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How About A Cup Of The Answer To Everything?
Reiner Schulz writes "Douglas Adams admittedly was a big fan of Earl Grey tea. Here's his enlightening entry in H2G2 on the subject (pretty much straight out of The Salmon of Doubt). And those familiar w/ the Hitchhiker's Guide will remember the drink dispenser from The Restaurant at the End of the Universe which, trying to figure out how to brew the perfect cuppa, grabs all available computing resources on board a certain starship. What a coincidence then that one of the finest blends of Earl Grey on the planet in general and in the UK in particular is Harrods' Earl Grey, Blend No. ... 42 . It's a plausible theory as to the origin of the answer to everything, isn't it? Earl Grey addicts like myself will certainly agree (even though Douglas liked his w/ milk; I prefer lemon). So, what would be the question? Perhaps, how about a nice cup of tea?"
Does this mean that Earl Grey is selling a substance that is almost, but not quite, completely unlike tea?
I found the meaning of life the other day, but I had write-only access.
Another h2g2.com entry, 42, explains that "forty-two" can be parsed "for-tea-two", tea for two, the answer to "What is a good attitude towards life?" which is purported to be the Ultimate Question.
Will I retire or break 10K?
From the Kinks 'Muswell Hilbillies' album:
It's a cure for hepatitis, it's a cure for chronic insomnia
It's a cure for tonsilitis and for water on the knee.
In a similar vein, but what might be considered "prior art", the ancient Norse people had a particular type of mead which was supposed to convey wisdom regarding everything. Made of the blood of a man created by all the Norse gods to seal a peace treaty, "Kvasir", some dwarves killed him and mixed his blood with honey, making the "Mead of Poetry".
Probably not as tasty as Earl Grey, but claimed to be even more effective--after all, what's knowing everything if you can't write about it elegantly?
More on this here.
~ Whence do you come, slayer of men, or where are you going, conqueror of space?
That's it.
/me looks to the sky....waiting for petunias and whales
What is this "tuh-eee" you speak of?
42!!!!! 42!?!?!?!??
EOU
If you aren't able to stretch the budget to the Harrods blend, I'd strongly recommend the foil-packed Dilmah (100% ceylon) variety, which is about the freshest, and most fragrant I've been able to fine in Australia.
Ian
What a coincidence then that one of the finest blends of Earl Grey on the planet in general and in the UK in particular is Harrods' Earl Grey, Blend No. ... 42.
This ties right in with the Great Pyramid of Cheops, Stonehenge, the value of pi, crop circles, that weird face on Mars, that strange 1x4x9 thing floating around Jupiter, and the fact that the sun and moon look the same size from the Earth! They're all connected, I tell you!
The coolest voice ever.
Google now has a sophisticated calculator
It really is quite good, and you can order some for yourself online at Harrods Web Site
a little bit confusing. No offence to anyone.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/U42 - Douglas Adam's user page. Notice his user ID: 42.
Now we live in a Universe where the question AND the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything are both known.
The Universe was complicated enough... What have you DONE?
I would give a long winded explanation in binary, hex, or base-42, but the lameness filter prevents it. (Belgian censorship garbage...)
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
The early loss of Douglas Adams is really a loss to the whole world. He really brought something special, and the world is a darker place without him. Read his books if you haven't, they are great.
Nah, I like this one better: Big Cup of Shut the #$@! up
I can see it now, on Kuro5hin. "How to brew the perfect cup of shut the #$@! up"...
Please help metamoderate.
I certainly think a nice cup of chai with milk and sugar surpasses any brew of earl gray. *now incites flame war of what is the best tea*
stash chai black drinker since 1997
why does the porridge bird lay his eggs in the air?
No, seriously though, does anyone actually care about this?
I agree! This post sucks!
And what about the sorry-bunch of losers that actually pay money for a subscription and get this crap?
i must say i like my earl gray straight up...
I have never regretted my speech,
but I have frequently regretted my failure to speak.
This is a well known phenomenon. It usually happens to me during the first 15-20 mins of smoking pot or the like. The trick is to relax and fight off the paranoia. A beer or two helps at this stage, or smoke another joint or two.
After a while you're so baked that not only do you not find your new state of mind strange and crazy, but actually enjoy it for the rest of your trip. I could post a recipe for a really good joint here, but maybe I'll be able to submit a story about it next Sunday, when news is slow to come by on /.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
If Earl Grey is a "blend", then one of its components must taste even better. The optimal taste is always achieved at a vertex of the convex hull of available tastes. Basic linear programming.
Slashdot needs a "regime change"!
It's about time its citizens were allowed to vote democratically!
Try this query Seems google calculator (nifty new feature) knows the answer to life, the universe, and everything to!
