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

Here's something for Star Trek aficionados. A few years ago there was a little noticed ruling in the Supreme Court of the State of Texas. The text of the ruling is available as a pdf here: http://www.supreme.courts.state.tx.us/historical/2010/oct/060714c2.pdf

The interesting passage is this:

'Appropriately weighty principles guide our course. First, we recognize that police power draws from the credo that "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." Second, while
this maxim rings utilitarian and Dickensian (not to mention Vulcan ), it is cabined by something contrarian and Texan: distrust of intrusive government and a belief that police power is justified only
by urgency, not expediency. by urgency, not expediency. That is, there must exist a societal peril that makes collective action
imperative . . .'

Yes. The Supreme Court of Texas has quoted Spock in 'The Wrath of Khan'.

\V/

(That's a Vulcan Greeting smiley )

So . . .


Is this British kissing?

'Cold Lake RCMP believe a man who bit off a woman's tongue in a bar may be a member of the British Armed Forces.

Police said a man bit off a portion of a woman's tongue at a bar in the early morning of Sunday Oct. 3. The suspect then fled the bar.'


http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2010/10/28/edmonton-cold-lake-tongue-bite.html#ixzz13hJylEZp

So, achievement in school is nothing to do with social background, deprivation, race, sex etc - it's just down to positive parenting.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/oct/27/diverse-britain-school-success-chinese

Now colour me surprised, not.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11646933

A Belfast film-maker has posted a video on the internet showing what he says could be evidence of time travelling.

George Clarke from east Belfast has been puzzled for more than a year by a scene in a film which appears to show a woman talking on a mobile phone

<<So, achievement in school is nothing to do with social background, deprivation, race, sex etc - it's just down to positive parenting.
<<
from the link: <<A lot grow up in restaurants and don't want that themselves. They work 10 times as hard.<<

That´s for me the answer to their good results.
Sometimes darkness help see things clearer.

::
What ignored news story has caught your attention today?

This one: http://alianzas.periodismohumano.com/2010/10/25/en-el-iv-congreso-internacional-de-feminismo-islamico/
It´s the IV Congress of international islamic feminism and still is not covered in the media.
It roots in the NGO Sisters in Islam. They question patriarcal societies and mainly the distorted machist intertretation of Islam , and how it´s applied to the Code of Family Law so that the opression of women is legitimized. They also seek the secularism of politics. Etc, etc.
From my POV, the role of women in those societies is crucial, they at least should be paid more attention, to begin to change things.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-11650593

Man has been jailed for being an internet troll.

Not news, but I didn't know where to post this

http://xkcd.com/548/

and, since webcomics are now acceptable, this one is actually about news: http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1623

And, on a horribly darker note (and, really, very old news):


I never really liked The Wizard of Oz.

In 1890, L. Frank Baum wrote in an editorial:

'The proud spirit of the original owners of these vast prairies
inherited through centuries of fierce and bloody wars for their
possession, lingered last in the bosom of Sitting Bull. With his fall the
nobility of the Redskin is extinguished, and what few are left are a
pack of whining curs who lick the hand that smites them. The Whites,
by law of conquest, by justice of civilization, are masters of the
American continent, and the best safety of the frontier settlements will
be secured by the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians. Why
not annihilation? Their glory has fled, their spirit broken, their
manhood effaced; better that they die than live the miserable wretches
that they are. History would forget these latter despicable beings, and
speak, in later ages of the glory of these grand Kings of forest and plain
that Cooper loved to heroism.
We cannot honestly regret their extermination . . .'

http://www.history.ox.ac.uk/hsmt/courses_reading/undergraduate/authority_of_nature/week_7/baum.pdf

Hey swl

>> Not news, but I didn't know where to post this
http://xkcd.com/548/ <<

Post it everywhere! Spread the good news! Rejoice!
Soon, everyone will realise that everything in cyberspace
is a child or clone of h2g2 - the only website that
survived the millennial meltdown.


