April Fools!

[Syt]

Google Maps has its annual thing up. This time: it converts street maps into a Pacman level.

[Capetan Mihali]

 

[Grinning_Colossus]

I really enjoy what http://www.reddit.com/r/askhistorians is doing.

[Syt]

Austrian Die Presse actually had me going for a moment, with an article that following the requirement that restaurants have to list the allergenes that their dishes contain. They said that the EU is considering to ban food items with "dangerous cocktails of allergenes," like the breading of a Wiener Schnitzel which can not only create dangerous allergic reactions but with veal or pork acting as catalyst, can have fatal consequences or lead to new allergies in previously healthy people.

It sounded very much like something that the EU might do in an overzealous fit, but when they listed the expert on the study as "Evelyn Pork" it kinda fell apart.

[Syt]

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/apr/01/jeremy-clarkson-joins-guardian-drive-for-fossil-fuel-divestment

Jeremy Clarkson joins Guardian drive for fossil fuel divestment

Former Top Gear presenter says being sacked by the BBC was a 'wake-up call' as he joins host of celebrities backing climate change campaign

The disgraced former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has become the latest celebrity to support the Guardian's campaign for fossil fuel divestment.

Following what he described as a "dark night of the soul", Clarkson said he hoped to "regain the trust of the British public" by dedicating his time and financial resources to sustainable energy, road safety and forging mutual understanding and tolerance between people of different cultures and religions.

The 54-year-old said that the "fracas" last month, in which he punched a producer on the patio of a North Yorkshire hotel, had prompted him to "re-evaluate his priorities" and reflect deeply on his life, behaviour and carbon footprint.

The BBC opted not to renew Clarkson's contract after the incident at the Simonstone Hall hotel, in the Yorkshire Dales, which left producer Oisin Tymon needing hospital treatment. More than 1.5 million Britons signed an online petition calling for Clarkson to be reinstated and for a relaxation of the laws against assault in cases that could be demonstrated to involve banter.

"Top Gear was a wild ride for an ordinary bloke like me," said Clarkson, speaking to the Guardian at a pub near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. "But there comes a time when a man's got to ask himself what he really stands for. And for me, that's sustainable energy, traffic calming and an end to xenophobia and prejudice."

Clarkson said he had experienced a "wake-up call" after being sacked by the BBC, which he likened to "ramming on the brakes on the autobahn to Damascus".

"It was like a pit stop," he said. "One minute I was cruising along in a Porsche Cayman S to Dark Side of the Moon. The next I was in a bloody Prius humming along to Keane.

"If you'd told me a month ago that I would be joining the tree-huggers in their hand-knitted kerb-crawlers I'd probably have punched you.

"But then I thought: 'Where does physical aggro get you – apart from a few penalty points on your P45?' I stopped off for a pint – and there was a bloody Guardian with all this stuff about climate change."

Clarkson admitted that, in his previous life, he was more likely to read the Methodist Recorder than the Guardian. "No disrespect," he said, "but I've always thought the Guardian made the Vauxhall Vectra look quite classy."

He added: "But then I saw this stuff about fossil fuels and it was like finding the G spot on a V8 F-type. I mean, God, I've had some pretty outrageous moments, like that time we drove a car into a tree in Somerset, or when we drove a car into a swimming pool, and some other outrageous moments that also involved cars."

"But, in the end, this is bigger than Planet Clarkson. This is Planet Everybloodybody, including members of the traveller communities and our Burmese and Argentinian friends," he winked.

Clarkson decided to join the actor Tilda Swinton, chef Yotam Ottolenghi and campaigner Bianca Jagger in lending his name to the campaign to demand prominent foundations divest from fossil fuels. About 145,000 readers have already signed a petition asking the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust for such a commitment.

"One hundred and forty-odd thousand is a start," he said. "But we've got to put some oomph under the bonnet of this campaign. I've got the thick end of five mill following me on Twitter. Think of the g-force if they all switched to giving a toss about the human race."

Clarkson, who has offered to become the new face of the Guardian campaign, said: "I was the poster boy for petrolheads. Now I want to become a – perhaps less gendered – poster person for the carbon-haters."

"I've been talking to the Top Gear team about getting some great merch," said Clarkson, drawing back his blue blazer to reveal a T-shirt he designed with the slogan: "No fracking way to carbon."

"It's not quite there yet. But me and [Richard] Hammond had a few jars last night and we're working on a campaign that basically says you've got to shove gigatonnes of the black stuff back where the sun don't shine."

He plans to boost the campaign by founding a charity to garner support for a 20mph speed limit on most British roads, rising to 45mph on motorways and dual carriageways.

David Cameron expressed his backing for Clarkson's change of direction on Tuesday, describing the presenter, who lives in his Witney constituency, as a "great mate", who often dropped by to watch an episode of the US TV series 24 on DVD.

