Haven't done this in a while, so thought it was about time I did something.

Went to see Muse on Saturday night. It doesn't take a genius to work out that they were going to rock. As much as they did? A little unexpected. Personal highlights include the mad mechanical housing thing the drummer lived in, covered by a thousand lights, and the renditions of New Born and Plug In Baby from Origin of Symmetry, and Invincible and Knights of Cydonia from the latest album, the latter of which was the finale. The older stuff was especially good - they've always been favourites of mine, and to finally hear them (and feel them) played with such passion and skill was worth every penny of the ticket price alone.

I might have a job soon, and I'm getting excited about the prospect. After three and a bit years of a PhD which I've come to loathe with all my heart, the idea of something new, with structure and realisable targets, and decent pay, has got me all hot under the collar. Obviously it's too early to tell if either of the interview processes I'm involved in will actually be successful, but hopefully one or both of the two will actually be offered to me.

Final bit of news - a new blog. Well, not yet, but in a little bit when I get it sorted out. I need a place to write random stuff about the model aircraft, and this isn't it. Went to a show type thing on Saturday (before Muse - I'm so schizophrenic), and was disappointed to find that many of the stereotypes of modellers do hold true. I won't say too much more than that, as I'm sure you can fill in the blanks for yourself. I know there are modellers out there who don't fit in to the traditional stereotypes, but they seem to be few and far between judging by Saturday's evidence.

One last thing (sorry!) - got an e-mail this morning about a seminar given by one of the departments here at the university. Part of it reads (and this is copied and pasted from the e-mail, a direct quote): " SKA is expected to be operational with a severe cost constraint of one billion Euros". SKA stands for Square Kilometre Array, and it's basically a large radio telescope. What bothers me about this, and one of the things that I've never managed to square away about the whole research thing, is the concept that a billion Euros is a 'severe cost constraint'. That's more than the GDP of the entire African state of Lesotho. Or, alternatively, more than the combined GDP of the six poorest nations in the IMF. On a bloody great telescope. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for progress, but surely this money would be better spent elsewhere, such as in the hunt for decent, sustainable energy sources, or the search for a cure for AIDS or cancer. Complaining that you 'only' have a billion Euros for your big telescope is childish and shortsighted, which pretty much sums up a lot of scientific endeavour these days...