Alienation

Listening to Radio National's Books and Arts Daily program about a new play Alienation (not to be confused with Alien Nation - a science fiction television series from some years back where speckle-headed aliens come to share Earth) I was surprised to hear comment that being an alien abductee could be a bit like being someone from the WatchTower Society (aka Jehovah's Witnesses) - no matter how much you believe what you are saying, no-one is going to believe you (or listen to you?).  

Good news - RSI is no more

It was bound to happen sooner or later - it appears that RSI - Repetitive Strain Injury - is no longer a problem in the workplace.  It has apparently been replaced by Occupational Overuse Syndrome.  I'm not sure where I was when that changeover took place - but I'm glad I'm up-to-date now!  

Scared?

I'm rewatching "The Mist'' (based on Stephen King's novel of the same name) and this version is in black and white. I'm fairly sure the original was in colour and filled with horrific images and lots of blood and gore. Is it more or less scary in colour? Have they even done studies into this - and, if so, how would they measure different levels of "scared"? And does level of "scared" vary from person to person? Is there a common denominator - a scare rating?

Mind the brain

The mind is truly an amazing thing. Years ago, an item made its way around the internet - it was a paragraph where all the letters of the words were jumbled save for the first and last letters. The point was that you could read and understand it and I always thought it could have a great application for those puzzles you see - 9 or so letters usually in a 3 x 3 grid, and you had to find as many words words as possible, including the 9-letter one, Well, I was stumped this morning with this one: CEO NNO TPM, I tried combination after combination, none the wiser: PEMTONCON, PONTEMCON, CONTEMPON, CONNOTEMP. My second-last shuffle gave - still no joy - CEMTONNOP and then - my last go before l resorted to an anagram program: CONEMOPNT. And just as I thought: if I had the right first and last letters, would the world magically appear - it did! Brain 1: Me 0. Highlight the space COMPONENT and copy and paste it into your browser search bar to see the answer if you don't have it already!

The brain still works ... just!

I saw this vehicle at the Markets this morning and it took me two looks to actually work out what it meant! Ah well, next time I see something like this I might get it first time!