Moab is my washpot

Hi

I promised myself I would write a post on this book, after I finished reading it. But what with one thing or another I finished reading it about a month ago! So anyway a bit late but here is a review on Stephen Fry's autobiography. Moab is my washpot.

Of course Stephen is well known to most people in England. Famous for his part in Blackadder, Double act with Hugh Laurie and Qi tv series. However I don't think many people knew much about his youth untill this book came out.

So for the benifit of anyone who hasn't read it I will give a brief overview. That hopefully dosen't leave no reason to read the book. The book tells the story of the first 20 years of Stephen's life. As he goes through several schools,drifts the country and eventually gets arrested for credit card fraud (or whatever the crime is called). There are several things (for want of a better word) that Stephen struggled with through his youth and, that very nearly destroyed him. One was the stealing, something that Stephen talks about very very honestly. But does show deep deep remorse for. The other is love (again I'm sure most people know Stephen is gay). Although when you read his story and the feelings he struggled with, the love is so very similar to any other love story straight or gay the names are interchangeable with whoever you like. In this instance however the love is for a boy named Mathew, who Stephen falls immediately for. While aged 14ish at his High school.

I personaly do identify with the story quite strongly, as I'm sure most who have read it will. I am being carefull not to say anymore as it may reduce the need to read the book, which would be a crime!

Another fantastic quality of this book is Stephen's glorious use of language. With his unique linguistic gift, Stephen shows his feelings with an amzing clarity. Which makes the book a pleasure to read.

I can't say how much I recommend this book other than to say I would give the book 9 out of 10! I won't give it 10 as I promise myself I will never give anything 10 out of 10.

But do read it!

Next post will be on Astronomy.

Kyle

Harriot Who?

Hi

This is a part historical part astronomical blog post. This is going to be about Thomas Harriot, someone who is not very well known. Don't feel bad, to be honest I never heard of him until a couple of months ago. Anyway Thomas Harriot is a very or rather should be a very famous name in Astronomy. Just to name drop slightly, I was also very privileged a few months ago to hear a lecture on this man by Alan Chapman. Alan is also not widely known but to anyone interested in Astronomy he is a common name and, rightly so as he is one of the best public speakers I have ever heard! Drifting slightly now so back to Harriot.
Now as I have mentioned Thomas Harriot is not well known, so I am sorry if some details are a bit vague but I will do my best. So He was born around 1560 and died on the 2nd of July 1621. He was a Astronomer, Mathematician,ethnographer and Translator.
Thomas's early life is a bit sketchy, but what Historians do know is he was educated at Oxford university. And was the son of a pretty well of family. He left University in his early twenties and, was almost immediately hired by Sir Walter Raleigh. As a mathematics tutor. Of course Sir Walter is famous as a explorer and favourite of Queen Elizabeth. After this Sir Walter took Harriot into his Entourage, which with him being a favourite of the Queen meant Harriot rapidly built his social standing and wealth.
In 1585 to 1586 Harriot set of on a voyage with Sir Walter to the Americas. This was really like a gap year and considered very fashionable for any young nobleman. Harriot's role on the voyage was to be a navigator and Science advisor. Harriot landed in Roanoke Island of the cost of North Carolina and, quickly encountered some Native American tribes. Who he communicated with and quickly learnt there language Algonquian and, subsequently acted as an interpretor between the two parties. Harriot returned in 1586 and established himself with another wealthy aristocrat.
Sorry if you are getting bored but the Astronomy is coming. I promise. Anyway the Aristocrat Harriot became friends with was the Earl of Northumberland. Another favourite of the Queen and drowning in money. Because the Earl was a favourite of the Queen and very rich, He was like most wealthy people prone to new and expensive technology. And this is how we believe Harriot was introduced to the Telescope, a new invention form Renaissance Europe originally designed to view distant ships.
The interesting thing and the reason Harriot should be world famous, is because of what he did with this Telescope. On July 26th 1609 Harriot took his primitive 2 or 3 inch telescope and, looked at the moon with it. This was the first ever Astronomical observation with a Telescope made crucially six months before Galileo. Over the next few months and years Harriot looked at a myriad of Astronomical objects and, advanced the optics of Telescopes. While recording all this in his journals.
Now the thing many of you may be asking is why nobody every heard of Harriot, yet heard of Galileo. Well the answer is quite simple, Harriot had no reason to shout about his discoveries. He was a wealthy respected lord with high social connections he had nothing to gain. Whereas Galileo was out for fame,wealth and money to provide for his illegitimate children. Plus to assure his future.
Harriot died in 1621 a fabulously wealthy man, with a sea of amazing yet unrecognised scientific discoveries. These discoveries were finally brought to light in the early 20th Century. Along with Harriot's Journals which dates testified Harriot was the first ever Human to make observations with a Telescope. Thus assuring his place in History.
Thanks for reading.

