Sketching - Summary

Wed 22 Nov CLICK HERE for the full article Sketching: Sketching and telling stories (and especially the stories from the Bible) is a marvellous way to communicate with kids. I've been doing it for 40-odd years. Here are my brief notes, in the hope that they will encourage others to have a go. You don't have to be a Rembrandt or a Leonardo Da Vinci. If you tend to think in analogies and images, and can doodle, you can probably sketch easily. MORE...

Revelation - Summary

Wed 22 Nov CLICK HERE for the full article Revelation: These are my presentations on the meaning of the apparently mysterious Book of the Revelation, from the Bible, given over the 3 years from 2005 to 2008. I make no claim to infallibility, but hope to shed some light as far as I have been able to discern it. My aim through all has been to impose no external theories upon the book, but to let it speak for itself. I have done this largely by using the other parts of the Bible to shed light on it, with others' commentaries left till last, and (I hope) used judiciously and sparingly. MORE...

PyramidRock - Summary

Wed 22 Nov CLICK HERE for the full article PyramidRock: Here are my illustrated Bible stories for a kids' school holiday "Adventure Time" at a church in the Hunter Valley. The theme for the week is "Pyramid Rock", one the life of Joseph, with his many sufferings, eventual joys, and who God used him to rescue his family from starvation and early death. MORE...

MumsMemoirs - Summary

Wed 22 Nov CLICK HERE for the full article MumsMemoirs: My mother decided to write down some of her earliest memories, from her childhood in England. There is some duplication here, but I think they are remarkably good for someone who starting jotting things down at age 84. They are a little bit of real history from life in the early 20th century, and in the time of the Great Depression.

MORE...

Land-Lubbers - Summary

Wed 22 Nov CLICK HERE for the full article Land-Lubbers: Kids' Adventure Time 2006, 2012 I really enjoyed spending a a week at a country church in the Hunter Valley as the Bible story-teller/teacher at a holiday "Adventure Time" MORE...

KnightsOfTheKing - Summary

Wed 22 Nov CLICK HERE for the full article KnightsOfTheKing: This is a set of Bible stories and sketches I did for a kids' holiday Bible Club in a country church, in the Riverina farming area of NSW. The theme was "Knights of the King", built around a medieval knight trying to find the true King, so that he could follow him. The stories are from Matthew's Gospel, in the Bible.

MORE...

GroundBreakers - Summary

Wed 22 Nov CLICK HERE for the full article GroundBreakers: Here are my illustrated Bible stories for a kids' school holiday "Adventure Time" at a church in the Hunter Valley. The theme for the week is "Ground Breakers", hence the title. This is my 5th "adventure Time" with lots of primary age kids and a wonderful team of all ages from the church. They really do the lion's share of the work, and it is exciting to be with them. MORE...

DanielFiles - Summary

Wed 22 Nov CLICK HERE for the full article DanielFiles: These are my notes on the book of Daniel from the Bible. I began about 2002. The first six chapters are essentially Daniel's life as captive and exile in Babylon. MORE...

ChampionsChallenge - Summary

Wed 22 Nov CLICK HERE for the full article ChampionsChallenge: Here are my illustrated Bible stories for a kids' school holiday "Adventure Time" at a church in the Hunter Valley. The theme for the week is "Champions' Challenge", hence the title. This is my 4th (and in 2015, 8th) "Adventure Time" with lots of primary age kids and a wonderful team of all ages from the church. They really do the lion's share of the work, and it is exciting to be with them. MORE...

Tardus's Linux Hints and Tips

2023-11-11 CLICK HERE for the full article bits:

Things I've discovered that helped me. Hope they help you too

MORE...

Gn15 model train mining layout

30 Aug 2022 CLICK HERE for the full article Gn15_model_train_mining_layout:

Gn15 model train mining layout MORE...

Testing TOC with new CSS

1 august 2021 CLICK HERE for the full article test-toc:

Here is some plain text. faoif nfia fadifoai fiai fugau. Goeuouo weou wo oawewe weipo werpiwoi wep perw t0948prip. Here is some plain text. faoif nfia fadifoai fiai fugau. Goeuouo weou wo oawewe weipo werpiwoi wep perw t0948prip. MORE...

God Humbles Man's Pride - Genesis 11:1-9

30 June 2021 CLICK HERE for the full article godHumblesMansPride:

I set out to tell you about the Tower of Babel, and what it can teach us. However, in a time when there is so much confusion about the early chapters of Genesis, where the story is found, I think it wise to say something about the truthfulness of this whole section of the Bible. There is no final conflict between the actual words of the Bible and the findings of good science. In the one book, the Bible, God reveals Himself in Words. In His other book, the Cosmos, He reveals Himself in His Works. How then could these two ever be in real conflict? MORE...

A Paper Pyramid Map of the Earth

14 July 2019 CLICK HERE for the full article earthPyramid:

. A Tetrahedron wanting to be a Sphere! First published 12 Oct 2015 MORE...

Preventing a bicycle freewheel from freewheeling!

12 Feb 2018 CLICK HERE for the full article freewheel:

You might want to do this if you want to try fixed-wheel riding on the cheap. I wanted to do it for another reason - making a transfer shaft (jack-shaft) for a homemade trike project. I worked out a way using two old freewheel clusters, but because the driven rear wheel is on the right, I needed to stop the freewheels freewheeling. First, how does a freewheel work? MORE...

Rescuing a Xiaomi MiBand 2 Fitness Tracker that won't sync.

25 November 2017 CLICK HERE for the full article miband2:

This is a great budget fitness band and sleep tracker. Even a low budget Smart watch, since it tells the time and alerts you about calls and messages. My wife's has been very reliable, but mine stopped syncing with my Android 7.0 phone after a few months. Nothing I found on the web gave me any help: many reboots of the phone, removing and reinstalling the app, ditto while the band was plugged into my laptop's USB port, etc. MORE...

Love, Loss & Longing

17 Oct 2017 CLICK HERE for the full article love-loss-longing2:

"One Voice" album - Sung by Aled Jones This is a magical album, with honey-voiced tenor Aled Jones singing duets with recordings from his earlier career as a boy soprano. The album went straight to the top of the UK classical chart when released in 2016, and well deserved it. These are classic folk songs from the British Isles, Welsh, Irish, Scottish and English, about love, loss and longing, beautiful and bitter-sweet, "achingly beautiful" as another reviewer put it. MORE...

Android Help for Beginners

2 Oct 2017 CLICK HERE for the full article android-help:

Samsung Galaxy S5 The phone will wake up by itself if a call comes in. MORE...

Supernaturalism, Naturalism and Materialism

1 August 2017 CLICK HERE for the full article superNatMat:

Big words - what do they mean for me? Lots really, if there is to be any hope of real happiness. Do you mean ghosts, ESP and all that stuff? No, not especially. MORE...

More Prayers from the Ark

27 July 2017 CLICK HERE for the full article morePrayersArk:

This is a wonderful book of poems by French writer Carmen Bernos de Gasztold, written during the grim years of the Second World War. Noah and a representative group of animals offer their own style of prayer, some funny, some sad, some full of hope, all brief and fresh. MORE...

A Search Button for Tardus.net

6 Jan 2017 CLICK HERE for the full article searchButton:

The "Entropy Search" on my web-hoster was never very wonderful, searching only for single words, and needing a manual re-indexing after every change to content. Finally, the option to re-index disappeared from cPanel on their site. Here is the code I had to insert in my pages:- MORE...

The Narcissist's Prayer

6 Jan 2017 CLICK HERE for the full article narcissistsPrayer:

"How better far the world would be

If all the people were like me!
MORE...

Fear and Fear Not!

12 Dec 2016 CLICK HERE for the full article fearNot:

Here is the Christmas story I told with my sketch-board at a "Carols among the Gum-trees" in December 2016. The story begins in the Judean hills near Bethlehem. Some shepherds were sitting at night watching their flocks of sheep. They were not modern shepherds, with quad-bikes and sheepdogs, just poor men who guided the sheep to good grass in the daytime and guarded them at night. It was a dirty, lonely and at times dangerous job, because there were wolves around. Nobody thought much about them, but they just got on with their job. MORE...

Jesus, King of Christmas - Video

28 November 2016 CLICK HERE for the full article kingOfChristmas-video:

Jesus, King of Christmas - Video I simplified it a little to make it more visible in a large school auditorium. MORE...

Editing an MP4 Video in Linux using Avidemux and avconv

9 November 2016 CLICK HERE for the full article editMP4:

I needed to edit a short video as it had a incorrect word on some of the frames: "One" when it should have had "Won". Here is how I achieved it. I'm sure there are better ways, and maybe I'll find one another time. For now, mission accomplished. MORE...

Vanity of Vanities

7 October 2016 CLICK HERE for the full article vanity:

All is Vanity (or is it?) From the writings of Solomon the Wise MORE...

A Heavy Load

25 September 2016 CLICK HERE for the full article heavyLoad:

Kids' talk in church 25th September, 2016 Kids carry heavy loads in their backpacks when they go to school. Hard work on a hot day! MORE...

The Narcissist's Dictionary

11 July 2016 CLICK HERE for the full article narcissistsDictionary:

By: Tardus

admiration

MORE...

The Truth of a Flower, the Truth of Water

30 March 2016 CLICK HERE for the full article truth_of_flower_and_water-Macdonald:

George Macdonald was a 19th century Scottish writer, perhaps best known as the father of fantasy writing. His best works (according to CS Lewis) were Phantastes, Lillith, the Curdie books, The Golden Key and The Wise Woman. Macdonald was also a friend of Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland. MORE...

A Strange Bed, Fellow: Possum asleep in a rain-head

20 Mar 2016 CLICK HERE for the full article possumInRainhead:

Brushtail possums are common enough here in Australia, having adapted very successfully to urban life. A week ago I was cleaning cobwebs off my roof guttering, and noticed what looked like a hairy caterpillar on the outside of one of the rain-heads. On nudging it with a broom the caterpillar disappeared and was replaced by a head with two large, startled eyes. The caterpillar was the tail of a possum! The ringtail was nesting in the rain-head, having already packed the down-pipe with grass and litter. After being disturbed it left and ran away across the roof. MORE...

Using GIMP to overlay small images on to a larger image.

16 March 2016 CLICK HERE for the full article gimpOverlayingImages:

I've often needed to overlay some small images over a larger one, but couldn't see how to do it, resorting to scissors and glue cut-and-paste instead. Here are some images MORE...

Making Paper Squircle Fold-ups with ImageMagick

28 Feb 2016 CLICK HERE for the full article squircle:

Years ago I received some advertising from IBM, content now long forgotten. What intrigued me was the unusual, large, glossy, black, glue-less envelope it came in. I kept that envelope for many years. Its.textape, when opened out, was a square with a semi-circle on each edge. MORE...

Daniel Chapter 11 - God is mightier than the War-lords

10 January 2016 CLICK HERE for the full article daniel11-GodIsMightierThanTheWarlords:

• Solomons, North Korea, Indonesia, Iraq, Bali, Afghanistan, Sept. 11, Syria, ISIS? - do you despair of there ever being peace? This book in the Bible shines a light on such concerns.
• Daniel, the Jewish teenager enslaved by the Babylonians, is now in his old age, having served in the governments of several kings, and is now Prime Minister in the Persian court. MORE...

Txt2Tags - Write Once, Many Formats, Easy HTML

11 November 2015 CLICK HERE for the full article txt2tags:

You do sacrifice some control over format, but the ease of creating and adjusting many pages more than offsets this, in my opinion. Txt2tags is written in Python and can be used on Linux, Mac or Windows. MORE...

