Afromusing

The botanist Corneille Ewango talks about his work in the Congo to protect the forest giraffe or ‘Okapi’. He touches on the effect of the war, mentioning the mineral coltan which is used in electronics like your cellphone. Do note that coltan has fueled the war in the Congo for many years.

He also goes over his life story, which personifies courage and endurance in the face of difficult circumstances.
If you are not able to view the video, you can read a summary by EthanZ.

In case you read this blog in time, you can watch part of the TED conference right now online http://www.ted.com/liveevent/watch

“Neil Turok is one of the world’s leading physicists. He could easily just spend all his time in his lab, preparing to win a Nobel Prize. But he hasn’t done that,” said TED curator Chris Anderson. “He’s in Africa, where science education is in a pretty shoddy state, and he has decided to do something about it. He’s absolutely brilliant, and he’s taken that brilliance and leveraged that in a surprising way to help other people.”

He founded AIMS - African Institute of Mathematical Sciences.
His TED dream is that the next Einstein is African. The plan is to have AIMS in more countries in Africa, expanding mathematical and scientific research. Read more about it on Ethanz’s excellent blog.

The TED Africa team was also introduced earlier during the conference. I think 2008 promises to be a great year for Africa in more ways than one. Inspiration and passion in whatever field we are in goes a long way to bringing meaning and joy in our lives, that is the reason why i love TED.
Vusi Mahlasela is performing.
From his second song about the beauty of Africa, and the challenges of post apartheid SA.
Quotable: There is wisdom in forgiveness. if you don’t forgive, you are the one who is suffering the most, if you forgive you become more free. Vusi might as well have been talking to each and every Kenyan at this point in time. The road to reconciliation in Kenya is going to be long and hard; we will seriously have to look to our brothers and sisters in South Africa and Rwanda as we get back on the road to the Kenya we want.
You can watch his performance from TEDGlobal 2007 below if you didn’t catch the live event.

I was wondering what to write about for blog action day…Deforestation? possible land grabbing in Kenya? The need for recycling bins in apartment communities? the politics of climate change…many options to choose from. I happened watch wired science tonight, and they had a fascinating yet disturbing segment on ‘the garbage patch’. A flowing mass of garbage that goes with the currents spanning several oceans. Cargo that ended up in the seas, such as 80,000 pairs of Nike shoes gave the researchers some information about the flow of trash. Weirdly, a left shoe would end up on one shore and the right shoe on an entirely different shore. Intrigued? Below is the video from PBS.

As its mentioned in the video, perhaps if we see the sheer amount of plastic that is ending up in oceans and inside the bodies of countless birds and animals, we just might think twice about how we dispose of our plastic bottles.

Habib Koite of Mali has a beautiful song that captures feelings of concern about the environment and industrialization. Can we keep chugging along on the path to the new African Century without wrecking our environment?
Listen/download ‘Kumbin’.

NPR and National Geographic series - Climate Connections is a look at how we are shaping the climate and how climate is shaping us.Every morning, there is a report from different locales around the world where the effects of climate change are apparent, they talk to scientists, farmers, and others about the changes they are seeing and what they are doing. More here.
There is a very cute video introducing the properties of carbon, setting the groundwork for understanding how it figures in the whole global warming phenom.
Its All About the Carbons: Great video for kids of all ages Click on the graphic…

Image is from NPR.org

*working on a longer piece about global warming and Africa… lets leave the mood of this post lively, the next one will probably not have the same tone.

I had to make a quick note for US readers of this blog who have discovery channel, science channel or eh heh, bittorrent.

Planet Earth - TV Series

Its stupendous, visually captivating, and absolutely fascinating.

It is airs on sundays at 8pm, discovery channel. More info and online video available here.

For Science channel air times click here.

It was shot HDTV format, so if you have one of those high end HDTV screens…I am seriously envious. The technology used to film the series is also quite impressive, as reported by Sonia Zjawinski in wired mag article *’A view to a Kill’ - “Every hunt you’ve ever seen on a nature show has been a scam”.

Until now, the false advertising has been a regrettable necessity: If filmmakers try to follow a high-speed chase by air, the blare of the helicopter blades scares off the action.But in March, when the BBC series Planet Earth premieres on the Discovery Channel, viewers will see a single wolf hunt from start to finish. There’s also a bioluminescent light show of a vampire squid deep in the Pacific, a blue bird of paradise dancing in the New Guinea rain forest, and lions attacking elephants at a watering hole in the Botswana desert all brought to you by the humble hi-def digital camera.

While on the topic of TV, a couple of current favorites,

Dr. Who - Not sure when the new series starts up again on BBC America - Can’t wait.

Robin Hood - Saturdays at 8 CDT

Hustle - The new episodes begin wednesday april 18th on AMC at 10 EDT, 9 CDT.

Oh, and 30 Rock! - Very funny show.