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

Sulk not, o great one! Look at the title of this and your last post.

Gnomon, I must compliment you - I think only you noticed!

And DJ, I guess this thread is like my computer. It's supposed to be able to do several things at the same time, but when you're not looking some stuff disappears as if it were never there.

I guess we should at least be thankful that the thread doesn't cras#87 ,,,,

I hadn't realised "Aegilops" was a word.
What does it mean then? (It's not in my dictionary, but then as per posts previous, I only have a French<->English dictionary to hand .

Beats me too, come on, explain for the lexicographically challenged amongst us.

(P.S. That old, but distinguished, James chap is not looking well. Touch of the ee cummings apart from anything else. Do you think we should say anything?)

Don't know about our policy on correcting other people's work (but I know someone who will ).
On another language type thread to which I am party, the preamble contained the following:
"Warning: This is a language thread. Expect your grammar and spelling to be corrected"..but I try to take heed of the law of pedantic reverberation on this

Is the law of pedantic reverberation like the law of dogmatic dissonance? Who makes these laws and who enforces them?

Courtesy of Jake Thackray:
"Please understand I respect and admire the frailer sex
And I honour them every bit as much as the next misogynist
But give some women the ghost of a chance to talk and thereupon
They go on again, on again, on again, on again, on again, on again, on.."

On onomatopeia, 'thwack'.

Sorry, but I always thought men were the frailer sex.

Physically, no.
*emotionally*, quite probably.

Percy, I didn't think people made laws (excepting legal constructs), I thought people *discovered* them.
I also thought they we self-enforcing (e.g. a disbelief in gravity will surely trip you up) ?
To paraphrase DNA, if you prove black is white (which it isn't), you'll get run over on the next zebra crossing.
Personally, I think all zebra crossings should have unique stripe patterns, just like the animal. It would give the anorak-classes something else to spot and collect !

The unforthcomingness of explanations is amazing.

Physically, no.
*emotionally*, quite probably.

The software product I was developing last year was called Aegis - and that meant Adjustor/Examiner General Information System...so that would make it an acronym and therefore not allowed in Scrabble(tm).
So the added L-O-P could stand for...? Perhaps "logged on public" if the system is ported to the net .

Now - to confuse things even more...have we had an explanation of why the bit that is left over when you try and vote with a hole punch is called a Chad?

The male of the species is indoctorinated from birth to believe he is the less-frail sex.
Mother nature has a hand in this (bigger frames, muscles etc. on average), but most/many mothers also do this. This is in the misguided assumption that the world needs men at the helm. We, of course, know different !

I think it's connected with the character Chad which is a sort of m shape looking over a wall. The two eyes are under the m arches and the nose hangs over the wall. It dates from WWII and said things like "Wot,no bananas!"
On second thoughts, there is absolutely no connection with bits of paper punched out by a paper punch and the foregoing is complete balderdash. Perhaps there was a hole punch manufacturer named Chad?
(not putting a < star > on this confession of ignorance.Not up to snuff at all.

)

I was just pointing out (always the intro to a feeble excuse) that DJ had probably just made up the 'law of pedantic reverberation'. If we are going to be pedantic, and I am , then there are no 'laws' in the scientific sense. There are only hypotheses and conjectures.
I can see why zebra crossings are so called, but why 'Pelican' crossings?

Perhaps Chad is the guy hired to sweep up all these little bits of paper at the end of the day. And do they keep them to check for irregularities. If they don't how can you be sure the holes were not punched out later (Tee hee, that should keep the lawers going for another three weeks!
Wasn't the guy looking over the wall called Chas? Rather than Chad. Or is that something else that changes as you cross "the pond"?

Ooops. Forgot to complete last posting properly:-
indoctorinate (sp? - no spell checker in H2G2, Duncan) - I think I know what it means, but what is 'doctorinate' ?

Surely it's obvious, Percy, that they'd run out of zebras

Thanx Dunx -an Ohnosecond there.
Chad Valley used to make toys
Chad Varah started the Samaritans
I have been paddled across Lake Chad in a dugout canoe
I thought the bits of paper that came out the holes were called confetti.

The Law of Pedantic Reverberation can be found filed under Murphy.
"If you take it on yourself to correct a spelling/grammar mistake in a post, your post will contain at least double the number of errors you have corrected and you won't notice them until you have posted it"
This means you either have to be perfect or very,very careful