Friday 21 August 2009

Friday 3 July 2009

SOLAR STORM


Wikipedia yes:
The solar storm of 1859, also known as the Solar Superstorm, or the Carrington Event, is the most powerful solar storm in recorded history.

From August 28 until September 2, numerous sunspots and solar flares were observed on the sun. Just before noon on September 1, the British astronomer, Richard Carrington, observed the largest flare, which caused a massive coronal mass ejection (CME), to travel directly toward Earth, taking eighteen hours. This is remarkable because such a journey normally takes three to four days. It moved so quickly because an earlier CME had cleared its way.

During The solar storm of 1893, 2/3 of the world watched lights in the sky much like the aurorae in the polar regions, but much bigger. Much bigger.

Brilliant stealing-stuff-off-the-radio-so-you-can-actually-listen-to-it blog Speechfication has a full Radio 3 program HERE! HERE! HERE!


Question is, could it ever happen again? And when it knocks out all the power, what then?? From New Scientist magazine:
First to go - immediately for some people - is drinkable water. Anyone living in a high-rise apartment, where water has to be pumped to reach them, would be cut off straight away. For the rest, drinking water will still come through the taps for maybe half a day. With no electricity to pump water from reservoirs, there is no more after that.
Uh-oh, etc...

Tuesday 9 June 2009

Tuesday 21 April 2009

RASPBERRIES & RUM

The Guardian reports that researchers have found an area of deep space which smells of raspberries and tastes of rum, or tastes of rum and smells of raspberries - I've already forgotten which.


Smell


Taste

Warning: The following excerpt contains the phrase "space raspberries":

'In the latest survey, astronomers sifted through thousands of signals from Sagittarius B2, a vast dust cloud at the centre of our galaxy. While they failed to find evidence for amino acids, they did find a substance called ethyl formate, the chemical responsible for the flavour of raspberries.

'"It does happen to give raspberries their flavour, but there are many other molecules that are needed to make space raspberries," Arnaud Belloche, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, told the Guardian.'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/apr/21/space-raspberries-amino-acids-astrobiology

Saturday 11 April 2009

Tuesday 17 March 2009

MY MUM'S PICTURES OF THE SHUTTLE LAUNCH

NASA launched yet another multi-million dollar space shuttle the other day. My mum was on hand at the highly secretive ClunesCorp. NASA monitoring station near Cape Canaveral, Florida, to get the exclusive pics JUST for YOU.

She reports: "Sunday night there was a shuttle launch from Cape Canaveral which we saw from the house we are staying in research centre and you can see the shots we took. The "vapour trail" was spectacular to see and all the neighbours our team of operatives were out watching in the street. Apparently the vapour trail could be seen from as far away as the Bahamas"

They also visited Celebration, the Disney-owned 'ideal town', and found a hat stall.

Our special thanks go out to our Florida team for their dedication and hard work these past few weeks. Great going, guys!

Sunday 8 March 2009

11 MINUTES OF SPERM



THESE GUYS REALLY KNOW HOW TO MOVE!!!!!! (joke)

Tuesday 3 March 2009

THE LIFE STORY OF A STAR

CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGENESS

from the "Junior Mirror Fun Book" by George Thaw, Mirror Group publishing, 1975

Wednesday 18 February 2009

Friday 13 February 2009

UP AND COMING UPCOMINGS

We're playing at Tottenham Chances for another Klinker on March 3rd.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2074/2318477967_3440e2173c.jpg?v=0

Tottenham Chances is on Tottenham High Road just north of The Swan, up from Seven Sisters tube. Bus-wise, most of the ones that go north/south through Dalston end up going all the way up to Tottenham.


In other Klinker/Clunes-related news, Dan (that's me) is/am playing in a new trio at the same venue on the 27th March, with a feller named Elwell and Hugh Metcalfe. The trio is called "Bolgwell Elcalfe" at the moment.

AND on the 5th March at Cafe Oto, Tom is putting his fingers in all sorts of places and playing a solo guitar set, along with a set from the formidable Wilkinson/Edwards/Noble trio. Details are on the cafe oto website. If by some weird stretch of the imagination you've managed to hear Clunes but not Tom's solo stuff, then check him out at his myspace.

