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The Cartoonist
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Tuesday, December 31, 2002 |
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 More about Freddie Frinton (and the amazing fact is that I couldn't find any english websites) here, here, and there. The Dinner recipes are here; or there. Or wherever. And whatnot. Happy New Year. I'm off now.
3:32:34 PM  Cult | |
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Dinner for one. Good old Freddie... Dinner for One: "Below we have the dialogue for Dinner for One, one of my favorite little pieces - a short television comedy shown every New Year's Eve in Germany.
James :
Good evening, Miss Sophie, good evening.
Miss Sophie :
Good evening, James.
James :
You are looking very well this evening, Miss Sophie.
Miss Sophie :
Well, I am feeling very much better, thank you, James.
James :
Good, good... "
...
3:16:28 PM Cult | |
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 I'm actually starting to like this guy. femail.co.uk "Prince Charles has abandoned an official visit to the United States because the White House has signalled he is not welcome.
The snub by President Bush - which is causing a behind-the-scenes diplomatic furore both in London and Washington - has been prompted by the Prince's deeply held reservations about Bush's determination to wage war with Iraq." Via Armin.
2:47:37 PM London | |
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"tong"Create your own. Understanding Weblogs : In this article, I'll show you how to build a simple weblog using Radio UserLand, then I'll spend some time explaining the fundamentals behind weblogging. (O'Reilly Network via MyAppleMenu)
9:54:01 AM Blogs | |
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 A Happy New Year from the RatSwine - and from yours always amazed, The Cartoonist! Have fun, all of you. There might not be enough time left for having fun...
1:50:59 AM The RatSwine | |
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Monday, December 30, 2002 |
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 Yeah, but they probably have more visitors than I have. So what's the problem? (Could it be the navigation of those sites? The content?) Mhmmm... Official websites leave public cold. Politics: The government's £1bn plan to put all public services on the internet is in danger of creating 'online millennium domes with just as few visitors', a new report has warned. [Guardian Unlimited]
7:21:29 PM London | |
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"head2"You see?! Walking the dog can be dangerous! Get a cat instead a dog. Should I stay or should I go? BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Music | Funeral for punk hero Strummer: "The funeral of Clash star Joe Strummer, who died of heart failure last week aged 50, has taken place in west London.
The singer died on 23 December at his home after taking his dog for a walk."
7:16:00 PM London | |
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 This is very old news indeed, and I have mentioned it before, but then - why not again: Google Mac Exclusive!
Looking for an easier way to find Mac information on Google? Well, look no further. All you need to do is visit Mac Google and search away!
For example, while searching for "Microsoft Office" on Google's main search site, the first return will be about the Windows version of Office. Searching for the same term on Mac Google will bring you directly to the Mac version of Office. This is a simplistic example, but one that illustrates the convenience of this service nicely. Google even has a Mac-oriented logo for the service. Via MacObserver. (Guys, you're late...)
7:09:59 PM Blogs, Cult | |
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 Gold! Rum! Adventure! All about Treasure Island here: Treasure Island - Home "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest-
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!"
3:29:42 PM Literature | |
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 This is brilliant. Tarot cards with Peanuts characters. Fantastic. The artist "Valerian" pleads online, "Don't sue me," and offers this explanation of the offbeat project:
"An absurd, heretical, really cool view of an ancient ritual of divination: This is a joke. Six-year-old suburban kids enacting adult emotions and situations, breaking them down and magnifying them into hilarious crumbs of childhood experience - tragedy, pain, and measured triumph. With children as protagonists and innocent humor as the disarming tool, the emotions are simplified and magnified (as are the physical features of each cartoon drawing) and the exchanges between the children become both an ironic parody of adult emotions, and an impossibly close and meditative study of them." Via BoingBoing.
9:09:08 AM Cult | |
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 Jeffrey Zeldman is right. Awkward and non-existing things in OS X: View By Date Modified Considered Harmful : If there is a way to change the sort order from the useless default, we haven't discovered it yet. (Jeffrey Zeldman via MyAppleMenu)
8:54:52 AM | |
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Sunday, December 29, 2002 |
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So. Comments are back after 6 hours. Great.
