Krioma.net

Take a look at this video: [Google.Video].. wow!

A lovely collection of images of the partial solar eclipse over greece (I think!) can be found here [by George Tarsoudis]. Oh and [here] is a nice image taken from London (so closer to home) by [D Nash].

Today is the second day of the national astronomy meeting, this means I am having to stay in Leicester. It could be worse! It is actually quite interesting, lots of cool research and some which is a little boring, if I am honest. The halls are miles away from anywhere including sources of food. This is bad and has left me to eat pizza ffor two nights on the row. This is in health terms really bad but in normal terms not that bad! lol. Anyway here is a pic of me in the first plenary session yesterday:

Take a look at this: [Floating Ice May Explain How Jesus Walked on Water, Researchers Say]

I want one!! Please santa.. well maybe not quite at that price. Still though how cool is that. If you wanna know more I suggest you take a look at: [Virtual Laser Keyboard]

Maybe I will maybe I won't... but I feel I am geeky enough to send of an SAE for one... see: [ChrisBarrie.co.uk]

Take the test: [MSNBC]

I am very, I know I am... but still I thought I would take the best. In fact I got: Your score is 66 (61 to 102: Seriously Nerdy) - wicked! :-)

A couple of the questions if I could answer properly would probably make my score rocket much higher. The first is: How many functioning computers and laptops are in your home? It only goes up to 4!! well I have 4 in my bedroom!!! and in total 7 in my house! lol. The second is: 2. What kind of computer do you use at home? Well it gives a few options, I want the one that says home built windows, mac laptop, home built linux rig (with modified distro).... and windows laptop with linux on!

It's all sold out... in an hour. The only tickets I could get were coach ones... who cares, I am going! This is why:

I have just returned from this years National Astronomy Meeting, a week long event in Leicester. It has been fun and I am sure I will write more soon (and post more pics) but for now here are a few odd (and possibly funny) pics to have a look at:

Being a geek at the space centre (I'm quite drunk!):

Trev showing us how a human should be parked:

A quick shot of my (A0!) poster that discuss' some work I have done, I will put a full version online at some point:

Standing in front of saturn's rings before I got drunk at the space centre:

Do you really think the Easter bunny likes you?? Well here, in the video linked below, is actual proof that most of the time he hates your guts and if you see him will do bad, bad things to you. [YouTube Video]

Take a look at [these lovely pictures of the Eclipse] taken from Turkey by Ian Sharp

Jupiter now has a new red spot, well it has for about a month now. If you missed the news take a look at: [Jupiter's New Red Spot]. It is something I'd love to get a telescope on... I think [Astrosoc's] 10 inch will do nicely... might have to have a look soon. Anyway the new redshpot has formed over the years from 3 smaller (well what was observed in the 1930s) white ovals. Dr Tony Phillips coined the term "Red Spot Jr." or "Red Jr." but professionals still call it Oval BA. Anyway a bunch of professionals will be using HST to observe this but there is a great call for amateurs to do so as well, not only is it cool but there aren't that many images of it yet! For more take a look at: [http://www.redspotjr.com/].

I hear this fragmented object is well worth an observation and this is quite well backed up with this nice image [image] taken by [Peter Vasey]. This comet has a rather interesting past which is nicely described as a feature on the NASA site: [Mini-Comets Approaching Earth ]. This comet is also the focus of some good research, see: [Wiegert et al 2005 (MNRAS, 361, 638)].

The link below is highly funny but might scare young children due to the subject... muhahaha, look at it you know you wanna: [Oh No Jurassic Missing]

Funny list of Linux cartoons... very funny in some cases. I particularly love the Dilbert ones. Waste time looking at these [LinuxToons] well worth it!

She uses linux so why don't you!

(I'm not sure of the reference for this image...sorry that I can't give proper credit)

I sometimes wished I owned a solar telescope, so I could observe the Sun. Saying that I still wouldn't look through it. It is just too dangerous. I am not going to risk going blind because of a slight defect in the filters. There are some nice telescopes out there that are desinged to do this but I just don't think it is for me. That is cool, cause the alternative is to put a nice camera on the back and take pretty photos that you can share with lots of people. However, since I don't have one of these I can't. Though I can do projection... where you aim (being very careful) your small telescope or bins at the Sun and take photos of the projected disc. You can't do this really with these prominences (by the way some could fit many Earth's inside them) but I can dream I have a nice solar telescope I could take photos with. Anyway the whole reason to write about this is because currently there are some absolutely stunning and huge ones visible. See the below SOHO image:

I'm going to throw another random link at you now.. sorry... but before I do here is my comment. The author states "iPod bunny costume is a fuzzy idea" lets just say I could replace the fuzzy bit with the word idiotic and it would state the truth. Though some might think it is cute how bloody impractical would it be to have that sticking out of your pocket! :-) At least the author takes this stance though is less harsh by using the word fuzzy! :-) .. at least it beats the "Lacy lingerie for the iPod" that she mentions! Anyway take a look at it: [news.com.com]

