The Spiral Staircase

Great Britain takes a lot of heat at Fark.com for being a nanny state: a country that goes to unwarranted and sometimes intrusive lengths to care for its citizens. Most policies and laws are charmingly eccentric, but a few step over the line of infringing upon individual liberties (which don’t always coincide with American liberties). In the former category is a trial program of padding lightposts to keep people from injuring themselves by walking into a post while texting.

Something about this strikes me as very funny, and this is a case where a picture is worth a thousand words. The so-called CrackBerry phenomenon is just sad, and I suppose constant IMing (instant messaging) is no better, so I feel no empathy for folks who can’t tear themselves away from their tiny screens. Add the element of walking into shit and injuring yourself and, well, that’s just plain funny. It’s more tragic, of course, when it’s the combination of texting and driving, or texting and railroad crossings. Human devolution has clearly begun when we’re so jacked in people can’t even handle walking down the street.