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

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'Morning Bx4

Alas no wingéd chariot' hauled by horses four however I hold out hope that it will happen today. On the ground I don't suppose the residents of Hamburg were terribly bothered about the nationality of their foe while the city burned to the ground. I suspect Goering may have been on their minds and I bet there wasn't enough room in the flaktürme to save everyone. Thank you for posting the links, the photographs are good. Also thank you for http://www.parliament.uk/ I see that the Lords committee stage rides again from 3pm. I watched the Parliament channel live yesterday before six pm. Labour MPs were laying into the Chairman of the Treasury Select Committee. Our Frank might yet have his moment of glory by triggering a May 2008 election.

More later.

MDT

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'Morning Bx4

I hear what you say about Cameron. I think quite a few will be disappointed if the Tories are elected and don't revert to type. Then again this is what they said about New Labour. I get the sense from O_L and Magnetist and the like that this is not the same as the Labour they remember of old. Blair had it in his mind that he didn't want to be a one term wonder. Cameron will be aware of this. That said apart from the referendum issue I'm not impressed by the Conservatives. They really are a clone party middle for diddle. I have thought for some time that there was room for a new party of the right. After all there is enough room for New Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

I agree Bambi looked old in 2007 though Brown really looks ill. I'm sure Labour will survive the 10% hiccup with Brown at the helm. The chance of an election and victory in May 2008 will recede. I don't think Cameron would have been anywhere near strong enough to put up a serious challenge because he hasn't built up enough recognition and resonance to galvanise Joe Public into ticking a box. It wouldn't be enough that Gordon fans abstain.

The chance of a Burner upgrade recedes for similar reasons to Cameron's quandary. There isn't anything out there that makes me want to change. I think you are right to take advantage of the excellent value a "British" bike offers a Euroland based buyer. I'm pleased that Shelves and Sun are going well and I too would have misgivings about putting a factory machine into my home.

MDT

Morning rg

Simulations: My sun *is* a wingéd chariot. I should get back to the (lab) bench this week.

Cardboard: Where have they all gone?

The client: Only one? Putting one's eggs.....etc., etc.

Churchill: Where I grew up the 'Greatest Briton' was not regarded as such. Also my Dad did not a very positive opinion of him since much of his early war seemed to involve hasty evacuations from one or other of the Great Leader's ill-conceived military ventures.

The bombed out: Your story indicates that not everyone bought into the Churchill myth even then. I doubt if the views of the bombed out played much of a role in the decision to bomb Dresden.

Buckle: It seems to depend on whether our Frank can hold his troops together.

Cared: As far as I know neither the Labour or the Tory 'lobby fodder' cared very much. All too busy snouting no doubt.

bis später

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'Morning Bx4

I'm already at my "lab bench" having run my macros without a hitch. The cardboard cut outs were to replace the flu infested and I have support to "help" out. Always on the look out for more clients for this makes sense. That's the trouble with being based in the country they don't grow on trees. London is the sort of place that's full of clients, trouble is I've worked there before and wouldn't want to do it again except as a last resort. The grotty shots of the Olympic torch progress did nothing to change my mind about the place.

I think the only person I ever met with a positive opinion about Churchill was my Grandmother. In hindsight I wondered if she was referring to her putty impregnated knife (which shared the great leader's name). Still he comes over quite well in Das Boot…

I noticed in the live TV programme of the 10% debate last night that many Labour MPs implied that because the tax and benefits system was so complicated (I wonder whose fault that was) no one had a clue as to the real effects until the first pay packets fell on their constituents' mats. The Tory MPs used the occasion to snipe at Labour; quite right too.

MDT

hi rg

Wingéd chariot: I hope that the absence of Phaeton is not preventing the use of your own wingéd chariot.

Burning city: I don't suppose they did I was just pointing out that there seemed to be different accounts of when and how the firestorm started.

I found this account of Gomorrah:

http://www.afa.org/magazine/march2007/0307gomorrah.asp

Given your interest in the Dresden bombing the graph of the cities that suffered most is illuminating.

Hamburg was the city that suffered most but then it was being bombed since 1940 while Dresden, the third most bombed, was as a consequence of only two days of raids.

