Meades on MagLev

Continuing on from the last posting, I found this:

BBC Newsnight Feature: Maglev from Amirani Media on Vimeo.

It sounds pretty futuristic, and how successful other maglev installations have been I don't know, but there are lots of proposals. By the way, 400kph is 250mph.

The Joy Of Essex

I was watching a BBC documentary by Jonathan Meades on the modern history and architecture of Essex. No, seriously.

Essex has been used as a kind of experiment by various utiopian idealists over the years (the above is the old Bata factory in East Tilbury, whose worker housing is still occupied), mostly without success, but it has lead to some amazingly good modern architecture:

Meades' also points out that Essex is used by people from London as an escape and that the buildings reflect this. His opinions do grate a little, but he isn't boring. And he is right, in a way. Essex is very much out there.

The American

It's a while since I've watched any George Clooney movies. A gun maker tries to lay low in a small Italian town.

This is a good thriller, if a little slow paced. I think the idea is to rachet up the tension, but it just makes it a little bit dull. Clooney is good, but it's the supporting cast which make the film, especially Violante Placido as his girlfriend. I get the feeling, however, that Clooney wanted to make a movie which would give him the excuse to spend a lot of time in a rather beautiful part of Italy, for which I can't blame him.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

This is another film with Nicolas Cage in it. Dave Stutler (Jay Baruchel) finds himself apprenticed as a modern day Merlin.

Not a bad pizza film. Cage is acted off the set by both Alfred Molina and the special effects, which are rather good, probably because it's a Disney movie. Even the plot is quite good, mixing the "magic" of Tesla coils and high voltage electricity with the more traditional kind. There's even a live remake of the Mickey Mouse Fantasia scene, something to warm the heart of any who remember the original.

The Day The Earth Stood Still

This is one of my favourite all-time movies. Er... no, not quite. This is a remake of one of my favourite all-time movies.

Quite apart from the awful idea of remaking one of the best movies of all time... well, no, actually, I think that's bad enough. I don't know where to begin to slag it off. I'll try another tack. I'll try to say what was good about it.

....

No, that's not working, either. I'll try just short word groups and you'll be able to figure it out for yourself.

• Keanu Reeves as Klaatu;
• Gort as a nanotech swarm;
• American military attacking aliens with Predator drones (like firing arrows at a tank; seriously!);
• Everything else.

The best thing about the original film was that it tried to appeal to our better nature, while the remake just condemns our worst. The threat from old Gort is implied, while the new Gort wipes out entire towns and cities. The old movie was subtle, while the new is heavy handed and crass.

Actually, that may be the one good thing about this movie: it makes you realise how good the old one was. Not that I needed to know.

Oxfam Friday

Mark asked me to do Friday morning at the shop and I served behind the upstairs till until 1PM. I was in a bit of an OCD mood and sorted out the spare DVD's, making sure everything was up to stock and, in particular, that any surplus wasn't taking up room. For example, we had seven Spiderman's, so I reduced that to three. I'll be surprised if we sell them.

Michelle said hello and asked me whether the pricing on some graphic novels was correct. I thought so, but I thought one was a bit pricey and might not sell: it was Marvel X-Men-type-thing, but you never know. There wasn't anything of interest in the pile, nothing to to cause me to say "wow!", which was a shame, but that's the trade for you. At least, unlike Utopia, the new TV drama on Channel 4, no-one is trying to kill anybody over them:

I'm trying desperately to like it (any TV series based around people reading a comic book is worth a look), but it's just too violent.

While I was in Chelmsford, I noticed these Lego Minifigures that you can get for £2. I bought a couple just to see what they're like. I think I was a bit unlucky, because I got Maid Marion and a cheerleader.

Better luck next time. Speaking of Lego, I found this a few years back:

How To Make A Rail Gun

I found this funny video on YouTube, via Boing, Boing!:

He's quite clearly a good engineer, but a sane enough chap to see that his screw-ups are at least as important as his successes. And funnier. And the rail gun works...

Dungeons & Dragons

Despite liking most RPG's, the more obscure the better, I've never had much liking for D&D. I don't quite know why. Maybe it's not really having much time for the source material, that is fantasy novels. It was always Traveller for me, but I must admit, I am glad that Wizards of the Coast, who now own the D&D licence, have done the decent thing and, together with DriveThruRPG, released the original basic set in pdf format:

There's even an introduction adventure for free!

