Nicholas Jones' Blog |
Thursday, February 26, 2004
Environmentalist wins $1m prize
Recycling not the best option? edit: Just assuming this isn't Junk Science of one form or another. Not what I expected to hear, however I think it's a bit like the governments targets in further education - it's not that people going to University is bad, it's just that setting an arbitrary target(50% of 6th form students) is causing them to do things which aren't for the greater good. Likewise they have set an arbitrary recycling target which doesn't achieve much saving in energy, can only reduce landfill to a limited extent. But at the end of the day 'recycling' sounds greener to most people than 'incineration'. Also, in both cases the objective seems to be to bring statistics about Britain closer to those of other countries (Percentage of young people in University, percentage of material recycled) and not actually improving things. Computer recycling is proabably more important. I think the law in this country tightened in 2003 to bring us in line with the EU. Why computers? Poisin PC and toxic TV report BBC photos of computer 'recycling' Proper computer recycling is available in this country: UK computer recycling REALISE(in London) Jade re-marketing Many local schemes (link to companies selling computers to charities) Just to confuse matters however, computer re-use is sometimes called recycling: Environ Oxfam End of rant. And apologies for it. Wednesday, February 25, 2004
For my course, I'm reading a book called 'The Queen of mathematics' by Jay R. Goldman - 'A Historically motivated Guide to Number Theory'. I only mention it because I think it's very good.
Cathsoc retreat is in 2 weeks. It will be at Hyning Hall near Carnforth. It's only 10 miles from Campus (6 miles from Morecambe) and so I want to walk. Unfortunately I don't have a map, I need OS Outdoor Leisure 7 which I was going to buy but didn't. I think there is a cycle path up that way, or it might be better to follow the A6. I'll have to ask. My bus pass is valid as far as Carnforth, so I can always give up and catch a bus if I don't want to walk anymore. I went to meditation today, and found that the Chaplaincy centre was being put back together. Workmen were pressure cleaning(?) the Catholic chapel and all the chairs and the alter were in concourse, and upstairs all the chairs had been put back in the study area, including the broken comfy chair. I waited there reading a book until 10 past 5 and then knocked on Fr.Pauls' door, but he was talking with someone, so I couldn't go in. When Stephen Hoyland arrived his knee was bleeding from him losing at football to Fylde and he had to hold some bog roll on it to stop the bleeding. Sr. Zela and Katie arrived and we sat in Stephens office waiting for Paul to finish. Steve went through to wash his wound and then we went in and meditated.
Pancake party
Due to the fire the Chaplaincy pancake party was held in the girls house in Greaves. Stephen Hoyland was cooking pancakes and supplied a continuous supply of them until no-one could eat any more. There was Chilli, cheese, chocolate spread, jam, lemon juice, salsa, sour cream and sugar to put on pancakes, however it was not advisable to put them all on the same pancake. For some reason Matt Napoli had five brightly coloured wigs with him, which decorated the heads of various people and many photos were taken of which some will doubtless end up on the Chaplaincy website gallery. Father Paul, Steve Pearson and Kevin Huggett were also there, and much lively conversation happened in the living room and kitchen. Abbs' computer was set up in the corner of the living room providing a continuous supply of cheesy music. It was the first time I'd ever been in 3 Ashgrove, even though it's had Chaplaincy people living in it since the start of my first year. It had a much larger kitchen than the lads house, but a less plush living room, and as Daffy pointed out, at the party the way the rooms were laid out made it more difficult to mingle. A group of first years left for a bus about 11pm, and people gradually departed until it was just me, the three girls and Matt. Walking back Matt pointed out someones terrible parking for us to have a laugh at, a car in front of his was about 3 feet from the edge of the road and putting its wing mirror in unnecessary peril. I think Matt was quite drunk to say the least. I walked up the hill and when I got to Langley road I saw Matt and Liz walking down, just getting to the house. When I got to the door they were just closing it behind them, so I pushed it with my hand to stop them, and they got a bit worried because they didn't realise it was me. Friday, February 20, 2004
This morning I got my photos back from The Hiking club trip to Coniston and the Cathsoc AGM. The photos of Coniston are better than I expected them to be, you can still see the views quite well even though it wasn't as clear as it had been first thing in the morning. The photos from the AGM are quite random and pointless, and I can't remember why I took most of them. Perhaps the wine had something to do with it. I should probably try and get some of my photos onto my website, but I haven't really had time to scan them in.
