This is hilarious

Okay, I accidentally downloaded some random podcast from Iplayer, first one that played on the “shuffle” first one, “Did the Nazi’s prove the earth is hollow?”

My first thought… No!

Here was the idea; The earth is hollow, and there is an alien race living in there.

Okay, here is the first problem I’ve got with that… If the earth is hollow, where does our gravity come from? If it was hollow there would be significantly less mass to the earth, and gravity would be a lot smaller. The people who believe the earth is hollow have an explanation for this: “There is a star in the centre of the earth”

Thats possibly the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. First of all: If there is an alien race down there, they’d be living on the inside of the earth, here is my poor illustration:

So if there were aliens in there, the force of gravity would be opposite to what they were standing on. That’d be like gravity acting up! They’d just fall off the earth and go straight into the star…

The next bit… A star in the middle?! Do you know how complex it would be to suspend a mass exactly in centre of the earth? If it moved slightly closer to an edge, the force of gravity would increase rapidly, (Gravity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance) causing the star to accelerate rapidly straight into the edge of the earth. Plus, a lighter mass has a different orbital radius than a heavier mass, so the earth would orbit the sun at one radius, but the star inside would need to be at another radius unless it was going faster than the earth!

Basically, the math doesnt work out. Conclusion:

THEORY: BUSTED

There were a bunch of others, like vampires actually excised, citing some crazy witch hunters from 1600s as evidence… Thats not gonna stand up in court! Well, it gave me a good laugh!

Skip

Secret Garden song

“Imagine. Our planet floating silently in space. Around it, a white dove flies-forever circling. Every one hundred years, the dove's wing gently touches the face of the earth. The time it would take for the feathered wing to wear this planet down to nothing is eternity.”

-Secret Garden, Dawn of a New Century.

Now…. let me just analyse that…

Every hundred years, the wing touches earth, so I’m guessing we can assume a few things here.

First, when the wing touches, it will rub a small piece off. Lets call it 1 gram of sand.

2nd, there is no effect on the dove, so the contact will not wear down the feathers or anything, so all energy is expended on dislodging a piece of earth

 

So.. lets work that out.

The mass of the earth is

5.9742 × 10²⁴ kg, and is loosing 1gram per 100 years.

Therefore, it takes 10000 years to remove 1kg mass.

Thats 5.97x10^29 years for the planet to be ground down to nothing.

5.97 Billion Billion Billion Billion

Its a big number

597420000000000000000000000000.00

New Chicken Wings T-Shirt

Just recieved my new Chicken Wings Comics T-Shirt. For those of you who dont know, Chicken Wings is an aviation based comic:

http://chickenwingscomics.com/

Love it!

Music!

“If music be the food of love, play on”
Ah, music, a wonderful thing isn't it? One of the great masteries that we humans have… mastered.. Okay, before I continue, i should point out a couple of things. First, its 1:19am in the morning, and secondly, I’m very much not an “Owl,” the only reason I’m doing this now is because i can’t sleep.
So, the reason for this was me thinking about music. I was listening to my I-pod (other MP3 players are available…) to Lacuna Coil (Other artists are available) and an image burned into my mind, or more, a scene came to mind. The scene was from, April or so I guess, and was from the game Garry’s Mod. For those of you who don't know, Garry’s Mod, or Gmod for short, is a Halflife 2 modification, that allows you to construct just about anything. I’d been using it to build space ships, complete with life support, weapon systems control systems etc, and the music I’d been listening to was Lacuna Coil.
So this got me thinking about other songs and what they reminded me of, and so it lead me back to my little blog.
Coldplay’s Viva La Vida, an album released in 2008 was the first one that crossed my mind. I got this album in mid summer of 2008. I resisted listening to the album until I went to Marsa Alam, Egypt, with Calypso Diving. However, while there i was so busy with actual diving that I didn't get a chance to listen to it until I was back in the UK. After we’d arrived back on UK soil, said our goodbyes etc, it was about 10pm at night, and i had to be in South Wales by 12 the following day, so I decided I’d just sit it out at Manchester airport and catch the first train the next morning. Cue a 5h wait at Manchester Airport…. I had actually totally forgotten about Viva La Vida at this point, and it wasn't until 4 in the morning that I remembered, and was about to begin my first leg of the return train journey. So from Manchester airport back to Cardiff (took me about another 5h as trains at 4 in the morning suck) I was listening to Viva La Vida. Now, when I go past the stations again on my way back to Yorkshire, I remember sitting on such and such a station in the misty morning on my suitcase full of dive gear, listening to the album.
I’m going to have to draw part one of my little music post to a close as it is 2 in the morning… and I’m starting to feel tired! Skipper out!

My dive 09 tickets!

Yay, my dive 09 tickets.

This is not a good time to be awake!

So, i begin my journey to Birmingham. Had to get up at an ungodly hour...
Anyway. Continuing on, i managed to get on the wrong train in Cardiff, and I'm not sure where I'm headed... We shall see

Tickets for DIVE 2009!

Well, I can’t back down now! I’ve just spent £48 on my rail tickets to Birmingham International for Dive 2009 at the NEC. Wooo!

