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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.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
``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.
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.
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
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
An asteroid was named after Arthur Dent a long while ago:
l
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_294648.htm
Of course the asteroid was named after Douglas Adams. He was named years ago, shortly after his birth, I guess.
rewriting history since 2109
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
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.
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Where's my towel???
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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)