Discovery Bay, Hong Kong 2003.
Discovery Bay Hong Kong
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Author Archives: OldNol
Baldrin’s reviews – StumbleUpon
http://baldrin.stumbleupon.com/
Update: Grabbed a screenshot and a wayback machine link
https://web.archive.org/web/20111211094513/http://www.stumbleupon.com/stumbler/Baldrin/reviews/
Anyone who understands ‘revolving-door algorithms’… gets a thumbs up from me.
Welcome aboard!
Rockall Times: UK Residency Language Test
http://www.therockalltimes.co.uk/2005/02/21/linguistic-test.html
More NSFW humour from the pages of the Rockall Times
Wayback Machine:
Update: this is way more offensive than I remember it
Universe today flickr pool 3,000+ members, 76,000+ photos
http://www.universetoday.com/am/uploads/2005-0218planet-full.jpg
Update: Originally this was a hotlink to a particularly impressive photo which is no longer available.
I’ve replaced it with something far better. A link to the Universe Today Flickr Group. Some truly amazing photos taken by gifted amateurs.
One of the great things about astronomy is the way that ordinary people make significant contributions.
Quick link: https://flic.kr/go/gi2Cq
A Dozen New Planets Discovered: Universe today
http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/12_new_planets.html?1822005
Summary – (Feb 18, 2005)
In the last month planet hunters have uncovered 12 new worlds orbiting other stars, bringing the total planet count to 145. Two European planet hunting teams have discovered 6 gas giants as part of the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Search (HARPS), and an American team uncovered 5 more using the W.M. Keck observatory in Hawaii. And a single, Pluto-sized planet was discovered orbiting a pulsar by Penn State’s Alex Wolszczan and Caltech’s Maciej Konacki.
Rooster and Bamboo – a Painting by Xu Beihong
http://www.chinapage.com/painting/beihong/beihong04.html
Update: Original page has vanished so I tracked down another copy of the painting
The Wars of the Three Kingdoms 1642 – 1658
http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/war/
Update: Original no longer accessible so here’s an alternative full of material about The Wars of the Three Kingdoms 1642 – 1658, particularly the English Civil War.
https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/histories/the-english-civil-wars-history-and-stories/
English Heritage give plenty of links to primary source material
National Curriculum – resource for educators
http://www.nc.uk.net/
Useful resource for educators in England.
Update: The nearest I could find to the original link is this.
It also includes curricula from other countries.
Lock up, Light up, Be secure
Haven’t been able to post recently because my house was burgled and the buggers stole all my computers (x2 laptops and my beloved Mac). So I’ve had to set up a new (temporary) system. Hopefully, things will return to normal soon as I backed up my bookmarks and most of my work related files were either on a spare machine at work or existed in hard copy.
The three rules of computing are:
1) Back up your files.
2) Always backup your files.
3) Never forget to backup your files.
Good advice, but I wish I had been more diligent.
Burglars? String ’em up, it’s the only kind of language they understand!
Real Irish Republican Army (RIRA); True IRA
http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/nira.htm
From the web site:
“Suspected of receiving funds from sympathizers in the United States and of attempting to buy weapons from US gun dealers. RIRA also is reported to have purchased sophisticated weapons from the Balkans.
In May 2002, three Irish nationals associated with RIRA pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to cause an explosion and trying to obtain weapons following their extradition from Slovenia to the United Kingdom.”
Update: Glad to see this site is still with us and archived properly. The full site (The Federation of American Scientists: Intelligence Resource Program) is well worth a look:
https://irp.fas.org/index.html
I like the concept of Open source Intelligence
The war on terror – American double standards
http://www.usni.org/Seminars/AnnualMeeting/04/annualmeeting04LehmanQA-2.htm
No longer available but the quotation stands on its own…
From the page:
“Finally, there are places in the world, not very far from you, that are very friendly with you, that have accepted terrorism as the norm for 30 or 40 years. And yet, I have been to bars in Boston where I have seen collections for more aid with “Would you like to put a dollar in here to kill a British soldier?” And as far as I can see, the response of your organization has been to accept that. Even as powerful as you are, you are going to need friends in the future. You’ve needed friends in the past. And the best friends that you have, in this country, are the United Kingdom. I’d just ask you to remember that.”
