1. Research Volunteers Needed

Comment #175324 by StephenP on May 5, 2008 at 8:36 am

I can't find any biscuits anywhere! I've got a large cake though, will that do?

2. Research Volunteers Needed

Comment #175312 by StephenP on May 5, 2008 at 7:53 am

I tried taking the surveys, but once I had filled in the first page and clicked on the "submit" button it brought up that page again and wouldn't move on to the next one.

3. The Salamander's Tale

Comment #136286 by StephenP on February 29, 2008 at 5:29 pm

wooter, you clearly do not know what thinking is.

4. Feb 12th: Happy Darwin Day!

Comment #136285 by StephenP on February 29, 2008 at 5:27 pm

I feel so sorry for you wooter, you're missing out on so much.

5. The Salamander's Tale

Comment #135541 by StephenP on February 29, 2008 at 4:38 am

Waste of a good book, unless you use "the good book" in which case I can't think of a better place for it!

6. Earth's Final Sunset Predicted

Comment #135160 by StephenP on February 28, 2008 at 3:47 pm

Unless the Vogons get here first!

Hmmmm! That reminds me, has anyone checked the planning office at Alpha Centauri recently, I've been meaning to, but, there's a pile of washing that's not going to do itself...

7. The Salamander's Tale

Comment #134672 by StephenP on February 28, 2008 at 4:59 am

Wooter,

A closed mind is such a terrible waste.

The days of our age are threescore years and ten.

8. Feb 12th: Happy Darwin Day!

Comment #128483 by StephenP on February 17, 2008 at 6:21 am

Art is inanimate; it's the artist that evolves.

9. Feb 12th: Happy Darwin Day!

Comment #128153 by StephenP on February 16, 2008 at 11:20 am

if you look at the evolution tree anf trying to figure out all the creatures turning into one another, the earth's age is cannotbe told since we would have infinite number?

10. Virus immunity 'created in lab'

Comment #128093 by StephenP on February 16, 2008 at 6:16 am

Courtesy of www.phrases.org.uk


Meaning

An imaginary street where people in difficulty live.

Origin

This slang term was recorded in 1811 in an updated version of Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, entitled Lexicon Balatronicum: A Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence:

QUEER STREET. Wrong. Improper. Contrary to one's wish. It is queer street, a cant phrase, to signify that it is wrong or different to our wish.

The phrase is often associated with debtors, although not exclusively so. Queer Street may have been imaginary but it where it was imagined to be was certainly London. By 1821 the term had found its way into Pierce Egan's Real life in London:

"Limping Billy was also evidently in queer-street."

Of course, the phrase was coined long before the 1920s when 'queer' was first used as a synonym for 'homosexual'.

11. Virus immunity 'created in lab'

Comment #127928 by StephenP on February 15, 2008 at 6:21 pm

Analogous to "shit creek"

12. Why Darwin matters

Comment #126356 by StephenP on February 13, 2008 at 3:56 am

(Cartomancer may be able to explain the above, I just wanted to see if I could be as surreal as wooter.)

13. Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don't Add Up

Comment #110727 by StephenP on January 12, 2008 at 7:51 am

Perhaps we'll find if we do, it will go nihilistic and and insist that its hardware is painted black and that it must listen to Suzanne Vega.

14. Richard Dawkins on The Late Edition with Marcus Brigstocke

Comment #109913 by StephenP on January 10, 2008 at 3:40 am

It would be really cool to see a line up of Marcus, Eddie Izzard, Stephen Fry, Ricky Gervais, Paul Merton etc. doing something "QI like" with RD