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

Did you get a chance to hear this earlier today on Morning Edition? http://www.npr.org/2015/05/23/408926836/theyre-not-gang-members-bikers-protest-mass-arrests-in-waco

No. Thanks for the link. I was off the grid somewhat for the long weekend. They also seized their motorcycles under civil forfeitur. None of those arrested or even detained will get their mobiles (jeejaws) back for at least six months.

Medical needs of the bikers arrested in Waco are going ignored.

http://amyirenewhite.wordpress.com/2015/05/27/i-cant-breathe-either-a-journal-of-the-sickening-conditions-in-the-waco-jail/

Here's a petition regarding the wrongly jailed bikers. It has a lot of information about some of those arrested and the abuses of the police and the judges involved.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/free-the-waco-bikers

Well, a Harris County (Houston) grand jury effectively declared that it's open season on pibbles (any dog that looks like a pit bull).

http://www.houstonpress.com/news/this-just-in-shooting-a-dog-at-a-dog-park-is-apparently-not-a-crime-in-harris-county-7480345

This happened at the dog park to which I take my Nessie. It's quite apparent that the main reason this dog was shot and that the officer didn't arrest the shooter and that the grand jury "no billed" him is that people assume all pibbles are natural born killers. I saw other statements from witnesses and read posted statements from people there that Diesel was obviously playing with the shooter's dog. He kicked the dog away before shooting it in the leg, then walked over to it and shot twice more.

Diesel's owner had stepped out of the park to his car when this happened, leaving Diesel with his mother. His mother wasn't nearby when the shooting occurred.

I typically go to the park on Friday afternoons. Another park patron told me that Saturdays many of the patrons bring beer coolers and it gets rather stupid. This incident happened on a Saturday.


I hate that so many pibbles are bred and sold to maladjusted eejits as some sort of extension of their machismo, then kept on heavy chains which makes them the vicious dogs everyone assumes they are naturally.

I shan't comment on the issue with the dog shooting, but it makes me when I hear people getting all holier-than-thou about any comment which (they think) stereotypes anyone. So many people (such as eejits with various kinds of terriers, or rottweilers, or mastiffs, on a chain, and called Tyson) go out of their way to be the epitome of a stereotype.

This could be very useful.

http://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3036546

You can designate someone to be notified after your Google accounts have been left inactive for a predetermined amount of time. You can also give them access to your accounts.


Basically, it's a Google Will.

Either I've heard about this recently, or perhaps the discussion that led to this. The 'what happens to your emails when you die?' question.

I've also noticed a few new things with Gmail in the past month or two. The login is different - it takes two pages now. And if you log in with an account you haven't logged into for a while (or if you log in with the Tor browser), that account's backup account will get an email from Google notifying you of the unusual activity.

I like that.

I just tried to eat a red banana.

I just learned how awful an unripe red banana is. It wasn't like a slightly unripe cavendish, like it tasted a bit green. No, this was really, spectacularly, run to the restroom to wash out your mouth bad (I'm at work so that's the only sink).

This banana was extremely unripe. The peel was quite woody and thick, oh and a huge hit should have been how green the inner peel still was. It was nearly impossible to properly unpeel. I was tempted to pull out my pocket knife. From what I've just read on the webs, the rest of my bananas may be ripe in 1-2... MONTHS! Why would they sell these at my local grocer?

Now that's what I call planning and forethought

I've just today learned that I've been mistaking killdeers for sandpipers all my life. There was a bit of Synchronicity, some lattice o'coincidence involved in this discovery. An NPR story this morning featured killdeers and while I was riding my bike at work, what I've always thought of as a sandpiper crossed my path. The killdeer birdsong on the radio sounded like what I've always thought of as sandpipers, so I did a quick Google and confirmed I was mistaken. It was a killdeer that crossed my path. Now, it's quite understandable how I made this mistaken identification. They are rather similar in size. They have very similar songs. And they have very similar strides as they run along the beach. While they also have a very similar profile, the banded necks and black trim on the tails of killdeer are very distinctive. Sandpipers have simple mottled, pebbly backs and white breasts.

Here's killdeers: http://youtu.be/xWi-1aNglXM
Here's sandpipers: http://youtu.be/He35it7s_Yc

There hasn't been any noticeable ripening for my red bananas so far. It's been two weeks since I tried that first one.

I believe this is week 4 for the red bananas. I ate one late last week. It had softened, but I hadn't yet seen the tell-tale brown spots, but the tip of it was blackening and I didn't want it to rot. It was MUCH more pleasant than the last attempt to eat one. I don't think it was quite ripe yet though, it could have been a bit sweeter. I brought the three I took to work back home Thursday as I didn't want them to ripen when I couldn't check or eat them. I needn't have worried. Still no spots. Even if I don't see any spots by this Thursday, I'll eat and share them with my parents this weekend.

I did stop at the Kroger grocery where I bought these and noticed they have a new crop of them. They weren't quite as green as mine were, but they're still at least 3-4 weeks from ripe. For reference, yellow Cavendish bananas are typically 3-4 days from ripe at the store.

How many are on the plant?

Wait... are you growing them or buying them?

This was a bunch of 5 purchased at the grocery store in that condition a month ago.

Ah

Well, the bananas never developed the small spots I was looking for. Instead the skins started turning black. I ate one yesterday. They're not overripe yet, but I'll finish them off this evening.

They do have a slightly more "fruity" flavor, but I won't go out of my way for them. Especially considering the long wait.