A while ago I wrote a post about a guy who had photographed the Sun every ten days for a year. The subsequent pattern reflects the various movements of the Earth. This is called the analemma and is described here on wikipedia. Despite that explanation I was still having trouble picturing how all this stuff was moving.
The other day I was playing around on this site, which allows you to look at a map of the sky from anywhere on Earth at anytime (it is made by the same guy who did the Space Invaders game) and it occured to me that I could re-create the analemma. So I set my location to 60N/5E, which is pretty much at the Lair, then filmed a day by day movie for a year from equinox to equinox. The movie is here.
You can recreate this and try putting in different latitudes and see how it impacts the suns pattern. Its pretty cool.
(Now we just have to see how many perv hits I get on a site called karmasotra with a post called anal emma...)
23 September 2010
22 September 2010
White water fun
Back in 1997 I drove from central Namibia along the Caprivi Strip into Botswana and then on to Victroria Falls with the goal of rafting the Zambezi. The first part of this was achieved fairly easily by signing up for a commercial trip, then things got interesting.
I had been on numerous river trips in the US and elsewhere and I had heard the standard saftey briefing enough times to give it. However it normal goes something like "if you fall out of the boat then bla bla". Here in the centre of Africa, the briefing was subtly different, it went "when you fall out the boat..." They even had kayakers following the rafts to pick up the swimmers and stear them away from the crocs in the pools.
We did the trip and the rapids were huge! I have never run anything like that, Lava Falls on the Grand Canyon was big and wide and ferocious, but these are narrrow and very fast and very fierce. We capized once but no harm was done, we portaged one rapid and had a great trip which was all too short.
I was chating about this on Friday night in the pub with Terry and on Monday he sent we the first of this weeks movie. Remember the river surfing in Voss from a couple of weeks back, well this takes it to a whole new level.
And just in case you think I am dissing Lava Falls - check this and this
I had been on numerous river trips in the US and elsewhere and I had heard the standard saftey briefing enough times to give it. However it normal goes something like "if you fall out of the boat then bla bla". Here in the centre of Africa, the briefing was subtly different, it went "when you fall out the boat..." They even had kayakers following the rafts to pick up the swimmers and stear them away from the crocs in the pools.
We did the trip and the rapids were huge! I have never run anything like that, Lava Falls on the Grand Canyon was big and wide and ferocious, but these are narrrow and very fast and very fierce. We capized once but no harm was done, we portaged one rapid and had a great trip which was all too short.
I was chating about this on Friday night in the pub with Terry and on Monday he sent we the first of this weeks movie. Remember the river surfing in Voss from a couple of weeks back, well this takes it to a whole new level.
And just in case you think I am dissing Lava Falls - check this and this
Bonus Wednesday Movie
Bonus Wednesday movie because it won't really keep until next week.
As spectator sports go, snooker is almost as terminally dull as golf (almost)
However there is always an exception and this is it.
Ronnie O'Sullivan comes to the table, then immediately asks what the prize for a 147 is. How utterly cool is that? But it gets better, because when they then tell him that there isn't one he proceeds to pot all the balls except the last black, leaving the ultimate ball as a protest. The Guardian says that he the ref had to beg him to finish. I am not so sure that was obvious from the vid, but its bloody cool anyway.
As spectator sports go, snooker is almost as terminally dull as golf (almost)
However there is always an exception and this is it.
Ronnie O'Sullivan comes to the table, then immediately asks what the prize for a 147 is. How utterly cool is that? But it gets better, because when they then tell him that there isn't one he proceeds to pot all the balls except the last black, leaving the ultimate ball as a protest. The Guardian says that he the ref had to beg him to finish. I am not so sure that was obvious from the vid, but its bloody cool anyway.
18 September 2010
The Levellers
It was October 1991 and I was trying to finish my PhD. This was one of the toughest periods of my life. My daily routine involved getting up at about 10 am, heading into the Geology department and working through to about 1 or 2 in the morning. Seven days a week for about 8 months. I was totally focused on finishing the project and a 4 volume report for the sponsors within the 3 year deadline. I have never been so focused on anything, before or since. In the end I worked for 250 days straight with only one half a day off at Christmas and I narrowly missed the deadline.
One late night in the department I was drafting figures and listening to the radio. This was the days before computer drawing and all the diagrams were drafted by hand using rotoring pens on drafting film, I actually rather enjoyed it. I am not the most artistic person but the mechanics of it all are rather theraputic and the feeling of producing a nice looking figure is very satisfying. So I was there drawing figures accompanied by John Peel's eclectic mix of the weird and the obscure. At some point in the night he put on three tracks from an unknown band called the Levellers. The first two were "One way of life" and "The Game". I don't remember the third., maybe Riverflow or the Boatman, anyway I loved it. "One way", which went on to be a bit of an indi ballard was good, but The Game just sent shivers down my spine.
