Meme-Free Zone

Tags:	sarcasm
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Subject:	A neat idea for Tom Clancy to write...
Time:	08:47 pm

For various reasons I've read the Evening Standard much more often than usual this week, and noticed that they're continuing their steady "London must have a new airport / Enlarged Heathrow or die" campaign, which I suspect may owe more than a little to the company's shareholding in British Airport Authority and/or a wilful disregard for alternatives - such as questioning the assumption that the current rise in aviation traffic will continue indefinitely.

One obvious reason why not is fuel prices, of course, and the possibility that sooner or later the stuff will genuinely run out, but there must be alternatives. The idea that came to mind is as follows:

Hollywood likes British villains, especially attacking the USA
Tom Clancy likes environmental groups as bad guys
People like disaster novels / movies
There seems to be a widespread disbelief in global warming in certain areas
Aircraft are perceived as being involved in global warming etc.
America owes a very high percentage of the world's aircraft
Fuel shortages might ground aircraft
Volcanoes have done a much better job in recent years.

Therefore the perfect Tom Clancy novel will involve a group of British ecoterrorists triggering American volcanoes (and eventually the Yellowstone supervolcano) so as to put so much dust into the air that virtually all aviation is grounded and most of the USA is destroyed.

It needs a bit of technobabble to explain why the dust, fumes etc. from the volcano are acceptable to the terrorists, of course, but I'm pretty sure Clancy could rise to the occasion.

I await my royalty cheque...

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May 14th, 2012

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Subject:	Selling on ebay...
Time:	09:17 am

I seem to have acquired an extra set of plug adapters for my iBook - since I'mthey duplicate adapters I already had I'm unlikely to use them, so I've decided to sell them on eBay. British, UK/Euro razor, US, and something I'm not sure of.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/130696274237

Starting at 99p with no reserve, ending next Sunday.

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May 12th, 2012

Tags:	batman, dc comics, fanfic, supergirl, the avengers
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Subject:	Fanfic - Supergirl / DC / The Avengers - Cat Chaser
Time:	01:40 pm

Supergirl Returns #12 - previous stories in this series are
On Twisting the Hellmouth
On Archive of Our Own
It may help if you've read the previous story, Five Dates Supergirl Didn’t Enjoy… And One She Did, which introduces several plot elements, but it isn't essential.

( Cat Chaser )

Comments please before I post to archives.

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May 11th, 2012

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Subject:	7" iPad???
Time:	08:44 pm

Interesting if true - might tempt me into the iPad camp.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/9260047/Apple-plans-7-inch-iPad-for-October.html

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Subject:	Mass Observation Day tomorrow
Time:	10:03 am

Just been reminded by

curiouswombat that it's Mass Observation Day for this year tomorrow. This is a project for anyone and everyone to keep a diary for Saturday, May 12th, and e-mail it so that it becomes part of an archive of everyday life in Britain. The first Mass Observation Day was in 1937,and they have, more recently, become an annual event again, building up an archive of everyday life in Britain.

They want as many different participants as possible - why not join in?

The full details, including what to do with your one-day diary after you have written it, are here:

http://www.massobs.org.uk/12may.html

I know that a lot of people also post their entry to livejournal - I can't promise to do that if it turns out to be a really boring day, but we'll see.

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May 8th, 2012

Tags:	crossrail
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Subject:	Phylis has left the cutting (I think).
Time:	08:16 pm

No pictures, because there really isn't much to see, but it looks like Phylis, the giant tunnel boring machine, has set off on her travels. Looking down the bit of the cutting this evening I could see just what looked like earth coming off some sort of conveyor belt (or possibly just the rear end of the tunnelling machine) and falling into a big truck. All of the elaborate infrastructure above and around the cutting doesn't seem to be doing anything at all yet - my guess, for the little it's worth, is that they're running the machine without the huge infrastructure of conveyor belts etc. that these things seem to need while it's near the tunnel entrance, and will finish installing and connecting everything once the second machine is under way and they can install it for the duration on both sides of the cutting.

Right now the second machine (Ada) is still in the construction area further west, and they can only move it into play by jacking up the footbridge at the end of the road. We ought to get some notice of that, I hope, which will hopefully update things generally.

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May 7th, 2012

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Subject:	Since everyone else seems to be doing it...
Time:	09:07 am

My slightly blurry photo of last night's supermoon (Nikon D50, 300mm zoom), contrast enhanced a little and one spot (probably dust on the sensor) dodged out. It was slightly cloudy in London, but I'm reasonably pleased with the result.

( The Moon )

Central London around 01.00 BST.

