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

Even thinking about this makes me sick - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25620543

A young Afghan girl has been detained wearing a suicide vest in southern Afghanistan, officials say.

She was held on Sunday night in Helmand province, as she tried to carry out an attack on border police, an interior ministry spokesman told the BBC.

The girl, reported to be as young as eight and thought to be the sister of a prominent Taliban commander, is said to be in a state of shock and confusion.

Angela Merkel has cracked her pelvis in a skiing accident,
and it was not widely publicised. The idea that the two most
famous Germans (Angie and Schumi) both had such incidents
in the same time frame boggles the mind.

I keep getting flashes of Jeremy Clarkson being towed across
the arctic tundra by 'the first car to reach the North Pole'
while shouting "This is more like it!"

More people around the whirled are killed skiing every weekend
than all of the racing drivers in all the races ever held. Oops,
that should be in the Useless Facts thread.


~jwf~

Voters 'should be required to show photo ID at elections', says watchdog

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25641801


This is something that I've always found incredible, that when voting in the UK you don't even need any ID. I've turned up before, said my name and address and been given the voting slip. No ID, no electoral notice card, nothing.
The system is wide open to fraud.

No kidding. In Glasgow there's a saying - "Vote Early, Vote Often".

I had lunch with a Returning Officer once and he had loads of stories of how all the parties fiddle the vote, or try to. A favourite is where the local council is held by one party, someone will go round all the unoccupied council houses looking to see if voter cards have been delivered in error. Any that are found are passed to party activists to use.

This goes back to the great British hatred of formal ID cards.
Remember the fuss last time...

Oh yes, I'd forgotten. It's still possible to not actually have any photo ID. Because I've (finally) sorted out my photo driving licence, and have a passport, I've got the required ID. But, not everyone drives, and not everyone has a passport.

You'd think you'd need some sort of ID though, bank card, utility bill, or even be able to send for a letter of exemption which could check you don't have a passport or driving licence, and send you something out.

We'll eventually be microchipped at birth.

Tell Scots they're getting micro chips and you'll get trampled in the rush.

I think you'll find most of us are more cynical than you give us credit for swl

Labour trying for the failing BNP and UKIP vote: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25678829

Flying completely in the face of facts and figures, and going with the tabloid supporting, headline grabbing, scare mongering.

Anyone would think there's an election next year.

Okay, here's one that might cause discussion, yes, it's to do with religion:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-25672244

Manchester now has an Eruv. Personally, I don't agree with these things. If the religious have to find a way to wriggle around the laws of the religion, isn't it better to change or adapt the religion? But that's a personal point of view. If that's what they want to do, then let them be happy doing it.

For the Orthodox Jews, there's a lot of things they can't do on the Sabbath, but some of those things make life easier, such as carrying a spare coat or use a push-chair. So, the way around this is to create an outdoors "enclosed" space. They do this by enclosing an area using boundaries such as walls, hedges and roads. It's a spiritual boundary, they don't start building massive walls. Although they can/will build some walls if they need to plug a gap in what's already there.

Now, there's two things about this Manchester Eruv that have surprised me. The first is that I live in it. Serious, it's huge.

http://www.manchestereruv.org.uk/plans.aspx#map

Living in the area, I now it. And looking at what they've enclosed I can't help but think they're not doing it purely for the right reasons. Yes, there's a lot of Jewish followers in this area, but a lot of what they've enclosed is council housing where the tenants definitely aren't Jewish let alone Orthodox. They've also enclosed Albert Park, for now reason. There's no houses there that would justify it. It's purely so they can use it as a recreational facility on the Sabbath, an activity they're not supposed to do. The boundary also goes around and includes St Margaret's Church, and I've no idea why they thought that needed including.

But as I've said, I've no objection to this at all. If they want to spend their time and money on it, why not

Which brings me to the second thing that caught my attention, the cost involved. Now, to me all that's been needed is to draw a line on a map, maybe walk around it, and to get some high up religious bloke to sign it off. So how has the cost for planning and construction been justified at £350k? Plus an ongoing annual maintenance cost of £30k? Inspection? Walk around it. Local authority licensing? What licensing, it's a purely religious thing. Which leaves repairs and general maintenance.

Either way, it's an awful lot of money and effort to spend just so you can wriggle around the laws of your religion. But, if they want to do it, and it doesn't affect anyone else, then why not

I seems a bit daft to me. But then I wouldn't have any reason to claim particular knowledge of the subject.

Since it is merely symbolic and presumably the 'inspection' is also symbolic, wouldn't it have made sense to include the entire UK? (assuming that this is the area 'chiefed' by the Chief Rabbi).

The whole thing means nothing to me (a person of no faith) except that I am infantissimally more likely to be ploughed down by a Jewish person pushing a child in a push chair - the least of my worries really.

PP.

Having read up on it more, and chatted to a couple of people, it seems that it actually has to be enclosed, using things like string and ribbons in places. Not quite sure how that could work. They warn that storms or heavy rain may make it invalid, and people should check before assuming it's up.

It'd be a lot easier just to adapt and change the rules.

I think you'll get posts every 10 cubits with signs showing the Star of David and words "You are now entering free Jerusalem"

Don't worry about it.

There are a few people around there who, having thought of it, now have an excuse to feel important.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-25681048

A Kenyan man who had tried to kill himself was pronounced dead - only to recover in the morgue. The mortuary attendant and a worker "took to their heels screaming"

I have no idea why this amused me. I was reminded of a scene in Poldark when the drunk servant appeared at his own wake.

GB

Here's another one A30924119

On the death of Ariel Sharon:


http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=11330

"Sharon symbolized different things to different people. Most of all he symbolized the most dark aspect of Israeli society and the Zionist movement to Palestinians, to Lebanese people, who suffered under the attacks that he orchestrated. And in many ways he is Israel's second-worst war criminal in the history of Israel after Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, who orchestrated the Nakba, the deportation of the majority of the population of Palestine."

I noted the prissy way the tiptoed around his crimes scant mention of the massacre of women and children by his allies in the camps or of the 10. 000 civilians believed to have died during the week long shelling of Beirut. I wonder what the global response would have been if Britain had sent tanks into the Irish Republic in 1974, shelled Dublin for a week and when IRA fighters had been sent into exile allowed Unionist terror groups free reign to massacre their families. Funny those who regarded Nelson Mandela as a terrorist supported this brute.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/01/11/family-friendly-american-stage-hypnotist-dies-in-balcony-fall-while-on-australian-tour/

I wonder if he hypnotised himself into believing he could fly?

GB