Big Ben Facelift

Three men have abseiled down the tower that houses Big Ben to repair any damage to the clock faces. The trio descend each of the four sides of the clock face at a height of around 315ft (96m).
Each clock face is 23 ft (7m) in diameter, while there are a total of 312 pieces of opal glass.
Two height safety specialists abseiled on the clock faces initially. Then specialist heritage glazer Tony McGilbert abseiled to evaluate the repairs to the fragile glass fascia panels within the clock faces.
The men wore ear defenders as the clock continued to strike as they carried out the work, which was expected to last all day and their equipment was attached to them to ensure it cannot fall onto the ground below.
See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-10950547 for more.

ACES - The Most Accurate Clock in Space

A clock ensemble, ACES (Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space), is to fly to the International Space Station in 2014. This caesium clock, because it will be affected only by microgravity, will be 100 times the accuracy of GPS clocks and will be a common reference point for ground based atomic clocks which could reveal if a physical 'constant' called alpha is not constant after all. (See 'Space station to host super-clock', New Scientist, 31 July 2010, p5)

Longest Tennis Match

Wimbledon 2010 has seen the longest tennis match in the history of the sport between American tennis player John Isner and Frenchman Nicolas Mahut.
The record-breaking contest lasted for a total of 11 hours and five minutes - a punishing 665 minutes. The battle concluded after play stretched over three days.
The 6ft 9in Isner won 3 sets to 2, with the last set being won with after a staggering total of 70 games to 68.
The end came as Mahut approached the net and Isner made a passing shot. Barely believing the match had finished, Isner almost back-flipped on the lawn before standing up and grasping his head between his hands.
Key stats of the match include 138 games in deciding set, 112 Isner aces and 103 Mahut aces.

Gravity Clock App

This app by Joerg Piringer visualizes the passage of time by the permanent destruction and reconstruction of the clock-face.
In analog mode, each second, the hand breaks a number out of the dial and lets it drop to the floor where it gets buried by the following numbers and eventually withers away to make room for the endless succession of time. The digital mode is not dissimilar. There is also an alarm facility, a levitate mode reverses gravity, a night mode reduces brightness and the colour of the second hand can be changed by tapping the centre of the clock.

You can watch a video of it at http://joerg.piringer.net/gravityclock

Introducing Time: A graphic guide

This relaunched guide to Time by Craig Callender and Ralph Edney is a fully illustrated fun tome including arguments between Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking - time is no barrier for this book. It might seem lightweight but it tackles some seriously heavyweight concepts.

More timeMusic

As the timeMusic page on the timeCrazy website evidences, there is much music in which time features significantly. Two further gems that should probably make it onto the page somehow are 'Most of the Time' by Bob Dylan (on the 'Oh Mercy' album) and 'Time After Time' by Ozzy Osbourne (on the 'No More Tears' album), both of them really impressive.

Mind out of Time - Exhibition in London

The GX gallery in London (see www.gxgallery.com) is hosting an exhibition of new works by Ed Gray from 12 June to 6 July, 2010. What happens to an artist when he returns to his muse after being away from her for so long? Paintings from Cape Town, Bangkok, Tokyo and London explain.