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

Folly, I don't know if that idea is any good or at all feasible, as I'm not a very practical sort of person, but I'm sure you're right that many people have useful ideas, but don't take them any further because they assume that THEY must have thought of them already or because they don't know how to communicate them to THEM.

If you have contacts in the aid 'business', it would certainly be interesting to know whether or not such a scheme has been considered, as seems quite likely, and perhaps even applied. I must run it by el D as well; he has some involvement with aid projects and may know such things.

Another daft idea of mine is that wind turbines should be built on the site of electricity pylons, so that there is no question of despoiling the natural beauty of the countryside. I assume that this is probably quite impractical, but I'd love to find someone who would tell me why. Any ideas as to whom I should ask?

Right, I must hit the streets. We do need some rain, but I hope it will wait until this evening.

Have a good day,

I am rather saddened by what I hear from both politicians, and many of their scientific advisers with regard for their stated need to embrace nuclear power in future, and I do wish they would make more effort to concentrate on renewable forms of power production. They seem very reluctant to the idea of limiting growth, and seem determined to set the human race on a journey of self destruction.

There was an interesting item on Radio 4 this week about the production of compost from human poo. The way it was described as being odourless takes some believing. I remember the way the Germans used to collect human "waste" from underground storage tanks, cart it off in bowsers, then spread it on the land virtually untreated. The pong was disgusting. This was in 1957, so maybe their technology has moved on since then. (You would not want me to tell you how the collector used to bang the pipe against the lorry, then sit down to eat his sandwiches!)

The Barber did not use wax, but was very nifty with a sharp narrow pair of scissors that went close to the brain in its search for unwanted hairs in the ears and nose. The whole excellent haircut cost me five pounds, and for a further three pounds I could have had a wet shave. I watched him give this service to other customers who escaped without the slightest scratch, but I was chicken.

Today I sprayed "Resolva" (as advertised on telly) on my path weeds, so will keep you posted. Cold and windy here on the South Coast, come back sun, all is forgiven,

"Abandon The Trident Program!!!" We no longer need this crazy "deterent". "Ban The Bomb!". Do away with all nuclear weapons!

fxx

Re alternative forms of power, Frank, I agree that we should be doing much much more, including composting poo and wind turbines and wave power etc etc.
I have this cynical impression that Big Brother Oil is at the bottom of all the procrastinations, and although BP would like us all to think they are greening up - you know, biggest retailer of gas for vehicles, enormous research programmes etc, I am still not convinced that any of the energy industry is really on board with the urgency of global warming etc. And the pathetic targets - such and such reduction in carbon output by 2020 or 2050 just is not soon enough. I want the best for my kids and, when they get round to having them, their kids, and I'll vote for any perty that is serious about these issues - which means the Green Party and, to a certain extent, Lib Dems. I realise they are 'wasted' votes, but all other policies in the main parties are the same really, so I'm happy to go with my conscience.

That was a party political broadcast on behalf of Folderol

By the way, on the same energy saving subjest, there was an item - I can't remember what programme, might have been a news item, about extracting methane from council tips. It sounds as if its getting big now,which is good. We live about 12 miles from the old brickfields of Bedfordshire which have been the dustbins of London and Beds and Herts, for many years and they have started extracting methane and piping it into the national gas grid, apparently. It has the added bonus for neighbours of the pits that they smell a lot less as the pits are all covered over.

Moveing on, I'd rather the 'Terror by Wax' treatment than a pair of scissors shoved down me ear'ole. Makes me shudder to think about it.


Weathe OK today, windy and a bit cooler, but sunny. But where oh where is the rain?

Hi team,as Thatcher sold off all our service industries I am afraid relistically we do not have a choice where our main sources of national power supplies come from,a large slice of british gas is French owned and as we know the French have advocated the use of nuclear power for many years.

Here we have enough coal to last for centuries yet thousands object to open cast mining,yet with no oil left how many of those protesters would be pepared to over Winter without gas oer electric fuel?

Anyway nuff waffle try this:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8034884.stm

I didn't touch on Nuclear power. I'm a bit in two minds.
a) it's good for low emissions and once set up is cheap to produce but
b) disposal of nuclear waste is a massive headache.

However, my geologist son has looked into this. He's very green in his life style and thoughtful about the future and feels that the future has to be a mix of as much renewables - wind, wave, solar, methane, etc., and especially home produced energy, like your own mini turbine and so on, plus a big nuclear energy industry. He is content that waste storage is safe and and can only improve as time goes on, and he has faith in human ingenuity to keep coming up with new energy generating possibilities.

He's sort of swayed me so that I am not giving nuclear a big nono. mainly becasue I don't have any other anti arguments. All the objections about wind turbines etc usually turn out to be nimby based which really don't hold water when we are faced with global warming.

