They caught my attention

I keep finding more and more reasons why Iddo will have to take music in some form or another, her choice what kind. Learning music helps tremendously with learning languages. From NPR – This is Your Brain. This is Your Brain on Music and Scientific American – I Got Rhythm, I Got Reading. Judging by her dancing skills she’s already pretty good at finding the beat, so we’re off to a good start.

I love the portraits in this piece: BBC News – Day out at the gallows and other Victorian photographic oddities. I’d love to find some photo like that of one of my ancestors, give them a little more life and personality.

Of course astronomy always catches my attention. I’ll have to remember this for the next time Brett’s asking me questions about the stars because I got him out of bed at 2am to sit on the driveway with me to watch a meteor shower – What Makes a Star Starry? Is it Me?. And how cool is it that the way I see stars are a way they have never been seen before in the history of ever nor will they be again? It’s just super cool.

And yet I’ve never considered astronomers who can’t see the stars (Scientific American – Making Astronomy Accessible for the Visually Impaired). But now that I have, I’m really interested in how they are coming up with new ways to use the senses to do astronomy, especially with the idea that just relying on the sense of sight can actually hinder astronomical discoveries.

If I’m ever in Cambridge in September I think I’d enjoy going to the Ig Nobels (Ig Nobel Prizes Make You Laugh, Then Think). Or there’s always the BAHFest in October which I think I’d also enjoy.

It was the turtle bread that caught my attention (Rosh Hashana’s Sacred Bread Offers Meaning In Many Shapes And Sizes), but I really like the part during the making of the bread where they hold a handful of dough in their hand and take a moment to reflect and pray. I already feel a connection to my grandma when I make bread (it always reminds me of the time she thought she killed the yeast so she buried the dough in the yard so her mom wouldn’t find out she’d wasted the ingredients, only the yeast wasn’t dead and the dough grew and the goats got stuck in it). It would probably do me good to be more mindful and reflective during the regular mundane tasks of life.