Kyle

Kepler

Hi

As I'm sure you are aware Kepler NASA's planet finding space observatory as recently been launched. And as now opened it's mirror shield to get it's first look at what it will be observing. As seen above.
Kepler as I have said is a NASA mission, that is designed to search for extrasolar planets. And maybe just maybe find something the size of the earth. To do this Kepler will sit and stare at patch of roughly 100,000 stars , in the constellation of Cygnus. Kepler will watch these stars light output and wait for the tell tale light dip that tells us a planet is transiting the star. Hopefully at the end of it's estimated 2 year mission, there won't be 300 planets known to us like now but nearer a 1000!
The discovery of planets outside are solar system (hence the name extrasolar) is a reasonably recent discovery. The first extrasolar planet was discovered in 1995, orbiting around the star 51pegasis. It is a large planet roughly 3 times the size of Jupiter (largest in solar system). And is also oddly very close to it's parent star and, therefore very hot it is classed as a hot Jupiter. 51Peg was discovered using the wobble method. The wobble method is a method of finding planets without being able to see the planet directly. What happens is as the planet orbits the star it's gravity tugs at the star causing it to wobble. It is only a very slight wobble, which tells you why we have mainly discovered large planets, the bigger the planet the bigger the wobble. From this indirect means planet hunters can infer the size of the planet and how close it orbits.
Kepler however is using a different method the transit method. With the transit method as well as being able to detect the planet, find it's size and orbital distance. You are able to see what chemicals constitute the planetary atmosphere, by checking the spectra of the light given of by the star. If you already know what is in the stars atmosphere you can infer that what shouldn't be there is from the planet.
This method however does have a draw back for Kepler. Because Kepler is observing these stars face on (from are point of view). Any planets that orbit over the pole will be invisible to it's instruments. However with a 100,000 star field this seems to be compensated for.
The holy grail of planet hunting is not finding hot jupiters, but finding a earth like planet. As yet we have not achieved this goal, we have come close Glise 5981 as a trio of planets 1 five times the size of Earth. Although with Kepler it might be possible to find planets slightly bigger than Earth. The true achievement of finding a planet the same size as Earth with an atmosphere breathable, water oceans and life will have to wait. But when it does I don't think I will be exaggerating when I say it will be one of the greatest discoveries in Astronomy. It will show us are planet is not unique but part of a bigger picture and, if this planet as life on it will show us we are not alone in the Universe!

Thanks for reading

Kyle

Roving Mars

Hi

The subject of this post really doesn't need an introduction, it is of course the world famous Mars exploration rovers. Spirit and Opportunity.
I'm sure you are all familiar with the rovers, but for the benefit of those who don't I will give a quick overview. Spirit and Opportunity were the follow ons from the successful Mars pathfinder mission. They were launched in 2003 and arrived at Mars in 2004. There mission was to search for interesting Geological features that indicate past water on Mars, they had an expected 90 days to do this (a little out)!
The Twin spacecraft are roughly the size of a small golf cart and cost roughly 820 million US dollars to build and launch! To complete their surface mission the rovers were given all the equipment a Human geologist would want. They therefore have a microscope, a tool for cutting rocks, a instrument that analyses the chemicals of soil,panoramic cameras and many more with very long anagrams. In short seeing as we are unable to put a human geologist on Mars, these rovers provide the next best thing.
After there 18 month journey the rovers were ready to land. This is a dangerous process and as been rightly called the seven minutes of Terror. The rovers entered the atmosphere separately landing on different sides of the planet. As they entered the heat shield protected the craft from breaking up. Then a few miles above the surface the parachutes opened slowing the craft further. Finally a few hundred feet above the surface the air bags inflated and the rover was dropped! I find this hard to believe a incredibly expensive rover just dropped, all it had to cushion the blow was a layer of air bags. Both rovers sustained about 10 bounces on the surface before finally coming to rest. They had landed the surface mission could begin.
Hopefully you should be able to see a map showing where the rovers landed. The colours indicate height. After setting of spirit and opportunity were intended to drive roughly 1 km in there 90 days. Now as I am sure you know they exceeded that and are currently entering there 5 year!
The rest of my post is going to be on the lifetime of these remarkable rovers. At writing 17.4.09 the rovers are currently working well, there have been one or two failures due to wear and tear ( Wheel jams) but overall they are both still working. Opportunity is currently heading for a massive crater a couple of miles away from it's current location and, Spirit is just reawakening from a survived Martian winter.
At the moment there is no indication that they will fail any time soon so Long live spirit and opportunity. I wish I could provide more info on the surface mission but the blog doesn't have enough space. If you want more information check out this website.

