Krioma.net

Welcome to 2007, I can't believe it is 7 years since the millennium night!

Well here goes all the new laws on light pollution, Southampton council don't seem to know the law or general care about people being "blinded"... argh!! time to take action

Southampton City Council Press Releases 19/12/2006 An exciting and innovative new project, not seen anywhere else in the world, is being planned for Southampton by city leaders. The project entitled 'The Southampton Laser Gateway' will create a monumental landmark for everyone approaching the city by sea, air, car or rail.

Funded through the Southampton Partnership, the city council has been awarded £249,000 to develop this iconic feature in the city centre.

Four lasers will be installed in the Clock Tower of the Civic Centre. They will emanate a 2.7mm diameter beam of light in an east-west and north-south orientation and be visible up to fifteen miles away. It is expected that the lasers will run from dusk to midnight, providing a visual 'welcome to Southampton' for miles around.

In keeping with Southampton's long maritime tradition the lasers will give the visual effect of a lighthouse shining its beams across the city. The inauguration will be timed to coincide with the 95th anniversary commemorations to mark the loss of the R.M.S Titanic.

Councillor Adrian Vinson, Leader of Southampton City Council said: "The laser gateway is a visually dramatic expression of Southampton's place at the heart of the central south, reflecting our city's innovative and creative strengths. Investing in the image of our city is extremely important if Southampton is to continue to achieve economic success."

The Chair of Southampton Partnership, Ros Cassy commented: "This investment of SEEDA funding by the Southampton Partnership is a tangible example of how we are committed to promoting Southampton and its heritage through developing cutting edge projects.

"I am delighted that we have been able to work with a team of people to translate our aspirations for the city into this ground breaking project and really light up the city. Southampton has a proud maritime history and a commitment to innovation. Our laser gateway captures the essence of our city brilliantly."

Sally Lynskey, CEO of Business Southampton added, "This project is an excellent example of partnership working in Southampton. Each organisation involved is committed to enhancing the city's image and this stunning landmark is sure to do just that. The Southampton Laser Gateway will be a beacon for the city."

Jimmy Chestnutt, Director General of Southampton and Fareham Chamber of Commerce said: "The Chamber supports this initiative as the first and highly visible step towards raising Southampton's profile as a modern, hi-tech, forward thinking, successful city."

Southampton City Council's Cabinet is expected to make its decision on January 22.

Ends

Media briefing:

Media are invited to an informal briefing regarding the Southampton Laser Gateway at the Civic Centre, Southampton, at 12 midday on Wednesday December 20. Please contact Public Relations on 023 8083 2000 if you would like to attend.

Notes to Editors:

1. An artists impression of how the Southampton Laser Gateway will look and a chart showing the laser's range are available by contacting Public Relations on 023 8083 2000.

2. A copy of the full Cabinet report can be viewed at: http://www.southampton.gov.uk/thecouncil/thecouncil/meetings-agendas-reports/meetingpapers/sqlmeetingpapersagenda.asp?scheduledmeetingid=1922&PortfolioID=13&Title=Cabinet&Date=08/01/2007&Postponed=0&Cancelled=0&PD=True

3. This funding is devolved by the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) Area Investment Framework (AIF) to the Southampton Partnership.

SEEDA is a government funded agency set up in 1999 responsible for the economic and social development of the South East of England - the driving force of UK`s economy.

Southampton Partnership is a multi-sector/multi-organisation partnership, which has been established as the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) for the City of Southampton, its broad role is to implement Southampton`s Community Strategy, which sets out a shared vision for the future of the city, by promoting or improving economic, social and environmental well-being.

