dawkins may well have produced an excellent book about the concept of evolution in `The Selfish Gene' but that does not mean that his narrow-minded views about religion are valid. After all, knowledge is the real weapon we use against Richard Dawkins' fundamentalist atheist dogma, and the more knowledge one possesses about religion the more clear the ridiculousness of anti-religious ideas like those in `The God Delusion' become. . .

The study of evolution actually does have something to do with the philosophical or theological matters of God if one believes in God or, more to the point, if God actually does exist and did actually create the Universe after engaging in what can be properly described as Intelligent Design. . . Any and all scientific facts tell us something about the mind of God if God exists. Intelligent Design has plenty to do with science if one does not arbitrarily rule out the "God hypothesis". Many early scientists were believers who were seeking to know more about the proverbial "mind of God" via their research into the workings of the world and the Universe. Plenty of modern scientists, even if they are a minority within the scientific community, are still doing so. Even Albert Einstein is on record as stating that he wanted to know how God thinks via his scientific research into the makings of the Universe, he even strongly suggested Intelligent Design in the Universe by saying:

"I want to know God's thoughts, the rest are details."

"What really interests me is whether God had any choice in the creation of the world."

"God does not play dice."

Truthiness - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Mar 25, 8:17am 16 reviews linguistics, satire, parody, language, steve-colbert
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truthiness; The Wikipedia page about how Stephen Colbert redefined the word 'truthiness'.

Come to think of it. It lends a whole new meaning to the term 'The American Dream'. . .

From the page: When asked in an out-of-character interview with The Onion's A.V. Club for his views on "the 'truthiness' imbroglio that's tearing our country apart", Colbert elaborated on the critique he intended to convey with the word:[4]

Truthiness is tearing apart our country, and I don't mean the argument over who came up with the word...

It used to be, everyone was entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts. But that's not the case anymore. Facts matter not at all. Perception is everything. It's certainty. People love the President because he's certain of his choices as a leader, even if the facts that back him up don't seem to exist. It's the fact that he's certain that is very appealing to a certain section of the country. I really feel a dichotomy in the American populace. What is important? What you want to be true, or what is true?...

Truthiness is 'What I say is right, and [nothing] anyone else says could possibly be true.' It's not only that I feel it to be true, but that I feel it to be true. There's not only an emotional quality, but there's a selfish quality.