You dirty toaster

So today I spent a lovely Cardiff afternoon indoors playing the board game of the tv show Battlestar galactica. If you don't know the tv show, or indeed the concept of the game, the idea is you each control a character on board a space ship with the remaining human population. Through the game, and the show, bad things happen to the ship and the people, such as loss of water supplies or broken weaponry. To make matter worse, one of you is an undercover Cylon, a robot disguised as a human, whose job it is to sabotage the ship and the efforts to avoid disaster on the ship.
The game in really good fun, and knowing that one of you is constantly plotting against everyone else  makes for some great debates and accusations. Crisps doughnuts and cookies may be provided to improve the quality of the game, but they are optional.
In the end, after about 4 hours of playing the humans managed to snatch victory at the dieing moments of the game (literally, our population was nearly dead by this point). Spending an afternoon playing board games may be seen as a bit of a waste by some, who would prefer to go off and see the world, but I think an afternoon spent with friends having fun is just a a good!

In to the swing of things

Finally back to work which means I am fully motivated again to do work and hitting the ground running. The Christmas break is always a nice time to charge the batteries and re-assess and think over the work you have been doing, I find.
I'm preparing a paper on the work I have done so far in my PhD, which will be my first published paper, which is a big thing for a young researcher. Hopefully it will be finished within a few months allowing me to spend the rest of my second year on a new project. I'm also working on a paper for Gaia, which takes up the rest of my time. This will be out by about April, so a busy few months ahead.
Add to this an article I have said I will write for an astronomy magazine, a meeting about a science conference I am writing, a meeting as a representative of post graduates and the eventual final of the IoP 3 minute wonder competition, Jan and Feb are going to be very busy months, but for all the good reasons.
Anyway, the papers to read on my desk is piling up quickly so I better get back to reading!

I wish it only took 10 hours...

What are the chances?

Today I found two cases of nearly unbelievable chance. By trying to avoid starting work for another couple of minutes I came across this fact. In 1864/5, Robert Lincoln, Abraham Lincolns son, was at a train station on the platform waiting for his train. The hustle and bustle of passenger on the platform accidentally knocked him down on to the train tracks.but before any harm could come to him a stranger trapped his collar and pulled him up back on to the platform. The strange part comes in when the man who saved him is found to be none other than Edwin booth, brother of Abraham Lincolns assassinated John Booth. Unbelievably unlikely to happen.
I then found that I won 5 chocolates for our office Christmas advent calendar in a row over the Christmas period. There are 7 people able to win, the names I drawn randomly and I won 5 days in a row. Pretty large odds for that to happen. Not as interesting as the one above, but still a day for statistical uncertainties!

A cinema goers perfect rainy Saturday.

Those miserable rainy Saturdays. You don't really want to go out, but sitting in front of the screen all day at home seems too lazy. Somehow sitting in front of a cinema screen is ok though, according to society. The idea of the silver screen still exists, at least to me. There's something that makes watching a film at the cinema so much better than at home, probably because I can't use my phone or my iPad while it's on so I have to give it my full attention.
Luckily thanks to unlimited film cinema cards, I did the perfect film lovers Saturday and went to back to back films. The two films, the Secret life of Walter Mitty and American Hustle, were really great. Mitty is a lovely story of a man who decided to stop his day dreaming and instead take in the real world and live his fantasies. Ben stiller in a very different but great role. American hustle offers some of the best acting you will see this year (or last year) in a great comedic story.
All in all a worthwhile trip to the pictures. Anyway, I'm writing this on my iPad instead of watching the tv that's on I front of me, so I'm going to stop being antisocial and watch the box.

A wonderful 3 minutes

Just before Christmas I was lucky enough to win the wales regional Institute Of Physics 3 minute wonder competition. This gives the chance for young researchers to present their work in a fun and interactive way but in only a few minutes. I have spent hours trying to explain what I do to friends and family so this was a bit difficult. Still I must have done well as I managed to win and book my place in the UK final! The other people who presented were really great, showing the quality of young scientists there are, who are able to present their research in an interesting and fun way.
So hopefully this year I can go to London and win the final, but if not, then I had a great time doing the presentation anyway.
If you have a spare few minutes and a pair of ears to listen to you, try explaining what you do to them in 3 minutes. Its good fun and challenges you to sum up what you do at a good level!