It's all Bollocks anyway

2011-09-19T08:03:00.005Z

2011-09-14T19:59:00.001Z

2011-09-14T07:29:00.003Z

2011-09-11T20:51:00.015Z

2011-09-08T09:32:00.012Z

2011-09-07T01:22:00.002Z

Photo restoration in three parts

Bottom image original with damage, middle image cleaned up and top image has had 'sharpening' added.

2011-08-16T11:30:00.010Z

Photographing children can be a nightmare, for various reasons.

We have the classical situation where the child is plonked in front of a camera and told to “Smile for the camera” which might work provided the child is compliant and the photographer is quick off the mark and captures the shot before the predictable boredom and irritability sets in.

Once the novelty has worn off and the child has had enough of being told what to do you would well advised to pack up and go home as any photographs taken after that point will be of a somewhat distressed child.

The young boy in the images below is 20 months old and arrived at the shoot seriously not in any mood for having his photograph taken, he would NOT sit still and not being happy to begin with had a face that would crack paint, not that it was a big problem in itself, the real problem was he would not face the camera for love nor money.

The solution here is to forget giving ‘directions’ to a 20 month old child who has no idea what’s happening. Sit the subject in front of the camera, throw in a few ‘props’ and let them play…..shooting around what happens next.

The result is an opportunity to capture candid portraits revealing the child at play with a natural expression. Some of these shots can be really worthwhile where a moment in time is captured, never to be repeated.

This naturally takes time to complete a shoot but if you are happy with the results you would get from a photographer in the local shopping centre where it’s a case of “Sit. Flash, Done and Money please!” then you get what you pay for.

What many people fail to grasp is that the photographic shoot is not the end of the photographers work; it’s actually the beginning of an even longer process which takes place during photo editing, where in the case of digital photography the images are worked on in what has come to be known as the digital darkroom.

In the old days we would be covered in chemicals and working in the dark, these days it involves computer editing software but essentially the same crucial attention is required to bring the best out of the images taken during a shoot.

The photographer’s aim here is to produce as many aesthetically pleasing images to their client and to make it difficult for the client to reject as few images as possible.

2011-08-14T21:42:00.020Z

2011-08-10T16:18:00.028Z

2011-08-10T07:11:00.000Z

2011-08-10T00:13:00.001Z

2011-08-09T18:18:00.000Z

2011-08-09T05:40:00.000Z

2011-08-09T03:08:00.000Z

2011-08-09T02:07:00.002Z

2011-08-08T17:16:00.000Z

2011-08-08T11:10:00.001Z

2011-08-08T10:38:00.000Z

2011-08-07T21:13:00.000Z

2011-08-07T21:12:00.001Z

2011-08-07T21:04:00.000Z

2011-08-07T19:17:00.000Z

2011-08-06T09:50:00.001Z

2011-08-05T19:11:00.001Z

2011-08-04T17:38:00.002Z

2011-08-04T12:54:00.001Z

2011-08-03T09:35:00.000Z

2011-08-02T12:49:00.006Z

2011-07-31T14:26:00.001Z

2011-07-31T14:21:00.000Z

2009-11-14T01:36:00.004Z

2009-11-01T08:30:00.003Z

left to right : Charles, Brian, Linda,??, John

This would have been taken near the time of the mass evacuation from the tenement where we lived. Part of the building was collapsing, as can be seen by the shoring behind the children.

2009-10-13T18:55:00.006Z

links

link

Transport

If Glasgow was the second city of the Empire, then Possilpark was the beating heart at the centre

2009-10-13T13:45:00.004Z

This is what the old place looks like now. The street surface is the same and the green electrical box that I used to play on is still there, I fell off the bloody thing once. Our flat was situated directly above it.

2009-10-13T11:58:00.015Z

These images were taken circa 1940 but to be honest I don’t see a great deal of difference between that time and the middle 60’s, with the exception of clothing that was worn in the latter period.
The third image from the top shows the corner of a tenement with a shop, it’s practically identical to where we lived; we had the flat directly above the shop in our street. The shop here sells wines and spirits whereas it was a grocers shop we had below us. You'll notice the horse drawn coal cart in this shot, I still remember that and Sammy the Milk Man, who also had a horse drawn cart.

