"Nothing but the rain"
Where vague stuff is placed for filing
Last June I was in a new lecture theatre at the University of Kent in Canterbury. It was a nice room and well designed, apart from the positioning of the projector screens. One thing that I found surprising (and expensive) was the personal air blowing device. It’s either that or the designers have included some form of personal-gas-recovery-system to save attendees from other people’s smells!
I have decided to put a random number generator in this site. Just for kicks.
So, these values are generated using atmospheric noise and are truly random. See Random.org for more information.
I don’t follow many people on Twitter. It’s a conscious decision that means I actually have the time to read tweets by my friends (see here). I have, however, recently added a couple of new people/things to follow.
I find these generally fascinating and I feel that they actually add something to my life. I’m a complete science whore and so @Scienceporn is awesome. I am unsure about some of the sources and tweets, but the replies to @scienceporn normally ask for references and so it’s a self-sorting system, much like science.
@Combinedhistory is a really clever concept of matching famous pictures with modern backdrops and fusing the two together to give a brilliant time-displacement view of scenes.
@MilitaryPorn is awesome. I’ve always been a fan of military aircraft and in my teenage years I went to lots of airshows. Most of the aircraft that I find gorgeous aren’t really flying anymore and so this tweeter gives me a chance to drool over pictures of planes I’ve always enjoyed. Here’s a selection:
Obviously, I’m a bit of a stickler for language and how to interpret it. I like my spoken words to mean exactly what I intend (obviously, no mean feat given the English language). I will also compose emails and edit them over a few hours so they mean exactly what I want them to mean. This is probably why I, obviously, struggle with SMS (text messages to the masses) and occasionally Twitter.
I agree that we use some fillers in our language.
My pet hates are any of these mentioned but particularly:
It was, like, well hot.
WTF does this mean? It was like it was hot? It was hot? It was really hot? My usual response would be “So was it warm then, if it was like hot?”
Obviously, I’m going to play some tennis today.
Unless you know me really well, it probably wasn’t obvious to you. Me saying “obviously” belittles any comment that you think would be appropriate or any questioning of my statement. This annoys me. I am trying to only say “obviously” when I then wouldn’t need to end the statement because whatever followed you would automatically know/understand.
Maybe I’m too much of a stickler for literal interpretation of language. Which would be odd as I am happy to accept that language can evolve and things change over time, not always following survival of the fittest though. Language evolution seems to follow the stupid uses of language rather than the correct ones. We are doomed [not literally, except for APG].
Took this picture while waiting to go into the cinema. I like bridges. When you think about the things we can do as the human race when we put our minds to it, it’s remarkable. We can travel with ease and talk to practically anyone in the world via a small device we can carry. On the negative side we don’t yet have the political ambition to stave off anthropogenic climate change, or even to make sure the end result is the least worst possible outcome because we really are changing our planet and beyond recognition.
It was a hot day today. The car said 32C at one point! I decided to spend some time in the direct sunlight in the garden fitting a water butt. That was a bit stupid. Had to spend the next hour drying out the sweat from all my clothes. Mind you, the water butt looks good and we should have its first rain tomorrow.
This shop makes a false assumption. I can confirm to you that I’m not that fussed about cake and neither are my kids! Not everyone loves cake!
I’m probably being a bit picky here!
Such a wonderfully classic view that makes me feel proud to be British! [that takes quite a bit]
Brilliant Victorians and their wonder at everything new!
My current iPhone background is this stunning picture of the Earth and Moon system taken by the Cassini spacecraft from orbit around Saturn. We are so small and insignificant! God must have been having a serious joke when he placed us on this land, there’s so much out there, and we’ll never get to it (do the physics/maths).
It was a lovely evening here in Kent tonight. Clear blue skies and little wind.
