Month: December 2004
The Anthropology of Roads
By Dr Stewart Roberts My anthropological study of roads emerged from my observation that motorists and pedestrians seem to ignore the existence of cyclists, as if they are not really present with them on the route ways they traverse. Of course, this led me to suspect that much is going on at the subconscious level, where cyclists are being “filtered out”. It was also quite telling that when motorists and pedestrians do seem to notice cyclists, it is to engage in violent altercations with them. The invention of the bicycle in 1861 represents the beginning of the modern era. Those who remained pedestrians after this watershed moment represent a backwards-looking and resentful tendency that has greeted modernity. Fear of technology, and a belief that everything was better in the past, has given rise to the pedestrian of today. It is notable that even though the noun “pedestrian” is neutral in...
School of Comic Phisics Opens in Dublin
Is this a joke? A clown college? Ah, if Oskie Wilde were only alive to see it now... You can't make this shit up. Two days ago, a little burd (you know you are) told me about a rather surreal spelling mistake on a Dublin Bus stop in Merrion Square. In the buttery sunset (this time of year? Just after lunch.), I stole into the southside in black ninja gear and with my camera bag. Across from Wilde's decadent repose, and a few doors down from the American College, is the School of Cosmic Physics, part of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. Outside is a bus stop. It looks much like any other bus stop in Dublin. A blue pole, with the Dublin Bus logo on it, and a load of bus numbers and times, as well as the location of the bus stop. But look a little bit...