New Year's Caturday

Out with the old

One thing that I have enjoyed more than anything else this past year is going out to see live music - we've been to several festivals from the cheap 'n' cheerful Westonphest to the city wide bonanza of Tramlines, and I've seen some truly excellent live performances from Riding the Low and The Swellers, but the highlight of the year has to be The Velcro Teddybears.

 We've seen them often enough that the members of the band now come over to say hello after gigs and I am certainly intending to see them again, if only to nag them about recording at least a CD's worth of songs. Some t-shirts for the merch stall wouldn't go amiss, either ...

 

 In games news, my time was mostly taken up with things like Words with Friends, Disc Drivin' and Carcassonne on my iPhone, although I have to note that LA Noir and Portal 2 have been standouts to play on the Xbox. I can see Skyrim keeping me busy in small doses well into the new year.

 On the telly, this year we have been mainly watching Forbrydelsen I and II as well as the first three seasons of Breaking Bad. Game of Thrones was a surprise treat out of left field too, with the machiavellian politics being of as much interest as the swordplay and gratuitous nudity.

 Finally, I want to get back to some form of martial arts this year, at least when the evenings start getting lighter. There's an Iaido club in Sheffield that I'd like to visit at some point to see if my knees are still up to it.

Friday Boo!

Boxing Day Links

• A Snowy White Kiwi Hatches Just in Time... ... for Christmas on Zooborns 
• 私信 Maru's Christmas Bag 
• Writers and Kitties Famous authors with their feline friends 
• The Ghosts in the Living Room Adam Curtis documents the history of fly on the wall documentaries about the paranormal in suburbia 
• Hey! Keep scrolling down ...
• How It Works …. The Computer Everything you ever wanted to know about computers, in an easy to read Ladybird book 
• The hunt for Britain's ghost trains A fascinating article of the history of so called Parliamentary trains, run at inconvenient hours on odd routes to satisfy legal obligations 
• Minicraft A mini 2d version of Minecraft, created in a couple of hours as a programming project

Advent Day 24 : Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Goggies

Advent Day 23 : Western Swing Xmas

When it comes to Christmas music, you can't beat a bit of classic, rooting, tooting Western Swing. Just click on the picture below and head over to 'Western Swing on 78' to download some mighty fine festive tunes.



To get you in the mood, here's a bit of Bob Wills. His 'Hooray! Christmas is here!' at the start is the 1930s equivalent of Noddy Holder ... :-)

Advent Day 22 : Woody Allen Jesus

Apparently this song from Tim Minchin was deemed unsuitable for broadcast on the Christmas edition of the Jonathan Ross show - can't think why ...

 

Moominland Midwinter

Advent Day 21 : Solstice

The light is coming back! While you are waiting for the sun, you might care to download this rather wonderful Sunrise Mix of two hours of chilled out funk.


Edited to add that this year the actual solstice is at 5:30 AM GMT on the 22nd of December (h/t Rachel!)

Advent Day 20 : A Night With the Stars

Electrons are both
Standing waves and particles
Quantum mystery


A diamond could jump
Out of its box, given time
And uncertainty


A world of strange quarks
Explained with the aid of
Some chalk on a blackboard

Advent Day 19 : What a wonderful world

Sunday Links

• One Day Old Capybara Trots Out to Say Hello ZooBorns 
• UPDATE: More Pics of Vienna's Baby Anteater even more schnozzular action on ZooBorns 
• HTTP Status Cats 
• The Invisible Mother Somewhat creepy Victorian photos of children held still by poorly concealed parents 
• Devastating Explosions at the Touch of a Button 
• Lists of Note 
• History of the typewriter recited by Michael Winslow (otherwise known as that bloke from off of the Police Academy movies) 
• Extreme Pogo Stunts If you thought that parkour looked a bit scary, wait until you see people jumping off walls with pogo sticks ... 
• Pickin' & Trimmin' The very best of barbershop music

Advent Day 18 : Singing Christmas Hedgehogs!

Keeping an eye on Caturday

Advent Day 17 : Poundland Festive Tat Reviewed

(h/t @Redclaire over on Twitter!)

Remembering Hitch

Christopher Hitchens 1949 - 2011

"The only position that leaves me with no cognitive dissonance is atheism. It is not a creed. Death is certain, replacing both the siren-song of Paradise and the dread of Hell. Life on this earth, with all its mystery and beauty and pain, is then to be lived far more intensely: we stumble and get up, we are sad, confident, insecure, feel loneliness and joy and love. There is nothing more; but I want nothing more." 


– The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Non-Believer, 2007

Advent Day 15 : Xmas Podcasts

Firstly, go and download this Coverville Christmas Special which features cover versions of every track on the Phil Spector Christmas album. Secondly, head over to Mitch Benn's Podcast page (or search on iTunes) where he has his traditional reading of a Christmas Carol available for your listening pleasure (you might also like to buy his Christmas album while you are there). Next, go to Nat Johnson's Soundcloud for a very special, exclusive festive treat.

Finally,  Sally is broadcasting her Christmas special edition of The Unsigned Side now! (Podcast available later)

Advent Day 14 : Star Wars Snowflakes

Time for a spot of creative festive geekery with these downloadable Star Wars snowflakes!

Advent Day 13 : The Higgs Boson

Particles exchanged
May form an intrinsic field
That gives rise to mass

Advent Day 12 : The Sistine Chapel

Say what you like about the Catholic church, they certainly don't stint on the interior design. This is a virtual recreation of the Sistine Chapel in all of its opulent, gold encrusted glory. If anything, it makes the gaunt figure of Christ on the cross on the altar look rather insignificant ...

