Forlorn in the USA

Locking up's too good for 'em

I still can't fathom out why there's Holocaust deniers locked up, while climate change sceptics walk free. Free of any specialist scientific knowledge, free of any reasonable basis for their beliefs, and free to stand for election and make decisions on my behalf. They should be free to wander. Around their small, padded cells, free of any sharp objects and methods of communication.

Nature is her God...

...says BLISS, and she's spot on. On Earth, nature will eventually overwhelm and overcome the species that sought to contain and harness her, and will continue when we're gone.

Wolves and libraries

I collected American Smoke form a library with a local authority fruit machine facility. When you go to the counter, the staff there, seemingly unaware that they're being phased out, enthusiastically usher you over to the machine you've ignored, thinking about them and their jobs. You pick the reserved book off the shelf, post it into the letterbox scanner, followed by you library card. Then you pay. I only had a tenner, for the 60p. It dispensed the change in...er...change. Jackpot. The Las Vegas casino racket would've got a round of shushing in the olden days.

I collected Wolves from a machine-free library, where the staff were openly hostile to the idea of an automated loan system. As am I.

There was the old, old system. The pre-computer, pre-barcode, pre-historic ways. A cardboard sleeve stuck inside the cover, with a flimsy cardboard card inside it, that was extracted and placed in your own, personal, cardholder in a drawer for the duration of the loan. The date stamps, with their lurid green ink, providing a clear read-by date. Renewals strictly by appointment and personal attendance only.

Absolutely shocking...

...74% of Americans know the earth orbits around the sun...

...which means...

...26% of them don't. That explains...

...even more shocking...

...only 39% of 'em realise that the universe began with the big bang, and an incredibly low 48% understand that humans evolved from other species.

No wonder they think they've a god-given right to gas-guzzle the world into extinction while filling it up with their mountains of waste.

Nil – nil, at home, against the worst United team in ages...

...might be enough for a team coming off the back of a 5-1 spanking, and might've been something I'd've taken were it offered, blind, when the season's fixtures were first published. But it reinforces my doubts about genuine title contention, about the manager's transfer and financial dealings, and about whether he'll do the right think FA Cup-wise, or try to sell the fourth / third / second place champions league entry trophy bull.