Bargain Super-phone - the Motorola Moto G Gen 2

5 July 2015 CLICK HERE for the full article motoGgen2:

• 5 inch screen
• quad-core 1.2GHz processor MORE...

A Stormy Night

5 July 2015 CLICK HERE for the full article championsFamily:

(Here is the background to my sketch) This is the last of the Bible stories for Adventure Time 2009. In it we see the power and kindness of Jesus, and how much we need Him. MORE...

The Empty Tomb (From Sad to Glad)

5 July 2015 CLICK HERE for the full article championsDay5:

(Here is the background to my sketch) Today's story from the Bible is the happy ending to a very sad story. In fact, it is the happiest of endings, to the very saddest of stories. MORE...

The Biggest Swap Ever

5 July 2015 CLICK HERE for the full article championsDay4:

(Here is the background to my sketch) Today's story from the Bible is about a big swap. Have you ever swapped something, like swapping a bike for a skateboard, or a piece of clothing with a friend? MORE...

Bread-Maker and Bread-givers

5 July 2015 CLICK HERE for the full article championsDay3:

Today's story from the Bible is about food (good food, and the best food). (Luke's Gospel, chapter 9, verses 10 to 17) MORE...

The Centurion's Slave

5 July 2015 CLICK HERE for the full article championsDay2:

Today's story from the Bible is full of surprises! (Luke's Gospel, chapter 7, verses 1 to 10) (Here is the background to my sketch) MORE...

Champions Challenge - Adventure Time 2009 & 2015

5 July 2015 CLICK HERE for the full article championsChallengeOverview:

Here's an idea of what goes into Adventure time each year

• games MORE...

A Stormy Night

5 July 2015 CLICK HERE for the full article aStormyNight:

(Here is the background to my sketch) in this Bible story we see the power and kindness of Jesus, and how much we need Him. MORE...

The Wise and Foolish Builders

27 June 2015 CLICK HERE for the full article championsDay1:

Today's story from the Bible goes right back to the beginning. Really, they all do, for it is really all one giant story. (Here is the background to my sketch) MORE...

GOD IS KING

24 November 2014 CLICK HERE for the full article Joseph-GodIsKing:

Genesis chapter 45:25 to chapter 47:12 Brothers, including Benjamin, return to tell old father Jacob the news. Jacob can't believe it at first. They tell him everything (which means that the 10 older brothers had to tell him how they sold Joseph as a slave, and lied to father Jacob). Then he sees the royal wagons of Pharaoh, sent to take him to Egypt, to Joseph. He sees the silver, the fine clothes, the food for the journey. "I'm satisfied - Joseph is ALIVE! I will go to him before I die". MORE...

GOD IS KING

24 November 2014 CLICK HERE for the full article day5-GodIsKing:

Genesis chapter 45:25 to chapter 47:12 Brothers, including Benjamin, return to tell old father Jacob the news. Jacob can't believe it at first. They tell him everything (which means that the 10 older brothers had to tell him how they sold Joseph as a slave, and lied to father Jacob). Then he sees the royal wagons of Pharaoh, sent to take him to Egypt, to Joseph. He sees the silver, the fine clothes, the food for the journey. "I'm satisfied - Joseph is ALIVE! I will go to him before I die". MORE...

The Mighty Toyota Yaris Sedan

16 November 2014 CLICK HERE for the full article mightyYarisSedan:

"Mighty" and "Yaris" (especially "Yaris Sedan") might sound like a self-contradiction to you. Here is Australia I suspect it is seen as a granny car, a lack-lustre sideshow to the ever popular Yaris hatch. There are few options for it, nothing very exciting, and Toyota rarely bring out updated models. What is so mighty about that?

1. we bought our 2008 Yaris automatic sedan in December 2008, as my wife's first new car; MORE...

Daihatsu Midget Three-wheeled Micro Truck, Paper Model

16 November 2014 CLICK HERE for the full article daihatsuMidget:

Three wheeled micro trucks were very popular in the immediate post-WW2 years, being cheap to make and own, and small and nimble enough for getting around the tiny streets of many older towns and cities. They are still popular today in Europe (think here of the Piaggio Ape), India and Asia (think of the Indian Bajaj and the Tuk-tuks). MORE...

That's a Good Question

27 October 2014 CLICK HERE for the full article outOfNothing:

A serious-minded 7 year old asked me "How could God make everything out of nothing?", and also "Who made God?". I gave him my best answer on the spot, but thought I could perhaps do better, so wrote this for him and others. Hopefully it is not too confusing, and there are not too many new words without their definitions. Time will tell. MORE...

Homemade Rail bender for OO/HO Scale Code 100 Rails

27 August 2014 CLICK HERE for the full article railBender:

A DIY rail-bender. After a long time browsing Carl Arendt's magic micro train layout site, www.carendt.com, I wanted to build a tiny layout. This means very tight radius tracks, 150mm in my case. You can't get this in ready-made track sections from Hornby, etc., but you can get flexible track, such as Peco's "Flexitrack", and it is quite cheap (about $5.00 AUS for a 900mm length, HO/OO, code 100). However, bending it to such a tight radius is not easy; you risk kinking the track, or getting a twist along the length of the rails. MORE...

A Sharp Point

23 August 2014 CLICK HERE for the full article aSharpPoint:

John's Gospel, Chapter 7, verses 1 to 31 You could look at this as being "Jesus makes a sharp point with His opposers", or "Jesus is at a sharp point from His opposers". Either way, He is the victor, and they are the vanquished. MORE...

Various Sketches for Bible Stories

21 August 2014 CLICK HERE for the full article variousBibleStorySketches:

Various Sketches for Bible Stories MORE...

Jesus Reveals - John's Gospel chapter 5:1-18

4 July 2014 CLICK HERE for the full article JesusReveals-john5,1-18:

Jesus, after living 30 years quietly in Galilee, the remote northern province of Israel, has begun His public work of revealing the Kingdom of God. He would reveal Himself to the Jewish people as their long-awaited Messiah, and to all people as the "Saviour of the World" (as He had already to some Samaritans, chapter 4:42).

• The Pool of Bethesda: thought to be a large complex of two pools with covered verandahs to shelter those who gathered there. It seems to have been a place for public bathing. MORE...

Txt2Tags - Write Once, Many Formats, Easy HTML

27 May 2014 CLICK HERE for the full article txt2tags:

You do sacrifice some control over format, but the ease of creating and adjusting many pages more than offsets this, in my opinion. Txt2tags is written in Python and can be used on Linux, Mac or Windows. MORE...

I am fond of pigs

27 May 2014 CLICK HERE for the full article IamFondOfPigs:

I am fond of pigs

"I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals." - Winston Churchill

MORE...

The First Sign

24 May 2014 CLICK HERE for the full article firstSign:

Once a person accepts that the universe, including us, has a Creator, there is no logical barrier to believing in miracles. True, there are many bogus "miracles" around. This no more proves the impossibility of miracles any more than meeting many dishonest men proves there are no honest ones. God had promised a rescuer, a saviour, a restorer. To the Jews, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (who was also named Israel) this One was known as "Messiah" (literally "anointed one" - One sent by God with power and authority to be the great, long-awaited, Restorer). MORE...

Jim's boat - 'Twice Mine!'

21 March 2014 CLICK HERE for the full article JimsBoat:

Who MADE absolutely everything? Well, we like to make things too (making things is one of God's gifts to us all). A young boy called Jim loved to make things. Jim spend many weeks making a model boat. He painted it bright colours and put a strong electric motor and some batteries in it so it could go fast in the water. MORE...

God Humbles Man's Pride - Daniel Chapter 3

16 March 2014 CLICK HERE for the full article daniel03-GodHumblesMansPride-rev2:

MORE...

My House Monitor

8 March 2014 CLICK HERE for the full article houseMonitor:

The web page auto-refreshes. Below is a non-refreshing reproduction of the summary page, to give the flavour. MORE...

Forwarding mail from Google Apps to a private Gmail account

3 March 2014 CLICK HERE for the full article gmailForwarding:

Google Apps provides a very useful email service for small businesses and non-profit groups, eg, hobby clubs. You can have your own "domain name" eg, "camdencyclist.org.au" and email addresses such as "bob@camdencyclists.org.au", as well as shared calendars and other goodies. Now, you have a Google Apps email account for a group or business that you belong to, but would rather have the mail forwarded to your everyday, private, Gmail account. "How do I do it?" MORE...

God Rules, God Reveals - Daniel Chapter 2

4 Jan 2014 CLICK HERE for the full article daniel02-GodRulesReveals:

God judges His people Israel, by using the Babylonian Empire to crush them. Has God been blocked in His plans? Is He unable to help them? Has He stepped aside from history? NO, NO & NO!

MORE...

God's people are not alone

28 December 2013 CLICK HERE for the full article daniel01-InAHostileWorld:

• the stage is Babylon the Great; its 20km wall, 40m thick, its hanging gardens, the Tower of Babel, the Temple of Marduk, the palace of Nebuchadnezzar (with its vast throne room). Here was the centre of wealth, power, science, art and false worship. MORE...

Home Temperature Monitoring Using Maxim-Dallas DS18S20 1-Wire Sensors

5 Dec 2013 CLICK HERE for the full article temperatureMonitor:

Being a retired engineer with a long interest in matters scientific and in low energy housing, I have finally begun what I long wanted to do, to set up a temperature monitoing system in my house. This is a temporary arrangement till I find time for more sensors, and a permanent interface to my server PC. MORE...

A Brief Introduction to the BASH Shell and Linux

5 Dec 2013 CLICK HERE for the full article briefIntro2BashShell:

I love command line interfaces. GUIs are fine, and I use them a lot, but I still love and use the command line power-tools. They just make some tasks much much easier. My background includes command line interfaces on DOS, VAX-VMS, PDP11-RSX, Unix and Linux machines, as well as building and caring for a large Windows/Novell and later Windows/Active Directory network. BASH, cutely named the "Bourne Again Shell" being descended from the earlier Bourne Shell of early Unix, is my preference, purely for historical reasons. My first foray into Linux was because I wanted to use the free "Big Brother" system monitor on my company's expanding network, and it was largely built up of BASH scripts. "Shell" is essentially Unix-speak for a command line interface, where you can type and run commands, or put strings of commands in a script and then run that. MORE...

Reading a CurrentCost CC128 ENVI Power Monitor using Debian Linux

4 Dec 2013 CLICK HERE for the full article readCC128:

The CC128 ENVI Power Monitor is cheap and does work pretty well, with its wireless data transmitter connected to the house's main power switchboard. To get data out of it, I use the optional serial cable with its built-in USB convertor, plugged into my Debian Linux server. I adapted the following PERL script from one I found on the Net. MORE...

Reading data from an Arduino's USB/serial port using Debian Linux

3 December 2013 CLICK HERE for the full article readNano:

In case you don't know, the Arduino is a family of micro-controllers, of open source design, ideal for interfacing environmental sensors, etc. They are also very cheap, popular, easy to connect to external sensors and easy to program. But how do I connect one to a computer to read the data it gets from sensors? MORE...

How to make an A6 size folded booklet from a single sheet of A4 paper using Linux

13 November 2013 CLICK HERE for the full article a6FoldedBooklet:

This week I needed to make a four page A6 (quarter of A4 size) booklet, and wanted it to be a simple folded job, ie, print single sided with the four pages reduced to fit on a single sheet, 2x2, then fold it into A5, then again into A6. It wasn't so hard after all, and for you USA people who use Legal and Letter size paper, the same idea will work fine.

