Apathy

A friend of mine recently reminded me of something which one should remember:

Apathy and withdrawing in disgust are not the same thing.

The Moon – Hanging in There

Great photo of the moon taken with a huge crane in the foreground somewhere in NYC. A tough shot!

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Team Hippy Wins Ferrero Roche

Wow – i am glad that a situation has arisen where i needed to write that particular title! Today Olga Goulko, a fellow Part 3er held a quiz at CMS – good fun was had by all! The Hippy Team comprising of myself, Steffen Gielen (German dude), Leo van Nierop (Netherlander) and Eoin* Kerrane (fellow Paddy) were victorious – huzaw!

PS Thanks Olga for putting in all the effort coming up with questions and getting prizes

* ‘Eoin’ is sometimes mis-spelt as ‘Owen’ by phonetically challenged english speakers.

xkcd

xkcd is a web-comic with new entries on mondays, wednesdays and fridays. It concerns “romance, sarcasm, math and language”* in the words of the site’s author. It is certainly weird and contains a lot of stuff you might not get if you have not had experience with computers or basically if you are not a scientist/interested in science more than the average person. There are a number of long running and recurring themes (eg. the author seems to have an irrational fear of velociraptors!). Every so often it does produce some absolute gems though so I recommend for a look.

* math = american way of saying maths

An 30ú Dáil

Bunaíodh an 30ú Dáil an t-seachtain seo chaite. Chonaiceamar caidreamh nua idir Fianna Fáil, an Páirtí Glas, an Páirtí Daonlathach agus cúpla daoine neamhspleách eile. Bhuaigh FF an cuid is mó de na suíocháin le 78 as 166. Leis an comhaontú seo fuair siad i bfhad níos mó de na 6 suíocháin is gá le haighadh tromlach a fháil.
Ar dtús bhi sceitimíní orm faoin Páirtí Glas ach anois níl mé lán le misneach. Ceapaim gur chaill siad ar a saincheisteanna tábhactacht – an usáid mhíleata aerfort na sionna, an forbairt den mótarbhealach M3 agus go háirithe an saincheist tabhartais ó daoine gnó. An bfhuil sibh truaillithe cheana féin? B’fhéidir go bfhuil mé ró amhrasach – feicfidh muid …

[The 30th Dáil was elected this past week. We now see a new relationship between Fianna Fáil, the Green Party, the Progressive Democrats and a few independent candidates. FF won the most seats with 78 out of the 166. With this agreement they have much more than the extra 6 seats necessary to have a majority. At first o was excited about the Green Party but now I am not so full of confidence. I think that they have lost on their important issues - the military use of Shannon Airpott, the the M3 motorway through Tara and especially the issue of corporate donations. Are they corrupted already? Maybe I am too skeptical - we will see ...]

June Extra Jodcast Now Up

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Can You Find Higgs?

Here’s a cool game which my friend Mars has found – the Find Higgs game!

Garden Party

Tomorrow there is a garden party in Trinity. Apparently it is a right of passage for us folk in Trinity so i guess i will be going.

Does this make me a cockney now …

June Jodcast Now Up

The latest episode is up and includes an excellent interview with Prof. Jocelyn Bell-Burnell CBE, FRS FRAS, the discoverer of pulsars some 40 years ago. She has some interesting stories about the discovery and the trouble she had with little green men …

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He’s embiggened the role with a cromulent performance …

Flip Tanedo points out that string theorists have a sense of humour … or at least some of them do!

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