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Last night was Cathsoc AGM. Read Phils' post because I don't think I can remember much better. I stayed until the very end at 3am and walked home. I didn't wake up until 10 past noon. Meditation started again today, the Catholic flat now being clean. Only Stephen Hoyland, Sr. Zela and I turned up.
There seems to be a lot more (intelligent) skeptisism about Graphology on the web than when I've looked in the past: The Skeptics dictionary, The North Texas Skeptics, The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association have a Position Paper, The happy skeptic(article mostly recycled). When I looked in the past it was all stuff like Anna Koren, Williams' Graphology page, The british institute of Graphologists, Bart Baggett and of course Andrea McNichol. Tuesday, February 17, 2004
Monday, February 16, 2004
Sunday - Hiking club trip to Coniston
I got up at 7am and drank some coffee. It was light and appeared to be clear. Walking onto campus there was not a cloud in the sky. I got to the underpass at 8:45am and was one of the first hikers there. There were lots of people going - two minibuses and two carloads of people. It took about an hour to get to Coniston, and we parked in a car park at the foot of a steep they had hoped to drive us up, but the engines in the (rented) minibuses were nowhere near powerful enough to go up it with everyone inside. In the car park the options for walks were read out, and madly enough, I chose one that involved about 12km walking over 900 metres of elevation, over the Old Man of Coniston. This still gave us a decent amount of time in the pub. There was a crazier walk that was 16km and 1200m that I seem to recall involved going over the Old Man, along a ridge and over something else. It began to get gradually cloudier over the day. We took a fairly gentle route, that wasn't too steep, and up to I would estimate about 500m high I didn't really think about how high it was. I was okay until someones dog went bounding past me, and I just stood still and hoped it went away, which thankfully it did. The views were quite spectacular, but unfortunatly it got cloudier and mistier. Of course, it go colder at that altitude, but I didn't really notice until I was near the top, and I drank from my water bottle and found it icy cold. There were patches of snow near the summit. The next scary bit was when we all had to climb over some rocks. They were quite large and a bit slippy, and you weren't that far from a very long drop. It was quite hard to watch from the other side, as you could see how close people were to falling a very long way. Most of the way from there on was fine, with only a few bits that were a little bit steep. By the time we got to the top it had misted over quite a lot, so the view wasn't as good as it might have been. You could see Heysham and Sellafield power stations still, so you could see quite far. Walking down was quite a bit too steep for my liking for quite a lot of it, but felt relatively safe. We stopped by a lake(?) most of the way down and sat down on some rocks for a bit. A couple of people skimmed stones. We then got bored of this and went off to find a pub. We went to the Black Bull Inn in Coniston, and I had a pint of Bluebird Bitter, which was very nice. We sat around there until the crazy group got back and then I went with the first minibus load to go, so I don't know how long people stayed in the pub. On the way back we stopped at a chippie and got our tea. The staff in the chippie were surprised and confused that such large number of people came into their quiet little restaurant. I go a chip buttie, but quite regretted it because it didn't really fill me up. Monday - back to 'reality' This monday was beginning of week 6 of the term, so I had a new timetable. This means that now on monday I have a lecture at 10am and at 5pm. Unfortunately my housemate Liz has a 10am lecture on monday as well, so I had to get out of the shower quickly. On the upside, however, this meant that I got onto campus in time for morning prayer at 9:30am for the first time in quite a while. I got there before anyone else, but Katy, Steph and Melissa also came and we sat around chatting waiting for a chaplain to arrive until 9:40am. Not being in the Chaplaincy centre, and there no longer being a monday bible study, there were no bibles to hand, and so we just started doing prayers of intersession. I did my 10am lecture which was very simple being the first one in the course, and checked my email and then basically didn't have anything to do. I tried to read my notes from last half term but I couldn't really concentrate and so the day dragged on. I stayed on campus until my 5pm lecture, which was also easy. I then went to Sainsburys. Friday, February 13, 2004
Tuesday, February 10, 2004
Got up about 9am. Went onto campus to check emails. Didn't get much work done. Went back home for lunch. Went onto campus for my 4pm and 5pm lectures. Tried to do my homeworks. One was okay (327 Ring Theory) the other went disastrously (313 Probability and Measure). Finished working about half past seven. Handed it in. Checked emails. Caught the bus to Sainsburys. Bought a few things. Got home at 10pm.
