zeal
There wasn’t much left of Otto when they finally found him.
It takes dedication to dissemble a body so thoroughly with only steak knives and a kitchen blender.
Monthly archives: January 2011
links for 2011-01-29
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The Q cleared workers of the Department of Energy carry a very heavy burden that they can never put down, even the former janitors.. They have been entrusted with the nuclear secrets of the nation and you’d be surprised how informative very peripheral information, like frequency of trash collection, can be. For this reason, they aren’t free to speak…EVER.You disappear behind the Q and cease to be an individual, you are part of the complex.
диорамы
диорамы (if it displays correctly) is Russian for diorama. I am now going to spend the afternoon looking at Russian language modelling sites such as this one with a little help from Google translate.
links for 2011-01-28
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A mini helicopter modelled on flying tree seeds could soon be flying overhead. Evan Ulrich and colleagues at the University of Maryland in College Park turned to the biological world for inspiration to build a scaled-down helicopter that could mimic the properties of full-size aircraft.
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There's not much to add to this AP story: "Pot-firing catapult found at Arizona-Mexico border". It's a catapult. It fires pot. National Guard troops spied on drug smugglers using it to shoot marijuana over the border, then seized it.
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When people say that a “deeply held religious conviction” should enable you to break anti-discrimination laws and treat gay people as second class citizens, I reply – what about the Mormons? Until 1975, they believed black people did not have souls. (They only changed their minds when the Supreme Court ruled it illegal, and God conveniently appeared to say they did have souls after all.) Should they have been allowed to run adoption agencies that refused to give babies to black people, because of their “deeply held religious conviction”?
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Artists from the city have been invited to submit a piece of work along with a paragraph of writing describing their thoughts, feelings and ruminations over what the process of destruction means for them. But this will be more than a night of simply throwing paintings on a pyre; so far the pieces pledged include a red wax skull, clay butterflies, illustrations and a sound installation through which poems are ‘blown’.
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“Star Trek: The Next Generation: A XXX Parody” is set during the sixth season of “The Next Generation”, but it will be filmed as a stand-alone movie beginning with the credits and moving into the story.
We’re in the Steamhouse in Urmston
We’re in the Steamhouse in Urmston, originally uploaded by spinneyhead.
Because it’s right by the station and we wanted to try somewhere different.
Drivers are scared of other drivers 1
There’s a lesson to be learnt from that statistic. I’m not sure Britain’s drivers are capable of comprehending it, though.
A step forward in the climate change debate
The Daily Mail reports on how a warmer Arctic could mean harsher winters for Britain. This in itself isn’t new news- the article mentions The Day After Tomorrow, the overblown disaster movie from a few years ago which used an extreme version of the theory as its basis. More recently I wrote Mia in the Snow based upon similar observations.
The big leap forward is that this article appeared in the Daily Mail, one of Britain’s foremost climate change denial newspapers. There’s the caveat- “No single season or year’s weather can be attributed to changing climate.”- but it’s immediately followed by- “However, the UK could see more snowy winters, similar to last month’s freeze.” Straight reporting of climate change from the Daily Mail, where they accept that the scientists know what they’re talking about and therefore have more merit than some bloke down the pub? Hell (but sadly not the Arctic) may well be about to freeze over.
Of course, the comments thread is full of the usual pseudo/non-scientific blather you’d expect from the denial crowd, but that’s to be expected.
links for 2011-01-27
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Each Kindle Single presents a compelling idea–well researched, well argued, and well illustrated–expressed at its natural length. From an elaborate bank heist in Lifted, to Congolese rebel camps in The Invisible Enemy, to Jodi Picoult’s moving portrayal of family in Leaving Home, they offer nuanced journeys of both fact and fiction. This first set of Singles was selected by our team of editors, and includes works by Rich Cohen, Pete Hamill, Darin Strauss, and Ian Ayres. We hope you enjoy reading them as much as we have.
Guest blog: Cole Drewes
My path of being an indie author…it isn’t as lonely as you think!
So most of you have probably been reading about the buzz of self-publishing within the last couple of years. Authors like Joe Konrath, Zoe Winter’s, and Amanda Hocking are some of the author’s I’ve kept an eye on because of two reasons. The three above with countless other authors have broken the mold of self-publishing authors (indie authors). The above authors have sold the same amount or more books than most traditional published authors and they are doing it without the backing of a large publishing company.
