…well, broadly. It’s Passover, and therefore time to link to my favourite ever Passover story, from Nik.
More caps
There is, of course, a long tradition of unnecessary capitalisation. A bus just drove past with an advert on the side, and the advert said:
JESUS said: When the Son of Man comes, will He find Faith on the Earth?
I understand why everything is capped up, but it makes it very difficult to read.
More maps
Strange Maps has a “news map” of the US today, with the size of the states adjusted according to how many news wire stories, from various sources, originated in each of them over a four-year period. Unstartlingly, Washington, New York and California are the three biggest news generators, and all three are vastly oversized in the map, although of course California is just really big, so it doesn’t increase as dramatically as the other two. I’ve never been to California, but I’d like to think that everything about it is just really big.
They link to an article in Science News which talks more generally about the art (or science, or both) of representing more than simple geographical facts using maps. It’s interesting, if you have time to read it.
All of which reminded me of that picture of the earth at night which is still one of the best things I’ve ever found on the internet. Apart from being – well, pretty, it gets more interesting the more you look at it. My favourite things about it are:
- How bright all the big cities are, but especially Paris and Tokyo
- How defined the Nile is – it looks like it’s been drawn on in a single brush stroke
- How empty Australia is
- The fact that North Korea is so dark that South Korea looks like an island. That one’s a bit terrifying, for various reasons, but it’s still interesting.
Selhurst Park
Good news: apparently Simon Jordan has secured the lease on Selhurst Park for another 25 years.
Bad news: he still wants to move the club elsewhere, according to this article from the BBC:
“I’d like to see Palace move away from Selhurst Park, I’d like to stay in the Borough and I’d like us to move to a stadium which is more befitting of the ambitions we have for the club.”
In which “Borough”, I wonder? I guess he means Croydon, since that’s where they are now. I’d like to see them move back to Crystal Palace proper, although there’s not an obvious spot, unless they pull down the athletics stadium and start again.
I’d also like to see fewer random capitalisations, beginning with that “B”.
A proud moment
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.
Poo update #2
Enlightenment! 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
Well, 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
I 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
I’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.
Reasons to be cheerful: numbers 5 and 6
I’ve a treat lined up after work today: I’m going to see my genius hairdresser (I’m still not linking to her). I wasn’t sure how long it was since I’d last been, but I see I last posted about her on February 22, almost exactly eight weeks ago. Having short hair is very labour-intensive – when it was long I would have a haircut about once a year, and I’d usually do it myself.
The odd thing is that as soon as I make an appointment to have it cut because it looks raggedy and awful, it starts to look fine, and I have second thoughts. Logically, I think this means I should make a hairdresser’s appointment every day, but never go, thus guaranteeing a lifetime of good hair days.
And the second rtbc is that as I was travelling back from lunch in the lift, two men had a conversation about Palace’s promotion prospects, and they agreed that they were good. I’m not sure I agree, but it was good to hear nonetheless, and all the more welcome for being unexpected. People, generally, are not nice about CPFC.
Glad All Over 