Showing posts with label death by chicken soup. Show all posts
Showing posts with label death by chicken soup. Show all posts

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Space, the Final Frontier, or, Give a Polar Bear a Platonic Kiss




You know those little toys: The ones that appear to be made only in China, where health and safety regulations are more suggestions than legislation? The toys which, when soaked in water, increase to 600% of their original size? I’d love to see that factory- either it’s a massive sprawling warehouse, or a really tiny, well-waterproofed one.

What if all those toys worldwide suddenly came into contact with water? All very well, Great Britain-sized ice shelves detaching from continental Antarctica, but how real is the risk of flooding? I hereby propose to the United Nations that all toyshops and markets stocking those toys be relocated to mountaintops. I, for one, do not wish to be smothered by a giant rubber dinosaur.

And the same goes for instant food: Food that comes desiccated in boxes: Just add water and boil. Warning, Food keeps on expanding after removed from heat.
Hmm. And for just how long does it keep on expanding? They could at least add a clause that says ‘until 17.00 on Wednesday’. What if all dried food suddenly got rehydrated?

And self-inflatable life-rafts and jackets. What if, for some hitherto undiscovered reason, these all inflated?

As much as I love polar bears (who hasn’t succumbed to a little bear fantasy occasionally?), the real worry for me about global warming is products designed to expand when they come into contact with water. I’m no Al Gore, but I think we should all drive our hybrid cars down to the seaside and ponder this.

If, and this is not really an if, but a WHEN, the tidal surge comes, you’ll find me rafting down a slick of chicken-noodle-bolognaise, because I, for one, am prepared.