Where Worlds Collide

If you read any libertoid weblogs, sooner or later you’ll run into references to the totally ficticious political philosophy called “Transnational Progressivism”, sometimes abbreviated to “Tranzi”. Sometimes I wonder if the right wing of the blogosphere believes in an equally ficticious ideology I like to call “Anarcho-Fascism”. While I recognise that Libertarianism and Fascism are totally opposite ideologies, at least in theory, when you boil both down to their basest instincts, they have quite a lot in common: worship of brute power, contempt for the poor and/or weak, fetishisation of violence, and a belief that some sections of society have so little value their lives are expendable.

Every so often, somebody reads Robert Heinlein’s ugly “Starship Troopers” one time too many, and vomits up an anarcho-fascist manfesto. Read the whole thing if you’ve got the stomach for it, but these quotes give you the flavour.

However, while education was generally a for-profit business (some institutions, mostly religious, political, or military in character were charities) no student was denied an education based on their parent�s inability to pay. However, the names of any parent forced to rely upon the public treasury to school their children were published in newspapers and online.

Naturally, many of those known to be living off of the taxpayers were prone to be challenged in duels. Dueling, a practice almost forgotten, was reintroduced in the third decade of the 21st Century, initially in inner-cities.

If you didn’t think that was fascist enough, then:

One could be challenged to a duel for any reason- and could refuse a challenge. However, a general prejudice had developed that any man who refused a duel was a probable homosexual and, therefore, refusals were generally rare and those who refused often fled. As a result people in the 22nd Century had generally learned not to insult hot-headed individuals

One hopes that America doesn’t harbour that many people that hold such beliefs. In the nightmare scenario when such people gain control of the USA, we’d better hope that those Transnational Progressives of France have enough nuclear warheads to take them out in a surprise first strike.

(Link from Atrios)

From Mark Shea, The Lord of the Rings: A Source-Criticism Analysis. A demythologised version telling us what really happened. (Thanks to Anders Gabrielsson for the link)

Annie of Going Underground is right. Pantomime celebrity spotting on the tube is indeed an order of magnitude sadder than mere trainspotting. It’s in the same league as the possibly apocryphal people that collect the numbers of shipping containers.

But then I’ve been told off on at least one model railway mailing list for saying that I though wagon spotters are sad. They’re the people that aren’t satisfied by just collecting the numbers of the locomotives, but all the freight wagons behind them as well.

The Ghoul’s Travel Travails remind me to post what I didn’t have time to post about in the days before Xmas. It wasn’t my journey south from Manchester to my parent’s place in Slough that was the problem.

It was the 11 minute commute into work in the morning.

The 8:24 from Cheadle Hulme ground to a halt just north of the station, and not only was the unit declared a failure, but it managed to damage the overhead catenery. Because of the fact that in the present day railway, each type of train has a different type of coupler that won’t couple to any other type, they couldn’t just couple a rescue locomotive and tow the failed train away. It was two hours before they could summon a second class 323 to drag the failed train into the station (which meant re-energising the damaged section of overhead so they could move the second unit into the section). This released the passengers that had been trapped in the failed unit for two hours. After first telling us to get in the replacement bus sitting outside the station, they then changed plans, and sent the bus to Manchester, and put the Wilmslow and Crewe passengers into the ‘rescue’ train, which then set off south dragging the failed unit behind it.

I eventually got to work two and a half hours late, for what was only going to be a half day anyway.

The long journey south was much more uneventful; rather than risk Virgin Trains’ short formations, overcrowding, and unreliable reservation system, I opted to travel by Midland Mainline’s “Operation Rio” via the East Midlands, which delivered me to London precisely on time. And even the Circle Line was working properly for once.

A belated happy Christmas to all (both) of this weblog’s readers. (That’s Scott and Martyn). I’ve been in sunny Southend with my sister and family, without a net connection, and with no time to blog even if I did have one Now I’m at my parent’s place in sunny Slough, reunited with my laptop. (535 emails in three days, Eeek!)

Santa Claus didn’t bring me any RPG stuff or trains this year, but amongst other things he did bring me Led Zeppelin’s triple live CD “How The West Was Won”, and Mary Gentle’s new novel “1610: A Sundial on a Grave”. Hope it’s as wonderful as her previous “Ash”. My left wing brother also game me a set of “Regime Change” playing cards, with The Shrub as the Ace of Spades, and Mr Cheesy Grin as the Ace of Hearts.

On the other hand, Santa Claus colluded in my nephew’s uncle’s evil plan to corrupt the next generation, and delivered three Bachmann HEAs and three MEAs in assorted liveries that tell the convoluted history of rail privatisation. This has doubled the available freight stock on his layout, and gives his Loadhaul 56 and EWS 08 something to pull.

Finally, I’m not sure how I should feel when I find myself agreeing with a ten year old about music. Both my nephew and I think The Darkness should have been the Christmas Number One rather that dull ‘Mad World’.

In a few months the Royal Mail will be transferring carraige of mail from rail to air and road. This posting (from another lists) was posted to the Diesel & Electric Modellers group, indicates that all might not be well.