I wrote Hounds of Heaven two years ago. One year was spent writing and the next year editing. All of this was done while I was working a full time job, being a full time husband and a new father! I still find time to edit my novel here and there before I release it on Amazon in March! I’m excited and extremely nervous as the release of my first novel approaches! Will people hate it or will they love it? I’ve tried to edit as much as I can but I wasn’t born to edit!
Now what I find interesting is how many are quick to bash the bad novels coming out of the new self-publishing revolution. I’ll agree that many people are publishing their novels simply thinking that they’ve written something of pure genius. Why edit my novel? Why spend time on the cover or market my novel? I shouldn’t have to do any of that because my novel is that amazing! It’s this group that gives the haters ammunition against self-publishing authors.
You can subscribe to my blog at:
I’ve recently started a project through Kickstarter which is a donation website for indie projects. On the site you’ll find artists looking to fund their movie, music, or writing projects. My goal is $500 but I didn’t really start the project for the money. I saw it as a way to advertise my novel and give away some really cool gifts that won’t be available anywhere else! My kickstarter project is below:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/coledrewes/urban-fantasy-novel-hounds-of-heaven
Note This is the post Cole wrote for me as part of a blog tour. I have a post at his blog all about why I haven’t been writing as much as I should so far this year.
links for 2011-01-26
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The government should sell the most expensive wines in its cellars to help "make ends meet", a Labour MP has said.
Official documents show the collection includes a Chateau Petrus 1978, estimated to be worth £2,500 a bottle, and a Chateau Latour 1955, with a value of around £1,000.
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Many slang terms for police officers exist. The terms are also applied by inmates toward uniformed prison staff. These are often used by the public rather than the police themselves. Many are considered offensive.
Bierwelt
I am, eventually, going to Interrail around Europe. I’ve been promising myself this for the last few years. It’s already looking like this isn’t the year I’ll do it, though it should be the one where I start putting aside the money to fund it.
In the mean time, I’ll keep adding places to the list of locations to visit. Such as Bierwelt, profiled today on BoingBoing, a Bavarian beer-centric theme park. The park is 90 kilometres from Munich and can be reached by train. The fact that it involves beer automatically puts it near the top of the (as yet unstarted if I’m honest) list.
links for 2011-01-25
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Genghis Khan has been branded the greenest invader in history – after his murderous conquests killed so many people that huge swathes of cultivated land returned to forest.
The Mongol leader, who established a vast empire between the 13th and 14th centuries, helped remove nearly 700million tons of carbon from the atmosphere, claims a new study.
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On March 27, 1999, during the height of NATO’s air war on Serbia, a very smart and very lucky Serbian air-defense commander achieved the seemingly impossible. Firing three 1960s-vintage SA-3 missiles, Col. Zoltan Dani managed to shoot down an attacking U.S. Air Force F-117 stealth fighter-bomber piloted by Lt. Col. Dale Zelko. NATO commanders had been sending the alliance’s planes, including the stealth attackers, into Serbia along predictable routes, allowing Dani to carefully plan his missile ambush.
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Building a “traffic internet” of vacuum tubes that zip drivers to anywhere on earth in under an hour and circumnavigate the globe in two hours might sound like science fiction, but work on vehicles capable of tube-travel is already underway.
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It should have been a national story with heavy coverage. The hook, on its face, seems tailor-made for breathless coverage: last week in Spokane, Washington state, a suspected rightwing terrorist attempts to murder multiple parade-goers who are out to celebrate the life of an American hero killed by a rightwing terrorist 43 years ago. The talking heads would have an endless series of important-sounding questions to ask – with "political vitriol" and "hate", no doubt, figuring highly. Experts in counterterrorism, hate groups and racial politics could be brought on as guests, alongside shocked near-victims of this thwarted bombing, which FBI officials have described as sophisticated and potentially able to kill numerous people.
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British police believe Steven Greenoe, 37, a former US Marine who lives in Shrewsbury, bought the weapons including Glock 9mm pistols, legally in gun shops in North Carolina and then put them in his hold luggage.
The alleged smuggling operation was discovered after weapons seized from criminals in the North West of England were traced back to America. One of them was found to have been used in a drive-by shooting in Manchester.
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A former B-2 stealth bomber engineer has been jailed for 32 years by a US court for selling military secrets to China.
