The Boreham Woodpusher

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope was launched from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on April 24, 1990. Expensive Cargo onboard the space shuttle Discovery. Hubble marked the most significant advance in astronomy since Galileo's telescope 400 years ago. Our view of the universe has never been the same since then. But, shortly after the Hubble Space Telescope was switched on, the pictures were coming back fuzzy. 2.5 billion US Dollars had been spent developing and launching Hubble - a public relations disaster! Following much checking and searching, it was found that a part of the mirror had been overpolished. This caused the telescope's primary mirror to have an aberration, affecting clarity of the telescope's early images. A committee was tasked with fixing and defuzzing Hubble.  Around 30 proposed solutions were submitted to for study: “Move the focal point back”,  “put in another mirror” etc.. Interestingly, the approach they accepted was to exactly replicate the ci...

Unless the bride or groom is a card carrying tree hugging vegan, a Jewish wedding will almost certainly involve meat being served for the main course. This is a long standing tradition based going all the way back to the Talmud declaring that there is no simcha (joy) without meat and wine. People choose to see this as an excuse for a good boozy meal, rather than a reference to the temple service (which preceded the advent of tofu burgers and a pint of old peculiar). Personally, I haven't eaten meat since kindergarten, and the thought of gefilte fish or wild alaskan pollock goujons doesn't greatly appeal. Milk is verboten at a meat meal, and a Spanish omelette feels more roadside café brunch than a nuptial repast. As a result, opting for something veggie or vegan is the default choice. One cannot begrudge carnivores their Angus steak or chicken thighs. After all, one should respect the will of the majority (no brexit jokes here). I do, however, think that some caterers lack ima...

The classic British soap opera is a unique specimen. Working-class neighborhood with rows of small houses, a thriving communal pub, and local shops including a chippie. This is supposed to mirror the lives of their viewers, who hang their washing in the garden and often struggle with important real-life issues like childcare, unemployment and rent arrears. Any character who is vaguely 'middle class' has clearly been teleported from planet Zog and struggles to fit in. There is often a tangible resentment of success and betterment. People should know their place. Hopefully this is now a diminishing trend in British society. The strange thing is, the Brits like their American soaps too, and the expectations are a polar opposite. Good looking actors, conspicuous consumption, a few idle rich, and hair that stays in place during a force 9 gale. No small terraced houses in sight, mostly palatial houses and plush apartments. There is a tangible whiff of success. ...

It was a typical dull November day. An email arrived from a researcher at the BBC wondering whether Borehamwood Chess Club might know of anyone who would be willing to devise chess board set-ups for a soap opera? Yes - me! But, the cynic did not get his hopes up as odds on it was likely to be a spam email. Who asks for a copy of your passport photo and National Insurance number in a chatty follow-up email? To my surprise, it turned out that the request was genuine. The program was Eastenders, and Ted (Christopher Timothy) was to be playing chess with some teenage characters for a bit of inter-generational bonding. In my mind, Christopher Timothy is James Herriot in 'All Creatures Great and Small'. But that was over 25 years ago. Time flies. Ted has had his own shenanigans with a gun a few months ago. But now, his prowess at chess would presumably provide some light heart interludes between affairs, rows and heists. That is how the journey began. In case you are curiou...

Perhaps the most famous countdown ever preceded the launch of Apollo 11 on 16 July 1969. There was worldwide excitement as the day and hour of the launch approached. The anticipation heightened as the Apollo 11 crew left Kennedy Space Centre's Manned Spacecraft Operations Building  after dining on a breakfast of steak, scrambled eggs, toast, coffee and orange juice. The count  reached its dramatic conclusion during the last 10 seconds (Ignition sequence starts...All Engines running...Lift off, we have lift off...). B ut, once Apollo 11 had been launched on top of a Saturn V rocket from Merritt Island, Florida, the epic journey was under way. The spacecraft traveled away from Earth at high speed, and within 4 days, man stepped on the moon for the first time. The countdown was great fun, but it was only the prelude to the main event - landing on the moon. The same also applies to the final seconds of New Year's Eve or shopping days to Chanukah. T he party only starts once  ...

NASA missions to the planets and their moons are something special. News programs are full of conflict and disaster, and odd glimpses of other worlds is an uplifting experience. The New Horizons craft sent back the first ever close up pictures of Pluto in 2015, knocking poor old Cecil the Lion (RIP) off the front pages. Cassini's holiday snaps from Saturn were this year's treat.    Curiosity landed on Mars just over 5 years ago. Like any self respecting robot, it has its own Facebook page and Twitter feed. It spends a lot of time wandering around and looking at rocks. Some people seem to sit at home looking at Curiosity's pictures all day. They are not mere rock watchers, but have a more glamorous sobriquet: Alien Hunters. The ultimate accolade seems to be an anonymous credit in the Daily Mail and lots of cranky blogs following up with stories of NASA conspiracies.       http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4627804/Mysterious-roc...

Never really understood bitcoins. 2 Years ago they were under $200 each. Now they are worth over $4,000 a digital piece, most of the time.  In total, all bitcoins in circulation are somewhat unbelievably valued at over $60 billion. But digital currencies are not regulated by governments. There is no taxation supporting them. No international laws, and tough luck if you own some and lose their details or they are stolen online. Some say they represent the future, a potential blueprint for a global currency. Others believe they are a fraud, open to manipulation and abuse, and will eventually collapse in value. I am sitting on the digital fence. So I sought guidance. What do the internet Rabbis say about bitcoins? Because there is no government behind bitcoins, there seems to be broad agreement that bitcoins are a commodity (like apples or goji berries) rather than currency. Very briefly (sneaky bit of Talmud), say David lends Jonathan 20 apples worth £10. A few months later, Jonath...