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

Today's selection

A604513 Automative Radar - Straight turn off for me - cars are for getting from A to B, not toys.

A3913544 Tampons - A useful little entry - fancy, there's a Museum of Menstuation.

A600436 The Bussard Ramjet - an Interstellar Drive ? A concept piece I've read my Larry Niven

A597251 Baron Friedrich von Steuben - A guy I didn't know about so this was interesting.

A644591 The Ultimate Chocolate Cake - Oh dear, a recipe. Not the sort of thing that's a 'read' really.

Only 2/5 today.

"fancy, there's a Museum of Menstuation."

Sounds bloody boring to me.

B

Tonight's spread

A857658 - William Morris. Not my cup of tea, I found it choppy and blocky.

A651485 - The Sani Pass. Short, I'd have thought there was more to say.

A6016286 - How to cook simple sweet potato fish cakes. Another recipe, not for me, at least this ones short.

A180037 - Public Transport. An attempt at humour.

A573969 - Fishing with John - The TV show. Quite quirky and surreal.

A disapointing 1 out of 5 today.

A6359745 - Private Goodwin's War - A Personal Account of World War Two

A personal history. The war seen from the ground, as it were. Would like to have known more about the person than just the events - 2/5.

A253748 - Earthquakes in New Madrid, Missouri, USA

Very interesting. At first I thought this would be a bit too parochial and boring, but it describes one of the greatest earthquakes in the US in modern times. I would have liked to have been presented with some of the geological reasons for the earthquake. - 3/5

A11953280 - St Helena of Constantine (c250 - 330)

Also quite interesting. Sounds quite bizzare that she would be able to find a 300 year old cross! Methinks the lady might have been hoodwinked..

A272567 - 'Blackadder' - the TV Series

While I am a huge fan of Blackadder, these long entries do nothing for me.

A1109648 - Land Rover Defender 110 - The Family Car

Well, it's certainly good that we have entries like this on H2G2, but again, not my cup of tea.


2/5.

A1109648 - Land Rover Defender 110 - The Family Car

Well, it's certainly good that we have entries like this on H2G2, but again, not my cup of tea

****************************************


Without a car called the Ford Prefect, we would not have had...


Question: what sort of entity, arriving for the first time on Planet "mostly harmless" Earth, would choose to call itself Landrover Defender 110 to try to blend in? Could it b e a Frogstar fighter on a covert mission?

A706790 An Introduction to wine tasting in Adelaide - apologies, I'm more Eric Idle doing "Australian Wino Society" ("A bouquet like an aborigine's armpit")

A293230 "the man in the iron mask" - interesting 4/5

A4080485 "Diving in Malta" - not really my scene

A963452 "Peking Duck" - VERY interesting, all about crispy duck in pancakes 5/5


A543764 "Mercedes A Class" - never been that much into cars. I know Mercedes did Tigerr Tanks in WW2, though 2/5

A530614 - Rubber Thimbles ~ I assume this to be humour, it could be desperation.

A1339337 - Sol-Fa The key to the riddle of staff notation ~ Alas this went over my head, though I'm sure its an excellent entry.

A2848395 - Dog Training using a 'Magic Dog Bottle' ~ As the entry says "Once in a while you come across something and you think, 'I wish I'd known about that sooner.'"

A619760 - The 3 Musketeers by Alexander Dumas ~ Should more accurately be called the characters of the 3 musketeers, but OK.

A4241062 - The Czech Legion - An absolute cracker. well written and informative.

So one excellent 1 good 2 OK. Not a bad selection.

Ooh, I've not done this for a while.

A673427 - Nudists: Pretty much a perfect entry. Blends information with humour on a topic that most other encyclopedias would try and approach from a cold, clinical direction. And coldness is something you don't want when you're nude. 5/5

A592481 - How to Boil an Egg: Well. I know how to boil an egg. At least I thought I did until I read this. Delia Smith eat your heart out. Or boil an egg, whichever's easiest. 4/5

A319619 - A bit before my time. About the only part of the 1970s to interest me are the bit involving Joe Strummer, the bits involving Don Revie and Billy Bremner, and the Brezhnev "Era of Stagnation" question. Unfortunately this entry mentions neither The Clash, nor Leeds United's FA Cup and First Division wins, nor Russian politics. In fact, it reads suspiciously like one of those "you know you were born in the (x)s if..." spam emails. I expect more from Edited Entries! 2/5

A598908 - John Barry - Film Composer: The bloke who may or may not have written the James Bond theme riff. A bit dry for my tastes on a person I'm not really interested in. Well written though. 3/5

A850024 - Mammoth - the Band: Who? Oh, it seems to be a bunch of fat hairy guys with guitars. Cool? Well judging by the entry, other than being fat and hairy they didn't do much. Nice to see an entry on such an obscure band though. 3/5

Mixed bag there. Really not impressed with that 1970s one though. Seems like a wasted opportunity.

