Thoughts that define a nation

had a thought today. While being on holiday my body probably isn't in its peak physical condition and I have said to myself that I will get back into shape upon my return, on the other hand I have tanned a bit which is a bonus and it made me think, people often comment on how tanned you are but very rarely on you muscle tone. It takes a lot more effort to get into shape than it does to tan up. Why is it that the thing that takes the least amount of effort gets the most attention? its actually a little annoying, If i do actually get back into shape when I get home (which will require a lot of effort) no one will say anything. Just a thought for you all. have a lovely day.

L.A. Fairburn

Berlin

hey dudes, my eurotrip is still very much going with the next stop over being Berlin in Germany. For the first three days my friend who is travelling with me fell ill so we didn't do much naturally, when Peter came around we did a free walking tour of the city, Its a big place and we couldn't go everywhere but we had a little bit of time in Berlin so we got to see everything we wanted. I didn't realise how fashionable Berliners are. I would say that Peter and I would be the least fashionable in the whole of Berlin, now I'm not the up with all the fashion at the best of times but we really stuck out in Berlin but no matter we had fun anyway. I wasn't that much a fan of Germany. I didn't see that much of it but from what I did see I thought the language was the hardest to understand that I have come across and it was quite dirty, but in saying that it was a good experience and it may need a bit more exploring to see the true Germany.

Watch this space

L.A. Fairburn

Prague.

Today is my birthday (yeah for me) and I write this from an internet cafe in london when the person next to me is complaining because his computer is slow even tho everyones computer is slow. The next stop off on my grand adventure around Europe was Prague in the Czech Republic. One of the first things we did was a free walking tour of the city, it was really good to actually understand the things we were looking at. We meet some guys from London in our hostel who chilled out with us for the rest of their time in Prague. They were leaving at 5 in the morning and they didnt want to book another night at the hostel so the 'checked out' and stayed down in the common room all night so peter and I thought we would join them. We had a pretty good time playing chess, yes playing chess. It was australia vs. england and of course we brought it home for the aussies. go us. Another cool thing we saw in Prague was a four seasons concert preformed in a church. It was actually really good and Peter and myself felt very cultured. We played a lot of chess in prague, dont know why, just a bit of fun really. Prague is definatly a city I would return to, so much to do there and it has a very welcoming vibe about it, if you are planning to travel anytime soon I would recomend you go past Prague.
Watch this space
L.A. Fairburn

krakow, poland

my friends, this blog is long over due as i have moved from Krakow sometime ago. No matter, to coin the much over used term 'better late than never' I will fill you in on the proceeding that were presented to me in krakow.

We arrived in krakow by train as is the way with most places we visited but the problem was we were not very prepared and didn't have directions to the hostel so we had to as some local poles which were incredibly nice and brought us tram ticket(because we had no polish money) and travelled with us to the hostel to make sure we got there safely. The next day we visited a salt mine witht the worlds largest underground church that the salt miners craved out in their lunch breaks. It was quite beautiful with so many amazing carvings. We meet a uk guy by the name of ash down there who we hung around with that night. He introoduced us to vodka which had one peice of bull grass in it which apparently made a big difference but i couldnt taste anything different about it. The next day we visited the concertration camps in poland. I cannot spell them so i will leave the names out, but it was quite a humbling experience. We visited two. The first one was like you would see in the photos but the other one just looked like a collage residence ground and the sun was out so it made the place look quite nice, but when you look at the photos and read the stories that went on in those places it is hard to feel anything but sadness.

Krakow was a nice quiet city, i would like to visit it again one day and stay for longer but for now I will move on to prague which will be in the next blog so until then watch this space.

L.A. Fairburn

wiki fun facts 4

Rosebery, Tasmania
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Rosebery
Tasmania

Above-ground workings at the Rosebery mine
Population: 1,032 [1]
Postcode: 7470
Elevation: 165 m (541 ft) [2]
Location: 315 km (196 mi) NW of Hobart
109 km (68 mi) S of Burnie
55 km (34 mi) N of Queenstown
25 km (16 mi) N of Zeehan
LGA: West Coast Council
State District: Lyons
Federal Division: Lyons
Mean Max Temp Mean Min Temp Annual Rainfall
16.4 °C
62 °F 7.0 °C
45 °F 1,952 mm
76.9 in



Rosebery (41°46′S 145°32′E) is a town on the west coast of Tasmania, Australia. It is situated at the northern end of the West Coast Range, in the shadow of Mount Black and adjacent to the Pieman River now Lake Pieman.