Although we';re a crowded island, there are enormous tracts of uninhabited land that are ideal for turbines and nuclear power stations, so I think on the whole htey are the way to go.

That was a public information film, produced bythe Nuclear Industry

On a less serious note, Foldy, I went to "Peer Review" and tried to set up a "The Nonsense Rhyme Place" thread, which seems to have been accepted provisionally. Me being a bit of a new boy, I am not quite sure if and when we can use it for our great works of art, but if you go there you may be able to give your own approval to the project and speed up its inauguration.
Alternatively, stunningfrenchie says there is a thread called "The Silliness of the Lambs" somewhere in the system, which may serve your purpose.
Are you the next Lewis Carroll?

No more talk of serious nuclear stuff tonight eh? Let's have fun!
No beer though.

There was an interesting interview on 'More or Less' a few weeks ago with David Mackay, a professor of physics at Cambridge U, who has done some number crunching and written a book called 'Sustainable Energy - Without The Hot Air'. I don't know if the program is available to listen again, but you can read a bit about it @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8014484.stm

Prof Mackay was very scathing about home-based wind turbines -

"Roof-mounted micro-wind turbines are an utter waste of resources.

They never pay for themselves. A typical "600 W" micro-turbine mounted on a typical roof in England generates only 0.04 kWh per day - that's one twentieth of the power of a lightbulb.

In contrast, roof-mounted solar water heaters are a no-brainer. They really work: even where the sunniness is only about 30%, a modest 3-square-metre panel can supply half of a typical family's hot water: about 3.8 kWh per day, on average."

The book is available to read online @ http://www.withouthotair.com/
I urge you to read it - I fully intend to.

I've kicked off a conversation at the Nonsense Rhyme Place, so now you can get cracking with those silly verses, Folly. And Frank. And anyone else. Not really my forte, I'm afraid - except inadvertently.

I found Silliness of the lambs last night, Frank and I'll be looking for Nonsense Rhyme place later, Tickle. Thanks for your help.

I will read that withouthotair thingy, too. Looks interesting. Before now the cry has always been that the capital outlay on home sustainable energy production is too high to be able to recoup. But as builders put them in to new houses more and more, the costs should come down and anyway, it's about conserving and reducing emissions, not purely saving money (He says glibly, knowing that he couldn't afford the installations in the first place!)

At last we have rain this morning! Hooray! We need a few days of it to do any good, though.

have a good day everyone

Good morning to each of you. It's getting rather scientific here! All I can add to the topic is that my brother's telescope still sits in it's box in a cupboard. I have never erected it.

There is a bit of rain at the moment but not enough to give the garden a decent soak. I've just been pushing some nasturtium seeds straight into the ground in the hope that when they have grown they will hang over my wall that supports the garden! My garden has been part of the church at one time and is level with my kitchen window. The church looms above my home.

Folly, I'm taking the Home-Group next week so I have some serious thinking to get done! I am doing 1Kings 18 : 1-40 (Elijah)

I hope you each have a very happy day.

Mornign Poll. Good to see some rain, but, as you say, it isn't much yet and we need loads.

If you're next door to the church, are you, to paraphrase Betjamin, Wakened by bells? And if so, do you mind? I'm about a quarter of a mile form our local St Mary's church and hearing bell ringing practice on a Friday evening is a delight, but I'm not sure what the people in the 'The Old Rectory' next door to it think.

Not sure about your Kings text, Poll. I'm in no way an OT man, myself. Too much bad feeling and murder and so on for my liking. I prefer the calming influences that ooze from the NT, esp when JC was around. Though Peter could be a bit of a berk, and Paul had some - by today' standards - strange views. Good Luck!

Have a good day tout le monde

Hello everybody, I was going to say good morning but I see that it is now well into the afternoon. I have just spent my time writing stuff and getting it lost forever into cyberspace, and with my one fingered typing that is a very frustrating exercise. When I do it I give up and walk away in disgust.
I got good advise how to cancel my "Peer Review" submission of "The Nonsense Ryme Place" and how to set the same thing up in "The Alternative Writing Forum". I followed a poster called Matt's instructions to the letter and my page with comments from newly made friends simply disappeared and cannot be retrieved. An email to the team explaining what had gone wrong and containing a brilliantly worded new submission was also lost forever as "Outlook Express" refused to recognise my existence,. I give up!
Paul H's page of Nonsense verse: or "the silliness of the lambs" fills the bill anyway, so my intervention was a waste of time.
Who's a grumpy old git today?

fxx

Hi Frank,I'll put your name on the list but I can tell you now you are well down the list,why I must be top even on a good day

The dark clouds have lifted Rik, as yours will too.
I have not had a drink of ale since Sunday but have eaten a lot of food, so how am I to lose weight, tee hee?
oh! that is not an emoticon yet then?

fxx

What a slob I am becoming! I used to 'set' the table so prettily for supper but here I am with supper on a tray, and the tray balanced on the Victorian table that holds the computer!

