katsmeat

Overheard in a Norwich bookshop about an hour ago by YT.

First bookshop staff member - "I found another Tony Blair in crime"
Second bookshop staff member - "Heh, not fantasy fiction?"

I think only three people on my f.list who have been passangers in a car whilst I was driving.

Though if they knew I sometimes thought this, I'm sure it would never happen again

Oopps. :)

My new, mild enthusiasm for flying boats had me randomly finding this page this morning. The text reads like it's been (badly) machine translated, which is odd as the person who wrote is seems to be British. But the pictures are wonderful. Here are my two favorites:



It's sometime in the 1930's. The big fast thing is a Short Singapore, the pilot of which is currently screaming blue murder and hauling the control column into his chest, to clear the suicidal idiot in a small boat, who is looking to win a Darwin Award.



These three seem to have just landed their Sunderland. Apparently if your plane got a hole, say from hitting some floating debris during take off, the correct procedure was to find a large, grass field and hope for the best (I suppose fixing a flying boat with a torn-up belly was easier than raising one that had sunk.) The chap on the right seems to have the happy grin of somebody who's done an awful lot of damage to something very large and expensive, but who knows there's no comeback on him. Presumably the car's there so they can top it up with left-over fuel, salvaged from the plane's tank.

Oh smooth!

How to make completely sure that even a minor crash will break all eight of your fingers.

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/05/knuckle-duster_handlebars.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890

On a cold night, a Macbook pro is as good as a hot water bottle. Just run a CPU intensive FPS in the background.

Today's eBay, a replica Roman ballista - link

I remember watching the TV program in which this was built - it was so funny.

A group of engineer/presenters set themselves the task of building a ballista in 10 days, on the basis that Roman military engineers with a career's worth of experience could do it. So obviously, modern people who'd never even seen one before would be able to match that feat.

At one point, an annoying bloke with stubble loudly and at length argued that a bronze plate, prominent on the original design, be omitted because he couldn't see what it did. It was and this may or may not have something to do with their ballista managing two shots before they had to stop firing - it was in danger of ripping itself apart.

The series was cancelled shortly after.

Interesting game...

I'm quite amused to think of the drooling level of expectation that something called 'The Graveyard', categorised under 'Action Adventure', would arouse in the hard-core, 14 year-old, gamer.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find the BFG.

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/games/action_adventure/thegraveyard.html

Sporks on a carabiner are the new black

Points and laughs.

Though I've got the same courier bag as 'Dilweed'. But not the camo one, thankfully.


----------------
Listening to: Fabulous Disaster - Down The Drain
http://foxytunes.com/artist/fabulous+disaster/track/down+the+drain

Arrrrgh!

Compare http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/feb/25/starbucks.useconomy

With http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28657

Some links...

• Sod the 1W Luxeions! I want a couple of these bad boys mounted on my handlebars! Also useful, when touring, as a camping stove!


• Cut out the middle-man! Write your own!