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

Eco-friendly car refrigerant 'turns into deadly gas if vehicle catches fire'.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/9021335/Eco-friendly-car-refrigerant-turns-into-deadly-gas-it-vehicle-catches-fire.html

Oh, no! It's the Sontarans!

Truck hits home.

The story is in German, but the picture speaks for itself...

http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/0,1518,810097,00.html

Y.

The old men of sport are talking stupid again:


"Elizabeth Plank, an amateur boxer from Montreal, has come out swinging at a proposal that female boxers wear skirts rather than shorts when women's boxing makes its Olympic debut later this summer in London, England."


It seems the AIBA likes to see "elegent" women punching each other's lights out.



Thankfully there is a male voice of reason:

'Mark Tewksbury, Canada's chef de mission for the London Olympics, agreed, believing it should be up to the athlete to decide, not the sport's governing body.

"I think it should be optional for everybody. I think the men should be allowed to wear skirts too if they want"'


http://www.cbc.ca/sports/boxing/story/2012/01/19/sp-aiba-boxing-skirts-plank.html

I am not prepared to form an opinion on the question of women wearing skirts for boxing until I have more facts.

How short will they be?
Is mud involved?
How much are the tickets?



PP

This post has been removed.

I know you mean that anhaga, and I know why.
So please forgive me if I say it was the best
laugh I had all day.

Context you see.
Mud wrassling?
C'mon, where's the harm?

Sorry to offend but I like a bit of humour.
Timing, eh.


~jwf~

Yes, context is everything. The context was:

a news story in which the male-dominated governing body of a sport attempts to satisfy the puerile cravings of the male-dominated IOC by reducing dedicated athletes to miniskirt wearing tarts.

not a context for puerile jokes denigrating hard-working, sacrificing athletes *simply because they lack a Y chromosome*, IMO.

But I'm not interested in debating it: in this context the "joke" was way, way out of line.

I'll re`phrase `post12705:



"sometimes I've seen people make glutinous and graciously defensive comments."


And many times I've been told that if I think a `post is offensive to either yikes it and let the moderators sort it out or call the `person on it and have a discussion.

It seems that neither course is actually o`pen to me.

Hey.
Who yikesed your comment?
Not fair. I didn't agree with you
but there was nothing you said that
was not a valid point of view and
well expressed. The sequence of posts
now leaves the impression I might be
guilty of stifling your opinion in
order to promote my own.

I hope the yikeser will come forward
and try to justify the action. Or at
least apologise for putting my comment
in a bad light.


~jwf~

Boxers wearing skirts what next?

Downhill skiing with skirts.
100 m sprint with skirts, or that matter athletics with skirts.
Javelin throwing with long skirts.
High jump with skirts.
Gymnastics with skirts.

Figure skaters in trousers.

~jwf~

People not openly speculating about stuff they know cannot be discussed on site?

MPs to debate sexual abstinence lessons bill

www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jan/20/mps-debate-sexual-abstinence-bill

MPs to debate sexual abstinence lessons bill

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jan/20/mps-debate-sexual-abstinence-bill



(With working link and improved Thread title)

Iranian Programmer Sentenced to Death for Developing Porn Site Software

http://gizmodo.com/5877722/iranian-programmer-sentenced-to-death-for-developing-porn-site-software

"The horrible porn software he created was actually just a piece of photo uploading software that a porn site used without his knowledge."

I've heard they're executing him by assigning him to their nuclear weapons programme and giving the Israelis a map of his commute to work.

Church refuses boy with Down's syndrome Holy Communion

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-16626123

recently in the news and online there has been mentioning of SOPA and PIPA together with uk government trying to gain more control and access our emails and online activities. what is it coming to and why is no one getting mad over it?

It may be because the interwebs are like candy
and we are like babies. Easy-peasy to take candy
from babies. They may cry a bit then get distracted
by some other novelty or pacifier.

~jwf~

The wife of the minister of education has taken her life

http://www.ledauphine.com/france-monde/2012/01/22/l-epouse-de-luc-chatel-s-est-suicidee [fr]