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

Welcome! If you're a newcomer, do read the atelier page. That way you'll have followed the link to my website and seen what the place actually looks like, and you won't be confused by references to Matina or Chloe or strange explosions downstairs.

I haven't been keeping a close track of everything in the past conversation, but I'm certain that I speak for us all when I say that the health of Hypatia's husband has been the paramount concern. After radical heart surgery -- or perhaps it isn't so radical any more and I'm just not keeping up with the technology -- and the usual staff buffoonery, we are all optimistic that he is finally stabilising and healing.

New salonista in this thread is the boisterous Bipedal Bookworm from Betelgeuse, who appears to be in one of the US time zones. If he makes it all the way through this thread we'll have to vote him in to the list (which I haven't updated, I know, I know).

Another new salonista, known to me and to Garius Lupus for some time, is Typolifi, who studies languages in Paris, where he lives. Another country heard from, two if we get to count Poland, where his mother lives!

Coelecanth, now is she a new salonista or just really bad at lurking? We've felt her presence forever and looked forward to seeing the odd paranthetical comment surrounded by weeks of silence... but then we held a Masque and she was, you should pardon the expression, hooked.

Another unexpected appearance was that of Irving Washington, aka Arleccino. Practically a charter member of HooToo, Irv is the original proprietor of what I still insist on calling the Aroma Cafe. Not only that, but Joanna, Purveyor of Donuts, Princess of Darkness, has also been back in our orbit. So good to have the old faces here, and I don't mean elderly, no!, not at all. Now if only we could get Bluebottle back in circulation...

After the demise of her beloved Sadie, Caerwynn wasn't going to ever ever have another cat, but the rest of us all love our own animals and talk about them continuously (a lot of talk in that last thread) and one thing led to another and now Caerwynn has Cassie, or the other way about, probably.

The masque was great fun and I wish I had been able to hold onto my disguise longer! In fact we're going to have another disguise event, a Christmas Pantomime to be called "The Mother of All Gooses", which will commence in about a week or at most 10 days, however long it takes for Amy to teach me certain arcane web-spells.

There has also been a most successful and engorging Thanksgiving banquet, capped by a rootbeer float installation from Mac and Carmel Bunny. In fact, we are still drinking rootbeer floats.

Professor Chris Tonks is, we are all certain, bound to be admitted to Oxford, but there is the minor matter of an interview still to be dealt with. Sea has been mostly absent as real life makes its implacable demands. Affy has been almost totally AWOL; his final year in high school is full of academic hyper-performance and extra-curricular abundance. And my other landlord, Garius Lupus, is veritably snowed under with office work.

Other now-you-see-me-now-you-don't salonistas include Bald Bloke, ox, Phil, jr52, eatsmice and Courtesy. We know they're there. But where's the Peripatetic Monk?

As Witty's car recovers from a rear-ender-fender-bender and Montana Red founders somewhere in the inanity of Karl Marx's economic (and romantic) theories, Marv has suddenly found himself thrust to the edge of his next leap of faith. Who knew that the next time you call tech support someone will pick up the phone in Mumbai?

There's been a snowball fight out on the terrace, and it was a revelation to see what kind of snow damage a sloth can do! And I'm sure much else was discussed and that I have shamefully failed to mention other notable events and other salonistas, but I'm supposed to introduce this conversation, not hog it.

Come on in, y'all! As usual, first to enter gets a mug or a t-shirt. Yes, it's always been a mug, but now Chloe has become involved and wants to supply t-shirts. They are black. There is a h2g2 logo where a breast pocket would go. It says on the back, in big bold white letters, "I WAS FIRST TO THE FORUM AT LIL'S ATELIER".

Is that tasteful or what?

[BB]

Weather report South London Urrrghhhhh

*Shifts to the new forum so as to try for the mug, then goes back to read the intro.

Beaten by a lurker! Shame on me.

Now was that a timely lurk or what

I suspect it's the only time I've been FTTF

Unbelievable! Bald Bloke was first to the forum! Which will it be, the mug or the t-shirt? *aside to Chloe* Assuming he shows up again in the course of this thread...