3D desktop? If you thought the Mac's way of operating was cool then with nice transparency and 3d alternate desktops... well you will love Project Looking Glass. Fully 3D... it is in very alpha stages at the moment though I do have a friend who has gotten it install on a linux box. Take a further look at [sun.com]. Here is a rather cool and astronomical screenshot I found earlier:

Well Vista is out in pre-release form.. i.e. without SR1 :-)

Anyway some wacked out souls are trying, and being successful, in installing it on a mac.. why would u wanna remove that beautiful OS and put shitty windows on I don't know, anyway more info and screen shots here: [osx86project] and [engadget.com]

A very interesting read [here]... something I might have to have a play with if I get chance at the weekend. I love GNOME but I do love MAC OS X.... so if my desktop was as pretty as my laptop more the better! :-)

There is something about anfield that will be missed if Liverpool move and looks as if they will be, it is a shame. More [here]. I really think it is such a shame that so many football clubs are moving away from their historic homes to new grounds just so they can make more money. It will kill the spirit of the game.

Now here is a very random picture that my friend Ria took and editted, pretty funny though:

Last night I went to see Story of the Year with Lizzie. I have to say I wasn't that familiar with their music but Lizzie said they put on a good show so I was kinda excited, well I just like hanging with Lizzie to begin with, so I was sure I was going to have a good night. The gig itself wasn't bad Story of the Year were pretty good but I am sure they are one of these american bands that sound so much better when recorded. I think the main issue with them was that their singer wasn't clear enough in the live venue and so distracts you a little. I have heard a few of their songs and a few more after the gig now and they are good just a bit messy when live. They were bad and I am sure as they go on in their career this will get better. They were pretty cool and did some guitar moves whilst playing. I think possibly the funniest thing was when one of their guitarists (we were near the back) just walked past us playing.. which was a bollocks I wish I had my phone out moments. Overall I enjoyed their set so can't moan. Oh and they did a great cover megamix like thing and I really enjoyed their "Until The Day I Die". Was great.

Oh as for the "special guests" on the lineup was Bleed the dream, which seemed interesting but a bit messy in their perfomance... will give them a download, and Stretch Armstrong who weren't bad, some nice songs and did their best to get the crowd going. Actually on the matter of the crowd, apart from the dads who were escorting their kids I reckon I must have been one of the oldest guys there, lol!

I decided I was too lazy to upload my pics of the National Astronomy Meeting (NAM) to my image gallery here, I'll pic the best at some point and post them on here. For now however, I signed up for a Fotki account and have posted my pics on there: [NAM 2006 Pics]

No idea what I mean, nope, nor did I ... read >> [Rock, Paper, Saddam]

WOW this pic is cool!

And now for the science.... well maybe not. Essentially this pic shows two bright sources at the centre of this XRAY image (blue) and overlayed in the pink Radio image. It is pretty cool and the two things are SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES! They are over 25,000 lyrs away from each other!! Anyway take a look at the original article, which gives a far better description.... [here]

Hello to my baby niece, congrats to my sister and Gareth... (note: the baby has already learnt how to dance with her arms in the air!)

Wednesday night, surely you should have been at Snobs?? Well for once we weren't, we wen't to flare instead. The reason: the queue for snobs was huge and at 11:15 we decided there was no chance we would get in. Anyway Flares was great fun, I took quite a few fun images and have posted a gallery here, [Flares 12/04/06]. I loved the dance floor:

And of course we had to have pics taken with a big afro on:

Lizzie sent me this today (miss ya babe! lol ).

Anyway the idea is you go to the [google search engine] and type in your name + 'needs' after it. ex: "John needs" and write down the first line of the description of the first website that appears, (it should say something like: "John needs a shave").

I got: Samuel needs to be watched at all times while you are home

ESA have an Earth from Space: image of the week section on their website and this weeks is just truely wonderful:

More info on the relevant ESA [page]

I was directed to this interesting, and somewhat weird, James Blunt "Beautiful" parody. It's pretty funny oh and here is the [Link] (please note this page contains an embed video, at the bottom is an option to download the mp4 file).

A quite special description of this very very dangerous Irish virus. A big thank you to the mate of mine who posted this image on the pc help forum (you know who you are if you are reading this). LOL

Time to watch the skies... not for UFOs but for radiant streaks across the sky, also know as shooting stars, yes that means that a meteor show is due. I think the peak is given as possibly occuring at 22nd April but this is just a prediction, sometimes this can be very wrong. So watch out when you get the chance. I'm off to Wales on Monday so I will be! :-) Oh and if you wanna know more take a look at: [EAAS.co.uk news], [International Meteor Organization] and [American Meteor Society]

An exhibtion that I want to go to and feel lots of you should: [PPARC Press Release]

Say hello to my baby niece, Madeline, you did see her the other day but here she is with a nice ugly fellow (i.e. me!):

I came across a lovely amateur image of M42 (The Great Nebula in Orion) earlier today, it really shows the lovely colours and nebulosity of the region. The image in all its glory can be found on [Jon Christensen's website] (oh and he has many more wonderful images on his site, well worth a look around).

