Craig Sawyers

Never heard of the leidenfrost effect until now, and had to look it up. Although it is clearly the correct name for when I could plunge my hand into a bucket of liquid nitrogen for half a second without ill effect.

Wine? Enhances high temperature superconductor performance too http://phys.org/news/2011-01-hot-booze-material-superconductor.html

Happy birthday to the Deacon!

^Aagh! I think I posted this before - Russian nutters. How do I stop this new software "merging replies"? I post one reply in response to a post, and then follow up with a post of my own - and it merges both of them, which makes no sense.

Bugger, bugger, bugger - two massive losses within a few days. Both at 69, both from cancer. Remember Rickman as the Sheriff of Nottingham? "When we get him I'll cut out his heart with a spoon" "Why with a spoon?" "Because it will hurt more!" One of the best interviews with Bowie, by Johnathon Ross - Bowie, at that time 55 and looking great and relaxed, with a whole bunch of music.

Have a great one fellas!

Listened to Rick Wakeman being interviewed on Radio 4 (UK). He played keyboards as a session musician on the early Bowie albums, was a lifelong friend and it is clear that he was in total shock. He knew Bowie was ill, but not to the extent he clearly was.

So I woke up and turned the radio on, and am just stunned. Best example for me of Bowie reinvention was the side-long instumental Warszawa from Low (1977). A late night track, in the dark with a drink. I honestly thought he was immortal. Shit.

The blinking lights would give me nightmares

Woah - how did I miss this? Happy belated birthday, Jacob!

Although the Sun is not associated with journalistic objectivity, that piece does make the new TG seem like a disaster waiting to happen.

All the best, Knucks - happy birthday!

You guys want to see what it costs to see a show in London. Last two we saw was Mark Rylance in Fanelli and the King, And Winter's Tale with Judy Dench and Kenneth Branagh. Tickets were £100 each, plus parking, train to London, pre-show meal etc - and you get to £350 total for two (say $500) for two. And both sold out 8 months before the shows (we're on mailing lists for this sort of stuff and also rock bands) Seeing a band is cheaper, but not by much for the likes of Peter Gabriel or a stunning Paul Simon and Sting combination. (imagine the best hits of both in a three hour stint without interval). Both in the last year. Here Ticketmaster has got the market cornered though. You want a ticket, you pay Ticketmaster's premium.

Have a great one Ken!

Well, BBC3 has been fertile ground for new comedy, and has some massive successes to its name. I never saw Tittybangbang, but knowing the alternative comedy genius of Bob Mortimer the collection of challengingly weird characters does not surprise me at all. That it survived three series suggests it had an audience. But the BBC is making some very strange decisions lately. In spite of massive protest BBC3 is being axed from the TV and put 100% on line. They have just decided to quit Formula 1 coverage to reduce costs, and it has been picked up by Channel 4. And the axed a 3rd series of House of Fools, one of my all time favourite comedies, in spite of great ratings.

Yup - behaving himself.

Did the Christmas grocery shop today (23rd). And that was a walking nightmare. Traffic queues, had three attempts to park at the supermarket (Waitrose), and then it was absolutely heaving. Each aisle had a queue waiting for a checkout. By the time I'd done that, and visited the farm shop, and drove home 3 hours had passed. Total miles driven - 6. If it hasn't been bought now, it won't be!

Would that be Blessed behaving himself, or doing his usual which is swearing like a trooper? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFseqTnysBY

George Orwell, actually called Eric Arthur Blair, is buried about three miles away in Sutton Courtney church cemetary

Next time he tours Dusty make the effort - it is well worth it. For at least half an hour before the concert the synth technicians are working on the ancient gear that he needs for early numbers, just to make sure it is still working and set up right. But JMJ is a phenomenon on stage. Largest audience in Russia - 3.5 million. So seeing him in a "small" venue of 15,000 is just great. Although why would you screw around when you had Rampling to come home to kind of defeats me.

Carole is an FCA (Fellow Chartered Accountant) and even checks restaurant bills. Car dealerships don't stand a chance. Although back when we were in our mid 20's, we went into a Vauxhall dealership, and the guy looked at us and decided we looked too young to buy a new car and (I swear to god) asked us how much we earned. I looked him straight in the eye and told him straight that he had just lost a sale. That is the only bad buying experience I had. Bought a Ford Escort instead. That is until the MPV diesel version of the Corolla. Carole had that as a company car, and we bought it from the company at 3 years old. Got to 110,000 miles and the cylinder head gasket went - fuel in the coolant, to the extent you could smell it - and the car performed like crap. Toyota apparently knew that the engine had problems in that regard, and had extended the engine warranty from 60,000 miles to 100,000 miles. They refused point blank to make any contribution at all and said it was a new engine and £7000, and I refused point blank to ever buy a Toyota again. How come they get it so wrong? If they had just sorted it out without hassle I'd have bought my next car from Toyota. Bought a Ford Kuga in February and couldn't be more delighted with it. Looked at Mazda and Honda (NOT Toyota, although the RAV4 would have been in the frame).

Oh Wow. Wow. Repeat as necessary. I took my daughter to see Jarre in concert maybe 4 years ago. I got seats slap bang in the middle of the front row. Looking around she said "oh my - I must be the youngest person here (the Birmingham arena seats 15,000). I set the scene, that he always makes a dramatic entrance, yadda yadday- we were not disappointed - fan of light and a gloved fist comes through it. He starts playing "Oh - he's real cute!" er yes kidda - he is ten years older than me - spot the surgery and botox! He's still a fantastic performer though. Not married to Rampling though because he couldn't keep it in his pants.

^ Wow. The gorgeous Charolotte Rampling in her mid 20's. Anyone recognise the deck? At one stage she was married to Jean Michel Jarre. She also gets a mention in Richard Burton's diaries (a must read, by the way).

When the bone is mended will they take out the metalwork?

Super Kamiokande neutrino detector (in Japan). Every one of those elements is a photomultiplier. 1km underground and filled with 50,000 tons of water. Mostly empty when the maintenance guys in the raft are in there.