February 2012
69 posts
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Reuse and craft
I was looking at my ‘normal’ rubbish bin today - as you sometimes do. If I’ve been good and put all the recyclable stuff in the right places there really isn’t much left in the ‘normal’ bin. Looking at it - well rummaging a bit - it seems to be just different bits of plastic (not bottles) but bags, wrappers and support that goes inside recycable boxes.
So the...
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Something I've Heard
“Something I’ve Heard” parody lyrics with apologies to Adele
I've heard
Your song around
That you had a hit
And you're famous now
I've heard
Your song is on loop
Playing on the radio
Is it time for something new?
The same song
Why is it on repeat
Ain't like you can't sing
Or come up some other thing
I hate to sound so cruel
We're cool
Could I say nothing
And hope it would go...
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Filming locations - Vancouver...
I have been poking around the advanced search of IMDB and specifically the filming locations field.
There are some fairly obvious ones. Los Angeles has 51,221 times as a location (which seems to include studio filming) which means that London also notches up 10,305 hits. Other cities in the UK such as Glasgow, Newcastle and Manchester only rack up hits in the hundreds. While Sydney has 2,141.
...
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Routemaster 2 - Boris Buses?
The Guardian is reporting the realisation of one of Boris Johnson key pledges in becoming Mayor of London. The Routemaster 2 will appear on the busiest London route - Victoria to Hackney. Two staircases and three sets of doors seems excessive but the core to Boris’s dream seems to be the ability to step on and off the back of a bus.
It is probably best to reserve judgement. Who knows, it...
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and in the latest science news
And elsewhere in the latest news scientists now believe that a mild drought killed off the Mayan civilisation. This is a significant step forward as scientists had previously believed that a severe drought was responsible for the end of the Mayan civilisation.
The apparently subtle difference between definitions of ‘mild’ and ‘severe’ will obviously be the basis of vexed...
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Catbus vs Hippobus
I noticed today that there is a Hippobus in the Disney Store. Don’t quite know which show this is attached to - Jungle Junction? - but clearly a character in one of their animation series.
I can’t but help wonder if some of the creatives at Disney think that they are the only people in the English speaking world who have watched “My Neighbour Totoru”… and...
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“Foodkingdom Distributors”
– Sometimes spacing and making sure that you can absolutely spot the ‘d’ is important in naming student projects.
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“I’m at Swinton Police Station (Salford)”
– Some Foursquare checkins prompt more questions than they answer - Swinton Police Station??
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Pathetic Motorways →
On the hunt for information about the Princess Parkway I stumbled onto Pathetic Motorways. In effect a compendium of motorways that were planned, possibly even started, lost but definitely never completed as they were envisaged in such a way that they are still with us. This litany of incomplete sparks of genius spans almost the entirety of the 20th Century.
Curiously, there a number of these...
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Free Cabin Porn →
This one was potentially moving in a worrying direction. This tumblr blog helps to prove that despite the differences in names (cabin, shed, huts, etc) there is some sort of cultural need to build enclosed spaces in unusual and remote places with a variety of different materials. Sometimes that need encourages a clustering of small buildings and sometimes not.
Viewing this blog produces some...
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Stocking is the new planking →
Stocking as in imitating stock photography from sites like iStockphoto and others rather than anything else you might be thinking of. Perhaps the question should be, “Is stocking the new planking” (at least it won’t kill or hurt anyone). A rather unexpected turn of direction for a meme. But equally a potentially interesting commentary/critique (maybe) on this particular...
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Orwell vs Huxley →
“Amusing ourselves to death” - A cartoon version of Postman’s 2009 comparative analysis of the predictions of Huxley and Orwell. The conclusions are perhaps surprising - the impact and attraction of “all the we hate” vs “all that we love”.
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List of unsolved murders in the UK →
One of Wikipedia’s less cheery articles. The initial sentence is perhaps a statement of the obvious - this is an incomplete list. The list covers the range from 1717 to 2010 in date order (given that there are probably few other ways of ordering a list like this).
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Food Finish
You know those times when ‘normal’ coloured food is not good enough? Those times when you look at the plate of flat food (i.e. food that can be slid under a door - a vague reference to Coupland’s Microserfs) and then “why isn’t this gold colour”? Maybe your roman toga party needs that extra lift, to set it out from last week’s toga party. After all toga...
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Me and Facebook (we've got issues)
With apologies to The Saturdays - you might need to have played Zynga’s Hidden Chronicles to get the first few lines - or not. As a side note this started out as a Valentine’s Day parody and somehow morphed in the direction of Facebook - not quite sure how that happened.
Ohhh Dear
One time
I felt like I was going
To find,
A small box left nearby where
you were kind,
But then you...
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Mineral Water Companies in the UK
The UK seems to have a positive abundance of mineral water brands. Some admittedly appear to be multiple name for the same company but others are just near neighbours (good water?). There isn’t really any pattern or sense to the location of the various springs (the real point of this exercise in the first place). There are some definitely unusual locations - Thornaby near Middelesbrough...
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#missingmicah →
The Guardian is reporting that Micah Richards - Manchester City defender - recently quit Twitter after sustained racist. Micah has not wanted to report the incidents for fear of inciting more abuse and consequently will not be investigated (as if racism is a personal attack rather than a societal ill!).
Considering the other incidents in football this weekend (both Terry/Capello and Suarez/Evra)...
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Sock shoes
Barefoot running has been floating around for a while. I have been tempted by the Vibram five-fingers for a while now. Lightweight and ‘all but’ barefoot but as a colleague proved when he bought his - they can be tricky to fit as they do not work on conventional shoe sizing.
Gizmag is running a story about Swiss protection socks. These work on the same principle as the five-fingers...
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Choosing a Football Manager
I’m sure someone must have suggested this but there is just one certain way of selecting the best candidate for the ‘impossible job’, England football manager.
It is a proven metric of many years standing that is a comprehensive test of keyskills necessary to manage a football team of variable quality…
Surely the high scores from all the different platforms are stored...
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I'm Very Fond
(with apologies to Robyn Fenty aka Rihanna and Adam Wiles aka Calvin Harris)
Greasy cookers in the store
Waiting for the chips to fry
Salt and vin'gar on my mind
Maybe some sauce on the side
How to get it home warm on the late night bus
Make my Thursday night come true
I'm very fond of Hoke and Plaice
I'm very fond of Hoke and Plaice
I'm very fond of Hoke and Plaice
I'm very fond of Hoke and...
