The Elegant Universe

If, like me, you find space, time, the universe and “all that stuff” fascinating you'll probably enjoy The Elegant Universe, a video documentary about unification of the theories of physics.

It's three hours long and I've only watched one half of the first episode so far, but it's already clearly illustrated the key difference between Einstein's theory of General Relativity and Newton's law of gravity, using excellent 3D animations.

I quit doing maths after my electronics engineering degree in favour of making things that look nice instead, but it does still hold a deep fascination for me. I want to know how things work. So I'm glad there are still people out there keen to do all the sums. Worth a watch!

who told them about the weather?

Originally uploaded by petrichor.

I've never been one to complain about the heat. I'm loving the ongoing UK heatwave with temperatures up in the 30s. It's great. But my room's at the top of the house, so it is far more pleasant to keep the roof windows open overnight, to let whatever breaze there is cool the room down.

Fine. Until last night, that is.

I almost leapt of bed when that familiar – yet usually associated with holidays abroad – high-pitched mosquito whine faded rapidly in and out of earshot by the side of my head. Gah!

Turning on the light revealed two of them sitting on one wall and I found another buzzing randomly around under my desk. And the worst thing is when you splat them and they're already full of blood. This happened. I hurriedly went to wash my hands.

Of course you can never get them all. I woke up with three or four mosquito bite lumps on my arm and one on my leg.

Since when did they invade this fine green land? I thought they languished further south in France, Spain and, you know, all those other countries. Who went and told them we got some sun? Damn them and their whiney biting little ways...

So now my windows are shut, it's too hot to sleep, and they'll probably find a way in anyway. And worst of all every slight itch now feels like a mosquito landing on my skin and preparing to tuck into a meal.

Photo, perhaps rather aptly, by David Midgley.

Minus 61 In Detroit...

...was a techno record released in 1995 by David Holmes.

I doubt it's been that cold in Detroit since the arrival of mankind, on either the Celcius or Farenheit scale. But it is currently +29ºC in London. Outside. And it's midnight.

For those of you who live in walmer climes, that's pretty rare. Possiby a record. No extra blanket required tonight...

India blocks blogs

According to Boing Boing, the Indian government has told ISPs in India to block a number of domains including *.blogspot.com. If this is true then it certainly represents a step in the wrong direction.

At the time of writing this, it's not clear why they have done it. Maybe they don't like people having access to independent news and opinions?

Read the article

Quinn

If – like me – you're supposed to be doing something constructive but would much rather waste time doing something unproductive (and if you're also a Mac user) then I recommend you download Quinn. It's an excellent and free Tetris clone with network gaming features.

Unfortunately, according to the website, its creator Simon Haertel has been forced to stop distributing the game due to a nasty letter from The Tetris Company. It's a shame really as judging from their website they don't seem to be too active, at least on the web front.

Anyway, a few seconds on Google turned up the goods and you can download it here from Softpedia. At least for the time being.

Rise Festival

Yesterday, The Eyechild and I went to the Rise Festival in Finsbury Park.

Well, we got there eventually anyway. I set off from home much too late and jumped on a bus to EyechildVille. Then we waited a while for someone else who was supposed to be coming along but had gone to Ikea instead. And doesn't own a mobile phone.

So we gave up waiting and set off. Then it took a painful amount of time to get there on buses and indirect tubes because the Victoria Line was offline.

Anyway – yawn – I'm as bored of this post already as you undoubtedly are. Suffice to say it wasn't that good which is a shame because its anit-racism cause is, as ever, a worthy one. Maybe if I'd got there earlier and found a stage with some good music it would have been more enjoyable. As it was the best thing about the day was this large bottle of Beck’s.

7/7

The policeman standing outside my local tube station this morning marked the first anniversary of the London transport bombings. No doubt at some point he’ll have the unenviable task of having to stop and search some ‘suspicious looking’ individual who happens to be carrying a Fitness First bag or something.

Now don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t expect the police to do anything other than put out an increased presence one year on from the event. Just imagine the situation if something did happen again and they’d not put extra eyes on the transport system. Then there’d be one hell of an uproar.

But the primary effect of this climate of paranoia is of course the loss of our liberties. Not to mention the life of Charles de Menezes last year (and correct me if I’m wrong but we’ve still not got to the bottom of that one have we?)

The bottom line is that there’s a huge cultural difference between western cultures and the middle eastern cultures. We have different values. And a small (yes, emphasis on small) number of misguided individuals take it all much too far. They’re deluded by the idea that they’re doing what their god wants (an idea with which – incidentally – I cannot begin to empathise with because I’m an atheist). Clearly: god or no god, there’s no excuse for their actions.

