Nick Gibbins

@nick.gark.net

433 Followers 402 Following

Computer science lecturer, film and SF geek, gaming nerd (particularly the #TravellerRPG), manned spaceflight aficionado (but nothing Musky). cis, he/him. Born at 327.5 ppm.

The Grade I-listed Bargate in Southampton, viewed from the north (non-town) side. Built c. 1180.
A photo of two Steve Jackson from White Dwarf. Caption as follows: “Yes, Steve Jackson finally meets Steve Jackson. On the left, of Steve Jackson Games is Steve Jackson, Car Wars inventor, reading Citadel of Chaos; on the right is Steve Jackson of Games Workshop, Citadel of Chaos author, reading Car Wars. Confused? You will be. Games Workshop have been granted exclusive distribution of Steve Jackson Games in the UK. Goodies to be released later in the year include more Car Wars material possibly including a new role-playing system. Computer game versions of Car Wars, Illuminati, and Ogre are also to be released by Original Software Systems.”
Equipment bays of the F-8 used in NASA’s DFBW project. An AGC DSKY is visible in the centre of the large bay, while the remainder of the AGC is visible in the forward part of the dorsal bay.
The inside of a fridge. It is very full.
The view (or rather lack thereof) from a gondola that is surrounded by thick smoke.
Lions Gate Bridge on 26 Jun 2017, looking north to Grouse Mountain. The sky is blue.
Annotated photo of Jupiter and its moons taken on 15 Jan 2023.
A bar graph showing growth in student numbers covering the period 2005 to 2025; the most recent value is roughly five times that of the earliest value.
An excerpt from Red Dog Saloon’s 2023 menu. The “General Pinochet” contains “30-day dry aged chuck steak, marrow butter glaze, Reblochon cheese, applewood smoked bacon, crispy shallots and peppercorn sauce”. It is unclear from the menu whether the steak was tortured before cooking, or whether the burger is served by throwing it out of a helicopter.
Two browser buttons from the mid-90s. The top reads "Netscape Now!: with a corner banner reading "3.0", while the bottom reads "FREE Microsoft Internet Explorer".
A poster advertising jobs at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (whose acronym the poster coyly avoids expanding).
An aerial view of St Clement from Apple Maps, facing roughly northeast.
The church of St Clement, a Grade I listed church in South Stifford, near the north bank of the Thames in South Essex. It is an early C13th church of flint and ragstone construction, with C14th and C15th alterations (most notably the removal of the original circular nave). It is overshadowed by the chemical plant operated by Proctor and Gamble that looms over it in the background.
Part of the back cover of DGP’s World Builder’s Handbook from 1989, reading: “Digest Group Publications, 8979 Mandan Ct., Boise, ID 83709-5850 Traveller® is GDW's registered trademark for its far future science-fiction role-playing system. MegaTraveller and the Shattered Imperium are trademarks of GDW and are used with permission. Copyright©1989 by Digest Group Publications. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reporduced in any form or by any means without written permission from the publisher. Printed in the USA. Portions of this book are taken from Traveller and MegaTraveller materials published by Game Designers' Workshop, and are copyright© 1987, 1988, and 1989 by GDW, Inc. DGP-875-1195”
The weather forecast for this morning. It is hot and sunny with a 0% probability of precipitation.
A lime tree (some kind of Tilea - not sure of the species) in full bloom, against an almost cloudless blue sky.
The pink-with-yellow-polka-dots nightmare features of Mr Blobby, British agent of chaos. Do not be fooled by his insouciant pose or his natty bow tie - those eyes have seen horror and mayhem, and approved of both.
St Denys Road in Portswood, littered with broken glass, bricks, and other projectiles. Totally normal peaceful protest.
Small tortie cat in her cardboard box.
St Denys Road in Portswood on the evening of 2 Jun, strewn with broken glass, bricks, and other projectiles.
A small tortie cat sits proudly in her cardboard box.
A crude yet functional leather cover for a hatchet head.
NYT headline reading: “SpaceX Completes Mostly Successful Starship Rocket Flight”
Google Streetview photo from 2008 looking north to the (now demolished) Intrepid Fox pub from St Giles High Street. The glassed area at the front explains its previous name: the Conservatory. To the left of the photo, we can see the lower stories of Centre Point.
