Wednesday, May 25, 2011

If you go down to the woods ...

Police in the south of England last week were called in after a tiger was sighted in a field off the M27 Motorway. Photos were provided by some tourists who were able to capture the images using telephoto lens. A nearby stadium was evacuated and a helicopter was sent in to assess the situation. It was only when thermal imaging was used that authorities realised not was all as it appeared - there was no heat signature - and then the tiger "blew over" from the winds generated by the helicopter. A large stuffed toy Tiger is now being cared for by police who have called it a "most unusual item of lost property".

Without warning

John Birmingham's novel Without Warning tells of a mysterious energy wave that sweeps over - actually lingers on - America causing the disappearance of those it comes in contact with except for their clothes and some "residue". People seeing pictures on the web this week could be forgiven for thinking they were related, but the prank photos (they are prank not real) of people's empty clothes strewn on subways, on motorbikes, and just about anywhere as if their owners just vanished has more to do with The Rapture which was originally due to happen on May 21 but has now been "deferred" (according to those who "know") until October. what will they (the pranksters) think of next?

Flying high

The recent eruption of another Icelandic volcano (not the one with the unspeakable name which erupted last year) means air traffic throughout Europe has again been disrupted - but not as badly as last time. So, if the eruption and ensuing ash cloud is much larger, why is there less disruption? Well, according to some reports it's simply that the policy regarding air travel has changed - allowing flights in denser ash conditions. Hmmm. Makes you wonder what led to the policy being developed in the first place - and how much is "too much" ash - and does it very for different aircraft, different engines, etc?

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

That's good ...

Why is it that things in life are never always all good or all bad? I was just marvelling at the "Personalized Mazagine", Zite which is a free application on the iPad. It allows you to "tell" the magazine what content you like or dislike so it can tailor your reading to your preferences. It does a very good job of it - too good in some respects and I would happily read just about everything it serves up if there was more time. Which is where Instapaper comes in - which allows you to save web content for later reading. Which is why I constantly feel behind with my reading and blogging - I'm so busy marking articles for looking at later that I seem to be getting to less of them.

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

How do you say it?

If Louis Armstrong was known as Satchmo or Louis - pronounced Loo-ee - why was it that in Hello Dolly, Barbra Streisand's (and why is it that I am more sure of how to spell the diva's surname than first name?) character called him "Lou-is"? And why has it taken a thousand repetitions of the soundtrack (it does feel like that many some times) to realise that?