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I went to a very interesting lecture last night presented by Leo Enright, the Irish broadcaster and science journalist. He talked to us about the two NASA robot probes, Spirit and Opportunity, that are currently making their way across Mars. Spirit is currently holed up in the Columbia Hills in Gusev Crater, while Opportunity has come up to the edge of the impressive Victoria Crater on the Meridiani Planum.
They both landed there in January 2004, and were originally expected to work for around 3 months. Nearly 3 years later, they are still operational, sending back pictures almost every day. Spirit celebrates its 1,000′th “sol” on Mars today. To celebrate the occasion, a panoramic 360 degree view of the Columbia Hills has been released on the internet.
The view from the Victoria Crater is, if anything, even more stunning. The crater is about a kilometre wide, and in a few week’s time Opportunity will descend into it. (How it gets itself out is another question entirely).
Leo demoed a free application known as “Midnight Mars” that downloads the latest photos from the rovers onto your PC each night. Because the rover cameras are about the same height as an adult human, you get the distinct impression you are standing there yourself.
The probes have bolstered the case that Mars was once covered in water and they have provided an insight into the geology and stratigraphy of the planet. Looking at the photographs from Mars, I got the distinct feeling that we know very little about the place. There is a treasure trove of information waiting to be discovered by future robot probes, and maybe some time in the distant future, people themselves.
Update: My question about how Opportunity gets out of Victoria Crater has been answered: it doesn’t. It’s fate is being decided as we speak.
I wonder if the tourist industry has cottoned on a new and growing segment of the market: the Internet Meet-up? People, who seemingly have little in common with each other, who live in different parts of the world and who don’t even know each other’s first names let alone ever actually seeing each other, are travelling long distances to get together and have a few drinks. The funny thing about all this is that sometimes these “strangers” know far more about each other than most of their friends, so a memorable experience is almost always guaranteed.
This weekend, I travelled to London to meet a number of friends and acquaintances from a website I’ve been part of for years. We met each other in the London Wetlands Centre where one of the group gave us a guided tour of the site. The centre was formerly a disused reservoir but now it’s an extremely well equipped birdwatching site, complete with hides, information displays, a cafe and an education centre. Apart from the planes flying overhead on the Heathrow flight path, you would be hard-pressed to believe you were in the centre of a large metropolis.
From there we journeyed across town to Holborn, where I met up with a large number of people from the website. It was one of those nights. I vaguely remember talking about “Wanderly Wagon” at one stage. Apparently, it’s quite well known to legions of Dr. Who fans (well, when I say “legions” I mean at least the 3 Dr. Who fans I met in the pub), who figure that Fortycoats was the Irish version of Dr. Who. It’s conversations like this that made the trip worthwhile.
The following day I took the train to Greenwich to see the observatory. It’s wonderful there. The site is undergoing refurbishment at the moment, but nevertheless the visit is a very rewarding one. Fans of Dava Sobel’s book “Longitude” would just love it. I still got a bit of a surprise when I saw the H4 Chronometer sitting beside its more ungainly companions - almost as dissimilar as a MP3 player would be to a valve radio.
After getting a good soaking on my way back (the weather over the weekend was bad even by Irish standards and did I come prepared? No…) I settled into a tasty pizza and salad in the centre of Greenwich. I completed reading “The Wisdom of Crowds” there. An interesting book: I may return to this subject in the near future.
My final trip was to the British Museum. Wow! Talk about taking your breath away! The Great Court, with its domed roof, was hugely impressive. I felt like such an ignoramus! Can you believe it: I accidentally happened upon the Rosetta Stone. I wasn’t looking for it, I had even forgot it was in the museum in the first place and suddenly there it was: probably the most important ancient artefact ever found. In the same room were huge statues from ancient Egypt as well as intricately decorated sarcophagi. It was just amazing - what particularly intrigued me was the variety of stones used for the statues. Egypt must be an interesting place geologically as well as every other way
There’s a room upstairs that gives you a feel for everyday life in Roman times. What particularly impressed me were the toys used by Roman children: tiny camels and dolls, babies’ rattles and pull-along horses. Apart from Roboraptor and Playstation 3, are kids much different nowadays? (Don’t answer that).
The worst thing about a weekend in London is that the time goes by far too quickly. You would need at least a month to really get a flavour of the place. I’ve been there many times and I’ll be back there again, any chance I get.
This weekend was an eventful and pleasent one.
I met a friend of mine from years back in O’Hare, and it so happened that he was sitting right in front of me on the flight. Other than that it was a typical flight - about 90 minutes of sleep and the usual clammy, drained feeling when I finally arrived into Shannon.
I was exhausted (as usual) when I arrived home after driving back from Shannon. I really, really should stop doing this: I’m flying to direct to Dublin from now on. After a 3 hour nap, I headed out to Roches Point, the lighthouse at the eastern entrance to Cork Harbour. It was wonderful. There were some fantastic rock structures out there and the seas were raging. The “harbour effect” was quite dramatic - I could virtually draw a line across the harbour mouth where the waters suddenly became calm. Further on in my travels, I came across a pristine beach that has a stunning cave and cliff backdrop. No photos unfortunately. I’ll definitely be back, though.
Today I took all four kids on a trip up to the Nire Valley in Co. Waterford (once again, no photos 
) . We ambled a short distance to a place where a small river cuts deeply into the valley. Nobody there but ourselves. Flocks of ravens could be seen fighting the air currents. My eldest was thrilled when we came across a megalithic standing stone on our return journey. After looking carefully at the stone, I noticed that the symbol of the cross was incribed in the rock.
