Krioma.net

Rockstar games have released GTA, GTA 2 and Wild Metal free for download on their website under the classics section. Excellent. Now I know what I will be doing instead of any meaningful research! :-) To obtain these games go to: http://www.rockstargames.com/classics/. Well done to Rockstar for producing such excellent games and for being so nice to put their cracking (well revolutionary) games online for free.

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (http://www.sdss.org) have a wonderfully large database of objects that it would be a shame if they didn't display some of the wondereous images they have taken. They have a picture of the week section, http://www.sdss.org/iotw/iotw.html, that contains some excellent photos. As I write this it has a brilliant image of M44, also know as Praesepe and the beehive clusters. The actual image can be found on (in case this is no longer the picture of the week when you read this) http://www.sdss.org/iotw/beehive.jpg. As for SDSS my whole 4th year project revolves around this and at sometimes I do wonder if I am actually going to get anything out of it. :-)

The NME have declared the Pixies, the Foo Fighters and Iron Maiden to be the headliners at Reading this year - should prove an interesting line up. Not sure if I want to camp though. See: http://www.nme.com/news/111263.htm

The Childhood Goat Trauma Foundation - take a look at their site: http://www.goat-trauma.org/ - if you are not laughing yet go specifically to their Goat Trauma in action page :-)

Here: http://www.ilfoglio.it/uploads/camillo/BuildabetterBush.htm is your chance to have a go at building a better George W.

(written for astrosoc.org.uk)
Sky Chart: http://www.krioma.net/skycharts/2005/large/feb.gif
Moon – click here for a Java applet to get the current phase and some other information on the Moon.
Sun: Autumn and spring are the best time for auroral displays produced from the Earth's interaction with the solar wind and so is a good time to look out for these, but in Birmingham you are very unlikely to see these. The Sun is currently in a minimum of activity and so the sun spots visible are small in number - never mind the large cloud formations across the UK! See spaceweather.com for more information about the Solar activity. Oh lots of solar activity has been reported recently and so have aurora over Birmingham.
Mercury: This is a hard object to observe full stop especially at the moment. It is at superior conjunction till the 14th and is unobservable until early March when it will appear in the evening sky.
Venus: Hard to observe. The best time to observe it is just before sunrise but since this is aimed at students then I should just write unobservable.
Mars: It is still quite faint and is only rising at 05:16 during the middle of the month so like Venus is basically unobservable.
Jupiter: Bright and easy to see. It is current in Virgo and is quite low in the sky in the early evening. Well worth observing. Click here for a Java Applet of the positions of Jupiter's Moons.
Saturn: It is now past opposition but is still very bright. The rings are currently titled by a side 23 deg so the planets southern pole is facing us. This means that the moons orbiting this gas giant will be found above / below the planet.
Uranus / Neptune / Pluto: All very hard to see. Uranus and Neptune are solar conjunction during this month (25th and 4th respectively)
Meteors: Only active shower worth trying to observe is the alpha Aurigids – maximum peak is between 6th and 9th and has an expected rate of about 10 an hour.
Comets: Comet Machholz is still around but becoming fainter. As always more information about comets can be found on the BAA Comet Section: http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~jds/

I was told about a guide to moshing the other day, see: http://members.aol.com/rik0lar/moshing/mosh.htm

Yesterday I went to European Astrofest at Kensington Town Hall in London. I was as a delegate of the FAS and so did not get to attend any of the talks - good really. I hear they always go down well but there was only one I would personally have liked to see and that was about the same time I needed to leave to get back to Birmingham at a reasonable time. Gosh it was a long day. Was out and on a train at 7am! The traveling wasn't bad and I was on time and I didn't get confused by the underground! Not that I should it isn't that complicated. Back to Astrofest. There were some excellent deals on offer though. I don't like how commercial it is, not that I blame the companies. I really wish it was more about promoting the astronomy than buy buy buy!! Astronomy Now don't have any thing on their site about it now... seems to have vanished into thin air - so I can't give you a link to their program. Astrofest is possibly the largest gathering of amateur astronomers in the UK. Lets hope we can get the FAS convention as big...watch this space.

