Mr Corporate

In today's Guardian:

Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline has sponsored a specially written Mr Men book to promote its anti-allergy syrup Piriton and allergy tablets Piriteze.

Mr Sneeze and His Allergies has been written by Adam Hargreaves, the son of Mr Men creator Roger, and concludes with a guide to allergies and medication for them.

I'd be saddened by this corruption of childhood innocence, except I'm too busy having fun making my own Mr Men...

Unscientific Poll

[Poll #167483]

Explanation to follow, although I suspect at least three of you will be able to figure it out.

Is it SF?

The latest installment of Adam Roberts' 'Readings in Classic SF' column considers, um, the Teletubbies:

Clearly, the Teletubbies are cyborgs.
[...]
It seems clear from the world of the Teletubbies that, whether alien or posthuman, they come from a technologically advanced culture. Like the Borg they have assimilated technological devices into their own bodies, but unlike the wholly technological/artificial worlds of the Borg they have chosen to inhabit an environment shaped largely by the aesthetics of the natural world. We have, then, a disparity between (on the one hand) the high degree of intelligence and technological know-how needed to build the 'tubbies home, their automated toasters and vacuum-cleaners, the periscopes, the broadcasting tower and all that; and (on the other) the evident puerility and immaturity of the Teletubbies themselves. Rather that reading this in terms of parental abandonment, I suggest a reading more in keeping with the traditions of SF.

The Teletubbies, I'd suggest, are contemporary versions of Wells's Eloi, those indolent foppish creatures from The Time Machine.

The disturbing part is that by the end of the column, it all starts to make a terrible kind of sense...!