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

I thought polar bears only lived in the northern hemisphere.

That's what they'd like you to beleive...

But its true! Penguins live south! Polar bears north. And ne'er the two shall meet.

...right?

They might meet in the zoo.

Edinburgh Zoo still has a barmy polar bear. Last one in the UK

http://www.thenewspaper.org.uk/home/pg000392.php

Oh, and Mercedes, the polar bear above, was the mother of Minty, the Fox's Glacier Mint bear!

He died of intestinal problems last year. Too many Glacier mints? Or because he couldn't vomit underwear underwater?

Yes, Howl... that's right... I was just about to post this before I got to this page. (And now I'll do it anyway).


Ok.... this may not be a useless fact but it does seem to be a widely unknown fact.

Polar bears and penguins do NOT live anywhere near each other! Polar bears live in the Arctic circle (North) and Penguins live in the Antarctic (South). Gary Larson found this out from his fans when he drew his rather well known Far Side comic showing a polar bear wearing only a penguin mask in the midst of a crowd of oblivious penguins.
The other day I saw a similar scene on Creature Comforts. Almost every advert that has shown a polar bear probably has penguins in the scene somewhere. Chilly Willy was always outsmarting polar bears. But unless a zookeeper is very very very incompetant it is doubtful that a polar bear will ever dine on penguin meat.

Ok... I said it, I feel better now.

Like I said, it's what the polar bears want you to beleive...

Is it any coincidence that all UFO sightings in the US and the Europe have occured within 1000 miles of a zoo with a polar bear in it? I think not!

<>

plus with having no opposable thumbs it is incredbly difficult for them to open the wrappers.

As Mr D so rightly points out, the commonly percieved image of your average daily polar bear is way off. Most of them are cunning masters of disguise and naturally adept at adapting to living in all sorts of enviroments. My next door neighbour of several years turned out to be a polar bear and had to be removed by the authorities for our neighbourhoods safety. But you wouldn't have had a clue he was a polar bear when you looked at him. It was the buckets of fish in his flat that gave him away in the end.

Be aware. They are out there. Polars. And they mean business.

A young Gary Kasparov was once so engrossed in thoughts about chess that he forgot to put clothes on and turned up naked for a chess tournament.

OMG. pfffft. MY neighbour turned out to be a polar bear..

does that mean???
surely..

are you that fella that goes to work on the unicycle?



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aye be wishes to state that anything she might have said earlier about hemispheres and the like may well have been fabricated by local radio station and, while not one bit sorry, she wishes you all to know that she wasn't taken in by it either..
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Useless fact: I've a Sweep (of Sooty & Sweep) cuddly toy that was made when the programme was still B&W. The toy makers didn't know Sweep would be grey so my cuddly toy is brown.

I challenge anyone to find a less useful fact than that.

i have a binary watch. ha.

i have no orange underwear

Aye Bee has no underwear of of any colour!

nah, i win.

You do mean a "binary" watch, not just simply a digital watch, right?

I think I saw one of those advertised. Displays the time actually in a binary led display... bugger to read.

That may be useless, but it is geekily kewl.

i can read the time on it fine. the only annoying thing is that you can't read the time until you press the button. other than that it's ultimately cool and agreat conversation starter with most people.

and yes i do mean binary, not just digital. with LEDs.

Co-incidentally saw my first binary watch on SSaturday on the arm of Croz.

i know. sharks ate it all.