Astronomy for beginners - the Perseid Meteor Shower August 12, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : astronomy for beginners, UK , 4comments
Astronomy for Beginners
It’s not that I intend giving out lessons on amateur astronomy for beginners, and I don’t own a telescope or anything, but I do like to notice interesting phenomena in the natural world, and that includes the heavens. The phases of the moon, Venus the evening star, the basic star constellations like the Plough and Casseopeia (the “W”). So contrary to popular belief, beginners can get a lot out of amateur astronomy without buying any expensive equipment at all.
Perseid Meteor Shower
And around about now, approaching the 12th August is the time when you have the best chance of observing a meteorite shower in the summer night sky above the UK and the northern hemisphere. That’s because it the peak of the time of year when the the Perseid meteor shower is set to light up the skies this weekend, making it easy to spot up to 15 shooting stars per hour. The astronomical phenomenon is caused by comet dust entering the earth’s atmosphere.
With no moon in sight to interfere with the view, amateur astronomy enthusiasts can expect to spot streaking fireballs from late on Sunday evening right up until dawn on Monday, regardless of which time zone you may be in. Astronomers estimate as many as 60 meteors per hour could splash across the sky at the shower’s peak and this year’s Perseid event comes with an added spectacle, Mars will be visible as a bright red dot in the northeastern sky.
How to watch shooting stars
Firstly you do need some luck with the local weather. You’re not going to see any stars if there is cloud cover. We’ve already arranged for the moon not to be visible, so you don’t need to worry about that.
The main problem is patience. If you stand outdoors looking up at the sky and nothing happens for several minutes then it’s only human nature to feel the pain in your neck, give up and go find something else to do. So you need to lie down on your back, somewhere comfortable where you won’t get a crick in your neck, damp in your clothes, sand in your hair or anything else which will put you off. A bit of company will help too, as a conversation in the dark will help to pass the time pleasantly without taking your eyes off the sky. The dying embers of a nice wood fire is best of all, with a belly full of outdoor food, a glass of cider or wine and nothing else to worry about you’ll be in exactly the right state of mind for meteorite watching. Once the first person from your party has gasped “OOH! I saw one I saw one” then the disbelief will be banished and everyone returns attention to the night sky.
Not being happily ensconced in a field this year, I’m not sure how far I’ll be able to adopt my own advice, and the sky is overcast at present. I may be walking around the large open space that is Wanstead Flats instead, late in the evening, I think that might be our best chance here.
Wherever you are, do let me know how you get on with the Perseids.
How many shooting stars did you spot?
Free link love with every comment August 11, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : wordpress, Wiki , 4commentsInspired by Tino Triste, I have decided to remove the rel=”nofollow” tag from the comments links in this blog, to reward people who leave relevant comments.
The world wide web was designed precisely to to be made out of of sites linking to each other and this principle is used to determine the strength, relevancy, and popularity of a site by Google’s page rank algorithm. Then due to blog comment spammers and robots, Google and other search engines decided to introduce the rel=”nofollow” tag, which basically means that a link with that tag has no weight for search engine rankings at all. Wikipedia took up this option readily, and unfortunately so did Wordpress in the default state. But comment spam did not decrease significantly, in fact it has probably increased regardless, so it seems unnecessary to penalise the genuine comments, or for that matter the useful external references on Wikipedia.
So I switched it off.
How? I thought I could just edit the comment module of the theme but it’s embedded far more deeply than that. So I used Kimmo Suominen’s DoFollow 3.0 plugin
Writing an About page August 8, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : wordpress, theory , 4commentsI had a bit of time to myself with an offline laptop recently, whilst Linda was using my main computer to record an interview podcast as it happens. So I decided to write a reflective “about” page for the blog. The main purpose was for myself, trying to get some focus on where the blog is currently situated, in terms of topics, appoach and sense of audience, and where it might be going next.
I’d been sent via Linda’s Furl, a link to lifehack.org so I thought I’d try using the questions and prompts in that artice. I think they worked quite well as stimuli, although no doubt I’ll need to tweak the page from time to time, and rethink it altogether in a much shorter time than I usually expect! Anyway, it’s up on the web version of the blog, accesible from the rightmost page tab in the blog header. That has a url of http://distributedresearch.net/blog/about and may become a landing point where new visitors arrive to see if the blog has anything of interest for them. I’m going to reproduce it below for the benefit of those reading via RSS or email, which frankly should be most people these days. You can always come back to the blog itself to leave a comment 
Since writing the about page, I’ve just seen Stephen Downes’ article “How to be heard” which could also form the basis of a good “about” page or rebranding. In fact if you read both links first then you’re almost guaranteed to produce an even better one than this:
Who is Andy Roberts?
I am a blogger and wiki-er, an explainer, researcher, musician, online community professional with both a technical and creative background. I work from home in London, UK and hope to move pemanently onto a narrow boat in a couple of years. I’ve been fascinated by online groups for ten years, joined hundreds, started many, facilitate a few, but I don’t always fit in easily with norms and expectations so I’m active on my own spaces as much as others. I love WordPress and MediaWiki.
