I’ve Never Understood The Lure Of Waxworks
Madame Tussauds are no advertising on the DLR.
I’ve Never Understood The Lure Of Waxworks
I’ve never been that I can remember and these adverts won’t dissuade me in my view that waxworks are a waste of space and time.
It used to be spelt properly as Madame Tussaud’s, but apparently, they have dropped the apostrophe.
I think it would be very scientifically incorrect to go to a museum, that deliberately misspelt its name.
I Don’t Care About Cookies
I look at a lot of web sites and every one seems to get more and more strident about asking whether I mind if they store cookies on my computer.
I wouldn’t use their web site if I minded would I?
An aside here is why isn’t the the form of mind, I used in the previous line, mound? After all it’s find and found, bind and bound and wind and wound.
Isn’t English wonderful!
I Dread To Think What This Might Mean
I caught sight of this notice.
I Dread To Think What This Might Mean
I suppose it’s fairly obvious, but I can’t resist the obvious translation.
Bombers This Way
This is just my take on this notice.
Bombers This Way
My Spanish goes as far as gluten and gracias.
Cardinal Says Paedophilia Not Criminal
This astounding statement was made by Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier and is reported here on the BBC. Here’s the first few paragraphs.
The Catholic Archbishop of Durban, Wilfrid Fox Napier, has described paedophilia as a psychological “illness, not a criminal condition”.
The South African cardinal told the BBC that people who were themselves abused as children and then abused others needed to be examined by doctors.
Do these guys live in the real world?
A scandal sheet has pointed out that hailed Pope is actually an anagram of paedophile. Search for the phrase in Google and you find a lot of matches.
My father who was a stickler for spelling would probably be arguing that paedophile is properly spelled with a diphthong. As I said in this post, diphthongs in letterpress type have a really solid feel.
The European Extremely Large Telescope
It may sound it like it was named by Blackadder, but the European Extremely Large Telescope has just been backed by the Government.
I’m all for this level of support for science, provided it’s done correctly.
Many might think that it is a pity the telescope is to be built in Chile, but then the weather and atmosphere there is so much better. The biggest telescope in the UK; the Isaac Newton Telescope was actually moved from Sussex to the Canary Islands for this reason.
I suppose the name isn’t as good as that for the proposed Overwhelmingly Large Telescope, which wasn’t built, as it was probably too difficult.
Understatement From Network Rail
One of my least favourite station is Manchester Victoria, which looks like it was last deep refurbished and cleaned, when its namesake was on the throne. On the Network Rail page about their plans for the station is this classic phrase.
As anyone who has been to Manchester Victoria on a rainy day can tell you, there is a problem with the roof.
But at least something is being done. They state this about the new roof.
The £16m new roof is likely to be made of ETFE (Ethylene tetrafluoroethylene) – the material used at Manchester Piccadilly station, the Eden Project in Cornwall and the swimming pool built for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, known as the Water Cube. ETFE is lighter, cheaper and lets in more light than glass. It’s also self cleaning, making it an ideal material for roofs.
You do wonder if this material could be used in other places to improve buildings at a more affordable cost than traditional methods.
I’ll look forward to using the new Manchester Victoria station in a few years time.
Engineering Open Heart Surgery
Not my words, but those of Linda Miller, describing on the Crossrail web site, the work being done to upgrade the Connaught Tunnel. The full article is here.
It may be an odd mix of words, but we all know what she means.
An Obvious Shortcut
I did chuckle, when I saw this sign outside of a pub.
An Obvious Shortcut
It’s funny, but Π for pie is rather obvious and simple, but I’ve never seen it used this way before.
Everyday Units
They are talking on the BBC about an asteroid passing the earth tonight as being the size of an Olympic swimming pool. There’s more here.
Why are objects always Olympic swimming pools, London buses or football pitches?
Incidentally, an astronomer has said that this asteroid is possibly about the size of the one that landed in Tunguska in 1908. Although of course no-one can be sure.
The Anonymous Widower 