HOW FAR DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE DO YOU WANT TO GO??

A review of a documentary called 'What the bleep do we know'

How far down the rabbit hole do you want to go? In other words, how much do you want to think about/ realise about the potential that exists in your own life? This documentary, entitled ‘What the bleep do we know?’ deals with the study of quantum mechanics, which calculates possibilities, and for each of us in our daily lives there are millions, with only one being brought to life by our consciousness each time. If so many possibilities exist, why then do we keep recreating the same reality over and over again? The answer to that is conditioning.

We have all been conditioned, whether we like it or not to believe only what we see, and to accept the status quo, which means we may never explore even a fraction of our infinite possibilities. This is one of the most important realisations that I gained from this DVD and it truly is a scary thought. I thought about it for hardly a second when I realised that in the space of about three years, since I started my BSc. Degree, I have narrowed my field of possibilities (in my own mind) down to what I thought was realistic. But what is reality? Reality is merely the harnessing of possibilities by our consciousness, which then brings them into being. So then if you are open to greater possibilities, and free your mind of the confines of being ‘realistic’ many previously ‘unrealistic’ ideas become a real possibility. Strangely this idea frightens me, and that makes me realise just how successfully I’ve been conditioned.

Our brains only make us aware of only a fraction of the information that they perceive, and only that which is self-serving. This is quite an alarming thought and makes you wonder what the other things are that your brain isn’t telling you, or that you don’t want your brain telling you, as they don’t service your immediate need. This is well illustrated in the docu-movie in a scene where the lead character gets so caught up in her painful memories of a failed marriage that she begins drawing parallels to the wedding that she in photographing for an assignment. This is proof also of the fact that our emotions, linked to past experience, influence our perceptions and therefore have a direct impact on what our eyes will see, as there exists a direct correlation between what you expect to see and what your eyes actually see.

This documentary also raises questions about the divide which exists between science, philosophy and mysticism, which has for long been perpetuated by the so called high priests of both disciplines, whose power would be threatened by the acknowledgement of their interactions. Science, which deals in hard facts, in the face of quantum mechanics, will no longer be able to ignore the influence of ones perceptions of the world, and what is classified as the reality. And as facts need to be interpreted to give meaning, which itself is not a scientific notion, the two can no longer sit on opposite sides of the proverbial road. On the other hand, philosophy cannot ignore the fact that scientific discovery and revelation impact on the way people see the world (and therefore what is expected).

The documentary “What the bleep do we know” raises a number of questions about how we perceive ourselves, and how this in turn affects the way we interact with the world around us. If we start to believe that we truly have an influence on our lives then we can effectively become the creators of our own lives. This give us a greater responsibility for exactly how things turn out…hmmm, responsibility? Something that if we think about, modern materialism has totally stripped us of.

Mind boggling and truly thought provoking stuff – a well deserved ****4 stars

Miss Annamarie Martin
Department of Biodiversity and Conservation biology
University of the Western Cape
Private BagX17
e-mail - 2318859@uwc.ac.za
Blog - http://www.marypoppins.iblog.co.za/

WERE NEANDERTHALS CANNIBALS?

Evidence from fossils found in various places all over the world shows that the
Neanderthal man (Homo nederthalensis) was a cannibal. This is usually countered by other people arguing that they were practicing what is known as burial or mortuary rites before burial and also argue that this could have been due to human interference or carnivore activity (1). But more recent research shows that the Neanderthal was practicing cannibalism. The Neanderthal man was an expert hunter and would deflesh their victims before later on breaking their bones and skulls to get the marrow and the brain. Fossils from a cave in Moula-Guercy, Ardèche, France dated to 100,000 years (Defleur et. al.) show evidence of bone modifications that indicate that the individuals were defleshed and disarticulated (Alban Defleur et. al.1999). Cuts on the lingual surface of juvenile mandibles indicate tongue removed. After flesh was removed from the bones the bones were then broken using stone hammers. Then the marrow was removed, same treatment being given to the head to remove the brain (Mendez).

