A Dutch Life

Heading off to Spain tomorrow, taking a weeks summer holiday with my neighbour Leon. We are heading first to Barcelona, then to Figueres, then to San Sebastian then finally to Madrid (where I’m looking forward to catching up with Sacha).

It has been 7 years since I was in Figueres, with my last visit there being a very memorable one. Scott and I were on a tour through Spain and France and decided we should check out the Salvadore Dali museum, as we are both fans. While there, I of course needed to use the Internet, so we headed into the library. There we found just one computer, and a young Catalan women hogging the access. After a period of time she realised we were waiting, turned, and I guess because of Scotts red hair, asked “Are you English?”. With reflex we responded, “No, we are Australian”, proud that this made us just that little bit more exotic. She replied “Well, since you speak English you can help me with this translation?”, so we did. I learnt a lot about boats while massaging the words into perfectly formed, almost artistic sentences. When complete we were invited out for some drinks with her friends, starting at midnight.

We spent the rest of the day chilling out, before about 11:00pm putting on our party frocks, already we were marveling at the Spanish culture for late nights. We did ask the women for her name, but neither of us could say it, we never imagined letters could be put together in that order. Anyway, upon arrival we were greeted by some cold beers and a collection of other Catalans. We spent the first minutes learning how to pronounce Meritxell, her name, finally getting to a point which all present deemed acceptable. We chatted and drank for an hour or so before Meritxell asked if we were ready to go out. Looking at our watches we could see it was approaching 1:30am, leaving us wondering what we had been, if not out, for the last hour and a half. 

At this point Scotty, who was on the end of 3 months or more of traveling bailed, leaving me alone with the Catalans for a night of clubbing. We drove out to what seemed like a strip of clubs in the middle of nowhere, and proceed to crawl down it. Meritxell seemed to know everyone, and therefore supplied copious amounts of free drink. The last I remember is dancing in this huge bar, and watching Meritxell jump into the swimming pool. Yes, there was a pool in the club.

Anyway, its Meritxells 30th birthday, and this is just one of the great memories I have of her friendship. Its going to be fun to return to the town where we met 7 years ago, and its really amazing that we have kept touch over the years like we have.

During the time I have known her I’ve lived in Melbourne, London and now Amsterdam and she has lived in Barcelona, Paris and London. The great bit was that we had over a year of overlap in London, with a particularly memorable summer of 2005, (which I think was the first her and Thomas lived there).

Well, anyway, Meritxell, cant wait to celebrate your birthday, and thanks for dragging me off the couch as often as you have! <grin>

Anyone looking for some Pownce invites? Let me know in the comments, first come, first served, and I must know who you are! <grin>

Despite not liking Jim Carey movies (except perhaps Pet Detective) I really did like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, was a thoroughly thought provoking film. Now it seems our trusty scientific animal friends, the rats (previously mentioned here), have in partnership with some scientists discovered a way to wipe out bad memories.

Researchers have found they can use drugs to wipe away single, specific memories while leaving other memories intact. By injecting an amnesia drug at the right time, when a subject was recalling a particular thought, neuro-scientists discovered they could disrupt the way the memory is stored and even make it disappear.

The programmer in me is left wondering about dependencies. For example, if memory A is dependant on Memory B, and memory B is removed, what happens to memory A? Yeah, its a whole lot more complicated than it looks Mr. man in the white lab coat with furry pet!

They offered up this fun analogy to describe the way our memories work, after having just visited the glass works in Venice, where I saw a man make a glass horse in seconds, I’m left wondering just how good his memory must be!

The research suggests memories can be manipulated because they act as if made from glass, existing in a molten state as they are being created, before turning solid. When the memory is recalled, however, it becomes molten again and so can be altered before it once more resets.

Right, I understand. It certainly makes for some good visuals.

Anyway, I have often thought about whether I would ever want to have painful memories removed, for example as the movie suggested, an ex-girlfriend. Of course I never concluded that I would, though that could be simply because I haven’t met the right one! Petra? 

(sorry, just couldn’t resist that last line, I’m very satisfied that such an opportunity has passed me by <sly grin>)

Scientists find drug to banish bad memories | Science | Earth | Telegraph

I wonder how long it will take her to be able to read the Mensa newsletter?

A two-year-old girl from Hampshire has become the youngest ever female member of British Mensa…

“She scored 152 points but I think she could have got more – she just got very tired. Concentrating for three-quarters-of-an-hour at that young age is amazing.”

