Star Crossed

Another glorious winter, another vibrant year of stargazing for our hero, the vigour of his endeavours propelling him to escape velocity from the gravitational yoke of the Deathlist! January 2010's episode, "Twinkle, Twinkle...", saw John Mason and a group of amateurnomers gathering in Sir Patrick's garden to check out the cosmos with their respective equipment. Nick Howes handled Sir Patrick's 15-incher with some finesse to observe the finer details of M-45, the Pleiades. Which was nice. Sir Patrick looked very well indeed, sans hat in the cool Selsey air (remarkable, bearing in mind the sub-zero cold snap currently embracing the UK). His ennuie was evident, however, as was mine, as his guest banged on about variable stars. In conclusion, Sir Patrick wished you all a very happy, if belated, New Year. As a footnote, after watching this episode I went out for a walk and did some stargazing of my own. It's -5C here tonight and with 10" of lovely crisp snow on the ground the place looks like heaven under the waning moon. Enjoy these small, free pleasures in life, my fellow DLers.

I'd wager the most significant death of this month would be that of any hope of global political accord on concerted environmental action.

HB, CA! MHROTD! You |,,|

People who forget to bring their own drugs to a sleepover.

Yes, I believe he was on the german government's list of former Economy Ministers.

December's episode of TSAN is upon us. 'The Winter Sky'. Praise be! The show kicked off with a brief tour of the solar system, through the lens of sundry current telescope/rover missions. Most entertaining! Good repartee between Sir P and Prof. Chris 'the anointed one' Lintott, including an ironic dig from Sir P about the quantity of water on the Moon. Double jab, left hook. Cracking show! Initially, I thought Sir Patrick looked a little peaky, but I was heartened to be wrong. Lacking a little colour in the face, Sir Patrick? I prescribe a double ration of Pusser's. Or Mount Gay, whichever tickles your fancy Tonight was the first time I've been able to watch Pete Lawrence's bit without being irritated by him. On the contrary, he gave a solid and insightful 5-minute presentation about what we can look for in the winter sky (northern hemisphere only, sorry honez), including the Geminids, which should be very visible on the night of 13th/14th December. Enjoy! Prof. Bob Nichol talked about his SLOAN III project, basically a big digital camera (140 megapixels), which takes pictures of things, Nebulae etc. To be honest, I lost a little focus during this bit. The cheeky blighter even had the temerity to reply when asked about the future of his project "... we've got funding until 2014, so you'll just have to keep asking me back to talk about it as developments unfold ... ". Don't call us, Bob, we'll call you. p.s. If you followed the link about the Geminids, please vote in their "Next Mega Disaster" poll, to be found on the right-hand side of the page. I wonder if they have a forum?

November's episode, 'Lunar Impact' took an in-depth look at the work of LCROSS, NASA's lunar probe. Classic schoolboy science; smash something into something else and watch what happens. Essentially, they are looking for evidence of water ice at the lunar poles, in this case the south pole. Chris Lintott clocked up more air miles on another California junket, whilst Sir Patrick knotted a hanky, rocked the Hawaaiian shirt and headed for the beach at Selsey with his chum Pete Lawrence and the doodle idiot from that annoying episode earlier in the year, whose name I forget. I thought Sir Patrick looked in rude health. His pieces to camera, albeit brief as usual these days, showed him looking as vital as he's looked all year; speech clear as a bell except for one comment on the beach which eluded even my sensitive ears (I suspect he was talking about me). The real beauty of this episode is the unbridled disappointment expressed by all as the lunar impact created... no discernable plume of dust/ice particles. "A technological success, but an unexpected scientific result" in Lintott's words. Even NASA couldn't detect a visible plume, just a small signature in the infra-red denoting the heat of the impact. The dénouement is that NASA did, apparently, get some good data; watch the news for a statement from NASA in the next few weeks!

Dunno. Is shagging toys compulsory? regards, Hein I'd like to put thoughts of who's shagging which toys at CA's place into Room 101. Also, people who "trick or treat" on the 30th October. What possible excuse could they have? Good job I had all the lights out. But still...

