http://ianbennett.multiply.com/ Hi, have a seat. Beer and wine's over there, food's on the table. Put the CDs and cassettes back in the right cases and keep off the vinyl. Kick the cats and you die horribly! Fri, 22 Jun 2007 05:37:40 -0000 Fri, 30 Mar 2007 06:38:33 -0000 http://images.ianbennett.multiply.com/logo http://ianbennett.multiply.com 100 100 "He used 200 pounds (90 kg) of chocolate to make the sculpture which, unusually, depicts Jesus without a loincloth." http://ianbennett.multiply.com/links/item/51 Fri, 30 Mar 2007 06:38:33 -0000 I'm not saying I'm a better uncle than anyone else, but I'm now a Great-Uncle as well. My kid sister's no 2 daughter Rachel has been delivered of a 5lb 8oz baby girl. So say hello to Ione Chapman. Mother and baby both well, father (Chris) recovering. http://ianbennett.multiply.com/journal/item/14 Mon, 26 Mar 2007 17:43:12 -0000 http://ianbennett.multiply.com/photos/album/6 Mon, 5 Mar 2007 18:51:45 -0000 (Substitute the politician of your choice.) http://ianbennett.multiply.com/links/item/50 Thu, 1 Mar 2007 19:42:57 -0000 Or 'tap' to nonUSers. Please note that smutty comments will be deleted (unless they're really funny). http://ianbennett.multiply.com/links/item/49 Thu, 1 Mar 2007 16:34:58 -0000 "The blind navigate by using their hearing to a greater extent. This means that hybrid cars pose higher safety risks for the blind because they are quieter." http://ianbennett.multiply.com/links/item/48 Wed, 21 Feb 2007 12:34:02 -0000 "It may be possible to read a person's personality through their eyes." "It was found that those with more crypts were likely to be tender, warm and trusting, while those with more furrows were more likely to be neurotic, impulsive and give in to cravings." http://ianbennett.multiply.com/links/item/47 Mon, 19 Feb 2007 15:11:06 -0000 "Hitachi announced a new 'powder' type RFID chip measuring 0.05 x 0.05 mm, which they may begin marketing within 2 to 3 years." http://ianbennett.multiply.com/links/item/46 Sat, 17 Feb 2007 16:58:53 -0000 "The entire thing takes up about as much space as a two-car garage, surprisingly compact for a machine that can consume nearly any type of waste—from dirty diapers to chemical weapons—by annihilating toxic materials in a process as old as the universe itself. Called plasma gasification, it works a little like the big bang, only backward (you get nothing from something)." "The only by-products are an obsidian-like glass used as a raw material for numerous applications, and a synthesis gas that can be converted into a variety of marketable fuels." http://ianbennett.multiply.com/links/item/45 Sat, 17 Feb 2007 16:42:54 -0000 Mad scientist light fixtures. Unsurprisingly, the site's in German - just look at the pictures. Found (along with much other goodness) at Brass Goggles. http://ianbennett.multiply.com/links/item/44 Fri, 9 Feb 2007 13:15:51 -0000 "A hospital needing a cheaper alternative to fake breasts has begun knitting its own." "Kate McFadden, the hospital's infant feeding co-ordinator ... sourced the breast pattern from the Lactation Consultants' Association. " Every day, the world gets a little stranger. The major strangeness here is that an NHS establishment is actually trying to save money. http://ianbennett.multiply.com/links/item/43 Thu, 8 Feb 2007 08:48:20 -0000 ...watching paint dry? Watching floorboards warp? Watching cheese mature. http://ianbennett.multiply.com/links/item/42 Wed, 7 Feb 2007 12:34:03 -0000 "Cibus has developed a system that has the same effect on the plant but involves no addition of a foreign gene. Instead the plant is persuaded to manipulate its own genetic make-up in a process the company describes as being similar to changing a one letter in a single word in the Bible." http://ianbennett.multiply.com/links/item/41 Wed, 7 Feb 2007 08:50:31 -0000 Researchers from the Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin "have used igneous rock from Mount Etna to produce carbon nanotubes and fibers directly by deposition from the gas phase." http://ianbennett.multiply.com/links/item/40 Wed, 7 Feb 2007 08:45:03 -0000 We were burgled on Friday evening. We were in the living room watching TV (Randall & Hopkirk on DVD) and around 10:15 we heard a thump. The cats did their usual **ALERT** behaviour, but we assumed it came from next door - they're a noisy bunch, and we often hear doors slamming and so on. At 11:30 I went downstairs to feed the cats, (our living room is on the first floor - USian: second floor) and noticed that the front room door was open. I assumed that Tracy has left it open after her work-out session, but then I saw that the kitchen window had been broken. Glass everywhere, drawers open, TV missing. I phoned the police and they arrived within ten minutes. Nothing else had been taken. Brief statements, crime number, pretty much a sleepless night. Saturday morning the SOCO guy turned up, covered everywhere with powder and lifted a few useful shoe prints, and a couple of fingerprints, probably ours. He took reference prints from us, then left... http://ianbennett.multiply.com/journal/item/13 Sun, 4 Feb 2007 12:47:44 -0000 "The 'microhand' measures one millimeter across when closed into a fist. It consists of four 'fingers', each of which is made from six silicon wafers, with polymer balloons doing the work of 'muscles' at the wafers' joints" http://ianbennett.multiply.com/links/item/39 Mon, 29 Jan 2007 10:15:54 -0000 "People in the Australian state of Queensland will soon have to start drinking water containing recycled sewage, the state premier has warned. Premier