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Yay! News from the lovely folks at NESTA this morning: they’re willing to half-fund my project and help me find an industrial partner to cough up the remainder (which looks like it’s going to be the new NESTA way). So… that’s 50% of a really massive cheer from me.

Thus far I’ve avoided describing the project here, but on the off-chance that anyone reading this might be interested in being that industrial partner (heck, I think two of you were quoted in the Guardian yesterday, you must be big fish [cough]): there’s a big hole in the UK for seeking to inspire children towards science via entertainment, specifically video entertainment. I’m of the generation that was inspired by Johnny Ball, and more recently I’ve been trying to continue that tradition via my own shows on ITV.

However, in 2004 the BBC cancelled all their children’s science programmes, and ITV cancelled one of theirs (/mine). In itself that was fine, however they’ve not been replaced. Now, in 2006, there’s very very little of that sort of inspirational material for children on what’s still the biggest single medium – TV.

I can’t solve the TV issue. But I can provide the same sort of material, far more cost-effectively, so at least it’s out there for kids to find.

Yes, I want to jump on the podcast video bandwagon. And you know, it’s actually a better medium for science content than television is.

Our plan is to make short films inspired by practical science, and to back them up with step-by-step instructions, clear explanations, onward links, and the dreaded curriculum links for teachers. Then there’s a whole film-making aspect to the project – we’ll head out into schools and science centres to run video workshops, and ultimately we want to run a national competition for science-inspired short films.

There are several other aspects – notably that all material from the pilot is CC-licensed, which is why I was interested in the issues around getting under-16s to sign legal documents – but that’s the main thrust of it.

Anyone want a slice of that? It’s up for grabs, and thanks to NESTA coughing up a wodge of cash it’s really not very expensive. Unless you want it to be huge, in which case I can spend as much as you’re willing to spend!

Drop me a line to jonathan[at]quernstone.com.

Follow me through this: back from India 06:05 local Monday. Back to Glasgow 15:15 Monday. First signs of trouble 05:30 Tuesday. And by ‘trouble,’ I mean the full, all-out, double-ender, repeating every hour precisely until early afternoon. Ugh.

But from the timings… that’s more likely to be something I picked up here, isn’t it? Which would be deeply ironic. Mind you, I did feel a bit jippy on the plane back, so maybe I was just-about-coping, then pushed myself over the edge with, I don’t know, a Starbucks muffin or something.

Anyway, an odd week. Monday: knackered. Tuesday: ill. Wednesday: exhausted, frantically writing up report. Thursday: back on a plane to London (got bounced from my morning flight, grrrr) for meetings at the Ri, ironically not about India at all.

Now back in Glasgow, frantically trying to get a website out of the door by a 4pm deadline. Eek.

My other news deserves a post of its own.

File this under ‘admirably loony’: some chap has found that in-development (blank exposed) Polaroid film can be used to take X-Ray images, using a medical X-Ray machine he bought off eBay. Yes, you really can buy anything on eBay.

(I’d also like to note that Martin’s Newton X-Ray image is still the third ‘most-interesting’ Flickr image for ‘Newton’)

As if I needed any more justification for adding a TomTom Go navigation system to my ‘You know, I really fancy one of those’ list: you can get different voices for the things. Including an outrageously vampy woman, a New York cabbie, a Mafia Don, and… John Cleese?

My favourite, however? The American granny. Genius.

(But while I’m on the subject — how come GPS isn’t entirely ubiquitous already? Just why do so few digital cameras location-stamp each image, and why doesn’t my PowerBook know where it is? It’s not like it’s particularly new technology.)

Saturday was something of a write-off. I managed to scribble some nonsense on postcards, and in the evening made it back to Delhi, where I found two drivers waiting for me. One from the hotel, the other from the High Commission waiting to take me to a different hotel for a meal, and then back to the airport for a flight. Since my flight wasn’t for another 28 hours that was going to be a long meal. We surmised it was more likely that he’d simply not been told of the change of plan (which was, in itself, a misunderstanding based on multiple people not appearing to realise that the date changes at midnight). So I went with the first guy.

Sunday, then: Oooooh, that was fun. My ‘car+driver’, arranged through the travel office at the high commission, turned out to be a car+driver and government-registered tour guide. I thought it’d been a bit pricey for just a car, but it’s hard to do the value conversion and I’d wondered if I was simply being charged a foreigners’ rate. Besides, it still wasn’t what you’d call pricey.

VK, my guide, turned out to be a dryly witty and full of all the knowledge you’d expect after ten years in the job. Being shown around a city by somebody who knows it backwards is a rare privilege. Perhaps it’s normal for people who always stay in five-star hotels and are whisked around in chauffeured Mercedes, but for the likes of me it’s a rare thing.

We rattled through Qutb, the Red Fort, Jama Masjid, Gandhi’s cremation site at Raj Ghat, a precarious but astonishing rickshaw spin through Old Delhi, and quick trips to the imposing India Gate and the (also Lutyens-designed) government buildings of New Delhi. It could have been a bit breakneck, but VK’s timely stories saved me the overhead of rifling through the guidebook, and I’m more than willing to trust his judgement on which bits were worth spending my limited time on.

I’ll write more when my photos are back from the developer (yes, I’m still an old-fashioned film guy). In the meantime I should probably write something pithy and insightful about the relative merits of seeing a town like Delhi with a guide vs. discovering it by oneself. However, getting back to Glasgow took a heck of a long time and I’m utterly knackered, so you’ll just have to imagine that part of this post.