As Dylan O'Connor didn't reply to my last offer of a bag of sweets and a stroke of the baby hamster, I'm not wishing her HB or MHROTD this year.

The cruel hand of irony could yet turn that story into one hell of a blues song. Artist's impression of how the attack may have looked

Oddly enough, I did pray for you whilst I was there. It was quite an experience, and I'm sure you would have adored the silence; it exhibited significant congruence with the astrological theme of this thread. I look forward to hearing more from you. Or, more accurately, I anticipate hearing more from you.

This is what happens when you f'uck a stranger in the a'ss. Yeah, well... you know, that's just like, uh... your opinion, man. Godot abides... I don't know about you, but I'd take comfort in that. It's good knowing he's out there, "Godot", taking it easy for all us sinners.

Shouldn't that go in the dead drummers thread? Before I get my coat, let me just add that this thread is surely the mootest of moot threads, given that the DL is picked by committee and doesn't have any public rules as such (I didn't check these facts). Maybe we could render the thread title more relevant to those who discuss their own selection criteria here by substituting the 'The List' for 'Your List' or 'My List'? Edit: and yet I've posted twice on the first page of it. So this is what shame feels like...

So which is it, then? HB & M,MHROTD, H! *slap* *tickle* *hug*

My kind of guy. RIP WWJ. I tried to find a book by him, but I don't think he's published any. Wiki has a list of biographies, though.

Awesome. That's how I'd like to see the Mods; like the top 23 on Interpol's most wanted list (ok, top 22 maybe ). Thanks for the move, honez.

That's not what I'd call it... Nor would I keep it in the DL Forum, as it clearly belongs with all the other extra-curricular waste-of-server-space bullshit. Have all the Mods taken a holiday together? Pontins would be my guess.

Monthly physical decline? [jesus quintana]Laughable![/jesus quintana] Unless you're Sir Patrick's personal physician, I highly doubt that you've been able to discern any degradation of his physical, or vocal, condition in 2009; if anything, he's looking and sounding fitter than he was last year. Do pay attention, 007...

I'm bored and I wantg an update on your hair status, H.

October 2009 episode: The Great Observatories; NASA's space telescopes, namely Compton (named after the infamous suburb of Los Angeles), Chandra (after Ms. Sturrup, the Jamaican sprinting veteran), Hubble (the witches in the scottish play) and Spitzer (one of Satan's reindeer). Sir Patrick began this month's show with a brief explanation of light itself, the electromagnetic spectrum and the reasons why he only lets us observe a small portion of it with our puny human eyes. Joining him in the command bunker to discuss the yankee spy satellites telescopes were Prof Gerry Gilmore of Cambridge Uni, Prof Martin Barstow of Leicester Uni and Prof Chris Lintott. They gave a concise presentation detailing the reasons for, and the results of, the combined full-spectrum capability of these gadgets. Pete Lawrence was in the garden again, guiding us around our northern-hemisphere Sky At Night for the benefit of amateur astronomers who want to see spiral galaxy M31. Don't we all? Sir Patrick's outward appearance seems cast in stone, a portrait of vigorous octogenarian health.

If Richard Gere reads that article he'll be wanting a squid up his fabled northwest passage.

[kenneth williams]Oooooh I saaay, 'arry! You *are* awwwwful![/kenneth williams] HB and mhrotd, Magic! I was trying to think of a decent pun or quip, but I got my knickers in a twist.

