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

I said they have a responsibility to do that. It doesn't mean they'll hold up their end of the bargain

Homoeopathy. Oh brother

Job opening for a crown court judge on Teesside:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-19503922



Danny: No need to get uptight, man. I was merely making an observation. I happened to be looking for a suit for the Coalman two weeks ago. For reasons I can't really discuss with you. The Coalman had to go to Jamaica. Got busted coming back through Heathrow. Had a weight under his fez. We worked out it would be handy karma for him to get hold of a suit but he's a very low temperature spade, the Coalman. Goes into court in his kaftan and a bell. This doesn't go down at all well. They can handle the kaftan, they can't handle the bell. So, there's this judge sitting there in a cape like ing Batman and this really rather far out looking hat.
Withnail: Wig.
Danny: No, man, this was more like a long white hat. So, he looks at the Coalman and says "What's all this? This is a court, man. This ain't fancy dress." And the Coalman looks at him and says "You think you look normal, your honour?" gave him two years.

Withnail and I

"We are smart enough to make our own decisions about what to eat and drink," Liz Berman, a business owner and chair of New Yorkers for Beverage Choices, a soft-drink industry sponsored group.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19593012

Oh please, you should take that on the road It's funny as hell

Clearly, we are not. Nobody really needs a 64oz soda, or even a 32 oz soda, even though you're only getting about half of that amount of actual liquid anyway. The rest is ice, and that's why sodas are a money spinner for anyone who sells them from a fountain.

I don't believe I've ever ordered a drink larger than 32oz and I'm doubtful I've ever even ordered that size more than a few times at the cinema ("it's only 25¢ more?!"). I don't drink sodas at all anymore and I take my tea unsweetened. I do have some large mugs at home and work. I use a 32oz "bubba keg" at work for my iced tea/water as one filling lasts all day (plus the water w/lemon I drink at lunch).

Remember when 16oz was large?


All that being said, it hasn't stopped me from being a fat bastidge.

It scares me, the amount of soda people drink at work. We're allowed to drink as much fountain soda, iced tea or drip coffee as we want, for free, and there are kids who drink it all day long, starting at 9am. There are people in the kitchen who spend their day at the grill station where it's bloody hot, but they don't drink water or iced tea to slake their thirst and rehydrate, they drink soda and more soda.

And it always makes me want to when diet... they wouldn't be able to call them that today, I think... diet sodas are exempted from regulations like this, or the proposal to tax sodas more highly, given the doubts and controversies around the artificial sweeteners they're made with.

Move over Jimmy Savile, there is someone who has even less regard for young women and girls than you allegedly did http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19893309

Simply unbelievable

Different motivations: pathological prurience for one, pathological religious zealotry for the group.


And while I doubt much good will ever come of the Savile issue, in the case of Malala Yousafzai, this horrid attack brings the plight of women and young girls in fundamentalist regions attention and focus around the world. Her attackers have only furthered her cause rather than silence her.

Fundamentalists and zealots will inevitably lose the plot completely and do something like this, and when they do it finally tips the scales and outrages just about everyone.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-20401673

What the is wrong with people? What is it about getting behind the wheel of a vehicle that robs them of all intelligence and common decency

I guess the frequency of this sort of thing http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-20396666 compared to the number of hours/miles driven every day just doesn't register with most drivers and they don't make the connection that they can easily put someone in a hospital, in a wheelchair or in the ground

And yet one more cyclist/lorry story http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-20404336

Could be worse... could be somewhere in the former U.S.S.R.

http://youtu.be/ZPkE2hHneP4

'What the is wrong with people? What is it about getting behind the wheel of a vehicle that robs them of all intelligence and common decency'

You might be going even further than me, there, but it is frightening when you see what being behind the wheel of a car can do to otherwise-sensible people, sometimes. Some people really do not have the skills to drive well. Most people, actually. Cars in modern cities are using a 1920s guidance system with much greater velocity and many more humans to be mashed up. The cars get faster, the on-board safety gets better, and drivers feel more complacent in their little cocoon.

I did just read that the Google self guided car has over 300k miles under its belt with only two accidents, both the fault of human drivers running into it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-20426011

"I'm going to rob you."
"No you're not. Do you realise what you're doing? Don't be stupid."
"Oh, I'm very sorry. Goodbye, I'm off to rob the bookies now."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZgVkP6o6Ig

I remember watching this when it was broadcast. At the beginning of the show they said they were going to have someone on who could jump on eggs without breaking them. Ooooh, So I waited, and I think he was on right at the end, a kind of 'And Finally' piece. I think I remember him trying to do it again and they had to roll the credits over him because they ran out of time before he could hit another egg

I thought at the time, and I still do, did no-one check out this bloke's act, for want of a better word, before they got him in?

Sue Lawley was a bit of alright back then

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-21473254

"I was giving a policeman a family flower, a crest, and yes, I had drunk a bottle of wine like Bridget Jones. We are all becoming robots."



This is the Golf ad, btw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKQIUJOr1GA

David Bailey? Who's he? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_Yo3FRPeQw

The government is trying out a scheme to pay housing benefits to tenants instead of paying them directly to the landlord, supposedly to give people a sense of responsibility over their money. Unsurprisingly, rent arrears have done a hockey stick.

"I do not know why they moved me to the new scheme," she said. "I hardly have enough money to live day-to-day. By them paying the money directly to me it created temptation to use it for other things which has resulted in me being in arrears and possibly being evicted."

"Several local tenants on the direct payments project have needed help to cope with the new system, all with mental health problems."

"Direct debits are not a good way of paying if you are on very low incomes," says Duncan Forbes. "If a direct debit is due and there is no money in the bank, it can cost you £30-£40 as a penalty."

And that's without even mentioning the rent money that's disappeared over the counter at the bookies, or into the till at the local pub. Who the comes up with these ideas

We saw similar after Katrina. FEMA gave out debit cards to evacuees. Stories of these FEMA debit cards being used in strip bars and tattoo parlors in Houston shortly followed.

And where, exactly, do you swipe a card in a strip bar

You don't think strip bars take plastic?

Also, they have ATMs in the bars... they usually charge at least $10 usage fee.