For all my fellow geeks out there check out this paper

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1941ApJ....94..385H&link_type=ARTICLE&db_key=AST&high=24480

Its perhaps the most inventive thing I have ever heard of

Know I have not posted in a while and I might get around to a proper post at some point but right now I just wanted to share some of the shorts I saw recently at the dead by dawn horror all nighter. The films where all really good (esp : Flight of the living dead : outbreak on a plane Think snakes on a plane but with zombies !!!! (though despite the fact it has many similarities to snakes apparently they didnt copy it and the pre-production run for the film actually predated snakes)

and GRUESOME which apparently is being released under the name salvage. Its a really good story and scary as hell.

The real gems where the shorts they showed though and I would encourage everyone to have a look at them under the cut. They are wonderfully funny for the most part with the exception of MONSTER which is just a really clever take on the monster under the bed idea.

( enjoy )

EDIT:

Sorry didn't realize how crap atom films embedding stuff is, you need to click on play movie which will take you to their site rather than playing it (there is also a short add you have to watch before each movie.

hummm.

So not sure if anyone else saw but itv today seemed to be doing a round up of old crappy sci-fi movies. When I say old and crappy about movies it tends to mean movies I have enjoyed thoroughly.. I mean I cant be the only person who sees a film having a low budget (or indeed being made a long time in the past with a large budget) a promising thing :-).

The two films in question where innerspace and war games. These where both kids sci-fi films I have loved as a kid and a adult but this time watching innerspace something caught my attention. In typical 80's fashion there is an evil vilan with a bunch of side kicks. Two of these side kicks are a guy who has an electronic hand that he can remove and add on extra attachments and a woman scientist/doctor type. About half way through the film the hero makes an escape and the evil villan calls the woman doctor, we cut to a shot with her sitting up with the the hand hench man just off to her left and she replies "sorry I am in the middle of something just now" puts the phone down smiles at the hand hench man who just in shot raises his arm with a cylindrical protruding attachment on the end which starts to buzz as he begins to lean forward to the woman as she smiles even more! The entire thing is like 3 seconds long but I swear to god that he has a vibrator attachment on his arm!

I couldn't believe it this is a kids movie I have seen like 100 times, it was rated PG in the uk and somehow they managed to slip this in (no pun intended)! I need to see it again to be sure but I swear to god its in there... congrats to the film makers !

Edit I am not the only one who has noticed, a quick google search turns up this

Just got home and feel geat!!!! had a good night out with two old and very dear friends. Had a few beers and pizzas and despite the fact that I know they both have worries in their life just now I had a wonderful time just seeing them in the same place again and knowing they will be ok.

on the walk home I plugged in the ipod and racked up some mogwai to the volume where it was almost painful (like herod if you must know) as high as my headphones would take it. It was beautiful . The wind and rain that is an Edinburgh winter buffeting me all the way home made everything seem rugged in stark contrast to the young couple who started dancing a 100 or so paces away from me in the middle of the road. Its the most wonderful thing I have seen in a good long while and brought a very honest smile to me lips that I have not felt for a while. I hate to be sappy but tonight really really made me feel something wonderful for the world that I have not felt in a good few months. I love my friends and Edinburgh as a city in that way. It and they never stop making me feel something different :-)

Sign this petiton to change our national anthem to GOLD by Spandau Ballet by the next olympics!!

This is just about the coolest thing I have seen for a long time:



As they point out in it, outside of solar system astronomy we hardly ever see anything happen in astrophysics in real time. This is a rare treat!

had another attempt at doing some astrophotography the other night. This time at the observatory in the middle of Edinburgh. Apart form getting a lesson in just how bad the light pollution is in this city, I managed to get a few nice pics. Need to play around a little more and try and get somewhere dark again.

Going out this morning to try and perhaps catch the ISS going by the moon and perhaps even get a few meteors.

Going to early though

Well there we go. After adding up the money they visitors centre owes me for work over the past few months I realised I was in a lot better off position than I thought money wise. That with tutoring money and my deposit (finally) seeming to be back from the old flat means that I could afford to treat myself a little.

So I went online and preordered a new shiny nintendo wii + extra control + monkey ball and zelda (+ the wii sports that comes with it). Hopefully on the 8th of next month my shiny new toy will arrive on my door step :-)

I do love random impulse buying.

I am really not feeling well today. Have had a cold for the past week or so but getting wet on the way home last night seems to have pushed it in to flu territory. Spent last night shivering beneath my sheets and getting only short periods of sleep. THis morning I have been feeling really rough and my head is pounding. Decided to work from home in the warmth and try and shift it. Means I am going to miss the poster evening tonight so rmft could you perhaps tell the rest of the third years I am sorry I wont be there. I hope it goes well.

On top of that I seem, in my sleep last night, to have chipped my tooth. I have almost no idea how but I got up this morning to find a random bit of tooth loose in my mouth and one of my teeth missing a bit and feeling sharp. It doesn't hurt at all but I figure once I am better I need to find a dentist in edinburgh. Thats going to be fun and pricey.