It would seem that someone has overridden Leutnant NAP's kuhler-befehl. And rescinded the warning. Firstly, it wasn't a response, it was an attack. An attack on LB and his ilk, and on NAP. That said, is there any point, honez? Are eloquence, passion and verve really qualities which you feel still have a place at DL? The moderative standards of late (the last 2 years) certainly suggest otherwise. Why doesn't everyone just burp and fart their way through membership of this forum? Why don't we all crack out 5000 posts and be pleased with our übertwuntdom? Forgive my cynicism. No, far from ranting about all and sundry, honez, I'll be very specific... I strongly believe that DL has been progressively dumbed-down over the last 2 years by a succession of posters who do not deserve to have membership of this forum. This has been exacerbated, indeed actively supported, by an almost comical lack of Mod intervention. As regards the requirement for razor wit, barbs and venom, would you sit down and explain to a dog that the reason he's going into kennels is that you've been roped into some work junket in a far-away land which he'll never see, to which you'll travel in a huge man-made object that can fly in the sky like a bird, carrying hundreds of humans thousands of miles; a country in which his species is firmly on the menu? No. Would you sit down and explain to the dog why biting your leg is a bad thing to do and that he should really consider a more measured response next time? No. Why? Because dogs don't understand human language, certainly not implication or connotation. Sure, a conditioned, Pavlovian response to certain words, but no actual understanding of what's being said (ok, CA, i'm sure Cockers are the exception). That's why I use primitive language occasionally; because, as when we must admonish an unruly dog (who can't appreciate razor wit, barbs or venom), sometimes we have to just use our more base, more primitive, more simple means to get the message across. Yours was a very fair response honez, good Moderation, but let's not kid ourselves that I'm in some tiny minority of intellectual-fascist loonies. I'm definitely not alone in my feelings but I am, as I have been for some time now, the only one who's willing to poke my head over the parapet and fire a flare to illuminate what's on many, many members' minds. If that's the part I have to play occassionally to make this point, fair enough. Until the day I'm banned, I'll probably be occasionally, publicly, making the unwelcome feel as unwelcome as they deserve to feel. Let's face it, we're all considered worthless scum somewhere. There must be forums better than this, more erudite, more witty, where they'd look down on the likes of me and think "talentless, pathetic cretins... off with their heads!" but this forum is/was about my level; it feels right for me in many respects and I hate seeing it slide down the slippery slope to twitterdom. I'll never be thought of as a conservative but, in respect of my feelings toward DL, I'm a Neo-Con. I'm Dick Cheney. On crack. With a bottle of baby oil, a bag of marshmallows and a shotgun.

No. No one cares about your pussy. Or your vomit, your drunkenness, your ex-husband, your aching shitcunt, whatever. Why don't you f u ck off to a forum where people actually value your "contributions", you f ucking parasite? You're worse than iain for wasting space on threads. Dear Abby, Why are so many crass, talentless human excrement posting so regularly on this site? Is it symptomatic of societal decay in general? Yes, I thought so. Should we burn them all in power stations to light the homes of the righteous? Yes, I thought you'd agree. Edit: I spent much of my working day today trying to drum sense into imbeciles like you; the sort of untermensch who can't really fend for themselves in the real world so hide their shame through over-indulgence in fags, booze, food, pathetic one-line comments on internet forums and general sloth. Why the F U C K should I have to come to (what used to be) a relatively droll and well-populated forum and have to trawl through sh*t posted by the same class of barely-human scum I spent all day wiping from the soles of my shoes?

You know I was joking when I wrote this, but as Mr H has moved to London, a mate of his and me have been going through his stuff and have found quite a lot of women's undies amongs his stuff, some it is mine but some of it most definitely isn't, either he really was a secret tranny or he had a chubby girlfriend on the side. I'm not sure which is worse. One can't help but feel more than a little responsible for cuckolding Mr H during our sessions in chat, H. Woe is me. On the subject of Mr H's cross-dressing, the chubby girlfriend is worse. I wouldn't be too worried if I were you, though; everyone likes to feel special now and then, don't we? The way to tell if they're his or another girl's is by how expensive/frilly/sexy they are. In my... ahem... experience, men wishing to wear ladies' undies would go for something a little racier than average. On average. That said, of course, I suspect yours were pretty racy to begin with, so who knows what sort of she-clobber Mr H had resorted to? Maybe he was planning a surprise RHPS party for you?