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Watching 29,000 aircraft

Time lapse video of aircraft flight patterns over the USA

This isn’t a new video, but certainly one I like: a time lapse video of flight patterns over North America as they unfold over the course of a day.

You can clearly see the wave of activity following the time zones east to west as the morning commuter flights do their thing. International flights follow a different drummer.

One of the reasons I like this video is that it reminds us we’re all part of something much, much bigger. In this case it’s the human-made world of aviation, but like the Powers of Ten video, it helps generate a sense of perspective.

Thanks to The Long Now Foundation for the reminder — and follow their blog for many more similar reminders, such as a 35-year time lapse of the Tokyo skyline and some slow art.

I’ll write more about The Long Now Foundation another time.

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Weekly Poll: Revealing comments

If you listen closely to the conversations between you and your friends, you’ll discover tiny little phrases that reveal who you really are.

So this week’s poll — yes, I know it’s a week late, deal with it! — asks you to choose from a number of phrases the one you’re most likely to use in conversation. Go to the website to vote.

[poll id=”10″]

Last week’s results: Yes, without a doubt, Duran Duran is the greatest band in the history of pop.

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Feeling flat? Blame Sydney!

Are you feeling as uninspired today as I am? Been like that all week? Perhaps it’s what I’m going to start calling “The Sydney Effect”.

OK, if you’re not in Sydney this won’t work for you. But today it’s not just me feeling flat. So is my office manager. So is The Other Andrew. So are most people I’ve spoken with on the phone — and email volume is definitely down today.

A few years back I was talking with a psychiatrist who’d practised all over the world, including Sydney, London, the US, Europe. He’d noticed that in every city, each day his clients would be in different moods depending on what’d been happening in their life. Every city, that is, except Sydney.

In Sydney, if his first client was depressed, then everyone else that day would be depressed too. If that first client was angry, so was everyone else.

He didn’t know why, he just knew that it happened.

Maybe I should run a test each morning. Phone someone at random, see what mood they’re in, and plan the rest of the day accordingly.

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“Pirates?” Sheep, more like it!

Currently my Facebook status reads:

Stilgherrian is going to tell everyone who Talks Like A Pirate today that they’re a gullible unimaginative fuckwit of a sheep.

Mass-organised opportunities to “do something different”, like International Talk Like a Pirate Day, are just another way in which peer-pressure is deployed to make people conform to certain group behaviours. Yes, you can have fun in your life — but only this kind of fun. And only today.

And the rest of the time you can continue being a dutiful little cog in the machine.

Sorry, I’m capable of making my own fun. And I will decide what sort of fun I have in my life, and the circumstances in which I’ll have it.

And I certainly won’t put up with people exerting peer pressure, saying “X is wondering if Stilgherrian is a ‘Land Lubber’?” How dare you imply I’m behaving unacceptably just because I happen not to join your pathetic mob action.