The prime minister called Clarkson's speed limit plans a "brilliant idea, which we should definitely implement immediately". Downing Street later issued a statement clarifying that he had meant to say it was an interesting proposal worthy of consideration.

BBC sources said the director general, Tony Hall – who has reportedly received death threats following the decision not to renew Clarkson's contract – has convened a "war cabinet" to decide Top Gear's future. He is understood to favour a complete reinvention of the programme, with leading contenders to present the overhauled version including Bill Oddie and the former archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams.

Penguin Books, which has long published Clarkson's bestselling series of opinionated works including The World According to Clarkson, For Crying Out Loud and Driven to Distraction, said next year it planned to publish a new instalment, provisionally entitled Here Are Some Thoughts That I Had, focusing primarily on Clarkson's new-found sympathy for environmental issues, interfaith dialogue and intersectional feminism.

[Grey Fox]

I really enjoy what http://www.reddit.com/r/askhistorians is doing.

This is really good.

A Local newspaper has one where, because of our cold winter, that the Canadian government has bought/claim a large region of ocean in the Carabean & will be building an island there.

[KRonn]

I really enjoy what http://www.reddit.com/r/askhistorians is doing.

This is really good.

A Local newspaper has one where, because of our cold winter, that the Canadian government has bought/claim a large region of ocean in the Carabean & will be building an island there.

[Martinus]

I really enjoy what http://www.reddit.com/r/askhistorians is doing.

[viper37]

A Local newspaper has one where, because of our cold winter, that the Canadian government has bought/claim a large region of ocean in the Carabean & will be building an island there.

Not far from the truth:
In 1848, Britain designated the Turks and Caicos as a separate colony under a council president. In 1873 the islands were made part of Jamaica colony; in 1894 the chief colonial official was restyled commissioner. In 1917, Canadian Prime Minister Robert Borden suggested that the Turks and Caicos join Canada, but this suggestion was rejected by British Prime Minister David Lloyd George

In 1974, Canadian New Democratic Party MP Max Saltsman tried to use his Private Member's Bill for legislation to annex the islands to Canada, but it did not pass in the Canadian House of Commons.[18]

In 2013 and 2014, interest in annexing Turks and Caicos to Canada was renewed as Edmonton East MP Peter Goldring met with the country's premier Rufus Ewing in a reception at Toronto's Westin Harbour Castle hotel.

We've been actively trying to get a foothold in the south since 1917!

[Grey Fox]

We should invade.

Forget Hans Island, this is much better.

[crazy canuck]

My favourite is CERN's discovery of the Force.

Researchers at the Large Hadron Collider just recently started testing the accelerator for running at the higher energy of 13 TeV, and already they have found new insights into the fundamental structure of the universe. Though four fundamental forces  – the strong force, the weak force, the electromagnetic force and gravity – have been well documented and confirmed in experiments over the years, CERN announced today the first unequivocal evidence for the Force. "Very impressive, this result is," said a diminutive green spokesperson for the laboratory.

"The Force is what gives a particle physicist his powers," said CERN theorist Ben Kenobi of the University of Mos Eisley, Tatooine. "It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us; and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together."

Though researchers are as yet unsure what exactly causes the Force, students and professors at the laboratory have already started to harness its power. Practical applications so far include long-distance communication, influencing minds, and lifting heavy things out of swamps.

Kenobi says he first started teaching the ways of the Force to a young lady who was having trouble revising for her particle-physics exams. "She said that I was her only hope," says Kenobi. "So I just kinda took it from there. I designed an experiment to detect the Force, and passed on my knowledge."

Kenobi's seminal paper "May the Force be with EU" – a strong argument that his experiment should be built in Europe – persuaded the CERN Council to finance the installation of dozens of new R2 units for the CERN data centre*. These plucky little droids are helping physicists to cope with the flood of data from the laboratory's latest experiment, the Thermodynamic Injection Energy (TIE) detector, recently installed at the LHC.

"We're very pleased with this new addition to CERN's accelerator complex," said data analyst Luke Daniels of human-cyborg relations. "The TIE detector has provided us with plenty of action, and what's more it makes a really cool sound when the beams shoot out of it."

But the research community is divided over the discovery. Dark-matter researcher Dave Vader was unimpressed, breathing heavily in disgust throughout the press conference announcing the results, and dismissing the cosmological implications of the Force with the quip "Asteroids do not concern me".

Rumours are growing that this rogue researcher hopes to delve into the Dark Side of the Standard Model, and could even build his own research station some day. With the academic community split, many are tempted by Vader's invitations to study the Dark Side, especially researchers working with red lasers, and anyone really with an evil streak who looks good in dark robes.

[Liep]

We should invade.

Forget Hans Island, this is much better.

Also comes with better chances.

[Malthus]

We should invade.

Forget Hans Island, this is much better.

Also comes with better chances.

Well for one, it has some actual use ...