Being a nerd is a burden some of us must bear. Not to say that we should be ashamed of it. Quite the opposite in fact. There are probably doubters out there who don’t know how to r

ecognise if they are one though. I’m going to steal your attention from partypoker, or the TV or whatever you were doing before, and point out some indicators.
You and The Big Bang Theory

I am of course referring to the TV sitcom and not the actual theory. If you can laugh at the show about a bunch of nerds, because you see yourself and your friends in the characters, then you are definitely a little bit nerdy.

Collectibles 

Whether you are a Star Wars, Harry Potter, Transformers or Lord of the Rings fan, if you own any form of collectible, you are at least partially nerdy. No one else wants memorabilia from a movi

e t

hat isn’t a t-shirt. Although they should. Collectibles are awesome.
T-shirts 

You own at leas

t one t-shirt with some form of cultural reference on it; a slogan or perhaps a cartoon character. And you wear them outside of the house.
Nerd Knowledge 

20 – Puffy Ami Yumi – Teen Titans Theme

Teen Titans is a fantastic cartoon and proves that Japan+DC=awesome!!!

19 – Beefy – Game Store Girl

An awesome song, reminds me of my wife, as she worked in Game, and was my Game Store Girl, still is!

18 – MC Chris – Fett’s Vette

MC Chris wrote this fantastic song about Bobba Fett, any song with Bobba Fett is a great song

17 – They Might Be Giants – Instanbul (Not Constantinople)

Any list of geek songs must include They Might Be Giants, its proably a law somewhere.

16 – Led Zepplin – Battle of Evermore

Led Zepplin + Lord of the Rings = EPIC WIN, to be honest it was a toss up between this and Ramble On

15 – The Guild: Do You Wanna Date My Avatar

This is just awesome and so very indie, and hey before this was the Guild cool, well it was but this just made it cooler!

14 – Optimus Rhyme – Sick Day

Optimus Rhyme pioneered Nerdcore, before it was even called Nerdcore, so they deserve a mention.

13 – Jonathan Coulton – Code Monkey

He releases all his stuff as opensource and this is just a fantasticlly great tune.

12 – Weird Science – Oingo Boingo

If what they did in the film actually worked, would we not have all done it!

11 – MC Frontalot – Penny Arcade Theme Song

Penny Arcade is made all the better with this theme tune.

10 – Limahl – The NeverEnding Story

If you grew up in the 80s you loved this song.

9 – My Eyes (On the Rise) – Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

Joss Wheadons genius is made so apparent in this genius of a webseries

8 – The Hero of Canton

Unfortunaly there was never an offical recording of this released, but if there was it would be gaurenteed to reach No.1 on the nerd charts.

7 – Nursehella – Nusehellamentary

Not a lot of female nerdcore artists out there, but Nursehlla is undoubtly the queen of nerdcore.

6 – White & Nerdy – Weird Al Yankovic

To be honest Weird Al could have taken up half the slots in this chart, and for a while it was a toss up between this and Dare to be Stupid.

5 – Weezer – In The Garage

A song that gets in Dugeons and Dragons, X-Men and Kiss is gurenteed to be wickedly awesome.

4 – Flight of the Conchords – Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros

Flight of the Conchords FTW

3 – The Touch – Stan Bush

If the ever show Transformers:- The Movie in the cinemas this would have the entire audiance on thier feet.

2 – David Bowie – Magic Dance

Saw this in the cinema a few months ago, it did have the entire auidance on thier feet!

1- MC Frontalot with Jesse Dangerously and MC Hawking – Nerdcore Rising

The two greatest nercore rappers of all time on one track, its just EPIC!!!

Dishonourable Mention

Vanilla Ice – Ninja Rap

Turtles are normally cool, but this, well this makes them uncool.

So I have been compiling a list of movies that I think are essential viewing, so I can try and systematically bring her up to speed. So let me know your thoughts and suggestions on how to refine her educational program.

As you can see, I have my work cut out for me!

Michael

“The face of him on whom I gazed I can never forget, though I cannot describe it. Those piercing eyes seemed to read one’s very soul; power and authority sat on that ample brow; while the deep lines on the forehead and face implied an age which the jet-black hair and beard flowing down in indistinguishable luxuriance almost to the waist seemed to belie. No need to ask in whose presence I stood, as I bowed myself before one who is the object of a devotion and love which kings might envy and emperors sigh for in vain!”

