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

> Now, I did not know that! (that it was added in the 1950s...) Interesting.

Yes, isn't it! Another factoid I heard the other day - the Star Spangled Banner's tune is from an old German drinking song. Which explains why the Betelgeusian Death Anthem (as sung in the TV series) sounds so much like the Star Spangled Banner.

I would be happy to assist in writing that sort of an entry, perhaps as the American who thinks the current administration's foreign policy is a load of c**p? Or if not, I would be happy to answer any questions about American foreign policy as perceived on this side of the pond by people with pea-sized brains....

(Some days, honestly, I'm ashamed that I *am* an American. I feel like dog doodoo for what my government is doing in the world)

I'll second post 3978.

I've discovered some new black moles and will probably take a day off work to have them checked, thanks to the ozone hole.

Kyoto anyone?

I think an entry on U.S. Foreign Policy would need to be nearly book length to be sufficiently balanced, inclusive and of much use.

I think that's really what the discussion forums are for. Maybe we should just rename this thread, since it seems to be focused much more on the USA's foreign efforts than on its domestic disasters.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3166010.stm

This sort of thing is the reason people see America as a greedy nation that puts consummerism above conservation.

Especially the last bit about more tigers in captivity in America than there are in the wild

>>I've discovered some new black moles and will probably take a day off work to have them checked, thanks to the ozone hole.<<
Oh, Apparition! What became of your check up? Are you all right?

I have to go to a dermatologist because some of them worry my GP. Which could mean Tauranga and a bit of money.
Even an African I work with is having to have some moles checked.


On a lighter note:
http://web14.compaq.com/falco/detail.asp?FAQnum=FAQ2859

Best of luck with that... They'll probably freeze them off and it will hurt like !

It's a little more complicated than that as they don't stick out.

Do they have irregular edges and a smooth top? If so... yeah, it sounds like you'll actually have to have them surgically removed. Sorry! Doesn't sound like fun.

Yuck, Yuck, Yuck. Good luck with those moles. Had one done this summer, and it wasn't the most fun, but it wasn't much worse than a cut, really. It itched like mad.

The other way of looking at the tigers in captivity, however, is that the US has a lot of zoos with good breeding programs. (Okay, I'm playing devil's advocate) But given the rate with which natural tiger habitat is being destroyed in India, it's quite possible that wild Bengal tigers will no longer exist by 2015.

It's rather like I explained to a friend who was complaining about not having vegetarian choices at a banquet...it's only in societies that have an overabundance of food that she could choose to be a vegetarian. When you live at subsistence level, you eat what's put in front of you. Vegetarianism is bourgeoise guilt.

"Vegetarianism is bourgoise guilt"

Uh.....nope, sorry can't swallow that one. While I personally am a practicing carnivore who occasionally eats plants, I know lots of vegetarians who are not bourgois, even in North America. All of Japan was vegetarian for several hundred years, as are many Buddists, Sufis and Hindus around the world. It has nothing to do with an abundance of food. In fact the reverse arguement could be made since feeding grain to cattle in order to get meat is a very inefficent use of the grain. Vast numbers of people in India are vegetarians and its not because of a food surplus. Say what you want about vegetarianism, and personally I don't agree with it ethically or in terms of health, but it is not a product of bourgois guilt in most cases.

"All of Japan was vegetarian for several hundred years ..."

Are you suggesting that fish are vegetables?


- JD

Some vegetarians may be bourgeois and some of them may feel guilty, but that vould be a very small percentage of vegetarians.

My point about the tigers in captivity was that the US and the west in general has fostered the idea that we are entitlrd to the best of everything. So rather than expend resources and effort in any kind o sustainable husbandry of the environment we would rather eat way too much meat, sit our fat backsides on furniture made from hard woods while we gaze at out private collections of endagered species.

To paraphrase Alexi Sayle.

Some people say that zoos are good because how else would kids from Birmingham get to see a tiger, well if you're from you dont need to see a tiger!

I wouldn't suggest that fish are a vegetable, but they are not 'meat' either - they are fish.
Not all japanese ate sushi back then (or now) Sushi was first introduced as a sort of summertime fast food for the upper classes. If you lived in the mountains (far from the sea) you probably didn't eat fish too often in the days before refrigeration.
Meat for most of the world is much more expensive than vegetables so the people of poor countries when they "eat what is put in front of them" are generally eating rice, beans, cereal grains, root vegetables and fruit, with a smattering of eggs, fish, nuts and occasional meat. Remember, if you take a man to Colonel Sanders he can eat chicken once, if you buy him a hen he can eat eggs a few times a week.

Ah, but I was talking specifically about vegetarians in industrialized nations such as the US and the UK.

And what, pray tell, do we in the west have to do with the destruction of the tiger habitats in India, the wild animal (of all kinds) habitat in Africa, and the rain forest destruction in Brazil? Admittedly, there is something to the argument that industrialized nations consume more natural resources, thus putting pressure on other countries to provide those natural resources, and I will grant that McDonald's has a lot to do with the loss of rainforest habitat in South America.

But the poachers in Africa who are killing rhinos are doing that all on their own. Their market isn't "the west," it's China.

"The other way of looking at the tigers in captivity, however, is that the US has a lot of zoos with good breeding programs. (Okay, I'm playing devil's advocate) But given the rate with which natural tiger habitat is being destroyed in India, it's quite possible that wild Bengal tigers will no longer exist by 2015."

by that logic, New Zealand is preserving pacific islanders. For example, there are more Samoans in NZ than Samoa and other islands are depopulating with easy citizenship. A Tongan touring rugby team has dicided to go into hiding instead of going back.

Help save the islanders in their natural habitat or use our "good breeding programs"?

sorry I had to draw the link

That's just , Apparition!
with the moles...

Ah, and by that logic, we're protecting giant Chinese basketball players by removing them from their natural habitat and making them play basketball here in the States.

If they're free-thinking individuals, I figure they can go wherever they want! I don't know about those tigers... It's true that poachers are really doing a number on Bengal tigers, as well as the other big cats. It's partly because of the demand for homeopathic drugs made from tiger bits, and it's partly because there's a huge demand for black market tiger pelts. I like to think that at least there's some tigers left in captivity - when the poachers are under control, maybe the forests can be restocked.