Saturday, November 29, 2008

The Taming of the Shrew

Today I workshopped The Bard, walked by the sea, and was told I look like Mary Pickford.

Eastbourne

Eastbourne

Eastbourne

Eastbourne

Eastbourne

Eastbourne

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I think it's the tinytiny mouth.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Theoretical Physics and Modern Art.

A physicist at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva - the world’s biggest scientific experiment! – speculate that the failure of the collider because of a helium leak soon after it was switched on in September was caused by intervention (ripples!) from the future to stop the experiment happening.

(Kevin Black’s speculation is here and it makes my head hurt but Poneke sums it up thusly: given its complexity I won’t go into the details, but in brief, and quoting other research he was initially sceptical of, he suggests that the expected creation by the LHC of the fabled Higg’s Boson[*] might have created the possibility of Higg’s Bosons from the future coming back to 2008 to stop the creation of multiple Higg’s Bosons upsetting the universe by being created by the LHC.

And as in Back to the Future, this is the paradox that if you could go back in time and while doing so killed your grandfather (or stopped your father meeting your mother), you would cease to exist because you would not be capable of being born.

The LHC is intended to prove whether or not the Higgs Boson exists. What Kevin Black is postulating is that the Higgs Boson may indeed exist, but has come from the future to stop the smarties at CERN finding it, for reasons best known to itself. Although I would also like to know!

Via Poneke's Weblog.



What? You didn't know that I love theoretical physics & thought experiments?
You learn something new every day.**



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This orange building the Netherlands is called the Habog Facility and it contains nuclear waste material that they have to store for 100 years while it loses its toxicity, is covered in physics formulas by Einstein and Planck.
Every twenty years, the building will be repainted in a lighter color to symbolize the slowly decaying radiation in the waste.

William Verstraeten, the artist who designed the facility, views his piece as a commentary on metaphorphosis. Open for tours, the building also contains four symbolic paintings. And I WANT TO GO THERE!



* I heart the Higgs Boson! although my mother insisted on likening it to an angel. It is theoretically the most fundamental particle of matter and is what gives atoms mass and gravity. But its existence is totally theoretical. Of course.

**My baby pet favourite theories? Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle and Schrödinger's Cat.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

My Diary by Mio Matsumoto



On the train this morning, and in the sun at lunch time I read a darling, adorable, heartfelt, funny, terrifying, ever-so-sad, wonderful book.

My Diary by Mio Matsumoto

It is set out landscape and hand written, drawings which remind me of David Shrigley are sweet and integral to the storytelling. There is a hint of english-as-a-second-language in her phrasing which ... only adds to the air of intimacy.

I am trying my best to get this out without using the word WHIMSY. Because this book is about Cancer. Tongue cancer and heartbreak in a girl of 25. So. Not the cheeriest subject in the world (but true true true. It is her Diary after all) but it is told in such a forthright and personal manner, from denial to fear to demanding of her doctor that she not wait another week for treatment, that more than being sad, you just want Mio to survive and fall in love and kiss, a LOT. Because she seems sweet, she seems like someone you would like to be friends with.

Oo! AND! She has a Blog! Mio's Page. It is all all (pretty much) all in Japanese.

(and p.s. She beats cancer.)




Monday, November 24, 2008

Working Again, Finally.



The view from Reception.


My favourite moment today: I was walking to the train station after work*, in a light warm spring rain, with the unmistakable, incongruous smell of toast in the air.


*Phew! I have a temping assignment for the next fortnight at least.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Down the Rabbit Hole

I heart Flickr!
According to the smarties at Flickr and Yahoo, here are the searches and subsequent photos that have lead people to me ...

Perseus and Andromeda

Perseus & Andromeda

Baby Broken Nose

Broken Nose Baby

A Bale of Turtles

A Bale of Turtles and some Koi

14th Century Churchyard

The Hardy Tree

Okay, it's 19th Century but whatever.

"Me as a baby"

Easter Baby (Giant head)

Self Injury

Scale

ick. This one must come up as it is tagged injury as in I fell down and hurt my leg, and self as in a photo of myself. me myself and I.
I'm going to have to re tag them all as Sarah instead of Self. I don't mind so much the people who "favourite" a photo of me in a scarf and then I find out that ALL their favourites are girls wearing scarves because, as long as they don't try and contact me, it's just harmless self gratification I guess. But this? I don't want to enable self harm or those who get off on that.

Family Tattoo

Tattoo At Work

Stung by a Jellyfish

Stung



People are Strange. Flickr is interesting.