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The loathing the Conservative party and its newspapers harbour towards the BBC is an odd phenomenon. How they detest it, not just for particular faults, but because its very existence is an affront to everything they believe about markets. There it stands – a great monolithic arm of the state – yet one of the most successful, envied and admired organisations in the world, the wellspring of success for our creative industries. It breathes the Britishness conservatives are supposed to conserve, yet they itch to pull it apart.
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It's bonus season, the time of year when bankers show us what they really believe. As soon as they get their money, they spend much of it on land and houses. They know that these are safer investments than the assets in which they trade. If they trash the economy again, they at least will survive.
This year the frenzy will be almost as bad as ever. But it could have been worse. Here is the story, revealed by a leaked document, of how our government covertly tried – and failed – to kill tougher European rules on bankers' bonuses, and how the chancellor of the exchequer appears to have misled parliament
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Thousands of protesters are expected to take to the streets on a march against the ‘triple whammy’ of spending cuts affecting young people.
Between five and ten thousand protesters are expected at a march from Manchester city centre to Fallowfield where a rally will be held.
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The existing food system is failing half of the people on Earth, the report finds, with 1 billion going hungry, 1 billion lacking crucial vitamins and minerals from their diet and another billion "substantially overconsuming", leading to obesity epidemics. Stresses on the food system are reflected in price spikes but the cost of food will rise sharply in coming decades, the report adds, which will increase the risk of conflict and migration.
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Duke Nukem will return to consoles after nine years in a new title, Duke Nukem Forever, due for release in May.
The foul mouthed hero will try to save the world from aliens once again, with the new title available on PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.
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A building site manager who led a double life as a drug dealer was kidnapped and murdered by a masked armed gang, a jury heard.
A little wander along the Manchester Ship Canal 3
For several years I’ve been saying I wanted to cycle the length of the Manchester Ship Canal, starting or ending in Port Sunlight. This year I need to stop saying it and actually do it. On Saturday I did a test ride along a bit of the canal.
For the ride proper I intend to catch a train to or from Port Sunlight so that I’m only riding one way. For Saturday’s partial ride there was to be no train intervention. I set myself a basic target- reaching a landmark I had identified on Google Maps or doing 15 miles from home base- at which point I would turn around and come back.
I had to ride out to the Trafford Centre then the Barton road bridge, where I would join the canal. One of the wonders of Google Maps is the satellite view, which let me get an idea of the lay of the land along the canal’s banks. This led me to the North shore being a better bet for access to land close to the water. I’m easily distracted, though, and stopped off in Stretford to get a couple of photos.
Love that Deco frontage. I’ve taken a few photos over the years of the curved frontage of the bingo hall just around the corner, but only just noticed this. An architectural wander of Stretford is in order, I think.
I resisted photo ops the rest of the way to Barton, crossed the bridge, headed down side roads and gingerly made my way past a gaggle of geese and swans (swans are huge, and I still have a little bit of fear of them left over from the time one attacked me when I was about seven) and found myself on Langland Drive.
The GPS on my phone went a little mad on Langland Drive and put me in a lot of places other than where I actually was. There’s a lot of work going on on the wasteland west of the motorway, but no indication yet of what’s going to be there. After a while I reached a lock complex, which was closed to the public. The road curved away from the canal so I started following paths through the undergrowth and trees. This was almost too much for my tourer, a cyclocross bike might have been better suited, a mountain bike would have had no problems but would also have been overkill. Just beyond the locks, on the other side of the canal, was a loading dock of some sort.
A little further on was a spur off the canal, with a scrap yard and this precarious piece of parking on one side of it.
There are still reminders of whatever used to be here, in amongst the trees.
I could have joined the road soon after this, but I stubbornly stuck to the path through the trees until I reached Irlam Locks.
Pride comes before a flat, and my front tyre punctured a little way on from the locks. I’m surprised that I only picked up the one thorn considering the number of brambles draped across the path. For some reason, my phone’s GPS could work out where I was to within 7 metres whilst I fixed the tyre. To make things worse, the puncture had happened within sight of my target.
(Not the locomotive- satellite view’s not that good- the bridge.)
My landmark, the first option for turning back, was thirteen and a half miles into my ride. I didn’t feel like retracing my route, so I carried on, knowing there’s a road bridge over the canal a couple of miles further on. I headed back toward the Trafford Centre on the South side of the canal where, as I’d thought, it was harder to get close to the water’s edge. However, I did find this redundant level crossing on the road to Flixton.
The brief period when I could get close to the water did give me a different view of the mysterious dock from earlier and the locks just upstream from it.
