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

I cant find a dictionary, what does secular mean?

If you ever wondered which was healthier McDonalds or BurgerKing, I can tell you-rather uselessly, that you'd be better off eating a tub of cream, then a meal from either-all round its more nutritious.

Another Useless Fact: My feet hurt.

Secular

ADJECTIVE:

Worldly rather than spiritual.

Not specifically relating to religion or to a religious body: secular music.

Relating to or advocating secularism.

Not bound by monastic restrictions, especially not belonging to a religious order. Used of the clergy.

Occurring or observed once in an age or century.

Lasting from century to century.

That was very informative and i thank thee graciously.

Oops, hope it wasn't *too* useful.

How can things be *too useful*?

It wasnt *too* useful it was the right amount of useful, though im not that sure what that means......

I have a radio in my car......

alas it is not red.

FACT: dolphins are the only other animals that mate for pleasure.

FACT: 63% of statistics are made up-just like this one.

Actually, I believe certain kinds of chimpanzee mate for non-procreative reasons, although I'm not sure whether it counts as 'for pleasure'. It's a social thing, apparently. And I also read once that bonobo chimpanzees show homosexual behaviour, which is one in the eye for the people who regard homosexuality as 'unnatural'.

I was told that *all* animals mate for pleasure but humans are the only ones that realise that mating leads to pregnancy.

Many seagulls are homosexual as well. When there aren't enough males to go around, females will form pairs, make nests and lay eggs in them, taking turns to sit on the eggs.

You're right, Spinks. Animals other than humans do not have a concept of "for the benefit of the species". They just do it because they like it.

See the recent journal entry in my personal space.

Apparently there are many, many gay animals - including lesbian porcupines. To the inevitable question: 'So how do they 'do' it?' comes the obvious response......'Very carefully!'

Can't find a dictionary???!!! Google any word and you get a link for a definition towards the right of the horizontal bar towards the top. Click on it and it takes you to the definition in dictionary.com.

Another definition of 'secular' is 'Relating to a period of time'. Thus, for example, the 'There is secular trend in human stature' means 'People are getting taller (as the years advance)'

I'm not getting any taller

Here's some truly useless info that just resurfaced from the dusty cupboards of my brain...

In an interview Mike Myers commented on the apparent vagaries of international movie releases. Apparently the title of Wayne's World was changed in Italy to "Fuzzi di Testa" or "Confusion of the Head".

(If there's a error in the translation it was on the part of Mike Myers, not me).

I thought 'Wayne's world' referred to Wayne Rooney , a Manchester United footballer!

You mean you've never seen Wayne's World.

Here's my useless fact:
Superstring is a theoretical particle which has infinite length but zero mass.

A theoretical particle is for life not just christmas.

In string theory, a string can be either closed in a loop or open and can be stretched to form a membrane, usually referred to as a *brane*.

And I don't care if seagulls are homosexual or not but their excrement can disolve automobile paint.

Well that was just something I heard, though apparently Guinea Pigs can be homosexual as well.

The existance of superstrings has yet to be proven because in order to view one, an electron microscope, larger than the 'planet' earth would be required.

Physics scares me. My applied maths teaher is always asking us rhetorical question about gravity that are scary like:
Whats it made of?
Where does it come from?
How do we know it will be there forever?
and finishes it all off with the question: If the suns gravitational pull was suddenly just gone(no reason for it, just gone) how long would it take for the earth to go off in a straight line into oblivion?
Its a noodle scratcher to be sure

Starfish

Being a physics teacher and not knowing a great deal of physics:

It doesn't matter. It just gets you thinking, so go with it and think.

Or is that too painful?

(Not meant to sound nasty)

I also am disturbed by gravity... I read in a book a concept that kinda freaked me out abit.. (can't vouch for how correct it is however)...

Basically it deals with basic relativity and gravity...

I spinning disc (or ball or whatever)... ok... say a playground merry go round... Ok... you and another are standing on opposite sides of a merry go round... You both will experience centrifigul force (inertia) in opposing directions relative to the two of you. Everyone sees this as normal (it is)... now for frames of reference... Relatively speaking if the frame of reference is only the merry go round then it would be like the rest of the universe is spinning around it (compleatly valid frame of reference) so why would the two of you on the merry go round experience force in opposing directions... unless it is the gravity of the entire universe acting on you?... INSTANTLY

Or sommat like that.


(sorry, no useless facts in that, were there?)