h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"I am a meat popsicle." - Corbin Dallas

Actually, the average human body is 55 - 60% water, depending on how fat the person is. Fat people have a lower water content.

The Alien in the eponymous film contained a real human skull in the front of its elongated head.

Also, its articulated lips were made with condoms.

Source: http://youtu.be/q4Zzag7MusM

When you're reading text and your device doesn't recognize certain characters or font and displays small rectangles instead, those rectangles are called tofu.

After her marriage to Arthur Miller and subsequent conversion to Judaism in 1956, Egypt banned all of Marilyn Monroe's films.

I'll classify this as useless since these are things English speakers know without knowing that they know them.

These are a couple of grammar rules that you follow without even realizing there is a rule for them.

Adjectives follow a fairly strict order: opinion-size-physical quality-shape-age-colour-origin-material-type-purpose Noun.

For example, think about a large ratty old rectangular black French satin dust cloth.

Now think about a rectangular ratty French large satin black dusting cloth.

It don't sound right do it?

This order can be superseded by other rules you don't know you know, like the rule of ablaut reduplication. This is why the Big Bad Wolf can put larger before opinion because the Bad Big Wolf doesn't sound right. This is why no one listens to hop hip music, clocks don't go tock tick and horse's hooves don't go clop clip.

When you have similar sounding words with different vowel sounds, they follow a certain vowel orders. When there are three words, they go I-A-O, Bing Bang Bong. If it's just two, then the I comes first, Ding Dong, hence Big Bad Wolf.

The preceding was summarized from the following BBC article: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160908-the-language-rules-we-know-but-dont-know-we-know

Thank you for sharing that.

I like the end bit - you can really appreciate it if you've spent years dealing with the baffled outrage of non-native speakers confronted by phrasal verbs.

That was great! I'm still grinning at his examples.

I was reminded of the Asterix and Obelix in Britannia (I've only read it in French, not sure of the English title.) Anyway, in French, the adjectives are, of course, always after the noun. Except things like "grand" and "petit". So Obelix, when introducing Idéfix to the Britannniques, asks "Avez-vous vu mon chien petit?".

Well, I thought it was funny at the time. Loses a little in translation, I fear.

Ha! Found it:

https://auntymuriel.com/2012/12/23/asterix-in-translation-the-genius-of-anthea-bell-and-derek-hockridge/comment-page-1/

It's the rather squashed-up one about halfway down, where she says "Obviously this joke..." The bottom left-hand picture.

Are they called pictures in graphic novels and comics? Knowing the proper word for them would be quite a useless fact, unless you're a cartoonist.....

http://auntymuriel.com/2012/12/23/asterix-in-translation-the-genius-of-anthea-bell-and-derek-hockridge/comment-page-1/

Possibly... Does it sound like "ah veh voo voo..."?


The only Frenching I've done was taught to me by Freakazoid!
http://youtu.be/yGqxb3vLL1A

The rest of that section of the article I linked to explains it rather well for non-French speakers. It is all about the difficulties of translating Asterix.

Yeah.... My above was before I saw the link.

A greater percentage of Dutch people (90%) speak English than Canadians(85%).

Time to this thread out of the depths after another November flood...


The artist who sold more CDs than any other for 2016...


Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jordanpassman/2016/12/12/you-wont-guess-the-best-selling-cd-of-2016/#d5623b714db8

There are 12 Hasselblad 70mm cameras on the moon.

(I'm currently (re)scanning film shot with one of those cameras. (AS14))

Hm, I wonder if X'Bert could pick one up there cheap?

Apparently my birth year is a lucky number.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987_(number)


Can't say I feel particularly lucky though.

Perhaps I've been saving it all up so it can come bursting through the gates in 2017. Which, incidentally, is a prime number. Prime years have always been good to me....

http://www.xkcd.com/1779/

In the U.S. burritos are not legally considered sandwiches as sandwiches, by legal definition contain at least two slices of bread.