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

oops. simulpost. guess i was wrong.

A ring-road is a beltway, by the sounds of it. The M25 is the biggest of all, a motorway that runs around London.
A very good friend is the Uk Sales Director of Daimler-Chrysler. His company car is a 4.8 litre Jeep. As you can imagine, it's a bit quick. I asked him how fast it went and he said it was limited to 122 mph, as all American cars were. I suppose it's as close to the horse's mouth as one can get.
British cars *aren't* limited. We tend to drive smaller engined cars, and a lot more diesels nowadays due to the cost of petrol. The VW-group cars, of which mine is one, tend to have rather brutally quick turbodiesels. A 2-litre diesel generating 180 bhp is not unusual.

so i was right about the beltway, and wrong about the limiter.

i hadn't thought about cars being limited at a higher velocity, i was thinking in terms of limiting them at like 60 or 65 mph. a limiter at 122 wouldn't be as noticible since the highest speed limit is 70.

my apologies. ya learn something new every day!
(today i learned that even getting to work 20 minutes early doesn't guarantee me a spot in the closest parking lot )

I think probably your friend means that they don't make the cars to go above a certain speed. I don't know if there are actual laws regarding this. Most of the cars I have looked at have speedometers that range up to 220kph or 136mph (Toyota Corolla) or thereabouts. They don't put an actual "speed limiter" into the car, just don't make them go any faster than a certain speed.

Regular highway speed limits in Canada are generally 100 km, although most people drive faster than that. Quite often, the traffic speed is about 120-130-140 kph (80.7 mph) (unless there is a police car about). Even then, there are people who blast by you at I-don't-know-what-speed.

Judging by the ads on TV, you would thing that most cars are designed to go at about the speed of light.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3364733.stm

WTF are people whingeing about? Comparing what Steve Irwin did to the incident when Michael Jackson dangled his kid off a balcony is a load of ocks. Comapring Steve Irwin to Michael Jackson in *any* respect is like comparing Mahatma Ghandi to George Bush. Steve might come across as an arsehole on many occasions, and I know many Aussies who are thoroughly embarrassed that people may think of him as a typical Australian, but he's got his head on straight. Can't say the same for Wacko Jacko. I really don't think Steve did anything out of order in this instance.

Before there any replies to the previous one, I'm gonna have to introduce another.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/media/story.jsp?story=477413
Is this true? Is this what the listeners of Radio 4 voted for?

WTF

"Having recovered his composure, Mr Pound told The Independent: "We are going to have to re-evaluate the listenership of Radio 4. I would have expected this result if there had been a poll in The Sun."

Me too

I can't imagine what the MP expected when he agreed to the proposition in the first place.

I can imagine that he supposed that there would be a series of sensible and worthy proposals upon which people would vote. I'm not sure how they came up with the list of suggested ideas. Obviously, like the movement to have people list themselves as Jedi Knights on censuses (censi?), everyone thinks that good sense will prevail and it simply does not work that way.

What really irks me about this sort of thing is that, while Parliament's time is being wated on nonsense such as this, serious matters are set aside.

This sort of nonsense reinforces the commonly-held belief by many governments and politicians that the "common man" can't be trusted to be involved in such matters.

If the average man-in-the-street thinks that influencing Parliament to vote on issues is such a waste of time that the might as well make a mockery of the process, it is worrying. These are the same people who will vote for Donald Duck as a protest vote or simply for a laugh.

Over the years, I have tried to get people motivated about sertain issues, to get them to vote instead of wingeing about the people that "other people vote into power", or to write to their MP about issues that even they feel are important.

"Why do you bother?"

"You are wasting your time."

"Politicians only listen to rich people."

"I really think this issue is important, but I can't go to protest on Parliament Hill because I have to go for a beer for my friends."

"I really think this issue is important, but I forgot to fill out the cards you gave me to mail (postage-free) to my MP and the Prime Minister because I had to go for a beer for my friends."

Then, of course, they will complain endlessly about the very same issue and want to know why "nobody does anything to solve the problem".

In the US, bills that finally make their way to be voted upon usually have "riders" on them.

Suppose thousands of people sign a petition to stop, say, hospitals dumping contaminated waste into city swimming pools, and take it to their Representative.

The Representative, a Democrat, immediately sees this as a worthy bill to put before his fellow Representatives. After all, who wants contaminated waste being dumped into swimming pools?!?

He goes around to the various Representatives, both Democrat and Republicans, and says "We have to do something to stop this!" He gets about 1/2 the various Representatives to agree to vote on the bill. However, a Republican Representative wants a bill to allow clear-cutting of ecologically-sensitive region in his state, and another has been lobbied by a group representing hospitals who want to skuttle the initial bill.

