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

On a trivial side note;
The man referring to the boys writings uses the phrase - *ground zero*

This was in 1999 was that phrase around before the 911 incident?
Is it a common video game ,military or police term?

It's a common term for the point on the ground underneath a nuclear blast.
In the WTC context, there term is somewhat distorted since there isn't really a central point of maximum destruction in a similar sense.

Hi potholer and welcome.

I heard it again last night on TV, referring to quite another thing.
The word must now be in our subconsciousness

I think the term was borrowed by the fuse-setting engineers on bomber planes during WWII from artillerymen, who use the term to indicate "straight ahead" or "point blank"

Bombs have settings for air bursts and have to have their altimeters calibrated.

"Ground zero" indicates the height, none, and the location, duh.

Later it was used for missileman talk. They had no engineering of their own, as Werner was making it up as he went along, with a tip of the hat to Goddard, so the Air Force, which hadn't existed a week before, had to steal what they could.
Since they were concerned with the radiating effect of the blast, something they'd never really seen but heard a lot about,
affecting the surrounding areas of the target, because despite all you've read and heard,
the only they would be able to do for the first seven years with a hydrogen nuke would be to keep the barbed wire tight around the effected terrain while they counted the heads on the crows...
they saw the target as a "target", genuine bullseye,
but they couldn't bring themselves to call it the "ten" ring because that might suggest that someone had won something...

so they clung to "ground zero"...
never telling anyone that it was a bit of an inside joke on all the official idiots who used it with a straight face.

There is no ground at the locus of the blast.
It's all glass...

And like most catch phrases, it's meaning has been diluted by everybody and his dog:

http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Lights/9688/

http://members.tripod.com/swoutdoor/groundzero.html

http://www.gzplanet.com/news.php

http://www.thebasshertz.com/pagegroundzero.htm

http://www.g-zero.co.uk/

I hear that having lightning strike twice in the same place is not enough for the skyscraper freaks in NY. They are supposedly going to build the world's tallest building on the WTC site... one, mind you, a single finger thrust at the world, since the double finger Britisch version didn't seem to get the message across clearly enough...

Thanks for the intersting tidbits to check out TR

I saw the design for the building. If I recall the top 10 or 11 stories are not to be used?
It is not particuarly attractive, I saw there are 2 architects.
That sounds like a recipie for trouble

Now I'll probably be seeing a finger when I look at it

Do they have the memorial design and position also set for sure?

The church one with bigfoot added seemed odd
Maybe it is a local sort of name.

The speakers made me giggle!

The rock climbing name sort of made sense, more than the others.

It never ceases to amaze me how little imagination people use in naming things.


I've managed to avoid most of the information on the "monument" at the WTC site. I only caught that one little tidbit.
I personally think they ought to make the hole deeper and put a pool in.

They say it is ment to resemble the statue of liberty or pointing at it, or company for it. So it's more of an arm than a finger

Aggh!
To dispel the rumours of impotency or to display the usefulness of an association with Pfizer?

*snickers*
Good one.

Maybe deep water is a more appropriate symbol.

Like they say down at the Ouisge factory,"Still waters run deep."

How about the title for the Iraq operation - Santa Claws?
I Hate it! Crass.
Combining a Religious Holiday and a childrens fantasy of good fortune with a war operation

The new building is being called Freedom.
That strikes me as an odd use of a word too.
Cannot quite put my finger on that one though

And, yet, maybe you can...
http://libaware.economads.com/pullplugsanitary.php

"Freedom" AND "Comfort"!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3333955.stm

Nevermind...

Where's Claus Oldenburg when you need him?