http://http//marsrover.nasa.gov/home/index.html

Kyle

Technological progress for war

Hi there


As I am holiday (HOORAH). I have for once had no work to finish or writing to complete for some looming deadline. And that is why you have got a few more blog posts than usual,also due to this lack of work my mind as been thinking about lot's of knotty problems and ideas.
One of these ideas is does mankind need a war to advance itself? It is an interesting question though isn't it when you think about it. I am of course NOT arguing wars are good or in any way right! For two very good reasons one I'm a pacifist and, think killing someone is never right. Two I don't like the idea of inflicting or receiving pain. Very briefly I must sidetrack to a story from years ago. Now when I was about nine or ten I used to play rugby, which surprises me now because I deplore sport and physical exertion. But anyway I used to play rugby and, after one match or during I can't quite recall. There was a fight, I didn't start it was to do with somebody else. Yet as usual I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and, a rather large beefy boy decided he didn't like me, for whatever reason so promptly broke my nose. Obviously it was incredibly painful but I didn't retaliate. I could have done but I had no desire to inflict the same kind of pain that I was currently experiencing. Which shows how incapable I am of being violent even in self defence!
So back to the question, now sadly history does show us that in times of war humans do advance technology at a staggering speed. For instance during WW2 the power of the atom was unlocked creating the ultimate weapon and, ironically prevented a WW3. Because with every country armed to the teeth with nukes (said in an American accent). No sane person would launch them as it would end in total obliteration. Also in the next big conflict the cold war man entered space. As I'm sure you are aware this resulted with America going to the moon, however that wasn't the original purpose of space rockets. The original purpose was rather more brutal, the intention was to be able to send a nuclear warhead on top a rocket, over the Atlantic via space to strike Moscow or Washington. Thankfully we managed to prevent the cold war from going Nuclear.
In those instances you can see that without a war technological milestones like landing on the moon might not have happened that early. Which does beg the question would these things have happened at all? With Nuclear power the answer is certainly yes. With the space programme, due to it's astronomical cost I am forced to say probably not.
This is a rather sad thing in my opinion to realise about ones species. That we only make improvements of technology if they will help us kill one and other more quickly. Of course this isn't true in all cases but the fact that it happens at all is quite upsetting. However I am hopeful that eventually the Human race will transcend there petty disputes and, enter in to a period peace and exploration of the Universe.
Thanks for reading. My next post will probably be on something more astronomically based.

Kyle

Moon Hoax (Not what you think)

