Finks Links #120

Friday...and, coincidentally the very last day of 2010! Where on earth did that whole year go (actually, I think it probably slipped past while I was chasing Thomas around trying to stop him climbing onto the roof of the house/eating inappropriate items if I think about it)... ;)

Anyway, lets kick things off with the hilarious video Polar bear vs Spy Camera...

How to drive in the snow...

Learn that a 1Tb drive (about £50 now) would have cost a trillion dollars to construct in the 50s... :0

Watch what it's like to fall into a black hole!

Customer Service...

The top scientific breakthroughs of 2010...

Experience the rather spooky Muppets with People Eyes...

Watch the entire periodic table being etched onto a single human hair...

The astonishing "Word Lens"...hope they release an Android version!

...and finally (thank you Failblog) the top ten FAIL videos of 2010 (scroll down a bit)...

Happy New Year for tomorrow everyone!!! :)

Thomas' Christmas Costume

Couldn't post this beforehand, due to it's involvement in some home-made Christmas gifts for friends and family, but here is Thomas in his "Shepherds wash their socks" costume that he donned to attend all the festive toddler parties (and on Christmas day and Boxing Day with the families) much to everyone's delight...

Very cute... ;)

Back to work...

...ah well, it was good while it lasted, bit of a shock when the alarm went off at ten past six this morning - suffice it to say it got snoozed a number of times before I finally gave in and got up, especially as Thomas has taken to waking up at 0830hrs over the break (oddly and pleasantly)...ended up having to go to Redhill as the railway has decided to run some sort of hybrid Saturday service today, meaning almost nothing is going from Earlswood (unless I backtrack all the way to Gatwick, which would feel a bit wrong)...

Fingers and toes are crossed that they let us go a bit early today, but as yet there is no official word on the matter (just muttered rumours), so for now it's business as usual...but wish me a bit of seasonal luck that it isn't too long until I'm on my way back home... ;)

Merry Christmas!!!

...lots more pics later to catch up with the last week (or so) that I have been off the grid, in the meantime, have a *very* merry Christmas day, and enjoy a picture of Thomas playing with his brand new kitchen (which took almost as long to put together as our *actual* kitchen when we fitted that)! Well worth it though, he's barely looked at anything else all morning!

Enjoy your Christmas lunches and snoozes this afternoon...we'll be heading off to my folks house fairly shortly! Excited! ;)

On my way...

On my way...
Originally uploaded by finkangel.

...home, already delays out of Greenwich from the looks of things...at least
the snow seems to have stopped for the time being...

Canary Wharf Snow!

...the view out the window right now...it's settling fast! Wish me luck with my long journey home (at least I'm setting off in a few minutes rather than at 5pm)!

Finks Links #119

Friday...and I've got a half day, and this is my last bit of work until December 29th! Yay! Still, let's get on with checking out the cool things in the tubes this week -

We'll kick things off with a beautiful aerial panorama of Amsterdam (taken from a helicopter)...

Following the theme, a World Record breaking 111 Gigapixel picture of Seville...

Video inside the Metrodome as snow causes the roof to collapse!

The US Navy has a shiny new rail gun (it's the size of a truck and can hit things 200 miles away - and shred them)... ;)

Think I may have posted this before, but it's still awesome (click to zoom)...

Underwater Nuke...

Every 2000AD magazine cover since the first one (up to now)...

World's first animal to human transplant approved...

Help discover a planet (for real)!

Check out Sega's latest games console - a toilet...

How to determine your dominant eye...

...and finally a dangerous one letter off fail and a rather spectacular driving fail...

Not sure how much I will post until after the festivities, so just in case have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! :D

The Wikileaks Scandal...

...put very simply... (brilliant web comic)...

Via @reddit...

West India Quay Snowman

Spotted this the other day on a little walk around West India Quay, not sure *what* the he'd done to deserve being locked up, but it was obviously *very* naughty...seriously though, it does sort of ruin the Christmas spirit whoever it was that thought vandals would leap upon it and cover it with graffiti if it weren't secured behind a six foot fence...I'd like to think that most residents of the Wharf are normally quite well behaved! ;)

Argos Catalogue from 1985

Oh this is just *brilliant*! Just in case you missed it (via @edgeonline - credit where credit is due) - someone has (*very* kindly) scanned 275 pages of the Argos catalogue from 1985 and popped them up on Flickr, here are just a few of my faves-

- top of the range car audio systems (note that FM radio aerial kits were still important at the time, even speakers needed installing in many vehicles!)-

- cassette tape storage solutions -

- the most amazing home cinema systems -

- noting that some things never change (well, apart from the complete lack of availability on the High Street for Chemistry sets in the modern age - you can get them online though) -

