It’s not every day you get to meet a ‘living legend’, and there can be few people who fulfill that role whilst being totally grounded in reality, able to claim with a roguish smile that they’ve “never done a days work” in their life whilst surrounded by the memorabilia of over 80 years of accomplishments, and get their housekeeper to serve up tea and crumpets on a sunny Sunday afternoon when you ‘pop-in’ for a visit.

Here’s a man who’s played violin with Albert Einstein, and had a chat with Orville Wright and Neil Armstrong. Covered the moon-landings for the BBC and inspired countless thousands in science and technology. He ran an observatory at the age of 13, and once swallowed a fly, live on air.

I speak of Sir Patrick Moore, a true gentlemen of the old school; as British as fish ‘n’ chips, village cricket, steam engines and strawberries and cream. As a youngster I met him once before in London, speaking at a Astronomy event, it must have been 1982.

Our local Astronomy Club was invited, in person, to visit Sir Patrick in his home at Selsey, and what a home! A detached thatched cottage directly out of a chocolate box picture, with an interior that almost certainly hasn’t been updated since 1960.

Passing the ‘airlock’, a set of doors which must be opened strictly in sequence to prevent the egress of Ptolomy (Patrick’s cat) you are met with the bizarre sight of oak panelled furniture covered in the most eclectic collection of ’stuff’, a real menagerie of ‘things’.

His ancient Woodstock typewriter nestles alongside a BAFTA award, which is flanked by a couple of ‘Clangers’. His OBE and CBE share pride of place with a penny trinket from a Christmas cracker. The walls are festoned with awards, certificates, shot glasses, globes, orreries, models, badges, plaques, rocks, plastic toys and various unidentified creatures. Every spare space is packed with items from over 80 years, and everywhere else you see shelf upon shelf of books, many penned by the knight himself.

A modern flatscreen computer sits uneasily alongside a series of family photos, finding itself the curiousity, rather than the norm.

A coffee table modelled after the Eagle lunar lander is the centre point of one room, whilst a series of globes (mostly of Mars, rather than the Earth) is the centre of the next. We’re invited to pull up a chair (an assortment of antique furniture, button backed red leather). Every room has atleast one telescope in it, most have several.

We chat, as if we’ve known each other for years. He generously gives us a book, or two, or three, signs them and inquires as to what we’ve been doing in our club. He even offers to write an article for us; a visit is no longer an option he indicates, with sincere disappointment.

A pause as our tea and cakes arrive. We’re welcome to have an alcoholic drink too, it’s with regret we can’t join him in a G&T.

We talk about Astronomy of course, and Cricket, and Cub-Scouts and Big Brother (no, it was a rumour). He invites us to return with our children. He loves children. Never married of course, his fiancee killed by the Germans in the war, a thoughtful pause.

We must see his telescopes! Of course! So we troup outside and wander around the garden. The famous 15″ reflecting Fullerscope, inside an oil drum, and the 8″ refractor inside a ‘roll of roof’ (which is jammed).

On return we pester politely for a photo to which he is more than happy to oblige. I repay him by playing a tune on his Piano… I’ve played Sir Patrick Moore’s Piano! It’s flanked by a collection of Xylophones, but of course.

An hour an a half has passed, all too quick, but we’re conscious not to outstay our welcome. At 86, he gets tired quickly, and he clear wants to watch the Tennis… on Sky Plus… he still moves with the times.

And so we leave, hardly able to believe we did it. A remarkable day, a remarkable life, a remarkable man.

Sir Patrick Moore, many thanks indeed!

This really is beginning to get a bit silly.

Over the last few months we had a series of bad news stories from the predictable economic crisis, through devastating asteroid impact warnings and now we’re on to death by influenza epidemics. Oh, and the imminent threat of global warming lurking around the the background.

The swine flu thing lurched into view over the weekend and is now at maximum hysteria mode, with all the papers covering it, and the tabloids (as expected) predicting the end of civilisation as we know it. Right.

