Author: Giles

Mr Logic

I thought this page was very funny:
http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~rak/papers/Chap1.html
And it reminded me of Viz’s Mr Logic:
Here’s a quote from Mr Logic:
“Armed Robber: No nonsense. Just give me all your money.
Mr Logic: I shall commence by pointing out to you that my demeanour is
not one which could be described as nonsensical. Consequently I can
attest you have no cause to reprimand me on your first point. On to
your second point: Bearing in mind the potentially lethal situation in
which I find myself, to wit: your presence in conjuction with the
presumably loaded firearm which is presently levelled at my cranium, I
will comply with your request comprehensively, albeit reluctantly.
Here, twenty-seven pence.
Armed Robber: Twenty-seven pence? F*** off. There’s more than that
in the till.
Mr Logic: Indeed, undoubtedly so. However your request was for *my*
money. The currency in the till belongs to a third party and is
therefore not “my money”. However, if you are still desirous of said
money I would suggest that you re-phrase your original statement to
recognise and incorporate this important distinction.”

The pace of modern life

Why do people keep going on about “the pace of modern life” and saying things like “nowadays people have less and less time for xyz”?
In the past century we’ve invented computers, production lines, white goods, cars, trains, planes etc.. etc… – all justified as time savers. In theory we should have stacks MORE time. And yet people talk as though they have less and less time. Either there is something seriously wrong in our obsession with “labour saving devices”, or the stuff about the pace of modern life is made up.
My own view is that when people say they are “saving” time or labour saving, they don’t think about “saving for what?” While my washing machine is washing my clothes for me, what am I going to do instead? Something supposedly more exciting and important fills the gap, so that I do more and more things rather than having more time to do the same set of tasks. Also, the tendency is for those things to be more exciting and stimulating, otherwise I wouldn’t employ the labour saving device. Expectations and gratification thresholds can increase infinitely, so this can lead to a vicious circle which gives the impression of having less and less time rather than more and more. Perhaps it’s fair to say then that people have more time but less patience. I think one can get out of this circle by putting value on down-time and doing nothing, as in the philosophy put forward by the idler.

The biggest oil spill in history – 10 lines

I found this very small article in the “60 Seconds” section of the New Scientist. Seems like there is some kind of a media coverup going on as it doesn’t seem to have been reported elsewhere. Or maybe nobody cares about Alaska:
Oil clean-up on ice
Extreme cold has hampered efforts to clean up the oil spill on Alaska’s northern coast – the largest ever recorded. By Tuesday, 230,000 litres of crude oil had been recovered after the ruptured pipeline was discovered two weeks ago at a site operated by BP Exploration (Alaska). Around 950,000 litres of oil were spilt.
If anyone has any more information about this, please leave me a comment…

News about non-events

Amazing what can make news these days – 2 news stories about something which didn’t happen (see below). Maybe I should phone the BBC and tell them that Prince William didn’t get married in my town yesterday:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4822196.stm
Italians leave Pitt Jolie no-show
Journalists and locals gathered on Saturday with some taking to the air Officials in the Italian town where Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were reportedly to wed on Saturday were disappointed the couple failed to show.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4815944.stm
A spokesman for the town hall said there was no official indication of a ceremony.
I only read these because they were about a place near me.
I’m always appalled by the number of people reading celebrity magazines. On any given trip I make, about 1/2 the passengers seem to spend their time trawling through stories about stars in Hello and worse. What is so interesting about these people? They are beautiful, confident, they can act (some) and they go to lots of parties, and they appear in Hello magazine. But most of the stories that I’ve seen seem to involve them doing totally banale things like going to the shops, having babies, divorcing, etc…

Too many channels of communication

I’ve been feeling a bit beseiged and fragmented by excessive simultaneous communications recently. It makes me feel a bit wired – just as I’ve started one thought, I get interrupted by another channel of communication. So I’ve decided to do something about it:
My first step was enumerating all channels through which I communicate. In no particular order:

  1. Blog
  2. RSS
  3. SMS
  4. Cellphone
  5. EMail JRC
  6. Email Google
  7. IRC
  8. MSN
  9. Land line work
  10. Land line home
  11. Face to face
  12. Shouting through my office wall
  13. Web
  14. Snail Mail
  15. Internal Mail
  16. Newspaper
  17. TV
  18. Google mail notifier
  19. Office nuclear emergency system.
  20. Calendar reminders.
  21. Mp3/podcast

Continue reading “Too many channels of communication”