Catching The Rain

“Science is like a good friend: sometimes it tells you things you don’t want to hear”

Whilst I still work in an organisation with science at its core, I don’t often regret having left my first role as an actual, real, bona fide scientist. But when I read someone like Charlie Brooker standing up for scientists (Science is like a good friend: sometimes it tells you things you don’t want to hear) in an impassioned and forthright way I am tempted, just that little bit, to return to the folds of those people who he describes as “fellow human beings who’ve actually bothered getting off their arses to work this shit out”.

Great piece, worth a read.

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What’s That Picture?

Introducing www.WhatsThatPicture.com….

My personal interest in vintage photographs has inspired me to conceive a new website, called “What’s That Picture?”

In my own rather random collections I have been struck by how many photographs simply have no provenance, yet look as though someone, somewhere, should certainly know where or perhaps when they were taken, or what or who they are of.

This new site is intended as a community site where people can post their vintage photos and have other members and casual visitors pass comment and help to identify them. Of course this then gives the photo increased historical value.

Membership is free, and when you sign up you get your own image gallery to put things in (just 1MB of space for free membership - about ten typical images - but with the potential to upgrade to premium membership and get 50 times as much space).

You will find the site at www.whatsthatpicture.com

At this point I am just at the point of extending circulating details from a limited number of friends and contacts to a slightly wider but still focused group of people I think may be interested. But even so I’ve already got a dozen or more members, from as far afield as New Zealand, Canada and across the UK.

I’d be grateful to anyone who could take a quick look and make constructive comments.

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Let’s give ourselves a collective pat on the back

So, Time Magazine has named ‘You’, or is that ‘Us’, as person of the year. Is there a cash prize?

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Google launches Blog Search

I’ve just discovered that Google has launched its own blog search. Not quite sure how they determine what a blog is to get their data, but I gave up worrying when I rather vainly checked and found that catchingtherain was indexed. For a sample search i also had a look to see who has been blogging about Chinglish and you’ll see there are plenty out there.

Positively seconds of fun to be had.

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Lookout knockhead, this is Chinglish

As a collector of silly signs the BBC piece Beijing stamps out poor English struck a chord and gave me much amusement. The Chinglish photo pool on Flickr is a real ‘must see’. And if you wondered where the tile of this post came from, see this one.

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Science Connections puzzles

Blimey, these are hard!

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