Naquada

Here’s everything you need to know about Lost in 8 minutes 15 seconds. Oceanic 815 leaves Sydney for Los Angeles and crashes on an island in the south pacific, a very mysterious island. There are 48 survivors but some die later on.

Jack is a doctor, he has a compulsive urge to fix things. Kate’s on the run from the law for killing her dad, Sawyer is a con-man. Locke is a cripple, but after the crash he can walk. Hurley won millions in the lottery but thinks it’s a curse. Charlie is a heroin addict and a musician in a one hit wonder band. He has the hots for Claire the cute pregnant girl. Sayid was in the republican guard and tortured people. Then theres Sun and Jin from korea, they have marital issues. Micheal and his some Walt are just getting to know each other, walk is kinda special.

After the crash Jack helps everyone out, he becomes the de-facto leader. Jack meets Kate, Kate stitches up Jack, they bond. On the first night there’s a monster in the jungle, theres other weird stuff too, like polar bears.

Jack, Kate and Charlie look for the cockpit. Kate learns Charlie was in the band ‘Drive Shaft’. they find the cockpit. They find the transceiver in the cockpit. The monster comes, and eats the pilot. They get a signal on the transceiver, its a french woman, speaking french. The message has been repeating on a loop for 16 years.

Charlie asks, “where are we?”

Locke kills wild bore, loves life on the island. Jin catches sea urchins. Claire’s baby starts to kick. Jack starts seeing his dead father, and it almost drives him crazy. Locke sees the monster. Sawyer hoards medical supplies. Shannon has asthma. Sayid tortures Sawyer for an inhaler. Sawyer just wants a kiss from Kate. They kiss.

Sayid finds a wire on the beach, the wire leads to a trap. Sayid meets Rousseau the french woman on the radio. Hurley conducts a census. He learns a guy named ethan wasn’t on the plane. Ethan kidnaps Claire, Charlie kills ethan. Ethan was one of the others.

The others are the islands original inhabitants, they live in nice houses, have lots of food, hold book club meetings and don’t want to be bothered. They also can’t have children. Women get pregnant and die.

Locke finds a hatch in the ground. Lock tries many ways to open the hatch. Locke and Boon find a plane. Boon climbs up, it falls, boon dies.

Claire has her baby, she calls it Aaron, ah the circle of life. Michael builds a raft. His son Walt burns it. Michael builds another raft. Michael sets sail with sawyer Jin and walt. The others come and take Walt. They blow up the raft.

Lock blows open the hatch. There’s a man down there, his name is Desmond. Desmond was in a sailing race and crash his boat on the island. He pushes a button on a computer every 108 minutes, saving the world.

The hatch is part of the Dharma initiative, a scientific research project from the 1970’s, they wanted to find out why the island is special. There’s lots of food in the hatch.

Desmond bolts and takes off on his boat. Locke starts pushing the button and thinks he’s saving the world. Micheal, Sawyer and Jin wash ashore. They meet the survivors from the tail section of the plane, anna lucia, libby, bernard and mr echo. They make their way back to camp.

Sun and Jin are happy to see each other. Sawyer gets sick. Kate is worried. Jack gets jealous. Kate sees a horse from her past, she freaks out. Jack consoles her, they kiss. Kate freaks out again. Jack is confused.

Sun is pregnant, but Jin is sterile, whats up with that? Michael iChats with Walt. Michael runs off to look for Walt. Michael gets caught by the others.

Sayid and Rousseau catch a man in a net, he calls himself Henry gale. He said he crashed in a hot air balloon. They think he’s an other. Sayid tortures him. They lock Henry up. Henry plays mind games with Locke.

Henry draws a map to his balloon to prove he’s telling the truth, but when they find the balloon, they also find the real Henry Gale from Minnesota, so they know Henry is an other. Henry tells Locke the button is a joke. Locke looses faith.

The others tell Michael if he can free Henry and bring back Jack, kate, swayer, and Hurley they’ll give him walt. Michael frees henry but make it look like he was attacked.

Meanwhile the survivors see a boat coming to shore. Its Desmond, he’s drunk. Locke tells Desmond the button is a joke, and they are going to see what happens when they don’t push it.

Michael, Jack, Swayer, Kate and Hurley set out to find walt. Sayid, Sun and Jin follow them with desmonds boat, they see a statue with four toes, very strange. Sayid makes it to the other camp, but it’s empty. Michael and the gang are ambushed by the others and taken to a dock.

Henry gets off a boat, hurley is told to go back to camp, feels rejected. Henry take Jack, kate and sawyer prisoner and gives Michael and walt the boat to leave the island.