Other fossils that were found on the same site indicate that this was not a burial site as other scientists argue but a trash heap after they had been eaten. Other fossils like those of a deer, pig horse hyena(Day, 1993) were found in the same place as that having the Neanderthal bone this shows they were thrown there after a meal.(1). Similar treatment to that of the H. neadethalensis was also given to the animals. This is accompanied by tools found on the site of the excavation showing those tools were used in the actually butchering process. In this on massive heap of fossils around 78 pieces of fossils were identified as belonging to human and 400 others identified as belonging to other mammals. This indicates a combination of both human and animals were eaten and their bones discarded together.

From the evidence carried it is a strong indication that there was cannibalism even one has to ask why it was there. It could have been caused by food shortage or a ritual?

References:

1: http://www.scienceblog.com/community/older/1999/A/199900026.html
being

Alban Defleur, 12* Tim White, 2 Patricia Valensi, 3 Ludovic Slimak, 4 Évelyne Crégut-Bonnoure Neanderthal Cannibalism at Moula-Guercy, Ardèche, France Volume 286, Number 5437 Issue of 1 Oct 1999, pp. 128 - 131
The American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Day M. H. Guide to fossils man 4th Edition. The University of Chicago press. Chicago IL p. 85-88, 1993

Mendez, A. C. The wickedness of the pre-flood world.

White, T. and Toth N. The question of cannibalism at Grotta Guattari. Current Anthropology, Vol. 32, No. 2 April 1991, p. 118-138. University of Chicago press. Chicago IL
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/462048.stm

VINCENT MUCHAI WAIRIMU
Biodiversity and Conservation Biology
University of Western Capetown
Private Bag X17 Bellville

TEL: +27825103190

Email: 2648463@uwc.ac.za

Website:http://www.muchai.iblog.co.za

IS TURKANA BOY HOMO ERECTUS OR HOMO ERGASTER?

The Turkana Boy said to be amazing because it is so complete, but many people who do not like the idea of human evolution have been able to discount much of the work that have been done on the basis that it is built on incomplete evidence. The findings suggested that it had fairly modern human features, with a larger cranial capacity than that of Homo habilis ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_erectus#Description ).


Turkana Boy (Homo erectus or homo ergaster) named after the discovery of Kamoya Kimeu in 1984 at Nariokotome near Lake Turkana in Kenya. He discovered a skeleton of 11 to 12 years old boy and the only major exclusion on the skeleton was the hands and feets. It was exposed to be dated 1.6 million years and the brain size was estimated to be 880cc (at adulthood 910cc). It was found that the boy was 160 cm tall (estimated at adulthood might have been about 185 cm. Anatomically, the H. ergaster and H.erectus are similar the difference comes in the higher cranial vault, lighter frame, and facial structure ( http://www.msu.edu/~heslipst/contents/ANP440/ergaster.htm ).


The theory is currently a great deal of discussion as to whether Homo erectus and Homo ergaster were separate species. H.erectus remains still remains an important hominine since it is believed to be the oldest representation of early human migration, but the recent analysis indicate that H.erectus may be the Asia H. neanderthalensis, in that its linage did not give rise to later variants of H.sapiens. The arguments rotate around the interpretation of morphological differences between early African fossils (H.ergester) and those found in Asia (H.erectus and African sites). Since Erst Mayr is biological species definition cannot be tested, then this issue will never be fully resolved.



REFERENCES


1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_erectus#Description (29/03/2006 ; 15:35)

2) http://www.msu.edu/~heslipst/contents/ANP440/ergaster.htm (19/03/2006;12:09 )

Ramapulana Nkoana
CSIR Pretoria
0001
Cell:0733476551
Tell:012 841 2133
pnkoana@csir.co.za
http://pnkoana.blogspot.com
Fax:012 842 3676

RESENT due to Error in formatting by Rich

 

Dr Richard Knight
Co-ordinator: National Information Society Learnerships - Ecological Informatics
Department of Biodiversity and Conservation Biology
University of the Western Cape
Private Bag X17
Bellville 7535

 

Phone 27 + 21 + 959 3940
Fax 27 + 21 + 959 1237

 

Email Rknight@uwc.ac.za

 

Web http://nisl.uwc.ac.za

 

 

FOURTH ANNUAL GBIF SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM INCLUDING PRESENTATION OF THE 2006

The conference was held in Cape Town from the 5-6 April 2006 in the BMW Pavilion. There were presenters from different countries presenting different topics. The presenters were drawn from both spheres of the globe, that is the Northern and Southern hemisphere. Although there were different topics, the main theme of the conference was conservation of the biodiversity.


