Blog
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The Prisoner(1967)
The Prisoner(1967) Few TV shows have been subject to as much analysis as The Prisoner(ITC, 1967). There have been many books and learned treatises written about the core themes of the show such as individualism, rebellion, collectivism, conformity, freedom and control, surveillance, indoctrination, unfettered technological progress, welfare and so on. In some ways it is…
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Flicka
Flicka was a gorgeous girl. She had a “you and whose army?” approach to life. She was a very smart dog – who lived life to the full. She was so cute as a puppy that she won prizes!
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A series of unfortunate events …
A series of unfortunate events … May 2018 – A very overweight professor at a “Liberal Arts” college goes to his basement and resurrects his old Bicycle. So far so good … Several months and numerous upgrades later and both the professor and the bike are in much better condition. The quest for improved performance…
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Bikes
Of bikes and men … One of my favorite bikes (Nigel) was a Nigel Dean World Tour. This was a late 1980s British tourer, one of the last of its type. It featured a Reynolds 531 Super Tourer steel frame , thumb shifters and a 3 x 7 Suntour drivetrain and weighed in at a…
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UK Ultimate Frisbee (50 years on)
In October 1976 I started a Psychology degree at the relatively new University of Warwick (much nearer to Coventry than Warwick, there is a story there…). In my first year I lodged in a University run student house in Leamington Spa. One of my flat mates , Richard Hicks, started the Warwick Bears; the University…
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Forgotten British TV of the 1970s
There was certainly a lot of rubbish on the “box” in the 1970s and a lot of it (are you being served, love thy neighbour, The Black and White Minstrel show, anything with Benny Hill in it ,on the buses) would be best forgotten, or better still hurled into the Sun. That said, amongst the…
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The writings of Philip K. Dick (1928 – 1982)
Very much a case of a prophet without honor in his own country. Almost unheard of in the USA until his death, Dick was immensely popular and influential in Europe, but was practically a pauper. Dick did not live long enough to financially benefit much from the vast sums of money derived from mostly terrible…
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Classic Horror Movies
We love to be scared. Horror Movies engage with some of our deepest darkest elements of self. These can be creepy, gory, suspenseful, chilling, hammy or just downright unpleasant. A Key player in this arena was Universal Studios with their movies featuring Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy and the Wolfman in the 1930s. In the 1950s…
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Vinyl vs Digital ?
My first memory of listening to a record player was about 1969, it was a very primitive portable player. As my dad improved his Audio system he gave me his older kit which included a Garrard SP25 MK IV turntable (pictured above) and a Rotel 211 amplifier and I bought myself a pair of Solarvox…
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Should speakers and headphones have a flat frequency response ?
Given the curves above we might assume that easily audible differences between different speakers (and headphones) are a given. Speakers and headphones are at the end of the audio chain. Can we apply an objectivist lens here? Can we say that the “best” speakers will have the flattest FR and the lowest distortion? We do…
