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

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they do if you drink the contents......but only if there is nothing else to drink

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OK... but what does that have to do with my post 800?

I said:
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McEwans Export is an ale... one of my favorites and I can't get it in Texas anymore.


But let me be more specific... cans of 'Merkin pisswater lager float. Miller, Budweiser, Coors... Sex in a Canoe! They float. But just barely, just the tops of the cans protrude from the water's surface. Just enough to be easily snagged by intrepid teens waiting along the river bank watching for rafters to dump their ice chests.

Only if you acept the heretical notion that the earth is (approximately) round.

What Eratosthenes did was show how to calculate the altitude of the Sun.

If the distance from Alexandria (A) to Cyene (C) is approximately 500 miles and the angle of the sun at A is approximately 7 degrees while at C it is 90 degrees then the distance at that time from Cyene to the sun is 500Tan83=4072.1732 miles, approximately.

Assuming that Helios drives his horses in a circle around the humble believer at C then the speed of those horses is 2Pi4072.1732over24=1066.0925 miles per hour, approximately.

Glad I could clear this up for you.

On a completely unrelated note, 233 years ago today, America's founding fathers voted to secede from Great Britain.

Also, Count Zero, I was wondering: Do you have the stereo-typical southern accent of movies such as Gettysburg, or do you have the more plain and boring western accent that Americans are so well known for?

I have a Texan accent, ore like Tommy Lee Jones.

When I was younger I didn't have a distinct accent. I had what I called more of a Burbank accent. I was a latchkey kid and grew up watching a lot of TV. Burbank, California is where most TV shows were filmed in the 60's and 70's.

When I went to England in 1985 no one could place me by my accent. Now I can hear it and it's gotten much thicker since then. But at least it's not as thick as an East Texas accent. That one's very thick and sounds more like the stereotype.


To get back to the subject, one of those shows that I watched endlessly was Gilligan's Island.

The Professor, Roy Hinkley, Jr., got his M.A. degree at Southern Methodist University and his Ph.D. at Texas Christian University.
He was a Texan.

Ah, Tommy Lee Jones. I've always liked him.

Never seen Gilligan's Island.

That's a shame... it is the epitome of cheezy, predictable, American TV in the late 60's.

It's about 7 castaways stuck on an uncharted island in the Pacific.

"Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip, That started from this tropic port, aboard this tiny ship. The mate was a mighty sailin' man, the Skipper brave and sure. Five passengers set sail that day for a three hour tour. A three hour tour.

The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed. If not for the courage of the fearless crew, the Minnow would be lost. The Minnow would be lost. The ship set ground on the shore of this uncharted desert isle,
with Gilligan, the Skipper too, the Millionaire
and his wife, the movie star, the Professor
and Mary Ann, here on Gilligan's Isle."

You should see the episode where they almost get rescued but Gilligan screws it up.

I remember watching that here in UK.................in black and white!!!




GT

The first season was in B&W. Then Color was invented.
(I seriously believed that the world was in B&W until about the time I was born, 1966. Everything older than I was in B&W.)

Never saw it in colour, Count!!




GT

when i went to berlin on the train, before the wall came down,

east germany looked like it was in black and white and this was in 87

With the heat and calm winds today, mostly blowing in from the direction of the industrial areas around the port, Houston, TX probably looks like an old Sepia Tone print.

it was like taking a train through a film noir

And Honneche (sp?)
ordered people trying to escape to be shot???

Makes it look as though E. Germany was one massive prison!!




GT

I just learned this. In the States, bottled water has an expiration date. This is solely because of a 1987 law in New Jersey that requires all food products to have an expiration date of no more than 2 years from the date of manufacture. Printing separate labels or packaging for one state wasn't efficient so bottled water companies just made them all that way. The law was amended a few years ago, but the companies just haven't been bothered to change this.

What about alternative medicine?

http://drboli.wordpress.com/2009/06/27/advertisement-365/

retro phrenology

thats the way to go

Ah, but you see, that homeopathic cure for thirst is chock full of dihydromonoxide. Dangerous stuff that.

The most popular alcoholic drinks have about 95% dihydrogenmonoxide and it's not even listed on the label.

yea, that's the stuff... (don't know why my brain forgot that one syllable.)