Latest news with #DouglasAdams
The Guardian
5 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Which galaxy is on a collision course with the Milky Way? The Saturday quiz
1 Who opened a Fossil Depot in Lyme Regis in 1826?2 Which galaxy is on a collision course with the Milky Way?3 Which creatures make up a fifth of all mammal species?4 Which sci-fi writer was the first person in Europe to buy a Mac computer?5 What machine gun was named after a Czech city and London suburb?6 At 410 miles, what is the UK's longest road?7 Which band did Quincy Jones call 'the worst musicians in the world'?8 Notker the Stammerer was an early biographer of which emperor?What links: 9 Derwent, Derbyshire in 1944; Capel Celyn, Gwynedd in 1965?10 Observatory Circle resident; reclusive New Hampshire author; Tim Martin's pubs; Wardle and Makin's shops?11 Mijaín López (5); Vincent Hancock, Katie Ledecky, Carl Lewis and Michael Phelps (4)?12 Cassandra in Troy; Martha Mitchell in Washington DC?13 Annoy; computer glitch; minor illness; small insect; spying device?14 Behind the Candelabra; Green Book, Impromptu; Ray; Rocketman; Shine?15 French butterfly; German chess knight; H2O; Pulp singer; Restoration monarch? 1 Mary Anning.2 Andromeda (in about 4.5bn years).3 Bats.4 Douglas Adams (Stephen Fry was the second).5 Bren gun (Brno and Enfield).6 A1.7 The Beatles.8 Charlemagne.9 Villages 'drowned' to create reservoirs.10 JD: JD Vance; JD Salinger; JD Wetherspoon; JD Sports.11 Consecutive golds by modern Olympians in one event: Greco-Roman wrestling; skeet; 800m freestyle; long jump and 200m medley.12 Warnings/prophecies not believed: Trojan priestess in Greek myth; Watergate conspiracy.13 Various definitions of bug.14 Films about pianists: Liberace; Don Shirley; Chopin; Ray Charles; Elton John; David Helfgott.15 Types of spaniel: Papillon; Springer; Water; (Jarvis) Cocker; King Charles (II).
Geek Girl Authority
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Girl Authority
Towel Day Archives
Categories Select Category Games GGA Columns Movies Stuff We Like The Daily Bugle TV & Streaming It's Towel Day, folks! Celebrate Douglas Adams, his genius, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by bringing/wearing a white towel with you everywhere you go today. Why? We explain it here.
The Guardian
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Andrew Hunter Murray: ‘Every time I read Pride and Prejudice I find more jokes'
My earliest reading memoryAt a secondhand book sale at school, a kind teacher recommended my mum buy Brian Jacques's Redwall. Noble monastic mice battle thuggish rats: catnip for a seven-year-old. My favourite book growing upThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. The mad robots and two-headed aliens are great for the teenage brain, but beneath all that is the sadness, and the questions about why life has to be like this, all filtered through poor Arthur Dent. I sometimes pull it off the shelf to read half a page, just to remind myself how comedy writing is done. The book that changed me as a teenagerI tried One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest a bit young, was baffled and thrown back by it, and then had another go, and couldn't believe how bracing Ken Kesey's writing was. It's pure psychedelia and probably hasn't aged tremendously well, but in terms of the way you could write, it really freed my mind (man). The writer who changed my mindI was a full-on doomer about humanity's future until last year, when I read statistician and climate scientist Hannah Ritchie's excellent Not the End of the World. I'm now a fraction more optimistic, which makes me a fraction more fun at parties. The book that made me want to be a writerI don't remember not wanting to be one, which is obviously insufferable. But I didn't seriously think about how to go about doing it until my mid-20s, when I read John Wyndham's The Kraken Wakes. It's great sci-fi, but rooted in complex characters doing their best in an extraordinary situation, and it sparked the idea that became my first novel. The book or author I came back toI used to think Charles Dickens was very boring and stuffy, but the more I read him now, the more I think he's the absolute nuts. Slightly embarrassingly, I welled up reading bits of Bleak House last year on a crowded commuter train. I had to pretend I had something in my eye. The book I rereadI've been reading Pride and Prejudice every few years for two decades now. I studied Austen at university, spent 10 years in a Jane Austen-themed improvised comedy group called Austentatious, and P&P only gets better. Just when you think you've got everything out of it, you find more jokes, more wisdom, more understanding. It's stunning. Plus, everyone fancies Lizzie. The book I could never read againThe Art of the Deal, by Donald Trump and Tony Schwartz. Such beautiful prose, and Trump's ruined it for everyone now. The book I discovered later in lifeA few years ago I discovered the publisher Persephone, which specialises in mid-20th-century books, mostly by women. The pitch is that these authors are all undeservedly forgotten. I was given a subscription by some comedian friends several years ago and am now about 50 books in. They are comfort reading, but high-quality, like a wholemeal pizza. Actually, that sounds horrible. The book I am currently readingI'm regretfully coming to the end of Mick Herron's Slough House series, which has been a perfect, very British, very depressing, very funny pick-me-up. Sign up to Inside Saturday The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend. after newsletter promotion My comfort readAnything by PG Wodehouse. No matter how grim the path Bertie Wooster treads, no matter how strait the gate or charged with punishments the scroll, you know sunshine will eventually win the day. A Beginner's Guide to Breaking and Entering by Andrew Hunter Murray is published by Penguin. To support the Guardian order your copy at Delivery charges may apply.
