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

"Oo look – you've gone all bold and italicised. "

Ooo so I have and so have you



I tweaked all those points, thanks

One more query I spotted (lots of "perfectly matches" in this Entry ):

"Another feature nearby is an artificial hill, which perfectly matches the real Silbury Hill, Europe's largest prehistoric mound."

I'm not clear about whether Silbury Hill is a real artificial hill, or the artificial hill is a copy of Silbury Hill...

I wonder if being italicised like this is a permanent condition?

Let's just change that sentence to:

Another feature near the fictional village is an artificial hill. This was the real Silbury Hill, Europe's largest prehistoric mound, which inspired the name of the fictional village of Milbury.

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Seems permanent so far - I don't know why you weren't italic before, and only became so when I did, but there you go, the vagaries of h2g2...



Excellent change - that's much clearer

If you're happy with this now, I'll send it on its way

Thinking about it, I feel that the sentence I've just mentioned is in slightly the wrong place. We should add 'The artificial hill seen outside Milbury was the real Silbury Hill, Europe's largest prehistoric mound, which inspired the name of the fictional village of Milbury.' to the following Avebury section as it is talking about what really exists in Avebury, and trim it down to ' Another feature is a nearby artificial hill' in the Milbury section.

Other than that, all good!

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Any exciting plans for the weekend? I'm seeing my nephew on Sunday and there are 2 Disney animations on telly. If it stops raining it should be good.

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Yes, that's a good point, so I changed that and submitted it eventually I haven't tamed my new powers yet


Your weekend sounds quite good - I see Pocahontas is on (which is one I didn't see at the time because of the controversy, but maybe will watch if I'm in) but I can't find the other one. Is your nephew a similar age to your children?

I fancy watching Eurovision - last year's h2g2 Eurovision party was great fun! Apart from that, I'm not sure yet, but no doubt I'll find something to do - there's another museum I could visit, although museum Entries aren't that exciting, it seems... Anyway, we'll see. I'm sure you'll have a good time.

I see I've got a few more buttons too – don't know what any of them do and don't want to try pressing them in case I break something
Yes – I had a great weekend, thanks. I saw my nephew, Dad and sister yesterday and we went on a ride on the Watercress Line steam railway. My nephew's 9 while my son's 6 and daughter's 3, but they got on fine. It's only the second time my daughter has met my nephew, as following my nephew's parents' divorce, my side of the family was not wanted. I'm hoping that this will be the start
I might be biased, but the Isle of Wight Steam Railway is still my favourite – it seems the best organised with excellent visitor facilities at Havenstreet, and the small tank engines there seem to have more character and personality than the giant, strong, heavyweight tender engines. The Island's steam railway is still essentially a small Victorian railway at heart, while the Watercress Line is a bigger, 1950s one. I suppose it depends what you're interested in.

Yep, it was 'Pocahontas' (my least favourite Disney film of the 1990s, and yes, it was quite controversial on release) as well as 'Bolt', which is a fairly fun one was on Saturday. I've not got either on video or DVD, so by recording them off the telly means I can start work on writing about Disney in the 1990s.

I only saw a bit of Eurovision – a few of the songs, a lot of talk about China and some of the results. I see that Austria won, Britain didn't get nil points and that, according to the papers, President Putin is apparently enraged – not only because the Russian act was constantly booed, but also because Austria won. Seems like there was actually some genuine voting there, rather than just 'we'll vote for our neighbours' voting. So did you watch Eurovision in the end?

My next entry might well be about the Isle of Wight Randonnee, which as the entry about the Solent Coasts Cycle Challenge is one of h2g2's most unpopular entries ever, is unlikely to win any popularity contests. I do read all the entries, but I can't always think of any comments, especially if it isn't an entry I know anything about.

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Ah, that's interesting that you got more buttons when you became Ripley italic... Definitely something happened then, but I can't see what, and I daren't press too many buttons either Not to worry - the font does look rather good

Glad you had a good weekend - sounds like you had good weather for it I read your Entries, and I see what you mean about the different character of the engines on the two lines...

I was up in Liverpool again, so I've got another museum Entry brewing - I'm sure it will make a good addition to the Guide eventually, anyway, as it was me doing a Ford Prefect and visiting a place before writing it up I took a photo, too, although it wasn't good weather - gale force winds - but I managed to keep the camera still for just long enough.

I say you should go for it on the Randonnee Entry - I'm really enjoying your Post article

I wasn't at home on Sunday afternoon after all, so I didn't see Pocahontas. I've not heard of 'Bolt' before - I look forward to seeing your 1990s Entry

I did indeed watch Eurovision, and enjoyed the h2g2 party, too I'm very pleased Austria won, as for me it was definitely an excellent song with an excellent singer Her win stirred up a lot of controversy and hate, but also a lot of positive messages too, so that's quite good...

