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

I take it you can't see the picture then.
Not streaming behind like a comet, no.
And relative to the moon it's not nearly as big as the
take-off blast is to the spaceshuttle. The plume on the
shuttle's booster are as big as the shuttle. So if that
image is 50/50 then this is like hundredths relative to the
size of the moon.

Best way to describe it is like a small thruster rocket on a big,
really big, black, round spaceship.
But not big enough to really move the moon out of its orbit.
It's kinda like the old mouse versus elephant thing.

But this mouse is still 1000 times bigger than any geyser in Jellystone Park.


~jwf~

probably falling back as ice crystals then???

Would you stop calling it "Jellystone," please?

some one made a boo boo

I don't have "rules" about topic drift. I just found the anti-American sentiment a bit too thick, and I *was* asking for a living memory. Lots of people pass through Yellowstone, people have heard about its central position in our future, whether distant or near, and I was looking for anyone who might want to comment in the dedicated Yellowstone thread. Anybody any time that may read this thread in the future can go to the other for the discussion. Pardon the "interruption" if that's the way it's perceived.

14 new posts it said
Ooh! says I


Julzes, do you have a first person memory of an event in yellowstone that won't happen again? Please post it here if so.

No, I was asking others because I do not.

I dreamt about you last night, Julzes. There you were in a sparkling white robe, with an asphodel pinned to your breast. You were leaning over with an , reaching down to stir up us mortals.
UnfortunateIy I couldn't make out whether your mountain was Olympus or Bare.

It's gone all quiet.
Was it something I said?

Not suitable but :
Suez crisis, patrolling, at action stations, in an aircraft carrier for 29 uneventful days then moved on elsewhere - we'd have all got the Suez Medal had we stayed another day...

Some years later, on duty in the Arab Gulf for some time. Arrangements had been made for leave in Lebanon & I came out of the hat. One week in Beirut & one in the mountains. Super.
I remember thinking what a great political system they had -the President, Prime Minister and Speaker must be Christian, Sunni Muslim and Shi'a Muslim in order to reflect the population. But later...

- then -

Hearing a great noise from Muharraq airport (Bahrain) in the early mornings - TSR2 winding up, on its hot weather trials

Days out fishing from a dhow, the catch being cooked below decks. Someone caught a shark and I was bedazzled by its beauty.

One of the rich businessmen was named Isa and he drove a Sunbeam Rapier. There were a few others of the same make around, reputedly owned by western women - "Isa wants me for a Sunbeam". True, I tell you.

Bahrain was distinctly feudal and it worked.
One (perhaps apocryphal but eminently believable) story, of one of the big businessmen: he was a poor man who put in the smallest quote to build the much-needed causeway to Muharraq island. After some time of very little progress, the sheikh gave him a lorry to replace his ass & cart.

Years later, back in civvy street as a computer maintenance engineer (one of those big roomfuls of lights & whirrings that needed its own air conditioning plant). During a long (days) run of a program for, maybe?, an african railway, tripping & making a minor adjustment to the emergency off button with my forehead. It felt as though it was my nose after that friendly chat with the boss.

That computer's forerunner was in use for, among other things, the company payroll. One of the programmers was naughty, got himself sacked. Next week, chaos. "If my name doesn't appear..." True, I tell you.



Come on folks, we haven't got enough to erect a decent gate sneck, never mind an entry.

Rod, that kind of memory snippets you wouldn´t believe hadn´t you been there...

Get a gang of ex Servicemen together, write your memoirs and I have a safe bet you won´t be able to sell it as nonfiction.

