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

These idiots who are anti-everything. As soon as they have a fire in their own home they'll be straight on the phone to the emergency services.

Doctors are examining whether migraines are linked to a common heart defect.
One in four people have the valve-like hole, which can be closed using keyhole surgery, but it is twice as common among a type of migraine sufferers.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4180455.stm


I'm glad I live in an era when migraines are fairly controllable. If I had been born thirty years earlier I would've spent half my life in bed.

A Romanian woman has given birth to a baby at the age of 66.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4179057.stm

As good as it may be that people who were infertile need no longer be, I wouldn't fancy taking care of a teenager at 80 years of age...

That's if she lives that long.

I wouldn't fancy taking care of a toddler at 67/68/69 years of age, or taking her to school at 70.

Pure, utter selfishness.

This baby was "made" with donor egg and sperm, and the (single) mother has no other kin, so if she dies at 70, what becomes of the poor girl then?
She can't even track down other relatives.

What price a doctor's ethics? Didn't her surgeon consider all this?

Why didn't she just buy a puppy?

I agree, GB. Reminds me of a family who lived close to us when I was young. The father, who was in his fifties when he married, had all his kids in clothes that people used to wear in the 1950's and 1960's in Ireland. They looked incredibly out-of-place.

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1248811.html?menu=

"Police in Germany are hunting pranksters who have been sticking miniature US flags into piles of dog poo in public parks."

Today is a bumper day for fascinating, and somewhat disturbing, news stories - what about this one?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4181197.stm

A robot, one milimeter long, and developed using organic tissues, has been developed. One step further to the realisation of a nanotech world...

And i thought fat cats was just a business term:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/beds/bucks/herts/4179513.stm

Awwwwwh!

Why do grossly obese cats look so cute?

Oh what ness!

My son ed when he saw that pic of that fat

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4169313.stm


As the British government unveils plans to make lie detector tests mandatory for convicted paedophiles, some scientists in the US are working on more advanced technology which might be better equipped at detecting deception.

Hmm. I know the old argument is that "If you haven't done anything wrong, you've nothing to worry about!" Problem is not all governments always have honourable intentions

Problem is that the lie detectors are proven to be duff, it is very easy to fool them especially if you are used to decieving people, being underhand and secretive. Guess what some of the character traits of criminals are?

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1250135.html?menu=

Another reason why not to drink in violent pubs, then!

This stuff sounds pretty neat:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/01/0114_050114_solarplastic.html




(oh and King Bomba, that link doesn't appear to work)

Bit late replying, but what the heck...

On the German police story, it's reassuring to know that all crimes have been solved in Germany and that there are no more criminals left. *Because the police now have time to investigate non-criminal acts, and search for non-criminals.*

RF

OH well, 'twas just about plastic pint "glasses".

I was reading a story about that in New Scientist. Lie detectors are rubbish, as I am sure we all know, so they'd have to come up with something more reliable, though I don't know what!