Yes, and damn him anyway for dying before telling us how to make a perfect cup of the not-stuff too.
Take one bourbon glass, fill it with ice, add two shots of Jim Beam and top off with Coke. I learned that from a nutramatic machine...
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
Nice theory, but Douglas Adams has already revealed the origin of "42" as the answer to life, the universe and everything.
In one of the small tales in the Salmon of Doubt collection, he states something along the lines of that he was looking out into his garden, mentally shrugged and thought, "42 will do". A number out of a hat, more or less.
The fact that this particular variety of tea, with this particular number, may well have been a favourite of the late Mr. Adams, well, that's just another example of what happens when you mess around with improbability drives.
- SMJ - (It's not just a name: it's a bad aftertaste.)
Welcome to Slashdot, where speculation makes it news... What the hell is this FOX or something?
If what you are reading sounds funny, or sarcastic, lame, or stupid
it is because it is supposed to be. just laugh
If it's good enough for Captain Jean-Luc Picard, it's good enough for me.
what the hell passes as "News for nerds"? I know earl grey is caffeinated, but if its not sold hereit won't keep ya awake.
And this is "stuff that matters" in what way? Oh, I get it - it's Douglas Adams. Silly me.
I wounder if slashdot got paid 42$ to post this Ad.
GoatPigSheep, the 3 most important food groups
If Earl Grey is a "blend", then one of its components must taste even better.
What if the most desirable components of Earl Grey is actually formed from one of the components of merchandise A and one of the components of merchandise 7X?
Basic linear programming.
Is taste a linear function?
Will I retire or break 10K?
From time to time, I try to go around the stereotype and drink a cup of that hot brewed creamy java or those weird coffees, like a coffee called "Illumination" (or something) from Mexico. However, any type of coffee I've tried can't stand a chance over a good cup of tea, preferably vanilla flavoured or decaf lemon tea.
No jitters, no "I think I'll have to organize my desk or I think I'm going to die soon, if I don't organize my desk NOW, I'm going to..." feeling, but still something, which makes perfect companion for cookies and such.
God save the Tea!
(P.S. I know, that it was wrong to say "God save the Tea." It's possible, that the Queen somewhere is weeping, but still - I think that tea is probably the best thing that have come out of the British Empire, although they kind of ripped it off from Ceylon etc.)
How to brew the perfect cup of tea as specified by the Royal Society of Chemistry
link to the paper here [pdf]
who said this isn't news for nerds egh ?
Who is with me?
I hate sigs.
Does this mean that Earl Grey is selling a substance that is almost, but not quite, completely unlike tea?
;-)
Almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea. Rather like your almost, but not quite, entirely accurate quote.
The coolest voice ever.
They are so allowed, once they expatriate themselves.
K5 democrats write articles about coffee and about tea.
Will I retire or break 10K?
I hate to ruin all the conspiracy theories, but Mr. Adams himself revealed the source of 42 years ago in alt.fan.douglas-adams.
"Binary representations, base thirteen, Tibetan monks are all complete nonsense. I sat at my desk,
stared into the garden and thought '42 will do' I typed it out. End of story."
I hate useless posts like this!
It's not just the few seconds it takes to read and comprehend the message, but also the half hour it takes to post a few dozen rants about the post!
This sucks!
is disgusting.
Drink tea with no bastard flavorings, or drink coffee.
blech.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/A698925
:-D
An article I wrote on h2g2 which was published in the h2g2 post (the official h2g2 weekly publication produced by the site community) on the subject.. uh..
of some relevance.
I am a viral sig. Please copy me and help me spread. Thank you
What made Mr. Adams think that some sort of god didn't put "42 will do" into his head at that time for at least one of the so-called "complete nonsense" reasons?
Will I retire or break 10K?
Parent is spam. Mod down.
failings on your part do not undermine the brilliance of Douglas' work. While seemingly silly on the surface, beneath is a depth of understanding about the modern world and life (and the universe and everything) far beyond the common.
;p
you may want to try reading a "grown-up" book like an Aristophanes' classic
:T:R:A:N:S:
Please call me when I can smoke this in my bong! :)
"even though Douglas liked his w/ milk; I prefer lemon"
Tea without milk? How uncivilised.
Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way...
If you've never read anything by Douglas Adams then may I suggest you start now ? You'll be sure to enjoy it, it's some of the finest English writing of by a man that died way too soon.
MP3 Search Engine
DNA himself said that 42 was a joke, nothing more.
What I find amusing is that he probably did intend it as a joke, and probably meant nothing at all by it, but that hasn't stopped people from finding all kinds of interesting things in the number.
Though, much like 5/23 (The Law of Fives) if you look hard enough you're going to find patterns.
