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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."
Rest in peace, man who made me laugh hardest ever - we don't need an asteroid named after you, but it sure sounds nice to hear somebody else cares.
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Why not call it a rock?
Cheers,
Ian
Because he was funny?
Remember, there are no stupid questions. But there are a lot of inquisitive idiots.
Don't Panic!
42.
As hinted by the destination, asteroid Douglasadams is actually on its way to meet the mice.
Well, he was a big admirer of P. G. Wodehouse. The 'certain segments of the population' which you cite tend to appreciate that type of humor.
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.
Like a 13 mile high statue of him throwing a plastic cup?
A museum and a monument can only be appreciated by the people on earth. A dead rock floating through space can be appreciated by inhabitants of alien planets in the vicinity of Betelgeuse.
This seems like a fitting tribute to me.
This was a tribute to you?
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.
It would have been much more fitting if they had decided to name the 10th "planet" (debatable) Rupert instead of Sedna.
How about a museum glorifying Douglas Adams? Or a towering monument in his honor? Or if all of his fans gave $100 to his family?
There are tons of things that are more fitting than to have your name attached to some dead rock floating in space.
Give $100 to his family?
The asteroid naming is meant as a tribute dumb-shoe - not as welfare....
***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.
They are just begging for that asteroid to change course & destroy earth.
Don't toy with fate.
Well just think what happens if one day the asteroid named after you decides to pay Earth an intimate visit. /. that specifically said he didn't want an asteroid named after him. How ironic."
Everybody runs to the internet to find the source of the name for what will soon be their demise. "Oh. kaedemichi255. A guy that posted on
Wouldn't you love to the talk of the whole world...even if for a little while?
From TFA:
It's a relatively unremarkable space rock...
I'm sorry, but *some* people find it flattering to have a "something" (chemical compound, bacteria, virus, plant, landscape/landmark, street, village, school, building, etc) named after them - the closer that "something" is to what they wish (or just are) to be remembered by (in this case, THGTTG "trilogy in five parts"), the better.
So, excuse me for not sensing the "un-fitting-ness" of naming a (even very small and otherwise anost) space object after somebody who is remebered for his "space humour".
Also, for the less open-minded, do I have to remind you why we live in a year labeled "A.D." (as opposed to "B.C.")? I'm quite sure somebody else's demise date can (under cetrain circumstances) also be more memorable than his birth date.
But, please, if you wish to argue about the degree of appropriate / not appropriate, then by all means, please bring a more solid argument.
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It would be fitting, if the asteroid turns out to be heading straight towards us and this threat is used to convince all the phone cleaners, insurance salesmen and other 1st ship people to get on a spaceship to another solar system :-D
Daniel
Carpe Diem
For the guy who made me first laugh, then cry. It would be nice to see 2001 DA42 in the night sky, but I will be inside re-reading his books.
I hope he found some peace, and that his publicist hasn't found a way to contact him about his deadlines yet.
The ultimate dreamer, genius, slacker, geek and philanthropist. I hope his works continue to reach people and make laugh and sigh as much I as did.
Was this a special delivery from Magrathea?
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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.
... of an asteroid having 2001 DA42 as its name then becoming the tribute rock to Douglas Adams himself?
If the asteroid hits Earth will it think "Oh no, not again"?
``Six pints of bitter, and quickly please, the world's about to end.''
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Not that reading the book is going to help you understand much of anything (much less certain ultimate answers), but it's certainly worth the read.
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
There was an asteroid already incidentally called '2001 DA42' and they are using this asteroid to be named after Douglas Adams.
Which means the asteroid name is/maybe Douglas Adams, or they may keep the original incidental naming.
Either way, I know where my towel is.
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I take it this asteroid is "mostly harmless" ?
There's no place like 127.0.0.1
MyBlog
The rock hangs in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't?
This is great and I'm sure he would've appreciated it, but that's what I find strange. Why don't we make more efforts to do these things while people are alive. I mean, once they are dead, we are basically doing it for ourselves, "Oh, yeah, remember Adams and his books?" or maybe his family. But those who we are commemorating never get to experience what we are trying to express, which is overwhelming appreciation.
I think maybe we should try to do more retrospectives of those still with us. Who has lived a full life and made major contributions to our understanding, knowledge or culture. Then, give them an asteroid. Things like this are done, no doubt. Just something that struck me.
Bad form, to reply to trolling ACs... but I'm grouchy this morning, and you've pissed me off.
Fuck off, and die in a rat hole. Really. Douglas Adams touched a lot of people's lives, and a lot of us were deeply saddened by his death.
I understand that you're rolling along fine, repressing your feelings of loneliness and inadequacy, until they form a bitter ball of bile that splashes out into trolling, without the fucking balls to even do it without hiding away like a coward.
Some people however are a touch better adjusted, and feel comfortable expressing actual feelings about people they care about. Douglas Adams was, apart from being a great author and a lot of other things, a really nice guy. (Guess what, you're allowed to care about people of the same sex, and it doesn't make you gay! Amazing isn't it!)
Returning to my main point - fuck off and die in a rat hole. And now I need my coffee.
fortune -o
I like him because he was the first person to tell me about Netscape. Sometime in 1994 I was lead developer on a product that won an award presented by Douglas, so I got to meet him after the presentation.
