Britain's best kept secret

Ever heard of Enigma, Bombe or Colossus ? What about Bletchley Park ?
Well, during WWII, British codebreakers arrived in August 1939 in Bletchley Park in order to crack the German Enigma cipher. You can see the mansion in the park below:

Thanks to the works of Polish cryptanalysts, the mathematician Alan Turing could develop an electro-mechanical machine called Bombe that reduced the time required to crack the daily-changing German code.



The scientists were working in huts like this one to decrypt German intercepted messages. A forerunner of today's computer was also invented: the Colossus who could read paper tape at 5000 characters per second for example.



The wartime information about Bletchley Park was declassified in the mid 70s only and even now, not everything is known about it.

You've said "windy" ?

Today, gales and heavy downpours hit parts of UK. Fortunately, there has been no rain in Cranfield but a lot of wind (really of lot). For people used to read METAR messages, here is the one of Cranfield where there were gusts up to nearly 100 km/h.

EGTC 181350Z 26041G61KT 9999 FEW035 12/07 Q0986

The pressure is also very low and the isobaric lines were very close which causes this strong wind.

The funny part of this is that a friend of mine tried to make his kite fly today. He (my friend, not the kite) could jump over several meters very easily. But the ropes broke several times and he had to give up...

A thought for this fir tree which obviously does not like much wind:

'm coming back !

First of all:

Happy New Year 2007 to all my readers !!

Well, I don't really think I have many readers but anyway...
I haven't posted for a long time. I will try to change this and post at least one message a week. No, that's not one of my new year's resolution even if it seems so.

So, well, ..... ..... ..... see you in a short while for a new message ;-)

Just below, the fireworks that took place at the London Eye for New Year's Eve. Seems pretty nice...

The astonishing video

Ceroc

What's that ? Never heard about it ?

In UK, Ceroc is very popular. It's a dance which is a fusion of Jive (Rock'n'roll) and Salsa. It is really becoming a dance phenomenon here. It can be danced to any style of music and many people new to dance try to learn it.

To compare it with 6-step and 4-step Jive as you can learn it in France, I would say it's between both of them. It is smoother than 4-step French Jive with much more style (like in Salsa). You can easily adapt 6-step Jive movements to Ceroc but you need to be careful because it's a 4-step dance.

When you already know Rock'n'roll, it's easy to learn it and you can have great fun in the numerous parties organized here.
I had yesterday my first lesson in Luton and I stayed there for 3 hours and a half. Even when I wanted to have a rest, I couldn't because there was always a lady inviting me. Sometimes it's nice but tiring as well. Anyway, I enjoyed it a lot.

To see sample videos from beginner to advanced level, go there : Ceroc Videos

Fire-Alarm Exercise !

6.40 am - Silsoe
Drriiinnnnggggggggggggg

You know those bells that usually ring in pre-schools ? Well, here we have the same but one bell just in front of my room upstairs and another downstairs. The officials of the silsoe campus had really a wonderful idea : wake up everybody at 6.40 am.
It was a success !!!! Hearing such a noise, I tried to stop my alarm-clock but it didn't stop ! And trust me, you cannot stay in your bed, it's too loud.
My housemate who had gone to bed at 4 am couldn't understand what was happening and I had to explain to him. Because even out of bed, he was still sleeping. And outside it was so cold... Some people had taken their covers with them. It's a pity, I have no photograph...

Anyway, I have learnt a new verb today : to blare.

Not the funniest part of the morning because I could have slept 50 more minutes (it's important when you go to bed everyday at 1 am or 2 am) but after, you laugh a lot about it.