Rain this morning, expected to turn to snow. I've got to fetch in some wood and garage the car.

Lil
Never doubt, I'll always show up, even if it is just as a pair of eyes in the headers

I must go and get some money from the hole in the wall then do the shopping or I don't get to eat tonight.

So Chloe if you would be so good as to provide, a large white 2 sugars, stirred not shaken (as that causes a mess in the kitchen) on my return from the hades that is Sainsbury's on a Sunday afternoon.

*Matina prepares a FTTF mug with coffee as directed*

OK, I found out about this from the latest issue of the New Yorker. Check out http://www.darpa.mil/iao/ , and read the mission statement, then report back what you think it means. I will add only that this outfit is run by a certain Poindexter of Iran-Contra fame, and yes, this is an official gummint thang.

As for the logo..........

Guess who left the side lights on, on his car last night ?

Thanks Matina
*Parks himself on the sofa* while the battery charger does it's work.

Lil all I get from that link is 404, could that be because I am not a USAian

That's more than a little scary. I want to know what this objective really means:

- Entity extraction from natural language text

Are bookworms subversive?

I got into the site ok so it must be something personal, BB .

it appears to be an organisation devoted to whipping up hysteria amongst the educated classes in the US. I've never heard of them before and I have an uncomfortable feeling that they won't give a stuff about that because it's staffed by US isolationists and I'm just a foreigner in a far-away land. Anyway, they're not asking me for money, and I suspect you'll get more words out of them than action, so I think I can safely ignore them.

Well it must be my socialist tendancies then

or Blueblunders routings up the spout

New thread?

I was just getting used to the one we were on...

B4igetlost

New thread already? Where does the time go?

I just get 'page cannot be displayed' message with that link, but I've been getting a lot of those lately.

Its 16.44 here and the temperature has dropped to 2.7C, its going to be a chilly night. With all the drizzle we've had today, the roads are going to be a bit iffy tomorrow morning.

Lil, DARPA is scary, but not for the reason you think. Basically, from what I understand from my military friends, its an information gathering arm.

What's scary about it is that they lurk in chat rooms, hack into suspect email and websites, and (apparently) create profiles based on what they find out about people based on that information. So if you're having a bad day and say something about bombs, or what have you, you very well may find yourself visited by the men in the black suits.

THAT's scary.

Well, that and the Latin on their logo....knowledge is power? How Orwellian is that?

For the enjoyment of those who can't follow the link:

"The DARPA Information Awareness Office (IAO) will imagine, develop, apply, integrate, demonstrate and transition information technologies, components and prototype, closed-loop, information systems that will counter asymmetric threats by achieving total information awareness useful for preemption; national security warning; and national security decision making."

I think the mission statement alone is enough to confuse terrorists. I know I'm still trying to figure it out. I think there are words in there that are serving as verbs and nouns simultaneously - that must be some new govmint technology. "Syntactical multiplicity" or something. Maybe I shouldn't have said that.

/* Looks over shoulder */

OK, I think after much study I have most of this, but I'm still working on "asymetric threats." What the heck is that?!

Knowledge is power but it's worthless without understanding, and these guys should devote a little time to being understandable.

But Mac, dear, that's the whole point, to be obscure so no one really knows what you're doing. If you follow the programs link, there's a lot of odd stuff, mostly impossible, but definitely very Big Brother Is Watching.

Caer, thank you ever so much for the use of your wonderful red pen!
*hands it back*

*starts doing the Snoopy Dance*
It's done, it's done, it's done! No more Marx!!! Yippee!

Hmmm.. Yet another gubmit agency bent on removing my freedoms. Is it too late to immigrate to somewhere warm?

Looks like I was only 5 hours late to the new forum.

[]

Mac - an "asymetrical threat" is something that threathens the U.S. whom the U.S. can't threaten back. It's currently a euphemism for terrorism.

A funny side-note: I downloaded a latin-to-english translator to translate the "scientia est potentia" on the logo. I had a rough idea of what it meant, but wanted a "real" translation. Here's what the program gave me:

He/she/it has been knowing the force.



At least it didn't say "the dark side of the force".