On Earth 鈥�
As a fresh-faced 18-year-old, Michael Owen鈥檚 round of 16 raised hopes of a new golden era of English football 鈥� 鈥渟occer鈥�, we add, looking in no particular direction 鈥� just as surely as David Beckham鈥檚 subsequent . Back then, it was only 32 years of hurt; by now it is getting silly.
Altogether more forward-facing is Owen鈥檚 recent reinvention as a crypto guru. 鈥淟ooks to me like blockchain is here to stay,鈥� he , hence he was working with a blockchain specialist on 鈥渁 really exciting new football project鈥�.
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Rapid reaction on the social media site renowned for rapid unkind reaction was predictably unkind, largely along the lines that Owen possibly didn鈥檛 actually know what blockchain is. If so, he is welcome to join our club any time.
This seems to follow a trend of ex-elite sportspeople advertising cryptocurrency projects, something we can associate with the ennui and need for new revenue streams associated with being an ex-elite sportsperson. We click further, on our eternal quest for both excitement and enlightenment. 鈥淭he first Michael Owen official NFT collection comprises of 1233 NFT鈥檚 that are available across 5 increasingly exclusive tiers,鈥� we read. We are somewhat the wiser: the blockchain is about football stickers. Welcome to the future.
鈥� as it is in heaven
And much, much good may come of this sort of thing, going by a press release on behalf of a 鈥渧isionary NFT production house鈥� thrust our way by a colleague with eyes not so much rolling as whirling like pulsars.
鈥淥n April 3, they鈥檙e launching 30 NFTs from their bestselling 鈥楪reatest Minds of Our Time鈥� 鈥� pop-art images of inspirational figures, such as Oprah, Elon Musk, and the Dalai Lama 鈥� into orbit on SpaceX,鈥� the PR puff breathlessly informs us. 鈥淥nce in space, passenger Israeli air force pilot Eytan Stibb [sic] will call them up on his tablet and bless them with starlight and cosmic rays. He鈥檒l then 鈥榙rop鈥� them from space directly into the blockchain collection.鈥�
The selection of great minds of our time is interesting, but the ultimate aim 鈥� to auction the widgets off for the benefit of clean-water charities 鈥� is laudable. The whole process does strike us as a mite overcomplicated, though, given that starlight and cosmic rays are freely available on Earth. An interesting metaphysical question is, if digital art exists only when constituted as pixels, and is called into life only when in orbit, has it been launched into orbit?
No matter. We detect a whiff of good old performance art in all this, so we will politely just nod and smile.
Small island far away
Ceri Brown writes from Haverfordwest in Wales, , part of the Pitcairn group in the South Pacific that through historical accident finds itself a UK Overseas Territory. Populated largely by native crabs and non-native plastic waste, it is perhaps a measure of the seriousness with which the UK has taken its stewardship up till now that the Royal Navy recently found it situated about 1.5 kilometres to the south of where it thought it was.
鈥淗enderson Island is uninhabited and is about the size of Oxford,鈥� the article states, presumably following the principle of British units for British places. 鈥淐ould you convert that to fractions of a Berkshire please?鈥� asks Ceri, catching us slightly off guard. No, but in standard Imperial units, it is a smidgen under 2 milliWales. That is if anyone is actually sure how big Henderson Island is.
Atmospheric surge
This admirable effort to make global news local sends us rootling in our piles for a headline from the Essex Live website in the UK sent in by Anthony Jamieson in January. , it screams, adding in smaller typeface that the pressure in Heybridge, Essex, jumped 鈥渇rom just over 1,023 millibars of pressure to 1,024鈥�. No eardrums burst, we hope.
Out of time
Gerben Wierda writes from the Netherlands currying favour 鈥� quite our favourite curryable material 鈥� and challenging the orthodoxy that true New 杏吧原创 aficionados read the magazine back to front.
鈥淚 read NS from front to back,鈥� he says, 鈥渂ut Feedback plays an important role in my NS backlog management. If I come across an issue and I am uncertain if it has been read, I check the first entry in Feedback.鈥� We are thus not only the most memorable bit of the magazine, he says, but 鈥渓ike dessert: that most enjoyable end of a good experience.鈥�
Your cheque is in the post. Of course, we recognise that the true measure of an aficionado of this magazine is a backlog of issues that you always convince yourself you are going to clear. Being stuck on the issue of 9 October 2021 has its advantages, says Gerben. 鈥淥ne can read news articles about the possible rise of the new delta variant of covid-19 and remain in a world that is still blissfully free of war crimes being performed in Ukraine.鈥� We hear you.
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