But the governments of the USA and the UK in particular are the ones largely responsible for this political and social mess. Their policies with respect to the middle east are terrible. And the right wing Neo-Christian US government (hey guess what - also deluded by the idea that they’re doing what their god wants) commits as many war crimes as any ‘rogue’ (oil harbouring) nation they care to pick on. Guantanamo bay anyone? Christ...

Oh sorry, I blasphemed there.

It’s the ideal breeding ground for more AK47-clutching madmen. The extremists hardly need any more fuel for their fantasies. Yet we’re still giving them countless ‘excuses’ to do what they want to do.

If only those with the intelligence to get together and sort out our differences were the same people with the drive and inclination to become leaders. It’s a rare combination.


This is hardly a new or rare viewpoint here in the UK. And a thousand bloggers have probably written much the same thing this morning. But the copper outside the tube this morning got me thinking about it so there you go. Rant over.

Al Scott Live

Well you wait months for a video to come along (umm OK, maybe not) then two come along on the same day! This is a video of my brother Alastair - AKA Al Scott - and his band performing recently in a north London pub. He's the shadowy figure tinkling the ivories.

Check him out at www.alscott.co.uk or here on MySpace.

Rat Race

I realised the other day that my compact digital camera can shoot and store up to 30 minutes of low-res video. So I recorded my journey to work. And made it into a sort of 90s-style dance music video. Shaky camera warning!



Music: Underground Resistance – Jupiter Jazz

Digg this video

My world: update

I was chatting to Tom yesterday, whilst sitting outside BRB in Camberwell enjoying (as best possible, between sneezes) the afternoon sun. We got onto the subject of blogs and it occurred to me that my enthusiasm for writing posts seems to have waned somewhat recently. That's not to say (as you can clearly see) that I've not written any entries, but the content of these entries has been mostly me providing a tertiary source of geek-news. Flickr website changes and the like.

Checking back, I've not made a personal-diary-type-entry since 17th April, so I'm going to have a go right here. If you're looking for geek-news, stop reading now.

So what's new? Well currently my body seems to have taken up sneezing as its favourite pastime, (completely without my consent of course). Or, to be more precise, I'm feeling like I'm about to sneeze, 24/7. And this feeling is only interrupted by the relatively enjoyable act of sneezing itself, about once every minute on average. Pollen allergies, hayfever, whatever - I hate it. Various types of antihistamine tablets and nasal sprays seem to have had little effect.

So poor, poor me basically. I need to get myself a GP. Either that or wage war on all pollinating plants.


So what else is new (and more interesting) ?

Well I'm still taking lots of photos, and enjoying it more than ever. I'm getting better at it too. I recently bought a 50mm (prime) lens which is helping me to explore different types of photography.



I'm still listening to the same old music, though it's not looking any more likely that I'll be producing any more any time soon. My initial enthusiasm for Abelton Live proved temporary. I think there comes a time when you have to decide what things to stick at and which to allow to fall by the wayside. I have the ability to write tunes (and with a little practice I'm sure I could come up with some good stuff), but right now it's photography that's getting me excited. And I don't have time for both.

I need to make more time for my Flashteroids project too, and if there's one thing that stresses me out it's leaving a trail of unfinished work behind me.

I'd rather do fewer things, but do them properly than do lots of things, and do them badly.


Barcelona



This is hardly hot off the press (see this Eyechild Post) but Duncan, my brother, has left Camberwell and moved to Barcelona. He's doing one of those TEFL courses for one month and aims to start teaching in September.

I went out there with him when he left (along with our friend Vic) and stayed for six days. It's a lovely city. We mostly did tourist stuff – bus tours, sitting on the beach, eating out, exploring, et cetera – so there's not an awful lot to report. ‘The ideal summer city break’, to summarise. I highly recommend it if you've not been there before. My Barcelona photos are here.

Going home was quite strange because Vic and I left early for the airport and had to leave Dunc in the hotel room. He got out of bed for goodbye hugs. I hate goodbyes at the best of times but I'm really going to miss him living down the road so I sort of lost the ability to speak properly, and ended up feeling like I'd not said enough. I sat quietly in the back of the cab to the airport. Good luck to you Dunc, and take care!

