Red Harvest

First published in 1929, "Red Harvest" is my favourite Dashiell Hammett novel.  Cleverer people than I talk about it, and its influence in its wikipedia page.

I remember this cover as slightly more striking than it is here (and it's not a patch on the beautiful Knopf first edition) but I like its simplicity.

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Colour Comparison - Diamine Teal vs Diamine Blue Black

It's hard to see the green in the Teal colour when it's not set against another ink - here's a close up;

Paper is Bloc Rhodia (from a No.11 pad), pens are both Schneider Base.

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Ryman Softcover Notebook (Pocket) vs Pocket Moleskine

Ryman are a UK stationers, with both High Street stores, and an internet shopping presence. The notebook featured here is also available in an A5 size, which costs £5.99 (and is included in the current 2 for 1 offer, making the A5 book effectively £3).

Ryman's pocket notebook (as tested here) currently costs £4.99 (although with their buy one get one free they are effectively £2.50 each). A pocket Moleskine costs between £6 (Amazon) and £10.

Both pocket and A5 books come in Purple, Red, Brown and Black covers, each having 192 sheets of cream paper.

Side by side - hopefully you can see that the Ryman notebook (right) is just slightly larger. The Moleskine here is a hardcover, although comparison with my softcover Moleskine planners suggest that the Ryman cover is somewhat stiffer.

Both books have 192 pages (96 sheets). As you can see, the Ryman book is slightly thicker, indicating a heavier weight of paper. This is borne out by the feel of the pages - the pages in the Ryman are smoother, and do seem thicker. The ruling is darker than in the Moleskine, and spaced at 6mm.

The rear is stamped with Ryman's logotype. Neither this, nor the smooth cover look quite as nice as the Moleskine logotype & cover. The Ryman book has an elastic closure, a woven ribbon as a placemarker, and a pocket at the rear cover, just like any notebook of this type. (The brown is actually darker than it appears here).

Ink Tests

In all images, the top page is from the Ryman book, the lower from the Moleskine.

Bleed through test - the reverse of the pages after being written on.

Show through test - how visible the writing is when underneath a blank page.

The Ryman beats the Mole on showthrough (can you see writing through the facing page) and is slightly better (I think) on bleedthrough (can you see what you've written when you look at the back of the written page) although neither is great in that respect.

The Ryman loses on feathering for some inks (Waterman Havana Brown, Diamine Amazing Amethyst, and J. Herbin's Pousserie De Lune), although the Mole feathers more consistently (weird, tendril like growths from the letters, as though the ink is following the paper fibres). The Moleskine is definitely better at handling J. Herbin's Pousserie de Lune than the Ryman book.

Some closeups - Ink in the Ryman;

And the same inks in the Moleskine;

The top set from the Ryman;

and the Moleskine;

Neither book is a patch on Ciak, Rhodia or Quo Vadis products, which have far better paper - and to be fair, neither Ryman nor Moleskine position themselves as "fountain pen friendly" notebooks. However, the Ryman notebook, despite being cheaper, performs better than the pocket Moleskine for all but a couple of the inks I tested. The Moleskine is worse for show and bleedthrough than the Ryman product.

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A Carradice Bodge

The seat tube angle on the LHT is fairly slack, and I've never really liked the way the Carradice hung from the bag loops on my saddle because of it.  Last week, I finally got around to doing something about it.

I cut a short length of pvc pipe, wide enough to feed the seatpost strap through.

Then, I cut a longer piece from a 26 x 2.00 innertube - this went through the pipe, with the ends folded back over the outside, and taped down with electrical tape.  The tube should, I hope, stop the pipe abrading the bag.

The whole lot goes over the seatpost strap, and stands the bag a little way away from the post.

With something reasonably firm packed against the seatpost end of the bag (a book, for example), the bag now hangs at a far better angle. As a bonus, I finally feel like a proper Carradice owner, having used a few pennies worth of leftover DIY stuff to fettle the bag.

