Human Ingenuity

Boing Boing: Skytyping

Sky Writing… The Skytyping process utilizes five airplanes that fly abreast, 250-feet apart and "type" up to 30 character messages in a dot-matrix-like pattern. When Skytyping, the airplanes create messages in the sky that are 5 miles long, as tall as the Empire State Building and can be seen for 15 miles in any direction or nearly 400 square miles.

God Bless America!

Did you ever stop to think what this ridiculous species of ours might achieve if it expended one tenth of the ingenuity it expends on advertising on—oh, I don't know—seeking a cure for cancer, ending famine, fighting climate change, or bringing about world peace?

We've got what it takes, you know.

It begins (again)…

BBC: English 'booze culture' targeted

Ministers want to change the "English drinking culture" and the willingness to accept drunkenness and anti-social behaviour as a "normal" part of life.

… As well as binge-drinkers, it will also target older people who drink at home.

It starts like this, and the next thing you know, they'll be banning alcohol in pubs.

Wish you'd cut the smokers a bit more slack now, huh?

See also:
(Disclaimer: I am not a smoker. I am a drinker.)

Told you!

BBC: Is gingerism as bad as racism?

A red-haired family claims to have been driven from their Newcastle home because of abuse. Why is the harassment of redheads dismissed as just harmless fun?

… Mary Magdalene, Adam, Judas and even Jesus [were] depicted as redheads.

Jesus? A ginner? Where have I heard that before?

(Be honest, now: you thought I made up all this shit, didn't you?)

Road trip

100,000Murphy hit the big 100,000 this morning. He (for Murphy is indeed a he) has been a fantastic car: never an ounce of trouble, apart from a stuck air inlet valve (once) and a cracked windscreen (twice). Excellent mileage too, thanks to the aluminium body.

Pity they're not making his like any more.

Really must get round to cleaning him some time.

Perfect pair

Tell me, Mr Brown, what are you most looking for in your new deputy?
Gordon Brown

John Prescott it is, then.

Respect where it's due

BBC: Politeness 'missing from society'

Britain needs to do more to promote good manners, Tony Blair's "respect czar" Louise Casey has said.

The government advisor said politeness was now missing "right across society" and schools, companies and the media all had a role to play…

Ms Casey said a rise in single-parent families and less church-going and neighbourliness were all possible factors in falling levels of politeness.

Louise Casey is spouting a load of old shit. She wants to keep her fat trap shut and go and get a proper job.

Sorry, must have forgotten to go to church this morning.

Snail Mail

Ann thanked me for my text message on Saturday. I didn't know what she was talking about, as I hadn't sent her a text message. It turned out I had: last November. It had taken 6 months to travel all the way from Liverpool to Berkshire.

That's an average speed of 0.045 mph.

A garden snail travels at 0.03 mph.