A nice idea, for a wet country — get the watermills working again… “over the next ten years, thousands of homes and communities will be encouraged to restore dilapidated water wheels and mills — or build small-scale hydro-electric power plants as part of a drive for green energy. According to Climate Change Minister Greg Barker, […]
Archive for October, 2010
12 open world “free roaming” video games for the PC
31 Oct 2010 at 12:03
David Haden
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12 open world “free roaming” video games for the PC. This is my list of very large 3D game worlds which allow the player to roam freely. As these are PC games, you can and should mod them if possible. Fallout 3, Morrowind, and S.t.a.l.k.e.r. have been especially heavily modded and bug-stomped by (quite literally) […]
2nd artists’ book and independent publishing fair
30 Oct 2010 at 19:23
David Haden
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There’s a West Midlands artists’ book and independent publishing fair, happening at New Art Gallery Walsall on 27th November 2010 (11am-4pm). The event includes a drop-in book-making workshop, and a panel of book artists and curators in conversation.
InDesign magazine templates
29 Oct 2010 at 21:56
David Haden
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Ready Media, doing for print design what WordPress templates have done for blogs. Although there are no prices shown for these InDesign templates. You have to ask. Which probably means you can’t afford it. For the rest of us: a couple of rather American freebie templates for Mac users, of real-world professional magazines, here. And […]
Sponsor121
Sponsor 121 is an online hub for connecting sponsors and seekers of sponsorship, and the service is based in London. The rather naff name, and a website design that looks like a domain-squatter’s template, don’t give a great first impression — but look under the surface and there’s potentially an interesting new UK-centric service, and […]
Connected Kingdom
28 Oct 2010 at 11:00
David Haden
Creative industries, Reading, Techie
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The Connected Kingdom: how the Internet is transforming the UK economy (PDF link), the full version of the report that’s causing the “Internet worth £100bn!” headlines in the UK. Keep in mind that £40bn of the £100bn is said to be High St. purchases made after online research. But still, even £60bn a year isn’t […]
Mappiness
Just published by Princeton Architectural Press, From Here to There: A Curious Collection from the Hand Drawn Map Association. 224 pages of hand-drawn mappiness.
Land of Giants
Land of Giants — pylon designs for Landsnet, the Icelandic electricity company.
Arts & Business cut
Arts Council England has reportedly taken the decision to “completely cut funding to Arts & Business from 2012”, preceded by a 50% cash cut to the organisation in 2011/12. It’s tempting to see this as having something to do with a political desire to undermine the government’s vision of more business involvement in the arts. […]
JoIF: Wells’s Time Machine special issue
23 Oct 2010 at 16:41
David Haden
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A new issue of my open access ‘overlay’ ejournal, Journal of the Imaginary and Fantastic. This themed issue is on H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine, and it includes my new Selected Bibliography of Scholarship on H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine (PDF link).
Time Machine sequel for the Kindle
My new sequel to H.G. Wells’s classic science-fiction novel The Time Machine is now available on the Amazon Kindle ebook reader — at the the U.S. Kindle Store. Kindle owners can download the first 10% of any book, as a free sample.
The Stone Age Internet
Immaculate Telegraphy takes things from to stonepunk… “Using no modern tools or materials and relying entirely on material found on the ground in the wilderness, a telegraph switch producing .7 volts of electricity was completed in November 2009. Using the techniques learned during Immaculate Telegraphy, an entire telegraphic network could have been constructed in the […]
Arts & culture cuts at a glance
21 Oct 2010 at 09:59
David Haden
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This seems to be the sum of the most recent arts/culture cuts… Direct cuts: * BBC — 16% percent cut to its budget, licence fee frozen for six years. * National museums — grants cut by 15%, but must keep free admission. * DCMS (Department of Culture, Media and Sports) — must cut administration costs […]
A light in the night
Granny Buttons, now seemingly located on his narrowboat somewhere near Burton-on-Trent, has handy tips and ideas on photographing fireworks / Bonfire Night / lantern processions.
“We could be heroes…”
20 Oct 2010 at 11:03
David Haden
Artist(s), Birmingham, Comic art
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Hunt Emerson’s unique take on those old ‘Marvel heroes’ wall-posters, Heroes of the Underground Comix. A mere £3 for a 16″ x 16″ print, limited to an edition of only 150.
Diminished Reality
Real-time removal of unwanted objects in video feeds…
The Big Society – the little diagram
Now that we’re hearing and reading more and clearer articulations of ‘The Big Society’ ideas, but apparently not producing any handy diagrams or infographics on the subject, I’ve spend a half hour trying to visualise the key themes and areas of the Big Society idea… Policy wonks and central-London twitterati, please keep in mind this […]
Black Country history
Black Country history, a new website. A single search-box to search the records of collections held at various museums and archives in the area.
Art of Ideas events
Art of Ideas events list, including… * “Collecting Contemporary Photography”. Pete James, Head of Photographs, Birmingham Central Library, in conversation with Brian Griffin and Stuart Whipps. Lecture Theatre, School of Art, Birmingham City University, Margaret Street, Birmingham. Tuesday 9th November 2010, 6pm – 8pm. * “Pennies into Pounds: Getting your audience to give”. Arts & […]
Bigger Thinking for Small Cities
16 Oct 2010 at 14:33
David Haden
Arts cuts, Creative industries, Regeneration
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Bigger Thinking for Small Cities (PDF link) a new discussion paper from a consortium of smaller cities in the East of England. Also available is their initial November 2009 discussion paper (PDF link). One of the common sense suggestions… “the creation of “functional cultural areas”. The areas would be defined by the distances people travel […]