A nugget of purest green…

Rupert Goodwins has done what I’d have done if I’d been a proper journalist. Seems both Rupert and I both read The Economist, and an ad in this week’s issue caught both our eyes (that sounds odd…like we’ve only got one eye each). It’s strange for me, as normally I skip past the ads like I skip past dog pooh on the pavement.

But this one stopped me. Perhaps because of the George Bernard Shaw quote used as the ad’s main feature: “All great truths begin as blasphemies”…or perhaps the design…I’m not sure. Anyway, I stopped and I read. The ad was placed by a company called Steorn, and, in few words, told me that it had created technology that would “allow the production of clean, free and constant energy”. Wow, some claim.

The ad was placed to attract 12 of the world’s top scientists to test Steorn’s technology and to prove it works (or otherwise). Goodwins done some more digging and found what he thinks are some serious flaws in the proposition…he also points out that full page ads in The Economist don’t come cheap (upwards of £50k a shot) and neither do the services of the likes of Citigate Dewe Rogerson. But if their claims are true, well, I can’t imagine they’ll be short of a penny or two.

But whether it was the claim of producing valuable energy for free…or the fact that the ad was predominantly pale green, it did serve to remind me of the following passage from the genius Blackadder series…and that cheered me up no end:

Lord Percy: My Lord! I have waited on your return!
Lord Percy: [hugs Blackadder]
Blackadder: And thank God you did, Percy, for I was just thinking to myself, "My God, I die in 12 hours, what I really need now is a hug from a complete prat."
Lord Percy: After literally an hour's ceaseless searching, I have succeeded in creating gold, pure gold.
Blackadder: Are you sure?
Lord Percy: Yes, my lord. Behold.
Blackadder: Percy... it's green.
Lord Percy: That's right, my lord.
Blackadder: Yes, Percy, I don't want to be pedantic or anything, but the colour of gold is gold. That's why it's *called* gold. What you have discovered, if it has a name, is "green".
Lord Percy: Oh, Edmund, can it be true, that I hold here in my mortal hand a nugget of purest green?
Blackadder: Indeed you do, Percy, except, of course, it's not really a nugget, it's more of a splat.
Lord Percy: Well, yes, a splat today... but tomorrow - who knows, or dares to dream?
Blackadder: So we three alone in all the world can produce the finest green at will?
Lord Percy: Just so. Not sure about counting in Baldrick, actually.