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

Yes it was Messier 1 - I wrote this about it: A44762097 (and there's a pretty picture too)

I suppose the poor lad wasn't going to guess its name unless he had a rudimentary knowledge of astronomy. There was another astonomy question which would appeal to the lovers "name the planet named after a chocolate bar" (I'm pretty sure it was named after the god of war). There was an easier question in the previous quiz show Tipping Point - "name the fifth planet in our solar system which begins with the letter "S"" - I think even my mother would have got that one.

Waiting for the phone to ring is almost killing me

I remember a "millionaire" quiz where a guy was asked to name the planet with the rings for 250,000 pounds and he had no notion. My 8-year-old daughter couldn't believe it. Every primary school child learns the planets.

But there aren't 5 planets that begin with 's'

The - is named after the inhabitants, of course

They are marsupials

Interesting to compare the words. 'Mars' is entirely Roman. The Greeks called the planet Pyroeis ('fiery'), but they provided the word 'marsipos' (bag or pouch) which became marsupial.

Well what do you know, looks like I know more than I actually know

I had absolutely no idea about the connection between and upials

Icy!

I thought Icy's point wsa that there isn't a connection?

Yes, but then nobody expected there to be

I would not engage a wombat
In any form of mortal combat

Websailor

Re. above referred to posts 79 and 80

re Post 88:

Isn't science magnificent?

What a fun journal this is!

Last night's Chase - "The Beast" Mark, when the second contestant went through and he was commenting, both Ian and I thought he swore, using a f-word, but not in an angry way, we were both gobsmacked! We replaced that segment later on the I-Player, (sad I know, but the mystery had to be solved) and what he said was "I couldn't have caught him" (we think) but even on first playback, it did sound like there was a swear word in there

We couldn't believe it when that girl scored £8K-worth and chose the £1K what a wimp! Although the young 'uns know that there's lots of "general knowledge" which happened before they were born and they're probably not even learning from text books now, nor ever seen the inside of a library where I spent many a rainy day in my childhood. I was astonished the other day when an elderly contestant said "Who is BB King?" so it's not just the young. I'm dreading someone saying "Who is Paul McCartney?" or somesuch... oh wait that was last month

i was shocked too, as she seemed a surprisingly bright girl, but she clearly had no confidence. It does show how the young live strictly in the present day and know little of history, even recent 'history' but they know the pop, film, DVDs, Apps and stuff quick enough.

Of course (Winston) Churchill is the dog in the advert - surprised they didn't add a cigar and a victory sign to the bulldog this week

BB King - who? I am somewhat ignorant on that too, being much older than you Dashes to t'internet!!

Websailor

"Who is BB King?" dead easy that one, it's the bloke who hits the target every time with his air-rifle

Just a thought http://www.bbking.com/

F S

Although BB King was still gigging up till fairly recently, I still feel that he's more my parents' generation.

Oh - according to FS's link he still has some gigs to do.

*polishes glasses* aah yes. Not to do, but he was still working up till the end of last year. Some friends of mine went to see him somewhere in Germany not long ago.

GBthere's a thing! make sure your hootoo badge is predominant towards the cameras

Yes! And if people ask you about it demand points for answering correctly