Underneath A Dark Sky

Jody Arrives

2004-10-28T14:40:00.000Z

Jody Arrives First Picoblogger picture post

2004-08-31T14:14:00.000Z

What's in Warren Ellis' Gadget Bag

Of course it would be remiss of me to point out that I've now featured in the same feature as Mr Transmetroplitan.

2004-08-31T12:55:00.000Z

Nuts to your Conkers

I love this little post from Danny O'Brien...

2004-08-27T08:27:00.000Z

Blade Runner Vosted Best Sci-Fi Film Ever...

...say a panel of 60 scientists. But can they explain (1) Bladerunner being the runaway favourite and (2) 2001 coming a close second?

Half Life 2 shots

2004-08-24T11:11:00.000Z

http://www.planethalflife.com/features/articles/sigg04/

Even if the game is rank, I will have to play it through on easy to see this stuff. Some of these are photos, for the first time , I had to look closely.

Terminators in hats, nuff said

2004-08-06T23:22:00.000Z

http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=2299

IMDb :: Boards :: Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)

2004-08-04T00:35:00.000Z

IMDb :: Boards :: Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)

It's nice to see that the rights of a fool to publish his opinion is alive and well...

Tube Run complete

2004-08-02T14:29:00.000Z

Well it's a few days since the race and I figured I should pop a blog about it. First things first, I must pay homage to my fellow Tube Runner, Mark, who not only showed my general level of unfitness but also came up with a couple of inspired alterations to our route in the mid-late stages which enabled us to pick up a lot of time.

Thanks must also go to the guy who stole my bottle of water at Waterloo as I crashed into him, bastard!!!

So our finishing time was 3h 10mins and 57secs which was pretty good considering we lost about 5 minutes at Coven Garden when somebody left a bag on the train and we also lost a few at Aldgate ---> Aldgate East thanks to a very poorly signposted subway (I may write a letter). We started at Vauxhall on Victoria Line and finished at St Paul's on the Central Line. Our route was unique for several reasons, most notably that we didn't disembark at Victoria with the others.

BBC London were on hand and made us do several 'fake runs' with the only effect that we scared a load of travellers half to death.

Our t-shirts were received well and hopefully these will turn up on the BBC news footage.

It's remarkable just how much fun something like this is, firstly from the planning point of view, but also simply charging around the underground like a nutter doing something most people would not do.

I'm looking forward to next year (hopefully this'll end up an annual event) where I intend to not only beat the time, but also to be a damnsight fitter to cope with the longer runs.

One note was that everybody successfully beat the previously established record of 3h 16mins so congratulations to all the runners

McGregor completes epic journey

2004-08-01T14:57:00.000Z

Actor Ewan McGregor has ended his 20,000-mile round-the-world motorcycle trip in New York City's Battery Park.
McGregor and fellow actor Charley Boorman spent more than three months driving through Eastern Europe, Mongolia, Siberia and Alaska.

link

Preumably it was an unsuccesful quest to find someone who liked eps 1&2?

For those about to do the Underground

2004-07-29T15:44:00.000Z

http://www.boingboing.net/2004/07/29/alternate_history_tu.html

A map of the tube as if WW2 had turned out different.

Zombie Escape Truck Loadout

2004-07-27T13:35:00.000Z

Water:
2000 litres of drinking/cooking water, 2 cubic metres and 2000 kg (4400lbs, about a tenth of the load capacity). This is about 5.5 litres a day for 6 people for 60 days. However, the ration would have to be less than that to allow for evaporation. Water pump and filtration system. Would work for drinking water in emergency, but mostly for pumping water from dirty sources for use in the truck and cleaning stuff. Input hose can be lowered from underneath the truck into an appropriate source. An historical thing might be to take weak beer instead of water for drinking, as it doesn't go bad?

Fuel:
300 gallons of diesel - assuming the truck will get 10mpg, this is 3000 miles of range (conservative estimate). Diesel would be available from lots of places for free for many years after a class 4 outbreak. Under floor fuel pumping system that will attach directly to the inlets of fuel tanks on forecourts. Extra Fuel tanks need to be military spec self sealing/armoured.

