David G Witherow

The David that can be named is not the constant David

[David G Witherow @DavidWithal]

I can remember when a fit of the vapours was something bad:

https://t.co/tt0hbpStQV

[David G Witherow @DavidWithal]

I got an email from Amazon telling me to expect an item (a four-inch G-clamp, how exciting!) to be delivered today.

I thought that might be quite a trick, since a nice man knocked on my door and handed it to me eight days ago.

And very handy it's turned out to be. Oh well.

[David G Witherow @DavidWithal]

Three fingers!

Apparently cartoons are smarter than evolution:

https://t.co/ddcLyfca1K

[David G Witherow @DavidWithal]

CDs - remember those? - were a new thing exactly forty-four years ago.

Not something, alas, I could say about myself.

https://t.co/m8VlmBooXH

[David G Witherow @DavidWithal]

The problem with age-of-consent laws is that maturation is a long and variable process, not a date on a calendar: there are plenty of mature 16-year-olds, and plenty of 19-year-olds who shouldn't be allowed out without a leash.

https://t.co/EvWOF3WGVU

[David G Witherow @DavidWithal]

I cut the grass today.

I don't have to fret about the weather guesswor- er, forecast for at least another ten days.

Bliss.

Also, Winter is Coming isn't always the terrible threat Game of Thrones made it sound like.

[David G Witherow @DavidWithal]

After all the fuss about Africa's size being underrepresented on maps, it turns out that it's actually splitting in two.

Mind you, it'll take a few million years, so I may not live to see it happen.

https://t.co/alKmmJ7pFN

[David G Witherow @DavidWithal]

My browser is currently lousy with ads for something I'm absolutely interested in owning.

So interested, in fact, that I bought one last week.

But I definitely don't need two of them.

[David G Witherow @DavidWithal]

Universities should take those among the smartest 10% of school leavers who wish to follow an academic path and train them in matters that require intelligence and education.

But now a degree is deemed too important a benefit to be restricted to those who might benefit from it.

[David G Witherow @DavidWithal]

In 1974 I was commuting from central Glasgow to Glasgow University on a daily basis, riding this very Underground from Buchanan St to Hillhead.

Apparently I'm vintage:

https://t.co/1jf2xOdkl1

[David G Witherow @DavidWithal]

If you think this is bad, just wait till the French start insisting that the Channel Islands should be theirs:

https://t.co/TNCcCWoELq

[David G Witherow @DavidWithal]

Tesla's new Cybercab may be great at finding its own way round the streets but it doesn't look like much thought has been put into the business of carrying passengers:

https://t.co/J3fTAAd6vX

[David G Witherow @DavidWithal]

The pathetically close to hilarious irony in this headline is that the single phrase that turned Scottish nationalism from a lunatic fringe to an economically plausible political movement was "It's Scotland's oil!"

[David G Witherow @DavidWithal]

Today's thought about AI: most of us - pretty much all of us, really - already live in a world created by entities more intelligent
than we are.

How much will it really matter to us if those entities are machines rather than people?

[David G Witherow @DavidWithal]

This is labelled as AI, and armed with this knowledge I could spot a fair few subtle tells.

But would I have noticed if I hadn't been forewarned? Maybe, maybe not. This is the best AI narration I've heard to date.

https://t.co/4Oao63M1jn

[David G Witherow @DavidWithal]

When I was a boy I wore, when it was needed, a heavy woollen coat with a hood, fastened by toggles, not buttons, & called a 'dufflecoat'.

By the time I was a young adult these had gone out of fashion, & it's just struck me that it's been years since I've seen or heard of one.

[David G Witherow @DavidWithal]

Amazing to think that Tubular Bells is now north of half a century old.

https://t.co/vhmajN4ifu

[David G Witherow @DavidWithal]

Apparently there's a Mexican cheese called queso fresco.

I don't know that I want to eat cheese that's been painted on somebody's wall.

[David G Witherow @DavidWithal]

My baking foil says, in prominent letters, "Always use the non-shiny side".

I'm sure there's a moral lesson there but I can't quite figure out what it is.

[David G Witherow @DavidWithal]

I heard someone refer to Pluto as a dwarf planet, and that puzzled me. Pluto is a frozen airless rock; I doubt that dwarves could live there.

Though they do have a reputation for living underground, so...