Whenever I hear Americans go on about the ‘War on terror’ I remember this and I remember those who died at the hands of the IRA.
Foodhub, recipes, cooking and baking
http://food.hubcom.net/cgi-win/recipe.exe?1
Who needs to buy cookbooks when there are sites like this?
Update: back in 2005 `Recipe sites were a lot less ubiquitous than they are today. To be honest I can’t remember the last time I actually used a cookbook and not a website.
My personal go to website is the BBC, the rest I just bookmark into a folder if I like them.
Howard W French – Photos of China
http://www.howardwfrench.com/photos/Guangzhou-Nan-Hua-Xi-Jie-neighborhood/neighborhood_1
unable to trace these photos – you’ll just have to read through French’s articles on China to see them.
A Glimpse of the World – Howard W French
https://www.howardwfrench.com/reportage
The web site of Howard W French who is a senior writer for the New York Times. Plenty of quality journalism, with an oriental slant (French lives in Shanghai with his wife & 2 kids) mxed with the usual personal web site stuff.
Update: He also has a weekly column at World Politics Review
the Avcen Ltd. Jetpod
http://www.avcen.com/
Makers of the Jetpod which is ‘… to all intent and purpose a low-cost world-class city airtaxi’
I want one!
flashtastic site
Update:
It all ended in tears
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCEN_Jetpod
Discussed in detail here:
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/avcen-jetpod-vqstol.10742/
randomcarbons favorite websites – StumbleUpon
http://randomcarbon.stumbleupon.com/
https://web.archive.org/web/20050308224046/http://randomcarbon.stumbleupon.com/
Welcome aboard!
Welcome to the Home Office
Tony Blair continues to eat away at the rights of free born Englishmen. From today I have to apply to the Secretary of State for permission to marry a foreigner, this came as a shock as my fiance and I presented our documents at the registry office today.
Now I can see why the thirteen colonies rebelled against good king George all those years ago.
Criticize Lin Biao and Confucius (1974)
http://www.iisg.nl/~landsberger/plpk.html
Updated: https://chineseposters.net/posters/g2-14
The girl is holding a paper which says ‘Criticize Lin Biao and Confucius most vigorously.’
The title says ‘ Criticizing Lin Biao and Confucius is the most important issue for the Party, the People’s Liberation Army and the whole Chinese people.’
Lin Biao’s death should be the subject of conspiracy sites, I mean, what really happened to him? Unless it happened in the west or concerns secret societies with ‘arcane knowledge’ hardly anybody is interested.
Apart from http://www.odu.edu/ao/instadv/quest/linbiao.html
Which is well worth reading.
I wonder where he’s going to stick that pen?
MrPopos favorite websites – StumbleUpon
http://mrpopo.stumbleupon.com/
Update: Click here to visit on the way back machine
Thoughtful stumblings.
Free UK Sold House Prices – Nethouseprices.com
http://www.nethouseprices.com/
Brits are generally obsessed with the value of their homes. Indulge yourself, how much did that house on your street actually sell for?
A free service although you can register if you want.
Update: proof of the UK’s obsession with the value of their homes
Somebody designed a ‘better’ keyboard
http://www.tech-blog.org/story-2786.html
Update the original is lost but this ‘revolutionary’ design will have fallen by the roadside like all it’s predecessors:
There have been literally hundreds of alternative keyboards made, can’t see why this one will catch on.
David Icke Website
The lad’s done well since he was goalie for Coventry FC.
I used to have a t-shirt that bore the logo ‘David Icke says “I’m as sane as the next sheep -ba!” That was just after he claimed to be Jesus on BBC TV.
Update: Yes, he’s still peddling his weirdly dangerous, nut-job, bat-shit insane, conspiracy nonsense. More’s the pity
Photos of Stonehenge from Stonehenge.org.uk:
http://www.stonehenge.org.uk/gallery/pic01.htm
Stonehenge – Guide for visitors
Nice commercial site about Stonehenge, complete with a timeline and some good photos.
