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

I reckon yer hedgehog is a better pest controller. It eats slugs and snails. Kestrel mostly grabs the harmless voles, I suspect. Odd little creature whose main purpose in life appears to be as part of the diet of others!

toxx

<>

Well, here they can just sit up on the top balconies of the tower and wait for something tasty to come along. I wonder if they eat pidgeons?

az

"Sighting (they don't call it a "bird's eye view" for nothing) features like rivers, coastlines, and mountain ranges. "

Apparently motorways are now used by birds and this results in many flying further than they need to as they fly around the M25 to 'come off' at the right junction, rather than flying across London.

Pigeon far too big for a kestrel to handle, az! I reckon a goshawk might give one a bad time.

toxx

My money is on the Peregrine. Just love the way they stoop like a dive bomber.

toxx

"Just put a bit of food down for it, and then whip off its head with a machete. Swiiiiiiiiish!"

You could take up archery, toxx though it might be harder to hide a bow under your coat.

Toxx

I am aware of the Kestrel definition, however I was spouting striaght from the dictionary.com which is pretty universal-ish, I say loosely... and saved explaining about all the different types of falcon/bird of prey and what they are called in respective countries because I am rather lazy about typing loads of stuff

Hi there Lemon Blossom

>>What I am sure ofis that if It exists, It is a mathematician.<<

So am I, but I'm heathen

Mathematics doesn't figure large in the attributes of my gods... But I think that that is more to do with the time their mythology was written down than their intrinsic mathematical abilities

Jez - polytheist heathen and folk witch

az

>> I wonder if they eat pidgeons?<<

Pigeons are bigger than kestrels - they are more likely to resort to beetles and slugs

Jez - birdwatching heathen and natural witch

Damnit, you... you... you Heathen!

I love 'Call My Bluff,' best program on the planet, but I hate participating in it unwittingly.

- Jordan

"Mathematics doesn't figure large in the attributes of my gods... But I think that that is more to do with the time their mythology was written down than their intrinsic mathematical abilities"

I see, I think. It seems that the way the universe s constructed, They must have an interest in mathematics, whoever They are.

The universe *is* mathematics. So is the Mandelbrot Set. What foxes the uninitiated is how so much complexity can be derived from the very simple.

Noggin

That's the point. Why should the universe be so mathematical if it wasn't designed by a mathematician?

"That's the point. Why should the universe be so mathematical if it wasn't designed by a mathematician?"

Well, there is the arguement that inteligence can't evolve if the laws of the universe aren't based on simple mathematics. If tey were too complicated, the universe is incomprehensable and no intelligence.

"I love 'Call My Bluff,' best program on the planet, but I hate participating in it unwittingly."

I try to play fair, so I did pop in a couple of clues, Jordan! 'gawks' may be possible, but the alternative 'false' (fal from falcon and se from geese) might have begun to give it away. And, just in case, I popped in 'cods' (look up the usage if you haven't come across it in this context before).

"Well, there is the arguement that inteligence can't evolve if the laws of the universe aren't based on simple mathematics. If tey were too complicated, the universe is incomprehensable and no intelligence."

It'd have to be simple for me, RDO - I barely scraped my O level, IIRC. Probably managed only because I have a feel for algebra. That helps with designing complicated spreadhseet macros! But I'm better at the practical stuff than pure theory.

"I barely scraped my O level, IIRC"

I have no idea what that means--I'm not from the UK. But RDO is missing the point for the reason you're pointing out. That explanation involves the simple math behing physics, but not the beauty and siplicity of a lot of things in higher math. How does evolution require the Mandelbrot Set?

Jez,

Like I *know* how big a kestrel is???

Well, here they still have the comfy vantage point from on top of the tower (no hovering required)

I asked about pidgeons because my one-legged heroin addict street friend Miguel was once arrested for killing a kestrel (protected species). He told me he had seen it attacking a pidgeon and then - for reasons best known to himself - he beat the kestrel to death with his crutch. On the other hand he may have been hallucinating, who knows?

az

I suppose you have a point, Lemon.

I am the same about mathematics, Heathen. (But I like the idea of God as a mathematician... My (16 year old, younger) son is maths obsessed, and he manages to make me see how beautiful it is to him.)