Fort of Melancholy, Overthinking
Friday 16 June 2023
Saturday 9 June 2012
H20 - its not what you think
Water, being so plentiful , I always assumed was a pretty average kind of thing. Wet, clear, essential to life, etc.
But from a chemist's point of view, it turns out to be a nightmare of contradictions and anomalies, the kind of thing Mulder & Scully would have loved. This is one of the reasons so much rubbishy nonsense is marketed to those living the new age California lifestyle.
A chemist writes:
"...we start with the atom, and then go on to the rules governing the kinds of structural units that can be made from them. We are taught early on to predict the properties of matter from these geometric arrangements.
And then we come to H2O, and are shocked to find that many of these predictions are way off, and that water (and by implication, life itself) should not even exist on our planet!
We soon learn that this tiny combination of three nuclei and ten electrons possesses special properties that make it unique among the more than 15 million chemical species we presently know..."
http://www.chem1.com/acad/sci/aboutwater.html
Friday 1 June 2012
Gardening with Will Barrow
I don't like to brag (well i do, but rarely have anything to brag about) but...
Having recently forsaken the eye-watering keyboard clacking of the PC World for the grass-watering delights of gerdening, I must say I have made a huge impact on Sam & Michelle's garden in a mere 6 weeks, as the following 'before' and 'after' pictures clearly show:
Having recently forsaken the eye-watering keyboard clacking of the PC World for the grass-watering delights of gerdening, I must say I have made a huge impact on Sam & Michelle's garden in a mere 6 weeks, as the following 'before' and 'after' pictures clearly show:
Shoppophobia
I confess to not being a good shopper, but there are a great many
shopping related factors seemingly designed to irritate and exasperate
the less than saintly patient, not least in the area of labelling. (Yet
isnt there a whole gov dept dedicated to weights & measures and
consumer labelling and such?)
Everyone is surely familiar with the higher math required when comparing similar products
Eg take 2 different brands of bottled sauce:
one will be labelled: £1.65p - 330g [equivalent to 50p per 100g]
and another labelled: £1.80p - 450ml [equivalent to £4.00 per 1L]
A rough guide is 1g = 1ml. (This is true for water, but much stuff will be slightly lighter or heavier (approx 0.85 - 1.15g/1ml) but for such small quantities you really can ignore it) but even so the maths required just to compare TWO items, let alone 2 dozen, is off-putting, even with a calculator. As it is The store that produces these lables, it can only be deliberate policy, it would take only a tiny bit of additional computing power when the labels are run off, to make them standardized, but they dont do it. Instead they print lots of leaflets, and place lots of ads TELLING US that they care for us and try to do their best to help us shop. As if merely telling us makes it so. Pffftt.
Today i found some stuff that was labelled: £2.45p - 500ml [equivalent to £2.45 per item]
My favourite cause for near-spontaneous-combustion is 'The Mystery Item.'
More and more things are appearing in our shops that are boxed and sealed beyond recognition yet do not carry even a picture of the product. Today i saw such a one, it had printed writing on the box that said "10 X Suspension plates £5.99". I expect someone will know what a suspension plate is, but I am not he.
Once upon a time, it is told, a fairly long lead was needed to connect a computer to something or other, and in Curry's I found a lead with the exact fittings on each end, but it came in a sealed box with no mention of its length.
So one of The Store Lads was cornered near the till and consulted with on the item, but he had no idea.
It was suggested he open one up and inspect it so in future he WOULD know but he said he wasn't allowed.
Then The Manager, a possible former middleweight boxer, came over and he brought a huge scowl with him.
I did ask him if he knew the lead's length, and I also asked if he could please open it.
'No.' he said, and 'No; if you open it you gotta buy it'.
Ok, says I, but if when i take it home and open it, it turns out NOT to be what i want, you know i shall bring it back for a refund? So how about this; I'll buy it, step outside and open this little box, and if its no good, i'll bring it straight back in for a refund.