I hardly ever bought records back then, I didn't have the money, but next day I went straight to the small record shop on Bristol Road and bought the album, "Levelling the Land" and it became a part of the sound track to my PhD. The fusion of folk and punk with a social conscience was so representative of that period in the UK when Thatchers erosion of the foundations of society forced a generation of people to live on the road and fundamentally changed Britain for ever. It's still one of my favourite albums and I still love the Levellers.
Saw them playing in Birmingham 3 times and at Glastonbury in 1992 and again in 1994 when they played an amazing cover of the Devil went down to Georgia. Also saw them in Liverpool in 1994 and 1996. In 2003 I was walking down the road in Salt Lake City when I saw sign on the now sadly defunct, Zephyr club advertising the Levellers tomorrow night. This was a long way off their beaten track so I wasn't even sure if it was the same band. I popped into the club and asked if this was the Levellers from England? The guy at the desk just looked confused, so I tried a bit more, folk/punk, crusties, dogs on string, dreadlocks? He seemed even more confused so I just opted to chance it, rearranged my schedule and turn up.
When we got there it was indeed the same Levellers and the place was pretty much empty. When they came out there was about 20 of us in the audience and they played a blinding set, just for us. It was an awesome evening which ended up with us drinking in the bar with them until closing and getting them to autograph Chris Lepard!
I still listen to them and whenever I hear that distinctive fiddle and base sound it takes me back to the early 90's. Festivals, climbing, juggling, motorbikes, the early days of rave, travellers and long long days on my PhD. It all seems like a different World...
17 September 2010
Friday Joke - More Pope Shit
So that geriatric Nazi war criminal is in the UK trying to attribute the crimes of his youth to people who are intelligent and perceptive enough to question the brutal bronze age fairy tails that form the justification for his church's numerous acts of genocide through the ages.
Meanwhile scumbag apologists like that horror-show bitch Ann Widdecombe are on the TV saying that the press are "rude" to keep mentioning the fact that the church and the Pope have continually protected and supported pedophiles. Apparently being born gay is far worse than being making a conscious decision to rape small children in your care. Can anyone think of anything more horrific than the terror of a young child, with no one to turn to being repeatedly abused by the very people who are entrusted to look after them. I can't, although the systematic obstruction of the use of condoms against the spread of aids in Africa must come pretty close.
So where are the jokes?
First, the only slightly ironic coverage of the Pope's visit by the daily mash is a good starting point. Here, here, here and here.
And if the twat in the white hood hadn't quite got the message that he is unwelcome, then maybe he should listen to this sent to me by Terry. Despite being rather profane the actually lyrics pretty much hit the nail on the head.
Meanwhile scumbag apologists like that horror-show bitch Ann Widdecombe are on the TV saying that the press are "rude" to keep mentioning the fact that the church and the Pope have continually protected and supported pedophiles. Apparently being born gay is far worse than being making a conscious decision to rape small children in your care. Can anyone think of anything more horrific than the terror of a young child, with no one to turn to being repeatedly abused by the very people who are entrusted to look after them. I can't, although the systematic obstruction of the use of condoms against the spread of aids in Africa must come pretty close.
So where are the jokes?
First, the only slightly ironic coverage of the Pope's visit by the daily mash is a good starting point. Here, here, here and here.
And if the twat in the white hood hadn't quite got the message that he is unwelcome, then maybe he should listen to this sent to me by Terry. Despite being rather profane the actually lyrics pretty much hit the nail on the head.
16 September 2010
Star trails
Was inspired by a post on OlA's blog with a cool pic and an awesome video, to go out and try some star trails.
Long exposure that captures the movement of the Earth by smearing out the stars
The initial results were OK for a first attempt
Both of these were taken at the lair with a 25 minute exposure.
Long exposure that captures the movement of the Earth by smearing out the stars
The initial results were OK for a first attempt
Both of these were taken at the lair with a 25 minute exposure.
14 September 2010
Wednesday Movie - Driving in Saudi
Living in a country where the speed limit is 80 km/h and you can go to jail for driving at 120 km/h it's entertaining to look at other parts of the World were people are a bit less worried about such petty things as road safety
Check out this and then this and if you want to see what the chaps from Top Gear have to say about it - go here - "that's what happens when don't let people to drink"
And then they go out to the desert and play on the dunes
Check out this and then this and if you want to see what the chaps from Top Gear have to say about it - go here - "that's what happens when don't let people to drink"
And then they go out to the desert and play on the dunes
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
