Wednesday 5 November 2008

How to tell when a driver is not paying attention

Step 1: Find them sitting in the right hand lane, not overtaking, with nothing next to them in the left hand lane.

Step 2: Get right up close behind them, encouraging them to move over, to no effect.


Step 3: Give up, pull into the left-hand lane, and overtake on the inside (which happens to be illegal in this country, when travelling faster than 60).


Step 4: Notice that as soon as you go past, they wake up and move over.


The
only explanation that is at all reasonable is that they simply had no use for their mirrors, and were blissfully ignorant of anything not happening directly in front of them.

Incompetent, dangerous, idiots.

Sunday 2 November 2008

Reshelving incorrectly shelved books

Categories in bookshops may be at times arbitrary and a bit vague, but they are at least categories.

When those categories are violated, nobody at all is helped: People finding a book in the wrong section weren't looking for it and it's a nuisance, whereas people who were looking for it don't know where to find it.


And then there's incorrect categorisation that insults everybody.

Takes, for example, this:


Dissent over Descent is a desperate attempt to argue that there is scientific lack of concensus over the basics of evolution, that Darwin doubted his own theory, and that there is something to be said in favour of allowing religion into a science classroom.

If you're not already laughing and you need a brief overview of the legitimacy of that claim, go to P. Z. Myer's synopsis of a review, here.

So imagine my disgust, some time ago, when I first walked into the University, yes University bookshop and found it sitting in the "Science" section, nestled cheek by jowl with books by Richard Feynman, who must surely have been spinning in his grave.

So I moved them to the "New Age" section, where they belonged.

And then last week, I was once again the Uni bookshop, and checked, and lo and behold, they had once again been put in the wrong spot. Tsk, tsk.

So this time I got photographic proof when I moved them to the more appropriate spot:




Search This Blog