Wednesday: Tangle's Birthday

We appear to have acquired an office dog!  Not officially, I should add - but I have a new colleague, Tony, who brings his dog, Tangle, to work.  She is lovely, and adored by everyone.  Most of the time she lies in the corridor or just in anyone's office who will have her.  It was her 11th birthday today so Tony brought in cakes so we could celebrate in style.  I think Tangle was a bit overwhelmed with the attention as she just lay in the corridor, sighing.

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So, I am pretty blown away by Ray Bradbury's 'Fahrenheit 451'.  Much to my surprise, though, as science fiction is not really a genre I enjoy.  I think what amazed me as the prescience of it - OK, we don't burn books but the rest of it is frighteningly real, despite the fact that it was written in 1954.  For example this conversation about the lack of leisure time:

'Oh, but we have plenty of off-hours'

'Off-hours, yes.  But time to think?  If you're not driving a hundred miles an hour, at a clip where you can't think of anything else but the danger, then you're playing some game or sitting in some room where you can't argue with the four-wall televisor.  Why?  The televisor is 'real'.  It is immediate.  It has dimension.  It tells you what to think and blasts it in.  It must be right.  It seems so right.  It rushes on you so quickly to its own conclusions your mind hasn't time to protest, 'What nonsense'!'

Substitute 'televisor' for Facebook, Twitter, internet and it could have been written about today.......