Again, the BBC Science and Technology section are running a story indicating that the light show is likely to continue. Another flare was let off yesterday, which means there should be another display on Tuesday.
As predicted, observers in the UK got a poor show. The best place to be appeared to be western part of the USA.
Have you been got by any good April Fools Day gags today then? So far, I’ve isolated myself away from the outside world and haven’t heard any. When I was little my Dad always used to wake me up on April Fools morning to tell me it had been snowing, without fail, every year until I was around 13 (when it really had been snowing and he couldn’t work out what to say).
The best and most effective one I’ve heard in recent years, was about 5 years ago when April Fools Day fell on a Saturday. Capital Radio always broadcast a weekday morning show with Chris Tarrant as the DJ. On this Saturday morning, they did a broadcast as if it was Friday, with typical travel reports, talk about weekend plans etc etc. As the morning progressed and Chris admitted it was a joke he got a load of phone calls from people sitting in quiet offices wondering why not many other people were in, it didn’t catch me out but I did have to think twice to realise what was going on. Good one Capital.
So reads the headline of an article on the Science and Technology section of the BBC News. This refers to the large sunspot cluster which has developed on the sun from which a flare erupted on Thursday. The result of this flare is that the Northern Lights will be seen by far more people and places than is normal. There will also be other effects, such as telecommunications disruptions as the particles from the sun can cause interference.
I have always wanted to see the Northern Lights, but as yet have failed to be in the right place at the right time. Most of Britain suffers from light pollution so the chances of seeing anything in London are zero. The Astronomy photo of the day May 16, 1999 shows what Europe looks like at night from satellites orbiting the earth, this kind of explains why we can see so few stars. There are some good galleries of aurora photos available on the web. Here are links to just a few of them:
So, what causes Aurora? Well, Auroras, Paintings in the sky seems to be a really well written set of common questions and answers, i.e. What makes them happen?, written in an easy-to-read style,
with pictures to illustrate the points.
And finally, the University of Alaska’s Geophysical Institute have maps for predicting where Auroras will be on a particluar day.
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The strike was still happening when it was time to go home. I left the office at around 6pm and decided to try my luck at Farringdon tube station as the Metropolitan line was running a limited service between Liverpool Street and Amersham. They weren’t joking about limited. I stood on the station for around half an hour before getting fed up and deciding to walk again. (I would have had to walk between Baker Street and Paddington anyways). So, off I trotted, back the same route as this morning. The queues for the buses were too long to wait in (and having waited 30 minutes already, I just couldn’t face any more standing around). So, I eventually made it to Paddington and onto a train back to Ealing. I’ve not been so physically tired for a long time. I reckon I walked around 6 miles today just to get to work. Now that’s dedication…
So, chaos in London today as the RMT union members strike for better safety on the underground. The Transport for London site has this helpful message “Due to Industrial Action, Tube services throughout London are severley disrupted.” Meanwhile, thetube.com has a more helpful page indicating what services are running.
So, I got a train from Ealing Broadway to Paddington and then walked from there to work at Chancery Lane. It’s about 3 miles and took about an hour. It wasn’t too bad, not something I’d choose to do everyday, but at least it was dry and sunny and not too cold.
It was quite entertaining watching people take to the streets, with cycles, micro scooters, roller blades and on foot. I passed many people with maps in their hands, some looked as if they’d bought A-Z maps especially as the mapbooks looked very clean and new.
As usual, photos taken with the eyemodule.
I saw a couple of interesting articles in the Metro again this morning. The first was a selection of images from The Mollecular Expressions Photo Gallery. These are digital photographs taken through microscopes that can magnify up to 1,000 times. Interesting images are dinosaur bones, Meteorites, wines and vegetables. I particularly like the lettuce picture displayed below (with permission of Michael W. Davidson from the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory).
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The other interesting article was about getting free music over the internet. A new service, BitBop Tuner, can be downloaded and will then scan on-line radio transmissions for the track you want to listen to. It will also allow you to track the type of music you want to listen to and find you likely radio stations. It scans playlists too, so should be able to find you radio stations who are about to play the track you’re interested in. All sounds pretty good to me.
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On my way into work this morning, I took a look at the Metro and a 3 paragraph story caught my eye, the Evening Standard have a version of it ‘Scared’ Eubank on scooter charge. Basically, this is the story of how Chris Eubank was charged for riding a Go-Ped around the streets of Brighton without a helmet. (A Go-Ped is a motorised scooter about which there are very few laws in the UK). What amused me in the Metro article was the following sentence “PC Simon Rideout had to start the blue lights flashing and the siren sounding before the ex-boxer pulled over”. Now, the thought of a police car chasing a Go-Ped is entertaining as Go-Ped’s aren’t exactly the quickest method of transport known to man. Chris Eubank received a conditional discharge and had to pay £35 in costs.
The BBC have a couple of related articles, the first in December 1999 Illegal skateboard driver escapes jail which was about someone who was found guilty of riding a motorised skateboard while disqualified from driving, the second in October 2000 Police back scooter ban which was about the “issues” with the motorised scooters in regards to the UK law.
One of the shops in Ealing Hippie Heaven has a bigfoot Go-Ped in it’s window, and they really do look cool. (They’re not cheap though :-()
Every few weeks I seem to get another one of these internet test things, this one kind of appealed Emode.com: The All-New What Breed of Dog Are You?. I’m apparently a Bernese Mountain Dog! This means that I’m down-to-earth, strong, and sweet. Awww, nice!
It allows you to add other people to your “pack” and you can see what type of dog all of your friends are, so far I seem to have a mixed set of friends, including some who didn’t like what dog they were the first time and so changed a few answers to become something different
I spotted TiVo’s Data Collection and Privacy Practices linked from another blog (BoingBoing.net) and it makes kind of interesting reading. I’m not sure whether I’m surprised by this or not, I guess I knew Tivo was capable of this as the capturing of viewing data is what makes Tivo work. The paragraph “TiVo permits its subscribers to disable the collection of viewing information and diagnostic logs by calling TiVo toll-free at 1-877-367-8486 (1-877-FOR-TIVO).” is kind of interesting though.
On further investigation, CNN ran a story on the subject yesterday Privacy group criticizes TiVo for collecting info
I took the following photograph with the eyemodule last night, but what is it of? Is it a photo taken from a rocket as it approaches a planet surface? Is it a knee?
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So, do you think you know what it is? If so, then email me with your suggestion.
Guesses so far – Update 27 March 2001
There have been a few guesses so far:
None of them is quite right so far… altho one is quite close. So, any other suggestions?