Food:
I am not sure how to work this out. Anyone got any ideas? Lots of Rice/dried veg and tins? And multivitamins? How much per person per day? hmmm. Food is bulky though, go for high calorie stuff? Special containers to keep it fresh.

Weapons:
8 12-bore pump action Mossberg marine (ie. weather resistant) shotguns with extended magazines. 500 rpg of 00 buckshot. 500 rpg rifled slugs. Equipment to clean, service and repair the shotguns. Spare parts inc. 2 spare barrels per gun.

2 grenade launchers. 100 frag grenades for anti human activity. 200 phosphor grenades. Safer, non line of sight and longer range than a flame thrower! Equipment to clean, service and repair the launchers.

12 Modifed swords - similar to Roman gladius, but with hand and a half (bastard sword) grip to allow a more powerful two handed swing if needed for quicker beheading of partially disabled Zombies.
12 Roman legionaire shields of the imperial rectangular design. Great for locking together and holding the Zombies while cutting them up.
12 Lightweight anti-Shark suits. These will offer bite protection better than any classical or medieval armor without being excessively heavy.

Truck modifications/weapons:
In addition to the armour etc. detailed in previous post.
Additional load carrying, "facilities" area above habitation - solar cells, wind turbine, batteries, heater and aircon (see below).
Train type cow catcher, but needs to be raiseable to give ground clearance. Sharp, extended edge shuld leave many immobilized zombies behind. Useful for pushing through a crowd.
Large side extendable blades, around 4.5ft off the ground. Good for clearing space for any following vehicles. Experimentation required but suggest 10ft long per side with wide blage for strength without thickness.
Run flat tyres if they can be obtained in these sizes.
Portholes with steel covers for shotguns on sides, front and back. These should not create a weakness in the armor if added like ship portholes.
Simple props should be lowerable to prevent the truck being rolled over.

Electrical Equipment:
Solar Cells for the roof with batteries. No need to have engine running while stopped, which is good because it is quiet. Looks like the lastest solar panels give the opportunity to generate up to 1.5kW on the roof of the truck. Cutting this down to a more realistic 1kW, there should be plently of power, even without the engine running as long as everything is not on at the same time. Batteries would be very heavy, but a good supply of sealed car batteries (ie. reliable and no electronics needed) would be needed. A wind turbine would assist too, though would be a big addition - however, would be invaluable once a safe location was reached. One of these: http://www.windenergy.com/PRODUCTS/air403.html looks good.
Lights - not neon tubes - low power halogen will be a lot easier on the eye.
Small aircon unit, which should work ok in the small volume while it lasts.
Heater - small oil filled radiator.
Radio (receiver and transmitter, as wide band as possible).
Battery chargers for torches and walkie-talkies.

Misc Equipment:
Clothing
Toiletries - esp large supply of hard soap and toothpaste/toothbrushes. Not sure about the Andrex factor light but very bulky. - Take as much as possible I guess.
200m heavy duty climbing rope .
Towel.
Cooking equipment.
Medical supplies for accidents.
Fire extinguishers (water, foam and powder)
Entertainment - DVD player + DVDs - cards, dice etc.

Google Sets

2004-07-27T08:51:00.000Z

I am really behind the times here, but this is awesome:

http://labs.google.com/sets

Basically, type in a couple of items from any group and it has a damn good go as giving you all the other members. The more group like the items are (the more the can be separated from everything else) the better the results seem to be.

Zombie Escape Truck preliminary plans.

2004-07-22T16:18:00.000Z

As a base, something like this:
http://www.clarktruck.com/trucks/5t6x6lwb.htm

It has a decent engine (diesel for ultimate reliability). Very strong, with high carrying capacity. S ilitary surplus too, so looks kind of funky. Comes with big wheel option. 6 wheel drive for extraZombie crushing power.

I looked at construction trucks, but they will all be too wide and thus might impede escape. even this truck will be pushing it, but since keeping off the pavements won't be an issue should be fine.

