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

I do have a number of points of similarity with Danny B - involvement in the volunteer schemes, a passion for amateur dramatics - but I'm the only owl.

The Spectator? Interesting... We take the Spectator in the Library of Doom, so I shall have to investigate next time I'm in (week off! ).

Kelli - I think you've made The Mammoth nervous because of your talk of radio 4 progamme on how to kill mammoths.

Kerr - I think it's good for me, and other people, to be exposed to grossly differently opinions to ones own. If your formative years are spent entirely with people who share your basic worldview then one tends to adsorb assumptions into facts without really thinking about them.

For instance children growing up in religious communities will assume that There is a God without thinking about it, and teenagers who are heavily involved in the Socialist Workers Party tend to assume that the Russian Revolution was a Good thing and true Socialism was twisted by Stalin into State Capitalism.

Oh I *see*. I can probably find it on listen again if anyone missed it

Thank you for the link d'E

I agree about responsibilities - a sense me responsibility: personal, corporate, governmental, national, is vital to our commonweal. If extended family AND neighbours AND school AND social services took responsibility for, say, child neglect then .

On one level it is a busy-body's charter, but on the other hand there would be no cracks to fall through.

Trouble is there are more votes in rights than duties.

*removes 'me' and inserts 'of'*

Bloody mobile phone

Z - It can be awkward when opinions are too different from your own. For example, I do believe in God and I can be very put off when someone holds religion responsible for All That is Wrong with the World. On the other hand I've had reasonable discussions with non-believers, and sometimes the worst disgreements are between people with similar beliefs.

I agree- some of KA's opinions make me feel awkward! I find I have to be brave to face them. The opinions held by the USAian Right come into the same catargory.

I can not and will not support a system of Nany-state which is what I see both dominant parties in the US doing.

You do not know what is best for me and imposing your will on me is wrong. Those are strong words, I know, and I mean every one of them. Every time a Republican introduces a bill to "Strengthen National Security", every time a Democrat introduces a bill to save me from myself I have been wronged.

The truth of the situation is a dirty little secret that most people want to ignore... The two parties are not opposite sides of the same coin. They are indeed the same side of the coin any more. Party leadership has to remain moderate in actuality while still seeming to be "pure" to the ideologies behind the respective parties. This is how they maintain membership. They don't rock the boat when it needs to be rocked, but they talk big during election cycles. If people feel dissatisfied with their party of late, it's because it is ruled by moderates who pander for the biggest slice of the pie of voters.

I'd go on more, but I am working on something like 3 hours of sleep in the last 48.

My last post came in out of order and honestly, I can't say that I remember where it was supposed to fall... I don't hit the reply button to the post I am replying to (bad habit) so I can't use the nav-tree.

I spent waaaaaay too much of this weekend hacking away at servers to know what way is up, so I am a bit rambly today.

In other news, my team took third place at the hacking contest we entered at defcon.

i try not to talk about politics because i, like a lot of people i think, get riled up when i do talk about them. it's a passionate subject, everyone has their own opinion and their own ideas about how things should be done.

personally though, and i will just leave it at this and most likely not respond to any conversation it might illicit:

i think our current government's attention, from local all the way to the white house, its priorities aren't where i think they should be. it seems to me that this is no longer a government for the people, by the people, it's more of a government for the corporations, buy the people. from medical care, insurance, housing costs, energy sources, living wages, education, taxes... i really can't get my head around where our country is headed and why everyone is so easily placated, that they're all just along for the ride and don't care who's driving.

In many respects technology and scale mean that laws, amendments structures and systems which were developed for 18th C individuals and 19th C businesses are providing protections which are no longer needed and - more worryingly - failing to provide protections which are.

For example the right to bear arms in the US presupposes a lot of things about govt, farming, the role me the individual in the defence me the nation and - most importantly - the lethality of weapons that simply are not true now.

First a "disclaimer": I am without any doubt biased by living in not only a European country, but a North European one...

But -

>the strength of a nation depends on the well-being of its citizens
Agree. Wholeheartedly! All of its citizens.

And I do believe that that well-being is mainly - pls hang on for a minute - a question for Society to address. Surely, each and every person has a responsibility to take as much care for himself (dropping gender specificities here) as possible. But for those who due to illness, greater economical downturns, rotten bad luck or whatever cannot take sufficiently care of themselves and/or their immediate family, I hold a belief that there shall be a safety net to catch them. And to me it is a task of the society as a whole - which means government - to ensure that.

Read some of tartaronne's postings to get a better impression than I can give of why. She and I might funnily have a warm debate on things - I'm, in Danish terms, probably a bit to the right of her - but at the very basis of things, she's hitting some nails on their heads.

And actually, I think that this is possible without being imposing. Unless, of course, that countries, societies and the like are considered of no use and that is simply made up of individuals that happen to live next to each other but otherwise fending for themselves.

I don't think so. I think there are so many tasks that cannot be adequately AND efficiently done by individuals or small groupings of such - roads, hospitals, education, etc - that there is indeed a need for a functional society.

*quietly hiccups and steps down from soap box*

I'm sure that'll create both agreement and disagreement in various strengths. I promise not to hit anybody!

BTW - somewhat related and yet not:

http://tedblog.typepad.com/tedblog/2006/06/sir_ken_robinso.html

An interesting take on our educational system and what they might/could/should be...

Just had a slightly surreal moment.
.
They were talking about Harrods opening its christmas decorations department so early on TV and a white butterfly just floated down looking like a snow flake!
.
With August being start of Christmas selling season and the remnants of Xmas decorations being sold off into March sometimes, Christmas is at risk of meeting in the middle. Harrods said that starting early makes more money for store as they sell more products. It does seem strange as one part of country hit 30c yesterday.....

[BB]
back from 2 weeks camping, will have to compare notes with Mol, but I bet her camp didn't include a busted sewerage system.

Ho, Hum the joys of doing site support for 200 people, there ought to be a smiley

[GDZ]

[Amy]

Politics is interesting. I prefer to get involved in local lever only and I don't think it's comparable with anything here so I better shut up.

I have a completely different question - what could be the best musical theatre in London? A friend of mine will have a chance to visit one and she wants to make the best out of it. She said that I should know someone who knows etc. So here I am. Anybody?

Hmm. hides behind conveniently located mammoth.

Such is the scale of this wonderful creature that you can seek refuge behind even when not here.

P.S. Per Gessle was in a boy band?! I was a HUGE Roxette devotee. So much so I bought one of their albums in Spanish when I found it a couple of years ago. Still never knew about the boyband.