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May 6th, 2012

Tags:	batman, dc comics, fanfic, supergirl
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Subject:	Five Dates Supergirl Didn’t Enjoy… And One She Did - 6 (DC / Batman / Supergirl)
Time:	09:19 pm

Supergirl Returns #11 - previous stories in this series are
On Twisting the Hellmouth
On Archive of Our Own
Previous chapters are
On Twisting the Hellmouth
On Archive of Our Own

This is the last of six chapters. All characters belong to their respective creators, giant megacorporations of doom, etc. and there is no intent to infringe on copyright. DC Movieverse / DC Comics / Batman / Supergirl

( Five Dates Supergirl Didn’t Enjoy… And One She Did - 6: ...And One She Did )

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Subject:	The Avengers
Time:	08:29 pm

Saw it today at the urging of

rozk, +1 for people who loved it - as usual it's obvious that the plot is in part driven by the need for things that look awesome in 3D (I didn't watch it in 3D since it gives me a headache) but it really was pretty good, had some fantastic lines with the usual Whedon flourishes, and gave most of the characters things to do that weren't just fighting - Bruce Banner got to be a scientist, as did Tony Stark, Captain America was a leader as well as a fighter, and Black Widow got to do some really cool intelligence stuff. Meanwhile Thor was a total dick (no change there), Clint Barton showed just how dangerous he could be, and Nick Fury was as devious as ever.

It could have done with a little more plot, I'm not convinced that what we got made complete success, but I don't regret seeing it now, rather than waiting for the DVD. I'm hoping, though, that the DVD will have some extra scenes etc., maybe more on some of the secondary characters.

I really didn't recognise Jenny Agutter on screen, but of course she's 60 now - she got to do some interesting things. Alexis Denisof apparently played The Other, and I have no idea who or what that is - can anyone clarify?

Icon is entirely the wrong group of Avengers, but it'll do.

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May 4th, 2012

Tags:	dc comics, fanfic, supergirl, warehouse 13
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Subject:	Five Dates Supergirl Didn’t Enjoy… And One She Did. DC Movieverse / Warehouse 13
Time:	11:30 pm

Supergirl Returns #11 - previous stories in this series are
On Twisting the Hellmouth
On Archive of Our Own
Previous chapters are
On Twisting the Hellmouth
On Archive of Our Own

This is the fifth of six short chapters - I should post them reasonably quickly, I hope. All characters belong to their respective creators, giant megacorporations of doom, etc. and there is no intent to infringe on copyright. DC Movieverse / Warehouse 13

( Five Dates Supergirl Didn’t Enjoy… And One She Did - 5: Steve Jinks )

Comments please before I post to archive

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Subject:	Happiness Is...
Time:	10:14 pm

Looking up at the TV news and seeing

feorag (I'm 99% sure) standing next to the penguin that just beat the Lib-Dem candidate in Edinburgh!

Later - spotted by

pauldormer - brief glimpse near the end here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-17960490

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May 3rd, 2012

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Subject:	West Wing PSA
Time:	07:12 am

I don't know how long this has been around, but someone posted a link to it today on the TTH forums, and it was good to see it.

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/3dc51a407a/walk-and-talk-the-west-wing-reunion

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May 2nd, 2012

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Subject:	Transit of Venus - June 2012
Time:	12:13 pm

Venus will be visible transiting the sun on June 5th-6th – if I’ve read the chart right it will only be visible from the UK in the early morning and the transit will have already started at sunrise.

http://www.transitofvenus.org/

Looks like there’s some useful material including charts, iphone apps, etc.

The icon is some pictures I took of the 2004 transit. It was processed in various ways to make the moving dot clearer, the final picture of the four was slightly crooked since I was hand-holding the camera.

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Subject:	Ducking for cover
Time:	10:56 am

I walked in to work today and noticed that two of the police I passed a couple of streets from Marble Arch were carrying machine guns, presumably as part of the big pre-Olympics security exercise that's going on this week.

For some strange reason I don't find the idea of police carrying machine guns even slightly reassuring, because if they have to use them either they or someone else will be putting a lot of lead into the air, with no guarantee where any strays will end up, and little chance that the police actually have much experience under real urban combat conditions. Yet another reason for me to be SERIOUSLY annoyed by the Olympics...

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Tags:	dc comics, fanfic, west wing
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Subject:	Five Dates Supergirl Didn’t Enjoy… And One She Did. DC Movieverse / West Wing
Time:	12:21 am

Supergirl Returns #11 - previous stories in this series are
On Twisting the Hellmouth
On Archive of Our Own
Previous chapters are
On Twisting the Hellmouth
On Archive of Our Own

This is the fourth of six short chapters - I should post them reasonably quickly, I hope. All characters belong to their respective creators, giant megacorporations of doom, etc. and there is no intent to infringe on copyright.

