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

Post 12620: I read "A 73-year old woman who went missile shopping"

>> threaten <<
>> advise <<

Thanks to those posting above for this inspiration
to mu !st, 2nd, 3rd persons thread:

He threatens.

You give fair warning.

I offer cautionary advice.

http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/alabaster/FFM19585?thread=128542&skip=377


~jwf~

Priests brawl at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16349247

PP

Cheetah, the chimp who co-starred with Johnny Weissmuller in Tarzan movies, has just died at the age of 80.


Umgowah.

And another story

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-16349845

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has questioned whether the US has developed a secret technology to give cancer to left-wing leaders in Latin America.

Questioning whether they have done that seems reasonable. It certainly sounds like a questionable claim, doesn't it?

"Five hundred tonnes of Christmas tree lights and at least 25m bags of plastic sweet wrappers, turkey coverings, drinks bottles and broken toys will be thrown away by UK homes this Christmas and New Year. But only a tiny proportion of this festive plastic waste will be recycled."

Maybe that's because it takes so long. I've spent hours separating bits of Christmas waste in various recycling bins; is there a statistic to show how many man-hours it takes to recycle it all? And how much heat people generate doing it?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/dec/29/plastic-packaging-waste-solution?newsfeed=true

Somehow this story reminded me of the dangers of exploding breast implants..

"It's not the first time cupcakes have played a role in the so-called War on Terror."

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/cupcake-sparks-airport-terror-threat.html

"Russian police say they have discovered a large haul of rare caviar stored in a morgue freezer in St Petersburg.
/.../ Such a large amount would have cost a fortune on the open market and much of the trade in Russia is on the black market"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16355007

I swear that if it wasn't so expensive (dead expensive?), no-one would care much about caviar.

Thatcher told "abandon Liverpool" http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-16355281

"Charlie Le Quesne was trying out the iPhone 4S at a Tesco store in Coventry when it told him: "Shut the f... up, you ugly t..." ... someone had entered the obscene seven-word phrase as the user's name, so the phone blurted it out when it answered a question."

I found this funny. I will go to hell.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/8984155/iPhone-Siri-software-tells-boy-12-to-shut-up-in-Tesco.html

On the other hand I find the seasonal round of retail closures sad and rather chilling:

Barretts - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16366095
La Senza - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16322404
Hawkins Bazaar - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16368315
D2 Jeans - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-16350067

>I found this funny. I will go to hell.

See you at the bar. Mine's a pint.

Funding concerns for the animals at Tripoli Zoo. Hopefully the new government can get its act together to help fund/support the zoo. The only damage to the zoo during the recent conflict was reported as a Nato "strike" on the Hippo Enclosure. Fortunately no hippos were reported injured and the damage to the enclosure seemed minimal.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16371108

#12632 Mrs Zen ... "Charlie Le Quesne was trying out the iPhone 4S at a Tesco store in Coventry when it told him: "Shut the f... up, you ugly t..." ... someone had entered the obscene seven-word phrase as the user's name, so the phone blurted it out when it answered a question." ... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/8984155/iPhone-Siri-software-tells-boy-12-to-shut-up-in-Tesco.html" I wonder about the effectiveness of the censorship laws - how many can work out what f... and t... means? French Connection UK obviously make use of this in there FC.. logo (funny enough h2g2 doesnt allow f followed by three asterisks, t followed by three asterisks or the French Connection logo - as they are deemed to be an offensive words).

bollux that should be "... their FC.. logo"

Ah yes, the asterisks. This really is the one issue on which I actually do have two hats.

Personally, and as the instigator of A753527, I think nothing in our language should be automatically bleeped out. Ever. It should always be a judgement call and if they're good enough for Chaucer and Shakespeare, etc, etc, etc...

However, as a senior volunteer and member of the Core Team, I accept that unedited swear-words are a Bad Thing. The two arguments which have swayed me are the one about keeping the site off workplace black-lists and the one about stopping the remoter corners of the site degenerating into the worst type of you-tube comments threads.

All in all, I've had to get over myself on this one and grow the f... up.

B

I agree H2G2 has to be careful. I was more considering how the British press etc get away with breaking the censorship / obscenity laws with their well placed asterisks. French Connection UK have it as part of their marketing campaign. Personally I think swearing is generally a measure of someones lack of diction and ability to discern. Yes, if used carefully it can add a "shock" value to language.

Did you know the date 30 December, 2011 did not exist in the nation of Samoa. That nation decided they wanted to be West of the International Date Line and so lost a day.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45825600/?ocid=ansmsnbc11