Monthly archives: February 2006


Incomplete Manchester Blogger meetup listing

No-one’s published the full list for now, but I’ve managed to put this together from various sources-

Norm, of normblog; Chris, of Concious and Verbal; Kate, of If you’re sad and like beer…; Kate, of the Manchizzle; Tom, of tomsbomb; Clare, of Boob Pencil; Jonathon, of Crinklybee; Lisa, of Rullsenber Rules; Chern Jie, of Break of Information Overload; Abby, of Bonkworld; Wilson, of A Cloud in Trousers; Duncan, of Stripy T shirt; Rich of Lord Rich; Mike, of Me Me Me; Rob, of Eine Kleine Nichtmusik; Where Worlds Collide; and a few others I’ve yet to discover. I think I’ve blogrolled everyone. If you’re missing from this list or the one at the bottom of the page leave a comment and I’ll sort it out.

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Ban the Bulb

I’ve been considering more sensible uses for the money that’s going to be wasted “deciding” that we should build new nuclear power stations. One of my ideas was to send a low energy bulb to every household, saying it should replace the most used filament bulb in the house. In a BBC interview/opinion piece, Dr Matt Prescott argues that the filament bulb should be banned completely.

It has been estimated that if every household in the US replaced just three of its incandescent light bulbs with energy-saving designs and used them for five hours per day, it would reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 23 million tonnes, reduce electricity demand by the equivalent of 11 coal-fired power stations and save $1.8bn.

Given that investing $450m could save $1.8bn, it is hard to understand why anyone would still choose incandescent bulbs.

[…]

In 2002, the UK government spent £410m on bailing out its near-bankrupt nuclear sector.

That would be more than enough to supply every household in Britain with three energy-saving light bulbs.

banthebulb.org

via Unplugged Living

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Collector's items

I spent a while at Collectormania today, checkin g out the stalls and refusing to pay so much for an autograph.

If I had the budget and the space I could get into the whole collectibles thing, but I’d be too tempted to devalue them with conversions and paint jobs. This wouldn’t be so bad with the smaller gaming figures, but becomes a bad idea with anything over two inches tall.

A few interesting links from business cards and the like-

The Monster Company have a kits section.

Toystalker – to find those old kits you really need. The website’s a bit dire but they had enough interesting stuff on their stall that it may be worth getting in touch

Art Vandelay – not really modelling related, an importer of interesting sci-fi themed metal sculpture.

Not at the show, but from the copy of Model and Collector Mart that was thrust into my hands-

Axis and Allies – a skirmish level combat game of the second world war with some nice looking miniatures.

Gremlynz – imported and other figures and models.

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Blogmeet

My attempt to look all professional at the blog meet with my tripod failed when I couldn’t get the timer on my camera to work. But I got some pictures anyway.

It was cool to meet twenty odd other bloggers, and gratifying to the ego to get the occasional “Oh yes, I read Spinneyhead.” An attendance register was taken and hopefully someone will publish the full list for me to borrow so I can post it here and add everyone to the blogroll.

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No New Nuclear petition

Tim Farron – Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Westmorland and Lonsdale (in Cumbria) has added his support to this petition and added his signature to the hundreds already on the paper version

To: Prime Minister of the UK

We petition the Prime Minister of the UK to the effect that we do not want any new Nuclear Power Stations, because nuclear power:

* facilitates proliferation of nuclear weapons worldwide and endangers our security
* amasses vast amounts of waste, which remains lethal for 100,000s years
* has an exorbitant cost and is not carbon free
* will not provide the answer to climate change
* has left a lethal legacy of tens of thousands abandoned uranium mines on the land of indigenous people worldwide

The Navajo say “water is life” (www.endaum.org)
What is the point of being able to switch the light on if you cannot drink the water?

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"My God! Your blaster is huge!"

Sex in science fiction.

Modern science fiction frequently involves themes of sex, gender and sexuality. This was not always so. During the 1930s and 40s “golden age” of science fiction sex was rarely if ever even mentioned, although there was certainly no lack of innuendo and suggestion. The idea, however, that strong female characters played little or no role in the pulps of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, is wrong.

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Is that physically possible?

The most disturbing slash fiction on the Internet.

#9: The Mario Brothers and Starfox slash. I wonder if Mario has some, um, “special moves” he can unleash. We know he’s an expert at jumping.

#8: Care Bears slash. Do they even have genitals? What the fuck?

#7: Narnia slash. As Rollick said, it puts a new spin on the Christian metaphors seeded heavily throughout the series. Now it’s “Christ died for your sins, you’d think he could at least get a blowjob out of it, you whining little ingrate. Open up.”

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to do

I resisted making any new year resolutions or proclaiming anything on the most depressing day. But i think there’s definitely room for a list of things i’d like to achieve in the next year or two-
work from home. The blogs are part of this plan, but i have a few other ideas to work on.
Build a bike. The phoenix project on my commuter was very satisfying, but i’ve been looking at plans for recumbent bikes and i want to build one of them.
Get a workshop. I’m going to need one to build a bike, and i have other projects in mind that would require work space.
Get a crop from the allotment. Not that hard really, even with the little time i’ve been devoting to it so far.
Move to a bigger place. With a garden, because our next move will probably be away from the allotment, and maybe a garage that i can turn into a workshop.
Do a web comic that doesn’t miss so many update deadlines. I have a few planned, but i’m going to resist rolling them out until the story lines are nearly done.
Leave the country. Even if it’s only for a weekend. I would like to go to the angouleme comic festival next year.
Cycle at least fifty miles a week. As i ride ten miles every time i bike to work that should be easy.
Write a book. I’d particularly like to write a wildly popular children’s book and retire on the proceeds.
More to follow as i think of them.


Out of the rat race and under a green roof

Leonie Davies, a former department head with the investment bankers J P Morgan, finalised her divorce, quit her job and left London for Norfolk. There she spent four years and £400,000 building her dream eco-house. The green roofed, earth sheltered geothermally heated building has set her back more than planned, but she’s glad to be away from the city and its skewed priorities.

“I was paying a huge mortgage so that I could have a home close to my office, where I was working so that I could afford the huge mortgage on my home. I realised just how crazy that was.”

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