Advent Day 11 : You don't need to believe ...

Sunday Links

• Meet Perth's Newest Baby Puggle! - ZooBorns
• Lovely Owl Owl-tastic head skritching cuteness
• The World’s Highest Artificial Tornado Architecture meets art
• A Stanford education for free! Sign up for free remote learning courses
• Project Aon Remember the 'Lone Wolf' game books from way back when? They are now all available to download and play in handy html format.
• BAROQUE.ME Bach's cello suite visualised. Give it a little while to load - works best in Chrome
• Page 23 A short film, revealing the hidden lives of the people in the Ikea catalogue
• The Bitch, The Stud and The Prawn More essential reading from Adam Curtis
• Everyday objects in close-up items brought to life at a MILLION times magnification
• Techno Is The Word! Random techno music generated from the words that you enter
• What Really Happened Aboard Air France 447 Reading this analysis of the cockpit transcripts of the ill fated Air France 447 that crashed into the Atlantic two years ago, it seems that the tragedy was caused by simple, human error. Gripping and frightening.
• Vamps, Crooks and Killers Hollywood superstars known for their good guy roles, take on the mantle of classic movie villains

Advent Day 10 : Your moons are rubbish, astronomer tells Christmas card artists

It's a traditional Christmas card scene - a winter wonderland, lit by a sliver of a silvery moon. It takes a proper astronomy to point out why the artists have got it wrong ...

Advent Day 9 : Gingerbread AT-AT

Advent Day 8 : Imagining the Tenth Dimension

We are all quite comfortable with the idea of our normal three dimensions of space and the extra (one way only unless you happen to have a blue box that's bigger on the inside) one of time, but when you start to think about the more esoteric bits of string theory that only work with a whole bunch of extra dimensions on top then things get a bit hairy.

Fear not! Imagining the Tenth Dimension will explain all with a rather nifty bit of animation which will gently guide you all the way into the tenth dimension. Enjoy!

Advent Day 7 : Oskar the Blind Kitten and the Christmas Tree

With a tip of the Santa hat to @lisybabe over on Twitter ...

Advent Day 6 : The Swellers

Into it, stories

Chicago fights, flaky ex

Girlfriend, over it

Broadway calls, punk thrash

Two minute songs, all non-stop,

Scarcely time to breath

Four Michigan punks,

The Swellers command the stage,

The crowd jumps for joy

Advent Day 5 : Evolution

Evolution is simple and elegant explanation for the complexity and diversity of the life that we see around us. It is supported by one hundred and fifty years of evidence from Darwin's patient cataloguing of variations in the wildlife that he observed, to a rock solid fossil record, to the latest analysis of mutations in DNA down the generations which allow us to pinpoint exactly when different species diverged. It is the corner stone of modern biology and critical to understanding the dangers caused by evolving diseases such as MRSA.

 So, why do some people have such a problem with it? Why are they so keen for a literal deus ex machina to explain life rather than the plain truth? I don't know, but perhaps this video will help ...

 

Advent Day 4 : The Ice Fountains of Enceladus

The Cassini mission is one of the greatest scientific endeavours ever undertaken.  It was launched in 1997 and after a journey of over seven years reached Saturn. It follows a complex orbit, allowing it to study each of Saturn's major moons and the famous rings, and it launched the Huygens probe which successfully landed on the methane seas of Titan.

There have been many surprising discoveries, but perhaps the most beautiful are the ice fountains of Encaladus. Continually erupting and sending ice crystals thousands of kilometres into space, they are a true wonder of the solar system, described most eloquently by Professor Brian Cox in this clip.

Here is a picture captured by Cassini that shows the astonishing scale of the fountains
  

Advent Day 3 : APOD

Astronomy Picture of the Day is one of my favourite photo blogs. Every day brings a new picture on a space theme, often of breath taking quality. They are accompanied with an explanation of exactly what it is that you are seeing, with links to further reading.

Today's picture is a wonderfully colourful time lapse exposure of star trails, with a very festive feel.

 

Advent Day 2 : Santastic Mashups

Music is the perfect way to get yourself in an appropriately seasonal mood and what better way to get the party started than this Santastic set of Christmas mashups mixing artists as diverse as Otis Redding and the Beastie Boys, to Andy Williams and The Osmonds. You can play individual tracks in your browser or download the lot, complete with a themed cd cover to go with it.

On a similar theme, if you head over to last.fm you can download Rudolph the Paranoid Reindeer. It is left as an exercise to the reader to spot the tracks that have been mixed to produce this festive gem ... enjoy!

Advent Day 1 : Euler's Identity

Euler's identity is simple, beautiful and head scratchingly weird. It brings together two irrational numbers, an imaginary one and a perfectly ordinary one and sums them up to make nothing. In this breathless video, stand up mathematician Oliver Humpage explains all.

Advent Calender

This is my new project for December. Every day I aim to post something that gives me joy, inspires wonder or makes me laugh. I'm going to include little bits of science, skepticism, songs and silliness (and the occasional cat picture). I don't know how long I will keep going before I run out of ideas, which is why I am asking you, yes you, gentle reader, to chip in with suggestions of your own. Just post a comment with a link and a little bit about your choice and I will post it up here for everybody to enjoy. Here we go ...