1. Create your document in your favourite word-processor (mine is Open Office / Libre Office). You will need to use a large font so that the type is readable when reduced to quarter size. MORE...

Revelation Chapter 7 - A Short History of the World - The Gathering Storm

20 October 2013 CLICK HERE for the full article revelation07-GatheringStorm:

Those of you who know Tolkien's great saga, "The Lord of the Rings" will instantly recognise this, but if not let me paint you a scene - The Captains of the west, lead by Aragorn, the uncrowned king, are at the terrible Black Gate into Mordor, and utterly outnumbered by the armies of Sauron, the Dark Lord. There seems no hope. "Who shall stand?" Suddenly Mt Doom explodes into fire and fury! Sauron's mighty Ring of Power has been destroyed at last, and Sauron withers as it melts inside Mt Doom. His cruel citadel of Baradur, the Dark Tower, collapses, battlement by battlement, into utter ruin, and all Mordor is convulsed by titanic earthquakes and landslides. Sam and Frodo are in the middle of it all, close to death on the flanks of Mt Doom. There seems no hope. "Who shall stand?"

MORE...

Revelation Chapter 6 - A Short History of the World- The Book is Opened

20 October 2013 CLICK HERE for the full article revelation06-BriefHistoryWorld:

"Here is the 10 o'clock news update. Reports continue to come in from many parts of the world of invasions, coups, wars, fighting and MORE...

Volkswagen Micro-bus - Paper Model

17 October 2013 CLICK HERE for the full article vwBus:

This is a model of a VW Micro-bus (not sure what vintage - my knowledge of years and models ends with the original Type 2, which I once owned). The downloaded PDF is quite detailed and accurate, and there are a number of variants at the web-site, including a pickup. MORE...

Using a Pair of Vise Grips as a Nut Cracker

25 August 2013 CLICK HERE for the full article viseGripNutCracker:

As my hands get older and stiffer cracking nutshells becomes a problem. It occurred to me that what was needed was a nutcracker with a compound action, so that a larger force could be exerted on the shell without needing the strength of Hercules. It would also help if there was some way to prevent the nut being crushed completely when the shell does give way. At that point it flashed into my mind that I already had several such devices in my workshop. They are called vise-grips They already have the compound action, so that they can strongly grip worn or frozen metal parts, and the jaws do not fully close unless you want them to. MORE...

God Shows Himself, MAN to Man - Daniel Chapter 10

25 August 2013 CLICK HERE for the full article daniel10-GodShowsHimself,ManToMan:

God Shows Himself, MAN to Man - Daniel Chapter 10

MORE...

The Holy God Hears a Sinful Man's Prayer - Daniel Chapter 9

21 August 2013 CLICK HERE for the full article daniel09-GodHearsASinfulMansPrayer:

The Holy God Hears a Sinful Man's Prayer - Daniel Chapter 9

MORE...

GOLDEN YEARS

5 July 2013 CLICK HERE for the full article day5pm-GoldenYears:

Genesis chapter 49:33 to chapter 50:21 Beyond all father Jacob's hopes and fears, his beloved son Joseph is alive and well, Ruler of mighty Egypt, 2nd only to Pharaoh. MORE...

GOD FORGIVES

4 July 2013 CLICK HERE for the full article day4-GodForgives:

Genesis chapter 42:1 to chapter 45:24 The puzzle pieces are coming together at last - God's great rescue mission is underway. MORE...

GOD PROVIDES

3 July 2013 CLICK HERE for the full article day3-GodProvides:

Genesis chapter 41 Pharaoh has bad, frightening DREAMS. 7 fat, healthy cows are eaten up by 7 skinny and sick cows, yet the skinny ones are no fatter afterwards. Then he saw 7 plump and healthy ears of corn, which were swallowed up by 7 scrawny and withered ears of corn, yet the scrawny ears looked just as bad afterwards. His wise men cannot tell him what the dreams mean. They show themselves to be helpless helpers. MORE...

GOD HELPS

2 July 2013 CLICK HERE for the full article day2-GodHelps:

(Genesis chapters 39 and 40) Potiphar was the captain of the guards in Pharaoh's palace, and a very important man. MORE...

GOD PLANS for Joseph

1 July 2013 CLICK HERE for the full article day1-GodsPlan:

(Genesis chapter 37) From the beginning of the world, God, Who made the world and everything in it, including you and me, had a PLAN to rescue all the people from the bad things that had come into the world, such as lying, stealing, dying, sickness and hating. MORE...

Micro model train layout from Ariah Park

5 May 2013 CLICK HERE for the full article ap-040:

Yet another budding hobby! I saw this little engine and trucks in the window of a shop in Ariah Park, in the wheat and sheep farmland of the Riverina, in south-western NSW. The shop window had a sign saying "We buy junk and sell antiques". It cost me more than junk, but less than antique. I like this little engine because it has a realistic look about it. Not obviously plastic, metal wire handrails, nicely weathered look. MORE...

The Best Miracle

14 April 2013 CLICK HERE for the full article theBestMiracle:

(from Mark's Gospel, chapter 2, from the Bible) Jesus returns to Capernaum, where He was very well known. MORE...

We Can Follow Jesus - The Biggest Swap Ever

12 April 2013 CLICK HERE for the full article kk3-weCanFollow:

Matthew's Gospel, chapters 27 and 28 (The same story is in Mark, Luke and John's Gospels too, in the Bible).

MORE...

Blind Men Follow the King

11 April 2013 CLICK HERE for the full article kk2-blindMenFollow:

Matthew's Gospel, chapter 20, verses 29 to 34 The baby that the Wise Men travelled so far to worship as their King did not stay as a baby. JESUS grew into manhood, and when he was 30 years old he left his job as a carpenter. Instead he went about teaching the people about the kingdom of God, and doing good things. MORE...

The Good Oil

8 April 2013 CLICK HERE for the full article theGoodOil:

Before I retired I worked for over 30 years in the oil refining industry. A friend asked me to give a talk about oil at a men's shed night in a farming community, so here is "The Good Oil" (his title suggestion, not mine, though I think it a very good one. In Australian slang "the good oil" is something that is reliable, or true, something that delivers on its promise). As the aim is for a quick yet interesting overview, with a time suggestion of about 15 minutes, this is of course not in any way comprehensive, but I hope it is useful. I will of necessity break two cardinal principles:-

• "Generalisations are generally too general" MORE...

Wise Men Follow the King

6 April 2013 CLICK HERE for the full article kk1-wiseMenFollow:

Today's true story from the Bible goes right back to the beginning. Really, they all do, for it is really all one giant story. When God made the world (and the entire universe too) He made a man and a woman.(read about it in Genesis, the 1st book of the Bible. Genesis means "Beginning") The man and the woman were wonderful, perfect, beautiful and happy in God's care and love. They lived in a garden full of all good things, and no bad things. Everything was theirs, except for one tree and its fruit, which God said they must not touch nor eat. Will they do what He told them? Sadly, very sadly (the saddest tale in all the world), they did not. They did not trust God to be their King, and they took and ate the fruit. MORE...

Linux Mint 14, a fix for scanning using an HP All-in-1

23 March 2013 CLICK HERE for the full article hplip-3-12-11-LinuxMint14-Mate:

UPDATE I have since upgraded to Linux Mint 17 Mate, and the scanner works out of the box, as does duplex printing on the HP Photosmart 6520. Hurray! I have just updated the family laptops to Linux Mint 14, replacing Ubuntu, which I had used for many years (the new "Unity" interface in Ubuntu 12 is not my cup of tea at all). MORE...

A Reindeer warming up for Christmas duties

20 March 2013 CLICK HERE for the full article reindeerWarmingUp:

A Reindeer warming up for Christmas duties MORE...

The Australian Eastern Water Dragon

16 March 2013 CLICK HERE for the full article waterDragon:

We are fortunate enough to live with a bushland reserve at our back fence. It is a steep gully, complete with a creek, and some of the neighbours are water dragons. I'm no expert, but I think these are the common Eastern Water Dragon, Physignathus lesueurii lesueurii. We rescued one some years ago when it was stuck in an old wire fence, and like to think the family have remained good friends ever since ;) MORE...

The Virtues of Thin Grinding Discs

21 Feb 2013 CLICK HERE for the full article thinDiscVirtues:

Metal cutting wheels (disks) for angle grinders come in a number of thicknesses. I've always used the thicker 3mm ones in my handheld angle grinder, because they ought to be more robust and less likely to shatter.

MORE...

God Rescues His Faithful People - Daniel Chapter 6

26 Jan 2013 CLICK HERE for the full article daniel06-GodRescuesHisFaithfulPeople:

What's wrong with this picture?

MORE...

An Old Steam Winch

24 December 2012 CLICK HERE for the full article steamWinch:

We saw this interesting old steam winch at the wonderful museum at Wollombi in the Hunter Valley, NSW, Australia. Here is the text on the placard:- MORE...

Finishing the Race - 2 Timothy 4

15 December 2012 CLICK HERE for the full article finishingTheRace:

We are creatures in time, creatures of time, for God has made us so. It is no surprise that time figures in so much of our conversation ("how are you going?", "if you have the time...", "I haven't a moment to lose!", etc.) Paul, the mighty missionary apostle is no different, using the word time or phrases that speak of time at least 14 times in the 22 verses of this last part of his letter to Timothy, his young colleague and pastor-in-training. Unlike some religious philosophies time in the Bible's world-view is not our enemy, but rather a servant to be used wisely. It is, I hope, useful to look at these last words of Paul to Timothy using various "times" to hang our thoughts on. MORE...

God Always Triumphs Over Great Wickedness - Daniel Chapter 8

9 December 2012 CLICK HERE for the full article daniel08-GodAlwaysTriumphsOverGreatWickedness:

God Always Triumphs Over Great Wickedness - Daniel Chapter 8 I have not yet converted this document to web format (ie, HTML) but here is a PDF copy for now. MORE...

God Reveals His Eternal Kingdom - Daniel Chapter 7

9 December 2012 CLICK HERE for the full article daniel07-GodRevealsHisEternalKingdom:

• Chapter 1.God protects
• Chapter 2.God reveals & rules MORE...

Revelation Chapter 5 - The Control Room of Heaven - God as Ruler/Redeemer

2 September 2012 CLICK HERE for the full article revelation05-ControlRoomUniverse-RulerRedeemer:

Chapter 4, Ruler/Creator - the spotlight falls on the Throne, and He Who sits on it, on the 4 living creatures (cherubim, guardian angels) and on the 24 elders (God's people, the church universal). what are they, what do they mean, what do they teach us? MORE...

Cat Command

20 August 2012 CLICK HERE for the full article catCommand:

No, not "Sit!" - it never works anyway. "cat" is actually an command used in the ancient UN-IX computer operating system, which was developed in Egypt by a courtier known as Rich-ee during the reign of Pharaoh Kentom-aten. "cat" is one of the most commonly used commands, and when executed at the command line gives the following result: MORE...

Real Christians Keep Going - 1 John 2:18-29

18 August 2012 CLICK HERE for the full article realChristiansKeepGoing-1Jo2,18-29:

MORE...

Revelation Ch 4 - The Control Room of Heaven - God as Ruler/Creator

15 August 2012 CLICK HERE for the full article revelation04-ControlRoomUniverse-RulerCreator:

You are lost - a bushfire is roaring towards you, with clouds of burning eucalypt oil vapour swirling into a firestorm - there is a clearing, and in it a blue phonebox with a flashing blue light - a strange man in an odd hat & long scarf beckons to you - "Come in!" - inside the box is a jaw-dropping sight - a mix of nuclear submarine, oriental palace and op-shop - and now it whisks you away to a different galaxy & time. Well, John's experience is far, far above a joy-ride in the Tardis with you-know-Who. MORE...

