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

A87954097 Rear Admiral Grace Hopper
It'll come as a complete surprise to you that I'm subbing the above, so please subscribe.

Is it worth clarifying that in the US Navy, the title of 'Commodore' has long been controversial, fluctuating between being an honorary title and being an actual rank? It existed as a rank in 1943-1947, then was reinstated in 1983 and retired in 1985 when it was decided to change its meaning to 'captain in charge of more than one ship' and those with the title Commodore becoming (1-star/'lower half') Rear Admirals. So she didn't change rank in 1985 but the rank changed.

In fact the 'Commodore' controversy was so widespread that it even spread into space! There are a fair few Commodores in the original series of 'Star Trek' but there are none in 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' (1987-1994) onwards.

<BB<

Thanks <BB< - I've subscribed

Yes, good idea about Commodore - I hadn't appreciated that about Star Trek, but now you mention it that does explain why the word 'Commodore' makes me think of the original USS Enterprise rather than the Enterprise D!

In the sentence "In 1985, her title became Rear Admiral..." we can add a footnote on Rear Admiral to say:

In 1985 the title of Commodore in the US Navy was changed to apply only to captains of more than one ship. Commodores without the requisite number of ships became known as Rear Admirals.

Did you want to mention that Vassar and Yale appear to be about 70 miles apart?

<BB<

Vassar College, Yale University and New York University form a roughly-equilateral triangle with sides of approximately 70 miles long.

I'm not sure this information is helpful to the Entry, but then again it might make a neat footnote on Yale in "continued studying at Yale.", I don't know...

When I read that she was studying and teaching in two different places, my first instinct was to wonder how far apart they were. I had assumed they were both in the same city and was surprised they were 70 miles apart. That's quite a considerable commute; three days' walk or at a reasonable pace, about seven hours' cycling. The mounted cavalry would rarely ride no more than 60 miles in a day.

<BB<

I've added that now. I wonder if there was a ?

<BB<

From the middle of the triangle it is approximately 30 miles to each point

Did you have lectures on campus every day when you were at University? I did in the first year, but in Second and Third Year the weekly 20 hours of lectures etc were compressed into 4 days.

It may be 30 miles to each point from the very centre, but did they live in the very centre? And even if they did, they've still got to get home.

They don't compress teaching as a matter of policy into four days here. My second and third + years of uni weren't really held on campus per se, more a case of studying with the OU on the Isle of Wight ferry. When the ferry journey is an hour each way and the only form of entertainment I'd brought with me was my OU books it is remarkable how focussed you can get on your studies. Up until the point they crashed the ferry they were trying to dock, that is. Oh, and added a third car deck on the ferries, increasing the number of people on each ferry by a third but without adding more actual seating. (Technically they did add additional exterior seating, which is fine on a still, hot summer's day, but not in winter, wet weather or at 6am in the morning.)

<BB<

"it is remarkable how focussed you can get on your studies. Up until the point they crashed the ferry they were trying to dock, that is."

Yes indeed!

It is 129 miles from Ryde to Milton Keynes.

I've never been to Milton Keynes. When I was on the Island and doing my OU studies, they had occasional lectures which were held in Southampton, Basingstoke and Reading – and my exams were held at the Quay Arts Centre in Newport – but fortunately never had to go to Milton Keynes, although that's where the OU's HQ is. (I was also commuting predominantly from East Cowes rather than Ryde, although after the ferry crashed and remodelled their Southampton dock I would catch the reliable floating bridge and catch the ferry from Cowes, until they said we weren't allowed to.)

<BB<

Would you like to read through and let me know if there are any changes you would like to make, or if I can press the resource?

<BB<

That's good that the exams were held on the Island

"they said we weren't allowed to" - who were 'they'? Sounds like a good plan to me, to use the reliable floating bridge

The Entry looks good to me except "In 1985, her a became Rear Admiral" needs a resource - the 'a' should be 'title'? Does Mark I need to be in italics?

Apart from that, it is ready for you to press the resource

I've pressed the resource!

It wasn't the council that were preventing us from going that way. My wife and I had season tickets for foot passengers on the car ferry, not only because the ferry was closer but also it was substantially cheaper than the Red Jet passenger ferry. The car ferry during the summer is hourly and journey times take about an hour, the Red Jet is half-hourly with half-hourly journeys. There are three car ferries; the Red Falcon, Red Eagle and Red Osprey. In the winter they take each out of service for a couple of months to refit and renovate, so they only operate two ferries at a time and so they have a ferry every 90 minutes schedule. However when they crashed the ferry into the dock, the ferry had only just returned from being out of service and another was undergoing its service, which meant they only had one ferry operating and so had one ferry every three hours, which was now based in the far Southampton Docks as their own docks had been wrecked, and pedestrians are not allowed to wander around the working dockyard to get to the ferry.

At first Red Funnel promised that they'd allow people with pedestrian tickets for the car ferry to use the Red Jet to Cowes, but then they back-tracked on that deal and stopped us using the passenger ferry and said we had to use the car ferry instead – operating a to ferry foot passengers to the docks instead.

<BB<

Congratulations! Your Entry is on the Front Page today