~jwf~

'The collaboration between National Geographic and the Sea Around Us Project originates in a common interest in quantifying and illustrating the impact of fisheries on marine ecosystems. We chose the "seafoodprint" of fisheries as a measure of this impact. Essentially, the seafoodprint is the oceanic primary production required to generate (or 'sustain') the catch of fisheries, similar to the grass that would be required per year to generate a certain production of milk or meat'

http://www.seaaroundus.org/national_geographic/

Personally, I found the article in National Geographic Magazine (linked to at the above linked site) to be at once succinctly to the point and, from my point of view, obvious.

The nearest ocean to me is several hundred kilometres away, beyond one of the great collections of mountains in the world. I find it absurd to think that seafood would be anything other than a rare luxury for someone in my location.

I think it is very much worth all of our whiles to be more aware of what part of the ecosystem we are eating: when we eat a tuna sandwich, ecologically speaking, it's the same as eating a tiger, lion, or wolf sandwich. Certainly it is a delicious, delicious tiger, lion, or wolf sandwich, but I think we should at least be aware of the fact that we generally don't eat land predators and yet we are very fond of eating top predators of the sea.


(climbs down off soapbox)

Ah here we go. The return of the British Empire as they all realise we ran their countries better -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11652926

"Next year the Queen is talking about coming to Ireland for a state visit. Maybe we should say to the Queen when she comes 'you know, we have our own independence now, we'll hand you back the country and we'll apologise for the mess that we're after making of it. Because at least when they were running the country they didn't put it into the mess and the hock that we are in now."

What estúpido that politician! The worst is that he seems serious...
he said that during an economical debate, I wonder whether he mentioned that the Irish deficit comes, in great part, from the goverment having had to rescue Irish banks.

Even as a joke is pretty insulting for Irish people and for anyone who knows a bit of the history of Ireland and the great effort her people have done to develop the country.
Sorry, for the rant, but I have a soft spot for Ireland and this morning I don´t have enough sense of humour to digest that insulting silliness.
Maybe, it´s also that I´m fed up with so much mediocrity among politicians, everywhere.

Seems like that rare beast indeed - a wise and sage politician who realises that being ruled by the British can be the high point in any lesser nation's history.

And another country that could do with being put back in the care of adults -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11657376

"A New York child can be sued for crashing a bicycle into an elderly pedestrian and causing injuries that led to her death, a judge has ruled. Juliet Breitman and another child were four years old when they raced their small bicycles on a Manhattan street and ran into Claire Menagh, 87. Juliet's lawyer had argued Juliet was too young to be held negligent. The judge disagreed, ruling Juliet's lawyer had presented no evidence she lacked intelligence or maturity."


Can you hear that America? That's laughter, that's the entire world laughing at you.

Sad that we no longer live in the "Accidents can happen" world. Its all cause and effect, someone's to blame

Returning to 9670.

It's good you draw attention to things many people would rather not think about or know about..or even honestly front up and admit to not caring about.

It makes difficult reading. Of course the cultures and way of life of the original American peoples never had a chance against the might of the imperialist invaders. I saw the results of the same thing in Australia, where vast numbers of Aboriginals would gather every night in Alice Springs in the parks, smashed out of their heads on drugs and alcohol, and all over the outback, despised and shown contempt by white E. They hang on in a few places with some sort of contemporary version of their culture..but its mostly annihilated.

The British Museum has cases of examples of the most incredible creations of native American dress and cultural objects. The last time I went, they were stuck somewhere out the back, at the bottom of a staircase. But I spent a good long time looking and felt a terrible depression looking at them.

There is a certain truth in 'we cannot honestly regret their extermination' in terms of attitudes at the time, and mostly today as well I'd say.

Just a bit of museum redemption, Effers:

http://www.royalalbertamuseum.ca/gallery/peoples/info.htm

and

http://www.royalalbertamuseum.ca/gallery/peoples/consult.htm

I forgot to mention that the Gallery of Aboriginal Culture takes up one quarter of our Museum's exhibition space.