« March 2004 | Main | May 2004 »
| Well actually none of us
where feeling like going so we decided it was best not to. So after the
rubbish that was a football game we headed back from the Gun Barrels to
my mate Jordan's house where we ended up watching Pirates of the Caribbean.
It was actually the first time I had seen it and I was mildly impressed,
it was nice and fun! |
| I think my server is having
a few problems. This has now meant that my homepage is now longer reading
in the xml page that is produced by the blog. Hopefully this will be resolved
in the next few hours. I really hate it when problems like this occur
as it makes my website look crap. It is out of my hands and I am sure
there is a good reason why. |
| It is back. |
| Ok now I think I am starting to obsess as the only revision I have done is of ISM (Interstellar Medium) and am not having fun with the questions - think I will move on to Quantum Mechanics at least that is logically! Below is a picture that shows evidence for the ISM (click on the image for a much larger version).
A molecular cloud, Barnard 68; courtesy
the FORS team at the VLT and ESO. |
| That's what yesterday was.
In the end I got no work done apart from modifying the Astrosoc website.
I will get some done today, I have to! |
| Well after doing no revision this morning, will do some in a minute, I was off to the Gun Barrels for lunch with my mates, Jon (scouse) and Matt. We had a right laugh apart from the fact that Jon's chicken burger was not cooked (glad I am a veggie some times :-) ) but he complained and they gave him his money back, gave him another burger and gave us all a drink each. Now that is what I call good service, the acknowledged there was a problem didn't quibble and gave us free stuff to keep us happy. I guess they want to keep regular users of the pub - especially as we may go back for food more often (and I think we will be). The Gun Barrels is a scream pub and is bright and yellow take a look at their logo:
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| Well I didn't watch the race but all I know is that one of my housemates will be back in Liverpool enjoying the Grand National night out! :-) I noticed on the BBC website the last line of their article reads: "Eleven of the 39 starters finished with all of the fallers returning safely to the stables." - good to hear :-)
Amberleigh House the winning horse, courtesy BBC website For more info on the Grand National see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/horse_racing/3594651.stm |
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Well what a venue, absolutely stunning, looks like F1 might have a great future in Bahrain. It was also good to see F1 in a "middle-eastern" country. It was a little strange though seeing the sandy background, but it was good to see that. The track looks like it will see many fantastic overtaking maneuvers in the future, in fact some great ones were seen today. For more information on this wonderful track see: http://www.bahraingp.com.bh
Courtesy BBC website And guess what Jenson Button got on the podium again!! Only problem those damn Ferraris one again! Give them time and I think BAR and Williams will catch up, well you can only hope so. However I find myself less and less interested in who is going to win, that can be quite inevitable and who is going to win the championship seems inevitable but the lower battles are so intense and some of the overtaking that has been taking place quite stunning. For more information on the race and the rest of the results see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/3598455.stm I also saw this picture on the BBC website:
Courtesy BBC website Lets just say I hope that bloke is holding on well, luckily he didn't lose his grasp otherwise someone might have been driving with an extra person on their lap! |
| OK is it just me being a scientist but does the prospect of buying an infinite power supply off some website immediately doubtful that does not exist? Well I guess this has not been the case for everyone!
It seems that people are very interested in this, strange eh! Well I would probably give it a look but would be very doubtful from the title never mind the description! Good April fool, a shame people are still trying to buy this $200 piece of kit - idiots! I found out about this in an article by wired.com (always full of interesting stuff) see: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,62794,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_2 See this for the product: http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/looflirpa/zero.shtml On that note from thinkgeek.com's product range, I found a t-shirt I want:
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| OK it maybe past April 1st but guess I can now comment without people getting me! :-) OK here is a funny one from Liverpool FC: "Liverpool today made a record-breaking swoop to sign up three of the most exciting youngsters in world football."
See: http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N144422040401-1405.htm Also: Google Copernicus Center is hiring Google is interviewing candidates for engineering positions at our lunar hosting and research center, opening late in the spring of 2007.
Hehe me thinks not! See: http://www.google.com/jobs/lunar_job.html for the very interesting section of their site dedicated to this! :-) Good one guys! Also I think their GMAIL is a good idea April fools but it might not be! - At first I thought it was but now after reading this article by reuters maybe it is serious, interesting!
