UPDATE- net hoax, apparently. still a funny story, though.

Transcript of apocryphal radio conversation between United States Aircraft Carrier USS Lincoln and Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland in October, 1995.

Americans:
“Please divert your course 15 degrees to the North to avoid a collision.”

Canadians:
“Recommend you divert YOUR course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision.”

Americans:
“This is the Captain of a US Navy ship. I say again, divert YOUR course.”

Canadians:
“No. I say again, you divert YOUR course.”

Americans:
“THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER USS LINCOLN, THE SECOND LARGEST SHIP IN THE UNITED STATES ATLANTIC FLEET. WE ARE ACCOMPANIED BY THREE DESTROYERS, THREE CRUISERS, AND NUMEROUS SUPPORT VESSELS. I DEMAND THAT YOU CHANGE YOUR COURSE 15 DEGREES NORTH, THAT’S ONE FIVE DEGREES NORTH, OR COUNTER- MEASURES WILL BE UNDERTAKEN TO ENSURE THE SAFETY OF THIS SHIP.”

Canadians:
“We are a lighthouse. Your call.”

Reality Check – in the vault of ancient email… I imagine it’s correct, but have not validated it.

If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, there would be:

57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere, both North and South
8 Africans

52 would be female
48 would be male
70 would be non-white
30 would be white
70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian
89 would be heterosexual
11 would be homosexual
6 people would possess 59% of the entire world’s wealth and all 6 would be from the United States
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition

1 would be near death
1 would be near birth
1 would have a college education
1 would own a computer

I will be here only as time allows… pulling double and possibly triple shifts until 12/20. (save for the weekend, when I’ll most likely be sleeping to recharge the batteries.

Has not been too bad, thus far.

I’m only into it 1 hour, natch.