Peter Beattie said he had scrapped a referendum on the issue, because there was no longer a choice." Ultimately, of course, we've all been doing this for ever. (Insert 'taking the piss' jokes here.) http://ianbennett.multiply.com/links/item/38 Mon, 29 Jan 2007 10:01:37 -0000 I'm not sure whether QUANGOs exist in US or Oz, but in UK they're a national institution. Quasi-Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisations are ostensibly independent but are really just a way for Government to waste more taxpayers' money and simultaneously deflect blame. They're universally concerned with something utterly pointless, but as long as they can employ lots of Guardian readers, they just keep on coming. They have Long Meaningless Names designed to hide the fact that they don't really do anything useful. Now, courtesy of the nice guys at chimpage.com, you can create your own. I'm in charge of the Strategic Assessment Regulatory Inspectorate. http://ianbennett.multiply.com/links/item/37 Fri, 26 Jan 2007 10:03:00 -0000 Instant remote diagnosis and treatment Fat zapping Customised replacement of body parts Remotely activated drug dispensing Smart nappies http://ianbennett.multiply.com/links/item/36 Fri, 26 Jan 2007 08:49:59 -0000 These probably don't merit individual link posts, but they're worth a look: Am I in pi?: enter your date of birth and it tells you where (if at all) the digits appear in pi. Mine starts at the 72,408th digit. The Plus Deck Cassette Converter is a cassette deck that fits in a spare 5.25" bay in your PC. Edit tapes, convert to MP3. Things my boyfriend says is quite amusing. "You shouldn't buy me things. Save your money for unicorn rides or whatever it is girls spend money on." The web site of the Fertnel Snak Food Corporation. As well as browsing the site, read the page source code. I'm not entirely sure about PETSorFOOD.com. I bet PETA hate it, which is almost enough recommendation, but the humour is a bit too blunt instrument for me. This one is definitely good. The Dyson (yes, the vacuum cleaner people) Telescope Game. Because we all have time to waste. http://ianbennett.multiply.com/journal/item/12 Thu, 25 Jan 2007 19:54:01 -0000 "The company boldly claims that its system, a kind of battery-ultracapacitor hybrid based on barium-titanate powders, will dramatically outperform the best lithium-ion batteries on the market in terms of energy density, price, charge time, and safety. Pound for pound, it will also pack 10 times the punch of lead-acid batteries at half the cost and without the need for toxic materials or chemicals, according to the company." http://ianbennett.multiply.com/links/item/35 Thu, 25 Jan 2007 12:35:42 -0000 "This toaster is designed to engage the user, re-invigorating the social context of toasting by questioning everything about what we toast with today." http://ianbennett.multiply.com/links/item/34 Wed, 24 Jan 2007 08:52:12 -0000 So now Red Ken will know what you're buying, as well as where you're going. http://ianbennett.multiply.com/links/item/33 Thu, 18 Jan 2007 13:16:07 -0000 "I was driving and then it was two weeks later and I was in Leeds (hospital)," he said. "There was a sense of 'oh bugger'," he added. "In hospital I was completely useless. Apparently I was awake on the way to the helicopter and I got a bit fighty, I wanted to do a piece to camera, but my eyes were pointing in different directions." http://ianbennett.multiply.com/links/item/32 Thu, 21 Dec 2006 20:22:04 -0000 Ezra were first up and were a little disappointing; the sound wasn't quite right and they weren't able to show their true form. Credo were far better; they're currently touring their second album 'Rhetoric', which is now on my shopping list. The stand-out piece was 'Too late to say goodbye', about the battle of the Somme. Magenta took the stage as usual to 'Opus 3' from the 'Broken' EP, then played their little Welsh socks off for nearly two hours. This was their last gig of the year, and they intended to have fun. 'Speechless' is a new piece, to appear on next year's album, but most of the classics were there. Tracks from 'Revolutions', Seven' and the two EPs featured, as did an extended selection from 'Home', this year's album. The arrangements are complex - this is prog-rock, after all - but the performance was faultless. Christina's voice is as excellent live as in the studio and she has great stage presence (as well as being majorly hot). Rob Reed's keyboard playing, though ... http://ianbennett.multiply.com/reviews/item/1 Mon, 27 Nov 2006 17:11:27 -0000 As previously revealed, we took our usual jaunt to Cornwall, via the Tamar Bridge. Brunel's Royal Albert Bridge, looking like the Loch Ness Monster, can be seen to the left. It was built in 1859 to carry the Great Western Railway, and was Brunel's last project. The road bridge was added in 1961 and originally led into Saltash, but now it goes through a tunnel under the town.       We managed to catch up with most of our friends on the first evening; we had a pretty good idea where they would be (the Red Lion or the Blue Anchor, not necessarily in that order), then on Monday we went to Trengwainton, a National Trust garden. In common with many estates of the period, it has a ha-ha (or a-ha). This is basically a trench between the manicured lawn and the pasture so that grazing animals can't get onto the lawn but there's no fence to break the vista. It can just be seen about a third of the way up this shot. A stream runs down the garden, via ... http://ianbennett.multiply.com/journal/item/11 Thu, 23 Nov 2006 20:20:57 -0000