nocto

from the pointless statistics department i find out that:

last year, the british spent £41 each on hot drinks “to go” … the average uk resident consumes £137 worth of sandwiches, pasties, pizza slices and the like annually – twice what germans spend.

the amounts seem awfully low to me. have the germans got a better pricing policy on triangular sandwiches?

my sister’s 7th birthday is being relived on the web. an evening with ceefax contains a complete page capture of bbc1 ceefax from 1983. hi-de-hi was on in prime time, tv stopped at about midnight and president reagan was cancelling trips to the phillipines. (it’s a pity the birthday pages were broadcast on another channel!)

what stands out to me is that although we’re still using practically the exact same teletext system two decades later (we’ve added some coloured buttons for easier page jumping but i don’t think that much else is new in analogue tv?) the design has improved a lot. there are some people out there who have got very very good at packing information into an 40×24 character screen and who have great skill at monotype justification. it’s dated technology but i hope it’s not outdated yet.

[found via linkmachinego]

here’s how to find out if you are part of the dido demographic. If you have 12 of the following albums [from a selection of 25] among your cds, you’re a dido. if you have any more than that, seek help. we’re not sure from whom, but seek it anyway.

i can do ten but some are lps rather than cds though i have at least one on both formats. i’m not quite in need of help yet, and i don’t agree with everything the article says, but then i wouldn’t, would i?

i was looking for some interesting ways to use up the other half of the packet of filo pastry in my fridge. the filo-pastry-fax isn’t quite what i had in mind.

thin sheets of filo pastry could be (half) baked so they are still flexible yet do not stick together. they could then be strapped together somehow to form a book, in which the owner could write addresses and schedules and stuff. when full, the “filo-pastry-fax” could then be re-cooked and eaten as either a savoury or sweet.

there’s plenty more half baked ideas at the half bakery.