The two latter Representatives manage to have "riders" placed on the initial bill. The Representative who supports clear-cutting hopes that the initial bill passes because his interests are benefitted by a "rider" allowing clear-cutting.

On the other hand, the Representative who was lobbied by the representatives of the hospital groups wants the bill to fail so he agrees with to support a "rider" from a Democrat in support of late-term abortions.

Neither of the "riders" have anything whatsoever to do with the initial bill, but that doesn't matter.

When the final vote is taken, it fails because Conservative Representatives are swayed against it by the abortion rider. Everyone loses out.

Here in Canada, "riders" are not placed on bills. Each bill passes or fails on its own merits and by the will of the MPs and by the Senate on the particular issue.

Such a lucky child, having a father that wants him to grow up to be croc-savvy. (Personally, I think that's a crock! )

BABY: Oh, there's mister crocodile. Hi, mister crocodile!

CROCODILE: Hi, baby. Say, how would ya like to see my new tooth? I was just at the dentist today, and he gave me a new, sparkly crown...

BABY: Uh, I don't see anything that stands out. Where is it?

CROCODILE: It's way back in my mouth. You'll have to crawl in to see it, 'cause it's really dark in there. Let me open my mouth wide...

BABY:Oh, goody, I'm going to see mister crocodile's new tooth.

well, it's not so rediculous a notion as me saying *my* child should be croc-savvy. given the environment the child will grow up in it probably isn't a bad idea after all. i can understand the public response, i'm sure it was to be expected, and doing such a stunt to such a wide audience might not have been prudent, but i would tend to agree with gosho on this.

while steve irwin might be outrageous and annoying (which is primarily done to reach his audience - and he's very good at doing that), he isn't stupid. different from you 'n me certainly, but that doesn't make him an idiot - or wrong.

and comparing him to that other person is just below the belt.

as for the politics all i can say is: what a brave, brave man. it's a great stunt, and incredible that he's standing by his word in such a circumstance. i would say i'd have to trust that the rest of parliament would vote their constituents' wishes and kill the proposal, and think more of the one making the presentation for being honest and standing by his word (instead of less for the proposal he's been asked to make).

mudhooks, i appreciate your sentiments, and political apathy aggravates me as well. i do what i can when i can, but i don't have the time (or money... they all want money it seems) to be a political activist - not because i'm down at the pub throwing a few back. i would be happy if more people would simply stay informed of what is going on, even if they feel powerless to do anything about it. i'm guilty of this to a point - there is just too much political press to keep track of, but at least by staying somewhat informed one can carry on intelligent conversation and cast an educated vote.

Is there nobody here who is willing to defend the positive aspects of apathy? Or are they just too busy being shining examples of the apathetic arts. It takes real skill, devotion, and self-denial to scrupulously avoid the constant news programs about the different candidates for (insert one: president, governor, despicable voter initiative). They give up so much, and what do they get in return? Well, they get labelled as lazy and apathetic, when they are really artists of the highest degree.

So, come on, gang, let's hear it for apathy!

A-P-A-T-H-Y. YAY!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3385305.stm

They're really doing this? What on earth has happened to Channel 4? And I believe it's not the first time I've asked that question.

It's become trite and superficial, catering mainly to 20-somethings with more money than sense. I am proud to say I have *never* sat through an episode of Big Brother. I also think this is a very stupid premise for any TV program.

"So, come on, gang, let's hear it for apathy!"

Can't be arsed.

In the late 50s (1958 maybe?), an American DJ called Peter Tripp forced himself to stay awake for 201 hours (a little over 8 days) as a stunt to highlight The March of Dimes charity. He descended into psychosis and it affected his state of mind for the rest of his life.

Perhpas this is where the phrase 'a bad tripp' comes from?

I just opened the blinds, only to find a pair of knickers on our balcony

They're not Mrs Gosho's (and they're certainly not mine ), so that only leaves one possibility...

Dewey, what have you been up to?

Maybe a knicked the knickers from a knicker store.

Or a large bird dropped them as it was flying to its aerie to build a nest.

High winds?

We once had someone break into our house... well, not break in. In those days we didn't lock the doors.... all they stole was a pile of undies from the wash.... brrrrrr....

A few weeks later, we found several pairs of rather ugly underwear which were of the "erotic" variety in the laundry.

We began locking the doors thereafter.

Well, there are buzzards in these parts...

If buzzards are a vulture-type bird, they can't fly and carry anything in their beaks.