please empty your brain below
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Toilet roll bloke is an inspiration, to overcome the devastation that the numbers inside toilet roll tubes were meaningless, so instead he created his own meaning.
Religion in a nutshell.
| 09.05.16 - 6:41 a.m. | #
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DG,what a very boring post this morningš I will check the inside of the loo roll next time I change it- the things I never knew! When I used to collect postcards,I found that reading the messages on them was more interesting than the views on the front. Ooooh,I'm sounding boring now,so I will sign off as THE Jo W!
Jo W | 09.05.16 - 6:58 a.m. | #
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Surely Edward Long said his recently purchased books remain wrapped, or not opened, rather than unwrapped on his desk.
dg writes: Fixed, thanks.
Dave | 09.05.16 - 7:11 a.m. | #
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Dear DG
Please, please, put your name down as a speaker for Boring 2017.
The title of your talk? Yes, it can only be, it has to be, 'Bus Stop M'.
RayL | 09.05.16 - 7:19 a.m. | #
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Surely English has three articles: "the", "a", and "an"?
timbo | 09.05.16 - 7:48 a.m. | #
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Re 14.08 Peter Fletcher: it's Rothamsted not Rothamstead, btw.
dg writes: Fixed, thanks.
shirokazan | 09.05.16 - 8:13 a.m. | #
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Seems as if they are running out of boring topics, from your blog it appears that many items were interesting this year.
John | 09.05.16 - 8:24 a.m. | #
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But surely 'an' is, in terms of its function, exactly the same as 'a' and therefore although a different word, it's not an additional article.
My two penn'orth of pedantry - a crescendo is a process, not an outcome, therefore you can't reach one.
I was going to comment anyway to say that I read the post from start to finish and it is inspiring indeed. Catherine O'Flynn's 'What Was Lost' is one of my best ever serendipitous charity shop finds by people I had never heard of.
Sarah | Homepage | 09.05.16 - 8:59 a.m. | #
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I've only been to three, but definitely agree that this year was the best I've been to yet. There were a couple of speakers that didn't really work for me, but there was nothing that made me want to bite my knuckle in pain and hope they went soon. (Totally agree re the last speaker, mind you - I'm fine with knowing people's Twitter handles and websites, indeed I've followed a few since Saturday, but handing out cards on the way out plugging your podcast seems OTT. Nowhere near as painful as last year's finish though.)
My favourite was the "the" lecture, as I could have listened to that for ages, but yes, lots of strong stuff this year. And your description of Vexations, as having "all the features of a tune without actually having one" is perfect! I sat all the way through it, and still never quite got a handle on what was going to happen next.
Something that maybe isn't quite so obvious from your splendid write-up is just how much laughter this day generates, as well as revelations and nuggets of new knowledge. And a final word just to say how funny I find James Ward. He's the perfect host. It's a great day! :-)
mighty mouse | 09.05.16 - 9:31 a.m. | #
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I am fascinated by Ampelmannchen. Shame I missed the talk. They needed a derogation from the EU to be allowed to keep them in Berlin. Nowadays they are a lovely innocuous way of differentiating the former East Berlin from the former West Berlin.
Pedantic of Purley | 09.05.16 - 9:40 a.m. | #
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Enjoyed all the talks apart from the Portrait Model - I thought it was rather mean-spirited of her to be judging the work of her painters on how much (or little) their portraits loooked like her - that's not the point of art anyway, it's what the subject looks like to the artist - their interpretation. Although I agree she was fully justified in being upset with the painter who got angry at her for being slightly redder in the face when she came back after her lunchbreak.
David | 09.05.16 - 10:16 a.m. | #
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A small quibble. Fisher's "lady tasting tea" was much earlier than 1935. Fisher joined Rothamsted Experimental Station in 1919, and according to his biography, the tea experiment happened "soon after he had come to Rothamsted", and was published "a dozen years later" in his book The Design of Experiments (1935). So early 1920s.
dg writes: Sorry, I misinterpreted my notes there. Now fixed, thanks.
Peter Cameron | Homepage | 09.05.16 - 11:09 a.m. | #
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Hmmm, that there Vexations reminds me of when I used to see how many notes I could play before anyone noticed I'd opened the lid on the "don't you dare touch that piano" piano.
B | 09.05.16 - 2:09 p.m. | #
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Iszi Lawrence once ingratiated herself out of nowhere into (what was thought to be) a non-public conversation I was having with friends on facebook. To this day I don't know how she just appeared there but... boring she wasn't :)
RogerW | 09.05.16 - 3:28 p.m. | #
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I actually own a book called "Boring Postcards"
Tony (Somerset) | 09.05.16 - 4:14 p.m. | #
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The presentation by Russell Arnott reminds me ...
The index to Yellow Pages used to contain the entry "Boring - see Civil Engineers".
(For younger readers, Yellow Pages was the paper predecessor of yell.com.)
JG Morgan | 09.05.16 - 5:36 p.m. | #
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Regarding the proposed different shapes for the aspects of traffic lights in the Ampelmann talk:
Zurich, Switzerland had these in 1961 IIRC. Round (and largest) for red, triangle for amber and square (smallest size) for green.
Looked really weird.
I can't remember what the pedestrian signals were or if any other Swiss cities had this arrangement.
I know, I'm old and boring.
baldrick | 09.05.16 - 6:19 p.m. | #
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I heard the toilet roll one mentioned on radio 4!
Looking inside (as I guess we all do now) I suspect the serial number is printed on the card before it's rolled into a tube.
Why? I suspect quality control is important in this area - you wouldn't want foreign bodies in your soft tissue.
(Is the first comment an atheist troll? no name and illogical argument, e.g. Helios driving the sun chariot was to explain the apparent order in the universe, not its meaninglessness)
RogerB | 09.05.16 - 7:40 p.m. | #
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It all sounds a lot more fun than TED talks!
James Webber | 09.05.16 - 8:16 p.m. | #
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Different shapes for the different colours of traffic lights is inspired. Perhaps an octagon (or a square) for red, similar to a stop sign; a triangle for amber (warning); and a circle for green? Why not?
Andrew | 09.05.16 - 10:37 p.m. | #
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I have to agree with commenter John who says many of this year's items appear to be interesting. The trick, I suppose, is to talk about the topic in a boring way.
I discovered the wonder of bricks when a childrenās book about them was the only reading matter available to me at the time, and Iām not exaggerating when I say it was fascinating.
GA Annie | 09.05.16 - 11:53 p.m. | #
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So that was Boring...
Grumpy Anon | 10.05.16 - 12:01 a.m. | #
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'Helios driving the sun chariot was to explain the apparent order in the universe, not its meaninglessness'
But Bog Roll Bloke was in a position to discover it was meaningless - don't forget that as a child he thought that the numbers inside toilet rolls had a meaning - that they represented order, when he found out that they didn't, he made something up anyway, humans have a need to explain things, and if they can't then they make something up.
If anything religion is an excuse not to ask questions, because religion has all the answers you need.
| 10.05.16 - 7:16 a.m. | #
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A set of pedestrian signals years ago on the east side of Camden High Street were a red devil for stop, and a green Charlie Chaplin with hat and stick for cross now. Classic, but probably replaced by some jobsworth as they did not conform to legislation.
Scrumpy | 10.05.16 - 8:00 a.m. | #
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In Wellington, NZ, green pedestrian signals in the Parliamentary area show an outline of Kate Sheppard, who led the campaign for votes for women (first country in the world for that), with plans for other local celebrities in other parts of the city.
Boring enough, one trusts?
Mike | 14.05.16 - 8:16 a.m. | #
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