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Saturday 20 September 2008

The fool says in his heart "there is no Higg's Boson"

A physics teacher and another teacher had a conversation this week in my hearing: it was regarding the upcoming experiments at CERN and it went something like this...

Non-physicist: So tell me again, why are they doing these experiments at CERN?
Physicist: They're trying to find Higg's Boson.
Non-physicist: What if the experiments fail and they don't find it? Does that mean that Higg's Boson doesn't exist.
Physicist: It doesn't mean Higg's Boson, doesn't exist. It means they haven't found it yet. It's possible that Higg's Boson does exist elsewhere in the universe. Just because we haven't seen it, it doesn't mean that it doesn't exist, it just means that we heaven't found it.

Let me emphasise that line again, "Just because we haven't seen it, it doesn't mean that it doesn't exist,"

That's amazing! How can we be so arrogant to decide that something (or someone, say God) doesn't exist because we haven't seen it? Physicists, I love you!

Sunday 14 September 2008

Klingons, Cardassians, Jem'hadar




Here are three more images of the models I have been producing. As you can probably tell my game will have to potential to re-create battles from Star Trek ranging from one ship per side to large fleet battles.
The top picture is a Klingon fleet, below that are some Cardassian ships and finally at the bottom are some Jem'hadar. Again, any comments would be appreciated

Starfleet


Here are my very own hand-made Star Trek models from the Federation Starfleet, playing pieces in this board game I'm making. On the left is a Sovereign class like the Enterprise-E from the last three films, next is an Intrepid-class like Voyager. Just above that is a Miranda-class and an Excelsior-class (there is another one of each of these on the picture. Right in the middle is a Defiant-class. To give you an idea of size, the square on the board are one inch across; this is a section of the game board as well. Let me know what you think.

William and Harry



Here are my kittens. Harry is on the left and William on the right. They were born around the end of May 2008 and have recently been allowed to play outside following their injections. They're not brothers, but they think they are. There is much I could say on them since we love them and they make our house a home. Suffice it to say I like things to be succint so here are some keywords to describe them to you.

William: cute; cuddly; good appetite; social; playful; big brother to Harry; likes eating insects.

Harry: fluffy; squeaky; little terror; pseudo-feral; intellectually lacking; like biting William.

A new Star Trek inspired board game

So being a trekker (or trekkie - whatever) I decided I wanted a turn-based Star Trek Miniatures game and the only one I could find is Star Fleet Battles.

Two issues:

1. I wanted TNG era, it's TOS era.

2. The rules are so massively complicated that should the entire set ever be compiled into a single volume, they would spontaneously undergo gravitational collapse and become a black hole (credit to Douglas Adams).

Therefore, about last January I decided to invent my own. The problem is that no useful miniatures exist. Sure, Galoob Micro Machines are ok but I wanted a sensible scale. Answer: I make my own from Fimo. The result so far: these pictures in the next few posts. If you like them, please feel free the post your comments.

Friday 12 September 2008

To all the Matthews in the world...

In the Bible, Matthew is mentioned in the gospel he wrote of the same name and Mark's gospel. He describes himself as a tax-collector that left his vocation to follow Jesus (Matthew 9:9). What's interesting to note is that the same account in Mark's gospel initially names Matthew as Levi (Mark 2:14), but later refers to him as Matthew in the list of the twelve apostles (Mark 3:18).

There's something deep here.

We know from elsewhere in scripture that a change in name can accompany a conversion or a change in character, for instance when Abram (meaning exalted father) is renamed Abraham (meaning father or many nations) in Genesis 17:5. Therefore we can say that upon Levi's conversion, Jesus renamed him Matthew.

Now Matthew means Previously Matthew was a tax collector, the most despicable of vocations since he would collaborate with the Roman oppressors and line his own pockets in the process. Once he was a taker but now he is a giver since Matthew means Gift of God.

And that is what I want to be.