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  <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:technotom</id>
  <title>Major_Tom</title>
  <subtitle>Major_Tom</subtitle>
  <author>
    <name>Major_Tom</name>
  </author>
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  <updated>2013-04-03T13:53:31Z</updated>
  <lj:journal userid="481390" username="technotom" type="personal"/>
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  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:technotom:176425</id>
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    <title>technotom @ 2013-04-03T14:52:00</title>
    <published>2013-04-03T13:52:17Z</published>
    <updated>2013-04-03T13:53:31Z</updated>
    <content type="html">Sad news about Ian Banks.. one of the few authors I've read and genuinely enjoyed, who assisted my love of writing.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Love the "would you do me the honour of becoming my widow?" proposition.</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:technotom:176251</id>
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    <title>Had some professional photos of the car taken..</title>
    <published>2013-02-02T11:49:43Z</published>
    <updated>2013-02-02T11:49:43Z</updated>
    <content type="html">..by the council.  Cost me £35.  They're very poor quality and one of them doesn't even have the car in.  I shall have to complain.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src="https://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y86/Maj0r_Tom/ticket_zpsbc682757.jpg" fetchpriority="high"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src="https://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y86/Maj0r_Tom/ticket2_zps13dc322a.jpg" loading="lazy"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src="https://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y86/Maj0r_Tom/ticket3_zpsc37743e5.jpg" loading="lazy"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src="https://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y86/Maj0r_Tom/ticket4_zps68ae9620.jpg" loading="lazy"&gt;</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:technotom:175457</id>
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    <title>technotom @ 2012-11-12T19:16:00</title>
    <published>2012-11-12T19:16:31Z</published>
    <updated>2012-11-12T19:16:31Z</updated>
    <content type="html">I think I feel a little better now.. trying to spread the love rather than... other things.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Car passed its MoT with no advisories.. another year for the mad little beast.</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:technotom:175081</id>
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    <title>technotom @ 2012-09-21T10:41:00</title>
    <published>2012-09-21T09:41:38Z</published>
    <updated>2012-09-21T09:44:43Z</updated>
    <content type="html">It's been four weeks since Heather died.  She hung herself a few doors down from me.  A neighbour and good friend Simian found her.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;She was like a big sister, then a little sister, over the thirteen years we knew eachother.  Honestly, I feel fine.  I thought it was at least partially down to the quetiapine I'm dosed up on, making emotion disjointed and vacant.  Then I realised there's no mystery swimming around my head, no sadness, no questions.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;All around me people ask: "oh why did she do that" or "stupid bitch" or "she didn't mean to do it" or "it was a moment of stupidity", as if all the years they knew her they never even got to know her.  These people cannot fathom death, or someone who has decided life is not for them.  And all at once more parts fall into place.  They're all full of ego and self-importance, they can't accept someone would look at their universe and decide they don't want to be in it anymore.  To these people, death on those terms is unacceptable, it HAS to be a stupid moment, it MUST be a mistake, because SURELY nobody would want to leave the world these great people are in right?  Surely, because I'm so fucking great and special, nobody I am friends with could choose to leave life forever, right?  Who would feel like they wanted to die with all these brilliant vivacious people all telling them how great life is around them?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I used to feel cold, like an android, until I realised I understand precisely why she killed herself, and, with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, I can see a million indications of it.  The Heather in my head feels sure of it and I feel absolutely no error or denial or confusion in my mind.  The woman who killed herself was empowered and in control, she made a huge decision, something which takes more balls than most people I know.  You can't kill youself a bit.  You can't die and then decide "actually, I don't like this".  She took a leap of faith requiring all the susbtance her character displayed.  Our friend died strong, saying a big "fuck you and goodbye" to all of those idiots in her life who never really knew who she was.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And they still haven't learned, to them, Heather was weak, stupid, lost, doing things by mistake.  They conveniently ignore obvious signs, it's easier to pretend she just made a silly mistake, like putting a white shirt in with the coloureds, like dropping a mobile phone in a cup of tea, like a passing error.  It's easier to accept Heather had no substance of character than it is to accept who she was, even in death.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Do you think this?  Well let me tell you, in as closer style to our mutual friend as possible, &lt;b&gt;fuck you&lt;/b&gt;, you waste of life, you shit, you fucking dumb cunt, get out of my life, I don't remember inviting you into my life, this is my film, &lt;b&gt;get fucked&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I hate the idea she could still be alive, scraping along, hanging on on the will of her friends, unable to find happiness or peace on earth, alive only because we didn't want her to go.  