8:49:30 PM | |
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 Alright. Fed up with this. I've disabled the comments now - the Radio Comments server is down again. This is getting ridiculous. Could perhaps anyone point me to a working comments server?
5:36:26 PM Blogs | |
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 German website about the history of computing. The site is HUGE, over 400MB in size and covers almost everything. Another interesting link in this regard is The Dot Eaters, covering the history of videogames. My favourite was always 'Defender'. I never got past the third or fourth level though and I always ran out of smart bombs, even though I could later practice the game on my Dragon 32...
12:56:21 PM Cult | |
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 Analog Word Processing. A really nice website about fountain pens: Makers, History, Construction, Filling, Inks, Troubleshooting...and some old ads in 'Special exhibits'! Unfortunately there's nothing about the Esterbrook 356, which was used by Carl Barks.
10:03:25 AM | |
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Ok then. Let's give it a try: Heimatsicherheitshauptamt.
The Odd Case of Heimatsicherheitshauptamt. As seen at the link:
What is going on here? Google censorship? On my Journal page for Saturday, 16 November, I posted a response to a message from a reader. That response included a word I'd just made up, "Heimatsicherheitshauptamt", or "Homeland Security Main Office". Also on 16 November, Jerry Pournelle posted a message from me that included the word Heimatsicherheitshauptamt.
The following Monday, I wondered if I'd actually made up that word, or if someone else had used it first. So I did a Google search for "Heimatsicherheitshauptamt". That search returned only two hits, one my Journal page for 11 November, and the other Jerry's Mail page. I didn't think much more about it until a couple of weeks ago, when I decided to run the search again to see if anyone had picked up on it. This time, Google returned zero hits. Nada. Nothing. Zip.
Which it still does. So the obvious thing is to get as many people as possible to post the word Heimatsicherheitshauptamt on their webpages, and see what happens. [linkfilter.net]
9:36:53 AM | |
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Saturday, December 28, 2002 |
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 Fast Space Cruiser Orion VII. Last picture for 2002!
4:33:48 PM Orion Pics | |
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Beer! A website listing London pubs, together with the history of pubs. PUBS.COM Pub Guide "Welcome to pubs.com, your independent guide to London's best traditional and historic pubs."
12:02:08 PM London | |
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"head2"Magic tricks. A magic linkpage. WannaLearn.com: Just for Fun : Magic Tricks: "...free magic trick instructions for new magicians, including the self-tying handkerchief, coin through elbow, Houdini rubber band escape and more..." "link"
10:23:11 AM Cult | |
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Friday, December 27, 2002 |
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Thursday, December 26, 2002 |
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 Really good stuff never dies. And the truly bizarre Magic Roundabout was good. At Welcome to the Magic Roundabout you can see them again: Dougal, Zebedee, Ermintrude... and apparently there's now a movie being planned. So then: Tournicotti-Tournicotton!
9:59:52 AM Cult | |
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Wednesday, December 25, 2002 |
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[Just noticed that it's around $90. For some email software? They must be crazy.]
10:44:48 AM | |
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 A Christmas present from my son. The book starts off with Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood opening a certain shop on 430 King's Road... Well done, Michael!
10:42:04 AM Literature, London | |
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Tuesday, December 24, 2002 |
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"head3"Proper Branding? Cult Brands: Lessons Learned At Apple, ESPN, And PepsiCo : What gives some brands an extra lift? An avid cult following, that's what. At a session of the HBS Marketing Conference, experts debated the pros and cons of managing a brand that customers truly adore. (HBS Working Knowledge via MyAppleMenu)
1:54:42 PM | |
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"head2"I want one of those. Wired News: Forget a Maid, This Robot Vacuums " Billed as the first autonomous vacuum cleaner in the United States, the $200 Roomba is a round, battery-powered vacuum that looks like a flat-bottomed wok on wheels. The Roomba is more-or-less autonomous, capable of navigating rooms unattended, sweeping up as it goes."