What is this blog all about?
DARnet blog is a vehicle for tracking my journey through internet life, as well as a shop window into my work and learning. It adapts and changes as do I, so the content can be somewhat random or clearly focussed, depending on the period.
My main theme is the process of change, particularly in the context of distributed communities of practice, using the method of action research and applying the theory of social objects.
I’m trying to tell the world that these amazing ‘new’ phenomena are governed by universal laws of change, although complex, can be understood and guided to some extent, and are every bit as real and human as offline communities.
Because I am situated in the UK, you will also find posts related to some topical news and events and my participation in the vibrant London internet startup and social media scene. Homeworking and changing the nature of work is at the forefront through my work with pajamanation, and there’s a separate page for my acoustic music making.
Why Does Your Blog Exist?
See myblog story
How Does Your Blog Work?
Sometimes I don’t post for a week, sometimes twice or more in a day. Comments are open and encouraged with no registration required. Upon commenting, you get a chance to subscribe by email to future comments on that post, so a that a conversation may ensue.
Who Is Your Audience?
I hope the blog is of interest to anybody who knows me through the various social networking events and sites, to facilitators and moderators, geeks and homeworkers, newbies and net veterans, at home and abroad.
I read three hundred RSS feeds daily but the blogroll in my sidebar only contains links which have some relevence to the DARnet blog, mainly individuals.
As far as I know I’m the only blogger writing about communities of practice combined with action research, object orientated sociality and a dash of marxist dialectics. I’m passionate that good theory is important, and try to communicate my ideas in a clearly understandable manner with an informal yet grammatically correct style.
Why Should I Subscribe to Your Blog?
If you subscribe for a long enough period, you will receive unique insights and discoveries, technology tips and developments as well as an unfolding story about the new web entrepreneur lifestyle. All written in an accessible style with illustrative but not gratuitous graphics, and occasional podcast or video.
binary code inflation August 7, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : Mac, tools , 3commentsI just gave in to some nagware and agreed to download a newer version of Fetch. It’s a necessary tool, because sometimes Dreamweaver is not sufficient or carries too much overhead. You just want a simple FTP program to move a file from one computer to another, and Fetch is one of the best options for Mac. Being a cautious sort of person I didn’t just copy the new version on top of the other, I renamed the old one first. Through this I noticed a huge differences in the file sizes.
- Fetch 5.0.4 = 13.7 Mb
- Fetch 5.2.1 = 56.3 Mb
What on earth could be going on here?
In theory, later versions of a simple piece of utility software like an FTP program should get slightly smaller as more efficient code is introduced, not over four times bigger!
Now that computer memory comes in chunks of 1Gb are we going to see the world’s first 500Mb text editor?
FMD hits another herd - Calls for vaccination August 7, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : foot-and-mouth, UK , add a commentBad news from Surry, where another suspected case of foot and mouth disease in cattle has led to immediate death of a herd.
BBC news reported yesterday
Fresh cull in foot-and-mouth zone
Protection zones surround the affected sites
A fresh case of foot-and-mouth disease is suspected in Surrey, the chief veterinary officer has confirmed. Cattle, within the 3km protection zone set up around the farm where the first outbreak occurred, are being culled as a precaution.
But in a repeat of the controversy surrounding UK government action during the devastating 2001 outbreak, there are already calls for a programme of vaccination to be implemented as an alternative to shooting out livestock.
Johnathan Miller:
The situation is the perfect scenario for vaccination. The specific virus is known. There is currently just one cluster of disease hence a ring vaccination scheme can be implemented with high confidence.
August 6/7 2007 ~ Not good news. Clinical signs found in another herd.
NOW will you vaccinate?
Another herd has been identified with clinical signs within the larger protection zone. Debby Reynolds has ordered that the herd be culled as soon as practicable. As an emailer comments , if as many as 39 of the Woolford cattle really tested positive for disease “it may be that this has rumbled around longer than a week or so. That is not good news, if this small farm is not the index case.”
This is the very moment that emergency ring vaccination of all susceptible animals starting from the outside of the surveillance zone should begin. The 67 strain, now designated FMDV-O1 BFS 1860/UK/67, was particularly prone to air-borne spread and could even still be air-borne. (Rounding up the now possibly infected roe deer that roam freely in the Protection Zone and killing them all in a pen would not prove easy, either. Vaccination is now urgent and essential.)
Test results to establish whether any of the slaughtered cows at the second farm were indeed infected with foot-and-mouth disease are being awaited by anxious farmers. The results are due out today, Tuesday 7th August.
Worryingly for the rural tourist industry, Britain’s Environment Secretary Hilary Benn, responding to concerned farmers said the issue of footpath closures would be investigated immediately.
Web Services Will Be Free August 5, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : Pajamanation, web2.0 , add a commentMediajunk, an internet consulting service explains why the subscripions model is no longer viable. These days you have to make your web services free. Why? Because if you don’t, someone else will - eventually.
