The Heap

A pile of stuff yet to be sorted

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Christmas Dr Who

In response to a Tweet from @TerribleZodin "What Christmassy periods of history would you like to see the Doctor visit?" I had the following suggestions:

• 1066, Westminster Abbey. What was the Saxon Resistance trying to ally itself with?
  • Duke William The Bastard's hold on power was still weak when he was crowned in the 25th December
• 1643 aboard the Royal Mary. A new island is found. Just what 'unique fauna' was found and dealt with...
  • Christmas Island is noted for its unusual fauna, could there be an equally unusual explanation?
• 1826, West Point, something is going on behind the cover provided by rioting military cadets...
  • This was the year of the 'Eggnog Riot' by students, drunk on Whiskey smuggled into the Academy
• 1946, Soviet Reactor F-1. First Reaction. Somebody chooses between averting immediate disaster & the Soviet A-bomb.
• 1990, CERN, The Web functions for the first time...
  • Tim Berners-Lee got all the required components working for the first time on his NeXTcube. Did he have help? Was anyone trying to delay the emergence of this technology that has had so much impact on the world? Was something else going on at CERN over the holidays? And as always, why...?
• 2004, Mars, Beagle 2 attempts to land...
  • The probe failed at some point during its re-entry - but why? And just what is that sitting on the sideboard in the TARDIS?

Geeking Out Blues

<Blues Harmonica>

Woke up this morning,

dived into Docutils words.

Found it confusing,

and not quite all it should.

Not even had breakfast,

and I'm drowning in code.

Working obsessive,

man I got no life to loose.

Deep into Python,

I got 'em geeking out blues...

<Percussive riff on Keyboard>

Strangeness on a Train

So there I was on the train, running at 100 mph through the Green and Pleasant land of rural Hampshire, downloading a book written my some Chinese chap 2000 years ago whilst following up this chap Klausewitz who wrote a bigger book with a similar name a couple of hundred years ago. The the sound of the Boomtown Rats was in my ears. Then I noticed the teen lad in a Guns and Roses T Shirt opposite me. He was clearly seriously offended that the bloke in the suit opposite him was enjoying music whilst using technology - he ostentatiously banged his head away to whatever he was listening to whilst furiously hunched over his iPhone hammering icons as fast and as hard as he could giving off 'bad vibes' and 'invading my personal space man'. Clearly 'Old People' should know their place and be baffled by electronic devices.

Every time a teen girl wandered past he redoubled his efforts, becoming more emphatic, feverishly searching his iPod for 'cooler' tracks as my phone progressed to some Pink. Clearly he believed my Geek Cred was a threat to his chances with them (incorrect, as its not possible to reduce such chances below zero) and was seeking to establish himself as the Alpha Geek. I got amused and began to smile, catching the eye of a woman nearby who smiled back, raising her eyes at the lads behaviour. This annoyed him even more, his head went further down and frenzied head bobbing and foot and screen tapping followed. When I got up at Woking he couldn't have been more keen to clear my way and let me go. Adolescent wannabe techno-apes do not appreciate having scary Alphas (not!) around while they play with their monkey-pooh/tech in an effort to impress the teen-girls - who have unaccountably failed to notice him as they try and flirt with the hunk of a builder two seat rows down (another doomed effort).

A Bit of Hamfisted Lit Crit

Yesterday I read both Agatha Christie's 'The Mysterious Affair at Styles' and D L Sayers 'Whose Body'. On the evidence of these two books Sayers is by far the better writer. For example there is a subtle question posed by one scene - is the removal from circulation of a murderer who is of great benefit to society and is unlikely to strike again the right thing to do. And her treatment of Shell Shock (PTSD today) is tinged by neither pity nor horror, it just IS and is part of life in those post WWI days.

I have begun the first collection for Father Brown stories by G K Chesterton. He is a cleverer, more cerebral, writer than Sayers but, I don't think, as 'deep' in what he writes. He tries social commentary but he 'tells' not 'shows' and is generally more overtly 'political' than Sayers and is therefore less successful at it. His plots are also even less believable than Christie's. I doubt I will finish the book.

