Riding the rails for a fall

Red China plans to build three gigantic high-speed railway lines spanning from Shanghai to London and clear down to Burma--and plan to construct the whole thing within a decade.

I recommend standing well back as the entire scheme comes apart at the seams, as the shrapnel tends to carry.

A slight error

Somali pirates attack a defenceless merchant ship only to discover that it was HNLMS Tromp.

And didn't they end up feeling silly.

Mabel & colour telly

Tomorrow's World in 1966 looks at Mabel, the wonder robot of 1976 and the latest advance in colour television–sort of.

Sarah Connor reported unconcerned about cut-rate Dalek

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

Happy Saint Patrick's Day from Ephemeral Isle.

Detective Inspector Hunt, call your service

United States Attorney General Holder on Osama bin Laden being read his Miranda rights:

The reality is that we will be reading Miranda rights to the corpse of Osama bin Laden. He will never appear in an American courtroom.

An interesting choice of words. Does that mean that Mr Barack Hussein Obama's policy is officially one of "shoot to kill" or that bin Laden will have an "accident" in the cells?

Just curious.

As We May Think

Dr Vannevar Bush's 1945 Life Magazine look at the future complete with forehead cameras.

Our heartless friends

The Age of the Robot circa 1963.

Another nail

New Labour has enough money to keep a raving Jihadist on the dole, but not enough to allow the Royal Navy to cement international relations, and be decent hosts, by offering guests a drink.

Priorities, I suppose.

Rocket catcher

Rocket catcher. Okay. Right. You might want to go away and think this thing through a bit more before applying for those grants.

The Church of Obama

It was only a matter of time.

Blanket repeal bill

The single most brilliant legislative idea I've heard in thirteen years.

And Jeremy Clarkson suggested it first

Enough to drive one to drink

The British government plans to lower the drink drive limit to less than a pint of beer.

You can, however, have as much Soma as you like.

Update: The Great Police Terror.

Update: More than meets the eye.

Beyond the Peter Principle

A classic example of Feminism trumping common sense. I have extreme doubts about this woman holding a commission, much less being in charge of a ship of the line. But that's what happens when you are more afraid of a bad political rating from the Commissar than of losing a ship.

Peter Graves 1926-2010

A reminder for our American readers

The Foundation Trilogy Part 3

Radar Men From The Moon: Chapter 7

I Was a Teenage Werewolf

JakPak

A jacket that turns into a sleeping bag and tent.

I don't know about camping, but I could have used one on a couple of pub crawls back in the '80s.

Beware of the blob

It's been bucketing down here at Chez Szondy and as I was walking through the garden yesterday I came across these blobs of clear jelly all over the front lawn. Partly out of curiosity and mainly out of fear that these were the vanguard of an alien invasion force, I inspected the watery little interlopers more closely.

At first I thought that the dogs had somehow got their hands on a cold pack and torn it to shreds, but I couldn't find any fragments of plastic bags and the dogs weren't acting the slightest bit guilty (I can always tell when Little Ann has got into the rubbish or raided the bread bin, because she's nowhere to be found). I soon ruled out the jelly falling from the trees or being thrown from the road. I was about to get in the car and flee for the hills before the onslaught of the Martians when I realised that all the jelly was sitting on the thinned-out lawn patches that I'd reseeded last week. A compartment opened in that lumber room I call a brain and recalled a tidbit of information I'd skimmed across.

Five minutes later, a quick googling and I had the answer. It seems that the grass seed that I'd planted not only included fertilizer, but something called polyacrylamide gel, better known as "water crystals." They're a kind of polymer crystal that absorb an insane amount of water and basically act as little canteens for the grass seeds. Very clever, that.

Of course, I could be wrong. In which case, I'm living the first ten minutes of a Hammer sci fi epic.

Take it with a grain of... something

A New York City Assemblyman wants to ban all salt from all cooking and food preparation in all New York restaurants. Not surprisingly, this has resulted in howls of anger from cooks and bakers about how the honourable member has no understanding of how food chemistry works.

This episode should be preserved for all time (in brine, preferably) as a perfect example of a nanny-state politician who knows absolutely nothing about real life, yet regards himself competent to micromanage every aspect of society because he is convinced that the people are so stupid that they'd forget to breathe if the government didn't tell them to.