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Mostly Harmless
''Mostly Harmless'' is a 1992 novel by Douglas Adams and the fifth book in the '' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' series. It is described on the cover of the first edition as "The fifth book in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy". It was the last ''Hitchhiker's'' book written by Adams and his final book released in his lifetime. Plot summary Arthur Dent plans to sightsee across the Galaxy with his girlfriend Fenchurch, but she disappears during a hyperspace jump, a result of being from an unstable sector of the Galaxy. Depressed, Arthur continues to travel the galaxy using samples of his bodily tissues/fluids to fund his travels, assured of his safety until he visits Stavromula Beta, having killed an incarnation of Agrajag at some point in the future at said planet. During one trip, he ends up stranded on the homely planet Lamuella, and decides to stay to become a sandwich maker for the local population. Meanwhile, Ford Prefe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Douglas Adams
Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author, humorist, and screenwriter, best known as the creator of ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''. Originally a 1978 BBC radio comedy, ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' evolved into a "trilogy" of six (or five, according to the author) books which sold more than 15 million copies in his life. It was made into a television series, several stage plays, comics, a video game, and a 2005 feature film. Adams's contribution to UK radio is commemorated in The Radio Academy's Hall of Fame. Adams wrote ''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'' (1987) and '' The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul'' (1988), and co-wrote '' The Meaning of Liff'' (1983), '' The Deeper Meaning of Liff'' (1990) and '' Last Chance to See'' (1990). He wrote two stories for the television series ''Doctor Who'', including the unaired serial '' Shada'', co-wrote '' City of Death'' (1979), and served as script editor for its 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zaphod Beeblebrox
Zaphod Beeblebrox () is a fictional character in the comic science fiction series ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' by Douglas Adams. He is from a planet in the vicinity of Betelgeuse, and is a "semi-half-cousin" of Ford Prefect, with whom he "shares three of the same mothers". Because of "an accident with a contraceptive and a time machine", his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather are actually his direct descendants (see Zaphod Beeblebrox the Fourth). Appearance This character is described across all versions as having two heads and three arms, though explanations of how he came to receive the extra appendages differs between versions. The original radio version never explained the second head, but did explain that Zaphod "grew" the third arm in the six months between meeting the character of Trillian on Earth, and the start of the series. The third radio series implies that he had a third arm when growing upthe fifth has him offer to Trillian that "I' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Library Service For The Blind And Physically Handicapped
The National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS) is a free library program of braille and audio materials such as books and magazines circulated to eligible borrowers in the United States and American citizens living abroad by postage-free mail and online download. The program is sponsored by the Library of Congress. People may be eligible if they are blind, have a visual disability that prevents them from reading normal print, or a physical disability that keeps them from holding a book. Library materials are distributed to regional and subregional libraries and then circulated to eligible patrons. In total there are 55 regional libraries, 32 subregional libraries, and 14 advisory and outreach centers serving the United States and its territories: the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Guam. History The NLS was established by an act of Congress called the Pratt-Smoot Act and began operation on July 1, 1931. The program was amended ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stephen Moore (actor)
Stephen Vincent Moore (11 December 1937 – 4 October 2019) was an English actor, known for his work on British television since the mid-1970s. Biography Moore was born in Brixton, London, the son of Mary Elisabeth (née Bruce-Anderson) and solicitor Stanley Moore. He attended the Archbishop Tenison's grammar school in Kennington. He was married four times. His half-brother Mark Moore performs with S'Express, his brother-in-law was the actor James Hazeldine, and his daughter Robyn is an actor known for ''EastEnders''. Acting career Moore was known for his appearances in '' Rock Follies'' and other TV series such as ''Brideshead Revisited'', '' The Last Place on Earth'', the children's series '' The Queen's Nose'', the drama ''Merseybeat'' and the British TV comedy series ''Solo'', as well as numerous appearances on stage at the Royal National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and London's West End. He was known for his distinctive speaking voice in a wide range of ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin Freeman
Martin John Christopher Freeman (born 8 September 1971) is an English actor. Among other accolades, he has won two Emmy Awards, a BAFTA Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, and has been nominated for a Golden Globe Award. Freeman's most notable roles are that of Tim Canterbury in the mockumentary series ''The Office'' (2001–2003), Dr. John Watson in the British crime drama series '' Sherlock'' (2010–2017), young Bilbo Baggins in ''The Hobbit'' film trilogy (2012–2014), Lester Nygaard in the first season of the dark comedy-crime drama series ''Fargo'' (2014), and Chris Carson in '' The Responder'' (2022–present). He has also appeared in films including the romantic comedy ''Love Actually'' (2003), the horror comedy '' Shaun of the Dead'' (2004), the sci-fi comedy ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' (2005), the action comedy ''Hot Fuzz'' (2007), the semi-improvised comedy '' Nativity!'' (2009), and the sci-fi comedy '' The World's End'' (2013). Since 201 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Audiobook
