Three noteworthy events.
Firstly, last Friday we celebrated (or some of us did) the day of the European Surveyor. This year Galileo Galilei was honoured by CLGE in Budapest. You can read all about it here.
Secondly I have just been pointed toward this Land Surveyor's website. International Surveyor's Week is looming in June. And on 21 June you can "survey earth in a day". From the looks of the site, with just 5 members promoting it, I suggest it's going to take them longer than a day to survey it. The Survey Earth in a day link (which I've just followed) takes you to this site . Ah it appears this is the second annual event and 1000s of points were collected last year. Perhaps, as we say in the UK, this has legs after all?
Finally, I am delighted to report that my own mate Harry Beck is getting a blue plaque. That'll be one to bag next time I'm in the area.
Monday, 25 March 2013
Saturday, 23 March 2013
Istanbul
I've just been in Istanbul for a week with work. During this time we popped over to Asia and visited the Turkish Hydrographic Office.
I hadn't realised but Piri Reis is their local hero.
And I'm not surprised with a chart like this.
I was delighted to have been presented with an English translation of his chart.
The Turkish HO is positioned on the Asian side of the Bosphorus. With views like this I'm gobsmacked they manage to get any work done.
We spent a good while watching the tankers come down from the Black Sea.
Back to geeky bits. A display in the Turkish office.
My oceanographic vibes woke up with these...
But I really got excited (OK, sadly) by these light shades!
I hadn't realised but Piri Reis is their local hero.
And I'm not surprised with a chart like this.
I was delighted to have been presented with an English translation of his chart.
The Turkish HO is positioned on the Asian side of the Bosphorus. With views like this I'm gobsmacked they manage to get any work done.
We spent a good while watching the tankers come down from the Black Sea.
Back to geeky bits. A display in the Turkish office.
My oceanographic vibes woke up with these...
But I really got excited (OK, sadly) by these light shades!
Friday, 15 March 2013
Pi Day
I must be a slow learner. I only realised yesterday that 14 March each year was designated "Pi Day". 3.14 etc = March 14. Just how cool is that? I suspect that if you're reading this you won't be surprised to know that I found the all things Pi too exciting. I even showed my daughter this picture which shows that Pie backwards spells Pie.
Or perhaps it's even worse to know that when I showed it to her she rolled her eyes and said "Mum, I already know that".
Or perhaps it's even worse to know that when I showed it to her she rolled her eyes and said "Mum, I already know that".
Sunday, 10 March 2013
Sunday, 17 February 2013
Zero Milestone
Just realised it's nearly 2 months since I last blogged. I suspect all my readers (singular perhaps) have moved onto other more exciting reads but for the person who is still with me, an update.
Have recently been to Washington DC on business. For most of it I was variously at the hotel, conference centre, random eatery or somewhere in transit between the above 3. I could have been anywhere in the USA until our last afternoon when we had a spare evening to go downtown.
We had time to go bag the 'trig' in front of the White House that I'd tried to reach in the summer. Back then I was turned away due to some security alert or other but this time we could get up close to the Zero Milestone.
The zero milestone was established as the point from which all road distances in the US would be measured. If you look closely you can read the wording...
"Point for the measurement of distances from Washington on highways of the United States."
I quite like the fact that congress authorised the determination of latitude and longitude.
As you may suspect, I wasn't alone on my trip. Accompanying me were some equally geeky people (they wouldn't admit it) and in total there were 3 Brits, 2 Canadians and one Australian. Spot which one is the Australian?
Have recently been to Washington DC on business. For most of it I was variously at the hotel, conference centre, random eatery or somewhere in transit between the above 3. I could have been anywhere in the USA until our last afternoon when we had a spare evening to go downtown.
We had time to go bag the 'trig' in front of the White House that I'd tried to reach in the summer. Back then I was turned away due to some security alert or other but this time we could get up close to the Zero Milestone.
The zero milestone was established as the point from which all road distances in the US would be measured. If you look closely you can read the wording...
"Point for the measurement of distances from Washington on highways of the United States."
I quite like the fact that congress authorised the determination of latitude and longitude.
As you may suspect, I wasn't alone on my trip. Accompanying me were some equally geeky people (they wouldn't admit it) and in total there were 3 Brits, 2 Canadians and one Australian. Spot which one is the Australian?
Saturday, 22 December 2012
Beautiful Numbers
On 20 Dec, or rather 20/12/2012, we came to the end of a lovely run of beautiful numbers seen through dates.
I was on a car journey on 12 Dec and at 1210 my colleague left me in the car at our coffee stop so I could photograph this.
You can imagine my interest on 20 Dec to come across a radio interview on beautiful dates. I think the interviewee said we have 68 in the 21st century of which we've already had 43; you know, 01/01/01, 02/02/02, 01/02/03 etc. I've tried to find the interview to no avail, but I did find this article.
Apparently we don't have much to look forward to in the next decade except next year at 2:15pm on 11 Dec. Or rather, 11/12/13 14:15. The Radio 4 presenter was a tad scoffing questioning how a number can be beautiful. "And anyway," he said, "it's all very well if you believe in the 24 hour clock. Believe in the 24 hour clock? That's like saying I don't believe in Celsius, or inches or some other measurement system. Honestly.
Mind you, I reckon if you switch the time and date around you could have 09:10 on 11/12/13 which is also quite neat. Two in one day ;-)
I was on a car journey on 12 Dec and at 1210 my colleague left me in the car at our coffee stop so I could photograph this.
You can imagine my interest on 20 Dec to come across a radio interview on beautiful dates. I think the interviewee said we have 68 in the 21st century of which we've already had 43; you know, 01/01/01, 02/02/02, 01/02/03 etc. I've tried to find the interview to no avail, but I did find this article.
Apparently we don't have much to look forward to in the next decade except next year at 2:15pm on 11 Dec. Or rather, 11/12/13 14:15. The Radio 4 presenter was a tad scoffing questioning how a number can be beautiful. "And anyway," he said, "it's all very well if you believe in the 24 hour clock. Believe in the 24 hour clock? That's like saying I don't believe in Celsius, or inches or some other measurement system. Honestly.
Mind you, I reckon if you switch the time and date around you could have 09:10 on 11/12/13 which is also quite neat. Two in one day ;-)
Friday, 23 November 2012
Which Way Mecca?
Following on from my fascinating (sic) post on churches facing east last month, a colleague e-mailed me this link. It's a discussion on the alignment of graves to Mecca and how this can be measured. In there is a statement regarding the direction of churches in the UK and there is a somewhat sweeping (but probably true) statement saying they face any which way: OK, but mainly east.
An interesting article. And it makes me wonder if some church alignment is sort of towards the Holy Land rather than east?
An interesting article. And it makes me wonder if some church alignment is sort of towards the Holy Land rather than east?
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