Direct Observations of the Orbit of Beta Lyrae

Somehow I missed this paper when it appeared on ArXiv this summer: Zhao et al, First Resolved Images of the Eclipsing and Interacting Binary Beta Lyrae, arXiv:0808.0932v1 [astro-ph], 2008.  The darker blob is the donor star, and the paler blob is the thick disk that surrounds the gainer star. 

Beta Lyrae is one of the longest and most intensively studied variable stars, but has only revealed its secrets very slowly.  The above paper provides the first direct evidence that the two components are ellipsoidal in shape.  It is interesting to see that the disk component seems flatter and fainter at phase 0.595 because there is a fairly persistent slight dip in this part of the orbital light curve.  It could be that the disk is more of an asymmetric spiral, or it could be that the brighter part of the fainter component is actually the hot-spot where the gas from the donor hits the disk.

Back when I was young, I used to make visual estimates of the brightness of Beta Lyrae and use these to derive fairly crude orbital light curves.

The Complete Guide for Teaching Assistants in Secondary Education by Geoff Brookes

"Well," I thought, "if I am going to be a teaching assistant, I had better find out what I will be expected to do".  After all, schools have changed quite a bit since I last worked in one, 22 years ago.  So I dropped in at the local library and came across this slim paperback which seemed to be exactly what I needed. 

The book starts rather slowly with a general overview of schools (in England and Wales) and how teaching assistants fit in to them, but soon gets down to practical details of the responsibilities, problems that might arise, and relationships with students, teachers, and parents  Much of this was new to me.  Teaching assistants seem to play an import role in schools nowadays; 22 years ago they did not exist.

This book is more of an introduction than a guide (it contains no bullet-pointed lists) but, still, I would like to have a copy close at hand when doing the job, at least for the first few months.

For the Record!

A few weeks ago I remarked that a lot of tracks by the Fall had recently been uploaded to Youtube, and I suggested that they might soon be taken down.  However, I was wrong: there are now even more there, including this one which is there labelled as "Portugal", but which I remember as being called "Debacle".  I heard it played a year or two ago by Tom Robinson on his show on BBC Radio 6, and he said that Mark E. Smith had based the lyrics on a letter he had received complaining about the behaviour of his band.  As a 'punishment' Smith made them recite the contents of the letter as lyrics.  I suspect that this track hasn't been properly released because searching on Google does not seem to return any references to it's more memorable lyics ("snot balls!").

Update on Sat 2008-12-20 by Tristram Brelstaff

I obviously didn't search hard enough, for I have just come across the following note on this page describing the CD for the "Theme from Sparta FC #2":

The first pressing of the CD also contained a hidden track, Portugal (aka Debacle (For The Record)), in wav and 192kbps MP3 file formats, playable only on a computer. These CDs were supposed to be destroyed other than a handful of copies which had been sent out as promos, however it seems this didn't happen and the retail CDs were distributed with Portugal included.

Opera for All

A few years ago there was a fuss when the Royal Opera House was awarded a National Lottery grant of £73.5 millon. In an attempt to deflect criticisms of its elitism, there was talk of some attempts being made to make opera more accessible to 'common people'. Well, we can see how far this has gone by looking at the following titles which appear in a drop-down list on the Royal Opera House registration form:

Mr
Mrs
Ms
Miss
Advocate
Ambassador
Baron
Baroness
Brigadier
Canon
Captain
Chancellor
Chief
Col
Comdr
Commodore
Councillor
Count
Countess
Dame
Dr
Duke of
Earl
Earl of
Father
General
Group Captain
H R H the Duchess of R H the Duchess of
H R H the Duke of R H the Duke of
H R H The Princess R H The Princess
HE Mr Mr
HE Senora Senora
HE The French Ambassador M
His Highness
His Hon
His Hon Judge
Hon
Hon Ambassador
Hon Dr
Hon Lady
Hon Mrs
HRH
HRH Sultan Shah
HRH The
HRH The Prince
HRH The Princess
HSH Princess
HSH The Prince
Judge
King
Lady
Lord
Lord and Lady
Lord Justice
Lt Cdr
Lt Col
Madam
Madame
Maj
Maj Gen
Major
Marchesa
Marchese
Marchioness
Marchioness of
Marquess
Marquess of
Marquis
Marquise
Master
Mr and Mrs
Mr and The Hon Mrs
President
Prince
Princess
Princessin
Prof
Prof Emeritus
Prof Dame
Professor
Queen
Rabbi
Representative
Rev Canon
Rev Dr
Rev Mgr
Rev Preb
Reverend
Reverend Father
Right Rev
Rt Hon
Rt Hon Baroness
Rt Hon Lord
Rt Hon Sir
Rt Hon The Earl
Rt Hon Viscount
Senator
Sir
Sister
Sultan
The Baroness
The Countess
The Countess of
The Dowager Marchioness of
The Duchess
The Duchess of
The Duke of
The Earl of
The Hon
The Hon Mr
The Hon Mrs
The Hon Ms
The Hon Sir
The Lady
The Lord
The Marchioness of
The Princess
The Reverend
The Rt Hon
The Rt Hon Lord
The Rt Hon Sir
The Rt Hon The Lord
The Rt Hon the Viscount
The Rt Hon Viscount
The Venerable
The Very Rev Dr
Very Reverend
Viscondessa
Viscount
Viscount and Viscountess
Viscountess
W Baron
W/Cdr

If  I was registering, I think I would chose to be a Dowager Marchioness, just for the heck of it. 

(Via Ben Goldacre.)

A Change of Career

Yesterday was my last day as a software engineer at BAE Systems in Frimley. 

I have been there 17 years, so long that I find it hard to remember what life was like before I started there.  In those 17 years I have acquired a wife, a daughter, and a mortgage; and my beard has turned grey. 

For the first 16 years I was a member of the same project team.  But, eventually, that project came to an end, and the team is now being dispersed across other projects and other sites.  It is quite a shock to the system to be separated from people who you have shared office space with day-in-day-out for so long.  You don't realise just how much you come to depend upon those off-hand discussions over morning coffee for your sanity.

Having just turned 50, I found that my software development skills are much less valued than when I started out.  Jobs that I could do have either disappeared altogether, or else are being done by new graduates who are being paid quite a bit less than I am.  Rather than try to compete, I have decided to make a complete break with software development, and to move into a career that should see me through the next 15 years.  In January I will be starting as a temporary teaching assistant at Prospect School, Reading.  If this goes well, I will be applying for the PGCE Mathematics course at Reading University, starting in September 2009.   I reckon that secondary school maths teachers are always going to be in demand.