Born in 1957 so the 60's things first:
I clearly remember loving the track "Telstar" by the Tornados (First english band to make number one in the US I beleive?)and at a family wedding I remember "Twisting" to it and telling the grownups that "They were in a theatre"
I remember the Kennedy speech about "sending a man to the moon by the end of this decade" and feeling the hairs on the back of my neck stand up - I felt electrified by this because of all the Gerry Anderson stuff on TV. Maybe Fireball XL5 would be real when I grew up!
I rememember seeing the Kennedy announcement on TV and running out to tell mum who said "Dont be so wicked" She did give me a huge hug and apologised when she found out it was real. The day after Kennedys assasination, "Doctor Who" first aired as well.
My Dads first car, a grey sit up and beg Ford Popular, registration 776 AMC. Would love to know if that reg is still on a car anywhere....
I also rememeber it being unable to climb a steep hill in (Possibly) Lynmouth - we all had to get out while Dad drove it up to the top and then we had to walk up and get back in again! His second car was a lime green Vauxhall estate, clearly modelled on the chrome excesses of american 50's cars. We used to put the rear seat down, get in sleeping bags and sleep while he drove us overnigt down to Wales or Cornwall for our holidays.
I remember everyone playing "Cowboys and Indians" at school break times, and I remember how we went green with envy when some new kid on the block turned up to play with us armed with a monster sized "Johnny Seven". Our little Cowboy cap pistols didnt stand a chance againt his rockets, bullets, caps, etc. What DIDNT that damned toy gun do? I believed that the "Stingray" theme music was the coolest thing I had ever heard, and that when I grew up I would be a man from U.N.C.L.E and marry Mrs Peel from the Avengers.
I hated it when mum and Dad got a baby sitter in one night to go out and see some film called "Goldfinger". I remember getting a Deluxe Reading (Name of the company "Battlewagon" battery powerd ship that shot missiles, torpedoes, aircraft and shells from its deck, and I also remember (from the same company) getting a "Rocket Base" that also shot missiles and big plastic rockets straight up. The spring was so strong that the first rocket shot left a dent in the ceiling which is still there in the house today.
I remember (Living in Borehamwood) the MGM studios and the massive backlot where you could see some of the sets, and I got woke up one night to the sound of explosions from said backlot when they filmed the blowing up of the Chateau at the end of "The Dirty Dozen"
I remember seeing them filming parts of the Saint, the Avengers, Man in a suitcase, Department S, Dangerman, On the Busses and The Prisoner all down local roads. I remember seeing big name Hollywood stars walking down the high street so regularly that you didnt really take any notice. I learned to swim in the outdoor pool at the Thatched Barn hotel, which was extra cool because it had one of the real "Batmobiles" used in the show on disply next to the pool - and yes for a short time before it got roped off, you could touch and sit in it!
I remember the Apollo project and Concorde finally taking to the sky. Some years later I used to sit in Concorde in the hanger, on the flight deck eating my sandwiches for lunch. One of the bonuses of working for an airline then.......
I used to take a "Tranny" (Transistor radio's were called that in the 60's) to school and listen to Radio 1 at breaktime. I remember a kid named Roy O.....y trying to nick my bag of marbles at school and me whapping him round the head with it and running like hell to escape.

Looking back, I still thing the 60's were the best time to live, when everything was possible. We were going to the stars, we were going to live on the moon and eveyone would be flying at twice the speed of sound. The music was groundbreaking and at least in my memory, there was a real "Warmth" in the world..........

oh, lots of things in that posting to make me feel nostalgic Captain Black. Especially the cowboys and indian games. They wouldn't be allowed now would they? Not pc. And the cap guns? I had a pair of silver ones, with holsters and a lovely cowgirl outfit, with matching hat. I was 'Annie get your gun' that whole summer.

The other thing you mentioned, about travelling through the night to get to your holiday destination - we did the exact same thing. There were no motorways then, and we didn't go abroad until I was 11. British sea-side resorts, with sandcastles with little paper flags and sandwiches in a tin box for the journey.

Do you think the 60s was the best time to have a childhood? I expect there were lots of bad things going on, but it did feel safe and optimistic back then. The War was over, and everything seemed to be possible.

Lanzababy - postwar grey skies were a thing of the past, when daddy wasn´t looking you wore a miniskirt and the pirate radio stations had fab music...!

...and don't forget hot pants Pit

You remember wearing blouses that were...nearly...but not really...see-through? Made the likes of me going bonkers.

Thank bob that I no longer fit a certain 'see through' dress I owned, but I have kept it... somewhere in a trunk

I was very skinny in those days - Twiggy was wonderful wasn't she?

The prettiest eyes of the whole UK - and then she spoke up with her Cockney accent...

Pans People were another UK weekly cultural event that shaped many a teenagers imagination..............in terms of dancing of course, they were rather good......

??? Any chance to find a download? We didn´t get Brit TV back then ( can´t get the new BBC online either...)