It lies on the Murchison Highway, 25 kilometres north east of Zeehan and is part of the Municipality of West Coast Council. At the 2006 census, Rosebury had a population of 1,032.[1]

The population of Rosebery declined by 22% in the years between 1996-2001.[3]

Its newer western area on the shore of Lake Pieman is known as Primrose.

Its postcode is 7470.Contents [hide]
1 Highest Postcode in Tasmania
2 Mining and railways
3 Notable residents
4 See also
5 References
6 Further reading
7 External links


[edit]
Highest Postcode in Tasmania

Rosebery Tasmania has the quirky honour having the highest postcode in Tasmania, 7470.

[edit]
Mining and railways

Like most of the west coast, Rosebery is a mining town. In the 1890s, gold, lead, zinc and copper were all discovered in the area. This lasted until the mine's closure in 1913. In 1927 the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company revived the mines, and today the mines are still running (owned and operated by Oz Minerals). Prior to the construction of the Murchison Highway in the 1960s, the town connected with Burnie and North West Tasmania via the Emu Bay Railway.

[edit]
Notable residents
Richard Flanagan - author, historian and film director

[edit]
See also
West Coast Tasmania Mines
West Coast Tasmania Railways

[edit]
References
^ a b Australian Bureau of Statistics (25 October 2007). "Rosebery (Urban Centre/Locality)". 2006 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 2007-11-14.
^ Bureau of Meteorology. Retrieved on 2007-11-14.
^ [1]

[edit]
Further reading
Blainey, Geoffrey (2000). The Peaks of Lyell (6th ed. ed.). Hobart: St. David's Park Publishing. ISBN 0-7246-2265-9.
Rae, Lou (2001). The Abt Railway and Railways of the Lyell region. Sandy Bay: Lou Rae. ISBN 0-9592098-7-5.
Whitham, Charles (2003). Western Tasmania - A land of riches and beauty (Reprint 2003 ed.). Queenstown: Municipality of Queenstown.
2003 edition - Queenstown: Municipality of Queenstown.
1949 edition - Hobart: Davies Brothers. OCLC 48825404; ASIN B000FMPZ80
1924 edition - Queenstown: Mount Lyell Tourist Association. OCLC 35070001; ASIN B0008BM4XC

[edit]
External links
Mineral Resources Tasmania - Zinifex Rosebery mine
Tourist information dated 2004

Hungary; War, BBQ and relaxation

hey gang, This is but another installment of my trip about Europe but before I start telling you about my time in Hungary I would like to say that for me travelling is very cool but every person I meet asks me "so what are you doing next year?" and I casually reply "UmmmmI really don't know." The time I've spent travelling has been really good but I would really like to figure out what I am doing with my life, sometimes I think to myself 'don't worry about it, things will work out in the end' but then I find myself thinking about it 5 minutes later. Its quite annoying not knowing where my life is leading my, all I can do is... nothing and wait for life too take its twists and turns.

Enough of that depressing stuff, lets get back to my trip. Recently I was in Hungary which I was quite excited about for a couple of reasons. 1. Its a cool place. 2. I know someone from there. 3.there is a lot of history that I wanted to explore. I have been travelling for over a month now and most europian cities have the same things in them. Big churches, castles, a nice lake running through or along side it but hungary was different. Yes it had all that stuff but I also had a lot of different things. for example that the thermal baths. We visited these the second day we were there, it was quite cool to experince them but not what I expected. there were heaps of old men sitting in the baths that looked like they had been in there their whole lives but there was also normal pool outside there were pretty cool especially with the weather over here. It is quite hot...

The next day we visited the house of terror with was a real eye opener for how hungary participated in the war. As soon as you walk in there is a huge tank to greet you and lots of information along with pictures and video of what went on. I didnt realise how much Hungary had to do with the nazis and communisim. Its quite interesting to find out about I would recommend that if you don't know much about it, look it up.

That night we went out for tea to a mongolian BBQ which was all you could eat. Trust me we ate ALL we could came came out quite full. It was really cool as well you chose what you wanted and took it to the cook who cooked it in front of you.

All in all Hungary is a very cool place to visit and I would recommend it to anyone. Until next time friends, watch this space.

