Month: July 2005

I came across an interesting web site [via]. The web site is called Café Scientifique, and I’ll let them explain:

>The Cafe Scientifique Network
>
>Cafe Scientifique is a place where, for the price of a cup of coffee or a glass
>of wine, anyone can come to explore the latest ideas in science and
>technology. Meetings have taken place in cafes, bars, restaurants and even
>theatres, but always outside a traditional academic context.
>
>The first Cafes Scientifiques were held in the UK in Leeds in 1998. Since then,
>Cafes Scientifiques have sprung up in Newcastle, Nottingham and Oxford and
>the network has now begun to expand to other cities in the UK. We hope that by 2003 there will be a thriving network of
>20 to 30 Cafes that meet regularly to hear
>scientists or writers on science talk about their work and discuss it with
>diverse audiences.
>
>Cafe Scientifique is a forum for debating science issues, not a shop window
>for science. We are committed to promoting public engagement with science
>and to making science accountable.

It seems like an excellent idea! There is one in newcastle, which meets at Café Royal, just round the corner from Grey’s Monument every month.

See there web site for more details.

The New Doctor Who

Originally uploaded by Sam Judson.

I have to say, I very much like the new look for Doctor Who. “Geek Chic” its called apparently.

I’m not really that much of a Doctor Who ‘fan’ (I don’t own a single book, tape, cd, video or dvd) but I did watch them as a kid and have a great amount of nostalgic feeling for the programme. The last series really kicked some serious butt at various points and was incredible good to watch. I also liked reading these reviews from a local lad who seems to like footnotes[1]. I wonder what he thinks of the new look?

Caroline (the wife) is still not very sure about this new guy, but she’s a little biased as she thought Christopher Eccleston was a bit “Fwwarrr” (her words, not mine).

ANyway, more photos on the Doctor Who website (which doesn’t seem to work in Firefox!) or jump straight to the latest news (which does work in Firefox).

[1] I don’t know why but I think its contagious.

Image a ship sailing up the Tyne with no-one on board. A Ghost ship.

Well if you’re around on the 27th July near the end of the Tall Ships Race you may just see the ghost ship arrive…

Travelling from the Fair Isle in scotland all the way down the east coast of britain, using the latest technology to enable the ship to be navigated unmanned it should be interesting to see if a) it makes it and b) what equipment it actually has on board.

I shall try to capture some photos of it when it arrives.

[via communityartsnetwork]

On another small note I wanted to link to the Ten Feet Away website, which was mentioned in the latest Big Issue. Its an art festival (plus year round events) run by/for and displaying the art of homeless people in london. Shame there aren’t more things like this up here.

I found an absolutely brilliant google map hack the other day, called GMap Pedomoeter. I allows you to track a route using Google Maps and tells you the distance etc as you go along. Its great for measuring out running routes, so I decided to measure out the route for the Great North Run, which I shall be running in a few months time.

Great North Run Route.

Enjoy.

Update: Damn, not doing the great north run now – Caroline’s had a muscle thing go in her leg and my knee is playing up. Actually its lightened the load a bit and reduced the stress :)

Holy crap…

Listening to Radio 2 – apparently a until recently unheard of group of terrorists have claimed responsibility for the explosions, in the name of Al-Qaeda.

More than 10 are dead!

Update: German website has news on the Al-Qaeda organisation.