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

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/falklandislands/9797902/Defence-chiefs-prepare-new-plans-to-defend-Falkland-Islands.html

Trying to take territory from a first world country by force seems foolish. Maybe it's unfair that the western powers did all they did and then decided that the conquest game is over, but it seems to me that we should be past this.

The figures at the bottom are surprising:

>>
How Britian's current military forces compare to 1982:

1982
Armed Forces Personnel: 320,000
Ships: 2 Carriers, 2 Assault ships, 32 Submarines, 15 Destroyers,
46 Frigates, 1 Ice Patrol Ship, 12 Hydrographic survey ships,
15 Patrol ships/craft, 29 Minesweepers and minehunters,
45 Royal Fleet Auxiliary
Aircraft: 400 plus

2013
Armed Forces personnel: 160,000
Ships: 0 Carriers, 9 Submarines, 7 Destroyers, 13 Frigates,
2 Assault/Helicopter Carriers, 2 Assault/Command Ships,
3 RFA Landing Ships, 3 Survey ships, 1 Ice Patrol Ship,
4 Patrol Ships, 15 Minehunters, 10 Royal Fleet Auxiliary
Fighter Aircraft: 130
<<

Reductions from 60 to 100% in all categories!

~jwf~

jwf:



Eh? Ah, reductions of between 60% and 100% in all categories.

Took me a while to work out what that sentence nearly meant!!!

It's my accent I guess.
But good on ya for coming to grips with it.

~jwf~

And Argentina's forces? Reduced to two-fifths of sod-all because the civilian politicians are scared of the military taking power again.

Nothing significant will happen to the Falklands because Argentina can't and her South American neighbours will nod and say "Uh huh" but they won't actually help because they know an oil rich, military capable Argentina will just start stealing land from *them* again.

I believe its paraguay that wants part of Northern Argentina - that['s currently where Argentina's air force is based, and any attempt to move it (as well as being a hint to us) would be a great risk to them

I was one of the many people kinda, but not really knew Aaron Swartz via the internet and his death has really effected several corners of the internet were I hang out. So I've been following the fallout of his death for several days. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21001452 The BBC article is good, but there's a lot of complicated context that it misses http://boingboing.net/2013/01/12/rip-aaron-swartz.html is kinda biased but a lot more detailed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21026985

Linesman at the Arsenal v Manchester City game reminds City players at the end of the game that they ought to go and thank the 2,000 fans who paid £62 per ticket.

And gets dropped from officiating at a game tonight for his trouble.

Somebody is out of touch, and it's not Lino.

PP.

I can't help thinking that the football 'bubble' might burst one day. £62 is a lot of cash in these recession-hit times, and the players themselves are increasingly unrepresentative of the fans in terms of their lifestyle and origin.

Indeed, the sports bubble and the celeb bubble generally
will have to be burst soon if we expect the economy to ever
return to anything Mister Average Joe can feel party to.

~jwf~

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21055206

5.5kg gold nugget found by metal detectorist.

The horsemeat thing, which despite spawning 100s of horse / burger jokes, strikes me as odd. Yesterday it was all over everything. Today, it only appears on the BBC front page as a magazine article enquiring why the idea of eating horse meat gives us the willies.

Will Tesco be harmed significantly by this? Does anybody REALLY care much?

PP

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21048044

Former Liberia president Charles Taylor - currently jailed in the Hague for 50 years due to war crimes
Wants his pension of 25,000 dollars per year

Despite the fact that he is due his pension if "honourably retired to private life"

The cahones of the man

Bernard Cribbins criticises 'noisy' children's TV.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21082876

I think there must have been a time recently when someone at the BBC dragged old Bernard into a room and said, "Bernard, can you think of something slightly controversial to say so we can pass it off as news and use it to plug your new programme on the front page of our news site?"

A new interactive population map of North America.
Pan and zoom!

http://bmander.com/dotmap/index.html

There are 341 million dots - one for every person.

Some of the rural areas are unrealistically dotted
due to some averaging logic in the algorithm. In some
areas which I am familiar with, total numbers between
two rural locations is represented numerically correct
but the map spreads them out as individuals in very
unrealistic ways. Some dots appear on uninhabitable
spots, but they are averaging all who live in the area.

The absence of highways and rivers and elevations makes
it too easy to put dots where people could not live and
a house with a family of five is spread out across a mile.

None-the-less, interesting in its overview of population
densities in North America.


~jwf~

I came across that a week or two ago but didn't spend much time on it. Tonight I zoomed in on Edmonton (where I live) and found it quite fascinating. At first it looks like a very nice map of the city, but with a strange blank space in the North East. I hadn't realized before what a big patch of Industrial space there is up there.

But you can really see how the residential areas have hugged the river valley here.

Interesting.

>> I think there must have been a time recently when someone at the BBC dragged old Bernard into a room and said, "Bernard, can you think of something slightly controversial to say so we can pass it off as news and use it to plug your new programme on the front page of our news site?"<<

A whiff of ageism. Any comment on what he says?

Well, he's hardly the target audience, is he?

Apparently, as well as having double-helix DNA, we have quadruple-helix

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21091066

It all begins with two shoe laces, but it'll grow
into velcro by the time they figger it all out.


~jwf~