Krioma.net Blog

DOOFAAS

2008-08-24T18:46:35Z

DOOFAAS stands for Dumb Or Overly Forced Astronomical Acronyms Site. A friend of mine pointed me in the direction of this site the other day, very funny and actually quite useful when you want to figure out what the hell some of these acronyms mean... acronyms are the scourge of modern astronomy (well I think they are)... but at least some of them are funny (e.g. FATBOY). Take a look at the site [here].

Europe 2008: Venice

2008-08-21T16:42:19Z

I've just about gotten around to start thinking about my travels around Europe this summer, I'm not sure if I will actually get around to blogging about it all... but lets start, Venice. I wrote this on the train between Venice and Rome. Venice is just different. I don't think you can really make an analogue with anywhere else, well nowhere I have been to anyway. It is beautiful in its own way. It was also very, hot, busy and at times very annoying.. but fun. We got to Venice later than planned due to our night train from Salzburg being a whole hour later than planned. Very annoying. The night train was good fun though. I slept well and it was quite convenient. I'd do it again. I was not prepared properly for the stewardess to take our tickets away but to be honest it makes sense. I was just tired and she was not really dressed like what I expected the Austrian conductors to look like. Oh the aircon did not work which became a problem on the long wait into Venice, especially after she had locked the toilet doors! Venice itself - the train station is a dump, I moan about Birmingham's but after this I love New St.! The left luggage had huge queues and was a complete rip-off but again I expected that. Venice is a place you could easily get lost in, well I don't think you could (with the sings), full of lots of street alleys and close housing. (I bet anyone from the USA would get a bit more disoriented - no grids here!). The housing makes good shade from the Sun. The first day I got completely wiped by the lack sleep (we got on the train at 1am) and the Sun, which resulted in a long (I guess like the Italian's do) lunch. Good pizza! We then walked over the Rialto and down to per San Marco. We looked around the main square but as time was getting on and I was feeling dodgy we got a boat (well the bus) down the Grand Canal to the bus station, which when the new bridge is built will be very easy access to the train station. We spent the night at a nice little (probably not that little!) camping village. We had an ensuite shower in our 2 bed room - this went down very well! On the second day I and Lizzie went around on our own as the other were going home. We walked gently up to the San Marco looking at the sights, all a bit later than expected due to the huge queue at the station left luggage again (it took 40 mins!). Due to time constraints (we had a 2.30pm train to Roma) we only had time to go around the Dodge's palace. It is well worth the entrance fee, especially as a student (7.50Euro). Lots to see in this palace but I think my highly was the bridge of sighs and the fantastic banquet room. If you would like to see more of my photos from Venice, see [my flickr page]

Science in Birmingham...

2008-08-19T09:05:55Z

I wrote into the Birmingham (Evening) Mail the otherday in response to a comment made about the lack of adult science activities in Birmingham. It actually got in to the Mail yesterday, . Anyway, I'm not sure I should post a copy of it here, but I'm going to... take a read if you want (though I expect you will need a larger version, see [here]:

Home sweet, home...

2008-08-14T21:33:37Z

... is not in Alabama! I'm from Birmingham in England (the original Birmingham!) but it seems our city council are destined to think we are actually in Birmingham, Alabama.... [Chiefs admit Brum skyline mix-up ]. Bloody idiots. Anyone who has lived in Birmingham for a few years would easily be able to tell you, though it looks like a city environment, that is not the Birmingham city centre skyline... oh and I think I have one of those leaflets somewhere!

Bash rename

2008-08-06T22:22:59Z

This is one more for myself than anyone else as I keep forgetting how todo it.... but if anyone is interested. I normally don't use bash - I'm not entirely sure why I don't (if you don't know what bash is, then I wouldn't worry - its the Bourne Again Shell and is based on the Bourne shell, sh, the original command interpreter). Anyway, this is a very simple thing todo.. but every time I come todo it I have to look it up, so I'm going to just look it up here... Just to add some text at the front:

for i in *; do mv "$i" "photo${i}.jpg" ; done

To remove some text in the string:

for i in *.jpg; do mv "$i" "${i/Yourself}" ; done

and to rename as a numeric string... my most common task...

number=0
for i in *.jpg; do mv "$i" "$number" ; (( number += 1 )); done

Partial Solar Eclipse

2008-08-03T11:16:56Z

On Friday there was a partial solar eclipse over the UK - suprisingly we actually managed to observe it - though the clouds did their best to stop us. We even got onto the television....(ITV Central). Lunchtime: Tea-time:

NASA Images

2008-07-29T11:01:56Z

Browse a massive collection of images taken of our Universe by NASA missions - [www.nasaimages.org]. The goal of NASA Images is to increase our understanding of the earth, our solar system and the universe beyond in order to benefit humanity.