L.A. Fairburn

the pure driving force

hey guys and gals, it has been a while since I updated you with my traveling blog mainly because I have been to lazy. At the moment I am in Croatia in a little place called Zagreb. I have only just arrived so I dont have any exciting news for you yet but I will update you on Slovenia. First of all Peter and I have meet an Irish man called Liam who has a car and is driving all the way to India, so we have hitched a ride with him until Croatia where we will part ways.

We spent a about a week and a half in Slovenia traveling around the country. Maribor, Ljubljana and bled were the three places we went. It is good having the car because you can pull into a place and drive around until you find a good place to stay. Slovenia is a very nice place but I found that on this trip it is not so much the places you see but the people you meet. I sounds cliche but its the truth really. Staying in hostel you meet other people around your age from all over the globe and just talk. I have meet some really cool people and I am sure I will meet some more.

*watch this space*

L.A. Fairburn

climbing

Well dudes, at the moment I am in Innsbruck, Austria. Quite a beautiful little place with mountains either side and a nice stream flowing through the middle. (much like switzerland) It was our task today to conquer one of the mountains that over shadow this fair city. We picked a nice a easy 2,300m peak, biggest mountain I have climbed but not by much. I hope to put some footage on here of the event soon.

It was quite fun, we meet two Germans in our hostel and they decided to climb the mountain with us, which was nice. We talked about current issues, past issuse, wars, vegemite... we made it to about 2000m up and found a resturant, yeah there was one that high, and had a local beer, after that we were to tired to walk so we took the chairlift to the top. So technically we did not make it the whole way but 2000m is still a big achievement for me.

That is about it for this little blog, I hope you are keeping well and making the most of what you have.

watch this space

L.A. Fairburn

Switzerland

I arrived in switzerland by train last night around 9 and it was just great, Italy was nice but im glad to be out of there and back on the road.

It took us about 5 hours by train to really see the difference between Italy and switzerland. It is so beautiful, clean and well ordered. Im looking forward to seeing more of what this beautiful place has to offer. Atm we are staying with someone we meet over couchsurfing(A website which allows you to stay with people, look it up) and he is really nice, so all in all I am really enjoying my time here so far and I believe it will get better so if you want to keep up to date with my journey, watch this space.

L.A.Fairburn

The tale continues

Well friends, I am still in Italy but not for much longer. I have been to Milan, Rome, Naples and I will be making my way to venice soon. It's been fun taking each day as it comes, our plans change daily so I cannot give you a very clear picture of where I will be and when. At this stage we will be in Italy till the 15th and then move on to switzerland.

It is very different in the EU than AUS, The roads are crazy, I dont think there are anyrules and if there are no one follows them. My Italian has improved...slightly. I can ask directions and exchange pleasantries.

I dont have that much exciting news to give you at this stage but I hope to give you something to think about at a later date so until then watch this space.

L.A. Fairburn

SPQR

Currently I sit in a internet cafe in Rome. I've been here for three days and seen most of the sites around the place. The colossem, Roman Forum, Vatican City and the Pantheon. I would have to say that Rome is a very beautiful place with some very rich history. It is very hot, much unlike Tasmania, I would even go as far as to say too hot, but as I move futher north it will cool down a bit. I looking forward to sharing my stories with you all in person so until I return watch this space.

L.A. Fairburn

motocozzie

Welcome Good friends. Today I arrived in Milan ITA. All I had organized was get off the plane on to a bus and meet peter at the end but plans can always turn sour. When I arrived in Milan I turned on my phone and found that I was showing no reception, which is weird because I had international roaming, so I had to wonder around the bus station for about half an hour looking for Peter, not even knowing if Peter there. I found him after much panic and searching, to make the story even stranger, when I had caught up with Peter, Cate and Sirenna they had found another guy from austria who was lost and needed something to do for 6 hours, so he came with us and we explored a little of Milan until catching a train and heading to the house we were staying in. I settled in, and relaxed the rest of the day, a nice way to start and long adventure.

*Watch this space*

day 1

sorry to disappiont but im not in europe yet. Im sitting in sydney mcdonalds with the free wifi and loving it. Im about to fly to milan, italy this afternoon but really i wont get there till tomorrow. 16 hour flight and then just cause i love them so much i have to do another 6 hour flight to get there but i am sure it will be worth it, ill have some more exciting news when i arrive so for now keep safe and watch this space

Watch this space

*sweeps cobwebs away*

*blows the dust of the keyboard*

*Starts typing* 

Well it has been awhile friends, My blog has been missing the reoccurring deliberations I usually scribble down. 