I miss her, but I find it selfish to want someone to be alive because &lt;i&gt;I miss them&lt;/i&gt;.  As soon as I realise that, I no longer miss her.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The truth as I see it is she died young and defiant, leaving the pointlessness of life, kicking fate in the cunt and preempting what was around the corner.  We're all going to die, get over it.  It's Western bullshit.  Death is fine, as necessary and normal as birth.  If you can't accept this, you'd best get over it, being a living creature the only thing you can be utterly assured of is that one day you will not be alive anymore.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Some peope ignore it, some people accept it, some people run from it, some people fear it and some people walk up to death and kick it in the face and the nuts and say "fuck you" like they really mean it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And let's face it, you're not really all that, are you?  You don't have the Answer, you don't really understand, you're just the same, but younger, or stupider, or you're on exactly the same plain of understanding.  Wherever you are, you can't stop death.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Mourn and grieve for our dead friend, but try not to sully your memory.  Heather died, and she died as she lived, not as this regretful, confused, imaginary idiot I hear of.  I never met that person.</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:technotom:174816</id>
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    <title>technotom @ 2012-08-20T12:39:00</title>
    <published>2012-08-20T11:39:37Z</published>
    <updated>2012-08-20T11:39:37Z</updated>
    <content type="html">RIP our absent friends.</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:technotom:173547</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://technotom.livejournal.com/173547.html"/>
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    <title>technotom @ 2011-03-16T13:33:00</title>
    <published>2011-03-16T13:33:31Z</published>
    <updated>2011-03-16T13:33:31Z</updated>
    <content type="html">Last I heard the Japanese government was dropping water from helicopters onto reactor buildings.  I can't see how this would help matters, no usable amount of water can be dropped from the air into a reactor building, even if it was in bits, so I think they're actually referring to the spent fuel pond at Reactor 4, which seems to be running dry and igniting spontaneously.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;More worrying is these releases of radioactivity at the other reactors, from the reactors proper.  I don't know what's been detected in the air, but a criticality accident resulting from a fuel mass undergoing an unregulated chain reaction would certainly produce enough radiation in a short time to cause staff to evacuate.  If there's many very short lived radioisotopes detected in the area in the next few hours, this is possibly what's going on.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Actually the level has fallen again, so either it's some other source, or it's ceased producing a chain reaction from loss of a suitable configuration of the mass.  Either is entirely possible.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Reactor 4 from what I understand was shut down for maintainance before the quake struck, so it should not be behaving in the same way as the other installations, but there's also the fear of a criticality accident there from the spent fuel in the cooling ponds beside it.  As some guy on the BBC observes, a criticality accident shouldn't happen if they're stored in the correct configuration, but if there's been fires close by or actually on the assemblies or if they've become dislodged by water being dropped from several hundred feet, who can say if that's the case.</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:technotom:173290</id>
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    <title>technotom @ 2011-03-14T15:00:00</title>
    <published>2011-03-14T15:00:59Z</published>
    <updated>2011-03-14T15:06:11Z</updated>
    <content type="html">Well, I dunno about you, but these continuing LOCAs at the Fukushima plant seems to be getting more serious and intruiging by the minute.  Unfortunately the media keeps using meaninglessly subjective atomic jargon like "meltdown" and "criticality" and "Chernobyl" which basically amounts to filler to paper over the bits nobody has much of a chance of understanding and the true gaps in what we know.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"There's little chance of another Chernobyl," said someone.  Really?  There's little chance of a soviet-era atomic reactor materialising in Japan and undergoing an unregulated experiment on its auxilliary systems resulting in a positive void co-effecient of reactivity and a steam overpressure which destroyed the reactor vessel?  I think we all know that.  Good pointless scaremongering filler news though.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This is what I think's going on, what to worry about, and what will probably happen.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It's worth noting that the neutron chain reaction has been fully shut down.  The heat they're currently worrying about is decay heat - the heat from the decay of fiercly radioactive isotopes in the fuel created through the fission reaction.  It's the same heat that keeps spent nuclear fuel underwater for the first year or so, the same process which provides power to RTG batteries on spacecraft.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As far as I can imagine, there's only one way you can get lots of hydrogen out of a reactor, and that's by getting water in direct contact with molten fuel.  