Ideal Topos?

Advantages: Influential, interesting from a range of perspectives
Disadvantages: Not an easy read, what is it?

...I think most people are familiar with the term utopia, and its use to describe "any real or imaginary state or place believed to be ideal, perfect, excellent" (Chambers dictionary). Probably far fewer are familiar with Sir Thomas More's tract of 1516, which first coined the term - which is a shame, because the society described therein is by no means obviously 'utopian' in the modern sense - our usage has come a long way from the original sense. The very etymology of the word 'utopia' is fraught with ambiguity. It's derived from the Greek 'topos' [place], but the prefix 'u' could be a contraction of either 'eu-' [good] or 'ou-' [no] - thus a utopia is either 'good place' or 'no place' (maybe both). The contemporary usage seems to focus on the former, but it's not obvious that More's Utopia was wholly ideal. Further a number of other...

a-true-ben 16.04.2005 · Read review
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Review of Utopia - Thomas More

Goblin up the Dirt?

Advantages: Small, light-weight, easy to store.
Disadvantages: Not amazing suction capability, especially on hair!

...Who is this Green Goblin? Well, despite the depiction of the gorgeous green Goblin in the picture, mine is actually a peculiar purple! Well, a peculiar but powerful 1,400 W 'vari-power' purple Goblin! The Topo Goblin is a cheap and compact vacuum cleaner retailing at under £30, with foot operated cord rewind and power setting buttons. It comes with various attachments, one narrow nozzle head for getting in-between sofa cushions and skirting-boards, one brush for dusting and upholstery and one long attachment with a wide head for vacuuming floors. It take small bags which can be bought at most stores (I buy ones for other brands which look roughly the same and just force them in!). There is also a filter compartment and twin clasp (although I haven't figured out what this does yet; looks like it's used for tidying the vacuum...

Bojack 05.12.2009 · Read review
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Review of Goblin Topo Compact Vacuum Cleaner

Ultimate Cult Movie

Advantages: One of a kind. Weird and Surrealist. Undergound
Disadvantages: Graphic sexual violence. Animal cruelty. Confusing plot.

...El Topo is a psychedelic, surrealist, muti-leveled, psuedo western. It was filmed in the late sixties by Chilean maverick Alejendro Jodorowsky who is notorious for never getting films made. If you are a fan of weird and wonderful cult cinema then hold your breath because this film is for you! Fistful of dollars this is not! I first heard about El Topo in the eighties, John Lennon and Dennis Hopper claimed it was their favorite film. It earned this reputation through a series of midnight screenings in America and fitted right in with LSD stylings of the time. It then disappeared for years. At one time it was claimed that more people had read the script (which is one of the strangest scripts you will ever read!) than had actually seen the film. In the nineties it had a brief release on video in the UK with it's companion piece...

fraz1511 16.03.2007 · Read review
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Review of El Topo (DVD)

Very Useful

Advantages: Loads of features
Disadvantages: Graphics on GPS are not improved

...My mum recently bought the Great Britain Topo for her partner's birthday. He had been looking for excuses to spend £150 for months, so we finally gave in and got him one. It was not quite what he expected, as the map of Britain is split into smallish sections. You select these sections on your computer and download them to your GPS. You can only have a limited number of sections on your GPS, depending on the memory of your model. The Topo includes contour lines, roads and tracks, places of interest like pubs, and other accurate geographical features like lakes and rivers. From what I know, the Topo is fairly accurate. I know that it has come in useful when walking. One of the main features is the ability to plan routes on the computer and download them to your GPS. The compatable models of GPS are as follows (they're all Garmin...

matty0501 20.08.2007 · Read review
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Review of MapSource TOPO Great Britain Maps

Dust bag smaller that a gnat's er..knapsack

Advantages: Small, light, quite powerful
Disadvantages: very small dustbag

...Now, first things first - I'm not sure if the vacuum cleaner that I've just bought is in fact the TOPO compact, as mine just says Goblin Compact, but when I suggested the product for Ciao's listings I got an email back saying it was already there. I looked again and behold! - the TOPO compact is there so I figured it must be the same. If not, I apologise for any misleading information the following opinion may contain. Just before Christmas my trusty Hitachi "PowerHouse" vacuum finally coughed it's last. Actually, the name was just a tad misleading, more of a Wendy House than a Power House, but it did the job and probably had a few more years in it until it met it's match in the form of one of the neighbourhood kids. I had been hoovering, sorry, vacuuming the car out in preparation for the collection of Christmas Relatives, when I...

bespinleia 22.01.2003 (26.01.2003) · Read review
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Review of Goblin Topo Compact Vacuum Cleaner

product reflects price - doesn't say much for it!