The conference was opened by the newly elected director of Science and Technology, honourable Dr Philemon Mjwara. Dr Mjwara was emphasizing the importance of science and encouraged the participants to co-operate with one another when coming to the conservation of the biodiversity and data sharing. On behalf of the Government, Mjwara continued by saying that the Government is prepared to do anything possible when coming to the provision of funds towards the research. This will also encourage young researchers the opportunities to develop their interests in research.

Then after the presentation by the director of Science and Technology, different presenters followed with their different topics. All the presenters were stressing the fact that data need to be shared among the researchers. The data which need to be shared might be that of climate change, ecological information, impacts of global warming and both terrestrial and aquatic. The inclusion of the information about the soil must also be included.

The audience were also introduced to the Ebbe Nielsens life and the prize by David Penman. He described the prize as named after the memory of Ebbe Schmidt Nielsen, who was an inspirational leader in the fields of biosystematics and biodiversity informatics. This prize is awarded to a promising researcher in the early stage of his/her career who is combining biosystematics and biodiversity informatics research in an exciting and novel way. The prize worth US$35,000.

Dr Mjwara on behalf of the Science and Technology minister honourable Mosibudi Mangena presented the award to the winner by the name of Dr John Wieczorek. Dr Wieczorek was awarded the reward because of his outstanding research in South America, Brazil, Argentina and Chile. He was also asked what he would do with his prize, Dr Wieczorek responded by saying that he would continue with his research in the above mentioned countries, because he has already created a good relationship with the people in those countries.

Overall the conference was about the status of biodiversity, sharing the information, and how the present status of biodiversity can be maintained. Participants also agreed with each other that the solution need to be found to rehabilitate the already depleted biodiversity.

 

 

Peter Muvhali
CSIR PTA
0001
Tell  no       012 8142133
Fax             012 8423676
weblog: http:pmuvhali.blogsport.com
E-mail          smuvhali@csir.co.za

REPORT OF THE CRADLE OF HUMANKIND

It was on the 23 of March 2006 at 8am early in the morning when we took off from the CSIR to Krugersdorp. The aim of the journey was to visit the Cradle of the humankind site in Sterkfontein to see the cave and the species discovered to that cave. At about 11am we arrived at the site. While still waiting, the instructor who was assigned to our group arrived. After his arrival he introduced himself to us and also told us the rules which need to be followed while in the caves. One of the rules which made us more scary was that in some places within the caves we are going to walk in the caves using our knees. Fortunately, we managed to walk within the cave uninjured.


The Cradle of the Humankind is the one of the world heritage site which consists of the remains of the ancient plants, animals and hominids which are all fossilised. It is declared the world heritage site after 1994. The type of the rock in which the cave is formed is dolomite. The Cradle of humankind is found in the Province of Gauteng, even though the small part is in the North-West province.


It covers an area of approximately 47000ha of the land which is privately owned. The Cradle of humankind is also open to public, where the public can view the excavation. The one part of the excavation is natural, while the other part of the excavation is man-made. Within the cave there is also a water table. Small museum which contained both the plants and animal is also found in the area and also a tea room is available.


It is also thought that the first hominid, adult Australopithecine was found in the site. This was followed by the discovery of the skull of nearly completed adult female Australopithecus africanus. The above mentioned discovery was made by the former Witwatersrand University Professor Raymond Dart. The skull was nicknamed Mrs Ples, because was found near Transvaal. While moving along the path leading to the cave, one is greeted with different species with their years of discovery and the name of the person who discovered that species attached to the type of the rock called Gabbro.


Inside the cave there is a path which the people use to walk while inside but alongside the cave there is still some fossilised bones embedded in the rocks. When asked what the bones were of which species, the instructor responded by saying that it is not easy to identify the bones when they are still embedded in the rock. In the museum, all fossil remains are found ranging from the early Australopithecus to the modern Homo sapiens.


The Cradle of humankind is one of the world heritage site. This was named the world heritage site post 1994 by the state president. The site is also open to public to view its beauty and both the animal and plants remains.