The hot metal oxidises, stripping oxygen from the water molecules, leaving free hydrogen.  Course, for that to happen, the fuel elements would have to be damaged to the point the cladding was compromised, which means, in real money, a true LOCA has occured: coolant levels dropped until the core was exposed, causing a full or partial meltdown, bringing molten fuel into direct contact with water.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In a list of stuff to realistically be worried about, the first is an issue with core structure.  As fuel elements overheat and warp, they can block coolant flow around their neighbours, causing more heat and exaserbating the problem, causing more warping, producing more heat.  Once this happens, I don't see how they can be cleared and heat can't be efficiently removed from whole areas of the core.  Judging from their emergency venting of hydrogen to the atmosphere (bear in mind this includes the release of radioactive steam and probably a whole load of interesting radioisotopes so it really is a last-ditch procedure), and the continuing emergency situation, this is probably going on as we speak.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So what happens next?  Well since they're unable to remove heat from the core adequately, it's probably in a state of full or partial meltdown, hence all the hydrogen we're seeing.  Whilst the explosion risk of venting hydrogen to the atmosphere is obvious, the biggest danger now comes from something more unique to the technology.  It's MOX fuel (probably made by BNFL, lets hope they didn't falsify the records for this batch like the load Japan sent back about ten years ago) and during a state of full or partial meltdown it tends to make its way to the bottom of the reactor vessel, where it gathers in a big heap.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If this is happening, formation of this heap will be what's focussing everyone's attention at the plant.  It poses a particular problem because it'll be largely outside of the effective area of neutron-absorbing control rods, immersed in water (which is used as a moderator to slow down neutrons and help sustain a chain reaction, which is why you'll never see a fire brigade pouring water on a fire caused by nuclear material) and it's entirely possible that all that molten nuclear fuel could sustain its own, unregulated neutron chain reaction, free to slump in and out of criticality, reaching a highly excited state, disrupting its formation in a great wave of neutrons and cloud of short-lived isotopes, ceasing its chain reaction, slumping back into formation and back into criticality, accelerating to a chain reaction and so on.  It will also be thermally hot, hot enough to burn through concrete, and if a large enough mass forms, the fear is that it could compromise containment by simply burning through it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This is a very real possibility and will be why they're pumping water and a neutron-absorbing boron solution into the other troubled reactor: so it will surround the fuel during any meltdown and should help prevent a self-sustaining chain reaction from occuring.  As for the hydrogen releases at the first reactor, that's worrying and not because of the very visible explosions and their effects, but because the more hydrogen that is being produced, the more oxidising (and molten) fuel there is, which gives a rough indication to the scale of the problem.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I don't see a Chernobyl here.  During that accident, the fuel barely had time to melt before the coolant flashed to steam three seconds later, destroying the top of the reactor, hurling bits of core and fuel out onto the ancillary buildings, starting numerous fires and introducing oxygen to the hot insides of the destroyed core.  A hygrogen explosion an instant later caused further damage and the remaining fuel, molten at this point, coincidentally mixed with hundreds of tonnes of sand, burned through concrete and travelled into the basement where it solidified in a convieniently stable series of lava-like formations.  There was no biological containment at Chernobyl: any release of radioactivity from the core was, and did, vent straight to the atmosphere.  Well, the entire core was exposed to the atmosphere, in the most literal way imaginable.  Whether any structure could completely contain the overpressure they experienced is up for debate, but it would certainly have helped a great deal.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;No, I don't see a Chernobyl here, but what does that even mean?  They were totally different causes, different strucutres, different accident mechanics and different final states.  In one, the fuel mass was spread over a comparitively wide area and out of sheer chance the remaining fuel vitrified itself into a stable and not very reactive form.  In this one, the fuel from at least one reactor is probably at some stage of meltdown and probably gathering in one place inside an intact reactor vessel in ideal conditions to attain criticality, but with ultra-modern containment structures around it.  Even the reactor vessel will probably be designed to reduce the tendency for the fuel to gather in a large mass.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;These are all very possible scenarios, but basically nobody knows what's going on.  It's not at all certain that the Japanese authorities are even being honest, but these words like "Chernobyl" and "meltdown" I keep seeing mean nothing unless you know the basic principles of power generating reactors, they are just scaremongery.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The only past incident I feel can be applied to this scenario is Three Mile Island, a reactor that underwent a serious partial meltdown, resulting in a mass of fuel gathering in the reactor vessel (ironically, a piece of a cone-shaped thing in the base of the reactor, designed specifically to prevent fuel gathering in a meltdown situation, came adrift a while before the accident and lodged in the cooling matrix &lt;i&gt;causing&lt;/i&gt; the accident).