Star Shift!

Lots of star news today, not celebrity type stars, but stars as in solar systems with a Sun (maybe more than one) and some planets orbiting the Sun. What news you say, pray doth tell? Well, firstly and probably as no surprise to anybody, scientists have proclaimed that there are likely millions of solar systems just like ours, with planets similar to ours, which probably have life, not necessarily like ours! Who'd have guessed? I hope you weren't thinking we're all alone in the Universe, because it seems that would be a wrong assumption. I would have told you that anyhow, but would you have listened?

Other news, which ties in with the first news. Apparently Titan, moon of Mars is hugely abundant in natural resources, scientsists have declared. Very fond of declaring things, these scientists. Perhaps there are a specific bunch of scientists who do nothing but make big declarations to the press, while the other scientists do the real scientific work. Anyway, since the Moon and Mars already have lots of natural resources, which the Superpowers are naturally eager to exploit, why not add Titan to the list. In fact, once we've done shafting this planet, why don't we just tear apart the rest of our solar system, then branch out across the galaxy, leaving massive open cast mines all over the place.

To be honest, my Sci-fi idealism suggests that the best course of action would be to build huge self-sustaining space-ships, fill them with "suitable" people, and send them out into the depths of space, to find new planets to inhabit. Meanwhile the rest of us can stay here and either wait for armageddon, massive global flooding, or some pandemic. We would be able to rest safe in the knowledge that humanity had rooted itself elsewhere, and had started to rip the guts out of another planet just like Earth! That started off idealist and ended all realist, my apologies. I'm tainted by the human genome!

So Much Still To Do!

Sorry about yesterday, I was just so busy, what with going to the cinema to watch "The National Treasure: The Book of Secrets" in the afternoon, and genrally I have a hell of a lot of work to do. Things aren't going to get easier either, over the next month or two. Ah well, took some time out this morning to walk up "Meikle Conval" near Dufftown. Nice walk!

Half-way up, looking back towards Dufftown, generally!

Looking South-East, about two thirds up!

Looking from the top, towards "Little Conval" (another hill fort) to the North!

The magnificent site that is Ben Rinnes. Must be pretty cold up there! Some day soon I'll tackle that one. Still a bit out of my league for now though!

Tap o' Noth!

Beautiful sunny Winter's day today, school's off for a long weekend. What finer way to spend a Friday morning than getting some nice fresh air? We decided to walk up Tap o' Noth. Not the easiest place to get to, but so much the better for it. We never saw another soul the whole way up and back down again. Tap o' Noth also has the vitrifed remains of a fort on top. I've covered the mystery of vitrified forts in this blog previously, but this was the first time I've seen one with my own eyes!

The Southern approach, easy for now!

Some time later and after a serious dip in temperature ( even though it' still sunny)!

Inside the fort remains. Must have been a fair size.

Looking along where a wall once stood, possibly 3000 years old!

A lump of rocks vitrified together. Fused by extreme heat? Nobody knows!

How Romantic?

Saint Valentine! Why do we commemorate this saint in the way we do? The association with romance escapes me, there's no record of his life at all (or his death), except for what Geoffrey Chaucer wrote, but that was plainly concocted. Chances are, like other early saints, that in order to be sainted, he had to suffer some sort of horrifically gruesome death. Then later once he was departed, somebody probably prayed to him for help, was cured of some boils, and verily, sainthood was assured! You see now, I know how these things work!

So why all this romantic nonsense on the 14th February? I laughed today at the way in which some of my fellow students felt obliged to give their partners cards, chocolates, flowers and other presents, and still take them out for a meal as well. The suggestion that they watch the football tonight instead (Aberdeen 2 : Bayern Munich 2) literally scared most of them. Their girlfriends would kill them. Why? Because someone hundreds of years ago got disembowelled for refusing to deny Christ? That's a good reason to commemorate the event with a Chicken Biryani! I'm sure St. Valentine would appreciate that token of respect to his memory! I might take the wife and kids hill-walking tomorrow, that's more romantic in my opinion!

I've never seen so many cops on the street before as I did this afternoon. I was on the bus heading down King Street and they were all heading the opposite way, towards Pittodrie. I wonder where they ususally spend their time, because you never normally see any police in the city centre, or anywhere in the North East generally. But, stage a European football match, and suddenly they're out in force. Don't need tickets to see the match either, how convenient!

Unlocking the Secrets of the Past!

