Monday 18 October 2010

Tyre pressure guide

This is a useful site for UK drivers, if you want to know the correct tyre pressures for your car. All you do is enter your car's registration number:

http://www.national.co.uk/information/tyre-pressure.aspx

Sunday 17 October 2010

Website to find prehistoric sites

The above website, "Megalithic", allows you to search for prehistoric monuments by area and type. Hillforts, standing stones, carved figures etc.

Tuesday 12 October 2010

Use the power of imagination

"I discovered as a child that the user interface for reprogramming my own brain is my imagination. For example, if I want to reprogram myself to be in a happy mood, I imagine succeeding at a difficult challenge, or flying under my own power, or perhaps being able to levitate objects with my mind. If I want to perform better at a specific task, such as tennis, I imagine the perfect strokes before going on court. If I want to fall asleep, I imagine myself in pleasant situations that are unrelated to whatever is going on with my real life.

"My most useful mental trick involves imagining myself to be far more capable than I am. I do this to reduce the risk that I turn down an opportunity just because I am clearly unqualified. So far, this has worked well for me. I pursued a career in cartooning despite having no artistic talent. When a publisher asked me to write a book, I quickly agreed, despite having no relevant writing experience. When a business group asked me to give a humorous paid speech to their members, I said yes, despite having no meaningful experience at that sort of thing. If you spend a lot of time imagining you can run twenty miles, it makes the idea of running only ten miles seem entirely feasible.

"As my career with Dilbert took off, reporters asked me if I ever imagined I would reach this level of success. The question embarrasses me because the truth is that I imagined a far greater level of success. That's my process. I imagine big."

(Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert cartoons)

Monday 11 October 2010

The functions of money, and inflation, by Richard Daughty

A successful life

By W A Sillince (1906-1974)

Old Tahiti

George Herriman's tribute to Monument Valley, Utah

Prescient cartoon of the technological future


(From "Designing Freedom" by Stafford Beer, 1974)

The cost of a good workman

Train wreck at Montparnasse Station, 1895

Don't take money too seriously


(From "Bearwatch", October 2008)

Adam Nieman: "All the Earth's water and air"

(Source)

Political philosophy: a schematic

(Republished from "Bearwatch")

Environmental construction

Overnighting in the South Hams, we passed Dartington Primary School, which is relocating nearby to a £6 million purpose-built zero-carbon site. Interesting.

As it happens, 2009's Key Stage 2 SATS English (for 11-year-olds) was about low-environmental-impact housing - the Earthship.

(republished from Bearwatch)

A superb rugby try - Barbarians v All-Blacks, 1973

William Blake: "A Divine Image"

Hungry kitten

Cooker powered by sunlight

(Source)

Escape to the past

An artist's impression of a sixth century Welsh village, Llanbadarn Fawr. Life must have been fairly tough then but the picture makes you want to be there anyway.

Rude but funny: erogenous zones

Animation: "The Big Snit" by Richard Condie

A lovely quiet holiday resort


Torcross, Devon (picture by author, 2010). The Start Bay Hotel serves the best fish and chips anywhere.

Climbing out of the hole



In Totnes, even the panhandlers have style. Actually, Graham Walker is not a beggar but a Big Issue seller, and when we met him he was dressed like a Victorian entertainer in top hat and long coat, selling his personal broadsheet called the Big Tissue - far better than the regular magazine, in my opinion. He had a stuffed dog and a notice asking us not to feed it.

Graham is clever and witty and has written a book (I bought it - it's very good), called "Unsettled: In a hole, climbed a mountain". (Cheque or P.O. for £7.99 payable to "K. Walker", 48 Thornleigh Road, Horfield, Bristol BS7 8PH). He also has a blog (http://bigtissue.blogspot.com/) which currently just has a video sidebar including the YouTube thing here, which tells his story in brief and is well worth watching.

Graham has raised large amounts for charity - the poor are the most generous to the poor.

(republished from "Bearwatch")

Fuel efficiency

(Click to enlarge)

Romany Wedding (jazz number)


BOBAN MARKOVIC-RROMANO BIJAV-LA BELLEVILLOISE
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