Directly across the street from us there was, believe it or not, an iron foundry which operated 24 hours a day. They had a huge electro magnet mounted on a crane which ran back and forth continuously lifting and dropping scrap metal, even through the night, non stop.
The strange thing is, when the place closed down when I was about 10 or 11 years old, I can remember people complaining that they found it difficult to sleep at night because of the silence……………

The other two images show what a typical ‘back court’ looked like. By the time I came on the scene World War Two had been and gone but the legacy of the war left us with brick air raid shelters in the back courts, with reinforced concrete roofs. The heavy industry in our area was a prime target for the German bombers y'see.
There was little or no grass in these courts, just earth and every bit a grubby as shown in these images

Click on the image to enlarge

As fate would have it, I managed to find a shot of the iron foundry (The Saracen Foundry)
the red arrow indicates the source of the racket.
With this serious industrial smelting stuff going on there was of course plenty of smoke from the factories which surrounded us, plus the coal fires heating the houses so it became hell on earth when it turned to smog, it got so bad at times you could taste the soot.
The street lights were not strong enough to cut through it at night, not that it made much of a difference anyway because only a total idiot would be out in that shit anyway, it was great for hide and seek though LOL!

soot
/sʊt, sut/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [soot, soot] Show IPA
Use soot in a Sentence
See web results for soot
See images of soot
–noun
1. a black, carbonaceous substance produced during incomplete combustion of coal, wood, oil, etc., rising in fine particles and adhering to the sides of the chimney or pipe conveying the smoke: also conveyed in the atmosphere to other locations.

2009-10-12T12:42:00.010Z

This nostalgia trip is the fault of Mr Gordon Clark, who recently mentioned gas lamps in a Facebook comment.

These images are taken from a permanent set-up located in The Peoples Palace at Glasgow Green, Glasgow and show what was called a Single End flat which were part of the tenements of Glasgow.

This particular set up is very similar to where I lived until I was 12 years old. (1966)
The main differences were our flat was larger, having two rooms, instead of just one and we had a gas cooker. The positioning of the fire place or ‘grate’ is different; our ‘grate’ was to the left of the kitchen sink which you will notice has one cold water tap. Therefore our kitchen was wider, by the width of the grate. The gas cooker sat to the right of the sink, which adds a bit more to the overall width of the room.

The bed was indeed located in a similar position and there was a door leading to a short hallway which led to the other room, which was considerably bigger.

There was a mouse that lived under the grate, which was a heavy cast iron thing with brass handles and hinges. Anyhow, my mother used to tie bit of cheese with some string and play tug 'o war with the mouse, the mouse of course always won.

The grate was never used for cooking, just for heating and had a small fireplace which was an ideal height for making toast. Being a coal fire meant things were a bit chilly in the mornings, until the thing got re lit, no central heating in those days. Pity the poor Coal Man who had to deliver bags of coal to customers on the top floor of the tenements.

The stairways and landings which accessed the floors were illuminated by gas lamps till the early 1960's and I can still remember the gaslighter with his lamp-stick doing his rounds.
Those unfortunates who lived in a 'Single End' flat had no toilet and would have to use the shared toilet outside on the landing, nice during the winter.

On the top floor of our tenement there was an elderly couple, a brother and sister who were good friends of my mother and they lived in a flat exactly like this one shown here.
The building was eventually condemned (surprise surprise) and everyone moved out to various locations throughout Glasgow, broke up an entire community in a way.
I can remember being heartbroken about moving away but being 12 years old and not knowing any better is hardly surprising. I learned that sometimes you have to escape in order to look back and see the reality of what you have been enduring, blinded by normality.

2009-10-12T12:15:00.005Z

My old secondary school, part of it anyway, all gone now.

2009-10-12T05:14:00.006Z

Then and now.

JW Britton was a butcher’s shop where my brother served his time, although the monochrome image was shot many years before that would happen. I think this one is from the forties or thereabouts. The colour image shows the same building in more recent times.
The Haddows shop is an ‘off licence’ establishment selling wines and spirits and was operating when I lived nearby 30 years ago. It was just outside this shop, to the right side of the door as you look at it, where I was attacked by three yobs one night as I was passing on my way home, ah those good old days!

Did he died you ask? Nope.

2009-10-12T05:11:00.001Z

Another place I’d like to revisit some cold misty morning, a bit of jaunt but what the hell….

2009-10-11T14:28:00.002Z

This is Pheobe, or Feebs for short. Her proper Sunday name is “Lostworlds Little Kim” a full pedigree Johnsons American Bulldog. She’s a “Bully” type as opposed to the “Hound” variety, which have longer snouts.

Feebs was the ‘runt’ of the litter and had to be resuscitated when she was born, nearly didn’t make it. Being the runt, it was thought that it would be impractical to try and sell her so my nephew who bred her approached my wife and asked if we would like to take her on as a family pet. We had two cats at the time and I was seriously against the idea, a waste of breath as it turned out because here she is.

She’s been spoiled rotten over the last three years and has turned out, much to my nephew’s surprise, the best of the litter. He’s asked us numerous times if we’d give her back.
This breed is used for hunting wild boar, the females can be used for this but the males being considerable bigger are the preferred choice, so this would explain the need for a large bite capability.
She’s a very powerful dog, even as a pup she was a handful on a lead, she’s more manageable these days.

These are shots of her coming back to me to throw sticks for her to chase, the scary face is only really seen when she’s running about, she’s a gentle beast at heart.
She’s also quite fond of a conversation; she’ll spend ages ‘talking’ with you if you get her in the right mood.

