I would like to take a moment to record that as of 5pm BST (though it doesn’t feel like it) on April 18 2008, I am the top hit on Google for “poo slough”. My work here is done.
Archive for April 18th, 2008
A proud moment
April 18, 2008Poo update #2
April 18, 2008Enlightenment! It’s the fault of foreigners, naturally.
Edited so I don’t have to link to the Daily Mail, since the BBC now has the story too:
A foul smell hanging over southern England is being blamed on easterly winds bringing either farming or industrial smells across the Channel.
Labelled “Euro-whiff” by the Met Office, the source of the smell – alternately described as sulphur and manure – is under investigation.
Take another look at that:
Labelled “Euro-whiff” by the Met Office
The Met Office is the UK’s national weather service, responsible for processing and interpreting reams of information gathered from satellites and weather stations in order to warn us when we’re about to be flooded, or burned, or blown away. They even issue the Shipping Forecast, for heaven’s sake – these are serious people, people! So I am underwhelmed that their initial response is to call it a “Euro-whiff”. It doesn’t seem an appropriately businesslike reaction.
Poo update
April 18, 2008Well, Westminster and the surrounding district smells entirely innocuous, as far as I can tell. But in addition to a similar conversation happening on, of all places, Yahoo Answers Australia, I’ve just had a look at my stats and these are the search terms which have sent people here today:
london smells of poo
poo smell in all over london today
london smell of poo
scariest playgrounds (people find me using this search term every day; it’s the most-viewed post after “No congestion charge for NYC“)
bad smell all over london today
So it’s obviously real, but the only suggestion anyone seems to have made as to the cause is “is it aliens?”. More investigation is required, clearly.
Poo
April 18, 2008I know I said I would link to some eco-friendly skyscrapers, but instead I want to talk about poo. A lively conversation is going on over on Kudocities about London smelling of poo today. Apparently it’s been noticed in places as distant as Walthamstow, Kilburn, Clapham and Beckenham. Somebody also mentioned that Slough smells of poo, but since Slough always smells of poo, that’s probably unrelated. (That’s not a lame-assed joke at Slough’s expense: Slough genuinely does often smell of poo as you drive past it on the M4 – I think there must be a sewage works nearby.)
I haven’t noticed any unusual odours myself, but I’ll be going out for lunch shortly and I’ll keep an, um, nose out, and report back.
The Wave Tower
April 18, 2008I’ve just come across this design for an eco-efficient but super sexy new skyscraper on the Dubai waterfront. If it’s genuinely possible to build green skyscrapers, and to make them look this good (though it may lose something in the translation from paper to stone) then all kinds of possibilities open up, especially in housing, where before long we are going to be forced to have some new ideas.
Edit: having spent five minutes investigating, I see there are lots of designs for green skyscrapers out there. If I get a chance I’ll link to some of them later on.
