tired fools

great story.

The English is clear enough to lorry drivers - but the Welsh reads “I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated.”

i’m not in the office either. I’ve spent the day variously making a plant cell with zac out of a plastic box, pasta, an egg, a rubber, amongst other things; watching zoe practice ballet; and now getting ready to terrorise local residents in return for sugary things. the mulled wine is good though.

The kids and I got a kick out of this sign at Waterloo station today.

On the way to a meeting near Tower Hill the other day, I walked past Pudding Lane (where the Great Fire started) and All Hallows Church (the oldest in London and from where Pepys watched the fire). I also came across a pub called The Hung Drawn & Quartered that boasted this sign. Nice.

i saw a documentary years ago about a dutch town that removed all road signs, railings (even outside of schools), cobbled the streets, took out traffic lights etc. The traffic flow improved. At junctions drivers looked each other in the eye and negotiated who would move first, the same outside the schools where kids spilled out onto the pavement. No barriers meant the kids were more aware of the road, the drivers of the kids. the cobbles provided an easier ride at lower speeds. i’ve not seen much about it since until i picked up a reference to it on reddit. Apparently it’s called woonerf.

When it comes to reconfiguring streets as community spaces, ground zero is once again Holland and Denmark, where planners are removing traffic lights in some towns and cities, as well as white divider lines, sidewalks and speed limits. Research has shown that fatality rates at busy intersections, where two or three people were being killed every year, dropped to zero when controls and boundaries were taken away.

Research also suggests that an individual’s ability to interact and retain eye contact with other human beings diminishes rapidly at speeds greater than 20 miles per hour. One theory behind this magic bullet, says Hamilton-Baillie, is that 20 mph is the “maximum theoretical running speed” for human beings. (Evolutionary biologist E.O. Wilson has drawn similar conclusions.)

this week i’ve been dropping the kids off at school. i have to get two kids to different schools, both a shortish driving distance from my house but in opposite directions. zoe’s school allows access only from 8.20 to 8.30am. (this is absurd). the traffic is ungodly at this time, notably because of this very policy. If you’re lucky not to get held up in a traffic jam, you then find there’s nowhere to park to escort said daughter into the school, so what you do is drop them at the kerb. Only you can’t because there is a yellow zig-zag line telling you that you can’t stop there, a sign helpfully telling you this is for children’s safety, it being a school and all. This is madness. A five year old could design a better system than this.

If there is any justice left on this fragile earth (ignoring all far more important things) then the head will have an RSS feed of a search on Sydenham High School for Girls Junior School (which they should) and will get this. if so: get rid of the yellow lines and have a teacher’s assistant waiting on the kerb to help kids out of cars for those ten minutes. but better, do this and have supervised play from 8am. go on you know it makes sense.

btw, don’t think i haven’t had said daughter run with this as her platform when running school council, cos i have. bad dad, and she lost.

. . . and this morning i couldn’t get a ticket at the station.

seen today, clerkenwell green, london.

Near Exmouth Market, London.

Sign in Placa George Orwell, Barcelona.

O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother

Via Boingboing

Tags:orwell

Walking past a jewellers shop today I noticed a sign in the window.

10 YEAR GUARANTEE ON ALL DIAMONDS

How nice to have peace of mind. Just imagine how you’d feel if you accidentally dropped your diamond ring on a hard surface or, heaven forbid, inadvertantly left it out in the rain.

flickr tags: typical

from just 76 pictures.

and deli.cio.us has 10 URLs.

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