( Five Dates Supergirl Didn’t Enjoy… And One She Did - 4: Charlie Young )

Comments please before I post to archives.

comments: 8 comments or Leave a comment

April 28th, 2012

Tags:	crossover, dc comics, fanfic, supergirl, veronica mars
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Subject:	Fanfic: DC / Veronica Mars - Five Dates Supergirl Didn’t Enjoy… And One She Did - 3
Time:	07:54 pm

Supergirl Returns #11 - previous stories in this series are
On Twisting the Hellmouth
On Archive of Our Own

This is the third of six short chapters - I should post them reasonably quickly, I hope. All characters belong to their respective creators, giant megacorporations of doom, etc. and there is no intent to infringe on copyright.

( Five Dates Supergirl Didn’t Enjoy… And One She Did - 3: Logan Echolls )

Comments please before I post to archives.

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Tags:	buffy the vampire slayer, dc, supergirl, superman returns
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Subject:	Fanfic: DC / Buffy - Five Dates Supergirl Didn’t Enjoy… And One She Did - 2
Time:	12:58 am

Supergirl Returns #11 - previous stories in this series are
On Twisting the Hellmouth
On Archive of Our Own

This is the second of six short chapters - I should post them reasonably quickly, I hope. All characters belong to their respective creators, giant megacorporations of doom, etc. and there is no intent to infringe on copyright.

( Five Dates Supergirl Didn’t Enjoy… And One She Did - 2: Xander Harris )

Comments please before I post to archives.

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April 26th, 2012

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Subject:	solidoodle
Time:	11:12 pm

Anyone know when this $500 - $600 3D printer will be available in the UK?

http://store.solidoodle.com/index.php

Best resolution is only 0.1mm, but it could still be good for models etc.

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Tags:	crossover, fanfic, ncis, supergirl
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Subject:	Fanfic: DC / NCIS - Five Dates Supergirl Didn’t Enjoy… And One She Did - 1
Time:	10:35 pm

Supergirl Returns #11 - previous stories in this series are
On Twisting the Hellmouth
On Archive of Our Own

This is the first of six short chapters - I should post them reasonably quickly, I hope. All characters belong to their respective creators, giant megacorporations of doom, etc. and there is no intent to infringe on copyright.

Note – the first encounter is a reprise of the final scene of The Return from Supergirl’s viewpoint, the others are set later.

( Five Dates Supergirl Didn’t Enjoy… And One She Did - 1: Timothy McGee )

Comments please before I post to archives.

Revised to fix the major chronological error spotted by dsample, to whom all thanks!

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April 23rd, 2012

Tags:	crossrail
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Subject:	Crossrail cacophony
Time:	11:59 pm

Horrible metallic screeching noises have been coming across the railway for the last several hours - I have no idea what they're doing, doubt it's the start of tunnelling since none of the new infrastructure seems to be fully connected yet, but we shall see.

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April 22nd, 2012

Tags:	crossrail
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Subject:	Crossrail update
Time:	07:29 pm

There continues to be not a hell of a lot to report - since the first tunnelling machine was moved into place they've been building an infrastructure - the two pictures show it as it was a week ago and as it is today.

( tunnelling preparations )

I think that the new structure will eventually carry all the cables, hoses, etc. to the tunnelling machine from a generator etc. located between Royal Oak Station and the tunnel mouth - not quite sure why it has to go over and around but there's presumably good reasons for it.

After checking out the tunnel progress I took a canal side walk, but this time decided to head west. The route here starts heading south-ish then curves round to the west parallel to Harrow Road, passing the end of Portobello Road and under Ladbroke Grove, then Kensall Green cemetery and crematorium. Off to the left behind walls etc. there are railway lines and an old disused ( gasworks )

After 45 minutes or so the weather was starting to look pretty crappy so I found the next exit from the canal bank, which turned out to be Scrubs Lane - for the uninitiated, Scrubs Lane is not an idyllic country lane, it's a very busy road lined with scrap metal recycling depots and other fun industrial stuff. Not very pretty. I slogged uphill to Harrow Road, just beating the rain to a bus shelter, then caught a bus part way home, where I stopped to get some shopping and walked the last 3/4 mile or so back home. Total distance walked about 3.5 miles according to Google Maps - next time I really must remember to take a pedometer!

