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

Hey Articuno. Does GAZ do a lot of camping?

(I meant that in the best possible taste)

I presume driving gloves originally date from the days of open-top cars, and some people wear them for comfort (or style).
From personal experience driving in sun, I normally only get a real tan on the arm that gets direct sunlight through an open window, though I guess sunroofs could have the same effect, when open.

Tans do take quite a while to fade - even after months of little sun, and wearing more clothes in autumn/winter, I can still see transitions between differentially-tanned areas from the previous summer. I guess it depends when you consider a tan to be significantly (or fully) faded.

Not *fishbelly* white, no...
I do go an interesting shade of boiled lobster in the sun though, so I tend to avoid it...

Actually I like being taken for rides... in an convertible or whatever. Beats hanging out with pedestrians all the time... and you can still get sunburned.

Not salmon pink then?

(Definitely summat fishy going on round here.

's making me salivate. )

Definitely not.

A nice shade of boiled lobster Speaking of tans, there is something I find suspicious. They say that using sunblock won't keep you from getting a tan. But the pigment you get in the skin, isn't that a sort of natural sunblock? So if the oil keeps the UV-rays away from your skin, what should make it want to produce pigment? Are they just lying to us to get us to use sunblock?

It's bcause of the way that sunblock works. It'll only protect you for a certain amount of time. If you are out longer than that, it stops working. Then your skin registers damage, and starts to tan. Or something. I'm not a scientist!

Yes thats right.

To work out how long the protection will work think about the amount of minutes that it takes your skin to burn. With me it is about 10 - so when you select a sunfactor (say 25 for me) you times the factor number by the amount of minutes and that gives you the amount of time you can stay in the sun before the protection wears off.

Does that make sense?

But doesn't that mean you only get a tan when the suncream stops working? Which is the time you should then apply some more?

No, you can't apply more.
Or rather, you should be reapplying it during the day, as it wears off (as in rubs off, not stops working). But once Abi - for instance - has had her 25 x 10 mins, she has to cover up as the protection is gone.

To repley to Tefkat, Smilodon Fatalis (the café-au-lait cat). Golgafrinchams, I spit furballs in your general direction not much now, GAZ is hoopy frood that really noes (I think that's right, I can't spell this morning) where his towel is. The last time he complained was about here I believe!!!

As we are for some reason bringing this conversation back to towels again, did you know that at each venue when on tour, Elton John requires the PRODUCER to provide 50 full size towels for both band use and crew showers. This is not to mention the 24 hand towels also required. Whatever else you might thing about the original Rocket Man, he seems to want to know where his towel is! (Wonders, Is he a DNA reader?)

Well, thats not really that unusual a request for a band.
Think about the amount of sweating they do on stage, then think about how many showers they will take at each venue. Times by number of band and crew (and Elton's not a stripped down three piece user is he? ) and fifty doesn't seem too bad.

I use four at a time but I'm sure Sir Elton doesn't have as much hair...

I don't know about that.
Have you ever seen his back.

Please! Some of us are eating.

It was such a lovely afternoon and I had to hang around in the car for a while so I thought I'd test the hypothesis put forward by He Who Shall Not Be Named ('cos I'm too lazy). I parked on the wild and wuthering heights and lay down beside the windows (leaving them tightly shut of course - I'm not THAT mad)...

Guess what! If you have sufficient melanin in your skin you can tan (albeit only slightly) through tinted glass in The Frozen North in April.

(And, sad to say, but not entirely unexpectedly, I wasn't approached by even one long-distance lorry driver clutching wads of cash )

Hehe, thanks for doing the experiment though