Writing About: International Journal of Damage Mechanics

Journal of the Day, surely.

Writing About:Max Hammond Photography » Blog Archive » Difficult Employment Decisions

And it’s looking good… should have a definite answer soon but I think it’s going to work out.

deep breath :-)

Writing About: BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Bird flu fears grip Europe press

As usual, the european press have for the most part failed to appreciate the issues with avian flu. They seem to have finally accepted that avian flu is not the immediate terrible risk that they were all going on about a few months ago, but sadly this means that they have generally decided that therefore it’s no danger;

It is important to bear in mind that the illness only passes from animal to human in extreme circumstances… The population’s anxiety stems from ignorance.

And that statement itself stems from ignorance. Most viruses are very adept at mutating to take advantage of the host that they find themselves in. It’s already clear that Influenza A H5N1 is capable of infecting humans, and every time it does is a new opportunity for the virus to learn how to become easily transmissible.

The risk of humans in europe becoming infected directly from animals is currently extremely small – this is true. The problem is what happens once H5N1 becomes established in the human population, and this is going to happen eventually. We need to prepare for when it [or any other new influenza genotype] does.

My best photos at Max Hammond Photos.
More of my photography on Flickr.

Another one from Germany at the New Year. I like the variation in the image, from the high-contrast of the fence at the front, to the misty low-contrast at the house.

Once it all turns green, my experimental is written. (This won’t look right unless you’ve viewing it on my blog. Custom stylesheets n’all that jazz)

Shamelessly nicked from the PVM project , yet somehow apt…

So. I’m still waiting to hear if I’m able to work for a small consultancy company that offered me a job last year (it’s an issue to do with nationality, working for the government and all that). I should hear fairly soon.

Now, the reason that this became stressful is that I also applied to work at BT One IT – BT’s technology group. This looks like a really good grad scheme, decent salary, nice company to work for etc. I’d be very happy to work there.

They offered me a job last week, I told them that I needed some time to sort out my other offer.

So. 2 job offers. Unfortunately, BT needed an answer today. So take the certain job at BT, or take the risk on a much smaller company who may not even be allowed to employ me?

I took the risk. Told BT that I was sorry but I had to turn them down. Apologized gratuitously for messing them aroud.

Very stressful. Only time will tell if this was a good call.

So, I’m busy writing my thesis (really). Is it a bad sign that my supervisor sends me stuff like this?

Now, at

Substituting into the Eyring equation, and assuming that κ=1, which is typically true for polyatomic molecules in adiabatic reactions.

Where a = 1.914 × 10^-2^ kJ mol^-1^ K^-1^
(Just because I can)