Things I'd like: a bed that mimics travelling on a boat / sleeper train or large military propeller-engined aircraft

Imagine a static ghost train or rollercoaster which doesn't do anything other than gently rock you up and down and side to side in the manner of travelling on a boat, train or aircraft. I realise it would be a rather niche ride and you'd have to book it for a few hours to have much chance of actually falling asleep. Given how niche it is it would probably just be cheaper to book the overnight sleeper train or ferry (£35 from Orkney to Aberdeen with NorthLink ferries, or any flight!

When my mum was ill with cancer she was given a hydraulic bed which shoogled her around periodically to prevent bedsores, so something like that but for much less wretched purposes. 

When I need to concentrate I sometimes listen to a portion of the "10 hours of B-52 bomber aircraft engines" type of thing, or any low-frequency engine hum from propeller aircrafts. The first time I encountered one of these videos I was genuinely amazed that other people also enjoyed that sort of relaxing 'white noise' sound (OK I think it's quite a bit more complex than white noise but I'm not sure what colour it is!). 

People who've previously worked in jobs that involved them flying or being flown on C-130 Hercules and aircraft like that regularly add comments about how sleeping on that sort of plane was the best sleep they ever had, despite the fact that the engines are Incredibly Loud even with earplugs, and how they find these videos very relaxing and sleep-inducing, and generally have warm-feelings about prop engine sounds. 

I absolutely love being in a quiet room at night and hearing a propeller engine ambling overhead in the distance (luckily I am on lots of flight paths). 

Enjoy some propeller engines - 

AIRPLANE PROPELLER SOUND EFFECT FOR SLEEPING | AC-130 SOUND

 

"For us old Herk crews, this is better than sleeping pills. What a sound, what memories, so blessed." 

"Former  paratrooper . Nothing puts your lights out like the drone of a C-130." 

AIRPLANE PROPELLER SOUND EFFECT BLACK SCREEN | BROWN NOISE FOR SLEEPING       

 

"I was a C-130E prop mechanic (Hamilton Standard 54H60)  in the Air Force from1971-1974. When I was stationed in Tahkli Thailand our open bay barracks was pretty close to the flightline. We had no windows, just screens so we could hear C-130's and F-111's 24 hours a day. When I returned to the states I could not sleep without that relaxing sound. This recording is just what I needed then." 

 

 

 

 

Audio-only - 11 Angine de Poitrine concerts and other performances

I've not listened to all of these (most of them I've only recently discovered) but fans of the excellent band Angine de Poitrine have been recording their concerts and uploading them to the Internet Archive, in addition to the video footage with which YouTube and other platforms are awash. So much lovely content :)

• KEXP - November 2025 - watched the video but the audio has a bit of clapping at the end, can download mp3 from  https://omny.fm/shows/kexp-live-performances-podcast/angine-de-poitrine-live-on-kexp
• Angine De Poitrine Live At Electric Ballroom 11.05.2026 https://archive.org/details/angine-de-poitrine-live-at-elecric-ballroom-11.05.2026-v-1.0-b-original-from-jack-master 
• L'Ubu 18th May 2026 https://archive.org/details/AngineDePoitrine2026-05-18 - I have listened to this one  
• Angine de Poitrine - 2026-05-19 - Theatre Paul Scarron, Le Mans, France [AUD] https://archive.org/details/adp2026-05-19.h4npro 
• 26 May 2026 - Brussels, Magasin 4 https://archive.org/details/adp2026-05-26.dpa4061/ - I have listened to this one   
• Angine de Poitrine 2026-07-31 Newport Jazz Festival https://archive.org/details/AngineDePoitrine2026-07-31/  - I have listened to this one
• Angine de Poitrine - 2026-06-27 - Place des Festivals, Montreal, QC [AUD] https://archive.org/details/adp2026-06-27.9a 
• Angine de Poitrine - 2026-07-14 - RBC Amphitheatre, Toronto, ON [AUD, BurnBoy CSHEB source] https://archive.org/details/adp2026-07-14.csheb and https://archive.org/details/live-toronto-on-july-14-2026-rbc-amplitheatre 
• Angine de Poitrine - 2026-07-31 - Fort Adams State Park, Newport, RI [AUD, larryrulz CA-11 source] https://archive.org/details/adp2026-07-31.ca11/ 
• Angine de Poitrine - 2026-08-18 - Teragram Ballroom, Los Angeles, CA [AUD] https://archive.org/details/adp2026-08-18.spcmc4u 
• Angine de Poitrine - 2026-08-19 - The Independent, San Francisco, CA [AUD] https://archive.org/details/adp2026-08-19.mk4 