3. Key facts and figures

Civic Clock Tower = 14m above sea level Laser Source = 48m above ground level, 62m above sea level 2.7mm - Laser beam diameter (millimetres) 275w - Power consumption of each laser (watts) 6 - Power consumption equivalent in computers with monitors 5 to 15 - Anticipated range of lasers (in miles, dependent upon weather conditions)

Laser passes City boundaries at: 520m North 220m South 555m East 440m West

Laser could potentially enter airspace at: 386m New Forest District Council (above Hythe) 497m New Forest District Council (above Eling) 1200m Winchester City Council (above land between Ampfield & Hursley) 1100m Winchester City Council (above land between Shedfield & Wickham) 555m Eastleigh Borough Council 520m Test Valley Borough Council

Heights of Spinnaker Tower 100m Deck 1 105m Deck 2 110m Crows Nest 170m Top of Tower

Other Height Comparisons 135 m London Eye 235 m 1 Canada Square (Canary Wharf) 320 m Eiffel Tower 96m Clock Tower, Palace of Westminster (Big Ben) 123m Salisbury Cathedral

Highlights of my year, in a sort of chronological order with relevant posts below

Birthday, Jan 9th (hint to you all who normally celebrate this with me!): curry + a rather drunken night at snobs, I am blaming Tom for topping my vodka and coke with champagne!! It also involved some punches and me not standing upright all night. Oh well.

[my birthday]

Chair of the University of Birmingham Astronomical Society (astrosoc), again! I wasn't moaning particularly as it gave me the chance to take the society further forward and finish off a few things that I didn't get time to do the first time around.

[back to astrosoc]

European Astrofest - sat on the FAS stand all day is always interesting but the company on the way back was much better. I traveled down on the train to run the stand and during the day I bumped into a bunch of first years who were there representing Astrosoc. It was good to see
Heather, Tom and Lizzie and when they offered some company for the commute back I was not going to say no. I got to have a rather long and interesting conversation with Lizzie... the start of the best things in the year.

[astrofest was mentioned in my 800th post]

I gave a talk at Stafford & District Astronomical Society on galactic things, this was the first talk of the year and seemed to go down well. I love getting out to astronomical societies and giving talks. I actually rushed back to my own society after this talk. To be honest I was pretty eager to see a girl... why do trains have to be canceled! I made it in time for a quick drink but we decided that it was such perfect weather that we would rush off to the observatory... like you do. Oh, the observatory is a good distance away (far enough that you need a car!). It was so clear and lots of fun. I love going to the observatory for observing.

[A trip to Stafford], [36 hours without sleep]

The next and probably the biggest highlight of the year. Getting together with Lizzie. This happened after a low attendance astrosoc and with bad weather I gave a short talk on something (i.e. I showed a video) and we went to the pub (okay we do this too often!). This gave me the chance to talk to her and after some time I still didn't have the testicular fortitude to do anything, lucky for me I didn't need to have any as she made the first move... and I will remind her of this forever. :-)

So the big highlight of the year... going out with Lizzie.

The PPS Ball.... at Burlington Hotel.. as a committee member we are still dealing with the stupid finances of this event but as a person it was great fun at one of
Birmingham's best venues. I was nice and smart and hoped I looked the part.

[Ball Pic], [More Ball Pics], [the ball]

The National Astronomy Meeting... I got to present a poster of some work and I was able to (if I am honest) get drunk at the space centre... oh and it also produce the most embarrassing photo of me for the year (me drifting off during Al's talk... woops!)

[National Astronomy Meeting 2006], [astronomers are odd pics]

Camping in the cold wet Wales... with those blasted loud sheep. Oh it was fun I got to spend the weekend with Lizzie, Heather and Martin by the beach.. can't moan now can you? Yes.. it was freezing and wet, why couldn't it have been clear so I could have done some stargazing!! At least my tent took the weather! Oh and I got play in the sand!

[Camping in Wales...]

ALIEN WEEK... well it wasn't the most involved week but we had a talk at astrosoc on aliens, by Mario di Maggio from the Birmingham Planetarium and we had a decent audience. We also had a BBQ on the vale and film night.

I also jetted off to Canada with my dad.. I never got around to posting many pics about this, in fact all I posted was.. [CN TOWER] and [Hello from Toronto!].. so here are a couple of other photos (at some point I will post more...) ...