Tax Tsunami Up!

I was talking at the weekend about tax cuts. It's always strange that those advocating tax cuts seem to be the ones who will benefit the most, i.e. rich people, and it reminded me of a Keith Knight cartoon (he's a big ice hockey fan as well).

The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp

If I'm a bit lax prioritising my LoveFilm subscription, it occasionally throws up a DVD I'm not expecting. This time it was a Powell & Pressburger classic.

It tells the story of a old general harking back to a bygone age, while trying to fight a new kind of war. The film is meant to be sentimental, melancholy and nostalgic, but sometimes I think it's just sad. Blimp has illusions about war that are not shared even by his friends and is clearly out of his depth. Apparently, Churchill didn't like it (possibly because he thought Blimp was a caracature of himself) and tried to have it banned.

The House I Live In

This is a film, through BBC's Storyville, about the American drug war.

It starts with the director's, Eugene Jarecki, interest in his childhood nanny's family. What he ends up with is a study of America itself, economic, social, and racial, through the medium of the war on drugs and drug laws.

The drug laws target minorities; opium laws in California were targeted against the Chinese minority in the 19^th century; cocaine against blacks in the industrial cities in the 1930's; marijuana laws against Mexican agricultural workers in the south west; crack-cocaine laws against inner city blacks (again) in the 1980's. Now methamphetamine laws are targeting poor white people: one chap was in jail for life without parole for trafficking 3oz because he had two previous convictions (the "three strike" rule).

It's also interesting to see who benefits from the war on drugs, with one commentator saying that for some it's been a success.

It's a very powerful and thought provoking film that I think anyone who has an opinion on drugs, from whatever direction, should see.

Monday - A Day Off

Due to the snow, Bromley College, like a lot of schools and colleges around the U.K., has closed rather than risk broken ankles and the legal/insurance problems that go with it. This means I have another day at home, although there will be a trip to the local superstore to get provisions at some point.

We've also got another C Test on Thursday, so I've got to revise for that.

Here's a suitable cartoon:

Sweet Home Alabama - The Southern Rock Saga

I've just been watching this on BBC iPlayer. I'd never heard of The Allman Brothers before, but they sound like a really kickin' band:

Rock on!

Sunday - Snow Job

The forecast snow finally arrived today and has coated BasVegas and the rest of Essex.

And it's still snowing (with a forecast of more) so it looks like I'm going to have to dig out the Fatmobile tomorrow!

Coda: Someone has actually done one of my favourite Calvin & Hobbes cartoons for real!

Saturday - The Symbiosis Of Man And Machine

Today I attended a lecture given by Peter Cochrane and organised by the London Futurists.

The problems we face are becoming increasingly complex and are outstripping our capabilities to solve them without the aid of machines, specifically computers. As the physical problems have been solved by physical machines (the steam engine, aircraft, etc.), so our mental problems (mathematical, creative, philosophical and even ethical) will be solved, and are being solved, by computers and software. This is a good thing and our attitude needs to change accordingly if the human race is to survive. Peter gave the example of Aaron Swartz, someone who in any other field would be lauded and have roads named after him, but got tangled up in laws designed for the 19^th century rather than the 21^st.

His talk covered changes in technology that would be most likely to impact on the future and what impact that might be. Specifically, he looked at 3D printing and biology and that AI will soon be available as a cloud service.

Peter Cochrane is a very good speaker and his talk was levened by amusing anecdotes. For example, he once hired a theologist and when H.R. questioned it he said it was for someone to pray for success on the project.

All in all, it was a very good lecture with a lively Q&A afterwards.

Season Of The Witch

Another Nicolas Cage movie. Two Crusader veterans (Cage and Ron Perlman) are given the task of escorting a woman accused of witchcraft to an isolated monastery for trial and judgement, little suspecting the horror about to enfold them.

The film is a little bit dull; the special effects are not as good as they could have been; and Cage is outclassed by Perlman, as you would expect by now. The plot is also a bit pedestrian. All in all, a poor pizza movie.