Spaceweather.com always has some excellent photos in its gallery of astronomical events. I just came across the ones of recent aurora and wow! See: http://spaceweather.com/aurora/gallery_01jan05.htm to have your breathe taken away.

You may or may not (why not!) be aware that the 3rd film in the Star Wars saga gets released this year. In fact on 19th May. So since both me and my house mate (Geordie) are eager to see this I thought it would be apt to write a php countdown script. So I did and the result can now be seen on my home page... currently there are 98 days to go!

Alex proposed her 'Alex Awards' on her site (http://elektron.krioma.net - 09/02/05) and her are my suggestions for the awards...
British male solo artist: Morrissey
British female solo artist: Charlotte Hatherley
British group: Ash
British album: Ordinary Boys - Over the counter culture
British single: Ordinary Boys - Talk, Talk, Talk
British breakthrough act: Agent Blue
British urban act: who cares...?
British rock act: Ash
British live act: Muse
Best song of past 25 years: no way I can decide. I'm only 22! :-)
Pop act(?): Avril Lavigne
International male solo artist: Eminem (maybe not... can't think of anyone else!)
International female solo artist: Avril Lavigne (can't think of anyone else!)
International group: Green Day
International album: The Killers - Hot Fuss (mention needs to go the Hives)
International breakthrough act: Scissor Sisters
Outstanding contribution to music: John Peel

I went to see Creep tonight at the AMC by Five Ways. The film itself I would call entertaining but at times it was comical. Overall the film wasn't that scary it had its moments. At its worse it was just sickening and disgusting. I am not sure if I would recommend this one something to pay to watch. Oh if you do see it then one of the characters will remind you of someone after his precious.

Silly Welshman: http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/02/07/WalesTesticles.reut/

I have successfully helped to transfer the pc-pals.com forum from an old and in need of attention Yabb SE forum into a nice shiny new PhpBB one. Took long enough though. Lets hope they enjoy using it in the future. I am sure they will. They probably will have to put up with me posting on their lots now. See: http://pcpals.phpwebhosting.com/phpBB2/

I brought The Others (http://www.letskilltheothers.com/) album last week and like they were when I saw them play at the Jug of Ale (when I went to see them my primary reason was to see Agent Blue) they were an instant hit. They are definitely the inband at the moment what with their unique gigging style. Getting everyone on stage seems a favourite thing of theirs to do. Their album is excellent though and my favourite track at the moment has to be "This is for the poor". This is likely to change as I listen to it over and over again. They managed: number 10 in the Virgin Chart, number 15 in the HMV Chart and number 51 in the national chart

Willy Mason (http://www.willy-mason.com/) - Where the Humans Eat. Umm I am a little disappointed. I had heard a few tracks that I believe were on an EP but I have not been overly impressed with the album. I am not saying it is bad but it doesn't seem to go anywhere though I can easily see this growing on me. It is nice and laid back but that means it feels the same throughout. It is still worth a listen - even if it is just for "Oxygen" which is a wonderful song. He is a damn talented musician though.

You might have noticed a white band across the top right of most of my pages (haven't integrated this fully into my blog yet). This is in support of the Make Poverty History campaign, http://www.makepovertyhistory.org. I strongly agree with their aim of reducing debt in less fortunate countries. So lets support them.

Well Comet Machholz may have faded but as can be seen by this: http://www.tundratechwebworks.com/machholz.jpg picture taken by Tom Kerns it is still worth a go - especially if you have some sort of astrophotographic device.