These are the words used by Edward Granville Browne, a prominent Cambridge scholar upon meeting Bahá’u'lláh, the only westerner to do so and leave a description of his meeting.

Edward Granville Browne was born in Gloucestershire in 1862 and spent his youth in his home city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He was educated at Eton (where he found the classical curriculum then in force boring and impossible), Glenalmond and Pembroke College Cambridge. His interest in Oriental matters was first aroused by the Russo-Turkish war of 1877 and at Cambridge he read Oriental languages as well as medicine. His father, a successful engineer, insisted that Oriental languages was too hazardous as a profession and that he must qualify as a doctor; this he did between going down from Cambridge in 1884 and undertaking his only long visit to Persia in 1887-8, following which his wrote A Year amongst the Persians.

Later on in 1890 his visited Akka and during his weeklong stay his interviewed Bahá’u'lláh four times, during one of these interviews Bahá’u'lláh said:-

“Thou hast come to see a prisoner and an exile…. We desire but the good of the world and the happiness of the nations; yet they deem us a stirrer-up of strife and sedition worthy of bondage and banishment…. That all nations should become one in faith and all men as brothers; that the bonds of affection and unity between the sons of men should be strengthened; that diversity of religion should cease, and differences of race be annulled — what harm is there in this? …Yet so it shall be; these fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the `Most Great Peace’ shall come…”

Browne also spent time with the Azalis, the followers of Mirza Yahya, a man whom was appointed as a temporary leader by the Báb, but later refused to follow Bahá’u'lláh , and indeed was envious of His prominence in the Bábí Faith. Through the spreading of lies and rumors, he was the cause of doubt and disunity among the Bábís in Baghdád. Mirza Yahya was responsible for ordering the murder of Mirza Asadullah-i-Khuy, also known as Dayyán whom was the third person to recognise “He whom God shall make manifest”, in the personage of Bahá’u'lláh. Dayyán was murdered for refuting the claims of successor-ship made by Mirza Yahya.

Mirza Yahya later was the cause of Bahá’u'lláh’s banishment to ‘Akká. While in Edirne, he poisoned Bahá’u'lláh, causing Him severe illness and a tremor in His hands that would last for the rest of His life. Mírzá Yahyá was eventually exiled to Cypress where he died in 1912 at the age of 80.

But it’s because of the time that Browne spent with Mirza Yahya, that some Bahá’í s are uncomfortable with him. But personally I recognise that he was an academic and had to investigate all sides of the issue, but either way his description of his meetings with Bahá’u'lláh are beautifully touching and are often used in Bahá’í literature.

His family were from Elswick, a neighbourhood in Newcastle and was buried here, so myself and a friend, James Russell decided to go find the grave and say some prayers for his soul, and it struck us while we were there, how young he was and that when he meet Bahá’u'lláh, he was 28, the same age as me and James, and that just struck us, this man was our age when he wrote those words and that was well, striking. When I was fist told of him, I had an image of a stuffy old man, but this man was my age, and that makes you think an awful lot.

His grave will no doubt in the future become a place of great historical interest to the Bahá’ís of the future, and for those Bahá’ís in Newcastle, I think it’s important to visit here and offer prayers for his soul, he recognised something in Bahá’u'lláh, and his description is so moving.

Also we should not forget that on March 29th 1889 he gave a presentation on the Faith to the Essay Society at Newcastle’s Literary and Philosophical Societys lecture theatre, which is the first public mention of the Bahá’í Faith in the west, the Bábí Faith had been mentioned before, but here in Newcastle, Browne mentioned the word Bahá’í, and Newcastle was forever changed.

God Bless,

Michael

Michael

Mia nomo estas Michael, mi estas 27-jara, mi loĝas en Newcastle.

What I have just said there is “Hello, my name is Michael, I am 27, I live in Newcastle”, in Esperanto. The Esperanto language was created by Polish ophthalmologist Dr. L. L. Zamenhof back in 1887, in response to the ethnic divisions in his native Bialystok in Poland. He believed that language barriers fostered conflict and therefore set about promoting a “neutral” second language that had no political baggage.