From the site:
“There is no documented purpose for this monument but it has been referred to as a burial place, a calendar, and a place of worship and sacrifice. While new research has ruled out some earlier theories, there is still no solid confirmation on the original purpose of this monument. One thing is for sure, knowing the time period that this monument was built and the lack of technology puzzles the mind and creates a worldwide fascination. If you have plans to visit England, no visit is complete without a visit to Stonehenge. The construction and purpose of this monument are still unsure by researchers, but when you walk onto this ground, you will experience a step back in the past. Some visitors find the experience majestic, celestial, or spiritual when they first encounter Stonehenge.”
NOVA Online | Nazi Prison Escape | Escaping Colditz
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/naziprison/colditz.html
If you are interested about the History of Colditz as a World War II POW camp then this is a well crafted site with views from both the Allied POWs and the German chief of security Reinhold Eggers.
From the site:
“Colditz Castle, a forbidding medieval edifice near Leipzig, Germany, was supposed to be the Nazis’ most escape-proof prison. Incorrigible Allied officers who had repeatedly escaped from other camps were sent to Colditz, the only German POW camp with more guards than prisoners. Yet English, French, Polish, Dutch, and other inmates managed to sneak out in surprising numbers. “
Colditz Gateway to Saxony : Oflag IVC
http://www.colditz-4c.com/
Update: can’t find this on the wayback machine
Colditz: See the Castle, fall in love with the town
Make something Unreal competition winner
http://www.redorchestra.clanservers.com/
…and the winner is…
Red Orchestra
This game has a distinctly chilling but yet beautiful aura about it. Stunning graphics, realistic and accurate battlefields set in the harsh and brutal reality that was the Eastern Front in Europe (1941-1945).
I also feel a little uneasy when I think about gamers choosing to fight ‘in the SS’. Remember what happened to Prince Harry. However, if you are interested in historical accuracy then it can be argued that it’s justified.
The video for Red Orchestra is awesome and is a hefty 70 MBytes download.
Rob Manuel: U2 – Vertigo
http://robmanuel.blogspot.com/2005/01/u2-vertigo.html
Update: Can’t track down the original but the blog, although not maintained anymore is still there to see:
http://robmanuel.blogspot.com/?view=timeslide
I found this little ditty via Birmingham: It’s Not Shit
http://www.birminghamitsnotshit.co.uk/brum.php
Patrick Moore Plays the Xylophone by Rob Manuel [B3TA : WE LOVE THE WEB]
http://www.b3ta.com/patrickmoore/
…and he does you know.
Cheesey animation which means something to stargazing Brits.
INDOlink Poetry – Rabindranath Tagore Collection
http://www.indolink.com/Poetry/tgorIndx.html
The above link no longer works, so here’s an alternative
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/rabindranath-tagore
Nobel Prize winner 1913
The Gift
by Rabindranath Tagore
. (This poem is from ‘The Crescent Moon’ by Tagore)
I want to give you something, my child,
for we are drifting in the stream of the world.
Our lives will be carried apart,
and our love forgotten.
But I am not so foolish as to hope that
I could buy your heart with my gifts.
Young is your life, your path long, and
you drink the love we bring you at one draught
and turn and run away from us.
You have your play and your playmates.
What harm is there if you have no time
or thought for us.
We, indeed, have leisure enough in old age
to count the days that are past,
to cherish in our hearts what our
hands have lost for ever.
The river runs swift with a song,
breaking through all barriers.
But the mountain stays and remembers,
and follows her with his love.
I’m no homophobe: my aunt lived with a horse – The Local
http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?ID=626&date=20041116
Update this links works:
https://www.thelocal.se/20041116/626-3/
It’s a funny old world, well Sweden anyway…
“I’m no homophobe: my aunt lived with a horse”
“Since Jens Orback was appointed as Sweden’s equality minister, he’s been accused of all sorts of heinous crimes against political correctness. Feminists have accused him of not taking women’s rights seriously, and in a comment piece in Aftonbladet, gay groups said that he was a `family fundamentalist, colonialist and neoconservative’.