Web Services Will Be Free - mediajunk
A bold prediction: many (if not all) of the web services that we currently pay for will soon be offered free.
Two warnings: 1. Your website will need significant numbers of visitors before an advertising-based model becomes workable
2. You have to build a brand, and fast.
Questions about Pirbright August 5, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : foot-and-mouth, UK , add a comment 
Pirbright is the location of The Pirbright Laboratory of the Institute of Animal Health, and is currently the number one suspect as the source of the foot and mouth disease virus in the outbreak at a small farm in Wanborough, Surrey. The IAH is a quango sponsored by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council with clients including Defra, the Department of Health and the Department of International Development. Biohazardous research and training is routinely performed at Pirbright.
The laboratory is also a world reference centre for the Office International des Épizooties and the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) for the diagnosis of diseases in an emergency so all known strains of FMD are held at Pirbright for reference.
Jonathan Miller asks some pertinent questions:
A more inconvenient truth about Pirbright is that it is the wrong laboratory in the wrong place. The American equivalent FMD lab is on an island and answers to the Department of Homeland Security. Putting an virology lab next to the A323 might seem a counter-intuitive arrangement.
We need to know much more about Pirbright and the Institute for Animal Health, the quango that operates it and its current relationship with Defra. The annual report is here. The IAH claims to be “advancing, safeguarding and improving” animal health whereas in fact it has recently accomplished something else entirely. The commercial relationships of the IAH are also pretty opaque. To what extent had the IAH turned Pirbright into a vaccine factory, operated by a French pharmaceutical company? These are things we need to know.
Roe deer may have transmitted foot and mouth disease August 5, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : foot-and-mouth, UK , add a commentBy scouting around discussions on the internet it is clear that an uneasy relationship exists
between farmers and government departments and vets. There’s also a body of well informed knowledge in the public domain which sometimes challenges the idea that authority knows best. Ahead of the mainstream media then, here is the story that roe deer may be responsible for transmitting the 01 BFS 67 foot and mouth disease virus between the Surrey factory which manufactures vaccines for export, and local farms such as that where the current outbreak began. From http://www.warmwell.com/:
Foot and Mouth disease UK 2007
Roe deer move between Pirbright and local farms.
“Roe deer occur widely on Surrey’s commons, and were even recorded on quite small sites in relatively built-up areas”: (DEFRA funded wildlife project pdf) . The A31, inside the 3km exclusion zone, had to be disinfected yesterday because a deer was hit by a car. Woolford farm is separated from Pirbright by an arable farm, a wood and a golf course. It does not take much imagination to predict that any escape of the 01 BFS 67 virus from IAH Pirbright or the Merial laboratory could now be infecting these deer.
It is a vaccine strain 01 BFS 67 - one that was being used at Pirbright in July
Professor Hugh Pennington interviewed on BBC News 24 gives as his opinion that the source virus is identical to that in vaccine work being done at Pirbright and very possibly excaped from there.
UK Farm infected with foot-and-mouth August 4, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : foot-and-mouth, UK , add a commentFirst reactions yesterday “Uh oh, here we go again”
BBC NEWS | UK | Farm infected with foot-and-mouth
A UK-wide ban on movement of all livestock is in place after cattle at a farm in Surrey were found to be infected with foot-and-mouth disease.Some 60 animals on the farm close to the village of Wanborough near Guildford have tested positive for the disease which wreaked havoc in 2001.
A 3km protection zone has been put in place around the premises.
Gordon Brown cancelled his holiday in Dorset and took part in a meeting of government’s Cobra emergency committee.
I seem to remember holding a keen interest in news of developments of the tragic epidemic six years ago, tracking the various conspiracy theories on uk.business.agriculture Let’s see what’s happening there now:
BBC Helicopters flying directly over head of the farm and there are still live animals exuding virus
IDIOTSThey have already had continuous footage of the 2001 with over - emotive footage; asking about vaccination without any research, and declaring alternatively that ALL animal movements are banned / only sheep,cattle, pigs are banned.
Both statements are false.Totally irresponsibility at all levels.
statement from DEFRA “Nationally no animal movements are allowed except under licence”
Seems even those in charge havent a clue - nothing changes eh
foot-and-mouthLulu August 4, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : Pajamanation, Long Tail, web2.0, Wiki , 2commentsI’m very interested in Lulu, so even the slightest mention in one of the RSS feeds I read is worth noting:
Engineers without Fears: Open Publish (1): The Keynote Cops
Then there was Andrew Pate from Lulu. AP told us about Lulu - on-demand publishing and its role in the Long Tail. Lulu is an interesting service so hence AP’s talk was interesting. Two comments:* AP noted there is a growing interest in self-published material by book sellers whereas 5 years ago they wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole.
* From an audience of over 100, only 2 of us had bought anything off Lulu.
is an online professional who initiated DARnet 
