The price of everything

Ludicrous speed

“Col. Sandurz:             Prepare ship for light speed!

Dark Helmet:              No, no, no, light speed is too slow!

Col. Sandurz:              Light speed, too slow?!

Dark Helmet:              Yes, we’re gonna have to go right to…ludicrous speed!

Col. Sandurz:              Ludicrous speed?! Sir, we’ve never gone that fast before. I don’t know    if the ship can take it.

Dark Helmet:              What’s the matter Colonel Sandurz? Chicken?”

• From Mel Brooks’ Spaceballs, writers Mel Brooks, Thomas Meehan and Ronny Graham.

 

Readers with a spare hour on their hands – and these days, who hasn’t ? – may wish to watch this short film by the late Professor Albert Bartlett of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Its official title is ‘Arithmetic, Population and Energy’ but it is just as accurately described on YouTube as the most important video you’ll ever see.

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Crisis and opportunity

“This is rumour control. Here are the facts !”

• Andrews (Brian Glover), Alien 3.

 

“F*** it, I’m going 100% takeaway.

1. Supermarkets have earned enough
2. Local businesses need support
3. I’ve always wanted to live like this.”

• Tweet from Geoff Norcott, 20^th March 2020.

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Weeks where decades happen

Well, that escalated quickly.

When historians come to run their lenses over the market and social environment of early 2020, the chances are that they will not treat the mainstream media particularly charitably. Nor should they. This is a point well discussed by the statistician Graeme Archer in his Unherd essay, We don’t deserve our wretched media class:

The Times, this morning: “Boris Johnson will attempt to wrest back control of the coronavirus crisis today after No 10 was stung by criticism of its performance and the death toll rose to 35.” One small sentence, of the sort your eye glides over daily by the bucketload in our wonderful British press. Let’s take it apart.

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