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

I gathered it was on a Thursday morning.

But at what time?

You see, the thing is, I've got this cronjob thingy set up. It a unix thing which at a certain repeated time interval, hence the "chron" runs a job, hence the "job". And I have to have it set up to run on a weekly basis. And I thought it would be pretty nifty to have it run each Thursday at exactly the time(GMT) the Earth gets demolished.

The other thing is, you see, is that the time over here, locally is 0430. That's 4.30 am. in the morning. and while the answer to my question may be in the books, at this hour, I'm not really feeling up for flipping through pages. I got as far as "At eight o'clock on Thursday morning Arthur didn't feel very good." before my eyes teared up. And I also have to be up at 0800 to get to a wedding later today so I technically should be sleeping.

But since you are all hardcore h2gs fans over here, I figure I'd ask H2G2 and let the lot of you waste your time to figure it out for me.

So does anyone know? In hours:minutes:seconds am/pm? The exact time? please? thank you? much obliged?

I think* the barman in teh pub called time before the earth was demolished, this would be wehn we still had part day opening hours... so err, it must have been just a bit after pubs closed first time in teh day... I can't remember what time that was though

I never could get the hang of Thursdays.

no, the barman called time nervously because on some subliminal level he was convinced by Ford's certainty of the destruction.

I'll have to check the books, but my recollection is that we have Arthur getting up (possibly a bit late) and then the bulldozers and then a bit of hanging around and arguing and then Ford and then the Pub. So I'd place it late morning - but need to check really.

It was lunchtime plus the time it takes to down 3 pints plus two minutes - but we all know that time is an illusion and lunchtime doubly so.

Yes, I remember it beign lunchtime, and so it might ave been teh 'actual' time at the bar they were calling at... oo was it about 1 PM old calling time midafternoon before they reopened later... or maybe he called time a bit early, but still it must have ben after lunch... so 12.42 I'd imagine

to my recolection it was just after opening time, because arthur comments on it being a bit early fo 3 pints

so 11-ish plus the time to pull the drinks, drink some and rush home to see the house demolished....give or take

some time around noon??????

11:46 am.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqQQh_r_4UU

GMT?

BST?

Aha.

From "So Long...", chapter 6 - Arthur has returned to the Horse & Groom, having been given a ride by Fenchurch's brother, and hasn't come to terms with the fact that the Vogon assault appears to have been a mass hallucination.

"Given that it was now winter, and that the event which had caused Arthur so much trouble eight of his personal years ago had occurred at the beginning of September, less than six or seven months could have passed here."

BST ends in late October so yes, 11:46 BST - or 10:46 GMT/UTC.

So, 10:46 Utime, which can be easily referred to all over the Globe.

As opposed to MeTime which is currently 10:46 (BST). (oh yes it is - it just clicked over)

Brilliant!

I completely forgot that there was a wall clock in the saloon bar of the... Red Lion.. hmm, I preferred the horse and groom. And interconnectedness of all things obliged, I just spent the day with one. A groom, not a horse. Although the groom could have been on a horse. Or an elephant.

Too bad it doesn't have a second hand.

1146.

so it would mean Arthur spent some 3 hours in the mud, eh?

And I didn't know that there was a BST. since Greenwich is in London (is it? I'm having doubts suddenly), I pretty much assumed it was the same for the whole thing. The UK is a smallish island after all.

Thanks to all for the time.

I meant 1046. not 1146. well 1146 w.r.t Arthur in the Mud... but 1046 for my purposes...

why do you people in the north have to do such incomprehensibly convoluted things with your calendars?

post 4 - "So I'd place it late morning - but need to check really."

Smug mode engaged

"why do you people in the north have to do such incomprehensibly convoluted things with your calendars?"

Just to keep everyone else on their toes

Now I'm doubting my ability to read the time...

http://www.nbnakama.com/ext_img/snapshot20080720110817.bmp

does that read about 1138?

that frame is about 5 seconds after Fords states that the Earth gets demolished in "just over 3 minutes and 5 seconds".

so the Demolition time would be 1141.

which we can round to 1142

11 because it's a nasty prime number. Nasty. and 42. because 42. or maybe 41. that's be very appropriate. The world ends just before the ultimate answer. of course, subdividing time minutes is an arbitrary system. but since the minutes are the same for everybody on the planet, again by the arbitrary divisions. And since Arbitrary is just the official word for "pot luck" when you can't be bothered to take all the factors into account, it's all fall neatly under the category of coincidence. which is good.

Unless English pubs always have their clocks a few minutes early?

...at least about 200 years too late, in my opinion.

you mean in this universe, not any of the paralel ones, i assume?

>>> does that read about 1138? <<<

I'd say yes. Then I'd probaby not say no.

Roughly?

Too bad those image enhancing software used in CSI don't exist in real life.

incidentally, just to bust a myth, digitalising images does not enhance them. you loose of a lot of detail in aliasing alone.