 

 

Repositories of job descriptions - I can't help wondering if I inadvertently invented this in 2009 ;)

A repository of job descriptions can serve different purposes for different audiences. They can help organisations benchmark their own jobs and salaries to keep things harmonious and, if visible to the public, also help future jobseekers see the range of jobs available and the skills and experience required.

I created my first unstructured version in 2009 but recently discovered others have made a bit more of an effort to organise their similar databases (mine aren't technically databases, just WordPress blogs!).

These are the repositories of job descriptions that I know of, what else can I add here? Those marked with a red book 📕 are internal-focused, ones with orange diamonds 🔶 are aimed internally for benchmarking but open to anyone to view and ones with green plants 🌿 are for a public audience.

🔶 LOTI's Job Description Library
The London Office of Technology and Innovation is "London local government's collaborative innovation team. We help London borough councils and the GLA use innovation, data and technology."
JD library | Job descriptions with salary - at the time of writing there are 2,057 jobs and job descriptions archived there (e.g. there are 25 examples of the 'Solutions Architect' role in different boroughs with the salary increasing over the years).

🔶 National Children & Young People's Diabetes Network
Their Example Job Descriptions repository lists the range of jobs needed to run a paediatric diabetes service. It includes the banding information but not specific salaries. 

🔶 NHS Employers
National Job Profiles - this is aimed at NHS HR folk and is quite detailed on the difference between job profiles, job labels (I've never heard of this) and job descriptions. There's a whole NHS Job Evaluation Scheme - it's a massive organisation to be fair - so that the jobs can be "matched to nationally evaluated profiles, based on information from job descriptions, person specifications and additional information." The content is informative about the different types of roles but it's fairly generic and not a job description. From a potential job-seeker point of view it's a bit incomplete (but that's not its purpose of course).

🔶 Society of Research Software Engineering (RSE)
The society has an Evidence Bank of job descriptions organised by level of seniority. I couldn't get one of the files to open ('bad PDF') but managed to download a couple of other things. It's on GitHub which I (personally) find a bit of a confusing interface.

📕 University of Bristol
https://www.bristol.ac.uk/hr/grading/job-descriptions.html "We’ve created a job description repository to share the variety of roles at the University. This helps staff understand the skills needed to develop their career."

🌿 Jobs in Computer Science and related tech jobs. A repository of job ads and job descriptions, stored here (so that they can still be viewed after the vacancy has closed.
https://techdevjobs.wordpress.com/ - by me
I began this site shortly after coming across the Shadbolt Review which found that university students were largely unaware of the roles available in either computer science or any of the many allied digital roles. It is a non-systematic database of job packs as I come across them whereas the ones like LOTI above have some structure. I have had a go with structuring here.

🌿 ScicommJobs
https://scicommjobs.wordpress.com/
I began this one on Posterous in October 2009 (much missed, closed down) and transferred it to WordPress. It's full of job packs relating to science communication and public engagement with science. 

Bonus material
A Reddit post, from October 2024, by someone looking for tools to help create one of these repositories: Looking for a way to store and manage job description (inventory / repository), and a website which sells software for same, AI-powered to help you 'build a job description repository in minutes'.

