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

Surely sending all music pirates to hell will only mean a bigger party down there.
And with loads of music...
____________________________
And my news story is :
Pigeon flies past broadband in data speed race.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11325452
Yay!

This post has been removed.

This is a very sad story.
The saddest part is that it happens all the time and this event
only gets wider reportage because of the larger numbers involved.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11396729

It will keep me in mourning for some time.
I may even say nasty things about India in general and campaign
to boycott the Commonwealth Games.


~jwf~

'The world's most northern mosque has arrived by barge in Inuvik, N.W.T., giving Muslims in the Arctic town a proper place of worship.'



http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2010/09/23/north-mosque-inuvik-arrives.html#ixzz10SBAKox1

Not sure if this story is really a story.
The reality is that maintenance, lighting and heating costs are rising.
This is true for everyone and every institution.
Including government owned and operated facilities.
The money has to be found from one operating fund or another.
So obviously bureaucrats would explore various possibilities.

Why then does this story imply that her majesty was somehow
personally trying to steal from the poor?

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/100924/oddities/britain_royals_offbeat


~jwf~

It just implies that there are total idiots on her staff who have no sense of the real world.

The folks behind Firefox release a mobile phone.

http://goo.gl/jI2p

FB

Where's the point in that? It'd only work if you know Russian!

Fear over jobs as leak suggests 180 quangos may be axed

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11405096

Who knew we had an "Advisory Committee on Conscientious Objectors"?

Especially as conscription ended in 1962.

The question no-one ever seems to ask is whether this work needs to be done.

RF

Hang on the Atomic Energy Authority is on the list of the possible ones. Well only as undecided. To me the authority responsible for getting nuclear material for reactors, sponsoring research into Fusion and dealing with reactor waste is on balance perhaps not a total waste of money.

If I had read this as a work of fiction ten years ago, I would have said it was too ridiculous for any suspension of disbelief:

'Tensions between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his Tea Party-backed Republican challenger Sharron Angle spilled over into an all-out brawl Thursday . . .

Security guards broke up the scuffle between a man who supports Angle and two women who support Reid . . . . at Faith Lutheran Jr./Sr. High School . . . .'

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/09/24/brawl-erupts-nevada-race-forum-reid-angle/?test=latestnews

'Senate Majority Leader', 'Tea Party', 'brawl', 'Faith Lutheran Jr./Sr. High School'

Don't they realize the absurdity which now permeates their country?

terrorists threat state up from NI

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11408758

this sounds like a war on terror senarioUS troops on the streets of Belfast please?????

No ta, they'd probably end up supporting the other side.

...again.

>> To me the authority responsible for getting nuclear material for reactors, sponsoring research into Fusion and dealing with reactor waste is on balance perhaps not a total waste of money. <<

that's not what it does, though. In fact, all the former responsibilities of the AEA have already been moved elsewhere: http://www.ukaea.org.uk/ So why keep the quango going?

RF

Looks like it still manages the UK Fusion projects, I suppose though that could be merged into something else the EPSRC perhaps.

Slightly for this thread, none-the-less, what became of the JET project at Culham laboratory? Did it ever actually become fired up?

We CAN make a difference with the environment:


'UN scientists have confirmed that the ozone layer is no longer disappearing and could be back to full strength by the middle of this century.'

http://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/report_ozone-layer-no-longer-disappearing-will-return-to-full-strength-by-2048_1441210

JET as been very successful. I think it was the only place dealing with burning plasmas (i.e. the ones we would need if Fusion is to work) and much of the discoveries made there are informing the design of ITER.