Category Archives: personal

amusements, arts, personal, photography

Rusty, the Danish Bacon Hound


Rusty, the Danish Bacon Hound, originally uploaded by kcm76.

Ladies and Gentlemen! Let me present, at no expense to this august establishment, Rusty, the Danish Bacon Hound.
We must apologise for the state of his coat, he’s in need of a good hose down as he’s clearly been grubbing around the pig pens.
(Made from thin white card after a design by David C Mills.)

[Later] Noreen thinks he should be called Streaky rather than Rusty, this also being a characteristic of the coats of Danish Bacon Hounds.

memes, personal, photography

Valentine's Meme


Valentine’s Meme, originally uploaded by kcm76.

This week’s Flickr Photo Meme is, quite naturally, about Valentine’s Day. As usual here are the questions and my answers:

1. Type in Valentine’s Day and pick your favourite picture!
2. How old were you when you fell in love for the first time? I’m guessing about 11.
3. How many times have you been in love? Properly in love, maybe 3?
4. What is the most romantic moment you’ve experienced? The first time Noreen and I had sex
5. What is your favourite love song? Monteverdi 1610 Vespers. How’s that for eccentricity?
6. What movie has your favourite love scene? Nah, I only do stills; don’t get all this video stuff!
7. Where is the most romantic location/destination in the world? Anywhere, it doesn’t matter where; it’s the other person and the ambience that counts
8. What gift do you think is the most romantic? ,b>Oneself, surely
9. Which do you prefer – Chocolates or Flowers? ,b>Always flowers; I’m not supposed to have chocolates
10. What is the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for you? Say “Yes”
11. Who do you think is the most romantic leading lady or man on film, TV or stage? The young Bo Derek
12. Most romantic book you’ve ever read? Any truly old book will do; books are almost as magic as cats!

1. E’ville Con 2009 logo, 2. Eleven, 3. everyone needs to draw a skull or maybe 3, 4. Angel Wars 3: Choosing sides, 5. Monteverdi Vespers of 1610, 6. Two Months On Flickr…Thank You, 7. Anywhere, 8. ugly_dolls, 9. There are always flowers, 10. She Said Yes To A Single Yellow Rose, 11. bo derek96, 12. Old Books [2]

As always these are not my photos so please follow the links to enjoy the work of the photographers who did take them!

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

personal, science

Research, 35 Years On

Thirty-five years ago I was a postgraduate student at the University of East Anglia and in the middle of the research for my doctorate. In simple terms I was looking at how metal-compounds interact to quench light-driven chemical and physical processes in organic compounds; this was done using pulses of laser light which typically lasted millionths of a second (a technique called laser flash photolysis). The technique was already well characterised and the metal-induced photochemical quenching already of industrial importance in developing additives to make plastics more light stable – after all one doesn’t want buckets or sinks which fall apart after a short while as happened in the chemistry labs at University of York when I was an undergraduate there. In our research we were extending the work to try to better understand the physics of the systems at a quantum energy level, and (as my supervisor memorably expressed it) fill in one piece of the jigsaw puzzle which is photosynthesis – the chemical and physical processes by which plants turn water, carbon dioxide and light into energy, sugars, proteins and oxygen; the veritable bedrock of life. It was but a very tiny piece of a massive jigsaw puzzle and to this day I still do not understand how it earned me a doctorate!

This was at the time when Lord Porter (then Professor Sir George Porter) who won a Nobel prize for the invention of flash-photolysis was at the Royal Institution and was just beginning to develop systems using picosecond lasers which we thought at the time was mind-blowing. (A picosecond is one million-millionth of a second, so around a million time shorter than the equipment I was using).

Thirty-five years on scientists are now on the threshold of putting in the very last pieces of that jigsaw. This at least is the way I read today’s BBC News item which describes scientists watching the reacting electrons in the molecules using a similar photolysis technique but with laser pulses lasting just 100 femtoseconds, that’s one ten-thousandth of a billionth of a second (or ten thousand million times shorter than an average camera flash). I’m not so much gobsmacked at the rate of technological innovation – one has almost come to expect that – but more that not only has this been done but that it is possible to achieve such incredibly fast pulses of light AND use them to watch chemical reactions in such real-time detail. It is something we dreamt of doing but never imagined would become a reality. For me this is much more gobsmacking science than any piece of cosmology or particle accelerator physics.

memes, personal, photography

People in Your Life Meme


People in Your Life Meme, originally uploaded by kcm76.

This week’s Flickr Photo Meme is the first names of people in your life. So as usual here are the questions and my answers

1. Spouse’s name. Noreen, and yes that is her in the photo taken with an ultra-wide angle lens at short range.
2. Mother’s name. Dora
3. Father’s name: Bob
4. Brother / sister’s name: to quote Peter Cook “Tragically I was an only twin”
5. Pet’s name: The cats: Harry and Sally, no not our choices!
6. Best friend’s name: Suzy
7. Childhood friend’s name: Derek
8. Person who has most influenced you: that has to be Victor, but only by a short head from Faith and Barry & Julia
9. Neighbour’s name: Zaina, a luscious Lebanese beauty queen
10. Grandmother’s name: Flo; that’s my mother’s mother
11. Grandfather’s name: Alf; my mother’s father who I never knew as he died 2 years before I was born
12. Your name: Keith, but I have yet to understand why!

As always these are not my photos (with the exception of ) so please follow the links to enjoy the work of the photographers who did take them!

1. Madam Noreen, 2. Dora was my co-pilot (04/2005), 3. Bob Staake – Toy Designs, 4. tragically i was an only twin, 5. PB120027-1, 6. Shy Suzy, 7. Derek, 8. Victor Bagging, 9. zaina, 10. say ah (iris ‘larry and flo’), 11. Alf Leila Wa Leila, 12. Keith Haring by Annie Leibovitz New York City 1986

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

memes, personal, photography

Midweek MiniMeme: All About Flickr


Midweek MiniMeme: All About Flickr, originally uploaded by kcm76.

This week we have a mid-week mini-meme; and it’s all about one of our favorite things: Flickr!

So as usual here are the questions and my answers:
1. First person you met on Flickr? Probably RogerGW
2. First pic you faved? Shoveller Lines by my namesake Keith Marshall — it’s really scary ‘cos we even have almost identical tabby cats, tho’ he’s a much better photographer than I am!
3. Person on Flickr you would most like to meet? From amongst my contacts? Well it would have to be ~Misty~; we live quite near each other too!
4. Someone on Flickr you have already met? Melly Melly Me; we’re both owned by the same large It company and when we were working on a project together we discovered we were both on Flickr!
5. Your funniest Flickr friend? This just has to be edartr; just check out his two hilarious dogs!
6. Most endearing Flickr friend? Claire who already belongs to Rom.. Oh to be young again! 😉

1. Tomb plate, Standish, 2. Shoveler Lines, 3. Les socks de jour!, 4. Tig2, 5. oohh and THEN i get a cookie ?, 6. Portrait…

As always these are not my photos so please follow the links to enjoy the work of the photographers who did take them!

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.