Deep space monster

"Inside the head of this interstellar monster is a star that is slowly destroying it. The monster, actually an inanimate pillar of gas and dust, measures over a light year in length. The star, not itself visible through the opaque dust, is bursting out partly by ejecting energetic beams of particles. Similar epic battles are being waged all over the star-forming Carina Nebula. The stars will win in the end, destroying their pillars of creation over the next 100,000 years, and resulting in a new open cluster of stars. The pink dots are newly formed stars that have already been freed from their birth monster. The above image is only a small part of a highly detailed panoramic mosaic of the Carina Nebula taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and released last week. The technical name for the stellar jets are Herbig-Haro objects. How a star creates Herbig-Haro jets is an ongoing topic of research, but it likely involves an accretion disk swirling around a central star."

Cool, huh?

Middleham castle on Saturday

I spent a great afternoon driving around North Yorkshire with my brother Richard. We went to an auction to buy some classic Mouseman furniture, but he got out bid on everything, lol.

Richard took the opportunity to take me to visit a castle I hadnt been to before; Middleham. Beautiful!

Hexagonal clouds on Saturn

" Why would clouds form a hexagon on Saturn? Nobody is yet sure. Originally discovered during the Voyager flybys of Saturn in the 1980s, nobody has ever seen anything like it anywhere else in the Solar System. If Saturn's South Pole wasn't strange enough with its rotating vortex, Saturn's North Pole might now be considered even stranger. The bizarre cloud pattern is shown above in a recent infrared image taken by the Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft. The images show the stability of the hexagon even 20 years after Voyager. Movies of Saturn's North Pole show the cloud structure maintaining its hexagonal structure while rotating. Unlike individual clouds appearing like a hexagon on Earth, the Saturn cloud pattern appears to have six well defined sides of nearly equal length. Four Earths could fit inside the hexagon. Although full explanations are not yet available, planetary scientists are sure to continue to study this most unusual cloud formation for quite some time."

The Red Square Nebula

What could cause a nebula to appear square? No one is quite sure. The hot star system known as MWC 922, however, appears to be imbedded in a nebula with just such a shape. The above image combines infrared exposures from the Hale Telescope on Mt. Palomar in California, and the Keck-2 Telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. A leading progenitor hypothesis for the square nebula is that the central star or stars somehow expelled cones of gas during a late developmental stage. For MWC 922, these cones happen to incorporate nearly right angles and be visible from the sides. Supporting evidence for the cone hypothesis includes radial spokes in the image that might run along the cone walls. Researchers speculate that the cones viewed from another angle would appear similar to the gigantic rings of supernova 1987A, possibly indicating that a star in MWC 922 might one day itself explode in a similar supernova.

Transformers - The Movie

Michael Bay, the director of Pearl Harbour, Armageddon, and Bad Boys 2!! is making The Transformers Movie.

Early word has it that it is going to be a lighter, family movie. With references to dogs pissing on Optimus Primes leg, and Transformers trying to hide in gardens from the parents of the teenage helper; the signs do not sound good!

But then the first trailer came out, then these stills. Bloody Hell! It looks good!

Apparently these SFX for the most complicated CGI ever put on camera, with a each virtual Transformer having over a thousand moving parts that the computers match perfectly, and that each frame of film takes 38 hours to render through the super-computers they use! Every penny of Bays $220 budget seems to be up there on the screen

I dont know how it will turn out storywise, but it certainly looks like it will look good. I may have to check it out on the big screen. I will then have to watch an Italian black and white masterpiece to cleanse my pallet, and possibly my soul.

PKR gets better

I do like playing on 3D poker site PKR. It is a lot of fun and fully interactive. Uses up far too much of my laptops juice, but its worth it.

They've started sending emails when you win over $100. I thought it was a nice touch!

Sunday, April 08 EXCLUSIVE: "PKR Speaks!" Page 5 BREAKING NEWS: "Tourneys heat up" Page 6 TEAMWAK WINS BIG AT PKR! Poker world thrilled as Teamwak takes huge $210.00 tournament prize. "Fame won't change me" says Teamwak By Special Correspondent. PKR NEWS - Teamwak fought a field of 75 tough competitors to take 1st place in the PKR $10 Regular (6 seater) Tournament and $210.00. "It was an incredible display", said one observer, "everyone was on the edge of their seats". The result marks another big step in Teamwak's meteoric rise to poker stardom. "I predict big things from Teamwak", said a poker insider, "all the ingredients are there; skill, determination, guts - and a slightly funny haircut." Teamwak took 1st place and a $210.00 prize. Poker beauty makes TV debut! Page 3 PKR set to become #1 poker site! Page 7 Copyright © 2007 PKR Limited Home | Contact | Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions

And as for Glastonbury ticket, my angry email resulted in me being told it was a condition of their license that they sell couch tickets, and as I bought coach tickets then that is what I am getting. They will only give the tickets out mid-coach journey! Ridiculous!

Glastonbury Festival 2007

Horray! I got tickets for Glastonbury Festival 2007.

Glastonbury is the greatest festival in the world, with no other festival since the 60's capturing the fun and excesses of an outdoor music festival. And as one of the biggest festivals in the world, it offers some sights and sounds that are un-paralleled.

It has the whole hippy vibe going on that can be contagious. You cant beat sitting in a glade, or my the stone circle getting all at-one-with-the-universe. Cant wait!


