James's Blog

In deed it is, very quiet this weekend, not a lot happening here apart from some very much needed retail therapy and two lovely cooked meals.
I’ve been thinking that its about time for a theme change, not quite sure what I want yet, something colourful, anyone got any idea’s?

Finally got to spain, just on the coach which is taking us to our apartment

According to this article on the BBC
website, cloaking devices that are used to render
spacecraft invisible in Star Trek might just work in reality, two
mathematicians have claimed.

They have outlined their concept in a research paper published in one
of the UK Royal Society’s scientific journals.
Nicolae Nicorovici and Graeme Milton propose that placing certain
objects close to a material called a superlens could make them appear
to vanish.
It would rely on an effect known as “anomalous localised resonance”.
However, the authors have so far only done the maths to verify that the
concept could work. Building such a device would undoubtedly pose a
significant challenge.

Starting small

Cloaking devices are a form of stealth technology much favoured by Star
Trek baddies such as the Romulans and Klingons.
The complex mathematical phenomenon outlined by Milton and Nicorovici
closes the gap a little between science fiction and fact.
The phenomenon is analogous to a tuning fork (which rings with a single
sound frequency) being placed next to a wine glass. The wine glass will
start to ring with the same frequency; it resonates.
The cloaking effect would exploit a resonance with light waves rather
than sound waves.
The concept is at such a primitive stage that the scientists talk only
at the moment of being able to cloak particles of dust – not
spaceships.
In this example, an illuminated speck of dust would scatter light at
frequencies that induce a strong, finely tuned resonance in a cloaking
material placed very close by.
The resonance effectively cancels out the light bouncing off the speck
of dust, rendering the dust particle invisible.
One way to construct a cloaking device is to use a superlens, made of
recently discovered materials that force light to behave in unusual
ways.

Vanishing point

Professor Sir John Pendry, of Imperial College London, who helped
pioneer superlenses, said: “If the speck of dust is close enough it
induces a very aggressive response in the cloaking material which
essentially acts back on the speck of dust and forces it to stop
shining.
“Even though light is hitting the speck of dust, scattering of the
light is prevented by the cloak which is in close proximity,” he told
the BBC News website.
The authors of the paper argue that the cloak needn’t just work with a
speck of dust, but could also apply to larger objects.
But they admit the cloaking effect works only at certain frequencies of
light, so that some objects placed near the cloak might only partially
disappear.
“I believe their claims about the speck of dust and a certain class of
objects. In the paper, they do give an instance about a particular
shape of material they can’t cloak. So they can’t cloak everything,”
said Professor Pendry.
“Nevertheless, it’s a very neat idea to get this aggressive response
from the material to stop tiny things emitting light.”
The Imperial College physicist agreed this particular concept had
potential military uses: “Providing the specks of dust are within the
cloaked area, the effect will happen. A cloak that only fits one
particular set of circumstances is very restrictive – you can’t
redesign the furniture without redesigning the cloak.”
Details are published in Proceedings of the Royal Society A:
Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences.

This is not an april
fools gag

The following dvds are for sale, they are all 2 disc sets and they are also known as 1st GIG series
eg : Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex – 1st GIG Vol.1 (2 Discs)

Each volume is £5.00, all in good condition, reason for sale : I need the space.

Ghost In The Shell – Stand Alone Complex – Vol. 1 (2004)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0002TTSZC

Ghost In The Shell – Stand Alone Complex – Vol. 2
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00079ZB6M

Ghost In The Shell – Stand Alone Complex – Vol. 3
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0007NBJMI

Ghost In The Shell – Stand Alone Complex – Vol. 4
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0009JJY4U

Ghost In The Shell – Stand Alone Complex – Vol. 5
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0009Y3QYY

Ghost In The Shell – Stand Alone Complex – Vol. 6
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000B6F8NM/

Ghost In The Shell – Stand Alone Complex – Vol. 7
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000BIDA7Q/

Good evening everyone, well its seems that the battle with my new server has been won.
Its been a bit of a pain getting all the data across and to get the site working correctly but its all worth it.
Due to the speed of the new server I’ve tweaked a bit of the MT configuration as well, I am now rebuilding pages a hundred at a time rather than at forty at a time, it has cut down the time it takes to rebuild the site.
Full steam ahead

Guess which muppet accidently connected his Infrared Light led’s to a 12volt power source rather than a 5 volt power source,……doh, yes I was me, I blew all the leds, i’m blooming annoyed about it.
I’ve decided that its taking too long to make an infrared unit so i’ve bought an Infra Red Illuminator.

It’s my 28th birthday on Monday 2nd January so if anyone wants to make me very happy,
have a look at my Amazon wish list & buy me a pressy.

…again.
Hope you all have managed to get your shopping done and your gifts wrapped.
We have been quite organised this year, I did all the gift shopping online from Amazon and had it all delievered to work :o).
My parents and I put the decorations up today and my folks have cooked the turkey, the ham is on the oven cooking at the moment, its going to take 4 hours.
My sister is who is pregnant should have had the baby three days ago but it seems the little one doesn’t want to come out yet, my youngest nephew was the same, he was almost a week late and popped out on the 29th Dec, so we might end up with another christmas baby, i’ll keep you all posted.