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| Well after a whole day spent doing notes - stuff I really should have already done, but didn't have time due to obs lab running over and then the epic of group studies. Well I could have made time but frankly thought it would be best to wait till now so is fresh in my mind. I have to say observational cosmology is really interesting, just after a while a little tedious - especially having to make sure what I am reading is up to date since the field is continually changing. Well at least it gives me an excuse to post a wonderful picture:
This is the Universe in the microwave region, this is known as the Cosmic Microwave background and occurs at 2.72 K wow! This is light that has just reached us from the early universe and clearly shows that the Universe though very isotropic in its earlier stages still had slight fluctuations - the idea is these fluctuations are what caused the growth of structure that we see within our Universe - but then again that is probably wrong, as no one actually knows it is just one of various interpretations! Still it is still wonderful that the whole sky is full of this light from the early Universe, wow! See: http://www.astro.ubc.ca/people/scott/cmb.html for more on the CMB and http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/m_uni/uni_101Flucts.html. |
| Well today has been ok, I think I have managed to get all the way through my observational cosmology apart from the last bit - guess I better read the paper it says to! Today I went into Uni and managed to well not do too much! There is a particle physics conference on and the place was full of particle physicists - so we didn't hang around in the coffee lounge for too long. The conference is the annual conference of the High Energy Particle Physics Group of the Institute of Physics. See: http://www.ep.ph.bham.ac.uk/iophepp/2004/ for more information. Also today my mate (Matt, that young rapscallion) sent me this link: http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=33007 on the page are some quite interesting if not a little disturbing movies, ok joke rip offs of Ford Ka adverts. Strange and a little fun me guesses :-) |
| Ok its time to start the old QM revision, but where to start that is the question (I can see an uncertainty principle joke coming, but no will not!). Quantum Mechanics was my favourite subject this time last year but now, well now with all the Dirac notation going on about Bras and Kets well I think I need to work! |
| OK it could just me being a complete an utter nutter but I sometimes get the feeling that all of this talk about terrorist activities seems to be more to motivate the population than to inform us. It's just the way it comes across sometimes, as if even the smallest thing that relates to terrorism is headline news. Yes it is important we know but the continue barrage of stuff seems to me like it might be just trying to put over that we are at risk continually and so shouldn't mind some of our rights being infringed on. Either way if that is the case or it isn't I do agree that Britain (and most of the EU) is a target for terrorist activities but well we always have and probably always will it is not new news - it is just a different group. I do have a lot of respect for the police officers who are working on this and I have to commend them on a well done job, I just wish the media frenzy was less. See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3603961.stm for the latest terrorist plan foiled. |
| ESO's (European Southern Observatory) Very Large telescope is now entering its 5th year of service and with the breath taking images already accomplished only better can be hoped for, especially once it starts acting at the VLTI (Very Large Telescope Interferometer) - no I will not start on interferometry could be here all day going on about that! Here are some of the wonderful pictures taken by the VLT so far:
For more see: http://www.eso.org/outreach/gallery/vlt/images/Top20/Top20/topvlt.html |
| Well there goes my prediction of who will win the champions league - I thought Arsenal were a dead certainty, guess not! Yet again Arsenal just did not turn up to the game, this time not the whole game just the second half. In all fairness Chelsea played but the Arsenal that we all no just was not their. I just hope that they bounce back from this as I couldn't deal with Chelsea winning the league (see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/champions_league/3593083.stm)
courtesy BBC website Not only did Arsenal lose but so did Real Madrid! Shocking yet again the always underrated Monaco pulled off a stunning result to propel themselves into a semi final with Chelsea. Well bye bye to the big to two teams! At least Arsenal don't have one of there own players to blame for scoring the decisive goal - Real do! On-loan Real striker Fernando Morientes scored for Monanco - good on the bloke, maybe he will be called back in to the Real team now! (see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/champions_league/3593167.stm)
On the point of shocking sport, my girlfriend
sent me this quite odd article about John Hopoate, a rugby league player
who has been convicted of sticking his finger up the bums of other players
in a recent match! See: http://www.sportal.com.au/league.asp?i=news&id=9703
for the disturbing article - lets just say that didn't happen in any rugby
union I used to play - must be a league thing :-) |
| And here it is:
SOHO is the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, it a satellite which orbits around the Sun observing it. For more about SOHO see: http://www.esa.int/esaSC/120373_index_0_m.html The 750th comet was seen on 22 March 2004. For more see: http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMSJV57ESD_index_0.html |
| No I am not talking about young love. See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/mid/2929261.stm and you will be able to see the story of how the jackdaw has been following this young boy around! I have to thank Alex for telling me about this hilarious story. |
| Ok I am glad I didn't put any more on football this week! With Milan being crushed 4-0 by Deportivo that now makes three what I would have called certainties losing results! I am sure if anyone did have money on all 3 occurring then they would have ended up with a swift penny or two. For the match report see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/champions_league/3609737.stm |
Well before you couldnt get a TV in hospital now you can't even turn them off! See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3607531.stm
| As you may have guessed by reading any of my posts I am not a support of the current USA Government and do not like George W Bush's policies. I think the thing that I find the most defining about his character is that he avoided serving in the Vietnam war and he keeps this quite - he may have landed a fighter plane (forcing the whole US Battle group of ships to move around so he could land it!) on an Aircraft carrier (USS Abraham Lincoln I believe see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2994345.stm) to signify what he thought was the end of the war in Iraq - how badly was he wrong!
