Monthly archives: May 2010

Holidays in Chernobyl

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I go looking for abandoned industrial buildings and decay because they make for good photos. In fact I spent most of yesterday afternoon riding around east of Manchester on the lookout for ruins and old signs (photos to come soon). I’ve never got up the nerve to do much urban archaeology and actually poke around inside the buildings, as some do. On the other hand, given the money, I could see myself visiting Pripyat and Chernobyl. I don’t know if I could bring back such good photos as Tim Suess did from his recent visit.

(I’ve got an idea for a film/comic script which would have a prologue in an abandoned Soviet science city. Picture sets such as this will make great photo reference.)

This advert should be grade 2 listed

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This advert should be grade 2 listed, originally uploaded by spinneyhead.

Unmissable on video. Killing Zoe, Reservoir Dogs and Shallow Grave. Rent them from Blockbuster.

The shelf life of one of these adverts must be a few months at lmost, which makes this one ancient history. It’s on a bus shelter near Brinnington if the National Trust are interested.

I’ve never seen Killing Zoe, though I’ve read that it was crap and tried trading on a very weak connection to Tarantino.

I don’t believe in you!

This entry was posted in climate change Conspiracy theories Creationism Environmentalism Evolution global warming myth paranoia vaccination on by

The New Scientist has a special report on the roots and methods of denialism. Should be useful reading for anyone who ever finds themselves talking to creationists/climate change deniers/9/11 Truthers/anti vaccination types/that bloke in teh pub who knows what really happened to Elvis.

How to be a denialist

Martin McKee, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who also studies denial, has identified six tactics that all denialist movements use. “I’m not suggesting there is a manual somewhere, but one can see these elements, to varying degrees, in many settings,” he says (The European Journal of Public Health, vol 19, p 2).

1. Allege that there’s a conspiracy. Claim that scientific consensus has arisen through collusion rather than the accumulation of evidence.

2. Use fake experts to support your story. “Denial always starts with a cadre of pseudo-experts with some credentials that create a facade of credibility,” says Seth Kalichman of the University of Connecticut.

3. Cherry-pick the evidence: trumpet whatever appears to support your case and ignore or rubbish the rest. Carry on trotting out supportive evidence even after it has been discredited.

4. Create impossible standards for your opponents. Claim that the existing evidence is not good enough and demand more. If your opponent comes up with evidence you have demanded, move the goalposts.

5. Use logical fallacies. Hitler opposed smoking, so anti-smoking measures are Nazi. Deliberately misrepresent the scientific consensus and then knock down your straw man.

6. Manufacture doubt. Falsely portray scientists as so divided that basing policy on their advice would be premature. Insist “both sides” must be heard and cry censorship when “dissenting” arguments or experts are rejected.

Skeleton boy is in love

This entry was posted in flickr Skeleton Boy Sketch on by



Skeleton boy is in love, originally uploaded by spinneyhead.

Sketched and left in Oklahoma in Manchester city centre. Feel free to erase the pencil lines if you find it. (It’s signed and dated, just in case I become famous.)

Point of Contact- EVA notes

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No new Point of Contact page this week. With the last two pages it’s been obvious that I didn’t put enough work into designing the aliens before I dropped them into the story. So before I introduced the next big element in the story I thought it would be best to sit down and work out what they look like. The Extra Vehicular Activity suits are going to be iuntroduced in the next page and see action over several following pages. The rough designs, and a bunch of notes, were put together over coffee and hot chocolate on Wednesday. Some of the key elements occured to me as I was drifting off to sleep on Tuesday night, but I was too tired to even think of making notes. Luckily the ideas were still there when I woke up.

Objects of Desire- Goddess on the highway

This entry was posted in Citroen Objects of Desire on by

Picture from eclecticcars.co.uk

Picture from eclecticcars.co.uk

I don’t need a car, and most of the time I don’t want a car. As a cyclist I have a low, and justified, opinion of drivers which keeps me from wanting to join their ranks. But there are some cars which, given the opportunity, I’d own just for the warm feeling they’d give me.