Hi

I suspect that when you read that title you assumed I had finally gone completely insane and, now believed as some do that man never went to the moon. Let me first assure you that I DO BELIEVE MAN WENT TO THE MOON. The product of this post is going to be on why some people still believe it was all a hoax.
Now as I'm sure you are aware it as been roughly 40 years since man last went to the moon. And at writing 13th April 2009, we have yet to return or get anywhere close to getting back there. We are currently sat in Low earth orbit , with the international space station.
I am going a little of track so back to the moon, Apollo 11 was the first mission to land on the moon. With a crew of Neil Armstrong, Edwin Buzz Aldrin and the one everyone forgets Michael Collins. Buzz and Neil landed in the sea of tranquillity spending, a few hours looking round taking pictures and famously planting the American flag.
The planting of the American flag was the first thing the skeptics jumped on, why was it blowing? The moon doesn't have a breeze they yelled loudly to anyone listening. The thing they neglected to realise was that to stop the flag flopping limply, spoiling the patriotic moment. NASA had attached a Aluminium pole along the top of the flag, to keep it up. However when whichever one (hard to tell in spacesuit) forced the shaft of the flag into the hard Luna rock, He twisted the shaft thus moving the supporting pole around causing the flag to move. And of course with no atmosphere and therefore no drag the flag moved for ages, as if being blown by a breeze. The skeptics also failed to note that when the astronauts moved past the flag, after the vibrations had dissipated there was no movement. As you would expect with the wind on earth.
Much to your relief I am not going to go through every single thing that “ Proves” we never went to the moon. If I did you would be reading this for years! What I am going to write about is why people want to believe they never went. Of course I'm sure the hoaxists will say “We only want you to see the truth.” But why can't they accept we went. The evidence is overwhelming! I do however sort of understand why they think it. If you look back through History you will see next to every great historical achievement, a line of hecklers shouting about how there lying. It surely happened when people crossed the Atlantic to America and, it will doubtless happen when we eventually go to Mars. Every great event as a cause for disbelief.
The one thing I genuinely can't get however is why these people would not want to believe it. Surely it is amazing to everyone to know that humankind as gone to a different world!, in the sixties of all years. A time when computing power was pretty much zero. It must make you proud to be a human, to know that when we put are minds to it we can accomplish incredible things. For instance at the start of the space race 1957, nobody could have possibly imagined we would have men walking on the moon in 12 years.
I think that is a nice way to end this post, following this I am no longer going to attempt to convince these people. As Gene Cernan says “The truth needs no defence”. However I for one can't wait to later this year when the Lunar reconnaissance orbiter goes up. With this probe with it's high res camera, it should be capable of seeing the lunar rovers, accent stages and maybe even the footprints. Which of course will be exciting!

How low will the Sun go?

Hi

The Sun is of course the central star in are solar system, the life force without it's light there would be no life on earth. And the Sun is currently in Solar minimum.

Now the Sun is a massive subject and I am incapable of summing up it's entirety in a single post, so this post is going to be on the solar cycle and, the current and unusual solar minimum it is in.

The Sun goes in solar cycles over a period of 11 years. In a solar cycle there is a minimum and a maximum, we are currently in a minimum. The solar cycle is basically a measure of sunspots and solar activity. At solar minimum there is very few sunspots and at maximum there is loads. For earth at least solar maximum is a serious worry, because when at maximum the Sun is more likely to produce a CME (Coronal mass ejection). A CME occurs when the Sun releases a chunk of solar material and high energy particles, this material then speeds away from the sun and can on occasion come to the earth. When it comes to the earth it is worrying for many, the astronauts for instance on the space station don't want to be around when this comes. Without the protective atmosphere of earth, the radiation isn't dispersed and " Scrambles your DNA" giving you cancer or other nasty diseases. The high energy radiation will also nock satellites out which is problamatic for GPS.

After a solar maximum the new solar cycle starts. Astronomers on earth know when this as happened because the first sunspot of the new solar cycle as a different polarity to that of the cycle before. Which means if the previous cycle polarity was north the next cycles would be south. The polarities switch because every 11 years with the solar cycle the magnetic field of the entire Sun switches, meaning the north becomes the south and vice versa. Sorry if that wasn't well exsplained but it's hard to find the words. This effect also happens with the Earth over a much longer time scale, so at some point the magnetic field of the Earth will also switch!
Solar cycles come and go. The new solar cycle started at the start of 2009 late 2008. And are usually pretty uniform at maximum there is a lot of flares and sunspots. And at minimum there is very few yet still some sunspots. Now that is what makes the current solar cycle interesting. As you can see in the image above there is not one sunspot to be seen. Why this as happened is not fully understood but it does have effects on earth. The Aurora which is caused by the magnetic field of the Sun is one effect. Because with no sunspots which are affected by the magnetic field. It is unlikely there will be large amounts of Aurora activity. there is no reason to be worried however as it is highly improbable that the Sun's energy output will decrease. It does however mean that Solar observers will have little to look at in the immediate future!

Kyle

Writing post

Hi

As I said there will be fictional stories in this blog from time to time, this is only a opening I will write more if anyone is interested.