 

 

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Speaking of Hub Gears...

Vernon Forbes' "Elegy For Sturmey Archer".

http://www.hadland.me.uk/elegy.htm

(Doesn't include the period after their closure, btw).

 

And Mr C.'s AW hub service, at his Manchester Cycling site;

http://manchestercycling.blogspot.com/2011/04/repairing-aw-hub.html

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SBS Cycling Central Feed - A Quick Review

I posted this in my updated podcast listing, and thought I should talk a little more about it.  I'd intended to do a proper review, but realised that the Tour would end before I wrote that, so I'm dashing this off instead.

Essentially this is a feed with three podcasts on it - there are regular stage updates, about three minutes long that just recap the result and GC.  There's also the Sag Wagon, a daily 30 minute show, and interviews (usually conducted by Anthony Tan).

The Sag Wagon is the one I wasn't sure about in my podcast listing.  It is an odd format, most of the talking is done by host Sam Pang, a journalist whose background is football, olympian Dave Culbert (who I'd assumed was a cycling olympian, but was actually a long jumper),  and a cycling journalist, Sophie Smith, who is deferred to when results, stats &c are needed. 

I have to say, I'm warming to the Sag Wagon - it is flippant, but it's more good natured than my first impressions of it suggested, and I like the interplay between the hosts.  Is it the place to go for incisive post race analysis? Probably not, but it's good fun, and I'm now looking forward to their intermittent features (Chateau of the Day, the Battle for the Lanton Rouge, Where Did Tony Martin finish today, and so on...).

If you're of a serious frame of mind, the interviews will make this feed well worth adding to your podcasts.  You might remember Anthony Tan as a somewhat, er, disruptive presence on last year's Cycling News tour podcasts.  He's far better in charge of the microphone, I think, and worthy of particular note are his interviews with Colombian journalist Luis Barbosa, author and journalist Richard Moore, and Cycling News' Dan Benson.

In short, I think my first impressions of SBS' Cycling Central podcast offerings were wrong - add the feed and see what you think.

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The Monkey RSS Folder - An Update

This is an update of a post I made a little while ago - if you read that, my new podcasts are marked *NEW* (well, duh).  I'd particularly commend the Flammecast (cycling) and Pappy's Flatshare Slamdown (comedy) to you.  The Pod Delusion's "Extra" feed is full of gems (Natalie Haynes' talk at the BHA conference, Mark Stevenson's "Optimists Tour of the Future") if you like science, skepticism &c.

 

Been meaning to do this for a while, but this is a list of the stuff I *try* to catch each episode, or stuff I've enjoyed that's on hiatus but worth subscribing to either for the back catalogue, or a possible new series. 

The categories are a bit arbitrary (The Amateur Scientist would fit in Science and Skepticsm too, and Collings and Herrin might possibly fit in news) but do represent what I listen to them for.

Mostly.

Most of the links below go to title pages rather than the RSS itself - I thought this better, as a description for each 'cast would make this a very long post.  I subscribe via RSS - I think most of the 'casts have an iTunes feed too, but I can't say for sure as I don't use iTunes.

All the feeds are free, and some have a "tip jar" system for you to donate to the creators if you like the content - others have subscriptions, and some will encourage you to pick up the authors' work or merchandise in other, paid media if you like what they're doing.

Comedy

The Adam and Joe Show

Adam's Big Mixtape

Comedy of the Week (Radio 4) *NEW*

Collins and Herring (6 Music Show)

Friday Night Comedy (Radio 4)

Jon Holmes

Mike Detective (spoof of Pulp Private Eye Stories) *NEW*

Newsjack

No Pressure to Be Funny (NSFW - some bad language) *NEW*

One Life Left

Onion Radio News

Pappy's Flatshare Slamdown (NSFW - bad language, and depending on who's on it, adult themes) *NEW*

Richard Herring's As It Occurs To Me (NSFW - lots of bad language & adult themes)