Home. Mmm. I had beans on toast. Mmm.

Delhi already seems like a long time ago, and a long way away. One of these is true, which is curious because they seem equally real.

Whenever the full-on India crazy starts, it hasn’t quite hit yet. I came to Bangalore Thursday evening, and yesterday was a mad run-around with a charming and delightful Icelandic woman from the British Trade Office here. ‘This might be a little hectic,’ she warned early on, ‘I usually schedule two or three meetings for a day, and we have four. Sorry.’ Yikes.

…and I think we saw the full spectrum of responses, from a university institute who were enthusiastic… to a point, to a large IT company who appeared to have forgotten we were coming, to a huge IT company who were unbelievably supportive and excited. We met with the CFO, who’s opening gambit was ‘What can I do to make this happen?’ He then proceeded to reel off multiple reasons why he was so keen, finishing with ‘It’s the right thing to do, to help inspire the next generation of professionals.’ That’s a degree of corporate responsibility and long-term interest I’m simply not used to seeing. From discussions, it’s clear why – India’s so large, and growing so quickly, that relying on central government to address issues like inspiring school children is clearly an inadequate strategy.

…all of which is very refreshing. There are still huge hurdles for our project, though – which I shall, rightly, report to my employer and not you, dear reader.

A day of schlepping through insane Bangalore traffic – even in a slick Land-Rover and with a hugely professional British Trade Office driver – and staggering around baking-hot and unseasonably humid lecture halls has, however, taken its toll on me, and today I’m a bit of a wreck. It’s something of a relief that we couldn’t make the timings work for a trip to another tech campus in Mysore today, since that would have involved another ten hours’ travelling.

So it’s an easy day, then back to Delhi. Tomorrow I’m touring the old town (and wondering if I should have gone to Agra to see the Taj Mahal instead), then back to London.

So, I wrote this lovely little post back in Glasgow… then turned my PowerBook off before remembering to click ‘publish,’ and then the taxi arrived, and…

I’m in Delhi. Arrived at silly o’clock this morning (flight was fine, thanks – everyone asks, not sure what I’m supposed to say). Just had lunch with extremely pleasant High Commission people, now back at the terribly posh hotel. It’s obviously too hot to explore right now – obviously I’m an Englishman, but I think one has to be a mad dog as well for that.

Thus far, it’s all a bit… well… insulated. I’ve seen ox-drawn carts from a distance and the whole system is a bit alien, but I’ve not yet had the full-on Delhi crazy. Doubtless I’ll be completely baffled when I do.

All of which is, I suppose, testament to the miracle that is efficient five-star travel. Being met at the airport by a uniformed chauffeur with a shiny Mercedes will tend to cosset one from even which country one’s in. There are times – and perhaps this is one of them – when that’s an entirely sensible thing to do. It’s just that this world is also alien to me, and while it makes sense and works, I’m not sure I particularly like it.

But I think I’ll have a little sleep, now, and worry about all this later.

Right, here’s how it pans out: later this morning I fly to Heathrow, sit around a bit, then on to Delhi, arriving horridly early local time on Wednesday morning. Wednesday is, then, an ‘acclimatisation’ day (read: ‘gibber in a corner’ day).

Thursday I’ve meetings with TV companies, then on Friday I’ve a meeting with a venue in Bangalore. I’m not quite sure how I get there – flights, presumably, but they could be Thursday evening, could be Friday morning. Not to worry, I’m sure the High Commission has everything in hand.

Saturday: back to Delhi. The rest of that day is currently free, but – guessing, here – could well fill up. Sunday I’ll be mooching around Delhi, and I fly out at 2am on Monday. Which, in the weirdly-warped manner of air travel, means that my nine-hour flight arrives five hours after it leaves. Or something like that.

Then it’s back up to Glasgow for afternoon tea. Simple.

I’ve no idea what net access will be like, and it’s highly unlikely there’ll be pictures until I get back, but I’ll try to lob some words up at some point.

Right now, I’m blearily working out what’s going in my new bag based primarily on what dried overnight. Oops. Bad planning there. However, I have managed to adopt my usual approach to managing jetlag – be so utterly frazzled prior to departure that I’d have no idea what time it was supposed to be had I stayed put, let alone when it is where I am then. Note that this doesn’t actually help the symptoms one jot, but the alternative explanation for feeling rough as boots makes me feel a bit better.

Wish me luck!

Marching around Glasgow today, sorting myself out for the trip, I was melting in the heat. A whole 14C, apparently.

This, then, is slightly scary: the forecast for Delhi suggests it’ll be about 39C all week. Ulp. At least the humidity is quite low. Yeah, that’s a good thing. Gaaaaah. Then there’s this forecast, which suggests it’ll be more like 43C. Oh crumbs.

Inexplicably, one or two readers of this blog are at least vaguely involved in the whole digital rights / copyright / blah world. Comrades, our lives just became considerably simpler. No longer will we have to explain the minutiae of copyright law; no more shall we face confusion over ownership; never again shall the initial holder of title be confused or obscure.

No indeed, for now, I have a supplier for these admirably clear labels. Liberal usage will, I’m sure you’ll agree, clear up all possible ownership confusions. Get your orders in quick.