Hedgehogs freak her out, as do plastic bags blowing in the wind. I had her out one dark windy night, off the lead, when she heard the whoosh of a plastic bag behind her, that was the last I seen of her………..couldn’t see her arse for dust! She was sitting at the front door when I finally got home. Big wuss.

2009-10-11T02:47:00.000Z

2009-10-04T10:57:00.002Z

2009-10-01T22:05:00.002Z

We both enjoyed our expedition yesterday, the dog and I, so much we decided it would be nice to repeat the experience again today. It’s nice to share pleasant things with a friend sometimes.
It occurred to me that it might be a good idea to drag the daughter along too, not that she’d be greatly interested in meandering around unexplored ground but at least she’d get some idea of the topography of the area around here. Once again I brought the camera along, just as well I brought the telephoto lens too because when we arrived at the starting point the wee shit buggered off with the dog.

She walks considerably faster than me, as does the dog but at least the dog has more consideration. Whoosh……………..gone!
To make matters worse, she really got into it and wanted to explore further than I would have had it been just the dog and I.
Sweat pissin’ off me, stung by nettles, legs hangin’ off and trying to keep up with them, the years are catching up fast.

It was interesting though to see how much the vegetation has spread over places where I used to go, place which are now out of bounds unless you had a death wish which is a pity in some ways because there are some parts I would like to go back and explore, deep gully’s and ravines down to the water course but now it’s impossible to see a safe route down there. Oh well.

And not a sign of anyone drinking a cup of Timmy’s but there were two women picking berries!

2009-10-01T10:07:00.000Z

2009-09-30T23:22:00.007Z

Last week I took a much needed walk, a break from the usual routine and headed south toward the wild countryside, a thing I have not done for a long time. It was a grim day, no wind to speak of but overcast with intermittent drizzle, it didn’t matter.
I wandered over old paths I’d been before and noticed just how much things have changed here over the past few years, it took longer to get to an isolated area than it used to.
New housing estates have sprouted promising the new home owner a country view away from the hustle of the inner town. There are new industrial estates scattered around in places where you could once have fallen over a grouse or had to run for cover when being attacked by a Lapwing. Paved roads with immaculate tarmac, lined with cars belonging to the employees of the various units. Some of the cars are occupied, the occupant alone with a cigarette and a plastic vending cup of steaming something or other which is destined to be discarded by the side of the road.

Smoking is now banned by law here in the workplace and in many cases even on company property so the car is the only refuge. The litter which lines the new roads and which blows into the surrounding fields is just a symptom of an ill thought draconian law.
I’m not one of your eco-friendly tree hugging yogurt knitter types, far from it, I enjoy litter as much as the next man but out here it just seems so wrong, long grass and plastic of various colours just jars the eye as do the plastic bags blown by the wind trapped in the trees.
I remember being here 20 years ago on a photographic expedition with my next door neighbour, we were chased by a pride of carnivorous sheep along a disused railway track and had to climb a wooden gate to escape a savage attack. The railway track bed, part of it at least, remains but the gate has gone now to be replaced by metal pipes which have been embedded in the ground to discourage the traffic which now comes up through the estate. The sheep have gone too, not a bad thing I would add but there’s an articulated truck parked here, the driver asleep in the cab.

I took the dog up there today, to run free in a large open field. Rough ground and long grass with the tell tale signs of earth moving equipment tracks, which have churned up the ground in places.
A portent of doom methinks.

Time was you could walk for hours in this area and not see a soul, now there are (in some parts) gravel paths snaking their way through the landscape with cyclists and dog walkers dotted here and there. What they don't know though is, with a pair of wellington boots on it's possible to cross a couple of streams, navigate through a copse and before you know it...it's just like the old days, peace! and with the advent of these new paths and walkways you can get there quicker.

Don't tell anyone though.

2009-09-28T13:18:00.003Z

2009-09-26T12:03:00.003Z

2009-09-07T07:02:00.001Z

For the foreseeable future general bullshit will be transferred to Facebook, until it becomes tedious, normal service here will be suspended in the meantime.

2009-08-19T08:29:00.005Z

2009-08-09T10:35:00.002Z

Here's one for Mrs Mackydoodle and anyone who might be picking grapes somewhere in the deepest parts of france (with a great big chib)

Songsterr.com

Tab + lyrics+ chords+ it plays the music for you to jam along with. Really neat!

2009-08-02T18:27:00.002Z

Sometimes you just can't beat sitting back and listening to a radio drama.

Here's the BBC adaptation of Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, in eight parts.

2009-07-29T07:57:00.001Z

Startpage Protects Your Privacy

You may notice a great deal of activity going on at the bottom left of your browser when using Google? Collecting all sorts of data and in the process slowing the browser.
This search engine is faster as it does not collect analytical data.

