Rational Fear is a splendid website which allows you to search a database of causes of death by age, sex and nationality in order to ascertain what you should really be scared of in this world. It throws up some enlightening results. For example, were I to die tomorrow, it would most likely be because I had hanged myself. My wife is perhaps more likely to die from epilepsy, but given that she’s not a heroin addict her next most likely immediate exit route is the same. It is pleasant to know that neither of us is likely to be rubbed out by a random axe murderer.
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0 comments 2008-06-02 21:51 Categories: Miscellaneous
A group of teenage proto-gangstas get on the bus and stomp right to the back of the top deck, talking loudly and incomprehensibly about whatever it is that teenage proto-gangsters talk about. Like everyone else on the bus I completely fail to ignore them and end up attempting to decipher their little ingroup jargon. Occasionally a few words jump out at me and I can follow for a bit, as below:
Proto-gangsta A: Yo yo yo, fo’ shizzle, etc. Hey man look it’s Pongo!
Proto-gangsta B: Where?
Proto-gangsta A: Over there look, Pongo, innit!
Me: (Aside) Must be a nickname for some bounder these criminal types consort with. Wonder what the fellow looks like… Hm… Nope, can’t see anyone obviously nefarious, how odd.
Proto-gangsta A: Look man, Pongo and Perdita! Both of ‘em.
Proto-gangsta B: What you on about, G?
Me: (Aside) Yeah, what are you on about? Word.
Proto-gangsta A: Pongo and Perdita man, ain’t you seen that film, 101 Dalmations?
Proto-gangsta B: Oh yeah, nice one!
And there are indeed two dalmations out for a walk. I suddenly feel much less threatened by these particular youths than I did before overhearing this exchange.
2 comments 2007-11-26 20:29 Categories: Miscellaneous
This Ask Metafilter question about a mysteriously borrowed vehicle is highly intriguing, and I couldn’t resist taking a shot at answering it. My theory is the third one down. It doesn’t sound like there’s ever likely to be a solution as the police already pronounced themselves stumped, which is frustrating, but it’s a fascinating little story hook; I’m going to file it away for one of those novels I’m never going to get round to writing.
0 comments 2007-10-02 14:38 Categories: Miscellaneous
This is why I’ve been very quiet of late. This and numerous other DIY jobs I’ve finally been forced into completing, because we’re planning to sell our house. I am, frankly, sick of grouting, hammering, screwing, sawing, sanding, smoothing and suchlike.
Here is an out of focus picture of a Great Spotted Woodpecker I saw in the garden a few weeks ago. I was a bit worried about him because I’d not seen him for months, but I suppose he was keeping warm in a tree over winter, sensible chap. I was less worried about this fellow; he’s been thieving from the bird feeder since October, so he’s very well fed indeed.
3 comments 2007-04-01 16:24 Categories: Miscellaneous
I found this block of ice full of dead leaves in my garden. As the ice melts the air bubbles make pretty patterns in the impression left by the leaves.
There shouldn’t really be any leaves in the pool this ice was in, but I’m just not a natural gardener, and I cannot be bothered with tidying the place up. I have recently given up entirely, and decided instead to hire someone to tame the place with a week’s worth of slash-and-burn; it was whilst admiring their efforts that I spotted this effect in the ice. I thought it was rather pretty.
This post brought to you by that fancy Flickr blog-posting technology stuff.
2 comments 2007-02-11 20:32 Categories: Miscellaneous
My brother Dave is back in the UK from Canada at the moment, and on Sunday we met up with him and his girlfriend, Mel. They live and work in Whistler, B.C., in the Canadian Rockies, a part of the world that presents its residents with a number of interesting and novel ways of meeting an untimely death; one of the more famous of these is the local bear population.
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5 comments 2006-11-21 20:56 Categories: Miscellaneous
