Go Look at Jupiter!

Ok so folks, Jupiter is really close right now. It won't be this close for another 10 years. Head outside at about midnight each night for the next week or so and its going to be visible in the night sky. 

Jupiter's Great Red Spot. Image Credit: NASA.

Also, I should really invest in a telescope would be awesome to actually see this stuff properly.

Adsense

I've taken adsense off of my blog for a short period of time if you were wondering why ads aren't displayed this is why. According to google some of my traffic sources was from unwanted or misleading advertising. I contest this as I've never said this website is anything other than a blog about what it is but to play safe I have removed ads until I get a response from google confirming the mistake.

I believe the issue has arisen from a website known as fwebtraffic as to google this probably appears like a paid-to-click programme which it is not, however I would suggest not using this site for the time being if you too receive a small income from adsense.

Scale of the Universe

Rosette Star Formation Region

Hey folks sorry I've not posted in a while, have been busy and whatnot. Also got an email from adsense which I'm trying to understand and find out what I've actually done wrong and how to clarify it so I'm trying to keep this site a little on the down low until I know it won't get taken down which I don't want.

Anyway, hopefully this picture will make you forgive me. Its of the Rosette star formation system. It's 5000 light years away and consists of about 160 low mass to large stars.

Beautiful.

Rosette star formattion system.

Structured Settlements?

Ok so since nobody will know basically I'm starting university soon so I'm renting a house with my student loan along with 6 others but I'm looking for something to invest in since I get paid in big lump sums. Been searching around thinking of doing something with property since it has such a high return, came across things called structured settlements...

I tried wikipedia on the structured settlements page to understand it but it sounds as though its basically a payoff for when you sue someone for a personal injury claim? Does anyone know what they are though? I don't think it has anything to do with housing but still I'd like to know what it means if anybody knows or can explain very simply. Thank you.

Robots Investment

European partnership funds research toward robot aides for the elderly - (Link)

A partnership among 20 European states, the European Union and a number of private enterprises has launched a three-year, 3.87-million-euro project to make robots capable of serving as adaptable, interactive, and above all safe assistants for elderly people. The research project, known as ALIAS, places special emphasis on maintaining social networks, warding off feelings of loneliness and isolation, and increasing activities that may protect and enhance cognitive capabilities. ALIAS is a project associated with the Cluster of Excellence CoTeSys (Cognition for Technical Systems) and will widen the competencies of the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) in the area of social robotics.

If you can't be bothered to read that people are basically investing a tonne of money into robots for the elderly so by the time you and I are old we don't have to do anything hopefully! Good old intel, a load of money and investment and some silicon can do wonders.

More Space Pictures

 

Enlarge

NGC 300

This picture of the spectacular southern spiral galaxy NGC 300 was taken using the Wide Field Imager (WFI) at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile. It was assembled from many individual images through a large set of different filters over many observing nights, spanning several years. The main purpose of this extensive observational campaign was to get an unusually thorough census of the stars in the galaxy, counting both the number and varieties of stars and marking regions, or even individual stars, that warrant deeper and more focused investigation. But such a rich data collection will also have many other uses for years to come. The images were mostly taken through filters that transmit red, green or blue light. These were supplemented by images through special filters that allow through only the light from ionized hydrogen or oxygen gas and highlight the glowing clouds in the galaxy's spiral arms. The total exposure time amounted to around 50 hours. Credit: ESO

Magnetic Flip

Evidence of second fast north-south pole flip found - (Link)

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Earth's magnetic poles flip around every 200,000 years or so, with north becoming south and vice versa. Normally, the process takes 4-5,000 years and it ought to be impossible for the flip to be much faster, if models of the Earth's core are correct, but now for the second time evidence has been found of a flip that appears to have taken only a few years.

Stuff like this astounds me. The universe in general never ceases to amaze me but even back here on earth weird stuff is still around to find.

Space is Awesome

The Hubble Deep Field picture.

