Category Archives: Trivia
The Man who fell to Earth
Back in 1996 there was a film released starring David Bowie called “The Man who fell to Earth”. Bowie played the part of Thomas Jerome Newton who was a humanoid alien who came to Earth to get water for his dying planet. He starts a high technology company to get the billions of dollars he needs to build a return spacecraft, and meets Mary-Lou, a girl who falls in love with him [obviously!]. He does not count on the greed and ruthlessness of business here on Earth, however. But that was just a film … it wasn’t real … but could it be?
Fast forward 16 years and this weekend we saw Austrian Skydiver Felix Baumgartner become the first man to literally fall to earth by jumping out of a balloon 128,100ft (24 miles; 39km) above New Mexico. This somewhat lunatic activity making him the first skydiver to go faster than the speed of sound, reaching a maximum velocity of 833.9mph and also smashing the record for the highest ever freefall.
In addition, another record has reportedly been broken. Unofficial figures show that the live stream of Baumgartner’s jump received over 7.1 million views surpassing the 500,000 YouTube live stream views record for the London Summer Olympics.
But why would he want to do this? At Sunday’s jump altitude, the air pressure is less than 2% of what it is at sea level, and it is impossible to breathe without an oxygen supply. Others who have tried to break the records have lost their lives in the process.
Well the researchers on the Red Bull Stratos project say it has already provided invaluable data for the development of high-performance, high-altitude parachute systems, and that the lessons learned will inform the development of new ideas for emergency evacuation from vehicles, such as spacecraft, passing through the stratosphere and indeed NASA and its spacecraft manufacturers have asked to be kept informed.
He says he is motivated in part by scientific endeavour, the desire to see what the human body can achieve. But Baumgartner is also spurred on by the desire to see what no-one else has seen, to be alone at the highest reaches of the skies.
He has built up to this latest stunt by undertaking various other dangerous activities such as in 1999 when he set the world record for the highest parachute jump from a building when he jumped from the Petronas Towers in a Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The twin skyscrapers were the tallest buildings in the world at the time, only overtaken by the Taipei 101 in 2004. Naturally, in 2007, he also jumped off the Taipei 101. He then went to the opposite end of the scale, completing the world’s lowest ever base jump from the 30m-high arm of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro. He followed this in 2003 by becoming the first person to literally fly across the English Channel. Using a pair of specially made carbon fibre wings, Baumgartner leapt from a plane above Dover, landing 22 miles (35km) away in Cap Blanc-Nez near Calais just 14 minutes later.
I can’t help but worry about what he might do next, and will it be the last thing he ever does. It would appear that his need for danger is addictive and each time he does something it is bigger and more dangerous than the last. I just hope that this doesn’t end up as life imitating art. After all, throughout the film of “The Man who fell to Earth” there are brief sequences of Newton’s wife and children back on his home planet, slowly dying, and by the end of the film they are dead and Newton is stuck on Earth, broken, alcoholic, and alone.
This time Red Bull “gave him wings”. I just hope they are still there to help him fly the next time, whatever or whenever that might be!
Going down?
I’ve been reading an article today about the reasons why we behave so oddly in lifts.
Many of us use them several times a day without really noticing. And yet the way we behave in lifts, or elevators as they are known in the US, reveals a hidden anxiety. Most of us sort of shut down. We walk in. We press the button. We stand perfectly still.
So why are we so awkward in lifts?
It is probably because you don’t have enough space. Usually when we meet other people we have about an arm’s length of distance between us but that’s not possible in most lifts so it’s a very unusual setting. It’s unnatural. In such a small, enclosed space it becomes vital to act in a way that cannot be construed as threatening, odd or in any way ambiguous. The easiest way to do this is to avoid eye-contact completely.
But perhaps there is more to it than just social awkwardness. Perhaps it is more about being trapped inside this small enclosed space if the lift breaks down. Regular Twitter followers will remember Stephen Fry’s amusing tweet when he got stuck in a lift at Centre Point in London in 2009 – it made the national news! The reality of course is far from amusing as you have no idea how long it will be before you are set free from your incarceration and, if you’re anything like me, you’ll probably be desperate to go to the toilet as well!
One thing I always do now when entering a lift is to read the name of the manufacturer which is usually displayed on the plaque where you find the buttons to operate the darn thing. This goes back to when I worked on the 4th floor of a building in Edinburgh and each time I got in, I smiled inwardly, saying to myself “Schindler’s Lift”! Not very mature I know, but it always made me smile [and colleagues groan!].
For what it’s worth, if the thought of travelling in a machine that’s moving and over which you have no control, you can’t see its engine and you don’t know how it’s working fills you with dread – err on the side of caution and take the stairs!
