Monthly archives: September 2010

First draft of the Tiger cover

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Tiger cover version 1

I wasn’t happy with the covers I designed for Post & Publish and Sounds of Soldiers. I rushed them out to get stuff published. So I’m going to do something better for Tiger, which will be published some time next month. The netbook and cup of tea allude to the scene near the beginning where Irwin is sitting in a coffee shop being a bit bored. Continuity wise he didn’t even have his gun with him at that point, let alone laid on the table, but I’m claiming artistic licence.

The image should probably be rotated so the edge of the netbook is square with the edges of the cover, and I’ll probably try a few more lettering options. What do you think?

links for 2010-09-18

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  • BBC News – It's good to think – but not too much, scientists say
    People who think more about whether they are right have more cells in an area of the brain known as the frontal lobes.

    UK scientists, writing in Science, looked at how brain size varied depending on how much people thought about decisions.

    But a nationwide survey recently found that some people think too much about life.

    (tags: neuroscience brain psychology)
  • wirewheels
    In years of building and looking at dragster models, something that has generally detracted from the majority of them has been their front wheels. In recent years, the aftermarket has begun manufacturing photo-etched wire wheel kits. While these are a vast improvement over the bulky-spoked kit pieces, photo-etched spokes are flat. Obviously, real wire wheels have round spokes.
    (tags: model)

Drivers don’t think

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Okay, the full title of the post I’m linking to is Drivers don’t think cyclists should be on the road, says DfT report, but observation shows my version is valid as well. I’ve not yet read the full report linked to in the post, but many of the points are laid out by Bikehub anyway. Drivers need to learn to share the road. Even if they don’t get out of their car and experience the freedom of riding, they could experience a health benefit if they’d just learn to stop being stressed about not making it to the next red lights a whole, ineffectual, ten seconds earlier.

Excelsior

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Excelsior, originally uploaded by spinneyhead.

I went back to Dale Street to see how the set dressing for Captain America was going and found lots of signs and some of the shop fronts filled with goods, if not yet glazed. Excelsior cigars refers, I think, to Stan Lee’s old editorial sign off. No doubt many of the other stores are in jokes as well. I shall upload more pictures as soon as possible.

Update More Captain America pictures, originally sent as three individual posts, now incorporated into this one.



More Captain America set pictures, originally uploaded by spinneyhead.


More Captain America set pictures, originally uploaded by spinneyhead.


More Captain America set pictures, originally uploaded by spinneyhead.

Update update The Excelsior image has been picked up by Bleeding Cool, which is to be expected, because I sent them a message about it. But they seem to have forgotten the point of the Creative Commons licence it’s on Flickr under and failed to credit it, rather saying it’s from an “anonymous Little Bleeder” and sticking their own logo on it. If their commenting system ever stops being a pain in the arse I shall be complaining to them.

Tiger- Part twenty-one

This entry was posted in Facts and Fictions Tiger on by

Jed answered his mobile phone. “Hello there hero.”

“All cleared up at your end then?” Irwin asked.

“Two kidnappers cable tied and sedated and ready for a discreet journey back to Blighty.”

“And all with an hour and a half to spare.”

“Is that all? You’re getting slow. Retirement’s making you rusty.”

“Your Jedi mind tricks don’t work on me.”

“I’m sure they don’t. Next time I need some help in your neck of the woods…”

“You’ll call someone else.”

“Stay safe old boy.”

“You too.”

Irwin put the work phone away. Police vans had arrived to take away the kidnappers, and a car was waiting to whisk Karen and Simon Edwards home. Kay had worked her way out of the crowd and walked over. “Are we going to get a visit from secret intelligence thugs to magic those guys away?”

“Probably. They could be a mine of intel.”

“We could do with something to show for all of this.”

“You have a car thief. They’ll probably let you keep him.” Kay made a dismissive noise. “And the people smugglers you found.”

“Crumbs. But I guess they’ll look good on someone’s spreadsheet.”

Irwin was studying the moped. He realised he still had the helmet on. “I don’t seem to have damaged this. Let’s get it back to Bootle Street and give it back to Gloria.”