The Hindu
22-05-2025
- The Hindu
Easy like Sunday morning quiz
A molecular biologist from Madurai, our quizmaster enjoys trivia and music, and is working on a rock ballad called 'Coffee is a Drink, Kaapi is an Emotion'. @bertyashley Easy like Sunday morning quiz: Do you know your towels? Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit YOUR SCORE 0 /10 RETAKE THE QUIZ 1 / 10 | May 25 is celebrated as 'Towel Day' to honour the works of author Douglas Adams. It is a reference to a towel being the most useful thing in the universe for a traveller. You can wrap yourself in it, lie on it, use it for combat, wrap it around your head to ward of fumes, wave it as a form of distress signal and, of course, dry yourself with it. What form of traveller (whom the book is about) does Adams say needs to carry a towel? DID YOU KNOW THE ANSWER? YES NO Answer : A hitchhiker SHOW ANSWER 2 / 10 | Although towels have been around for centuries, the invention of the type of flat, woven piece of cotton for the purpose of drying, started in the 17th century. Known as peshtamel, they were used in baths called hammams in a particular country. This led to the modern popularity of what type of towel? DID YOU KNOW THE ANSWER? YES NO Answer : Turkey towel SHOW ANSWER 3 / 10 | The oshibori is a special towel that plays an important role in the renowned hospitality of Japan. It is typically used to clean the guest's hands before a meal. What is special about this towel, which is quite opposite to its usual use? DID YOU KNOW THE ANSWER? YES NO Answer : It is a wet towel SHOW ANSWER 4 / 10 | Linen Technology Tracking is an American company that makes washable RFID chips specifically for use in towels. These can be tracked using an app and, thanks to them, certain places save $16,000 a month. In which places are these towels found? DID YOU KNOW THE ANSWER? YES NO Answer : Hotel towels (to stop guests taking them) SHOW ANSWER 5 / 10 | These towels are designed to be extremely soft, highly absorbent and gentle on the skin. They also have a very soft hood, which can cover the head. That's why, though small, they are expensive. What towels are these? DID YOU KNOW THE ANSWER? YES NO Answer : Baby towels SHOW ANSWER 6 / 10 | These towels have been made since the 1960s and are very effective in capturing dust and dirt. Their name comes from the fact that the synthetic fabric has a diameter of less than 10 micrometres. What towels are these, which do not leave behind lint? DID YOU KNOW THE ANSWER? YES NO Answer : Microfibre SHOW ANSWER 7 / 10 | The beach towel was first introduced in the late 19th century. Before that, people used to lay down regular towels on the sand. In 1897, Thomas James patented the first beach towel, which was designed to be larger and more comfortable for lounging on the beach. Under which prolific inventor was James working when he came up with this idea? DID YOU KNOW THE ANSWER? YES NO Answer : Thomas Alva Edison SHOW ANSWER 8 / 10 | This specific type of towel is made from thin, flattened, and densely woven linen or cotton. It first came into use in the 18th century among upper-class English ladies. Their main purpose is to cover hot, baked products. What towels are these, which painter Van Gogh used as a canvas? DID YOU KNOW THE ANSWER? YES NO Answer : Tea towel SHOW ANSWER 9 / 10 | The towels made for this particular profession are usually pre-moistened, have some disinfectant, and are then packed tightly into a tiny pouch. They are super-absorbent and designed to be used multiple times. What towels are these that, at any point, about seven people are using in the world? DID YOU KNOW THE ANSWER? YES NO Answer : Space towels used by astronauts SHOW ANSWER
Phone Arena
20-05-2025
- Business
- Phone Arena
Google Meet adds an AI Babel Fish for a real-time translation – for now, only in English and Spanish
Receive the latest Google news Subscribe By subscribing you agree to our terms and conditions and privacy policy What is Google AI Ultra plan? This year's Google I/O conference stays true to last year's – which means lots and lots of AI goodies are announced (instead of Pixel-related hardware announcements).For example, Google Meet – the popular platform we use to video chat with one another (mostly at work) – is getting really smart… to the point where one could say it has a Babel Fish up its ear. As "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (by Douglas Adams) fans know, the Babel Fish is a small, yellow fish that, when placed in one's ear, instantly translates any spoken language into the wearer's native now, though, Google Meet's new feature – real-time speech translation in video calls – supports just English and Spanish. Given that almost two billion people speak English or Spanish (to a degree), that's not a bad start. More languages are coming later, Google search engine giant boosts Google Meet with the aim to break down language barriers during conversations. Initially available to Google AI Pro and Ultra plan subscribers, the tool translates spoken English and Spanish in near real time – maintaining the speaker's original voice and tone for a more natural and expressive experience. Whether it's family members bridging language gaps or professionals collaborating globally, the feature aims to make cross-language communication feel seamless, the company in beta, the tool will support additional languages soon, and Google plans to expand testing for business users through Workspace later this has launched Google AI Ultra, a premium subscription plan offering top-tier access to its most advanced AI tools and features. Priced at $249.99/month in the US (with a 50% discount for the first three months for new users), Ultra is aimed at creators, developers, and professionals who need high-performance plan includes the most powerful Gemini models, enhanced reasoning via Deep Think, cutting-edge video generation with Veo, and expanded tools like Flow for filmmaking, Whisk for animation, and NotebookLM for also get AI support in Gmail, Docs, and Chrome, along with 30TB of storage and YouTube Premium access.