Revelation Chapters 2 & 3 - Tough Love Letters

12 August 2012 CLICK HERE for the full article revelation02-3-toughLoveLetters:

Love letters are precious - just ask any woman! Our Guide is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself - Ch.1 & 22 show MORE...

Revelation Chapter 1 - The Lamb is all the Glory

26 June 2012 CLICK HERE for the full article revelation01-theLambIsAllTheGlory:

Easy to think it is a hard, mysterious book. "Revelation" - NOT SO! Its purpose is to reveal and not to hide! In Elizabeth Gaskell's book "North & South" Bessy Higgins, a poor mill girl in a 19th century English cotton town, is dying of lung disease brought on by the cotton dust in the mills; the movie doesn't show that she was a Christian, and her great comfort was this book of Revelation, which she knew almost by heart! To her it was a book of hope, not terror. MORE...

The NEWS

25 June 2012 CLICK HERE for the full article 6theNews:

By hook or by crook,

I'll be Captain Book!
MORE...

Shiver Me Timbers

25 June 2012 CLICK HERE for the full article 5shiverMyTimbers:

By hook or by crook

I'll be Captain Book!
MORE...

Keep Going!

25 June 2012 CLICK HERE for the full article 4keepGoing:

By hook or by crook

I'll be Captain Book!
MORE...

The Light

25 June 2012 CLICK HERE for the full article 3theLight:

By hook or by crook

I'll be Captain Book!
MORE...

Skull Hill

25 June 2012 CLICK HERE for the full article 2skullHill:

By hook or by crook

I'll be Captain Book!
MORE...

The Prisoner's Post

25 June 2012 CLICK HERE for the full article 1prisonersPost:

By hook or by crook

I'll be Captain Book!
MORE...

Sixpence, my second boat

5 May 2012 CLICK HERE for the full article sixpence:

Tardus was a bit too heavy and cumbersome to car-top single-handed, so I thought I'd try a one-sheet skiff, light enough to take on holidays. I added about 45mm freeboard by using thin dressed hardwood for the gunwales. Other than that it is about standard. I used the same 7mm CD ply as on Tardus and the boat comes out at about 18Kg (40 pounds) ready to row. MORE...

Rear Garden - Stage 1, Taming the Slope

5 May 2012 CLICK HERE for the full article rearGarden:

August 2011: The rear of our property drops sharply into a gully, at a slope of about 45 degrees, and is quite loose as well. It's been an eye-sore for years, and a menace to keep clear of weeds. Several efforts to get pleasant plants to grow came to nothing, so since the landscapers did such a good job on the front we got them to do something with the back. They had never done anything as steep as this, but the results are excellent. Terraced 600mm walls of treated pine sleepers, fill, jute matting as a weed barrier, a thick layer of shredded eucalyptus mulch, and plantings of Grevillea "Honey Dew", which grows to about 3m high and 3m wide. Hopefully this will form a dense thicket of vegetation. It is also very easy now to get around to do spot weed-spraying. Here are some photos, before and after. MORE...

Three Steps to Finding the Perfect Marriage Partner

4 May 2012 CLICK HERE for the full article findingPerfectMarriagePartner:

This article was prepared as a breakfast talk for a group of men, but as far as I can tell everything here works just the same for women. Just substitute "her" for "him" etc. The ideas here are like a two-edged sword, it cuts both ways! Everyday observation suggests we do indeed have a problem. If we did not have one, how come so many marriages end up in the divorce courts? MORE...

Mission Unstoppable - A Pagan Backlash

19 April 2012 CLICK HERE for the full article unstoppablePaganBacklash:

The book of Acts in the New Testament, in chapter 19, shows us what happened when the early Christians, who had "turned the world upside-down" (Acts 17:6 ESV) collided head-on with the paganism of the Greek-Roman culture of the day.

Ephesus

MORE...

Heat-pump Hot Water - another green step

12 April 2012 CLICK HERE for the full article heatPumpHotWater:

A number of things have changed the equation in the last 20 years:-

• we are all more aware of the damaging impact of the overuse of fossil fuels - much more than we were in the 70s and 80s. MORE...

The Lamb of God

4 April 2012 CLICK HERE for the full article lambOfGod:

A story about the real meaning of Easter, for children. Here's the story sketch as an animated image MORE...

Some Pitfalls in Reading the Bible

26 February 2012 CLICK HERE for the full article pitfalls:

"Cheshire Puss,' (Alice) began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider. Come, it's pleased so far,' thought Alice, and she went on. Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?' That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat. MORE...

Solar Voltaic Power for my House

19 February 2012 CLICK HERE for the full article solarPV:

I've long been fascinated by the idea of having photo-voltaic panels on our roof so that we can generate our own power. The economics were not very attractive for along time. MORE...

God Uses Us Despite Our Failings (Numbers 11:25-35)

6 Jan 2012 CLICK HERE for the full article GodUsesUsDespiteOurFailings:

Who of us has not thought at some time, and often, that perhaps He cannot, or will not, make any use of us because of what we see as our failures? "I'm useless - I might as well give up...". Well, I hope to show you that you are not any worse (or better) than just about all the heroes in the Bible, and that we beat ourselves up far too much. Yes, failure is failure, but God is greater!

• Real failures, not just weaknesses; MORE...

Tardus Image Gallery

2 January 2012 CLICK HERE for the full article imageGallery:

I've made a gallery of the images on this web site, in case anyone is looking for a picture or photo, or wants to find its source. There are 2 gallery pages that are automatically regenerated at frequent intervals:- MORE...

God Rescues Us (Even) from the Pit of Despair (Numbers 11:1-23)

30 December 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article godRescuesFromDespair:

• "It's all too hard!" "I can't go on" "I've had enough"; family woes, work overload, money stress, what am I to do...?;
• How many of us have wished at some time "O that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away & be at rest" Ps 55:6; MORE...

Our Domestic Rainwater Tanks

21 December 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article rainTanks:

We installed our rain water tanks in 2008, during a time of drought here in Australia, with sever water restrictions. Sydney Water were offering $500 to home owners who installed tanks, and another $500 if you then connected them to either your washing machine or your toilet cistern. $1500 all up if you connect to both. I discovered that plastic (polyethylene) tanks are about the same price as Colorbond steel tanks, so went with them. I also discovered that circular tanks are much cheaper than oval and other compact shaped tanks for the same capacity, and that one big tank is a lot cheaper than several small ones. MORE...

Our Domestic Rainwater Tanks - Lifting the Bigger Tanks

21 December 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article rainTankLifting:

Getting the two larger tanks in place was a minor challenge, as the corner of the deck at the rear of the house comes very close to the drop into the gully of the creek we overlook. There was just no way to roll or carry the tanks around the corner, and only a 900mm access down the other side of the house. With the aid of my son and a neighbour we rigged up a rough "crane" and lifted them around easily and safely. MORE...

Our Domestic Rainwater Tanks - Modified Float Valve

21 December 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article rainTankFloatValve:

which was designed for keeping an animal drinking trough full. Water under pressure is admitted in the bottom port of the valve, and leaves the outlet into the trough. The valve is intended to be mounted through the wall of the trough. When the water level is sufficiently high, the float pulls the cord attached to the bell-crank and stops the flow. MORE...

Overview - The Real Revelation Code

19 December 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article revelation00-overView:

What has this seemingly mysterious book to say to us in the 21st Century? It has puzzled many people, and there have been a vast number of interpretations of it, often with a lot of heated argument. Can anyone understand it?

• God alone, and keeps it veiled? MORE...

Happy Christmas Cat

19 December 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article luckyCatChristmas:

Knowing her love of all things feline, friends gave my wife a Maneki Neko, a Japanese "lucky cat", with a motorised beckoning arm. Here it is dressed up for Christmas with a hat and Noel sign. "Noel" comes from the Latin natalis, celebrating the birth of Jesus the Messiah. Thank God we can trust in Him and not have to depend on "luck". MORE...

Our Coat of Arms

19 December 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article coatOfArms:

Here is our family coat-of-arms:- "Feline Dormant on a Field of Gold" MORE...

Jesus, King of Christmas

2 Dec 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article KingOfChristmas:

Do you get excited waiting for Christmas to come? There is the Christmas tree, and the lovely decorations, the lights, the family get-together, the feast, and of course the presents! The first Christmas, over 2000 years ago, is what gave us all these exciting things, because that first Christmas was more lovely and gave better presents. It was so good that its good things flow down to us even after so many long years! MORE...

The Plain Man's Guide to Financial Security

24 November 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article plainGuideFinancialSecurity:

first published 3 Nov 2011 Or how to travel life's pathway with a fair hope of contentment along the way. MORE...

Restoring an old 3 speed bicycle

12 October 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article lucy3speed:

Years ago when I was much younger I had a bicycle with a 3 speed Sturmey-Archer internal gear hub. It was what was loosely called an "English Racer", having dropped handlebars and caliper brakes, and steel wheels, as just about every bike did then. 10 speed derailleur gears were an exotic item. I remember riding several hundred kilometres on it during a tour to the mid-west part of NSW (Australia) with a friend who had one of the exotic 10 speeders. Not too many hills fortunately, but I was in better shape then, and could lift the front wheel on the flat even in top gear (yes, surprised me too!) While browsing in an Op Shop I saw an old 3-speed step-through bike, pink with rust but straight and with round wheels (not all do 8^D). Thought about it and decided it would make an interesting project, so back the next day.... MORE...

How Are We To Worship? - Guarding Our Relationships

1 September 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article guardingRelationships:

The book of the prophet Malachi, chapter 2, verses 10 to 16

MORE...

Jacking Up A Sagging Timber Deck

21 August 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article jackingUpTheDeck:

No, not the deck on a boat, but a timber deck on the back of my house. As you can see the deck has sagged badly - about 40mm, where one of the timber posts has subsided. The concrete pad on which the post rests has sunk into the soft ground. MORE...

Wisdom for Love, Courtship, Marriage, Sex & Salvation

7 August 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article wisdomForLoveCourtshipMarriageSexAndSalvation:

The Song of Songs is the last the "Wisdom" books in the Old Testament of the Bible. These books are Job, the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song. In form the Song of Songs (or the "superlative song", the "best song") is a love poem celebrating man-woman love, especially the sexual part, which it does with great delicacy and yet with striking vividness and passion. MORE...

DaffyNitions

20 July 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article daffyNitions:

noun, male homonid, occasionally useful around the house, but severely limited by an inability to cope with a task list greater than 0 or 1 items. noun, female homonid, can handle several task lists at once, all of many items. Very useful around the house. Determined to teach one particular male homonid how to cope with a task list of greater than 1 item. MORE...

Useful Sketching Reference Material

18 July 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article sketchingReferences:

Paint, chalks, pastels, fibre markers, crayons have all been used. You can draw on paper, whiteboards, blackboards or overhead projector slides MORE...

Simple Perspective and Other Sketching Tips

18 July 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article simplePerspective:

Perspective is a great help in drawing realistic block-shaped things, like houses and ancient city walls. Think of a road stretching out before you. The edges seem to get closer together the further off you look, and seem to meet at the horizon. This is what we mean by perspective. MORE...

Some Story Sketch Examples

17 July 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article sketchingExamples:

MORE...

Preparing to Sketch and Tell a Bible Story

17 July 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article preparingTheBibleStory:

Grow the story out of the Bible text, and grow the sketches from the Bible story. This is far better than bringing a bright idea and trying to find something in the Bible to support it. You should know the 1, 2 or 3 things you hope they will learn from your Bible story. What is the major theme. MORE...