Then within a couple of weeks I was on the other side of the Earth, in India.. working. I had the fun of going to the Giant Metrewave Telescope in India. I spent most of my time at the NCRA in Pune, a rather interesting experience. Since I had my laptop and a web connection I posted quite a few times... [Hello from Damp India], [Independence Day], [Jantar Mantars replica at IUCAA], [Mumbai Airport has nice seating...], [End of an indian adventure], [At last a decent nights sleep], [at the gmrt], [some pics]

The weekend after I got back from India was the Reading Festival which, like always was fun!

[day 1], [day 2], [day 3], [day 4], [who did I see]

Oh I was feeling quite ill during the festival, , I think India and Canada had caught up with me.

I was the main organiser of the FAS Convention 2006 which I had organised to take place in Birmingham for the first time. It went down well with well over 100 attendees and with 5 speakers (Dr Ishwara Chandra, Dr David Whitehouse, Dr Allan Chapman, Prof John Brown and John Dobson) it wasn't a bad lineup either. I really enjoy these sort of event, just not the pre-event tension...[FAS Convention] - I also got myself a good rep by bringing along 4 young ladies as my helpers, lol.

It was now back to the time of year for teaching and yes I sortof enjoyed observatory lab again. I do find it quite satisfying.

I had a rather large part in organising the departments open lectures again this year, which kept me busy when I wasn't working.

I gave a talk at Bridgend astronomical society which I throughly enjoyed and I got to have an Indian with my good friend Clive.

Astrosoc also ran two evening public talks, Dr David Gregory gave the first and Prof John Brown gave the second. The later was our highest attended talk ever, with over 200 people there and was also our best advertised event yet.. I was pleased.

[black hole and white rabbits], [PPARC Talk: David Gregory Science in the Media]

The success of these talks really reflect the fact that Astrosoc was named the Institute of Physics Student Society of the Year by Nexus... yay for that.

Oh and I was mugged after a public talk in November. Shame that, put a bit of a disappointing end to the year.

[mugged, argh!]

What else, oh I am sure I am missing out lots of important things.. like becoming an uncle.. [Uncle Samuel! :-)] and having a tooth pulled out... but I can't quite remember it all, I am nearly 24.. thats another reminder my birthday is on the 9th! :-)

What is ahead for me, well life is a bit unsure. I need to get a few things out of the way and I will feel much better. I won't spend my time hear now but I am sure I will get to do more fun things in 2007 and hopefully I won't annoy Lizzie much, well maybe a little bit (on purpose, of course!).

A prosperous 2007 to you all... and remember: recycle, save energy, stargaze, enjoy life and read my blog!

Looks as if I am going to be talking on BBC Radio WM tomorrow about astronomy, so if you have the radio on at about 10pm you might not get to hear any words of wisdom!

Before Christmas I was playing around with my new greenlaser, which I use for astronomy (can point at the stars), and managed to get a (sort of) heart:

When my girlfirend told me the film was going to be about a guy who kills people to find the best perfume I was thinking New York guns and chasses. Then we sit down in the cinema and she goes "you know this is a period drama, right?" .... my response "WHAT" which she followed with "and that its set in France"... well lets just say I was not happy, though I had popcorn and minstrels so I was happy!

Anyway the film wasn't bad, I dont actually mind period films, not that lovey uped drama crap, but stuff with battles. This film was plain and simply odd and actually rather interesting. It wasn't particularly grumesome or anything but the fish market got my stomach going...

The speil for the film is:

"Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, born in the stench of eighteenth century Paris, develops a superior olfactory sense, which he uses to create the world's finest perfumes. His work, however, takes a dark turn as he tries to preserve scents in the search for the ultimate perfume."

I would actually recommend it as an interesting and indeed entertaining watch but I can't put my finger on it, there was something odd about it

I decided, since the clouds were looking odd, to take a picture of the sky last night. I live in north Birmingham a few miles from the city centre. Its not dark here, but its not bad. The organge glow is quite effective in producing eerie looking clouds though and so when it is cloudy can give other opportunities to take photos:

I think the tree came out quite nicely.

