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Asteroid Named After Douglas Adams
tc writes "MSNBC is reporting that an asteroid has been named after Douglas Adams of Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy fame. Fittingly, the asteroid carried the provisional designation 2001 DA42, thus commemorating the year of his untimely death, containing his initials, and incorporating the famous answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything. This seems like a fitting tribute to me."
42.
That being said, his appeal seem rather limitied to certain segments of the population such as science and IT types. The BBC national poll placing the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy in England's top 5 favourite books would seem to indicate that his appeal is universal. He may have written science fiction but his books are really a hilarious satire on everyday life.
When in doubt, ask Google.
Short version: Earth gets destroyed by aliens building a Hyperspace Bypass, but that was only an excuse, as the Earth was in fact a giant "living" computer created to find "the ultimate question" (about, of course, "Life, the Universe and Everything") to which the answer (42) was already found (but the question was uncertain), and a group of philosophers and psychologists wouldn't have liked to have the question coming out (so they contracted the Vogons to destroy Earth before it could finish the calculations)... and so on.
By reading this signature you agree to not disagree with the post you just read.
***WARNING SPOILER ALERT***
A race so advanced that it hardly could reach anything more (mice) built a supercomputer that for a long time (something like a million years?) worked on an answer to the question of Life, the Universe and Everything.
It came out with "42". And politely explained that you still have to figure out the question itself yet. So another computer was built, ultimately huge and powerful, to guess the question. This computer happened to be the Earth. And got destroyed in really silly circumstances.
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
I'm surprised they didn't name it "DNA42".
Douglas was always proud of his full initials. (Douglas Noel Adams.)
Weeks of coding saves hours of planning.
DNA was not just an author of amazingly funny and insightful books, he wrote many stories for Doctor Who. So a space object appropriate in many ways, imho:)
Nothing - well thats something.
Not quite. "42" is the answer to the question about the universe, life and everything. What the *question* itself is, is another story...
Test screening for THGTTG are underway, May in cinemas.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0371724/
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
Didn't someone name a new species of beetle after DNA a year or so ago?
Googling turned up:
Erechthias beeblebroxi Robinson & Nelson, 1993 (tineid) with a false head; after Zaphod Beeblebrox, two-headed character from Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
From Here
An asteroid was named after Arthur Dent a long while ago:
l
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_294648.htm
There are tons of things that are more fitting than to have your name attached to some dead rock floating in space.
It is very fitting. His most famous piece of fiction is about space.
You must also remember that this comes from a group of astronomers - so they honour them in their way. Other pay tribute in different ways. Where do you think Alta Vista got the name Babel Fish from. Where do you think the band Level 42 got their name from.
However, I still think the coolest thing in the world would have been if this press release had compared the size of the Huygens probe to a Ford Prefect instead of a VW Beetle
siener's youtube channel
I understand that The Answer is "Forty-Two", not 42. And if you multiply six by nine, you always get fifty-four, whichever base is used.
McCartney fans pay bus tickets. [...] Lennon fans too, with discretion.
Supprised you didn't include the previous and following entries on that page:
<i>Bidenichthys beeblebroxi</i> Paulin, 1995 (triple-fin blenny) with a false head pattern.
<i>Erechthias beeblebroxi</i> Robinson & Nelson, 1993 (tineid) with a false head; after Zaphod Beeblebrox, two-headed character from Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
<i>Fiordichthys slartibartfasti</i> Paulin, 1995 (triple-fin blenny) Named for Hitchhiker's Guide character Slartibartfast, who is noted for designing fjords.
on a humorus note I also ran into:
"<i>Eristalis gatesi</i> Thompson, 1997 (flower fly) Named after Bill Gates "in recognition of his great contributions" to dipterology, presumably referring to money, not to bugs of another sort."
Lots amusing stuff on that page. Harrrison ford has two critters named for him, as does Smeagol (a.k.a. Gollum). There is at least one that used Tolkien elvish instead of latin or greek for naming (Tolkien's works are well represented in that list).
Thanks for the link, just my sort of useless but amusing knowledge (i've often contended my improves in direct ratio to the uselessness of the knowledge).
Mycroft
https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4c3ed6600b6ea
The current distance from Earth (as of 25 Jan 2005) is about 1.734 AU (equals about 259 402 932 kilometers or 161 185 509 miles).
The asteroid in inclined about 1.73 degrees from Earth's orbit. It lines outside of the orbit of Mars with a Semimajor axis of about 2.41 AU. As of 26 Jan 2006 12:30 UTC, it was located approximately:
2001 DA42 is currently a very dim object: with a apparent visual magnitude of approximately 20.4. That is about 360 times fainter than Pluto. You will not be able to visually see 2001 DA42 with your typical "bark yard telescope".
Around March 2005 DA42 will peak at about magnitude 19. Around May 2009 it will peak at about 18.5. Around June 2013 it will peak at about 18.0. That is about as bright as 2001 DA42 typically gets.
chongo (was here)
I got the books (all 5) for Christmas and I've read two of them since then. I have to say it's one book no one should ever miss.
It goes no where what so ever, makes no sense, has very little character developement, but it's perfect just how it is. If there was ever a book which truely ignored all the "rules" and still proved to be better then anything before (or after) HHGG is the book.
Plus you can hear/see the whole thing again in audio and video which changes enough to make it different and intresting.
I like muppets.
It was actually a radio crew. Still a shame the radio series has never been released commercially - would make sense if you could divert the profits to the programmes designed to save the Kakapo, Mountain Gorilla, and the last 20 Northern White Rhinos etc. Less than 10 wild NW Rhinos left these days. They're in the middle of an emergency evacutation from DR Congo to Kenya.... http://anotherchancetosee.blogspot.com/2005/01/nor thern-white-rhinos-devastating.html
"Why not call it a rock?" is a Ford Prefect quote, to the B Ark crew sitting on a rock calling it a conference chair.
All I can say, is that you're not a Geek until you read Hitchikers Guide To the Galaxy a trilogy in 6 parts.
A very good and funny read.
"He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife, then realizing the contradiction involved here, he mearly hoped there wasn't an afterlife" - Douglas Adams HHG2G
"The knack of flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss." -Douglas Adams HHG2G
DarkMantle I been bored, so I started a blog.
Since when did the philosophers hire the Vogons to destroy planet Earth? Everything seemed right until you got to that part. The Amalgamated Union of Philosophers, Sages, Luminaries and Other Thinking Persons tried to get the computer who designed the Earth (Deep Thought) turned off, because they were afraid of the damage to their livelihood of people learning a concrete answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. But then they decided to go along with the plan after Deep Thought explained how they could use the situation to ride the gravy train for life.