1

shootin' the shit / Re: House Buying Beta

« Last post by SA Chris on Today at 10:37:45 am »

I wouldn't just walk away, I would be getting a fresh pair of running shoes.

I'm changing that. Go for some shoes with built in mechanical doping. The above sounds dodgy as hell.

2

music, art and culture / Re: Anyone seen any good films lately - Part the second

« Last post by TobyD on Today at 10:22:15 am »

Jurassic World: Dominion

This is seriously silly. Ridiculous mash up of self reference and bits of self parody.
However, despite the fact that it's absolute trash, I quite enjoyed it. Many of the action scenes are well constructed and often funny; worth watching if you really like silly dinosaur films.

3

music, art and culture / Re: Books...

« Last post by TobyD on Today at 10:14:52 am »

I thought his last one, Damascus Station, was really good.  I read an interview show with former heads of MI5 and MI6 and one of them said it was the best depiction of running operations in a hostile environment they'd read. Definitely worth a read for anyone who likes lots of "trade craft" in their spy novels.

Moscow X is every bit as good as his first novel. If the depiction of the current Russian regime is remotely close to reality, it's very, very frightening.

4

music, art and culture / Re: Books...

« Last post by fatneck on Today at 10:05:04 am »

Thanks everyone, plenty to go at there!

Re liking a horrible protagonist, I'm not sure I do! I think I'm sticking with the Covenant books because the world building is so good and also Giants...

5

shootin' the shit / Re: House Buying Beta

« Last post by Rocksteady on Today at 10:04:50 am »

On this particular house that I've now told the estate agent I'm not buying, there was substantial underpinning due to a fire in the 1800s. Then all the detritus of the fire was apparently dumped in the cellars to shore up the foundations for a rebuild of part of the house. Apparently some time in the 80s (or 90s, the owners aren't entirely clear), the hot weather caused some sort of expansion and the house began to rotate around the chimney into the old cellar (!)

The surveyors we used said that with historic buildings underpinning has to be done very sensitively because some movement in the house because of the building materials is beneficial. i.e. firming stuff up too much can cause stresses in other parts of the house.

Reasoning by analogy same could be true of a house with underpinning on multiple sides?

6

shootin' the shit / Re: UK General Election 2024

« Last post by ToxicBilberry on Today at 10:03:25 am »

Lol you might not be wrong!

Techno-feudalism is a real theory though.

‘ Feudalism refers to the medieval-era social system that dominated Europe. Its basic idea is that peasants (also known as serfs) served their lords through farming and labour and in return, got to live within their kingdom. Technofeudalism is the notion that we serve our big tech overlords (Amazon, Google, Apple and Meta) by handing over data to access their cloud space.

Technofeudalism suggests our preferences are no longer our own, they're manufactured by machine networks — commonly known as the cloud. It's underpinned by the theory that the cloud has created a feedback loop that removes our agency. We train the algorithm to find what we like and then the algorithm trains us to like what it offers.’

7

shootin' the shit / Re: House Buying Beta

« Last post by teestub on Today at 09:56:14 am »

When I spoke to builders a few years ago about a potentially attractively priced underpinned property, they advised not to get involved with a house that has been underpinned on more than one side.

I'm interested in the logic behind this if you know it? 

You’re the engineer, so I’m sure you have a good understanding, but thought I’d read previously that part underpinning to correct differential settlement can lead to a reverse of the situation, where the non underpinned bit starts to settle faster.

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shootin' the shit / Re: House Buying Beta

« Last post by Tom de Gay on Today at 09:47:53 am »

When I spoke to builders a few years ago about a potentially attractively priced underpinned property, they advised not to get involved with a house that has been underpinned on more than one side.

I'm interested in the logic behind this if you know it? 

Don’t know, sorry! It was in the context of a particular kind of Victorian terrace that they had a lot of experience with.

9

music, art and culture / Re: Books...

« Last post by Rocksteady on Today at 09:12:29 am »

Or, to be fair, any of Meiville's other work that someone would highly recommend!

My favourite one of his was Kraken, this was really good.

Was trying to think of who writes in any way similar, I think Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere is the closest I can think of. For some reason I feel that Josiah Bancroft's Senlin Ascends has similarity to Mieville, maybe in the sort of literary style, maybe in the element of alien cityscape.

Re: Chronicles of Thomas Covenant I always struggled with how utterly unlikeable the protagonist is, very difficult to forgive his behaviour. In subject matter Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry is similar. If you like a really horrible protagonist, then grimdark is for you - Mark Lawrence's Prince of Thorns springs to mind as the highest quality example of the subgenre.

10

shootin' the shit / Re: House Buying Beta

« Last post by Paul B on Today at 09:03:30 am »

Likewise, I've loved the places I've bought but at the end, I had no emotional attachment when moving to the next.