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And guess what happened there?   Very little indeed.  Nothing to write home about.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I think what's going on at Fukushima is probably more serious than TMI and probably more serious than we're being informed, pumping boron and corrosive seawater around a fussy reactor core and these two huge releases of hydrogen easily suggest that, but I also think it will only really result in a lot of money being spent in the next five years to replace a lot of irradiated equipment and rusty pipework.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Time will tell, but money, scary and conveniently vague words from the press and immense cost isn't something that should worry you too much, especially in a country that has probably lost more people due to non-functional water mains in a few hours than the entire population the world over has lost to all incidents involving nuclear power generation in history.</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:technotom:172948</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://technotom.livejournal.com/172948.html"/>
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    <title>technotom @ 2011-03-11T13:38:00</title>
    <published>2011-03-11T13:38:23Z</published>
    <updated>2011-03-11T14:13:17Z</updated>
    <content type="html">There's not much information about it anywhere at the moment, but a Japanese nuclear plant sounds like it's seriously close to experiencing a LOCA (Loss Of Coolant Accident).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a target='_blank' href='http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42025882/ns/world_news-asia-pacific/' rel='nofollow'&gt;http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42025882/ns/world_news-asia-pacific/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Power plants use their own generated electricity to power their ancillary systems, but this would all have tripped during the earthquake.  For some reason it sounds like they're now having trouble with backup power, which will mean trouble keeping circulation or feedwater pumps supplied with electricity.  Whilst it will no doubt be shut down, decay heat from waste fission products produces enough heat to cause serious core damage.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a target='_blank' href='http://www.businessinsider.com/fukushima-nuclear-plant-2011-3' rel='nofollow'&gt;http://www.businessinsider.com/fukushima-nuclear-plant-2011-3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a target='_blank' href='http://uk.gizmodo.com/5780925/japan-declares-nuclear-emergency-as-nuclear-plants-cooling-function-fails' rel='nofollow'&gt;http://uk.gizmodo.com/5780925/japan-declares-nuclear-emergency-as-nuclear-plants-cooling-function-fails&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In a mildly related point, the Chernobyl catastrophe was caused during an experiment to see if the steam turbine, as it wound down to a halt after being tripped, would continue to supply the circulation pumps with enough power to keep coolant flow adequate as diesel generators were started.  That didn't go so well.  There isn't a comparison to be drawn here, by any stretch, but it's interesting to mention.  THis plant is highly modern apart from anything else.  I'd be very surprised if there will be any off site impact.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If they can't sort it it'll be one hell of an expensive repair though.</content>
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  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:technotom:172729</id>
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    <title>technotom @ 2011-03-11T11:41:00</title>
    <published>2011-03-11T11:41:38Z</published>
    <updated>2011-03-11T12:26:30Z</updated>
    <content type="html">Who can tell me, without looking any details up, why this is one of the most horrifyingly tense and profound photos of the 20th century?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src="https://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y86/Maj0r_Tom/imminent.jpg" fetchpriority="high"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Omagh, County Tyrone, August 1998.  The Cavalier behind the man and child contains 500lb of explosives and is only moments away from going off, killing 29 people.  The camera was recovered from the debris.  The man and child survived, but the photographer was never identified and was presumed killed.</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:technotom:172445</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://technotom.livejournal.com/172445.html"/>
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    <title>technotom @ 2011-02-17T09:08:00</title>
    <published>2011-02-17T09:08:42Z</published>
    <updated>2011-02-17T09:08:42Z</updated>
    <content type="html">I had a dream the other night where I had to rescue Emma from an 80s nightclub.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The clientelle seemed to be a selection of utter bastards, they were forcing her to stay and they didn't like the idea of a man-friend coming to pick her up &lt;i&gt;at all&lt;/i&gt;.  They surrounded us and looked most violent and threatening.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It was then I unleashed my special power: the power of dance!  Yes, that's right.  I can't remember if it was early Simple Minds or Joy Division or whatever, but I realised the only way out was to dazzle our way out, and performed "The Robot" so breathtakingly effectively that the angry crowds parted in amazement, stunned by the tight steccato movements, and were compelled to hold their ground as jagged shapes took me up the stairs and out the door.  Such was the mechanistic perfection that they didn't realise until too late that Emma had slipped out during the performance.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But by then they'd forgotten all about imprisonment and violence, and could only sit back and regail each other with stories and sometimes slip into an impression of "the guy who did The Robot that time".</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:technotom:171424</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://technotom.livejournal.com/171424.html"/>