Esperanto itself sounds a bit like Spanish or Italian, and is spoken by around 2 million people worldwide, which is about the same amount as speak Lithuanian, Latvian, Slovenian, or Tongan. Now as a man made language one might think it’s pretty useless compared to these national languages, but consider that these languages are spoken in a small geographic area, whereas Esperanto is spoken over the whole world, so it could be said that it’s actually more useful than those languages, unless you happen to be visiting them of course!

As a Bahá’í, I believe very much in an international auxiliary language, to facilitate the understanding between the worlds’ different peoples, and help bring about world unity.

O members of parliaments throughout the world! Select ye a single language for the use of all on earth, and adopt ye likewise a common script. God, verily, maketh plain for you that which shall profit you and enable you to be independent of others. He, of a truth, is the Most Bountiful, the All-Knowing, the All-Informed. This will be the cause of unity, could ye but comprehend it, and the greatest instrument for promoting harmony and civilization, would that ye might understand! We have appointed two signs for the coming of age of the human race: the first, which is the most firm foundation, We have set down in other of Our Tablets, while the second hath been revealed in this wondrous Book.

Bahá’u’lláh

Now until recently I have truly believed that this language was English, and in my first draft of this blog entry I pretty much dismissed Esperanto as a little bit of fun, and that its job was being fulfilled by English. But following a recent conversation with my friend James, who has put a lot of effort into learning and now teaching Esperanto, I have changed my mind.

You see, when I have a conversation with say a friend whom speaks Persian as their first language, a situation that is quite frequent when you’re a Bahá’í I might add, I as a native English speaker have all the power in that relationship. The same is true when I try to speak German, with someone for whom that is their first language, they have the power. But if we are both speaking a language which is not the native tongue for either of us, then the whole dynamic changes as we are both equal.

So I have done a full 360 turn and now think that actually Esperato could be a really useful thing, perhaps we should all have a go at trying to learn it, so I might just try and take a shot at learning the Universal Auxiliary Language.

Ĝis la revido

Michael

A slight issue with a background problem on my server has meant that my last few couple of months of posts have not been published, so I will be publishing them as a series of “Lost Posts”.

This gives me a chance to look back over them and make them a bit better, so look out for them mixed in with some more regular posts.

It’s my own fault for not looking after things properly and basically chilling out by watching the whole of Star Trek – Deep Space Nine with Lindsay, and helping to plan the recent North East Summer School for the North East of England Bahá’í Community.

Anyway, the first lost post which I shall put up either tonight or tommorow night will be on Esperanto!

Hope you’re all well!

Michael

Our new captain, the paragon of virtue that is Steven Gerrard, opened England’s account in the Rainbow Nation, with a cracking 4th minute goal, which unfortunately I missed, but I will tell you about that later. Rob Green had a howler allowing Clint Dempsey to score an equaliser in the 40th minute.

England had a very good first half, every time we got forward, we looked like we could score, and  frankly by half time we should have had 3, the Yanks back line looked very confused, almost like they had never played with other before, but we failed to convert those chances to goals, I personally think we should have started with Crouch rather than Heskey, then maybe we would have gotten some of those goals. When Crouch came on, he began to have a impact, but he didn’t have enough time to turn the game around. Don’t get me wrong Heskey had a good game, but he is not a great striker, but might be better redeployed into a midfield role.

In the second half, our midfield fell apart, there was a lack of disipline and professionalism there, Carragher and Gerrard began to resort to thug tactics, very rough tackles and picked up yellow cards, and kept risking getting a second and reducing us down to 10 men. The midfield really let us down today, we missed Gareth Barry and Joe Cole, who really should have been playing today.

Rooney looked a bit lost, when he plays for Manchester United, he knows he has Scholes and Valencia looking to give him a good ball. But tonight he looked like a loner, Gerrard, Lampard & Wright-Phillips didn’t even looked up to pass him the ball. How frustrating. We have the world’s best centre forward and he can’t weave his magic because of the poor midfield. But he still got a few chances that almost got past Howard, if we can just get the supply to him right, then he will score some crackers.

And as for Lampard and Gerrard, why oh why can they not play together, its madness. Aaron Lennon had a really good game setting up two very good chances, one for Heskey and one for Lampard, and for me, he was my man of the match.

