A stripped-down Qantas Boeing 747 made a non-stop London to Sydney delivery flight on the 16th of August 1989. https://simpleflying.com/qanta...

What kind of Engineer would God be? A mechanical, an electrical, a chemical and a civil engineer fell into an argument what kind of engineer God would be. Using Man, the crown of God's creation as an example each of the engineers argued his case. The mechanical engineer explained: " Look at the skeleton, the joints, the spine and the delicate balance it is capable of. God must be a mechanical engineer". "Wait a second" replied the electrical engineer. " Look at the nervous system, the eyes and the brain, that is electrical engineering at its best. God must be an electrical engineer". The chemical engineer stated: " The digestive system, the blood circulation, the liver, the lungs and the intestines are the best of the best in chemical engineering. God must be a chemical engineer". The civil engineer smiled: "You are all wrong. Of course God is a civil engineer". Astonished the other engineers demanded him to explain." Look at Man as a whole. It is a little bit of everything like in civil engineering. And only a civil engineer could come up with the idea to lay the waste water pipe straight through the amusement park"

I've had that particular version on my computers since 2009, but I remember it from quite a few years before that

A bunch of people are convinced that the appropriate greeting when meeting a space alien is "Gnorts."
Why "Gnorts", you ask?
It's simple. In the heavily-orchestrated, government-disinformation-rich Apollo Moon landing program, what was the name the government used to refer to the first man who landed on the Moon?
"Neil Armstrong."
Yeah, right, as if that's his real name. Turns out it was in code.
Backwards, it is:
"Gnorts, Mr. Alien!"

Many years ago, I was thinking about how to have an astronaut and cosmonaut step onto the surface of Mars at the same time. I thought about the idea of a funny cartoon where the astronaut's and cosmonaut's spacesuits both share a big boot between them and are looking at each other warily as they put the shared boot forward to step onto the surface of Mars for the first time.

Land rights for gay whales!

I'm surprised nobody has posted a link to this video about cats on the internet yet https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Saw this cartoon on a library wall in the 1990's http://english-zone.com/member...

Reminds me of the "Hex Date" story which I saw in the 1980's https://hermit.cc/it/hardware/...

There was a case on a television series, where two trainers were planning for a dog to do a complex stunt. They worked it all out, and then, when the dog was going to be trained for the stunt, it did it unprompted, leading to the trainers thinking the dog was telepathic. I have wondered whether the dog had simply overheard the trainers planning the stunt and acted accordingly.

As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. - H.L. Mencken

“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents." - USMC Major General Smedley D. Butler, War is a Racket

A former classmate and a friend of mine from a New Zealand public primary school had his children homeschooled by his wife. They were both university graduates, very religious and conservative and didn't want their children to be influenced by atheist public schools. Things were going along fine until his wife came into a substantial inheritance from her mother in the USA. Her grandfather had been a top executive for a well-known company in the USA and had become quite wealthy. She promptly told my friend to close down his business and let her control the family. He didn't appreciate her telling him to drop everything and so they separated. Several of the younger children went with her when she moved to another area in New Zealand and a few of the elder ones stayed with my friend. She joined a very conservative splinter cult in the new area and she doesn't seem to be putting much effort into homeschooling her younger children. So homeschooling worked fine for his elder children, but now the younger children are missing out on a good education.

We have a Panasonic microwave oven and a few dozen Panasonic Eneloop rechargeable AAA and AA batteries. Panasonic New Zealand did a memorable TV commercial some years ago that is still occasionally seen https://www.youtube.com/watch?...