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    <title>technotom @ 2011-02-10T10:40:00</title>
    <published>2011-02-10T10:40:52Z</published>
    <updated>2011-02-10T10:41:18Z</updated>
    <content type="html">ITV4 are replaying The Saint, The Professionals, Minder and The Sweeney, pretty much back to back, pretty much every day.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Amusingly, because so many of those actors and extras had "evil" faces and were typecast playing bad guys, they are invariably only an episode or two away from each other in the different programs.. so you have one geezer getting a gun kicked out of his hands by Simon Templar on Monday, then he turns up leading a bunch of thugs in the Professionals on Tuesday, but then he gets beaten up by Terry on Wednesday, only to see him reappear as a dodgy informant helping Reagan out on Thursday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Dennis Waterman does it all the time, when he's not looking after Arther Daley in Minder, he has a shower, puts on some new clothes and ensconces himself as John Thaw's detective sergeant in The Sweeney.  Nobody seems to notice.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If the different forces and government departments were more open when it came to sharing records, they could solve these crimes in half the time.</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:technotom:171009</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://technotom.livejournal.com/171009.html"/>
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    <title>technotom @ 2011-02-09T12:54:00</title>
    <published>2011-02-09T12:54:41Z</published>
    <updated>2011-02-09T12:54:41Z</updated>
    <content type="html">I had a dream the other night that I was feeding a horse apples in a field.  Then I hugged it for ages.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I miss horses.</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:technotom:170833</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://technotom.livejournal.com/170833.html"/>
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    <title>technotom @ 2011-02-08T12:19:00</title>
    <published>2011-02-08T12:19:29Z</published>
    <updated>2011-02-08T12:25:01Z</updated>
    <content type="html">As I was charging my car battery last week, I dropped a box of ignition components, which fell in precisely the right order and location to open a door through time.  I fell into it and I've only just broken free.  Funny story actually, I managed to reverse the polarity of an ignition coil and linked that to a busted amplifier I had, which I jury-rigged to a ballasted Hall-effect ignitor to create a phased pulse of anti-protons.  This destabilised the chrono-vortex and allowed me to puncture it and break free.  Who'd have thought you could manipulate the fourth dimension with only a mixture of old and modern ignition components and a lead-acid battery.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I was in there for no longer than ten minutes.  Unfortunately, when I emerged, I found that my timewarp was chronologically inept.  Whilst ten minutes had passed for me, almost seven days had passed in the real world.  Practically, this means I still haven't got those pictures I mentioned online.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My &lt;b&gt;camera is dead&lt;/b&gt; now and I'm looking for a decent replacement, something good value without being cheap, good quality without being expensive and versatile without being overly complicated and weighed down with features designed to photograph a smiling child chasing a ball under a speeding Land Rover.  Looking to spend £100-150.  Any suggestions welcome.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On &lt;b&gt;Sunday&lt;/b&gt; I went to &lt;b&gt;Graylingwell&lt;/b&gt;, an asylum in Chichester built in the late 19th century.  Amazingly intact and unvandalised, and fairly well cleared, there was no security on site, but demolition has begun on the service core and the boiler house and laundry looked to have gone.  Usually this means it wont be here much longer.  Demolition teams are undoubtedly at work as I type this.  It was a windy and noisy explore, doors banging hundreds of feet away, branches knocking against windows, wind whistling through holes and gaps.  It smelt lovely too, rotting and decayed, but not unpleasant, like autumn on a fresh day.  Absolutely everything was slightly moist, every surface covered in a layer of condensation.  I couldn't work out why this was, as loads of windows were open and ventilation was rather good.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It's got a beautiful main hall, sixty feet high, with 20ft long dark red velvet curtains hung by the eight massive leaden windows.  All the drapes and screens were present and lowered on the stage, and the massive and heavy curtains, again in rich, dark velvet and piped with art-deco boardering, were present and in excellent condition.  A projection booth still housing its three film projectors sat in the opposite wall.  It was the most complete main hall I'd seen.  I was particularly taken with the large motorised glitter ball.  High on the roof, after negotiating the ricketiest, wobbliest ladder I'd ever trusted to hold my weight, there was a WW2 air-raid siren.  And some lovely views.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As is common there were huge tunnels and cellars under our feet, but it was all nailed up tight and we could not get into them.  Except for when I almost fell through the floor.  