Krioma.net

and no there is some atmosphere, but it is definitely damn cold [here]

Wow 800 pieces of junk by me! This one truly is junk.. I just don't have time to post in full today. I really have to try and get some stuff up next week. I intend to. Off to astrofest tomorrow to man a stand so that means an early morning so that's good night from me.

Today on [APOD] is a truly stunning image of a sun pillar taken by Jim Kirkpatrick & Brigitte Heiter-Kirkpatrick.







The purple's and reds are just marvellous and complement the snow on hill wonderfully. I think I am wishing I could be there, some natural beauty wouldn't go a miss from time to time. A larger version can be found [here]

the Ivories + This Et Al + the INKlings

Tuesday 21st February

Bar Academy

Dale End Birmingham

7pm £5

Now I just need to be able to find the time to get to it.... I hope I do!

Be ready to fall over, for no reason, [Tshirts356.com]

What the heck! I came across this concept whilst trying to track down "San Francisco"... [Paper Clothes]. The concept seems daft, though I do like ;-) "France's contribution to paper fashion was a bikini designed to disintegrate upon contact with water."

RS Ophiuchi has gone from being a star of mag 11 to 4.8, making it nice and visible with the eye! RS Oph belongs to the cataclysmic variable (CV) class of stars, which means it is an interesting class of star for us astrophysicists. For you none just think, you are looking at a star blow itself apart... cool?? Further info: [aavso.org] (includes a rather interesting historical overview) and a [sky chart] can be found if you wanna observe it.

Take a look at [this], it is funny though probably quite geeky. I dont care!

Well bye bye to another star as it converts its life into an almighty explosion... take a look at [Faulkes] for a rather cool animated gif of M100, the largest spiral galaxy in the Virgo cluster, as the star goes nova. If you are interested in other recent supernovae I suggest you take a look at: [harvard page] there are some that are quite bright. This is definetly something an amateur with a decent camera could do...

Well I have finally given into my temptation, well actually it was a few weeks ago, but heck I have it now. Yes I went out and bought myself an Apple PowerBook G4, it is swish and I can see it changing hugely how I go about my daily routine. It is actually rather cool and guess what I am using to write this post from...


I like to consider myself quite wide fetching in my computational needs, in the space of a metre I have a windows desktop, a linux desktop and now an apple laptop. Pretty cool, wel it is if you are a geek like me!

I came across [1.fm] earlier today when I started using iTunes for the first time. I wanted to listen to music on my new laptop and since this software comes as standard I thought I'd give it a go and wow I immediately came across this kick-ass radio station. It has some wicked rock on it, some tracks I haven't heard in ages either, was a nice addition. There is another reason why I'm using my mac to listen to music and not my main desktop - earlier to I messed up my keyboard...woops! Trip to maplin tomorrow morning me thinks... shame I can't wait and buy one of those LCD type keyboards, though saying that they are quite extortionate. Anyway, back on point - go to !.fm, it seriously does rock!!

NASA have annouced that the space shuttle Atlantis will be retired in 2008 as this will avoid the upgrades needed to make it "space worthy". This is a shame as this shuttle really wasn't used much. NASA are to retire the whole space shuttle fleet by 2010 but until then it appears that Discovery and Endeavor wil have to do all the work. It also appears that the Atlantis is going to be used as spare parts for the other two!! Looks like that NASA budget cut has had far reaching issues in space flight as well, either that or they are wasting their money on Bush's immediate goals... maybe NASA can make him the first president in orbit (send up Rice as well)... and just leave him up their with that Rice bitch - lets see how much fun he has.

Chandra has seen a shock in a gas cloud from a supernova and the good thing is that the structures observed are similar to that observed in computer simulations. Oh and if that doesn't get you going then let me tel you that it looks pretty :-). Take a look at: [Harvard.edu].

and Peter Crouch nods one in. Come on you Reds! Oh and if you still aren't sure what the heck I am going on about, Liverpool 1 - 0 Manchester United. It had been 85 years since we beat them in the FA Cup, its not like we have met too often but its a stat that no one liked. If you wanna know more take a look at [BBC report]. I'm well pleased, good start to the weekend and almost meant I have forgotten that I'm feeling quite ill. As the game goes I have to say how impressed I was with Harry Kewell's performance, he is finally looking like a Liverpool player. He is even making some hard tackles, including a nice one of Gary Neville which I'm sure got on his nerves and helped Kewell later on in the game. Well done to the whole team, they showed yet again that they can step up to the plate and kick-ass.