 

 

Peter Muvhali
CSIR PTA
0001
Tell  no       012 8142133
Fax             012 8423676
weblog: http:pmuvhali.blogsport.com
E-mail          smuvhali@csir.co.za

PRESENTATION BY DR SCHOLES IN SAEON SUMMIT

It was on the 29 March 2006 at Leriba Lodge Centurion. The gathering was on SAEON Graduate Student Network Workshop. The students were from various in institutions ranging from different Universities to different Organizations. Students were firstly, introduced to student network by Bernard Coetzee who was charing the gathering. Secondly, students were welcomed to SAEON by its head Johan Pauw. Lastly, the students were addressed by the dynamic speaker or speaker of the day by the name of Dr Bob Scholes.

Dr Bob Scholes addressed students in some of the most sensitive issues that students are faced with in their research papers. These issues include the use of public money in their research and refencing their work so that in future they can be acknowledge by other people using their work. For example: if a student use an excel in his/her research paper he/she must put his/her name and the date on top of the paper.

Coming to research, Bob addressed the students that there must be a link between the students and the public in which they serve, this is because the public contributed the money towards their research. Therefore the public must also get the value of their money from the young researchers through the positive feedback.

Bob further continued by addressing students about the methods in which most of the Universities are still using such as doing research within the laboratories. He further continued by saying that it is time to our Universities to change their style of doing research to the style of assessment. In this style of assessment, Bob encouraged the students to maintain the links with the public, interoperability and sharing of the data.

 

 

Peter Muvhali
CSIR PTA
0001
Tell  no       012 8142133
Fax             012 8423676
weblog: http:pmuvhali.blogsport.com
E-mail          smuvhali@csir.co.za

SUMMARY OF THE VIDEO ABOUT THE ELEGANT UNIVERSE

The theory behind the description of how the Universe works still remains the controversial issue. This is because most of the scientists have proposed scientific theories which explain how the Universe works. The scientists have proposed the functioning of the Universe by explaining different forces. Different scientists from different institutions were coming up with their findings about the functioning of the Universe. Among the scientists were the world known scientists who have formulated formulae explaining the interactions of forces in different planet of the Universe. These include Albert Estein, Isaac Newton, and Niels Bohr. In the process of trying to explain how the Universe functions, four forces were introduced. These forces include the force of gravity, electromagnetism, nuclear and weak forces. In order to find the solution on how the Universe works, scientists try to unify all of the above mentioned forces together.


According to the father of gravity, as he was called, Albert Estein believes that the Universe behave in a predictive way. He further continued by saying that everything in the Universe is made up of the strings, explains Professor Steven Weinberg from the University of Texas, Austin. It is said that these strings vibrate in order to make all the constituents of nature. That is where the string theory began. At the age of 26, another prominent scientist by the name of Isaac Newton came up with his three laws, in which he says that there is a pulling force and pushing force. According to Newton, the force of gravity pulls all the particles towards the centre of the Earth. Newton also gave us an example of an apple which was falling off from the tree, which was falling because of the two forces acting on the apple, the push and the pulling forces.


Isaac Newton was also the one who said that nothing can go faster than the speed of the light, because the speed of the light is about 3*108m/s, explains Brian Green from Columbia University. Green further continued by saying that if light travels in such a high speed, gravitational disturbance will form the waves. How fast gravity travels led to the formulation of the general relativity. This led to Maxwell to come up with the theory of Electromagnetic force, which is the combination of electricity and magnet. Maxwell further continued by saying when the light is moving, it creates dots and dash. Therefore four simple equations, which is gravity; electromagnetism and string were combined to form one equation. In 1920s the Swedish scientist by the name of Niels Bohr disagreed with both Newton and Estein in that the Universe behave in a predictable way, says Amanda Peet from the University of Toronto. Bohr says that elements consist of the smallest particles called atoms. Therefore, Bohr came up the theory of quantum mechanics which predicts the chance or probability about the description of how the Universe works.