See also http://www.roombavac.com/
1:20:24 PM Cult | |
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 This will be shown on worldwide telly during the holidays anyway, so I see no reason at all why I shouldn't mention it here: A Christmas Carol by a certain Mr Dickens. Those who don't want to read the text online will find a description of the plot together with the old illustrations on a page titled not unsurpringly A Christmas Carol. And even more about Christmas and Dickens is on the Dickens Christmas Page. Happy Christmas then!
10:59:28 AM Literature, London | |
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Monday, December 23, 2002 |
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"bird"Are there any other 'comments' servers around? The Radio UserLand comments server seems to be down most of the time and I'm really pissed off now. Any suggestions? Oh - please send me an email, because the comments server is down. There's a yellow envelope icon somewhere on this site, you just have to click on that. It's because the comments server is down again. Thanks. You know, the comments server is down...
5:44:24 PM Blogs | |
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 Pictures of the Dead. Very spooky site. MEMENTO MORI: DEATH AND PHOTOGRAPHY IN NINETEENTH CENTURY AMERICA
"A memento mori is a form of image that urged a European person of the late Middle Ages to "remember thy death." To do this, a memento mori might represent death as a human skeleton--perhaps as the Grim Reaper gathering his harvest--or it might depict human bodies in an advanced state of decay. Its purpose is to remind the viewer that death is an unavoidable part of life, something to be prepared for at all times. Memento mori images are graphic demonstrations of the fact that death was not only a more frequent, but a far more familiar occurrence in medieval Europe than it is today." Via Kosmonautentraum.
12:46:34 PM Literature | |
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Sad. No more White Riot. "23 DECEMBER 2002:
Joe Strummer died yesterday. Our condolences to Luce and the kids, family and friends." From http://www.strummersite.com
10:20:29 AM London | |
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 Because it's Christmas. André Franquin's Idées Noires are here. In French.
9:56:58 AM Literature | |
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Rip-off Britain, Part 1238. The The Unsuspecting Tourist had an encounter with Santa: "Today however, this icicle laden world came crashing down on me. I saw a sign that demanded 3 pounds (sorry, can't make the pound sign on this American computer) which is about $4.50 to meet santa." That's in Euros: 4.66!
9:32:18 AM London | |
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 Lucky Luke. Good old Morris - I'm a fan of his stories. Sadly, he passed away last year. Here are a few Lucky Luke links: Svein Are Tjeldnes maintains a website with a list of the main characters, the authors and the stories; Giesbert Damaschke's pages haven't been updated for a long time but are still worth a look; and this page is about the albums and has a link to Suske en Wiske.
9:24:30 AM Literature | |
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Sunday, December 22, 2002 |
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Saturday, December 21, 2002 |
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 And here is a website about the 'Germanic Goddess': Nico. The picture on the left seems to have been photographed on a cemetery. Now that fits perfectly.
1:58:20 PM Cult | |
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Friday, December 20, 2002 |
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 Yes, but is it art?Of course it's not art, just something out of my sketchbooks! Oh, me poor torn soul... :-)
6:31:17 PM | |
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 Found this wonderful, amazing, fantastic, brilliant, great, unbelievable, incredible, beautiful site about Jules Verne: Andreas Fehrmann's Collection Jules Verne. The books. The movies. Themes. Links. Only drawback is, the site is entirely in German - but offers translation help via altavista World. Sigh...Quite a few of the old wood engraved illustrations can be found at Science Fiction Studies, XXV:2 (July1998):241-70. And what a weird name for a website is that?!
3:58:56 PM Cult, Literature | |
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 Borgward. The homepage of lloyd-motors - lots of links, pictures and of course old ads and brochures. Choice of English, French and German.
