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

Mauve in German is Malve. Malventee is hibiscus flower tea.

Tomorrow (29th September) is the 100th anniversary of when the British Empire was at its biggest, following the acquisition of the Mandate of Palestine on 29th September 1922.

The last place on to be annexed by the British Empire was Rockall in 1955, although that was to stop Russia from claiming it.

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So... the 101st Anniversary.

I do miss the Rockall Times. It was humorous "news" website purportedly based on the tiny island mostly inhabited by puffins. I particularly liked their slogan which you can see on the remains of their website still.

http://www.therockalltimes.co.uk/

Sorry - the Mandate of Palestine came into effect on 29th September 1923 (but had been passed in 1922). So it will be 100 years tomorrow.

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I guessed it was something like that, just needed some clarity.

Halloween TIL

Today I learned where the idea of using a sheet as a ghost costume came from.


It's pretty simple. Back before the funeral business became so big, and coffins(the small ones that taper at the ends) and caskets (the big rectangular ones) became ubiquitous, many, if not most people were buried in simple cloth shrouds. So, the costume represents a ghost still wearing its burial shroud.


I actually used a big cut of white cloth with a separate hood (non pointy) as a costume for a party once. I also included a small sign hanging from my neck that stated, "I am a walking cliché."
Now I know what I was actually dress as.

So the fist thing a ghost has to do is get the feet free.

Does that mean that a wealthier ghost would be a moving coffin or casket?

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I get why some people prefer cremation. (unless you are afraid of being followed around by a burning ghost pyre)

Today I learned that there are tree kangaroos... TREE KANGAROOS!

And they're adorable!

https://youtu.be/VDf1WLT9BqU

There are 80,000 Giant Redwoods in California - and over 500,000 in the UK.

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In the UK! Where are they all?

Generally dotted about here and there, some were planted by the Victorians to form avenues of trees but most are odd ones all over the place. Apparently they have all been deliberately planted - as they need specific conditions to reproduce naturally, which the UK doesn't provide. And the oldest is only 160 years old, so nowhere near as impressive in terms of size as the oldest California examples.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68518623

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The way things are going, we might get to a point where conditions for reproduction are met.

Possibly. They natively grow from central California to Oregon, which I believe covers wine country, and I heard that some decent wines are now growing in Southern England. So with the right temps and lots of moisture and fog, also typical of some areas in the UK, yeah, maybe.

That I should make a note where I store things when decorating. It's taken me 6 months to discover where I put the 4 hole punch (& a few other items I'd forgotten about).

That's a constant battle. Some good advice I got from former Mythbuster, Adam Savage: When trying to find a place to store a new tool, supply, item or what have you, think of where you would first look if you didn't know where it was and store it there.

My memory is running a recorder in the background noting the curent locations of glasses, wallets, phones, keys and other frequently lost objects around the house, so that if anyone yells 'where is my thingy?' I am the one to tell them. My own stuff has a fixed location, so that I can grab my stuff in the dark when I get up early.

Ah! Well, YOU have a working memory. Some of us, not so much.

Recently in US politics, part of a justice department investigation regarding Biden's mishandling of official and classified documents, noted that he could not remember the exact date of his son's death (I'm not sure at the moment, but I believe he knew the date, but not the year). This has been painted as damning evidence that Biden is "too old to be president", but I can't quite recall the exact year my sister died and I'm only 57. And as for the date, all I can recall is that it was very close, if not on, Valentines Day so that's what I associate it with. I never particularly liked that day anyway, so I'm fine with it being even more miserable to me.

I've known I've never had great recall for dates. I don't know how my mother memorizes the birthday of seemingly everyone she knows, but that gene definitely didn't pass down to me.

As remembering where things are located... HAH! It's laughable how many things are currently LOST somewhere inside my home. I know there in there somewhere, but haven't seen them in years. It doesn't help that every flat surface above floor level becomes permanent storage for all miscellanea.

US politics really hit a new low when Donald Trump effectively said he would 'encourage' Russia to invade Canada and apparently no-one in the US batted an eyelid.

Admittedly the words he used were encourage [Russia] to do whatever the hell they want' to NATO allies that failed to 'pay their bills' - showing he fundamentally misunderstands what NATO is, what the 2% target is, how it is spent etc.
All NATO members bordering Russia are meeting that target - the nearest NATO country to Russia that isn't is Canada.

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