FNORD
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
It does remind me of the government agency in the U.S. that tasted tea. IIRC, it was put into place because back in the day, the British were cheating by putting other things into the tea. The agency was obsolete for, like, a hundred years or something ridiculous like that, before it was shut down. That's your tax dollars at work.
But note that there is prior art for authors of a twisted-logic bent to gravitate towards forty-two as a good arbitrary number. In particular, I refer to Lewis Carroll.
One instance doesn't count for a lot, so here's another.
One more, just to be sure.
Why is the number forty-two so over-represented? I have no idea, but I like to think of Douglas Adams as the Lewis Carroll of the 20th century.
proof, n. A demonstration that a conclusion is implied by certain premises and axioms.
Could anybody explain why anybody would care about this? Or is it just a slow news day?
It's called light-heartedness. If you had any sense of reality or a social conscience, you would realise this. Does it hurt to post a silly topic on a slow news day?
Favorite coffee beverage: blended ice mocha. Now that Nestle's has released basically the adult answer to Nesquik, Ice Java, it is fairly easy to make one's own and the syrup costs about the same price as one Tall Iced Mocha at Starbucks Corporate Coffee.
The syrup, plus milk, plus ice cubes, makes for a great iced mocha. The blender gives it a nicer texture. Add a scoop of chocolate ice cream for extra luxury before blending. Mmmmm.....a bottle of the syrup makes about 10 16-ounce servings.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
Ahh jello biafra and H2K. I don't remember any tea but I do remember Mary Jane... Good old Mary Jane and my friend Joker aka Dutchmaster aka Philly aka Bambu. Ahh those memories!!!
Now back to my evil coding
MoFscker
Earl Grey doesn't need lemon, because it's got bergamot. If you need to put more citrus in your Earl Grey, you should get stronger Earl Grey. If you're going to put lemon in it, get a nice Orange Pekoe instead.
This is the first time the word "foppish" has come to mind when reading a slashdot submission. What's on tap for next week: "Watch as the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy crew work their magic on slashdot's page layout"?
why there's a "33" on every bottle of Rolling Rock. From the glass lined tanks of Old Latrobe, we tender this premium beer for your enjoyment as a tribute to your good taste. It comes from the mountain springs to you.
"33"
This is a quote from a short story I wrote:
"Although he didn't know it, Phil had unwittingly provided the universe with one those strange coincidences that make unstable people wonder about God, and Evidentialist pedants write terse letters to the Oxford Dictionary demanding that the definition of "coincidence" connote a far more likely circumstance."
http://pcblues.com - Digits and Wood
This is probably bit off topic. however. the drink dispeser was not at the Restaurant At The end of the Universe. It was in the middle of space while being attacks by Vogans. And it was arthur dent he had asked the question "Why do I Like Tea?"
Just call me a Southern redneck (actually, please don't), but I like my tea sweet and poured over ice.
A friend of mine was left with only a Knoppix CD for an operating system for about a week. And two things impressed her about Linux above anything else. First, the ease with which it was possible to rescue her files from a dead windows install. Second, the charm of teacooker. We can praise the power and versatility of gcc, or the eye candy of KDE forever, but I maintain that it's an operating system's native support for tea brewing applications that will win it success.
Everything will be taken away from you.
Tea? What's that?
Oh, right, too many /.'ers are complaining that /. is too US-centric. I guess they are trying to be less US-Centric, more international.
Very well then, you may continue.
Robert Bindler
A Computer Science student's views on technology.
I know y'all want some sweet tea.
Y'all want some sweet tea?
It's a joke off of a Comedy Central comedian, whose name I can't recall.
C'mon, someone here was bound to make the association!
Perhaps I will someday. But I already have a stack of unread books and little time to read them.
I always thought that the whole reason for 42 was the fact that it was 101010 in binary.
As far as this particular blend of earl grey goes, I have not tried it yet. Being in america i've found Earl Grey is easy to find, where Ceylon without the bergamot oil is a pain in the tookus. I do enjoy earl grey though, iced with a touch of sugar. The best blend I can get local is actually Stash's with double bergamot oil.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
...I like my Earl Grey with milk and a little bit of sugar. (You British are right, tea is good with a little milk.)
...interesting if true.
One explaination
google keeps giving me more reasons to like them. that's really cool of them to put the "answer" on the calculator. bravo!
The Dude abides.
it's some of the finest English writing of by a man that died way too soon.
If you're saying that I think you're saying, people who underrstand the Rules of Grammar concur. At least he went in an appropriately ironic way - heart attack at the gym.
Accept that we all know that the real question/answer for the computer on that spaceship was:
Q: Why does the human prefere to drink dried leaves boiled in water?
A: Because he's a stupid monkey and don't know any better!
Davo -- Free speech, free software, AND free beer.
Cup of Earl Grey to go with your SCO... I mean scone :P
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
I like cookies, ya bastards!