Reminds me of this, though:

36 and Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel

I snagged a couple of DVD's from the shop (Cowboys & Aliens had been bagged by a customer). First up, F.A.Q. About Time Travel:

Billed as a Shaun of The Dead for time travel, which means that it all takes place in a pub. I can't quite bring myself to like it that much. The plot's okay, and the paradoxes work well enough, but it seems that the plot is the only joke in it and that's told over and over again.

There are a fair number of films about time travel, but one of the more serious ones is Primer.

Each "copy" of the protagonists tries to make sure no paradoxes occur and repair the ones that do. The film is really confusing and takes some time to understand (and I'm not that sure I do now), but there is a rather good explanation on Wikipedia and one or two graphs around, so it has a cult following.

36 is a French cops-and-robbers movie. Two rival detectives try to take down a hardened gang of armed robbers with devastating consequences for both of them.

A really good cop drama, Daniel Auteuil plays Vrinks, head of the BRI (a sort of Flying Squad). Gérard Depardieu plays Klein, head of the rival BRB, as much an antagonist as the criminals. It ends up a bit like The Count of Monte Cristo, with lots of twists and turns and a surprise ending. Based on a true story.

...And Even Colder Today

-5.5°C!!!!!!

Brass Monkeys are doomed as a species.

However, the green Ringnecked Parakeets in Bromley do seem to have survived the cold as I spotted one flying this morning.

Wednesday - Fog Over The Thames

I was travelling over the QE2 bridge this morning on the way to college. There was the forlorn howl of brass monkeys (-2.5°C!!) and the Thames was shrouded in fog. It was like we were on a bridge over the clouds. Spooky!

No helicopters, though.

What on earth possessed someone to fly in this weather is beyond me.

Oxfam Tuesday - The Dandy Warhols and Neil Young

An uneventful day at the shop, so much so that we closed early. Again, we didn't take much, although better than last week. The administration of HMV was a topic both amongst the staff and with the customers. It just seemed like another casualty of the economy, but given that you can get almost anything online now, I'm surprised they've been in business for as long as they have.

I played 13 Tales From Urban Bohemia by the Dandy Warhols, which I hadn't heard for a while, and is a very good album.

I also listened to Neil Young's After The Gold Rush, something from my adolesence, and then it was a few years old.

It's always been a good album and it sounds even better today.

Ladybird

I saw this on Facebook this morning:

Amazing!

2046

The sequel to In The Mood For Love finds Chow (Tony Leung) liasing with numerous women in an effort to get over his lost love, while writing a science fiction story.

A much more passionate story than the previous one, but the relationships Chow has seem empty: he doesn't seem to feel much for them in spite of what they might feel for him. And there are a lot of them.

Not a bad film, if a little over long. One delight is Zhang Ziyi (who played the blind girl from House of Flying Daggers) as one of his liasons, an antagonistic party girl, but Faye Wong is good as his neighbour's daughter who helps him with his writing.

Also, if all female androids are going to look like Faye Wong, the future's going to be pretty cool.

Sunday - Trying To Catch The Light

It started off sunny today so I thought I'd take a short trip to Shoeburyness to try and take some photographs while the light was good. The clouds soon came over while I was half way there, but the gloom had a strange effect on what light there was and I took some dramatic shots of the Isle of Grain:

All very primeval!

The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford

After their latest train robbery, the James gang split up and head their separate ways.

Brad Pitt does surprisingly well as an increasingly weary, paranoid and unpredictable Jesse James. However, it's the Ford brothers, played by Casey Afflek and Sam Rockwell, who make the film, realising it's only a matter of time before Jesse turns on them.

It is an incredibly slow film, though, and the assassination couldn't come soon enough.

I'm Not There

I picked this up at the shop the other day. Can't say I like it, 'cause I don't.

The idea is to represent Bob Dylan's life, music and writings in film, but it's a bit of a mess. The film's searching for a coherent narrative where there probably isn't one. I once saw Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, which had Bob Dylan in a role that looked as if it was written just to get him in the picture, and that was the same.

On the positive side, he's written a lot of songs, mostly made famous by other people. He has a really good taste in music, eclectic, as shown by the radio show that he hosts. It's probably best to judge the man by his music and not what others say of him, or even what he says of himself.

Bus 174

On 12^th June 2000, a man gets on bus in Rio de Janeiro, bungles the robbery he planned on the occupants, and takes them hostage.