THE WISE AND FOOLISH BUILDERS

8 July 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article groundBreakersFamily:

Today's story from the Bible goes right back to the beginning. Really, they all do, for it is really all one giant story. (Here is the background to my sketch) MORE...

DIGGING DEEP

8 July 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article day5DiggingDeep:

Mark Chapter 2, verse 1 to 12, Luke Chapter 5 verses 17 to 26, John Chapters 14 verse 6, 19 verses 17 to -30, 20 verse 1 to 10 Many years later God sent someone to save us all, and bring us back to God. Wasn't Jonah, wasn't Nehemiah, wasn't Elijah, nor even King Hezekiah. It was Jesus, born to Mary, the wife of a poor carpenter name Joseph, but really he was God's Son. MORE...

REPAIR WORK

7 July 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article day4RepairWork:

2 Kings Chapter 19, 2 Chronicles Chapters 29-32

• old King Ahaz was dying - he had been a bad king, turning away from the true God and worshipping idols - he even killed one of his own sons as a sacrifice (2 Kings chapter 16 verses 2 and 3) MORE...

THE BIG TEST

5 July 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article day3BigTest:

Kings Chapter 18 Why? Wicked king Ahab, and people had turned away from the Lord God AGAIN (do you ever do the same wrong things AGAIN?). It was God who had made them, and given them the good land they lived in. Ahab told the people "Baal is God!" Baal was a false, make-believe god, the god (so they said) of storms and rain and lightning. King Ahab's wife Queen Jezebel was the princess of Tyre, where Baal was already worshipped. They thought Baal was cruel, and even killed people as human sacrifices to Baal. MORE...

THE FOUNDATION

2 July 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article day2TheFoundation:

Nehemiah Chapters 1-7:3 God taught one special group of people what He was really like, and what was right and good. They were Jonah's people, and He did this for hundreds of years. Yet again and again they turned away from God, worshipping idols and doing bad things. At last God said again "No More!" and sent another nation, with a fierce king (Nebuchadnezzar), to carry them off as slaves to a far-away country (Babylon). 150 years later one of their great-great-grandchildren was a very important man serving a new king in Persia. His name was Nehemiah. MORE...

FOLLOW THE PLAN

2 July 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article day1FollowThePlan:

Jonah chapters 1 to 3 Here is the initial preparation with the title. MORE...

Revolutionary Command

16 June 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article revolutionaryCommand:

Some of you may have heard of this in your schooldays, but unless your maths teacher was a comic, it was probably not in the maths class. There you hopefully heard about "The Square on the Hypotenuse", the ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras' famous theorem about the sides of right-angle triangles...

MORE...

Construction Hints for the Paper-model of the Voison Laboratoire Racing Car

30 May 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article voisonHints:

• stick the bottom of the body to a stiff piece of cardboard or ply. This will largely prevent any twist from creeping in as you glue the sides and top together. Just use a few dots of glue, then once the body is complete and stiff you can easily cut it from the card or ply base. I printed out a second copy of the bottom and glued it over the glue marked bottom, as a cosmetic repair as well as a extra stiffener.
• I made some bulkheads out of scrap and glued them in place before attempting to glue the top in place. No pic, but I'm pretty sure I put one in behind the seat as well as the two up front. I also cut out a piece to match the top of the rear, and glued it over the rear bulkheads. This held everything in place while I glued the complex top panels down. MORE...

Voison Laboratoire - Extra Pix

30 May 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article voisonExtras:

Voison Laboratoire - Extra Pix MORE...

Voison Laboratoire Racing Car

30 May 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article voison:

Paper Model of a 1923 Voison Laboratoire Racing Car The Voison Laboratoire was an experimental French racing car from 1923, made by the Voison aircraft company. MORE...

Money Bags HOAX Email

29 May 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article moneyBags:

We got this email (below) this week assuring us that July 2011 is the special event of a month with 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays. So the tale goes, this only happens once in 823 years. "The proverb goes that if you send this to eight good friends money will Appear in next four days as it is explained in Chinese FENG SHUI." MORE...

Revolutionary Man

28 April 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article revolutionaryMan:

No, not Che Guevara, not Karl Marx, not Lenin, not Mao Tse-Tung, but Jesus. He is the author and hero of a revolution more widespread, more beneficial to mankind, more glorious and more costly (to Himself) than any political revolution in all this world's sad and turbulent history. Mark's Gospel in the Bible's New Testament is the shortest account of Jesus' life, and possibly the earliest. Mark doesn't give us as much as the other Gospel's, but he does get to the heart of things. The first verse says The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.(NIV) MORE...

A Garden Make-over

19 April 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article frontGarden:

Our house is below road level, being on the low side of the gully we live in (with a creek at the back). The slope down to the front of the house was originally a mess of cement over chicken wire made to look like rock, and filled with venomous looking succulents (with a real bite, as I found out when I attacked them 28 years ago with a steel cutter on the end of a petrol powered trimmer - the sap that sprayed me burnt my skin and sent me howling to the shower, and left a red rash). I cut up the cement with a grinder and finally got the bank cleared, and planted some ground covers (juniper, prostrate grevillea and prostrate cotoneaster). These did well for many years, but buffalo grass finally invaded and various saplings self-seeded and sprang up, obscuring the magnificent eucalypt on the corner of the block. You can see the mess in the following picture: MORE...

An Elephant and an Owl from Yamaha

26 Mar 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article elephant-owl:

Here are two animal models in folded and glued paper (actually thin card, 200 grams per square metre, about twice as thick as normal photocopy paper). These and many more are available as free downloads from Yamaha's web-site. Yamaha bikes and scooters too, and the quality is excellent. MORE...

Zero-Energy Rainy Weather Clothes Drier

26 Mar 2011 CLICK HERE for the full article carPortDrier:

Years ago I created this drier for my wife, as a wet weather alternative to the clothes-line and the electric tumble drier. It works very well, even in wet weather, as long as the air is not too close to saturation, and has reduced our need for the tumble drier greatly. All it is is a light frame slung beneath the carport roof. A cheap boat trailer winch, cord and pulleys allow it to be hoisted up out of the wind-blown rain, and lowered to add or remove the clothes. MORE...

Martin Luther, Grace and OCD

6 Nov 2010 CLICK HERE for the full article lutherGraceOCD:

Sub-title - How Martin Luther's mental illness drove him to rediscover the heart of the Gospel and rescue Christianity from its deadly sleep. I want to tell you today about 3 things, which link their arms together to present something of the greatest importance to all of us; the third thing in particular is vital for some of us, and useful to all. MORE...

Australian Story - a painting by my mother

4 Nov 2010 CLICK HERE for the full article mumsCottage:

This is a painting my mother, Georgina, did some years back, as a gift for my uncle in England. She kept a photograph (the old chemical variety, not digital) which I later scanned and printed for her. This is a low resolution version. If I ever find the scan, I'll update with one of higher resolution. The family dubbed it "Australian Story" since it is a scene from early settler life. MORE...

Illustrations for The Voyage of the Paper Canoe, by Nathaniel Bishop

2 October 2010 CLICK HERE for the full article paperCanoePix:

Illustrations for The Voyage of the Paper Canoe, by Nathaniel Bishop It is hard to get a reprint of this classic boating and adventure book (from the 19th century) that includes the original illustrations and maps. MORE...

Making an A5 size booklet for a series of images

2 October 2010 CLICK HERE for the full article a5booklet:

I needed to make a small booklet containing some illustrations as an addendum to a reprint of an old book (sadly, it did not include the original 19th century author's illustrations). After a lot of messing about, here is what I did. It may be useful to someone else. There is almost certainly a better way (Scribus, Lyx, Latex, .... ???) - if you know and it is not too hard, let me know, please! This method uses Linux. Sorry, can't help you for Windows. MORE...

Illustrations for Four Months in a Sneakbox by Nathaniel Bishop

1 October 2010 CLICK HERE for the full article sneakPix:

Illustrations for Four Months in a Sneakbox by Nathaniel Bishop It is hard to get a reprint of this classic boating and adventure book (from the 19th century) that includes the original illustrations and maps. MORE...

3 Things Wives Wish Their Husbands Understood

5 June 2010 CLICK HERE for the full article 3things:

I gave this presentation to a men's group at my church. The general thought has that I was very brave! I think they enjoyed it. I hope it helped.

MORE...

My Box-Trike building page

2 May 2010 CLICK HERE for the full article boxTrike:

Well, yes. Retirement and all sorts of family demands (including delightful twin grandkids) have taken their toll. However, the workshop revamp is almost finished and things are moving again. The next step is to join the front and back halves of the frame, ie, marrying up the square-tube boom with the cut-off rear part of an junk mountain bike that was given to me. As I don't weld, and haven't the gear, and the bike frame is aluminium, it will be held together with steel plates and bolts. MORE...

A Paper Sushi Lunch

2 April 2010 CLICK HERE for the full article sushiBox:

I'd heard of the lacquered sushi food boxes ("bento" box ???) so when I saw this paper model I was instantly intrigued by it. A love of models, miniatures, bright colours and orderly shapes (but not yet of Sushi food!) made it a "must-make-one" for me. I printed it out on to 200gm/m2 card, and took it with me while on holiday. These paper models are fascinating and fairly quick builds, and just the thing for an interesting relaxation and diversion. I've also got someone in mind who might like it. MORE...

Great and Glue-less Paper Car Models from Japan

1 April 2010 CLICK HERE for the full article art66carModels:

I made this one while on holiday at Nelson Bay, March 2010. These simple paper models are a useful pastime for holidays - very little to pack, and not much to bring home either. MORE...

A Tribute to Anne Frank

28 March 2010 CLICK HERE for the full article anneFrank:

I remember, about 20 years ago, watching on old movie based on Anne Frank's diary. It made a strong impression on me, with its pathos of 8 Jewish people in hiding for 2 years in Nazi-occupied Holland and their eventual betrayal to the Gestapo. The pathos is all the greater because the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe was well underway when they were betrayed, and their hope of liberation was high. While on holiday this last couple of weeks we found a secondhand copy of "The Diary of Anne Frank" in an op-shop, and I have just read it with delight. A sombre sort of delight admittedly because of the setting, and the knowledge that this remarkable 13 year old girl would die at 15 in Belsen. The only one of the 8 to survive those 2 years in their "Secret Annexe" was Anne's father, Otto. MORE...

Cargo Trikes - 2nd Thoughts on Useful Tricycles.

25 Feb 2010 CLICK HERE for the full article cargoTrikes:

I've been keen to build a sleek recumbent trike for years now, but have not made any progress. Too much else on, and some doubts as to how much I would really use one if I was successful. My guess is that the longer wheelbase of the "trailer" part is the key, removing all the twitchiness of a short wheelbase. I started dreaming about building something similar, and starting googling for more ideas on "cargo trikes". MORE...

James 2:1-13 A Case of Bad Judgement - Breaking the Law of Liberty

21 Feb 2010 CLICK HERE for the full article james2-ACaseOfBadJudgment:

"Democracy is the worst possible form of government, except for all the rest" - Winston Churchill Ditto our legal system - no doubt many problems, but who would want to be in the dock under a dictatorship? MORE...

Have you Seen my Pets?

8 Feb 2010 CLICK HERE for the full article haveYouSeenMyPets:

This poem was written by my friend Nesta, sometime in 2009. It's here with her permission, but note that it is still covered by her copyright.

MORE...