Truth be told, these oily teas aren't as interesting as more normal teas - if you want something good go to a Chinese store. Or lately I've liked the high-end Japanese brands, with the gauze bags - Maeda-en is good stuff.
....we get to see how "Deep Thought" handles the Slashdot effect!
Or do you just notice it more because of HGTG?
A quick scan of The Hunting of the Snark yields up most of the numbers from 1-10, 17, 40, 992, and 1000. If you did the same with his other works, would there really be an unusually high incidence of 42?
Also, it's worth noting that, having written Alice in Wonderland, the phrase "Rule 42" was no doubt bouncing around in memory. Given the desire to make up an arbitrary rule again, it seems very likely that he would, either consciously or unconsciously, use the same number again, since the usage is so similar. If he had writted 37 the first time, he likely would have done so again.
Maybe you are right, and he really liked 42, but maybe this is just like so many coincidences in the world: manufactured by our bias in noticing and remembering things.
Well of course the english know how to make tea, when you come from a culturally bereft people who lack decent food or booze what else are you to do? now where is my boudin noir....
Now I, as a fellow Earl Grey addict (plain, nothing added, please), will have to get some of No. 42 and try it out...
Earl Grey tea is just black tea flavored with Oil of Bergamot. The Bergamot is an Italian citrus fruit that is too sour to eat by itself, so it's grown for the oil instead.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
What is this coughy you drink? It sounds harmful to one's health.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
To paraphrase Slartibartfast:
"These things will become clear to you," said the old man gently, "at least," he added with slight doubt in his voice, "clearer than they are at the moment."
Read the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy books. In fact, expose yourself to any of Douglas Adams works in any medium and you will not regret it.
What do you get if you multiply six by nine?
Answer: 42.
Better answer: God has thirteen fingers.
http://www.google.com/search?&q=why+does+it+say+33 +on+Rolling+Rock
It was Arthur Dent who was responsible for this. Sorry to be pedantic, but some things are important :-).
Antiquated, but reliable. It ran constantly for thousands of generations. Not one crash!
I believe this paper may have gotten the authors an Ig Nobel prize.
here
Go to Marks and Spencer and buy a packet of Earl Grey tea.
starting to lose me here - Earl Grey is the insipid-as-hell tea preferred by 9 out of 10 feckless tea-poseurs.
Put a couple (or three, depending on the size of the pot) of tea bags into the pot.
tea bags??!! ok, lost me completely now
-and stuff asking the English on how to make tea, or even buying English (packaged, not grown) tea - the best tea comes from the country that invented it - China of course (good quality tea is also produced by Japan and Taiwan)
Real quality Chinese tea, mostly of the green or oolong variety, is a revelation. It will cost you a fair bit more than grotty tea-bags made with black tea dust and various synthetic flavourings but it is actually very good value for money compared to other connoisseur products such as fine wine or good whisky.
If you're interested here's a site (one of many) to clue you in.
You don't drink just Earl Grey tea all the time do you? There are lots of different flavors. I prefer green tea, the flavor just tastes better to me for some reason. Actually, I prefer drinking different varieties. Drinking the same flavor gets boring after awhile.
I've never really been a big fan of coffee. I guess it's the higher caffeine content that scares me away.
One thing that confuses me is why anyone would drink that cheap Lipton tea that comes in huge boxes. The quality and flavor is just really terrible (in my opinion).
sqr(10 * the answer to life, the universe, and everything ^ 3)
the answer to life, the universe, and everything!
(the answer to life, the universe, and everything * the mass of the earth) / 1 googol
Not that this is in any way interesting, but then again, the original article was completely lame.
sic transit gloria mundi
No, not coughy... coffee... spelled 'B-E-E-R'...
Ask any Aussie...
This is slashdot, not K5. When you post a story here, it needs a short summary and a link to the real article.. This is full of links and commentary, but it's not apparent what the actual subject matter is by reading the posting.
...but I honestly just got goosebumps :)
:)
If this is the question... man, that's cool
Am I the only person in the entire universe who DOESN'T drink tea and who HASN'T read Hitchhiker's Guide???
Sorry, but it is. Its falvoured with oil of somethign bad smeeling that starts with a b. In any case it is flavoured tea, and not a real honest to goodness pure cup of tea. English breakfast is 1000% better. Personally,I prefer the teas of ceylon.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
Ill check at local bookstore the next time I am around that area.
Or maybe it was still working it out... I'll check again in six million years, Vogons permitting.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
You may want to try here.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Anyone who is a parent knows that the first thing you do when your baby is born is to book the grandparents (as baby-sitters) six weeks in advance (42 days/nights) so you can have the house to yourselves.
heh. Works for me.
