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

Federer squeezes into semis, agony for Murray

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20091127/tts-uk-tennis-men-finals-ca02f96.html

What about the Melbourne Cup then?

That's a flat race isn't it?

RF

Could be. Dunno owt about it, really.

The Melbourne Cup is a flat race.

The banning of jump races has been discussed in Victoria for some time - there have been many injuries and deaths of horses.

10 horses have died this year

The decision leaves South Australia as the only place in the nation to host jumps racing.

I think that jump races are a minor part of our racing industry.

"Kaiapoi whiskey takes on Scots"
(Kaiapoi's not a big town, north of Christchurch, halfway down the south island of New Zealand).

What the hell are they doing?

"Their 130-year old still, designed by John Dore, is one of the few to leave the shores of Britain, and the only still of its type to ever come down under." It's a "large, traditional, copper-pot type". The stuff was then in oak for 13 years.


Your intrepid reporter delayed posting this item, for tweeks, for research purposes.

They're releasing 2000, 500ml, bottles of the 13-year old batch that they hope will "compare to Scotland's best" and it's "already become a collector's item despite the price not having been set yet".

I can't speak of Scotland's Best (can't afford it) but I do enjoy a Bowmore 12-year old (and, to a slightly lesser extent, a Highland Park).

And yes, this stuff is damn expensive, the 500ml retailing at about the same as my Bowmore 750ml (which I have to order on t'net, though there's a place here that sometimes has Highland Park)

But this Kaiapoi stuff is damn good. To my taste it's on Highland Park level and I've bought a bottle to keep (barring emergencies).

Watch out Scotland (maybe you can compare notes with the French wine people).

So There. Now you know.

Oh, and the paper called it whiskey but it's whisky on the bottle.

Bayern Munich Star Franck Ribery Quarantined After Swine Flu Scare

http://www.goal.com/en-india/news/105/main/2009/11/24/1645251/bayern-munich-star-franck-ribery-quarantined-after-swine-flu

(Actually, his wife got the swine flu.)

Man bumps into tree. Unhurt. BBC showing aerial footage of the tree.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/golf/8383782.stm

We have to realise that the BBC is no longer a serious broadaster and has to
a) appeal to the lowet common denominator and
b) copy Sky...see (a)

As Private Eye would say:

'Man drives car into tree. No-one hurt.'

Well, the initial report was that he'd been seriously injured, which would be a fairly big story as he's one of the most successful sportsmen alive.

But yes, showing the tree he hit does seem a bit excessive.

God really is an iron!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,577226,00.html?test=latestnews

(it looks like Bonnie Prince Charley to me)


["If a person who indulges in gluttony is a glutton, and a person who commits a felony is a felon, then God is an iron." -- Spider Robinson]

OMG - Christ's a Klingon

'Denis Avey is a remarkable man by any measure. A courageous and determined soldier in the World War II, he was captured by the Germans and imprisoned in a camp connected to the German's largest concentration camp, Auschwitz.

But his actions while in the camp - which he has never spoken about until now - are truly extraordinary. When millions would have done anything to get out, Mr Avey repeatedly smuggled himself into the camp.


Now 91 and living in Derbyshire, he says he wanted to witness what was going on inside and find out the truth about the gas chambers, so he could tell others.'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8382457.stm





That's one for the sickening Holocaust deniers.

Smoking near apple computers creates biohazard, voids warranty:

http://consumerist.com/2009/11/smoking-near-apple-computers-creates-biohazard-voids-warranty.html

And creates slight tendency to hyperbole, possibly

A court in China coined a new legal term when punishing two policemen last month, saying they were guilty of the “temporary rape” of a high school graduate; they were given lenient sentences because of the pronouncement.

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/25237

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8385069.stm

Swiss seem likely to approve a constitutional amendment to ban the building of minarets.

I find this deeply disturbing.

Iago.

words fail me.

It passed.

I'm sorry if this seems melodramatic, but it's hard not to see Germany in the 30s here. They now have Islamophobia directly written into their constitution.

I hope Swiss Muslims show themselves to be a lot more decent than their neighbours and not rise to the bait.

It seems strange to put it directly into the constitution. Also to single out minarets, rather than the mosques themselves.