- (and now the really cool stuff) the Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k (£119.95 to you) -

- or, if you were that way inclined, the Commodore 64 with Ferguson Monitor (*sure* we had that Monitor) all for £408.95 (which is probably why most people I knew had Speccies)-

- or how about the classic Atari 2600 JT, a snip at £49.99 (with three games) -

- Return of the Jedi and Knight Rider toys -

- and last, but very far from least, Game and Watches (our price £14.99) or how about a Tomytronic 3D Sky Attack (£19.95) or even a "Speak and Spell"...Ah...the sweet memories of childhood! :)

Oh boy, have I just shown my age! Enjoy your little stroll down memory lane... ;)

Something to warm the cockles...

...is definitely required today, what with a new cold snap on the way on Thursday, and betting shops refusing to take any punts on whether it's going to be a white Christmas or not (as it definitely is according to the MET office)...so how about taking a little trip back in time with me to remember how hot it was when we went to visit the Mayan ruins of Tulum in Mexico? If that didn't warm you up a little bit, then there is plenty more about our adventures in South America here, you might want to read it from the bottom up though...

Ahhh...good times... ;)

Christmas decorations are up!

Ah, Christmas is almost here! We spent a very enjoyable Sunday (with Will Ferrell's hilarious "Elf" on the TV in the background) trying to work out how to reassemble the (German Christmas Market) Nativity (which Thomas completed for us by adding the purple hippopotamus which we had somehow managed to forget - Silly Mummy and Daddy!) -

- struggling to work out how to put together the (German Christmas Market) bell-candle-impeller-thing (sure they have a proper name, Christmas Chime or something, but I can't find it), which was totally illogical in it's construction (but we got there in the end, after only being knocked on the floor by Thomas twice, helping Daddy to start all over again-

- put batteries back in all the plush-noisy electronica and plugged in the fibre-optic nativity (which warbles a couple of cut down Christmas hymns far too noisily)-

- and ventured out into the trecherously icy garden to bring back in our live Christmas tree (now about to enjoy it's *third* year, warm and cosy in the house)-

- this is what it looked like when we first bought it back in 2008...it's practically doubled in height! :)

Anyway, the countdown is now well and truly underway, my last full day at work before Christmas is the 16th! Woo Hoo!! :)

Finks Links #118

Friday again!

Let's kick things off with what's actually happening when the LHC is turned on...

The saddest most evil place on earth...

Chrono-Cubism...

Take a peek at South Korea's autonomous robot gun turret - the DoDAMM Super aEgis 2...

Idiot firebombing fail (video from one of our local papers)...

Lucky, almost beyond belief!

USB powered mini-microwave...

Make Star Wars Snowflakes!

Light passing through certain objects creates lift...!

Super space age Kinect Quadrocopter!

...and finally a (6 year long) Space probe fail and a brilliant Japanese crowd prank...

More next week!

Stephen Neary - Please help...

All you need to do is go ahead and read this well written blog post regarding the very sad case of Stephen Neary, an autistic guy who just wants to get home to his dad...then please sign the petition, and perhaps help spread the word too (if you like)...

Update - there is a facebook group to join also...

Oxted - Big Freeze Pictures

Just found a whole load more pictures on my mobile of the snow, I popped all of them on Flickr (over here, if you like this sort of thing, along with the ones from Earlswood from earlier in the year), but here are a selection (these give you a much better idea how deep the snow actually got) -

- this was Morrisons car park (a JCB was running *continuously* for all three days to try and clear the parking spaces - making these huge piles) -

- one of the 4x4 cars that managed to make it into town (complete with radiator icicles) -

- speaking of icicles, these were the ones gradually growing from the roof of my folk's house -



- and a few shots of the garden (absolutely buried - two feet deep in places)...

Pictures of Snow - Oxted

- the only commuting taking place was by sledge, to the shops where there wasn't any bread -

- (apart from French sticks being baked in Waitrose) tractors and 4x4s could just about limp around (no buses at all) -

- and the tracks they made meant you didn't have to wade through foot-deep snow -

- make it as far as the station and the signs weren't very encouraging-

- all the "ghost trains" being diverted to trying to keep the lines between Brighton, Gatwick (which was closed) and London...the broken down train stuck for days at Lingfield didn't help much either... ;)

...and we've still got loads of snow at home, heaps of it, mostly now turned to ice...Brrr! I put the hood back on my snow coat this morning, put on a jumper *and* wore a hat...most unusual for me... ;)

Snow update...

