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

On a related note:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21057288

"AIB and BoS have undoubtedly acted carelessly and imprudently by failing to make full inquiries before advancing the money," he told the court during sentencing. Indeed the latter bank was given clear and precise warnings by its lawyers about the risks of accepting assurances in a letter from an alleged co-conspirator, a Swiss lawyer. It almost beggars belief senior management chose to disregard that warning and rushed to complete the deal at all costs. It is apparent from the evidence both the defendants took full advantage of the prevailing banking culture in which corners are cut, and checks on them superficial and cursory," Judge Goymer concluded."

There's an old saying, which should probably be updated to allow for inflation and to reflect how much easier it is to get a bank to lend you money compared to 40 or 50 years ago: If you owe the bank £1,000 you're in trouble. If you owe the bank £1,000,000 the bank's in trouble.

I'm currently in the middle of a web search for an authentic haggis recipe from an authentic Scottish cook on an authentic Scottish website. It's harder than you'd think, and no, I don't need the recipe to make one, I know I can't get sheeps' pluck in the US.

But what has struck me more than the difficulty of finding what I'm looking for (whenever you search for a recipe on a .co.uk site you get endless results from foodnetwork.co.uk, uktv.co.uk and allrecipes.co.uk, not to mention bbc.co.uk) are some of the bastardisations of haggis that I've seen. For instance:

Haggis nachos
Haggis Millefeuille
Roast chicken with crispy haggis croutons
Haggis and pancetta roulade
Haggis tartlets with red onion marmalade

Experimentation is okay... up to a point. But haggis and pancetta roulade? Seriously?

My husband bought a tin of Baxter's Haggis Broth yesterday.

And I quite often use leftovers (a haggis is for life, not just for Burns Night) to stuff mushrooms, with some pine nutes and parmesan.

I did see a mention on twitter that a couple of Scottish researchers who don't frequent this place often anymore canceled their Burns Night celebrations as they couldn't locate a veggie haggis.

I saw plenty of recipes for it during my own search. It sure ain't hens' teeth. But I get your point.

Local councils are to blame for the horse meat crisis http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21490004

Seriously? Resignation announcement in 3... 2... 1...

Beer made with bull's testicles http://beerpulse.com/2013/03/wynkoops-bull-testicle-beer-rocky-mountain-oyster-stout-finally-available-online

Seriously? In recent months there have been murmurings that the practice of throwing weird ingredients into beer, especially into firkins, is getting out of hand, but that really takes it to a whole new level. And no, Guinness isn't brewed with meat.

"Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout is an assertive, viscous stout with a rich brown/black color, a luscious mouthfeel and deep flavors of chocolate, espresso and nuts."
Well it would taste of nuts, wouldn't it

My favourite bit is 'A hearty foreign-style stout'

I wonder which part of foreignland they're thinking of?

Why would any brewer think there would be a market for ANY meat flavored beer, much less gonad flavored?

That one will be for the lowest common denominator beer geeks. The ones who think the more wacky a beer is the better it must be. The ones who have no idea that beer existed before 1980. The ones who start threads on Beer Advocate that start 'What's your favourite five...'.

Two for the price of one in this story http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-21830003

"The boxes were broken open for any mail to be retrieved"
And no-one has a spare set? Seriously?

"Last Autumn, a George V pillar box was removed from the road for health and safety reasons."
Was it getting frisky, biting the fingers of people who were trying to post letters? Honestly, how can a pillar box be a health and safety problem? Y'know, a serious contender for the five most tedious words in the English language must be 'for health and safety reasons'

Bungle (see here if you don't know the reference http://stefanallsebrook.co.uk/blog-5-09/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Bungle.jpg ) wants to be PM http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21836935

Oh dear Bob no

Well, I would guess that many who go into politics ultimately have the top on in their sights, so that's not really a great surprise.

He does say that its quite unlikely to happen, but then, all those that are angling for the job say that at some point.


Geggs

True. Rick Perry said he had no intention of running for president, next thing you know he's on stage with the other Republican contenders looking for the nomination. He made a big mess of it, everyone thought he was done, but some people think his speech at CPAC last week hinted that he might have another crack at it three years from now.

I truly hope he runs. I really, really do. For three reasons.

1) There is no way he'd be electable on a national level.
2) And, even better, the more national exposure he gets, and scrutiny he gets, the less likely he'll win another governor's race.

3)... I forgot the third one.

I hope you're right, and you know far more about Texas politics than I do. I've lived through enough elections though to know that anything can happen. I vividly remember waking up on Friday morning, April 10th 1992 convinced that Labour had won the general election, only to hear the news that John Major was still Prime Minister. One of the most depressing days of my life.

"Less than a minute ago

So we're now going to end our live coverage following the death of Baroness Thatcher.

You can continue to keep update on the story on the BBC News website, which has..."

Seriously? When I got up this morning and turned on my PC, nine hours ago, they were already covering it, and I don't know how long it was going before that. What on earth can they have possibly found to say in nine hours plus? How many people to talk to? How many times to repeat the same stock footage?

Oh 24 hour rolling news, what hast thou wrought?

"Generalisimo Francisco Franco is still dead." - Chevy Chase

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-22268153
"He said the stress of the episode caused him to have a nervous breakdown and lose four stone in weight."

Seriously? No, really. Seriously? And now a lawsuit? Four stone plus a breakdown sounds like a dive worthy of a professional footballer to me. Good grief. I'm getting so tired of victim culture and people playing to the gallery like this. Oh poor me, boo hoo. Can you say 'frivolous lawsuit'? I sure can

Y'know, if you can lose four stone and still be standing it's probably not such a bad thing in terms of your health.