eep! – a blog

Awesome!

PIXELS by PATRICK JEAN.
Uploaded by onemoreprod. – Watch original web videos.

Awesome! via b3ta

Omar sent me a link for a video ages ago and I completely forgot about it until now. Sadly I can’t embed it so you’ll have to click the link below to view it. It’s 13 minutes long, which for an internet video is pretty long, but stick with it, it’s great.

Forever’s Not So Long

…Star Wars X-wing fighter trainers:

adidas_xwing_bg.jpg (1000×750).

Flying Bridge | frozenly.com.

Title says it all. Engineering madness :)

Today, the scientists at Cern have succeeded in circulating two beams in the LHC and have achieved the first collision. As a confirmed physics geek, this pleases me immensely, particularly after the whole startup and almost immediate shutdown last autumn, when the refrigeration units packed up.

Anyway, the only thing possibly greater than the feats of science going on, are the hoardes of crazy that appear whenever the LHC is in the news. Today, I present my pick of the comments from The ‘MySun’ pages of The Sun online, from JT_Cro, pasted below for your analysis (complete with original spelling+grammar):

i dont like the closeness and trusting these bumbling fools to destroy this planet we live on just for some thoery that has no basis leading back to square one. if you ask me, i would have this machine shut down and disassembled to be honest, i would rather be ignorant and scared of this machine then dead because these fools miscalculated and caused a catastropic disaster that led to countless deaths of every lifeform, i maybe overexaggerating but with enough protons, it could disstabilize the earths magnetic core and possibly cause a massive earth quake that could shake the planet to pieces.

Well thank goodness for the voice of common sense – JT_Cro, clearly has done a far more thorough risk assessment than the teams of scientists at Cern. Quick unplug it. Then take it apart in case anyone is tempted to come back and restart it. Yeah, that’ll learn ‘em.

The thing that upsets me the most here (and I am ranting, I realise) is the statement “I would rather be ignorant and scared of this machine then (sic) dead”. How can that be any sort of way to live? I don’t have a death wish, but seriously, surely, nothing ventured, nothing gained?

On a lighter note, imagine 10,000 years from now, there are no records of the Cern experiments left in the world and TimeTeam find the LHC’s 26km main collider tubes?

“Tony. TONY! I think we’re going to need a bigger JCB…”

Ok, if you aren’t the kind of person who isn’t remotely awestruck when staring up at a starry sky on a clear night (and preferably a clear night well away from any street lighting), then you are going to be bored by this. But if you wistfully stare at the stars and ever wonder where we sit in the universe, or have any interest in astrophysics then this is for you.

This should already be in HD, so click to watch the thing in full-screen and enjoy it for all it’s geeky goodness :)

Also, in other physics news…

Yesterday I managed to find the only few hours of fair weather so far this weekend and rode down to the Zero G bike shop in Bedminster for a test ride of the achingly beautiful Trek District. There has been a ton of hype about it online, mainly I think as a result of it’s somewhat intriguing belt drive system and also perhaps, because this bike has taken what feels like an age to get out into the wild. But it *is* now available, costs £600 and I’ve got the chance to bag one on cyclescheme if I want to for about £30ish per month.

So anyway, I rode the 56cm medium, which seemed to be the right size for my 5’8″ (172cm) height. I had the saddle about 10cm out of the seat clamp, but probably should have gone a bit higher on reflection. As I’m not sure what I’m going to write about it, so I will just categorise as a go and you can post any questions in the comments…

Looks – admit it, half the reason for getting a single speed is because it is pretty. And make no mistake, this a very pretty bike indeed. It looks every bit as good as the photos you’ll have seen online, and simply is a very striking bike. It was the one in the window display at the bike store, so I think that says enough. The only thing I spotted which let the side down a little was that the bottle cage screws on the production bike were in plain metal whereas the official pics show them in orange. Can’t really complain that much though! The frame is an aluminium number with a carbon front fork, painted to match, so if you are hoping for super skinny steel tubing, then you’ll be disappointed and I know this is a bone of contention for a lot of single-speed purists. But whether it upsets the purists or not, it brings me neatly to…

Weight – this is a very light bike indeed. Considerably (and upsettingly) lighter than my road bike in fact. But with no gears and mechanics to drag it down, it isn’t a surprise.

The ride – I didn’t get far as I was a bit nervous about the rain coming down at any moment, but I just went for a spin up North Street and back. The bike pulled away nice and swiftly and I can confirm that the belt drive has no slack in it at all – no different to a chain, except for the spooky silence that accompanied it when I was pedalling. I would need to get more used to the upright riding position which came as something of a shock to me compared to the road bike, but I also found the angled handlebars (pic here by arsbars) left the steering feeling a little twitchy. It is however nice and quick to ride and when I got out of the saddle and pushed it a bit, it did feel very swift indeed. My biggest gripe about the bike altogether though was when it was freewheelling though. I may well be completely spoiled by my road bike, but I found the freewheel to be very clicky and it just didn’t roll as a well as I was expecting, despite the fact that it was on 700c x 25 tyres.

