Earth Hour?

In Berlin, there’s the 18th Long Shopping Night instead…

Super Gulf

It’s been hot lately and I made a discovery on Berlin’s Große Hamburger Str. One of those Arabic imbisses sells water that seems to be of Arabic origin.

Reading the fine print:

PRODUCED AND BOTTLED BY

GULF PURE WATER CO. (SUPER GULF) UMM AL QUWAIN, UAE.

Now that doesn’t make much sense. To transport bottled water from one of the most arid places in the world to a city that’s drowning in its own ground water.

A visit to the Super Gulf website further enlights you about the design values of this globalised product:

Our unique bottle design is the result of day’s work of our Japanese engineers. The aim was to have a bottle, which is easy to hold in hand. To make it different, you will find three small mountains inside the bottle at the bottom.

All this reminded me of the “I am Bedu” scene in Lawrence of Arabia. To close this matter, let me pull a quote from an essay I found on website Hub O’ Love

There is a poignant scene in the 1962 David Lean motion picture, Lawrence of Arabia in which Lawrence’s guide offers Lawrence a drink of water. As Lawrence is about to drink he asks, “You do not drink?” – “I am Bedu” replies the guide. Lawrence promptly pours the water back into the canteen and says; “I will drink when you drink.”

Angry Dave

Just finished installing a new computer. The one I’m still typing this with, served three years pretty ok. There was only one wipeout hard disk failure.

It is a well-unknown fact that there’s a secret program hidden in every computer. Its purpose is to make the computer slower and slower so that in three years it becomes practically useless. That program is called Angry Dave.

Mis-cited Moore’s law states that computing power doubles every 18 months. Angry Dave counteracts that by halving the computing power every three years. It’s been put in place by a luddite conspiracy to hinder us reaching technological singularity.

“Daisy Bell” (or “Bicycle Built for Two”)