Recently updated blogs

I built this based on a picture in one of my books but it did not say what it was and I am not sure what it should be.Most of this model is scratch built. The large door in the high building is a commercial plastic door and the windows on the small building are commercial parts. The tar paper on the roofs is plain white paper sprayed gray. When …

Empire gown from Delineator, January 1893. Butterick pattern #4944. Sometimes a new fashion takes off and becomes dominant. Sometimes not! While browsing through a fashion and pattern magazine from 1893, I learned something new — which may interest vintage clothing collectors. This is a typical style from 1893: A typical fashion from January 1893, Delineator. A tightly fitted bodice, with huge Leg-o-Mutton sleeves contrasting with a tiny waist. The huge …

Looking back, some of my most enjoyable things I’ve done have been challenging projects: Working at Future Platforms to build one of the UK’s earliest dating apps. Completing my MA. Working as a ‘technical liaison’ on a project with an ambitiously short deadline in 2017. Being involved with the Cerne-to-CERN pilgrimage and setting up an online radio station for it. I see certain things in common here – all of …

Green kale is an attractive and nutritious vegetable, growing to a couple feet tall, useful in every kitchen garden. Towards the end of fall, the gardener should monitor overnight temperatures, although kale reputely is cold hardy and can tolerate occasional frost. This recent autumn, however, an overnight rainfall froze to heavy snow in the morning,...

Bauhaus & Art Deco & more I have been since I was a child fascinated with this minimal style in illustration, because I watched Mr. Magoo and other cartoons made at that time (50s, 60s, UPA mostly) and japanese anime. So I invite you to a short trip to Mid Century Modern Illustration (and design).MCM Definition: Mid-century modern (MCM) is a movement in interior design, product design, graphic design, architecture …

Mission completed. Ingenuity is left alone on Mars after damage to one of its blades renders it inoperable..

Photographer’s studios, like any business, have to innovate to survive. Over the years they have come up with all manner of gimmicks and offers to attract the weary eye. The photographer’s studio here offered a rudimentary superimposed, photo collage technique that could place a treasured photo of a loved one in the shot too. This photo dates from the 1940s, and shows a soldier, with a bone china complexion and …

How to add a cover image to Pelican based blog posts, so that when the article is shared on social media the image is shown in the preview.

The traditional four elements have never worked for me, so when I began the work of making my own system, it had to go. Instead, I started by looking at the landscape and trying to derive from that. It's quickly clear that fire is very different from the other three. When I go about, I see all around me - the sky and the land and the water - and …

Emile Gallé, vase with metal mount, 1895-1900. Nancy, France. Via Grassi Museum Leipzig

Initial analysis from MTC’s Connected Network Plan reveals the service gaps that transit users experience on the southern transbay bridges between San Mateo and Alameda Counties. For the first time in history, the Bay Area is approaching its long-range transportation planning with an assessment of travel demand and the level of service needed to address the demand. Transit service over the 92 bridge between Hayward BART and Foster City/San Mateo …

Added LED strip.Added interior box.Empty interior box.Worn sign.Foundation leaks light.Down on its luck.When's the next streetcar get here?The Toronto Three

About the author: Iván Goldman is a political scientist from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is a Researcher at the Meridiano Foundation and the Argentinean Foreign Policy Research Group (GIPEA) of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires, where he also is a Teaching Assistant at the Argentinean Foreign Policy Seminar. Niccolò Machiavelli was arguably one of the most important political thinkers of Western …

Containing multitudes, Tyler C. Gore’s debut, My Life of Crime: Essays and Other Entertainments (Sagging Meniscus Press), is testimony to the weirdness of growing up Generation X, an homage to New York City, a cry against conformity, and a droll appraisal of the institutions and mores underpinning American society. Laugh out loud funny as well as poignant and thought-provoking, this unconventional collection includes a book-length essay, “Appendix,” from which the …

Welcome back. To ease us into this final series, let's have another schedule survey, sticking with the main channel this time. It's February 1990 and I'm in my fourth year at school (Year 10 in new money), navigating my GCSEs, nursing a few deeply unrequited teenage crushes and rushing home each night in time for Neighbours and whatever cult shows are on BBC Two (assuming there wasn't sport). February 5th …