Initial modifications:

Habitation and defence module constructed on the back. Make the floor fairly high (about the level of the bottom of the cab's windows) to keep people out of the way. The space below can be used in many ways (storage, weapons etc.). 20ft by 9.5ft space. Build it 8ft high as it ain't going into any multistoreies anyway and 2 ft above everyones head will give a feeling of space. Could make the cab part of it, but would this be dangerous in an attack? If it becomes a factor, have we already lost? An integrated solution would give better morale.

    --------------------

--- LBBBBBBGGGGGGSTTTTT  B = Beds, 6ftx2.5 , 2 stacks of 3 

 S    DD  WWWWW DDSSSSS  T = Table 5ftx2.5

 S    DD  WWWWW DD       C = Cooking facilities, 1.5ftx4ft  

--- LBBBBBBGGGGGGGGCCCC  S = Seats, 6 + 2 in cab 

    -------------------- W = Skylight, armoured glass 5ftx4ft (sliding steel shutter too) 

                         G=Storage cupboards, 3ft high (most storage below the floor) 

                         L=Ladders for beds 

                         D=Trapdoors to underfloor storage.

Fully armour the cab and habitation. Lots of armour can be used, since the total weight carried will never exceed the rating of the truck. Suggest 10mm steel plating. Could use up to 100 metre square sheets of this easily! Can be doubled up in importance places. Attachments to the chassis and wheel hubs (partially protecting the tyres) should be considered, though ground clearance and maneuverability are a priority. The armour will also need holes for various shafted weapons. These can be used to attack the zombies, but also to fend and push them off. they should have detachable shafts, so the business ends of the weapons remain on the outside of the truck at all times.

Star Trek table

2004-07-19T15:48:00.000Z

http://feeds.feedburner.com/Funfurde?m=67

A trek badge table, that.....floats. Odd. But cool.

Anybody here recognize themselves?

2004-07-15T12:33:00.000Z

http://www.midaregami.net/weblog/archives/images/japan-hierarchy.jpg

heh.

A question

2004-06-30T16:03:00.000Z

Why would Darth Vader be good at fixing broken R2 droids?

Hotel customer services e-mail

2004-06-28T14:53:00.000Z

A classic

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/28/hotel_email_reply/

I wish they had this at Alton Towers

2004-06-24T09:46:00.000Z

http://www.cedarpoint.com/public/inside_park/rides/thrill/ttd/

Totally awesome.

Spy vs Spy and Mountain Dew

2004-06-22T18:29:00.000Z

Hi all

Mountain Dew have some quite funny Spy vs Spy advertisements on their website...

National Anthems

2004-06-22T12:06:00.000Z

Okay, let's face it, most national anthems are boring, pure and simple. I suggest a new campaign. Hans Zimmer to score our new national anthem? Imagine the pride and power our footballers would feel as they strolling out the tunnel to the battle theme from Gladiator. Or how about The Throne Room from Star Wars by John Williams.

The possibilities are endless, let's have some more suggestions :-)

Thieves steal computer equipment from security show

2004-06-17T15:43:00.000Z

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/17/blaggers_lift_pcs/

Symbian Virus

2004-06-16T15:37:00.000Z

Think Ewan should get writing some anti virus software.

First thought is that this kind of thing (not this one) could be far far worse that any previous epidemic. And that the first reaction of the phone companies will be to dumb down their phones massively (like "all" ROM or something).

http://www.boingboing.net/2004/06/15/bluetooth_virus_epoc.html

F1 Rule changes!

2004-06-15T09:26:00.000Z

Max Mosley, talking sense for a change - hopefully Bernie has already given his approval.

http://www.fia.com/mediacentre/Press_Releases/FIA_Sport/2004/210504-01.html

I really, really, hope they go with high grip, low downforce option.

Also, please note James "Fuckwit" Allen, coming up with the two most inane questions.

For Nokia and Python geeks

2004-06-11T13:32:00.000Z

A fine blog all round.

He just had dinner with Guido (creator of Python) at Nokia!

http://joi.ito.com/archives/cat_python_fun.html

Map of Springfield

2004-06-10T12:56:00.000Z

If they have shut down this persons site due to bandwidth, I have a copy of the map. Created from watching episodes.

http://www.csupomona.edu/~jelerma/springfield/index.html