• The Author – Bart Busschots

  

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I won’t lie and say that I’m surprised Arnie vetoed the first ever gay marriage bill to make it to a US governor’s desk but I am still very disappointed. Arnie has chosen to over-rule the democratically elected representatives of California because he is afraid of the extreme right.

Interesting how people who claim to be strong proponents of democracy show their true colours when a decision goes against them. What is also interesting is the nice little U-turn the republicans have just done. When Mass. was forced to allow gay marriage by a court ruling Bush said it should not be up to courts to decide such important issues but up to the elected representatives of the people, now that the elected representatives of the people have tried to legislate for gay marriage the new republican line is that it should be a matter for the courts. Pity Americans seem to have too short of an attention span to see what their ‘government’ is at.

All in all yet antoher sad day for America, good-bye democracy, good-bye tolerance, good-bye equality.

I read Dave’s post about the historic act of decommissioning by the IRA this week so this stuff was on my mind and when I saw that Hearts and Minds was on this evening on BBC I felt I just had to watch it to get a Northern Irish perspective on all this. What I was made me very sad indeed, Unionists are not being led by competent, driven leaders with a vision of a bright future for the north, the are being followed down a dark alley to despair by their so called leaders who are too busy bickering amongst themselves to notice the momentous things going on around them.

This week the IRA ‘put beyond use’ a ‘massive’ amount of weapons and was witnessed to do so by a retired general of internationally recognized integrity and two priests of exceptionally high standing within Northern Ireland who are near universally accepted as men of extreme integrity. Further more, we have been told that the amount of weapons disposed of was in line with both British and Irish intelligence estimates of how much weaponry the IRA had. I mean this was a serious bit of weapons dumping, it even included anti-aircraft missiles for goodness sake! Just think of how much less weapons there are on this island today than there were this time last week and ask your self, can that be a bad thing?

The one thing that was obvious from watching the Unionist politicians today is that they are not man enough to stand up and say that this is a positive step for the people of Northern Ireland. Instead Paisley and his guriers are slinging mud at General John de Chastelain and at the two priests who witnessed the decommissioning. How very big of them! These people are telling the Unionists what they have claimed to be waiting on for years yet they don’t want to hear it anymore. Their last big excuse for not moving forward is gone. They are frantically scrambling to make that not be the case and to come up with new excuses but all it is doing is showing them up as being too scared of moving forward to take so much as one positive step.

The IRA have swallowed their pride and handed in their guns, maybe it’s about time big Ian swallowed his and said YES for once in his life!

Got a look at a fairly nice aurora from Maynooth this evening. This was by no means a massively spectacular aurora like the ones you see in books but it was still very nice. There was a red glow on the north west horizon and white auroral bands over head and in the northern sky. It was also a fairly stable aurora which is less awe-inspiring to watch than more dynamic aurorae.

BTW, if you want to keep up with the most recent cool aurora pics keep an eye on the gallery at www.spaceweather.com. The gallery for this month has some very impressive images, my favorite being the one below:

Tagged with: aurora • observation log • astronomy

Well, Astro2 had it’s first observing session of the year and despite the weather being far from ideal we did actually manage to see some stuff and we also had a good turnout of about 20 people who braved the cold on the physics roof!

When we first went onto the roof observing conditions were far far from ideal, about 30% – 40% cloud cover and the areas that were ‘clear’ were still quite hazy. Thankfully the longer we stayed up there the clearer it got.

We only had use of our own ETX90 and our binoculars because the college’s LX200 was out of order. This made things a little more difficult because it meant we had no automatic tracking and no finder scope (don’t ask) so I stuck to a 32mm eye piece to keep the magnification low and only went for objects that were big, bright and easy to find.

We got a good look at the globular cluster M13, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and the double cluster in Perseus. I was hoping to track down the Dumbbell Nebula (M27) and the Ring Nebula (M57) but without a finder scope tracking down something in the midst of the Milkyway is just not gonna work so when my fingers got numb I gave up!

We also spotted some satellites and an Iridium Flare and we did some introductory stuff with our new members pointing out some of the constellations. Although it was far from an ideal night I still think a good time was had by those who showed up.

One thing that did infuriate me a bit was that Mars didn’t come up high enough to be seen from the roof till I was on my way home and spotted it in all it’s red glory taunting me from low in the sky next to the Hume building!

Tagged with: astronomy • satellite • Astro 2 • deep sky • observation log

Being in Cavan for a weeks well earned holidays I got my first look at a clear dark sky for a very very long time so out I went armed with no more than a simple pair of Binoculars (10×50) for some hands on practical astronomy. It was great to see the Milkyway blazing across the sky, you just don’t see that in Maynooth. You’ll be amazed at just how much you can see with just a pair of Binoculars that I got for 20 Euro in Lidle!

