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

A good entry.

Fascinating! In Ireland we are remembering events of 100 years ago when 16 men were executed for taking part in a rising against British rule. This May Day event where men went to their death willingly for the labour cause was just 30 years earlier.

The upshot in Ireland was exactly as Shaw and others predicted: the executed men became martyrs and Irish public opinion, hugely against the rebellion at the time it happened, swung around completely and made them heroes. After six years of 'Troubles' we had a Free State, and 25 years later the present Republic.

The Cambridges have a pet hamster named after Marvin the Paranoid Android:

http://indy100.independent.co.uk/article/the-royal-family-has-a-pet-hamster-called-marvin-and-people-are-absolutely-furious-yes-really--WJMP_rm7zZ


You couldn't make this stuff up.

And sad news, as the British Government refuses to honour the will of the public. The new polar survey vessel will be named RRS Sir David Attenborough, and not Boaty McBoatface.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36225652

They haven't heard the last of this.

Breaking - Sir David Attenborough is changing his name to Sir Boaty McBoatface

The whole idea of 'the will of the public' is a farce, and always was. Rousseau based it loosely on the mechanics of a resultant force, the sum of all the vectors in play, but it only fits that model in the most vague of questions, never in any detail.

Example: we are facing the necessity of forming a minority government, as no possible coalition (other than the most obvious one which is of course out of the question) could command a majority.

The people certainly voted to get the ruling party out.
The people certainly voted not to put in their main rivals.
The people certainly voted for... uncertainty?

Sheffield's a great steaming hole - it's official:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-36226076

Not as many as there are in Blackburn, Lancashire.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that you never know there's a firework factory in the city you work in until it catches fire...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-36283943

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"The Dalai Lama says ‘too many’ refugees are going to Germany"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/05/31/the-dalai-lama-says-too-many-refugees-are-going-to-germany/

Is he that ignorant or is he a puppet?

I didn´t like that man for his words a la Paulo Coelho: that kind of bland, unsubstancial sentences, memes... about platitudes.
But now... he should have thought twice about the effect of those words. I guess Pegida thugs must be happy.

What he's actually said was that the people need to be able to go back and rebuild their countries, rather than mass exodus. However, you know what the global media is like.

Yep... I completely agree. Too many refugees period.

It's not that we have refugees coming into countries, it's that they need to flee their own countries.

To an extent I can see the argument that running away from the problem doesn't solve the problem. A century ago, if everyone who wanted Votes for Women left and went to New Zealand where they had women voting instead of campaigning, would we have votes for women here today?
It is easy to sit miles away and say that if everyone fleeing from Iraq and Syria stood up to fight so-called Islamic State etc then possibly the world would be a better place for us all.

On the other hand, IS have got guns and tanks and things, which is a much more persuasive argument when they’re on your doorstep and you think your family is going to be killed. If I were there, would my duty be to try vainly fight for what I believe in and probably die, or take my family to safety? I can't help but feel I'd rather see my family grow up.

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Farage disowns Leave Campaign claim about more money for NHS.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/eu-referendum-result-nigel-farage-nhs-pledge-disowns-350-million-pounds-a7099906.html

Weird that, seems that everything they used to get people to vote for Leave turns out to be, well, a lie.

Thankfully to stop people getting angry about this, "experts" has "disclosed" that the referendum isn't actually legally binding, so it's okay, you can still be mad at the current (pro-Remain) government and not those that lied to you.

May not be legally binding, but imagine the fury if they say "We're not going to (name the research ship Boaty McBoatface)" after all.

Yesterday I saw a report on Reuters' website that 2.5 million people have signed a petition calling for a second referendum if fewer than 60% of a turnout of less than 75% voted one way or the other. The petition has more than 100,000 signatures, so Parliament must at least debate the issue. Hope the link works.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-petition-idUKKCN0ZB0MW

Yesterday Hubby and I looked at the information on what the UK has to do to leave the EU. (It's on BBC's text service.) It's information that wasn't given out before the referendum, AFAIK. I certainly didn't see any of it. It's the kind of thing it would have been good to know beforehand, not just the claims about how much better/worse off we would be if we left or stayed in the EU. Some people may even have voted differently if they'd had this information.