notes.husk.org. scribblings by Paul Mison.

2012-03-26

Things named for Queen Elizabeth II

text 22:22:05

Excerpts from Wikipedia’s (self-admittedly incomplete) list:

Monuments:

Buildings:

Hospitals and health:

Roads, highways, and bridges:

Schools:

(with thanks to diamondgeezer, after a discussion about this news story on the early day motion to rename the Clock Tower (incorrectly referred to as St Stephen’s Tower in the report) to the Elizabeth Tower)

2012-03-15

post/19361529661

photo 21:43:05
From the iFixit teardown of the new iPad: On the non-A5X side of the logic board: Texas Instruments CD3240 driver device Broadcom BCM4330 802.11a/b/g/n MAC/baseband/radio with integrated Bluetooth 4.0+HS and FM transceiver 2 x 4Gb Elpida LP DDR2 = 1 GB DRAM in separate packages in a 64-bit configuration Fairchild FDMC 6683 Broadcom BCM5973 I/O controller Broadcom BCM5974 microprocessor Apple 338S0987 B0LI1150 SGP

From the iFixit teardown of the new iPad:

On the non-A5X side of the logic board:

  • Texas Instruments CD3240 driver device
  • Broadcom BCM4330 802.11a/b/g/n MAC/baseband/radio with integrated Bluetooth 4.0+HS and FM transceiver
  • 2 x 4Gb Elpida LP DDR2 = 1 GB DRAM in separate packages in a 64-bit configuration
  • Fairchild FDMC 6683
  • Broadcom BCM5973 I/O controller
  • Broadcom BCM5974 microprocessor
  • Apple 338S0987 B0LI1150 SGP

2012-03-14

post/19280135275

quote 05:48:05
“ The super-rich index is made up of items that are, let’s say, different. A Russian sable coat at $240,000, a facelift for $18,500, a thoroughbred yearling racehorse at $319,340, a Sikorsky helicopter at $14.8m, an arrangement of flowers changed weekly for six rooms at $98,100 or a year’s tuition at Harvard at $52,652. It is, in a dark way, hilarious that a Harvard education counts as a luxury good. ”
John Lanchester: Why the super-rich love the UK in The Guardian.

post/19279669439

photo 05:33:06
The Office of National Statistics on the changes to the basket of goods (PDF) (as used to calculate inflation in the UK) (via)

The Office of National Statistics on the changes to the basket of goods (PDF) (as used to calculate inflation in the UK) (via)

2012-01-24

Oscar Thoughts

text 20:00:19

I put some thoughts about the Oscar nominations into a reply to Joshua Nguyen, but here are some more.

  • Hugo and The Artist lead the Oscar nominations by count. I suppose that proves that films about film go down well with people who make films.
  • … either that, or they like nostalgia about the time when cinema was the new, revolutionary artform.
  • Only one Best Picture nominee is set entirely in the present day (The Descendants).
  • My Week With Marilyn gets some reasonably well deserved Actor / Actress nods.
  • The Tree of Life should get the Cinematography award.
  • Cars 2 is the first Pixar film not to be nominated for Best Animated since the award started in 2001.
  • Music (Original Song) only has two nominees? Huh. At least there’s no Randy Newman.
  • Sound Editing for Drive would be nice.
  • Margin Call deserved a little more than Original Screenplay, but that it got that is far better than nothing.

2012-01-06

An Express year

text 03:59:06

bibliophylax:

“Winter is coming.”

  • BRITAIN FACES AN EARLY BIG FREEZE (Sep 20)
  • -20°C TO HIT US IN WEEKS (Oct 8)
  • BRITAIN FACES A MINI ‘ICE AGE’ (Oct 10)
  • ARCTIC BLAST TO BRING SNOW (Oct 15)
  • BIG FREEZE WILL KILL THOUSANDS (Oct 20)
  • ARMY PUT ON SNOW ALERT (Oct 30)
  • BIG SIBERIAN FREEZE TO HIT BRITAIN (Nov 2)
  • BRITAIN FACES KILLER ARCTIC BLAST (Dec 8)
  • IT’S A WHITE CHRISTMAS! (Dec 17)

An excerpt from a fantastic, terrifying glimpse into the world of the Daily Express (“like the Daily Mail but cheaper”) from Ned Morrell. As George Monbiot noted this week, the newspapers like making weather predictions, but they don’t often get called out when they’re wrong. (Christmas Day 2011 was mild in most of the UK.)

