greensteam

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• Commented on Mind the Gap: A compendium of disturbing British public information films
  I was in the UK merchant navy in the 1970s and safety films were spliced onto the front of all the feature films (actual reels of film, long before VHS etc). The safety films were made by the British Shipping...
• Commented on Free parking costs a fortune
  #30 and others are right. There are no free lunches and no free parking. Everything costs. As a city councillor here in central Glasgow I know that developers feel in a bind: they believe no one will take space in...
• Commented on Devices for storing your baby
  #16 is probably right but the pictures look singularly unlikely to be as safe as he would build. As an engineer and mum, I would not trust my baby's life to the leverage exerted on the single supporting bar across...
• Commented on History of the US-USSR hotline
  Not nearly as cool as this one, but I found a hotline languishing in a committee room drawer at our City Council Chambers, just last week. It was the special secure direct line for the President of France (Not sure...
• Commented on NYPD is spending $1 million in typewriters
  I agree with #10. There are benefits in having a really resilient backup. I am a city councillor and we were recently briefed on our city's emergency plan. One aspect that caused a wry smile was that the police here...
• Commented on Britain's loony rules for artist visas embarrass festival organizers
  Actually the last bastion of authorised racism is probably the Orange Lodge Marches, which have just blighted northern ireland and scotland for the past two weekends, as the protestants celebrate their hatred of other christians and the winning of a...
• Commented on Introducing the Atlas Obscura
  Echoing #6. How disappointing not to find it....
• Commented on Crocheted grinning grenades
  This was around a number of years ago: Knit your own purse grenade: Abbreviations k = knit, p = purl, st(s) = stitch(es), inc = increase, dec = decrease, rep = repeat, slp = slip onto needle without knitting, tog...
• Commented on Photo: Amazon Kindling
  Tommy, You might find my Offline Mechanical Blog to your taste.... See it at http://greensteampunk.blogspot.com/ Rragan The Auto-Ignition Temperature - or the minimum temperature required to ignite a gas or vapor in air without a spark or flame being present...
• Commented on White Mischief steampunk variety night returns to London, May 23
  To #s1,2,7 - it's harmless fun, creative and not offending anyone, why is it a problem for you? Any culture that gets people to value technology, real, imaginary, imaginable, old, odd or new, is a good thing in my book,...
• Commented on Britain's secret spy-on-every-call-and-email plan already well underway
  UK readers will take both announcements with crate-loads of salt. UK governments of every strip and at all levels have a well-documented history of mega-foul-ups on any significant IT contracts. Typical scenario is: 1. they announce this ground-breaking new system,...
• Commented on PooH & Ice
  Surely it's delivering teddybears and cocktails, the essential consoling options for all ages in distress?...
• Commented on Taco Town tacos, for real: fifteen starchy fried things all rolled into one
  #5 - Er, no. No fastfoodery in Glasgow could stay in business including anything as healthy as fruit (blaeberry thingy) or guacamole in their offerings. I would suggest the last pre-batter layer could perhaps be an ultralarge potato scone pasted...
• Commented on Auditions for Maker Faire 2009 to be held in San Jose on Sunday, March 8
  For BoingBoingers not merely on the other coast but on the other coast of the Atlantic, Scotland is having its first ever maker event - McMADSAT in 10 days time: Saturday 14th March 2009, 10-5 at the Glasgow Science Centre....
• Commented on Working couple amass stupendous art collection, circulate it across the US
  A lady librarian at the university where I work has done something similar only she donates the artworks to the university and we get to have them in our offices. I am about to get my first one any day...
• Commented on Video explains what a capacitor is and how to make one
  Another example of how school signally failed to teach me anything that stuck. Why couldnt they have done this with us? I struggled with electrical stuff all through A-levels and engineering degree. I would certainly have done better if taught...
• Commented on A secret gathering of the Order of the Lamp
  I wonder if they are friends of the demon vacuum cleaner (Fat Bag: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fatbag-Vacuum-Cleaner-Jeremy-Strong/dp/0140362339/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235781575&sr=1-1)? This was one of our top kids books of all time....
• Commented on The human vending machine
  Kitkat are made by the evil empire ( http://www.babymilkaction.org/pages/boycott.html ) so i wouldnt buy one even at that price, anyway....
• Commented on Super Weird Ad for MAC Hello Kitty cosmetics
  So what is the market segment here? the underage lesbian S&M Alice fetishists?? It is somehow both too adult and too silly for either kids or grownups....
• Commented on Toy Fair: EnviroBLOX, puffy construction toys made from corn starch
  Dog looks like it has been skinned and we are looking at its muscles, as in an anatomical model. weird....
• Commented on Magenta isn't a real color?
  Surely there cannot strictly be any colour "bridging" red and violet since they are at opposite ENDS of the spectrum strip with their nearest neighbours being (respectively) infrared and ultraviolet. The bridge would have to be somehow round the back...
• Commented on Magenta isn't a real color?
  Surely there cannot strictly be any colour "bridging" red and violet since they are at opposite ENDS of the spectrum strip with their nearest neighbours being (respectively) infrared and ultraviolet. The bridge would have to be somehow round the back...
• Commented on American Former Gay Pr0n Star Is Big In Japan
  I think i like pron better anyway........
• Commented on Our Food is Full of Crap. Also, Rodent Hair, Mildew, and Bugs.
  Not urban legend but absolutely true. i used to be a deck officer on a grain carrier taking corn (maize) from the USA to the USSR (yes that long ago). When we loaded up the grain near New Orleans, the...
• Commented on Attention "Paper-based Romantics"
  I do so agree. Despite having 4 computers of various ages and sizes in the house we also have 3 typewriters (and another to be collected tomorrow) plus a load of fountain and quill pens. You might like to take...
• Commented on Helicopters for everyone!
  For "Helicopters for everyone", I take it we are to assume this only applies to male everyones. On the more technical side, there appear to be no controls or gauges or anything. Mr Everyone looks to be holding onto the...
• Commented on Czech artist tells European Union to lighten up
  I can see that he has provoked a lot of intemperate language here and probably elsewhere too, but frankly if the grant awarding authorities in the EU had taken his track record into account, surely they must have had SOME...
• Commented on HOWTO Make a Victorian flea chariot
  Ha, some folks take our sport more seriously - full scale chariot racing and saturnalia in Mid-wales. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/mid/sites/sport/pages/chariot_cyclingpics.shtml?4...
• Commented on Maker Faire comes to the UK: Newcastle, March 14-15
  #7 & 8 I am sure the Newcastle folks would be the first to agree that this is just one of those things and is mainly an example of Zeitgeist taking hold. I dont feel we are competing but merely...
• Commented on Maker Faire comes to the UK: Newcastle, March 14-15
  Make and Do, Show and Tell in Scotland 14th March (AKA McMADSAT maker fair) There is also a similar event at the Glasgow Science centre on 14th March, but O'reillys would only sponsor one event in the UK and for...