Peccadillo

7 Feb 2010 CLICK HERE for the full article peccadillo:

peccadillo - the result of a minor error by a south Texas chicken farmer who was experimenting with cross-breeding. Somehow a stray armadillo got into the equation, and the result, though flight-less (which helps with keeping them in) also turned out to be egg-less, and the meat tends to taste of formic acid. When laughed at by his neighbours the farmer replied "its only a peccadillo!" and the name has stuck. The peccadillo is not to be confused with the armadicken. While also flightless, it does lay eggs, though they have a surprisingly tough shell. MORE...

Revelation Chapters 21 & 22 - Paradise Restored, A City for All Nations

27 Nov 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article revelation21-22-ParadiseRestored-aCityForAllNations:

When I started out on this series on The Revelation and was mapping out the territory, I named this last part "The Garden". Now that I have got closer I see that a better name is "The City". This symbol (for that is what it is) is used 14 times in these last two chapters - it is the dominant symbol there.

• We have met our Guide, Jesus Christ Himself (ch.1) MORE...

Revelation Chapter 20 - The LAST Last Battle.

11 October 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article revelation20-theLastLastBattle:

I have not yet converted my notes on this chapter to a web-page, but you can click the link below for my presentation slides in HTML (ie, web) format.

MORE...

S---'s PuppyLinux Powered Little Old Laptop

2 Oct 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article SpuppyLaptop:

I used Puppy Linux to turn an old Compaq Armada laptop into a useable word-processor for a student. After many attempts with various lightweight Linuxes Puppy is the thing - version 2.17, not the latest which was just too slow (though whether that was inherent in version 4 or just because I used Xorg I'm not sure. For this install I used Xvesa and ext2 for the file system). This is the instructional doc I did for her. MORE...

Croaking

27 Sept 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article croak:

croak - verb: euphemism for dying, and by association, being in-effective or useless. Because of the notorious inability of frogs to make up their minds, it has become associated in later years with the noise they make while debating things endlessly in their minds. "Today! I am going to be indecisive!" MORE...

Revelation Chapter 19 - The King, the Queen, the Wedding and the Gatecrashers

i30 August 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article revelation19-KingQueenWeddingGatecrashers:

Revelation 19 - The King, the Queen, the Wedding and the Gatecrashers Ch 6 - 20 "a brief history of the world" in several cycles. They do not exactly overlap, but tell the same tale, like a collage, a mural. MORE...

The Origin of Evil

27 August 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article originOfEvil:

"Many have puzzled themselves about the origin of evil; I observe there is evil, and that there is a way to MORE...

Of Course We Communicate

27 August 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article ofCourseWeCommunicate:

"Melinda and Melinda" (Woody Allen, 2004, USA) Another wonderful Woodyesque line is when Hobie accuses Susan of never communicating. She replies, "Of course we do; now can we not talk about it." MORE...

No Other Name

27 August 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article noOtherNameRossetti:

None other Lamb, none other name,

None other hope in heaven or earth or sea,
MORE...

Finding Meaning

27 August 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article meaning:

Siora Photography "Modern man is deeply plagued by the question, 'Where do love and communication come from?' Many artists who pour themselves out in their paintings, who paint bleak messages on canvas, many singers, many poets and dramatists are expressing the blackness of the fact that while everything hangs upon love and communication , they don't know where these come from and they don't know what they mean. MORE...

Profit and Loss

27 August 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article mark8-36:

"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?" The Bible, Mark's Gospel, chapter 8, verse 36 MORE...

C.S. Lewis Quotes

27 August 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article cslewis:

As these quotations are all brief and not in any way substantial portions of Lewis's works (still largely under copyright) I believe them all to be within the boundaries of "fair dealing". If I am wrong please let me know.

The notion that everyone would like Christianity to be true, and therefore that all atheists are brave men who have accepted the defeat of all their deepest desires, is simply impudent nonsense. - "Encounter with Light"

MORE...

Asking Basic Questions

27 August 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article basicQuestions:

Here is a passage from "L'Abri" by Edith Schaeffer, illustrating how her husband Frances answered a questioner. "So you believe all those myths really took place? You just start with the Bible, and go on from there" someone would ask. MORE...

Bad Memories

27 August 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article badMemories:

"When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not; but my faculties are decaying now and soon I shall be so I cannot MORE...

Flamingo

25 July 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article flamingo:

flamingo - noun: a corruption of the early colonial Australian "flamengo", which was a dance. The dance consists mainly of whirling movements with much foot-stamping, while the dancer holds two large pink birds trained to clack their beaks in time to the music. Musical accompaniment is traditionally provided by a lyre-bird on strings and a quartet of bell-birds. MORE...

CATastrophe

25 July 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article catastrophe:

catastrophe - noun: archaic English punctuation symbol ( ^^ ), inevitably replaced by the common apostrophe symbol in modern usage. However, unlike the apostrophe, which is used to indicate either an abbreviation (such as "don't" for "do not") or ownership (as in "a dog's breakfast"), the catastrophe always indicates ownership. MORE...

Help on Navigating this Web Site

18 July 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article help:

This site is made using very basic HTML pages, so there are no cute buttons to click on. Instead you will just see coloured text links. Here is a shot of the opening page The words starting from "Home..." on the left are the links for the main menu. So, for example, just click on "Gadgets" to go to a summary page on gadget articles. MORE...

Lightning Lettering

15 July 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article lightningLettering:

Lightning Lettering (also called Ladder Lettering) is a really easy but seemingly magical way of drawing or painting words. All ages from little kids to grandpas and grandmas love watching words appear as if from nowhere. I have been using this method in my kids' Bible stories for many years now. I usually put in a background colour, and then draw the bordering "Ladder". You don't need to be too fussy about alignment - it doesn't matter if a bit of colour is outside the border. Tip: count the letters and SPACES if any in your word or phrase, and then divide the ladder up. For example, if it is 8, divide the ladder into 2 halves, then the halves into quarters, then the quarters into eighths. If 9, divide into 3, then each third into three. Tip: you can make "M"s and "W"s a bit wider, and any "I"s a bit narrower. MORE...

Preaching with Passion - 2 MP3s by Mike Raiter

23 June 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article preachingWithPassion:

Mike Raiter from the Bible College of Victoria came up to speak at a seminar on preaching with passion, and also some clues on the practicalities of preaching so that your listeners are neither bored nor starved. I missed hearing him, due to a family crisis, but a friend did the recording for me (usually my task - Olympus WS-100 digital micro recorder). MORE...

My simple copyright statement

11 June 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article copyright:

Broadly speaking you are allowed to make what use you like of any content on my web-site that I have created, with the following few restrictions:-

1. if you publish anything, please cite my web-site MORE...

A 3 Pyramid Puzzle

4 June 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article pyramidPuzzle:

I came across this puzzle in Arthur C Clarke's novel "The Ghost of the Grand Banks". In one of the several sub-stories the young daughter of some very bright parents gets into trouble at school. Then came the second puzzle - if you join 1 tetrahedron and 1 square based pyramid (whose triangular faces are also equilateral triangles) how many faces are left? All the kids answered 7! (4 + 5 -2), except for the girl in question, who said 5. She refused to retract her answer, and was accused of stubbornness and just being plain difficult. A letter was sent home. MORE...

Benjamin Franklin's Folding Paper Ink Tray

11 May 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article franklinsBox:

I've forgotten where I heard of this one, but my idea is Ben Franklin invented this as a disposable ink tray in his printing business. As a printer he probably had his fair share of scrap paper to use up. I can't find anything on Google, but if anyone knows whether Franklin did invent it, or who else did, please let me know. Its not essential, but a square gives good final proportions MORE...

The And-Goat

2 May 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article andGoat:

For Lucy, who understands such things >8-) Logic gates are the building blocks of microprocessors, of the personal computers we take for granted now. MORE...

Dirkon Paper Pinhole Camera - and it works!

29 April 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article dirkonPinholeCamera:

What do you give to a colleague who is leaving work after many years, is a camera enthusiast, and I enjoy making quirky paper models? Obviously a paper model camera! Not only is this one a good imitation of a quality SLR camera, it actually works. It is in the category of pinhole cameras. MORE...

The Kitchen to end all Kitchens - Construction Photos

4 Apr 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article kitchenConstruction:

Here the old kitchen has been gutted and one and a bit walls removed Builder's assistant (and soon to be father-in-law) eyeing off the tough task of scraping off the old vinyl floor tiles - cemented down with some black adhesive 44 years ago MORE...

The Kitchen to end all Kitchens

4 Apr 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article kitchen:

At least the last we will probably ever have built - after all I am 60 in a few weeks, and the last kitchen lasted nearly 30 years. Our old kitchen was put in when our son was 8 months old and he has now passed his 30th birthday, so it did well. When we bought the house it had a kitchen just 2.7 metres square (9 ft square) with 2 doorways which robbed it of about a third of its space. MORE...

A Circle Cutter is so very useful for paper modelling

4 Apr 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article circleCutter:

Trying to make wheels for paper models is quite difficult. It needs a very good set of scissors, a steady hand and a good eye to cut out accurate circles. After a number of attempts with only poor results I went hunting for a circle cutter and found this one on eBay The scales are in millimetres of radius and diameter, but I find I mostly just adjust till I get the right size disc. It cuts 200 gram / sq. metre card-stock with ease. Very precise and clean edges. There is no problem with distortion of the tool - the end of the circle always meets the beginning of the cut. The blades have been long-lasting too (it comes with 6, and replacements are available). MORE...

Classic Willys Jeep - Paper Model

31 Mar 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article paperJeep:

The parts are very precisely printed, but the wording is all in Spanish. I thought I could work out everything but hit a few snags - in hindsight I should have used an on-line translator or dictionary to at least get the part names in English. Still, it turned out pretty well. Front view MORE...

Coleman K1 Inflatable Kayak

30 Mar 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article colemanK1:

With our annual 2 weeks at delightful Nelson bay coming up and no boat small enough to take I decided to get a small inflatable. What I ended up with is a Coleman 1-person kayak. Anyone that knows kayaks and the Coleman will realise that it is a a kayak in name only, and really an inflatable mattress with style, but it seems well made and is fun to use, as long as you don't expect too much. For a cheap 1-person kayak the choices here in Australia were the Coleman, the Sevylor Bali and No-Name stuff off E-Bay. I wanted a known brand for at least some peace of mind and a sit-on-top for easy re-boarding - the Bali is narrower and higher & I doubt you could re-board it while afloat. (The sleek Sevylor SVX100 kayak would probably be a lot better, but at about $1000 much more than I wanted to spend for now.) MORE...

Getting Wifi to work on a Thinkpad T42 under Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04

1 Feb 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article thinkpadT42WifiUbuntu:

Installing Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 on my Thinkpad T42 "puffer" was a breeze, with one exception: the wireless network adaptor wouldn't work (and yes, the boot time was very slow too). After much searching I found the following suggestion on a forum:- MORE...

Targus AMP06 Wireless Presenter Mouse

1 Feb 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article targusPresenter:

If you do many computer-based presentations this little gizmo is a real boon.

• "Fn" function button. 1 press is "F5" which will push either OpenOffice Presenter or Microsoft Powerpoint into slide-show mode. 2 presses = "Esc" and will therefore exit slide-show mode. MORE...

God IS Number One (Put God First) - Daniel Chapter 5

26 Jan 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article daniel05-GodIsNumber1:

• Daniel did and was blessed... -
• Israel did not and became slaves MORE...

Death in the City - Revelation 17 & 18

10 Jan 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article revelation17-18-DeathInTheCity:

We know what this is! We have come a long way since 1930. What is holding it up, while they build the 2 halves out over the harbour? MORE...

