I will raise up mine eyes

I've not run across the Bad Astronomy site before but this little gem is the perfect antidote to my last post. A starburst. I'm sufficiently a child of the 60's and the physical sciences to feel it's a bit special.

Thanks to Status Q for the link.

No Higg's bosons were harmed in the production of this cosmic event.
Federal Law Applies

Another Modest Proposal

I greatly enjoyed John Kelly’s post in the Grauniad CiF (Cement is free) about Dog Shit.
John Kelly: A foul business | The Guardian

Recently I had my own fun with two warm clementines in a red Sainsbury’s plastic bag. I handed them to a friend while I carried out some manoeuvre which required two hands - getting foot out of mouth. As I dropped them into the friend’s hand I noticed the look of concern on his face at the temperature and texture of the package. I pronounced that they feelt like warm, toxic, Day-Glo, dog poop! The automatic retching sound was satisfaction enough but I couldn’t resist saying that, of course, I had thought of it before handing them over.

All of which is a roundabout way of offering that troubled soul G Broon, prime minister, a masterly wheeze to get back in with the PEOPLE, The Mail and all those idiots who think the Tories would not be ten times worse.

Harvey Milk was a politician who had real problems getting elected and surviving. Indeed he didn’t. Some crazed homophobe shot him but hey that’s the land of the free and a gun with every SUV. However, in a film which paid tribute to him I seem to remember a staged PR stunt in a park in San Francisco. H Milk walked towards the camera pontificating about what he would do as mayor if elected:- world peace, justice, be nice to old ladies, not pat babies and young children on the head. He appeared to slip or stumble and, on looking down, his face screwed into a rictus of disgust as he examined something unpleasant on the bottom of his shoe. He straightened up and with the gravitas found on the faces of presidents as they proclaim war, he pronounced that he would include in his legislative programme a pooper scooper ordinance! Worked like a treat and, despite his many perceived liabilities as a mayoral candidate, he was elected.

So, Mr Broon, I suggest a short walk to camera across College Green, giving Prudence’s endogenous zones a good rub for their money. At the exact moment when the people will be nodding off, stand in the pre-positioned dog crap. You now have the country in your grasp. All you have to do is look at the camera and pronounce, with dignity, that you will devote the rest of your term in office to ensure a deep clean of all our streets and open spaces and the return of the death penalty for dog owners who do not comply with the Miscellaneous Dog Fouling and Similar Annoyances Act. You will need to stress, the English are thick when it comes to animals, that this piece of legislation will not bring suffering to any dog.

You’re home and dry man, if a little smelly.

Tea and Symmetry

For the past week I have been sitting down at about 3pm with a pot of tea and a copy of Finding Moonshine by Marcus du Sautoy. The book takes a journey through 12 months in his life . It sets in historical and personal context his work in mathematics and its connection to symmetry. The chapter for October: the Palace of Symmetry is delightful. It details his search, accompanied by his son Tomar, for the 17 underlying symmetries in two dimensions. This is carried out within the Palace of the Alhambra, looking at the Moorish tiling patterns. Interesting to find on p63 a confirmation of my party piece on symmetry:-

There are only 17 different types of wallpaper!

If anyone challenges this then I explain that, as identified by their symmetry groups, there are only 17 possibilities. You can have birds, you can have cartoon characters, you can have elephants even, but there are only 17 basic ways in which you can have them! I did learn something though on p83. If you allow permutations of two colours you can add a further 46 symmetry groups. No. I think I'll stick to 17. It's demonstrably a prime and it should get the NANs going(New Age Numerologists).

The book concludes as I read yesterday, downing my pot of Darjeeling, with the search for the Monster. This beast has a large number of possible symmetries, How large? Ridiculously large 808.... - it contains 54 digits before the decimal point. If you had a mind to get your head round it you would have to consider that it exists, if that is the right word, in 196,883 dimensions. Feeling a little dizzy? Don't, just trust him he is a mathematician.

What, I hear you ask in the sternest of prudential tones, is the use of all this business?

Ah well now that is a story for another time!

Vehicles to Market

Or how I stopped worrying about economics and made some friends with a couple of black swans.
So a trip to Cambridge to a lecture/discussion given by Nick Davies and John Kelly. Thanks to John Naughton for giving me the heads up on this one.

Nick’s book – Flat Earth News - is, allegedly, quite controversial.

Sets the fox amongst the journo hens or is it chickens. Anyway, my take was interest in the routes to market for processes and products that wish to retain quality, integrity and some sort of social value…. promoting inclusiveness, la la la. Don’t you just wish these wishy washy liberals would piss off and let the rest of us get on with the business of making oodles of boodle?

Up to a point Lord Copper.

John Kelly

seemed overwhelmed by the experience. Perhaps he sounds better on paper. Later, of course, he does here

I did like his post about the rain.

Bloody septic wimp - nice guy though.

Annuances

Working away on Sunday morning it was suggested, but not if I’m honest by me, that there were such things as annuances.

We agreed the derivation was quite clear; they were things which gave rise to annoyance but subtly.

Just a thought.

Another is my new year’s resolution. Late, but it is better late than never.

I must spend more time with trees.

So won’t be going to Iceland in the near future.

Enjoyed Tainted Blood by Arnaldur Indridason though.

Maybe not the right word - enjoyed - Icelandic homicide tends to be a bit grim. Is there any other kind of murder?

The Restraint of Beasts

This came from the worm book - thanks.

We all know about bears, don’t we, but here's a thing, and those wolves, well what can you expect they’re Italian.