Van Gogh

Van Gogh sevenler Doctor Who'nun bu bölümünü mutlaka izlemeli... İşte şu da linki:

http://www.yabancidiziizle1.com/doctor-who-5-sezon-10-bolum.html

Ayrıca bugün Doctor Who'nun 50. yılı...

Message to the Moon

Coursera.org sitesinden takip ettiğim bir ders var. "History of Humankind", hocası Dr. Yuval Noah Harari. İnsanlık tarihini, objektif bir açıdan ve kuş bakışı olarak, yani büyük resmi görerek, Homo Sapiens'ten alıp, gelecekte ne olacak'a kadar anlatıyor. Tanıtımı şurada: https://www.coursera.org/course/humankind

Jared Diamond'ın Tüfek, Mikrop ve Çelik'ini okuyanlar bu bakış açısına yabancı olmayacaktır. Kitabı bir kitapçının raflarında kapak resmi ve ismi dikkat çekici olduğu için görüp, daha eline alırken kalınlığının bir parmaktan daha fazla olduğunu anlayıp (662 sayfa) hemen geri yerine bırakanlar için belgeselini de yapmışlar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XynmtoTgNA

Derse geri dönersek; bu yazıyı yazmamın sebebi, hocanın "İmparatorluk ve Bilimin Evliliği" bölümünde anlattığı bir hikaye:

A further example concerns the journey to the moon in 1969. It’s a very good story even if it might not be true, about the expedition of the American astronauts in 1969 to the moon. As everybody probably knows on July 20th 1969 Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first two men to land on the surface of the moon. In the months leading to the expedition the astronauts trained in their remote moon like desert in the Western United States to simulate the condition of the moon. This area is a desert of the Western United States was home to some Native American tribe. The story describes the encounter between the astronauts and one of the of the tribes people. One day as the astronauts were training they came across an old Native American man. He asked them what they were doing and they told him that they were training because they were part of a scientific expedition which would shortly travel to explore the moon. When the old Native American heard that he was silent for a few minutes and then he asked the astronauts very seriously if they could perhaps do a favour for him. He explained that the people of his tribe believed that on the moon lives holy spirits.
He wanted to use the opportunity to pass an important message from his people to the Holy Spirit on the moon. The astronauts agreed. So the man said something in his tribal language and asked the astronauts to repeat it again and again and again until they memorized it perfectly and the old man was very happy about it. The astronauts asked what it meant. Oh said the old man I can’t tell you it’s a secret that only our tribe and the sacred spirits on the moon only they are allowed to know the message. The astronauts went back to their base but they were very curious they were scientists after all. So they searched and searched until they finally found somebody who could speak this tribal language and asked him to translate the secret message. The translator started to laugh and laugh. When he finally calmed down the astronauts asked him well tell us what does this message mean? So the man explained that the message says “dear sacred spirits of the moon, don’t believe a single word these white people are telling you. No matter what they say about science or anything the real reasons they came they come to steal your lands so don’t believe them”. This was the secret message of this old Native American about the scientific expedition to the moon.