Finally, a few pictures I've been meaning to upload for the last couple of weeks:

( more pics )

That's about it for now - hopefully I will eventually have some pictures of the first tunnelling machine vanishing etc., but it looks like it'll be a while before that happens.

later:

nelc has found this animation of a tunnel boring machine which makes it clearer what's happening and what all the infrastructure is for

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx_EjMlLgqY&feature=player_embedded

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April 21st, 2012

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Subject:	Salute
Time:	06:25 pm

The Salute wargames con was OK - felt a little less vibrant than last year, not quite sure why. I did think that there didn't seem to be as many easy-access participation games as usual, but that may have been my imagination. I did play a couple of scenarios - one, Gruntz, was a sort of space marine thing which I narrowly won, the other was a short 7TV scenario - the game I loved last year, which is loosely based on 1960s-70s TV - which was great fun but a disaster for me from beginning to end, and involved the annihilation of my entire team of adventurers. I can't blame anyone but myself, some very uncooperative dice were also a factor but it was mostly my own fault for completely buggering up the tactics.

Purchases were the Laundry RPG (based on the novels by C. Stross of this parish) and its scenario book Black Bag Jobs, the latest 7TV supplement On Location, and one of the Titan Judge Dredd collections. I was looking for a couple of other things but couldn't find them, and the bring and buy was almost bereft of RPG material, so not a huge amount of luck there.

So... enjoyable to an extent, I'll probably give it another go next year but if I don't feel that's more interesting it may be the last for a while.

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April 20th, 2012

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Subject:	LJArchive Fixed
Time:	06:51 pm
Current Mood:	happy

VERY good news, copied from

bandicoot posting to

ljarchive

http://syredronning.livejournal.com/1530901.html has a link to a fixed version of LJArchive. I've run it and it now works fine, both syncing entires and comments.

If you download it, be sure to thank the journal owner syredronning, who paid a coder to fix it.

I've downloaded this myself, it works!

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April 19th, 2012

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Subject:	Salute?
Time:	04:49 pm

Just realised that Salute, the big London wargames event, is this coming Saturday. Not 100% sure I fancy going - getting home was a nightmare last time, but I might try biking it rather than using public transport if the weather is nice - but is anyone here planning to go?

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April 18th, 2012

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Subject:	Warehouse 13?
Time:	05:24 pm

I notice that Eureka is back - anyone know when Warehouse 13 resumes?

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April 15th, 2012

Tags:	crossrail
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Subject:	Phyllis remains unmoved
Time:	03:38 pm

Correction to last night's post - the Giant Tunneling Machine of Doom still appears to be in a holding pattern, I think that what I may have heard last night was some roadworks on the A40 elevated section (the six-lane road that's just the other side of the railway.

Looking North, once Crossrail is complete, there will be eight railway lines (including Crossrail and the Hammersmith and City Line) and twelve lanes of roads (counting my own street, the A40, and the Harrow Road) before there's another building. And just beyond the first few buildings after that there's the canal. I suppose I should be grateful they didn't shove an airport there too...

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Tags:	crossrail
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Subject:	Phyllis digging in?
Time:	12:23 am

I'm not 100% sure but I think that Phyllis, the Giant Tunnelling Machine of Doom, actually started digging tonight. As of Friday she was still in the position she's been in for the last couple of weeks, but now there is a constant faint machinery noise which I suspect is the start of excavations. I'll take a look tomorrow morning and see if I'm right.

The next step, once Phyllis is clear of the portal, is that the next tunnelling machine - named Ada for Ada Lovelace - will be bought up to the portal and eventually start digging. As usual there don't seem to be any official announcements, but hopefully the position will be a bit clearer tomorrow.

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April 11th, 2012

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Subject:	Back in the SSR
Time:	11:17 am

For some reason the thing that stuck in my mind most vividly from the programme The Last Days of Steam which I mentioned last week was the Strategic Steam Reserve, the fleet of steam engines that were mothballed and stored underground in case they were needed after a nuclear war.

Walking in to work today, I tried to think of fiction about this idea, but can't remember any, which seems odd considering the possibilities. Unfortunately I've obviously been reading too much fanfic, since the first thing to cross my mind when I considered writing some fiction was a Thomas the Tank Engine / When the Wind Blows crossover, with Thomas trying to keep running while the Fat Controller slowly dies of radiation poisoning... [1]

It's a real shame that according to Wikipedia Britain never actually had a strategic steam reserve - some other countries did, but not the UK, the British SSR is an urban myth. But that really shouldn't stop people writing about it, of course! Paging C. Stross of this parish...

[1] Even more unfortunately, the second thing to cross my mind was Thomas / Hogwarts Express slash - you probably need magic to keep steam trains running after a nuclear holocaust, especially if the humans are dying off, and the Express obviously is magical. I will now try to bleach my brain...

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