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

"Originally, the product was very inexpensive. According to advertising lectures at Iowa State University, people did not buy it at first because there was no perceived value. When the price was raised, people began buying it. Today, Americans consume approximately 70 million pounds of tater tots per year."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tater_tots

An idea like turning leftovers into a product and then charging more than they're worth because people won't buy them if they're too cheap; a song that sells a million or becomes associated with a particular time of year; a character or idea that becomes hugely popular and is licensed across the world.

That's all I want. It's not much to ask.

The Silly Party have done well tonight. Congratulations to Tarquin Fin-tim-lin-bin-whin-bim-lim Bus Stop F'tang F'tang Olé Biscuitbarrel and his fellow Silly Partiers.

It's a fantastic accomplishment really. For 6 years they've resolutely refused to pass any significant legislation, many major appointments and even a budget. They've broken Congress. Yet they've managed to pin the blame on the other party...


AND IT WORKED!

Hypocrisy in Action!

The phrase 'the longest suicide note in history' was coined to describe the Labour Party manifesto for the 1983 history. It worked too - Labour died the death at that election.

Well, the Democrats have made that look like a childish doodle with their lack of a spine during this one. To be fair though, although I'm so disappointed with them it's for me to do so, they're not being helped by the fact that the US started out as 13 independent nations - states - and when the constitution was drawn up the states were given more power (states rights) than any comparable authority in other countries, certainly any British county, could ever dream of, thus making so many things about America more fragmented than in other countries, and giving US politicians the ability to attack the national government, its processes, politicians and the country's leader more than in other countries. Which is why we heard so many Republican candidates saying they were going to represent their state once they got to Washington, while attacking their opponents as someone who's going to represent only the president.

And I've no doubt that during the past six years, whether it be by public figures or private citizens and organisations, the degree of bile and vehemence thrown at Barack Obama is firmly rooted in racism. I've never seen a president attacked so strongly before and on the kind of issues Obama has been attacked on. I often wonder if there'd be a Tea Party today if the Democrats had chosen Hilary Clinton instead of Obabma.

Oh good grief.

"the Labour Party manifesto for the 1983 election."

You know what, I'm just going to post that whole bloody thing again, and BLOODY WELL PROOFREAD IT THIS TIME!

The phrase 'the longest suicide note in history' was coined to describe the Labour Party manifesto for the 1983 election. It worked too - Labour died the death.

Well, the Democrats have made that look like a childish doodle with their lack of a spine during this one. To be fair though (although I'm so disappointed with them it's hard for me to be anything other than utterly pissed off with their complete lack of balls), they're not being helped by the fact that the US started out as 13 independent nations - states - and when the constitution was drawn up the states were given more power (states rights) than any comparable authority in other countries, certainly any British county, could ever dream of, thus making so many things about America more fragmented* than in other countries, and giving US politicians the ability to attack the national government, its processes, politicians and the country's leader more than in other countries. Which is why we heard so many Republican candidates saying they were going to represent their state once they got to Washington, while attacking their opponents as someone who's going to represent only the president.

And I've no doubt that during the past six years, whether it be by public figures or private citizens and organisations, the degree of bile and vehemence thrown at Barack Obama is firmly rooted in racism. I've never seen a president attacked so strongly before and on the kind of issues Obama has been attacked on. I often wonder if there'd be a Tea Party today if the Democrats had chosen Hilary Clinton instead of Obama.

*Including the fact that the beer regulations are different in every state and you can get certain beers in one state that you can't get in another**

** But we can get Boon in Texas now

I'm making chutney today, using Hugh F-W's River Cottage recipe:

Ingredients
1kg marrows or overgrown courgettes, diced
1kg green tomatoes, peeled and diced
500g cooking apples, diced
500g onions, diced
500g sultanas
500g light soft brown sugar
600ml white wine vinegar
2teasp dried chilli flakes (optional)
pinch of salt

For the spice bag:
Square of muslin
25g dried ginger pieces (or fresh)
12 cloves
2 teasp black peppercorns
1 teasp coriander seeds

Method
Roughly chop the vegetables. Place all the ingredients in a large pan and simmer until reduced to the required consistency.


I don't have green tomatoes so I'm using tomatilloes, and I don't put marrow or courgettes in it cos I don't care for either of those two items, and it always comes out fantastic.

I wonder if I should add some pumpkin to it this time? After all, it is pumpkin season and I do have half a one in the fridge.