“You do it.” Kay handed him her helmet. “You’re far too dangerous. I think I’d rather walk.”

links for 2010-09-16

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  • Piccadilly Self Publishing Fair and Exhibition: About
    Piccadilly Self Publishing Fair and Exhibition is a new self publishing event in Manchester, U.K. The fair will take place on Sunday 3rd October 2010 from 11am-6pm( Free Entry!)in an empty shop unit, The Piccadilly Place near Piccadilly train station as part of the Free for Arts Festival. Some of the paper-artistry will remain exhibited in the following week after the fair…
    (tags: Comics)
  • BBC News – Can you trick your ageing body into feeling younger?
    If elderly people dress, live and talk as they did in their heyday, does this help them feel younger and fitter? Michael Mosley explains how he tested this theory on six faces from the past.
    (tags: health brain age)

Atheists are Nazis and promoting health and prosperity is more evil than child abuse? Papally inspired stupidity 8

This entry was posted in Daily Mail Pope Richard Dawkins on by

So, it’s been the first day of the Pope’s long weekend in Britain. He got off to a good start by implying that Nazism arose from atheism and modern secular society is headed down a similar path. It’s basically that old unfounded Christian lament that the belief system which still holds an unwarranted influence over the country’s politics is being discriminated against, but with added “unbelievers are evil!”. Hitler’s beliefs are open to debate, as they are in this comment thread on Richard Dawkins’ site, but a great many Nazis professed to be Christians, the Catholic church’s record during WW2 was less than perfect and it was the godless hordes of Soviet Russia who sacrificed the most to put an end to the evil.

Pope Rat should sack his speech writers and any advisers who thought that spouting this sort of nonsense was a good idea.

A selection of eminent humanists wrote a letter to the Guardian attacking the elevation of the Pope’s visit to that of a state visit, pointing out some of the crimes the Vatican “state” is guilty of and questioning its right to be given the same recognition as real countries. Stephen Fry is justifiably proud of being vilified by the Daily Mail for his signing of the letter. I’m jealous, I’ve long wanted to be hated by the Daily Mail. It’s been one of my ambitions for several years. Sadly I am not as eloquent as Mr Fry, nor yet known, let alone as well known as he. Maybe one day.

The letter also attracted the attention of Stewart Cowan, one of the less enlightened bloggers I follow for entertainment value. Cowan throws around some stupid insults, but makes no intelligent or coherent points and no doubt, in his head, thinks he’s won the argument. In Cowan’s bizarro world family planning, disease prevention, compassion and education are all greater evils than child abuse. Thinking like Cowan’s and the Pope’s is the cause of far more harm than anything done by the people they want to blame.

We in the Third World would like the Catholic church to reach our level

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So a senior Catholic cardinal thinks that Great Britain is like a Third World country, and suddenly he isn’t accompanying the Pope here after coming down with gout. There’s been an outcry about the comment, and people are all offended. Personally I’m more amused by the deep insecurity Walter Kasper’s remarks reveal. Religious attendance is dropping in this country, and the Church can’t bully government as easily (though comments by Baroness Warsi may give them hope). I can’t help but think these are good things.

If anyone, Kasper should be apologising to people in the Third World, not so much for his comments as for the damage his church, and other religions, has done to their countries. As part of a church which gives out deadly advice to poor believers he should give up all his privileges and go and help the people whose lives have been blighted by Catholic doctrine rather than living the high life which, no doubt, contributed to his gout.

I like it here in the “Third World”. I’m able to make informed decisions and nobody’s telling me to hate other people because of biased interpretations of old books. Everyone’s welcome to join me.

links for 2010-09-15

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Tiger- Part twenty

This entry was posted in Facts and Fictions Tiger on by

Irwin was conscious of a man with a gun standing beside him, aiming at the man in the back of the van. “You’d best be allowed that toy,” the black clad Police officer hissed, “or there’ll be a shit storm.”

There was a clatter of something being dropped inside the van. Then the side door was pulled open. The gunman in the doorway looked around. The woman took the chance to pull loose from his grip and dive out of the van.