On the aircraft carrier (USS Abraham Lincoln I believe), courtesy BBC website I do think this line signifies the whole George W Bush
Vietnam story is this: "Mr Bush avoided being drafted to serve in
Vietnam. " which is the last line of the BBC's diplomatic correspondent
Barnaby Mason article titled "Is Iraq another Vietnam?" see:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3608473.stm
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Ok it can take a lot to make me go wow! I am not the sort of person who easily gets moved by events, I can take them in my stroll quite easily.
One of the events in my life that has moved me is the September 11th 2001 attacks on the United States of America. No matter what you believe, if you think it was terrorists (I know the majority of people do), if you think it was a conspiracy of the USA government of any kind - be it that they did it themselves or there is / was an insider, all that matters was it was a disaster.
This event moved me. It moved everyone. I did not know anyone in involved or have any ties to New York but the absolute devastation I have never seen before in my life and hope never to again.
The reason I post is I was looking on the BBC website about the attacks and saw what I can only describe as (you may find shocking) but beautiful picture:
I can't describe this - there is just something intrinsically beautiful about this picture, I am not sure if it is the way the dust catches the light but it is beautiful. To find that such devastation can lead to beauty is reassuring in my opinion - life is beautiful and nothing is in vain. Life goes on no matter what - so does beauty. So bring it on - what ever any terrorists etc throw at us the beauty of the world will not be taken away.
| Ok I get them occasionally, you know the dreams that when you wake up you feel like something has happened. Well last night was one of those nights. I had a really strange dream when me and a friend of mine beat up Tony Blair whilst we were skiing because he has signed some agreement with George Bush, done whilst Mr Bush was distracting me and my mate - weird enough! Guess it must have been all the stuff I was reading last night about Mr Bush! Strange. |
| Well I said I wouldn't go again after last years one - but the combination of dragging my friends along and the wonderful line up well I could not miss it now could I!
I am very glad to be going, just hope the camping is not quite as dangerous with fires. And at £110 is not bad value for money. |
| What a film! I want to see it again!!!! Absolutely fantastic - British humour at its very very best! And that is all I am going to say about that apart from "Dire Straights? - Chuck it!"
Take a look at the films website, some fun stuff on there including a game! http://uip.co.uk/romzom/ |
One of the local pubs near to where I live in Selly Oak has burnt down! Not that this is a huge loss since it has been shut down for a while now it is just a shock to see the firefighters putting out a fire. I will go and take some pictures tomorrow.
On another point the Brook was the only quite pub left - yes it was generally full of locals but well was the only quiet pub left after the OVT became all loud with crap music on. If I want to go to a pub in Selly Oak now I will go to the Bristol Pear only - at least they have good music on.
OK if anyone remembers the TV show Maid Marian and her merry men it is time to remind you of laughter and fun - if you don't then what were you doing with your childhood something constructive and not watching the TV ;-)
Anyways my mate Matt sent me this rather cool link earlier: http://robinofkensington.homestead.com/ and for all you who remember this then take a look and if you do not then well you better take a look and find out what you missed!
| Ok I have been telling everyone throughout the test series I could see it happening - Brian Lara was going to make a huge score - guess what he did the new world record of 400 not out. Brilliant. I even told my dad last night as he approached 300 he was gonna break the world record. Great, I remember when he got 501 for Warwickshire the world record in a non international match. He has to be on of the greatest batsmen of all time. Now he has the first 400 in test match history.
