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

Oh now don't make read read thru all those notes as to the specifics of the bet!!!

I think the banner was supposed to stay up for 2 weeks after the finals. I don't beleive any of us gave consideration to the chance that NJ or Philly would beat either Colorado or Dallas. But you do whatever your conscious allows!

Hi Bloke! How did you do that smiley with the open mouth?!?!?! It's CUTE!

Yes, it's true. My Stars folded last night in double overtime and they lost the series 4 games to 2. Worse yet, New Jersey got to "skate The Cup" on OUR Dallas ice, because they won it here! A lot of fans stayed to see it, and that is something they don't do in most arenas because the fans are too pissed off about losing to watch. But here in Dallas, they stayed.
Thanks for trying to do your part and NOT watch to bring the luck! Its so funny how sports bring out the superstitions. The local TV station here that broadcasted the last few games actually changed their schedule because the superstitious fans called in. It seems that when the station ran a "cup special" a half hour before the game, the Stars lost. One night they ran "wheel of fortune" (a game show) instead, and the Stars won. After that fans called in and compained that they were to keep running the game show instead of the special and the station complied!! now there is no hockey until the beginnin of October!

Now, I forgot what we were talking about .....

Hmm. I *KNOW* I responded to this post, but something must have crashed.

how did England do in the soccer championship? Is it an "all star" team that you send? In other words, you get the best of the best players from all over the league to play in this tournament?

I bet Mr. Gates will buy his way out of this legal mess. You are correct, there is a long way to go before anything happens. Frankly, I am not sure what good it would do anyways!

I never knew tornados could happen in England! Wow!
In the spring, we are under a tornado watch (meaning the conditions are "favorable" for the formation of tornados) at least 2 or 3 times per week here in North Texas (a.k.a. "Tornado Alley"). The watches are largely ignored now. None one cares until a "tornado warning" gets posted. A "warning" means an actual tornado has been spotted touching the ground by some authority such as the police or trained spotters. In other words, it's a confirmed sighting. Warnings have occurred a few times this year, and there was a biggie that hit downtown Ft. Worth in April. Lots of property damage.

Last year we had a tornado here in Salt Lake. Being in a high mountain valley like ours makes them very rare. It was classified as an F-3 tornado, not too sure what that means tho. It ripped through a section of downtown and destroyed a popular dance club. As I understand there were no major injuries, but it did raise awareness here. Once this spring there has been a county wide tornado watch, something that I never would have thought to see here. Blondie, might you be able to shed some light on this subject for a poor little mountain boy?

Ewww... tornadoes. California generally has too much air pressure to even conceive of them... it has happened in the past, but they are extremely rare, are usually an isolated occurance (one touches down, as opposed to the tens or even hundreds that touch down in tornado alley during the course of a storm), and are usually quite weak. I did get to experience waiting out a tornado watch when I lived outside of Chicago, though, so I can tell you honestly that I can do without them. Several hours cramped into the downstairs shower room with a bunch of smelly guys can cure you of any romantic ideas about tornadoes in a hurry. Give me an earthquake any day... don't have to wait those out.

Well I can live without those too. We get them here too but usually really small ones. Last one I remember over 3.0 was back in 94.

Awww... a 3.0... how cute... Most times I can't even feel one that weak. I think earthquakes are cool! There you are, having an utterly dull day, when all of a sudden, the earth shakes the entire society out of its rut. Suddenly, television news reports are interesting, you get phone calls from friends and family that you never hear from, and everyone has a wonderful anecdote to tell about where they were when it hit, and how they reacted.

Ya, the 3.0 was weak, but I did feel the building wobbling. I seem to recall that you had to be 3 story's or higer to feel it. But I also remember one when I was in the Mojave that shoke us a bit.. Can't remember the year tho.

I can recall a pair of real beauties that were centered in the Mojave. The first was one of the "double quakes" one glorious day in June of '92. They were called the double quakes because they were on the same day, just a few hours apart, centered only about 40 miles apart, but on two distinctly different fault lines. The one in Big Bear (that's in the San Bernardino Mountains) hit at about 6:00 am, at magnitude 6.9. Then the one in Landers (that's in the Mojave) hit a few hours later, at magnitude 7.4. It was a very entertaining day for those of us who lived a safe distance away (Landers was absolutely flattened, and Big Bear took some damage, but outside these remote communities, any damage was superficial at worst), and I had a hilarious anecdote about my brother pulling a recliner over himself for the second one.

There was another one in the desert just last year. It went off in such a remote location that it was named for the old abandoned mine in the area (whose name I've already forgotten) and the only damage of note was to the train tracks. A passenger train came to the break and was derailed, but nobody was seriously injured. The nearest human settlement of any kind was the Twenty-nine Palms marine base, and they had a bit of damage as well. I can't even remember the precise magnitude of this one, but I believe it was just over 6. It woke me up from a sound sleep, but I am a professional at guaging these things, so when it failed to shake enough to cause alarm, I let it pass, then went right back to sleep.

I do recall the last one near 29 Palms as I have family there. Many of my relations are scattered all over that region. BTW Gargle, let me know what if any messaging programs you have. I see we are up at the same ungodly hour.

We are, but alas, I am up at an ungodly hour at work, and my messaging stuff is all at home. I could log into aohell instant annoyer, and I could probably download ICQ and log into my account there, but I've tried to keep up real-time chats from work before, and it just doesn't work out well. I have to break off and do work-type things every few minutes, no matter how much I try to avoid them.

Well I am reachable on AIM as marvthegrate if you so choose. I also am at work so I understand for sure the interuptions.

You mean the one with its tounge sticking out ? Its : - P with the spaces taken out , note it must be a capital P.

Sorry to here about the stars it must be a real bummer to lose a best of seven on a home match, mind you LA would probably have prefered winning in front of their home crowd, so at least it spoilt their party a little.

England lost their first match in the euro 2000 contest, they lost to Portugal 3-2 after being 2-0 up at one point.
The England team are supposed to be "all Star" but if you ask any two soccer fans they will disagree on who should be in the side.

Like you I suspect old moneybags will wriggle out of it somehow, or at least he will get out of it ok even if Microsoft is split.
With regard to how much good splitting Microsoft would do, I'm also not sure.
One of their worst offences in my view has been their constant attempts to destroy any common standards in the industry which would have the effect of levelling the playing field between them and thjeir compeditors.
Even HTML is now afflicted by differences in standards between Microsoft and the others.
They have gained a large part of their market dominance by using propriatory document formats which lock users into their applications by making a switch to a competing product expensive.
I must know they got into this position in the first place by producing what were at the time by far and away the best available products, eg Word 6, however the methods they have used to defend that position I think have been out of order.
However splitting the operating systems away won't level the playing field as the real lock in is the document formats.

There seems to be a lot of wind swirling around in this thread and the ground keeps shaking
Oh hi its Marv and GB

Luckly for us the tornados we get rarely do more than rip off roof tiles and occasionally bring down a chimney or part of a wall, part of this may be due to the heavier consruction used here (mostly brick) although there was one a couple of years ago which hit a caravan site (Trailer park? )and did a lot of damage, but no one was killed on that occasion.
Also we tend to get away with it on the earthquake front as well, there small ones occaisonally, definatly not enough to wake GB up, the last one I can think of making the papers was some years ago in north Wales.

I must admit I'm only too happy to miss out on both these events, but it would be nice if we could get some real summer weather for once!