Galactic Smoke Rings

I had to share this stunning picture with you all, which I saw on Astronomy Picture of the Day. It was taken only last week by the Hubble Space Telescope so it's right at the forefront of our knowledge of what the Universe looks like.

It shows two very different, but neighbouring, galaxies. Each is unusual because of its ring structure but look at how different they are. Apparently, and I'm not a scientist so you'll have to forgive me if I get the detail wrong, the galaxy on the left passed through the one on the right and, just like a pebble hitting a pond, it left behind an outwardly moving 'ripple' of, in this case, incredibly densely packed stars. Astronomers believe that the red patch at the bottom of the blue galaxy marks the original nucleus of the galaxy that was struck.

It must be incredibly exciting to be an astronomer just now. Every month brings dazzling new observations of objects countless light years away - the pair of galaxies above lie 400 MILLION light years away from us - and our understanding of the universe we live in advances. I wish I'd stuck in at science at school now...

Images like these make me glad I'm alive in the 21st century because they tell me about the Universe I live in without needing to be a rocket scientist. They show me how stunningly beautiful it is out there, how unimaginably big it is and how terribly, terribly small we are.

If you want to find out more about galaxies, and even help to catalogue them, take a look at the Galaxy Zoo website.

The Tyranny of Cats

This video made me laugh like a fool - hope it does the same for you:



There is so much talent out there - this is as good as anything I've seen on the conventional media. Quite cheers me up.

Oh, and it's not just cats. I have very similar experiences with my Jack Russell - they don't scratch so much but they are great at asking to go out outside just as the penalty kick is about to be taken. Gotta love 'em.

What the Election Should Really be About

I haven't said much about the US election - I'm a Brit so I really feel it isn't my place to pontificate on a subject I know little about. Suffice it to say that if I was an American, I'd be voting for the candidate who believed in evolution, the value of scientific research, gay rights and, above all, who genuinely wanted to make the life of individuals better.

So I want to draw attention to this open letter to Senator Obama written by my friend Kate over at The Radula. In it, she describes her circumstances, how longstanding illness has interfered with her capacity to earn a living and how she hopes, with health care and education support from the state, to get back into work so that she can provide for her family and make a contribution to society. Without that support, she cannot hope to do so.

She offers Senator Obama her support and urges him to hold good to his promises on health care and welfare if he becomes President. It's a great letter - honest and without a trace of self-pity, despite the tough times she has had. I hope both candidates get to read her letter. Politicans should be reminded more often that they are there to represent us, to make our lives better - if they don't, what good are they?

We've All Been There...

Pinched from the fabulousazahar.

See more cartoons at
xkcd.

Scary but Funny

Pinched from that rapscallion Archie, a very funny yet deeply disturbing tableau of a possible future. Laugh while you sweat...

Palin in the Oval Office

Mouse Traps and the Mile Cry Club

Hello fellow bloggers!

I bought a brilliant little book this week called Fictionary: words that don't exist but should and it's had me snickering to myself periodically. It comes from the girls who run the Daily Candy website and it provides a useful reference for those baffled or irritated by the modern world. It's especially good for grumpy oldies, as I myself aspire to be. Try these for size:

Mouse Trap: An Internet purchase that looks a lot different upon arrival than it did in the picture.

Promotion Sickness: the queasy feeling one gets when someone really stupid gets promoted.

The Mile Cry Club: The babies and children on a plane who spend the entire flight crying, screaming and kicking your seat.

Then there's Drailing and Drimming - emailing and instant messaging when you are drunk - never a good idea...

...and one that strikes far too close to home for comfort:

Inshopnia: A disorder marked by making unnecessary online purchases in the wee hours due to insomnia - oh yes, been there, done that, bought the t-shirt, and the bag, and the CD, and the mousemat...

A Sock's Eye View on the Financial Crisis

There isn't really much to laugh about this week but there are two jolly socks in Edinburgh who made me giggle - hope they do the same for you...

