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Here's another Stargrave scenario, completely untested, as per usual. THE HERMIT Pagurus Titanicus is known for grabbing bits of debris to build itself a tough outer shell, and there's plenty of debris among the dead stars. There's loot too, and rumour has it this monster is carrying treasure on its back. SET-UP Place terrain as normal. Multi-level terrain is handy for jumping down on the

January still proves a great setting for reconciling with the the previous year. 2024 was packed, and there were still plenty of great releases that slipped between the cracks. In the spirit of re-examination I’ve been listening to this excellent release from Scott Hedrick, a surprising left turn from the guitarist most known for working with thrash band Skeletonwitch. With that in mind, the opening acoustic flourishes from Devotional Drift, …

I was walking from Russell Square to Kings Cross today and, as I passed by these houses that end at Heathcote Street, I thought it was high time that I shared my idea that surely they face the wrong way. I mean to say, the front doors face Mecklenburgh Street, yet the walled back gardens abut Grays Inn Road here. I've only seen the like in two other London locations: …

WowHaus 1930s art deco house in Taunton, Somerset 1930s art deco house in Taunton, Somerset (image credit: Robert Cooney) This 1930s art deco house in Taunton, Somerset, is the best renovation project I have seen for quite some time. (image credit: Robert Cooney) Because 1930s houses in largely original condition just don’t come up very often these days. And especially 1930s houses with architectural merit, which is what we are …

This January, we’ve commissioned a series of short essays considering film restorations from the past year. This is the first.Nightshift (Robina Rose, 1981).’Tis the season: that year-end rush to evaluate, organize, rank films seen in the arbitrary unit of time one calls a year. This process always privileges newness, but I have come to treasure the novelties that unpredictably emerge from historical archives. Some films arrive as though you had …

I come up with them all the time and this one should knock your socks off . . . Or at least take incredible shavings for you. New to woodworking or a seasoned machinist, I often get woodworkers lamenting that they sometimes get a good edge to Card Scrapers, but mostly not. I put this... Source

Hove is a very acceptable place to spend a day. I was last in the area when visiting the Urchin, a seafood-specialist gastropub and microbrewery (I bet there aren't too many of them around) which made the (pretty easy actually) journey down from Battersea more than worth my while. Since then, I've discovered that we paid way too much for our train tickets (apparently we should have gone Thameslink, not …

Is resilience the most powerful character trait? When you think about the suffering of the Windrush Generation, migrants to the UK in the 1950s, it is their sheer staying power that is immediately obvious. As the son of a Jamaican mother, who came here decades ago, Roy Williams wrote his first mid-1990s plays about her experiences, then moved on to examine issues of race in contemporary Britain. Now he revisits …

Here's what we looked at this week:Dremel's new Blueprint Multi-Drill is designed with innovative features that consumers can use. AI-designed footwear is here, with a new "influencer" business model.Industrial design case study: Modern Weave 3.0, by KEM Studio, is an experimental furniture design incorporating rope.Gimmicky furniture design strikes again: A multi-position chair lands $780K-plus on Kickstarter.Combo furniture: LG adds a projector and speaker to a floor lamp.Outside-the-box thinking: The Adaptchula, …

Ben Ramanauskas wants to abolish the pensions triple lock. As a longstanding advocate of it, you'd expect me to disagree. And I do, but not violently. Ben proposes replacing the lock with simply raising the state pension in line with average earnings. This has two great merits. One, as Ben says, is that it aligns the interests of pensioners and workers. It tells today's pensioners: "you're in the same boat …

I visited Los Angeles for the first time in February of 2001. I’d passed on previous opportunities to visit because I assumed it would be a place I’d hate. The only things I knew about it was there were lots of earthquakes and fake people. I didn’t work in the movies, had no interest in plastic surgery or fancy cars and generally didn’t think there was anything I’d find interesting …

The Crimea Tavern, Castleford, Yorkshire A distinctive Victorian red-brick pub with an arched frontage, across the road from the River Aire on the north side of the town centre. It has been closed since 2009, and planning permission has now been granted for its demolition.

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The Voyage of Magellan, Interlude: The Mutineers’ Return

We’re all over the Finland scene today, with a brand new single from Cats of Transnistria…one of my favorite acts on the Soliti roster. That said, they’ve mostly been quiet for the last few years since 2019’s Aligning…save for a single that seemed like a one-off for the moment. Well, today you get to visit their ethereal realm as they