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

Guernsey 'more dangerous than Libya' (that's the headline link to the story on the UK news page)
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-guernsey-27929668


Ah, this is obviously some strange usage of the word 'dangerous' that I wasn't previously aware of.

A bloke walks out in front of a bus - by his own admission he was at fault - then makes a pathetic joke, which some spotty oik at BBC new media then spins into the above link. The Guernsey Chamber of Commerce must already be in damage limitation mode.

I'm beginning to revise my list of most reviled groups of people - in no particular order:

Politicians
Journalists
Injury lawyers (aka ambulance chasers)
Patent trolls
Telemarketers
Paparazzi
BBC headline writers
Evangelists
Monsanto

Nice start
Add
Other Lawyers
Tax Inspectors

You both missed Estate agents, off your lists

Good point, 2legs, also advertising copywriters... mostly. One of my guilty pleasures is old TV ads (and one or two news ones).

I won't add 'other lawyers' because some of them are very worthwhile people to have around, like the one(s) Paul Weller recently hired to sue the Daily Fail over intrusive paparazzi photographs of his family taken in California, nor I wouldn't be sitting here in Texas right now without the help of an immigration lawyer.

Oh, and the England football team, naturally

why... what have the England football team done? ahh, I assume this is to do with that football tornament thing that is on at the moment? - I'm so* crap at being a man

I've spent far* too much time, recently, looking at estate agent descriptions of houses... and... GDamit, I know I half subscribe to the humpty dumpty school of 'words mean what I want them too', but... these are people getting paid, and who have a damn job (which I don't ), who can't write accurate descriptions, or use words correctly... 'double glazing' and 'replacement windows', do, actually mean quite differnt things... and... oh. lordy... soem of the adverbs and adjatives they use... and misuse... and then misuse and use differntly, even within the same listing Makes even the worse ramblings of the cancil thread look like its carefully written pros to show best practise in the use of the English language

Do estate agents say 'bijou residence' any more? Did they ever, or am I just thinking of Julian and Sandy?

And there is one glaring omission (well, several probably, but this could turn into 'No, no, no' if we allowed it) from my original post.

Hipsters.

Hipsters. abso-bluddy-lutely!

I don't know... (re: estate agents)... but... there is most defiantely a dozen or less 'buzz words' they use inappropaitely at the moment and, terrible terrible phrases....
"city living at its finest"...

"full of character"...
"ideal investment oppertunity"...

"a do not miss....."
etc., etc., etc., and they then go on, to fail to mention room sizes, what sort of windows, central heating, kitchen, bathroom the damn property has ...

http://cucrblog.wordpress.com/2014/07/21/gentrification-without-displacement-in-shoreditch-by-joon-ian-wong/
A short history of Shoreditch
"Shoreditch rose to prominence as an artistic hub linked to the Young British Artists in the early 1990s"

Ah, this is obviously some strange usage of the word history that I wasn't previously aware of, because I swear I remember working in Shoreditch during the early and mid 1980s, when it was still the centre (albeit declining) of the London furniture-making industry. I reckon all the people from the local timber yards, cabinet makers, tool and machinery suppliers, hardware shops, fixtures and fittings stockists, turners, French polishers, lacquerers and those two brothers who spent all day pulling the handles on a couple of dovetailing machines might wonder about that too.

And I'm pretty sure there was history before I got there too. In fact I know there was. There's a building at the corner of Old Street and Charlotte Street, a listed building, which was originally a farmhouse. Built in the early 1700s according to English Heritage (here's a photo of it taken in 1974 http://i.imgur.com/6DPLAJt.jpg ). When the area still looked a lot like this http://www.british-history.ac.uk/image.aspx?compid=98220&filename=fig1.gif&pubid=1048

Just a bit before the hipsters arrived.

Most of the locals then wouldn't even be able to afford a coffee in the area now.

PS that building is still there on street view, but it's now a posh shop.

I used to have to work near the other end of that road. (Network rail office) on Great Eastern Street next to the Old Blue Last.

I took some photographs from the roof of that tall building to the left, one of which was the double row of chimney pots on the building in question. First I have to find 'em though, then scan 'em. I may only have the negatives.

I was up there too on the night the Barbican Centre opened and tried to take some pictures of the fireworks but I didn't have a good enough lens.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-29044927
Carbuncle Cup 2014: Woolwich supermarket named 'worst building'

Ah, this is obviously some strange usage of the word architecture that I wasn't previously aware of.