Unfortunately, Glastonbury Festivals would only sell us tickets that had a mandatory coach journey attached to them. I had to pay £50 extra as the normal tickets were sold out. Now the website says the tickets will only be given out on the coach trip itself! They wont give the tickets to us before.

We were hoping to have a few extra days down south, but if we can not take a car, then how can we have a holiday? Public transport all the way? Fuck that! I have fired off an angry email. We will see what happens. As I have paid for these tickets, I firmly believe that these are my tickets to do with as I see fit. Not to be doled out to us like presents for good little boys when the organisors see fit!

Big Game Hunting

The title says it all.

Steampunk

I recently came across the phrase Steampunk online. Turns out its a recent style of re-imaging modern concepts, but setting them in the Steam age, around Jules Vernes time in the 1860's. As far as I can tell it seems to have started big when a Manga cartoon came out in Japan, charting the adventures of Steamboy, a boy who lived in 1860's London who is sent a mysterious steam producing orb from his uncle in America, to keep it from the evil O'Hara group.

http://www.bigredhair.com/steamboy/index.html

Seems that modern artists and animators are applying this concept to pop culture with suprising effect. I heard one artist did a serious of drawings of the video game Thief in this style.

These drawing are an artists take on the Star Wars world, in the Steampunk style.

http://ericpoulton.blogspot.com/search/label/steampunk%20star%20wars

Pretty damn cool, really.

Something reflective

I was sent this poem by email. As I can be a sentimental old git sometimes, I thought I would post it.

When an old man died in the geriatric ward of a small hospital near
Tampa, Florida, it was believed that he had nothing left of any value.
Later, when the nurses were going through his meager possessions, they
Found this poem. Its quality and content so impressed the staff that
Copies were made and distributed to every nurse in the hospital. One
Nurse took her copy to Missouri . The old man's sole bequest to
Posterity has since appeared in the Christmas edition of the News
Magazine of the St. Louis Association for Mental Health. A slide
Presentation has also been made based on his simple, but eloquent, poem.

And this little old man, with nothing left to give to the world, is now
The author of this "anonymous" poem winging across the Internet.

Crabby Old Man

What do you see nurses? ......What do you see?
What are you thinking.... ..when you're looking at me?
A ! Crabby old man, ....not very wise,
Uncertain of habit .......with faraway eyes?

Who dribbles his food.......and makes no reply.
When you say in a loud voice....."I do wish you'd try!"
Who seems not to notice .....the things that you do.
And forever is losing ............. .. A sock or shoe?

Who, resisting or not......... ..lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding ....... The long day to fill?
Is that what you're thinking? Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse......you' re not looking at me.
I'll tell you who I am ....... As I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding, ........as I eat at your will.
I'm a small child of Ten......with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters .......who love one another

A young boy of Sixteen ...........with wings on his feet
Dreaming that soon now. ..........a lover he'll meet.
A groom soon at Twenty .........my heart gives a leap.
Remembering, the vows.....! .... That I promised to keep.

At Twenty-Five, now ........... I have young of my own.
Who need me to guide ........ And a secure happy home.
A man of Thirty ........ My young now grown fast,
Bound to each other ......... With ties that should last.

At Forty, my young sons ........have grown and are gone,
But my woman's beside me........to see I don't mourn.
At Fifty, once more, .......... Babies play 'round my knee,
Again, we know children ......... My loved one and me.

Dark days are upon me .......... My wife is now dead.
I look at the future ............ .I shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing ........young of their own.
And I think of the years...... And the love that I've known.

I'm now an old man......... And nature is cruel.
Tis jest to make old age .......look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles.... ......grace and vigor, depart.
There is now a stone....... .where I once had a heart.

But inside this old carcass ...... A young guy still dwells,
And now and again .........my battered heart swells.
I remember the joys........ ...... I remember the pain.
And I'm loving and living...... .... ...life over again.

I think of the years ...all too few......gone too fast.
And accept the stark fact......... That nothing can last.
So open your eyes, people ..........open and see..
Not a crabby old man. Look closer....see. .......ME! !

I've decided to take early redundancy from work!

I cant believe it. After 14 years I have decided to take an early redundacy/severance package and leave my job for the Government in the Department for Work & Pensions.

Its been crap for a number of years. There is a total freeze and pay and progression after the Chancellor Gordon Brown announced as an election promise he would cut the number of civil servants there was. He pledged to reduce the DWP by 25% over 3 years. Hence the freeze in pay & progression. The killer was I had gone for promotion in a promotion board and passed it. I was even notified of my passing. Then the announcement. Because the board hadnt finished running they cancelled it! And now promotion chances not been for 3 years.

So they offered me £27000 to go and I have taken it. The only problem is I have no idea what I am going to do next. All I do know is I have a chance to try something new. So I am.

A couple of months bumming around should do it. I am a training officer/consultant by trade so I am going to try a bit of self employment doing that. But I also fancy doing a bit of extra work which I have done in the past. So try my luck and see if I can make ends meet doing something that I might enjoy. If it all fails I will wave the white flag and re-join the rat race again, but until then... who knows!

Wish me luck!

Triton

You know I love moons. This is Neptunes moon Triton, as seen by Voyager 2.

Another cracked chunk of rock, but with ice volcanoes!

Nice.

The Witches Broom and Head nebulas

Pretty!

:)