Neil Hopcroft

My search for “Redditch roundabout of the month” earlier turned up the fabulous Dull Mens Club, where you can find, among recent updates:

“Four more airports reporting in . . . the total number of airports covered in our worldwide report on airport luggage carousels increases to 366 . . . carousels rotating counterclockwise remains far in the lead . . . 44.5% . . . the new airports are Dinard and Strasbourg in France and Dar es Salaam and Mwanze in Tanzania . . .”

“History of . . . check out our new page where we are starting to list the amazing number of web sites with amazingly interesting information (at least for dull men) about ordinary things . . . new entries are the History of Gift Wrapping and the History of Floating Soap . . .”

More exploration later, but for the moment you probably can’t beat Extreme accounting.

“Construction of the tank had been overseen, or more accurately gazed stupidly at, by Arthur Jell, a bean counter with no technical background who was unable even to read blueprints. Anxious to complete the tank in time for the arrival of the first molasses shipment, Jell forwent the elementary precaution of filling it first with water to test for leaks. Once molasses was pumped in, the tank leaked so copiously at the seams that neighborhood kids collected the drippings in cans. When an alarmed employee complained, Jell’s response was to have the tank painted brown so the leaks wouldn’t be so noticeable.

With the war ending and demand for industrial alcohol plummeting, USIA decided to distill molasses into grain alcohol for liquor before Prohibition killed the market for good. On January 12 and 13, 1919, a tanker filled the huge vessel almost to the brim. Two days later, at about half past noon, the tank gave way with a roar, sending a wave of molasses variously estimated at 8 to 15 feet high in all directions”

– The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919

(I can’t work out another “count the rings and scars” pun so you’ll have to make do with…)

This isn’t the most efficient way to visualise share price movements.

…indeed theres a bunch of nice projects going on in the swamp…

East-17 singer punctures lung in freak potato accident

A few weeks back I was worrying that there might be some kinds of actions to prevent people taking photographs in public places. Of course, I shouldn’t’ve worried …that could never happen here. Could it?

This article makes me feel quite righteous about getting a fairly steady 35mpg out of my gas guzzler, now admittedly I tend to do longer, out-of-town journeys which pushes that up a bit but still I have to try real hard to get down to 21mpg.

Any Cambridge-ish people up for visiting the sea-side tomorrow?

Crash bonsai

Air toons

Picking up girls made easy (c)1975

I hadn’t realised that Burnout was based on a real film.

“Canadian salvage divers are searching for…a vast hunk of sunken cheddar cheese“