Advantages: compact size, cheap
Disadvantages: isn't as powerful as I first thought it should be

...I bought the goblin topo only a couple of months ago. Great compact cleaner and only cost £29.99 but I suppose you do get what you pay for..........I will start of with the advantages, rather than be negative because I always reflect on the cost of this item.For a start it has a retractable wire so it stores away nicely instead of having a lead showing (and knowing what i'm normally like, I end up with knots in the lead and don't put it back on the storage brackets properly, normally cleaning at such a fast pace and by the time I'm finished I can't be bothered tidying it away) sturdy plastic hoover with a nice long attachment hose, and a couple of attachments such as a small nozzled piece with brushes you can either position and use or use it on it's own, and then the larger attachment for going over bigger areas. Lots of settings...

Scottishlassie 09.03.2005 · Read review
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Review of Goblin Topo Compact Vacuum Cleaner

Magellan Explorist 500 Europe

Advantages: Size, speed, colours, waterproof, SD slot
Disadvantages: Reliance on poor Magellan Maps, no third party support

...doesn't use any of the colours? Now this is when I bought the additional Magellan Mapsend Topo GB map for an extra £125. This promised:- "Map detail at 1:50,000 resolution include elevations, woodlands, parks, nature reserves, lakes, rivers, roads, motorways, landmarks, historic locations and more. Additional map features such as waterways paths and tracks appear at 1:10,000 resolution for fun and easy navigation in the outdoors" The bad news is the roads and tracks aren't accurate they're not where they say they are and they're shown as a dotted black line regardless of them being a public footpath, a bridle way, a road used a public pathway (RUPP) or even a road!. The woodlands are rectangular blocks of green and in no way representative of their true geographical position. Off road it's as useful as the basemap. £125...

niglom 16.08.2005 · Read review
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Review of Magellan Explorist 500 Europe

Garmin eTrex Legend HCx

Advantages: Tough, compact, waterproof, accurate, cheaper than bike specific gps
Disadvantages: Expensive maps, Poor bike handlebar mount, slow data transfer

...This is a tough, well designed and compact handheld gps device. Personally I use this for mountain biking, with the GB Topographic map, and find that it accomplishes what I need it to do very well and is extremely accurate. It has a microSD slot which is great, I have a 2gb card and you can easily fit the whole of the GB topo map onto it. Ok so the road routing may not be great but I did not even consider using it in the car when I ordered it. However it does a perfectly acceptable job of navigating for me, although It does lack features of a dedicated sat nav. It is waterproof so ideal for outdoor use, this is especially handy on the bike. It doesn't float but I don't intend on riding through anything that deep!! It is bluechart compatible so thats another use for it if you purchase the marine maps, which I have and the detail is great...

ben1777 20.05.2009 · Read review
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Review of Garmin eTrex Legend HCx

Milan is a great city

Advantages: easy to visit
Disadvantages: busy and chaotic during weekdays

...Milan is well known around the world as a business city but if you walk around you can find a lot of interesting places for sightseeing. First of all the well know place: DUOMO is the main curch in Milan located in a large square. Is a gothic style construction with a lot of pinnacle on its roof. On the topo of the highest pinnacle stand a gold plated statue of Maria, the Jesus Christi mother, that the ??milanesi?? call ??Madonnina?? and has been elected protector of the city. Inside the curch you can see a lot of old paints as well as the treasure consisting in gold tumblers and crosses. This curch was built in 200 years using granite blocks coming from caves located near the Maggiore lake. The blocks arrived in Milan by special boats using the water channels (called Navigli) designed by Leonardo da Vinci. GALLERIA Just...

traveller55 21.04.2003 · Read review
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Review of Milan in general

More Empire Building On The Iron Road

Advantages: Campaigns, Added realism, More Territory, Extra Features.
Disadvantages: If you have the first this is really just an addon.

...The Second Century is essentially an add-on pack with a fancy name, but it's full of interesting ideas and should stimulate even jaded empire builders. It offers a comprehensive range of new scenarios as well as plenty of railroad building campaigns for the seriously committed. The original game concentrated in the historical development of railways, and the scenarios in Second Century brings us bang upto date - and beyond. There's a contemporary Anglo-French scenario complete with ready-built Channel Tunnel, although only operators with deep pockets will be able to afford to use it. If this seems too grimly realistic, there are some fantasy scenarios involving imaginary countries with silly names and even sillier topo-graphical features. In addition, areas of the globe that the first game managed to miss - including Australia...

scully 19.04.2001 · Read review
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Review of Railroad Tycoon II (PC)