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

The late 80's were definitely my favorite era. It was my college years. And the music I was listening to, for the most part, I still enjoy. The Cure, Peter Gabriel, Gene Loves Jezebel. Tangerine Dream were doing some interesting things with electronica. A lot of the industrial dance music I heard at the clubs and in my dorm I still quite like today. ("People Are Still Having Sex", You Don't Have to be Poor Anymore" and other disjointed phrases still repeat through my head on occasion.) And, yea, The Smiths, Depeche Mode and similar bands were quite characteristic of the mood of the time.

As to the fashions, well, I fell into that parachute trousers and paisley style made famous by John Hughes' Pretty in Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful. Say what you will, at least the kids of my era were trying to dress smartly. Sloppy seemed to define the generations before and after us.

ah I loved the 80s, it was my era too - started off as a 16 year old and partied my way through it.

Absolutely love the Cocteau Twins - and was an avid Peel listener. Mind you I lived in Germany for most of the decade - it was the early 70s there until about 2010 when it moved into the late 70s. The 80s have yet to hit it...

It wasn't just music either. The alternative cabaret circuit, out of which came the Comic Strip (and all that followed - Young Ones, Bottom, AbFab, Fry and Laurie, French and Saunders), Eddie Izzard, National Theatre of Brent (Jim Broadbent and Patrick Barlow) etc changed comedy forever.

And we had a cause to fight - anything Thatcher-related. Which also brought out more creativity - Red Wedge, and some of the best songs Paul Weller wrote. And Save the GLC. I'll never forgive Thatcher for that. She threw the most almighty pout just because she didn't like what Ken and the GLC were doing.

And then there was the poll tax.

Boobzies
http://laughingsquid.com/boobzies-cleavage-coozies-for-beer-cans/

Classy. Really, really classy

Chubby Checker sues HP for penis app http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21471967

I really don't know where to begin with this story. Maybe it's that anyone really thinks the world needs such a useless and juvenile piece of software Maybe it's that they never bothered to check any trade mark directories when they thought about giving it a name Maybe it's that they did and just thought 'Chubby Checker' would be cool and did it anyway thinking they'd get away with it Maybe it's that an ageing rocker who most people don't give a moment's thought to each day except perhaps if they hear 'Let's Twist Again' on an oldies station thinks his reputation and good name is worth half a billion dollars

There was a similar issue several years ago with a kitchen device called a "Tuna Turner". Yeah, it was just a plastic bowl with a lid that had built in tines that could be spun with a crank to mix your tuna salad. I guess a fork just wasn't complicated enough and too easy to clean.

I don't remember if Tina Turner sued over it though.

Yeah, it's not exactly a set it and forget device, that one. Bit of a unitasker. A breakfast bowl and a fork will do just fine for me I think.

Sounds like they came up with the name first, and then had to think up something for a "tuna turner" to actually *do*.

TRiG.

Today was an important day for Texas craft beer. Four new bills were heard in public at the 83rd Session of the Texas Legislature and we all hope they'll relax some restrictive rules in the Texas alcoholic code so that breweries can sell beer at their premises - in other words, have a taproom, and brewpubs can sell their beer to a distributor so that it can be sold in shops.

You have to remember that the legislators only meet every two years and then for only 140 days (Bob bless small government so there's a sense of urgency here, and this isn't the first time beer-related bills have been presented (and allowed to wither on the vine of an over-busy congress with not enough time ).

There are some sound clips of this morning's hearing online at the Texas State Senate's website http://www.senate.state.tx.us/75r/senate/commit/c510/c510.htm

You'll need RealPlayer to hear them. Yep, that's Texas - only 10 years behind the times in beer laws and technology

I haven't had RealPlayer since around the time I dropped AOL.

Does *anyone* use RealPlayer any more? It's got the worst reputation for worming its way into your system with spyware, adware and registry changes, not completely leaving when you uninstall it, and there was a time when it regularly appeared in worst software lists, usually somewhere near the top. I haven't allowed it anywhere near my OS for more than a decade.

I'm sure I could find it among the 100 desktop icons on my father's computer.

Thousands of motorists try to drive at the same time in snow and freezing temperatures and are surprised to find themselves stranded shock horror sensation!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-21751026

Naturally, it's anybody's fault but theirs

"There are three lanes of traffic heading south and we're at a standstill"
Hmmm, three lanes of traffic heading in the same direction, snow, perhaps a clue there? Maybe no-one knew the snow was coming? Bloody weather forecasters. Couldn't organise a...

"There had been warnings about snow."
Ah. Right. But the road is still carrying all the cars that would usually be on it when the weather's good, and now there's snow and freezing temperatures and a stiff wind, and that has no bearing on the situation. I see. Yep can't be your fault. No-one stuck in the snow should accept for a moment that a modern mobile society sometimes gets swatted like a fly by Mother Nature and that she'll always have the upper hand. There are so many more people trying to use the roads than there ever has been, but that's not a factor. Got it.

"But the snow shouldn't bother me, I have an estate car." - Somebody, I'm sure.


But really, I do think my Subaru Outback will handle a bit more snow than that. When I first got it, I took it up into the Rockies to try it out and it was great. Of course, that don't matter when a bus has been abandoned ahead of you.

Yeah, I'm sure there were plenty of people thinking that Or 'I've got a 4 x 4, I should be able to drive through the snow', but their car's ability to deal with the conditions isn't the problem, it's the number of people all trying to use the road at the same time in difficult conditions which are unsuitable for that amount of traffic, regardless of whether the gritters are out/roads have been salted, and then not being able to figure that out and blaming everyone else. It can't possibly be their fault, it never is. And then the sensationalist 24-hour media only reports complaints from irrationally outraged pillocks who are stuck in the snow because it has to fill its airtime/webpages and it loves it when when people get angry at the authorities, whether the anger is justified or (more likely) not

A shame it was cut off at the end, because that's where the argument was stated at its most plain - the amendments in the Bill of Rights aren't absolute, and yes, there are things which, often perversely in my opinion, have been cited as protected free speech by individuals but which have been disallowed as such by the Supreme Court. But I don't think Ted Cruz quite got it, even still http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYI3MEhegvQ

Nice dig at the TX Education Board though

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21820476
"Tourist 'upset' at Buddha tattoo row"

Never underestimate the propensity of religious people to take offence and never underestimate the ability of those at the receiving end of said offence to fail to understand it or be surprised

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-21884136


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meF7NmfnXZ0#t=0m49s

I'm ing because when I read the article, I didn't also instantly think of Royston Vasey.

I knew what that clip was going to be.

I wonder how he knows. Do you need to bring two different forms of proof of ID and proof of address, like when you open a bank account?