The hubble deep field picture shows only 1/88,000,000 of the visible night sky and yet you are looking right here at thousands of galaxies each containing hundreds of billions of stars. This to me is the most beautiful and significant picture ever taken by mankind.

A ring galaxy or galaxies.

Scientists are not sure yet if this visible light picture of a ring galaxy is in fact one or two galaxies but either way it is a spectacular picture.

NGC 466

It is a starburst galaxy, about 80 million light-years from Earth, in which particularly intense star formation is taking place. The starburst is thought to be caused by gravitational interactions with neighboring galaxies, including NGC 4668, visible to the lower left. A combination of supernova explosions and strong winds from massive stars in the starburst region drives a vast outflow of gas from the galaxy into space — a so-called “superwind”.

Source: PhysOrg.com

A supernova with the material being consumed by nearby stars.

The Hourglass nebula.

The universe is a beautiful place. I will try and post some more pictures of it in a timely manner.

Starcraft 2

Ok! I'm starting to get the hang of it now.

Protoss is definately easier and more fun than Terran. Right now I push with a normal build and tend to block off with a few zealots outside for defense, then I go straight for some void rays and keep myself up a robotics bay to make some immortals incase I'm vs siege tanks with marines guarding or a mass of roaches.

Works well so far at least so I'll keep doing the same. Anyone got a better idea though let me know!

365 Reasons #9

Your goofy “anime” faces.

You are so damn cute when you do them, I just wanna leap on you.

365 Reasons #8

Because you are truely and genuinly the cure and the cause.

Starcraft 2

Still struggling to play this game competitively at a high level. It seems whatever tactic I use I am always rushed before I manage to initiate it. If anyone that reads my blog is in the platinum league or if anyone just knows some surefire tactics then let me know. Love the game, however I seem to win only 60% of matches.

365 Reasons #7

That you managed to cure 19 years of bad sleep and 9 years of insomnia simply by laying there with me.
You’ll never really realise just how amazing that is and how big a difference it made.

365 Reasons #6

The way you cuddle me.

365 Reasons #5

Your eyes and how they melt my heart every time I feel you looking at me.

365 Reasons #4

Your ears and how you react when I nibble them :3
Damn I wanna be there cuddling you and doing that again. Does that count as two things? Probably not.

Forex Trading?

So I was reading around again today on another person's blog about forex trading. I don't think I could ever manage it cause I'm not that great at maths but I was wondering if anyone reading this has ever tried it or made any money from doing it?

I tried to look into forex properly a few months back because I realise some people that know what they're doing can make a lot of money from it but I couldn't get my head around the graphs at all.

Anyone that has done it lemme know or if you have links to a guide for those who haven't studied economics before that'd be great. Thanks!

Starcraft 2

Since the last startcraft post seemed to be popular. Here's a quick tip my friend only told me about the other day.

Ever notice how some players have much higher actions per minute than you? Even though you've built just as much as them...

Turns out its not necessarily how many actions you completed in that one minute but instead if you spam your hotkeys and place 5 pylons in 10 seconds and nothing else for that minute. You will have a hugely higher APM than if you built 5 pylons over 50 seconds and did nothing else for the minute.

In other words, quickly issue a stream of commands over a short period of time and doing nothing else for a minute gives a much higher APM than doing the same number of commands in that minute but over a more spread out period.

365 Reasons #3

Your passion for your chosen art.

Starcraft 2

God I love this game, but its taken me this long to realise that you need different tactics for every different race.

For a while I've just been going straight for the rush with banshees as a Terran but I've just now realised that I usually get raped if its another Terran especially.

What I've seen is the easiest thing to do now is as follows assuming you want to rush.

TvP = Rush marauders or reapers.

TvT = Rush reapers, drop them behind supply line and destroy all the SCVs then the other stuff.

TvZ = Rush reapers its pretty hard for them to detect or have anti-air early enough to take you out.

365 Reasons #2

Your dark alluring features.

365 Reasons #1

New idea. Every day for a year I’m going to write down one thing I love about you (Rachel). Starting right now, with something that actually includes almost all the other things.

What I love about you #1

Everything