Probably one of the hardest types of object to see without a telescope are galaxies but you’d still be amazed how many you can see with Binoculars, some practice and a clear dark sky. Tonight I managed to observe four:

• The Andromeda Galaxy (M31). Mind you that is not really saying much since you can see it with the un-aided eye under Cavan’s dark skes!
• The Triangulum Galaxy (M33). This is one of my favourites because it is one of that rare class of objects that I can see relatively easily with my Binoculars but which is pretty much completely invisible in even the college’s 10" telescope because it is so big and spread out!
• M81 & M82 in the plough. These are two galaxies that are stunning in a telescope but for some bizarre reason always seem to get over-looked by amateur astronomers.

I also had a look at the nicest of the Planetary Nebulae (dying stars), the Dumbbell Nebula (or M27 to Astronomers). Since most planetary nebulae are tiny you generally need a telescope to see them but M27 appears big on the sky because it is close to us so it’s within the range of my 20 Euro binoculars.

I also did the rounds of the Globular clusters getting good views of the two easiest (M13 and M3) and also managed to glimpse the smaller, more compact and hence harder to see M15 in Perseus.

I did of course also observe a few of the easiest objects to observe, Open Clusters:

• As normal I kicked off proceedings by observing probably the easiest and most spectacular binocular object of them all, the Double Cluster in Perseus (NG869 & NGC884). No matter how often you see this object it still looks stunning!
• I also got a look at another easy but beautiful cluster, M39, which sits in the heart of the Milkyway in at the top of Cygnus.
• I also had a look at one of the cuter ‘clusters’, the Coat Hanger Cluster which is, as it’s name suggests, a cluster of stars arranged in the shape of a coat hanger. It’s not strictly speaking a cluster but it is too cute not to checkout when you get the chance IMO.
• I also checked out one of my old favourites, IC4665 in Ophiuchus which is another realy easy to see cluster that almost no one knows about just because it didn’t make Charlie’s (Charles Messier’s) list.
• Finally, I also got my first ever look at M11 in Scutum. TBH I only came across it by accident because I was randomly scanning the Milkyway, I had no idea it was so bright and easy to see!

Tagged with: deep sky • observation log • astronomy

Well, I’ve had a blog for a few months now and have surprised myself by
not having any HP posts at all. Well, it couldn’t last forever could it!

Now, I was not one those sad people who queued up at midnight to get HP6 the
second it came out. No, I was one of those sadder people who waited
till 1:30am to nip down to the 24 hour Tesco’s to pick up a copy on the
night it came out but without the queues!

When I got the book Idid of course read it but then I also went further and re-read all the
books from book one right up to and including book six again. I just
finished this last night so I guess now would be a good time to put my
money where my mouth is and make my predictions for HP7.

• Firstly, DUMBLEDORE IS DEAD! I actually think I should dedicate an entire ‘rant’ post to this fact because those silly people who insist on deluding themselves that he is still alive annoy me immensely!
• Secondly, Dumbledore had a ‘big plan’ and Snape killing Dumbledore was a part of that plan.
• Thirdly, Snape still has a big part to play in this story and he will be instrumental in the final victory of good over evil.
• Fourthly, Draco Malfoy still has a part to play in the story and he will also help good triumph over evil.
• Fifthly, Harry will defeat Voldemort and he will live to tell the tale. JK Rowling is not Shakespeare!
• And finally, Hermione and Ron will stay together and Harry will get back together with Ginny.

So, now we just have to wait two years to see just how wrong I am!

Rumours have been doing the rounds that iTunes would up their prices, it was great to see Steve Jobs stand up for the consumer and say NO!

In fact he went further, he said that the record companies already make more money per tune on iTunes than they do from CD sales because they don’t have to actually manufacture anything so looking for a rise is just the record companies getting greedy. That in it self is a statement worthy of applause, but he went further and said it like it is. He said that people use iTunes because they like getting music legally for a fair price, and that increasing this price significantly would undermine this and drive people to piracy.

I can only speak for myself but I think Steve has hit the nail on the head. I don’t WANT to pirate music but I am not about to bend over and let the record company fat cats fuck me over. I love iTunes because it gives me legal music at a fair price, it is perfect and I have not pirated a single piece of music since I set up my iTunes account. If the record companies force apple to dramatically up the price then I will have zero moral objection to pirating music because the record companies will have proven themselves to the thieving bastards and hence I will have no problems fucking them over in return for them fucking me over, in fact I will take pleasure from it.

Listen up Sony and co. I don’t pirate music or software, don’t force me to by being money grabbing bastards!

It would appear that my worst fears about Cardinal Ratzinger’s papacy are going to be realized and it has not taken that long. It looks almost certain now that there is going to be an organized and Vatican lead persecution of gay people in the Catholic Church which is about as un-catholic a thing as one can imagine.

This blog post has been threatening to be written since the news broke
a few weeks ago that the Vatican may officially ban gays from entering the
priest hood and has now been accelerated by the anti-gay witch hunt
that has been announced in the US today.

Up to now the Church’s (and that of dear Joe Ratzinger) position has been that there is nothing wrong with BEING gay, only with taking part in gay sexual acts, which are, according to the church, inherently sinful. I don’t believe that to be true and that is an issue that myself and the church disagree on quite strongly but for the purpose of this blog entry I am not going to argue with that view.