Göring: Succeeding Richthofen and flying DVIIs probably doesn't qualify to command a modern air force and of course the Reich unlike the US and the UK didn't have real strategic bombers.

Although the had some excellent nightfighters they were to few and the Gomorrah account above shows how ground and airborne radar was defeated.

I believe by the time of Dresden air cover in the Reich had been eliminated and even the RAF were flying daylight raids.

HoL debate: I'll check to see if it is being broadcast. No doubt the discussion will be gripping

The Architect: I think I heard that he has 40 dissidents. I think that if Skippy is defeated it will precipitate a vote of confidence in the HoC but I doubt if the rebels will vote against the government in that

Btw while trawling around I noticed that Gar (as selsey) is active on the Woman's Hour thread

hi rg

no hitch: A bit like that for me at the moment. Press button let it run - no problems. Didn't realise how much productivity would increase with new toy.

Looks like I'll be on bench by Monday.

client: For some reason I had got it into my head that you worked for GWR.

Great Wen: I know what you mean. Last time I visited I couldn't get over how grotty it was. On the island, teleworking is fairly common with people developing stuff for mainland urban companies.

Grandmother: The putty knife is intriguing.......

Complicated: Since I am mostly pressing a few buttons and sitting about I listenned to the Today feed and heard La Toynbee saying that Labour MPs were misled about the effects of the tax change

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'Afternoon Bx4

Phaeton has arrived. Also my wingéd chariot was choice of transport this morning. There will be a contrasting return trip this afternoon so far as the temperature is concerned. I found the article about Gomorrah and the linked account of the Dresden bombing very interesting, thank you for finding and posting the link. I don't want to get bogged down in a discussion about whether any individual city raid was justified or not. Only as a postscript to note that much of the rebuilding of cities like Bristol, Exeter and Plymouth were a master class in soullessness. I realise time, money, labour and materials must have been an issue, so why not build light with a view to organic regeneration in the future? Also I don't think Goering (or Göring) got his job on the strength of his ability to command an air force.

I'll certainly aim to put the Parliament channel on later. The Lisbon Treaty debate could render the only possibility of direct democracy we'll get for a while. What was being said on this morning's Today was that defeat of the Finance Bill would be the equivalent to losing a vote of confidence. Perhaps this was over egging it though I can see what they meant. If the Budget can't be voted through then what's left? Selsey on WH – How intriguing; perhaps he hopes for a more sympathetic hearing there. Did you happen to hear Any Answers last Saturday? A version of immigrant crime argument was put by one of the contributors and they even had the temerity to use my numbers.

MDT

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'Afternoon Bx4

I did work for a successor to the GWR. I've done the odd bit of tele-working too. I suppose this is the advantage of advancing years. Before young pups have done anything I've tried everything (and succeeded at nothing).

The putty encrusted knife was indeed intriguing. It lived in the kitchen drawer and had a piece of string attached to it. It was more of a Swiss Army knife than something to place putty to secure window glass. There was a penknife blade and a thing that looked like a gadget for getting stones out of horses' hooves which my grandmother said was there to open drinks cans. The name was Churchill and it disappeared leaving fond memories in the 1970s.

La Toynbee is Labour's most sympathetic ear. They were misled were they?

MDT

Afternoon rg

Temperature: Falling or rising. We have partially obscured phaeton here.

Justification; I agree. I think it is more important that it is the general populace suffers while the 'leaders' rarely do.

Links: Your welcome - strange on reflection that your network thought police disapprove of images of Ms Greco and Ms Faithfull but have no problems with ones of flaktürme. Tekkies

Soulless. The same seemed to apply in London whereas Hamburg for example rebuilt with a lot of open space and trees -so even which compensates somewhat for the sometimes bad architecture.

I think you make good point about organic regeneration. Presumably the profit motive worked against it?

Göring. Probably not - he opposed the development of strategic bombers and Germany only had one the somewhat absurd He177 'Greif' though the Luftwaffe arguably had the best nightfighter the He217 'Uhu'

HoL debate. I might have a look at the feed though if the HoC debate is anything to go by it won't be gripping. I am sure I heard a report last night that some rich Tory is taking the government to court over the non-referendum.