I then took a meandering trip to Ardmore, Co. Waterford, the site of one of Ireland’s best preserved round towers (a defensive structure used by monks during Viking times). We found a terrific playground there quite close to the beach, and I pretended to be a big bad monster while the kids tried to defend their playground castle from me. We spent the time there shrieking with joy. It was great fun.
They were exhausted when we got home. One thing though - my eldest son tried to put on a DVD movie (thinking I wouldn’t notice) and when the Universal Pictures intro started - the one with the world turning - my two youngest boys (age 2) started shouting “Earth!!!” and one of them pointed to a small country on the globe and said “Ireland!!!”
He was quite right.
This interview caught my attention on the radio this morning: Richard Dawkins was pitted against David Quinn, a leading Irish Catholic writer. Dawkins has just written a new book called the “God Delusion” (definitely on my reading list).
It didn’t seem however as if Dawkins was terribly prepared for Quinn’s onslaught.
The main arguments coming from Quinn were that physical matter was evidence of God; that atheists could not explain free will (which was also evidence of God); and that atheists were just as responsible for fundamentalism and violence as religious people.
On the question of the existence of matter, just because scientists don’t know everything about the world, it doesn’t mean that “God” is immediately the answer. Quinn, quite unashamedly, invoked a false dilemma, and Dawkins didn’t pick him up on it.
Dawkins completely avoided the question of free will - which was curious because Quinn’s argument seems to be that atheists believe that we humans are completely controlled by our genes, and that we are therefore somehow mechanical in nature. I think he needs to read up on quantum theory, complexity theory, and the unpredictability and emergent effects that arise out of systems as complex as the human brain. It’s not necessary, in my mind, to invoke outside agencies to bring about decisions of free will - the billions of neurons in our brain are well able to yield complex and unpredictable effects when working in concert with each other. Another point about free will is that it appears to me to be a theological concept mainly - it’s never discussed by scientists terribly much. Maybe talking about free will is the equivalent to talking about the colour of the Angel Gabriel’s wings - i.e. a rather meaningless discussion in the first place. In any case, I was a bit surprised that Dawkins steered completely around the question, saying he wasn’t interested in talking about it. In doing so he dug a hole for himself that Quinn was quite happy to shove him in during the final seconds of the interview.
The last piece, on the subject of atheistic morality, Quinn made some good points - particularly regarding atheists who cherry-pick the worst that religion has to offer without balancing this against it’s more benign effects. However, Quinn tried to lump atheists in with some of the worst 20th Century dictators and their followers. He implied that, because atheists do not believe in God, that they often believe in some other weird or cruel world theory that is even more invalid. Shouldn’t a true atheist should be skeptical of everything unless there is proper evidence for it? So, just as an atheist would have problems with Islam or Christiantity, so too should he have problems with eugenics or extreme nationalism or Communist utopianism.
Maybe Dawkins was somewhat unprepared for Quinn’s rather aggressive stance, but he didn’t manage to get his point across very well in the short time allotted. I would have loved to have heard a longer debate on the subject.
It starts from about 8 minutes into the program, and you need Real Player to listen to it.
This photo says it all, really.
Bertie Ahern is the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland, a position he has held since 1997, roughly the same amount of time that Tony Blair has been in power in the UK. By any standards, he has been one of the most successful politicians this state has ever seen. He was centrally involved in the resolution of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, his economic policies helped to prolong the country’s amazing economic boom, industrial relations have never been so good, and he has demonstrated a remarkable ability to work successfully with other political leaders. It’s hard not to like and admire the guy. On the political front, he has maintained a strong lead in the popular polls throughout his entire tenure. Opposition parties could only seethe with frustration when he grew his political support base during his second term in government. Very rarely in the last 9 years have they been able to land any punches in his direction.
It’s a pretty amazing record for a man who doesn’t, on face value, look like someone who could run a country. He is from a relatively humble background in north Dublin, he has few, if any, academic qualifications. He is not a good public speaker by any stretch of the imagination. He is self-deprecating, quietly spoken and he doesn’t much like conflict. And yet, he has this common touch and ability to work hard that makes him accessible to people in some way. He’s had a remarkable career in politics. Bertie is known here as the Teflon Taoiseach - nothing that has ever been thrown at him has been able to stick for very long. Compared to Tony Blair, who has aged visibly during his tenure over the UK, Bertie still seems fit and healthy.
However the last two weeks have been hugely difficult for Bertie. Information was leaked into the public domain that allege that he took payments from friends and businessmen during the 1990’s. The reason for this was the breakdown of his marriage and his subsequent separation. Under pressure to disclose the details of these payments, he made what he thought was a full public statement, but this only ended up in him getting into deeper water. He revealed during the course of the statement that some businessmen in Manchester had paid him £8,000 for personal use. He has since had to make further public statements, and now with a drip-drip pattern emerging about his personal finances, it seems as if his tenure as Taoiseach, if not quite dead, is in serious trouble.
Even though the country is likely to lose a good leader, this whole incident gives me a strong impression that Irish democracy is quite healthy. Our political class are not above criticism and our media still are able to do their job, irrespective of how it affects the sensibilities of the ruling elite. Ireland went through a period in the 1980’s where businessmen passed huge amounts of money to politicians with a clear expectation of political favours being performed down the line. Planning decisions and rezoning decisions were made that beggared belief, while 20% of the adult population were unemployed and 50,000 people a year were leaving the country. Some of these payments have been revealed through a number of public inquiries but we will never know the full extent of the corruption that existed at that time. When attempts were made by journalists to discover the truth, it was the journalists themselves who ended up in court.
Even though the Bertie incident is minor by comparison with all this, we need to be very careful about introducing a culture of tolerance for all this back into political life.
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