And I saw something I'd never seen before: we were creeping through a first-floor ward in the female side, and I was exploring a toilet block (usually utterly boring) and found a laundry chute.  When I say chute, imagine a four foot by three foot pit, sixteen feet deep, which looked to me like it lead straight into the service tunnels.  A bit unsafe for the patients to say the least.  If we'd had enough time, I'd have got a ladder or some rope and got down there, but we discovered it late in the day and didn't have time.  Hopefully I can make it back before it is "converted" (mostly demolished).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Pissed about the camera.. it'd turn on but frustratingly turn itself off again when you operated the shutter.  What a pisser.  I'll speak to the others I was with and try and get some pictures off them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Car&lt;/b&gt; progressing well.. got the carburettors on and connected up the fuel, filled up the coolant so that's all DONE.  Next I install the electronic distributor and ignition module.. which looks so simple I'm actually rather suspicious.  If all goes to plan it should be running by the middle of the month and road legal a week or two after that.  Yayness.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Got a load of holiday coming up too, 25 days in all spread over four weeks, so prepare to be pestered by something black, scarred, beat up and loud that stinks of petrol.  And if the car's working you can see that tooo HAHHAAHHAHA.  PHUNNIE.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Love.</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:technotom:170692</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://technotom.livejournal.com/170692.html"/>
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    <title>technotom @ 2011-01-28T10:01:00</title>
    <published>2011-01-28T10:01:35Z</published>
    <updated>2011-01-28T10:01:35Z</updated>
    <content type="html">Apologies to anyone hoping to see those photos I mentioned this week, I've had other concerns.  I'll get it done over the weekend.</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:technotom:170380</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://technotom.livejournal.com/170380.html"/>
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    <title>technotom @ 2011-01-25T10:00:00</title>
    <published>2011-01-25T10:00:07Z</published>
    <updated>2011-01-25T10:00:07Z</updated>
    <content type="html">I finally found a PC with an SD card slot.  This means about four urbex trips are to go up this week and next: two trips to the mental hospitals Runwell and Severalls, a huge GEC-Marconi plant in Chelmsford and a few shots of Stanton Ironworks.  I'll try and get them all up this week.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Been off work for twenty days with a bollocksed up neck.  Not been able to do much of anything, driving, cooking.. washing was nigh impossible, no car maintainance, hardly any sleep.. but got some tramadol from the doctors.  Great stuff.  Still in pain, but I didn't care.  Yay.  Slowly getting better now.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Stuff and things.</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:technotom:170220</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://technotom.livejournal.com/170220.html"/>
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    <title>technotom @ 2010-12-24T09:27:00</title>
    <published>2010-12-24T09:27:36Z</published>
    <updated>2010-12-24T09:27:36Z</updated>
    <content type="html">Silliness X-TREME.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div style="padding:16px;border:4px dotted #fff;text-align:center;background:#ddd"&gt;On the twelfth day of Christmas, &lt;img src="https://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif" height="17" width="17"&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href="http://technotom.livejournal.com" target="_blank"&gt;technotom&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt; sent to me...&lt;div style="background:#fff;margin:8px 8px 16px 8px;padding:8px;color:#000"&gt;&lt;div style="color:#0a0;font-weight:bold;padding:2px"&gt;Twelve lightships drumming&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="color:#a00;font-weight:bold;padding:2px"&gt;Eleven tails drawing&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="color:#0a0;font-weight:bold;padding:2px"&gt;Ten radioisotopes a-daydreaming&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="color:#a00;font-weight:bold;padding:2px"&gt;Nine cleavers writing&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="color:#0a0;font-weight:bold;padding:2px"&gt;Eight scrapyards a-driving&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="color:#a00;font-weight:bold;padding:2px"&gt;Seven bayonets a-shooting&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="color:#0a0;font-weight:bold;padding:2px"&gt;Six boots a-scarring&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="color:#fa0;font-weight:bold;font-size:1.5em;padding:2px"&gt;&lt;i&gt;Five nu-u-u-uclear reactors&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="color:#0a0;font-weight:bold;padding:2px"&gt;Four derelict buildings&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="color:#a00;font-weight:bold;padding:2px"&gt;Three girls clothes&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="color:#0a0;font-weight:bold;padding:2px"&gt;Two webley revolvers&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="color:#a00;font-weight:bold;padding:2px"&gt;...and a purple in a heavy machinery.