Meanwhile Locke and Desmond don’t push the button in the hatch. the sky turns purple and the hatch is obliterated. The force from the explosion makes the island visible to the outside world for a moment. Two scientists in a snow hut someplace see a blip on the radar. they call Penny Widmore, Desmonds girlfriend and tell her they found it.

Hurley finds desmond running naked in the jungle. The hatch blew his clothes off and now he can see the future.

Jack Kate and Sawyer are taken to an abandoned Dharma station where they did experiments on polar bears. Kate and Sawyer are put in bear cages. Jack is kept inside and is greeted by Henry who tells jack his real name is Ben.

Jack meets an other who’s name is Juliet. Juliet brings Jack cheese burgers. Juliet is a fertility expert, recruited by the others to find out why all the pregnant women on the island are dying.

A while back Juliet told Ben he has cancer and he needs surgery. Then Oceanic 815 crashed. Ben learned there was a doctor onboard, now he wants Jack to fix him. Ben tells Jack he can go home if he does the surgery. Jack doesn’t trust Ben, tells him to forget it. Kate tells Jack if he doesn’t help ben they’re going to kill sawyer.

Kate and Sawyer think they are going to die, so have sex. Jack sees kate and sawyer on an old TV. Jack says he’ll do the surgery. Jack cuts Bens kidney and says ben will die is Kate and Sawyer don’t go free. Jack tells kate never to come back for him. Kate and sawyer go free.

Jack and Juliet grow closer. Ben tells them they can go home.

Kate Locke and Sayid come back for Jack. They see Jack play football with Mr Friendly. Mr Friendly throws like a girl. Kate gets caught by the others. Jake tells Kate he’s going home. Locke blows up the submarine that was jacks ride. Jack is mad.

Hurley finds and old Dharma van thats full of beer and a skeleton. The skeleton is Bens dad. Ben killed him and everyone else on the Dharma initiative , then he becomes the leader of the others.

Hurley gets the van started and takes a joy ride with Charlie. Jake, Kate and Juliet come back to camp.

Locke says he’s going to hang with the others for a while. They all think he’s special. The survivors dont trust Juliet, they think she’s an other. Jack says leave her alone.

Desmond has a vision a woman parachutes on the island. Her name is naomi. She has a picture of Desmond and Penny and a phone. Naomi says she was sent by penny and theres a rescue freighter 80 miles away. Naomi tells Hurley there were no survivors of Oceanic 815.

Juliet tells sun Jin is the father of her baby. Sun is happy. Ben is threatened by Locke. He takes Locke to see a guy named Jacob. Jacob lives in a creepy cabin surrounded by white ash. Ben talks to Jacob but Locke can’t see him. Lock hears Jacob say “help me”, and all hell breaks loose, now ben is really threatened by Locke. He takes him to a hole where all the remains of the Dharma people are.

Ben shoots lock and leaves him for dead. Juliet tells everyone the others are coming to take the pregnant women.

Sayid tries to get a signal with Naomi’s phone to call the freighter for help, but ben is blocking all signals to and from the island from and under water station called the looking glass. It’s connected to the wire Saeed found on the beach.

Desmon has another vision of charlie, in it he flips a switch and drowns but everyone else gets rescued. charlie knows he’s going to die to says goodbye to claire. Very sad. Hurley wants to help Charlie but he’s too big. Charlie dives underwater and swims to the looking glass to flick the switch.

The others come for pregnant women. The survivors ambush the others. Most of the others get blown up, but Saeed, Jin and bernard get caught. Jack thinks ben had them killed, jack beats ben to a pulp. Sawyer and Juliet try to help, but hurley saves the day by running over the others with the dharma van.

Jack leads everyone to the radio tower to make the call for help. Charlie flips the switch. Charlie talks to penny on another old TV. She’s never heard of naomi. One of the others, ‘patchy’ blows up the looking glass. Water rushes in. Charlie writes on his hand, “not pennys boat”. Charlie drowns, very sad.

Locke is ready to end it all in the Dharma grave. Walt appears, he tells Locke he’s got work to do. Up by the radio tower naomi calls the freighter, but falls over with a knife in her back. Lock threw the knife, Jack is mad. Locke doesn’t want to leave the island. Jack and Locke have a stand off. Jack calls the freighter anyway. The freighter says they will be there soon. Everyone is happy.

Flash forward to an unspecified time in the future. Jack is a broken man living in LA. Jack has a beard. He’s a drunk and addicted to pills. Jack calls Kate on his cool new phone. They meet out by the airport. Jack tells Kate, “We have to go back!”.

So there you have it. some will leave, some will not..