Good Grief Charlie Brown!
The latest in my occasional series “On this day in History”.
On 2nd October 1950 “Peanuts”, the comic strip created by Charles M. Schulz, was published for the first time in seven newspapers. This successful cartoon continued until 13th February 2000, the day after Schulz died.
An incredible 17,897 strips were published in all, and at its peak, Peanuts ran in over 2,600 newspapers, with a readership of 355 million in 75 countries, and was translated into 21 languages. It helped to cement the four-panel gag strip as the standard in the United States ,and together with its merchandise earned Schulz more than $1 billion. reprints of the strip are still syndicated and run in almost every U.S. newspaper.
Charles “Charlie” Brown (occasionally called Chuck by certain characters) is the main character. He is a lovable loser, a child possessed of endless determination and hope, but who is ultimately dominated by his insecurities and a “permanent case of bad luck”. He is often taken advantage of by his peers.
The first strip from 2nd October 1950
In early 1988, Schulz abandoned the four-panel format in favor of three-panel dailies and occasionally used the entire length of the strip as one panel, partly for experimentation, but also to combat the dwindling size of the comics page.
Good Grief!
You’re not as happy as you think you are
Final strip 13th February 2000
If ever there is an iconic comic strip, it is Peanuts which has developed into an enduring classic. Whether you’re pernickety like Lucy, a philosopher like Linus, a joyous Flying Ace like Snoopy, or a lovable underdog like Charlie Brown, there is something to touch your heart or make you laugh, whoever you are, in Peanuts.
Celebrity baby names
OK, I understand that “celebrities” live on an entirely different planet from the rest of us mere mortals but it never ceases to amaze me that these people feel the need to give their offspring such ridiculous names that they will surely hate their parents for when they’re old enough to understand the ridicule!
This is not a recent trend. In the 60’s Frank Zappa called his eldest daughter Moon Unit and, strangely, she is still known by this name today, whereas Zowie Bowie, son of David Bowie, changed his name unofficially at the age of 12 to the more normal “Joey” and around the age of 18 officially to Duncan Jones.
Oh, and don’t get me started on the Geldorf offspring of Fifi Trixibelle, Peaches Honeyblossom and Little Pixie, though these names may have had more to do with their mother, the late Paula Yates, who went on to have another daughter by the late Michael Hutchence and called that poor mite Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily!
So it comes as no surprise that Robbie Williams and his wife Ayda have decided to call their new daughter by the name of Theodora Rose, to be known “affectionately” as Teddy apparently. This after saying recently that they weren’t going to go for an “Apple-esque” celebrity name.
I wish people would remember that these cute little babies are going to grow up and will have to live with these names until they’re old enough to change them and a lot more thought could go into their choices. I can’t help but wonder that if Robbie’s next child is a boy then he may just call him “Train Set” or “Football” to keep the theme going. Those poor kids!!!
Mañana, Mañana
If there was a Degree in procrastination, I would have a First Class with Honours! I know that the best way to deal with this somewhat negative trait is to write a list of all those things I need to do and work my way through them until they are completed. Saying it is easy – doing it is another matter!
Take the kitchen unit I ordered to give me more workspace. Having eventually found something I thought would work, I ordered it and the company duly delivered it a few days later – in a flat box! Of course I hadn’t read the small print and didn’t realise it was self-assembly. Well I opened the box and looked at the instructions, found there were 27 different parts and hurriedly put the instructions back in the box and walked away.
Seeing the box in my hall ever day made me feel extremely guilty – but not guilty enough to get it out and get on with it. I made excuses – I didn’t have the time, it would be too difficult, my electric screwdriver needed charging – anything that meant I didn’t have to actually do it!
Now I realised that this piece of furniture could not put itself together but I also knew that I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to do battle with the screwdriver. So it was several weeks before I took the plunge and set about building the thing. An hour and a half later I had finished and sat back, pleased with the results. So why couldn’t I have done this when it first arrived? Simple, it was easier to put it off until another day.
It is comforting to know I’m not alone. Here are just two examples that I found on the BBC website today that I can totally identify with and which made me laugh out loud:
A friend of mine, who I’ll call “Dave” (because that was his name) said he would do anything to avoid A-level revision. At one point he infamously found himself weighing the cat, convinced that he would only be able to settle down to work if he had that data to hand. As a result, some 25 years later, the act of procrastination is referred to by my family as “weighing the cat”. I Whitten, Sittingbourne, Kent
I started up the Stirling University Procrastination Society in 1980. It was a resounding success. Not one person bothered to return their registration form on time and we never got round to holding any meetings. Well done us. Yay! JohnB, Berkshire
But wait a minute! I am even procrastinating now! I should be working but instead I am writing this post. It is perhaps true then that the work you do whilst procrastinating is the work that you should do for the rest of your life …..