Leaves you wondering if someone is trying to divert our attention from something else that’s important, but not nearly as exciting.

I wonder if the government is trying to bury some ‘bad news’ somewhere..?

My blog is unlikely to make much impact in the vast number of outpourings that result after Mr Darling’s budget presentation today… however I can’t resist.

£175 Billion of debt… in one year. OMG.

£606 Billion over 4 years… Gasp.

£15 Billion to be made in efficiency savings? Haven’t these guys ever seen ‘Yes Minister‘ ?

50% tax rate for those earning over £150,000. Well, that won’t bother me much (if only), but I’m surprised to hear that that covers a mere 1% of the UK population, I would have expected it to be higher than that. If so, this tax rise makes political capital for the beleagueared labour party, but is unlikely to rake in that much cash. Also, the super rich tend to be rather good at squirrelling money away from the tax man.

2% rise in fuel costs - great.

2% rise in alcohol duty - There goes my sherry and G&T.

2% rise in tobacco - don’t smoke, not bothered.

Why can’t we kill of the pointless Government projects like the National ID Card - £6Billion saved. How about Trident at £2B/year. How about wars in other countries at £1B/year? The mind boggles.

Interesting to note that most of the tax changes come into operation in 2011, which is when the next election is scheduled… Hmmmm.

I have to say I did enjoy Mr. Cameron’s broadside at Darling and Brown, with his accusations of a ‘decade of debt’ and so on. The last bit is worth quoting…

They sit there running out of money, running out of moral authority, running out of time and you have to ask yourself, what is the point of another 14 months of this Government of the living dead.

‘If they don’t have the courage to deal with the debt and take the difficult decisions, why don’t they make way for the team that can.’

Whether the Tories will be any better is difficult to tell, so lets see what they will be suggesting as alternatives…

I used to work for Sun Microsystems. In fact I was there quite a while, 1999-2006 when they acquired what remained of Netscape (yes, the browser company).

Today’s news is something of seismic shift in the IT world.

Sun started out in 1982, way before the internet and the dot .com boom. With its tag line “The network is the computer” they were way ahead of their time. They made (still make) some of the best computers on the planet, their Solaris operating system has stability and reliability that is a dream to Windows, Mac and Linux users.

Sun also brought us Java (you’ll likely have that on your mobile), thin client devices that really worked, and huge contributions to networking that are still providing the backbone to most of the websites you use everyday.

Unfortunately, whilst Sun was great at technology, it was miserable at business. It spent too much money on R&D, failed to downsize when it had to and didn’t stop the burgeoning ranks of useless middle management sapping its strength. It stubbornly refused to accept Windows/Office on the desktop, the commoditization of servers and failed to make money out of its unique Java technology (unlike Oracle and IBM.)

Today it was bought by Oracle, something of a sad end to an era, though probably better than the slow fizzling out that was the only alternative.

Many of Sun’s products will doubtless survive, but many will be lost as unprofitable. In the cold, hard reality of the credit crunch, innovation for its own sake is a game only to be played by the rich and secure, and Sun couldn’t sustain it. A huge shame though, as Sun’s approach is unlikely to be carried forward by the profits focussed Oracle. The IT industry is poorer today.

Sun Microsystems, 1982-2009. RIP.

Oddly enough, that now means that every company I’ve ever worked for has been acquired by another around 3 years after I left, I wonder if my current employer should be worried!

Haven’t updated the ol’ blog in a while - usual pathetic excuses etc. Thought I’d better though otherwise this website will end up as one of these!

So - the government is planning to give us a £5,000 subsidy to buy an electric car with. Woo hoo. I’ll admit to being in a quandary on this one, because on one hand I hate internal combustion engines and on the other I love them…

Hate : Noisy, smelly, clutter up streets, ruin otherwise nice places, traffic jams, too many of them, mostly mundane and functional junk, 4×4s, appalling driving from most, boy racers ’round estates, buses and lorries,  motorways, tool booths, traffic jams, company car drivers, reps, white vans, did I mention traffic jams?