He scowled a lot more but that in fact is exactly what happened. I bought it, took it outside, opened it - drat and double drat, look at it, its way too short - and I took it back, waived my receipt, and got a refund.
Everyone is surely familiar with the higher math required when comparing similar products
Eg take 2 different brands of bottled sauce:
one will be labelled: £1.65p - 330g [equivalent to 50p per 100g]
and another labelled: £1.80p - 450ml [equivalent to £4.00 per 1L]
A rough guide is 1g = 1ml. (This is true for water, but much stuff will be slightly lighter or heavier (approx 0.85 - 1.15g/1ml) but for such small quantities you really can ignore it) but even so the maths required just to compare TWO items, let alone 2 dozen, is off-putting, even with a calculator. As it is The store that produces these lables, it can only be deliberate policy, it would take only a tiny bit of additional computing power when the labels are run off, to make them standardized, but they dont do it. Instead they print lots of leaflets, and place lots of ads TELLING US that they care for us and try to do their best to help us shop. As if merely telling us makes it so. Pffftt.
Today i found some stuff that was labelled: £2.45p - 500ml [equivalent to £2.45 per item]
My favourite cause for near-spontaneous-combustion is 'The Mystery Item.'
More and more things are appearing in our shops that are boxed and sealed beyond recognition yet do not carry even a picture of the product. Today i saw such a one, it had printed writing on the box that said "10 X Suspension plates £5.99". I expect someone will know what a suspension plate is, but I am not he.
Once upon a time, it is told, a fairly long lead was needed to connect a computer to something or other, and in Curry's I found a lead with the exact fittings on each end, but it came in a sealed box with no mention of its length.
So one of The Store Lads was cornered near the till and consulted with on the item, but he had no idea.
It was suggested he open one up and inspect it so in future he WOULD know but he said he wasn't allowed.
Then The Manager, a possible former middleweight boxer, came over and he brought a huge scowl with him.
I did ask him if he knew the lead's length, and I also asked if he could please open it.
'No.' he said, and 'No; if you open it you gotta buy it'.
Ok, says I, but if when i take it home and open it, it turns out NOT to be what i want, you know i shall bring it back for a refund? So how about this; I'll buy it, step outside and open this little box, and if its no good, i'll bring it straight back in for a refund.
He scowled a lot more but that in fact is exactly what happened. I bought it, took it outside, opened it - drat and double drat, look at it, its way too short - and I took it back, waived my receipt, and got a refund.
Aaron Feuerstein, a nice guy
I was just looking at my brand new cheapo fleece 'jogging bottoms' (though happily they will never go jogging) and i couldn't tell if it was a woven or knitted fabric so fine were the 'fibres.' I wondered if maybe it was simply extruded in a loose flat 'mat' or 'sheet,' and not woven at all.
So i got on the internet just to look up this one fact - 'How do they make fleece fabric?'
But I ended up also reading a little bit on synthetic yarns, circular knitting machines and even knitting in general. (being generally fascinated with ropes and knots and rigging, 'kinitting' made a deep impression on me, and was even more deeply impressed with the idea of 'circular knitting' - it seems basically, 'knitting' is exactly the same as 'knotting' but on on a very small scale - and 'netting' must come into it as well. Knotting, Netting & Knitting.)
I think, then, that the modern fleece was invented at Malden Mills in Lawrence, Massachusetts, with the invention of 'Polarfleece' which saved the almost bankrupt firm. It is or was run by one Aaron Feurstein, its third generation owner.
It seems this man, Aaron Feurstein, deliberately neglected to patent 'polar fleece,' allegedly to allow other textile plants to copy the process. (In the business world, most businessmen would have called that a bad decision.)
Not only that, when the mill burnt down, he rebuilt it from the insurance settlement, and he rebuilt it in the town, not in the far east. (the business economy being so poor, most businessmen would have called that a bad decision).
He also kept his employees salaries going for 6 months during the shutdown. (Many businessmen would and did call that a bad decision.)