Dear Bob almighty that is awful. Really, really horrible. There's been a bit of a fad in recent years for that sort of random cladding, and it's not good. I don't get it. This is one of my least favourite buildings in London http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strata_SE1 because it uses that same kind of cladding, but also everything else about it. It's just unpleasant to look at (and it also won the Carbuncle Cup). Another picture http://www.urbanews.fr/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Strata-Tower-London3.jpg

"The architect firm said: "The aim was to create a cohesive piece of strong architecture that unlocked this vast space"
What the bloody hell is that supposed to mean, apart from being impenetrable corporate-speak You could unlock the space by putting in streets, houses and gardens.

Mind you, I quite the look of the Woolwich Central building in the second image, the one taken at ground level, but with one caveat. It looks nice now, but in the same way that most of the concrete estates did when they were brand new and shiney. And look at most of them today, leastways the ones that are left

To be fair, some of the highly planned and designed spaces of the 1950s and 60s still look pretty good. I quite like Harlow town centre for instance. What places like that benefit from over older town centres (both big and small) is that they were planned and built to be pedestrianised, rather than taking an old town centre, putting down those horrible herringbone pattern bricks, a load of bollards, some sad-looking planters that get used as litter bins and ashtrays, and still allowing some traffic through. Nasty.

Put them back the way they were, fer cyin' out loud, with tarmac on the roads and flagstones on the pavements.

This was a "feature" of our walking tour in Manchester. The question was "like it or hate it?"

http://globetrotterdonkeys.com/category/manchester/#jp-carousel-217


This is a "glamour shot" of that building and it's still about as ugly a building as I've ever seen and I'm from Houston.


That building in London you pointed out... it's either a triple-eyed version of Mordor or a giant ladies electric shaver.

I think the latter. Even Barad-Dur was more pleasant to look at.

That Hilton building. Yeah. Horrible.

There's been a rash of building new stands at major cricket grounds around England lately, and I really have to wonder at what's going through the minds of architects and the people who rubber stamp the buildings for construction.

Edgbaston http://i.imgur.com/rPcP5zH.jpg
Not desperately unpleasant, but only through its sheer blandness. No bad thing when see the next three.
Trent Bridge http://i.imgur.com/4KVDmzk.jpg and http://www.panoramio.com/photo_explorer#view=photo&position=5&with_photo_id=22603581&order=date_desc&user=2834322
I don't get it. It doesn't provide the crowd with any cover, unless the rain's coming down almost horizontally from the southwest. Perhaps a bit of shade from the late afternoon sun, but what's the point of that? And it just looks strange.
Old Trafford http://i.imgur.com/igO0cXD.jpg and http://i.imgur.com/6Z1GG0i.jpg
Okay, it's red. Same colour as the Lancashire rose. That's really all it's got going for it. But those all pale into insignificance compared to (sorry Sho)...
Headingley http://i.imgur.com/sBbr0Ks.jpg
Good grief, that's just awful. It would be awful anywhere, but doubly so as a stand at a cricket ground. It sticks out like a sore thumb that's just been belted by a 100mph bouncer from Curtly Ambrose.

The thing I don't understand about buildings such as the ones we're discussing here is that someone dreamt it up and thought it good enough to put forward as a genuine proposal, then several more people along the line also thought it would look good and okayed it.

These people, every single one of them, aren't fit to be let out of doors with anything more complicated than a rubber ball on a piece of string. And even then they'll probably give themselves a black eye or break a window

Maybe architecture expresses a reaction to the culture from which it springs.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/18/qatar-accidental-vagina-stadium-al-wakrah-world-cup-stadium

Anyone who thinks that bears enough of a resemblance to a vagina to think it looks like one has either been ogling some very strange porn or has an over-active imagination. But then, I don't see any pudenda in the radiator grille of the Ford Edsel either. Leastways, none I'd consider normal.

It doesn't "resemble" as much as "imply".

Well let me put it this way - I wouldn't have made the connection in either case because I don't see enough of a resemblance *or* an implication

Perhaps I'm just too pure and innocent

I bet Georgia O'Keeffe exhibitions are rather dull for you. Just a bunch of watercolor orchids.

I'm not sure I've actually ever seen one... not knowingly anyway. But I do tend to take such things very literally (which is probably the main reason why I find modern art, or any art that needs to be interpreted, so awful), so you're probably right

And I've just had a quick butcher's at some of them, and you *are* right. Well, half right - they're dull at all. Very pretty flowers