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;form action="http://thesurrealist.co.uk/12days" method="get"&gt;Get your own &lt;a href="http://thesurrealist.co.uk/12days" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"&gt;Twelve Days&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;input type="text" name="user" style="background: #fff url(&amp;apos;http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif&amp;apos;) no-repeat scroll 0px 1px; padding-left: 18px; color: rgb(0, 0, 204); font-weight: bold;"&gt;&lt;input type="submit" value="Generate"&gt;&lt;/form&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And my resolutions:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div style="padding:16px;border:4px double #fff;text-align:center;background:#ada;color:#000"&gt;In 2011, &lt;img src="https://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif" height="17" width="17"&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href="http://technotom.livejournal.com" target="_blank"&gt;technotom&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt; resolves to...&lt;div style="background:#fff;margin:8px 8px 16px 8px;padding:8px;color:#000;border:#ada double 4px"&gt;Eat more good-quality boots.&lt;br&gt;Take evening classes in meat.&lt;br&gt;Overcome my secret fear of twin peaks.&lt;br&gt;Admit my true feelings to &lt;img src="https://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif" height="17" width="17"&gt;&lt;b class=""&gt;synders&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;br&gt;Put fifty girls clothes a month into my savings account.&lt;br&gt;Ask my boss for a steel.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;form action="http://thesurrealist.co.uk/newyear" method="get"&gt;Get your own &lt;a href="http://thesurrealist.co.uk/newyear" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"&gt;New Year's Resolutions&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;input type="text" name="user" style="background: #fff url(&amp;apos;http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif&amp;apos;) no-repeat scroll 0px 1px; padding-left: 18px; color: rgb(0, 0, 204); font-weight: bold;"&gt;&lt;input type="submit" value="Generate"&gt;&lt;/form&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:technotom:169744</id>
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    <title>technotom @ 2010-12-24T09:21:00</title>
    <published>2010-12-24T09:21:40Z</published>
    <updated>2010-12-24T09:21:40Z</updated>
    <content type="html">I started a fight last night and got punched in the &lt;i&gt;eye&lt;/i&gt;.  Right on the eyeball.  Now it's annoying and painful.  I shall have to get an eye dressing, or ointment.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Who was my aggressor?  His name is Clive.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;He is a cat.</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:technotom:169484</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://technotom.livejournal.com/169484.html"/>
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    <title>technotom @ 2010-12-23T12:55:00</title>
    <published>2010-12-23T12:55:53Z</published>
    <updated>2010-12-23T12:56:25Z</updated>
    <content type="html">Old Public Information films!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I saw most of these at primary school. Bet a bunch of you guys remember them too. Check it out, as much for the nostalgic scenes and old cars as anything else.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"The Finishing Line".. Don't play on Railway Lines:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a target='_blank' href='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXGqwCbeFD8' rel='nofollow'&gt;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXGqwCbeFD8&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Stereotypically 80s boys get football from substation (with vicious consequences):&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a target='_blank' href='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjgeUiNwtEU' rel='nofollow'&gt;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjgeUiNwtEU&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Similar, but with pylon:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a target='_blank' href='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kixDC1aEvjU' rel='nofollow'&gt;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kixDC1aEvjU&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"Building Sites Bite".. Don't Play on Building Sites:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a target='_blank' href='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSg7ulOfEd0' rel='nofollow'&gt;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSg7ulOfEd0&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Say NO to Strangers:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a target='_blank' href='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK8ZOiDyINk' rel='nofollow'&gt;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK8ZOiDyINk&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;..reviewing these, I can't help but remember all the playing on railway lines and climbing around in old buildings I used to do.  As shocking deterents go, I think it probably just fueled my yearning for destruction.  How cool is watching a state-sponsored disaster film instead of doing classwork when you're 5?</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:technotom:169245</id>
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    <title>technotom @ 2010-12-23T11:26:00</title>
    <published>2010-12-23T11:26:52Z</published>
    <updated>2010-12-23T11:26:52Z</updated>
