More bench spotting
This one’s outside Strangeways. Maybe people need a little whimsy whilst waiting to catch the bus after visiting a friend or relative who’s on the inside.
Yearly archives: 2009
I’m in danger of becoming a bench spotter
Since I started doing the 3d printable designs for model railways and wargames I can’t pass a new piece of street furniture without wondering whether I could make it. These benches, near Manchester cathedral, are particularly nice.
Silent Running
I’m moving house tomorrow and the new place won’t have internet access until the 21st. There’ll still be posts from the phone and I may be able to get the laptop’s wifi to work long enough to surf from a cafe, but posting will be a little slow.
Someone Once Told Me
A photo of me is up at Someone Once Told Me. It’s been a few months since it was taken, I’d almost forgotten about it.
Some ideas on comic formats
Both via BoingBoing
First, the Revolver notebook–
Read two different versions of the same story, or two tales that start or end at the same point. I admit, I’m not sure yet what I’d do. I’ll have to find out how to make one of these and then let it inspire me as I flip it round and round.
Unfurling is a comic on a scroll of paper 400 feet long by 1 foot high. By its very nature this one has to be a one off. MAybe with the right printer a short run of a shorter version might be possible.
A N Wilson’s stupidity is thermonuclear
Perhaps Wilson and Melanie Philips are conducting parallel experiments in just how moronic they can make their opinion pieces and still get published. The flaw in their methodology is that they’re writing for the Daily Mail, a “newspaper” with a policy of champion ignorance amongst the middle classes.
Wilson’s piece- Yes, scientists do much good. But a country run by these arrogant gods of certainty would truly be hell on earth is one of the dumbest, least coherent bits of writing you’ll read outside of a Creationist museum. It is rightly being ripped to shreds in the comments. Of course, the paper itself is unlikely to print any of the replies to the piece, sparing their more Luddite readers from reality.
If Wilson continues in this vein it won’t be long before he’s writing about how pixies can save the economy and the dangers of immigrant trolls living under our motorway bridges and decimating the English goat population.
NoWriMo for me this year
I’m not doing anything for National Novel Writing Month this year. I’m moving house this weekend, going to start on Point of Contactn as soon as I’ve got a drawing board and the light box set up and going to Beerfest next week, so I’m too busy. (Okay, Beerfest is an option, but it’s Beerfest,it’s part of my life.)
Jim Carrey wants to kill your children!
Carrey, and even moreso his girlfriend Jenny McCarthy, are the celebrity faces of America’s growing anti-vaccination movement, which claims there’s a connection between childhood vaccinations and autism despite there being absolutely no evidence for it. The publicity they get opens the door for conmen selling ineffective, and often dangerous, autism treatments. It also leads worried parents to opt out of getting their children jabs, which not only puts their offspring at risk but also those of others. Amy Wallace took a look at the problem for Wired. As with anyone who shows up pseudo-science these days she’s already received threats and been the victim of half arsed character assassination attempts.
I’d call for a boycott of Carrey’s films, but he’s pretty much guaranteed it already by appearing in such total crap. The Grinch wants to kill your children. Pass it on.
Slap Nick Griffin 1
Go on, you know you want to.
Around the world by chip fat
A trip around Europe in a biodiesel powered van was one of those plans I had that never came to fruition. Wired has an article about one man who is better organised than I and is on the road at the moment.
Global Cooling is a con
This won’t be news to anyone who’s been paying attention, but it needs to be shouted out and repeated often, because the American public and even the BBC are falling for the lie.
There are many quote worthy lines in this report. Almost at random, let’s go with-
Saying there’s a downward trend since 1998 is not scientifically legitimate, said David Peterson, a retired Duke University statistics professor and one of those analyzing the numbers.
Identifying a downward trend is a case of “people coming at the data with preconceived notions,” said Peterson, author of the book “Why Did They Do That? An Introduction to Forensic Decision Analysis.”
It doesn’t always rain in Manchester
But it is raining more. Ten percent more than 110 years ago, it would seem, with the greatest increase in the last thirty years.
And there I was on Friday night trying to persuade visitors from Warwick Rag that Manchester wasn’t really that damp. Foiled again.
Dan and his llama
It’s called Bear Grylls and it goes any way it can.
Noddy spotted in Withington
It’s an Austin A35 (I think, correct me if I’m wrong). It had the look of a vehicle that’s loved but used regularly, which is how it should be. There was a Ferrari to my right at the same time, but they’re dull and just scream desperate compensation for something.
Evolution toys
Toys inspired by evolution and Charles Darwin. Forget about buying it for a kid, I think I want the Giant Timeline floor mat.