So it was in an attempt to set the record straight that the minister took to the airwaves on Sunday. Denying that he was intolerant of sexual minorities, he told Swedish Radio’s Ekot programme “I had a wonderful aunt who lived in Canada with a horse. I thought it was wonderful. Let people live as they wish.”
Orback’s comments have done nothing to endear him to gay rights campaigners.”
The Psalter of Henry VIII – from British Library
http://www.imagesonline.bl.uk/britishlibrary/controller/textsearch?width=4&text=William%20Blake&height=5&image.y=17&image=Change%20dimensions&y=0&x=0&image.x=17&start=2&idx=2
One of the manuscripts accessible from the British Library:
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Royal_MS_2_a_xvi
British Library Images Online – A Unique Resource
http://www.imagesonline.bl.uk/britishlibrary/
Update: http://cadensa.bl.uk/uhtbin/cgisirsi/x/x/0/49/%20;%20charset=UTF-8
This should work, if it doesn’t try the British Library Catalogues and Collections page:
https://www.bl.uk/catalogues-and-collections
An incredible resource, so much to see and so much History.
Zhao Ziyang – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhao_Ziyang
公来何晚，当围城时，大节未亏，百世流芳；公去真迟，神州沉沦，壮志难酬，此恨绵绵
‘Profoundly mourning Zhao Ziyang’s death：You came too early. When we were in a crisis, you didn’t betray your principles. For generations, people will remember your good name. You went away so late, the nation is sinking in the darkness. You didn’t accomplish your vision, and will forever be resentful’
Chinese script and translation via China Digital News http://journalism.berkeley.edu/projects/chinadn/en/
Channel 4 – Religion and Belief, Derren Brown, Messiah
http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/B/believeitornot/derrenbrown.html
Update: now available as an ‘on demand’ show
https://www.channel4.com/programmes/derren-brown-the-specials/on-demand/38958-001
This show was amazing, Mr Brown is a very clever man.
“Nietzsche made the point well that we equate truth with what we merely want to believe.
Science moves forward by changing its views based on observation. A learning machine, it wants to be shown to be wrong, so that it can dispassionately correct itself and advance. It looks for what’s reliable, what holds up, searches for the bit that makes something work and shakes off unhelpful clutter.”
-Derren Brown
In the footsteps of Joseph Rock 重走洛克路
http://drjosephrock.blogspot.com/
In the footsteps of Joseph Rock is the journey of Sydney blogger Michael, following the footsteps of ‘bad-tempered and imperious’ Joseph Rock, who travelled through western Sichuan and the Tibet borderlands in the 1920s to reach Minya Konka, once thought to be the world’s highest mountain.
The writing is superb but the genius is in the photography, placing side-by-side Rock’s photos with Michael’s own equivalents taken 70 years later.”
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone
In memoriam for my dear Mother who died recently…
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message She Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
She was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
W H Auden
Whats This Song – Scenta
http://www.scenta.co.uk/whatthatsong/
Excellent! Name that tune, I got 9/10 for the Stranglers. Test your knowledge of your favourite band.
Update: focus of site has changed after 16 years but still worth checking out
Mail Preference Service
http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/mpsr/
If you live in the UK and want to stop junk mail being posted to your address then this is the site for you. It’s not 100% effective but it’s better than nothing.
“The Mailing Preference Service (MPS) is a free service set up in 1983 and funded by the direct mail industry to enable consumers to have their names and home addresses in the UK removed from lists used by the industry. It is actively supported by the Royal Mail and all directly involved trade associations and fully supported by The Information Commissioners Office (ICO).”
Google Desktop Download
http://desktop.google.com/?promo=rpp-gds-en-uk-5
The idea of Google knowing what’s on my computer, my complete web history and the content of my emails is sinister. They are not offering this service from any altruistic motive, they are a company that makes money. So what will they do with the information they harvest from my computer? Who can have access to it – commercial organisations or governments? MI5 (British Military Intelligence) and other national security agencies must love this. Despite Google’s assertion that they respect privacy I am not convinced. They have already demonstrated that they will co-operate with totalitarian governments to censor and restrict Internet access to further the interests of their shareholders so basically I don’t trust them.
Update: Google desktop ceased to be in September 2011