I guess the Great Pyramids were once the most important stop on the Grand Tour, if you were a dashing young socialite hell-bent on seeing the World at Daddy's expense, and basically shoved off abroad in order to stop embarassing the family. It certainly was up until recently. When my brother went there maybe 10 years ago, he reported back tales of many a foppish 18 year old living on an extensive annuity, and generally making merry around the globe. But times have changed, yes, not such a desirable place to visit now is it? Not that it really was before, but the revenue from tourism kept the welcome mat out even though you were liable to have your bus raked with machine-gun fire if you happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Bad enough the awful food, the incessant heat, the persistent hawkers, the flies, the stinking camels and a whole lot of sand. That was all tolerable to get a good rummage around the Pyramids, the Sphinx, Luxor etc. But not any more, the welcome mat has truly been withdrawn and reigious extremism and hatred of Westerners is now rife. The Egyptian goverment and particularly the custodians of Egyptian antiquities want to deter tourists from visiting Egypts monuments. Gun-toting soldiers have orders to shoot anyone trying to scale the pyramids for instance. We've all seen the adverts for the Red Sea resorts. They'd rather you went there instead, but it's not much of a holiday when you know you're surrounded by would be suicide bombers is it?

My own personal opinion is that the Egyptian authorities have a real over-powering fear of what might be discovered at some ancient Egyptian site. They've pretty much prohibited all foreign archaeologists and scientsist from working in the country. Only patriotic Egyptian archaeologists can work there, and all answer to the Director of Egyptian Antiquities, Zahi Hawass. They are also pushing hard for the return of all Egyptian artifacts to Egypt. Why are they suddenly become so insular? Well, Dr. Hawass himself is a fierce opponent of any suggestion that there were races in Egypt before the Egyptians themselves. It seems they will do anything to prevent an opposing notion coming to the fore. If that means closing sites, they'll do it, and if that means hiding away artifacts which contradict the prevailing history, those will disappear forever.

It could be that I'm singling Egypt out here, but very similar situations are playing out around the World, the remains of ancient kilted caucasians in China got them all worked up, and the discovery of the remains of giant caucasians in New Zealand got the Maori led government all hot under the collar, to the extent where you could be risking your life to try and acces the site. Interesting times we live in, but these people should learn that nothing stays secret forever!

No Real Deterrent!

Oh joy of joys, Parent's night tonight, and tomorrow also. Two hours waiting to be told what we really ought to know already! I love the little kiddies chairs that they make us sit in. It's all psychology! It works on the children so they probably assume that it will work on their parents as well. Of course to make the feeling of domination even more pronounced, the teachers tend to sit in an elevated position also. I've got nothing against teachers mind you. After all I'm going to be one soon enough, and I'll probably use the same techniques myself. Anyway, I've already sat in on a parents night, and seen how it works from the teacher's perspective. Let's just say that the parents play a bigger part than they might realise.

Apparently the University are doubling their intake of student teachers next year, because of shortages. That has to be promising for me with regards to the job front, although I'd like to think I might have something lined up already, but it's never as simple as that. There are several organisations involved in placing teachers in positions. Each one working to a different set of criteria unfortunately. Did I mention that I'll have to get a job over the Summer? That's an area where they really let down student teachers. You'd think that after 4 years of studying, and desperate to earn some money, they would place student teachers on a retainer until they can start work. Nothing of the sort. They're abandoned for 2 months until the schools go back. I wonder how many find themselves something else in the meantime, and then turn their backs on teaching forever.

Anyway, I've came so far, I don't think I'll be deterred that easily. But then, you never really know. If the right offer comes along, only a fool would turn their back on it, wouldn't they? I think that's what happens to many, but I'm in a bit of a backwater really, so there are never going to be that many opporunities staring me in the face. I'll have to make my own opportunities as usual. Always have to do things the hard way!

Blame It On the Dark Star!

I was absolutely delighted today, to have the opportunity to join in a lively discussion on the merits of Sci-fi films, and from my perspective, 70's Sci-fi in particular. The fact that a wide variety of age groups were involved made it all the more lively, but what was truly interesting, and confirmed a supposition made by me previously in this blog, was that the younger guys present (early 20's), had very little background knowledge of the development of Sci-fi. I mean, clearly Sci-fi was on the go before I was born, but I suggested that the pinnacle of Sci-fi had been achieved in the late 70's - early 80's, with films like Dark Star and The Black Hole and T.V. series; Doctor Who, Blake 7, Space 1999, Star Trek etc. were all at their peak in that era.