Caroline Murphy was 27 when she died in a car accident on the 20th December 2007. She was helped many many women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a complex condition relating to a hormone imbalance of the ovaries. It can cause irregular or absent menstrual cycles, reduced fertility, and an increased risk of diabetes. An estimated 10% of the adult female population - approximately 2 million of the 19 million adult women in Britain - are affected by PCOS.

I didn’t know her, but she changed my life. She helped Michelle personally, over a number of years, for that I am grateful from the bottom of my heart. I also hope that this post will stand as a reminder of what positive thought, help, and kindness can do, and how very small ripples can spread out to effect peoples lives, possibly in ways that Caroline will never have know. Had Caroline not helped Michelle, Michelle may not have had the confidence to go out, to meet me, for us to fall in love, and to end up getting married. Caroline helped women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) loose weight, and conceive, again a tribute to her commitment.

Sitting through a funeral and looking at a church with standing room only, full to capacity of people that she helped, and improved the lives of is a testament to her, and hopefully some form of comfort for her family. Caroline also published a book, thats was published just after her death “Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) The Facts” along with Mohgah Elsheikh, her book aims to help people better understand PCOS and manage the condition. The book comprises concise chapters offering practical advice on the causes, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of PCOS. The book also includes a useful section dedicated to weight management as well as a resource section including GI and calorie tables, and a list of helpful websites.

It is sad to have to say farewell to someone so young, with such a future, and ability to positively help others.. but as Michelle said about Caroline, she changed my life, hopefully she will continue to do so, even though she is gone.

We’re very much under water now, the heavy rain on Friday causing the floods to start lapping at our front door step, The Loddon burst it’s banks yesterday in spectacular style. This photo taken about 5 minutes from our house shows the cinema and major roundabout (see on googlemaps) under water.. As you can see from the aerial view on google. this is a massive roundabout, and the entire thing is underwater.

It’s quite frightening really that almost all the views on the BBC Berkshire Website are from around this area.

This view is just along from the above photo, it’s the george pub on the river loddon. The water level is up to and almost covering the bridge, the decking outside the pub is normally about 5-6 foot over the highest I’ve ever seen the river.

We have more rain forecast for this evening, and We’ve seen quite a few pictures from near to our other house in Wokingham that show the area flooded. So we’ll be heading over there in a bit to check on that one..

Tomorrow I’m meant to be driving up to Chester.. but with more rain forecast for early monday morning as well, I’m not sure it’s going to be a possible, or easy trip..

Technorati Tags: berkshire, flooding, floods, loddon, berkshireflooding, reading, river, shindlesham

Some friends of ours are doing the Welsh 3000’s; Climbing the 14 peaks over 3000ft in North Wales in just two and a half days, They start on 31st May 2007.Thank you for visiting our fundraising page.

Andy, Cara and Geoff are looking for sponsorship as they are doing the climbs for charity to benefit Helen & Douglas House.

Helen Douglas House is a registered charity providing respite and end of life care for children and young adults with life-shortening conditions, as well as support and friendship for the whole family.

Helen & Douglas House recently featured in a BBC2 series called “The Children of Helen House” and is also celebrating its 25th anniversary this year (when Helen House opened in 1982, it was the first hospice for children. Douglas House was the first hospice for young adults when it opened in 2004).

The hospices are located close to where we all live and work and this charity is therefore particularly special to us, so please give generously.

You can donate to their climb through their JustGiving.com page. All money will go directly to Helen & Douglas House, it’s also faster and, if you are a UK taxpayer, an extra 28% in tax will be added to your gift at no cost to you: Please make sure you tick all the Gift Aid boxes, so your tax will be claimed back.

Many thanks for your support.

Technorati Tags: charity, climbing, helen & douglas house, just giving, north wales, sponsorship, welsh peaks

I normally keep some fox and hedgehog food in the garage for the summer (and the winter for the foxes), and whilst I was working out there yesterday I heard a scuffling noise coming from the tub of food.

Looking inside was a solitary field mouse looking up from the bottom.. It was fairly obvious that a family of field mice had moved into the bag, thinking they’d found mouse heaven; a years supply of free grub and a warm place to nap out the winter!! Unfortunately George seemed to be the only survivor of the ‘all you can eat Christmas buffet’, the others seeming to have died, I guess through slack of water..

Now its been proved that field mice are amongst the most intelligent mice out there, and its been proved that they often work out strategies for situations before heading into them, and often manage to get themselves out of tight spots with a little thinking time and team work.. But it seems poor ‘George’ and family didn’t think this one through so hard.. having eaten their way to the bottom of the large tub of food, they’d eliminated all ways of escape, since the top of the tub was now far beyond jumping distance..

I decided to take George down to the bottom of the garden and let him loose with a strict warning not to come into the house… He jumped out of the tub and sat there for some time in the grass, before scampering off into the undergrowth..