Life is a Candle - a poem in memory of my Dad

2 Jan 2009 CLICK HERE for the full article lifeIsACandle:

A young neighbour of Dad's at Kiama, Heather Clempson, wrote this poem in his memory, and I have placed it here with her kind permission.

MORE...

Using a cheap Radio-Control toy as the base for a serious model

26 Dec 2008 CLICK HERE for the full article radioControlToy:

I picked up a cheap radio-control car toy with the idea of using it for a "real" model, say a scale fishing boat or tug. As I recall it cost about $12. As you can see it is about 200mm long. The radio gives full speed forward, stop, and reverse, and much the same for the steering motor. The latter is just geared to a rack that is the tie-rod for the front wheels, with spring centring. Put the lever left and the motor turns the wheels full left and then stalls. There is no proportional control, ie, a little left on the lever giving a little bit of left steering. MORE...

Experimental Delta Recumbent Trike

24 December 2008 CLICK HERE for the full article deltaTrike:

Recumbent = lying down (or at least sitting and leaning back). This results in increased comfort and reduced air drag and pedalling effort. Delta = a tricycle with 1 wheel at the front and two at the back. MORE...

Revelation Chapters 15 & 16 - The Last Battle

18 Oct 2008 CLICK HERE for the full article revelation15-16-theLastBattle:

In the last great war my father served with Montgomery's 8th Army in North Africa. He was in the Royal Army Service Corps, which meant he and his men delivered battle tanks to the front line against Rommel's Afrika Corps Panzers. They also went in to the battle zone at night to retrieve damaged tanks. So much of any army's success depends on keeping its supply lines open, and that where Dad served. Now, when an army's supply line gets too long, they can get into real trouble, as Napoleon and Hitler discovered in their Russian offensives. MORE...

The Glory, Dignity and Dislocation of Man (with some signposts to Man's Healing)

6 Sep 2008 CLICK HERE for the full article gloryDignityDislocationOfMan:

Genesis Chapter 1:1-5, 26-31, Chapter 2:4-9, 15-25, Chapter 3:1-8

• "Lets' start at the beginning" - we are fascinated with the future - we should be just as much fascinated with the past, because it is the only place we can find meaning. MORE...

Revelation Chapter 14, "The Lamb with His Fair Army"

26 July 2008 CLICK HERE for the full article revelation14-theLambWithHisFairArmy:

The middle section of Revelation is what I call "The Short History of the World - 0 B.C. to the END". This covers chapters 6 to 20. The nature of the book is history in images and symbols, so the best way to understand it is to ask "what do these symbols mean?". My own study of the book convinces me that we have a series of image sets that make up a single "collage". Each set, more or less, covers this same period, starting with Jesus appearing and ending with His return. The 3rd image set is in chapters 12 to 14. It begins unmistakably with the birth of Jesus and introduces the arch-enemy Satan (the old dragon) and his henchmen who persecute Jesus' people. MORE...

Revelation 13 - Satan's Henchmen

23 July 2008 CLICK HERE for the full article revelation13-SatansHenchmen:

Episode 2 of the 3rd Brief History of the World (from Jesus' 1st to 2nd Coming)

• in chapter 12 we saw the woman (Old Testament church on her way to becoming the New Testament church) the Dragon (Satan) and the Man-Child (Jesus the Messiah/Saviour). It ends with Satan cast out of heaven and out-maneuvered on earth. MORE...

Duckchaser - brilliant reworking of an old folding kayak design.

14 July 2008 CLICK HERE for the full article duckchaser:

Don from Melbourne sent me this email:- 'you might like to take a look at the design I've been playing with lately. Google duckchaser to find the plans & instructions. MORE...

The Tardus Society

26 May 2008 CLICK HERE for the full article sandwich:

(following taken from an interview published in the "Pipeline", the staff magazine of the company I work for) In 1969 Kurnell's Stephen - sat down to read Perelandra, the second book in C.S. Lewis's famous science fiction trilogy. MORE...

Where Do Love and Communication Come From?

27 April 2008 CLICK HERE for the full article loveAndCommunication:

Francis Schaeffer, one of the great thinkers of the 20th century, wrote:-

Modern man is deeply plagued by the question, "Where do love and communication come from?"

MORE...

Revelation Chapter 12 - "The Woman, the Dragon and the Man-Child"

5 Jan 2008 CLICK HERE for the full article revelation12-WomanDragonManchild:

• Everyone knows that St George conquered the fierce, damsel-eating dragon and rescued the beautiful Princess Sabra. It makes a great story, and a good illustration of how Jesus, King of Kings, overthrows the great Dragon and rescues His Bride, the Church. However, the story isn't quite accurate, for this chapter of the book of The Revelation tells us it is Michael, not George, who battles the dragon, and Michael's Lord who rescues His Princess.
• we saw how this is a book of real cosmic world history in symbols MORE...

Revelation Chapters 8 to 11, "The Trumpet of The Lord" (the 2nd Short History of the World)

24 Nov 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article revelation08-11-TrumpetOfTheLord:

• Perhaps the most mysterious book of the entire Bible, yet for a purpose, ch.1 v1 "The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place."
  • The Guide, chapter 1 MORE...

Do Christians get Depressed? You Better Believe It!

10 Oct 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article christianDepression:

to the number of people in the Bible who suffered it too. Here are some:-

• Moses "kill me at once, if I find favour in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness." Numbers 11:15 MORE...

A Magic Book about the Black Dog (His name was depression)

10 Oct 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article blackDog:

The company I work for is running some seminars as part of Mental Health Awareness Week. One of the speakers was Matthew Johnstone, Kiwi, artist, advertising creator, survivor of the 9-11 attack on the World Trade Centre, and a sufferer from depression. Matt spoke about his long struggles, and how he eventually composed his book "I Had a Black Dog". Matt is a great communicator and cartoonist, and his book has few, but well-chosen words, and great cartoons. It tracks the course of his own depression and recovery (not cure). He spends a lot of his time now touring around speaking to any who will come to hear, including struggling farmers in the drought ravaged parts of Australia. MORE...

Mum's Memoirs - a Brother and a Sister

7 Oct 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article mm-family:

May be now is the time for me to introduce one of my older brothers and my one sister still living with the parents at home in a village seething with gossip and as old fashioned as last year's hat of course. My sister was 8 years older than I but we shared a bedroom and I came to love here dearly. She was very good looking with beautiful hair but the most awful name in the world; Mabel Gertrude, what a howler, so I renamed that to Mab (remember Queen Mab of the fairies?). She had titian coloured hair so Mab was accepted and she was so happy to wear her new name like a little crown on her head. She was a much loved and happier young lady from then on. MORE...

Cheap, Durable and Simple Painting of Galvanized Steel

28 Sep 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article paintGalvanized:

Years ago in my job as a mechanical engineer in a large oil refinery I read a book put out by the galvanizing industry association here in Australia. I can't remember the title, but I do remember the section on how to make paint stick to it permanently. More precisely, what sort of paints will do the trick. If you are not after a super hard or shiny finish, there is a paint that is commonly available, cheap and durable, and comes in an almost infinite range of colours. What is this magic paint you ask? Plain old water-based external house-paint! In Australia we call it "acrylic" paint, though it isn't always a true water-borne acrylic resin. In the USA I believe it is known generically as "latex", though again this is a misnomer, as it has nothing to do with natural rubber resin (ie, real latex). MORE...

Linux dial-up with a SecurID one-shot password device - Xubuntu and WVDIAL

4 September 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article securIDdialup:

Many companies, including my employer, use one-shot password devices for remote access. You dial-up the RAS number, enter your username and password, then a PPP session is established. The difficult bit is that your password is never the same. The SecurID device is a small keytag that shows a 6 digit number that changes every minute. In my case, a fixed personal PIN plus the number from the SecurID are added together to make the password. Getting that to work from a Linux client is a bit tricky, but here is how I got it working using WVDIAL like KPPP or the Network tool in GNOME. The answer is that they expect a fixed password for each connection, and don't provide a terminal mode access so you can enter the one-shot password. (or if they do, I couldn't work out how 8-<). MORE...

The Autocanoe - an amphibious recumbent trike

13 Aug 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article autocanoe:

This is one of the most wonderful machines I have seen! If I lived near to the water I think I would have to build one, for the pleasure of just going for a ride and taking to the water whenever the mood took me. I asked the designer, John Montgomery, for the picture above, and here is his video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WotfE6ZOAo - It shows the Autocanoe doing figure-of-eight turns at speed and in about its own length, and in the water. MORE...

Sketchboard Sermons, by Jim Duffecy

29 July 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article ss1:

When I was a young man I had the privilege of watching a great story-teller at work. Jim Duffecy sketched and spoke at the same time, and wove both mediums together into an unforgettable whole. His passion was the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and his story-telling always aimed at that. I think I learned more from him than any other, and when I wanted to do some basic training for would-be Bible story-tellers in 2004, the publishers of Jim's little book "Sketchboard Sermons" kindly gave me permission to copy it for any who wanted it. Thank you, https://oacusa.org/ MORE...

A Passive Solar Addition to my Home

17 July 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article passiveSolar:

Fortunately our house was built with a good north-facing aspect for good winter solar energy gain (I'm in the southern hemisphere; south-facing for you northerners). There is a storm-water easement running diagonally across the block, which restricted the orientation of the house, otherwise I suspect the original owners would have had it turned 90 degrees to face the street. As our kids grew we found the small house (about 10 squares, or 100 square metres) getting smaller, and in 1988 I started on designing an addition. I had done a lot of reading about passive solar design, and had done a fair bit of airconditioning design work in my job, so was very familiar with thermal flow concepts. I determined that the addition to the house would be a passive solar design, to get the maximum benefit from the winter sun and still moderate the fierce heat of summer. Where I live in Australia we can hit 40 degrees Celsius in summer, and high thirties are common. In winter it can get down near freezing. MORE...

The good ship Tardus

26 Jun 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article tardus:

I guess like many I have toyed with the idea of building a boat for years, and finally decided to do something. I first came across Phil Bolger's name in the book "Cruising on a Small Income". The author, Ann Hill, and her husband built a Tortoise as a tender for their 34 foot junk-rigged Badger dory. Lots of Internet hours later I knew a bit about Bolger's fascinating designs and got familiar with Dynamite Payson's web-site. MORE...

Bozeat Fete - my mother's memoirs (1918-2007)

11 June 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article mm-bozeatFete:

A Real event! Everyone in the village and around would spend the day. With a brass band leading and two men carrying a banner we all proudly followed to our recreation building where we gathered around for a morning tea, usually Devonshire, with lashings of cream and jam and good appetites. MORE...

Wollaston Fair - my mother's memories

9 June 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article mm-wollastonFair:

(England in the 1920s) Every September was a week of fun. Roundabouts and swings, hoopla, coconut shies, everything to make people happy and to entice a few pence for the various games. Such a crowd of people! It was exciting just to be there. Everyone used to walk the 2 or 3 miles from the other villages around, there being no traffic to worry about. So there we all were looking for some fun. We just chased around all the stalls. The man in charge of the carousel made sure we had a lovely long ride; it gave him lots of pleasure to hear all the little voices saying "Thank You!" and he replied "See you all next year, and God bless." MORE...