Last night I and Dr Somak Raychaudhury were in BBC WM studio (at the Mailbox) with Jimmy Franks to talk about astronomy. I have to say it was a very interesting experience and I was much more relaxed than I have been about past live broadcasts. I'll try and get some of the discussion online as I would like to show the world how silly I can sound on the radio

I have managed to get the audio of the radio interview I did the other night.... I have uploaded it on a free hosting sytem (filewind.com) as I don't want to use up my own bandwidth. It will be up for a minimum of 30 days (if not accessed within 30days it will be deleted - so if it doesn't exist just post a comment here if you really want to listen to it!).

Anyway here it is: [radio clip] I don't sound too daft...

Liverpool may have lost yesterday in the FA cup but there fans were able to send a message to the world about the Hillsborough disaster. Screw the Sun "newspaper".

[thisisanfield.com], [icliverpool.com]

Today is my birthday... I am looking forward to some cake!

I'm now 24... argh.

Is currently so bright that it shines right through the evening twilight, I am hoping to get a look at this sooner than later. The clouds have prevented me so far... but not everyone might have the same fate. It is rather close to the horizon so not much of a chance in a built up area. If you aren't in the city centre then in the early evening look west into the twilight, it is rather close to the Sun so isn't visible for long. Or in the morning, it hangs low in the east, emerging just ahead of the rising Sun - just to the right of the bright Venus. You may need some binoculars to see it.

I have seen some spectacular images, here are a few: [from leeds], [gorgeous tail], [from norway].

It was my birthday yesterday, . I got cake, ... I didn't eat too much so no, . I might have even worked off a few calories on the dance machine:

Then I probably did some more on the airhockey, I won by losing control of my "hitter" (what do you call them?). I had to win though really, the puk had my name on it!

I then went for food at Frankie and Benny's, went for drinks at Apres and watched Liverpool lose 6-3 (argh!). It was all made better when we got back to Lizzie's and had cake!!

I came across [this] wonderful pic of some aurora in July last year, wow! There are lots of cool pics on the spaceweather site, well worth a look [here]

Well I attempted to find Comet McNaught in the twilight over Birmingham tonight, I think I went out a little late and I just couldn't see it. It is possible that it had just gone below the trees of the park. I will attempt to look again. I did, however, get a good view of Venus, so I am not going to moan. Venus is in the centre of the below image (not the easiest to see on the smaller view, click to see larger)....

Now here is a cool pic.

Courtesy NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Wow. The phase of the Earth and the Moon as seen from Mars. The magnitudes of the Earth and Moon are given as about −2.5 and +0.9, respectively. Well at least we know what those Marsians are looking at. A much better and large view can be found at... [nasa photojournal]

Last night I took Lizzie to see [Hundred Reasons]. This was a gig that I was postponed from October and on the way to the gig my initial enthusiam had died, the last album by Hundred Reasons has not been on my regular playlist for a while and I overlistened to it a bit before. Anyway I had tickets and I knew I would have a good time when I was there... luckily we missed the rain on the way to the academy .

We missed most of the first band, dinner had to come first , I think they were called [God Fires Man]. They sounded ok but I didn't catch much of them.

The second band was, [Kinds In Glass Houses], who were quite good.. I even bought their EP from their little stall. It was a fiver so I'm not going to complain... since I was only on the water at the gig its not like I didn't spend much - for once. I think they sound a bit like a welsh Falloutboy, less so on the CD but live they did have that sound off them. Ok they sound a bit emo... :-) I liked them though...

Hundred Reasons did a good set and the crowd got going a lot more than I expected, I always think that crowd surfing in the Academy 2 must be deadly, the stage is rather close to the barrier... oh well, I bet a few people have bruised limbs and they don't care.

I went over to the park to try and spot a comet earlier, no luck - I think I have missed this one... damn clouds . Though I got some good shots of the Sun going down..