Some songs did better than I expected, and I'm not sure whether that was because of tactical voting, but some songs did worse than expected, so there you go... The biggest laugh of my evening was France's "I want a moustache" song

The weather was windy, but dry, so that was good. I've got the Watercress Line on my list of things to write about (but that list is getting longer all the time, with the Disney 1990s & 2000s entries, Doctor Who entries, Randonnee and Alan Dean Foster entry as well as 'Raising a Family in a Television Science Fiction Series' – lots to do to keep me busy. At least when they get into Peer Review I can relax about them.)
I'll look forward to reading about your museum entry in Liverpool. When I was growing up on the Island, I always thought that people on the mainland must really enjoy having the freedom to be able to go where they want when they want, and not have to book a ferry in advance and plan exactly when they have to leave in order to make it back in time to catch the ferry they're booked on. But now, it seems, most mainlanders seem to stay where they live and not explore the country, even though they have such freedom to do so. So I always think it is good to see someone going out and about, and I enjoy seeing whether there are places that I’d enjoy going to too.

I missed France's song – I saw a bit at the start and a bit 45 minutes later as my wife has become addicted to 'Breaking Bad' and we're watching an episode a night (we're on series 2). I'd say that for the Austrian singer to get to the final is a very positive sign of acceptance, and that to actually win is incredibly fantastic – but alas there is always going to be a bit of controversy and a backlash. As long as the amount of hate gets smaller every year, there's lots to be positive about. (I'm a cynical optimist).

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Yes, the list of Entries to write does get longer quite quickly, but it's good fun I like it as the Guide encourages me to take a deeper interest in things, so whether I'm reading or writing the Guide, I'm always learning something I might not otherwise have taken note of

Public transport is one thing on the mainland, but the ferry from the island is another thing, as even with your own wheels, you're restricted by timings, so I see your point... Long distance, I prefer to 'let the train take the strain', but I am lucky that there is plenty to see and do round where I am and where my parents are.

I like that, cynical optimist - sounds good to me

I've taken your Thrust2 Entry to sub-edit, and spotted something that needs checking up on...

In the list of regulations, it says the new speed must be more than 1% greater than the old record in order to be a new record, but 633mph is only 0.5% greater than 630mph... Are those numbers correct?

You're right – I love the knock-on effect, when you read something unexpected that inspires you to write something too. That's part of the joy of looking after the Flea Market, you can take on a topic that occurred to someone else and polish it off, or maybe write something related.

I hate the land speed record rules. I've double checked and in 1970, Blue Flame's top speed over the measured kilometre was 630.478mph, but over the measured mile only 622.407.
Thrust2's speed was 634.051 over the measured kilometre, but 633.47mph over the measured mile. This means that as Thrust2's measured mile speed was greater than 1% than Blue Flame's measured mile speed, Thrust2 qualifies as the land speed record holder (but based on the measured kilometre speeds only, it would not have been).

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Ah, that explains things - complex land speed rules indeed...

So, I think we might need to add that information into the Entry, in case people find the other figures and wonder what's going on, but some tweaks are needed in the text, too...

In the first paragraph, it's the measured mile speed of Thrust2

In the last paragraph of The Record section it's the measured kilometre speed of Blue Flame (and Donald Campbell's speed is given - is that a measured mile?)

If you're giving the highest speed of Blue Flame, should it be the highest speed of Thrust2 in the first paragraph?

Thank you!

A87829140 - Thrust2 - a Record-Breaking Car

I agree – we do need to add that information, but in such a way that doesn't bog the casual reader down in too much detail and put them off.

How about in the Record bullet point section, we write:
'To qualify as a new record, the speed achieved must be greater by over 1% than the previous record. This can be greater either than the previous record-holding measured mile or measured kilometre speed.'
This simply adds a sentence to an existing bullet point

As the record broken was based on the measured mile speed of both Thrust2 and Blue Flame, I think we should stick to the measured mile speed throughout most of the article to avoid confusion.

I think that the right place to go into more detail about exactly what records were broken is the '1983: Third Time Lucky' section. There we can state that the car's speed on its run achieved a measured kilometre speed of 634.051mph, which being less than 1% over Blue Flame's measured kilometre record did not qualify as a new record, but the measured mile speed of 633.468mph was greater than 1% than Blue Flame's 622.407mph and a new record.

Donald Campbell's speed was over a measured mile, he didn't do a measured kilometre run. Bluebird was the last wheel-driven car to hold the world land speed record, as all cars since have used either rockets or jets.

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The new version is A87829140 - don't forget to subscribe!

More questions as I go along, sorry:

"I used to tell me friends that my trusty old Hercules" - in the quote, is it definitely "me friends"?

Something funny seems to have happened to this sentence "when the car veered a rough patch of grass and, stones seriously damaging the front of the car and the engine."

Feel free to keep asking - I'll have to double check at home about the Ackroyd quote and won't get back to you about that until tomorrow, but in the meantime you can delete the stray comma.

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Thanks <BB<

I made the tweaks and added the extra bits - looks good to me and I hope it's all OK for you, too

Once the quote is checked, this will be ready to go tomorrow

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Okay, I double-checked and it should be 'my friends'.

How is it that when I plan to write about the Round the Island Bike Ride or the Watercress Line, I've ended up writing an Update proposal for the Doctor Who Enemies: Sontaran article? Do you ever find yourself doing that? At the moment I'm unsure of the ending; I know what I want to say, but I'm not sure if I've found the best way to say it. If you get the chance, can you look at the last couple of sections of A87829708 UPDATE: Doctor Who Enemies: Sontarans and let me know what you think? (Don’t worry if you don't get the chance, or if you're suffering from Doctor Who overdose!)

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Thanks <BB< - I amended that and also made a few more tweaks as I read it again, so I hope it's still OK for you.