For example, Britain’s national mapping organisation’s brand is associated in our national consciousness with going to a small shop in a quaint village to get a map showing how to walk up a mountain. It’s called Ordnance Survey. If that sounds like Artillery Research to you, that’s because the project started because the king wanted to know how to accurately bomb Scotland.

  • ADKSilence@kbin.earth
    29·
    6 hours ago

    Driving.

    Somehow millions of us go hurtling by each other mere inches away in multiple tons of steel, often in conditions less than ideal yet for the most part, it’s a safe way to travel.

    We can’t even collectively agree on most topics, yet we put our lives in each others’ hands every day.

    Even disregarding all the other drivers, we put ourselves in a metal can, hurtle towards solid objects, and simply count on the idea that on average, nothing catastrophic will happen.

    Pure, random chance is enough to end us - animal pops into the road, a tree randomly falling, etc. - yet there we go, on yet another daily commute.

    I have a long commute through the “middle of nowhere” so lots of time to think about things that ought to be downright terrifying. The thought of hitting one moose is bad. Never occurred to me until just the other day that two moose was not out of the realm of possibility.

    • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
      1·
      2 hours ago

      We can’t even collectively agree on most topics, yet we put our lives in each others’ hands every day.

      Yeah, someone can do a lot of damage simply by ignoring the double yellow divider on a two-way highway.

    • manicdave@feddit.ukOP
      15·
      5 hours ago

      Driving just gets more absurd the more you think about it.

      Had it not been invented yet, would anyone get away with suggesting a machine propelled by explosions supplied by a tank of the most flammable liquid possible kept underneath the passenger seats?

      • LeftRedditOnJul1@lemmy.world
        13·
        5 hours ago

        If you think driving’s weird, think about flying, too. We put several tons of that explode-y liquid, along with a bunch of people, into a big metal tube and shoot it into the sky. And we made that form of transportation several orders of magnitude safer than driving.

      • ADKSilence@kbin.earth
        10·
        5 hours ago

        Not just merely a machine powered by explosions, sitting on volatile liquids… but one in which we’ve decided that it’s also a great place to enjoy some music, maybe a nice beverage, and as a great way to take our attention off into vast distances to the sides to “see the sights”.

        I think to myself as I steer with one knee, trying to simultaneously drink my coffee and light a cigarette…