Exciting news has kept my attention for the past month or so, I'm going traveling through Europe...in 4 days. Starting in Italy, going through germany, switzerland and sweden then down through france, spain and jumping over to italy to fly back home after two and a half months.

I will be doing normal blogs and video blogs while I am over there so if you enjoy this blog or want to see some sights around Europe, watch this space.

L.A. Fairburn

Yet again

I think a lot about the world around us, my friends would probably get sick of hearing me rant on about atoms and special relativity even though they would never tell me, they would just nod and try and amuse my weird geeky brain. The truth of the matter is I rant on so much because it is what I love to talk about, 'The great Insolubles' as I like to call them, I have a couple to blow your mind and then I will try and piece your mind back together but a nice summary. Okay here goes:

1. The entire population of the earth is the size of a sugar cube...

Pretty crazy to think about but to the extent of my knowledge it is true, and it all has to do with the make up of an atom. Put quite simply, atoms make up EVERYTHING, if you half an orange and half it again and keep on halving you will get and atom. Atoms are made of a nucleus in the centre and electrons spinning round it, In between the nucleus and electrons there is just empty space but quite a lot of it, to put it into perspective if an atom is the size of a football field the nucleus is an apple in the middle and the rest of the field is empty space until you get the the electrons at the stands;). Now back to the sugar cube, if we were able to take out all that empty space so the nucleus and electrons were touching it would make atoms a great deal smaller, so small in fact that the entire human race would be about the size of a sugar cube. Make sense? If not I'm sorry you must be an air head...(Get it, atoms, empty space, in your head, ah I crack myself up).

2. .........................................................

Actually I think ill keep it at one and save some more for next time, let me know what you think if you liked what wrote about leave me a comment if you fell asleep half way through from boredom and hit you head and left a bruise leave me a comment or if you didn't understand what the heck I was writing about because my explaining skills arn't the best leave me a comment.

Anyway hope to hear from you.

L. A. Fairburn

Imperfections

The brown soggy snow crunched into James’ tread. As he ran to the nearest shelter he could fell the freezing wind hit his face and curve around to enter his ears. The day was almost over when James sat down to rest. Around him the ground was stained with red blood. A red trespasser on the white blanket. He could not feel his hands as so for the last few days, the last happy image he remembered was of his wife curled up in his bed awaiting a normal day but the day was as far from normal for James.

 

Only when he saw the first man go down did he realise what a predicament he was in, not fighting for his country but for his life. Could the war be a means to an end, like the papers say or is this another of many that will be crippling families through out Britain. Taking time to check his gun’s magazine, his thought could not help but go back to his family.

“If only they knew, if only they knew what was going through.” He grunted. The words sounded harsh but he could only feel punished for what he did to them. With his back up against the frost bitten boulder his thought drifted. His eyes glazed over and he found a place of peace knowing that his family was safe, his thoughts were tediously interrupted by the melodious fighting that was taken place just in front of him.

 

James searched the area, scanning for hope in a bleak field that cast a shadow of death in every corner. James saw one single man detach from a group only to be shot down. One bullet to the thigh, the next into the shoulder and as he was going down the third bullet pieced his skull leaving a defined mark resembling downfall of Britain society since the war began. James began to get up; eyes swelling with emotion, heart reaching out to stop him but it was no good. Facing a wall of enemy soldiers that lined their targets on James, he shot repetitively until the magazine reached the last bullet. In the open, he felt exposed and bewildered; his emotions drove him into stupidities that would result in death.

 

The morning James had to leave, it was all organised and his family would not know that he was going to war; his wife said that if he went he could never return, this was the only way. His twin Jake took his place as father of his own house. The two were inseparable.

“Thankyou” was all that could be said by James as he walked out the door.

“I’m not doing it for you,” Was jakes reply “I’m doing it for my country.”

With that the door closed and James stepped out into the White blanket of snow.   

