Son of Groucho

"Retired IT manager Nigel Clarke, from Kent in the UK, has launched a website listing the call centre menu sequences for accessing thousands of services. He started the project after growing frustrated about the number of options and amount of recorded information on call centre menus. Mr Clarke discovered that some automated menus have nearly 80 options. It can take over four minutes to get to the service required if the caller listens to each stage in full, he said. As an example, speaking to an adviser at HM Revenue and Customs only required pressing four buttons but it could take six minutes to get through each menu level, Mr Clarke said. HMRC said it was working on improvements to the service. "HMRC is looking at ways to improve its interactive voice responses and is getting ready for the introduction of new speech recognition technology," said a spokesman. "This technology will react to what the caller says instead of asking them to select an option by pushing a button on their phone. HMRC plan to introduce these improvements later this year."" - Son of Groucho from Bookmarklet

The menu for my local station is ridiculous. I've found it much easier to just drive over there. - Anika

"A would-be robber had a lucky escape after he was struck by a bus, moments after he snatched a woman's mobile phone. The incident happened in the Colombian city of Bogota, and was captured on CCTV. The man escaped with only minor injuries, while his victim's mobile phone was returned to her. Tim Allman reports." - Son of Groucho from Bookmarklet

"Miss Cakehead writes, "This set of Zombie Swimming Pool Rules was comissioned from graphic designer Pictographik to promote the Resident Evil Revelations blood swimming pool, and was based on an the iconic traditional British swimming pool rules. The pop up 'blood' filled swimming pool opens in London next week to mark the release of Resident Evil Revelations. In addition to its bloody appearance the swimming pool will offer floats in the form of human torsos, feature brains and intestines as lane markers, have Zombie lifeguards on duty and even offer a diving board in the form of a 'freshly killed human corpse'."" - Son of Groucho from Bookmarklet

I was hoping a few MPs would be contributing their bodies to this... - Son of Groucho

You know, I never met him, and I've been to Scotland half a dozen times :-/ - Halil

Me, either. - WoH: Professor MOTHRA

Bob! :D - Jennifer Dittrich

:-D - John (bird whisperer)

wow, cool effect, looks ancient - Halil

Produced easily with Silver Efex Pro, which is a great Photoshop plugin. The monument is not very old. From Wikipedia: "In 1815, the Jacobite cause was no longer a political threat. Alexander Macdonald of Glenaladale built a memorial tower at Glenfinnan surmounted by a statue of an anonymous Highlander in a kilt, to commemorate the raising of the standard. The tower was designed by the... more... - Son of Groucho

From Halil. - Son of Groucho

didgeridoos - can you say that 10x really fast? :-) - Halil

"A reader snapped a photograph of that sign at the The Albion Beatnik bookstore in Oxford. UPDATE: One reader reminds us that the sign was adapted from a typography broadside written by Beatrice Warde about the power of type. You can read her original inspirational message here. The sign has been viewed thousands of times online as digital readers share their love of bookstores. Here’s more about the Albion Beatnik at For Book’s Sake (be sure to read the entire review): Opening some time around midday and usually closing after midnight, this is a place where you can sit in dilapidated red buttonback sofas and choose the poet mug you want to drink your (very strong, very good) coffee out of (I’m always Sylvia Plath. Fortunately there are two Plath mugs so I rarely have to resort to actually wrestling the other clientele or settling for Seamus Heaney) … It’s a place where zinesters meet to pillage material for handmades, politics students tap out theses whilst stopping to explain... more... - Son of Groucho from Bookmarklet

My daughter, Lorna, completed her first 10K today in 1 hour 6 minutes and 1 second. Pictured here with my sister-in-law Barbara who trained her. - Son of Groucho from Bookmarklet

"Renowned author Dan Brown woke up in his luxurious four-poster bed in his expensive $10 million house – and immediately he felt angry. Most people would have thought that the 48-year-old man had no reason to be angry. After all, the famous writer had a new book coming out. But that was the problem. A new book meant an inevitable attack on the rich novelist by the wealthy wordsmith’s fiercest foes. The critics. Renowned author Dan Brown hated the critics. Ever since he had become one of the world’s top renowned authors they had made fun of him. They had mocked bestselling book The Da Vinci Code, successful novel Digital Fortress, popular tome Deception Point, money-spinning volume Angels & Demons and chart-topping work of narrative fiction The Lost Symbol. The critics said his writing was clumsy, ungrammatical, repetitive and repetitive. They said it was full of unnecessary tautology. They said his prose was swamped in a sea of mixed metaphors. For some reason they found something... more... - Son of Groucho from Bookmarklet

To me, it represents the fickleness of being an artist. In music, Dream Theater is the best bunch of musicians you've never heard of...while Creed continues to sell albums of total crap (critically speaking). There's no explaining why people flock to one artist while another starves. - Bubba was a rollin stone

From Nemo. - Son of Groucho

From John. - Son of Groucho