Courtesy BBC website This now means that England can not complete the white wash of the West Indies but well at least it means an Aussie is no longer the highest scorer in the world ;-) See:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/england/3620145.stm for more. |
Well I have had a great time at home. It is always good to get home. I even managed to visit the Church (St. Martin's Perry Common - note: website is in need of work) but that was only to fix a leak from the Boiler with my Dad.
I have had a great time and started and ended the weekend in pubs. Started by meeting everyone in Charlie Hall (Weatherspoons Pub in Erdington) and ended up firstly at the Bristol Pear (Scream Pub in Selly Oak) and then the Gun Barrels (again Scream pub Selly Oak). Great fun.
As always Easter was nice and we had the egg hunt at home - I think my mom still loves doing that even though I am 21 and my sister is 19.
I managed to take some interesting pictures including the one below of the back garden and some of our animals (will post them at a later point EDIT: see [Image Gallery]).
I have to say our garden is coming together nicely - the shed in the background (the blue one) was my old play house but now is our Pole Cat's play house (probably smells better now!). I thoroughly enjoyed myself at home and even managed to get some work done whilst I removed a bloody worm (as in a virus) that had got on to my sisters computer.
| Ok lots have been said and are being said about what was known etc. What I think is of little or no significance and to be honest I can not tell you if Bush knew or not or if the Americans did it or not. Over some of my next few posts I will try and give useful comments on certain websites that well give evidence one way all the other. As everyone knows there are lots of conspiracy nuts out there but well these people should not always be totally discredited maybe one of them has it right. Ok I will start with a link that my girlfriend Alex sent me yesterday: http://www.infowars.com/
After looking at this website I realised that I had been there before but wasn't sure why probably was referred there when I was reading something. This site does have some interesting information and the author does quite heavily try to back up his points by quoting other information however I find this tactic hard to follow and means what he is saying is less meaningful. I would not call some of this more far fetching items trust worthy but they are interesting and I would give him a look. I did actually find one of his more recent articles "Condoleezza Rice is a Lying Schill for Her Terrorist Masters " very interesting and would suggest it is worth a read - again I am not saying he is correct come to your own conclusions. One thing I will say in relation to this topic is how scary does she (Condoleezza Rice) look on the picture of the page:
Now wouldn't you say you agreed to anything she said? Ok I was also told to take a look at David Icke's site: http://www.davidicke.com/ , ok again an interesting website but I would take this with well about a kilogram of salt - the guy seems like he may have taken too much acid in the 60s! He does have some interesting and funny stuff on his pages though, such as an article in which weapons of mass destruction are declared to have been found by Donald Rumsfeld and they turn out to be pea shooters, see: http://www.davidicke.com/icke/articles2003/waronpeas.html I will now try and dig out some of the stuff I have on
the attacks in more detail over the next few days but for now I will stop
and think about Tony Blair Publishing a dossier titled War and Peas (see
the above link to understand that one!) |
I have always liked [Lego] there is no denying it I have since I was a small child and have since. When the Bull Ring opened in Birmingham our great city not only had a fantastic new shopping centre but one that had a Lego shop in it! I was very impressed with how lego has developed over time.
At Christmas as one of my presents my parents decided to buy me some space Lego! In fact that they brought me a International Space Station one and a Saturn V mission one. Immediately I built the ISS one, however when I brought it back to my house after Christmas I packed it away. Today though I got it out and finally put it all together for it to go on my side table, for a lego model it looks quite good and I am pleased with it.
Lego is fun! And with the introduction of Space based products I think the company could be on to a winner with young children who are (well I was) fascinated with space and building things.
I also have to say how much I liked some of the things on the Lego website including the sign in logo: 
On another note related to the Bull Ring, I am very proud of the huge Bull outside of the Bull Ring (will have to take a picture soon), so think I may have to buy this (for more click image):
I am normally reasured when I see the occasional police officer around but today I have seen far too many to not be slightly perturbed. Surely it is a good thing seeing so many police officers about but well it does make me think that something is going on and well that kind of scares me. Especially when they are parked up outside my house! (quick time to hide the copied CDs :-) )
I said I would go and take pictures of the burnt down Brook here is one:
As you can see the roof and upper floor looks devastated, I particularly liked the strange cloud formations over the building at this point gives it a mystical appearance. One of the things I like about the Brook is its sign, it is very nice and before it is likely knocked down I thought I would take a picture of it (click on image for larger like always).