 

One, two, three bullets fired from the enemies guns, targeted on James, He felt the life drain from him but not disappear, he stood there on the snow as a uniformed statue. From nowhere a body dove at him smothering him in brown and white imperfections.  An unclean trespasser on the white blanket.

wiki fun facts pt. 3

The N400 is an event-related potential (ERP) component typically elicited by unexpected linguistic stimuli. It is characterized as a negative deflection (topologically distributed over central-parietal sites on the scalp), peaking approximately 400ms (300-500ms) after the presentation of the stimulus.^[1]

The N400 plays a significant role in language processing. It was "discovered" in 1980 by Marta Kutas and Steven Hillyard, in a study that is considered to have first introduced the concept of using ERPs to study language processing, and one of the first studies in what is now the field of neurolinguistics.^[2] The N400 response is often elicited by semantically inappropriate words in an otherwise acceptable sentential context,^[3] and has also been shown to occur in response to words at the end of a sentence when there was a problem earlier in the sentence.^[1] In general, the more difficult it is to "integrate" a word into the preceding context, the bigger an N400 that word will elicit.^[1] In models of speech comprehension, N400 is often associated with the semantic integration of words in a sentence context^[4] and general "wrap-up" and decision-making processes at the end of a sentence.^[1] The N400 remains a common topic of study in neurolinguistics and psycholinguistics.

Contents  [hide] 1 A typical experiment 2 Scope of the N400 effect and the underlying process 2.1 Processing costs 2.2 Music and N400 2.3 N400 and pictures 3 See also 4 References

[edit]A typical experiment

A typical experiment that demonstrates the N400 might be set up as follows:

• The subject is presented a sentence one word at a time, and advances through each word by pressing a key.
• Some sentences will be semantically unmarked, e.g., "I enjoy walking in the evenings" (a control condition)
• Some sentences will have unexpected or deviant ends, e.g., "I like my coffee with cream and dog"
• By recording the subject's neural activity using an Electroencephalogram and comparing the effects between the expectable and the unexpected words, the N400 can be measured. It will be seen as a wave-effect on the EEG curve peaking approximately 400ms after the unexpected stimulus.

[edit]Scope of the N400 effect and the underlying process

The N400 is one of the most researched neurolinguistic topics with many papers on the subject. It is generally a very stable finding. In which conditions it is found and what exactly its finding shows is a hotly discussed topic.

[edit]Processing costs

It is generally observed that the amplitude of the N400 effect grows with stimuli that are harder to integrate semantically. That means that in a context where, for example, "lions" would be assumed ("The zebras ran away, chased by the ..."), "rabbits" will induce a greater N400 effect than "tigers", but smaller than "bicycles" or "Walkmans". This is interpreted as showing greater cognitive processing costs for the integration of some words—it is harder to conjure up a meaningful context with rabbits chasing zebras, and zebras in general, in particular chased zebras, leads one to think about lions. Researchers are not in full agreement about the syntactic associations of the N400; some report findings, more don't.

[edit]Music and N400

Music cognition researchers find N400-like effects in response to the relation between pieces of meanings and words that can be interpreted as being in some way descriptive of this music. That would mean that music is often at least partially interpreted in a semantical way. Words, sung or not, can elicit an N400, but comparison of results in the following cases shows that the N400 may be caused not by the music but by the word: (1) Songs sung correctly with the right words and the right notes; (2) Songs sung with non-N400-eliciting words but with a wrong note; (3) Songs sung with an N400-triggering word as well as a wrong note; and (4) Songs sung correctly but with an N400-eliciting word. Further research could also consider pure music with unexpected notes.

[edit]N400 and pictures

A clearly observable phenomenon is that nonlinguistic stimuli can elicit N400s, too: Pictures with expected or unexpected meanings in sentences (like the picture of a dog instead of the word in the sentence "I like my coffee with cream and dog") can be used to show that the effect is not exclusive to linguistics, but has to be in some way related to general semantic processes.

More broadly, cognitive scientists believe the N400 is not limited to linguistic stimuli, but instead an effect showing the processing of semantical formed and structured information in general.

Back up... what's with that??

Lately I have been very interested in space, well when I say lately it would be for the past three or four years. I find it so fascinating the 'bigness' of it and the complex formations taking place every second. I could talk about it for ages but ill save you guys the bore and move straight to the point.

I was driving along today, in my company car, the old but reliable combo and I had one thought that stood out from the normal random my mind conjures up from time to time. The universe is very big (I think most of us will agree with this point), so why is it that God did not make us bigger...?

I believe from no evidence what so ever but just by thinking logically that humans will not even come close to exploring the whole universe before Jesus comes back so why is it that God put it there if we don't discover it. If we were bigger (or the universe smaller) we might have a chance or at least be able to discover more right? 

Just an interesting thought for you, if you have an answer I would be very interested in hearing it.

Have a good night

Luke Fairburn.