Olden Days - my mother's memoirs (1918-2007)

9 June 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article mm-oldenDays:

In the "Good Old Days" no one thought anything of walking everywhere they needed to go, there being no cars, buses or trains. To walk was the only form of travel. It's hard to imagine now-a-days, as things have changed so much with the roads full of people-movers, with trains, buses, trams, cars, etc, but in those early days we just had our own two legs, known as "Shank's pony" and were content. Happily we used this slow lane and managed very well, with time to stop and stare. "What is this world so full of care if we don't have time to stop and stare?" True, isn't it? This mode of transport never bothered us at all and we were quite happy to take our time and live a quiet life with our families and friends. We learnt everything we needed to know, passed all our exams and generally came through with no great effort. The quietness was good for us. We, as children, had plenty of time for play as daylight was extended naturally. We played until we were tired and then were quite happy to go to bed and read our books before sleep. MORE...

Long Ago Days - my mother's memoirs (1918-2007)

9 JUNE 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article mm-longAgo:

Introducing the 3 Littl'Uns MORE...

The Littl'uns go Fishing - my mother's memoirs (1918-2007)

9 June 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article mm-fishing:

(circa 1925) The "3 littl'uns" go fishing to Jack Robinson's brook, a gentle little stream. It is a lovely day and they hope to catch some little minnows. They have a penny fishing net and a jam jar with string for a handle, Bread and cheese for lunch and water to drink. Soon they caught some minnows, really pretty little things, and placed them in the jam pot with tiny pebbles and lots of greenery. Now for their own bread and cheese and a drink and a rest, then back home. They enjoyed their day and will go again soon before the school holidays end (we enjoyed longer hours of daylight in the summer, so we had lots of play time after tea). MORE...

My Earliest Memories - my mother's memoirs (1918-2007)

9 June 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article mm-earlyMemories:

Written in 2002 My earliest memory was my first day at school; in those days we started when we were 4 years old. I was quite happy to go, thinking of all the kids I'd have to play with. My older brother Jim took me along - he was all of 5. New kids were taken to a room where lots of equipment was kept, the most imposing being the Maypole, which only came out once a year, on the first of May. There were hoops for bowling, skipping ropes with real handles, whips and tops to spin and a rather worn out rocking horse. It went through my 4 year of age mind that I had at last found Paradise. MORE...

Hippy Days

27 May 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article hippyDays:

"Tune in, turn on, drop out ......." said Dr. Timothy Leary back in the psychedelic days of the 1960s, and many of us did just that.

For three years I was part of the fledgling hippy sub-culture in Sydney. I and my friends even organized "happenings" - now there's an oxymoron if ever there was, but we didn't notice at the time. I also "joined" (sort of) the local Anarchist's Society. Yet another oxymoron as my brother happily reminds me (of course he's right, but it escaped me then). MORE...

Boffin - is that some sort of hobbit?

27 May 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article boffin:

According to Wikipedia the word's origin is unknown. It appeared during World War II, where it was applied with some affection to the people who invented radar, early digital computers, the atomic bomb, and other technologies that gave the Allies an advantage over the Axis during the war. And yes, the Boffins were also one of the families of hobbits in the Lord of the rings, mentioned in book 1, p50, at Bilbo's birthday party. MORE...

Landlubbers! 2006

26 May 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article landlubbers:

Kids' Adventure Time 2006 I really enjoyed spending a a week at a country church in the Hunter Valley as the Bible story-teller/teacher at a holiday "Adventure Time" MORE...

This World of Dew - Is It?

3 May 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article worldOfDew:

My friend C. died this week, suddenly, of a heart attack. He was 52 and super-fit (gym, running and surfing as often as he could). I still have a sense of shock and disbelief, and can only guess how his family are feeling and suffering (only God can know it all). The day I heard of it, these lines came into my mind MORE...

Living in God's Time

22 Apr 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article livingInGodsTime:

Psalm 90 Our lives are obsessed and harassed by the clock, by time MORE...

The Problem of Pain

15 Apr 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article pain:

"No God But God", Part 2 of "The Story of God" by Lord Robert Winston (a venerated world expert in human fertility research, and an orthodox Jew).

He goes in search of the answer to the centuries old question: "If God created humanity, why does God allow humanity to suffer?"

MORE...

Bugatti Type 35

12 Apr 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article bugatti35:

The Type 35 was, according to Wikipedia, the most successful racing car of all time, winning over 1000 races. They were designed by Ettore Bugatti of France in the 1920s. Notable features were a small straight eight engine with roller bearings for the crankshaft allowing 6000 rpm, very high for the time, alloy wheels with integral drum brakes, a hollow tubular steel front axle (to reduce the unsprung weight - most cars then had heavy forged "I" beam front axles) and one of the most beautiful two-seater bodies ever designed. The racing rules of the day required a second seat for the riding mechanic. Bugatti happily sold the cars to anyone that wanted (and could afford one). The instructions are in German, so I had to make do with just the pictures and a bit of ingenuity. MORE...

US Civil War Mortar Boat

24 Feb 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article mortarBoat:

Mortars are short distance high trajectory cannon designed for shooting over the walls of fortifications. In the US Civil War armoured barges like the model below were used to get the mortars within range. If you get the taste for paper ship building, this is a good site to visit. There are a few free downloads, and the quality is very good. The scale makes them quite small; the mortar barge is only 74mm long! I ended up rolling the trunnions for the mortar barrel around a piece of paper-clip wire, by feel, as I could not really see them all that well. I have since bought a head-band mounted magnifier, which is a great help. MORE...

Old Mumbles

18 Feb 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article oldMumbles:

Old Mumbles is a lighthouse near the Mumbles Rocks in Swansea Bay, South Wales. It was built in 1794 and lit by two coal-burning fires, to warn ships of the danger. If you get the taste for paper ship building, this is a good site to visit. There are a few free downloads, and the quality is very good. The scale makes them quite small (Old Mumbles is only 6cm high; the model that is ;-0), so you need good eyesight, or a good magnifier. I've ordered the latter. MORE...

Raphael's School of Athens

15 Feb 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article schoolOfAthens:

Raphael's "School of Athens" is one of my favourite paintings. In it the artist depicts the many philosophers and their thoughts. In the middle are Plato and his student Aristotle, each pointing in a different direction. Plato, who was more concerned about the realm of the spirit and the "universals", points up to heaven. Aristotle was more concerned with the specifics, the realm of the body and nature, and points down to the Earth. MORE...

Hidden Art

15 Feb 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article hiddenArt:

I read a book called "Hidden Art" by Edith Schaeffer, and it altered my approach to art and beauty. I have always had a love for both, but the pragmatic engineer side of me would often opt for "rough enough is good enough". This book showed me that everyday objects and needs can and should be treated as art and beauty. A meal can be prepared with the eye in mind as well as the stomach! A bookcase can be beautiful, even is less than 100% efficient, like my "boatcase" I built a few years back. MORE...

What I do for a living

12 Feb 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article whatIdo:

I eventually finished a degree in Mechanical Engineering, doing it part-time, with some day lectures and a lot of evening work. During that time I worked for an elevator company designing relay control systems. That was an interesting job, and I learned a lot about control of electro-mechanical machinery and about relay logic circuits. White Elevators was an old company, and in some ways a bit of a lovable dinosaur, as they made just about everything themselves in their factory at Beaconsfield. Even the relays were made in-house. After that I worked for a mining equipment company, in charge of local design changes for the Australian market. That was a great job, especially for a young engineer, but as the mining boom grew it became overwhelming (really 3 jobs at once) and I had a wife and baby to care for. That led me to a quieter job with a large oil refining company. MORE...

Schrodinger's Cat

12 Feb 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article schrodingersCat:

This is based on a famous thought experiment in quantum mechanics. If you want to know what it means, there is a good write up on Wikipedia. If you don't understand it, don't worry - I didn't either 8-(. I read about Einstein's theory of general relativity when I was younger, and did not understand that either. Lately I've made several attempts on Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" with the same result. This model is not a free download, but it was well worth the small cost. It is Schrodinger's famous cat hiding in a rubbish bin (being very unwilling to partake of an experiment with about a 50% chance of a dead-cat result!). The accuracy of the parts is excellent and it went together very well. The gears and cam are beautifully done. You can get it from MORE...

Early Years

12 Feb 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article earlyYears:

I'm a baby-boomer, born shortly after WW2. Dad was in the British Army till the end of the war, and Mum was a bus conductress with London Transport, right through the Blitz. The family (I'm the youngest) emigrated to Australia when I was 5 years old. We kids took it in our stride, as a great adventure, but it was an enormous upheaval for my parents. MORE...

Life, the Universe and Everything

11 Feb 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article lifeUniverseEverything:

...and the answer is not in fact 42, even when you know what the Question is. Years ago I read "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe", the sequel to Douglas Adams' famous book "The Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy" (THGG). Well finally I have read that book too! How did I find it? MORE...

Yes Indeedy!

11 Feb 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article indeedy:

This is a download of a mechanical model "Yes Indeedy". This one is quite simple to build. The design expects you to print double-sided on an ink-jet (unless of course you have a colour laser at home!). However, the solid blocks of colour on the reverse sides use a lot of ink, so you might like to just leave them white, or colour the reverse sides of the cut-out pieces some other way.. MORE...

Citroen 2CV

11 Feb 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article 2CV:

This is a fascinating and quirky car, France's answer to the VW just after the war, designed to carry the French farmer and his family and 100Kg of goods across the dreadful French country roads. It also could cross a ploughed field without breaking eggs in a basket on the front seat. The first ones produced had only 9 brake horsepower from their little 2 cylinder motor, and a top speed of about 40 MPH, unless going down hill. However, they did get about 60 MPG, which was no doubt well received in post-war France. Later models had bigger engines and about 30 BHP. MORE...

Uniden GPS 501 Road Hazard Alerter

17 Jan 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article gps501:

Do you have trouble with School Speed Zones? - Here's an answer

MORE...

The 10 Laws of IT

5 Jan 2007 CLICK HERE for the full article 10Laws:

After nearly 20 years working with computers I have finally distilled out the 10 essential Laws of IT. If you work with computers, keep these handy. You will find then useful on a daily basis. They will keep you sane. You will never be stumped for an answer when something goes wrong; a quick scan of the 10 Laws and you can say "Aha, that's Law No. 6!", etc. Never trust a computer! MORE...

Daniel Chapter 12 - The Real Time Lord

13 July 2003 CLICK HERE for the full article daniel12-theRealTimeLord:

• Daniel, the Jewish teenager enslaved by the Babylonians, is now in his old age, having served in the gov'ts of several kings, and now Prime Minister in the Persian court.
• Ch. 1-6 record some key events of his life, and teach us much MORE...

God Delights in Mercy - Daniel Chapter 4

11 Nov 2001 CLICK HERE for the full article daniel04-GodDelightsInMercy:

God Delights in Mercy (Micah 7:18)

• This week we've seen upheaval in the Australian government, with Kevin versus Julia (and we ought to pray for those elected to lead, 1 Tim 2:1,2) - what a privilege to be able change our leaders. Not so in Babylon - no choice, and no Prime Minister or President ever had power like King Nebuchadnezzar. Dan. 5:19, He killed or spared, promoted or ruined, as he wished. We call such men "absolute" monarch/king - not so! God must teach a lesson (and all are slow to learn). GOD RULES MORE...

Home.. Search... Blog.. Art.. Bikes.. Bio.. BitsNpieces.. Boats.. Cars.. Cogitations.. Computers.. Gadgets.. Green.. Health.. Life.. Love.. Models.. Money.. MyGod.. OurHouse.. PaperModels.. Poetry.. Quotes.. Science.. Story.. WakkyPedia.. Wildlife.. ImageGallery.. Help..

Updated - Wed 22 Nov 2023 12:48:27 AEDT

Search tardus.net

Search...