Last night I went to the Jug of Ale in Moseley to primarily see Maximo Park, a band that I have taken to recently. I actually think they are an excellent band and can't wait to hear a full album. As for last night the gig was good. The Rips, like Murdoch, are a band I have not heard of before. They actually were quite good and did have a very big plus - a sexy female drummer :-) They were upbeat and could imagine them going on to bigger things. They had a varying style. One thing they need to, well the drummer, is to keep hold of her sticks. She did make a good recovery. Next on was Murdoch - I heard they are from Birmingham and their site is: http://www.murdochmusic.com/ they were ok. Nothing special - just another band really. Also during this set I was not feeling to good.

On to the main event: Maximo Park. Like expected they were excellent. They have a good range of songs and are what I would classify as a typical indie band. They were late on but they made up for it by doing an excellent set. They played all the songs I was expecting them to play and I was surprised how many of them I actually knew. My favourites from the night probably were "Apply some pressure", which is released as a single on Monday, and Graffiti. They are very entertaining as well. I can see them going far. Lets see what they do for an album... they deserve to get one out. Oh and they are from Newcastle, a five piece; singer, lead guitar, bass, keyboard and drums. More at: http://www.maximopark.com

It appears that the University of Birmingham (http;//www.bham.ac.uk), the Uni I attend, is in the top 100 Uni's across the world - according to: http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/rank/2004/top500(1-100).htm. Incidentally it is a respectable 93rd. Not bad - pretty illustrious list.

Last night I went to see Interloper, Daddy Delux & Sixer @ Bar Academy in Birmingham. The main reason to go was to see Sixer, I have seen them before and a girl I know is their lead vocalist. Thought I'd better show support. Not often you get a physicist who can sing (well that is)!! :-) The gig was good though they did have a bunch of replacements in their lineup. Their drummer was replaced by a very good replacement if not a bit scary! Well not that scary but he did manage to brake his stick (well I think he did) and hit the drummers very hard. Nice and loud. At times this drowned out Zoe (vocals) a bit but that was a minor problem. I do like their music and it was pointed out to me that they sounded a little like Placebo and yes I agree they do. They also had a new guy playing rhythm guitar, from a band called the Enids (http://www.soundat45rpm.i12.com/theenids/Index.htm) I believe. I have seen them play and wasnt that impressed. Showed promise though. Back to the gig. I actually even remembered some of the songs they played this time. It was very enjoyable. They do need to relax at little and move around a bit. They need to stop being so ridged - unless that's what they are going for. I did enjoy myself though. More can be found at: http://www.sixermusic.co.uk/.

As for the rest of the gig. Daddy Delux were ok. Definitely had the woah effect going on the guitars. They were enjoyable and very professional but alas nothing exceptional. I think they are headlining down at the jug of ale soon. They had a bit of an Oasis feel to them at times.

Finally we came on to Interloper at gone 11, meaning we could only catch 30mins so we could get the bus home. The gig was enjoyable. They did seem a bit familiar at times. I can only put this down to a few of their riffs sounding rather similar to songs I already know. Overall it was a good night - well worth the £3 entrance! Oh, I intended to post a few pics up of these gigs but haven't got around to transferring over my photos yet. Will do so soon.

This week's Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) image is of NGC 4438 (upper left) and NGC 4435 (lower right). And can be found at: http://www.sdss.org/iotw/ngc4438.jpeg It is a lovely image and is an excellent example of galactic interaction.
More:
+ SDSS IOW - http://www.sdss.org/iotw/iotw.html

See: Wacko Jacko - you need Flash though. This was posted on a forum I am involved in and I just can't stop laughing!

Yesterday I had my first PhD interview. This one was at Warwick. The University itself seems quite nice. Not as pretty as Birmingham but looks like a typical University. I could seem myself being content their. The interview itself, I think, went well. I have interviews coming up and Nottingham and Birmingham so I guess I will only get better butthen I guess everyone has their own style. I don't really mind what field of Astrophysics I go into and all of the projects I have applied for seemrather interesting. I guess it is going to be a decision between what takes my fancy more and who offers me a place!