Are These Idiots After a Darwin Award?
The Central Line today was disrupted by cable thefts today.
This follows a pattern and eventually, it will lead to someone winning a Darwin Award.
The Darwin Awards commerate those who yield to natural selection and “remove” themselves from the gene pool…thereby ensuring that the next generation is smarter by one.
Of necessity, the award is usually bestowed posthumously.
Here’s typical behaviour that can win an award or in this case two.
Who would park the car on a busy freeway in heavy fog, for a quickie?
That’s the whole picture: A young couple, driving along Via Dutra, the largest freeway in Brazil with tons of heavy traffic, at 6AM under heavy fog. The couple decided that this was the time to park (for “dating” according to the charming Google translation) and, yes, they parked on the freeway in the right-hand lane, not on the shoulder, the median, or at a gas station. Naturally, given time a cargo truck encountered a “speed bump,” instantly killing both — during the act of procreation — double-double Darwin Award! (2) people making (2) obviously bad decisions, and natural selection acts at the very moment the two are reproducing. Textbook!
Stealing live high-voltage cables is probably equally stupid. But would our legal system pay out damages to the family of idiots killed in this way?
Surely being nominated for a Darwin Award disqualifies you from receiving compensation!
Welcome to IKEA
I finally got the spice rack last night at IKEA in Croydon.
It’s quite an easy journey by public transport, as I just get the 21/141 bus to London Bridge, a train to East Croydon and then the Tramlink to Ampere Way.
In a strange way, the journey summed up one of the things I like about London; friendliness. I chatted about my troubles and travels to a pleasant guy called Duncan from the Bank of England and then as I waited for the tram, I talked to the tram driver, who was to take my tram to Wimbledon. Incidentally, Duncan doesn’t have a car, so like me he uses public transport everywhere. Perhaps, we’re ahead of our time and in a few years or so, non-driving will be the normal thing to do.
The only problem, I had on the journey down, was caused by a slight lack of signage at East Croydon, my uncertainty about how to use the tram and which one to get.
Duncan pointed me at this book; The Brain That Changes Itself. I shall check it out!
I was then presented to this at IKEA.
Welcome to IKEA
Just look at those concrete benches, that are ideally placed to bump the shins of people with limited vision. It wasn’t the easiest walk to and from the tram stop, with some roads controlled by pedestrian lights and others that worked on the cross-quickly-and-be-lucky principle.
Coming back was quite easy, in that I took the tram to West Croydon and then took the East London Line to Dalston Junction. But there is no signage at West Croydon to the Overground from the tram stop. Supposedly, plans are in place for a better connection. At Dalston, I was even lucky enough to avoid the five minute walk, by getting a convenient bus along the Balls Pond Road.
The spice rack is now on the wall.
The Anonymous Widower 