The Man with No Time

The events of Batman: Arkham Asylum have had dramatic repercussions for Gotham City. With the asylum declared unfit for purpose, the city's slums have been segregated by giant walls and turned into a super-prison where criminals are free to roam. Various gangs have sprung up with allegiance to the main supervillains of the Batman mythos, and fight for control of Arkham City. Enter Bruce Wayne, who declares his opposition to the scheme only to be arrested and thrown into the mix. As Batman, he must try to find out what the prison's governor, Hugo Strange, is planning, discover what 'Protocol 10' entails, and thwart the plans of his arch-enemy, the Joker, who is fatally ill after his Titan formula overdose. Arkham City is the second entry in Rocksteady's Batman franchise, and builds on the hugely successful Arkham Asylum to create a larger, free-roaming, sandbox environment. All of the hallmarks of the first game are present and correct: the hard-hitting, viscera...

The Wheel of Time turns, and ages come and pass leaving memories that become legend, then fade to myth, and are long forgot when that Age comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose in the Mountains of Dhoom. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a  beginning.  The Wheel turns, and the story of the Dragon Reborn continues.....in just three weeks I've made it through the 681 page second book of the Wheel of Time. As with the first book I really enjoyed it, and the comments that I made for that book still hold true.

This year there's been one film that I really wanted to see, and that everyone told me I had to see, that I just haven't been able to. That film is ' Gravity ', and yesterday I finally managed to see it thanks to Warwick Arts Centre . They put on a few extra showings as part of their viewer's choice feature, and I gladly took the chance to finally catch the film on the big screen. The film poster. Don't. Let. Go. (Credit: en.wikipedia.org)

After the BULSCA Nationals at the weekend, I had a discussion on Facebook with one of the competitors about captaincy, specifically about how I'd been evaluating the overall marks for the wet SERC. To remind you, the incident was split somewhat, with a casualty that couldn't be moved on both sides of the 50m pool, the casualties in the water concentrated at one end, and the two short sides out of bounds. This presented the captains with a couple of tricky decisions. Do they stay on the side where they entered and direct from there, or do they swim across to where the suspected spinal injury was? If they stay where they came in, do they get the unconscious in the water over to them, or to the side with the spinal? Where do they send the rest of the casualties, as there were several that could easily be rescued from the entry side. It might seem that the answer is obvious - the captain crosses to the far side, and gets as many casualties as possible over there next t...

After playing in a concert on Saturday evening I had to drive straight to Bath ready for the BULSCA Student Nationals. I had to be at the venue by 8:30 am Sunday morning, so rather than risking sleeping in and being late I decided to head down the night before. Two closed motorway junctions and attendant diversions later, I eventually made it to the Travelodge where I was spending the night. I've always enjoyed the BULSCA Championships as an event. More so since they switched to a 50m pool. Last year was my first taste of the competition as a non-competitor, as I organised the whole thing ; this year I was going to be judging.

It's been a busy weekend, so I'm breaking the posts up a bit to avoid a deluge all at once! Not only was it the final weekend of the 2014 6 Nations, but also the BULSCA Student Championships (more on that tomorrow). Except that I was only able to attend the Sunday of that event this year, because I had a concert on Saturday night! My orchestra, the Leamington Sinfonia, were performing at Kingsley School in Royal Leamington Spa. We had a great program of music, featuring one of my favourite symphonies, and gave what I think was a really good performance.

The final week of the 2014 6 Nations tournament was incredibly tense. Not necessarily because of close games it has to be said. Two of the three were blowouts, but the finale really made up for it as the momentum swung back and forth between the sides, and the final standings correspondingly went in favour of one team or another. I'll get to that eventually, but as usual I'll start with Scotland's performance.

Something a little bit different today - I've been on television! I've mentioned it briefly before, but my boss is the 'Head of the Science Team' for the new ESA PLATO mission. Since it was selected by ESA last month he's been very busy giving talks, presentations, and interviews about the mission. Yesterday he had the science team from the local BBC TV channel along to interview him about it for a short piece. Since he was getting a bit fed up with the whole thing he decided that it would be good for myself and Dave (one of his PhD students) to get involved too! I was a little nervous about it, as I've not had any interaction with the press before. But it turned out to be a lot of fun. The science reporter was very easy going, and made it seem more like a chat than an interview. He did give me one piece of advice, which was to finish my thoughts even if I stumble rather than trying to restart, as you can always edit and do retakes. Very much like ...

The penultimate week of the 6 Nations is when the shape of the table starts to become clearer, and is often where championship hopes are dashed. After all, not everyone can win. This year there were four teams (England, France, Ireland, and Wales) on four points, and potentially in with a chance. By the end of the weekend at least one of them would be behind the others, possibly two, or even three.  Scotland were playing France at home. They haven't beaten les Bleus since 2006 (a match I remember well), but after the events of week 3 this wasn't just going to be a French benefit.

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, and Age yet to come, and Age long past, a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a  beginning. And thus my journey through the Wheel of Time really begins.

Something that we've been talking about a little bit at work recently is "why do we study exoplanets?'"It's an interesting question, and one to which different people give different answers. Everyone has their own motivation after all, and it's been fun to hear what people say. Ultimately though I, and apparently several other members of my group, think that many exoplanet researchers are lying to themselves and each other. Not to cause harm or detriment, but because we think that 'admitting' the real reason will make other astronomers sneer at us, or sideline our careers. It's not hard to see how that comes about; there's an attitude in professional astronomy that we should be in it for the love of the job itself, and that we should be heavily invested (often emotionally) in our particular topic. Leaving aside the rather pertinent point that that whilst a postdoc or PhD student that is, to some extent, dictated by what your boss/supervis...

So I found myself in Brussels over the weekend. Strange I know, but there was a reason for it, honest! Yesterday the project that employs me, the eta-Earth project, was having it's review meeting at the European Research Executive Agency in Brussels. As they pay me my boss thought that I should go along, and since I've never been to the city I decided that I'd spend the weekend there as well. It was fun, if slightly different to what I expected. Left: the central square by night, when it really comes alive. Right: the city hall, which is a fabulous building. (Credit: David Brown)