Blog 1: Enter stage left, a short professor with a big nose

Well here I go ---- Ich bin ein Blogger. In a simple sequence of keystrokes I join the set of people who blog, I join with that shadowy brotherhood and sisterhood typing feverishly in and into cyberspace. I hope to high heaven this is not some dreadful mistake.

Perhaps I should set out my stall? My name is Marek Ziebart and I'm a professor (of Space Geodesy - let's address that particular subject later) at University College London (UCL), England. It is a great place to work. In some respects being there is like sitting on a bench on the concourse of a busy railway station, like London's Waterloo or Kings Cross/St Pancras. There is a constant flicker of people passing through, flooding onto trains that carry them away into the landscape. Some people arrive flustered, some calm and collected. Some are weighed down with luggage, some are travelling light. Some of them have lost their hats. Some look hopefully at the arrivals board, some look tired and far from home. Some greet each other joyfully. But they are almost all of them interesting, and they have their story to tell. From where I sit at the junction point that is UCL I see extraordinary people doing extraordinary things. I've learnt a lot from those people, and I think some of that is worth sharing.

I am madly interested in many fields of human endeavour - particularly in innovation, invention, creativity - I have a science and engineering background, but I also delight in the arts and the humanities.
I want to explore some of those things that intrigue and interest me through this blog......
I need to set the tone of this too. I'm going to aspire to draw on the following:

Edward de Bono, "A discussion should be a genuine attempt to explore a subject rather than a battle between competing egos"

From Endymion, by Keats:

"A thing of beauty is a joy forever,
It's loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing"

Edmund Burke (political theorist and philosopher, 1729-1797), "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing"

And finally, Holly, the computer from the deep space mining vessel, Red Dwarf, "Our biggest enemy is going space crazy through loneliness. The only thing that helps me maintain my slender grip on reality is the friendship I share with my collection of singing potatoes".


Comments

  1. David Sankey16 July 2012 at 07:57

    Nice to see you blogging. You might take a look also at our former colleague Chris Tripp http://xcavate.blogspot.co.uk/ now working as Dorset's Community Archaeologist. Also, I post occasional thoughts on landscape, and London, as London Landscape Observer http://londonlandscapeobservatory.blogspot.co.uk/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Marek Ziebart16 July 2012 at 11:13

      Thanks for the support, Dave - and nice to hear from you (as ever)

      Delete
  2. Anthony Finkelstein22 July 2012 at 07:07

    Welcome to the blogosphere Marek!

    ReplyDelete

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