So what am I arguing with? Well, I am arguing with the churches move away from this apparently "compassionate" position to outright anti-gay witch hunting.

Catholic priests HAVE to be celibate so they cannot have ANY sex and are in fact supposed to be completely asexual beings. Hence their sexual orientation is irrelevant because they give up all sex. This is why there has been no problem with gay clerics in the past and this is a very sensible position. However, reports recently indicated that the Vatican was about to issue a policy that gays will be banned from the priest hood.

That would be bad and simply wrong. It would totally undermine the churches own position on homosexuality and would lead to increased discrimination against gays and would make the lives of gay people that little bit harder. However, what is MUCH worse is what has been announced in the American Catholic Church today. As part of their "apostolic visitations" to all seminaries they will try to find and remove all homosexuality. Literally a witch hunt. What makes this MUCH MUCH more dangerous is the apparent motivation for this, a claimed link between homosexuality and pedophilia.

This link is not supported by science or by observation but is being pushed by the church so it can wash it’s hands of the child sex abuse scandal by blaming it on the gays and not on the Bishops under who’s noses this all went on and was allowed continue. The church is trying to scapegoat all gays and that WILL result in direct hostility towards gays as well as an increase in discrimination and hate crimes against innocent gay people. The good honest people of the world can’t simply stand back and let this happen, they have to speak out against this for two reasons, firstly to protect innocent gay people from unfair and undeserved discrimination and secondly and more importantly to force the church to deal with the real causes of child sex abuse so that more innocent children are not hurt in the future!

Thankfully there are already some within the church speaking out against this, let us hope they are listened to! For example Planet Out reports Francis DeBernardo, director of a ministry which serves LGBT Catholics as saying that "the investigation US seminaries for ‘evidence of homosexuality’ continues the pattern of smoke-screening the church leaders have employed since the clergy child sex abuse crisis began" he went on to ask "why not look instead for evidence of cowardice, secrecy and dishonesty — the traits displayed by so many bishops who magnified the crisis into a public scandal?". All I can say is lets hope there are more catholics like Francis out there and less like Joe and his gay-bashing cronies.

I have a feeling some poor guy at Sky might be fired for this but it sure is the truest thing Sky News have said for a LONG time!

Following on from my previous post on shelling out in Java.

When shelling out in Java there are only two models you get by default, you can either set the process off and carry on your thread of execution in parallel, or you can halt your thread of execution until the thread you spawned finishes. The questions is, what if you want something in between, what if you want to wait for a given length of time and then simply assume that something has gone horribly wrong and kill the child process and then move on?

Well, I have what I consider to be a good solution!

The following is a Java function that allows you to specify just
about everything you could ever need when shelling out. It has made my
life a lot easier so hopefully it will be of some use to other people
too!

/** The exit code that indicuated success. */
public final static int SUCCESS = 0;
/**
* A static method to execute a given command on the shell and return the exit
* code.
*
* @param cmd              The command to execute.
* @param waitForSecs      How many seconds to wait for the spawned thread to
*      terminate. A value of zero indicated not to wait at all but to let the
*      new process carry on in the background. A negative value indicates
*      that this function should wait indefinitely for the spawned process to
*      finish and any positive value will be interpreted as the number of
*      seconds to wait for the process to terminate before killing it.
* @param workingDir       The working directory for Java to use. If a blank
*      string or null is passed no working directory is set.
* @param env              The environment variables to shell out with. If an
*      empty array or null is passed no environment variables will be sent
*      are sent.
* @return                 Whether or not the spawned process exited without
*      errors. If we are not waiting for the proccess to end it is impossible
*      to know this so false will always be returned.
* @exception Exception  If any exception is thrown in the process of
*      executing the command it is caught and encapsulated in a Exception
*      and then re-thrown.
*/

public static boolean executeCommand(String cmd, String[] env, String workingDir, int waitForSecs) throws Exception {
  try {
    String[] theEnv = env;
    if(theEnv == null) {
      theEnv = new String[0];
    }
    Process proc = null;
    if(workingDir != null && !workingDir.equals("")) {
      proc = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(cmd, theEnv, new File(workingDir));
    } else {
      proc = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(cmd, theEnv);
    }
    //if we are not waiting, return
    if(waitForSecs == 0) {
      return false;
    }

    //if we are waiting indefinitely, do so
    if(waitForSecs < 0) {
      return SUCCESS == proc.waitFor();
    }

    //if we are waiting for a set amound of seconds do so
    int waited = 0;
    do {
      Thread.sleep(1000);
      try {
        boolean ans = SUCCESS == proc.exitValue();
        return ans;
      } catch(IllegalThreadStateException e) {
        //the thread has not finished yet
        waited++;
        if(waited >= waitForSecs) {
          //we have been here too long, kill the process and return false
          proc.destroy();
          return false;
        }
      }
    }while (true);
  } catch(Exception e) {
    throw new Exception("An exception occouted while shelling out for the command " + cmd, e);
  }
}

Tagged with: Java

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