All posts by erk

I love writing, computers, puns... and can sometimes be spiritual, or mindful.

A Bear on the Beach

In literature, there is a concept called to place “a bear on the beach.”

The origin of the expression is said to come from a silent film where the director wanted a couple of lovers to kiss on a beach, but in order to keep the kiss scenes from being boring, the director cut in shots of a bear on the same beach. The audience waited breathlessly for the kissing couple to discover the bear.

Continue reading A Bear on the Beach

Do you Really Understand Climate Change?

At the doctor’s office

Doctor: We’ve found a shadow on your x-ray. We can’t be sure exactly what it is before we operate, and that operation will be painful, but there is a very high risk this is a malignant tumor. You could die!

Patient: What are we waiting for! Let’s act now!

At the IPCC

Scientist: We’ve found some very disturbing links between carbon dioxide emissions and temperature rise. We recommend immediate action, even if that action will be painful. Temperature rise is bad news and there is a very high risk that several hundreds of millions of people will die if we do nothing.

Politician: Let’s wait and see what happens.

Now swap the answers!

Do you trust a politician that has not been able to do what must be done when hundreds of millions of lives are at stake, but will (if they are wired like any sane person) risk suffering to save their own life?


Header image: By pxhere.com, CC0, Link

Self-defense

A: I don’t give a damn about your problems! This must be delivered this week!

B punches A in the face.

A: What the hell are you doing?

B: You just gave me such an urge to jump in front of a train when you said that, so I acted in self-defense…

UFO skeptics

A: I don’t get UFO-skeptics. They seem to say we’ve never been visited by aliens from other planets… but hey! Mexicans!

B: They are from Mexico.

A: Yes.

B: Mexico isn’t another planet.

A: It isn’t?!

Talk to the Form

Remember in the old days when someone really rude didn’t want to talk to you? They’d push their hand in your face telling you to “talk to the hand.”

The modern equivalent of this, performed by every company on the web?

Talk to the Form.

You click on the “Start a Chat” button and get a search form. You type your question there and get a search result (duh!) Or you click on links until you reach a dead-end page with some generally worded advice equivalent to “have you made sure the power cable is attached properly?”

And then the company has “satisfied” your needs.

It is soooo great. And ssssoooo cheap.

I’m sure some types of managers are getting their rocks off right now. Good for them.