Harold's saloon pulled to a stop outside a smart three floor town house, on the outskirts of central London. It was a new building made of smart red brick and, had been the home of Harold and his wife Sarah for four and a half years . They had been very kindly provided it when Harold had taking up his job at the counter intelligence task force, of course to Sarah or anyone else for that matter nobody knew it. To everyone outside of work he was Harold Crick a thirty something who worked for a reputable merchant bank, well a merchant bank anyway. Harold liked it that way it meant nobody could let something slip and, endanger his wife or himself.
Harold leaned back into the leather of his seat and starred at the windows of his house. Sarah should be home now. Harold thought to himself confirming this by taking a glance at the dashboard clock. 8.45 “Definitely.” He said out loud unnecessarily as he was the only person in the car. Harold stepped out into the freezing night, the wind licking his face and the surrounding trees. Now just beginning to sprout delicate pink blossoms that signalled the start of spring. Harold turned around back to face the house, noticing how strange it was that no lights were on in any rooms. Harold shook his head dismissing the thought to the recycle bin of his mind. He had learnt that if you did his job for too long you began to see threats everywhere. Harold walked quickly to the front door the wind picking up now and, slipped his key silently into the lock and entered.
Harold and Sarah's house was sparsely decorated yet neat. The neatness however came from the fact that Harold and Sarah were barely ever in it. Harold was always busy at work or doing field work in some distant country. Sarah was also equally busy yet a little closer to home working a busy practise in Harley street. Harold stepped over the threshold into the hall lights turning on automatically thanks to a new home computer system. He placed his jacket on a peg to the right of the door and walked into the living room. Still no Sarah. Harold wasn't worried she was probably having a bath or watching the television upstairs. Harold reasoned to himself. Suddenly realising he hadn't had anything to drink since lunchtime Harold walked into the open plan kitchen and poured himself a drink. He sat on his uncomfortable metal chair in his newly decorated office, making a note to himself that he really should get it replaced. Harold couldn't believe at that moment how insignificant a chair would appear in a matter of a few hours.
Contentedly Harold sat on his horrid chair, sipping his red wine (not his favourite drink but all that came to hand). And tapping away on his computer searching for a holiday, that he had been given leave to take. The only holiday he and Sarah had been available to take together in over two years.
He leaned back into his chair and at this moment realised something was a miss. As he leant back into his chair he saw a window was open, only slightly but enough to make him think. Harold's brain quickly deduced that the only reason such a window would be open on such a cold night, was to gain entry from outside. After all the window was just capable of allowing a man entry, and crucially it hung limply as if forced open with a crowbar. Harold's brain quickly sprung into survival mode. He reached beneath his desk and pulled up a Aluminium brief case. The brief case was inconspicuous and immediately forgettable much to the designers intentions. He placed it on the desk and keyed in a familiar four digit code, the case accepted the command and with two clacks that Harold hoped weren't loud enough to alert the intruders who were assumable still upstairs. Opened and revealed the contents. The brief case wasn't a empty travelling case, but was a field box provided by work and which was encouraged to be kept in every agents home. Among over things it contained a micro computer,a passport, a credit card belonging to a dummy company and crucial a 9MM pistol. That was all Harold was interested in he took the pistol out of it's surround, pushed in the round next to it and tightened the silencer. Harold then walked swiftly to the door leading on to the hall and waited.
Harold waited until He was sure there was no movement upstairs, he didn't want them to know he was coming and have time to arm themselves. Then turned and padded up the stairs the gun always ahead of him. Harold had been trained in clearing houses and bought this training to bear on his own house. He cleared each room quickly, glancing around thoroughly with the 9MM then moving on. He did this until finally he reached the last room on this floor, his and Sarah's bedroom. The lights were of as he had observed from downstairs, he flicked the switch with his free hand and saw what he had feared he would. His wife was laying on the the hard wooden floor next to the bed (made by the cleaner only this morning) unmistakably dead! She looked strangely peaceful as if perhaps asleep, this was revealed to be sadly untrue as next to her was a spent Hypodermic needle, the contents of which had been forced into her jugular. Harold sat over her for a second not wanting to move and wishing time could be reversed, as Harold understood none of this could be reversed he decided these murders were going to pay. Before leaving the room he closed the lids over the glassy lifeless eyes of his former wife. Harold new these people were professionals they were assassins and they were clearly after him, but Harold new he was better than these people and they were going to die because of it.
Harold heard a voice talking on the phone as he climbed the last flight of stairs, it was coming from a small library Harold had converted from a disused bedroom. As he neared the door he heard the conversation “ Not yet we got his wife though.” The man said in a heavy accent. Harold clenched his right hand around the grip of the gun he so wanted to kill this man for murdering his wife , yet he knew there was still useful information to be heard from the conversation. “Yeah I know what he looks like 6 foot, early thirties, blond hair .” “Don't worry there is two of us I think we can handle it.” He finished apparently reassuring a doubtful employer. Harold sensed the man was going to hang up soon, he seized his moment moving as close as he dared to the man without him turning around. And fired one shot into the back of the man's skull killing him quick, silently and sadly from Harold's point of view painlessly. The man teetered for a moment but Harold caught him before he hit the floor. The sound of a man hitting the hard wooden floor would obviously alert the other man to his presence. Harold cleared the final rooms until by the process of elimination knew the other assassin was in the second living room at the far end of the house. The door was closed and Harold heard no sound on the inside. He was cautious of entering guns blazing it would certainly result in death and, now he wanted some answers. Harold slowly ran his hand along the wood of the door until his hand found the door knob. Using the door as cover he slowly opened it. Then turned pointing the gun at the empty room. The murderer had left out the balcony, he must have heard the quiet give away of a silenced shot. Now Harold was no closer to finding out who had targeted him and killed his wife. All that showed there was any trace of the assassin was a spent needle that killed his wife and, the open balcony it 's doors flung wide open where the killer had made his escape. The curtains fluttered gently under the now strong wind from outside and to any outside observer all seemed well.....