Basically today was so uneventful I can't imagine why I bothered to blog it. Monday, February 09, 2004
Sunday, February 08, 2004
I have found the perfect way to blog. I have bought a (very bottom of the range) graphics card with a TV output and a keyboard extension calbe, connected my computer to my TV and am sat on my sofa typing with my normal keyboard. It reminds me of using a ZX Spectrum, an early computer which used a TV as its' monitor. In fact I've got a Spectrum emulator, so I can play Spectrum games on my TV actually.
Yes, after just trying it, I can now play Bubble Booble on my Athlon XP. I was going to go to Open house today, but I completely forgot that because it's at Kevs' house it was early, so by the time I checked the service sheet it had already happened. This morning I was feeling fairly under the weather, but I decided to just take a Lemsip (or cheap imitation thereof) and carry on. I got to the bus stop in plenty of time, but there were about a dozen people there, apparently a football team on their way to a match, however when the 2A came it drove past because they didn't react because they were waiting for a coach. So I had to walk down and catch the 42 and walk up the hill. Because of the fire, the Chaplaincy sunday service was United Worship in the Jack Hylton music room. Daffy and Chris got the job of standing outside in the freezing cold telling everyone where to go. Hilary was stewarding and was surprised I managed to make it in time in spite of missing the bus, and asked if I'd run onto campus. I don't know how athletic Hilary must think I am but a 2.5 mile run in the morning is somewhat out of the question. In the service, Steve Hoyland did an excellent sketch with Abbs about trade justice (I'll give you £1 in aid, but you have to give me £3 in interest but I'll buy your bananas off you for 20p and lend you the other £2 if you agree to starve). At the end of the service there was a letter from the congregation to Hilton Dawson, our local MP, about trade justice which we were invited to sign. Ella was there, playing the flute I believe, and she said she'd just come back to Lancaster to visit all her friends, which is nice of her. She said she hadn't updated her blog because she was living at I think her Dads' house, and her Dad's computer wasn't up to blogging. Melissa was quite annoyed that the commenting system on my blog wasn't working, I will probably soon change it if BlogOut doesn't start working soon. Afterwards, I went to the LUSU shop to buy something to keep me going until I could get home and prepare lunch, and found that they now have a full shelf of fairtrade goods! I had heard that a motion had been passed at union council that where possible they should stock fairtrade alternatives to items that they already stock. They have tea, coffee, decaf coffee, chocolate mini eggs, snack packs of biscuits, chocolate peanuts, and at least several other items. I bought a packet of chocolate mini eggs and a chocolate muffin, and walked home, in the sunny weather. When I walked down the A6 I was surprised to see that I could see the snow on the lake district(?) mountains because it was so clear. I got back to my house, grabbed my cameras' mini tripod and walked up to the Ashton memorial to see how it looked from up there. I took a few photos of the view, but I'm not too confident about how well they will come out, but I also took some photos inside the Ashton, which should be nice. I walked back down to my house, and found that both my housemates were out, so I cooked myself a sunday dinner of peas, (frozen) roast potatoes and fresh ravioli. The ravioli said I had to use olive oil when boiling it, but I didn't have any so I used groundnut oil. It didn't stick, but it didn't taste very nice. After that I mucked about on the computer, watched Time Team, and then realised I was too late for Open House. |
