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

I put 100 Altarian dollars on the Spacing Guild heighliner. Folding space and travelling instantaneously? Nothing could be faster than that!

Dear Bob, I'm such a

How can you get faster than "a mere nothingth of a second"?


Actually, I saw a tweet linking to this and before I saw the article I already had my money on Heart of Gold. The URL seemed to indicate it was just Trek v. Wars and I was prepping my righteousness. I had to put it away once the page loaded and I saw the good old H.o'G. there. I was pleasantly surprised to see Planet Express there holding its own.

I was very pleased to see the Planet Express ship there too

And at the other end of the scale... Scooty Puff Jr.

This is nice... It's a year of days.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130724.html

What a very neat idea

These pics of New Wave/80's pop stars will make you feel REALLY old.



http://djrioblog.com/2013/11/26/new-wave-artists-aging-gracefully-an-80s-world-gone-by/



(If you don't know these people, PULL UP YOUR PANTS AND GET OFF MY LAWN, YOU PUNK KIDS!)

I wouldn't say *really* old, but some of them are ageing far better than others. Is it just me or is Billy Idol turning into Keith Richards?

That was a fascinating 15 minutes, and I think I managed to identify about 75% of them without looking at the captions (especially the ones I've seen recently on TV . No image of John Lydon, but that would have been far too obvious. I don't Peter Gabriel belongs in a collection new wave artists though. Nice to see his boat all the same.

Phil Oakey's a slaphead! (like me )

I'm glad they included Talk Talk - in my opinion a seriously underestimated band of the 80s, and It's My Life still gives me goosepimples when I hear it.

Pete Burns... oh dear.

Thanks for that little diversion

I'd hardly consider Kate Bush to be New Wave either.

Adam Ant is compleatly unrecognisable.


What was nice about this was how few have resorted to ridiculous and ambitious cosmetic surgery. The only celebrity I've seen recently that actually looks legitimately younger than her age due to talented surgeons is Cher (67). Seriously, she looks frozen in time from the 80's. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3Dw7v1IhJY

You're right about Kate Bush. Her most prolific period straddled the late 70s/early 80s, and her style was definitely not new wave.

Take the whiskers off Adam Ant and he's still fairly recognisable, especially after his appearances on Northern Exposure, admittedly though, those were what... 15 years ago now? (is he walking out of the Old Bailey in that picture? I think he is).

You'd think Kate Bush might have brushed her hair before she set foot outside the front door

This XKCD comic reflects how I feel about h2g2 sometimes, or at least some small conversations here.

http://xkcd.com/1305/

(Be sure to hover over for bonus text.)

*Nods sagely* True, dat.

I've been looking at watches today and I saw some nice ones on Amazon from under $200 up to one I liked for about $2500. But then, a post from IFLS pops up on my timeline and I see this watch.

http://www.ablogtowatch.com/van-cleef-arpels-complication-poetique-midnight-planetarium-watch-hands/

Now, where am I going to get $330,000?

No, where am *I* going to get $330,000?

Ya know what?

Before I forget, I need to post this here as well. I came across this about 10 - 15 years ago and was absolutely amazed. I've always appreciated good optical illusions, but this is in a class of its own, literally. This isn't an optical illusion, it's a neuro-ophthalmological illusion. In as little as a minute, this can rewire your brain from maybe an hour to several days, possibly even as long as a month or more. (My experience was for a few hours.)

Ladies and gentlemens... The McCollough Effect: http://www.cheswick.com/ches/projects/me/



*I'm rather pleased that this website hasn't changed in a decade and a half and is still one of the top search hits when searching for it. But if you can't remember the name of it, it is damn hard to find. Finding the right search terms eluded me for years, but luckily, I saw a link to a (rather pathetic) youtube video of it this week and was so happy they mentioned the name of the effect. BTW, if this does really mess you up and you work in a visual or textual field and want to reverse the effect, I've learned that by repeating the preparation at 90 degrees will negate it.

The first time I tried this it was rather pronounced. This time and the last time, maybe a year ago, I can only see the effect lightly on the horizontal stripes (seeing a thin green haze in the white spaces).

Let me know if how you experience it and for how long.

24 hours later and I can still dimly see the green effect.

Like Google street view at 180 mph.

A 360° interactive view from an F1 car at Silverstone. It's like the coolest dashcam ever.


http://www.wired.com/autopia/2014/02/mercedes-f1-360/?cid=co18991254

Here's a fascinating article regarding the aftermath of the Columbia accident. The Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) report contains a section detailing a hypothetical "rescue mission" had the damage to the wing been detected early in the STS107 mission. The title is a bit misleading. The term "Might" is properly used in the quantum sense in that there was a possibility the crew could have been rescued but it was extremely improbable.

http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/02/the-audacious-rescue-plan-that-might-have-saved-space-shuttle-columbia/

OOH! There is yet a third online version of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Infocom game.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1g84m0sXpnNCv84GpN2PLZG/the-hitchhiker-s-guide-to-the-galaxy-game-30th-anniversary-edition

If you sign on with BBC ID, you can save your game.

This is quite anti-hoopy.

"The team responsible for a mobile phone version has been out to lunch for a couple of years but is expected back soon, at which point there will be rapid updates.

Until then, don't panic, unless your situation is really a life or death one, in which case, sure, go ahead, panic.

Please visit the The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy home page."


I'm on my tablet. I'd like an option to go to the full site. I hate it when websites don't give you that option. Or worse, give you the option but when you click the link it sends you to their home page.