Thursday 12 February 2009

The Problem With The Turtles

Ever read The Problem With Music by Steve Albini?? Well, here's The Turtles' version. It's funnier.



Any resemblance is between these guys and a certain space-informed improv duo, 40 years into the future, is purely coincidental.

Anyway, Flo & Eddie seem like nice guys. They were in The Turtles, who had that hit with 'Happy Together'. After they split they joined Zappa's band, did session work all over the place (including the backing vocals on 20th Century Boy by T Rex!).

From the Wikipedia entry:
Flo & Eddie: Howard Kaylan ("Eddie") and Mark Volman ("Flo" aka "Phlorescent Leech") are a comedic musical duo. The two were the original founding members of the Top 40 pop group The Turtles. After The Turtles dissolved, Kaylan and Volman first joined the Mothers of Invention as "Phlorescent Leech & Eddie". Due to contractual restrictions made early in their career, Mark and Howard were prevented from using the name "The Turtles", as well as their own names in a musical context.

When bandleader Frank Zappa was injured during a concert in London in 1971, Kaylan & Volman found themselves at an impasse, as the Mothers Of Invention were out of action for a time. They responded to these events by recording "The Phlorescent Leech & Eddie" on Reprise with the other members of the MOI.

Although the album failed to chart, they continued releasing albums including the more successful Flo & Eddie, Illegal, Immoral and Fattening, Moving Targets, and Rock Steady with Flo & Eddie.

During the 1970's Kaylan and Volman continued to do session work, lending their trademark harmonies to T-Rex, John Lennon, Roger McGuinn, Hoyt Axton, Ray Manzarek, Stephen Stills, Keith Moon, David Cassidy, Alice Cooper, Tonio K., Blondie, Bruce Springsteen, The Knack, Psychedelic Furs, Sammy Hagar, Livingston Taylor, Burton Cummings, Paul Kantner, Duran Duran, The Ramones and others.

They also had their own TV show. Here they are, interviewing two jerks:





God, the guys in KISS are such douches. Anyway.

Doing the US national anthem at an American football game:




And their hit. Yes!




Wednesday 11 February 2009

CHINESE MYSPACE

We have a Chinese myspace profile. who knew?

http://us.profile.myspace.cn/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=41838364


The difference is, it loads slower!

http://www.destination360.com/asia/china/images/s/china-great-wall-of-china.jpghttp://www.destination360.com/asia/china/images/s/china-great-wall-of-china.jpghttp://www.destination360.com/asia/china/images/s/china-great-wall-of-china.jpghttp://www.destination360.com/asia/china/images/s/china-great-wall-of-china.jpg

Wednesday 14 January 2009

PLANET CARAVAN



We sail through endless skies
Stars shine like eyes
The black night sighs
The moon in silver trees
Falls down in tears
Light of the night
The earth, a purple blaze
Of sapphire haze
In orbit always

While down below the trees
Bathed in cool breeze
Silver starlight breaks down the night
And so we pass on by the crimson eye
Of great God mars
As we travel the universe

Youtube user MOWIZER817 says:
"Black Sabbath Planet Caravan. This is my first time using Windows Movie Maker. A collection of photos I thought showed the atmosphere of the song. Enjoy.
"


Check out this guy's other videos! Missile explosions set to rock classics?? Yes! A video analysing the fibonacci sequence and it's basis for the structure of a Tool song? Yes!! YES!!

Friday 9 January 2009

MYSTERY ROAR FROM SPACE DETECTED

Yes mate!

From space.com:

ARCADE's mission was to search the sky for faint signs of heat from the first generation of stars, but instead they heard a roar from the distant reaches of the universe.

"The universe really threw us a curve," Kogut said. "Instead of the faint signal we hoped to find, here was this booming noise six times louder than anyone had predicted."

Detailed analysis of the signal ruled out primordial stars or any known radio sources, including gas in the outermost halo of our own galaxy.

Other radio galaxies also can't account for the noise – there just aren't enough of them.

WHAT IS IT?????

links:
Full article on space.com
"Listening To Space" from the Clunes myspace blog