Imaginary Angine de Poitrine Festival - music / tech / arts nerdiness

I'd really enjoy an Angine de Poitrine-based Music HackSpace-adjacent event which is aimed at a general public audience that touches on a variety of things such as 

• different musical styles
• time signatures
• psychology of music (tension-release etc)
• the electronic engineering involved in creating effects pedals and things that let you create and replay loops.

Something like the creative tech festivals such as Maker Faire / EMF / Wuthering Bytes etc) with talks on all the above plus stalls where you can try things out, playing with ring modulators, looper demos and also stuff like circuit-bending. Polka dot face-painting for the kiddies, hotdogs for lunch and merch tables selling t-shirts but also water bottles with long straws attached ('la paille!!').

Musicologist Prof Milton Mermikides is giving a series of free in-person and YouTube live-streamed talks for a general public audience about music, through Gresham College (London). These are really interesting and entertaining. Scroll to the bottom of this page to see future events as well as past videos to watch (e.g. "The Maths of Music (and the Music of Maths)" with Milton and Prof Sarah Hart).

Also 'How Music Works' and 'The Story of Music' by Howard Goodall are excellent UK television series and available to watch on YouTube.

More Imaginary festivals

• The Imaginary Maritime Science Festival - what would you have in your perfect science festival? (3 April 2017) ⚓️
• The Imaginary Paddington 2 Science Festival (30 March 2021) 🐻

More 'you've been hacked / Carnival Cruise' spam - posted in hope of reassuring anyone googling

I think the age of people worrying when they get an email like this may have passed as it seems pretty much everyone knows it's baloney. But I suppose they wouldn't keep trying if it didn't occasionally work (and perhaps the people it works on aren't going to be googling and finding this anyway so ultimately this may be pointless of course...).

Carnival Cruises is the parent company for a lot of cruise operators and had their database hacke, so if you've ever been on a cruise your data has likely been stolen resulting in rather a lot of spam emails. I've not noticed any other problem though, just spam.

The email below is exactly as it was sent (they may have managed to spoof someone's real email address so I have left that out).

Edit: I've reported the bitcoin wallet to ChainAbuse https://chainabuse.com/report/9cb50f02-bbe0-4a0a-b0ad-da961eba0532

You've been HACKED
<XXXXX@rinku.zaq.ne.jp> 

Hello,

We wrote you an email some time ago, but you seem to have ignored it, so we resent it to you.
We are the ShinyHunters hacking group.
A few months ago, we gained access to your devices and started monitoring your online activities.

What happened:
We gained access to the Carnivalcorp.com database where you have an account and easily accessed your email.
You weren't very careful about the links you opened.
A week later, we installed an exploit on your devices, including your phone, giving us access to your microphone,
camera, keyboard, and all your data.
We have your documents, photos, browsing history, conversations, and contact list.

Among other things, we discovered that you visit adult websites and watch explicit videos.
We managed to record you and created videos of you pleasuring yourself.
With a few clicks, we can share these videos with your friends,
colleagues, and family or even make them public.

Proposal:
Send us $2000 in Litecoin (search online how to buy) to the following wallet:   ltc1qua85znuqqqgfwrc5cwudp0wyk32078xzwt2xk0

We'll delete everything immediately.
You have 48 hours from the moment you open this email.
Once the payment is received, we'll remove the malware from your devices.
We'll also remove all your personal information from darkweb for you to be safe from now on.

What you should NOT do:
Do not reply (email was sent from a hacked account).
Do not contact the police or anyone else—we'll release the videos along with other stuff all over the internet.
Do not try to reset your devices—everything is stored on remote servers.

What you don’t need to worry about:
We will see your payment immediately—the wallet is generated specifically for you.
We will not share your videos or other things after payment—there is no reason to continue causing problems.

You're not the only one in this situation.
Be smart and cooperate; otherwise, you're going to regret it.