The first post of the new year features airships! Huzzah!
The new vehicle set to revolutionise the skies — BBC News
I love airships, therefore I love this. I’m absolutely thrilled. I’ve long said that the world needs airships — in a post-fossil world, I envision solar-powered airships taking over from carbon-belching jet airliners. Sure, they wouldn’t be as fast, but how many people really need to zip speedily across the ocean in but a few hours? Bring back a touch of class, of style, of luxury! Return to the future that never was! Bring back the airship!
For the last several months, I have been indulging in an experiment in personal grooming: namely, beardedness. I’d often wondered how I would look with a beard, and as I had some leisure time and no other immediate pressing use for the lower half of my face, I decided to attempt the enterprise. My follicular fervor was further fueled (say that five times fast) by the exorbitant prices of razor blades, not to mention the generally flayed condition in which they leave my face. So I did what seemed the only sensible thing, and removed myself from the fray.
The experiment progressed through several stages: “This itches”; “This really itches”; “Sweet Cthulhu, make the itching stop!”; “Thank goodness this no longer itches”; “Hey, this is starting to look halfway decent”; “Why is my beard curling and going fuzzy?”; and finally, “It still itches!” Through careful application of an electrically-powered beard trimmer (the wonders of modern technology!), I was able to control my beard, keeping it somewhere between “halfway decent” and “curling and fuzzy.” At its best, I thought it looked rather professorial. At its worst, I worried about being pulled out of the ticket-line the next time I attempted to board some form of mass transit.
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