People may have noticed that the news today is saturated with stories about scientists ‘discovering Kryptonite:’ the fictional substance that causes Superman to lose his powers. The claim is based on how the chemical formula for the new mineral - discovered in Siberia - is the same as the one invented for Kryptonite in the [...]

I now know when my final exams will take place. Twentieth century history will be at 9:30am on the 11th of June. At 2:30pm that afternoon, I will have my IR theory exam. On Tuesday at 2:30pm, I have my international law exam. Wednesday at 9:30am, I have my developing world exam. After that, I [...]

The emergence of spring in Oxford is rather dramatic. I would expect that this seems especially true for someone from Vancouver. Since most of our trees are coniferous, the degree of colour change that accompanies the passage of the seasons is much less pronounced. Our green mountainsides may spend less time obstructed by cloud-banks, but [...]

The Japanese Hinode satellite, launched in 2006, is meant to study the sun from a sun-synchronous orbit. On December 13th, it got quite a show. Sunspot 930 has released an X-class solar flare: twice as large as the Earth, and sufficiently powerful to make the Aurora visible as far south as Arizona.
The video is available [...]

Thanks to Daily Info, Hilary and I found something much less generic than a movie to do tonight: specifically, we discovered the entertaining jazz nights that take place every Monday at the Chester Arms on Chester Road, off Iffley Road. There is no cover charge, the music is good, and the atmosphere is a pleasant [...]

So begins my last term in Oxford: eight more weeks, two papers, eight more dinners in college, and four exams. This term involves no coursework (otherwise it would be curious to be heading to Paris for four days), but it will involve the review of all the coursework completed so far, in preparation for our [...]