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

paulh a good point, missed that one, sure one of them was released to the uk as long ago as 2002, some in 2005?

KB point taken, doesnt make it any easier to accept

Was Tycho Brahe murdered?
http://www.praguemonitor.com/2010/10/29/scientists-examine-tycho-brahes-tomb-prague

Interesting, toybox. Can't wait to know the results..When I was younger, Brahe's long-term collection of astronomical data made quite an impression on me.

Thanks, paulh, for the linked article on Ravi Batra. I hope the optimistic features of his predictions turn out to be right (His negative ones certainly will and already are).

<< people who are potentiall t e r r o r i s t s get paid millions of pounds in compensation, because allegedly the were tortured,>>

looks like the tory Govt. clearing up after the fiasco that was Gordon Browns tenure in govt.

From the toybox:

"legend has it that Brahe died after his urinary bladder burst
when he could not leave a feast before Emperor Rudolph II."

OUCH!


~jwf~

That was the story I was always told about Brahe when I was growing up. I'll miss it if it turns out he was just poisoned.

Or cancer of the bladder.
Having it burst at a royal banquet would still have been a bummer.
Nice of the Royals to shoulder the responsibility and create a legend.
Beats the Order of the Garter by a good league or two.

~jwf~

With Christmas approaching, this might be a good time to look at what killed King Herod:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/01/0128_020128_KingHerod.html

'Having it burst at a royal banquet would still have been a bummer. '

No, if his problem had been gas causing a burst, that would have been a bummer.

as I hit 'post' I said to myself 'the next post will be Paul ing.'

You're becoming predictable.

can you commit suicide by holding it all in

surely you would just (to use a nasa term) splash down????

Speaking of NASA and splashesdown, I seem to remember that Frank Borman on the flight of Apollo 8 got a nasty infection because he manfully resisted the urge to pee in the crowded capsule.

I think, after checking a few of my reference books, that I was mistaken: Borman was made ill either by a GI bug contracted before liftoff or by a reaction to a sleeping pill. His crewmate Anders, however, swore that he would refuse to have a bowel movement for the entire mission due to the indignities involved in such an operation in micro-gravity. Of course, karma being such as it is, Anders and Lovell had to spend a long period of time wrangling floating globules of their commander's vomit and other unmentionable products of his intestinal distress.

Ok, it hasn't had chance to make the papers, and probably won't, but currently part of the A18 road in Lincolnshire is closed due to a lorry fire.
According to BBC Radio Humberside, it's a truck carrying tins of kidney beans, which are exploding like missiles!

it'll be on the weather

chilly on parts of the A18 in lincolnshire

No doubt with reports of strong winds, too...

>><< people who are potentiall t e r r o r i s t s get paid millions of pounds in compensation, because allegedly the were tortured,>>

looks like the tory Govt. clearing up after the fiasco that was Gordon Browns tenure in govt.<<

you naailed that on the head Taff!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/16/AR2010111606671.html

Among humanity's most cherished cultural treasures, the United Nations declared Tuesday, are Peking opera, Spanish flamenco dancing - and lunch in France.

Future King to marry.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11771616

Congratulations to both