Blogs, Blogging and Bloggers.....

For the New Kids on the Blog!!! .... like me

A weblog can be loosely defined as a journal or diary which is published on the World Wide Web. The process of updating and maintaining a weblog is known as blogging and the author is known as a blogger. Weblogs are usually updated at regular intervals using user-friendly software that requires little or no technical background.
The rate of growth of blogging has been astounding. According toTechnorati there are currently (early 2006) there are now over 26 million weblogs in existence. They reckon that:
The blogosphere (ie: the weblog universe) doubles in size about every 5.5 months.
A new weblog is created roughly every second and there are over 80,000 weblogs created daily.
About 55% of all weblogs are active.
About 13% of all weblogs are updated at least weekly.

I'm sure you will find this Wikibook about Blogs, very helpful if you want to become a blogger.

The Red Box

The red phone box is considered an icon of the UK. It was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in 1924.
The London Metropolitan Boroughs opposed the Post Office telephone box (Kiosk N°1), which was designed in 1920 and made of concrete; therefore the Royal Fine Art Commission invited several architects and societies to submit their designs. Scott won the competition but his original design was slightly different, in fact the color of the box was not red but silver. Scott’s design was placed in service as Kiosk N°2 in the London area in 1926. A K3 cream design was also introduce by Scott for rural places a few years later.
In 1935 the K6 was designed to commemorate the silver jubilee of King George V. It became the first red telephone kiosk to be used extensively outside of London and around the UK. Some other models were designed after that, like Bruce Martin’s K8 in 1968.
BT, the Post Office Telephone’s successor used more utilitarian design and started to replace the boxes in the 70’s. Although in 1996, BT introduced a box that resemblances the K2 and K6 designs.
Pictures of the different phone boxes:


More pictures and the phone box history

Farnborough International Air Show 2006

On Friday 21 of July, Harry and I went to the Farnborough International Air Show, sowthwest London.
The show was open for a week and had several exhibitors pavilions, static aircraft displays and an excellent flying display. We flew from Cranfield Airport (Harry is a private airplane and helicopter pilot) in a small Cessna to Blackbushe Airport where we took a cab to Farnborough; I don't think they would let us park the Cessna next to the A380.



We start with Bell/Boing where we saw a V-22 Osprey and several Bell Helicopters; then the Italians display with the Tornado and the C27J Spartan.




After that we passed through the Us Navy and US Airforce displays, the RAF, some jet companies and every other display with airplanes like the Soux, the Skeeter, the Sligsby T67 and others that we also had the opportunity to see flying, such as the AH64D Apache Longbow, a C17, a Lynx Mk7, a C130J and many others.





The Red Devils (a group of crack heads), the UK Parachute team did a nice show to start the flying display.
The most amazing demostrations were performed by the F-16, the MIG-29 OVT, the Harrier GR7, the V-22, the A340 and the big A380 (this airplane is huge!!!). Airbus pilots fly the A380 so easy and the slow pass in front of the tribune was incredible.




The Red Arrows did an excellent shown with their Hawk T11-A, 9 aircaft in the air at full speed, beautiful formations and scary crossings in front of the people. Another of the highlights of the day: a Spitfire, a Lancaster and a Hurricane passing over the field in formation.
That was just beautiful.





I used my phone to take the pictures the pictures (I forgot my camera), not bad at all!!!
After a lot of walking around, a small sandwich for lunch and four hours of flying display, we came back to Cranfield by the end of the afternoon (45 minutes flying instead of 2 an a half hours driving, good time to pop on the pub for a pint). If you want more information about the show, here is the link.