Have you ever wanted to visit some of the more nerdy, local, and historical attractions around London and outlying areas of England? Perhaps visiting a abandoned postal rail network used during WW2, walk strange city alleys such as the Man in the Moon, or unusual art shows, talks, tours, or events?
Ian Visits lists many interesting local attractions in and around London that make for a fascinating addition to your next trip. It updates every day – so it’s a great way to catch short running attractions. Give it a look!
I’m a huge fan of the Fighting Fantasy book created in 1982 by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. I still have a good collection of them, but my first and favorite had to be Deathtrap Dungeon.
ChrisC has a nice Youtube channel with a few good playthroughs of some of my favorite adventure books. He does a good job on his walkthroughs and is a nice, calming listen. Honestly, I don’t know why more Twitch streamers don’t read old adventure books like this and let people vote on the next choice. Perhaps there’s an idea there…
Back to the topic. My first introduction to the books was as a middle schooler and I can’t tell you how many times I checked out this white-cover Dell version of Deathtrap Dungeon. I soon found the City of Thieves, Warlock of Firetop Mountain, and many others. Before the internet, one had to visit many libraries to find more of them. There is even a great fan site that has lots of details about each book – including interesting errors.
They did a reprint series a few years back, but that has ended as well. The books can still be had on ebay, or if you’re interested in a more professional production, Eddie Marston was hired to do an interactive video series that’s had much higher production values.
Toyota’s basketball robot shoots 100% at the Olympics
How did people wake up before reliable clocks? As the Industrial age kicked up, shift work and getting up at a specific time became important. However, clocks of that era were very unreliable and beyond the means of most workers. What were the alternatives?
Well, first off, there were people called ‘Knocker-uppers’. They would go around and use a long pole to tap on your window. They were often night owls that slept during the day, or were people that owned a reliable clock. Believe it or not, England had these until as late as the 1970’s.
The other option was candle clocks. One would light a candle that burned at a relatively known rate. The markings on/beside the candle would indicate the time it would take to burn to that point. The user would put nails or pins into the candle at the time when they wanted to wake up. When the candle burned to that point, the metal pins would fall out into a metal catching pan. The clanking of the pins falling into the catch pan would (hopefully) wake the sleeper.
Feippo is an Etsy shop that has a clever little product. They have disassembled some of the most popular cell phones and mounted them in display cases:
They have various iPhones, iPads, Nokias, Blackberry’s, Huawei, etc. The framed versions run about $150-250, while they also have do-it-yourself kits where you can dissassemble your own phones and mount them for about $60.
Considering these are coming from China, I’m thinking someone came up with a clever way to sell our own e-waste back to ourselves.
Coming in Dec 2021, the Steam Deck. You can use it as a handheld or plug in any standard external display, keyboard, mouse – and use it almost as a full desktop.
Noah Kalina took a selfie a day since January 2000. His previous videos had a staccato look to them, but with AI tech and the help of data scientist Michael Notter, this new video smoothly transitions his aging process over the course of 7777 days (just over 21 years).
Artist Roman De Giuli created this abstract interpretation of the skies and heavens not by pointing his camera upwards, but down at wet pieces of paper where he manipulated watercolors, inks, and acrylic paints. The darker colors with the sparkles really do look like space.