| Some people may find any piss taking in relation to the subject of the September 11th 2001 Terrorist attacks on the USA slightly distasteful. Well yes I would agree but only in extreme cases a slight bit of humour and satire is always acceptable in my opinion. So here we go. It has emerged that FBI have been at fault and they have been heavily criticised over there actions before the terrorist attacks took place on September 11th 2001, I find this a little unfair but well I will not go into that at the moment (if you want to know more about this see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3622523.stm). One thing that has crossed my mind is that all the women involved in the recent discussions look so damn scary! Firstly there is Condoleezza Rice (did I spell that correct!):
As I said the other day, you wouldn't argue with her would you. I can just imagine it, George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and her all sat in a room and she is proposing an outrageous scheme. I can see the other two looking at each other gone quick agree with her and then lets get out of here before she hurts us. Now I know I would not blame them for agreeing with her! Then there is, Janet Reno:
Now again I have to say run, run far away! The former attorney general well quite frankly scares me, but I guess there are those out there who like her: http://www.janetrenoishot.com/ - quite frankly a disturbing website! |
| To Reading that is, I am so excited. The line up is getting better and better - especially with the addition of the Vines, come on! Well the weekend tickets seem sold out, lucky for my sister (Melissa) and her fiancee (Gareth) who got their tickets this morning! So far we have them, myself, my girlfriend (Alex), the indie queen (katherine) and finally introducing the man with the longest footstep in the UK (Carl)! This will be fun - I will now stop going on about this for a while! |
Today I went to Nottingham, a place I only have been to once before and that was as a child. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and it was nice and easy to get to. I met my friend Eleanor at just gone 11 after I got confused at Nottingham Station and went out the wrong exit (the back one) - now that place is badly signed!
Once we had found each other we went into the town centre and from there the castle, which was fun - well we walked around then came back out I took a few photos. The museum was not very awe inspiring but the castle was beautiful.
After we had went to the castle my stomach was rumbling (like it does frequently but at a good time this time) so after heavy deliberation we decided to buy a sandwich from Greggs (and of course the important Belgian Bun) and then sat in the square, it was a beautiful day so could not give up the opportunity to sit out in the Sun.
Ok now what to do, we were unsure so we walked all I knew is that I needed the toilet! So we went into some shopping centre and used the facilities, obviously the highlight of the day ;-). However because we did this we came across the The Galleries of Justice which had to exhibitions one about the Police and one about the Justice courts and prison there. The police thing was good but nothing in comparison to the fantastic tour at the The Galleries of Justice. It was interactive with actors portraying people from the appropriate time which is always good and they were quite convincing. I ended up being put on trial as George Beck, a conspirator in setting fire to the castle, which was lots of fun and gave me chance to play around (I always like that sort of thing) - I even plead Guilty but had to change that so the story line could continue, hehe! It was fun. The Judge in this interactive part even said "there is more than one way a man can repay his debts" - which for once I did not take in well the wrong manner, I just let that one slide since there were young children around. I have to say at moments it was very convincing the actors obviously put a lot into it and should be commended. I think Eleanor was scared at moments - which is funny and she will deny it I am sure, but I saw her face!
After a great day it was time to go home at 5 so Eleanor could go off out in evening - I swear that girl is turning into a right piss head (if any of her family read this, no she is a completely sensible girl and anything I have said here should be ignored!).
Oh and just by the Galleries of Justice is what I thought was a fantastic Church, guess what - it is now a pub (well restaurant / bar thing)!
Well after what was a good day the journey home was pretty painless in fact the train from Nottingham ended up on the same platform as the train back to Selly Oak, so after a short run I was back home.
| Well it is a nice day again so I think it is time for me to go and paint the Grubb telescope. This should be fun, but before that time to do some revision me thinks. |
Well I managed to not get too much paint on me, well most of it went on the telescope. We painted the base and then gave up for now. It took us about an hour or so to do that so we (me and Matt) were quite pleased. Need to paint the rest - is gonna take longer than expected and might do a few other things to it as well. Here is our progress:
Of course I and Matt could not be sensible all the time, so here we are showing off our mucky hands! I must thank Matt for his help yet again.
| If you haven't seen the new alien abduction advert by Grolsch then you are missing out on a treat - it is quite funny. They have even setup a site in which you can view an abduction or even be abducted http://www.myalienabduction.co.uk - it has a webcam and is quite funny. And the Grolsch home page even has gone all alien is quite funny. |
| Last night I wondered if I could take a picture of Jupiter by just pointing my girlfriends camera at it. The answer yes I could, I was surprised since there is lots of light pollution around Selly Oak. I am going to try more and more astrophotography over time - obviously using a better setup but just was interested on this case. Here is what I got (better than Matt who I believe took a picture of a lamp post!):
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| Maybe I was a bit harsh towards Matt and saying he managed to take a picture of a lamp post! Well he did but here is a better, un-magnified picture - it is better than mine (by far!)
