We Know It’s Fake, But…

All this kerfuffle about hated publisher Elsevier unleashing the trademark hounds on the amusing FakeElsevier Twitter account, thereby triggering the Streisand Effect, reminded me of an old story from my hometown of Bedford, UK. In the late 1980’s, the local newspaper had a notice in it, advertising that a Fake Alexander O’Neal was going to… Continue reading We Know It’s Fake, But…

Great Power, Responsibility Etc.

Cassie is starting a new documentary project, and there’ll be lots about that on here in the coming months. She has an old Sony PD150 MiniDV camcorder, which was quite the thing back in the early 00’s. (That will be going up on eBay soon, so if you’re interested, let me know.) Tapes and Standard… Continue reading Great Power, Responsibility Etc.

Both Bars On is five years old today « Both Bars On

Both Bars On is five years old today « Both Bars On.

Tossing over a bit of love to me mates at Both Bars On today – 5 years of top shelf music blogging. Also happy birthday to BBO’s Bon, the northern contingent, sending out those klaxon calls of post-rave library-shelf knob-twiddling to the rain-sodden masses.

Chairs!

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Kaufmann Mercantile Store

Kaufmann Mercantile Store.

I want a lot of these things. Not in any real sense, mind you, but in a kind of “oo that looks” nice sense. Getting excited about brushes.

Similar to the world market of Kiosk Kiosk, which I think I’ve linked to before. And I’ve definitely linked to Manufactum, especially this lovely watch.

Just things.

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Acid Rain Test

My new Tingleys rubber overshoes really proved their worth this morning. It was absolutely shiteing it down, so Cassie suggested she drop me at the BART station, rather than have me wait in the rain for the bus. Nice idea, very welcome. Unfortunately, the traffic was awful, and it turns out BART cannot handle rain… Continue reading Acid Rain Test

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Classy Loaded Magazine?

Ugh, rotten rainy day, Cassie is ill, I’m feeling uninspired and still feeling the effects of the time change, and then I sit down and read Esquire magazine, and it not only says that “real men” don’t do this and that (including referring to chores as “chores”, WTF?), but nobody’s favorite self-obsessed interviewer Scott “Don’t Confuse Me… Continue reading Classy Loaded Magazine?

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Chinese High-Speed Rail Section Collapses – WSJ.com

Chinese High-Speed Rail Section Collapses – WSJ.com.

This is rotten, of course. It was an unused, newly built section. But it will no doubt be used by the NIMBYs down the peninsula and the “fiscal conservatives” and wealthy landowners in the Central Valley as ammunition. Before these problems with the Chinese HSR, they were saying, “Why can’t California build as fast as China?”. Now they will say, “See? HSR systems never work and they always collapse and it’s a dangerous waste of money and we should fix every other single thing wrong in our state before we even consider an integrated public transportation system”.

It’s the same double standard they use with Maglev. Magnetic Levitation is an unproven (at our required scale) and very expensive method of building guideway and propulsion for trains. But “why isn’t California building Maglev? It’s the future! China is beating us!”. No, we’re building state-of-the-practice, proven, off-the-shelf, steel-wheel-on-steel-rail high-speed tracks and trains. “But that is too expensive!” So you want an unproven R&D project, but not a proven system?

Gah, rainy Tuesday morning. Thank goodness for the Tom Tom Club.

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I’m Local Tech Support

Multiple tech issues bombarding me right now. Luckily my little laptop is now up and running Lubuntu with my default user account, thanks to some support over on #mofirc (thanks dusty!), so I can at least post this and get some stuff done. Cassie is getting her film stuff going again, and because it will… Continue reading I’m Local Tech Support

Malt Loaf Attempt

I wanted to make my own malt loaf, having remembered how much I loved it in the UK. Friend Siobhan sent me a recipe from Mary Berry, and I set to work acquiring the ingredients. A bit of translation from the UK recipe to the US was involved: UK to US translation 5 fluid ounces… Continue reading Malt Loaf Attempt

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