Personally I would drop Gerrard as captain, I have never rated him as Liverpool captain. He is too aggressive and a thug, he is a very poor captain. For me John Terry should never have had the armband removed, and this shows why he needs to be reinstated. He was able to control the team and kept them well disciplined, and at the same time, I never, ever, want to see Lampard and Gerrard playing together for England again. We have gone for years seeing how they simply cannot play together, they have no chemistry, and just don’t understand how the other plays.

Lets be honest, England played well individually, but didn’t play as well as a team, particularly in midfield, and I think our drop in performance compared to our qualification campaign is mostly down to John Terry no longer having the armband, and whilst I could make excuses for us in the warm-up games, I can’t make excuses this time. But at the same time, the USA are no longer the minnows they once were, the MLS, and the way its run has really helped the USA develop a very good generation of players. The development of what they call “soccer-specific stadium” and reasonable wages encouraging the development 0f local talent and if they keep it up the USA can develop into one of the strongest teams in the world.

Well for fans of omens, will know that in 2006, Italy started out with a 1-1 draw against the USA, and in 1966, we drew our first game with Uruguay, so you never know.

ITV = FAIL

As for ITVs coverage, well what a disaster, I am lucky enough to have a HD Satellite box, so I was really looking forward to watching the world cup in HD. Well this game was shown on ITVs newly launched ITV1 HD channel, and 4 minutes into the game, it cut to a Hyundai advert and came back with an SD picture, where we were able to see Gerrards goal celebration!!! See below:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7SrUeWdG7c

What a disaster, it did switch back to HD for about 7 minutes and then resumed SD again for the rest of the match. A very very poor performance, and the apology was terrible, Adrian Chiles apologised for some interruptions, I would hardly call having an ad break just as England score thier first goal of the World Cup an interruption, I would calling its a disaster. But what can we expect from a lowbrow channel like ITV?

ITV have the next England game, so lets hope they sort this out for next time.

Come on England!

Michael

Biological Detergents

Fifty years ago, the laundry detergents we used, caused rivers to froth up with soapsuds and the massive amounts of potassium caused huge algal blooms, which used up all the oxygen in the rivers killing the fish and plants that would normally have lived there. But the industry got wise and these days its no longer a problem, there is a lot of emphasis placed on biodegradability, so any off the shelf products is pretty eco-friendly.

One of the major controversy’s with laundry detergents is the use of enzymes in biological laundry detergents, enzymes are catalysts which are often called natures miracle workers, because they help to break stuff down. Think back to the basic biology experiment that all British children taking their GCSEs do with salivary amylase, where they study the factors influencing the rate by which salivary amylase hydrolyses starch into disaccharide maltose.

Anyway enzymes are great in laundry detergents as they allow the breakdown of dirt and stains at lower temperatures than would otherwise be possible, in fact using them in temperatures above 40°C, will cause the enzymes to become denatured and the detergents become ineffective. Brilliant, well you would think anyway, but unfortunately there are a lot of people, particularly here in the UK, who are foolish enough to think that enzymes are unnatural and blame them for various aliments from respiratory problems to eczema! Now science says otherwise, in fact in May 2008, there was a brilliant article published in the British Journal of Dermatology that said:-

“ultimately, the balance of all the enzymes in laundry detergents are not a cause of either skin irritation or skin allergy … the supposed adverse effects of enzymes on the skin seem to be a consequence of mythology”

Now you would think that would put the matter to bed, but unfortunately it does not, there are still a mass of silly people who constantly blame biological detergents for any and all skin problems under the sun, and consequently purchase non-bio detergents which need to be washed at a higher temperature, using more energy! The most ironic thing of all is that the enzymes are harvested from micro-organisms such as bacteria, they are perfectly natural!

Concentration

The next biggest factor in my choice of detergent is the concentration of the product, the more concentrated the product is, the less you need to use for a single wash, and therefore there is less waste, less packaging and less CO₂ emissions from transport.

Up until recently the most concentrated products were liquid tablets, which came in dissolvable packets, and powder tablets, but in the past couple of years, there have been “small & mighty” super concentrated liquids and gels, both of which are extremely concentrated.

Surfactant

Surfactants are an essential ingredient in laundry detergent, and they work by lifting the dirt off the clothes and stop it settling back down again. When I was at school we were taught about how surfactants, were badly affecting frogs and causing them to die.