2009-07-25T09:24:00.000Z

2009-07-23T06:05:00.004Z

Global Research

Infowars

Prison planet

ENDGAME documentary

The Obama deception

Terrorstorm

INFOWARS TELEVISION

(You'll get everything and more at the link above)

2009-07-19T23:38:00.002Z

Chordbook.com

For those of you who have the inclination (and feel there’s enough time before the New World Order start the global takeover + WW3) then this is a good tool for budding guitarists. At least it’s better than an enforced H1N1 flu shot and your bank collapsing.

2009-07-19T10:05:00.003Z

So being the twisted sod that I am it was only natural that my ears pricked up upon hearing from my unsuspecting niece that she was partial to the musical efforts of a certain Nick Cave (and presumably The Bad Seeds).
It struck me that if she was into that scene she’d perhaps have an interest in someone who might fall into the same category, man with a message, looks weird and can’t sing. That would of course be Mr Tom Waits. So I felt it my duty to introduce her to Rain Dogs, which is a fine example of Mr Waits doing what he does best.
A quote from the liner notes “if we couldn’t get the right sound out of the drum set we’d get a chest of drawers in the bathroom and bang it real hard with a two-by-four.”
Now that’s making music LOL

And her response to listening to the album? Well, horror I would say. Oh well.

However I should have warned her that having listened to the album, the seed has been planted…….she’ll go back to it at some time (even if only to reassure herself that it was as bad as she though it was)
The same could be said of Captain Beefheart (and the magic band) you could be forgiven for thinking that he’s surrounded with musicians who have just learned how to play 5 minutes go.

2009-07-18T13:26:00.005Z

2009-01-21T18:29:00.003Z

Extroverted Spiritual Self-Improver

I took the 43 Things Personality Quiz and found out I'm an

Extroverted Spiritual Self-Improver

Publish Post

There's a surprise.

2009-01-20T08:01:00.002Z

Sixth folder, sixth image.

It’s me when I was thirteen, photographed by Mr Fisher who was my form teacher and had started a photography class. Only those who had cameras capable of shutter speed and aperture adjustments could join up to his class and I was fortunate to have just such a camera. A Koroll 3 film camera which I had bought in Islington (London) where I had gone for a short holiday, a working holiday as it happens, assisting my older brother who worked as a driver for a warehouse. His boss was kind enough to pay me for my efforts. London at that time was really jumping with the fashion scene and the Beatles were at the top of their game, all was good (even the weather)
This would be my first proper introduction to photography where I had an opportunity to work with studio lighting and see how the process worked in the darkroom.
I think the class lasted about a year before it fell apart due to lack of interested pupils, considering the cost of cameras which were suitable for the job it’s hardly surprising that there were very few pupils involved. The classes ran after school so that too was a drawback for some.
Good times.

I still have the Koroll 3.

2009-01-20T07:55:00.000Z

SoiL

2009-01-16T11:20:00.001Z

We recently had a visit to the shops and discovered this ‘Wireless Bathroom Speaker (with radio) on offer at 75% off the retail price. We got it for £7. It works a treat.
The transmitter also works on our FM radio so I have it connected to the computer and can broadcast whatever I’m listening to wherever I like. Great stuff.

The next teaching session begins on Tuesday so I’m looking forward to that starting up; there are a few days to spend reviewing my notes and getting some practice in with the Photoshop Elements programme. This will be a lot easier thanks to the multitude of book tokens I got for Christmas (and my birthday) and some serious assistance from Mr Dave who gave me a leg up too!

2009-01-07T13:50:00.009Z

I’ve recently been recruited to photograph some American Bulldog pups for one of my nephews (he breeds them) but have not had a great deal of time to sort through the shots, for tweaking purposes, until today.

Update The bottom image (monochrome) has been selected as one of the 'Images of the week' on Renderosity.com. Yay!

2009-01-06T14:20:00.002Z

2009-01-05T19:52:00.001Z

Puppies are nice yes?

2009-01-03T15:49:00.000Z

2008-12-26T03:47:00.001Z

I recently took a late night trip to our local ASDA (our version of Wal-Mart) the plan was to get some basic shopping and miss the crowds, assuming that the hoards would have had their feeding frenzy earlier during the day. So I’m optimistic LOL.

As it happens I was not in any great hurry nor was I particularly stressed (before I got there) by the time I got out I was ready to kill!
People with glazed eyes pushing shopping trolley’s, full to the brim trampling over anyone or anything that got in the way of their objective. To add to the mayhem it just so happened that when I was ready to leave it was at a point when the lanes where closing down, so there were huge crowds descending upon tills that were taking no more customers. In other words we couldn’t get out.
Every lane was closing and there were countless queues of frantic/manic women hacking and slashing their way through the throng, trying to find a lane that wasn’t closing down. It was futile.
I went for a walk around the shop for a bit, looking at the clothes section as it was the only area that was free of the madness. I came back for another try at escaping. I joined a queue only to discover that yet again this one was closing down, the cashier was shouting over the heads of the masses that I’d have to find another lane, I shouted back that that was ok, “I’ll just leave this trolley here and come back tomorrow when you’re less busy then!”
I’d had enough of it, but the thing is there’s a point where you have to decide when to cut your losses and split the scene, I was inclined to leave the shopping in the trolley and head home but I knew I’d have to repeat the whole thing again the next day, plus there was the amount of time I’d already wasted getting to this point in the madness.
I went for another walk.
It took about 45 minutes to get out of the place. So I learned a lesson. (A few actually)

Keep away from large shopping centres, especially at a shift changing period.
If it’s a small shopping expedition, do it at a small independent shop.
At the first sign of delay in a large shop, cut your losses and leave immediately, if the boredom of waiting to get processed doesn’t kill you, the stress of being captured in limbo probably will.

