Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for May 25, 2022

Wiley does the dailies in black and white. Someone else does the colours, hence the red hat

I wonder if they even notice the sudden stop at the bottom

A joint venture by Darwin and your community

A special trail is not needed. That’s what makes it Darwinism.

These people are slightly better at walking and chewing gum.

A boring nature trail might cause people to look at their phones. Maybe a walkway through a flat muddy area.

I have always been a walking reader. Except when I’m being a reading walker. You CAN learn to switch contexts rapidly. And never cross traffic while reading.

Who’s gonna clean up that mess! Ick!

The fine print:

This trail and sign brought to you by your local Wiley Bears™.

It’s a long drop because the bears like their meat tenderized…

I recall being at the Grand Canyon, walking along a cliff side trail and two business men looking types walking towards me. Both had their heads down, essentially looking at their shoes while discussing business while this magnificent wonder of nature is just to the right of them.

Kurtwood Smith’s Red Forman character has a name for these folks. :-)

Surprising that they noticed the sign

2018

I would have preferred the trail goes to a giant sinkhole instead of a canyon.

I use Google Maps when driving on a long trip or a short trip in congested areas. The phone is placed out of view and I listen for verbal instructions. Thus, I am able to concentrate on just one task: driving the car.

This already happens on every road and interstate in Merica. YouTube has thousands of videos of distracted drivers going off road, into other vehicles (in both directions), and even ones where they hit police vehicles. Unfortunately, just like drunk drivers, they kill others who are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Proof that driver licensing laws do not work.

Yikes, don’t install this type of trail near a high school. Those kids always seem to have their noses in their phones.

I’m guessing there are another bunch of hikers at the bottom who pulled out their phones to video the fall(ing) colours.

But, if he’s staring at his phone, he wouldn’t have seen the sign. Go figure …

I bet the bears are at the bottom of the reavine, waiting.

There should be a bench (or bleachers) set up for spectators.

My phone has an option called city mode, It feeds the view from the rear camera to the background.The city has adapted too, the pavement at street crossings lights up green for walk and red for don’t walk

I’d like to see a Wiley Bear cartoon similar to this except that there is a sign pointing into the woods that reads “Free WiFi.”

There should be a slight change in the sign. The trail should be renamed to “The Sir Issac Newton/Charles Darwin Species Improvement Nature Trail”.

And, at the bottom of the cliff, there should be a way to recover the cell phones for further service in the betterment of humanity.

what’s the address. I can send a lot of people there you know, for sightseeing.

The threat is real … https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/backstories/1818/

Don’t need a phone. Just drink enough alcohol near an Interstate highway…

in attention to being unable to open some editorial cartoons, several daily cartoons have the same problem

Too easy.

I just LUV folks out walking who are looking at their phones and not the natural beauty around them. A friend of mine watches tennis on the telly, and she swears that half the people in the stands are watching the game on their phones.

there goes the neighborhood

I truly enjoy videos of people running into things while on their phones.

Two other examples of ‘neglect’. A mother pushing a stroller through a suburban garden street. She was texting/reading while her baby was pointing and chattering about all the flowers. A father at a restaurant table, texting while ignoring his 6-year-old daughter, who was trying to talk to him. Opportunities forever lost.

As a cemetery guide, I am required by law to warn visitors about groundhog holes, which are, typically, “about the size of a human foot”. Visitors who are not staring at their phones usually comply.

Here in San Diego several years ago we had a young person staring at their phone walk off a cliff into the ocean. Yes, he did get a Darwin Award.

For extra points, put a Pokestop there.

This is a real cliffhanger.

One can only hope.

This kind of behavior pre-dates the cell phone. Decades ago, a friend of mine got a concussion after stepping backwards off a boulder trying to frame a nature photograph.

First time I’ve seen a Wiley strip repeted. :(

A man stepped off the curb practically in front of my car while staring at his phone…..thank God I was able to stop!

Before I read the strip, I thought the feet were the shadows of two guys in hats talking to each other.

A few years ago a woman in Toronto walked into the side of a moving truck at an intersection.

At first quick glance I thought the chasm was a fence across the path, then I saw the legs.

When will they ever learn?…..

https://miami.cbslocal.com/2017/06/09/woman-phone-falls-basement-opening/

https://deadstate.org/guy-staring-into-his-smartphone-walks-off-a-cliff-and-falls-to-his-death/

https://www.wired.com/2009/07/girl-falls-into-manhole-while-texting-parents-sue/

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-25426263

I’d always laugh when someone staring at their phone would walk into a pole…

The last words you’ll ever hear: Siri: “You’re walking of a cliffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff. . . .”

(thud)

The collision of artificial intelligence and natural stupidity.

So that’s how the Serendipity trail ends. ;-D

Adorable.Haven’t you EVER wanted to sneak up behind one of these “absorbed in their phone” geeks and yell“LOOK OUT!THE TRAIN!”???

Oh! it’s a canyon, I thought at first glance it was a fence.

random thought: between cell phones and the pandemic, we might actually eliminate some of the evolutionary dead ends we have proliferating around the globe.

LOL ………………. bloody good one, Wiley!

Now we need a similar solution for drivers looking down at their phones!

Another example of dogs being smarter than humans.

Not called Darwinism any more than in physics is called Newtonianism.

Or it is also known as the cleaning of the gene pool trail.

Known as a selfie shelfie.

Again, where are the bears who planned this?

We can bring back an old word: the poor SAP (= Staring At Phone).

Well, that would be one way to fill in the Grand Canyon.

Should be one in every town, city and suburb