the rising cost of custard creams (and other biscuits)

i'm sure rob will blog this too -- just found out that biscuits in the tea room have gone up by a massive 5p to 20p. now a tea+biscuits costs a fiddly 45pence, rather than the convenient 40p it was before.

rumour has it that crisps have gone up too, but those marshmallow things remain at 15p.

john will not have to worry about having crumbs on his face now.

lunacy. sheer lunacy.

astronomy blues

why isn't my code working? it was working the other day, and i have changed nothing. basically it is for cutting a thumbnail image from a larger FITS format file... of arbirary size, given an input sky coordinate.

this is very odd, and beginning to rub me up the wrong side of the stick.

jim

early retirement for the 311 boys

just read this on the bbc: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4755996.stm

apparently ground based astronomy will be impossible in about 40 years due to increasing pollution, mainly from airliners. it's time to move to the moon.

may i add...

Sir Alan: "I've written books on advertising. Cheque books."

Quiz

John informs me that the pub quiz is on tonight, but, due to his injury he probably won't make it...

spy sharks

saw this interesting article on slashdot about the US pentagon wanting to put neural implants into shark's brains and then using them as stealth underwater 'spys':
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/02/0031225

what's next - laser beams on their heads?

broken leg

the news is that john has just found out he's broken his leg... but he's been walking around on it for a week!

one thing's for sure - he won't be giving any roundhouse kicks anytime soon.

get well soon john.

vending machine

i was dissapointed to find that all but one drink was 'sold out' in the vending machine opposite the lift. when i tried to purchase the drink it rejected my money. had to go for the more expensive machine and something called 'powerade'. made from real power apparently.

john has made my day by printing off a portrait of sir alan sugar, to compete with CN on the white board. hilarious. thanks john.

apprentice

yes! the apprentice is on tonight. that's cheered me up no end.

what would alan sugar do?

really hot in 311

the temperature in room 311 can be a bit of a problem... the radiator claims to be 'off', but is blatantly not. during the night the room heats up, and by the morning it's basically a sauna. when the window is opened to bring some sort of balance about any paper which isn't weighed down is blown about the room. sigh.

first post

hot on the heels of npr's research blog, john and i decided it was time to blog the activities of room 311.