I get to go pick up the Best Student Society award tomorrow night at the Institute of Physics Awards evening, I' m quite pleased as this shows that our efforts to make the University of Birmingham Astronomical the best society we can be have not been in vain, yay! :-)

More on the award [here]

I was reading the BBC news website earlier when I came across this title ""Jade 'faces fight to save career'" - ([news.bbc.co.uk].

Argh, all I have heard via the media machine is this bollocks about some nobody. The bitch made her money from being dumb, not just dumb but ignorant. I swear this is Britain to a tea. Not the racist culture that has been suggested but the culture were the ignorant get it given to them on a plate. I am one for a responsible state were we care for each other and look after each other but not one were people sit on their arse doing nothing. Jade is "famous" for being a loud mouth idiot. Britain celebrates lack of education or attempt to better herself by putting her on the television were the other idiots vote for her (costing them money) to give to this idiot. ARGH! Much worse than this, I then have to hear about it in every direction... argh!

The Doomsday clock has been moved to 5 minutes to midnight. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists have decided that the threat of global climate change is so bad that it now has to be included into the end of the world scenario. Scary stuff really. We are now on the point when we could destroy the Earth, not by war but by our own stupidity. Come on people do you need to drive that car for a 10 minute walk?

More at: [reuters.co.uk]

Astrosoc, the University of Birmingham Astronomical Society, which I am Chair of won the best student society award of the Institute of Physics for 2006. We were really honored by this. Kym and I had the chance to go and pick up the award at the IOP Awards dinner on Thursday night, it was a rather grand affair. I am not used to being introduced to a room when I enter and having to shake peoples hands. It was nice though. I am also not used to having to toast to the Queen but I guess that is what you get when you are having such a large event at the Savoy hotel in London. It was very enjoyable and I had a great night, shame about the weather. We had huge issues on the way down but, unlike some people, at least we got to the event.

Tree on the line on the way down:

Kym and I looking happy with the award :-)

Ok I was pleased to have a name tag! :-)

I have never been convinced about the reports of how the WTC collapsed, it just didn't sound physical possible / rather coincidental that all the conditions existed for it to collapse. Today I came across the 9/11 Mysteries documentary on Google videos, take a look [here]. It is well worth a watch as it is rather interesting.

Now I bet that got you intrigued? It did me... it seems that some people go to the limits to get in the history books. Shame I doubt he will be remembered, I have never heard of the guy before.. oh I should probably explain what the heck I am ranting on about shouldn't I? Well, here we go "Buckets of blood readied for Slovenian's Amazon swim" was the title I was met with on reuters earlier today. Of course I clicked on it. Quite an interesting article about how this guy, Martin Strel, who is going to attempt to swim up the Amazon. Better him than me. I would rather not walk there with all of those nasties never mind swim! Good luck to him though. Full article: [reuters.co.uk]
and his website can be found [www.amazonswim.com]

I never thought I would be doing this again.I guess it was two years ago now that I stepped down as Chair of The University of Birmingham Astronomical Society. I was in the 4th year of my undergraduate degree and I had to. Now I am in the second year of my PhD and ran astrosoc again last year because people wanted me to. I have enjoyed another successful year. We have had some great events including a rather full lecture theatre for our December public talk by Prof John Brown, Royal Astronomer for Scotland. We were also given the award of Best Student Physics Society for 2006 by the Institute of Physics, this is an award I am most proud to have received. Anyway, tonight is out with the old and in with the new.

I introduce the audience to our guest speaker, Prof John Brown, back in December (photo by Scott Porter)

On Thursday I stepped down as Chair of Astrosoc. Being my second time of doing this I am slightly pleased to know that I have put in lots of hard work for the society. I have now been on the committee for a total of 4.5 years! However, I have not stopped being on the committee yet.. I have rised to the challenge of being the webmaster. A much lower role but allows me to still be involved, which I am pleased about :-)

Like always we had a photo opportunity at the end of the night...

The old committee...

The new committee... slightly dodgy pic but thats normal..

oh and me talking (and boring everyone) for the last time as Chair.