Then it was on to the Trafford Centre for doughnuts (to undo all the good that 30 miles of cycling had done) and a poor coffee before finishing the trip.
Next time I think I shall carry on along the canal to the end. I doubt I can make it all the way along the northern shore, and if I do I may then have to backtrack several miles until I can get across to the side with railway stations on it. I think I’ll wait until it’s a lot warmer.
RIP How to Save the World for Free
How to Save the World for Free was my Green blog, which I ran for a few years. I haven’t posted on it for a while because I decided to bring all the subjects I cover back onto Spinneyhead rather than carrying on running multiple niche sites. The domain will lapse soon, and I’ve decided not to renew it. For posterity, and the search engines, I have imported all the posts from the site into Spinneyhead.
I shall continue covering Green issues here at Spinneyhead. In fact, a bit of nostalgia for How to Save the World for Free makes me think I should increase eco coverage here.
links for 2011-01-24
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Olympic champion Victoria Pendleton has hit out at the state of Britain’s roads – saying potholes are putting cyclists in danger.
Pendleton, 30, from Wilmslow, is backing a campaign to encourage councils to repair ravaged streets.
As reported in the M.E.N, a table by the national cyclists organisation – the CTC – showed nine out of Greater Manchester’s 10 local authorities had repaired fewer than half of potholes reported in the last year.
Thing
They didn’t know where it had come from, who had made it or what it was for. But it was pretty, so they left it there and admired it.
Until the day it split open.
Let’s add some more to the wishlist
Today is my day to covet cars I find on eBay. I’m watching Top Gear on iPlayer and not being impressed by the supercars, as usual. I’d rather have something like this Ginetta G15, a two seater sports car powered by a Hillman Imp engine. This one’s got a few race inspired modifications, including a rather funky front spoiler. It needs a little work, but at £4,300 it costs less than the wheelnuts from a Lamborghini.
Less sporty, but in its own strange way a bit exotic, is this old Russian Volga. For £1,850 I could see it becoming the basis for a very special lead sled.
Back onto sporty cars, how about a Datsun 260Z, or Sunbeam Alpine?
As this is me day-dreaming about classic cars I’d usually end the post with a Citroen DS or Traction Avant, but I can’t find any listed today.
Kindle book review: Fifth Avenue
I found out about this book on a forum. The author was offering reciprocal reviews for anyone who would review it. Then it turned up in the top sellers list at Amazon, so I thought I’d buy it. I have not taken up the review offer, maybe I should.
The action takes place, mostly, on the eponymous Manhattan street as billionaire George Redman gears up for his biggest ever deal. His favoured daughter Celina will play an important role whilst neglected child Leana is left to her own devices. However, someone wants to scupper the deal and destroy the family. (I won’t spoiler the bad guy for you, though the Amazon blurb does.)
Throughout the book I was reminded of a sort of mini series popular in the eighties, where unpleasant things happened to unpleasant people and we were supposed to care just because they were rich. None of the characters is particularly likeable, though that may be because none of them ever develops much of a character to care about. They just lurched from one unlikely event to the next, reacting in ways that left me wondering how Redman and his nemesis could ever have become so rich whilst being so dumb and devoid of empathy.
Sometimes you can get past flat characterisation with a fast paced plot, interesting background details and neat set pieces. Sadly Fifth Avenue doesn’t supply those either. The lives of the rich and infamous are reduced to name checking expensive brands and little else, and one of the most important and dramatic scenes in the book left me unmoved. The ludicrous revenge plan which drives the whole story is equally empty and uninspiring. What could have been a key sequence- where the big deal is brokered and the battling corporations make play and counter-play, revealing and tipping each others hands- all happens offscreen whilst uninspiring melodrama continues on the page.
I didn’t enjoy this book. But the author got my money, and the book is a best seller, so perhaps I’m the one who’s doing things wrong.
On second thoughts, maybe I won’t ask for the reciprocal review.
Marbella Bangers
This is the sort of thing I’d like to try. The Marbella Bangers run is a poor man’s Gumball Rally, with participants being restricted to vehicles costing less than £1000 instead of being allowed supercars. The next event is in March and, as the name suggests, is headed to Marbella. Entry costs £225 and proceeds go to Help for Heroes.
Batmobile!
I’m still surfing the strange and cool cars on eBay, and have just found a Batmobile. It’s one of three based upon the TV series car, produced for promo work. £23,000 will buy you the right to say “Atomic batteries to speed” every time you go for a drive.