Ten's Drawing Room Meditations

In celebration of Halloween, this is one of my favourite horror stories :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_L1FJnMf4c

WILL THE REAL BOOMERS PLEASE STAND UP? There is a long-running point of contention I've had with the accepted wisdom of "Generation Cycle" theory. That being the "start" and "end" dates of generations. Generation Cycle theory is supposed to explain social and cultural phenomenae such as the Counter Culture, the goths, punks and so on. The issue I have is this: who are the Boomers? According to the theory they're me…

DEATH OF VILLAINS IN FICTION: LIBERALISM'S GUILTY PLEASURE? I have been rewatching some old (1950s-1960s) British films and television programmes. Something struck me. In the older works the villain usually survives the plot and is arrested by the authorities, with the obvious assumption being that he will be executed for his crime. However, after the abolition of capital punishment for murder in 1965, plots tend t…

The Birth of Television In the mid 1920s, radio was quickly becoming one of the most popular entertainment mediums. However competition was just on the horizon, in the form of television. An eccentric Scottish electrical engineer, John Logie Baird, was working on means of transmitting moving pictures along with audio. There were other engineers trying to develop television, so it was not an entirely novel concept, …

Broadcasting House, Westminster, shortly after construction in 1932.

Broadcasting House The expansion of broadcasting continued apace through the 1920s. Despite the enormous growth in listenership and proliferation of provincial stations since 1922 the BBC's central studio was still at the cramped Savoy Hill House. A better solution was needed to house planned expansion so that multiple programmes could be broadcast simultaneously from the same complex. In 1928 work began on Broadca…

How broadcasting began in Great Britain and the birth of the BBC The first regular radio broadcasts for public entertainment were made not from London as one might expect, but from the Marconi laboratories in Chelmsford, Essex in February 1922. The station, identified on air solely by its Post Office-assigned "call sign" 2MT (spoken as "Two Emma Toc"), was run by a rather eccentric Marconi engineer called P.P. Ecker…

Photo, posted without a caption

Come out ye Black and Tans? But which? I often see people referencing the song "Come Out Ye Black and Tans", but this is a puzzle to me. The song is not a folk song, its just some words written to fit the tune of another song, and it isn't even about the RIC Temporary Constables who were nicknamed "black and tans" after a traditional Irish drink because it was written in the 1960s. So what is it about? Well we have…

My preference is still for an industrial currency tied to a basket of primary products so that the prices of goods remain at a general standstill (excepting for occasional supply and demand issues causing price fluctuations), but this would help anchor the currency for a transition process. #CurrencyReform

At current rates of silver valuation this is how things would pan out. Keep in mind this isn't going to last long, we're at roughly 30% inflation now. GBP = Fiat Sterling STG = New Silver Sterling GBP £0.05 = STG 1/4d GBP £0.11 = STG 1/2d GBP £0.23 = STG 1d GBP £0.69 = STG 3d GBP £1.39 = STG 6d GBP £2.79 = STG 1/- GBP £5.59 = STG 2/- GBP £6.99 = STG 2/6 GBP £13.98 = STG 5/- GBP £27.96 = STG 10/- GBP £55.93 = STG £1…

With the current state of the currency value plunging down the toilet its definitely too unstable to directly convert from the current fiat Sterling to an industrial Sterling. I suppose a better idea would be to cut our losses and, if only temporarily, revert to the 1816 value standard of 1 troy lb of sterling silver = 66 shillings, or £3/6/-. #CurrencyReform