Sorry about the length I know it's quite long. If anyone wants to comment you will have to go through Twitter, as the comment function on this blog works sporadically. Sorry about that and thanks for reading.

Kyle

Writing

Hi

From now on between serious non fiction blog posts. There will be fiction short poems and stories that I am thinking of starting to write.

Klyle

Real?

Hi

You will probably get a few more blogular posts this week, because I'm on holiday and have nothing to do. All work completed for once!
Now this is a question asked many times by many people, serious or otherwise. What is real? Now of course this may sound like a simple question at first,third and thirty third glance but is one I believe as a complex answer.
Of course there is many people reading this who will say that it's obvious and define real as what we can smell,taste,feel ,see and touch. Yet it's not that simple is it because under that definition real is just electrical signals interpreted by your brain and neurons. And as you know your brain can be confused, by tricks of the eye and so on. Which tells me at least we can't certainly tell what is real and what is not. Much like in a modern film it is near impossible to tell what is real and what is CGI.
Which does pose yet another more intriguing question. Are we ourslelves real? This is a question that is grappled with by philosophers, which is something I am not. But it is a thought provoking question to anyone and everyone. If you think about it more and more, one it makes your head hurt and, two it makes you question every aspect of reiality. For a start what would be the point it aquiring money, if your aquiring something that itself is not real to buy things which are still not real!
This question also as a question within itself. Why are we here and what are we here for? If where not real in the sense of the senses whats the point of us? Are we perhaps some sort of virtual video game for a higher civalisation. Like a version of spore or sims.
Of course the simple answer to all these questions could be, that there all rubbish a product of a over active mind and, we are in fact totaly real and in no way virtual. And as I have said that would be the simple answer, which in most cases is the correct one.

Kyle

10 Things

Hi

In the world today there are many lists. 10o films to see before you die, Ten things to do before you die, top 10 songs, best restaurants and the list goes on and on. But to my knowledge there are no top tens of the best astromical sights. So below is my top ten of the things I love and, hate about Astronomy.

I'll start with the good things

1 Total solar eclipse

2 First view of Saturn through a telescope

3 A good comet

4 Giving Astromical based talks

5 The sky at night ( TV Show)

6 The fantastic pictures

7 New disoveries

8 Going to lectures

9 Seeing the Andromeda Galaxy

10 The moon Landings (Long time ago now)

The things I hate

1 BEING CONFUSED WITH BLOODY ASTROLOGERS

2 Light polloution (Even in the middle of no where)

3 Skeptics who say we didn't go to the moon!

4 Cold nights observing

5 Wasting my money on a bad telescope

6 People who assume it's just a science/hobby for old men with beards (I don't have a beard!)

7 Exspensive equipment (sadly turns some people away from the subject)

8 Names of constellations and identifiying them (took me ages to learn some of them)

9 Lack of astromical funding in England (compared with NASA)

10 Not returning to the moon......

That is my list, I'm sure you will have different ideas and will disagree with others so leave your lists below. I look forward to reading them.

PS The picture isn't mine courtesy of Internet.

Kyle

Parallel Universes?

Hi there

This post is going to be on Paralle universes and, the likely or unlikely possibility of there exsistence.

