A cloud over the land [411]

Greetings from the shed...

Happy Friday. Or whenever you’re reading this.

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#TheAction

After spending most of the week editing pixels and waveforms, I took the opportunity to head to Rugby town on the motorbike. I needed to pick up some stickers from Magiprint. It was a hot summers day and despite wearing my lightest armoured gear, I broke a sweat just wheeling the bike out. I didn’t take any waterproofs with me. Why would I? Apart from that I always have.

I realised my error not long after I reaching Rugby town when the heavens opened. I was soaked in seconds, so I sheltered in Dave’s shop chatting as I dried off.

He showed me a cool app called Rain Today which I can't believe I'd never used. It features a high resolution radar simulation of where the rain is and its predicted direction of travel. As a result, that app delivered one of the most exciting riding experiences I've had in the UK.

I could see that as things started to clear in Rugby, there were two distinct storm clouds, complete with thunder and lightning, heading east-south-east. But if I rode, shall we say with determination and purpose, I might just be able to slip between the two thunderheads and perhaps get ahead of the storm.

I swapped my satnav for the rain app and mentally plotted a route I felt would get me home. Narrow meandering roads between drifting fronts. I’d seen this kind of technology used by storm chasers, so why not use it for evading them.

You could not do this on a pushbike. You don’t have the speed. And you don’t need to do it in a car, as you can sit in slow traffic under a roof. But where is the fun in that? Plus I’d never get to explore new routes between Rugby and Cambridgeshire.

I didn't risk stopping to take photographs as this was me vs the weather. But imagine dark thundering skies to my left and right and a thin corridor of fluffy bright clouds above me.

I've ridden with the rain on my back before and that was exhilarating in itself. But being able to compare a moving image on my phone to very real and visible storms was something else. And I navigated dry roads at speed. Flying, heart pounding through a corridor of calm.

All we need is a smart satnav developer to include this kind of weather API and more motorcyclists can enjoy realtime rerouting while staying dry.

I didn't mind that the ride was 20 minutes longer than it should've been. Because it was 20 times more exciting. Plus I arrived home dry. And me and the bike were undercover minutes before the deluge arrived.

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#ThePictures

Interesting little film. Includes sheep and a phone call. [5:28]

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If you are still looking for an alternative to Twitter, this video explaining Mastodon has a lot of information you might find useful. It covers a lot of background so you might want to skip bits.

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#TheWords

Here are a few articles that caught my attention… AI is a lot of work. The hidden cost of gasoline and in the quandary about what came first, the chicken or the egg. It looks like we have an answer.

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I have a little ditty about my time on the Orient express but ran out of space. So I’ll share it for supporting subscribers in the next few days. I was reminded of it after reading how people were using google maps to find lost carriages from the Orient Express.

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#TheSound

Happy birthday to my Brother Dan as an accomplished drummer I think he will appreciate this video.

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Here are the #AudioMo’s I have shared since last week. I’ll do a special summery post for supporting subscribers at the end of the month.

Day 17: Sheep shearing with Dylan Davies

Day 18: As the eye comes over

Day 19: Tales from the slow lane

Day 20: Working not working

Day 21: Insights for a vigilant society (An invite to the 1984Symposium)

Day 22: A chat with Dave while holed up in Rugby

Day 23: A piece of audio I recorded without noticing a serious error. Listen out for a cameo from Lauren Laverne.

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#TheConsumed

Places that make it obvious that you can fill up your water bottle rather than spend £££ on plastic bottled water will always have a place in my heart.

This particular drinking fountain was in Pret.

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I’ve been sampling these Dutch snacks. The ryvita type snack (at the bottom) with cheese would make good survival rations. Tastes like a cracker sarnie that might last for ever.

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#TheThings

Gotta love Robert Murray-Smith’s ingenuity and enthusiasm and he continues to develop a 3d printed portable wind turbine.

I am wondering about how noisy it might be though.

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Remember the Baavet competition in issue [403] where all you had to do was subscribe to their newsletter? Well we have a winner. Congratulations Mary Williams!

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While documenting Dylan Davis sheep shearing last week, I could not help but notice his leather moccasins.

When I asked him why he wore this extremely minimal footwear, he explained it was so as when you move around the sheep, you can hold and grip the animal better and it was more comfortable for both of them.

After trawling a through forums I discovered more benefits.

Boots are cumbersome and inflexible, and with all the reaching to the floor, moccasins make this easier. It’s all about footwork, reach and grip.

Interesting to think that in the millennia that we have been shearing sheep, moccasins or (the more locally known) pampootie are still the perfect footwear for the job.

Incidentally the oldest leather shoes ever found were preserved in a pile of sheep poo.

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First comment on this post…

“Who in their right mind uses an online service to control their smart home? What an horrible idea.”

Man locked out of smart home for a week after delivery driver accuses him of being racist.

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#TheThanks

Thank you to those who support my internet based endeavours. And please share it so more can find it.

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#TheWeb

• A thread about why the Titan submersible was carbon fibre.

• It might not be a mimetic poli-alloy but further down the line what might liquid metal mean for the environment.

• Silly but fun. The world’s largest working iPhone.

• Welcome @Zerofactorial to the Documentally community map. That’s 1 great name.

• The site TwitterIsGoingGreat.com is a timeline of Twitter’s antics.

• Computer art from the 50’s and 60’s

• Some of my other places include Audioboom, Flickr, Strava, Untappd, Diaspora, Vivino, LinkedIn, YouTube, Mastodon, a ham radio newsletter called 73 from G5DOC or search ‘Documentally’ on Wire, Twitter, T2 or Bluesky.

• I’m going to try and talk my Dad into getting one of these cyclo-knitters. Like the tweet if you think it’s a good idea or RT if you think it’s brilliant ;-)

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#TheEnd

Thank you for reading. All the spelling mistakes were intentional and only a few of you will get the easter eggs but I love you for it. If you listened to this audio linked above you know exactly where I will be this Sunday the 25th of June. Perhaps I’ll see you there. Next week I’ll mostly be preparing for the Thinking Digital Conference which is fast approaching… As well as testing some coffee/camping tech for supporting subscribers.

Have a great week!

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“You are the sky. Everything else – it’s just the weather.” ~ Pema Chödrön

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Enjoy.

See you out there.

Over…