There are 10 kinds of people; those who know ternary, those who don't, and those now hunting for a dictionary.
It could indeed be the origin of the number, but the point of the whole thing was this:
The answer is useless without knowing how to ask the question. The meaning of life, the universe and everything is the pursuit of the answer, not the answer itself.
On Wall Street they say "buy low, sell high" On the pad we say, "buy high, sell high" Isn't that somehow better?
there's no significance to 101010. You might as well say the whole reason for it was because it's 6 times 7.
...all the Earl Grey tea is now gone from my local grocery, because all the Douglas Adams cultists have read this slashdot post and are now rioting for Earl Grey # 42....
"Love is like pi - natural, irrational, and very important." (Lisa Hoffman)
Does it have caffeine?
I'm trying to avoid the stuff.
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
Using Excel's pseudo-random number generator to generate 1000 random numbers from 1 to 100:
1 0.5%
2 1.3%
3 1.2%
4 1.5%
5 0.9%
6 0.6%
7 0.6%
8 0.7%
9 1.3%
10 1.5%
That's only the first 10 of the 100, because Slashdot won't let me post the full list. Of the full hundred, only 13 numbers are represented exactly 1% of the 1000, 41 are less than 1%, and 46 are more. The maximum was 1.7% and the minimum was 0.3%.
42 is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. All other definitions are of course only attempts to explain this phenomenon.
Perhaps I will someday. But I already have a stack of unread books and little time to read them.
That's no problem. Simply put the Hitchhiker's Guide on top of the stack.
I believe posters are recognized by their sig. So I made one.
some of the finest English writing of by a man that died way too soon
I fully agree with that. From what I understand he died at the age of 42, which seems to be a pretty strange coincidence. Can anyone confirm if this is true?
Is this slashdot 'story' the most useless one yet? I can't quite figure out what 'news' has been presented, or even if an idea was presented. The synopsis looks like a string of random consciousness that was filtered by LSD and laudinum.
Before Earl Grey, before the Brits were hooked on Tea, in central and south Asian countries people drank tea all the time. The best flavors are known to come from Quetta, Pakistan where hundereds of professional tea tasters in the markets there blend tea imported from Kenya to Sri Lanka to China to India and export them. Quetta's tea is well known in other cities of Pakistan and many places around the world.
Earl Grey seems to be closest in taste to the tea commonly drunk in Pakistan, yet its not quite that good either. It has a papery taste. I was hooked to the non-brand name tea of Quetta until I came to the USA and had to contend myself with Eary Grey between the times when my visiting friends would bring me some from Quetta.
British companies have even tried to grab the Basmati rice of India and Pakistan, some company in the USA tried to patent that. Call it what you will, even the stamp of the name of a white guy doesnt make it QUITE as good in taste as the original Quetta tea or India Basmati. Grape seeds for wine and recipes for beer were stolen from Europe a long time ago but Americans still prefer to import the genuine article from Europe. Nothing beats the original.(Except maybe copies of Sega ROMS:)
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
Infact, England is just a function of earth that is calculating the ultimate question to the ultimate answer.
This subroutin called england() only purpose is to calculate the best blend of tea by method of brute force.
retep.
His initials are DNA, he "randomly chose" 42 to be the answer to all, and he liked earl grey. Are ALL of these a coincidence? I dont think so, but since I have not yet had my daily cuppa of earl grey I have yet to figure out wich dots to make the line with.
The answer and question to LtU&E is known, and that I don't like Earl Grey Tea.
There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
Does this mean that Earl Grey is selling a substance that is almost, but not quite, completely unlike tea?
"Earl Grey" aren't selling anything since EG is just a name for a certain blend of tea, like mocha java is for coffee. This particular blend of EG was sold by the UK department store Harrods'.
How much can a stinking teabag of Harrod's Earl Grey cost??? You guys make it sound that it costs more than plutonium.
There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
...that 42 is the answer, not the question!!!
"Would you like a cup of earl grey?".
"42?"
Skiing? Check out The Independant Skiers Portal
he won't be dead long - he's just spending the year dead for tax purposes
The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything could not possibly be English tea. The English do not even know the first thing about good tea. The "black" (should be red but the English brew it too dark) tea that the English love so much is the worst variety of tea available.
Furthermore, the Chinese merchant who sold the first measure of red tea to the Portugese, sold them the lowest grade because he knew they were incapable of appreciating it, and it appears he has been demonstrated to be right. English teas such as Earl Grey also contain other contaminants (the English would call them flavors) that ruin the flavor of the tea.
Yet more barbaric is the fact that the English put lemon and/or milk and/or sugar in their tea. Here is a little hint: tea is to Eastern culture as wine is to Western culture. Try putting milk and sugar in your wine, and tell me how that tastes. One who needs milk or sugar or lemon cannot claim to enjoy the flavor of tea.
