Sunday, 13 May 2007

Genes

My friend Dawn sent me a funny this morning, it was along the lines of things that you have thought if you're a teacher, and believe me, I've thought all of them. One that amused me particularly was, 'if you think 'shallow gene pool' should have its own box on the report card'.

Then Kev sent me an article which kinda proves that sometimes it's not nature but technology that deals with the shallow end.
In the UK, there have been a spate of incidents where people have blindly and blithely followed the instructions of their GPS systems and driven off a cliff, or onto a railway crossing. I suppose the fun ends when they just crash into someone else.

I'm spooked about the road. Yesterday something happened to me that was straight out of a road safety advert and I'm waiting for the third one to happen now.
I was driving down one of the main roads, Cambie, but as often happens around here, even many of the main roads have a speed limit of 50kph. Local residents seem to be unable to understand the word 'limit', thinking it means something like 'loose guideline'.
Well predictably I was driving at 50 when a few yards up ahead, a small child, around two years old I'd say, broke away from a group of mothers who were standing talking on the edge of the pavement and ran into the road. Just as in the ad, I was able to stop in time, also as in the ad, had I been even closer and actually hit the child, he may have survived being hit at 50, where he wouldn't have survived the impact at 55 or 60.

As you know, in spite of it being none of my beeswax, I am very concerned that Hillary should win the US Presidential election. I don't understand why she's getting so much flack and I wish that the first hurdle wasn't that she has to beat Barrack Obama, another very appealing candidate, although I will not be swayed.
My friend Ree told me yesterday that Obama had been berating the auto manufacturers in Detroit for producing gas guzzlers. I have to say this, what balls. He has said what needed to be said, what no-one else has ever had the guts to say, but my god, you have to admire the man.

Yesterday we finally got round to watching the Eddie Izzard, Minnie Driver pilot, 'The Riches'. And despite my fears, and also despite both Brit actors having to put on an American accent (and two different ones), it was pretty damn good. We'll certainly give it another go.

7 comments:

Sleepy said...

Eddie is a G-d!
Although, HIS G-d sounds like James Mason, which kind of freaks me out!

Schneewittchen said...

Mine would sound like Dawn French, but then I guess that's not what you meant.

Eddie is a god, he helped me through many a hairy French class.

Sleepy said...

Bizarrely, G-d has never spoken to me.
I don't know why not, we have so much to discuss!

Schneewittchen said...

Yes, I suppose that speaking to God on the Great White Telephone is a bit one-way.
I am nonetheless surprised that you haven't had any shamanastic moments given your penchant for herbal experimentation and your receptivity in matters spiritual.

Sleepy said...

Indeed!
I feel the Supreme Being has missed an opportunity.

LentenStuffe said...

Mine would be for deceased grandmothers. Some kids had more than the obligatory pair.

What a gas! Using the GPS thing to drive over a cliff. I wonder if (in good litigious spirit) the surviving family members could sue the manufacturers for faulty something-or-other? I know I'd be taking the chancers to court. Sue thy neighbour -- a good old Irish maxim.

Schneewittchen said...

I'm sure the device will soon be sold with a warning, 'Attention, may cause premature death if used by the incompetent'.