...just quickly (as very busy), I made it home on Friday afternoon in a Land rover (my dad sorted me out a lift back!) and we went out and all played in the snow together, and (despite a rubbish journey in) have made it back to my desk in Canary Wharf successfully this morning...more snow is on the way (apparently), but it shouldn't make it as far as London (thank goodness)...!

Woah...hold on...

...I'm *not* in London...this must be another weather thing, those posts were sent from my telephone on Tuesday morning and are only just arriving on the internets! I'm still stranded in Oxted in reality...although desperately trying to formulate a mechanism to get home to wife and baby!

Chaos...

Chaos...
Originally uploaded by finkangel.

...at London Bridge thanks to the snow, its coming down really heavy here...

Let it snow...

Let it snow...
Originally uploaded by finkangel.

...la la la! Don't mind it at all if the trains are on time! ;)

Surrey Snow...

...just a quick update, I never made it home from London, thanks to *four* broken down trains on the Brighton line my only choice was to head to Oxted (to my folks) where I am still stranded...we've got (no joke) about two feet of snow outside the house, all Southern trains are suspended and even the satellite service here has packed up (so no TV), I'm just about to head back down to the station now to see if there is any news, but this is *proper* winter and we are properly snowed in! Brrr!

Wish me luck!

Let it snow!

Well, let it snow - IF - the trains can manage to all run on time, which of course they *can't*...it didn't work out *too* bad I suppose - roads were clear by the time we got off the estate, train five minutes late to Earlswood and only twenty minutes late into London Bridge (they weren't even using the snow as an excuse either, today it was a "broken rail at Redhill") - I got on a Dartford train that was supposed to have run at 7am (just over an hour late departing), and oh boy was the DLR busy, but despite it all I still managed to get to work before 9am...

...and this is the view out over east London that greeted me...total white out... ;)

Finks Links #117

Friday, and once again I'm at home (ahh) and have Monday off too (woo)...! ;) Worry not though, you won't have to go without your Friday links (thanks to my brilliant forward planning)... ;)

Let's kick things off with the fact that Japan does condiments *rather* better...

Finally - a loophole for getting more wishes!

Urm...now what?

The worlds fastest rollercoaster in action...!

Journalism by Father Jack...

"Just bought an automated cat food dispenser. It clearly doesn't dispense enough food."

4D Invisibility Cloak Bends Time as Well as Space...

Check out paragraph 105 of the official ruling in the case of Lucasfilm Ltd & Ors v Ainsworth & Anor [2009] EWCA Civ 1328 (16 December 2009)... ;)

Italy from the ISS...

Kyosho Egg (watch the video)...

...and finally an excellent Bumper sticker fail and a hilarious squirrel fail...

Have a great weekend! :D

Marine Policing Unit...

Spotted this in "the Wharf" the other day, which did sort of prompt me to wonder if a "Marine Policing Unit" wouldn't be better off if their chosen mode of transport could actually float (images of crestfallen Police officers standing with their heads in their hands as crooks slowly vanish into the distance rowing a small dingy popping involuntarily into my head) -

- but when I got a look at the side of the vehicle it seemed to make a bit more sense, it was actually the "Underwater and confined space search team" (which sounds like just about my worst possible nightmare of a job) -

- I spotted them a bit futher up West India Quay (shivering), several members of support staff manning (what I presume to be) the oxygen supply machinery, the rest looking on -

- so probably a training exercise, either that or Lord Sugar dropped his helicopter keys... ;)

...and yes, I know he doesn't really work in Canary Wharf, he just likes to pretend he does (while sitting in a business park in St. Albans... ;)

Tilgate Nature Center

So on my day off on Monday we decided (after Flyingpops had got back from the church group with Thomas - giving Daddy some valuable Xbox time) to go and visit Tilgate Park Nature Center, last time we went Thomas did a lot of pointing and staring and saying "Ah Goo!", but now, with his well practiced Animal Noises/Names (from various books/posters/plush and otherwise toys), it was time to see if he could put them to practical use...

...first we stopped off at the "raaaaaaar" (outside the entrance) -

- then passed through the Nature Centre archway -

- and had a ride on one of the "clip-clop-clip-clop"s -

- then, after putting on reins and grabbing a big stick -

- we stopped to watch some "Baaaaa"s -

- excitedly chased some "icken!" (thoughts obviously still firmly on lunchtime) -

- watched some *sound of a clearing nose* having their tea -

- pointed at some "Moooooo"s -

- and waved to a "Wak wak - Duck!"...(as well as peering at some more exotic animals which didn't make much noise at all, and didn't feature in many of the "Farm" word books, etc.)...





...a brilliant afternoon, and some practical use for all those extended "ook" sessions learning the animal names and noises...well done Thomas! ;)