If something as crass and profane as English tea is The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything, it is time to move to another universe! B-)
All data is speech. All speech is Free.
Sorry to differ with Mr. Adams, but I wouldn't call Earl Grey the answer.
Now a nice cup of PG Tips for everyday satisfaction or a good estate darjeeling then we're talking enlightenment!
Perhaps I will someday. But I already have a stack of unread books and little time to read them.
Huh? Push it on the stack, and the next time you pop a book off the stack, you'll get it (unless you find some other book first). Methinks you're confusing your stacks and your queues.
"I love the smell of burning Karma in the morning." Codito Ergo Sum.
Earl Grey tea == Entirely foul
Try English Breakfast or something. Or Ceylon.
Earl Grey is fine and dandy, but if you really want to enjoy your tea, you should make it from dried cubensis. That way you'll really have some insightful (or not) thoughts on life, the universe and everything.
How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life
George Orwell (most famous for being the author of Animal Farm and 1984) also wrote an article about brewing the perfect cup of tea.
Do you like pease?
Well now you can have both, with new Squeezy Cheesy Pease!
http://users.rcn.com/zap.dnai/
The cretinous heathens put milk in their tea. Don't trust 'em.
you'll never grow old (just kidding).
kombucha.org
Another very good Earl Grey is Taylor's of Harrogate. It's very smooth, and the bergamot flavoring tastes natural, unlike many Earl Greys.
As for EG's to avoid, I would stay away from Bigelow (unnatural flavor), Tazo (Starbucks brand, too strong and bitter), and Stash (bergamot flavoring tastes funny).
Taylor's also makes several other fine teas such as Lapsang Souchong (tea smoked over pine needles I believe) and Scottish Breakfast (a very bright, strong tea). Buy the leaf tea and brew it with a tea strainer or french press, it's much better than using bags.
Some of you may already know that there exists an ISO standard for brewing the ideal cup of tea. It is ISO 3103 (which is also a British Standard -- BS 6008), and is available for download here.
Also, one of my pet ideas is that it people here in the U.S. prefer coffee over tea simply because of a boycott that started when the Boston tea party happened. Sadly, it looks as if there has been an anti-tea sentiment here ever since.
Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
Dude, if you're going to talk about Douglas Adams, at least get the books right. This bit with the tea happened in the first book, The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, not book two.
Douglas Adams was one of the greatest authors of all time, but I always though it would have been funnier if he jumped on the 27 bandwagon. It seems whenever I hear someone quote a "random number" from off the top of their head, it's always 27. With me, as well. So, one day I surfed the web to find the 27 conspiracy: http://www.lbstone.com/27/. I was not alone! Other people had noticed the same thing.
"Majority just means the idiots agree" -Ronh Atian
We were discussing tea. STFU will be covered another day.
Worthless fact of the day: my dad's name is on the patent (probably now expired) for the process of decaffeinating tea. He worked for Brooke bond (UK) in the late sixties/early seventies. Something to do with putting the leaves in solvent.
Interestingly, whilst the Brits hated the stuff (although I think we've had commercial decaf tea now for ten years at least), it caught on in the US. And the caffiene that got separated was sold to Coca Cola.
Since we know that the answer was "42" and the question was "What is 6 times 9?" it's worth realizing that this all works out in base 13.
6 * 9 = 54 (base 10)
But 42 (base 13) is 4 * 13 + 2 = 54. So clearly Deep Thought and successor machines were simply base 13 processors.
John.
And the best, the only, the ONE TRUE WAY to brew tea is with a coffee press. The local Chinese bakery & tea shop does it this way, and it makes much better tea than anything else I've ever used.
(Bodum's website is at http://www.bodum.com, if you're interested in seeing a most heinously Microsoft-centric mess)
I recall the mice settled on
Q : How many roads must a man walk down?
A : 42
Have you ever seen mice drink tea ?
( or any pandimentional being for that matter )
retep.
Looks like more than a few of the mods have never played the Infocom HHGttG game. Or if they have they didn't get very far.
Tea, Earl Grey. Hot.
That's what it's all about.
I've found that my posts don't format quite right w/o a sig.
Whenever someone asks me to pick a number from 1 to 10, I always answer "pi". It always produces a moment of confusion, more so if the asker doesn't know what pi is.
I've found that my posts don't format quite right w/o a sig.
...was this silly submission even permitted?
That is the real question, my friends.
None of it means anyting in particlar.
the face on Mars turned out to be a bunch of rock formations that look NOTHING like a face at higher resolution. Take a sharper photo and the face is gone.
The great Pyramid was the ancient world version of Baston's "Big Dig." Corrupt contractors running away with the project. All Pharo wanted was a modest tomb for crying out loud! History states that his first words upon seeing it were "How the Hell much did this damn thing COST???"