We got talking about the Internet. "What browser are you using?" he asked. "Mosaic" I replied. "Well, I only use Netscape now, you should check it out the beta". Sounds silly now, but it was a hot tip back then!
He was a nice guy. I had been to see Pink Floyd at Earls Court some time before meeting him, and he had actually been on stage playing guitar on "Brain Damage". He seemed rather pleased with himself about that.
All the time I just wanted to ask lame HHGTTG fanboy questions though. Managed to curb that. I did ask for more Dirk Gently books though....
I think the most fitting tribute possible would be for the upcoming HHGTTG movie not to be absolute crap. Aside from that, this is quite a tribute from astronomers, being as they don't quite have the resources to manage your other suggestions. Have to work with what you have at hand and such.
Didn't someone name a new species of beetle after DNA a year or so ago? If so QED. If not... I wish I knew why I thought so...
Slightly offtopic, but considering the topic it seems pretty appropriate:
Am I the only one who thinks that the answer to life the universe and everything has to be an off-by one error?
If the answer is 43 this suddenly gives a lot of meaning. 43 represented in hex is 2B. And if the answer is 2B then the question gives it self and it all suddenly makes all the sense in the world.
The belief in a biblical god is an ignorant one
...this seems like a fitting tribute to me
Fitting would be if that astreoid collides with earth to clear way for an intergalactic hyperway system...;)
--
I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answer.
I really fear what Hollywood could do to one of the greatest storys ever told. It could easily turn out to be a disgrace.
The belief in a biblical god is an ignorant one
Adam?
There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
Test screening for THGTTG are underway, May in cinemas.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0371724/
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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
you think it would be fitting to name _the_ moon after a comedy writer?
It's a pretty good tribute - it's the kind of tribute that stays in the charts for a looooooong time after most people who enjoyed his books are dead.
wtf would you consider to be flattering then? you'd need one billion guys chanting your name or what? a page in a newspaper(which would be fame for a day only)?
I don't think that he was the kind of an asshole that would have wanted people tributing their whole lives to him - and would rather have enjoyed such more subtle and 'eternal' mentions.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
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
Of course the asteroid was named after Douglas Adams. He was named years ago, shortly after his birth, I guess.
rewriting history since 2109
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.
;)
Perhaps more fittingly, it was described as "relatively unremarkable". Sounds vaguely familiar...
Naw, we organize a mission to have "Don't Panic!" etched into the face of the asteroid in deep relief.
And sometime, somewhere, if the improbability field is still operational (probably) DA42 will be hurtling through space, threatening the complete destruction of some inhabited planet in the deepest reaches of space.
And somehow, someway, even though the inhabitants of the planet have never heard of the Hitchhiker's Guide, much less earth; one of the inhabitants will scream out: "Fucking Vogons!" and SETI will recieve a signal.
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.
Unfortunately, given the current state of our Art, there's no way we could keep the cup up.
I mean, come on. We have reality TV. Forget the shoe-shop event horizon, we're really screwed...
My recollection is that that the on stage performance was his 42nd birthday present from the band.
Personally I think the most disconcerting thing I've heard recently was Adams playing the part of Agrajag in the radio adaptation of his later books. Disconcerting because he was dead at the time they made the series (he'd recorded the part previously as, essentially, an audition to be in the series).
As you may remember, Agrajag is the character who gets reincarnated and then killed by Arthur Dent (accidentally) over and over again. Which is a bit spooky when you think about it...
--- These are not words: wierd, genious, rediculous
I think it's very fitting.
:)
It would be much more fitting, though, if the asteroid eventually collided with Earth, destroying it
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
...hundreds were injured as a small group of Mr. Adams' most maniacal supporters assaulted the proceedings by reading from "The Collected Works of Vogon Poetry", but those ruffians were quickly subdued by an improbable number of monkeys who wanted their copies of Hamlet to be read.
"Our funds have never taken part in toxic or death spiral convertible financings of any sort" -BayStar's managing partne
Where's my towel???
If you mod me down, I *will* introduce you to my sister!
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.
So, the rule is, you always pronounce the result in base 10, regardless of the base you're actually using?!?!? That can't be right. I think you're a basist (one who believes one numeric base is better than the others).
All your base are belong to ten.
Just because the hexadecimal 2A is difficult to pronounce for those accustomed to base ten, does not indicate that the correct pronunciation is "forty two".
>> My ultraviolent Linux switch video.
I saw Douglas Adams about a week or two before his death at the University of California, Santa Barbara (where he lived). He wasn't there to talk about "The Hitchhiker's Guide" series, or Dirk Gentley. He was there to talk about his last book, "Last Chance to See", about the adventures of a BBC film crew filming the most endangered animals on earth.
I think, based on that talk and talking with a friend of a friend of his, that if you want to honor Douglas Adams, you should work to help save those animals.
Awesome furniture, accessories and cabinetry in Santa Rosa, CA: http://humanity-home.com/
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
Geeez. The whole POINT to the question was that we got the answer wrong! THAT was the joke.
(shaking head, muttering) Some people could spoil anything....
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.