Everyone needs to watch this!

This has come out (no pun intended) as a result of the “it gets better” movement to raise awareness of the difficulties faced by gay teens.

It is sad that in 2011 homophobia is still alive and kicking. I look forward to the day when the world will look back and cringe about what it once thought… Hopefully it will get better.

Read this!

Read this article over at Divisible By Pi. It is a wonderful article. I could not have said it better myself.

Everyone, I need your help…

… to spread the word to all undergraduate Melbourne University students you know about the subject Communicating Science and Technology.

I have blogged about this subject before. In it students get to write on a blog, write articles for different publications and even get on the radio. It’s an amazing subject, and well worth doing even if you don’t have to. I got more out of that subject and enjoyed that subject more than any other subject I have ever done.

Enrolment for this subject for next year is really low, such that it is at risk of being cut by the science faculty. It would be a real shame if this were to happen, as it is one of the most valuable subjects offered by the university.

So please help me out and spread the word!

Not doing so makes this puppy sad…

If only…

… if only. I found this on the site Left-Handed Toons. Those guys are awesome…

So now I’m in Chile…

… in the lovely costal town of La Serena.

La Serena as seen from the driveway

So far I have not seen much of the town. All I have seen so far is the GIANT supermarket that is really a huge Coles and huge K-Mart combined into one store, aptly named JUMBO, where  do all my shopping (Where else do I need to go? They have EVERYTHING).

This town is really lovely. The weather is beautiful, but not all that warm. It is usually overcast in the morning, but that clears up early in the day, leaving the skies clear until the evening. It doesn’t get all that warm, as there is always a cool breeze.

The traffic takes some getting used to. The cars do not stop for pedestrians, even at pedestrian crossings. Also they drive on the right hand side of the road, which is taking me a while to adjust to.

I’m staying in the Recinto de Aura, a large secure compound where people from the Gemini and Tololo observatories live and work. It is nice that where I will be working (as of Monday) is only a 3 min walk from where I am living.

This is only just the beginning. There will be more updates the more I see and experience.

Bellekitten has left the country…

So I’m now out of Australia for the first time in my life.

I’m currently in Auckland due to a flight delay, so I thought I would make good use of the time and the free wifi in the hotel to give you all warning that hopefully I will be blogging more.  I will be blogging my adventures in the town of La Serena, Chile, where I will be spending the next 10 weeks of my life. There I will be conducting research at the Gemini South Observatory. In particular I will be reducing data from NICI, the Near-Infrared Coronagraphic Imager, which is used for detecting exoplanets (planets outside our solar system).

There will be photos. There will be physics. It will be awesome.

I’m on a podcast…

I’m one of the new additions to “The Pseudo-Scientists” podcast. This is the official podcast of The Young Australian Skeptics, which aims to promote science and skepticism.

Episode 23 is out now. Find out more on their website, where you can also check out their blog and forums.

I saw this and had to post it

Nothing more needs to be said.

This makes me laugh and cringe at the same time…

Warning: you view this at you own risk. I hold no responsibility for aneurysms caused by the stupidity displayed in this video.

“The condom is a girl’s best friend…”

This is probably my favourite quote from the TED talk, in which Mechai Viravaidya discusses how a campaign promoting family planning and safe sex has helped the people of Thailand

This campaign  is a great example of effective science communication. The Thai community was the basis of change and through the community and through people interacting and talking was the message of safe sex and importance of family planning spread. Through this action, the population growth rate was dramatically decreased from 3.3% to 0.5%. Millions of lives were saved by education about the risks of HIV/AIDS

Part of what it made it so successful was engagement with the Thai people. It encouraged learning by directly interacting with people through activities and language. By talking about the issue and having condoms widely available, much was able to be achieved. Everybody was involved. The  media, market workers, and even the police with a “Cops and Rubbers” campaign, became involved in spreading the massage.

As Mechai says in this video “We didn’t have a strong government we, didn’t have lots of doctors, but it’s everybody’s job to change attitude and behaviour.”

This is what promotion of scientific ideas should be about. It should be something that we do ourselves all the time, rather than waiting for the government or other organizations to start it for us. We are the mechanism for change.

Mechai Viravaidya