I know it's been forever since I updated this. I feel very guilty. Not pleased with the quantity of work I have to do at the moment. 'Tis the report writing season and so my head is swamped by them. But alongside this, I have all my usual class based things to do. On top of that, my sister recently got married and that took up a huge amount of time and I made a big decision about my future.

So, sorry for not writing more, but I am still very much alive and I will write more regularly when things settle a little later in the month. Hopefully.

Back in 2005, I wrote about Martin Kyslun. I fully expected to see his name among the election results when they were finally published. However, I did not. This is the reason why. Sorry, belatedly, to hear of his passing.

Martin famously received 5 votes in 2005 - and now that I'm older I can appreciate better his reasons for standing in the first place.

This year, Godfrey Spickernell received the least votes in his constituency of Chelsea & Fulham, gaining 17 votes for his Blue Environment Party (Source: BBC News). Now, given that the Green Party until this election had never won a seat, the desire to replace the Green Party was somewhat ambitious. However, I admire him for trying, even though I certainly do not agree with all that is written on his comprehensive website.

While I wasn't alive to see him race, I've read about and seen enough of his career to know how fabulous Gilles Villeneuve was.

Today, 25 years ago, Formula One lost one of its greatest ever exponents, a man whose modest record belied an impact on the sport so profound that his memory lives on today. He combined the best qualities of Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna and Juan Pablo Montoya - a dazzling talent, an unquenchable spirit and desire, and a magnetic charisma that attracted millions of fans. He also possessed an honesty and honour from a bygone age - traits which were to be contributing factors in his death.

That man was Gilles Villeneuve, whose brief but glorious career was ended on 8 May 1982, in a horrific accident during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder.

This review of his life sums up just what made him a great driver. (BBC Sport)

This is brilliant: enter anything and it will sing it to you.

Those that know me well, know I love a good bit of maths.

The New York Times has been publishing columns by the wonderful Steven Strogatz for a good while now. They are thoughtful, clever and very well written - as you'd expect:

Steven Strogatz is a professor of applied mathematics at Cornell University. In 2007 he received the Communications Award, a lifetime achievement award for the communication of mathematics to the general public. He previously taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he received the E.M. Baker Award, an institute-wide teaching prize selected solely by students. "Chaos," his series of 24 lectures on chaos theory, was filmed and produced in 2008 by The Teaching Company. He is the author, most recently, of "The Calculus of Friendship," the story of his 30-year correspondence with his high school calculus teacher.

Unfortunately, I can't really see any of the newspapers in this country doing anything like this in the near future - but while Steven's articles are available online, I won't be worrying too much about this country's lack of numerical knowledge.

Link: New York Times - All Of Steven Strogatz' posts

NASA's latest space telescope, the Solar Dynamics Observatory, is delivering unprecedented images of our local star. The telescope was launched Feb. 11. NASA released the first tremendously exciting data from the mission today.

"These initial images show a dynamic sun that I had never seen in more than 40 years of solar research," said Richard Fisher, director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA, in a release. "SDO will change our understanding of the sun and its processes, which affect our lives and society. This mission will have a huge impact on science, similar to the impact of the Hubble Space Telescope on modern astrophysics."

The sun's internal dynamics were the subject of intense interest over the last few years as the normal waxing and waning of solar activity did not follow past cycles as closely as anticipated. The solar minimum of 2008 stretched deep into 2009, raising questions about how well we understand the complex internal dynamics that drive sun spots, solar flares and coronal-mass ejections.

If the video link isn't working, use the original link below.

Link: Wired Science

In the past, I've shown a pair of photos showing how London has developed.

This wonderful film was made in 1927 by Claude Friese-Greene. Colour film from the 1920s is exceptionally rare, and this is a very powerful example. It shows scenes of London Bridge, the Thames, the Tower of London, Greenwich Observatory, the London docks, Whitehall, the Cenotaph, Trafalgar Square, Hyde Park, Marble Arch, Petticoat Lane, the Oval, the Changing of the Guard, Rotten Row, and the Houses of Parliament.

The Cenotaph sequence from around 3:37 to 3:54 is very poignant. This was filmed only nine years after the end of the Great War. The women and looking at the wreaths would very likely be wives and mothers of the men killed, and the Second World War was, at that time, inconceivable.

Claude Friese-Greene was the son of pioneering cinematographer William Friese-Greene, and devoted himself to developing commercially his father's colour process - Biocolour - but without great success. It was soon overtaken by Technicolor and Claude abandoned the process. His role as a pioneer of colour film has now been recognised.

The footage is part of London's Screen Archives and the British Film Archive.

Original Link: How To Be A Retronaut

Never one to miss a trick, IKEA have designed kitchens to suit our potential leader's personalities.

Link: IKEA's Political Kitchens

As you'd expect, the parties are gunning hard for your vote. Or so you'd think. I haven't had a single candidate visit me or talk to me - barely anything. I've had a couple of 'personal' letters written to me and a couple of thousand other people from both David Cameron and Gordon Brown, and there have been some leaflets, but nothing much.

So, it's quite interesting to see that not that far from me in LS27 (the newly created Morley & Outwood constituency), some people have been inundated! The map shows a whopping 5 nearby.

Inspired by the #uksnow Twitter map we would like you to help us build up a picture of the level of electioneering across the UK. On a scale of 1 to 5 (see the key below right for suggestions) give each party that is campaigning near you a score for the intensity of its efforts.

Link: The Guardian's Election Coverage Map

Later this month, my favourite group of all time, The Divine Comedy - well, Neil Hannon - releases a new album, Bang Goes The Knighthood.

The first single will be The Indie Disco. And it's a cracker!

You can watch the video here (and here, in HD)

I actually cannot wait for the album...