john_amend_all

Sorry I haven't had much to say about my fandom_stocking presents. I've had a horrible cold since Sunday and haven't felt up to doing things that require much thought. ( Contents )

This page on Ian Visits, and the 9-minute video it contains, are a fascinating time capsule of 1960s futurism and 1960s attitudes. Where interoffice memos get shuffled around on physical conveyor belts, and the office telephone system is advanced because you don't have to plug wires into the switchboard to establish a connection. Obviously my father's office was about 20 years behind the times, because its switchboard made the same transition in my lifetime.

(The swimming pool looks worryingly green, to my way of thinking. It looks less 'healthily chlorinated' and more 'will dissolve you on contact').

I think the biggest contrast with, for example, the promotional videos Crossrail are putting out today, is the sight of workmen going about their business without hard hats, gloves, steel toecapped boots or high-visibility clothing. Particularly in the sequences where there are cranes swinging huge steel girders around at head height.