Really looking forward to it now, even if I have waaay too much work to do

Completed Call of Duty 5… again

Well… instead of working I was doing something much more productive… playing Call of Duty 5. Completed it 2nd time now. This time was to get all the Death Cards… I missed 2… diamn!

Dive 2009… I hope I can make it!

Well, its nearly that time of the year when Dive 2009 comes to Birmingham NEC. Basically this is what its riding on:
My Student loan, I applied for my loan in May 2009, and received nothing back from the Student Loan Company, I rang them in September and asked “WTF?”  and was told it was being processed.. would be with me shortly… But nothing yet… So, I received my cheque from Botton Village, as usual, which is currently clearing.
Hopefully the Botton cheque will be cleared by Thursday…. meaning I’ll be able to buy my train ticket and go to DIVE!
Watch this space!

To Egypt and beyond... well, just to Egypt.. then back again

After a couple months on the Farm, I headed, with the Dive Club "Calypso Diving" to the Red Sea. Instead of Marsa Alam last year, we headed to Sharm El Sheikh. Que one week of great diving, ending in me getting ill....
(Left) Xernia faraunensis, also known as the Pulsating Coral Polyp. One of my favourite photographs from the trip. For more, click the image.. should lead you to my Flickr profile....


Well, after Egypt I returned home for a week to work on the farm again, but I dont think I did seeing as I was still ill from Egypt... dodgy pizza I think... tasted like toilet cleaner... niiice......
Well, after the week it was RTB for some more R&R in Trefforest with Dragon 8. And that pretty much brings you up to speed... I'm back in Wales.. back on the course... funky dory....

Summer 2009 continued

This is the continuation of Summer 09, since the other one was getting a bit full!
I'll finish summing up South Africa with a picture of my reaction to my 150-500mm lens breaking, credits go to Briony Taylor for the picture:














Well, moving on from that... I returned up to Yorkshire to work on the farm. My "mission" there was producing plans for a chicken coop.
Other farming work included driving around in 4x4s, tractors and other assorted vehicles, weeding carrots, hay making, and stacking huge numbers of bales... urgh!
Good fun though

Back after a bit.

Well, its been a while since i made any sort of entry here. Just rediscovered SWAT4. Awesome game, hopefully i,ll be able to get the band back together.


In other news... the work situation is back to being scarily familiar... 7 pieces of coursework on the go...





Well, this post is dedicated to the summer of 2009.
Starting from the beginning.... The summer of 09 began badly, with end of year exams, never a good end to any year. However, things just went uphill from there (to be fair it was hard for them to go down after exams... meh). Team 1 of IWB, including myself, left the chilly UK for warmer climes in South Africa for our SA Field Trip. This could take up a whole blog on its own... so I'll cut it short... It was great, got lots of good pictures like this one (Left).A Zebra Jumping Spider. If you see the enlarged version you can make out the huge eyes. (Below, Left) you can see an Egg Eater, its similar to the Night Adder, but has no teeth and is not poisonous. However it mimics its behaviour superbly, making little mock attacks to warn off any would be predators.

Dandelion ready to spread seeds

Dandelion ready to spread seeds
Originally uploaded by SkipperDiver

"The Dandelion spreads its seeds using the wind as its vector." A really quick shot, but it came out rather nice I thought.

Dandelion

Dandilion
Originally uploaded by SkipperDiver

Shot of a dandelion in my Garden in Terfforest, South Wales.
I thought it was quite a nice one that symbolised the beginning of summer.

Lambs on the farm

Just returned from my fortnight at home in sunny North Yorkshire.
I returned with a Boyancy Control Device for diving, a new camera and 2 combat knives... Productive holiday!

Anyways, here are some shots:
Calf at Botton Farm>


Our Lambs:


On Good Friday there was a community work event, and everyone worked a clearing one of the houses gardens of brambles and cut logs. The brances and brambles were then piled up to make the Easter fire.
On Easter day we lit the fire:


Oh.. I got another camera!
A Nikon D80, so finally I can get lenses that dont have a lens motor, should be able to afford a Sigma 150-500mm.

Saturday: A day on a bike

Hello all,

Well, beginning of the weekend, and today I spent nearly the whole day either on or around my bike.
Started off the day at about 12 ish (when I woke up) and head out with the initial plan of biking up to Merthyr and then up and around Pen-y-Fan then back. Or getting the train to Merthyr and then doing the Pen-Y-Fan thing. But, as they say, the best laid plans of mice and men...