Confidence Motion: A defeat on the 10p tax would not itself be a confidence motion.

there is an excellent pdf document snpc-02873 on the parliamentary website which says:

'In current practice a Government is only obliged to resign or to seek a dissolution after being defeated on a confidence motion, although a significant defeat on any other motion may lead to a confidence motion.'

You can get to it from here and the type 'confidence motions' into the search box

http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_publications_and_archives/research_papers.cfm

Selsey: HvT in his U number persona is also there.

Any Answers. I rarely listen when Dimbleby is on i find him quite toxic. Living proof as to why nepotism should be avoided. Do you think the contributors haunt the Today threads to give the something to say? I bet you weren't credited

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'Afternoon Bx4

I think a Finance Bill defeat could lead to the Tories putting down a motion of no confidence which Labour would win (I did look at the link). I'm not sure whether Gordon Brown would be better off losing the first vote and calling a snap general election. (As an aside from my point of view he'd be off the hook so far as the Lisbon Treaty referendum was concerned. He could strongly argue that the election were a referendum on his government's negotiation of the Treaty). I just have the feeling that the longer Brown stays in office the less chance he has of winning a General Election. Admittedly this is because of external factors like the price of oil and food. The Tories will have ample opportunity to make political capitol; time will be on their side for I don't see "good times" returning before 2010. The electorate isn't kind to struggling governments. The most depressing thing I heard on the radio yesterday was the interview with the UN official on PM. They admitted that the world's population may have exceeded its capacity to feed it. OK this is tempered with my understanding that GM crops carried favour with the interviewee so was she crying wolf?

I had a look at the HE177 on wiki and was fascinated to find that the RAF went to the trouble of having one painted up and flight assessed. Evidently this aircraft was more of a test bed for technological innovation than a workhorse of the skies. Naturally I was given no credit on Any Answers (I suppose it could all have been a coincidence).

MDT

Evening rg

Before I catch the ferry

No confidence: Indeed so the government can lose the 10p vote but win the no confidence one.

Snap election: Unlikely I think given how long he waited to get the job.

Political capitol: I heard, on the Toynbee interview, I think, that the NTs are, despite Skippy's unpopularity, only 5% ahead in the polls. So the PHB seems not to be seen as a convincing alternative? The collapse of the clones?

UN interview: Didn't hear it. Seems to me that an effective strategy might be to deal with the issues that lead to large families in the third world.

He177. From the second link below about a thousand were produced but it had a limited combat role including on the eastern front but had a tendency to crash and burn without any hostiles being involved. Something to to with the two propellor four engine configuration.

http://simviation.com/fsdcbainhe177.htm

Oddly it seems that the Lancaster began as a similar 'twin engine' design:

http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_he177.html



Innovation: That seems to have been part of the problem with plane design in the Reich - too many radical designs whereas the Allies concentrated on the evolutionary development of existing engines and designs

Credit: A prophet without honour......

I appear to have been somewhat sucked in today. I hope the cardboard worked and both wingéd phaetons perform. It's the ferry for me.

bis später

Evening rg

Shelves: glued an cramped. No varnishing for me. Strategy achieved (unlike Göring)

evening rg.

Sorry missed this one so brief reply

GWR. I thought I recalled a connection. So now you are employed by a mysterious organisation with a single client, a large supply of cardboard substitute staff and tekkies who dislike images of attractive women but like ones of flaktürme and who randomly pull the power to your network.

Sounds like you have the makings of a Tom Sharpe novel. You could retire.

Churchill Knife:

http://it.four.ebid.net/perl/auction.cgi?auction=1205957010-5088-0&mo=auction

which fits your description though oddly it seems that the one in the link was not manufactured by a company called Churchill but was presented by Randolph Churchill, Winston's papa.

Perhaps he had a proclivity for presenting Brookes and Crookes knives or perhaps the one illustrated is you grannie's. Odd concidence

Toynbee: So she claims. I suspect dimbulbery.

