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

In 2006 Linda Walker, 60, woke from a stroke to find that her Geordie accent had been transformed into a Jamaican one. At the time she said she was devastated.

"I've lost my identity, because I never talked like this before," she said. "I'm a very different person and it's strange and I don't like it"

I heard the woman with the 'Jamaican' accent at the time. It wasn't *quite* so freaky as it might sound. It wasn't as if she had been taken over by the soul of a dead Rasta - just that changes in her pitch and intonation made her sound a *bit* Jamaican. It was no more spectacular than when people, say, slur following a stroke.

Well done parliament (but not government)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/apr/29/government-loses-gurkhas-vote

"MPs voted to allow all retired Gurkhas to settle in the UK"

still not sure why the Govt. was/is so anti? Anything to do with "open policy could result in up to 100,000 Nepalese veterans and their relatives coming to the UK, at a cost of £1.4bn" I wonder?

Heck, even the BNP support the Gurkhas settling here.

The luckiest man alive:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8026807.stm

(the guy on the bike, just before the car crashes into the railings of the monument)

This appears to be in slow motion, on the news it is correct speed, and he barely gets out of the way.

I hear 4 people had already been mown down and killed, and many others are seriously injured

Judge says in court:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/apr/30/divorce-judge-philip-larkin

I'm using the Grauniad link not simply because I'm a Grauniad reader (surely not?) - but because they're the only newspaper that has a blanket policy of not asterisking the word .

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2009/05/01/ns-halifax-fire-evacuation.html

wildfire on outskirts of Halifax Nova Scotia - I know we have some canadian researchers in the area, hope they and theirs are ok.

From Popbitch...Bonobos can say 'Yum' and 'Yuk':
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/04/17/bonobo-food-language.html

Alex Ferguson is angry about something

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/8014834.stm

Does he really think the difference between 12:45 and 3:00 would make that much difference. Anyway lower league clubs have to play more games that premiership clubs so he really should stop moaning.

'COW, NEGRO, DOG, ALL DIE.; Train Hits Cow, which Knocks Over Negro, Who Falls on a Dog.'

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=940DE2DC1638E333A25751C1A9649D946196D6CF

"Heck, even the BNP support the Gurkhas settling here."

Just read that. That's funny

Iran execution sparks outrage.

"Mother they are going to execute me, please save me," she said, before a prison official took the phone away and said: "We are going to execute your daughter and there's nothing you can do about it."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8030437.stm

'For many years I have studied global agricultural, population, environmental and economic trends and their interactions. The combined effects of those trends and the political tensions they generate point to the breakdown of governments and societies. Yet I, too, have resisted the idea that food shortages could bring down not only individual governments but also our global civilization.

I can no longer ignore that risk. Our continuing failure to deal with the environmental declines that are undermining the world food economy—most important, falling water tables, eroding soils and rising temperatures—forces me to conclude that such a collapse is possible.'

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=civilization-food-shortages

My city of about a million people has one of the lowest densities in Canada and also sits on some of the best agricultural land. Urban sprawl has become a blight and there is a grassroots movement to end further development in the name of food security. But still, topsoil continues to be stripped away to make way for malls, cookie-cutter houses, wide roads and parking lots. Ironically, our city owned recycling and composting facilities are state of the art and the envy of much of the industrialized world.


What's happening in your little town on the subject of food security?

>>"Heck, even the BNP support the Gurkhas settling here."

Last Friday, I had to challenge some blatantly racist remarks I overheard @ work, along the lines of 'We shouldn't let [Asians] in the country.' It got quite heated. Shortly after, the same people were saying 'Not like those Gurkhas. At least they've fought for the country!'

I had to remind them of what was the biggest ever volunteer army in history: The Indian Army, WWII.

Dozens killed at wedding fight

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8032970.stm

This takes a bit of a pre-amble, so bear with me.

Where I'm going is to link to an interview between George Monbiot and Hazel Blears.

First read this;

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/03/george-monbiot-on-tax

Then read this reply;

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/06/response-hazel-blears-politics-monbiot

Then Monbiot's response;

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/10/hazel-blears-george-monbiot


Now, he get's to have a sit down interview with her;

Read this final article to get the current gist;

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/05/hazel-blears-george-monbiot

THEN watch the video embedded on that last page.

Compelling stuff.

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8029774.stm

Perhaps not exactly news, but apparently Barack Obama's grandmother claims that he was born in Kenya.


"According to Obama's Kenyan (paternal) grandmother, as well as his half-brother and half-sister, Barack Hussein Obama was born in Kenya, not in Hawaii as the Democratic candidate for president claims. His grandmother bragged that her grandson is about to be President of the United States and is so proud because she was present DURING HIS BIRTH IN KENYA, in the delivery room."


This would mean he would not have been eligible to stand for President.

This led the former Deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania Philip J. Berg, himself a life long Democrat, to file a lawsuit to force Obama to produce a certified copy of his original birth certificate to prove that he could run for the office of President of the United States. However, the DNC (Democratic National Committee) apparently filed a motion to dismiss the Berg action.

"Why? What is there to hide? Why not produce the original birth certificate and be done with all the suspicions against Barack Hussein Obama? A few months back, a birth certificate WAS posted on the internet which shows that Obama was born in Hawaii. Yet some say this birth certificate is a forgery and again, his grandmother states that she was present at the birth, in Kenya. So what is the truth?"

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Blogs/Message.aspx/3074

The truth is that he was born in Hawaii, you twit.


McCain, of course, was not born in the United States.

Oh, and, did that news story catch your attention today or in December when it actually appeared?



(I was in the delivery room in Hawaii. Case closed.)