In 1930s, it was also discovered that gravity and electromagnetism are not the only forces which describes how the world works, says Nima Arkani from Harvard University. The other forces include the nuclear force which consists of protons and neutrons and the weak force. In 1933, Michael Green from the University of Cambridge explains the theory of quantum mechanics theory; the Universe is formed as a result of the big bang some 14billion years ago. As a result the Universe gets small. Michael Duff from the University of Michigan says the two laws of physics combine to form to explain the behaviour of the earth referring to the general relativity plus quantum mechanics. In 1968, Brian Veneziano made an accidental discovery of how the Universe works, but later on agreed that his discovery was not true. Veneziano says the force of nature can be explained by the small particles or photons, but at the same time the string theory was not getting off the ground. In 1973 after five years, massless particles anomalies were found not be true. In 1984 to 1985 the string theory was loosing the steam again.


The issue of how the Universe works still remains controversial. This is because different scientists try to unify different questions in describing how the universe functions without reaching the final conclusion. Scientists were also disagreeing with each other about the functioning of the Universe.

 

 

Peter Muvhali
CSIR PTA
0001
Tell  no       012 8142133
Fax             012 8423676
weblog: http:pmuvhali.blogsport.com
E-mail          smuvhali@csir.co.za

WHAT IS THE COMMON ANCESTOR THAT HUMAN SHARE WITH THE GREAT APES?

ABSTRACT

 

Humans and the great apes evolved from the same ancestor.  Even though they evolved from the same ancestor, this does not mean that humans and the great apes share the common ancestor.  The issue of which common ancestor humans share with the great apes remains controversial between the Paleoanthropologists and the Biologists.  Some studies in primate morphology appear to support Chimpanzees-Gorilla, human-Orangutan, or human-Gorilla clades, but the similarities could be due to convergences, or they could be a result of accelerated rates of the morphological evolution in the human lineage.  But it is said that Chimpazees have the closest relationship with humans, followed by the Gorillas, Orangutans, and Gibbons. According to Silverstein (1999) the distance between humans and Chimpazees is 1.64 percent; the distance between humans and Gorillas is 2.27 percent; the distance between humans and Orangutans is 3.6 percent; the distance between humans and Gibbons is 4.76 percent. Although most of the scientists believe that humans are more closely related to the modern apes than to monkeys, but the resent study indicated that humans did not evolve from apes. It has long been known that humans share a common ancestor with apes but it was only in the last thirty years that techniques were developed to provide strong evidence in support of the hypotheses that within the ape lineage, humans are more closely related to Chimpazees are to gorillas (Silverstein, 1999).

Peter Muvhali
CSIR PTA
0001
Tell  no       012 8142133
Fax             012 8423676
weblog: http:pmuvhali.blogsport.com
E-mail          smuvhali@csir.co.za

REPORT FOR STERKFONTEIN

INTRODUCTION

The trip was on 23 march 2006.  The trip was to go to Sterkfontein Caves.  I and my group and our coordinator Althea was there in Sterkfontein.  we are studying Human Evolution .  The site is located in Gauteng at Grugersdrop at the waest of Johannesburg The area is consits of Dolomite rocks under water table.  It comprises a strip of dozen Dolomite Limestone caves containing the fossilized remains of plants, animals, and hominids.  The site has nominated by Gauteng Provincial Government as one of the world heritage lists.  The site is cover about 47000 Hectors.  

 

The cave was donated to University of Witswatersrand.  Caves are famous for the Mrs Ples in 1947.  We were with the tourist guilder by the name called Rufus Mookwena.  Rufus gave us the rules for sterkfontein and he was guiding us about the cave.  He said that, when we are walking we must close to each other to avoid missing.  he also said that, Dr Robert Broom visited Sterkfontein in 1936.  He was the first scientist to find the first skull of 2,6 to 3 million years old Ape man. 

 

WHAT I OBSERVED IN STERKFONTEIN

At the entrance there is a species fossils displays and we observed the displayed stone written different types of species.  Lystrosourus from Karoo . 

It was known 245 million years ago. It was a vegetarian.

Thrinaxodon, it was ancestor of mammals ate a small animals and was mammals like reptiles.  

Dinosours birds, Pangaea, Massospondylus which was a south African Dinosaurs and was ancestors of Ostrich live 200 million years ago.  Foot of Australopithecus Africanus  from Sterkfontein believed 3,3 million years ago and had human like features.  It was direct comment ancestors of  Homo Habilis. 