12:34:22 PM Cult | |
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 Step out in front. Here is the Isetta source: Everywhere you want to go with this goofy little car. Again, lots of old advertising materials.
12:16:42 PM Cult | |
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 Small cars. At The Heinkel Club Germany you'll find everything about the 'Kabinenroller' as well as their old motor bikes along with technical datasheets and advertising materials.
"The purpose of this club is the maintenance, reconstruction and care of the Heinkel Vehicles."
12:06:59 PM Cult | |
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Booooh! Great website about Haunted Places in the UK: "Find out about the places the ghosts haunt and why they haunt them. Read their tales of sadness, passion and hate."
11:53:52 AM London | |
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Thursday, December 19, 2002 |
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 More Science Fiction. Thunderbirds are go! This is a very, very, very extensive website dedicated to Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds. F.A.B.!
5:23:47 PM Cult | |
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 Kugelraumer. Michael Fey has developed a 3D modelling/rendering technique to show us the intestines of spaceships of the famous German Perry Rhodan series. One can only wonder why they haven't been published within the series yet - so far I have seen nothing that comes even close to these amazing '3D-Blueprints'.
Also on his site: A 'new' Orion and, of course, screenshots of the 'Eighth Episode', titled 'The Seeds of Evil'. Fantastic work. I'm jealous.
5:15:16 PM Cult, Orion Pics | |
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Here in London quite a lot of companies are already switching to InDesign. See you later, Quark. OS 9: Alive Or Dead? : The bottom line is that it will cost Quark in the long run. (MacOPINION via MyAppleMenu)
9:09:46 AM London | |
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"head2"An interesting email from Robert with an interesting link: GermanEnglish Words. "Welcome to GermanEnglishWords.com. This is a dictionary of some German words used in the English language (Germanisms), each with a literal or German meaning, English definition and sometimes actual sample sentence(s) from literature and the Internet." Found at Bananajoe's.
8:33:33 AM Literature | |
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Wednesday, December 18, 2002 |
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Yeah, but that's the way they work. Ken Hirsch: "I really dislike the fact that all blogs are in reverse chronological order." [Scripting News]
2:27:51 PM Blogs | |
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 'The World's Largest Website on Carl Barks' says this website about itself. I'm not sure about that, but there's certainly a wealth of material. Available in Danish and English.
2:25:56 PM Cult, Literature | |
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Tuesday, December 17, 2002 |
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 And this is a website about industrial design from the German Democratic Republic, or East Germany as we say here in England. Fantastic website.
Not quite Rams, but some of the products look very Gyro Gearloose inspired, like the hairdryer on the left.
8:14:52 PM Cult | |
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 Rams. The Braun Industrial Design Collection lists quite a few of Dieter Rams' original Designs - click on the links at the left to view the pictures in pop-up windows. An interview with Dieter Rams can be found on this website, with video clips and some more pictures. "I can´t stand any ´isms´- nationalism, functionalism. There is no functionalism, just functions." - Dieter Rams I wish some web designers and programmers would memorise that and act accordingly...
7:47:39 PM Cult | |
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Talking about David Bailey - here's a loooong interview with the man himself, a gallery with really great photography and video clips: David Bailey : http://www.pdn-pix.com/legends/bailey/intro.shtml "Bailey, almost as well-known for who he's slept with as for who he's photographed, has lived a life most of us only read about in the tabloids. He cohabited with British '60s model sensation Jean Shrimpton, married sultry French actress Catherine Deneuve, and became best friends with Rolling Stone's Mick Jagger."
9:40:49 AM | |
Routed through 
Fantastic Belgian website about 
A third series? They surely can't top the first two. 
Tip Top! This website lists all the title pages of 
Everybody seems to be talking about Samuel Pepys these days (
Edgar Pierre Jacobs was, just like his friend Hergé, a master of La ligne claire. 
We really don't need that. How about first getting the NHS working again?
This website is incredible. It's a 
Happy Christmas, everyone!
The works of Howard Phillips Lovecraft are online at the 
And because