Eastney Beam Engine House
An ever-so-slightly processed (subtle, but if you look closely you can possibly tell) shot of the Eastney Beam Engine House in Portsmouth. Described on the museum's own website – http://www.portsmouthmuseums.co.uk/museum-service/Eastney-Beam-Engine-House – as "an impressive Victorian building containing a pair of classic Boulton Watt beam engines and pumps restored to their original 1887 condition." They're not wrong about the impressive part. Or the engines part. I'll have to take their word regarding the original 1887 condition part because my time machine's in the shop getting fixed. If you're in the area on the last weekend in the month and you like machinery made of brass and dials with needles turn you on and girders and walkways send a ripple of excitement up your spine then it's definitely worth a visit. Google+: View post on...
Japanese Book Translations
The publishing division of this website, neOnbubble Press, has had a long and varied history but one of its key positions has always been providing translation services of foreign publications to English speakers. For this post I thought I’d share just a handful of some of the quality book translations into English that neOnbubble Press has provided to the Japanese book and magazine markets since 1962. Winning Business Meetings The Sharon Stone/Basic Instinct Way Taking inspiration from films to run businesses has always been the Japanese way and books promoting that ethos have always been popular. The march towards miniaturisation of almost everything, for instance, can be traced back to the 1966 movie Fantastic Voyage. In 1993 neOnbubble Press translated Winning Business Meetings The Sharon Stone/Basic Instinct Way, a book suggesting a lack of underwear and crotchless suits could accelerate any Tokyo businessman right to the very top. Sales were poor. The Big Book Of Buttocks Art In the 1970s three schools of Japanese erotic arts competed with one another in the publishing marketplace: schoolgirl fetishism, tentacle rape, and drawings on buttocks. A quick search on the internet for those search terms will tell you all you need to know about whether the market could support all three types of art (spoiler: it couldn’t) and why subsequent sales of The Big Book Of Buttocks Art as translated and printed by neOnbubble Press were so poor. Why Can’t Women Understand The Rules Of Golf? Misogyny is prevalent in Japanese culture and that’s despite such groundbreaking books as Why Can’t Women Understand The Rules Of Golf?, published by neOnbubble Press in 1985, which sought to provide questions and answers to how women differed from men in stereotypically manly activities such as golf, karaoke, jerking off to schoolgirl fetishism and tentacle rape comic books, and alcoholism in a bid to promote discussions of equality. Sales were poor. Techniques Of Hat Wearing – Fifth Edition Throughout much of the eighties hat wearing enjoyed great popularity in Japan, and especially in Tokyo where there was a genuine (though unfounded) concern that neon leakage from signs could lead to hair loss. Many books on the subject had been printed and one of the most successful was Techniques Of Hat Wearing which had enjoyed three reprints with additions before neOnbubble Press was invited to translate and print a new one especially targeted at the emerging English-speaking market in the capital. Three weeks before the book hit the shops a scientific report allayed the public’s fears regarding neon leaks and the fad of hat wearing came to an abrupt end. Sales of the publication were poor. After...
This Year's Street Fashion
"And welcome back to This Year's Street Fashion coming live from the streets of Chichester. I'm joined as always by Ferdinand Dubonnet. Ferdinand, what are you looking forward to seeing today?" "Thanks Mark. I think the buzz on the street…" "Very good." "Thanks. Yes, the buzz on the street is that Leonardo Martini is the hot designer to look out for. Expect an animal prints and aluminium foil fusion that blends future history with present pastness in a pastiche of metaphyscial Indo-European-African-Amer…" "I'm going to have to interrupt you there Ferdinand because the show's already started and first on the bill is the Winter 2014 range from old stalwart of street fashion Carla Advocaat. And here comes the first model. What do you make of this then Ferdinand?" "This is clever. I like this. Carla's never been one to shy away from pushing boundaries so the strong emphasis on the flasher mac is unsurprising but pleasant. What's under the coat? That's what you're thinking and your eyes are drawn to the split up the backside to look for the forbidden fruit." "I really hope there's no fruit up there." "Indeed. Everything here shouts 'secrecy' which is very important in today's world. The coat hides, the hat hides, the cord earpiece and the phone scream 'I'm communicating, but don't listen to me.' Again, it's a very clever combination and exactly what we'd expect from Carla." "And what do you make of the shoes?" "Not the strongest element in this ensemble. I'd have liked to see long, black socks with this piece but I understand the omission." "You do?" "Absolutely. It exposes the calves to the world, harking back to sacrifices. This is saying 'take my legs but leave me my privacy.'" "Thank you Ferdinand. Without your fashion insights this show would be me laughing hysterically into a tumbler of whiskey. We'll be right back after this break." #StreetPhotography #StreetPics #Street Google+: View post on...
Increasing Voter Turnout
So, we’ve just had elections for local councillors and members of the European parliament and we’ve had yet another demonstration that democracy simply doesn’t work when you’ve got a population of lazy idiots casting votes. I can be that benevolent dictator you never knew you needed if you’d only give me a chance. But that aside, and ignoring the minor success of the UKIP party (thanks in no small part to near blanket coverage in the media whilst ignoring all the other small political groups), one of the big concerns about elections these days is voter apathy and the subsequent low voter turnout. Right now we have a situation where a small percentage of the inhabitants of a country or county or ward can shape the way that everyone there lives which is hardly representative of what democracy is supposed to be. You may as well have a benevolent dictator in that case – me, for instance; I’d be great in case you didn’t know I was interested in the job – so if we want to still promote the democratic process to the rest of the world we really need a way to increase voter turnout going forwards. I’ve come up with some suggestions. None of these suggestions address the problem of voters picking stupid parties but that’s nothing that better education, better rules governing media coverage of politics, and better punishments for idiocy from roving gangs of concerned citizens couldn’t sort out. Voter Apathy Surcharge A lot of people don’t vote but then complain when things aren’t governed in the way in which they’d like. These people are annoying to the rest of the population who did make an effort to enact change and they should be punished for their laziness accordingly. The Voter Apathy Surcharge both punishes the apathetic and raises money to be used locally thereby offsetting the annoyance factor somewhat. How it works: the existing council tax is doubled. When the election comes around all residents of a house are checked off when they turn up to vote and once everyone in a house who’s eligible to vote has done so that doubling of the tax is removed. Pros: this still allows the electorate to exercise a right not to vote the local area benefits directly from apathetic voters Cons: it’s a bit dull Voting Virus If we can’t encourage people to want to vote for the good of the country then perhaps we can encourage people to want to vote for their own lives. How it works: polling stations are stocked with a vaccine that protects against a virus specially designed for the...
Pyramiden
Via the Smithsonian website comes this article about Pyramiden, an abandoned Soviet town within the Arctic Circle in Svalbard. In addition of a history of Pyramiden and its coal mines the article includes a short history of Svalbard itself but it’s the description of the place as it is now – as explored by a couple of archaeologists and a photographer – that’s most interesting. For the first time, Bjerck—who had visited the town many times when it was still inhabited—was able to venture into the residents’ private rooms. Walls were still covered with maps, magazine clippings of nature or animals, pin-ups and stickers reading “Playboy,” “Puma,” and “Brooklyn,” to name a few. Many people had built homemade wind chimes and ornaments from paper clips, plastic bottles, string and cardboard, evidence of the town’s DIY mentality. “For me, if I don’t have a hanger, I just throw my jacket on a chair – I don’t go and make one myself,” Bjerck says. “But the closets were full of homemade coat hangers fashioned out of electrical...
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