Coca cola add

I made this with my mates ages ago. We actually made more than this but I am still editing together the rest. tell me what you think :)

Another paling in the fence

I haven't blogged in a while, mainly because I have been too busy organizing things in my church, but I have been wanting to write one for a while.

The other week I watched an amazing film by rob bell called 'everything is spiritual' and I recommend that if you haven't seen it, go out straight after reading this blog and buy it, It is quite a brilliant masterpiece. I guess the film really sparked my 'road to recovery' if I may call it that. For the past few months I have been doubting God and considering that if there is a God out there he isn't making himself all that know. Being brought up in a christian home, the message has always been there so I think deep down I always knew that he was there. I just needed some evidence to support my argument so I went searching to find some evidence that God exists. My results were frivolous however.

After watching the rob bell video I discovered that I cant prove God's existence (at this stage), that sunday at church I decided that I would stop searching for God as an outsider and I would start searching as a insider. I guess that means I would stop trying to prove His existence while not believing he is out there, I should rather dedicated my life to him and while studying and meditating on him I will learn what I need by what he reveals to me.

Thats the conclusion I came to anyway, but this is not the end of the journey, it is in fact the start. The start of what I hope to be a fulfilling and awe inspiring journey with God.

A joke to brighten your day

Men at Work

Two guys work for the city: one furiously digs a hole, the other quickly fills the hole. A confused passerby asks, "Why do you dig a hole and fill it up again?" The digger leans on his shovel and replies, "The lazy bum who plants the trees is sick again today."

55 word story

The frozen dagger slipped off the shelf, plunging into the blue watery abyss. A great aperture was left in its place, a warning of things to come, but did they take notice? It would seem so futile in the minor story. Another splash became evident in the distance, one more scythe in Mother Nature’s side.

Dear Friends

Its been a while since I did a 'what's going on in my life' blog so to put all you're minds at rest I would rip one out.

To date this is me:

Still the same as usual

I'd like to think that I have matured a bit in the last few years, I have realized I have some big decisions ahead of me that are creeping closer everyday so I have had to knuckle down and plan for the future a bit. For example There is a possibility that I'm moving to the mainland next year with a group of friends who are in a band but I have to think, Is this the best option for me, does God have a better future in mind. Pretty deep questions which will be hard to answer but I'll get there eventually.

Another thing I am really getting into in philosophy. The great insoluble questions that can be muzzled over for hours next to a warm camp fire. I love that fact that everyone has an opinion on a particular subject but no one is really one hundred percent. Philosophy is a get way to expand the mind and  explore topics far beyond your knowledge and understanding. Its a lot of fun.

The last topic I want to share with you lovely folk is about fitness, I've been pretty slack lately, not being bothered to move off the couch but hopefully I will change that soon. 

That about sums up a very brief overview of my life, stay tuned to hear more from the wonderful world of Mr. Luke Fairburn

mannequin

Ever feel like your a mannequin, seeing life past by you, watching events unfold and feeling like there is nothing you can do about it. I don't know it might be just me but I feel as if no matter how hard we try we can't (or we won't) stop life's issues from happening, the good and the bad. This makes me feel useless and helpless but I have to remember I'm only human which is a funny thing to remember cause I live it everyday. I don't know I think I'm rambling now but hey I'll still post this cause there might be someone out there that feels the same way.

more photos

Photos from My Escapade's EP music videos

These are only a few of the many photos taken, and alot was done outside the bands room, (like on top of doctors rocks) which I can't seem to find any photos of but I hope this gives you some insight as to how the weekend went.

55 word story

War raged outside but inside the house lay a small wooden toy. Shards of glass lay around from the broken window but yet didn’t disturb the toy. The little boy sat in the corner looking at the toy with longing eyes, He ran over and picked it up. Peace came to rest in the house. 

wiki fun facts pt. 2

xDNA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about a notation method for the notation of genetic information. For multiple video card technology by Diamond Multimedia, see xDNA (multi-graphics).

xDNA is a modified form of DNA with 8 nucleobases: the four natural bases A, C, G, and T, and four artificial modifications of these made longer by the addition of an extra benzene ring: xA, xC, xG, and xT.^[1] A pairs with xT, C pairs with xG, G pairs with xC, and T pairs with xA, so the distance between the two halves of the double helix is consistently greater. The double helix is thus wider and has a longer pitch.