Merry Christmas to you all.

2008-12-20T07:38:00.004Z

This was the horror dressed for her first high school dance.....

2008-12-20T05:52:00.003Z

Transmissions From Beyond

Sci-Fi, horror and crime podast stories.

InternetShout

a 'vocal networking' community forum where users communicate with voice.

2008-12-18T11:30:00.002Z

100 things I like? That would be an interesting exercise in listing those but for the fact that I don’t like typing. So that’ll be that then.
My vices such as they are tend to be simple anyway……..

New strings on my guitar, that’s always nice, breathes new life into it.

Sunday mornings are nice too

Laughing is always a plus

Not working in engineering is a definite plus.

Remembering things that you’d forgotten.

Walking about aimlessly, that’s pleasing.

Not having a video camera is nice too, because no bugger can harass you to shoot weddings and the like LOL.

But you know what; perhaps ‘just making a difference’ should be up there at the top of anyone’s list.

2008-12-18T02:32:00.003Z

Network part one

Network part two

You must remember Howard Beale "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this any more".

It's a phenomenal performance by Peter Finch.

2008-12-16T01:16:00.001Z

Alien captured on CCTV!!

2008-12-11T01:17:00.004Z

Dan Gilbert: Why are we happy? Why aren't we happy?

You got the blues? This guy might have the answers.

I have to admit to being not particularly happy, thanks to the Man Flu symptoms which are a real pain in the nose, the chest, neck, and head. Poor me.

Way back in 1977 there used to be a TV prog over here called Science Report which would cover the new issues and developments of the day. It was produced by a commercial English TV company called Anglia television and broadcast over the country on the various regional television stations. It was a serious program dealing with serious issues.

One night we all sat down to watch Science Report and were horrified to discover the frightening revelations of Alternative Three .

I can still remember our television station putting out an announcement at the end of the evenings broadcasting advising all those who had been calling their switchboard to contact Anglia Television directly about their concerns.
This was serious stuff!

2008-12-08T21:17:00.003Z

Oh the joy of winter, especially December when the ‘Man Flu’ descends with a vengeance but that’s ok because it’s always an excuse to have a major session with the Navy Rum, not that it cures anything especially, it’s just a pleasant change.
So once again I am locked in here with the sign on the door ‘here be dragons’ to keep the unwary out of harms way, I’m a horror when I’m unwell!

On the subject of ‘horror’ may I advise against using Google to search for Truth Tube Tv. I accidentally surfed in there earlier and came to the conclusion that it makes the old Ogrish site look like the Disney channel.

Meanwhile, back on the subject of feelin’ like shit……on the shelf above me sits a bottle of The Balvenie 12 year old malt whiskey which is calling to me, the poor thing must be feeling lonely so I think I will have to partake of a little nip while I sit here and feel sorry for myself (as you do).
Sniff.