    <content type="html">Man, this stuff &lt;i&gt;reeks&lt;/i&gt;.  It's at home, I'm at work, and I keep getting wafts of it all the time.  Perhaps its leeching out of my pores.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ahhhh Christmas intoxication.  Yuletide inebriation.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Great night last night with Luke and Emma.  Polished off some of that Jamaican Dragon Stout.. "dat keep you goin' all day like a Duracell battery" as a Jamaican said to me the other day.  Then staggered to the Sicks Bells for Open Mike Night (poor Mike), which entailed lots of hilarious slipping and staggering and half carrying of Em on the Ice of Sliding.  I did not totally believe she was as rubbish on the ice as she said... until that time last weekend when she went down like a sack of candelabras on the concrete outside the back door, with a most unhealthy sort of slap and cracking noise.  After the pub, it was curry time... but I can't remember much of anything betwixt there and bed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On Radio 4 this morning the Today people were basically slagging off Christmas, it was hilarious.  "But surely some good must come out of it... the togetherness, the family..."&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"Urrgh, the pulling out your hair, the stress, the spending time and being friendly with people you don't even like... very unhealthy atmosphere.  A forest of wrapping paper, people getting under your feet, the obligation, the bitterness..."&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It was great.  If you fancy a laugh, check it out, it was on about 0820 this morn.  This mourn.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Anyway, happy cunting arseholes to the lot of you, may shit things not happen and pleasentries occur, oh, who cares.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Love x</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:technotom:169121</id>
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    <title>technotom @ 2010-12-20T13:19:00</title>
    <published>2010-12-20T13:19:47Z</published>
    <updated>2010-12-20T13:19:47Z</updated>
    <content type="html">&lt;i&gt;"Don't trust a man who's too neat, says No-Bark.  Aint nothin' neat about it.  He's got somethin' to hide, says No-Bark.  If someone argues with his dinner or sometimes wears his pants on his head, you know what you're getting, you know there aint nothin' strange going on.  But if a man keeps his house spick and span, always says 'hi' to strangers and smiles at you... likely he's done something his own mother couldn't forgive."&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;- No-Bark Noonan, Fallout: New Vegas</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:technotom:168815</id>
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    <title>technotom @ 2010-12-20T10:45:00</title>
    <published>2010-12-20T10:45:51Z</published>
    <updated>2010-12-20T10:45:51Z</updated>
    <content type="html">Oh.  The Carlton Arms has gone on fire.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a target='_blank' href='http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Home/Two-jump-to-safety-after-pub-blaze.htm' rel='nofollow'&gt;http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Home/Two-jump-to-safety-after-pub-blaze.htm&lt;/a&gt;</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:technotom:168683</id>
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    <title>technotom @ 2010-12-17T13:46:00</title>
    <published>2010-12-17T13:46:13Z</published>
    <updated>2010-12-17T13:46:13Z</updated>
    <content type="html">When I were a lad, we, like almost everyone else ever, used to do prank calls on people and businesses.  My favourite would involve ringing up an insurance company and asking them if they did life insurance.  Whatever the answer, it was interrupted by a cry of "oh God, no! Too late!" followed immediately by the angry shouts of an "attacker" and the screaming of the caller "dying" painfully.  Oh, the mirth tickles me still.</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:technotom:168434</id>
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    <title>technotom @ 2010-12-13T13:16:00</title>
    <published>2010-12-13T13:16:44Z</published>
    <updated>2010-12-13T14:24:36Z</updated>
    <content type="html">A serious request.  For a change.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Does anyone know anything about buying passage on ships?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Cut a long story short, I don't think I can get on a plane with my wierd head - last time I did it was so painful I almost passed out.. and that was only from here to France.  Thing is, I want to go on holiday.  I want to visit New York and Australia to name a couple.  I'm speaking to airlines and that... because I figure there must be some way to stick me in a pressure chamber and reproduce similar conditions to being up in a plane.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But if it turns out I can't take the pressure.. I've heard you can barter passage on freighters.  But I can't find any information on this anywhere.  Anyone got any suggestions?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I should mention cruisers and passenger ships are right out - I'm not a millionaire!</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:technotom:168144</id>
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    <title>technotom @ 2010-12-13T12:35:00</title>
    <published>2010-12-13T12:35:28Z</published>
    <updated>2010-12-13T12:35:28Z</updated>
    <content type="html">Thought for the day.. well, more of a mantra.  When you feel cheated or down, when someone who should know better tries to make something out of you that is not there...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"Love me as I am!  You wont reform my ham!"&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Chant that to anyone who tries until they leave.  Then chant it another couple of times so they know you're serious.</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:technotom:167918</id>
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    <title>technotom @ 2010-12-09T11:08:00</title>
    <published>2010-12-09T11:08:44Z</published>
    <updated>2010-12-09T11:08:44Z</updated>
    <content type="html">And with a Jag as big as a fucking really big brick I split a speed camera in haaaaalllfff...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a target='_blank' href='http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-11952858' rel='nofollow'&gt;http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-11952858&lt;/a&gt;</content>
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