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The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (book)
''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' is the first book in the '' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' comedy science fiction "trilogy of five books" by Douglas Adams with a sixth book written by Eoin Colfer. The novel is an adaptation of the first four parts of Adams's radio series of the same name, centring on the adventures of the only man to survive the destruction of Earth. While roaming outer space, he comes to learn the truth behind Earth's existence. The novel was first published in London on 12 October 1979. It sold 250,000 copies in the first three months. The namesake of the novel is ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'', a fictional guide book for hitchhikers (inspired by the ''Hitch-hiker's Guide to Europe'') written in the form of an encyclopaedia. Plot summary The novel opens with an introduction describing the human race as a primitive and deeply unhappy species, while also introducing an electronic encyclopedia called the ''Hitchhiker's Guide to the Ga ... [...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] |
Human
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are Hominidae, great apes characterized by their Prehistory of nakedness and clothing#Evolution of hairlessness, hairlessness, bipedality, bipedalism, and high Human intelligence, intelligence. Humans have large Human brain, brains, enabling more advanced cognitive skills that facilitate successful adaptation to varied environments, development of sophisticated tools, and formation of complex social structures and civilizations. Humans are Sociality, highly social, with individual humans tending to belong to a Level of analysis, multi-layered network of distinct social groups — from families and peer groups to corporations and State (polity), political states. As such, social interactions between humans have established a wide variety of Value theory, values, norm (sociology), social norms, languages, and traditions (co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Airlock
An airlock is a room or compartment which permits passage between environments of differing atmospheric pressure or composition, while minimizing the changing of pressure or composition between the differing environments. An airlock consists of a chamber with two Hermetic seal, airtight doors or openings, usually arranged in series, which do not open simultaneously. Airlocks can be small-scale mechanisms, such as Fermentation lock, those used in fermenting, or larger mechanisms, which often take the form of an antechamber. An airlock may also be used underwater to allow passage between the air environment in a pressure vessel, such as a submarine, and the water environment outside. In such cases the airlock can contain either Atmosphere of Earth, air or water. This is called a floodable airlock or underwater airlock, and is used to prevent water from entering a submersible vessel or underwater habitat. Operation The procedure of entering an airlock from the external or am ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poetry
Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in place of, Denotation, literal or surface-level meanings. Any particular instance of poetry is called a poem and is written by a poet. Poets use a variety of techniques called poetic devices, such as assonance, alliteration, Phonaesthetics#Euphony and cacophony, euphony and cacophony, onomatopoeia, rhythm (via metre (poetry), metre), and sound symbolism, to produce musical or other artistic effects. They also frequently organize these effects into :Poetic forms, poetic structures, which may be strict or loose, conventional or invented by the poet. Poetic structures vary dramatically by language and cultural convention, but they often use Metre (poetry), rhythmic metre (patterns of syllable stress or syllable weight, syllable (mora) weight ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guildford
Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildford" is thought to derive from a ford (crossing), crossing of the River Wey, a tributary of the River Thames that flows through the town centre. The earliest evidence of human activity in the area is from the Mesolithic and Guildford is mentioned in the will and testament, will of Alfred the Great from . The exact location of the main Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon settlement is unclear and the current site of the modern town centre may not have been occupied until the early 11th century. Following the Norman Conquest, a motte-and-bailey castle was constructed; which was developed into a royal residence by Henry III of England, Henry III. During the England in the Middle Ages, late Middle Ages, Guildford prospered as a result of the wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Betelgeuse
Betelgeuse is a red supergiant star in the constellation of Orion (constellation), Orion. It is usually the List of brightest stars, tenth-brightest star in the night sky and, after Rigel, the second brightest in its constellation. It is a distinctly reddish, semiregular variable star whose apparent magnitude, varying between +0.0 and +1.6, with a main period near 400 days, has the widest range displayed by any first-magnitude star. Betelgeuse is the brightest star in the night sky at near-infrared wavelengths. Its Bayer designation is , Latinisation of names, Latinised to Alpha Orionis and abbreviated Alpha Ori or . With a radius between 640 and 764 times that of the Sun, if it were at the center of the Solar System, its surface would lie beyond the asteroid belt and it would engulf the orbits of Mercury (planet), Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. Calculations of Betelgeuse's mass range from slightly under ten to a little over twenty times that of the Sun. For ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hyperspace