An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in schools and public libraries and to a lesser extent in music shops since the 1930s. Many spoken word albums were made prior to the age of cassettes, compact discs, and downloadable audio, often of poetry and plays rather than books. It was not until the 1980s that the medium began to attract book retailers, and then book retailers started displaying audiobooks on bookshelves rather than in separate displays. Etymology The term "talking book" came into being in the 1930s with government programs designed for blind readers, while the term "audiobook" came into use during the 1970s when audiocassettes began to replace phonograph records. In 1994, the Audio Publishers Association established the term "audiobook" as the industry standard. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marvin The Paranoid Android
Marvin the Paranoid Android is a fictional character in ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' series by Douglas Adams. Marvin is the ship's robot aboard the starship ''Heart of Gold''. Originally built as one of many failed prototypes of Sirius Cybernetics Corporation's ''GPP'' (Genuine People Personalities) technology, Marvin is afflicted with severe depression and boredom, in part because he has a "brain the size of a planet" which he is seldom, if ever, given the chance to use. Instead, the crew request him merely to carry out mundane jobs such as "opening the door". Indeed, the true horror of Marvin's existence is that no task he could be given would occupy even the tiniest fraction of his vast intellect. Marvin claims he is 50,000 times more intelligent than a human (or 30 billion times more intelligent than a live mattress), though this is, if anything, an underestimation. When kidnapped by the bellicose Krikkit robots and tied to the interfaces of their intelligent war ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy Tertiary To Quintessential Phases
The Tertiary Phase, Quandary Phase, Quintessential Phase and Hexagonal Phase are respectively the third, fourth, fifth and sixth series of ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' radio series. Produced in 2003, 2004 and 2018 by Above the Title Productions for BBC Radio 4, they are radio adaptations of the third, fourth, fifth and sixth books in Douglas Adams' ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' series: '' Life, the Universe and Everything''; '' So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish''; '' Mostly Harmless'' and '' And Another Thing...''. These radio series consisted of a total of twenty episodes, following on from the twelve episodes from the original two series ( the Primary and Secondary Phases) which originally aired in 1978 and 1980. The producers chose not to continue the ordinal sequence established by the Primary, Secondary and Tertiary phases. If they had done so, the fourth, fifth and sixth series would have been termed quaternary, quinary and senary. Humorously, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dirk Maggs
David George Dirk Maggs (born St. Helier, Jersey, February 1955) is a British freelance writer and director. During his career as a Senior Producer in BBC Radio he made radio drama adopting a cinematic-sounding approach, combining filmic story construction, layered sound effects, orchestral music and digital recording technology. Maggs introduced productions in Dolby Surround in BBC Radio and termed the result, "Audio Movies". Maggs studied Drama for a BEd degree from 1974 to 1978 at King Alfred's College, Winchester. The college gained university status in 2005, when he was invited to become one of the first Honorary Fellows of the University of Winchester for his work in the Dramatic Arts. In 2019 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate for his work in the Arts by Bournemouth University. In December 2021 Maggs was on a team representing the University of Winchester in BBC TV's Christmas University Challenge. Maggs was awarded "Best Audiobook Producer" Award by the Audio Publishe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Salmon Of Doubt
''The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time'' is a posthumous collection of previously published and unpublished material by Douglas Adams. It consists largely of essays, interviews, and newspaper/magazine columns about technology and life experiences, but its major selling point is the inclusion of the incomplete novel on which Adams was working at the time of his death, ''The Salmon of Doubt'' (from which the collection gets its title, a reference to the Irish myth of the Salmon of Knowledge). English editions of the book were published in the United States and UK on 11 May 2002, exactly one year after the author's death. Original intention ''The Salmon of Doubt'' was originally intended to be a Dirk Gently novel. The plot, set a few weeks after the events in '' The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul'', involves Dirk Gently refusing to help find the missing half of a cat, receiving large amounts of money from an unknown client, and then flying to the United Sta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust Limited. The trust was created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of ''The Guardian'' in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of ''The Guardian'' free from commercial or political interference". The trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to maintain for ''The Guardian'' the same protections as were built into the structure of the Scott Trust by its creators. Profits are reinvested in its journalism rather than distributed to owners or shareholders. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. The editor-in-chief Katharine Viner succeeded Alan Rusbridger in 2015. S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all of Earth's water is contained in its global ocean, covering Water distribution on Earth, 70.8% of Earth's crust. The remaining 29.2% of Earth's crust is land, most of which is located in the form of continental landmasses within Earth's land hemisphere. Most of Earth's land is at least somewhat humid and covered by vegetation, while large Ice sheet, sheets of ice at Polar regions of Earth, Earth's polar polar desert, deserts retain more water than Earth's groundwater, lakes, rivers, and Water vapor#In Earth's atmosphere, atmospheric water combined. Earth's crust consists of slowly moving tectonic plates, which interact to produce mountain ranges, volcanoes, and earthquakes. Earth's outer core, Earth has a liquid outer core that generates a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
