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

Sex under the influence of *tea*?!?

Hey, some of us have done stuff we regret under the influenc eof tea and it shoudl not be trivialised. Fro instance, last week, after drinking soem particularly potent earl grey I think I remeber destroying teh U.S. voting system.

Just a few thoughts.

After the posting from Big Mad Mr T (Scout, Minister of Truth Administration), I don't really think that there's much to add on this subject - I think they've most of the nails on the head.

I won't bother to say whether I stayed "cool" or not by the time I was 16. What I will say is that anyone who was still "cool" by the age of 16, or well beyond, came under a tremendous amount of pressure to not remain "cool" any longer. Partly from the media yes, but primarily from their peers. I could understand why they felt pressured, but never why their peers felt they had to put them under pressure. Apart from being unable to deal with their own pressures, being members of a pack, etc.

Oh dear, this was meant to be a short posting - better stop now.

By the way - Channel 5 really is pants and a waste of broadcast frequencies.

I agree with your comments about cool. Ben Elton once did a spot on how cool is porbably the most destructive thing ever. Peopel who wanted to be cool bullied, stole and cause dtrouble. Uncool people never hurt anyone. Train spotters (steryotypical that is) aren't cool but tehy don't hurt anyone. Sci-fi fans arent cool but don't hurt anyone. Its this being cool taht causes problems.

And I used to liek cannel 5 but now satellite TV gives me all teh rubbish and none of teh faff of channel 5

i just wanted to point out that the english language has this incredible nifty distinction between "making love" and "having sex". i just feel that might be important to state here since you seem to be talking about those two different things here.

...and i need help: call me narrow-minded, but is there a nice rational explanation to why staying a virgin is good / having sex before marriage is bad? i simply dont get it...

i mean: sex is fun, and i seriously doubt that anyone can say that making love is "evil" no matter what the age (assuming an age of >16, to keep it legal). yes, STDs and teenage pregnancies are a big problem, but i think that can and will be solved....here in germany we have this big pro-condom campaign that simply abolishes all tabus regarding condoms since quite a couple of years, and they really get the message across. and i've heard of similar campaigns in th UK and the rest of europe.

my point being: "sex" is plain fun, "making love" is way, way cooler and an entirely different story. just read the instructions and mind the consequences.

stir, enjoy!

and to close this posting with a nice quote:
chicken: [noun] the egg's way of producing more eggs.

I agree with you totally (Sorry, no stirring, well probably) teh big problem is the UK is that there is such a stigam about sex, and so ratehr than say "Have sex, just don't be stupid" the stigma combined with moral minoritys tend to say "Whoooah, have sex and BURN!" that is just conterproductive, after all, whats teh best way to make kids do something, tell tehm not to do it.

As a school teacher, I think that Sex Education is absolutely done to death in schools. The mechanics are an intrinsic part of science/biology lessons, whereas contraception/STDs etc are an intrinsic part of PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education). The fact thar British girls have the highest rate of underage pregnancies in Europe cannot be due to a lack of education. It's just that schoolkids 'choose' to forget all that they've been taught.
I d at a comment made by a commentator in the Daily Mail newspaper (UK) some years back. The following is a bit of a paraphrase but the gist is correct:

'If they actually taught swearing in schools, perhaps children would act8ally forget how to swear, thus making the world a slightly better place.'

Ha, I've just found the exact quote (I've got it on my PS):

"I thought they already taught swearing in schools. Children these days all seem so good at it. But, of course, when you think about it that cannot be right. If they actually taught bad language then few of their pupils would be able to use it, just as hardly any of them can spell or add up, let alone multiply. In the same way, after 30 years of sex education, the young seem mystified by the connection between intercourse and babies. So perhaps we should all rejoice that rude words are now being put on the National Curriculum. After a few years of this, everyone will be as hopeless at spelling expletives as French Connection, and possibly unable to pronounce them as well."