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

if you know the answer to the maths question do tell me

47 inches.

it takes about 5 seconds of googling to find that an inch is 2.54 centimeters. In the absence of bothering to serch for another 10 seconds to find an online converstion page, or using the inbuilt calculator we'll do it by hand !

now, what we do its put this into a sum ...

47.00
x 02.54


1stly we multiply the 47 by .04 --- > 1.88
then we multiply the 47 by .5 --- > 23.5
then we multiply the 47 by 2 --- > 94

now we add them togther, and rounding it to a whole number we find that 47 inches is 199 cm.

dammit, sticky keyboard, 119cm

updated

Looking good Opti

I've only got a couple of things to suggest

Do you have a link to 'Close to the Shore' as I'm not sure what it is I'm supposed to be 'seeing'

And this paragraph too -

>Although, Jaws maybe seen as the most famous story to depict sharks, the Great White and other sharks of the big blue sea have also been characterised by television programmes such as Sharkie and George and films such as Shark Tale and Jaws.<

You've mentioned Jaws many a time, why not just end it with

>films like Shark Tale and Deep Blue Sea.<

Your Jaws link is dead aswell. too

Nice work though

MJ

oh, and A6835584 for ease of reference.

updated

I do like this entry its great stuff although I think you need to balance out the bit about cage diving...its never been proven that it negatively effect the sharks in fact they may prove to be the key to the Great Whites survival. The more people who have a positive contact with a big fishy such as these the more evangelists the sharks will win to there cause. Have a read of this article

http://www.divernet.com/travel2/1105greatwhite.shtml

They're stunning fish in fact I'm off to South Africa this august to go on a course all about them, its being run by Mike Rutzen, who is one of the worlds leading experts and the only man to have free-dived with them! ( nutter! )

http://www.divernet.com/travel2/0305whiteshark.shtml

You may also want to mention that Peter Benchley who wrote jaws died recently...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4707576.stm

nice one, I have been learning a little about sharks, more of that at the bottom of this.

1st para
>>neither are they killing machines as so many mediums portray.<<
I would say: neither are they killing machines as so much of the media portrays.

3rd para

>>and one child were killed. That the author <<
you should take out the full stop there.

under description, in the section of teeth, you suddenly talk about the texture of their skin. Perhaps you could have a separate section for the skin? Especially since it appears to have some good properties.

I too am confused by the shark ripping its prey to shreds and then swallowing it whole.

also I seem to remember (from reading Jaws many many years ago) that they don't sleep? is this true? (because they can't float, or something)

Now on to where I've been learnig about sharks... the Gruesome Twosome watch Discovery Kids, and one of the programmes is a cartoon called Kenny the Shark - about a girl and her (apparently air-breathing, talking) pet shark. It seems that the programme imparts a not inconsiderable amount of information about what sharks eat, how they regurgitate, and their solitary nature. Might be worth a mention - at least it is encouraging kids to be interested in,rather than wanting to kill, sharks.

this will be a great addition to the guide when it's picked

I had another thought, This scientific classification stuff maybe of use to you...

http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/FamilySummary.cfm?id=9

http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/speciesSummary.php?ID=751&genusname=Carcharodon&speciesname=carcharias

The great whites family also contains the 2 species of Mako Shark, the Salmon Shark and the Porbeagle shark. All of which look more or less like small Great Whites and are probably often mistaken for them.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes (rays, sharks, and relatives)
SubClass: Elasmobranchs (sharks and rays)
Superorder: Euselachii ( From the Greek Eu - true and selachos - shark)
Order: Lamniformes (Mackerel sharks)
Family: Lamnidae (mackerel sharks, porbeagles, and white sharks)
Genus: Carcharodon (from the Greek, karcharos - sharpen and odous - teeth)
Species: Carcharodon carcharias

The great white is the only living species in the Carcharodon genus, the genus also used to contain the monstrous Carcharodon Megalodon a 200 foot long shark that lived during the Neogene and Pliocene periods (24 to 1.67 million years ago). This time frame was when mammalian order Cetacea was at its highest diversity and abundance. So it is thought that the monstrous Megalodon used to eat whales! However we should be safe today as the last Megalodon fossil tooth (they were about 12" long!) dates from around 3million years ago.

Then again scientist thought coelacanths died out 65 million years ago then they found coloneys of them living happily in the Indian ocean!

The last I read about Megladon was that they were drastically rethinking the size of the beast. Following some new calculations done a couple of years back (and putting the reconstructed jaw back together properly), they decided that 'accepted' scientific wisdom was a little...optimistic regarding size, and in actual fact Megladon was probably *only* the size of a whale shark, about 60 or so feet long, at most.

http://www.150.si.edu/150trav/discover/d111a.htm

As to survival - very doubtful. Given that only last week scientists stated that sharks were in major danger danger because they only really seem to inhabit about 10% of the worlds ocean and that was coastal, the chances of something this big not having been seen is remote, to be honest. Remember, unknown creatures of that size would need to be very deep water fish, and sharks aren't built for deep water. Much though it pains me, i can't see any realistic way Megladon could have survived into the 21st century without discovery.

There's an EG Entry on the beast here: A534647

Could possibly do with updating?

MJ

Yeah I know they're extinct the last bit was really just a bit of humour.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that sharks as a whole are 'naturally' in danger of extinction because of there range etc...that body plan has been around for way too long and survived through far more tramas than the world is in at the moment...they've hit on a body plan that works and if we vanished tomorrow I bet you'd still find fish in the sea that you couuld call a sharks in tens of millions of years time. I mean they've been through ice ages and warm spells etc etc etc...

As for Megalodon they'd have been amazing to have seen for real, in fact our ancestors could have as hominids were around when they patrolled the seas. Imagine cage diving with one of those monsters like Nigel Marvin did in Walking with Sea Monsters...I'd have a go certainly!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/prehistoric_life/tv_radio/wwseamonsters/

So how's this one going?

"It was after a series of attacks on humans, by a possible lone Great White in the summer of 1916 on the New Jersey resort shoreline, in which three adults and one child were killed. That the author of Jaws (Peter Benchley)1 set about writing his novel which later became a famous film"

Peter Benchley was born in 1940 and Jaws wasn't published until 1974 - almost 60 years after the New Jersey attacks. Benchley himself has stated what inspired him to write the book and it was much more recent.

since the author hasn't posted on this thread for months, can I recomend it being removed from PR ?

Seconded.
Wilma

Hmm I don't agree, perhaps you talking of removing this from PR will catch his attention. He lasted posted on h2g2 3 days ago so he's certainly not vanished, just not posted on this particular thread recently, I don't think that justifys its removal from PR to be honest...its a good entry and is more or less finish and just waiting for a scout now

Optis' been posting on H2G2 consitantly, just ignoring this thread, and any other thread that opti can't be bothered completing.

It isn't quite finished, includes factual errors (see BH / Gosho's post) and since opti won't put in the effort - ie asking people to do a simple calculation for him which would have involved 30 secs of net serching - then I don't think it should be up to a sub to make this into a decent EG entry, and should be sent back to entry.

yeah I supposse if it's sent to the flea market then someone else could pick it and complete it...I've always like this entry and I'd have it happily!

I've got a hidden agenda though; I'm off to South Africa in August to go on a course all about Great Whites that is being run by one of the worlds leading experts on them! I'm sure I'll have lots of useful facts when I return...can we wait till mid-august before this goes in the guide?!