Cosmic Latte - Not an awesome coffee

If you look up at the sky at night, you would probably see a darkish looking sky with specks of white light (or just an orange haze if you are near a street lamp). So if you were to ask someone what colour the universe was, they might well say 'Black'. In fact, astronomers at John Hopkins University decided the universe was 'Cosmic Latte' which is kind of beige-y like:
 (Image from articlesbase.com)
Its code is #FFF8E7 (which means nothing to me... :/) Interestingly enough, the other names that it could have been called were 'Big Bang Blush', 'Astronomical Almond' (there is a lot of alliteration here...), 'Cappuccino Cosmico' (apparently scientists drink a lot of coffee) and my personal favourite 'Skyvory' which does sound rather nice.

It's these kind of important scientific discoveries that push the boundaries of paint manufacture! Technological advances like these are vita for our society! Okay, they were actually looking at emission spectrum, which shows what light stars give out and (using some chemistry-physics emission of light from electrons thing) that shows what the star is made of and (using some physics life cycles of the stars thing) shows a bit about the history and type of star.

Anyway, as far as I can see for a quick Google search, there is not a cosmic latte pencil or crayon and no cosmic latte paint so any representatives of Crayola or a paint company out there, there is a gap in the market of the colour spectrum that hasn't been filled! Think of the advertising: 'With this crayon, you too can draw the whole of the universe!' or 'Our new paint gives the feel of having all the space in the universe'. Anyway, what do you think? Would you like a cosmic latte coloured kitchen?

P.S. If you want to read more, the website with the astronomers' comments is here: http://www.pha.jhu.edu/~kgb/cosspec/

What a light year really is:

Look, I know a lot of people will already know this, but just to clarify:
A light-year is a measure of DISTANCE. NOT TIME. So, do not say 'In some light-years time'. Please, just don't.
A light year is the distance light travels in a year (According to Google : 9.4605284 × 10¹⁵ metres i.e. a very VERY long distance!)

A lucky find

Unusual things can appear in unusual places. And whilst you might expect some pretty bizarre things in a school's lost property - how can someone lose a singular school shoe?! - I found something rather unexpected whilst clearing it out one day. No, not a body. Or buried treasure. I found a horseshoe. Which is a bit odd considering that our school is in the middle of a town with no farms or horses nearby (that I know of at least).

As well as being a lucky find in these sense of the good charm properties attributed to horseshoes, it was also lucky as I survived the ordeal of fishing out of the bottom of lost property. I know it might not seem dangerous, but when your lost property is a wheelie bin as high as your chest and you have to lean right in and risk entrapment... Anyway, I ended up keeping that horseshoe. It was my 'reward' for sorting out the lost property because the teacher had not the faintest idea who would have a horseshoe or more importantly, why. Admittedly, we could find an owner for the lost fork in there either but no one was willing to accept that present. So, any readers out there, what is the weirdest thing you've ever found? And did you ever find the owner?

Why head lamps are a bad idea

Having lost/broken/taken apart for experimentation several conventional torches, I got a head torch (on the condition that I do not bring a screwdriver within 10m of it). I was ridiculously overexcited by this. A head torch! Wow! Hands-free working! Conveniently placed! Night vision mode! The torch does not live up to its hype. Firstly, although a head torch does allow for you to see what you ate looking at, it isn't very selective. For example, it is useful when looking for tent pegs, but when someone talks to you and you look up, it won't magically turn itself off. People tend to get annoyed when you shine torches directly into their eyes. Secondly, it really isn't that well placed. It keeps falling off my slightly small and oddly shaped head. Torches are less fun when they are trying to strangle you. Finally, the night vision mode is great... If you can get to it. The night vision mode is after three stages of bright night-vision-ruining white light. Someone really thought that one through -.- Basically, head torches are pretty useless, as far as I've used them. I would probably be better scrambling around in the darkness.