Experiments with xDNA are expected to provide new insight into the behavior of natural DNA. Also, the extended bases xA, xC, xG, and xT are fluorescent, and single strands composed of only extended bases can recognize and bind to single strands of natural DNA, which could make them useful tools for studying biological systems. The same research group also constructed widened DNA, called yDNA.

Size-expanded dxA

Size-expanded dxT

Size-expanded dxC

Size-expanded dxG

For other alterantive nucleic acid coding systems, see nucleic acid analogues.

loosing the will to articulate

Wow what a weekend, there are so many thoughts running through my head but I'll try to capture the main points for you guys ;-) 

This weekend My escapade a local band was shooting a video clip for their recently released EP. They asked me if I would like to help out, you know, cart gear, bring them stuff, whatever they needed really and I said "Sure, why not."

Any way the first day started at 4am on top of a huge rock that we had to cart music gear, camera, lighting and sound gear up (pretty grueling) but it was well worth it for the shots they wanted. I should point out at this point we had three guys coming from the mainland to shoot the clip. Anyway back to the story. They were planning to shoot the clip over the three day long weekend but amazingly they got it done in the first day and scheduled in three more 'not so epic but still pretty cool' music videos for the guys and I tagged along to help out.

So it got to sunday morning and I have no other way to explain this but Gods perfect plan, everything fell into place so well and everything was so smooth that God had to be involved. It was good I was there, I was the self appointed Key Grip (which I still don't fully understand but is like the lead roady to put it lamely) cause I had everything the guys needed, cables, lights, laptop, it seemed that if they needed something I had it, which kind of put me in the film crews good books. It was a long day but we got the clip finished for that day.

Monday was the last day were we were going to shoot two clips so even tho we were tired we had to push it. Everything fell into place (seems to becoming a regular occurrence) and the clips were shot to the film crews satisfaction. My name for that day was 'reflector' because I held a big reflector to shine the sun right into Jason's face and when it wasn't filming I used to to shield him from the sun so he would get sun blunt. Go figure. Anyway it came to the end of the day and we said our goodbyes and some behind the scenes stuff and by this stage we had all become pretty good mates even though I was only there as a gofer, at the end of the day I was talking to them telling them what I wanted to do in the future and about going to the mainland  to do animation and but some freak chance they had friends in animation on the mainland and they were telling me tips and trick to give me a hand when I go and then they said they would give me an official credit in the clip which they said would help me some more if I added it to my portfolio so in the end I ended up coming out of the weekend with a lot more than I thought I would, My Escapade got four music videos instead of one and the film crew got some really good pieces for their end of year project at uni.

The weekend was defiantly apart of Gods plan for everyone. He had his hand on us the whole time and blessed everyone so much. Hopefully I can upload some photos at some stage for you guys. I guess the moral of this story is this, Even if you think You have abandoned God or just chosen the wrong path, he can use what ever situation you are in. 

Peace out homies.

55 word stories

These are pretty fun, I like doing them to get myself in the creative mood... Give them ago for yourself, only one rules: Has to be 55 words. This is the first of many I hope to post. 

Peace out

The day was clear and bright, the tall grass swayed with the breeze moving the dandelions ever so slightly. Birds sang in the east, songs of joy and not caring for the frustrations of the world around them. Jane ran through the soft green field dodging bullets from the deranged serial killer in the west

wiki fun facts pt. 1

The Network Control Center Data System (NCCDS) is an element of NASA's Space Network (SN) ground segment. Collocated with the White Sands Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System, the NCCDS is the operations control facility for the SN. It schedules most SN elements and supporting elements and provides interfaces for planning, acquisition, control, and status of the SN. The NCCDS is the point-of-contact between customers (who have satellites in orbit) and the SN for most scheduling and real-time performance. A customer may obtain SN support by submitting specific schedule requests to or establishing generic requirements with the NCCDS. The NCCDS translates customers’ requirements into specific TDRScommunications and tracking events. Additionally, the NCCDS notifies affected customers of scheduled system outages so that Mission Operation Centers (MOCs) can properly plan mission activities. Upon MOC request, the NCCDS provides operational performance information (such as data presence monitoring indicators and data quality monitoring data) on scheduled services during actual support to determine if conditions exist that will affect data quality.

The NCCDS issues Network Advisory Messages (NAMs) to provide up-to-date information on network conditions and constraints. These messages are accessible via the NCCDS active NAM web site. GSFC uses the NAMs as a means of letting customers know of any performance constraints associated with the TDRS spacecraft.

"Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving."