The Citroen DS (wikipedia article) is one of those cars. It’s just stunning. Yet it was obviously practical as well, you don’t sell 1.5 million vehicles just because they’re pretty. I could just see myself in one of these, cruising along, looking fast even when standing still. For several years there was a Citroen DS ambulance parked down the side of a house in Fallowfield, gathering patina but still looking beautiful. I don’t know if it’s still there, and I really regret never being able to even enquire about buying it.

Citroen DS Ambulance

The lovely grey example at the top of the post is for sale by a company called Eclectic Cars. If anyone would like to give me £19,000 it could be mine.

There are currently no DSs on eBay, but there is one stunning Traction Avant and a “Big 15” Traction Avant which needs rebuilding. They’re also on my list of cars which would make me glow, and you can get me them for less than the DS.

A little WordPress help please 3

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Fellow WordPress users can I ask for your help?

How can I get full posts in my RSS feeds? I’ve set everything I can find to full feeds, but still I’m only getting a one line summary in my feed. This is very annoying, for me and for my readers. Does anyone know why this might be happening? And, if you do, do you know of a way to fix it?

Thank you.

I’d run a mile when this ship came in

This entry was posted in flickr Manchester on by

One habit the architecture wanders hss got me into is looking up. I can’t believe I never really noticed this shield on St. Anne’s Square before. Angry ram figurehead, eagle for sails, giant braziers and scary fighting fish. I don’t care what the cargo is, I’m going nowhere near it.

Other stuff on eBay

This entry was posted in Bikes ebay on by

It seems like a good time to list other stuff Harry and I have on eBay.

For anyone looking for a challenge, Harry has a job lot of bikes for sale. You’ll have to collect them, because there’s no easy way to ship them. He also has other bike, vintage and random sales going on.

I have various bits and pieces listed at the moment, and I’ll probably be adding comics, models and art soon as well.

The job lot link should be valid as long as the auction’s running. The other two will be okay as long as we’re selling stuff.

Wombling- Field Clinometer Mark III

This entry was posted in Wombling World War 1 on by

(Wombling shall be an irregular series of posts about interesting stuff members of Team Spinneyhead find which, as the Wimbledon commoners would have it “the everyday folks leave behind”.)

Field Clinometer Mark III

This interesting piece of kit is a Field Clinometer Mark III. Harry found it at the tip whilst scouting for bikes and bike parts. Research (primarily here and here) revealed that it was a device used in the aiming of artillery pieces.

Field Clinometer Mark III

The clinometer was placed on the barrel as it was elevated and the swing arm used to measure the angle. The arm can be adjusted by degrees. The sprung shoe still works well- pull it back to disengage the teeth then move the arm into position.

Field Clinometer Mark III

For greater accuracy the arm has a slight bow so the spirit level can be slid along it to get measurements at the minutes level.

Field Clinometer Mark III

Sadly the spirit level itself has been smashed. Otherwise the clinometer would still work almost as well as when it came out of the factory over a century ago.

Field Clinometer Mark III

The device was built in the Soho M&S Instrument Works in 1906 and was numbered 869. This is one of those “What tales it could tell” objects. Unfortunately neither Harry nor I have access to any artillery, so the clinometer’s going on eBay to find a good home. (Note The auction has now ended and the clinometer shall be making its way to a new home soon.

Go on, Flattr me

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I’ve been invited to sign up for a beta membership of Flattr, a new micropayment system for bloggers and other content creators. Flattr members pay into the site’s kitty and elect to give away a set amount every month. This money is divided evenly amongst content they choose to Flattr. Say you like this post, then you just press the Flattr button (there will be a button on it when I work out how to embed one) and that click is added to your total for the month. At the end of the month your clicks are totalled up and your money is split evenly between them- if I’m the only person you’ve graced with a Flattr all month it all goes to me, if you’ve Flattr’d ten people I get a tenth. The idea is that money shall flow to and from Flattrers, with the most interesting content getting the most income.

It’s still in Beta, but you can sign up to be invited to join. But if you’re interested in Flattring me or finding out more pop over to the site and tell them so.