I swear he looked back and winked before he dived under next-doors shed… Cute isn’t he??

I was really saddened to come back from Sweden to find a note in my inbox about the fact that Bob Moog had died.. Bob died at his home in Asheville, N.C. He was 71. Bob was diagnosed with brain cancer in late April 2005.

Bob Moog started experimenting with his landmark electronic-music instrument while at a Columbia-Princeton joint program. When 1963 came, he had developed an electronic musical machine that could be played in real time, and by the late 60s, the following among musicians was big enough that his synthesizer was being featured on hit albums by everyone from the Monkees to Wendy Carlos.

Bobs first ‘Moog’ synthesizers were modular, controlled by an almost infinite variation of patch-cord combinations, the original ‘Plug and Play’ system. It wasnt until 1971 when the Moog went mainstream when Bob introduced the Minimoog. The Minimoog was pretty much the birth of electronic music, it was a small (44 keys) limited (monophonic) instrument, but it gave musicians ease, functionality and made new sounds never heard before

When the Moog was taken on and used by the likes of Rick Wakeman of Yes and Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, the whole Moog phenomena took off big time. Even if you’ve never heard of Bob Moog, you probably will have heard the Moog sound on pretty much most music, almost every mainstream artist has recorded with a Moog synthesizer.

The Bob Moog Memorial Fund dedicated to the Advancement of Electronic Music in his memory. Many of his longtime collaborators including musicians, engineers and educators have agreed to sit on its executive board including David Borden, Wendy Carlos, Joel Chadabe, John Eaton, David Mash, and Rick Wakeman. For more information about the foundation, contact Matthew Moog at mattmoog@yahoo.com.

You can leave remembrances at Caring Bridge

Bob, you’ll always be missed, but through what you created, you’ll live on, and always be heard, remembered and respected.. Long live Moog!!!

Dear Mr Blair,

Next week you and your G8 colleagues have the opportunity to make poverty history by delivering crucial changes on trade justice, debt and aid.

You and seven other men in Gleneagles can stop a child dying every three seconds. You can stop the policies that create poverty and instead begin to transform the lives of the world’s poorest people.

Please use your unique position and influence as G8 host to:

change the unjust rules of trade, respecting poor countries’ rights to decide on trade policies that will help end poverty

cancel all the debt of all the poorest countries that need it

deliver at least $50 billion more in aid each year starting now, and make it work better for people in poverty.

Along with millions of others around the world, I’ll be wearing a white band to remind you of what you must do and waiting to see if you deliver.

Now is the time Mr Blair. Please do not squander this moment.

Looks like its summer then, as my family of four hedgehogs, have woken up from hedgehog hibernation and come searching for food.

Picasso (named for the white patches on his spines that make it look like hes had paint dripped on him!) was pretty timely on his visits last year, starting about 9pm or 10pm and returning a number of times during the night.

They all seem to have lost a lot of weight during the winter, but seem to be munching heavily on tonights food, and drinking a lot of water.

As I’ve said before the best food for hedgehogs is catfood or, a less messy and smelly alternative is Spikes Dinner a specially formulated dry food for hedgehogs, dont give them bread and milk, its absolutely the worst thing you can give them..

You can also get Spikes Dinner from pretty much most pet stores now, including Pet Smart or Pets at Home.

I’ve been lookgng for a sensible way of storing all my photos offsite, as well as being able to share them with friends and family.

Like other people I know, I’m very nervous about keeping all my photos in digital form, taking regular DVD backups of them, and copying them all to multiple machines. People recommended webshots, and I signed up, but I’m still waiting for my email with my authorisation, so I guess they dont want me..

I’ve seen lots of references to Flickr in many blogs (and indirectly from here as well). So I decided to sign up for a pro account. There are so many good features such as viewing slideshows, ability to download high resolution versions of your pictures (unlike many other photo sites you can upload your images in their original form with no loss of quality). The pro account is cheap, and provides 1 gig of upload a month, and unlimited storage.

Here is my new Flickr photo page, although as yet you wont find anything there (most of my pictures are private), I’ll be uploading more public photos over the coming weeks.

I also like the way that Flickr can interface directly to MoveableType, and the fact that I can photoblog directly to Flickr by sending an email to flickr from from my phone.

The desktop upload utility needs a little work on it (like ability to upload directly to a photoset), but generally for a beta, its looking good..

I still have LOTS of free Gmail invites, so just post your email address in the comments and I’ll send one over..

Be aware that I think hotmail blocks or marks Gmail invites as spam, so double check your spam folder or pick another non hotmail account..

Currently another 50 48 Gmail invites available..