I'll be making good use of this facility while I'm locked in here BBC i Player

2008-12-08T04:02:00.004Z

Top police officer warns that nuclear attack is inevitable
By Rob Edwards, Environment Editor
Scotland must prepare for ‘absolute terror’
A NUCLEAR attack by terrorists causing widespread panic, chaos and death is inevitable and will happen soon, a senior Scottish police officer has warned.
Ian Dickinson, who leads the police response to chemical, biological and nuclear threats in Scotland, has painted the bleakest picture yet of the dangers the world now faces.
Efforts to prevent terrorist groups from obtaining materials that could be made into radioactive dirty bombs - or even crude nuclear explosives - are bound to fail, he said. And the result will be horror on an unprecedented scale.
"These materials are undoubtedly out there, and undoubtedly will end up in terrorists' hands, and undoubtedly will be used by terrorists some time soon," he declared. "We must plan for failure and prepare for absolute terror."
Dickinson is assistant chief constable with Lothian and Borders Police, and has responsibility through the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland for protecting Scotland from chemical and nuclear attacks. He has been closely involved in co-ordinating the country's counter-terrorism response.
He said: "An incident will continue for days and all the public will see is people dying without reason. What will we do when our children come home from school with blisters on their skin and their parents don't know what to do?
"What happens if 10 deaths, 50 deaths, 100 deaths start occurring in an unconnected and random way all over the country? The public will be rightly and understandably terrified."
Casualties caused by radiation, which most people don't understand, would trigger widespread "panic and fear", said Dickinson. And the response of the emergency services "would be chaotic" because of a shortage of resources.
The police capability for dealing with the chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threat - known as CBRN - needs to be increased, he argued. "I haven't got as many officers with protective equipment as I would like," he added. "We must prepare for the worst."
Dickinson delivered his dire warnings to an international conference in Edinburgh last week. More than 300 experts from 70 countries were taking part in a high-level meeting organised by the UN International Atomic Energy Agency on the risks of nuclear terrorism.
The police response to a CBRN incident when it happened would have a "profound effect on our communities which should not be underestimated", he said. The protective clothing that officers would have to wear would look "terrifying".
As Dickinson made the point in his speech on Wednesday, one of his fellow police officers appeared dramatically on the stage dressed head to toe in a regulation black protection suit. With his face completely obscured by a gas mask, the officer then walked slowly through the delegates seated in the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.
Decontamination after a radiation attack would be an "enormous cost", Dickinson contended. It would far exceed the multi-million pound bill for cleaning up the 50 premises contaminated with polonium-210 after the poisoning of the former KGB agent, Alexander Litvinenko, in London last year.
There would also be a huge drain on resources from having to reassure many people who were unharmed but worried. The additional monitoring and clean-up work would be "a major problem", he said.
Worldwide efforts to stem the spread of radioactive materials by the governments represented at the conference were vital, Dickinson concluded. "But the sad fact is that your work will fail."
Dickinson's nightmare analysis was backed up by Dr Frank Barnaby, a nuclear consultant who used to work at the Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment in Berkshire. "The amazing thing is that this hasn't happened already," he told the Sunday Herald.
"We should expect it any minute. It's an obvious thing for a terrorist to do. A primitive nuclear explosion would simply eliminate the centre of a city like Glasgow or Edinburgh."
The Edinburgh conference heard a series of other warnings about the risks of radioactive materials being stolen and used to cause devastation.
"As the terrorists look for the next spectacular attack, we know that al-Qaeda in Iraq is calling on nuclear scientists to join in the jihad," said William Nye, director of counter-terrorism and intelligence at the Home Office in London.
Richard Hoskins, from the International Atomic Energy Agency's Office of Nuclear Security in Vienna, revealed that there had been 1266 confirmed incidents in which radioactive materials had been stolen or lost around the world since 1993.
Most involved radiation sources that could be made into dirty bombs, although in 18 instances small amounts of bombs-grade uranium or plutonium had been seized.

Pat condell

Laughing religion off the planet - an interview with Pat Condell

2008-12-07T02:02:00.001Z

It's the end of the world as we know it! (yeah right)

2008-12-06T09:15:00.004Z

Alex Jones interviews Major General Albert "Bert" N. Stubblebine III who was the commanding general of the United States Army Intelligence and Security Command from 1981 to 1984

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10

Doomsday seed vault

infowars.com you can listen to Alex Jones live here.

I love conspiracy stuff.

2008-12-03T11:09:00.002Z

Oh goody! The new car will be here tomorrow...no not this one, this is my nieces husbands car.
(yes it's a Lamborghini whatchamacallit)

2008-12-03T06:47:00.002Z

I had a tripod given to me many years ago and it served me well but eventually it fell to bits and became seriously unstable so I bought a new one a few months ago, a Manfrotto with three way head. I’ll have to get out and use the bloody thing though.
Having said that, the weather has taken a turn for the worse recently and we now have snow, not a great deal of it to be honest but it’s damn cold out there…perhaps this would be a good time to take it out for a test run.
Time was, I would be out trekking in the snow taking shots, preferably in the early morning just as the sun was coming up wandering around the local countryside and the promise of a sausage, bacon and egg breakfast upon my return.

It was a great way to ruminate the issues that were bursting my head at that time and fried breakfasts aside, I was a damn site fitter as a result. That’s the curse of having a car (for me anyway) I got lazy and rely on the vehicle too much!

2008-12-01T04:42:00.003Z

My wife and I decided one day that the time had come where a freezer would be a good purchase, so off we went down to the shops looking for just that very thing and we looked here and we looked there at various ‘chest freezers’ most of which were priced around £150. However, one of the shops we passed whilst window shopping just happened to be selling Sinclair Spectrum 48k computers and as fate would have it they were selling them at a similar price to the freezers we’d been looking at.
We bought the computer and forgot about freezers for a bit.

I have to admit that the computer was far more entertaining.
Over the years we had it quite a few games were piled up; most of them crap by today’s standards but there were a few that stood out of the pack.

The Sentinel was one that had me hooked! It can be played online by following the link and the concise instructions can be found HERE. It’s one of those games that you’ll either love it or hate it, it’s jerky and that’s probably one of the factors that makes it frustratingly addictive.
Anyhow I’ve posted it here so I don’t loose it!