This was taken using a Kodak EasyShare DX6440 with 4s exposure |
| Time to go for my dental check up. Great - this is going to be lots of fun, I wonder if anyone can honestly say that going to the dentist doesn't scare them a little. Luckily my teeth have generally been well behaved, wonder if that will be the case this time - probably not since my wisdom teeth have been giving me lots of pain recently. Here is a joke that I thought was quite fitting for this topic: A woman who goes to the dentist. As he leans over to begin working on her, she grabs his balls. The dentist says, "Madam, I believe you've got a hold of my privates." The woman replies, "Yes. We're going to be careful not to hurt each
other, aren't we." |
| Well I was at the dentist at 2 and my teeth are still feeling weird after the scale and polish, always do but I ain't gonna complain as the dentist reckon my wisdom teeth will be ok!! Yay! I have had a great day, no revision though. I even ended up watching Shaun of the Dead for the second time this time with Gareth (my sisters fiancee) was great and then we ended up going for a beer at the Square Peg on Corporation Street, was lots of fun. Oh and since I went home today I also setup a network at home and promised my Mom I would post some of the pictures of our animals like I said I would do about a week ago! So to keep her quiet is a picture of our Dog (Max) and our Pole Cat (Chandler):
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| For more information on this brilliant piece of programming see: http://weatherpixie.com/ Oh please note I chose the redhead weather girl! ;-) |
| Well I for one after what I had read recently didn't think that the extrasolar planet finding technique of gravitational microlensing was as close as it was to finding extrasolar planets - guess what I was wrong. It has, see: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0404/15planet/ I have to say I do find the topic of extrasolar planets very interesting as there is so much that we can learn about ourselves from it, it may even help us answer the question of why? But I doubt it - I don't think that one is answerable. |
| Well revision is still on the menu and will be for a while at least I am starting to understand a few things especially with Stellar Evolution but like everything it seems this year the answer to the question is never as short as I would like - I wonder if I am not been concise enough. Time to go ask the lecturer I think. As for Stellar Evolution here is a nice artists impression of accretion flow between a massive star and a neutron star - something that I have been going over recently: (click on image for better resolution image)
Also see: http://www.ricksternbach.com/ss433.jpg for another wonderful picture. |
| I went to see Gothika tonight at the UGC on Broad Street. Well it was not the best film ever and far from the worst. If you like psychological thrillers then I would recommend it. It was very interesting even if it took some quite obvious influences off over films, including some special effects at one particular moment very similar to the Ring. In fact some of the special effects were a little dodgy but the subject material was good and thoroughly enjoyed watching it. Without giving anything away I figured it out (well most of it) about two thirds into the film. I actually pride myself in figuring this sort of film out normally about that sort of time through. The only one that I have not got was the Ring, I actually though I had but then it twisted and that's when it started getting really scary!
All in all go watch Gothika it might have a silly name but is a good film and has even has Limp Bizkit - Behind Blue Eyes as the title credit music, I guess some people out there would find that a really bad thing - you know who I mean! |
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I have seen the worst parking attempt that I have ever seen in my life today. Where I live isn't the easiest place to park and since I don't drive I don't like to comment on people's parking since I could not do it but today it was ridiculous. This guy who's car in my opinion was obviously too long for where he wanted to park reversed in at a strange angle and sort of leveled it off (whilst going over the curb) to then realize (I think he did) that he would not fit in properly but no instead of deciding to find somewhere else he noticed that the other car had room the other side so he just reversed into the other car pushing it along the road! To make it worse it was a Morris Minor he was pushing!! Argh - some people. |
Yes it has gone - flattened by the demolition workers. I wonder if anyone will ever remember this place. I think in about a year the majority of people will have even forgot that it existed, which is a shame - I bet you that building had within in it a lot of history. I wonder what will happen to the land, I think either accommodation or some sort of pub or food establishment.