The logo of Partick Thistle, a Scottish football club currently in the second tier of clubs in the Scottish Professional Football League. This is an in-joke that approximately a dozen people will understand.
A triumphal arch that even Albert Speer would think was a bit much.
A delicious bowl of eels, lying in a glistening heap of quivering jelly.
The homepage of the University of Southampton. The top item on the page reads: “Al fluency for every student. From day one, you'll learn how to use Al tools effectively and responsibly, question their outputs, and shape the way Al is applied in the real world.”
Chapter 10: Suggestions for Further Reading “Guide me, O thou great Redeemer, Pilgrim through this barren land.” - Can Rhondda (Hymns A&M No. 196) The bibliography given in this chapter is by no means exhaustive, but represents a personal selection of texts that the author has read with profit and/or enjoyment.
The space station from 2001, A Space Odyssey, abandoned in a field to rot.
A screenshot of the opening screen of The Long Dark, containing the following statement: STATEMENT AGAINST THE USE OF GENERATIVE AI Hinterland is a humans-first company. We believe in the primacy of human creativity, and in the dignity of all human creators. We will never use generative Al for any of our games, nor include any code or content in our games that wasn't created purely by humans. We are opposed to the widespread exploitation and abuse of human creativity, exploitation that underpins the business models of all generative Al companies. We believe that this fight is an existential fight for the soul of humanity, and we see games standing at the forefront of this fight. There is no ethical application of generative Al, as all commercial models are built on the industrial-scale theft and exploitation of workers, as well as the destruction of our environment, to the sole benefit of the billionaire-class. We also do not consent to have any of our work added to any generative Al models, for training purposes or otherwise, and will use all legal means at our disposal to protect our creations and our intellectual property. We believe that our work, and the commitment to our players, demands this of us.
A headline in The Telegraph from 2024, declaring “National Trust criticised over 'secretly woke' vegan scones” with a subhead reading “Member claims baked goods are nothing like traditional ones but charity insists they have been 'made without butter for many years'”. The Telegraph is, lest we forget, a bullshit “newspaper” that exists in a state of constant outrage and mostly employs bigots and right-wing culture warriors (and is largely read by the same).
The homepage of a higher education institution. The headline reads "AI fluency for every student", with a blurb below reading "From day one, you’ll learn how to use AI tools effectively and responsibly, question their outputs, and shape the way AI is applied in the real world."
W.H. Darton, driver of 46202 Princess Anne at the time of the Harrow and Wealdstone crash. His left hand is bandaged and in a sling; he’d been buried in coal as his engine overturned, and tore his hand badly.
An illustration from p. 20 of Ruamnot showing a "Small Library (village or club library). In the middle of the room is a table and four chairs. To the right stands a man holding a hat and cane. Against the walls of the room are large cabinets with lots of drawers, all of the same size.
A table from Ostwald's Welt-Formate für Drucksachen from 1911, showing the sizes of Weltformats I to XVI.
The title page of Bührer's Raunot und Weltformat from 1912.
An index card used in the Mundaneum. A slip of paper cut from a a work has been glued to the card.
A photograph of Paul Otlet (left) and Henri La Fontaine (right).
A photograph of Karl Bührer.
The cover of Bührer and Saager's 1911 book Die Organisierung der geistigen Arbeit durch die Brücke ("The Organization of Intellectual Work through the Bridge")
A photograph of Wilhelm Ostwald, taken around 1900.
A plate containing (in anti-clockwise order from the left): Chorizo con papas Frijoles refritos Huevos revueltos Mexicanos (with a little salsa roja) Guacamole Salsa bandera Tortilla To the side, cafe de olla and a Paloma.
Three frames parodying the Christmas Carol meme taken from the 1951 film Scrooge starring Alastair Sim, except that Sim has been replaced by Kenneth Williams as Julius Caesar from Carry on Cleo. Frame 1: Williams-as-Caesar calls down from an open window "You there, boy! What day is it?" Frame 2: A Dickensian urchin calls up "Why, it's the Ides of March!" Frame 3: A disconcerted Caesar says "Then I haven't missed it!"
