The Other Side of Everything - Dean Whitbread

Passion

Dean — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:44:33 +0000

I’ve been properly single for seven months now, but only in the last few weeks have I thought about doing something to change my situation. I decided to seek out some possible dates using the internet – after all, I’ve spent fifteen years helping people make sense of the internet, so why not put some [...]

The Smoky Clouds of Spring

Dean — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 15:12:29 +0000

I used the Helga setting on Camerabag for iPhone to get this effect. Posted via email from Dean Whitbread

Warning: Bad Attitude

Dean — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:29:21 +0000

I used to be a civil servant. They gave me this written warning because I was far too cheerful as I signed on the long lines of people claiming unemployment benefit. Nobody complained, just the management didn’t like my bonhomie and generally pleasant demeanour. Soon afterwards, I left this punitive employ, had an emergency [...]

More Than Two Extinct Species Per Year In England

Dean — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:08:35 +0000

More than two animals and plants a year are becoming extinct in England and hundreds more are severely threatened, a report published today reveals. Natural England, the government’s agency responsible for the countryside, said the biggest national study of threats to biodiversity found nearly 500 species that had died out in England, all but a dozen [...]

Into The Blood

Dean — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:14:36 +0000

Almost always I feel peaceful after meditation. I’m more focused and aware as I get about my tasks. Sometimes, I feel like I’m cruising about on an invisible Segway; at other times, I get a rush of energy which requires managing. It’s often creative, but also, despite the ongoing and increased calm which meditation brings – [...]

Fire!

Dean — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:14:51 +0000

It started with a bleep bleep bleep… Posted via email from Dean Whitbread

Fear

Dean — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:44:04 +0000

I’m told that I’m quite brave. Certainly I am socially unafraid. However, I did spend a week climbing Cornish sea cliffs once, which I loved, except I forgot to pull out the climbing gear, and being the last one up, I had to go back down the overhang I had just overcome, pull out the [...]

Met Office: 100 Studies Show Evidence of Man-Made Climate Change

Dean — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:06:43 +0000

It is an "increasingly remote possibility" that human activity is not the main cause of climate change, according to a major Met Office review of more than 100 scientific studies that track the observed changes in the Earth’s climate system. The research will strengthen the case for human-induced climate change against sceptics who [...]

Extinctions Moving Faster Than Evolution

Dean — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:05:47 +0000

For the first time since the dinosaurs disappeared, humans are driving animals and plants to extinction faster than new species can evolve, one of the world’s experts on biodiversity has warned. Conservation experts have already signalled that the world is in the grip of the "sixth great extinction" of species, driven by the destruction [...]

Lost and Found

Dean — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:34:38 +0000

I found this little scrap of paper while I’ve been going through the many boxes which filled when I started refurbishing my place back in September. I locked up memories, everything from the meaningless to the irreplaceable, in no particular order, mixing the important and unimportant according to size, just to get it out [...]

Metamaterials: The Next Photonics Revolution

Dean — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 10:08:54 +0000

Phil Saunders of SpaceChannel.org and Nikolay Zheludev of the University of Southampton, U.K., have graciously permitted OPN to reproduce this fascinating video, which is related to Zheludevs October OPN feature on metamaterial-induced transparency. It explores the science behind metamaterials-crystalline-like sub-wavelength arrangements of electromagnetic resonators that can exhibit exotic optical properties such as negative refraction and [...]

Dark Dangerous Asteroids Near Earth

Dean — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:56:38 +0000

An infrared space telescope has spotted several very dark asteroids that have been lurking unseen near Earth’s orbit. Their obscurity and tilted orbits have kept them hidden from surveys designed to detect things that might hit our planet. Called the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), the new NASA telescope launched on 14 December on [...]

Just Broke (4 Deaths)

Dean — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:58:01 +0000

Nice bloke Back of his throat Just broke Made him choke Dreadful scene Left his greens Chips, bacon, beans Aged 12, 14 Nice old git Stuck around a bit Sudden fit That was it Swallowed his tongue Collapsed his lung He wasn’t young Can’t have been fun Nice young man Suntan Chelsea fan Transit van Went back Sudden crack Caught him smack IKEA flat-pack Nice old dear Tad queer Front and rear Dodgy beer Overnight Drowned in shite Dog died of fright Awful sight

Chilean Earthquake Shifted Earth’s Axis, Created Shorter Days

Dean — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:49:33 +0000

The earthquake that struck Chile on Saturday may have shifted the Earth’s axis and created shorter days, according to scientists at Nasa. Richard Gross, a geophysicist at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said the 8.8 magnitude quake could have moved the Earth’s axis by 2.7 milliarcseconds (about 8cm) – enough to shorten [...]

Liberation

Dean — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 02:13:58 +0000

How do you describe liberation to somebody who has never experienced it? It’s a tough one, that. My mother lost her partner, her soul mate, my father, just over six months ago, and in the time since then, we’ve had a series of remarkable conversations. I’m minded to let our conversations branch wherever they will and to [...]