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

I SO wish that wasn't funny.

How long are the people of the US going to put up with this s***?

PP.

Sadly, the notion of the nation is founded upon
"the shot heard round the world" - a musket was
discharged in a standoff between armed civilians and
British Redcoats who had come to take them away.

Come to take away their guns that is.
To prevent any violence.

The mythology says no one knows for sure who fired
that first shot but soon everybody was shooting at
everybody else, starting the Revolution and giving
birth to the notion that the nation has earned
the right to bear arms.

http://www.earlyamerica.com/shot_heard.htm


~jwf~

yeah,
>>the notion that the nation has earned
the right to bear arms.<<

People are much the same the world over. It's Nations that concentrate the need to differ

"It has estimated that £5bn will have been spent in Britain's shops over the weekend, as millions of people stocked up on food, drink and presents." from that article linked by Pink Paisley. So, with about 63 million population in Great Britain, that makes each person's spending over the weekend at about £15. Accounting for children and other people who do not spend money, usually there is a person matched up with each non-spender, giving them £30 to spend and the nonspender nothing.

So that doesnt seem too much to spend for 4 days (counting christmas eve and christmas too)
festivities I don't think.

Oh, you were talking about the ATTitude? Well, yes, christmas has become all about the money for business people, but so has politics, government, health, education, crime prevention and whatever else has gone beyond the realm of service and into the realm of
A Good Way To Make Money.

By the way, Merry Christmas! That's the news for today!

Good to see that the Church believes today is the perfect day to spread goodwill, happiness and a message of love to *some* men - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20840531

DIY Tardis looks bigger on inside with augmented reality: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20836747

This photo posted this morning on the weather network
would qualify as 'miracle' or an 'omen' in the olden days.
Those are not waves on the sea but clouds in the Xmas
morning sky. I have never seen the like. The fishing
village of Meteghan is about 50 miles from here.

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/your_weather/details/620/9224854/Christmas/787


~jwf~

Pedant alert.

That looked unlikely, I got out thre electronic fingers and made it just over £79 (or accounting for non-spenders, £160).

But the point was not the amount, but the fact that it was the focus of the news.

PP.

You're right! I divided the 63 into 1,000 not 5,000! Even on the rechecks!
It didn't look right to me either

It could have been worse, when I was a kid, a billion had 3 extra zeroes at the end.

Or at the beginning.

Or in the middle.

(I think that is something else we can blame on the Americans - the devalued billion).

PP

Yay verily, it were the great Zaphod who saw
the future would be measured in Trillians.


~jwf~

UK Government say that there is no prospect on a vote to repeal ban on hunting with dogs in the UK next year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20842791

Good. And it WOULD be nice if they would kick the prospect into the long grass for rather longer instead of using the possibility as a carrot to a relatively small group of voters. The ban when implemented was just one small step towards becoming more a civilised nation.

PP.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-20838728 and you can pre-order: http://www.royalmail.com/doctorwho perhaps Royal Mail have noticed a dearth of people buying their 60p stamps, I know I have sent a lot less mail this year.

Stupid, ignorant a**hole apocalypse tourists cause irreparable damage to Maya pyramid: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/lifestyle/2012/12/26/mayan-apocalypse-results-in-damaged-pyramid-caused-by-tourists/?test=latestnews

I'm actually surprised the situation isn't worse. I feared for years that Machu Picchu and such places would have ended up in a really bad condition.

Before anyone mentions it, yes I know that's not a Mayan site.

"The 1982 invasion of the Falkland Islands by Argentina caught Margaret Thatcher by surprise, newly released government papers have shown. The then-prime minister only saw it was likely after getting "raw intelligence" two days before the Argentines landed."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20800447

Will this put an end to the piffle regularly spouted by Thatcher haters that she engineered the conflict for political gain? Probably not.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/10582861

"IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A dentist acted legally when he fired an assistant that he found attractive simply because he and his wife viewed the woman as a threat to their marriage, the all-male Iowa Supreme Court ruled Friday.

The court ruled 7-0 that bosses can fire employees they see as an "irresistible attraction," even if the employees have not engaged in flirtatious behavior or otherwise done anything wrong"

EQUAL RIGHTS FOR FIT, GOOD-LOOKING BIRDS!!

Because obviously, the threat to their marriage wasn't the fact that he might want to cheat on his wife.
And the fact that the employee was not even interested in him in that way is completely irrelevant, of course.
It was her fault! The temptress! Burn the witch!