The Amateur Scientist (NSFW - occasional bad language & adult themes)

The Collings and Herrin Podcast (NSFW - lots of bad language & adult themes)

What Are You Laughing At? (the British Comedy Guide's new podcast about comedy) *NEW*

What's So Funny? (Another one about comedy, this time from Radio 4 Extra - presented by Rufus Hound) *NEW*

You Look Nice Today (NSFW - occasional bad language & adult themes)

 

Cycling

Bike to Work Book Podcast

Carrément Vélo (in French)

Cycling Central (Not sure if this one will survive to the next update - like the ITV one, it's a national broadcaster's cast, but unlike the ITV one, seems to assume that people who don't follow cycling will find it all a bit silly - I may just not be getting the humour) *NEW*

Flammecast (occasional bad language) *NEW*

ITV Tour De France Podcast

NY Velocity

Real Peloton

The Bikescape Podcast

The Bike Show

The Cyclingnews.com Podcast

The Spokesmen

The Velocast

Veloclub Don Logan

 

Cricket

Test Match Special

 

Environmental

Costing the Earth

NPR: Environment Podcast

TreeHugger Radio

 

Other Factual (Documentaries, History &c)

A Point of View

Documentary of the Week *NEW*

In Our Time

Philosophy Bites

Radio 4 Choice

Thinking Allowed

 

Languages

Laura Speaks Dutch

The French Podclass

 

Music & Film

Bleep

Desert Island Discs

dublab

JJ's Smoking Sessions

Little White Earbuds

Kermode & Mayo's Film Review

NinjaTune Ninjacast

Three From Leith

Whomix Radio

XLR8R

 

News & Current Affairs

Global News (Round up of the news of the day from the BBC World Service)

Analysis

File on Four

Broadcasting House

From Our Own Correspondent

iPM

More or Less: Behind the Statistics

 

Science and Skepticsm

Little Atoms

Material World

Monster Talk *NEW*

Nature Podcast

Righteous Indignation

Science in Action

Skepticality

Skeptoid *NEW*

Strange Quarks

The Infinite Monkey Cage

The Pod Delusion

The Pod Delusion Extra *NEW*

The Skeptics' Guide To the Universe 5x5

The Skeptics' Guide To the Universe

 

Short Stories and Fiction

Cast Macabre (Short form horror)

Clarkesworld (Short form science fiction)

CrimeWAV (Short form crime and noir on the hardboiled edge of the genre)

Cthulu Podcast *NEW*

Escape Pod (Short science fiction)

Machine of Death (Short Stories about a world in which death (manner, not time) can be predicted. Some really interesting ideas from the different authors) *NEW*

Patrick E. Mclean (Short articles, longer form fiction) *NEW*

Podcastle (Short form fantasy)

Pseudopod (Short form horror)

Scott Sigler Audiobooks (Novel length serialised horror and science fiction, and Scott's reader feedback and interviews elsewhere. Definitely not for kids.  The current serial is "Ancestor", but Scott's back catalogue is available too, including fan favourites like "Contagious" and "Earthcore")

Shadow Publications (Author Paul Elard Cooley's Feed - short and long form horror fiction) *NEW*

Toothless (Novel length serialised horror - an interesting twist on the zombie genre so far - not for kids).

Underwood and Flinch (Mike Bennett's novel length serial tale of a vampire and his reluctant servant in modern day Spain - again, not for kids)

(Also worthy of mention is the MIGHTY podiobooks.com, which has more serialised audio fiction than you can shake several sticks at, and an excellent personalised subscription system).

It's worth noting that the biases of the Internet mean that much of this is horror, fantasy and science fiction - and lots of it is written specifically to be somewhat disturbing (it's horror, after all!).  As I recall, Clarkesworld, Escape Pod & Podcastle will give a guidance rating with stories, so should be safe for those of a nervous disposition (as long as you pay attention to it).

Technology

All About Symbian

Gamecast *NEW*

NPR: Technology Podcast

Outriders

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