Back with a Snap!

Hi guys! Been away doing things in the 'real' world for a while but I'm back now. I might actually be getting a life - who'd have thought it? Anyway, to break us back in gently, I thought we could do a quiz, so WHAT KIND OF REPTILE ARE YOU?

You Are a Crocodile

You are incredibly wise and knowledgeable. In fact, your wisdom is so deep that it sometimes consumes you People are intrigued by you, but you find few people intriguing. You are not a very social creature. You are cunning. You enjoy deceiving people a little. You are able to find balance in your life, and you can survive anything.

What Reptile Are You?

The Joys of Grumbling

I've lived in the country now for ten years and am still full in the throes of a love/hate relationship with it. Love the wildlife, the space and the quiet. Miss the buzz of town life - the culture and the carry-outs!

So when I found a little book on my shelves this morning with this subtitle: Many hundreds of examples of those chagrins and mortifications which have beset, still beset, and ever will beset the human race and overshadow its journey through this earthly paradise, the whole being conveniently displayed in an alphabetic arrangement for purposes of Comparison, Consolation and Diversion, I knew there would be a chapter on country life. And there was. Here are a couple of grumbles from the very chapter:

"And in my situation at Stamford there was not one person, clergy or lay, that had any taste or love of learning, so that I was actually as much dead in converse as if in a coffin."

That was the Rev William Stukeley writing in 1726. A few years later, here is an extract from a letter by Elizabeth Montagu:

"Though I am tired of the country, to my great satisfaction I am not so much so as my Pappa; he is a little vapoured, and last night, after two hours' silence, he broke out with a great exclamation against the country, and concluded in saying that living in the country was sleeping with ones' eyes open."

Oh yes - I get that one. I've written myself, that getting through late winter here is like living in a big sock - constantly dark and gloomy and nowhere to go.

But nothing compares to this marvellous litany of despair from Sir John Dalrymple in 1772, proving that there is nothing new in trying (and failing) to live the good life:

"I pulled down as many walls round the house as would have fortified a town. That was in summer: but now, that winter is come, I would give all the money to put them up again, that it cost me to take them down.
I ordered the old timber to be thinned. The workmen, for every tree they cut, destroyed three, by letting them fall on each other. I received a momentary satisfaction from hearing that the carpenter I employed had cut his thumb in felling a tree.
I made a fine hay-stack; but quarreled with my wife as to the manner of drying the hay, and building the stack. The hay-stack took fire; by which I had the double mortification of losing the hay, and finding my wife had more sense than myself.
I paid twenty pounds for a dung-hill, because I was told it was a good thing; and, now, I would give any body twenty shillings to tell me what to do with it."

Fabulous stuff! There really is nothing new under the sun (or in the dung-heap).

Laptop Love

Oh, this is so close to home it's embarrassing. Found through the lovely Selma over at Selma in the City, here is Meleah Rebeccah's video dedicated to the new love of her life - oh how familiar it all looks!

The Real Olympic Spirit

I came across this fab video on Youtube. In the midst of the sound of world records being annihilated thanks to high-tec swimsuits, at an Olympic Games (sadly) free of any gaffes, as far as I can tell (the Chinese games will really be something for London to live up to), relive with me a moment of the TRUE Olympic spirit, from the Sydney Games:



This is what the Olympics should be all about. Bring back the keen amateur, I say!

A Jolly Comma Am I

And on the basis that you can't have too much of a good thing... have another quiz!

You Are a Comma

You are open minded and extremely optimistic. You enjoy almost all facets of life. You can find the good in almost anything. You keep yourself busy with tons of friends, activities, and interests. You find it hard to turn down an opportunity, even if you are pressed for time. Your friends find you fascinating, charming, and easy to talk to.(But with so many competing interests, you friends do feel like you hardly have time for them. You excel in: Inspiring people. You get along best with: The Question Mark

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

Any question marks out there?!