Love : Noise (we’re talking a full moo on a track day in something fruity), POWER!, speed, exhilaration, oversteer, freedom, cool looks, more oversteer, twitching curtains, elegance and class (in something special), modifying/tweaking, an empty B-Road, rear wheel drive, my own little private domain, decent stereo and time to enjoy it, did I mention oversteer?

So what difference is an electric car going to make?

I’m not sold on the whole Co2 debate, and all an electric car is doing is moving the Co2 emissions from the exhaust pipe back to the coal station (unless by some miracle our country gets off its backside, stops faffing about with wind and wave energy and sorts out a series of decent nuclear power stations). So lets forget the ‘environmental’ agenda.

The biggest plus I see is less noise. Having cars go past at low speed in eerie silence actually sounds quite nice with my pipe, slippers and dog walking persona in full swing. At higher speed tyre roar becomes more significant, nullifying the effects of the engine. On the negative side, driving a car that doesn’t go BBBBUURRRRRRRIIIIIIIIINNNNNNZZZZZZZZVVVVVVFFSSSSTTTT through the gears will be utterly dull. No score draw then.

Economy? Well, my diesel Audi TDI does 55mpg and has a 600mile range. Can’t see any electric car managing both of those in the near future. Maybe higher mpg, but that’s useless without range. Points to the internal combustion engine (ICE).

Fill up time? I can fill up the ol’ TDI in about 5 minutes. Not likely to match that with a 3 pin plug. Points to the ICE.

Numbers on the road? Can’t see it making any difference. Until a decent alternative is provided in the form of cheap, reliable public transport (i.e. never) we’ll continue having far too many cars on the road. No score draw.

Style, sophistication, elegance? Well, the vast majority of electric cars look absolutely pants, however there is cautious optimism in the form of the Tesla, which I would definitely not say no to, but it’s the exception rather than the rule right now. Lets be fair though, the drivetrain shouldn’t ultimately affect aethestics too badly, it may even improve them given we won’t need some of the under bonnet gubbins. Cautious nod to electric here then.

Fun. The Achilles heel of electric cars? Maybe, maybe not. Sure an electric car is not going to make the same noises, but I’ve had loads of fun in bumper cars and battery powered go-karts. The Tesla outran a Lotus Elise on Topgear, so there’s definitely hope. All the tyres, suspension, wheel etc remains as before, so it’s not like the modification side of the house will disappear. No score draw.

As for the rest, not much change, and I can’t see electric engines getting into Vans, buses and LGVs any time soon, so we’ll still have that to put up with.

So how much are we talking then? Brand new, a full loaded Toyota Prius is £21,210, take off the £5,000 we we have £16,210, and you can only buy a new car with that. Even new you can buy a much nicer car than a Prius, and factor in 1-2 year old cars and the point is rammed home further.

Another daft scheme from the government, wasting money which ought to be spent on everyone, on those who have cash to spare to indulge.

I’ve been especially privileged over the last couple of months to have been doing a variety of talks to groups of young people from schools, cubs, beavers and brownie organisations.

Science has often received a really poor show for youngsters in the last decade or so, leaving many with the impression that it is boring, dull and a subject only fit for the geeky, nerdy types.

One of the key cornerstones of IYA 2009 is reaching out an making Astronomy relevant to young folk. We at AAS are doing our part too.

I’m pleased to report that given the right presentation, youngsters are just as keen to learn about space and the wonders in the sky as ever they were and there are some pretty smart ones out there too! My hope is that our talks and this year in particular will really kick start the next generation of Astronomers and Astrophysicists. We’re going to need them!

I’m also pleased to see that it’s not perceived as a ‘boys’ subject either. Our talks have been equally well received by girls and boys (if not better by the girls!).

At our AAS meetings, we’re delighted to report we have more ladies than gents. This allows us to back up the other aspect of IYA which is the She is an Astronomer initiative, which aims to break down misconceptions and highlight the many high profile women currently contributing to Astronomy.