Wanna see something cool and scary.. [here] is what the first for milliseconds of an atomic explosion look like... now that is cool. Oh and rather scary. Oh and I was told about this today by a mate and another friend tells me that today (in 1967) is the day
J. Robert Oppenheimer died - one of the main men behind the development of this deadly weapon. Whenever I think of Oppenheimer I always think of his words: "'I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds". Quite nicely sums up what nuclear weapons can do.

I decided I needed something to make my life easier in installing ports of software to the mac, so I have installed [fink].. it seems to work like apt on debian or yum on other systems... good, cause that makes getting software so easy.

The issue of freedom of speech is forever coming up and recently it has been highlighted by the over reaction of people to cartoons. I understand that they were offensive but then there are so many others that are offensive to all religions. The point with freedom of speech is that everyone should have it. No censorship. I should be able to write here what I feel and although, as I am sure, not all people will agree with me I have the right to express myself. I agree words can hurt, but you have to take the context and act appropriately. When it comes to European media they are trying to drive up controversy (and thus sell papers!). Guess what, they did on that one recently and thus offended people worldwide (but please remember it is only a cartoon...). As for the issue behind this post, it is not the case. In China they just want to report fact and not impose feelings.. well I'm sure you will, when you write you naturally impose your thoughts on the subject even if you are trying to be completely netrual. It appears that in China they can't even write about fact without government censorship. I agree at times government censorship is useful, i.e. national security or court cases, but when it comes to historical information then it is just plain and simple propaganda, in the most offensive manner. Today I sit reading an [article] in the New York Times about people losing their jobs just because they wanted to write the truth. The truth they wanted to write about was about 100 years ago and has no consequence on anything apart from historical thoughts. Maybe it is just me, but I feel that we should be able to investigate, express and involve. I moan about the British press and their takes on things but at least they do have the 'balls' to print things. Oh and of course our government would never dream of being so backward that you aren't able to print fact. Though saying this, the paranoid part of my mind goes.... ummm, maybe there is more censorship going on than I would ever no about, but I doubt it. Anyway, let people tell the truth, speak their mind and then you can judge the facts and their words.


Gosh, that was too political for me... I'll go back to astronomy later.

Well at least someone will be making money out of the recent Winter Olympic games... [Baltimoresun]

Ok, AAF (Alien Ant Farm as they are otherwise know) are back (well not quite but have released a kick ass album 3rd Draft)! Not in the shops, but to download. I had wondered what had happened to them, since I loved their first two albums. However, I didn't keep up with their progress. It seems that their record company pissed on them. Anyway Alien Ant Farm is a band hailing from Riverside, California and are great! You might at least remember their blasting cover of Jackson's 'Smooth Criminal' but if you remember them for more than that and you want more, well, you can get it for free!!! (yes it did need 3 exclamation marks!). You can also buy it at gigs, but since I am in the UK it is unlikely. They look set to have a 'proper' third album out soonish. Good. Oh I did promise that you could get it for free somewhere didn't I? Ok take a look at: [AAF.tk] and you will find the whole album and some other goodies... include otherwise unreleased tracks... well I have something cool to listen to on my mp3 player on the way to work in the morrow now.

It appears that the FA will offically annouce that the FA Cup final and the end of the season playoffs will be moved from the new and improved Wembley and played in Cardiff, yet again. The last few seasons have been great at Cardiff but I was very much looking forward to seeing a cup final from the new Wembley but it recently emerged that there was on a 70% chance that it would be ready for the cup final. It now appears that the FA are playing for security and will play it at the Millennium stadium. Oh and the moral of the story, don't get [Aussie's to do the building] :-). If they can't get this on schedule then what does this mean for the development of the olympic village...

George Bush for renewable energy? You have gotta be pulling my leg.. but according to the Washington Post "Bush Urges Funding for Alternative Energy", yeah..come on. Though the [article] is interesting it is more of a restatement of Bush's belief that the USA should move away from imports of foreign oil rather than a pro alt energy one. 'tis a shame, as this would have been interesting, but then again he can't go anti oil... he has lots of friends who make lots of money in this - they probably will make even more if the US imported less foreign oil. Maybe I am just being cynical, but I doubt it. If I am misreading the situation, then Go Bush! Go get your dirty hands over the new tech companies...

