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

Ben,

This one?
A29019369

Or that one?
A537662

Or some other one?

HN

Good night all.

That one!

DD, I forgot to say "HI!". So sorry... Great to see you!

Witty, that's a really lovely piece of jewellry, and a very nice sentiment -- survival and personal renaissance rock!

*wanders around the tree, admiring all the baubles; hears a slight soft buzzing under the hum of the lava coolers*

Lovely, those warm lava lamps. Don't know why, but I'm so cold all the time. Much rather be too warm than too cold. Well, no actually, rather be neither. Too warm and I'm lazy, too cold and I can't think about anything but getting warm.

*tiny tremor from downstairs, which shakes a napping microbot out of his nap under the tree, and sets him speeding for the stairs*

[mr]

[Bagpuss]

I wonder if the lack of intelligence in students has the same reasons as the ever more common lack of common sense?

Or could it have anything to do with the 10 criterias the UNICEF list in their resent report 'The child care transition' of which Sweden is the only country to meet all of them?

1. Sweden 2. Iceland 3. Denmark

and, as I've mentioned before, highest taxes in the world:

1. Denmark 2. Sweden (sorry, don't know how high Iceland ranks)

Coincidence? Don't think so - you get what you pay for...

Oh, and the criterias are (couldn't find a complete list online except in pdf-format):

1. A minimum entitlement to paid parental leave
2. A national plan with priority for disadvantaged children
3. A minimum level of child care provision for under-threes
4. A minimum level of access for four-year-olds
5. A minimum level of training for all staff
6. A minimum level proportion of staff with higher level education and training.
7. A minimum staff-to-children ratio
8. A minimum level of public funding
9. A low level of child poverty
10. Universal outreach

...and the report only includes OECD countries.

Full report available here:
http://www.unicef-irc.org/cgi-bin/unicef/download_insert.sql?PDFName=&ProductID=507&DownloadAddress=/publications/pdf/

A lot depends on what those minimum levels actually are Titania.

I just noticed I have another QoTD, I guess for yesterday as they usually change the front page at around 10am ish. Never had one since it started and then two in one month

[p]

T, indeed, I agree, you do get what you pay for. And in California, we spend more money on prisons than we do on education. There's an old saying about an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure...education is a way out of poverty, but apparently, we'd rather lock people up than ensure that they get a decent eduction.

It's 2 in the morning here, and I'm still up. Good thing I don't have to work at 9!

Nice thought with Lady C's candle Lil, Christmas is a time for remembering after alll said and done......

*warms his cold talons by the lava lamp lights, and resolves to rescue any Salonistas who need it in the case of unfortunate incidents*

*hangs a new decoration shaped like an oriental lamp on the tree, and resolves to explain later*

Shelving is currently relentless at the Library of Doom. They just won't stop returning books!

You know, I'd be really disappointed if became an actual smiley.

*waves to all the returnees, both the familiar and unfamiliar*

Hmm..lava lamps..thinks...warm..hmm..produces a a pair of filleted herrings and hangs them above a lava lamp and adds a beakful of oak chippings..yaeh purfeck..kippers for Christmas. What smell, I can't smell anything. Aims a vicious peck at nearest squid...weeeeee..


Mornin All late this morning, had a touch of carpet fitters, but I'm ok now.

I don't normally pop in here from work. I pretend I am a professional sort of person. But if I don't rant I will explode and they only repainted the ceiling last month.

A colleague and I are measuring the shelves and noting which journal runs take up how much space. We have a lot of journals and this is taking DAYS. Division of labour: I clamber up and down the book-ladders with the tape-measure and shout out the titles and measurements. She writes them down. Later, I take her notes and type them into a whopping spread-sheet. We are progressing along the shelves in alphabetical order. I am reading the titles out in alphabetical order. How in cripes is she managing to a) hand the notes over in distinctly NOT alphabetical order and b) with chunks of the sequence missing? How? How how how?

please, someone, and a large black . I have some re-measuring to do. SOLO.

She needs to be stapled, Ag

/* Hangs a series of glass baubles on the tree, inside each bauble is a small model - a wireless phone, a digital camera, a hypodermic needle, etc. - representing the various objects that Zeppo and Gummo have chewed over the years */

Thanks for the birthday wishes, and Mags a happy belated birthday to you.

So Garius Lupus is back? I've been dreading this day. GL, I'm afraid Zeppo has gotten into the labs a couple of times. I've saved the pieces in case anything can be repaired.

/* Opens a bag and pulls out what looks very much like an entropy filter, except for the teeth holes, and something else that is completely unrecognizable because of how many pieces it is now in and may in fact be several different things jumbled together. */

Don't worry, nothing really serious happened when he chewed these, well nothing really serious *and* permanent anyway. Or at least there's only one thing that's semi-permanent. There's an LED goes missing every 200th post, but it comes back 20 posts later, affects Brunel but I don't know about the other skins. /* Checks the posting number */ It's due to happen again in about 65 posts.

And sea! Jade! It's great to see both of you again. Demon Drawer, it's always a pleasure. Did I miss anyone? So many people returning all at once. Can I add Courtesy and Babel17 to the wish list?

Ben, I think the purpose of the 19 is to generate enough heat so that you can save on the heating bill too.

Pah. I hate having to do something twice because the person helping me do it the first time was sloppy in some way. Ag, have a bar and a . We should lobby for a prozac smile. The librarians on site would use it, guaranteed.

*notes Lady C's candle burning brightly on the mantle* That would please her. I've never met anyone who loved to decorate for the holidays as much as she did. Her entire attic is full of boxes. It took her weeks to get it all done each year.

I mentioned someplace (can't remember where) that I am doing a week-long M.C. Escher exhibit next month. I am having a lot of fun planning it and getting things ready. Today it is time to work on the press releases. Then I want to start making some models to hang from the ceiling. This is almost causing me enjoy my job again. The largest panel in the exhibit will be 17'X 7'. It shows the staircase on the ceiling, among other things. Another panel is 4'X 8' and a third is 4'X 4'. Then I have about two dozen prints I need to get matted. We have tesselation puzzles for people to play with, loads of designs on hand-outs for kids to color, a film that we'll run at the top of each hour and lots of books, naturally. I'm working on field trips from the Jr.High and High School to the library and will try to get a contest of some kind going for the art classes. Best optical illusion or something.

I have a really nice staircase from the entrance at street level to the main floor and a curved ramp with a railing down to the exhibition area. I wish I could figure out a way to create a tesselated garland for the bannisters.

oh..... MC Escher is my favourite artist (besides rembrandt, i mean...favourite of this century.. and i guess i have to add leonardo to that list, because he actually created me.)
I want to get a tattoo of the impossible triangle, but i'm afraid the tattooist would mess it up.
(oh, and Dali..I remember asking my dad, when i was about 12, after perusing a book of Dali paintings... the "loaf of french bread sodomizing a grand piano... Dad, what's sodomizing?.... he didnt answer. hmmm. thats odd.)

.. hang on, do i have to have a favourite? I love them all. Monet, Manet, picasso, van gogh.... sigh...i wish i had an ounce of talent.

Escher's stuff is fun, but makes for very difficulat jigsaw puzzles.

I took my first happy pill last night and am feeling rather strange. It's like my brain's gone quiet. My time sense is a bit messed up, too, but the quietness is weirder.

<>

I originally read that as "*shaving* is currently relentless".

Ben, if you're really Michael Jackson's sister, I have to ask you something about him: WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?