So, I packed my bag with couple of fruit bread sandwiches, filled my camel back, put my camera in my helmet for safekeeping (wasn't wearing my helmet.. Ooh naughty!) and tucked SAMR/MRSA into a pouch on my new rucksack. After doing a spot check on my bike I began out, but almost immediately ran into trouble. As I headed across Broadway/Heathfield Villas I could hear a scraping of my rear wheel against the frame. Once across the road I had a quick inspection and decided that the axle was probably loose, and since I do not have the tools I headed off up to Halfords.
When I took off the back wheel I figured it was a little more than a loose axle since the Quick Release pin was bent, but not much. They took in my wheel and went to tighten the axle so it wasnt loose, and the axle came out completely. It had sheared in half! So I had to buy a new axle because I'd snapped the old one! After they'd fitted the new axle I was back out, and this time headed up the Taff towards Abercynon. A couple of miles outside Abercynon I broke off from the main trail and went down the Lady Winsor Colliery trail towards Porth.
After the colliery I headed North towards a place with a silly name, lots of Ys, I know that for sure. Ynysybwl.
From here I had to decide if to go to Porth or Mountain Ash, I decided Mountain Ash, so I continued northward. My route led me though a forest called Ffynnon dwyn, but my 1:50k map didnt show me any paths in detail, so I decided to have a try anyways and see what I could find.
There was what appeared to be some sort of path going northwards, where I wanted to be, so I took it.
After a long uphill stretch I found the path curved back around and went down again about 500m from where I started off! One large circle, one large waste of time! I had to double back then and found a small path that snaked off though the forest, and best of all, it was down! Got some great speed down this little piece of single track though the pine trees, and eventually comming out by a river. At this point I didnt realise I'd just missed my turning half way back up the hill, and was slightly confused by the fact that the path disapeared, so I figured I would just head south till I ended back up in Ynysybwl as there was some sort of sheep track of some description. After a click or so the path petered out and I was left in a field with a 8ft barbed wire fence on one side, a river on another and a house on another, so I had to do do another loop to get back up where i should've turned off originoally. Finally I reached it and headed back across the correct field back to Ynysybwl, back though the Lady Winsor Colliery, back along the Taff trail to Pontypridd and then home. Total journey length 25 clicks.
All in all, a good little trip!

Doves return to the garden for a bit

Spotted the 2 Collared doves in the garden again today. Though they didnt stop for very long, just landed on the wall and by the time I'd grabbed my camera they'd flown off.
On the note of cameras;
Just purchased a new lens for my Nikon. Its a 500mm fixed aperture lens, but its a manual focus, thats the only downside. Still, with my teleconverter its a 1000mm with a 11.2f aperture.
Has slightly broken the bank a bit, but it'll live.
My cuccumbers have finally died. Fully dead dead.
Coursework progress:
3/6 done.
50%!

Garden starting to come to life

Finally, the garden is begining to look less like an atomic wasteland and more like a garden.
Few little plants starting to bud, and the occasional flower.
Pictures from top:
I've no idea what this flower is. If anyone knows, please do tell
2nd, not sure what this bud is either.. We'll see when it comes out

3rd- My baby radishes! Much taller now, about 50mm tall though they still have their coteledons, no real leaves yet
4th- My cuccumbers- Noooo Their not looking especially healthy...

Collared Dove in my garden!

Spotted a pair of Collared doves on my bird feeders. Tried taking a shot of them but the lighting was terrible and the shots came out blurred. Probably should've used a higher ISO. Anyways, the 2 came in and sat on the rail for a bit, I actually didnt see them eating from the feeder. Later on this afternoon I saw them back again but my enemy, next doors cat, came by and scared them away. I managed to stare down the cat and it fled the garden in a hurry.
I hope the doves return to my garden, makes a nice change from the Jackdaws.
Skip out

Visit to the National Botanic Garden of Wales

Should probably have posted this earlier!
On the 2nd March IWB squadron and the students from Biology squadron took a coach up to Carmarthen to pay a visit to the NBGW. I dont have time to write, in full, what happened, so I'll summerise:
After the coach arrived at the NBGW we headed up to the Great Glass House, the biggest free standing glasshouse in the world (the eden project doesnt count, theirs is plastic, HAHA in your face Eden Project!)
In here we had a tour around the Fynbos vegetation and into the other Mediteranian areas, Chille, California, the Med, and South Africa. We then had a tea break with rather good welsh cakes and a talk on the work being done at NBGW, then it was time for lunch in the Cafe.
Since there was such a wide range of main meals avaialble and I couldnt choose which I wanted I decided to skip the main course and just have the different cakes. A none to bad choise to be fair!
After this it was back to the glasshouse to do our own research on the Fynbos vegetation before we were extracted and returned to base.
Mission report ends 1755 Zulu
Pictures from Top:
House Sparrow in the courtyard of the Cafe
The glasshouse
SAMR by my camera

Back once again

Well, its been an insanely long time since I wrote anything in here. To be fair, very little has changed. Diving wise, I'm now EFR qualified and havnt dived since Marsa Alam (Shame....) YSFLIGHT wise I'm pretty inactive. Am pretty busy with my Wildlife Biology course, which is rather good.
What else has changed... Oh, I have a new computer, a desktop this time.
A new lens for my Nikon. (70-300mm) and a couple of other things.
Wow, i just realised, it was Oct when I last wrote in here!
How about a picture collage of what I've been up to:

Climbing Mountains:

(Pen-Y-Fan)
Recon (with Dragon 8)

(Abandoned Coke Factory-Beddau)
And of course, work:

(Soil sampling- Brecons)