This is a fascinating and disturbing film to watch. As the hostage situation develops, the background of the robber unfolds: a former "invisible" street child turned petty criminal; witnessing his mother being murdered; years in, and escapes from, hellish jails; surviving a massacre in which six of his friends were killed (of the 60 who survived, 40 were subsequently murdered or "disappeared").

The police are also shown as amazingly incompetent, even the highly trained special squad. Initially, both the public and the press are allowed to approach the bus and are still only kept a short distance away throughout the drama. The police don't have any radio equipment and have to communicate face-to-face or using hand signals. The police chief is told to keep the hostage taker alive, limiting his options. There are three negotiators, confusing the robber. As you can imagine, it doesn't end well.

Oxfam Thursday

A bit of a dull shift at the shop. I decided to fill out the DVD shelves a bit and sort them as best I could, all the while listening to The Go! Team, Proof of Youth:

I asked Mark about the drop in trade, and he put it down to the season and the economy.

Solomon Kane

Solomon Kane avoids going to Hell for his crimes by swearing never to take another life. Fate conspires to give him a chance at redemption by rescuing a kidnapped girl from the clutches of a sorcerer in league with the Devil.

Not a bad pizza movie, with shades of Hellboy. Purefoy gives it his all, there's lots of fettlin', and the 17^th Century never looked so grim. Reminds me a bit of this, though:

Tuesday - A Walk In London To See The Starman

I thought I'd go into London today for a long walk and to photograph something before it's removed. I started off at Fenchurch Street and walked to St. Paul's, picking up lunch as I went.


View Larger Map

I rested a while and ate my sandwiches in the gardens outside. It was overcast, so the pictures aren't brilliant, but it wasn't that cold either.

I continued via the Embankment, past Cleopatra's Needle:

and on through Trafalgar Square past Admiralty Arch to see the Yuri Gagarin monument.

It's a copy of one in Russia and was unveiled by his daughter, Elena. The monument is due to be moved to Greenwich near the observatory sometime in the next few months, so I was lucky.

Think on this: he was the first person ever to leave our little speck of dust. All those imaginings of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells and the rest are embodied in this man and his statue. What they dreamt of, he did it. It should be a bigger monument.

I finished the day by walking to the V&A and having cream tea, which was very welcome and ended an inspiring day just right.

Monday - Haircut, Ska and a Free Book!

I usually go for my haircuts to a place opposite Southend Central station. It's run by two women, but today the boyfriend of one was left in charge. He's an illustrated man, be-tattooed and close-cropped, and very professional. He did me a decent short-back-and-slap, and applied a hair tonic and orange-scented wax, so I smell fantastic! He was also playing some fine Jamaican Ska on the CD player (or Rocksteady, anyway):

He reckoned it was coming back in fashion. Suits me!

I also popped into Waterstones and got a free book! Well, not exactly. I've been getting this card stamped every time I go in and buy a book there and before Christmas I managed to fill up one of the cards so they gave me a £10 voucher. I went there today and bought a book I've had my eye on for a while:

I also paid the difference, £1.99, with what I had on my normal points card, so I got it without paying!

Rule #1 - Never Change The Deal

One of my favourite films, The Trainspotter, is now a TV series.

Looks OK and even has the same dry wit of the original. Plus it has car chases, good looking women, car chases, martial arts and car chases, so what's not to like. Jason's in The Expandables franchise now, so they've got someone else to do it. I wonder if the new film is as bad as the first...

Oh, yes. Can't see Mickey or Eric (although he was killed in the previous film, so maybe that's why: he could've come back as his twin brother looking for revenge), so it might not be as up-market. Still, it has Jeanclaudevandamme and Chuck Norris to add a bit of class. I don't think American's will be changing their second amendment any time soon.

Reverse Cipher Puzzle - Part 2

Looking at the formulae, you can see that in the subtraction we have, in the rightmost column, S - S = R, so R = 0 (zero). Going to the complex formula, you can see that subtracting O from TO gives a multiple of 10, so ignoring whatever T might be for the moment, (E + S) = 10. If you look at the addition, in the rightmost column, (S + O) = U (+ 10) (that is possibly 10). In the next column we have E + S, which we know is 10, so J is either zero or 1. It can't be zero because that's R, so it must be 1.