All in all, it’s a great time to be doing this. Astronomy is very interesting right now with lots of events occuring. I’m glad to be playing my part in getting more people interested in this fascinating hobby!

Apologies for another financial post, but it’s topic du jour right now…

A thought occurs. What’s going to happen to all those people who buy a house at the bottom of current price crash when the economy recovers?

Those on fixed rates wont be affected of course, but despite the low BoE rate, the best fixed rates still require a very low LTV to get the best offers. If you’ve paid off lots of your mortgage you might be able to get 2.5%. Typical borrowers are likely to be able to get 4.5% if they have an LTV of 60-70% or so. If you’re higher than 70% you might have to settle for 6.5% - which isn’t great at all.

What about a tracker or SVR mortgage then?

Right now these look ok. BoE rate plus 2.5 or 3.5%. A better deal than the fixed rate. But if the economy recovers, inflation will sore and the BoE interest rate will have to increase sharply.

If it rises back to where it was this time last year, these people will suddenly have a 8.5% or 9.5% mortgage. Not good at all.

This might cause more repossessions than the credit crunch itself…

You work hard, you save, you pay off your mortgage, you get your gold plated pocket watch and retire. You’re not expecting too much, just a comfortable retirement. You expect a reasonable return on your savings.

Sorry, you’ve been credit crunched.

My last mortgage related post said we were in uncharted waters. We’re past that now, we in ‘here be dragons’ territory.

Interest rates have never been this low before. Not even in the midst of the first and second world war or the 1930s great depression. How did we end up here? No one seems to know what’s going to happen next.

Quantitative Easing is the latest buzzword. The ‘generation’ of £75 Billion worth of ‘new’ money. I’m no economist, but even I can see the dangers of hyperinflation and a run on the £.

But it’s the plight of the savers we need to be worried about now. If you had £10,000 in a pot for your retirement and were getting 6% on it a few months back you’d have been getting £50 a month income from it. At 0.5% you’re getting £4.17. That’s a drop of 92%.

There are 12 Million people in the UK over retirement age, who are depending on their savings. Every single one will have less money at the end of the month now by a huge margin. These people have been made considerably poorer. Many will be wondering how on earth they are going to survive. Even the better off ones won’t be spending.

Trouble is - these are the prudent, the smart, the sensible ones. These are the ones who we need to help the economy back to health. People who have (had) real money (not debt) and previously were able to spend it on a new car, some luxuries, a holiday. Will they be doing that now? Obviously not.

By slamming down the interest rates we have effectively taken almost all of these people out of the economy. They’ll be spending on essentials only - if they can afford those.

What are they going to do? Sensible shoes says don’t spend your equity (savings) as you’re robbing future interest income. But if you need to switch the heater on what choice do you have?

The banks are clearly not going to be lending much more, even with quantitative easing - and the last thing we need is more debt - haven’t we got that message yet?

It would have been better to give the cash directly to people who have a savings balance bigger than their combined debts and tell them they have to spend it this financial year or it will go away again. Bypass the banks, bypass those already saddled with debt and give it straight to the deserving.

Finally a reward for the prudent.

Well, lucky old Sir Fred. Must be nice to look forward to £693,000 per year for the next thirty years. You’re only 50, and you can comfortably expect to be in rude health for another 30 years, probably more. Nevermind that you were in command whilst your bank collapsed and had to be rescued by public money…

I’d not get on well with this chap anyway. I’ve never been a fan of profits at the expense of jobs and livelihoods. I’ve had my share of downsizes, rightsizes, mergers and acquisitions. They are not fun for the individuals in the middle.

The UK public at large is justly outraged by this chap getting, per year in disgrace and as a pension, a sum of money which most of us will struggle to earn in our entire working careers. It’s outrageous, despicable and the man is rightfully being pilloried by the media. If there is a legal way to get this pension back, lets employ them. To use a word reserved for this kind of behaviour - Fred is the embodiment of egregiousness.