Solar Eclipse on August 1

2008-07-25T10:14:40Z

Don't forget that next Friday is a solar eclipse! It is total in and around China but for us in the UK we can look forward to seeing around 20%. If you have some eclipse glasses or a means of projecting the Sun's image (remember solar safety... do not look at the Sun, ever!) then you will be able to see something quite cool! Oh and its around 8.30GMT. [is a decent ref].

Aurora's source found by string of satellites

2008-07-25T10:07:04Z

We have known for a long time that the Aurorae is caused by electrons streaming from the Earth's magnetic field onto the poles and then delivering a jolt of energy to gas molecules in the atmosphere. But what causes the electrons to do this in the first place? It sounds like the Themis mission may be onto something... [NASA's Themis mission finds the trigger for polar light show.]

Download Festival 2008

2008-06-26T09:11:51Z

I know it was almost two weeks ago now but I've finally gotten around to having some time to write up on here what I thought of the [Download festival]. It was indeed my first time at this festival and I have to say I was very impressed. It was also the first festival that I have been to that we drop to and from every day. Donnington isn't too far from Birmingham so its easily feasible and is the first thing I was very shocked about. I was expecting since we were driving each day to have to wait in long traffic queues. Nope, it appears that the place was very well organised and the longest we had to wait was 10 minutes when we left on the second night, now that's not bad! Anyway onto the music... Highlights: - seeing Kiss, they were great showmen - a certain song by Motorhead, this time I was not waiting for the young lady to come of the loo! - HIM, they were excellent but I have to say I was really shocked by the numbers of people watching them, I guess they were all off watching the Offspring... - The Offspring, we saw half of their set and wow they were great, shame they didn't really do much of an encore but then again we were expecting an half an hour extra gig off them after Kiss... - The rock (and peg) game, see below for pictures - essentially a game of deception when you end up with about a ton of rocks in your bag.. well Alice did! - Simple Plan, we caught about half of their set and they were great! - The storm troopers that got me and Sean... - Ash, solid set! - Clean toilets... actually coming home to have a shower every night was very nice! - Free Muller rice, "eat it cold, eat it hot, eat it free"... we had a lot of these. - The crazy guys on bikes, wicked show (yep the guy is upside down in a ball in the second pic, at one point they had 3 guys in there!)! - Lostprophets... great set, but I just don't think they are a headline act... - Airbourne, great set... really got the crowd going! - oh and meeting 001... we got a pic with Sean... I missed out :-( Disappointments: - seeing Kiss, they really disappointed me by not playing a certain song... they also went on a bit! - the price of the food.. but what do you expect - Incubus, they were good but I just didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. - Kid Rock not turning up... oh wait I didn't care this is was a highlight! :-D - having to put up with Sean the whole darn weekend! - how cold it was on the first day... having to buy a new jumper.. not that I really minded! - the fact that Lethal Bizzle was there... we walked past to have a game in the EA hub and he was on, there were lots of people there. I think a lot were booing but a number (more than the people who saw HIM) were jumping up and down... argh! If your band don't play their own instruments then get off the stage. Saying all that, overall it was a great festival and it was a lot more spread out and relaxed than Reading... I think I will be going back to Download.. especially if they keep the quality of the bands like there was this year!

A trip to Jodrell Bank...

2008-06-22T18:26:47Z

Last week Astrosoc finally went on a trip to Jodrell bank... we have only been talking about doing this for 7 years! Well I personally can say I had a great time, not that I haven't seen the Lovell telescope many times now... Its a wonderful sight: but I'm sure we didn't show the true respect... and a nice and geeky space theatre group pic...

A Fire Rainbow

2008-06-11T21:50:25Z

I came across this really lovely image on APOD yesterday of an inverted rainbow! Take a look at [apod] for the picture and nice description of how this is formed.

Interview for AstrotalkUK

2008-06-11T08:38:11Z

Last week I was interviewed for [AstrotalkUK]. - a UK based podcast for amateur astronomers. I was talking about the Federation of Astronomical Societies and the resources that we have available to the wider amateur community. So if you want to listen to it go to [www.astrotalkuk.org] and look at episode 19 (I'm the last speaker on) or go to the direct link [here]. I should really clarify a few things that I said in the interview: The FAS convention this year takes place at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge on 20th September ; the actual costs to become a member society can be found on the [federation of astronomical societies webpages]. I also mentioned my work for looking for radio emission from extrasolar planets, more on this can be found at []

Women in Science...

2008-06-11T08:34:30Z

L'Oreal are running a vote to find out who people feel is the most inspiration female scientist. There is some stiff competition and I'm not sure I can decide... take a look at [www.womeninscience.co.uk/] to vote.

Magnetic fields... are all around you.

2008-06-04T18:47:20Z

I'm not sure who made this movie (according to some forums its "NASA scientistisT) but its quite cool. It does look a bit like too much CGI and some long exposure photos of light sources being moved around but still its quite cool and does show off some physics (which is never a bad thing...) Take a look at the movie [here].