Overall – so would I buy one? Well it’s difficult to say. This is the first single speed I’ve ridden, so I don’t know how it compares to the rest of the competition and I would like to try a few other things including the Kona Paddy Wagon, Specialized Langster and the Giant Bowery.

I think if I were to get one then the following modifications would be in order:

• Swapping the twitchy handlebars for a flat or preferably a bullhorn set, even though I’ll end up paying through the nose for a nice matching set.
• Swapping the pedals for a set of Shimano PD-A530 with an SPD on one side and flat on the other

Finally, afterwards I got back onto my beloved SCR1 and rode it home and it did make me wonder why I’d need another bike, as I still love it to bits. So not a clear cut decision at all. More test rides are needed I think!

Got a question? Post it up in the comments!

I’m pleased to say that last Sunday I was one of the 7000 or so cyclists who took part in the annual Council organised bike ride starting from Millennium Square in town.

I opted to do the longest route, the Clevedon Challenge, which, unsurprisingly went down the lanes and back roads to Clevedon and back into the centre of town again.

According to the paperwork it was a 38 mile route, although my trip computer showed 37 in the end. I managed it in 2 hours 32 and am really rather pleased at it is the longest ride I’ve done so far. That coupled with 6 miles in and out of town made for a 49 mile day, all done before lunch. Hurrah!

Well done to everyone who took part, but especially to the guys that overtook me on mountain bikes and even more, the three guys that went past me riding fixed wheel bikes… You nutters.

Sign me up for next years!

It’s Monday 23rd of February, about 6:45pm and I’m finishing off a very annoying report that needs to be in everyones’ inbox first thing on Tuesday. A text comes in on my phone from Gemma:

Hey there. I have some free tickets to the NME Awards for Weds. Could you make it to London for it?

After a moment’s thought I reply back. I can’t go. It’s on a Wednesday and I have Scouts that night. And seriously – who goes for a night out in London on a Wednesday?

Five minutes later, I’ve changed my mind. I go to Scouts nearly every week without fail, surely the other leaders won’t mind. So I fire off a text to all of them and subsequently tell Gemma I will be going. Tickets in the bag, it is then a nerve wracking few hours waiting for the other leaders to text me back as well as trying to work out train times and the like. I was travelling up from Bristol, picking up a friend who works in Swindon on the way so there was a bit of train co-ordinating complexity to add to the mix.

However, the other Scout leaders covered for me, no-one missed their train and everything ran on time.

16:30 left the office
17:02 on the train
18:29 London Paddington
18:55 Brixton Road
19:03 Diluki and I join Gemma and SV in the queue
19:04 a slight pang of worry as Gemma explains our two tickets are on the door and we have to ‘ask for Nick’

Thankfully, ‘Nick’ has made the necessary arrangements and we are in luck. The four of us head in and get some seats before heading to the bar. All of this preamble out of the way though, the show starts soon after 19:30. A slightly nervous Mark Watson took to the stage as the presenter, but soon found his stride.

So the show kicked off with a flourish, with Elbow playing the magnificent ‘Grounds for divorce’, complete with a 20 piece string and brass accompaniment. (Jenn, stop seething, you’ll never last the whole entry at this rate). Various awards followed, interspersed with the classic “And the nominations are…” bits of VT.

Every few awards or so there would be a song played by one of the bands attending. Franz Ferdinand (who I haven’t really listened to since their first album but still rather like) played two songs, one from their new album and then a cover of Atomic with La Roux. Glasvegas covered Suspicious Minds, accompanied by Florence and the Machine. The Cure, Winners of the Godlike Genius Award (side note – presented by Tim Burton!) played a set at the very end of the show, belting out classics such as Friday I’m in Love and Boys Don’t Cry. Sadly we had to get away before they finished in order to get our train home, but I’d had my fix and went away happy.

All in all it was quite surreal, my first ever ‘filmed live for tv’ event and also tons of famous people all a hundred feet or so away.

All four of us had an awesome time and I’m so glad we took the trouble to go up there, even on a school night.

So, to my highlights:

#1. Elbow playing ‘Grounds for Divorce’. I sincerely hope they bring the orchestra to Bristol with them in March

#2. Dizzee Rascal being more rock n roll than anyone else at the whole show and stage diving into the mosh pit once he’d got his award

#3. Elbow getting the outstanding contribution award. It felt like their time and I was really pleased to see them get it

#4. Everyone booing Oasis :)

#5. This. For the first time this millennium, Damon and Graham are back on stage together. If you are a blur fan, there isn’t really much more to add after that.

And that is all really. Massive thanks to Gemma for thinking of me and letting me bring a friend along too! x
Photos are here.

PS. And I can confirm it is entirely possible to go up to London for a night on the piss and be in work the next day, but I wouldn’t recommend doing it too often.

PPS. The most rock n roll thing I’ve ever done? That’s an entry for another day… :)