Of course, these young guys hadn't heard of The Black Hole or Dark Star, but when I told them the general storyline for "The Black Hole", they thought it sounded like a great story. Perhaps because I focused on the robot and his robot friend, their relationship, and how the film evoked great empathy for the robots, who seemed more human than the human characters. My advice to them and to anyone else who loves Sci-fi, but hasn't seen these 2 films, would be to go and get them on DVD, they're probably in the budget bin anyway. These films never got huge credit, but I suspect must have massively influenced the following generations of Sci-fi film-makers.

I should mention that my ankles were in agony this morning. They're much better now, but I probably pushed myself too hard yesterday. What's truly shocking is that everyone else in the family is alright, even the kids, who moaned enough at the time. They don't feel my pain though! As someone once very rightly stated "You'll find sympathy in the dictionary, somewhere between shit and syphillis!" Never was a truer word spoken!

The Moorhound of Bennachie!

I'm knackered! I've just spent 5 hours this afternoon trekking across the five tops of Bennachie, and it took about 5 hours from start to finish. I'm not going to type much, the only peak of any magnificence was the one seen below, the Mither Tap, the last of the 5 for us. After which the long slog back to the car park was fairly tortuous!

Could this be the hiding place of the mysterious Moorhound of Bennachie. Sorry if you don't get that, you really had to be there (family joke of the day).

Barbarian Wormhole Summit!

I read yesterday that scientists want to create a wormhole, which will allow people from the future to travel back to this time. The wormhole thing's a bit vague though. I'm not sure they should be allowed to just create a wormhole. Aren't wormholes theoretical concepts? They might create a paradox. In other related news, Russian scientists are also claiming that they are on the verge of developing time travel. It's all quite exciting and at the same time, fairly scary. I always go back to the Ray Bradbury short story I read in school, where one of the central characters went back to a time before men, where they tried hard not to do anything paradoxical, but accdentally bent the stem of a single flower. The long and the short of which was that when they returned to the present, all writing was backwards.

There are a couple interesting programmes on telly this week. In about an hour's time, there's a show about the Dead Sea Scrolls. Very hotly protected by the Cathoilc faith, because they know and we know that the contents could utterly destroy their version of biblical events. As history tells us, they'll do "anything" to protect the faith, because faith is far more important than the truth. On Wednesday evening, there will be a program about Attila the Hun airing. I'm looking forward to that. Apparently he was vastly intelligent and complex, while still possessing the brutality and penchant for violence that made him the lovable rogue he was.

Hillwalking on Bennachie tomorrow looks like it will go ahead. We had a lovely day here today and if it's the same tomorrow, we'll have a great time. As usual, I'll be sure to take some photos for you. I'm certain that the view from the summit of the "Mither Tap" will be well worth the exertion taken to get up there in the first place.

The Emperor's New Boots!

I bought myself a proper pair of hiking boots today, so now there's no excuse. I have a whole series of reasonably large hills lined-up, which I intend to hillwalk while the weather is still fairly Wintery. Once the snow's all gone, I will have a go at some of the larger hills around here, Ben Rinnes being a priority. It's actually quite exhilirating, and little challenges give you something to look forward to, something to aim for. This week's intended target is Bennachie near Insch, in Aberdeenshire. It's actually three fairly large hills strung together, but we'll take the whole lot if you don't mind, weather permitting as always.

I'm also planning ahead. I'd like to climb the Tap o' Noth near Rhynie, which is a vitrified fort, and so should probably count as double. Actually, like Bennachie, there are two hills joined together at Tap o' Noth. Following that will be another nearby double-hill; The Buck. What we're aiming for are increasingly high peaks. Bigger and badder every time. That's the way to play it I reckon, culminating in Ben Nevis sometime this Summer!

So, it looks as though there might be a few decent films out this year. I never even realised that they were making a follow-up to "The National Treasure". That was a decent film, and the sequel look like it could potentially be half-decent also. I might just go and see that next week, if it's showing here of course, which is by no means guaranteed, as per my recent Cloverfield not showing here post. There is also the small matter of the new Indiana Jones film to come, as well. The Indiana Jones franchise stole part of my childhood, I must confess. What kid wouldn't have wanted to be Indie? I also seem to recall some game I had for the PC, I think it was called "Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb". It looked fantastic, but was rendered virtually unplayable by the dodgy controls which made a simple jump into a doctorate in computing physics!