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

Hi Juliet
I joined Quite some time ago but I'm listed as new because the place closed down for ever! and I just rechecked and its open again so here I am...
Welcome I'm Snuffy and I live in Canada.
I am 53 male and I love to read, fish, and just about anything new!
Take Care....
Snuffy

I was here too. Or rather there, at that other place, if you know what I mean. Nice to meet you. What are you currently reading?

At the Moment anything I can on Code and Java... Also HTML
I have to relearn it all again as I'm creating a new Web page for a friend.... Most of it is coming back, but theres so much to do if you want a web page to look smashing! lol
It seems I get side tracked constantly with other stuff, But hey that life ... I'm also reading a book I can't give you the name here because its illegal to have it here in Canada... Talk about freedom Huh! Never thought I'd see the day... lol
You take care and I hope to chat with you and Good luck making new friends here and any where you go in Cyber Space...
Just a word of warning Though! All is not always as it seems on the Net... People will fool you and they do.. A little something called Truth on the Internet... Not!
Bye for now and take care.. Snuffy

You mean you could be a 22yr old female who likes roller-blading??

Hi. I'm getting the hang of this now. I see your friendly ace answered my Qs when he welcomed you in (back). Thanks for the indirect help. Now I have to go and clean out a rabbit hutch. (Too much information sorry).

ps. I also like to read stuff and was once a quantum physicist in an earlier epoch. Mainly prefer bio and philo stuff nowadays but Brian Greene's book is good on Q phys.

now I'm confused!
Who's my friendly ACE and how did he know there were any questions...??
I'm also more into the bio stuff now. Well I was always more of a zoologist than a physicist.

I just like all that Dawkins, Dennett, Ridley stuff. Can't get enough of it. Even if they lose me a bit sometimes (DD anyway).
The ACE was a guy at the bottom of your page who welcomed you (back) to h2g2 and gave some pointers to what bits of h2g2 are what.
I think I need to do the guided tour. It was on someone's page back a bit. I'll have to go off and find it.
Ph

ps. speaking of "could confuse a stupid person" Brian Green(e?) has almost lost me now he is onto strings and things but I really recommend the first half of the book on relativity and Q phys etc. I guess it depends what you know already. It might all be old hat

I'm struggling with the Hawkins/ Penrose one at the moment. I don't have the grounding for the equations. That's where you must be at an advantage.

hawkins/penrose ?? Don't know that one. I tried Emperors New Mind but I didnt like it. I'm very out of practice with equations myself. Greene hardly uses any. Is it about cosmology?

yeah - it's their respective arguments about the universe. "A Brief History of Time" is pretty accessible though. Hawking deliberately left out all but one equation - as a challenge.

Sorry I should have realised you meant that. When it first came out a guy in my car pool bought it and we had aloud readings all the way to and from work. One of those books that seems to make sense at the time but I can't remember any of it now. But that's probably just my memory. What book?

It's me being somewhat cavalier with my spelling of Hawking. Hawkins... whatever... must have been a bit distracted with that post!!

Funny - that problem of remembering what was in a book... I get that all the time. I can be really impressed with the information and argument in a book, but I find it difficult to quote chapter and verse when it comes to discussing it.

and it doesn't take very long either! One of the several books I'm in the middle of at the moment (through indecisiveness and mood swings and laziness - like the nearest one gets picked up) is Godel Escher Bach (coz I like Bach and Escher and Hofstadter and I never understood Godel). It's very clever but each time I pick it up I've forgotten what he was on about. Nice to dip into though. Daniel Dennett is another one that sounds convincing at the time and then I can't reproduce the ideas over a pint at the pub (even to people who are interested and don't think I'm a BOF). "Darwin's Dangerous Idea". I remember it was really great but .... on the other hand you're a zool so you probably know all that stuff already.

But I'll argue with the best of them. Read Daniel Dennett's book too - he put things very eloquently and decisively. Wish I could replicate that when discussing Darwin. Most people still miss the point.

I've started Godel Escher Bach three times, getting further through each time but never to the end. I came home from work today to find it in a pile on the floor but there was nothing to worry about - just books finding a temporary home while we foster a budgie (!). I think I'll give it another try.

My favourite bit (because I actually spent most of my life in literature and linguistics) is the English/French/German Jabberwocky (my kids' favourite poem of a few years back).

Twas brillig/Il brilgue/Es brillig war...

I can handle Darwin/Dawkins/Gould (though I don't follow the latter two closely enough to know exactly what they're arguing about sometimes - I'll just hold the coats) better than Hawkin and the QM crowd. Call me old-fashioned, but I have trouble with things which are so lacking in the intuitiveness department.

However, I have written nearly 200,000 words of a sci-fi story based in part on the differential ageing of people who fly off into space in different directions, at different speeds and for different lengths of time.

Whoops! Typo - sorry Professor Hawking.

I did that in a dream once. I was very young so how I knew about the theory I don't know. When I came back everyone had aged 20yrs. I was most p***ed off.

I wouldn't like to guess why that was! Maybe youre a reincarnation of Einstein. Oh dear now people searching on reincarnation will find our thread.
I just read the Jabberwocky chapter last week! Brilliant. (For J - its Jabberwocky in English French and German and then a clever chapter about why someone translated "slithy" as "lubricilleux" etc).That's quite a coincidence since I've been reading GEB at about 3 pages a week for the last 2 years. I'm just about hanging in there but I think I might have to follow M's advice (was it advice?) and start all over again a couple of times. Hofstadter is a bit mean because he expects me to remember all sorts of very heavy stuff from 12 months ago (maybe he didn't have 12 month gaps in mind) so I have to jump back and reread a chapter or two out of context to understand a clever reference to a Q function or something Achilles or the tortoise said. Anyway its a bit like what Juliet said about DDI. I wish I could replicate it. Basically its the number theory bits that get me, even though I used to do fairly serious maths. The conversations and fugues etc are just wonderful!
Those three versions of Jabberwocky could go on h2g2 somewhere. I think I'll go searching and put it up if no-one else has.

You've got me interested... Jabberwocky!
I have to admit though, I'm having a rare struggle with the language as well as the maths. I now realise how incomprehensible things must seem to the kids with their limited vocab.

Children love Jabberwocky, and they don't mind that the words aren't real. One fun thing about the translations is the variety of ways the French and German words are constructed - by sound only, parts of the word translated and stuck back together ridiculously...