 

AT THE CAVE

Firstly we watch the video which talk about the story of little foot we fail to see it  because the gate was closed.  We observed also the stature of Dr Robert Broom carrying the skull of Mrs Ples fossils

 

AT THE MUSEUM

We observe different types of hominids fossils, skulls, teeth, stone that were found  and  bones of fossils.  Under each fossils each characteristic , ancestors, year to be discovered and the different pictures and portrait of earliest hominids, Morden humans , chimpanzee and gorilla were shown.  

 

WHAT I LEARNED

It is easy to collect data if we are working as a group. 

 

Linette Netshiheni
CSIR Pretoria
0001
Cell: 0820446442
Tell: 012 841 2133
Fax: 012 842 3676
tnetshiheni@csir.co.za

UWC STUDENTS

Meeting Tomorrow 13th April 8am in Z29 Lab

Please make sure you have done your reviews of either the "ELEGANT UNIVERSE" or WHAT THE BLEEP DO WE KNOW?

see http://bcb703.blogspot.com/2006/04/film-reviews-down-rabbit-hole-to.html


What will be covered?

• There will be a discussion on Quantum Mechanics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mechanics
• In Particular we will review the Double-Slit Experiment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-slit_experiment
• Progress with you Term Projects (you should have submitted your Abstracts by now)
• Issues with you Personal Weblog
• General matters

See you tomorrow - the early time is so that the guys who are off campus can get back to work/ their homes etc.

Cheers

Rich

Dr Richard Knight
Co-ordinator: National Information Society Learnerships - Ecological Informatics
Department of Biodiversity and Conservation Biology
University of the Western Cape
Private Bag X17
Bellville 7535

Phone 27 + 21 + 959 3940
Fax 27 + 21 + 959 1237

Email Rknight@uwc.ac.za

Web http://nisl.uwc.ac.za

ACCESS TO ELEGANT UNIVERSE-THIRD PART

To View the third part of the Elegant Universe you have two options (streaming or downloading)

a) Streaming: Visit this link below which was provided on the original posting

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/program.html


You will need either QuickTime or Real Player Installed to view - the entire series is available for watching.


Apple QuickTime

1. http://www.apple.com/quicktime/win.html
2. Use the Free Download to install it and view it as streamed material
3. QuickTime Pro can be purchased which allows you to download the content not just view the streamed material!)
   

RealPlayer

1. http://www.real.com/player/?src=realplayer
2.  follow the link that says ^FREE RealPlayer    (top right - grey lettering)
3. follow the link that says Get RealPlayer - Free
4. This will install the Basic "Free" RealPlayer to View material

b) Downloading the file from our servers

The links are for download only- I cannot actually see why you cannot right click and 'Save Target as" to download the file - the server is up (if our Download Server is down you will not get the header at the top of this page only large white writing "Scientific Methods" on a grey background.

 

If you use our download links you must ensure you have Quick Time  installed on your PC. 

 

Difference between "Streamed" and "Download"

Streamed means on demand material that is stored on a server and is available to be transmitted at a user's request.  You view the material but the file are not transferred to you (not even in your Internet Cache)

 

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streaming_media

 

Download as the name implies means that the file is downloaded and you can play it by simply opening up the downloaded file and you do not even have to be on the Internet to view it.  In the case of download files (especially PDFs) it is best to use the right click of your mouse and "Save Target as" to direct where you want the file to be downloaded.  You then go to the folder you directed the "Save Target as" to open up the file.  If you just click it will try an open up the file in your Browser - this is rather slow and does not always work .  Consequently it is much better to download and open these files as a two stage operation.

 

Please if you have Technical Problems you have two options

 

1. Ramsley Sono can help you out providing this does not take more than 20% of his time
2. Log a Helpdesk call - they should come through and sort out your problems.

I have test both the Streaming and the Downloading and it works - streaming is particular good at the moment!