2012-01-01

Euphemistic

text 20:23:53

A non-exhaustive list in a vague genteel to rude order of names for, well:

  • powder room
  • the littlest room
  • restroom
  • bathroom
  • wc
  • commode
  • lavatory
  • outhouse
  • throne
  • potty
  • toilet
  • latrine
  • bog
  • crapper
  • shitter

First inspired while noting the different terms used by Neal Stephenson in Reamde, and finally posted after reading an Economist article about euphemisms.

2011-08-02

The 30 All-TIME Best Music Videos

text 02:14:27

To save you paging through the entire list, here (in reverse chronological order) are Time magazine’s choice of the best music videos.

  • Arcade Fire, ‘We Used To Wait/The Wilderness Downtown’ (2010)
  • Kanye West, ‘Runaway’ (2010)
  • Lady Gaga, ‘Bad Romance’ (2009)
  • Beyoncé, ‘Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)’ (2008)
  • Gnarls Barkley, ‘Going On’ (2008)
  • OK Go, ‘Here It Goes Again’ (2006)
  • The White Stripes, ‘Hardest Button to Button’ (2005)
  • Johnny Cash, ‘Hurt’ (2003)
  • Fatboy Slim, ‘Weapon Of Choice’ (2001)
  • D’Angelo, ‘Untitled (How Does It Feel)’ (2000)
  • Fatboy Slim, ‘Praise You’ (1999)
  • Chemical Brothers, ‘Let Forever Be’ (1999)
  • Björk, ‘All is Full of Love’ (1999)
  • Blur, ‘Coffee & TV’ (1999)
  • Pulp, ‘This Is Hardcore’ (1998)
  • Missy Elliot, ‘The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)’ (1997)
  • Jamiroquai, ‘Virtual Insanity’ (1997)
  • Weezer, ‘Buddy Holly’ (1994)
  • The Beastie Boys, ‘Sabotage’ (1994)
  • Nine Inch Nails, ‘Closer’ (1994)
  • Nirvana, ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ (1993)
  • Sinead O’Connor, ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ (1990)
  • Madonna, ‘Express Yourself’ (1989)
  • Peter Gabriel, ‘Sledgehammer’ (1986)
  • Run-DMC, ‘Walk This Way’ (1986)
  • Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, ‘Don’t Come Around Here No More’ (1985)
  • a-Ha, ‘Take On Me’ (1985)
  • Godley and Creme, ‘Cry’ (1985)
  • Michael Jackson, ‘Thriller’ (1984)
  • Talking Heads, ‘Once in a Lifetime’ (1980)

2011-01-24

Herman Melville Lists Your Beard

text 01:59:58

In order, in two chapters of White Jacket:

  • beards
  • the crop
  • suburbs of the chin
  • homeward-bounders
  • fly-brushes
  • long, trailing moss hanging from the bough of some aged oak
  • love-curls
  • Winnebago locks
  • carroty bunches
  • rebellious bristles
  • redundant mops
  • yellow bamboos
  • long whiskers
  • thrice-noble beards
  • plantations of hair
  • whiskerandoes
  • nodding harvests
  • viny locks
  • the fleece
  • fine tassels
  • goatees
  • imperials
  • sacred things
  • admiral’s pennant
  • manhood
  • muzzle-lashings

Previously. Previously. Previously. via, by.

2010-12-13

Choosing Your Market

text 18:38:00

I was taken by this section from Tim Bray’s post about Android, the iPhone, and the US Department of Defense:

the total DoD head-count is estimated at around 2.5 million. If you pick demographics that you might want to pitch mobile devices to, here are a few that are similar or larger in size:

  • Korean teenagers

  • Euro-zone business travelers

  • Canadian retirees

  • World of Warcraft players

  • Indian cricket fans

This whole consumer-device business is oddly pure.

I’ve always been annoyed at the amount of bending over backwards that the UK government does for military manufacturing, not only because making things whose primary purpose is destructive is pretty rubbish, but also because it seemed better to me to have a market of millions of people buying small things than a tiny market of maybe twenty sovereign states (maybe) buying a few score million-pound things.

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