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0
J									R

Looking at the subtraction again, we've got another formula, (E - S) = T, the second column from the right. Using what we already know about E and S, we can say:

E - S = T

E - (10 - E) = T

2E - 10 = T

2E = T + 10

E = (T + 10) / 2

So for E to be a whole number, and a single digit, T must be even.

T	E	S
2	6	4
4	7	3
6	8	2
8	9	1

T can't be 8 as S can't be 1 (it's J). In the subtraction, the third column from the right has T + E + 1 = U (+ 10), the 1 being carried over from (E + S). Plugging this into the table we get:

T	E	S	U
2	6	4	9
4	7	3	12 (or 2 + 10)
6	8	2	15 (or 5 + 10)

Remember the first formula, (S + O) = U + 10, we got from the subtraction? We substitute 10 = (E + S) as before:

S + O = U + 10

S + O = U + S + E

(removing S each side)

O = U + E

Using this to get values for O:

T	E	S	U	O
2	6	4	9	(6 + 9) = 15
4	7	3	2	(2 + 7) = 9
6	8	2	5	(5 + 8) = 13

O must be a single digit, so it can't be 15 or 13, leaving us with:

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0
J	U	S	T			E		O	R

Putting what we know into the addition, we get 374473 + 73F739 = 1113212 and making the obvious subtraction, 1113212 - 374473 = 738739, gives F = 8, leaving C and I.

Doing the same to the subtraction, 74873 - IC233 = 18C40, the third column from the right, 8 - 2 = 6, so C = 6 and I is 5:

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0
J	U	S	T	I	C	E	F	O	R

Which makes our formulae:

47737 * 65 = 3102905	374473 + 738739 = 1113212
74873 - 56233 = 18640	((7 + 3) * 4) + 9 = 49

Reverse Cipher Puzzles

When I was a kid, there was a small book on codes and ciphers which got me interested in the whole thing. Normally, you would have a substitution cipher which substitutes numbers for letters, but the book had some puzzles which did it the other way around. For example, say you had the sum:

136732 + 643637 = 780369

You could replace the numbers with letters and try to figure out which letters stood for which numbers.

ACFGCB + FDCFCG = GHJCFI

Have a go at these:

TEESE * CI = SJRUORI	SETTES + ESFESO = JJJSUJU
ETFES - ICUSS = JFCTR	((E + S) * T) + O = TO

All use the same substitutions.

Matt Test

My erstwhile colleague Mr. Laver is sitting a Microsoft Certification test on Thursday, which he needs no luck at all to pass. While we were discussing a C bug problem, he introduced me to IDEOne, an online source code editor which has the novel feature of being able to embed the code into your own web site:


So... why does this code compile and run but the length function only produces zero no matter what string is input?

Slow Cooker Revolution

I have a small slow cooker and I've been doing the usual chilli's and casseroles, with the odd baked potato. I've been looking for a good cook book on the subject and with my Christmas money (thanks, Sis) I bought this from our local, friendly, tax-dodging book dealer:

It was delivered this morning and a jolly good read it is too. It's by the PBS show America's Test Kitchen, who apply scientific expertise and a critical eye to cooking, and each recipe in the book has a "why this works" section as well as general tips for working with slow cookers (microwave ovens are handy, it turns out). Recommended!

New Year 2013

I'm back safe and sound at Chez Lemon after ringing in the New Year with my relatives. It wasn't without a bang, though.

Within a few hours of landing one of the neighbours, Lynne, popped round to say that one of the ridge tiles on the roof had slipped off in the high winds over Christmas and was perched precariously on the guttering.

Dad went up on the ladder and pulled it off as it threatened to fall any minute. Despite the size, about 18" long, it's fairly light and you can lift it with one hand.

He had thought about repairing it himself, but reconsidered when he saw the situation and will get someone in when the wind dies down a little.

New Year was spent at my Uncle and Auntie's, watching TV and the local fireworks, which were a bit muted. I think most people have spent the money on Christmas and budgeted wisely, unlike Osbourne and co.

I hope everyone had a nice New Year and that the future is better than the past for all of us, not just people with lots of money.

Oh, and I watched Kenny Everett on New Years Eve.