Minibuses and Music

After conducting extensive research on several minibus journeys I have concluded that loud music is the major cause of fast, erratic driving. Every time we set foot in the minibus, the inevitable request comes: 'Can you turn the radio on please!'
Up this point the driving has been okay. I mean, minibus driving never seems particularly brilliant (or maybe that is just the 'macho' air between the male drivers in a typically male dominated organisation), but once that radio goes on and the first few notes hit our ears, any pretence of sensible driving goes out the window. Thrown back in our seats by the rapid acceleration (that is, if our highly trained drivers haven't stalled the bus), we speed off the amber traffic lights. Hurtling down the roads at the limits of the speed restriction set on them, vying with the other drivers to see which bus will make it there first (though it will still inevitably be late), holding our breath as we squeak through an 'dark yellow' light, only to grind to a halt at roundabouts. That is the minibus way - music blaring to drown out the terrified screams of its passengers.
Okay, I suppose there are other reasons why our minibuses are so dangerous (half of which is probably just the organisation and my innocent view of 'good driving' from a non driving perspective)but you never know. Regardless of the cause, the minibus journey is always an... interesting start to a trip!

The life of a newspaper hunter

As I said earlier, my room is littered with newspapers. That's because I collect them on a daily basis more or less. And they sure do accumulate.

And that's just the stash of papers I decided to keep!
My paper of choice is the Metro - a free commuter newspaper. I like because a) it's free (and I'm broke), b) it's the one that is easiest for me to get and c) it has some quite funny articles. The only problem is that, you get the paper on the train. I don't get the train. So slight logistic issue there.
Luckily for me, however, my friend DOES get the train and gets the paper. The downside is that there are about 5 other people who also want that same paper. One paper, six readers. So things get a little frantic.

Every day, I get in really early. I spend the time loitering in the other room, waiting for my friend to arrive in between doing other things. My friend often gets in quite late though, so I often have to go. That means I have to sneak out of my room into hers. Unfortunately, the other paper-readers are in that room as well. I find my friend and start up a conversation, whilst quickly scanning the room for the paper. If it's being read or I can't find it, I curse my luck, but if not, I subtly wander over and acquire the paper. Whether or not I have the paper, I still stay for a bit and talk. That's the dangerous par really because if one of the other readers see me with the Metro, they will ask for it back and I, being slightly meek, will just hand it back to them. If I do get it and make it out, I will escape back to my room, or my reading spot. If not, I try again at break, or during a free period.

I have gone to some slightly extreme methods to acquire the paper. Snatch and grabs work if the reader moves away for a few moments. I have shoved the Metro up my shirt before to avoid detection (despite the odd bulge). A little selfish to steal the paper for myself, but if asked I will return it (and I'm quite a fast reader). I like getting to the paper first because a) I'm selfish/impatient at times, b) they can take ages to read it and c) I'm protecting the paper from vandalism. There is little worse than reading through a swiss-cheese like paper because someone decided to cut out all the articles that they could use to prove they have an interest in a subject.

But the weekday paper is important to me. It's the only way I catch up on news (since TV channels only ever have sports, or one story on repeat), the suduko puzzles are a good brain starter (and quite entertaining if I'm doing it with my other friends) and the texts section is a good source of thought-provoking, hilarious or bizare writing prompts. So, now, I'm off to search for today's one!

The necessity of notepads (or a pen and your hand)

Thoughts are tricky creatures to manage. Sometimes you spend ages rumaging around for one specific thought and just can't catch hold of it, only for it to pop out and taunt you when you least expect it.
At this point, the pen you should be carrying about comes in handy. Whether it's a to do, a question, a eureka moment that could change the world, it will be of no use if you can't pin it down with ink. It's almost like a race against time to find something to get it down with before it darts off again - though that could just be me, with my attention span of a gnat always dashing from one place to another before being squashed.

Unfortunately, I hardly ever have paper in that 3 minute window of opportunity (see? Really short attention span!). Even if I did, it would go in my bag and would soon be lost in the small forest in there. So, I have to use the one write-able surface that will stay attached to me hopefully - my hand. It tickles, and looks odd but it works. By glancing at my hand right now, from the few words on it, my brain suddenly snaps onto what I meant by that word on the whole. I know:
 - I need to revise moments. Really need to. REALLY badly!
 - Fehling's solution - why do we have to make it fresh in the lab?
 - I really need to be more careful with my ink pen (ink splodges everywhere!)
Even better, it's better than a cryptic code. Few people see my hand that closely. Even if they do my handwriting is bad enough already without smudging the ink or the lines of my palm that it is illegible. I myself can only make out rough letters but that is enough.

