Rubins film mentioned on TV

The lovely Honor Blackman mentioned our latest film on the Paul O'Grady show last week. Cool! lol

Heres a link to the clip, but its on Facebook only.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=304809900202&ref=mf

Volcanoes, clouds, and auroras

Some cracking photos recently from NASA Picture of the Day :)

Action!

We start filming tomorrow. 3 weeks in UK and 1 week Israel.

Wish me luck and see you on the other side!

Baby Hanna

My pen friend in Poland, the lovely Kasia has had a baby, the gorgeous Hanna. Congratulations to Kasia, Luca, and Hanna.

And she even shares the same birthday as me! :)

Seen in London - A cliché

As always, Click To Enlarge. Seen today, a jellied eel shop!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jellied_eels

A dish so hideous sounding, that a Northerner (especially a non fish eater like me!)is convinced of our superiority to our Southern bastard cousins ;)

A dish traditionally from the East End of London. A common mans food. And fucking awful sounding! :( lol Along with chi-mer-knee sweeps, pearly kings & queens, and "my ol' mans a dust man" and "Any old iron" are all classic cockney East End clichés. And I saw one today.

Small things amuse :)

I saw a mouse, where?

There on the stair, on in the kitchen anyways.

Yes, our lovely flat in Finsbury Park has a mouse infestation. Which means we have to lay down traps and other sticky things to try and catch them. We have actually caught 4 mouses now lol. And all on the sticky stuff we put down. So when we find them on a morning, they are alive and very unhappy with their lot.

So what do we do with a mouse thats stuck fast to a piece of cardboard in superglue? We have to drown the poor little blighters! I feel like such a murderer and feel my karma will suffer for this!

Ah, life in the big city!

The world according to USA

Simons Cat - Hot Spot

British Wildlife Photographer of the year

The winner! :)

Tower Bridge

I found myself back at Tower Bridge yesterday. It really is a fantastic construction. And right next door to that other fantastic construction - The Tower of London.

Seen in London - Sherlock Holmes still lives in Baker Street

I've got to know the tube system of London well over the past 7 months or so. But I have not been to Baker Street tube before.

I passed through tonight and was very pleased to see the most famous resident of Baker Street, the great detective Sherlock Holmes (who lived at 221B Baker Street) is still remembered.

Another day older and deeper in debt

St Peter don't you call me coz I can't go. I owe my soul to the company store!*

Its that damn time of the year when I am reminded of the passage of time. Its my bloody birthday again! lol All my friends in London are working today, so will be spending it probably alone (although that doesn't really bother me as not a big birthday fan). But I also may have a date, so that could be nice. We shall see :)

Lipstikka is now in full swing so I am busy busy at the moment. We spent yesterday visiting Epsom racecourse and a pleasure boat that was moored right next to Tower Bridge, which I'm beginning to think might just be the second most beautiful building in the world (after the Pantheon in Rome).

* There's a small prize for naming that tune lol

Is there anybody out there?

If Earth received this message from deep space, could we decode it? The people from the Cosmic Call project sent the above image as the first page of a longer message. The message was broadcast toward local stars by radio telescope during the summer of 1999. Another message was sent in 2003. The single-dish, 70-meter diameter telescope that send the messages is located in Ukraine on the Crimean peninsula near the town of Yevpatoria. This first page of the Cosmic Call 1999 message, shown above, involves only numbers and so is easier for puzzle solvers to decode than a more famous message broadcast toward distant star cluster M13 in 1974.
Answer is here: http://library.thinkquest.org/C003763/pdf/interview01.pdf

What are these Earthlings trying to tell us? The above message was broadcast from Earth towards the globular star cluster M13 in 1974. During the dedication of the Arecibo Observatory - still the largest radio telescope in the world - a string of 1's and 0's representing the above diagram was sent. This attempt at extraterrestrial communication was mostly ceremonial - humanity regularly broadcasts radio and television signals out into space accidentally. Even were this message received, M13 is so far away we would have to wait almost 50,000 years to hear an answer. The above message gives a few simple facts about humanity and its knowledge: from left to right are numbers from one to ten, atoms including hydrogen and carbon, some interesting molecules, DNA, a human with description, basics of our Solar System, and basics of the sending telescope.

