Tales of the Golem; or, the Modern Epimetheus

I'm not trying to impress you with my lines, they don't mean nothing at all

For better or worse, I actually made it through a whole month of quotidian quotes.

posted by Richard Mason @ Sunday, August 31, 2008 0 comments

Man it looked just like the Batmobile

At first glance I assumed this bus ad was for a new TV show. In Los Angeles, it would have been a TV show. But that's the difference between Los Angeles and Washington D.C., it seems: here the bus ads are for military vehicle programs.

I don't really understand why defense contractors do this. Everyone who sees a bus ad for a TV show might possibly watch that show, but how many "customers" are there who actually decide whether a military program gets funded, and who gets the contract? Can this really be an effective way of reaching them?

Now, this particular bus does go near the Pentagon, so perhaps it's not that poorly targeted.

But I also see Lockheed Martin, et al., put ads in general-interest magazines. I don't really get it.

Speaking of the Batmobile, the Wikipedia article for Alfred Lee Loomis claims that "he is considered the model for Bruce Wayne." That would be interesting if true, but I don't see any evidence that anybody apart from that Wikipedia editor seriously believes it to be true.

posted by Richard Mason @ Tuesday, August 26, 2008 0 comments

Will you still feed me when I'm sixty

We wondered yesterday why the clothing store Miss Sixty appears to cater to young women rather than to sextagenarians as you might expect from the name.

It's not so easy to determine what the name is supposed to mean. Miss Sixty's name derives from the Italian parent company Sixty Group. I found a Times article that claims the Sixty Group (founded in 1989) is named after the decade of the sixties, although Miss Sixty variously claims inspiration from the '50s, '70s, and '80s.

These alternative brands from the Miss Sixty website are perhaps circumstantial evidence that Italians don't know the difference between sixty and sexy.

posted by Richard Mason @ Sunday, August 24, 2008 0 comments

In the garbage bin, looks like he's found something neat

Another picture from Poland. I was very impressed with this trashcan I saw. The lid to keep out rain is fixed in place. The can beneath it rotates. You could cant the can slightly to throw some trash in, or rotate it more for more access or to empty it. I think that is a good design. Compare that to an open can (that would let in the rain) or a slot (that wouldn't offer as much access to the can) or a door (kind of a dirty thing that you would have to touch with your hands).

On the other hand, back in the USA, I think the design of this KCRW public radio envelope is terrible. It's an appeal for money that says, "Please throw me in the trash!"

posted by Richard Mason @ Saturday, August 16, 2008 0 comments

Can't start a fire without a spark

I just got back from Utah. The white stuff in the picture is salt.

I went on a very educational tour of a rocket propellant manufacturer. No matches or lighters are allowed on the grounds of this facility. However there is still a little bunker where employees can go for cigarette breaks and light their cigarettes with a non-portable electric lighter.

The building where the rocket propellant is mixed has tubular slides sprouting Willy-Wonka-fashion from every floor of the building. These are escape chutes so that, if one were filled with an intense desire to get out of the building as quickly as possible, one could jump into a chute and slide to the ground.

About twenty years ago, there was an incident when static electricity caused some sparks inside the building. Of the four or five people inside the building, one actually made it into the tube and slid all the way to the ground. However, instead of then moving off to one side as he had been clearly instructed by the safety procedures, he just kept running in a straight line. The flames raced down the tube and shot out after him like a jet setting him on fire. He lived for twenty-four hours during which he was able to give some account of the accident.

I am thinking this escape chute could possibly be better designed, maybe with some kind of flame arrester curtain at the bottom and vents to redirect the blast.

posted by Richard Mason @ Tuesday, August 12, 2008 0 comments

I don't know where my soul is

Now that I have a phone with a camera, at last I can take pictures of hummingbirds when the opportunity arises.

posted by Richard Mason @ Thursday, August 07, 2008 0 comments

It don't matter if you're black or white

I lost my cell phone a while back. (Now you know why I haven't been returning your calls.) Today I bought an iPhone. I have a new phone number: available upon request.

The 16GB iPhone comes in black or white. (The cheaper 8GB iPhone only comes in black. The store didn't have any of those in stock anyway.)

I decided to get white because it seemed more distinctive, more Apple-like, and perhaps more visible on a typical cluttered desk.

I was standing in line outside the Apple store to buy this phone. The girl behind me was standing in line for her boyfriend while he roamed around inside the store. He comes out and says, "They say that the black shows scratches but the white doesn't show scratches as much!" He was excited about getting white. But the girlfriend says, "Why would you get white... if you were a guy? If I were a guy, I would get black." Somebody asks, "If a guy got white, what would you think of him?" She says, "He's my boyfriend, so I have to accept him either way. But I think he has to get black."

By the time the guy gets to the end of the line, he scrunches up his face sadly and says, "I guess I have to get black." In order to maintain his Batman image, I guess.

I got my distinctive white iPhone anyway. I'm happy with it so far.

posted by Richard Mason @ Wednesday, August 06, 2008 4 comments