There are other Speccy games to be played in their original form HERE

This however is an alphabetical list of games which, if you happen to know the name of the game you want, will make it easier to find an emulator (if it exists) There are quite a few listed in here. You'll see small 48 link (like the one shown above) which will take you to the relevant emulator

2008-11-28T17:06:00.002Z

2008-11-27T06:58:00.005Z

This is part of the roof of the Dynamic Earth building in Edinburgh

2008-11-26T22:23:00.001Z

Mumbai Attacked

LIVE FEED

2008-11-26T18:19:00.001Z

Joe versus deer!

2008-11-26T06:44:00.002Z

Just checking through my stat counter data and found a link to this site in Korea, no less!
Apparently my Blog is described as an 'OK' music site.....fair enough LOL! Thank you very much!

2008-11-25T09:28:00.005Z

A few months ago we made a decision to buy a laptop, for one thing it would be handy for me should I find myself needing a computer with regards to photography, this was indeed the case when I was shooting at the dog shows. However she who must be obeyed really wanted a laptop for playing games on and she can now do this downstairs at her leisure!
It’s a Samsung R700 17 inch screen thingy and does the job nicely. It has been lifesaver as far as the teaching is concerned; the college laptop which is used with the projector can be a bit temperamental at times so I use this one now.

I can remember a good few years ago being told that my brother in law had bought a computer and had it connected to a thing called the internet. I had no knowledge of PC’s and no clue as to what one did with an internet. My only experience of computers was the ones used at work for operating the machines and a distant relationship with a Sinclair Spectrum 48k. It was quite a while before I went for a visit to see the new computer in action.
I was of a similar opinion to that of my brother “What do I want with a computer, no use to me sunshine”! LOL
A direct result of being introduced to the computer and infernal internet now finds me in a position where I have to be surgically removed from this invention of Satan!
Though it should be said I have derived a great deal of pleasure from the damn thing and of course there are the jobs I had while studying at college, where experience of computers was essential, so that’s a positive thing….leading to my present position, teaching digital editing. Bloody hell, life certainly throws some surprises.
Communicating with cyber friends (albeit sporadically) is another mind blast!
Skype has also been a great addition to the fun; it has allowed long distance communication with my Luddite computerphobe brother which can be trials of endurance, considering the length of time we spend twittering utter bollocks to each other!
I think I love my computer.

Oh and while it occurs to me...if skype appeals to you over in the USA and Canada then you can get me under the handle of chaddysdaddy, not that I'm always connected but you never know.

2008-11-22T21:40:00.005Z

Time for a change of scenery.

One of the essential additions to the 'hideout' was the stereo and speakers, two on the shelf in here and another two located in the bedroom, they're switchable so that's handy for listening to the Playlist player. I had to steal it from the living room when she who must be obeyed wasn't looking.

2008-11-22T15:45:00.003Z

Linlithgow Palace, birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots, though it looks nothing like this at the moment due to the bad weather coming in, yesterday we had a smattering of snow and some hailstones but it soon passed.
The weather, like hard times, comes in cycles and I don’t mean the 10 speed variety.
It never lasts though…does it? Nah, swings and roundabouts, it’s just a matter of bracing yourself for the onslaught! A cup o’ tea ana bun soon sorts it out LOL.

2008-11-18T23:30:00.002Z

A small classroom but sufficient for our purposes !

Oh well that’s me finished till January, more’s the pity ‘cause I was really getting into this course.

There were sad farewells today, one said “******! What am I going to do on a Tuesday night?”
I suggested that he make plans to rejoin us in January…. And funnily enough I was told by one of the afternoon students that he’s considering coming back for more, even though it will be a repeat of what’s been done so far.

Fact is, it won’t be a repeat because I have been charged by the college to construct a new syllabus to cover ten weeks, so unlike this recent course, which was basically dumped on me with no constructive plan of attack, I can now pace things better. There never was a proper construct to work to as it happens so this will be the first attempt at an ‘official’ structured course, I’ve been trying over the past weeks to present some sort of structure but it’s not been easy.

So far there is one class arranged for January and there are enquiries still coming in, so we might make it to two yet. I’ve still got to get a copy of that bloody Elements program and learn how to make sense of it though.

2008-11-17T16:17:00.001Z

Telemarketer's Nightmare!

this is very funny.

2008-11-16T11:39:00.002Z

Got a new keyboard yesterday! wireless board and mouse bloody marvelous stuff.
The silver one was dropping letters and it was getting difficult to read the keys also, so it got the boot!

2008-11-15T02:26:00.005Z

People are always looking for ways to "cut" someone from a photo and replace them with another person, or place the person against a different background. They're also looking for ways to colorize a portion of a photo. The trick, of course, is in how to select the person, or area of the photo, so that you can manipulate it.

There are several ways to select a portion of an image, or photo, without selecting the areas you don't want.
1. You can use the powerful selection tools that Photoshop has.
2. You can use clipping paths.
3. You can build a mask using the Quick Mask mode.

