Okay, that’s it. Cheque please. Ding! I’m leaving. This world is getting too silly. Robert Boyd, the M. Parker Givens Professor of Optics at the University of Rochester in New York has sped up light so much that it’s started going in reverse.

“It’s weird stuff,” says Boyd. “We sent a pulse through an optical fiber, and before its peak even entered the fiber, it was exiting the other end.

The article tries to explain what’s going on in a fairly basic manner, but it still left my head spinning. What is backwards light? Is it dark? Does it suck light away? Does it go to the mirror universe where there are big scary rabbits named Frank, and jet engines crashing into bedrooms?

“I know this all sounds weird, but this is the way the world works,” says Boyd.

The good folks at Melbn’s own Mountain Goat Brewery have won a whole bunch of awards at the Australian International Beer Awards (why didn’t anyone tell me about this before it happened??). Their Surefoot Stout won Best In Class, Champion Stout, and the Premier’s Trophy for Best Victorian Beer and Flagrant Use Of Title Case In An Award Name. Congratulations! I’ll be sure to raise a glass or four in your honour.

Disrespectful? Yes. Inconvenient? Yes. Funny as poop on a stick? Hell yes. I’d like to take my hat off to a really funny hack that happened on Toronto’s train system. When train signs go off with the fairies here, we all kinda just shrug and blame Connex or Yarra Trams.

Tram to the future!

In the other room, Alice Cooper is performing on a late-70s era Muppet Show. In a fit of “what’s he up to now” curiosity, I do a bit of searching. He’s a golfer. In an 2005 interview with Andrew Denton, he admits that might be a bit of a shock for people:

ANDREW DENTON: I think a lot of people are surprised to learn that you’re a Christian, they’re surprised to learn you vote George W. Bush, but they’re absolutely shocked to discover you’re a keen golfer.
ALICE COOPER: That’s the biggest shocker, I think. And that I’m a pretty good cook.

Check out the links, especially the Denton interview. Interesting and funny stuff. I’d love to buy Andrew Denton a beer.

In my daily sweep through Google News, I found a funny story about Keith Richards falling out of a coconut tree (insert your own “off his tree” jokes here). I thought it was worth a look. But check out the URL on that story. enjoyment.independent.co.uk. Enjoyment? For whom?