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

Tarantoes, the post was possibly censored because I made a disparaging remark about Gingers, despite being a Ginger myself. Mind you, who knows? Given that the e-mail from the BBC covers about 30 possible reasons which amount to "Just 'cos, m'kaay"

day That is all

"William Hague played down hopes of an early end to the Libyan
conflict yesterday as he warned that the military campaign was not a
computer game that could be switched off.

"It's not a computer game where you are bored with it and you put it
to one side. This is something you follow through in the real world."

He refused to put a timescale on the operation and denied splits
among the countries backing Nato air strikes, saying: "No one should
mistake our determination and unity in carrying this through to
success."

His warning of hard grind ahead came the day after Liam Fox, the
Defence Secretary, conceded that the rebel groups were unlikely to
win a land war in Libya – and said that a palace coup was the best
way of removing Col Gaddafi from power:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/hague-refuses-to-put-timeline-on-operations-in-libya-2330267.html

"Plastic heart gives dad ... new lease of life

It is thought to be the first time a UK patient has been able to go
home with an entirely artificial heart ... for the first time, a
patient is walking the streets of Britain without a human heart.

The device works in the same way as a heart transplant in that it
replaces both ... ventricles and the heart valves they contain,
thus relieving the symptoms and effects of severe heart failure.
However, it is not suitable for long-term use.

"With this artificial heart, the power supply is small enough to fit
in a shoulder bag so patients can walk around and go home." "
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14363731

Ministers should consider pulling the plug on the central part of the
NHS IT programme in England, MPs say.

... Coupled to this were the ongoing and costly delays - it is
already six years behind schedule - and problems where e-records
have been installed, the MPs added.

And with £2.7bn spent so far on e-records, they suggested it might be
time to plough the rest of the budget into something else:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14378346


Continuing with the theme of wasted UK government spending - last
December a project was scrapped after £3.6 billion was spent on
developing the New Nimrod Surveillance aircraft:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/8191690/3.6-billion-Nimrods-dismantled-for-scrap.html

Saw that artificial heart thing on BBC Whirled News America.
The motor/pump bag weighs 7 kilos. Workable I suppose.
The guy was walking around and his wife was holding the bag.

But the hoses! There's two huge hoses coming out of it.
They disappear up under his shirt.
And it makes a lotta noise.


Oh, and I changed the subject line.

~jwf~

heart thing, is so cool, but it need wheels

Hard-up students should be allowed to pay off their debts by selling a kidney, an academic has argued.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-14379215

No, it wasn't Norman Tebbitt who suggested it.

This is possibly just a publicity stunt, but still a great idea!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14380367

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14389430

"IE users less intelligent" study turns out to be a hoax.

Must be us Firefox users then

More straight loses for the UK taxpayer:
"Today's results from Northern Rock more-or-less confirm that the
government can't get back the £1.4bn taxpayers have injected into
the bank that was nationalised in early 2008": more from Robert Peston:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14385110

Media Baron and Political Playboy, Silvio Berlusconi, says Italy is
okay, whilst a British Think Tank says Italy certain to default:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14396557

Shell Oil finally comes clean by accepting they have destroyed the
Nigerian river delta environment - it could be worse than the Exxon Valdez disaster:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14391015

Mankind's scale possibly just got even more insignificant -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14372387

'Multiverse' theory suggested by microwave background

So where are we now? microsignificant? nano~, pico~? or somewhere beyond femtosignificant?


Just how insignificant can we get without imploding? (silently, of course)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-14399510

There's talk about sending support staff on self-defence courses in our place, possibly followed by the teachers. I suspect it won't happen because there's no money, not because there's no need.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14400246

It frightens me that 40 people have started petitions calling for the return of the death penalty.