Moon crash

This is the last footage from the Japanese probe Kaguya before it was purposefully crashed into the Moons surface.

Cool!

Seen in London

A new category, I think. Living in the big city brings up all sorts of strange and interesting things. I think I'll try and get some snaps, and post them here when I do :)

As for this one I can't offer an explanation other than saying either French, or student, or possibly both! lol

William John Frederick Kean

Congratulations to my dear friends Lois and Simon on the birth of their gorgeous son, William John Frederick.

Mother and son are doing well, and things will never be the same in the Kean household!

xx

The Toaster toaster

Seen this! Want this! lol *

*note: The humans in Battlestar Galactica (greatest TV show ever made (TM)) call the Cylons "Toasters" for slang.


The Battlestar Galactica LED Chrome Toaster, made exclusively for Comic-Con 2009, lights up while cleverly toasting your favorite snacks with a Cylon on one side, and the phrase “Frak Off” on the other. But, with a special edition limited run of only 2,000 units, this is going to be one hot item. Highlights of this Comic-Con items include:

* Each toaster is individually numbered (1 of 2,000) next to the toast slots
* A plate which burns the phrase “Frak Off” on a piece of toast
* A plate which burns an image of a Cylon on a piece of toast
* The red cylon eye lights up on the front of the toaster and moves across the helmet

Stop the train

The Good news:
It was a normal day in Sharon Springs , KS. When a Union Pacific crew boarded a loaded coal train for the long trek to Salina ..

The Bad news:
Just a few miles into the trip a wheel bearing became overheated and melted, letting a metal support drop down and grind on the rail, creating white hot molten metal droppings spewing down to the rail.

The Good news:
A very alert crew noticed smoke about halfway back in the train and immediately stopped the train in compliance with the rules.

The Bad news:
The train stopped with the hot wheel over a wooden bridge with creosote ties and trusses





RULES ARE RULES!
But, don't let common sense get in the way of a good disaster!

Cheers to Andy for this

Monument

The Great Fire of London 1666 started famously in Pudding Lane. Over 100,000 Londoners lost their homes to it, yet only 6 people died!

A few years after, a budding architect called Christopher Wren ;) built Monument to the fire.

The 311 steps to the top nearly killed me! But the views from up there were absolutely worth it.

"The Monument stands at the junction of Monument Street and Fish Street Hill in the City of London. It was built between 1671 and 1677 to commemorate the Great Fire of London and to celebrate the rebuilding of the City.

The fire began in a baker's house in Pudding Lane on Sunday 2nd September 1666 and finally extinguished on Wednesday 5th September, after destroying the greater part of the City. Although there was little loss of life, the fire brought all activity to a halt, having consumed or severely damaged thousands of houses, hundreds of streets, the City's gates, public buildings, churches and St. Paul's Cathedral. The only buildings to survive in part were those built of stone, like St. Paul's and the Guildhall.

As part of the rebuilding, it was decided to erect a permanent memorial of the Great Fire near the place where it began. Sir Christopher Wren, Surveyor General to King Charles II and the architect of St. Paul's Cathedral, and hisfriend and colleague, Dr Robert Hooke, provided a design for a colossal Doric column in the antique tradition. They drew up plans for a column containing a cantilevered stone staircase of 311 steps leading to a viewing platform. This was surmounted by a drum and a copper urn from which flames emerged, symbolising the Great Fire. The Monument, as it came to be called, is 61 metres high (202 feet) - the exact distance between it and the site in Pudding Lane where the fire began.

The column was completed in 1677, and in accordance with Wren's original intention, was at first used as a place for certain experiments of the Royal Society, but vibrations caused by ceaseless traffic proved too great for the success of these experiments and they were discontinued; thereafter the Monument became a place of historic interest, unique of its kind, providing visitors with an opportunity to look across London in all directions from a height of about 160 feet, being the level of the public gallery."