Hope everyone else is feeling better than I am :-(

spent the past two days working at the doors open days at the obs. Will write more tomorrow but just to say we had 2135 people through the doors over the weekend which is great !! and to post a few videos of some of the stuff we where doing. These where taken on my new phone so they are not great.

( videos )

So I wake up this morning to find this. It looks like your standard spam type situation : its from an ip address : 38.119.217.197 which whois tells me is :

Performance Systems International Inc. PSINETA (NET-38-0-0-0-1)
38.0.0.0 - 38.255.255.255
Performance Systems International Inc. COGENT-NB-0002 (NET-38-112-0-0-1)
38.112.0.0 - 38.119.255.255

who seem to be an isp which googles as this.


Just on the off chance that this isnt just blanket spam and that this is a real person who reads my journal and has decided to post this cowardly as anon, let me make it clear in no uncertain terms that this is not welcome on my journal or anywhere else in my life. I do not come in to your churches or any part of your life and tell you how you are an ignorant moron who needs some sense slapped in to you. So kindly do not invade my life your you bible quotes and sense of moral righteousness. If you do plan on doing this then at least have the convictions in what you are saying to post with you id and not annon.

In short, I am tired of this fucking shit ... fuck you :-) and good day

For anyone who is interested just just came across these :

'http://www.vega.org.uk/video/subseries/8

well worth a look :-)

while I am on it a google video search gets :http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Feynman

of which http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6586235597476141009&q=Feynman is a really nice (if slightly dated documentary)

I encourage everyone to go take a look at these even if you have no interest in science what so ever. They make for interesting watching.

My dear friends,

Something wonderful has just happened. Something so spectacularly beautiful that I fear my feeble clumsy words will do it injustice.

All morning we have been plagued here at the observatory by a pack of soulless heartless evil (though quite pleasant to talk to) suits. Everywhere we turned we saw the unfamiliar stomach turning sight of responsible adults, people with carriers and salaries who had invaded out academic sanctuary of shabby dressing and slacking off. We shuffled by them time and time again as they milled around discussing strange talk of the mythical "mortgages" and "family holidays with the kids".We shuffled by with heads hung low, eyes to the ground with shame of our pathetic existence as research stooges. Feeling vile envy welling up inside us, knowing that at 5pm these people would be at home with loved ones eating dinner and not banging their head off the table at the 10001th code bug.

Oh but not all was dire though my friends. For almost instinctively we KNEW. A whisper from our very souls, our deepest core drives, something animal told us that soon it would happen. Most of us where not their to witness its beginning as we cowered in our offices, but word spread quickly like wild fire.

"Come" someone say with the rare sight of a smile on their lips and a ravenous look in thier eyes. "Come!" and so we did. Like some academic snowball we accumulated mass, like some giant dark matter halo accreating material we gained a moving presence.

I joined the group early doing my part to help it grow. Eventually we turned the corner to the lecture theater. The invaders where gone. The suits had evaporated away back to the strange world they had come from and in their place was something wondrous. Something that sparks the soul and stirs the heart of every phd student:

yes I talk of no other but : FREE LEFT OVER BUFFET FOOD!!!!!!!!!!

and what food it was! None of your bog standard asda crap of which we are accustomed. For you see our suits here today where from the CCLRC. They where uber suits, suits who have many many other suits working for them!! They where some the heads of our research councils.

There where stunning sandwiches, rolls, somosas, a wondrous variety of sea food including shrimps, crab sticks, ACTUAL CRAB LEGS!! It was stunning!! We descended like a pack of wolves. Much was left over and even after we had had our fill (and more simply out of respect for the feast) we turned from wolves to careful squirrels and gathered the good remains to stow away in our fridges.

Today was a good day.

So last weekend me and a bunch of wonderful people went camping together up near the bridge of Orchy We did a short walk pitched our tents then almost completely failed to sleep in them.

Two of the girls went to bed pretty early (about 2 ish I think) leaving myself dave kate and melody at which point the girls thought it would be a good idea to teach me and dave how to salsa dance... So in the pitch black miles away from anywhere on very uneven and earthy ground I learned (and very badly executed) the basic steps of samba. A quick quip by dave about how the footing was easy compared to fencing had kate demanding that she be taught how to fence. So we found some nice twig swords and did that for a while.

That along with the almost pitch black game of charades it was a very fun night all and all. When we finally turned out the torch in the tent to get some sleep it made no difference to the light as the sun had already come up.

One of the highlight of me was the stunningly dark sky we where lucky to have virtually clear of clouds most of the night. You could see the milky way as clear as I have ever seen it. It really was breathtaking. So inspired I decided to try my hand at astro-photography, now as I had not been planning on such a clear night I had no tripod and so basically had to rest the camera on rock or my chest and try my best not to shake it. Actually quite proud of a few of the results:

( Space!! )

WWWOOOOO internet :-) And a day earlier as well. Just need to pick up a wireless router and we are all set up!

finally got around to putting up the photos from the camping hols . you can view our trip here

Take that you kuiper belt object you

So get working on your new mnemonics!!

ps

Its so wrong that this makes me so happy :-)