What! Only 3 out of 5? Disgusting...

B

I did factor in it was your entry and drop a point...

That's better!

B

A680113: 'Organising a Congratulations Card from the UK Sovereign'. Brief but informative, does what it says on the tin. 4/5

A634196: 'Some Helpful Notes for Cooking on a Family Camping Holiday'. Not a situation I'm likely to find myself in but a good entry, with quite a bit of general camping catering advice in there. 4/5

A6127841: 'Doctor Who - The Tom Baker Years 1974 - 1981'. I confess that I didn't read this. There's a lot of it!

A187238: 'The Widget'. Brief. Certainly says what a widget is but there's no background. 2/5

A2465499: 'Universal Functions of Boolean Algebra'. First sentence:

'It is frequently stated that NAND gates can implement any logic function.'

What on earth is a NAND gate? Alienated within six words by the lack of a footnote.. 1/5

Ooh It's been a while,

A833429 - Making the Most of Ocean City, New Jersey USA ---> hmmm

A622432 - Albinism ---> getting better

A13200120 - Familiars ---> nothing I didn't know, but then...

A695379 - Rice Recipes --->

A3682343 - Photographic Metering ---> not my thing but very interesting anyway

4.5 I'd say today. Not a bad haul.

Arrgghh-

I deleted my answers,

Hang on:

President William Henry Harrison- Good, funny, 4/5

Bad entry about numbers that I can't remember the name off, so forget that.

A765623 Games Workshop's Forgeworld Not bad, not great. 3/5

A616268 Eskimo - the Wrong Term
Brief and quite interesting. Enjoyed it. 4/5

A3851101 The Royal Canadian Mounted Police:
Rather too long, but well researched and interesting. 3.5/5

A2181890 JFK- Another President:
Long again, but consistently interesting. Very good entry, well researched. 5/5

19.5/25

Not bad.

A156395 - Exams. Crap. 0/5
A20725931 - Being an Away Supporter. Obviously, I had to deduct a mark for this one. 4/5
A668090 - Preparing for Burns Night. Rather spoiled by the excess of poetry at the end. I was hoping for more. 3/5
A6756096 - Star Trek: Voyager. By a geek, for a geek. Couldn't care less, to be honest with you. 2/5
A1045883 - Cold Fusion. Perfect. Exactly the sort of thing I want to see in the Guide. 5/5

Hmm...one dreadful, two mediocre, two great. Are my standards too high.

B

Glad to see you value my writing so highly.

A2927478 Amityville Horror or Fantasy?--Fascinating

A352829 Millenium Tragedy in Africa--Interesting, short, could've used more information as pointed out in the attached conversations

A306901 Kenny Everett--Who? Read about a third of it.

A9914691 Nelson, New Zealand--Very comprehensive

A3556857 Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem - The Computer Game--Not interested, didn't read.

So about 2.75/5

Harry Potter - A307900 ~ The conversations attached were more interesting than the entry, which is well-written, a typical fan thing. 2/5

The International Baccalaureate - A882191 ~ A brief guide to the diploma. (3/5)

Milpitas, California, USA ~ A410905 ~ An extended 'best thing is the road out' entry. Frankly I'm surpised it got edited, a one-sided opinion piece. (1/5)

Torque or Moment - A698556 ~ An encyclopedia type entry which I was going to give a 3 to until I came across the word 'semi-unique' (2/5)

Lets hope the next ones a real goody......

Modems - A301933 ~ Oh dear (1/5)

Not even a 2 average.

A676424 - The Brass Eye Paedophile Special - read it because I remember it (an the surrounding kerfuffle) - thought it was bit too subjective 2/5

A311284 - The Hazards of SCUBA - couldn't be bothered. I can't swim anyway. 0/5

A263026 - The A-Team - The TV Series - short, sweet. Summed it up rather better than I could! 4.5/5

A9736743 - Emily the Strange - I've even worn the T-shirt 4/5

A1051679 - How to Make Lipgloss - I'd rather stick pins in my eyes Not bad, just not good. 1/5

11/25, pretty poor today.

[Note to H2G2 - must try harder]