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I listened to them live on Radio 1 the other day and they were brilliant and I just downloaded Orpheus performed live off their website. It is great!! There album is out in May - I think I will be buying it. Then I get the beauty of watching them live at Reading - yes!
On another note, I never really noticed the female member of the band but in a true pervy style, she ain't bad ;-) (insert Homer Simpson drooling), but in a 'normal' manner she is an integral part of the band and fits in perfectly with them (hopefully that gets me out of a hole!) |
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Well I am revising hard, yeah right - I am trying to. I am currently finding my galactic dynamics course very difficult but I am making progress. I actually came across something quite interesting that has been recently discovered - miniature galaxies! Well Ultra-compact dwarfs (UCDs). I find this quite interesting cause it appears that there are a lot of theme out there but have been overlooked since they at first look very similar to a star. In fact their masses are comparable to other dwarf galaxies but they are remarkably small - only 120 light years across.
More on this subject can be found at: http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/sxp/ucd.html and in this paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0301457 |
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After reading http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3649655.stm I am shocked and saddened to hear that 3,000 people may have died in this disaster. The true extent of this will never be realised if the North Korean government get their way which is again truly shocking. Just think about it - the same amount of people died when the Twin Towers collapsed after terrorist attacks on Sept. 11th 2001 and that had grief spread all over the world. I know it is hard for actual reports to come out of N. Korea due to the secretive nature of the country but even the small information that has come out is not top of the headlines - appalling. |
| What a good film. It was great. I love films which delve into what could happen if only a slight change is made to your past. Well this film had me intrigued from the start to the end Ashton Kutcher deserves praise for a great performance. The film had a few holes in it but all in all it was very well put together - even if some of the effects were a little bit dodgy. I will not say anything more but if you are a Back to the Future (great side - shame about totally flash but at least it loads up the flux capacitor) or Sliders fan then I am sure you will get some enjoyment from this film.
See: http://www.butterflyeffectmovie.com/ After we watched the film it was down to the old Figure of Eight to have a nice veggie burger and a pint. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves - I did get a few dodgy looks of Katherine when I nicked the first veggie burger (she ordered first), whoops! |
| Time to wave the flag and wear red roses. What has been going on in Birmingham? http://www.bbc.co.uk/birmingham/local_events/2004/04/st_george/st_georges_day.shtml I have been at Uni all day working on the open day display for Physics and the admissions staff all had red roses, which is was nice. I am quite tired - good days work. I most have spoken to at least 60 people about Astrophysics and Astrosoc today - all worth while and lots of fun. I really do enjoy talking about Astrophysics to people. I do like the Google logo for today:
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| Well the Korean's have admitted to something - I think they have said about 50 dead but the diplomats in the country do not believe this!
And the smoke from the explosion looks huge, I wonder if we will ever find out the full extent of the disaster and the really appalling thing is that we know more about it than the Koreans who live nearby! After seeing some of the North Korean television earlier I have to say I am sort of freaked out - it is very reminiscent of 1984! See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3651705.stm |
| The galaxy AM 0644-741, a member of
the class of so-called "ring galaxies." I guess this is the one that galactic astronomers see before the die! |
| Another day doing open days, I am shattered. You would never think how much it can make you tired by just demonstrating experiments and talking about astrophysics and student life. It was fun though - guess it is now time to get down to some serious revision. |
A building in Selly Oak suffered fatal damage today when its roof collapsed. The building in question is a games arcade: FUNSPOT, well not so much games but full of fruit machines. The damage has been that bad that it has caused the closure of the Bristol Road, a very important and busy route into Birmingham City centre, for most of the afternoon. It also means that more traffic is now going up my road - argh!! Luckily no one appears to have been hurt. The picture below was taken a few hours afterwards when the demolition crew had moved in: 
| Hopefully this will not be the last San Marino grand prix as it is one of my favourite courses. There is always some action and I would say this years id have its moments. It was good to see for once Michael Schumacher at times having some competition and not just any competition of Brit Jenson Button. I made a joke with my housemates that he should have "The Hardest Button to Button" by the Whitestripes on whist we drives around - well it would make a good background for ITV's coverage when they do fancy clips at the least. For more see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/3657577.stm |
| Well I wouldn't say I made fantastic progress but I havent made bad progress either it has been quite an enjoyable day of revision and I am finally starting to understand some stuff, I hope!! Also see this fantastic view of Saturn obtained by the Cassini-Huygens probe as it approches the gas giant: Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute For more information about this image see: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA05388
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| See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3660529.stm Now it is about time someone stood up to Tony Blair and tell him that enough is enough of kissing George Bush's ass on the middle east. It is time that the UN not the USA take the lead in world events. For once the USA should listen to the rest of the world and it appears at the moment Tony Blair has the ear of George Bush. So Tony my message to you is, SHOUT DOWN IT! If you even need to dress up as a WASP and well you might get your message through (2DTV - a British comedy).