The value of pi is just a ratio. Get over it.
Crop Circles are hoaxes.
The 1x4x9 thing is fiction form a BOOK and a MOVIE!
Thie whole Earth Moon Sun size thing is another fluke, perhaps a function of gravity and density, or proof God likes f***ing with our minds. That's about it.
Take off the Tinfoil Hats people.
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
There is also a completely different plant, Bergamot Mint, which has leaves that are crushed and used for various purposes. It has a citrusy flavor that is similar, but different than oil of bergamot, which is from the rind of an orange species.
-a.e.mossberg
>In fact, expose yourself to any of Douglas Adams works in any medium and you will not regret it.
I beg to differ: when I exposed myself to the Douglas Adams works in the local Barnes & Noble, I went to jail, and trust me, I regret that!
Not everybody likes it. This song gets some airplay on Australian ABC radio, especially Sunday mornings and you can even buy it. Personnally I like Earl Grey. I just can't stand Lady Grey.
EARL GREY by Enda Kenny (from the album "Baker's Dozen")
Is it perfume? Is it tea?
Whatever it is it does nothing for me
Should I drink it? Or dab it on?
Can I swap it for a coffee or has all the water gone?
It is hot, it is wet.
It is eau de toilette
Is it from the House of Lipton or Chanel?
I only want a cup of tea not this stuff you've given me
If you think I'm going to drink it go to
Help me
Someone call a doctor, call a nurse!
Call an ambulance! I'm poisoned
And I think it's getting worse
I only wanted a cup of tea
But I fear that my last mouthful will be the death of me
It is hot, it is wet
It is eau de toilette
To my mind it is more toilette than eau
If you want to spoil your day
Add the oil of Earl Grey
I'm reliably informed it's bergamot....
What a mouthful
Is it perfume? Is it wee?
Whatever it's supposed to be it doesn't taste like tea
Should I drink it or dab it on?
Can I swap it for a coffee or has all the water gone?
It is hot, it is wet
It is eau de toilette
Is it Twinings? Is it Tetley? Let me see
Go ahead make my day
But please don't make me drink Earl Grey
All I want is a proper cup of tea
-- it must be true, it's on the internet.
It was in the news awhile back that a certain substance in Earl Grey can cause some sort of health problems. I can't find the article(s) I read this in, but I did find this: Too much Earl Grey causes problems
-- dR.fuZZo
The caffein content of the Japanese gyokuru tea (raised under a shady lattice) is higher per ounce of liquid than espresso, without all the other nasty bits that interfere with having a happy stomach. Not given to causing any definite buzz, but the science says more caffein, and it does seem to help me stay awake. Go forth Grasshopper,and let your nightly meditations be prolonged by green tea!
It's "build an Emerald City", not "build an endless city". Reference to the Wizard of Oz.
Unless, of course, you're paraphasing. Thought you'd like to know.
No, no, no. This isn't Fox News. Slashdot isn't suing anyone who uses the phrase "News for Nerds."
/. isn't Fox News /. has no unified anti Arab theme
/. isn't pandering to George W, licking his jack boots avery 30 seconds.
How to tell
Not contstantly claiming to be "Fair and Balanced." (tm)
There are actual anti war opinions being voiced!
There's more, but I'm bored with this thread.
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
Just thought I'd take this opportunity to plug what I think is Adams' best book, one that very few people seem to have heard of: "Last Chance to See". Essentially he convinced the BBC to send him and a biologist around the world to see the most endangered species they could find. It's a hilarious travelogue, and yet a totally heartbreaking look at extinction at the same time. Highly recommended.
The Question is obviously, "why am I perfectly happy drinking this muck from a Lipton's teabag?"
Although Bigelow's Constant Comment is a nice change now and then.
You must have been soundly asleep those last three years... Btw, the WTC no longer exists either, but strangely enough, there are still Arabs around...
Check it out:
Heh, that sounds almost like the Engineer's Cookie Recipe!-- null
All analog to digital converters have a source of Real Noise used to add a dither to the input, a faint hiss that drowns out quantization noise. You can easily get 96 kbps of entropy by recording this noise and hashing the resulting digital audio.
I'd assume that any given desktop computer is "likely" to have a sound card that can record.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Check the address of Stavro Mueller's Beta when Ford steps out of the cab.
It's number 42.
skye
This contrasts completely with the pseudo-random nature of computers, in which a human with no higher-being knowledge can determine what a computer-generated random number will be.
You tacitly assume that the only common computerized random number generators are the ones that involve a seed and a pseudorandom iterator. But what if a computer generates entropy through any of several input devices? I've seen keyboards, mice, microphones, digital cameras, and even dedicated thermal noise sources on motherboards used as entropy sources. Can anybody but God predict the result of a hash function applied to thermal noise?
