Something I learned from the Scottish independence debate

Can't argue with that logic. Roll on 2015.

Swedish Piano Stairs

This is what happens when a country doesn't spend all its money on tax cuts and wars, illegal or otherwise. However it could be that VW paid for it all, which is a shame as their cars are still overpriced blandmobiles.

This couldn't sum up my boring Bank Holiday any better

Best hospital food ever

It's all very well Channel 4 being sniffy about this. But they're the ones with a national TV franchise that puts out programmes for idiots all day long ...

Fry-up in a pie served at hospital in Dundee - send us your hospital food pics using #c4frypie http://t.co/fYrG2gAA7c pic.twitter.com/bwzGm9gjyl

— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) August 25, 2014

Also, I secretly want the pie.

Go ahead, make my day

A perfect piece of simulacra.



Originally from @FacesPics on Twitter.

The Nazi Oath to Hitler

Autocorrects don't usually make me laugh. This one did.

From Cormac O'Rourke (‏@cormacorourke19) on Twitter:

My mom always asks me what time I'll be home, so I changed "home" in her shortcuts to the Nazi Oath to Hitler.

Video games

This was the first video game I ever owned.



Well ... the one we had was a clone - a white plastic case instead of the wood veneer finish, but exactly the same four games and graphics (and yes there are subtle difference between this and others which I can identify!)

The game called Handball on the American version was called Squash/Handball on ours. The one we had might have also been called "TV Fun" but I can't remember who made it, it was someone like Binatone (but not them)

It was in white moulded plastic with two paddles and probably came from Romford Market. The above ad was from JC Penney in 1976; we probably got ours the same time.

I sure have.

Magnus Carlsen v Bill Gates

Just love this clip. Nice of NRK to do their shows in English too.

Driving

Just made me laugh. Because it's so true.

Freckles and his Friends

From the Ottawa Citizen, 4 March 1936. This is the kind of thing I end up looking at when there's nothing on TV in the evening.



I'm not sure who needs a talking-to the most - the robbers or the kids. Hasn't he ever heard of the Darwin Awards?

Prankster Photoshops People Into Ads While They Wait for the Bus

I'll go somewhere interesting again soon. In the meantime ...

I'm not sure which one I like best

This one

or

Benton! Benton! BENTON!

This is definitely today's flavour of the month, but will we still love Benton tomorrow?

A harrowing thought

When you were born, you were the:

3,562,698,075th person alive on Earth

77,619,580,996th person to have lived since history began

How did we calculate that?

Both numbers have been calculated using UN Population Division figures. The first is an estimate of how many people were alive on your date of birth. It is one possible value based on global population figures and estimates of growth rates over time. Data before 1950 is less accurate than figures after that date. The second number includes calculations based on the methodology of scholar Carl Haub, who estimated how many people had been alive since 50,000 B.C. His calculation has been amended by the UN to include additional points in time.

What's next? The global population will continue to increase during your lifetime and beyond, reaching 10 billion by 2083. However, the rate of growth is expected to slow. Little of the current growth is happening in developed countries like yours.

Longer lives: Working-age people like you will be supporting increasing numbers of older people during the next decades. By 2050, there will be just 2.2 people of working age supporting every person aged 65 or older in the developed world. In Europe, this will drop to just two.

Battle for resources: It is estimated that your group of the richest countries consumes double the resources used by the rest of the world. The UN estimates that if current population and consumption trends continue, by the 2030s we will need the equivalent of two Earths to support us.

Did you know? The average family size globally has declined by half since 1950 - from five children in to the current 2.5.

352 people - the amount the population has grown while you've been on this site

Victor Lewis-Smith on QVC

Had no idea he was still going.

Where do people get these stamps from?

Just received this letter. The one on the left is a 26p first class stamp from 1998; the one on the right is a 9p first class stamp from 1978. It just amazes me to think that some people rummage through a drawer and find stamps that have been sitting there 33 years.

Unless they bought it in the Isle of Wight I suppose. The whole place is still in 1978.

They've still got it.

Had to post this too. I realise that most people won't find it the slightest bit funny - it takes years of building up (not to mention months of flicking round Sky and seeing Michael McIntyre on all the bloody time) to fully appreciate this.

Back home now ...

... and getting ready for Christmas.

Second week on the blog

Didn't actually put up any more gig posts, but there will be at least one next week as I am off to see Art Brut again (sixth time - doesn't seem like much!) on Wednesday. I did put up a number of my old end of year charts though, and from time to time I will go through my old stuff and add things I put on other blogs in the past - makes the archives look pretty weird though as I haven't really been posting stuff on this blog since 2000. Had another 67 page views, none of which were me this time, and as well as the usual visitors from UK and USA I had views from Germany, Denmark, Colombia and South Korea which was nice. And I doubled my Twitter followers, or added 1, whatever sounds best!