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| I came across the webpage concerning the provisional authority in Iraq today (in English: http://www.cpa-iraq.org/index.html). Now this is a strange website, for many reason - mainly since it appears to be a USA governmental site more than just a coalition page, for example at the bottom of the page it has links to FirstGov and the USA FreedomCorps etc. Some of the stories on the site just seem to be total proganda - well spin, it is quite amusing. Another interesting thing I found on the coalition page when you click on the in Arabic page (http://www.cpa-iraq.org/arabic/index.html) it still had the title Coalition Provisional Authority stamped on the top in English!! Now then who would need that? Or is it an attempt so that Americans who click on that don't get all scared that they are reading the evil arabic or something!! I have to say I love arabic writing, it is so flowed and beautiful - a shame I had a real problem with it after the very basic stuff. Here is the offending banner, just look at the beautiful arabic though:
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| I have to say I am really looking forward to seeing Ash at Reading and maybe before at the Birmingham Carling Academy, not sure if I will go yet - need to check the old bank account! There latest offering Orpheus is fantastic and after hearing them on the Radio in N. Ireland the other I am well eager to see them play live.
Also at that gig: Franz Ferdinand almost missed their biggest ever gig when their guitars were left in an airport in Paris. But Ash came to the rescue and lent them some instruments. The rising Scottish stars show was one of the highlights of the day. - according to NME. |
| Today started off with me getting up and doing some Astrophysics of the Sun and that is how it ended! Then there is the middle bit, I got some work done - not enough but some. I also went into Uni so I could go scavenging around the now empty Nuffield building in which we are now allowed to go in and help ourselves!! I came out with quite a few lever arch files, some random books (including one in Russian) and some cables! Great fun. It is a shame though that all of this stuff is just going to be thrown away - I guess quite a lot of the useful stuff will be claimed though. I was also helping my friend Sarah with some html work she needs to do on Quantum Error Correction (boring theory stuff ;-) ) and as we were searching for images to use we came across this:
Now this is quite funny, I wonder if anyone has tried to contac the guy who owns the site to buy any of the objects, such other ones include: Duracell Ultra 6 Joule Time Transducucion Capacitor (TTC), Dimensional Warp Generator, 120 kilowatt portable fusion generator:
20 kilowatt portable fusion generator or my computer fan, well it looks identical to the later! The site this stuff came from is: http://www.davesplanet.net/ , a good but strange site! |
Well it has stopped for the Old Joe, the Clock tower central to the University of Birmingham Campus. I don't know why it has stopped but I would guess that it is just a mechanical failure. I know a few years ago that some research was done with it but I do doubt that this would be of any research purpose, it is just weird to see it not on.Here is a picture I took last summer of the clock tower:
I noticed that the clock wasn't changing on my way to Astrosoc to go observing, however since it was cloudy I was not expecting a huge turnout - in fact got 3 people (including myself) along so not a busy night. In the end we ended up going for a drink in Joes which was fun. Now time to get back to the revision - great!
| I just got interviewed by a journalist from the Mail on Sunday for an article about student finance and in particular the IoP's (Institute of Physics) bursary scheme. Hopefully it will get in this week. |
| Well yet again I am appalled by what people can actually do to each other in the quest for what some sick people seem fun. This time, well I bet many times before as well, it is the United States of America's soldiers. I just don't know what they think they are doing! And who in their right mind would do this and then take a picture of themselves doing it! At least show some level of intelligence, but I guess they are American soldiers so I think their level of intellect can not be too high. If you haven't seen the images, here is one (probably the least disturbing):
For more info and some more of these outrageous images see: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/10521577 |
| If you want to see the video footage from the BBC see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/video/40101000/rm/_40101165_prisoners13_adams_vi.ram Tony Blair has also announced condemnation of the acts (see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3672599.stm), good now tell the Americans how they should act - i.e. the Geneva convention. I hope these soldiers now get put in prison themselves - it is no longer an excuse to follow orders. |
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