The two squares indicated by the white arrow will change to black (foreground colour) and White (background colour) automatically. If for some reason this does not happen then these should be changed manually.

With the Quick Mask on you can easily "paint" a mask which will be turned into a selection once you pop back into Standard Mode. Painting the mask is as simple as selecting the Paintbrush tool or the Pencil tool. Drawing with black will paint the mask on and drawing in white will remove the mask.

By default the area you are painting/selecting will be painted pink but this colour is only used to highlight the area you have selected, the image is NOT being painted pink at all, when you reach the final stage of this selection process the pink will disappear!

Using this method you can quickly fill in large areas by using a large Paintbrush.
To get into the detailed areas you should zoom in and paint with a smaller brush or pencil

"What if you colour outside of the lines?” you ask. Not to worry. Just hit the Switch Foreground and Background Colours icon (it's the small, rounded, two-headed arrow to the upper-right of the Foreground Colour/ Background Colour icon indicated by the white arrow in the first image). With white as the current colour you'll be removing the mask, and all of this has no effect on your photo!

When you're done painting your mask you can return to Standard Mode, which is the little button to the left of the Quick Mask button on the Tool Bar.
Now, I've actually chosen, or painted, the wrong area. Instead of painting, and masking out the dog, I've masked out, and therefore selected, the area around her. No problem. By choosing Select > Inverse I'll have the dog selected instead.

Choosing Edit >Copy will move the dog to the clipboard. I can then fill the background layer with white.

By choosing Edit > Paste I can move the dog to her own layer above the background.

At this point you are free to apply any sort of effects you like and you can paste the dog over any background you want just by applying the Move Tool and slipping the dog into another image or a new canvas.

Some might find this method of making 'selections' easier than using the lasso tools, worth exploring though!

2008-11-13T09:57:00.004Z

2008-11-12T13:21:00.003Z

I got Da Blues!!

It was revealed to me last night, something I had overlooked…..last night’s class was the penultimate session. Next week will be the end of the classes. (For this year)
Another shock came in the presence of brand new computers, very nice they are too with flat wide screens and certainly faster than the old ones but there was a hidden problem with this upgrade. They installed Adobe Elements for the image editing, which I dare say is fine considering it is a programme that is more affordable to those who attend the classes and might be tempted to take the plunge rather than splurge out on the full Photoshop program, but I’ve never used it before LOL! There was a collective WTF? when we discovered that one.

The college will not be supplying me with a copy of this new editing program (naturally) so I’ll have to get my hands ona copy myself and learn how to use it for the classes planned in January. Most of my handouts have been produced with reference to Photoshop7, so they’ll be going in the bin. Ach it’s all good fun!

I’ve decided to install the Playlist.com player, having had a look at it on Mackydoodles Blog and came to the conclusion that it plays consistently better than that pile of crap I had been using, there were some tracks that started playing that Arabic Jihad bollocks and we're having none of that matey.

Grandad Jim! LOL it’ll be the pipe and slippers next old son. I look forward to hearing from you about any photo assistance you might need

(johnhairyface@hotmail.com)

2008-11-10T22:31:00.007Z

It’s time to change cars, the one we have at the moment (Vauxhall Astra) depicted in the bottom image, is too small for our needs so sticking with Vauxhall we’re moving up to the Zafira model (the ones on top) That should make life a lot easier! Plus it has plenty of room for camping gear LOL.

2008-11-10T22:16:00.003Z

Here's a wee fun thing to try on Photoshop, if you feel inclined.

1 Open up an image in Photoshop
2 Image > adjustments> Desaturate
3 Open up the history pallet, Window > history.
4 Click on the 'open' box shown in the image above
5 Select the History brush in the Tool Bar.
6 Run the brush over the 'desaturated' image.

Or don't bother.....

(Make sure it's the History Brush and not the 'Art History Brush' you select though, cause they live together in the same place)

2008-11-08T22:23:00.003Z

The BBC television current affairs/humor programme.

This particular episode has Brian Blessed presenting. How they managed to get a full program from this after censoring out the over the top hilarity, is anyone's guess but thankfully it's all here. The man is certainly worth his weight in gold.

Episode 4 contains a frank and seriously funny account of Mr Blessed's mountainering attempt on Mount Everest.

The BBC website

2008-11-08T00:33:00.000Z

2008-11-07T18:40:00.000Z

Supermarket secrets, a TV documentary to cheer you up

2008-11-06T16:18:00.001Z

2008-11-05T21:00:00.000Z

One of the ‘students’ who takes the photography class works as a gamekeeper on the local estate where the Huntin’ and Shootin’ fraternity go out looking for deer and the like, all in the name of sport. He was talking about venison on Tuesday night and how much he likes it. When he found out I’d never tried it he offered to bring me some next week. So bang goes the ‘apple for the teacher’ idea and in with the ‘couple of venison steaks’ instead! That’ll do for me.