Maybe she should try yawning?

BBC NEWS | England | Hampshire | Girl, 2, becomes member of Mensa

This shot always makes me laugh.

It was taken in New Zealand (1997), by my sister Sally, as we stood on the edge of a cliff. She somehow managed to snap the shot just as the wind picked up, forcing me to hold onto a pole for dear life.

You have to remember that with a film based SLR you don’t get to preview the shots, so this was one take, it took amazing co-ordination. Well done Sis!  

I have no idea why it took me so long, but I have finally gotten around to getting some of my photos online. Over the last week or so I spent hours sorting through all 14,000 of them, choosing just those I consider to be the best. Given how many there are, I have long ago given up any desire to categorise them all, so this is where I will start.

Its a pretty modest collection, and it includes shots from the time I got my first SLR (an Cannon EOS 500 when I was 18) to now. Last year I spent months painfully converting all my negatives to digital, while the quality is not brilliant, it is good enough. Leaving my negatives for many more years would have meant losing them forever as they had already degraded significantly. Looking through them I really wish I had been able to take them with a digital.

The hosting service I settled on is Smugmug, although the plan I have is really overkill for my purposes, it allows me to host the photos on my own domain. This means my photos will always be available at http://photos.daniel.mcpherson.name. This is all part of an ongoing experiment to better manage my online identity, kind of a proof point for the sorts of things we are doing at the Internet Address Book.

Anyway, I will be posting on the odd photo every now and then, its fun for me to remember where it was taken, why it was taken, thinking back to the places I have been. I know its indulgent, but its MY blog…

Cameron Diaz thinks Communism is cool:

Actress Cameron Diaz has apologised for carrying a bag in Peru which featured a political slogan likely to be considered offensive by local people.

The Shrek star visited the historical Machu Picchu site with a green bag which had a red star and the words “serve the people” printed in Chinese.

 

This is something I often think about. I’m constantly left wondering if that super cool dufus over there actually knows what C.C.C.P. stands for. Or if that urban anti-globalisation protestor really understands the Che Guevara approach to “politics”. Or if that bloke wearing the ray-bans and German army shirt simply likes the colours or is trying to say something deeper.

For me personally, it even goes so far as avoiding ”camo”, that and the fact that I rarely need to hide in the bushes during day to day life. I especially dislike it on kids, with it leaving me with the same feeling as seeing them run around with toy guns.

In the end this comes down to simply having some sensitivity to the very real ideologies that these symbols represent. They are NOT fashion statements, they mean something, they represent something.

To some people the sign on Camerons bag is as hurtful as the the swastika is. Lets hope the coolest kids don’t suddenly consider that “In Vogue”.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Diaz apologises for Maoist slogan

You are not boring, I’m just trying to stay on the ball! 

BBC NEWS | Health | Yawning may keep us ‘on the ball’

“Do unto others as you would have others do unto you”

In the article “Rats influenced by the kindness of strangers” - New Scientist researchers discover evidence that suggests rats have discovered the “Golden  Rule“.

Claudia Rutte and Michael Taborsky of the University of Berne, Switzerland, trained rats to pull a lever that released food for their partner in the next cage. If the rats subsequently received snacks released by lever-pulling strangers in neighbouring cages, they were more likely to lever-pull and so feed another unfamiliar rat in the future. In other words, the rats became altruistic in response to a general level of cooperation in the population.

Now, as soon as they learn to write they can get started on their own set of commandments. 

Interestingly the article starts off by saying:

In doing so, they provide the first evidence of an unusual form of altruism that appears to violate evolutionary theory.

I don’t really follow how this result violates evolutionary theory. If a rat does something altruistic then it knows that it increases its chances of becoming a recipient of altruism. This in turn increases its chances of survival. Perhaps we could clear this up a little by making a small change to evolutionary theory, I’m sure Darwin would be cool with it. Lets add “Survival of the kindest”.

Humans, like you and me, have learnt exactly the same lesson, which is why the ”Golden Rule” is not limited to any single culture or religion, it has emerged universally. You can also see it in phrases like “Pay it forward” and ”What goes around, comes around!” and interesting concepts like “Karma”.

I’m sure there are many, many more, in different languages and different cultures. Anyone have any to contribute?

Next time you design a logo for your company get an outside, independent opinion.

This last one is especially special, what WERE they thinking.

Thanks to: Ramp Creative  and his Bad Logo Collection