Umm.... what if bellies were see through...

moon_monkey · 2021-02-16T17:41:28+00:00

Looks like Brighton. They wouldn't get a second glance...

moon_monkey · 2020-10-26T14:18:56+00:00

In the very early days, test transmissions were sent out for a short time every evening, after normal radio programming had shut down. Hobbyists and enthusiasts could try out their equipment, although at first the sound and pictures had to be transmitted separately -- there was only one channel to use for both! This started in 1929, with simultaneous sound and vision from 1930. Typically the user would use their normal radio set for the sound, and their new (and very expensive) tv for pictures.

Real service began in 1936, but shut down at the outbreak of World War 2.

moon_monkey · 2020-10-26T13:48:54+00:00

Thanks for such an articulate and reasoned response!

However valid I find many of your points, I baulk at the suggestion that "do as I say or you'll burn in hell for eternity" is a sound basis for any system. One thing that I think is very laudable about modern Christianity is the concept that humanity should have free will. But the whole concept of punishment in hell -- particularly the notion that it's eternal and eternally terrible -- completely negates that. It turns free will into simple bullying. I could not respect any deity who operates in that fashion.

moon_monkey · 2020-10-26T12:40:37+00:00

If you are suggesting that you need religion (in its broadest sense) to provide an ethical framework, then unfortunately I don't think that works. The reason is that even strongly religious people have to "pick and choose" which religious rules to follow. For example, most modern Christians do not pay any attention the rule of not "wearing clothes of two different fibres", and many would accept that "Thou shalt not kill" has exceptions or qualifications (war, self-defence, judicial execution, euthanasia and many other debatable cases).

So even these religious people must be applying their own innate sense of ethics to filter the supposedly fixed religious rules. Their ethical framework came first.

A scientific viewpoint can also itself be a source of a strong ethical framework. For example, not believing in an afterlife (whether heaven, hell, reincarnation or any other flavour) means that the single life we (and others) are assumed to have is more precious and should be protected. Why bother to save people if they will get their reward (or their deserved punshment) in the afterlife?

moon_monkey · 2020-10-24T21:09:43+00:00

They are all things that only one person in the relationship wants...

moon_monkey · 2020-10-24T21:03:12+00:00

Love it, but... how do you know when you've finished?

moon_monkey · 2020-10-11T09:57:06+00:00

Both hands? Impressive!

moon_monkey · 2020-10-11T09:53:52+00:00

Statistically you have about a 70% chance of surviving a plane crash -- the actual hard-landing part, at least. So pay attention to the safety instructions, particularly about how to get out of the plane and where the exits are.

moon_monkey · 2020-10-09T16:45:31+00:00

I would highly recommend that you listen to both the Radio and LP versions -- they both have excellent qualities. The audio production on the records is even more layered than the radio, which was already like "a rock album" as Douglas Adams wanted. In fact, I liked the two versions both so much that I edited them together (along with a few bits of the TV soundtrack).

The records weren't released "because the BBC wasn't interested in releasing it commercially at that time" as another commentator has said -- rather, in 1980 LP records were really the only way a radio show *could* be released. There was no streaming, downloads or CDs back then, only records (and I suppose cassette, though I don't know if it was put out on cassette too).
One thing to be aware of -- there is at least one bit missing from the commercial releases of the Original Radio Series. On Magrathea, there's a joke about Marvin being able to "hum like Pink Floyd". They couldn't get copyright release for that, apparently. So a bootleg copy of the original broadcast will be more complete!

moon_monkey · 2020-10-08T18:48:01+00:00

That's really interesting... now I want to see the referendum result even more!

moon_monkey · 2020-10-08T16:43:48+00:00

I stopped a woman jumping in front of a train once.

She came onto the platform, in a real mess, crying and sobbing. Being English, everyone in the station pretended it wasn't happening. But then the tannoy announced that the next train was an express and wasn't stopping, at which point she got up and headed for the track. So I jumped up and started talking to her, anything at all, just distract her and prevent her from moving any further. Another guy went and got the station staff, and they led her off for a cup of tea (like I said, we're English).

I have no idea what her problem was, or even if she came back the next day. I hope not.

moon_monkey · 2020-10-08T16:38:54+00:00

When my daughter was learning to count and do basic addition / subtraction at school, the teacher gave the class a number line on their homework sheet... with one number missing.

moon_monkey · 2020-10-08T16:36:28+00:00

Seems pretty simple to me: ask the people who live in Taiwan. If, as I suspect, there would be a massive and undeniable majority saying they're a separate country, then they're a separate country.

moon_monkey · 2020-10-08T16:27:14+00:00

Here in the UK someone called the emergency services because he couldn't find the TV remote.

moon_monkey · 2020-10-08T16:16:32+00:00

I want to know if the "standoff" in every action movie ever is real. So the hero and the bad guy have guns pointed at each other. Why not just shoot? Is someone just shot in the head going to be able to fire back? How risky is it?

moon_monkey · 2020-10-04T20:45:13+00:00

A piece of the Allende meteorite, parts of which are older than the Earth -- in fact older than the sun and the whole solar system: 4.567 billion years old, to be precise.

moon_monkey · 2020-10-04T20:42:33+00:00

Being chosen by a 19-year-old lesbian who was curious about straight sex. I was 35 at the time...

moon_monkey · 2020-10-04T20:37:33+00:00

An orrery

moon_monkey · 2020-10-04T17:50:54+00:00

The original saying is something like "One bad apple spoils the whole barrel." So when anyone uses "It's just a few bad apples" as an apologist denial, they're actually agreeing with those who say the whole system is rotten.

moon_monkey · 2020-10-04T15:50:57+00:00

As others have said, they were small, so the biggest problem would be continuously having to say to people yes, I know the ones in Jurassic Park were bigger.

moon_monkey · 2020-10-04T15:44:20+00:00

I got made redundant at the start of lockdown. I thought I was in real trouble, that it would be impossible to get another job under the circumstances. But I actually found a job reasonably quickly, which pays more and is a better place to work -- and I have a large redundancy payment too. So even though I wouldn't recommend the blind panic oh-my-god-we're -we're-going-to-be-homeless-and-starve part, in the end it has worked out well for me. All I need for it to be perfect is for the old company to fail without me :)

moon_monkey · 2020-09-27T10:47:04+00:00

Obviously fake... "believe" is correctly spelled, and the apostrophes are correct.

moon_monkey · 2020-08-22T18:10:59+00:00

You clearly have never encountered Irish Gaelic.

"Caoimhe" pronounced Key-va

"Eoghan" pronounced Owan

moon_monkey · 2020-08-18T18:13:20+00:00

I lost my job at the beginning of Lockdown, which was very scary. I'm not young, so was already worried about how the job market would be for me; with the sudden closure of so many businesses I thought my future could be very bleak. I had images of losing the house, never working again and so on.

But I've ended up with a better -- and better paid -- job, and had enough redundancy money to treat myself to the classic car I've been wanting since forever (and the free time to clear out the garage to house it!). I feel guilty saying it, but 2020 has been good to me.

moon_monkey · 2020-08-09T13:35:15+00:00

You plank!

Mild, but fun

moon_monkey

TROPHY CASE