Items of Interest

Hallelujah Flash Mob

madscientistnz — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 08:22:17 +0000

This rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah was performed by over 100 people in the food court of a mall.

The Hallelujah Chorus is the culmination of Part II, the Passion and Resurrection so I really should have posted this on Easter Sunday. I only found it today so Easter Monday will have to do.

I hope you had a lovely Easter weekend and ate far too much chocolate and hot cross buns!

Safe But Shaken In Christchurch

madscientistnz — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 02:29:26 +0000

For those of you who know I am now living in Christchurch, my family and I are safe and fine after the 6.3 quake yesterday afternoon.

My father was trapped in one of the collapsed buildings (Pyne Gould), but was thankfully rescued after an hour with only cuts and bruises. He’s hobbling around like an old man today!

The Pyne Gould Building, my father was in the top right hand corner.

I went around to my sister’s place and we spent the afternoon outside, as the aftershocks were frequent and strong. Phones weren’t working properly so for several hours we only knew Dad was safe because my aunt had seen him climbing out the window on the TV.

I’m house-sitting for a friend and not working yet so I was at home. I tried to get to a doorway but fell over and couldn’t stand up. The dresser beside me was swaying and I put up a hand to catch it, but it fell on top of me. It didn’t hurt as it’s not heavy but I had trouble lifting it off me as the centre of gravity was all wrong. Only my knees are hurt, skinned from the carpet and bruised and swollen. Funny how much skinned knees hurt, I will be more sympathetic to my niece in future!

My place has power, phone (and surprisingly, internet) so my Nana and her dog are here with me. Looking outside (and I’m not far from the CBD) it doesn’t look as bad as you see on the TV, but driving to pick Nana up this morning, there was a lot of liquidifaction and cracks in the roads, I saw one car that was half inside one crack. (Most of the cracks are small but some of the bridges are unsafe) It is a very strange and surreal feeling.

No-one got more than two hours sleep last night, there were lots of aftershocks. Still some today but not as frequent or as strong.

My thoughts are with the families and friends waiting to know if someone is safe and those who have lost someone.

Christmas Dominos

madscientistnz — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 00:40:02 +0000

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas Day, filled with all the food you can eat and all the presents you could want.

(And a special Merry Christmas to all the people I met travelling around Africa.)

Guerrilla Handbells

madscientistnz — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 00:00:42 +0000

A wonderful christmas themed mission from Improv Everywhere.

An Amazon.com Warehouse Before Christmas

madscientistnz — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 23:09:59 +0000

Looks like organised chaos! The full story can be found here.

Luke And Jess’s Wedding

madscientistnz — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 03:58:41 +0000

On the 18^th December 2010, at the Wellington Botanic Gardens, my brother Luke got married, and now I have a wonderful new sister-in-law, Jess.

It was a beautiful sunny day, a change after the rain and drizzle of the day before. The bride and bridesmaids even got a little sunburnt, and I didn’t freeze in my short-sleeved dress!

Luckily, I didn’t cry during the ceremony (like I did at my sister’s wedding) even if I did get a little sniffly during the speeches.

Everybody looked either handsome or pretty, and it was lovely to catch up with relatives, meet some of Luke and Jess’s friends, and generally have a wonderful time.

A Pensive Flowergirl

Exchanging Rings

Me, My Brothers, And My Sister

The Happy Couple

Congratulations Luke and Jess!

Tilt-Shift Van Gogh

madscientistnz — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 23:56:25 +0000

Tilt-shift is a photographic effect that uses a special lens to give a real-world scene the illusion of being a miniature model. A similar effect can be achieved with Photoshop; Serena Malyon tried tilt-shifting paintings to see what would happen. These Van Gogh paintings come out beautifully.

More pictures can be found here.

Living In Three Centuries

madscientistnz — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 23:48:14 +0000

Walter Breuning , who is officially the oldest man in the world at 114 years, answers questions crowdsourced from the Internet.

Random Quotation

madscientistnz — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 05:29:09 +0000

The more alternatives, the more difficult the choice.

Abbe’ D’Allanival

Imaginary Numbers

madscientistnz — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 08:59:20 +0000

from abload.de