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

In the past, there's been talk of 'a slimmed-down, Scandinavian-style monarchy'.

I personally fabour a slimmed-down, Russian-style monarchy.

In the past, there's been talk of 'a slimmed-down, Scandinavian-style monarchy'.

I personally favour a slimmed-down, Russian-style monarchy.

George Formby was very popular in the Soviet Union. In 1943 he received the order of Lenin.

I came across a genuinely interesting but fairly useless fact towards the end of last week, which I thought would be deserving of being posted here. Unfortunately I can't remember what it was. If/when I remember I'll post it here.

I think the useless fact that I Bwas referring to is that the chemical that imparts the nice smell to strawberries is a stereoisomer of the smell ejected by skunks.(Somebody told me this a month or so ago - tried Googling it but with no success as yet)

My younger brother's useless piece of informaion, which he had an obsession with saying many times was...

The turning circumference of an ant is 360 degrees...

Strange brother I have, but then his name is Gordon.

Emmily

The poet John Ruskin was so apalled to discover (on his wedding night) that his wife had pubic hair that he never consummated his marriage. This was in the days before the unfortunate fashion for Brazilian tonsures, of course.


And speaking of veteran British performers gaining recognition in Communist countries....It is well known that the recently retired Norman Wisdom is revered in Albania.

A while back, much merriment was caused amongst British MEPs when the European Parliament's simultaneous translators rendered:

"La problème sera solue par la sagesse de la Normandie"

as

"The problem will be solved by Norman Wisdom"

Circumference!

"Dividing the circumference of the Stonehenge circle by its diameter, one obtains the number pi to an astonishingly good approximation"

This argument was used by some of these authors that claim 'we had contact with high-tech aliens from mars in pre-historic times'. In their logic, a underdevelopped civilization of quasi-monkeys could not possibly know to that accuracy what the number PI is, hence it must have come from those 'high-tech civilization of extraterrestrial aliens that lived in the wreckage of their spaceship aka Atlantis.'

Yah sure... And you wouldn't believe how many people think this is plausible!

HELL

How long is a piece of string!! or a line of people holding hands?

I must share one of my favourite anagrams with you:


Erich von Daniken's 'Chariots of the Gods'

Gives

Crank has no good evidence for this sh*t

However...I was delighted to see, when I was last in Heidelberg, that the old fraud is still holding public lectures.

By the way....did you know that if you carefully select certain ancient monuments on a map and ignore other ones nearby, you can connect them with a fairly straight line.....?

Did you know 97 percent of all stats are made up, and 2 percent of the remaining 3, are less than 5 percent true?

I was once in a (ahem) 'management seminar' when the fool taking the course knowingly declared "Did you know that 80% of our communication is nonverbal?!!"

Being in a stroppy mood, I stuck my hand up and said "Does that mean that if I sit at the back of the room, where I can't hear you properly, I'll still pick up 80% of what you've got to say?"

Beware of statistics that make one think 'How on earth did they measure that?'

80% of nothing is ... nothing. So that would probably be correct; and you would be unlikely to be disadvantaged by the 20% you missed.

F

Hey! A lot of consultants make a lot of money by peddling that statistic!

Here's something compleatly useless... RIGHT NOW, but not after I post this, the convos on either side of this as indicated at the bottom of my page seem to be indicating something

<>

Maybe you should communicate this on the 'Ladies to Shave or Not to Shave' thread: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/F19585?thread=256491&post=5976109#p5976109 P.S. Makes one wonder what Ruskin's previous experience had been!

Useless facts:-
1) Raindrops fall at 18mph
2) Astronauts can't belch because there's no gravity to separate liquid from gas held in their stomachs.
3) Lifts are the safest form of transport.
4) Peas have 14 chromosomes. humans have 46.
5) Screwdrivers were invented before the screw.
6) One in 2.000 babies is born with a tooth.
7) Iceland has a multiplex cinema with six screens but only 17 seats.
8) Cows emit 105lb of methane gas each year by passing wind.
9) We spend an average 2 years of our lives on the phone.
All curtesy of a Newspaper.

I once read about how much methane is produced by turkey farming; and thus Christmas has a direct influence on Global Warming.