PS. I didn't

Pete Redway: Personal Thoughts

I learn, indirectly, from a comment by Clive A, that Pete Redway, Chairman of Surrey and Hants Canal Society is dead. A great chap. I know everybody who knew him worried about his health after so many close calls but it always seemed impossible that he would finally succumb. Down here on the moorings relations may have been a bit prickly at times but he was always reasonable and almost always cheerful. He was truly dedicated to the society and the canal and the Pump House down here wasn't named after him idly. He was one of those people that you think 'what are we going to do without him' about but on top of that he was a thoroughly decent, dedicated and practical gentleman in a world increasingly short of them.

Challenger: STS 51L

Is it really 25 years?

25 years ago I was working on an essay in my room at the South Woodford Hall of Residence when I took a break to watch a Shuttle Launch. Not that much later I was one of a bunch of Astrophysics Undergraduates drowning our sorrows in Steve’s room on the 13th floor of one of the Tower Blocks.

I was in the awful situation of saying 'told you so'. Whilst I didn't follow things in quite as much detail as I do today - you couldn't, the information available via the web has changed all that - I had predicted an accident 'within the next five years, probably within the next two' to my family that Christmas.

It had become obvious to me that the launch schedule was being driven hard. I found it hard to believe that the turnaround times were being met without compromising safety. I knew that there had been at least two burn-throughs of O-rings on the Boosters and was mystified at NASA's seemingly casual attitude to something that seemed to me to be plainly unacceptable. I didn't think it would actually BE those O-rings that caused the accident, but it was the attitude that had appeared that scared me.

Today there are only three more Shuttle missions to fly. And I will be glad when the last one lands safely. Because I now know just how close to the edge every flight of that amazing machine is, just how careful everyone involved is, after loosing a second crew. Because I know just how close the system is to an accident.

The next flight, STS-133, is currently sat in the Vehicle Assembly Building after having changes made to its External Tank to prevent an accident. And the cause of this accident waiting to happen? A change to the Heat Treatment of some Aluminium Strip that means it fractures closer to the design load - which it now turns out has been being exceeded on every flight. One flight landed safely only because the tile that was lost was over an Antenna. Another landed short of the Runway, a forecasting error meant that they would have ended up in the swamp if they had been landing at Kennedy rather than Edwards. Yet another was leaking propellant during accent a way that left it seconds from the explosive disassembly of an engine.

All Spaceflight is dangerous, more dangerous than most people realise. But the Shuttle is uniquely dangerous because it is so complex, because there is no escape system and because so much of it is used time after time, rather than being 'factory fresh'. And the irony is, it would cost less to build a new launcher with the same capability for each mission - the Shuttle design is dictated more by the politics of the 1970s than by sensible engineering.

Around 1 in 50 is the failure rate achieved by even the most reliable launchers. With the Shuttle there is no realistic chance of escape from many of those failures. So I will 'hold my breath' with each launch, marvelling at the technology but wishing it gone.

I just wish there was something to replace it.

29 January 2011

Prejudice, Boats and Big Fat Weddings

I have just looked around online at 'Big Fat Gypsy Wedding' and peoples comments on same. I immediately wondered at what a TV program on Non-Traveller weddings selected for participants who were willing to appear and 'Good TV' would look like.

The level of prejudice in the comments I see online is depressing. Prejudice against Muslims may well pass the 'Dinner Table Test' but so does prejudice against 'Pikeys'.

I live on a boat and have been lucky to escape most direct discrimination but I know that we are referred to as 'Pikeys' in the village, I know that it is assumed that we are Squatting, that we are all on benefits, that we don't pay Council Tax etc. I have walked off the moorings on my way to work in my suit and had a couple behind me 'joke' 'Must have a court date'. I have even had trouble buying online because of my address - and had another business refuse to believe I have an address.

For the record - I work for the government in a responsible job and live entirely legally, paying my taxes and charges just like most other people.