I think it's a good move for him though. If you're not enjoying it somewhere, move. And I can think of many many worse places to go and live in summer than Barcelona. If the worst comes to the worst you can always move back anyway. I look forward to visiting him later in the year.


Tomorrow

Time to wrap up this rant anyway. Tomorrow at work I'm taking a photo for an advert we're running later in the week in a magazine. I'm getting to do more and more photography at work which is great because I'm learning loads and getting paid to do what I enjoy best (yes, it seems to have overtaken designing, in my ratings). I took some photos of our creative directors recently too, and the one they pick is destined to be a fairly large full colour print in a magazine. Who knows where it will lead. It's all good for the portfolio anyway.

Whilst writing this post my sneezing seems to have calmed down a little so as soon as I've published it I'm going to shut the laptop lid, turn over and go to sleep. Who knows, maybe I'll write another ‘human’ post soon...

Good night.

Images of the Sun taken by the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer

From Digg.com. Impressive images. Looks toasty!

"""
As of May, 1999 TRACE has taken over 1.5 million images of various solar features in coordination with SOHO and other solar observatories around the world. Detector degradation has been unexpectedly light providing scientists with the hope of several more years of good seeing.
"""

read more | digg story

D&AD Nomination

Myself and a team I worked with at Wheel have been nominated for a D&AD Award this year. It's the Brahma music ads I worked on last year, and they're nominated in the Use of Music category.

It's nice to know that the morning I spent recording bottle tapping and bottle blowing noises in my kitchen has been recognised. Not to mention those stressful late nights hammering out Actionscript.

Flickr Beta goes Gamma

The mighty Flickr has changed! I've been so busy all day that I’ve just it noticed now. Immediately noticeable is the fact that there's a new nav structure, based heavily on dropdowns (including new dropdown menus off users’ icons). And The Flash Organizr has gone, replaced by an AJAX version. The new Organize application seems a bit buggy in Safari (pages sometimes not loading) but overall I like the changes a lot. The search box on every page is another obvious example of a welcome and overdue update.

There are many more changes too. See the Flickr blog for more info. Also Thomas Hawk, photographer and Flickr full-timer, has this thorough rundown on the Flickr updates.

Happy St. George’s Day

The Mixing Bowl

Did you go to events such as Tribal Gathering or Fantazia in the 1990s? Ever wish you'd not thrown away or copied over those mixtapes?

themixingbowl.org is a website full of BitTorrent downloads of DJ mixes. There's some really good stuff on there. For example I just got a 1993 Essential Mix by FSOL. For me it’s an Alladin’s Cave!

Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Well, I went back to Stockport and Manchester for a couple of days over Easter to see family and relatives. It was a short but enjoyable break. And it's always nice to get out of London from time to time.

Now, contrary to your assumption, the name of this post doesn't refer to the title recently bestowed on me in recognition of my taking the photograph of a pigeon shown above (though this is one of a number I predictably took in Stockport and Manchester this weekend - here and here respectively should you be interested).

However, I did go to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the National History Museum yesterday and it was excellent. As a keen but mediocre amateur photographer it was also an extremely humbling experience. There were three photos in the under ten year olds category all of which were very impressive. Under ten! And as for the rest, well... Very impressive stuff.

If you're at all interested in photography and / or wildlife and haven't been I seriously recommend you check it out. It's only on till this coming Sunday April 23rd though so you haven't got much time left.

photo blog

If you're tired of my rantings but like my photos you might be interested in my new photo blog. Starting with some shots from my archive and continuing with new photographs from day to day.

adesphotos.blogspot.com

Ade

p.s. photo blog: phlog?

Netvibes

A really handy customisable homepage. Great if you read news, blogs etc and use RSS feeds. Netvibes.com.

Drugged up on Beechams

I've been at home all weekend due to one of those generic sore throat, fuzzy brain, headache type illnesses. It's not that bad or anything, just bad enough for me to not feel up to doing very much. Like standing up, for example.

Anyway, good things often come out of being bedridden, such as having the time to enjoy a good book - which is a rare thing for me. This weekend I've made a lot of progress on the new version of my game Flashteroids. I've designed and tested four new levels and fixed a load of bugs / issues that have been outstanding since some time in 2002.

You can see all the level designs on the Flashteroids Blog, a blog I've created to catalogue the development process. The new version (1.5+) is now only a week or so away.

Dead Ringers

Getting a new mobile? Apparently there are seven billion mobile phones in the world and only 1.3 billion users (from this BBC Online article). That’s quite a lot.

Fortunately you can get your old one recycled.
(End of public service announcement)