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

I'm pretty sure that geese can be trained to do a lot of things. If they are as smart as pigeons, they can be used in pharmaceutical inspections.
http://psycnet.apa.org/record/1966-07512-001

I would expect geese to do as well at finding their home as pigeons do, at least. Geese seem to migrate with no trouble at all. Your goose-drawn cart will get where it's going.

And while you're flying you can have a good gander at the view :D

Where does that statistic come from Orcus (90% of UK car journeys are under 2 miles)? I find it hard to believe, although I do have an ex who would get in the car to drive to the 'corner shop' about a quarter of a mile away.

I would much rather walk if I can, but in our modern society, we rarely have the time. It is 1.5 miles to town from where I live, and I always walk if I don't have heavy items to bring home (uphill!)... except on a working day, when I can't spare an hour to get there and back (I work several miles out of town). Although generally I only go into town at all if I absolutely must.

Parking in town (or difficulty/cost thereof) is an excellent incentive to not drive, but is equally an incentive to use online shopping, and our town centre is certainly showing it. Last year, Amazon did me the massive favour of being total goits in November, and I ended up doing all my Christmas shopping the 'old fashioned way'. I discovered, firstly, that most of what I wanted to buy wasn't available in town, and secondly, the heaving Christmas crowds no longer existed. Everyone else had stayed home and shopped online!

There are two supermarkets within a mile of my home. On a nice day, I'm fine with walking to one of them and back. Mostly, though, I have a lot of errands to do, and I try to save gas by planning the shortest possible route from one to the next and so on. Most guides to saving gasoline recommend this.

>Where does that statistic come from Orcus (90% of UK car journeys are under 2 miles)? I find it hard to believe, although I do have an ex who would get in the car to drive to the 'corner shop' about a quarter of a mile away. rolleyes<

Good question, I kind of made it up semi-anectodally to be honest. I post on a couple of cycling forums and some there are rather obsessed with statistics like that (cyclists tend to be rather despairing of the general 'addiction' of the population to driving - or at least a lot of those who post online).
However it's the sort of thing I've seen commented on often and it's certainly a 'statistic' I'm used to.

However, you have prompted me to actually look it up for myself. See here. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/729521/national-travel-survey-2017.pdf

It seems actually, the statistic is "Most trips are relatively short. In 2017, 24% of trips were under 1 mile, and 68% under 5 miles."
So not quite as bad as I said - but not far off.

Personally I quit driving - or at least owning a car - about 5 years ago. My wife and I got a bike each in 2012 for a bit of Sunday exercise and I just tried my five mile commute by bike once and have never gone back. A 40 minute - 1 hour drive each morning and evening became a 20 minute bike ride. What a revelation. So I've never driven to work since. Since I was now only using it for shopping and visiting relatives who live a long way away, when my last car needed £600 worth of welding to get through its MOT I just ditched it. I get nearly all my shopping by delivery now, though it's surprising how much you can carry in bike panniers, and I hire a car if I *really* need to travel a long way.
Don't miss it at all, and I am much happier at having the stress of fighting through traffic every morning gone.

Hmm, I went back to that NTS sheet and just spotted that most of those journeys under 1 mile were by walking! so that statistic is about general journeys by ALL forms of transport. That document is more difficult to mine than I anticipated.

Perhaps a more reliable figure is the average distance travelled by a male is 7064 miles and that encompasses 948 trips (7.45 miles a trip in average). On average for females it is 1000 trips and 6110 miles (6.11 miles a trip). But I think again that includes ALL journeys, so walks as well as driving, by go-kart and catamaran also I suspect.

Trying to get my head around that and the accompanying documents is rather now doing my head in, sorry

I rarely have the patience to wait for foodlike things to be delivered.
I'm okay with having nonperishables delivered, though. My favorite wild black currant tea, for instance, or that gourmet coffee from Sweden. (Coffee and tea are arguably not food.) I also order live plants from as far away as Wisconsin; as long as they are carefully packaged, they do fine.

For things like milk and eggs and meat, I still prefer to pick them up personally and get them home to the refrigerator right away.

Hi

Is this where everyone is?

Can't speak for everyone, but I am.

I'm not

"Is this where everyone is?" [Jane]

[Looks around. Looks asquare. Looks aflat]

Well, They only pop in for a split second to post here, and then mosey off to post somewhere else. On Sundays a lot of them (us) visit the Post to read articles and suggest how things might have gone differently (or not). I personally love the beautiful birds that Willem paints. South Africa, where he lives, is apparently full of beautiful wildlife. :-_)

Sidenote: I've been "here" for 20 years, today!

I've been here since May of 2001. Before that, I can't remember much. I have moments. I've been here since May of 2001. Before that, I can't remember much. I have moments. I've been here since May of 2001. Before that, I can't remember much. I have moments.

Did I say that already?

Someone looked up then I registered once, I forget how and I forget exactly when sadly. But I know it was Sept or Oct 1999 - so I'm just about 20 years here too. Holy moly!

(To be fair I *really* started posting here in about January 2000 which was just before the site went bust - I lurked and dared not post before that as I was all new and green to forums and such at the time)

The best way I know to determine when you created your account is by looking it up on the "New User" chart SEF made way back when.

A1155566

Well my oldest post was on Oct 4th 1999 - I still recall the method Ottox taught me to manipulate the address bar to swizz through it manually.

Hard to know how to use that, but if I'm right it was something like the 19th Sept 1999 - 20th hootiversary very soooon

Actually, this page should be more appropriate for you, Orcus.

My best guess is you logged in sometime during the week of 19 - 25 September, 1999.

There seems to be a 1000 new user discrepancy in that week, so I suspect he dropped transposed a 0 for a 1 on one of those weekdays.

Sorry, forgot to include the link.

A1157997

To use SEF's chart, the find the nearest U# with a value less than your U#. Then I keep a running total in my calculator and add each day's new user total until I get a sum higher than my U#. That is the day you logged on as you were one of those on that day.

Your week is a bit borked since it's 1000 users shy by the end of the week.