Player of Games is interesting - the main character, a gamer, goes to a non-idyllic civilisation because he’s fucked up his idyllic Culture life.

more or less still the same genetically for the past 10,000 years

That doesn’t stop people from trying.

Terrifying pic in that link. I don’t think a poptart would distract that fella.

Is it? How time flies…

There were several of them! Several!

“…the idea of freedom might be too great a temptation for them to resist.”

What an arse.

I downloaded the Wikipedia app - I usually end up there anyway, just now I just cut to the chase.

https://b2bnews.co.nz/news/peter-thiels-exit-from-new-zealand-a-decade-of-investments-controversy-and-unmet-expectations/

I started reading this article yesterday (after reading about the Belfast bullshit) and got as far as: “I’ve come to see how this country got itself so well on to the straight and narrow and see the beauty of a civilised society here” before deciding that’s enough news for one day.

If you live anywhere near a large body of water, try and find a chandlers that sells marine hardware. You can get stainless steel snap shackles that won’t rust and will stand up to the weight of wet laundry. Expensive but worth it.

Criminal enterprise counts as a job?

Ha ha, this one snagged me as well. Body-snatching declined because graveyards employed night watchmen (maybe that’s a job that disappeared?) and wealthy families had metal “mortsafes” built on fresh graves. The bodies of executed criminals had always been available for dissection, but demand outstripped supply.

I’ve had a lot of good food in Scotland, but one of the most memorable meals was in the Crinan Hotel’s seafood bar - a big plate of langoustines that had been caught that morning, served with perfect chips and aoli. On the menu they were called Loch Crinan jumbo prawns.

My current phone came with usb-c earbuds. I use them occasionally.

Page is 404 now.

I was in Glasgow a fair bit during the Commonwealth Games and the locals were almost aggressively friendly, it was pretty funny. I live in Edinburgh and I like going to Glasgow for a break from all the tourists.

And then there’s the superb lyrebird…

Excellent, thanks! I’ll be sowing those seeds in autumn.

It originates off some legend that a large team of monks gathered to meditate and pray together on a given day. The city’s crime rate drastically fell on that day.

Probably the claimed “Maharishi effect” in 1974. The Transcendental Meditation organisation (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi) said that the quality of life would noticeably improve if at least the square root of 1% of the population practised the TM technique. They claimed the crime rate fell in some cities in 1974 because of it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendental_Meditation

And then doused in mayo. Droooool.

I had to get a taxi at 6am on a Sunday, and had a chat about alarms with the driver. His solution is an old-fashioned wind-up alarm clock, the kind with bells on the top, positioned out of reach. Mine is to bang my head on the pillow - getting up at 5am? Five bangs. Then I wake up five minutes before the alarm. Yes, I still have an alarm, but I’ve trained myself to sleep through it. :-/