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

Entry: Extinction Level Events - A3785123
Author: Woodpigeon (6 years on H2G2!) - U30129

This is a complete rewrite of my original 1999 entry. Many thanks to Farlander who helped me with the content and provided the copious reading material at the end of this entry.

Woodpigeon

Well done.I've rechecked the exclusions in my life insurance policies. and made a minor adjustment to my life expectancy

Just a few things:

centuries afterwords..Afterwards?

when our our creations..extra our

changes that have have huge ..extra have

foetuses into a genetially 'enhanced' ..genetically?

between a reveral ..reversal?

Thanks Fred! Changes made.

corellation-> correlation. I think there's more than one instance of this.

viscinity-> vicinity.

dust...if blown...was-> this is a rare case of the subjunctive in the English language. Should be 'were' instead or 'was'.



The Oklahoma explosion was conventional and not nuclear. It seems an odd comparison to me, since my American composition teachers instructed me to make concrete comparisons in-kind if at all possible. I am used to 'megatons of TNT', but it became difficult to get TNT and thus experience it personally not too long after I was born so perhaps this works for people.



There's an article on resistant diseases in the Edited Guide, I think. Is there a link to it? MRSA is getting more severe in the US and we just got the LCV from Europe.



I thought the dinosaurs were still around as birds.

Thanks very much Sea . Updates made, although I could not find any repeat offences!

I did have a link to resistant diseases - it's Farlander's excellent entry A591374.

I have compared the biggest bomb to Hiroshima, which strangely enough seems to have varying accounts of the amount of TNT present: anything from 13kt to 25kt. I'm going for around 15-18kt.

As for birds being dinosaurs, well yes that's true: but the K-T event is commonly regarded as the end of dinosaurs in the sense of the name "dinosaur". "Dinosaur" also translates to "terrible" or "fearfully great" lizard. I think it's ok to keep things as they are.

Oi, WP, that's not my article! It was written by another fellow named Orcus. Admittedly, I did write a similar article back when I was a newbie here at hootoo, and with the intention to submit to PR, until I discovered the uses of the Search h2g2 box, and discovered there was already an article on the topic.

Well dangnabbit... Still though, your other entries are very good!

Content:

the bubonic plague arrived in Europe -- It appears that the Black Death was not bubonic plague after all, as the symptoms were totally different. Perhaps you should just say "The Black Death".

since the Industrial Revolution began in the 19th Century -- the Industrial Revolution began in about 1750, which is the 18th Century.

Decca?

"This particular extinction killed off 90% of all marine life and 70% of all land animals" -- I think it actually killed off 90% of all marine species - to kill off an entire species, you have to kill every individual of the species. So it was probably closer to killing off 99.9% of all life. You'd better check these figures though.

a way of making water freeze --> a way of making water freeze at room temperature



Style:

I think it would look better if your one-line plot summaries were in normal text rather than italics. You might put the book titles into italics then. I don't know what the standard is.



Choice of words:

large-scale extinctions on a massive scale -- this appears to be repetition. Or do you mean something different from what it appears to mean?

One of humanity's greatest threats is against enemies we cannot see
-->
One of humanity's greatest threats is from enemies we cannot see



h2g2 Style:

"End of the World" --> 'End of the World'

1000 cubic kilometers --> 1000 cubic kilometres

"pinch" --> 'pinch'



Typos, spelling and punctuation:

the World's climate --> the world's climate

greenhouse gasses --> greenhouse gases

dissapeared --> disappeared

noxious gasses --> noxious gases

rare occurence --> rare occurrence

emission of gasses --> emission of gases

pinnioned --> pinioned

with our present galaxy, however there is recent evidence --> with our present galaxy. However, there is recent evidence

This collision occured --> This collision occurred

Mankind destroys it's own chance --> Mankind destroys its own chance

Thanks Gnomon for your thorough review. All your suggestions have been taken onboard.

Cool entry. Was very fun to read.

Thank you crashbobo.

How are we here? Is this ready to roll?

I hope so - the sooner my earlier version is thrown in the bin the better! Does anyone else have something to add or amend?

Looks good.

And it's accepted and on our Front Page listing - many thanks for revisiting this!

Ooh! Cool! A big thanks to Farlander for all the help and the additional book references!