The obvious downside of that is that it is really quite short term. I have a few spontaneous writing ideas a week but I hardly ever get round to writing (Only once a year really). And I wash more frequently than that (I'd have hoped that was obvious though) and my hand is too small for that, despite my lanky fingers (all the more surface area for writing on). So I always have a small notepad that goes in my backpack, my handbag, my suitcase. Yes, the hazard of that is that people can look at it and laugh at all the appaling writing in there, but it works well for capturing free-roaming ideas. Not only that, but real life has some real novel worthy conversations! I hear some amusing comment ('I feel about as useful as a defibrillator in a funeral parlour!' and 'I sure hope insanity isn't contagious!) and rip out my notepad and franctically jot it down. Yes it looks odd to bystanders to see some deranged teen drop everything for no reason and write something in a battered notepad, but it works.

Where else can you keep ideas? The Sticky notes thing helps, but gets too cluttered, as do endless tabs of Wikipedia articles with interesting facts. That, or do you just keep ideas firmly in your head until required (how can you do that though?!)?

Tangible music

Following on from this morning's post about something that pushed the limits of existing, today I decided to talk about something that 100% exists. CDs!

Music is quite an important, and quite a novel, thing for me. I only really started to listen to songs 6 years ago (The Beatles, courtesy of my friend). My music tastes can best be described as a mixture of whatever is floating past me at the time (primarily rock/alternative/indie though) from friends, adverts, the radio in the minibus. As a result, I tend to mostly buy the odd song or two off an album on iTunes because it's generally more convenient. But if I like an entire album and one of my friends hasn't already lent it to me, I'll step out from the digital age and will order a lovely tangible copy.

Yes, I know that there shouldn't really be a difference. The songs will be the same regardless. I upload them straight away on to my computer and I don't have a CD player (or at least, not one that still functions). CDs can get scratched, they take up space, they use up resources that could be used for other things. Sometimes they are more expensive than downloads (although, on the whole, they seem to be cheaper...)

But despite all the logical reasons why I shouldn't get a physical CD, I just like it more. Album artwork looks much nicer in reality - all my CDs are displayed in a toast rack (Don't ask). They give me some back up so that if my computer mysterious dies and takes my precious music to it grave, I have a selection of songs to tide me over until I can restore them. It's nicer to hold the CD case, to spin the disc round and flick through the front cover bit (especially when it has lyrics!). In short, I like the tangible feel of having music (yes, materialistic, I know). And it keeps reminding me that I do actually now have a music 'collection' which is something I find strangely satifying.

So, counter arguments aside, I think I will be stick with tangible discs for the time being. Hopefully, MP3 files and downloads won't completely overrun us in the foreseeable future!
(P.S. I got some new CDs today! Hence the post. I am currently importing the songs and listening to them as I go. So far, so good!)

Imaginary numbers: Make-believe maths

Exams soon (just a reminder for those of you who haven't seen many stressed out teens lately) and today, I have been revising imaginary numbers! Because in maths, not only do you have nice, real tangible numbers like 1 and 2 (1 orange, 2 shoes) we also have made up numbers that don't really exist - have you ever seen √-1 of anything?

How is this any different to √1? Is the answer just -1? NO. Any number squared has to be positive (because  positive x positive = positive and negative x negative = positive) Since square rooting is just the opposite of squaring, to find √-1, we just need to find a number which is negative when squared... which we've just shown does not exist. Whoops. But mathematicans are not happy with just accepting that it doesn't exist because that means they have a whole lot of numbers that they aren't allowed to play with. So they call √-1 'i' and just carry on trying to do maths with it anyway (By this, this also explains awesomely nerdy t-shirts like the mental_floss one: √-1 <3 Maths, which is obviously completely true...)

But to make life more complicated, these numbers don't just not exist. I know I just said they were imaginary but they can magically become real. If you square a root, it cancels out the square root part (opposite functions remember?) so you're just left with the bit under the root:
√-1 x √-1 = -1
Which is very real. It's a bit like having two imaginary friends together and ending up with a real person at the end. Weird, huh?
And sometimes, like when solving quadratic equations, you get things which have actual real numbers, and imaginary numbers like this: 1+ √-1. This is called a complex number (quite understandably). You have to treat them as two seperate bits because you can't suddenly add between the boundary of existance.