Of course as you know paralle universes are the favourate of sci fi authors and, certain branches of nutty science. You know the like of which who have claimed to have been abducted and then probed by ET. Rather coincidentally next to the pub! Because of this parallel universes are regarded as total rubbish. And about as credible as Atlantis or roswell, but is this absolutely true.

Now don't get me wrong I'm not one of those nutty so called scientists who will quite happily believe anything. I am however inceredibly open to new scientific ideas.

And in recent years there as been new cosmological ideas, ( I won't use theory) that have hinted at the posibility of parallel univereses.

The first of these is Membrane or M theory (sorry if I apear inconsistent but thats it's name). M theory is an addition to the possible theory of everything string theory, string theory is very complicated and therefore very dull if your not interested. So I will give a very simple exsplanation, S theory says that all particles (Protons Electrons) are not points or balls as you would imagine. But very very thin strings that vibrate at diferent resonances, and these different resonances give us the myriad of particles we see. Very briefly there is one crucial problem with S theory as shown in the cartoon above. Mathematically S theory works fine, the problem is as yet there is NO evidence to prove it's true and, NO link between it and the other famous theories Special and General relativity . But of course with the new LHC who knows what will be found.

I am getting into a physics based ramble and you should be spared from that so back to parallel universes. Now in M theory like S theory there are multiple dimensions ranging from six to in some cases eleven, oddly only four of these dimensions affect us. I know sounds odd don't attempt to think about it it only makes your head hurt! Now these six to eleven dimensions make up a higher space sometimes known as the multiverse which contains branes. The concept of the multiverse does have a small shred of evidence to it's name. As you know out of the four forces gravity is the weakest and, this is believed to be due to the fact that gravity is the only force that provades the multiverse.These branes are formed from quantum fluctuations (something out of nothing ) in the vacuum. And are like cosmic paving slabs that through Gravity come together strike and form big bangs, then seperate and collide again with other branes. And thus a myriad of parallel universes are created evolve and die!

Again like string theory there is very little evidence for this idea, although the same was true of the big bang at the start of the 20th Century so who knows what will happen. It is also rather satisfying to people who wonder what started the big bang. It also makes the concept of parallel universes a bit more plausible, although I don't claim for a moment it is certain proof of anything. One thing is certain it is an area that needs more serious research. For anyone reading this who wants to know more I recommend Endless universe Beyond the Big Bang (search it on Amazon).

Thanks for reading!

Kyle

PS3 COD 5

Hi

In this post I'm not going to get bogged down with the old argument which is best, PS3 or XBOX 360. Because it's just a matter of preference and, what you want!

A game that as recently come out is COD 5, part of the now famous Call of duty franchise. It's quite good entertainment. This installment is set in two location, the first follows a Marine in the South pacific, the other a soldier in the Red army.The weapons are the standard affair rifles and machine guns all historically accurate. The Russian shotgun and American Browning Machine gun are the most fun.

The levels are jolly difficult in the South pacific your attacked by Bonzai charges, when you least exspect it. One of the other best aspects is the Coperative Zombies level, which is fun because it's just daft.

The Multiplayer is also reasonable, although with me there is some lag. The COD server is also prone to crashing and filling up, which can be a tad irritating.

Overall the game is good and, with the arival of the new map pack ( which I will be buying tonight.) The COD franchise is set to dominate the FPS market for some time to come!

Kyle

Return to the moon! Or perhaps not

Hi

Firstly sorry about the incredibly long time since my last blogular entry.

This post is a sort of rant about the future of space flight, or rather the lack of a foreseeable future! Currently man is sat in earth orbit, doing lots of jolly interesting experiments on the space station. Yet to my mind it's not the same as the old days of Apollo.

That was a time when one we had to win the space race and, two a time when we went places. Yes it was dangerous there was inumerable risks and near misses on nearly every Apollo mission. But we dared to go! And crucially there was no health and safety!

And that is one of the main reason why we haven't been back to the moon, the Apollo scientists and Astranouts themselves said that if they tried to repeat what they did, today the answer would be a resounding NO.

America however as promised to be back to the moon by 2020 but with the current economic climate can you see it? I for one cannot.What we really do need is another space race this would give NASA and ESA the real urge to head for the moon. It is however unlikely that with the problems on earth, (the economic crisis) space exsploration will be given such a priority as it was in the sixties.

Kyle