Humans can't be "seeded"
Other comments in this thread seem to state otherwise. Some people are seeded with a single number (e.g. "Pi", "forty-two", "thirty-seven", etc), but you are right that they don't follow the same sort of PRNG iteration that common C library implementations of rand() follow.
Will I retire or break 10K?
" Try putting milk and sugar in your wine, and tell me how that tastes."
Actually, it helps if you freeze the wine to a slushy consistency, then put it in the blender. Nothing like a wineshake on a hot day.
YEs, i truly am an uncultured barbarian.
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
42 is the answer to the meaning of life, which is stability, balance -- harmony.
42 consists of 6 times 7. 6 is symbolic of matter (or man) and 7 is symbolic of energy (or god). so 42 would be man multiplied by god.
6 plus 7 = 13, which could be called Man-God, or ultimate balance (one with god), especialy when you consider 13 inches is about 33 centimeters, which everyone knows 33 is the illumination degree and the secret to Rolling Rock beer.
All numbers aside, the balance between form and source or the pursuit of 100% efficiency, of room temperature superconductors, would bring about the biggest revolution in the world. Of course with unlimited energy, our society would just destroy itself.
So it's important that when we do tap into the quantum infinite, that the world is spiritually in balance too (all charkas aligned), but of course its much easier to eliminate resistance in electrical circuits, than it is to get the world to universally believe or embrace one truth.
So it's much much easier to think that 42 = 420, and much easier to understand this post if you smoke a joint first.
I love that tea, so I just had to find out what the hell "oil of bergamot" was.
Quoting from this site,
"Provided by the management for your protection."
Follow this link http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe =UTF-8&q=the+answer+to+life+the+universe+and+every thing to get the answer from the google calcultor...
Yes please, if you're making...
BTW, Google is sighting Slashdot as a news source on this article right now!
Free speech is getting expensive...
Too bad he is confused about the reason for warming the teapot. it has nothing to do with making sure the water does not cool too quickly. It is an archaic practise that arose because originally Europeans did not know how to make hard paste porcelain, all european tea services were made of soft paste porcelain which could crack if you poured boiling water on to it. Over the years it has become the subject of myth and superstition. Incidentally, the same reason is behind why many people insist you have to put the milk in the tea cup before the tea. Nothing to do with the taste of the tea everything to do with preserving delicate porcelain cups.
-- Back to the shadows again...
Flamebait?
Tis a sad day when an entertaining, challenging, and educational post which ends with a complement to Douglas Adams can be modded down as flamebait.
I weep.
Mrs. Doyle: And what do you say to a cup? Father Jack: Feck off, Cup!
So... How does pouring boiling water into a small amount of milk at the bottom of the cup scald it less than pouring the milk into boiling water?
Keep passing the open windows...
Keep passing the open windows...
Any excuse to mention the name Slartibartfast is justification enough for a slashdot story. Good work, guys!
Ah Yes.... the worlds first "Yellow Tea" I brew some
several times daily. It's oddly foamy after a night out.
there, Isaid it and i'm glad.
It jumped the shark the moment Molders apartment number changed to 42.(season 3 I think.)
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
He also encoded it into some of his hidden puzzles. It's all through Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
--
Marc A. Lepage
Software Developer
I don't know assembly language you damned masochist.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Actually, that finding of 'No 42' blend of Earl Grey tea is no surprise at all. The book does say that Earth and everything on it (except for the descendants of "Ship A"), is part of the computation of the Question, and the Question should be output by the system just about know, or at least not too long after the house of a guy named Arthur gets demolished somewhere in the U.K. So, the fact that '42' shows up on a can of tea of a well know store, when a book that describes the answer to the Question mentions the number 42 in relation to the Question and also talks a lot about tea, is not very surprising and probably not even very improbable.
Similar to the history of the word 'cricket'. It's embedded.
Now I must go out and compensate for this posting by being normal...
--- Hindsight is 20/20, but walking backwards is not the answer.
Just to correct something in the story itself - it cites the h2g2 entry as 'pretty much straight out of 'The Salmon of Doubt' but in fact, it was the other way around. TSOD is a collection of previously unpublished writings, several of which originally appeared on h2g2, the website Douglas founded in 1999.
If you check the date on the h2g2 article you'll see it was written in 1999, two years before he died. The Salmon of Doubt was published posthumously.
if you are drinking it with lemon you are missing the whole point. The subtlety, depth and complexity of tea is totally lost when you add lemon. When milk is added to tea an alchemical transformation takes place.
The beggining of the New Testement lists the generations leading upto Jesus.
There are 42, so Christ is the answer to the earth the universe and everything.
H