Sucked in: I am now subject to the attentions various economic pontificators, including crony.......I wouldn't mind but it's mostly, to quote Colonel Potter, 'horse puckey'

An orgy of unsubscribing looms

a malt and so to bed -Hope the 'Busy old fool' makes an appearance for you tomorrow

bis später

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'Morning Bx4

The 'busy old fool' has made a welcome appearance. It was not before a misty wet ride which nearly went wrong as I rode over a crest of chippings left over from a surface dressing 'improvement'. The dim bulbs are apparently very good at getting us to pay for them according to this morning's Today. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7361926.stm refers. The only way I can see of kerbing this is via some sort of direct democracy so some real control over our political masters can be exerted. The worm has to turn or we'll be living in Rome. The knife was a much simpler and chunkier version than the one in your link (thanks for trying). If I have time I'll go for a trawl myself later. The Tom Sharpe novel - The Throwback http://www.amazon.co.uk/Throwback-Tom-Sharpe/dp/0099435527 was my favourite, your reference to the notion made me smile. The lack of a closed channel prevents me from saying much more. I'm sure there's a novel waiting to be written in every place of work. Coincidentally the power was pulled twice yesterday; it is such a regular event now it is no longer worthy of mention. I'm pleased the shelf strategy has been achieved. The cardboard cut outs were on standby though luckily I got by without them.

The He177 may have had a rubbish reputation but from the various photographs and plans I have seen it looked the business. It could have been a Howard Hughes prototype as portrayed in Aviator. Stunning looking planes years ahead of their time which all crashed on the maiden flight.

I agree a strategy to deal with the issues surrounding the procreation of large families would be welcome. Alas this is fifty to a hundred years too late. How could we have allowed this situation to arise in the first place? Of domestic politics if the Cameron crew is five points ahead then Labour wins. Why wait for things to get worse or risk seeing the Conservatives look more credible (perhaps Gordon's banking on a Boris win). I know Brown has waited years for the job though he surely wants it to last more than three years? Perhaps he has a secret plan for year three. I don't think they'll be a confidence vote because the 10p vote will be won next Monday. By the way I've got the Lisbon Treaty HoL debate on tape waiting for me to listen to tonight. It was supposedly on the Parliament Channel at six this morning.

MDT

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OK Bx4 I'm not sure if this will work...

http://www.sheffieldknives.co.uk/acatalog/3pcbritarmybex.jpg

Hopefully this will show photograph of beloved "Churchill" knife. I'm not sure about the smaller tin opener blade though the diamond pattern casing, so good for encrusting with putty, is spot on. You can imagine I had to bypass the server for this one.

MDT

Aftenoon rg

The fool: glad he appeared., Sadly road engineers 'improvements' a rarely to the benefit of bikers

Funding: I'm still of the opinion that the only funding that parties should get is from membership feed. I think the point, in the link, about the abuse of expenses by sitting MPs to support their re-election is well made.

Sharpe: I quite like Porterhouse Blue and Riotous Assembly.

Closed channel: If you are being monitored by flaktürme loving tekkies I can see that a degree of circumspection is advised

Power loss: Have you looked to see if your power losses are associated with gentle mockery of tekkies?

He177. It appears to have been a triumph of appearance over performance. I suspect if you were crew then the fact that your plane was prone to spontaneously combust in mid-air would be a bit of a turnoff. I suppose the poor sods who had to climb into the Me263 rocket plane weren't that cheerful either.

Spruce Goose: It didn't actually crash and it still exists:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spruce_Goose

and is apparently owned by the Walt Disney Corp.

You are probably a bit to young to remember the UK's own foray into overlarge aircraft, the Brabazon:

http://www.aviationarchive.org.uk/stories/pages.php?enum=GE121&pnum=0&maxp=9

Third World: I suspect that the reason nothing was done a 100 years ago that in a colonial world native populations were seen as a source of cheap labour. Small populations would not have been desirable.

Five points: I am not sure. I think the point is that the NuTories should be further ahead. So Skippy's unpopularity is not translating into a significant increase in Potato Head's popularity. I wonder if NL strategy is based on a scenario where the NT's implode like they did last time.

