A Missed Eclipse (by sarah)

Last night was supposed to be a full lunar eclipse and as this is my Year of Astronomy I thought I'd watch it even though it was at totality at about 3 am. Well we stayed up and annoyingly half an hour before the shadow was due to first touch the moon there was a moon shining bright if a bit hazily in the sky so we where hoping. I even took some practice shots of the moon with a not very good camera.

Through the veiw finder

Through the telescope

Just with the camera and its the only one that I can say is actually worth looking at :/ Though it is still tiny.

It was a shame that we didnt get too see it but we did notice the light levels dipping perceptively and I got quiet alot of the hook rug I'm currently making done. Dad phoned at about 3:30 to say that he hadn't been able to see it in Essex either - did anyone in the UK actually get to see the eclipse?

Oh well never mind - I was going to makes scetches and stuff too but alas and alack!

Of Ice and Sheep (by sarah)

I am frozen at the moment - the ice just isn't going so here in the valley we have ice all day leading to slabs of ice and icicles all over the newely instated waterfall and riverlets of ice near the road.

On the plus side we finially have sheep 🙂

The field is full of wooly bar sheeps and there even appears to be some with the characteristic woolly faces meaning that we think we have the villages Cotwold Lions! The farmer who's sheep they are is the current designated looker afterer of the Cranham villages flock so we are very happy 🙂

Meaningful results (by sarah)

In this weeks New Scientist there is an artical about subconcous racism which has annoyed me - they showed the participants pictures of either black peoples faces or white peoples sublimany and then showed them a blurry picture of either an ape or a large cat and those shown the afro-carrabian faces recognised the ape picture quicker than those shown the white face first.

And this is meaningful? What profile was the cat in? Whole body outline or just face? What colour was the ape? Dark? Try it with one of the lighter coloured monkeys and see what result you get or alter the picture so that its an albino ape for goodness sake. Then it turns out that they didn't have enough black people in the study to see if they made the same association.

People are very good at rocognicing faces - we excell at it and the other primates faces are very close to ours unsuprisingly. Then you show people something similar in colour of course thye are going to process the info quicker! It said Asians taking the test recognised the apes quicker too and also that even with just the word being flashed at one group they got the same sort of association - now that is interesting and something that I would have thought would have shown an unconcous (though I'd've have thought not very) rasism. To me this picture test is worse than useless and is stirring feelings that probably didnt exist until it was published.

The comments about the evolution of man pictures being partially to blame annoyed me too as I was always teasing my very corcasion uncle that he was the missing link becuase - quiet frankly with his brow ridge he looks far more like the missing link than any of my ethnic friends.

p.s. I'm not entirely sure what terms are politically correct and which arent as I have never dwelt too long on the subject as I think its stupid - people are people. I do find myself wondering what the results would be like for an experiment like this done properlly over different cultures mind - to be fair to them it maybe a good study and the write up just a bit iffy but I find myself doubting it. If anyone knews more about this let me know.

Appologies if I've offended anyone.

Where is Number Three? (by sarah)

They say disastors come in threes so today has seen two - where is the third?

First off getting out of the vally was a trial as it was so icy theat even with a run up we just slid back sown agian. Al parked us went to get his folding shoval from the back of the van in order to put the salt grit on the road but whilst he was doing this a Gloucestershires Highways 4x4 with trailor proceeded to get stuck. So whilst we where heloping him time ticked away and suddenly Barbara was there behind us being late for Pilotes :/

Finally we get going and then on route the washing machine which I'd asked to be taken out before we left - floped over in the back of the van - a phenominia that shouldn't have been possible but becuse of exactly where the weight is possitioned was. I was not as they say very happy.

Ah actually there where three - my mobile phone then died when I was supposed to have several meetings and things which was not very helpful at all.

Rushing Around like the Proverbial… (by sarah)

Friday a package containing two isolator switches so that the electrician can put in a special bit so that we can change over the office to generator easily but it did not arrive - Al had ordered it on next day delivery so was suprised and half way through Saturday morning discovered that the order hadn't gone through properlly and as the electician had said he wanted it for Sunday we then had a big flap about trying to find one we could get too a)before the various trade countors closed and b)the one in stock sold - we didn't manage it so we bought a half measure in the form of junction boxes at B&Q alonf with our new outside lamp (which was one of the more expensive ones around £30 as we decided going with metal instead of plastic would hopefully mean it would last longer).

Then back to the Mill before setting out for first Stroud to a shop that turned out to be closed and then to London and Essex to pick up the Dishwasher and washing machine. Nipping in to see Mum whilst we where there - she really does have sunburnt looking patches on her :/

We then begain driving back and it would have all been fine where it not for a big accident on the A147 which had things cut off when we where only like half and hour from hime resulting in us getting in at the annoyingly late time of 11:30 - it was a nasty hectic day is all I will say.