RIP: David Prowse

He passed away after a short illness, at his age I would guess pneumonia. He made it to 85.

Famous for embodying Darth Vader, he was significant for many things in his life, including working with public safety programs in the UK. He also set three weight-lifting records.

He did not voice Darth because of his thick accent. He was also quite POd at Lucas when his helmet was taken off in Episode 6: The Return of the Jedi, and he was replaced with Mister Potato Head.

He auditioned for both Darth Vader and Chewbacca and was given the choice. He said 'Give me the baddie. People remember the baddie.' Well, in this case, both roles will not be forgotten.

Wikipedia lists some of his other acting roles as the Black Night in Jabberwocky, a minotaur in Doctor Who (I believe Tom Baker era), and Hotblack Desiato's bodyguard in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, I assume the original TV series.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-prowse-idUSKBN2890DY

I really enjoy this comic!

Freefall is a science fiction uplift comic about a wolf that has an uplifted intelligence, her name is Florence. This character is an alien called Sam, a race called Sqids(?) who are notorious and ineffectual criminals. Agents of chaos, morelike. Anyway, this comic appeared Friday and most likely will be gone Monday.

http://freefall.purrsia.com/

This is what I love about "targeted advertising"

The fact about it's anything but.

This morning I received an ad for "The surprisingly low cost for cremation in Cloudcroft!"

The surprise is that the cost would be either zero or infinite as there are no crematoriums or mortuaries in Cloudcroft. I also love the ads for "Fantastic senior retirement homes in Cloudcroft!" as there aren't any of those up here CLOUDCROFT IS A VILLAGE OF EIGHT HUNDRED PEOPLE! We don't even have a traffic light! We do have a school zone, though. And one gas station/mini-mart, 24-hour.

Now, these ads are based on geolocation information coded into routers in my area, the ad servers are completely dumb appliances. They don't know better. But it is kinda funny.

But the one that inspired this post was from a header ad that Yahoo Mail, owned by Verizon, decided would be appropriate for me.

From Amazon.

All is said was "Birdhouse skateboards jaws lava deck 8.25 inches." All lower case.

Obviously I'm not going to click on any ad, it's much more fun to make ridiculous inferences that will probably be wildly inaccurate!

So what have we got?

A manufacturer of skateboards named Birdhouse? Passes the reasonableness test. Could well be.

As I recall, a 'deck' is also a synonym for the board upon which skateboarders skate.

So does Birdhouse make a line of boards called Jaws Lava that are either 8.25" wide or long? Either dimension seems kinda ridiculous, but a board 8.25" long would make an awesome video! Though I wouldn't want to be the paramedics on standby.