Where You & I Live

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What really is a nebula, and are we in fact in one? What is the Local Interstellar Cloud? Astrum Answers!

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Make Your Public Event Calendar Usable To All

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If you run a sports club, this post is for you. If you are on a community committee, this post is also for you If you host events, this is for you. If you put on shows, this is for you. In fact, if you do anything that has a date/time component that you'd like to share with people, this is for you . Yep, probably for all of us. Sharing calendars can be both: an effective way of letting everyone know a complete and utter technical pain in the bottomly region If you've posted up an events page onto your website you know how difficult it is to keep up to date, how the readers have to keep coming back to get the latest changes and don't even think about integrating with somebody else's "events page". Ok, so we all know the problem. What's the solution? iCalendar (normally shortened to iCal) ... yep, it's a geek word that you will come to know and love just as much as RSS. In fact, think of it as RSS for calendars. But that's enough geekery, if you want

The Difference Between One Million And One Billion

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It's feels like a billion is just a bit bigger than a million. Obviously it's bigger but it fits on the same scale as a million, surely. It doesn't. A billion is so so so much bigger than a million. I've trawled the internet finding graphics and videos that show the VAST difference between one million and one billion. Oh, and just to finish with a different misconception about space starting with the classic opening line from the great Douglas Adams and The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy : “Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.”

W. C. Fields quotes

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The office has all been moved around - new desks (with starter handles to raise and lower them), new high(er) speed network and ... the same old work. At least I have a differing view of the world, my team (well, the team I'm a part of not "my" team) is a lot closer - finally - and it's like an office from the 80's ... or even a classroom. But I still have time to move the crap off the PC : ------ Any man who hates dogs and loves whiskey can't be all bad. Anyone who hates Dogs and Kids Can't be All Bad. Hey! Who took the cork off my lunch??! Who stole the cork from my breakfast? Now don't say you can't swear off drinking, it's easy. I've done it a thousand times. Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people. If at first you don't succeed, try, try, again. Then quit, no use being a damn fool about things. Madam, there's no such thing as a tough child - if you parboil them first for seven hours, they alwa

The Best "x" Of All Time

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A list of lists, mostly for me to work my way through or just get inspiration from in those, "Oh hell, what can I watch / read ..." times. Oh, and you don't like these lists, it's ok there's millions out there for you to look at, or even go ahead and make your own. These'll do me for now. The 30 Greatest Book Series Of All Time 30. The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey 29. The Southern Reach Trilogy  by Jeff VanderMeer 28. Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson 27. The Red Rising Saga  by Pierce Brown 26. Thursday Next series  by Jasper Fforde 25. Bartimaeus Sequence  by Jonathan Stroud 24. The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfus 23. Riyria Revelations  by Michael J. Sullivan 22. The Witcher series  by Andrzej Sapkowski 21. The Belgariad  by David Eddings ✅ 20. The Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K. Le Guin 19. Crazy Rich Asians  by Kevin Kwan 18. Goosebumps  by R. L. Stine 17. The Dresden Files  by Jim Butcher 16. Percy Jackson & the Olympians  by Rick Riordan

Gravity, It's Not What You Think It Is [UPDATED]

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Gravity is NOT a force. Gravity is not a force pulling you down, up, or sideways. Why not, because gravity is NOT a force. Gravity used to be thought of as a force , invented (😉) and mathematically worked out by Sir Isaac Newton. For a tonne of maths it can be considered a force and it's no biggie, but it is NOT a force, even though you were taught that it was, it's not. "Jeez, I hear you Mike. So what are you thinking a force is, coz gravity definitely feels like one?" A force is an influence that can cause an object to change its velocity unless counterbalanced by other forces. The concept of force makes the everyday notion of pushing or pulling mathematically precise. Because the magnitude and direction of a force are both important, force is a vector quantity.  "Ok, so what is gravity?" In physics, gravity (from Latin gravitas 'weight') is a fundamental interaction primarily observed as mutual attraction between all things that have mass. Gravit