A copy of C.F. Tunnicliffe’s Sketchbook of Birds.
A box containing six small canisters of compressed gas, of the sort that one would use with a soda siphon to make sparkling water. The canisters are labelled as containing the radioactive gas radon.
Mad Gav, from Mark Harrison’s comic The Travellers, as seen in White Dwarf in the 1980s. Mad Gav is sporting a suit of battle dress and entirely too many guns, and is singing a song about killing aliens. https://www.2000ad.org/markus/travellers/image.php?page=21
A plate containing a Welsh breakfast (because it’s St David’s Day). At the top, streaky smoked bacon cooked until crispy. To the right, laverbread in its usual (tasty) formless glop state. At the bottom, steamed clams (for fresh cockles were not available). To the left, cakes made with laverbread and oatmeal. In the middle, a frilly fried egg.
Alan Arkin as Captain Invincible. He is wearing a silver suit and red cape, and has CI monogrammed on his chest.
A sample of Adobe Garamond. The numerals on the fifth line show the characteristics of minuscule numerals: based on x-height, with ascenders and descenders.
TWILIGHT 2000 Role-Playing Game GDW £24.95 Twilight 2000 is a role-playing game set in Europe during a spasmodic war, two years after an exchange of nuclear weapons. The player characters are American soldiers or their allies. The physical contents of the box are well designed and presented: two rule books, a sheet of charts for players, an 8-page set of charts for the referee, an 8-page scenario 'Escape from Kalisź' with two players handouts and a map of Poland, a 12-page equipment list with a separate price list, an assortment of character and vehicle record sheets, five dice (four 6-sided, one 20-sided), a list of contents, and an errata slip. The system is based on the use of a moderately complex equation of characteristics and skills to determine the base chance of doing something, then a percentile die […]
A skeet from Duncan Jones which begins: "This generation of British Labor politicians [...]"
Screen 1 at the Romford Odeon, taken from roughly the middle of the seating. The screen is both far away and below the horizontal. Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/oldcinemaphotos/albums/72157603203676800/
Screen 3 at the Romford Odeon. Narrow, long, low-ceilinged. The walls are painted in the shade known as "nicotine", and the seats appear to date back to the 1940s. Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/oldcinemaphotos/albums/72157603203676800/
The post-1974 lobby of the Romford Odeon, with its candy-striped terrazzo floor. To left and right, two staircase rise to the balcony, now labelled as Odeon 1. Straight ahead, lie the stalls, now partitioned into Odeon 2 (to the right) and Odeon 3 (to the left). Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/oldcinemaphotos/albums/72157603203676800/
The Kemp/Tasker-designed Odeon Romford, photgraphed in 1983. The cream tiles are badly stained, and it's dominated by the big black Odeon monolith. The billboard outside shows Octopussy in Screen 1, and Return of the Jedi in Screens 2 and 3. Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/oldcinemaphotos/albums/72157603203676800/
Distressed white text on a black background, reading "YOU WOULDN'T STEAL A PRESIDENT" in the style of the FACT/MPAA 2004 anti-copyright infringement campaign.
A Hiver Utility Vessel, from GDW’s Reformation Coalition Equipment Guide (p. 153) from 1994. Artist is Bradley McDevitt. A black and white illustration of a starship that looks like the mutant offspring of a steam iron and a doorstop.
A Hiver Explorer starship from GDW’s Alien Module 7: Hivers, p. 39, from 1986. Judging by the style, it was designed and drawn by Bryan Gibson. A black and white illustration of blobby ship, somewhat reminiscent of a SW Mon Calamari cruiser.
The Computer's First Christmas Card, by Edwin Morgan (1968) jollymerry hollyberry jollyberry merryholly happyjolly jollyjelly jellybelly bellymerry hollyheppy jollyMolly marryJerry merryHarry happyBarry heppyJarry bobbyheppy berryjorry jorryjolly moppyjelly Mollymerry Jerryjolly bellyboppy jorryhoppy hollymoppy Barrymerry Jarryhappy happyboppy boppyjolly jollymerry merrymerry merrymerry merryChris ammerryasa Chrismerry asMERRYCHR YSANTHEMUM