I have made it to 900 posts, wow, I've become a complete and utter blogger over the last few years.... for those of you who read this and I know there are quite a few of you out there, thanks, knowing that someone out there reads this dribble is worth it. I hope the next 900 are as interesting, or even more so!

The other day, woops I forgot to post it on the day, was the 25th Anniversary of the first Space Shuttle Mission (STS-1). NASA are calling this the boldest test flight in history, which is probably true sinc ehte space shuttle was completely different to any other space craft before it. Pretty cool, though it is a shame that there can't be one in orbit for the anniversary. It is also about time that the space shuttle programme was replaced with a modern alternative, anyway that is a post for another time. Take a look at the special NASA feature on their special [webpages].

PIXY System 2 - the Practical Image eXamination and Inner-objects Identification system Version 2. This is a rather cool and what appears to be a handy photometry software, I'm not sure if it would be too useful for large scale observations but for the amateur this is pretty good. Take a look at the [Pixy System 2 website]. Since it is java it can run on windows and on linux (unix is what the instructions are for but their is little difference) systems.

Ummm, make of this what you want, I just don't think it will work at all. Oh and no we don't me antimatter drives such as those that Star Trek go on about, i.e. there are no dilitium crystals!! :-) Still though it does sound more sci-fi than fact. Take a look at the full article [here]. Though I do like the last few paragraphs which actually talk about how feasible this might be:

"A rough estimate to produce the 10 milligrams of positrons needed for a human Mars mission is about 250 million dollars using technology that is currently under development," said Smith. This cost might seem high, but it has to be considered against the extra cost to launch a heavier chemical rocket (current launch costs are about $10,000 per pound) or the cost to fuel and make safe a nuclear reactor. "Based on the experience with nuclear technology, it seems reasonable to expect positron production cost to go down with more research," added Smith.

Another challenge is storing enough positrons in a small space. Because they annihilate normal matter, you can't just stuff them in a bottle. Instead, they have to be contained with electric and magnetic fields. "We feel confident that with a dedicated research and development program, these challenges can be overcome," said Smith.

She Wants Revenge are best described, in my opinion, as indie electronica which means they are a little fashionable I guess. They are also pretty cool. I would really suggest you give their album, which is self titled a listen to. I guess they remind me a little of Depeche Mode and they are very much in a similar vein as the bravery, but I wouldn't directly compare them. I think their better tracks are on their myspace, so take a look at it [Shewantsrevenge's myspace]. They are playing in Brum soon, and I think I have convinced the girlfriend to go, so I will be seeing them. :-)

[Here] is a great example of what I'd love to see when I look up at the sky, stars! Ok this is from Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) so it is never going to be as good here since the southern hemisphere has a far more drammatic night sky than us in the north but still at times I struggle to see a 100 stars here at night, there is something wrong with that. Yes I live in a big city but still...!

Here is another picture of my ugly mug.. at least this time I have a rather beautiful young lady next to me :-) !!

I have just returned from a few days camping in Wales, we went to a nice campsite about 15 miles from Pwllheli, Porthysgaden, it was rather fun. The weather was very changeable which meant for an odd time. At times it was wonderful and shorts, sun glasses and probably sun lotion were needed and at others full winter gear would have been rather appropriate! Oh well, it was lots of fun, and the weather helped it in a sense. I really enjoyed myself. On the way there we got lost a couple of times and took the wrong turning more than once! The food we brought we didnt eat, it is very hard to cook with a meths cooker when the wind is really high.. still though we got a good hot chocolate out of it. This meant we tried to cook with a BBQ... that was slightly more succesful but the wind and rain really didn't help.

We were only there for two nights, the first day was basically travelling followed by us eating dinner and crashing. The second day was more active, we went to the beach! :-) We made sand castles:

and generally played around it was lots of fun. Lizzie got sand all over her due to some person (i.e. me!) kicking sand at her. I got my comeupance when Heather soaked me with a bucket of water, :-). Was lots of fun. On the way back (the third day) we went on the [Ffestiniog railway] which is rather cool and something I have not done in a long time. It was great, I love steam trains.. :-)

Anyway if you are interested and wanna see some more odd photos from this trip then take a look at: [Camping_Wales_Apr06]

These are the professional ones though! :-) The first one is of Me and Lizzie looking all smart at the PPS Ball 2006. This is the professional picture and is neither of our favourite from the night, we look a bit too rigid but still it is a lovely picture with an even lovelier girl :-)

Smart one with Ria and Chris...

More fun one with Ria and Chris..

A rather beautiful image [here] taken by R Williams of HAS. Lovely work.. oh and it is in the Libyan desert so you kind of expect such a lovely star field.

A wonderful collection of images and a great animation can be found on [Carsten A. Arnholm's website]

Take a look at [The Galilean Moons in 2005 by Zac Pujic] and you will come across some rather cool images of the Moon of Jupiter. They are great for an amateur and rather interesting, especially when you read some of his comments.

this is rather cool...

On The 4th of next month, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06. That won't ever happen again in our lifetime. In fact it will be approx. 400 generations before it happens again.