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

No, time travel uses "chronotons" (Just ask Professor Farnsworth), so if you have a chronometer, you're set... Tachyons make you go faster.

No no no, tachyons are radiation particles that are emitted from cloaking devices, as any Starfleet Engineer will tell you. To move the ship you need dylithium and antimatter.

Right Folks!

Stumbled upon this thread about 3AM, and have read around 1500 posts and cannot be bothered reading more, as it is now 8 AM (aw, gimmie some credit!!)

Now for some of my comments. If they have been covered in the 4000 or so posts I missed, I apologise......Here we go...

First a few of 'my' facts...

If a black cat crosses your path, it is considered unlucky.

If you cross the path of a black cat, that is considered lucky.

Dolphins sleep with one eye open.

Some species of shark cannot sleep, as they have to keep moving, to keep water flowing over their gills.

Swifts only sleep for a few seconds at a time, as most of their time is spent flying. The only time they stop flying is during the breeding season.

The World's most stolen book is the 'Gideon's Bible' (available in hotel rooms around the World)

In the 1950s TV series, 'Lassie' was actually a dog, not a bitch!

The Queen's actual surname is Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (Queen Victoria's husband, Albert's surname) King George V changed it after WW1

I once personally knew a dog that loved 'Fisherman's Friends'......True!! It's name was 'Bodds' after Boddingtons Beer that was served in the pub he was abandoned in.

A Zebra's stripes are WHITE!!!

Now a few comments and corrections...

Posts 400 - 405......
H-Bombs do not explode. They implode. he explosion is caused by the energy generated by the nuclear fusion process created in the detonation process. It uses exactly the same process that the Sun uses to create its energy, only on the Sun, the immense gravitational field that the Sun has, prevents the majority of the blast wave hitting the Earth.
The reason that the church at Hiroshima was hardly affected is due to the effect of it being directly below Ground Zero, where blast effects are negligable.

Constellation Orion cropped up now and again, so a couple of other facts about that....
In Orions Belt, a dimly discernable can be seen. This is not a dim star, but our nearest extragalactic neighbour, the galaxy Andromeda. It is at a distance of roughly 1.8 million light years, and approaching us at about 1.4 million kilometers per hour. Don't worry!
Even at that speed, it will take 45,000 years or so to reach us, but even then, it will only be a glancing blow, and w will be at the opposite side of the galaxy when it does.

Betelgeuse, one of the stars in Orion, (Supposed home of Ford Prefect, according to DNA) is classed as a variable Red Giant. By astronomical observation, it can be seen to brighten and dim cyclically, and has been observed to swell and relax periodically as well. This can only mean one thing, Betelgeuse is about to go Supernova. A star in our galaxy going Supernova is something that astronomers have been waiting for since Gallilleo looked at Jupiter with his basic telescope.
But Betelgeuse is 300 light years away.....It could have blown 300 years ago, and the light is on its way to us as I write this post.....Keep looking at the night sky........Astronomers believe that it is possible that the explosion will be so vast that it is possible that will be visible during daytime!!!

(I am afraid that DNA didn't do his homework; FP could not have come from there)

Lostit, Post 532. It was not Kepler. It was Tycho Brahe. His bladder did not burst, but kidney infection set in. That was the cause of his death.

c.Post560. Earth is not a sphere. It is flattened at the poles, and is therefore a spheroid.

Posts 714 - 719

Rude names: The reason that the light bulb manufacturers 'Osram' have no sales in Poland.....Can't tell you. It would be yikesed!!!!

Post 800 Count Zero. Cans of McEwans Export do not float in water!!!


Dunnit!!!
End of my bit!!



GT

Hi Mr. X

Tachyons, and their relations, Tardyons are theoretical particles. The strangest property they have is this..........they only exist ABOVE lightspeed, hence assocciation with FTL drives and time travel.




GT

>>Earth is not a sphere. It is flattened at the poles, and is therefore a spheroid.<<

It's actually not even a spheroid, what with being all bumpy with peaks and trenches.

A bit pedantic, are we, Toybox?????





GT

(Thanx for reading long post!!!)

GT, the 'luck' associated with black cats varies. In the UK a black cat crossing your path is lucky. In other countries (Spain, Italy, USA) it's unlucky. The reason is the same - association with witches. In the one case you're lucky because a witch came near you and ignored you. In the other, just having a witch anywhere near you is unlucky.

Once I made an observation to a geometer friend, that it was strange that humanity hadn't first developed spherical geometry instead of plane geometry. He told me something along the line of, 'well, on the other hand, if you look around you, it doesn't really look spherical, does it?'

Thanx, dragon! Useless fact stored on internal hard drive in grey matter!

Interesting Toybox and logical. Pythagoras and his pals did start on the triangular stuff before moving to circles and speres. Observing ships leaving port,and seeing it gradually disappear from the hull upwards suggested that the Earth may be spherical.

About 300BC, a chap called Eritosthenes measured it to a high degree of accuracy too. Google the name......Facinating how he did it!!!



GT

A black cat treading on a crack in the pavement whilst walking under a ladder, is a very unusual occurrence.

PP

<>

It is physically impossible for an insomniac shark to vomit underwater...

*sigh of relief*
This thread's never quite the same without the mention of shark vomit.
(<--use your imagination here)

Is shark vomit full of bits of carrot too?

PP

I believe that geologists now classify the Earth´s shape as geomorph. Which essentially means Earth-shaped...

The 'bits of carrot' in puke are actually wee bits of stomach lining.

The Andromeda galaxy is in the constellation... Andromeda. That thingy in Orion's a nebula.

Will have to check on that.........



GT

Urine smells of wee.

PP

Not if you´ve been eating asparagus.

?????



GT

Or beef even.

(The asparagus thing is pretty unpleasant isn't it!)

PP