The breakestra are all about the breaks, they heard hip hop stealing the classic breaks from funk and soul and decided to take them back home. Reinterpreting, re-recording and reincarnating the foundations of hip hop and showing the world that hip-hop's raiding of the funk back catalog was merely borrowing the breaks for a little while. But they're back in the hands of live musicians and it's at once deeply familiar and surprisingly fresh sounding, even when they're playing a straight up cover version.

Cramp Your Style is a cover of the original 'All Your People' version - more people have heard samples of this track than have heard the original. The Breakestra version is musically superior in ever way, the drums are tighter, the guitar is funkier, the vocals stronger and of course, the production is nothing short of fantastic. And the tunrtablists who used to cut up the original are now heard chopping this up - the proof is in the pudding.

It's St Andrews day today, so it's appropriate to bring this one up. I'm sure many of you have experienced the tradition of national anthems being played before sporting events, well in Scotland we have a little wrinkle to this. The official national anthem of Scotland is "Scotland The Brave" and it is played at many state ceremonies, however, it tends to be left out of sporting events. Instead we the national anthem which was used for Rugby matches - Flower of Scotland. You see "Scotland The Brave" is all about how great scotland is, while "Flower of Scotland" is all about how great Scotland is and how we beat back the armies of the villanous King Edward. In Scotland people are more likely to know the words of this unofficial anthem, even if there tends to be a bit of allowance for interpretation as to the actual tune.....

If you've seen Mark Noble's Balsa Bridge photo album and fancy a go at bridge building you really should check out the game 'Pontifex' - the aim of each level is to build a bridge across a span which can support a train, but without exceeding your budget. It's a great idea and there are a couple of sequels in the same vein, but the free 10 level demo gives you lots of opportunity to try unorthodox designs and watch them collapse under the weight of the train, or sometimes merely under their own weight.....

http://www.chroniclogic.com/index.htm?pontifex.htm

So, after my lengthy deliberations on which telescope was right for me I settled on Orions 100mm Refractor on a SkyView Pro mount, I looked around for the best price and found a supplier. When I e-mailed them they said that I should expect 2-4 weeks to get it in stock before shipping. I hinted at this and left my laptop open to the right page, knowing that my beloved wife would be sure to order it in time for christmas.

It took 3 days and arrived yesterday.

It was in a big and heavy box, so Amy couldn't move it to hide it from me.

So I'm trying to be a good boy and wait until Christmas, but I did have to check the shipping manifest, and I realise that the shipper made a mistake, instead of sending me the Single axis drive system I've been given a dual axis system. See, even when you know what you want Christmas can still be full of pleasant surprises.

DJ's love Star Wars, there's a load of tracks out there - DJ Phully's Daft Fader has been doing the rounds since May, but I also found this video of the dark side of turntablism.

http://www.keltechandjohnnyb.com/empire.htm

The movie of course, with Sean Connery and Nicholas Cage infiltrating and retaking Alcatraz from an elite squad of US Marines. I remember enjoying this immensely when I first saw it, my favourite moment being when Sean explains to Nick the difference between winners and losers.

'I'm Doing my best'
'Your best? Losers always whine about doing their best. Winners go home and f*** the prom queen'

But, when I saw some of it on TV last night this was the first time I'd watched the movie after having experienced San Francisco first hand, and I safely say the now my favourite moment is watching a parking enforcement vehicle get demolished in spectacular style during the car chase.

(that line is still my favourite line in the movie)

Irish techno wunderkind Phil Kieran stepping out from behind his computer to take to the stage with a bona fide band. Straddling the lines between rock and techno, and I mean proper techno - not the pleb's ill considered, all encompasing imagining of the genre. Alloy Mental are like a punk act with a drummer who can actually keep time and a world class producer. They're probably too techno-centric to have the same crossover appeal that the Prodigy has, but it's great to see Phil's affinity for bangin' music in all it's forms.

I could go on about how this was an innovative rock - rap crossover moment from the 80's, or I could just say I picked it because in the las few days Skye has really started walking. Sure her first steps were a month ago, but now she'll start out walking when she wants to go somewhere, take a few steps, fall over and then crawl the rest of the way so it's beyond random experimentation in balancing now.

In the UK we never had Schoolhouse Rock, but this track made it over anyway thanks to being sampled by some sharp eared hip-hop producers who recognised the immortal genius in this track. Amy has the DVD compilation, and this is probably the one track that really manages to transcend its original presentation.

'Name a Star' - Several companies offer this 'service' - it's a scam, pure and simple. The IAU is the only organisation with naming rights to celestial bodies, and they don't name stars. The companies that sell star names basically pick an unnamed star in the sky, and write down its coordinates in a book alongside the name the victim chooses. In theory this collection of names and coordinates is protected under copyright. But individual stars aren't protected, so there's nothing to stop me picking my own name for any star that's been 'registered' and publishing my own list - maybe I should create the imeem star registry?

If you hear of anyone considering paying to name a star then be sure to let them know it's a waste of money.

The IAU doesn't name stars because they're too far beyond the reach of human influence, it's conceivable that some alien civilization with a stronger claim to the property might have their own name. As such it would be impolite for us to contradict them. On the other hand, objects withing the solar system do get named by the IAU, there's a load of policies in place for naming objects depending on classification http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_naming_conventions

Comets and Asteroids are the only objects that are regularly named - Comets are named after the people who discover them, and this frequently means that numbers have to be used to designate which specific comet is being refered to - e.g. Shoemaker-Levy 9

Asteroids are far more prolific - there are hundreds of thousands of the buggers out there, asteroids start of with a provisional designation based on their discovery date e.g 1997 XF11. Then after being observed for long enough to be sure of it's orbit it'll get given a number. Finally, numbered asteroids are eligible for naming, usually nominated by the discoverer. This is the main place where still living people get honoured with celestial names - although military or political leaders generally have to have been dead for a century to be considered. Some of the names are rather whimsical - 13681 Monty Python, 26858 Misterrogers, 15092 Beegees, 15845 Bambi and one of my favourites - 13070 Seanconnery. I have quite a few associates in the astronomy world with asteroids named after them, I guess mine is waiting for my mythical thesis submission.