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

Hi

I've no idea if you know this, but the Community Consortium are putting together a collection of the best of h2g2 - Pin's "showcase" idea - to promote h2g2 and publicise it a bit.

A couple of your pieces have been recommended, (Young Lady Cuckoos and the Mares of Diomedes) but not being the BBC we need your permission to use whichever one we choose. Please let me know if you are ok with this - They are really good and it would be SO cool if we could.

All the best

Ben

Hi Ben

Of course, I'd be honoured. In any case, Pin put a lot into the Mares of Diomedes, in his efforts to teach me to write. That's why its ending is so especially horrible

I've seen mention of the consortium several times and intended to find out about it... keep meaning to do it tomorrow or next week, but there are things going on that are gobbling up my time. Here we are, Sunday, and I'm typing out the minutes of a meeting. I can't remember the last time I was so short of time. Is there anything I can do that won't require time? I do feel guilty about not jumping in

Thank you! It's very much appreciated!

Is there anything you can do that won't require time?



We need a smiley. I had been going to say if you want to know more then there's a summary of where the Consortium's got to so far here: http://www.tinyurl.com/noohootoo - but be warned - it's a monster so I would only read it if you have nothing better to do on a Sunday.

Just staying on site and keeping it busy is the best possible thing you can do right now.

And if there are any entries by folks still around that you think really really MUST go in the collection, then please put their ANumber here.

Now, thank you for permission to use yours. I'm trying to keep it to no more than one per writer, so it may not be both. But it's great to have writers still around.

Here's hoping that h2g2 is here for years to come....

Thanks

Ben

Actually - there is something that may be a 10 minute job.... I'll put a link here when the request goes up. Watch this space....

You're very welcome!

I can at least show a presence at the site. I can sign in at work even if I can't actually be doing anything else here.

There are a couple of entries that particularly stick out in my mind as a good and interesting read.... there's "The Common Ash Tree" (its sexual confusion is fascinating) and "The Oxford English Dictionary". There should be loads but who knows why some hook into your memory more than other

Okay, I'll watch...

Sol's put up the request but it seems kinder to copy and paste it here:


Task Three - Star in a promotional video

This is a big ask. We want you to give up some of your anonymity, so think carefully about it before you do. But.... we want a couple of dozen researchers to send us clips from their phones or their webcams saying who they are and what they do and that h2g2 is their community.

But NOT real names!

So for example

Hi, I'm Mrs Zen. I'm a Business Analyst. I live in Edinburgh. H2G2 is my community.

The wording has to be the same each time. I'm (hootoo name). I do (this). I live in (place). H2G2 is my community. Please pause between each part to help with editing.

The end result will be fast-cuts from person to person, Hi, I'm Pastey, 2Legs, Dr Zen, Vip. I'm Unemployed, Disabled, an Engineering Student, a retired Teacher, a Journalist, an Admin Assitant. I live in Edinburgh, Leicester, New Jersey, Melbourne Australia, Munich. H2G2 is my my my my my community,

We then need you to:

* upload the clip to Google Docs and give editing rights to the google group h2g2c3

* or email it to us at [email protected]

* or email us for a mobile number to send it to that.


Yes, the quality will be a bit random, but that's the point!

The other point is that we are a bunch of clever and talented people from all over the freaking world!

We've got a volunteer to cut them together, and someone else has volunteered to put on some original music, and the Interim Committee are getting ready for their close ups even as I type, but it's not about the Interim Committee.

It's about the Community.

It would be really good if you could help out with this - phone or webcams at the ready!

So, kind people of hootoo, please let us know if you can help.

Okay Ben, I'll see what I can do. One of the boys at work was showing off his clever-dick iPhone to me on Friday. I'll see if I can get him to do the business. I hope he knows how to upload it when it's done. Trouble is, I'm not sure if he's working away next week...

Others about the place may be mobile-phone literate too. Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes.

I had to do it myself, so I expect it's rubbish

Posted it to [email protected]

Yay!

Z said you'd done one -

Thank you SO much!

I just hope it's useable

Trying not to be any more useless than I can help, I plan to sign in every day and write at least one journal or reply or comment or question... like I used to before I got battened upon by all the voracious time-suckers. A sort of late new year's resolution.

The h2g2 search engine worked for a change, and I've found this entry that had me laughing until I nearly choked, a few years ago.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A16327361

I see you really want writers who are still around though... sorry

Where have they all gone, I wonder.

You are right. That is laugh out loud funny.

Yeah!

Ooh ooh here's a favourite... and his eyes are here.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A29378091

... I'd better get back to work

*bump*
Oh, Hi, Tibley!

I am right now proofreeding the cuckoo entry. But not being native, I stumble on some words; Gentes, and gens, regarding types of cuckoos.

What do these words actually mean? Or are they just typos of "genes" as in genetic?

(proofreading is fun, I come across so many entries!!!)

Oh, bugger I found the footnote. Sorry, just ignore that idiocy above.

But still, why not a single word? is it one gens and several gentes? or how does it work? Always gentes? Always gens?

Yes, you've got it Milla. Gens is singular, gentes plural.

While you are here, TB, it seems that the females are speciating but the males aren't. Is that fair? Or could one say that the females are separate sub-species but the males are a single species? Again, is that fair?

I'm writing a one or two line intro for the piece, and I want to point out that it's science AND whimsy. (Without using the word 'whimsy' which is a flimsy-mimsy word).

B

I guess that's why they use the term gens instead of species, Ben. The thing that makes a separate species is its capacity to breed with only members of its own - and not another. A breed, race or subspecies or whatever you would want to call the intermediate stage before a separate species has evolved, can interbreed. Dogs are an amazing example of one single species that looks like a whole load of species that shouldn't be able to breed together, but they can - even a Great Dane and a Chihuahua if they could overcome the obvious size obstacle. The different cuckoo gentes don't look different though. You couldn't tell them apart until they laid their eggs.

So you couldn't really say that the females are speciating or have speciated, because they still have no trouble at all mating and breeding with the same chaps they always bred with - a gene pool shared between all the gentes - and the young from those unions are perfectly viable. That's the fascinating thing with cuckoos and what makes them so unique (unless you know of another, similar species).

It's a really nice piece, Tib! And science in a digestible form!