Oh and the article includes a rather funny picture (By Jason Reed -- Reuters) of Bush embracing renewable energy, lol (anyone else think he looks like he was saying "and its that big" ;-) )

Want something to do? Something to read? Oh and wanna do this for free? Wel, I might have a suggestion for you and no it isn't go to your local library, though that is a good idea(!), it is go to [Project Gutenberg] who currently have 17,000 books that are free for you! I have come across this many times before but recently I have been reading a bit and love their service so thought I really should write about this. I'm currently re-reading one of my favourite books, HG Wells' "War of the Worlds"... beats the cinematic version any day... I get far more scared when reading this. The only problem I find is that it is not quite as relaxing reading off a computer screen but when I am running a simulation (my research, don't ask!) I find that its best to clear my mind and read, so this is not a bad use of my time (ok, maybe I should be doing physics all the time but sometimes you just need a break). Anyway go, read something good not my useless, meaningless words.

Great, if it wasn't enough that "followers" of Islam have been overreacting across the world in response to some stupid decisions by European press now we have bloody "Christians" kicking off for the same stupid reasons, well in protest against the original protests. People are dying, come on people - it was just a cartoon. Take a look at this [Washington Post] article.

Tonight is the [University of Birmingham Astronomical Society's] Annual Dinner. This is a rather special occasion and is a great chance to get out with a bunch of astronomers, ok doesn't sound like the most hardcore of event but heck these guys can drink :-)... and some of us don't scrub up too bad either... welll, I hope I don't. Anyway.. I have still to decide what, as Chair, I will say when I reflect on the society over the last year - guess I will have to play it by ear. Oh well.

So then that's another Astrosoc Annual Dinner over with. I'm kinda glad as it is a little stressful and was hanging over my head. Well saying that, it was a great night which I throughly enjoyed. It would have taken a lot for it not to have been a good night to be honest... what with beer, wine, good food and of course an interest guest speaker. Another semi-tradition was kept by the British weather, it snowed! :-) (I like snow). Since I am Chair of Astrosoc it meant I had to give a quick speech about the society over the past year (this years was quick!), oh I was not looking forward to that. I normally do not have a problem talking in front of people, in fact I thrive on it. Last night was different though, dunno why - maybe it was because by the time I had to stand up I had already drank quite a lot, oh well. I don't think it was too bad and I only embarrassed one or two people, but thats really how it should be now isn't it?!

When I get some pictures off my phone, I will stick them on but I'm too lazy (/ on a train) and can't really be bothered at the moment. I'm also sure Steve will post some on the Astrosoc website soon enough and they will probably be the most embarrassing ones of everyone he can find.

Oh and guess, like we should always, ended up after the annual dinner? The Guild - bad beer, bad karaoke but heck good company and even though it is bad, it is still beer.

Anyway, as I said I'm currently sat on a train making my way to Uni for another day of work. Ok, it is late but then again I do have a bit of a hangover - I think the loud Greenday that my mp3 player is pumping out is helping.

This is now getting bloody ridicoulous... [Nigerian Christians Burn Corpses]. Come on people! Be human!

Well it was going to happen eventually, I have put myself down to present a poster at the National Astronomy Meeting... now that means lots of work. I'm not bothered as it is a nice deadline to work to. I have to say I have missed having deadlines as of late. The work I am going to present actually is not work related to my PhD.... its just for interest. This is good as this is how I want to be. I want to be able to explore as much astrophysics as possible, though, obviously I will have to really put some huge effort into my main project: modelling planets - but this is actually moving along quite well.

and u get my sister and her husband! Yes thats right, if you do a search on [Yahoo] for this you pull up a picture taken me during our Reading festival pub lunch! Bit random, and I can't even remember how I came across this little piece of randomness.

Here are a few photos that I said I would post from the [Astrosoc] Annual Dinner. These ones are off Scott Porter, I didn't actually check if he will mind me posting them here but I'm sure he won't ... if you do come and find me I'm like 3 desks away! :-)

This is the obligatory big group photo (don't we all look smart!):

And now for just the committee... a few more happy faces (!)..

I came across a rather interesting [article] in which British cartoonist, Martin Rowson, desribes how he would not produce such a cartoon but feels it is cool to have a go at politicians. I do agree, his points make sense. Politicians should be attacked! :-)