HoL debate: I haven't looked. Your dedication is admirable.

The putty knife: Thanks for the link. They were fairly common after the war. I think they were issued to the armed forces not just the army because my dad had one and they were quite common.

I don't recall them being called Churchill knives though I do recall various theories about the uses of the more unusual blades.

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'Afternoon Bx4

You might be able to tell I got my Hughes aircraft "knowledge" from the recent showing of The Aviator. In the film a race plane and a spy plane were shown crashing on their maiden flights. The wikipedia article suggests that the Spruce Goose was not a proven flyer as it may have been borne aloft by ground effect. I never saw a Brabazon though remember reading about wings so huge that engineers could use them to carry out mid flight maintenance by using them as passageways to access the engines.

I am old enough to remember calls made in the sixties for population restraint. So it's not as if no one had thought about this before. Also on the international scene I would have thought with the UN being so hot on fighting famine, they would have twigged sooner that it would be better to encourage governments to shape policy to pitch the world population low, so as to withstand transitory shortages due to disasters (whether man made or otherwise). That said we waste a lot of food so perhaps the third world isn't the place to start looking for restraint. Would it be a bad idea to aim for self sufficiency?

I don't think there is any reason for Cameron to be ahead of Brown "in the polls" just as I see no reason why Cameron should be more popular at all. I equally think there is no guarantee that this will not change as Cameron builds up experience in the job and Brown looks sicker with every outing in front of the cameras. You will also have gathered by now that I have no trust in opinion polls whatsoever. Yes I'm rather simplistically equating party popularity with leader popularity.

You are right about the knife being common. There were two in my grandmother's house and then there were none. I remember other cool stuff like an ammunition box and a German compass with "O" instead of "E" for East.

MDT

I've watched about 3/4 hour of the Lisbon Treaty debate so far. Of interest to me was that "the real opposition" has put forward no amendments. What poodles. They take their role as "Labour's little helpers" to another level.

Evening rg

Simulations: A dull day. Everything works so I have spent the day pressing buttons. Useful in that we seem to have thrown up some unexpected areas that might be wort looking into. Still boring and of course I got sucked in again

The Aviator: I think I remember it and one of the crashes but I am not a great fan of Leonard's.

Our whole Dresden/aircraft exchange reawakened a (very) youthful interest in WWII aircraft and I have also lightened a tedious day by tracking down the more eccentric experimental Luftwaffe designs. I am sure one was a flying disk....

Brabazon: An example of getting it spectacularly wrong. A gigantic luxury plane just when mass air travel was about to happen. I also seem to recall that there were very few runways that could take it. I think you are right about the wings......

Population restraint: I think there was a period when the Malthusian model was discredited. Also one should not discount the attraction of short term benefits against long term problems. The former always win.

Also I don't think anyone expected the Third World countries would remain so and I think the assumption was that as they developed average family size would drop.

Self-sufficiency: I am not sure that this is viable unless one dropped to a very low population level and a fairly primitive level of technology in the UK and what about raw materials that aren't available here. I recall reading that there we international trade routes as long ago as the late Neolithic.

Cameron/Brown: Except of course when one party is decline traditionally support for the other has risen but I think you are right. I don't think anyone see the NTs as much of an alternative to NL. I wonder if we are seeing a further disengagement of the electorate from 'clone' politics?

The knife: I seem to remember quite a few of them around -spoils of war, perhaps, as you suggest but why 'Churchill'?

Cool stuff: There was a lot around. Our coolest bit was in retrospect the liberated boxer though at first I remember being more impressed by gas masks (including the rare 'elephant trunk' variety), bits of shrapnel and part of an ammunition belt from a .303 machine gun with bullets.

Compass: We had an altimeter from Heinkel 111 and, somewhat weirdly, the inner tube from a Spitfire tail wheel which made a most impressive swimming ring.

Shelves: Sadly the glue is not quite set else I could have varnished them tonight. Ah well....

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'Evening Bx4

I'm about to yield the internet connection so no time to reply. Only to note with interest that your wood glue has taken on the slow drying characteristics of Soviet Russian paint.

MDT