Cheers

Rich

 

Dr Richard Knight
Co-ordinator: National Information Society Learnerships - Ecological Informatics
Department of Biodiversity and Conservation Biology
University of the Western Cape
Private Bag X17
Bellville 7535

 

Phone 27 + 21 + 959 3940
Fax 27 + 21 + 959 1237

 

Email Rknight@uwc.ac.za

 

Web http://nisl.uwc.ac.za

 

 

TO SUMMARIZE WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE

Hi

I am still getting email messages of confusion ... here goes one more time to try and explain....

About the Courseware Weblog ( http://www.bcb703.blogspot.com) 


I have a student that has said that he could only access the Weblog  now .... you could always access it  (just use the hyperlink above), you could always add a comment to continue the discussion thread of each posting by clicking the blue underlined comments text.  All the invitations that I sent to you do is to send an email back to you when there are new posts - can you confirm this.

 

You want to add a new posting?  - this is done by preparing an email in your GroupWise email client.

 

1. Check that you have made a Signature File* (from tomorrow all postings submitted will be deleted if there is no Signature file at the end of your email!)
2. Please DO NOT put your name at the top of the posting - correctly set up your signature file will identify you.
3. The title of your Posting goes into the Subject: e.g. TO SUMMARIZE WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE  - This must be done in CAPITALS! (from tomorrow all postings submitted without CAPITALS for the topic heading will be deleted!)
4. Into the To: you type in the following email address  richardknight_uwc.sci-meths@blogger.com
5. Make sure the View (Top toolbar) is set to HTML (the options are HTML or Plain Text the selected option is indicated by a black dot next to the selected option)
6. In the Message box select Tahoma as the font and 8 for the font size. (For me this is the default settings).  Only change the colour to emphasize points, similarly use bold and CAPS to emphasize - when I use CAPS - it virtually means I am shouting at you to take notice! If I put in larger letters and BOLD it means my shouting is in increased volumes - get the message eh?
7. Start the body of your message immediately (No need for any more titles, names etc).
8. Have a look at the way I have set up my postings, remember sentences start with a Capital letter and end with a full stop.  Following a full stop leave two spaces before starting a new sentence. Use a comma at natural breaks in the sentence, and then after using a comma leave one space.
9. When making a new Paragraph please use TWO HARD RETURNS - this will ensure enough space is left to clearly show the paragraph structure and make you message easier to read.
10. Read and then re-read your message - it is going out to the rest of the World as if it were a Press Release!
11. Use the Email Spell Check before submitting
12. Finally check for species names - they should be written in italics e.g. Australopithecus afarensis, please note that the genus uses a capital letter and the species name a lower case letter.  When you first introduce the species give it the full name e.g. Australopithecus afarensis, thereafter you can abbreviate using A. afarensis.  If you introduce another genus such as Acacia cyclops you cannot then abbreviate it to A. cyclops  in your article since this will be interpreted as meaning Australopithecus cyclops!
13. The terms Acacia spp. and Acacia sp. have very different meanings, in the former it means several species of Acacia (e.g. Acacia cyclops, Acacia saligna etc) and in the latter it means an un-identified species of Acacia.
14. Although Wikipedia does start sentences with "A. afarensis was found in...", this is not strictly correct and when starting a sentence you should spell the name out in full, e.g. Australopithecus afarensis was found in ... , also when starting a sentence with number it should be spelt out in full e.g. Forty-five percentage of Lucy's bones were found... (see rules about writing numbers http://bcb703.blogspot.com/2006/04/writting-numbers.html

*A Signature File looks like this

 

Dr Richard Knight
Co-ordinator: National Information Society Learnerships - Ecological Informatics
Department of Biodiversity and Conservation Biology
University of the Western Cape
Private Bag X17
Bellville 7535

 

Phone 27 + 21 + 959 3940

 

To make a Signature File select Accounts from the Toolbar - a drop-down menu will appear from this select Account Options a Dialogue Box entitled "Accounts" will appear- on the right hand side there are some buttons select Properties a second Dialogue Box will appear entitled "Novel GroupWise Properties" at the top are Tab bars entitled "General", "Server" and "Signature" select the Signature  - a message is provided to supply your Signature - prepare one like the one illustrated, but ensure that your Weblog Address is included.  Make sure the tick box is ticked and that you have ticked the radio button that automatically adds your Signature File.  Finally click OK to accept these options and complete making your Signature File.