But there are more significant issues here. People seem to be unable to separate the moral from the legal. Witness calls to have ‘retroactive legislation’ brought in to strip ‘Fred the Shred’ of his pension. Wo-ah.. hang on a minute.

Retroactive legislation is never a good idea. If the man was legally allowed to have this pension then it is right and proper he should have it, however morally obnoxious that is. We need to learn lessons from this and stop it happening in the future.

Retroactive legislation could do anything; make it an actual crime to own a car with a big engine for the last 10 years (rather than just a moral one), mean you have to pay make any bonus you enjoyed, devalue your house (even further). I think we’d all call that unfair.

Yes, Fred is an example of the worst that our failed banking system has produced. Yes, of course he shouldn’t be rewarded for failure. It is outrageous that he is paid this extortionate sum. He should give it up/fall on his sword etc…

But… if we believe in a society governed by laws, then we should defend his right to legally draw his pension, as unpalatable as that sounds.

I’ve resisted the temptation to blog about Global Warming / Climate Change to date…

This is mostly because I try not to write about subjects in which I am wholly ignorant or unqualified to pass comment. I’ll start by saying I’m not a scientist (despite holding a BSc and being a hobby astronomer).

I’ve not got much to add to the debate, because I’m not a member of the IPCC an Oil Company or similar. I’m haven’t seen the data, and the likelihood is that I wouldn’t understand it. I don’t know enough about the properties of Carbon Dioxide, Methane and other green-house gases, nor do I understand the effects of the sun, moon, oceans, upper atmosphere or any of the other things that may or may not be influencing our climate.

I will make the following observations.

1. The debate seems often to be categorised into those who believe in man made global warming and those who don’t. This strikes me as very unscientific. You shouldn’t need to ‘believe’ in this sort of thing. Belief requires faith, and faith requires an unsupported leap of logic. Fine for religion, not for policy setting and remediative action. If you ‘believe’ in something here, I question your rationale.

2. Politicians are involved. Well, they’re involved in everything of course. Politicians exist to curry favour, make short term policy decisions and get re-elected. Nothing else matters to them. GW/CC is merely a tool to be used to further their aims from their perspective. Whether it be traffic congestion legislation, building regs or import and export tariffs. GW/CC is subject to massive manipulation for ulterior motives.

3. Lies, damn lies and statistics. Enough said.

4. Scientists need money. Scientists are no more independant than anyone else. You need money to live. Research requires money. Money comes from grants. Grants are awards by people or organisations with a vested interest. The right finding will get you another grant. This is not the fault of the scientists. This is life.

5. Computer models are used to predict dire consequences. I’m a computer expert. These models are utterly falicious. Even the best are simplistic, vague approximations of reality, which do not reflect reality in the slightest. The only way for a computer model to be taken seriously is for it to be benchmarked, by which I mean that it needs to accurately predict the future over a long period of time. Start a model now and lets see how ‘on the ball’ it is by 2019. If it’s accurate I’ll eat my hat. Has any model achieved anything like this to date. No. Don’t believe a computer model.

6. We do not know enough about what is going on. We don’t even know what 85% of the universe is made of (dark matter and dark energy are pretty much the same as ‘here be dragons’ on the edge of medieval maps). We live in orbit around a massive nuclear fusion bomb, drenched in radiation, affected by gravity with an ecosystem orders of magnitude more complex than we can comprehend. Our ignorance is staggering. Let’s not flatter ourselves that we can make policy decisions based on ‘fact’.

However.

And this is a big ‘however’.

We are wasting the Earth’s resources at a frightening rate, we are overpopulating the planet, we are chucking all sorts of pollutants into the atmosphere. Oil, gas and coal are a finite resource. We should act as long term custodians of this planet. We should clean up our act regard of whether GW/CC exists or not, or is caused by us or not. We’ve got one planet, and no access to any others.

Reduce, re-use, recycle. It’s a good idea anyway!