Once again the detergent industry has changed, and now uses a more biodegradable surfactant, but that’s also a big problem, generally that surfactant is palm oil. The bulk of the palm oil we use comes from vast plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia, an awful lot of it is provided by a company called Sinar Mas, which is responsible for destroying lush rainforest that was once home to tigers, elephants, butterflies and most significantly the Sumatran orangutan, which is now on the verge of extinction thanks to our massive use of palm oil in products such as chips, lipstick, shampoo, chocolate, soap, ice cream and laundry detergents to name just a few.

The palm oil industry is trying to develop ways to farm it in a sustainable matter, thanks to pressure from groups like Greenpeace, but progress is slow, but large companies like Unilever and Kraft do seem to be keen to address the problem. But they could do with a kick up the bum to get them to do it quicker!

Some Like It Hot

80% of the CO₂ emissions of doing our laundry is the result of the actual use of the washing machine, and much of this is the sheer amount of energy it takes to heat the water. During my lifetime, the recommended temperature for washing clothes has fallen from 90°C, to 60°C, then to 40°C, and these days 30°C is considered best. Much of this is due to improvements in laundry detergents as well as mass adoption of biological detergents, and today some of the super concentrated liquids and gels will work at 15°C cold washes, which means that there would be no need to heat the water at all.

My Choice

So what do I use, well, I have a criteria when buying my laundry detergent, and it goes like this:-

• biological
• highest concentration
• packaging containing a high proportion of recycled materials and that can be recycled itself
• sustainable surfactant
• ability to wash at a low temperature
• cost

My personal choice would be the biological detergent made by Ecover, given the companies dedication to the environment, even going so far as to build a fantastic eco-friendly factory in Belgium. But its only available from Waitrose and their online delivery service Ocado, which means I have to go very much out of my way to get it. And the cost is well, high, its £5.69 for a bottle which will do 21 washes, and this is where my budget dictates my choice. Simply put, its a price I cannot afford to pay, so unfortunately I am unable to buy Ecover,

Many people recommend Bio-D and Faith in Nature, however, these detergents are not biological, and so need a higher temperature to work, they are as expensive as Ecover, and in my experience far less effective, due to the lack of enzymes.

So I make a compromise choice, I buy Surf Small & Mighty, I know its made by Unilever who are a big evil company, and it has palm oil from what is currently an unsustainable source. However its highly concentrated, which means you need less, there is less packaging and it needs fewer lorries to transport it to the stores, it packaging is also recyclable, and it is very good at a 15°C cold wash. It costs about £5.51 for a 1.47l bottle which will do 42 washes, so its friendly on the wallet as well.

Its defiantly a compromise choice, if my bosses ever decided to give me a nice payrise

(highly unlikely), I would be buying Ecovers detergent.

Other Stuff

When it comes to fabric conditioner its another story altogether, Ecovers conditioner is quite affordable at £3.00 for a 1l bottle, and that goes quite a good way, plus our lovely Riverford delivery folks, Ian & Gwen refill a 1l bottle for £2.50, saving me a little money and also reusing the bottle. We used to use Tesco Naturally Fabric Conditioner, which was Tescos own brand Ecover knock-off, it had a nice smell, and was equally as recyclable, and at £1.00 for a 750ml bottle, it was very good value. But my issue with it was that it was a cop-out by Tesco, it was one line out of many that was eco-friendly, so why couldn’t they all be?

Now when it comes to the really tough stains, my mother would have reached for bleach and all sorts of other harsh and nasty chemicals, but not me, no I reach for my trusty Ecover Stain Remover stick! To be honest I rarely use it, only when I get some serious dinner medals is it called upon, it was an impulse buy, when I was buying some of Traidcrafts Fairtrade rice from the One World Shop at the Church of St Thomas the Martyr.

As well as using products that are as eco-friendly as possible, we also try to make sure we only wash a full load for energy efficiency, wash on a 15°C cold wash, and when the weather is nice, we use solar energy to dry our clothes! Or in plain English, we put the laundry on the line rather than use the tumble dryer, and even in the nasty winter weather, we have a clothes horse!

And as for ironing, well ironing sucks, I mean it sucks on an epic level and wastes a lot of energy! So I don’t iron, I try to fold my clothes when I put them in the wardrobe, or hang them up, I fail miserably at it and my clothes are generally speaking pretty badly creased, but hey, at least its low energy!

So that is that, what a boring blog post eh!

God Bless

Michael

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Michael