Category: Technology

Johnathan Wilson Lewis – another thinker.

Fourier approaches to the theory of volume holography.

Anyone who takes a doctorate with the above subject title has to have a well-functioning brain.  I know John.  He does.

John Lewis, as I have always known him until reading his Blog, and I met a good many years ago when we both were members of a private flying group that operated a Socata (French) TB20, G BPAS.

TB20 G-BPAS
TB20 G-BPAS

It was based at Exeter in Devon, SW England.  Both of us were/are private pilots.

We flew together on many an occasion and it was clear from the start that John approached everything in life from, well in his own words, “…. motivated by an interest in what things are, how they work and how they are used.”  Say no more!

Well, as luck would have it, the joys of social networking brought us back in touch recently and we had a jolly good chin-wag.  With a bonus.

Read more about John Lewis

Precision engineering

Technology is so much more than bits and bytes.

Recently had the opportunity to visit a factory belonging to Horst Engineering in the nearby town of Guaymas (pronounced whymas), Sonora, Mexico.  The factor manager is an American, Andy Law, who, with his lovely wife, livesHorst 2 across the road.

It is simply ages since I have seen a precision engineering factory at work.  Not only was I impressed but it took me on a long trip down memory lane, with a couple of strands: engineering tools and the British defence industry.

But before the reminisces, a word about the calibre of the young Mexicans working for Andy.  Unlike so many of the locals who one comes across, these bright, young men and women are committed, self-motivated, multi-lingual (Sp/Eng) citizens. It was a treat to observe them and hear Andy speak so highly of them.  Mexico sorely needs up-coming generations of highly capable people.

Continue reading “Precision engineering” →

CCTV cameras in Britain!

Britain’s excessive use of CCTV cameras and the shocking waste of money.

Even before leaving England a year ago, this was a subject that made me feel uneasy, to say the least.

Anyway, a recent article in The Daily Telegraph pointed out just what a complete cock-up this ‘investment’ in cameras CCTV camerahas been.

Britain has 1 per cent of the world’s population but around 20 per cent of its CCTV cameras!  Scary.

And don’t even think about the implications of RFID – Radio Frequency Identification.

G’rrrr.

By Paul Handover

SoundCloud – very cool!

SoundCloud is just wonderful.

If you are into music, and who isn’t, do hot foot it over to SoundCloud.  It’s just an amazing reminder of the power of the web.

Essentially, it makes posting music onto a web site or Blog as easy as, well as easy as this …

Just click on the play button and drift away!

Very, very cool!

By Paul Handover

Cell phones and cancer

Is the mobile telephone industry being honest?

A report released by the International EMF Collaborative last week has some disturbing information in it; that cell phones (mobile phones in Europe) are more likely than not to be a causative factor in some cancers, most notably brain cancers.

That information will not come as a surprise to anyone as rumours have been circulating for many years.  What is driving-while-on-cell-phoneworse (if brain cancer wasn’t bad enough) is a growing view that the cell phone industry may have been trying to skew the results in favour of the industry.  If proven, that sort of corporate behaviour underlines the value of integrous living as the only way of creating a society fit for all.

The International EMF Collaborative claims that the Interphone study, which begun in 1999, was “intended to determine the risks of brain tumors, but its full publication has been held up for years. Components of this study published to date reveal what the authors call a ’systemic-skew’, greatly underestimating brain tumor risk.”

Know of young people using cell phones? Then read more and pass this Post on to them.

Read more about this study

Air Sports

World Aerobatic Championships, Silverstone, England

Yesterday was the last of the three days of the WAC, the World Aerobatic Championships, held, this time, in England.  Had I known earlier then this Post would have been published before the event had finished.

Anyway, guess what has been found on the web?  Airsports TV.  So all those that hanker after this sort of thing, here is your very own TV station.  Want to know more about Airsports TV?  Watch the video below:

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Want more?
Now hang on to your seats!

STS 128 is away!

Shuttle Discovery launches without a hitch.

At 23.59 EDT, Shuttle Discovery lifts off from launch pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Centre.

sts 128 launch

America frequently gets a bad press around the world but events like this are a reminder of the pioneering spirit of the American people. Long may that continue.

By the way, ever wondered what it is like to be inside the Shuttle during a launch?

Read more of this Post

STS-128 Mission

This always gives me a thrill.

Hopefully, by the time you read this Post, shuttle Discovery will have had a successful and fault-free launch.

Here was how it looked at the time of writing (13:30 MT/20:30 GMT on the 24th)

Shuttle Discovery awaiting launch
Shuttle Discovery awaiting launch

Awoke to find that poor weather has delayed the launch.  Here’s a pic of the bird standing out in the rain last night.

Shuttle in rain

By Paul Handover

Hitler’s 787.

Imaginative versions of the film Downfall

My son, who is a commercial pilot flying with a company that have a number of Boeing 787s on order, sent me a YouTube clip that is a re-subtitled version of the film Downfall.  That film, by the way, is an excellent portrayal of theHitler last days of Hitler in 1945 and well recommended.

Anyway, it appears that the art of substitution is alive and well because a YouTube search reveals film clips of Hitler learning about Michael Jackson’s death, Hitler being banned from playing XBox Live, Hitler loves his waffles and more.

This particular clip is about Hitler learning of delays in the delivery of the Boeing 787.  It’s funny (but does include some minor vulgarity).

Continue reading “Hitler’s 787.” →

The stuff of life?

The amino acid glycine is found on a comet.

There’s a fascinating article on Reuters, published on the 18th.  It is that scientists have finally proved that an amino

Comet Wild 2 from 147 miles away
Comet Wild 2

acid found on a comet is extraterrestrial in origin and, therefore, supports the theory that life came to Planet Earth from the stars.

Microscopic traces of glycine were discovered in a sample of particles retrieved from the tail of comet Wild 2 by the NASA spacecraft Stardust deep in the solar system some 242 million miles (390 million km) from Earth, in January 2004.

Samples of gas and dust collected on a small dish lined with a super-fluffy material called aerogel were returned to Earth two years later in a canister that detached from the spacecraft and landed by parachute in the Utah desert.

There’s a fuller and more scientific description of the NASA Stardust spacecraft mission here. That site is well worth a visit if you are in the slightest way interested in space.

Comet Wild 2 from 147 miles away!
Comet Wild 2 from 147 miles away!

Stardust completed its 2.88 billion mile round-trip journey to a comet and back, bringing comet and interstellar dust particles back to Earth on January 15, 2006.

So when you next look into the eyes of your loved one,

and see starlight there,

it may not be entirely a romantic notion!

By Paul Handover