Kategoriarkiv: English

English

Celestia

I have found a new software on the net that I really can spend hours and hours toying around with. This is Celestia – a beautiful astronomical and scientifically correct model to the best of our understanding yet of the universe. Celestia works on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X as well.

You quickly learn how to use the zoom in and out features, how to track celestial objects through the sky but the one thing that strikes me the most is how incredibly alone I feel after a while. I have been standing on Phobos and Deimos, looking down on the face of Mars and although they are just small rocks they are quite far away from the planet that they orbit. I have been amazed over how far from the planet some of the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn are and the sheer number of orbiting bodies around Neptune. And then I suddenly stumbled uppon Cassini, the space probe, still going toward the outermost parts of the solar system.

I have traveled to galaxies far beyond a human comprehension and lost myself along clusters too far from the sun that it was impossible to see the Milky Way again. I have discovered the Greater and Lesser Magellan Clouds and amazed that we and Andromeda are so close in a universe on a perverse macro scale.

This my friends are just amazing. And it is freeware. Download, enjoy if you are an Astronomy buff.

All pictures here are taken from the software.

tethys-saturn-sol
The planet Saturn and moon Tethys and the sun can also be seen here.

The Milky Way galaxy as seen from a distance half-way from here to Andromeda (M31). The green marking is the location of the sun. You are here.
The Milky Way galaxy as seen from a distance half-way from here to Andromeda (M31). The green marking is the location of the sun. You are here.
Sunrise over Mercury
Sunrise over Mercury

The moon "Pan" orbiting Saturn, one of the more mysterious objects in the skies. There are still so many unsolved mysteries about Saturn's rings...
The moon "Pan" orbiting Saturn, one of the more mysterious objects in the skies. There are still so many unsolved mysteries about Saturn's rings...
The planetoid Pluto as seen from one of its moons, Hydra. Anoter moon is seen beyond Pluto, this is Hades.
The planetoid Pluto as seen from one of its moons, Hydra. Anoter moon is seen beyond Pluto, this is Hades.
Passing the moon on my way back to Earth after a long voyage...
Passing the moon on my way back to Earth after a long voyage...
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Spotify for Android

Now there is a spotify client both for the Android and for the iPhone. The client can also sync music for offline listening. This is such great news, I can bring my playlists from spotify where me wherever I go and listen anywhere as long as there is space on my memory card everything should be dandy.

The iPhone version apparently stops playing in the background something Apple demanded it should do, but on the Android background playing works GREAT so now I can strem music while I jog and can set up the playlist on my computer at home or pretty much everywhere and then just sync it with my phone.

So now the phone not only tracks my workout times and distance using the GPS, it also plays the music to my mood and this is something I have been waiting for some time now.

Time to become a premium member, the ad-financed version of spotify does not cover the mobile version but I don’t care. 99 SEK for a month is nothing compared to the joy it is bringing…

English

Back to work

From as of today I am back at work again. Yay, I have started to miss it so I guess my holiday was really good this year. I had five weeks off now and feel well rested.

Compared to last year when I only had two weeks off…

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Training week 36

5 kommentarer

The first week on my new schedule went far over what I expected. It is really crazy but I have not felt so good with my running in a long time.  There was no pains what so ever this week, and not really that much hardship out in the track either except that interval running which was tough but worked out really well.

So my first run this week was a shorter and slower run to just recover and this went well. I then did the intervals on Wednesday and that was really tough. Cardio and VO2 max training really. I put the intervals far too long to be effective, I will correct that for the next week. Instead of 10 min intervals with 2 min walks I will run 3/2 or 3/1 but based on my pulse rather than on time. I would then be able to run to 90% of maximum pulse and then walk it down to 80% or even 75% and then run it up to 90% again in intervals around the path I usually goes.

But the highlight this week was my fabulous long distance run. I set out slow, very slow, I got the advice to start ”silly slow” and then just very gradually pick up the speed after the first click or so. Which I did, I then kept the pulse around 155-160 and I really had to hold back the first couple of kilometers.

Then I entered the Zone. Seriously. The feet pounding the ground just disappeared around me and all I was aware of was my regular, but not too strained, breathing and I could go on for ever like this. Uphill was not a problem, I just increased the cadence and lowered the speed and downhill I compensated for the loss of time keeping the tempo around 8:45 per km. That’s really slow, about 25% faster than you walk at a good pace of course. But it does not matter by being able to keep this pace for a full hour and not stopping until the 7 km was up I got a really really good workout.

The best really. I feel it in my legs, my foot soles are a little hurting but not that bad. During the running however no pains at all. Nothing, just pure floating over the ground, the full moon above shining down on the forest path that I regularly work out on. Instead of the normal 2 laps I do I did 3 laps and then down to the water line.

Really great. I feel so great it’s difficult to describe it. Just… WOW!

The southern loop was run three laps
The southern loop was run three laps
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USA Wants to shutdown private networks in times of crisis

infowarThe Swedish newspaper Metro reports today that the US government is trying to pass a bill that gives them the right to shut down all private networks in a time of crisis.

This means of course they may use this a a means of protection in the age of cyberterrorism but they may also curtail the free word by shutting down these network they effectively makes it impossible for independent people to write blogs, and communicate with people around the globe.

The senator Jay Rockefeller have now turned over a modified version of the law to the US senate. If the law is passed the US President will be given the right to shut down all private networks in the event of a ”cybercrisis”.

Such a law is definitely worrying.

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Some of my Explored photos

2 kommentarer

Explore is a function of Flickr where amongs all the photographers that sends pictures to the site a few are selected (500 to be precise) on each day to be included in a kind of hall of fame called the Explore.

The exact criteria for when pictures are included is not known, in fact it is a well kept secret for it is fine-tuned all the time, if you have been in explore many times it gets harder to become picked, if you send a photo to many groups it can be harder but also the number of views, comments, fave markings you get contribute to your Explore score.

explore

1. It was a fabulous moon, 2. Where I am going, 3. The Night Watch, 4. The Small House, 5. The Cat, 6. Grödinge church infrared, 7. Ghost in the Window, 8. Kapelludden Cross, 9. A Second in Life, 10. Pompom and the Sea, 11. DSC_1355, 12. Polished Metal, 13. The Sky and the Snowcovered Lake, 14. Fluxfallet, 15. Strokkur, 16. Fontain Rainbow

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Nine million Bicycles

I really like this song it is one of the lovliest songs I have heard in a long time so I thought that I should share it with you here.

But of course the astute observer will see that Katie actually made an error on the size of the universe here. She was a bit embarrassed about that and if you check out this video of Michael Shermer talking on strange believes, Katie corrects her lyrics near the end of the talk!

See it here.

She definitely has a great sense of humour, Katie.

Enjoy!

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Running onwards

8 kommentarer

Now that I have managed to graduate from the C25k programme it is time for phase 2. Trying to cement the distance 5 km to make it a comfortable distance and not a maximum performance. Therefore I have designed a 6 week programme of running to make the 5 km run at least once a week.

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I believe it will be great fun to keep doing this although my first day on this running schedule was not great. I had a hard time running pretty early in the workout and it was tough all the way through. Partly because I had not eaten properly today I believe and I had some wine yesterday which always makes the running more of a pain.

I have decided to have my training days mostly on monday, wednesday and saturday, it fits pretty well with my schedule.  It also allows me to get two days of rest before the long run that ends every week and the next week starts with a lighter recovery run.

I am going to post a resummée every week how I am doing and if I have been running any new interesting tracks lately.