h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Piet Hein - A1034731
Author: Pimms - U219930

It is almost ready - I think it needs some feedback to clarify what isn't working.

Should I have incorporated the sub entries on Hex and the Superellipse into this one entry?
Should I create a sub entry for the Soma Cube?
Is there enough about Piet Hein? Can anyone direct me to more information? (I think I've trawled the Net pretty much)

Pimms

To me, his achievements aren't clear. From reading it, I can't tell if he was a poet, mathematician, or both. My

Interesting entry though.

you might also want to mention about the film "the silver fleet" see http://www.britmovie.co.uk/directors/m_powell/filmography/037.html

also, http://www.guardian.co.uk/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-21335,00.html which refers to an earlier piet heyn who a lot of the stuff in the silver fleet was inspired by.

do you mean mention his ancestor, or imply I should include the assertion that he was a war hero on the basis of the story behind this film? I don't think so. The Piet Hein used as a pseudonym of a character in the Silver Fleet appears to hark back to the similarly named ancestor of the Piet Hein in this Entry, who was a Dutch naval war hero.

I've found no other compelling evidence that the 20th Century Danish Piet did more than write Grooks during the War, and certainly none suggesting he was a quisling as Jim Walker asserts in the Guardian link.

Thanks anyway , that confused me for a while. I'll put in something about his ancestor, but I don't think the Silver Fleet is relevant to this entry.

Pimms

I tried to make it clear he turned his to many different types of creativity - like his superellipse he was neither one thing nor the other ... I like that I think I'll put it in the entry

Pimms

I tried to make it clear he turned his to many different types of creativity - like his superellipse he was neither one thing nor the other ... I like that I think I'll put it in the entry

Pimms

Hmm, doublepost. I hope you don't put it in the entry twice

That should make it more clear

Do you like the entry better now?
(Apologies for the doublepost - at least I only did it once and it was pretty short)

Pimms

That's nothing, on Gnomon's thread for 'They Discovered America' I got jammed and posted about 40 times.

It's an improvement

regarding the silver fleet film, I was refering to the info on the britmovie link, which says "a story inspired by the real-life hijacking of a U-Boat, seized and brought to England by a Dutch crew under order from a saboteur calling himself 'Piet Hein'."

this implies that there was indeed a character around at the time using the name of the ancient relative for propaganda purposes.

I thought a comment mentioning this, and pointing out that this was NOT the same character might be relevent.

I'm in two minds .

On the one hand it would be simple to add another footnote, expanding on Dutch Piet and bringing in the film about WW2 Dutch saboteurs who used him (obviously the 17th century one because of the bold 'silver fleet' reference) as a pseudonym;

on the other hand the addition may be an irrelevant distraction, since it is expanding the Entry on a topic only very dubiously connected to the Danish Piet, which for many Researchers would spark no resonance.

Does anyone else feel they would benefit from an addition?

Pimms

Jodan I remember having to scroll through that

I feel all torn up reminding you.

Do you think the cut of this entry is right? Does it need extra buttons and bows? - I would hate to have to take it in again later.

Pimms

I have never heard of Piet Hein before... Now, I am quite impressed about this man. Great job. Nice Entry. Thank you,

HELL

Why did I think I would be reading about an Ibsen play?

I hadn't thought of the Soma cube in ages. I loved that puzzle!

Very nice entry indeed about someone I've never heard of until now

Hello. A "trying" typoed as "tring" very early on.

Piet Hein was a gifted Danish lateral thinker, turning his hand to many different arts, always
"tring"
to build bridges between the "hard" technical and natural sciences and the "soft" humanistic subjects. He was a descendant of the 17th century Dutch naval hero1of the same name.

There is a disjointed sense of chronology here and outside of the Grooks, the ability to have an idea when the gentleman did what is kinda limited.

You mention his political activity as an aside, although that does help explain the possible subversive interpretation of his poetry.

Where did he encounter Einstein?

And what is a Soma Cube? I still don't get it.

I think a link to a soma cube site would be good for those who missed the time of that great puzzle. Here's one: http://users.ids.net/~salberg/soma/Soma.html

Ach! I've played with one of those. Garcias!

did you get the applet to work on that page? It wouldn't work for me.

I didn't try very hard once I understood what was going on.
The mouse had a time trying to move the pieces so I gave up.