As you may well know, life for the WildEarth crew here in the Kalahari is full of meerkats, 3D filming, Live broadcasts, Land Rovers (The Ganda!), laundry, good meals, Land Rovers (Still the Ganda!), porcupines, snakes, tech issues, signal towers, daily shifts and everything else in between. Now it’s a tough job, but we do it well! However, your body starts to take some strain at times and it’s important to exercise and stretch properly so that you keep your body fighting fit.
Obviously a good stretch goes a long way, and I often put on a song or two to get me going. However, there is one song that I play without fail. One song. About one man. A scientist so incredibly cool he even has a rock song in his honour!
Dr. Martin Whiting
During my days studying ecology and conservation at University, he was among the top 5 of the coolest cats on campus! He’s exceptionally smart, exceptionally witty, and exceptionally down to earth. He even has a pet pig I think? An evolutionary behaviouralist who has a passion for reptiles, he now resides in Australia and runs The Lizard Lab. Now, let’s have a quick rewind into the songs origins. Admittedly I’ve forgotten a few details, but it basically starts off with a random, totally by-chance meeting of Gregg Lawless and Martin Whiting crossing each other’s paths somewhere in Southern Africa. Naturally, when they met, Gregg Lawless looked at him and said “Prof. Whiting I presume?” and from there the group spent time with the Lizard Legend before returning to Canada. Some time later, Dr. Whiting received word from the group that they had written a song about him and it was on their latest album. When he received the song, this is what he heard (This is just a sample from the beginning):
And so! The man! The legend! Martin Whiting! PhD! Rocketed into the annals of scientific history by being the first, if not the only, super-scientist with a rock song to his name! The song has been in the top charts in the scientific community for some time now, and it never gets old!
And that my fellow readers, is how to get psyched up and exercise in the Kalahari! I started my “Martin Whiting Exercise Schedule” when I first worked in the Kalahari in 2007, and now that I’m back here I shall continue the tradition! Call me crazy, but you’ll get hooked on it too!
This just goes to show that Science is not just a bunch of grey-bearded bald men shuffling around a lab in faded white overcoats with coffee constantly on the go and large thick glasses on the edge of their nose! Science is incredibly amazing, in fact, Science is actually an acronym for Super Cool Intellectuals Engaging New Concepts Everyday.
So the next time you decide to call someone a nerd, ask yourself this question: “Do I have a song written about me?”
You can download the song here for 99c. Enjoy the exercising!
Rob’s song for the day: Isn’t that obvious ;)
Rob