So the next time you slip on a brand new, ridiculously warm, cheap, clean, soft, fluffy, lightweight, easy to wash&dry and ecofreindly fleece thing; now you know.
You know that there's probably a bizarre story behind practically everything.
(And btw it is made from good quality polyester, recycled from used bottles, heated then cooled to a syrupy texture then extruded into hair-fine fibres. These are crimped, carded, spun and then 'knitted' on a circular knitting machine. It knits into a huge tube of fabric around 1.5M across. It is then 'napped' to raise up the fibres, and then it is shorn smooth with mechanical shears.)
http://www.answers.com/topic/polyester-fleece
http://www.bookrags.com/research/polar-fleece-woi/
http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall03/FEATtheresa.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_fleece
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Feuerstein
So i got on the internet just to look up this one fact - 'How do they make fleece fabric?'
But I ended up also reading a little bit on synthetic yarns, circular knitting machines and even knitting in general. (being generally fascinated with ropes and knots and rigging, 'kinitting' made a deep impression on me, and was even more deeply impressed with the idea of 'circular knitting' - it seems basically, 'knitting' is exactly the same as 'knotting' but on on a very small scale - and 'netting' must come into it as well. Knotting, Netting & Knitting.)
I think, then, that the modern fleece was invented at Malden Mills in Lawrence, Massachusetts, with the invention of 'Polarfleece' which saved the almost bankrupt firm. It is or was run by one Aaron Feurstein, its third generation owner.
It seems this man, Aaron Feurstein, deliberately neglected to patent 'polar fleece,' allegedly to allow other textile plants to copy the process. (In the business world, most businessmen would have called that a bad decision.)
Not only that, when the mill burnt down, he rebuilt it from the insurance settlement, and he rebuilt it in the town, not in the far east. (the business economy being so poor, most businessmen would have called that a bad decision).
He also kept his employees salaries going for 6 months during the shutdown. (Many businessmen would and did call that a bad decision.)
So the next time you slip on a brand new, ridiculously warm, cheap, clean, soft, fluffy, lightweight, easy to wash&dry and ecofreindly fleece thing; now you know.
You know that there's probably a bizarre story behind practically everything.
(And btw it is made from good quality polyester, recycled from used bottles, heated then cooled to a syrupy texture then extruded into hair-fine fibres. These are crimped, carded, spun and then 'knitted' on a circular knitting machine. It knits into a huge tube of fabric around 1.5M across. It is then 'napped' to raise up the fibres, and then it is shorn smooth with mechanical shears.)
http://www.answers.com/topic/polyester-fleece
http://www.bookrags.com/research/polar-fleece-woi/
http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall03/FEATtheresa.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_fleece
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Feuerstein
Monday 14 May 2012
Quite Literally
An occasional strip dedicated to that most priceless - and my favourite - of human communication strategies: hyperbole.
In particular the genre typified by such classsics as "That movie literally blew my mind" and "It was literally raining cats and dogs."
In particular the genre typified by such classsics as "That movie literally blew my mind" and "It was literally raining cats and dogs."
Friday 11 May 2012
Life & Death, a tribute
So clever and such a 'comic book gothic' design. i hastly traced a copy of it onto a bit of old paper.
Years later that tatty old piece of paper turned up again while i was messing about learning some 3D animation, and i used it to make this very short animation. I never knew exactly who designed the original.
[It is a crude and simple 20 second loop, the original 4 second clip I rendered was created feb 2007. Now I cannot find the animated mesh model file, so i can work on it no more.]
Just the other day i found the same design here: http://mydelineatedlife.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/matter-of-life-death_22.html
It is a great article and identifies the author of the piece, one Mr. C.E.Krausie. In the comments section below anonymous has linked to some other great web pages and comments, including the Author himself, and with more examples of what are known as AMBIGRAMS. Plus further related reading.
The speed with which links, pages and whole websites seem to come and go, i'd see these while you can.
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