2023 End of Year Model Retrospective
Here are all the models I’ve put up build videos for this year. A nice eclectic mix, I think you’ll agree.
Monthly archives: December 2023
Only a ninja can watch all the ninja movies
The Bad Movie Bible is One of those treasures of YouTube producing content that would never find space in television schedules but can still get millions of views. This overview of the ninja sub genre of action cinema is a good example.
LA’s garbage fights back
Two of the largest landfill sites serving Los Angeles are suffering underground chemical reactions undermining their stability and releasing toxins and greenhouse gasses. How many more such dumps are pumping out methane, I wonder?
In a comic or a b-movie, the waste stew would have been hit by lightning and become some sort of shambling monster. But real life gives us the rotten egg stink of hydrogen sulphide and the long term horror of climate change.
via bldblg
Merry Christmas to Ukraine
Ukraine is celebrating Christmas today, rather than on the traditional Russian date of January 7th.
Or maybe on both dates. Which they deserve.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-67816987?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA
Keir Starmer is fucking infuriating
The Labour leader is scared of what the Tories might say about the costs of environmental spending, so may cut back what is pledged. He’s too quick to make life easy for himself by avoiding the policies that will make life better for the rest of us.
Unless he really screws up, Starmer will be the next Prime Minister. A Labour government will be better for the country than a Conservative one. But that’s an incredibly low bar, and the current Labour leadership seem interested in only just clearing it. They have no aim but power, and no imagination about what they’ll do with it.
Ho Ho Owwww! Risk of penile fractures rises at Christmas
This article made me wince several times, so it’s only fair that I share the pain. Ti’s the season, and all that.
I’m single, so I guess I’m safe from the risk of this happening. 🙂 🙁 :-S
Risk of penile fractures rises at Christmas, doctors find | Christmas | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/dec/20/risk-of-penile-fractures-rises-at-christmas-doctors-find
I told you I was ill…..
People suffering from Illness Anxiety Disorder- what used to be called hypochondria- can die up to five years earlier than those without it, a study has found. There’s no conclusive reason why this happens yet, but increased stress may play a large part.
When the Sahara was green
Wobbles of the Earth on its axis have created periods when the Sahara was savannah rather than desert. These periods recur roughly every 21,000 years, and the last one was around 10,000 years ago. Counterintuitively, the greeting happened when the tilt moved the Northern Hemisphere so it was warmer, which increased humidity and rainfall. It’s not clear whether climate change is going to have a similar effect, or if that would matter with all the other problems it causes.
RIP Andre Braugher
I’ve not watched Brooklyn nine nine, so my memory of Braugher is from Homicide: Life on the Street. But he gave great performances in everything else I saw him in too.
Manchester Model Railway Show 2023
Another turnout of great layouts. I hope I’ve caught all of them in this video.
Bonus- look out for the Spinneyworld product found on one of the layouts (I’m not subtle.)
Lucky Dip Treasures from Manchester Model Railway Show
My video from Manchester Model Railway Show 2023 will be edited over the next day or two, and published as soon as it’s finished. In the mean time, here’s an unboxing of the mystery bags I bought myself.
Save our skateparks
I don’t often think of stuff from the 70s as being historic, or consider the architectural and cultural significance of places like skatepark. But this piece looks at a few sites worthy of rescue and memorialising.
How (cyber) safe is Sellafield?
Growing up in West Cumbria, Sellafield had a big presence in everyone’s lives, and I worked there for a year before university. It is not reassuring to hear how vulnerable it may be to cyber attack.
An aside- the ‘golfball’ building, which I think was an experimental fast breeder reactor, gets used in so many reports on the site. But I think it was decommissioned before I even worked there in the eighties, and has been a mostly empty shell ever since.
At last! A union I may qualify to join
Please subscribe to the Spinneyworld Models YouTube channel, and its little brother Spinneyhead Books.
As I’ve been a temp for most of my working life, I’ve never felt that there was a union that I belonged in. As my YouTube channel grows, it’s possible one of the nascent creator unions (though some don’t call themselves that) may be a match for me.
The gnomes have got bombs!
100 year old unexploded naval missile found in Welsh garden.
Are we Transhuman yet?
No, obviously not, because brain scanning is nowhere near powerful enough. But what if it were? This article gives a quick overview of the physical, biological, and philosophical questions around the subject.
Is India carrying out assassination abroad
It’s alleged that Indian intelligence operatives (or assassins hired by them) have been targeting Sikh activists abroad. The cases cited in this report were in Canada and the USA, but if it’s been happening there, it’s happened in other countries too.
Foreign kill teams on the streets is definitely thriller material, but I don’t think India’s religious turmoil is the background most script writers would run with.