Strange Strangers on a Train

"Excuse me, mate, do you know the speed of light?"

Not a question I'd exactly anticipated, but since I'd been listening in on their conversation (which had bounced backwards and forwards between English and German), I was somewhat prepared.

Two nerds, arguing over the speed of light, on a train. At one point, they'd involved several hapless Japanese tourists in their debate, and at another, they were pointing out to two girls that this wasn't the best way for them to pick people up on trains, and that they did do better chat-up lines. As they headed towards the door, they asked a few people, me being the last of them, if they knew which of them was closer.

Given options of 3*10^8 (or "dreimal zehn hoch acht" as he'd been stating his case) and 1.1*10^9, I helped Guy No. 1 to victory.

It was only after they got off the train that I realised they were both right - one's in m/s and the other's in km/hr.

Oops.

Toilet Humour

I spent about an hour earlier typing something like 80% of a new post, my first for over four months. Was planning on finishing it off tomorrow. But here's a little aperitif before the main course gets published.

I was googling for some info on a national park I was hoping to visit in February. The best site for it came fifth on the list. On the way to that item, I had to go past this one.

I nearly did go past it without reading it. I'm very glad I didn't. Any of the following in isolation would have cracked me up :

The "suggest a toilet" link

"My toilet map"

The web address - it's a .gov.au site, i.e. run by the Federal government

The implication that, in light of the recent election, the content of the site is under review for potential political bias

Search for options, including toilet features

The National Continence Management Strategy

"Visit other sites about continence"

Find a toilet by latitude/longitude

Find a toilet by provider

"Some of the toilet counts do not add up. Why?" (in the FAQ)

"How can I use the Toilet Map with my Global Positioning System (GPS) device?" (also in the FAQ)

I need to go and wipe my eyes.