Kay was standing by the front passenger door when the side door opened. A small, struggling body was tossed out to land and roll on the grass. The man who had thrown the boy out found his exit was less graceful than he’d expected, as Kay grabbed him and pulled him off balance to land face first on the ground.

“Put the gun down and get your hands above your head!” the armed officer shouted.

The gunman in the back of the van looked, very briefly, like he wouldn’t comply. The slightest move from the armed officer made him flinch and then he was slowly putting the gun down and getting out of the van.

Armed officers swarmed around the three kidnappers. Karen Edwards sat up slowly. “Where’s Simon? Where’s my son?”

“He’s here.” Kay was carrying the boy as best she could, but it was the clumsy, over careful hold of someone who doesn’t spend much time around children. “He was very brave. He didn’t cry at all.” She handed the confused little boy over to his mother then held up a mobile phone. “Would you like to speak with your husband?”

links for 2010-09-14

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  • Scott Brown on the Building Blocks of Prime Time | Magazine
    It’s fall again, which means a new season’s worth of TV programming packed with network television promises of “original” shows and “fresh” characters. But when I flip on my 152-inch, 1080p, 120-Ghz, 3-D flat-panel display (peering through my LCD stereoscopic glasses, natch), I see… more or less the same stuff I’ve been seeing since Law & Order immemorial. That’s fine by me. After all, it’s often said (with varying degrees of seriousness) that there are only 10 stories total in the whole history of smoke-blowing, from Beowulf to Baywatch. But within those basic formulas, there are tens of thousands of tropes—familiar narrative tics, stock character traits, dialog patterns, and the like.
    (tags: television storytelling)
  • The Parts Box
    Australian resin car models and bits.
    (tags: model)
  • BBC News – Cash boost for UK computer museum
    The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park has received its largest donation to date.

    A grant of £100,000 has been donated to the museum by Bletchley Park Capital Partners and its associates.

    (tags: BletchleyPark computing)
  • MakerBot Automated Build Platform – MakerBot Industries
    The future of Personal Manufacturing is now! Introducing the MakerBot Automated Build Platform. It’s a heated conveyor belt for your 3D personal manufacturing system! Instead of just making one thing at a time, with the MakerBot Automated Build Platform, you’ll be able to make lots of things at a time. When the MakerBot has MakerBotted something, it just rolls of the MakerBot Automated Build Platform and begins to make the next part!
    (tags: 3DPrinting)
  • How to make cider
    If you have access to a lot of free apples, you can easily make cider from them. Any apples will do, but they should be as ripe as possible. This instructable shows you a simple method that does not require any special equipment.
    (tags: cider)

Read draft 1.1 of Tiger

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The serialisation of Tiger will wrap up soon. The story presented here for the last few weeks was the first draft. I have done some light revision already and I’m on to what I’m calling draft 1.1, not a full second draft, but starting on the way there. I have uploaded, and you can read, draft 1.1. Simply right click on the link and Save As (I’m sorry Mac users, but I can’t remember how you do that, I’m sure you do). It’s in Rich Text Format, so just about everything should be able to read it.

I’d appreciate feedback so I can make the final draft as good as possible, please use the email address given in the file. I don’t have a tight deadline for publication, but it will be early October, so if you have anything to say, please say it soon.

Build yourself an island

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Rishi Sowa has built himself a floating island using plastic bottles, netting and plywood, with mangrove helping to hold it all together. Find out more at spiralislanders.com.

via BoingBoing

This interests me because I’ve recently gone back to Heavensent, the propellerpunk tale I wrote a few years ago, with a view to revising and expanding it. Early in the tale some of the characters are trapped on a floating island which has evolved in a section of a vast ocean where the eddies of the current have trapped lots of flotsam. The idea was that algae had trapped seeds which had sent out roots, further binding things together, until a floating landmass had been formed. As the tale is set at a time of lower technological advancement than today it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to imagine some of the starting material being wood and other biodegradable materials. This shall feed back into the Heavensent rewrite.

links for 2010-09-13

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