 

 

About submitting Assignments (email: knight.rich@gmail.com) 

 

When assignments are requested to be emailed please use the above account.  WARNING emails sent to rknight@uwc.ac.za that contain assignments will be deleted immediately in order that my email mailbox has sufficient space to send out emails.  After three days it is deleted anyway!  My UWC email  account is for fast turn around but has very limited mailbox capacity.  However, please note I cannot access my GMAIL account very regularly (usually only over weekends so if you want a fast reply post it on the Weblog!)

 

 

About your own Weblog 

You have been asked to create your own Weblog - this will need to maintained for the rest of the year.  The UWC students were asked to use a Weblog service other than http://www.blogger.com whereas the Pretoria NISL-EI students were asked to set up a Weblog using http://www.blogger.com. The reason is to see if a better BLOG service exists.   At the end of the year you will be asked to prepare a short report on features and quality of service of the BLOG Service you used. 

 

To maintain a BLOG service you will need to make an account which will give you access to an administrators page. To manage your account you will need a user name and password which you and ONLY you should know.  It is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to keep this information, but you should lose it use the help system on the BLOG service to get this resent or to re-configure your username and password.  It takes only a few minutes to make your Weblog - have a look at Vanessa's Blog http://bcb702.blogspot.com/ and Martie's Blog at http://nisldm.blogspot.com/2006/03/nisl-disaster-management-and-early.html both of whom set it up in a very short time.  It is VERY EASY to make your own Weblog!

 

 

Forthcoming Deadlines this Thursday 13 April !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

• Term Project Abstract - Please post a  Conference style Abstract of between 250 and 500 words describing your Research Topic that you will be undertaking.  This should be posted to this Weblog, but I would also suggest you post it to your own "Personal Weblog". For more details see http://bcb703.blogspot.com/2006/04/abstracts-and-google-search-engine.html
• Film Review - You were ask to write a review of either What the Bleep Do We Know? or Elegant Universe and to provide a star rating for this posting.  You were asked to submit this to your own Personal Weblog and advertise this review by adding a comment to following posting http://bcb703.blogspot.com/2006/04/film-reviews-down-rabbit-hole-to.html - this URL provides more details on the assignment.

 

Now for the Good News you can download the eight parts of the third an final episode of Elegant Universe from this links (Quick Time Movie format *.mov) - just Right Click and "Save Target as" to download the file...

 

• http://planet.uwc.ac.za/nisl/Scientific_methods/Videos/Elegant%20Universe%203.1%20The%20Wild%20West%20of%20Physics.mov
• http://planet.uwc.ac.za/nisl/Scientific_methods/Videos/Elegant%20Universe%203.2%20The%20Potential%20of%20Strings.mov
• http://planet.uwc.ac.za/nisl/Scientific_methods/Videos/Elegant%20Universe%203.3%20Getting%20into%20One%20Theory.mov
• http://planet.uwc.ac.za/nisl/Scientific_methods/Videos/Elegant%20Universe%203.4%20Parallel%20Universes.mov
• http://planet.uwc.ac.za/nisl/Scientific_methods/Videos/Elegant%20Universe%203.5%20Escaping%20Gravity.mov
• http://planet.uwc.ac.za/nisl/Scientific_methods/Videos/Elegant%20Universe%203.6%20Riddle%20of%20the%20Big%20Bang.mov
• http://planet.uwc.ac.za/nisl/Scientific_methods/Videos/Elegant%20Universe%203.7%20Signs%20of%20Strings.mov
• http://planet.uwc.ac.za/nisl/Scientific_methods/Videos/Elegant%20Universe%203.8%20Too%20Elegant%20to%20be%20Wrong.mov

Good Luck with getting your assignment, an can each of you confirm that you have READ THIS POSTING by adding a comment to it ..... Thanks!

 

 

 

Rich

 

 

 

Dr Richard Knight
Co-ordinator: National Information Society Learnerships - Ecological Informatics
Department of Biodiversity and Conservation Biology
University of the Western Cape
Private Bag X17
Bellville 7535

 

Phone 27 + 21 + 959 3940
Fax 27 + 21 + 959 1237

 

Email Rknight@uwc.ac.za

 

Web http://nisl.uwc.ac.za