As for their uses... er I'm not really sure (I'm not exactly great at this maths thing!). Apparently, they are used in electronics, but really, in exams, they come up in quadratics and roots where the descriminant (The b² - 4ac bit of the quadratic equation) is negative (because we have to square root it, and if it is negative then it's not real). And they can be used to find the root of negative logs! Which may or may not have any use whatsoever.
So there you have it. √-1. The only time where an imaginary answer will get you the mark.

Obese Emoticons

It happens surprisingly often. Typing too fast and your over excited finger hammers one of the keys too many times. Typos everywhere. But lurking amongst them, well hidden despite their size, is the obese emoticon:
:DD
We pass it off as a mere typing accident but it is not. The chubby, double chinned emoticon is a sign. We must fight the rising obesity levels amongst emoticons before we have a huge strain on our poor monitors and chat windows that simply cannot cope with their size!
This is what happens when you eat too many apostrophes and do not exercise enough. This is a challenge we must all face together. So please. Next time you accidently tap the keyboard twice, think of the hidden epidemic that is emoticon obesity.

Attack of the Guilt Monkeys

There are lots of things we are supposed to do. And as a result of that, there are lots of things that are meant to be done but just don't quite happen. Like writing that blog post you said you would do two weeks ago...
They arrived from the murky depths of Nanowrimo, where they shove faultering writers towards the 50,000 word - 30 days deadline. They escape from their barrels unless words weigh the lids down and they WILL come.

Do not believe this picture. Guilt monkeys are evil.

They cling to you with their surprisingly strong tails and chatter away in your ear about all the things you had blissfully forgotton until they drive you insane.

Since doing Nanowrimo, the monkeys have escaped from captivity, it seems and have followed my writing friends and I around in real life (because Nanowrimo can hardly be consider 'real'...) Forgot to bring the cake for writing club? GUILT MONKEYS ATTACK! Left that important thing at home (probably more cake)? Guess who is coming to get you.
Yes people. The fear has been realised. The guilt monkeys have been releashed into the wild and have diversified. Be warned...

(Side note: Happy now, guilt monkeys? I've written a blog post for today. Now go and get someone else)

Things I'm bad at:

Over the past couple of weeks, I have noticed some things that I really need to work on:
1) Trigonometry. Really very little hope for me on that one.
2) Keeping my room tidy. It's covered in old newspapers...
3) Writing blog posts on a regular basis!!!

I will improve!

On being a potato

I was reading an article about job interviews ages ago (standard reading for your typical unemployed teenager) and they said you should prepare for questions. One of their example questions was 'What vegetable would you be?'. After going through the usual responses ('...Why would I be a vegetable?' and 'Are we including tomatos in this? [apparently, they are vegetables for the purposes of American tax]) I decided to put some serious thought into this. Hey, it is always good to plan ahead, even for unlikely scenarios! And my verdict is...

A potato!

I even have reasoning to back this up:

• Potatoes grow underground in the dark and don’t socialise with other potatoes. I do have friends (Yes, really) but I also like sitting in my room/reading in various enclosed spaces like cupboards). And have you ever seen a potato throw a party?
• Can be dug up and easily replanted. I've moved a bit so in part this is true. Also, I used to be told to go and stand in a grow bag so I can possibly be planted literally.
• Can do many things (chips, what-the-English-call-crisps, mash, roast) – Okay, I don’t taste as nice, but can’t have it all. However, I can't really cook any of the above.
• Not necessarily good for your health in large amounts. Potatoes make you fat (unless eaten as part of a balanced diet and coupled with exercise). I make you insane (unless seen as part of a balanced lifestyle and coupled with alternative friends) - good insane though, just to reassure you.
• Edible – Ask my friends (yes, the ones I just said I had). They've bitten me before (honest! They are my friends!)
• However, I am always like a potato because if you eat me I die. I had to fit that in somewhere :P
• Not much to look at. Potatos do not win the vegetable beauty contest (unless potatos are your kind of thing? I mean, aubergines are all well and good but...)
• Hey, I was the potato in the Yr 3 French play. I’m fully trained as a potato (Je suis une pomme-de-terre!!!)

So yeah. I would certainly have passed that interview. Especially if it was an interview to be a farmer or a potato in another play. Maybe this explains why I am unemployed...