Extremely late today because the man+van who was supposed to move me on Sunday had to postpone to Tuesday due to starter motor problems, but then phoned late this morning asking if he could make a start today… and as a result, I've had to do a whole bunch of packing and stuff that I was going to do today in about a tenth of the time I'd allowed for it, and a whole bunch of similar stuff I was expecting to leave till tomorrow, and I'm physically absolutely shattered. And we never even moved my mattress, so now I'm stuck in the old flat, with no fridge or freezer and too much stuff piled in front of the fire, ready for tomorrow, to put it on. I'm too old for this tulip; next time, I'm just gonna get Pickfords 
Happy invoicing!
- How Putin’s War in Ukraine Became a Catastrophe for Russia - The New York Times - ”Russian soldiers go into battle with little food, few bullets and instructions grabbed from Wikipedia for weapons they barely know how to use… This is the inside story of historic Russian failures.” The NY Times examines the hole Putin has dug for himself. Bonus linky: ‘Our weapons are computers’: Ukrainian coders aim to gain battlefield edge
- First-ever recorded moose sighting in Mount Rainier National Park - It begins: ”Mount Rainier National Park recorded its first-ever moose sighting on Thursday. This is also the first-ever moose sighting in Southwest Washington, the National Park Service said.”
- WDW Mark IV - ”eBay is incredible, isn't it? Who would have thought that the Disney Company would actually put one of their old Mark IV monorail cabs up for sale via online auction? Well, they did on May 27, 2002. Now to a monorail fan, or a Disney fan, this has got to be the ultimate souvenir from Walt Disney World.” Can't beat a good monorail site
- The Hibernator’s Guide to the Galaxy - ”Scientists are on the verge of figuring out how to put humans in a state of suspended animation. It could be the key to colonizing Mars.”
- Die Hard - I've supplied a title because Gary Bainbridge originally wrote this as a column in newspaper so its title is just "Column", but it's an thorough examination of the most important question of this time of year: is Die Hard a Christmas movie? ”I apologise to those of you who haven’t yet seen a film that is 30 years old next year, but you’ve had your chance.”
- Texts in Sebald’s The Rings of Saturn - ”Collected together in this post are the major (public domain) texts of which, and through which, Sebald speaks - accompanied by extracts in which the texts are mentioned.” I have to admit I've never read Sebald's book, but the way this article embeds the texts quite therein is neat
- The Century-Long Duet of Two Dazzling One-Handed Pianists - ”Nicholas McCarthy was born in the 1990s without a right hand. Paul Wittgenstein lost his in World War I—and then left behind a musical treasure trove that would change Nicholas’ life.”
- Designing Windows 95’s User Interface - ”Three years ago I came across an interesting paper written up by a Microsoft employee, Kent Sullivan, on the process and findings of designing the new user interface for Windows 95. The web page has since been taken down – one reason why I’m a bit of a digital hoarder… So here’s what Kent had to say verbatim in his paper titled ‘The Windows 95 User Interface: A Case Study in Usability Engineering’ so it’s not lost altogether.”
- Songs and Lyrics by Tom Lehrer - ”I, Tom Lehrer, and the Tom Lehrer Trust 2007, hereby grant the following permissions: All copyrights to lyrics or music written or composed by me have been relinquished, and therefore such songs are now in the public domain. All of my songs that have never been copyrighted, having been available for free for so long, are now also in the public domain.” And here they all are, including all his original recordings, to download free - though there’s a caution that the site won’t stay up for ever, so grab it all while you can
- Yesterday's Print - ”A collection of old photographs, historic newspaper clippings and assorted excerpts highlighting the parallels of past and present. Featuring weird, funny and baffling headlines, articles and advertisements!” This cartoon is from The Circleville Herald, Ohio, January 14, 1957
Happy invoicing!
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