…. I’ll let you know tomorrow!!!
Return to Sender
And so to today’s most loony story!
Hu Seng, from Chongqing City, southern China, decided to surprise his partner by posting her an unusual present – himself. In doing so he almost died when the courier company mixed up the address and instead of 30 minutes in the sealed box, Mr Seng was trapped inside for nearly three hours. The box had very little air inside and was too thick for Mr Seng to make a hole in it. By the time the package had arrived at his girlfriend’s office – where a friend was waiting to record her surprise on camera – Mr Seng had passed out and had to be revived by paramedics.
‘I didn’t realise it would take so long,’ admitted Mr Seng. ‘I tried to make a hole in the cardboard but it was too thick and I didn’t want to spoil the surprise by shouting.’
A spokesman for the courier firm said: ‘If he’d told us what he was doing at the start we would not have taken the parcel. Even when we accept animals they have to go in special containers so they can breathe.’
Next time I suggest he arranges for some flowers and champagne to be delivered instead – far less risky!!!
Chickens? What chickens?
Caught in the act! I love this photo – Is it just me or does the fox actually look embarrassed?
Why be politically correct?
…when some of the funniest jokes are definitely NOT!!!
So, as it’s Friday, here’s a few to be getting on with:
Last night I reached for my liquid Viagra and accidentally swigged from a bottle of Tippex.
I woke this morning with a huge correction.
My budgie broke his leg today so I made him a little splint out of a couple of Swan Vesta’s, his little face lit up when he tried to walk..
Unfortunately, I forgot to remove the sandpaper from the bottom of his cage.
I got sacked last night from the Salvation Army soup kitchen, ungrateful bleeders.
All I said was, ‘hurry up for goodness sake, some of us have got homes to go to!’
My girlfriend said she was leaving me due to my obsession with the 60’s group The Monkees.
I thought she was joking …….. and then I saw her face
Women should be like golf caddies, either holding your balls or getting your bloody tee ready!
Last night I was sitting on the sofa watching tv when I heard my wife’s voice from the kitchen, ‘what would you like for dinner my love, chicken, beef or lamb?’
I said, ‘Thank you, I’ll have chicken please’
She replied, ‘You’re having soup you fat bastard, I was talking to the cat!’
I was sat in a restaurant and got hit on the back of the head by a prawn cocktail.
I looked round and this bloke shouts, ‘That’s just for starters!’
Yoko Ono has been signed up for the next series of ‘I’m a celebrity, get me out of here!’
Bosses think she will do really well since she’s been living off a dead Beatle for the last thirty years.
BOOM!!!!!
Post-holiday blues
We spend weeks, sometimes months, looking forward to our annual holiday and all too soon it is a distant memory. The suntan starts to peel and/or fade and the harsh realities of everyday life come crashing back almost before the wheels of your returning aircraft have hit the home tarmac!
So what’s the answer? In years gone by I have come straight home and booked the next holiday, thus ensuring that I do have something else to look forward to, away from the uncertain climate that we live in here in the UK. Perhaps this year I will try something different …
How about actually doing something positive and trying to eat more healthily and lose weight? Sounds simple doesn’t it, but the reality is always so much harder!
As the southern half of the UK is bathed in sunshine and enjoying record temperatures, up here in Scotland it is naturally grey and cloudy with little hope of the sun breaking through the storm clouds that are gathering. So when I saw this poster, it made me laugh out loud – just about sums up my mood perfectly!!!
Athletic Art
This is my favourite image so far of the imminent London2012 Olympics!
A Czech artist has re-modelled a traditional London double-decker bus into a mechanical sculpture of an athlete doing push-ups to celebrate the Olympic Games opening in the British capital on Friday.
David 
Cerny bought the 1957 bus from an owner in the Netherlands, attached two huge arms, an electrical engine and a lot of wiring and suspension tools to make it into a piece of art named “London Boosted”.
Cerny, whose past works have enraged European politicians and sought to poke fun at rival artists, has installed the bus outside the Czech Olympic House in London’s Islington neighbourhood.
“There is one common exercise for every sportsman in the world, and that is push-ups,” Cerny said. “It is training for sport activities but at the same time it is also punishment in armies and prisons. So the push-ups are a very universal physical activity…It is in a way very ironic.”
For regular travellers on this particular transport however, the irony might be the fact that there’s only one and not 3 identical buses there at the same time!
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