Air:
EDINBURGH-EMA-EDINBURGH
De-icing at Edinburgh.
Following de-icing at Edinburgh the aircraft departed 30 mins late and arrived at EMA 20 late. Departed EMA 23 late and arrived at Edinburgh 8 late. Due to the late arrival 30,000 Inverness itwms failed to connect to the plane amd were forwarded by road.

BRISTOL-SPEKE-NEWCASTLE
Aircraft went tech (engine) at Speke.
The aircraft was repaired but subsequently went tech again with a different fault and eventually departed 155 late. Arriving Newcastle 152 late, all mails were offloaded and sent to Newcastle to be forwarded later that day.

SPEKE-BELFAST
Aircraft went tech (steering) in Belfast prior to positioning to
Speke.
The aircraft could not be repaired, the operator provided a back up plane which positioned into Speke from Glasgow (delayed refuelling & pushing back in Glasgow). Departed Speke 155 late and arrived Belfast
147 late.

Rail:
NO PROBLEMS

Road:
47 breakdowns.

There are continuing rumours that the Royal Mail is in negotiation with some train company other than EWS, using some rolling stock already owned by the Royal Mail. If the above figures are typical, let’s hope they concentrate minds. Otherwise we’ll have to get used to a lot more late mail.

So The Darkness didn’t manage to get the Christmas Number One.

My review of their album seems to have attracted rather too many semi-literate comments of the ‘they suck/they rock/U R all morons for thinking..’ variety by assorted poorly-socialised 12-year olds.

The Darkness are not a great band, merely a good band that had the good luck to be in the right place at the right time. It’s silly to try and compare them to Queen, Led Zeppelin or Thin Lizzy; on present form, with just one album recorded, they’re not even in the same league. That’s not to say they won’t achieve greater things in the future, given a good producer and a good manager; they’ve already demonstrated their ability to write hits, and I think it’s too early to write them off as one hit wonders. Their second album will indicate whether they’re likely to mature into a major act or not.

Their success is has a lot to do with the moribund state of the British music scene at the moment. The music buying public are tired of the formulaic manufactured Pop-Idol sausage-factory pop pap. Likewise, they’ve tired of the angst-ridden whiny indie-rock from the likes of Radiohead and Coldplay, which has got very boring. Radiohead (who were once a good band) are now self-indulgent, pretentious and dull; they and their imitators are actually guilty of all the crimes 70s prog-rock was merely falsely accused of. It needs a noughties equivalent of punk to sweep them all away. Are The Darkness the new Sex Pistols?

Like most railway modellers I’ve got far too much rolling stock. I’ve reached the point where the limiting factor for for an operating session is the capacity of the layout, not the amount of stock available. In thinking of plans for future British outline layouts, I’m wondering how many trains you really need to give a representative selection of the trains for any specific location. This will determine how many storage roads I’ll need in the fiddle yard (that’s staging roads in American).

I’ll take as an example the line that I’ve modelled before, and is likely to form the subject of any future British N-gauge layout I’m likely to build; the Cornish main line between Plymouth and Penzance. I’m most likely to model a location east of Burngullow. There’s too little freight traffic at the far western end for my tastes, although I have considered the terminus of Penzance as a subject for a model.

I’ve identified the following six trains as the ‘signature trains’ that any model of the Cornish mainline will be incomplete without.

• Paddington to Penzance Inter-City
• Cross-Country Inter-City
• Plymouth-Penzance local
• Parcels
• Local china clay working
• Long distance freight

This is of course the bare minimum; with more space and rolling stock available I could easily double up on all of those. What follows is a the formation of those six trains for three different time periods, 1987-89 (the period I began modelling, for which I have the most stock), the post-privatisation 1999-2002 era, and turning the clock back to the 1976, the final year of the ‘Westerns’. Most of the stock required for each of the three periods is from the collection I already own; but there are a few gaps, which I will use a guide for future purchases and kit construction.
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I’ve finally posted in both active threads in the Kalyr PBeM, after keeping my long suffering players waiting for far too long.

One problem I had was when a player made some references to Italian food. There is no Italy in Kalyr, so I had to edit those references a little. It’s now Keylinan food, in the style of the southern city of Keylin, which has a mediterranian climate and who’s inhabitants might well eat something resembling Italian food.

I attempted to rename Minestra di Pasta e Lenticchie into something in Vohrran (the language spoken in Keylin), but chickened out since the language is woefully undeveloped.

Actually, so is the food. Apart from the infamous “Earthworms in Garlic”, Kalyr cuisine is one of those ‘local colour’ things that needs work. All we have at the moment is this entry in the Kalyr Wiki.

Anyone want to contribute?

Ananova - Mills and Boon helps M6 toll road to stay intact

Engineers used 2,500,000 old Mills and Boon books in the building of the new M6 toll road.

Unsold copies of the books were shredded into a paste and added to a mixture of asphalt and Tarmac.

It’s intended to help prevent the road surface from splitting after heavy use.

(Link from Sore Eyes)

Jarvis Rail are denying rumours that the West Coast Mainline rebuilding has used pulped Labour and Conservative election manifestoes for the same purpose. But nobody will believe them….