I need some advice please. I have a very poor reception on the television (BBC1 & 2, ITV, CH4 ), probably due to the church and the very tall trees. And I have totally lost my Freeview stations. I am told that 'none are stored'. I cannot count on the aerial in the roof (I think it has moved) and I haven't got an outside aerial. I use an indoor aerial that can be switched to a high frequency. A friend of mine who lives very close by has no aerial so has to use an indoor aerial plus a booster contraption. Although her Freeview can be very patchy she at least can get it. I borrowed her aerial and 'contraption' this afternoon to see if I could restore my Freeview. But it didn't help me at all. What I would like to know is this : if I take my own Freeview box across the road to her home might I be able to restore the channels (assuming that she gets Freeview because she has a better signal) onto my box? Would it make a difference trying to restore them in her home? I rarely watch television but the Proms start very soon and are televised on BBC4. I wasn't going to buy the new Proms guide because I didn't want to know what I would be missing. But I did buy it last weekend after all!


Folly, I don't mind the bells at all! They are lovely although I have a feeling that there is a cracked bell because one of the 'dings' seems to wobble. But Pixie hates them! It is bell-ringing practise on Thursday evenings. Pixie comes running in if he is outside when it starts and he won't go near the door until the ringing stops!

Hi Polly,you can only tune your freeview box in situ,you must never try and retune(scan)with your freeview kit in a poor reception area when the weather is cloudy or overcast,best to wait for a bright sunny day else you will just erase the channels you already have

If you can get to your loft ariel look which way all your neighbours ariels are pointing and point yours in the same diection.

Anyway sweetie how are you?

Evening Poll - sorry to hear that Pixie isn't into bells. Presumably he hasn't a little round his neck either!

I wouldn't have a clue about tuning, I let the engineer do it when it was installed and left it at that. Like oyu, we watch very little tv - although the Apprentice has us hooked and there's been some great blues progs on BBC4 recently. Is there a friendly neighbourhood tv man - perhaps through church? - that might help for a cup of tea and cake?

Do you have DAB radio? We have them scattered around the house and our reception on digital is better than FM. If so the Proms on R3 would be an option.

Trust the rest of you are well. Haven't seen Toots on here recently. Anyone been in touch?

Hello Rick.

I used to have the Freeview channels and then I accidentally erased them not that long ago. I was trying to install extra ones and must have done something wrong. Why can't I reinstall the channels onto my own Freeview box in someone else's home? I'm not going to touch their Freeview box at all. I've got all I need in a bag waiting to pop across the road!
I can't get into the loft because there are no wooden things( what are they called?!).


I'm fine, thank you Rick. Well, sort of fine. I need to move for some peace but when that will happen I have no idea. I would have to rent a private flat and I have got to consider Pixie. And all that upheaval again! Groan. Still, it would be worth it.
How are you? When is the next job, and are things any easier?? Are you still working with your friend?
Can you believe that it will be the longest day in about 7 weeks! And then it is all downhill to Christmas once again!

Ah ~ time for a cup of coffee I think. There are no biscuits or cake but I do have a lovely plum tart in the fridge.

I know you're asking Rik, but the wooden things in the loft are rafters, and if oyu haven't got any, then your house will fall down, so I think you must mean you don't have flooring up there, which makes it a bit dangerous.

Talking of the longest day, that is a rather special day in our family - it's my birthday!!!! What's more, this year it's Fathers Day too - and I've been told by MOH and the kids to keep the weekend free - oooh I love surprises!

Hello Folly. No, I have no DAB radio! I'm too poor for those expensive gadgets. I'm quite happy with my ordinary radio though. I wouldn't be without it. I've been listening to a lot of R3 recently instead of R4. But to think I might have to miss the Proms on BBC4 again. I used to love watching the Test match on television during the day and then the Prom on BBC4 in the evening. What a wonderful day of entertainment it was.

Pixie hasn't got anything around his beautiful neck! He is moulting now so his fur is finding it's way into everything. But I don't mind at all. He is the loveliest puss in the world.

Folly, I have no idea quite what is up there! I have 2 loft entrances ~ one in my bedroom and one in the bathroom. Both doors are tiny. I think I would get firmly stuck were I to try to get through one of them!

My daughter and son-in-law put some insulation in the loft last winter (for what good it did!). They had to use the bathroom loft door in order to insulate the sitting room. The son-in-law is a well built man and was unable to do much in the loft because they said that there are no rafters !!!!! My tiny daughter had to lie on her tummy and apparantly throw the insulation across the roof space! She had to do it because she is so light and wouldn't fall through the ceiling! The aerial is in that part of the loft~~right on the other side of the loft. I have a feeling that when the insulation was put down the aerial was knocked.

More surprises! You lucky thing, Folly.