                                                Albert Einstein

God; deal or no deal

This is an extremely big topic and I will not know the answers so if you wish to grace my site with your comments then please feel free.

GOD

Is he/she/it real? This blog is only my personal opinion and a mix of what I've read and thought about but at this stage I'm not one hundred percent sure. 

You see people all over the world who have sacrificed their life to the christian cause, so sure of what they believe in that they are willing to lay down their lives instead of denying God's existence. Well... that's a big thing to do...

I want to find out, I want to be so sure of my faith that if someone came knocking on my door and told me to deny Jesus or die I would not even consider deny the christian faith.

The way I see it is like this, You can either believe in God or you can believe in evolution. Period. Some people believe in both like my dad but he believes that God is controlling the universe and it is not all by chance so I guess that would put him on the God side of the fence. There is a lot of good evidence for both cases which makes it more confusing for normal people like me so I really can't choose. My heart is telling me God because I have been brought up my whole life to think that and I tend to think that for everything to be here but chance would make the earth very lucky. I mean its in the ideal spot in the universe to support human life and a whole bunch of other stuff, really quite a big coincidence if that is the case, seriously it should go buy a lottery ticket or something. Then I think to myself... there is something out there that made all I can see and can't see, he lives everywhere but I can't see him, and this 'God' wrote a book for us. Out of all the things to use he uses a book to talk to us. Seems very far fetched.

There are my thoughts on the matter, there are many more but a lot of them are hard to get down so I leave you with this one simple thought... Why am I here?

Imperfections

The brown soggy snow crunched into James’ tread. As he ran to the nearest shelter he could fell the freezing wind hit his face and curve around to enter his ears. The day was almost over when James sat down to rest. Around him the ground was stained with red blood. An unclean trespasser on the white blanket. He could not feel his hands as so for the last few days, the last happy image he remembered was of his wife curled up in his bed awaiting a normal day but the day was as far from normal for James.

 

Only when he saw the first man go down did he realise what a predicament he was in, not fighting for his country but for his life. Could the war be a means to an end, like the papers say or is this another of many that will be crippling families through outBritain. Taking time to check his gun’s magazine, his thought could not help but go back to his family.

“If only they knew, if only they knew what was going through.” He grunted. The words sounded harsh but he could only feel punished for what he did to them. With his back up against the frost bitten boulder his thought drifted. His eyes glazed over and he found a place of peace knowing that his family was safe, his thoughts were tediously interrupted by the melodious fighting that was taken place just in front of him.

 

James searched the area, scanning for hope in a bleak field that cast a shadow of death in every corner. James saw one single man detach from a group only to be shot down. One bullet to the thigh, the next into the shoulder and as he was going down the third bullet pieced his skull leaving a defined mark resembling downfall ofBritain society since the war began. James began to get up; eyes swelling with emotion, heart reaching out to stop him but it was no good. Facing a wall of enemy soldiers that lined their targets on James, he shot repetitively until the magazine reached the last bullet. In the open, he felt exposed and bewildered; his emotions drove him into stupidities that would result in death.

 

The morning James had to leave, it was all organised and his family would not know that he was going to war; his wife said that if he went he could never return, this was the only way. His twin Jake took his place as father of his own house. The two were inseparable.

“Thankyou” was all that could be said by James as he walked out the door.

“I’m not doing it for you,” Was jakes reply “I’m doing it for my country.”

With that the door closed and James stepped out into the White blanket of snow.   

 

One, two, three bullets fired from the enemies guns, targeted on James, He felt the life drain from him but not disappear, he stood there on the snow as a uniformed statue. From nowhere a body dove at him smothering him in brown and white imperfections.  An unclean trespasser on the white blanket.

basically....

I laugh to think how much time and effort humans put into something when there is so little ruturn. God created the world in six days, that's a big thing to do and yet humans work for over half their life so they can get by and hopefully sustain them when they become to old to work.

Interesting thought but I guess when you compare us to God there is a lot of difference.

blogging on the go

I'm writing this blog from my mobile. Its not going to be very long but I just want to show off what my phone can do. I'm sitting at work and what do I want to do...blog. We'll with todays brilliant technology I can. Just wip out my phone and start blogging away. Quite handy if you find yourself at the shopping mall and the fruit stand is way over priced...blog about it or if your at your grandpa's house and he's telling you stories of the ye old days...blog about them or even if the queen visits and she tells you that the throne is all yours if you want it...blog about it. Quite handy in every situation really.

Peace out