Something worth celebrating - a pub lunch!

Don't think much to Nationalism, flag waving and other ways of expressing exceptionalism based upon geographic location, religion and ethnicity. Very proud of talented local people, excellent local businesses, wonderful locally sourced products and last but not least the unique 'pub lunch'.

Every shed should have one

 

The Nurse Diesel Memorial Fountain

The pump in the garden fountain was in need of an adjustable pressure reducing valve to prevent the water splashing everywhere. Unable to find just what I required on-line, I decided to design and manufacture my own. 

I used the parametric SolidCAD freeware for designing the valve and my recently acquired 'Bargain' 3d printer sourced from China for less than £130.

Two hours shed time from a standing start and all was done and printed.

Nowadays we have access to sophisticated technology at knock down prices. When I was a child, Alan Turing had just left Bletchley Park for Manchester. In those times, TV had just started and was in black and white, phones were attached to wires and transistors were still to be invented. Now we have AI self programming and directly challenging our intellectual supremacy on the planet. Whatever next?

Phi and the golden angle

 

The 'golden angle phi' may be found everywhere in the natural world and its mathematics provides the 'golden section' favoured by artists and architects over millenia. 

Key Mathematics of Phi

• Exact Value: \(\phi = \frac{1+\sqrt{5}}{2} \approx 1.6180339887\dots\)
• Quadratic Equation: \(\phi^2 = \phi + 1\) (or \(\phi^2 - \phi - 1 = 0\))
• Reciprocal Property: \(\frac{1}{\phi} = \phi - 1 \approx 0.618\)
• Continued Fraction: \(\phi = 1 + \frac{1}{1 + \frac{1}{1 + \frac{1}{1+\dots}}}\) [1, 2, 3, 4]

Credit: Wikipedia.

The fern in the image above is arranged and unfurling following those precise mathematical rules.👍🪴

'Art and artificial intelligence'

As I was about to start a 'self portrait ', I decided to see what an 'artificially intelligent bot' could make of a preparatory 'chalk and charcoal ' sketch.  Well, I was impressed with the likeness, composition and the line quality of the drawing prepared by Gemini Google.com

Full Moon in May

 

Relatively speaking, the May full Moon sailed between the clouds as viewed from our garden in Oulton Broad, UK. Not ideal for astrophotography but the Seestar S30 smartscope made a tidy job of it in difficult conditions.

A big bang thankfully 40 million light years away.

 

The faint blurry dot to the left of the brighter galaxy central bulge is the recent supernova in the edge on galaxy NGC 5907 in constellation Draco. The core collapse supernova represents one of the most extreme events in the Universe. If there were any living species within a few tens of light years of this collapsing star their future would have been exterminated. More will be posted on the Jodrell Plank Observatory blog in due course.

Lemon sole, tomatoes, peas and chips.

 

A classic national dish. Enhanced by sliced bread and butter. Garnished with tomato sauce and mayonnaise. Lemon sole is such a delicate and tasty flat fish. "What's not to like'