The devil's typeface

If you ever doubted the humorous resources of scientists, consider the typeface employed by the Poindexters who all but confirmed the existence of the Higgs Boson yesterday:

Only the other day I was telling someone of my intention to have my gravestone done in Comic Sans, preferably with !! sprinkled liberally around. It'll relieve the grief, I think. And if I ever get diagnosed with a terminal disease, I hope the news will be delivered like this:

See? Doesn't that seem less depressing already? It works for all sorts of buddy-duddy old texts. Here's Churchill's Chamberlain's (thanks, Steve Sarson and Grumpy Historian, I am a moron) declaration of war, transformed by Comic Sans into a jolly jape:

And who could resist the Declaration of Independence in Comic Sans?

The CERN scientists had to make a special effort to use Comic Sans - their PCs run a form of Linux, but I guess they had the right to be a bit flippant when they've made the discovery of a century. But I think Twitter's right - every time Comic Sans is used, a kitten dies. And students - every time you use it, a grade point dies too. 

Guerilla typefaces

You all know that I'm an old-fashioned statist (though one with syndicalist leanings), and a fan of typography. So you won't be surprised that I'm impressed and touched by this magnificent synthesis.

The Russian currency (rouble) never had a symbol as the $, £ and € do. The government announced a design competition, but the designers couldn't be arsed with the kind of mimsy bureaucratic stuff, so they just got together and came up with a winner.

There's no law enforcing it, no official approval - but it's being used everywhere.

And that, my friends, is why syndicalism, workers' collectives and anarcho-communism is far better than Stalinist state capitalism any day. If you don't believe me, read Ken MacLeod's Scottish-Trotskyist-Libertarian science fiction novels.

Talking of novels, nothing in the post today except some strike leaflets and a Felt compilation, but I did read two yesterday: Caitlin Moran's How To Be A Woman (I've cancelled the surgery after reading this book) and Mary Poppins Opens The Door. Moran's book is a breezy bit of fun, with some local interest - she's from The Dark Place, and I'd recommend it to any bright but blinkered 18yr-old. She's not as funny and clever as she thinks she is, but she is quite funny and clever. Recommended.

The Mary Poppins is much more interesting. Cast aside your Disney glasses: the literary Mary is a capricious, often cold, forbidding and untrustworthy individual, and there are some very interesting mystical interludes which have very little to do with the rest of the work. Absolutely fascinating.

Well, that's me done for the week. I'm off to my Olympics interview tomorrow - which sadly means I'll miss Paul Uppal appearing at a Climate Change meeting in the Civic Centre at 2. Won't someone go and report back on his pearls of wisdom?

Komedy Korner

Comic Sans walks into a bar.
"Sorry sir, I'm afraid we don't like your type around here".

Thankyewverymuch. Admittedly this would be funnier if Blogger allowed the use of Comic Sans (in controlled circumstances).