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

Thank goodness you gave feets and inches....

I was 10 or so when they brought in metric and had inches, pounds, and pecks firmly imbedded in my brain. While I use metric when measuring things like mats for framing, I have not a clue how tall a 22 metre wave is.

One thing always burns my butt. Whenever thare is a natural disaster they say something along the lines of "the town was hit by a wave that measured "nearly 22 metres".

Firstly.... if it was "nearly 22 metres" high, was it 21.65? It's metric, for God's sake.... you can be very, very precise!

Secondly, who the hell uses "nearly 22 metres? as a rule of thumb?

"How tall was the wave that swept your husband away?"
"Well, it was "nearly 22 metres high"."
"Can you be more precise? Our viewers want to be sure it was 22 metres high and not 21.5".

Actually, if my husband were swept away by a wave (don't I wish that would happen... but I digress) I would be more likely to think the wave was somewhere around 70 feet high. Maybe it's just me.... sigh.

Hello Della; nice to be in contact. I like spunky women. I'm a spunky guy. Now what exactly do you want me to prove?

I hope your not a bunch of pedantic correspondents who nitpick the spellings. If you are then the flavour will drift.

I was trained as a civil enginner..steel, concrete and big holes, so metric is second nature to me. But Della please be specific, nay rude and blunt with your questions. The machine does not show entries in real time sequence. Compound this with my rookie status and you have trouble. (Comes as standard with Oetz)

Woman you let fly. I just love it. Shagtastic etc!
oetz

Now for your question Anhanger.

Isaac Newton 1667 "priciples thesis". Newtonian mechanics.
Consequential series of events. Standard kit to science ed.
Recently challenged by chaos theory which a lot of social scientists have hooked (sorry) on to because there's a touch of the old mumbo jumbo in it. No QED yet.

Waiting for them to fall flat on their love cheeks!
Or did you want a dissertation?

Sorry hanger can't speak that lingo.
Please point me to or interpret.

sorry. that was a laugh. I thought you were making a joke. Like your wacky way of always misspelling people's names.

Yes I am delicate

mudhooks, it's easy. A meter is 3 a third feet. It's all roman anyway

1 meter = 100 centimeters (centurary being 100) = 1000 milimeters (millennium being 1000)

"Yes I am delicate"

you're pregnant?

nary a journalist among us?
hey what am I? chopped liver?
15 years of keyboard-blistered fingers and ink-stained wretchdom down the crapper! drat!

Actually as one of my earliest editors once said "Journalists are those overpaid, blow-dried sissies on the teevee, I'm a NEWSPAPERMAN dammit!"

(no offence zoomer, I know how hard cameramen work)

I think if you poked him with a pin, he would have bled black ink.

Suppose I am pregnant, espectant sort of in a delicate way.
Trouble is my emotions are unstable a bit like apencil stood on its end.

Aha, Oetzi, now I know what's we're all on about.
You said that people who indulged in 'American bashing', were journalists who were seeking fame and fortune, etc.Well, first, I for one (and the others as well, I assume) don't come here for the purpose of Yank bashing, but the purpose of expressing an opinion of current American foreign policy, which, as Bart Simpson once said about something else, both sucks and blows at the same time - which is really saying something!
Secondly, one's more likely to meet with fame and fortune on Survivor Amazon or by squatting in a perspex box high above London. Isn't *he* an American?

Sorry, rev. paperboy, I misspoke (). I am just a freelance anyways... I was making a point about we-all *not* qualifying as the 'chattering classes'!

I like journalists, what makes you think I don't. I do not like however provincial scribblers who walk away from stories outside their leaque. Stories that should be published, stories that need to be published in the public interest. But I guess it's the same in every job....you get the good, the bad and the indifferent.

As an example: We had problems with wheels coming off ambulances in our local city here in the UK. A significant part of the press did sweet FA to research the cause. The inferance was that because they were US built they were prone to such accidents. Old Oetz went into reheat rock and roll mode and protested. I was reposted and more, a lot more, then some more..get it!

UNfortunately they picked the wrong cookie. Generally I do not pick fights I can't win and I know when to call the cavalry. I called.
More hassle. Stand off. You know it pays to have friends who are just ordinary folks, no chance of upsetting their interests.

Oh yeah please do not ask for the details of this razzle beacause there are some saw paw bears ready to conspire. Good job my infra red defences are fully evolved.

Della I like you, the rest I tolerate

I'm a big fan of metric. I should be, I live on the European mainland. It's just extremely logical. You just take the distance from the equator to the pole, chop it in 10 million pieces: voila you have a meter. Furthermore, take a box of 10 cubic centimeters, fill it with water: you have a liter, and also a kilo of water. If this boils, it's 100 degrees celsius, if it freezes it's 0.

Using parts of your body to measure distances also has it's practical uses though.

NBCDenzel
Welcome. Have you had many peace protests today?
Thanks for your return. Like to know what's happening
mainland Europe.

Hi Oetzi

No, I haven't had any sofar. Maybe later.

To draw this topic back to the US: How come so many Americans don't seem worried about the state of democracy in their country? The country is a selfproclaimed 'defender of democracy' yet at the same time politicians up to the prez are being bought by big corporations. And it's not like it's a secret or anything. I'm talking about businesses funding political campaigns of course.

Thanks for the return NBC Denzel

Life's getting increasingly complicated, especially since machines like this net made us "global". Most US citizens, I believe, live their lives unaware. They grow up with the flag and die with the flag. Capitalism is the name of the game and it is pure.

Just for info this corporation, the BBC, donated £20k to the Labour Party, the current gov, recently. Can you square that? I can't!