In science fiction, hyperspace (also known as nulspace, subspace, overspace, jumpspace and similar terms) is a concept relating to higher dimensions as well as parallel universes and a faster-than-light (FTL) method of interstellar travel. In its original meaning, the term ''hyperspace'' was simply a synonym for higher-dimensional space. This usage was most common in 19th-century textbooks and is still occasionally found in academic and popular science texts, for example, '' Hyperspace'' (1994).'''' Its science fiction usage originated in the magazine '' Amazing Stories Quarterly'' in 1931 and within several decades it became one of the most popular tropes of science fiction, popularized by its use in the works of authors such as Isaac Asimov and E. C. Tubb, and media franchises such as ''Star Wars''. One of the main reasons for the concept's popularity in science fiction is the impossibility of faster-than-light travel in ordinary '' physical space'', which hyperspace ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Civil Service
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service official, also known as a public servant or public employee, is a person employed in the public sector by a government department or agency for public sector undertakings. Civil servants work for central and local governments, and answer to the government, not a political party. The extent of civil servants of a state as part of the "civil service" varies from country to country. In the United Kingdom (UK), for instance, only The Crown, Crown (national government) employees are referred to as "civil servants" whereas employees of local authorities (counties, cities and similar administrations) are generally referred to as "local government officers", who are considered public servants but not civil servants. Thus, in the UK, a civil servant is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vogons
The Vogons are a fictional alien race from the planet Vogsphere in ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''—initially a BBC Radio series by Douglas Adams—who are responsible for the destruction of the Earth, in order to facilitate an intergalactic highway construction project for a hyperspace express route. Vogons are slug-like but vaguely humanoid, are bulkier than humans, and have green skin. Vogons are described as "one of the most unpleasant races in the galaxy—not actually evil, but bad-tempered, bureaucratic, officious and callous", and having "as much sex appeal as a road accident" as well as being the authors of "the third worst poetry in the universe". They are employed as the galactic government's bureaucrats. According to Marvin the Paranoid Android, they are also the worst marksmen in the galaxy. They follow orders as they are told, and do not allow exceptions. Description Appearance and personality Guide description: Vogons are roughly human-sized, alt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ford Prefect (character)
Ford Prefect (also called Ix) is a character in ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' by the British author Douglas Adams. His role as Arthur Dent's friend – and rescuer, when Earth is unexpectedly demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass at the start of the story – is often expository, as Ford is an experienced galactic hitchhiker and explains that he is actually a journalist, a field researcher for the titular ''Guide'' itself, and not an out-of-work actor from Guildford as he had claimed. Name Although Ford had taken great care to blend into Earth society, he had "skimped a bit on his preparatory research," and thought that the name "Ford Prefect" would be "nicely inconspicuous." The Ford Prefect was a popular British car manufactured from 1938 to 1961, and Adams later clarified in an interview that Ford "had simply mistaken the dominant life form" of Earth. This was expanded on somewhat in the film version, where Ford is almost run over while attempting to g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bulldozer
A bulldozer or dozer (also called a crawler) is a large tractor equipped with a metal #Blade, blade at the front for pushing material (soil, sand, snow, rubble, or rock) during construction work. It travels most commonly on continuous tracks, though specialized models riding on large Heavy equipment#Traction: Off-the-road tires and tracks, off-road tires are also produced. Its most popular accessory is a #Ripper, ripper, a large hook-like device mounted singly or in multiples in the rear to loosen dense materials. Bulldozers are used heavily in large and small scale construction, road building, mining and quarrying, on farms, in heavy industry factories, and in military applications in both peace and wartime. The word "bulldozer" refers only to a motorized unit fitted with a blade designed for pushing. The word is sometimes used inaccurately for other heavy equipment such as the generally similar Loader (equipment), front-end loader designed for carrying material rather than ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bypass (road)
A bypass is a road or highway that avoids or "bypasses" a built-up area, town, or village, to let through traffic flow without interference from local traffic, to reduce Traffic congestion, congestion in the built-up area, to improve road safety and as replacement for obsolete roads that are no longer in use as a result of devastating natural disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, volcanic eruptions). A bypass specifically designated for trucks may be called a truck route. If there are no strong land use controls, buildings are often built in town along a bypass, converting it into an ordinary town road, and the bypass may eventually become as congested as the local streets it was intended to avoid. Many businesses are often built there for ease of access, while homes are often avoided for noise and pollution reasons. Bypass routes are often on new land where no road originally existed. This creates a conflict between those who support a bypass to reduce congestion in a b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
