Monthly archives: April 2007


The Ecopod

Looking like the the rocket ship from Georges Méliès Voyage dans la Lune, ecopodhomes are prefabricated 4 metre diameter structures (6 metre diameter coming soon) that are built off site and can be erected in 2 hours. They can be connected to mains water and electricity or built “off-the-grid”.

We have set out to produce a modern comfortable home, which will have the minimum impact on the environment by cutting energy requirements and costs by up to 90% and producing virtually no CO2 emissions.

We want to demonstrate the savings that can be achieved through this pioneering design and innovative off site construction methods

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Come Home


Shadows
Originally uploaded by spinneyhead.
It’s that time again when I lose my friends
Go walkabout, I’ve got the bends from pressure
This is a testing time when the choice is mine
Am I a fool for love or foolish with desire
You can throw him out you can spit on him
Call what he does a sin if it makes you feel better

And I can’t believe you’re all I’ll ever need
And I need to feel that you’re not holding me
And the way I feel just makes me want to scream
Come home, come home, come home
Come home, come home, come home

After thirty years I’ve become my fears
I’ve become the kind of man I always hated
I am pulled apart, and my swollen heart
Has flipped out of the pan into the fire
I am in love insane with a sense of shame
That I threw stones at the condemned and
Now I’m slated

And I don’t believe you’re all I’ll ever need
And I need to feel that you’re not holding me
And the way I feel just makes me want to scream
Come home, come home, come home
Come home, come home, come home
Come home, come home, come home

James – Come Home

Photo set from the gig.


The Micro Compact Home

The Micro Compact Home, or m-ch, is an effort to create a tiny space that is still liveable in. It would fit in a large parking bay, future versions will come with solar panels and a wind turbine to make it energy independent. I’d need to get rid of a lot of my possessions before I could live in one, and I don’t yet know where I’d want to put it.

Each cube costs $96,000, including delivery anywhere in Europe. So if I start saving now I might know where I want to put it by the time I can afford it.

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The 200mpg supercar

The Velozzi is a concept car promising supercar performance- 0 to 60 in 3 seconds and a 200mph top speed- with 200mpg fuel consumption. It achieves this by recharging its batteries with a micro-turbine which can use any “heavy fuel”- such as gasoline, ethanol, methanol, diesel or bio diesel. It’s also super light, being built out of composites and liquid metal.

The research and development company behind the concept wanted to produce the most spectacular demonstration of the technology possible. The use of a turbine to charge the batteries means the car isn’t tied to electrical supply points and the versatility of teh fuels means it can use the existing petrol infrastructure. Everyday production vehicles are going to be heavier and less efficient, obviously, but still a vast improvement on current motorcars.

via Jalopnik

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Is this the new name for Madam?

* Job Title
* HOUSE MOTHERS
* LPP/3557

Location
LEEDS, WEST YORKSHIRE

Hours
24 PER WEEK, 3 DAYS OVER 7, 8.00PM TO 4.00AM

Wage
EXCEEDS NAT MIN WAGE + TIPS

Work Pattern
Days , Evenings , Nights , Weekends

Employer
Cherrywest Dance Recruitment Agency

Pension
No details held

Duration
PERMANENT ONLY

Description

Housemums required for table dancing club in Leeds. Accommodation provided. Must be either experienced as a dancer or an established housemum. Great earnings, excellent environment. Immediate start. Contact Ellie:- Tel: 07957 708289 Email: info@cherrywest.co.uk Web site: www.cherrywest.co.uk. Vacancy not suitable for under 18s. There is no obligation to consider making an application for this vacancy. However, if you feel it is suitable for you, please discuss it further with an adviser. Duties involve working in the presence of nudity which may cause embarrassment


CODE Guardian

CeeGee Studios created an awesome compueter animated short about Nazi super robots (YouTube part 1, Part 2). It got me dreaming up possible propellerpunk (that’s my name for it, which I coined for a story called Heavensent, others call it Dieselpunk) battle scene dioramas.

Take the sort of robots and sci-fi subjects available through Hobbylink Japan, kitbash them with second world war era tank and plane parts then set them against some period tanks or ships. To give an idea of the size of the robot you’d really need to do it in a scale such as 1:144, or even smaller. Revell does a 1:200 oil rig, the destruction of which would be an opening scene from the giant robot movie. Mirage does a Polish harbour diorama in 1:400 or the Clyde, circa 1940 in the same scale. In larger scales 1:144 is well supplied. Here’s Hannants’ list, and that of interesting looking Japanese garage kit company Kami de Koro Koro.

I’m going to be on the lookout for giant robot kits now.

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Supermarkets against excess packaging? Who'd have thought

Asda are setting up a pilot scheme where they will collect examples of over packaging from customers to build a case to present to their suppliers. The Daily Mail is supporting it because they think it will mean a return to weekly refuse collections.

I try to buy as much as possible from the local grocers, which reduces waste quite substantially. I just need to remember to take my backpack with me so they don’t put everything into a carrier bag.

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