Tomatilloes wouldn't normally make a good substitute for green tomatoes, but in a chutney they may work even better.

By the way, true green tomatoes (green zebra cultivar) are much different than unripe red tomatoes. There are also yellow and white tomatoes. These are all much less acidic than red and pink tomatoes. There are also purple and black tomatoes (though they're actually more maroon) but I haven't tried any of these before.

I might try the green zebra variety, if I can find them and depending price, as long as they're very firm, the way unripe tomatoes and tomatilloes are. You need that firmness in chutney because it can simmer for hours on end, but you want there to still be recognisable pieces of fruit in there.

I did put a little pumpkin in - I had 1350g of tomatilloes, about 150g short of three-quarters of the fruit/vegetables in the recipe, so I made it up to 1500g.

It's still cooking, by the way, and with probably another hour to go, at least.

Dear Bob Almighty. Watching Brasenose get crushed by Durham was even more embarrassing than seeing the way the Democrats wilted under the Republican glare. And I didn't think that was possible.

Re: posts 142 - 146, Newslinks?

Odd... I missed those posts. I must have opened this thread and got distracted before reading them.

On the question of whether there would be a Tea Party, I'd say there would be as it is in the whole a creation of The Koch Bros. Their SuperPAC, Americans For Prosperity, reserved "tea party" URLs a long time ago. They are a prime example of astroturf. They have the appearance of a grass roots uprising, but a careful look at their messages and you can see that everything they do benefits big industrialists like Koch Industries. They claim they're about liberty and freedom, but their actions show that they translate that primarily not as being for individual freedom, but for repeal of industrial regulations and lowering corporate and capital gains taxes. They want a very specific kind of limited anarchy.

Obama focused the ire of their bleating masses, but I'm sure AFP would have found some other target of fearmongering and hatred to stir the mobs.

Fell asleep on the sofa and woke up at 2am to a pot of burnt chutney

I don't know for certain if it's going to be okay - it didn't smell too bad but it was too hot to taste. I've put it into jars anyway (lost about a quarter of it), and I don't have much of the previous batch left so I might find out pretty soon. If it's no good at least it didn't cost me too much - no more than $6.00 or $7.00, which is about the cost of a couple of jars of Branston. Maybe I should just make another batch anyway. After all, it's one of those things that probably gets better with age, and with pumpkins so cheap right now I could make it with half pumpkins and half tomatilloes, kind of the way the recipe's set up in the first place.

Anyone need a pair of L1131 batteries?

I just picked up some junk mail from a phone company. Attached to it was a small piece of plastic with a lit digital display - a lit digital display - showing a 6-digit number, which I'm supposed to take to the local branch of this company to get a free something or other. Naturally, like any overgrown schoolboy, I decided to take the thing apart to see what's inside, and two little button batteries rolled out.

Now, also naturally, I can't get the thing working again

Correction - 31 pairs of L1131 batteries (and counting).

Very good http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2014/11/dallas_cowboys_london_guide_uk.php#

But not the first time the Cowboys have played in London. I saw them play the Bears at Wembley in... 84 or 85. The August after the Bears won the Superbowl the previous January. It was a pre-season game, not a league game. Maybe that's what he means.

So yes, I've seen Walter Payton rushing and I've seen the Fridge score a touchdown. Seen Tom Landry's hat too

I got one of those in my junk mail a couple of weeks ago. I didn't think about going to the post office and gathering more.

I was able to get mine to work again. Note that the internal plastic rectangle is just a diffuser. The LED is just the small bit connected to the wire.

I'd suggest getting some cheap, rare earth or neodymium magnets and make LED throwies. hhttp://www.instructables.com/id/LED-Throwies/?ALLSTEPS

Or you can just use double sided foam tape or blu tak to make LED stickies. Just don't stick them to bridges in Boston because they'll shut the city down and charge you a million dollars.

Yeah, now that I've taken 30+ of them apart I've familiarised myself with the little blighters. I kept one back, lit, just to see how long the batteries will last, and the bits and pieces from the others are in Ziploc bags (except the batteries which are in a cigar box) waiting for... well, whatever. I thought about contacting some local charities to see if they have any use for the batteries.

One thing I've learned from gathering all this junk mail is how many people seem to be ignoring all the warnings about identity theft and tossing mail with their name and address on it into the bin. Admittedly, it's probably a whole lot easier for scoundrels and ne'er-do-wells to get information from a credit card skimmer or a webhack these days, but that doesn't stop me burning anything with my name and address.