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"I don't know why I write science fiction. The voices in my head told me to!"
- Charles Stross
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| Sub-Etha Sens-O-Matic | ||
| A device which senses passing spacecraft; essential tool of interstellar hitchhikers |
You really cannot hitchhike (in the interstellar sense) without one of these. It's kind of like having your thumb out on an on-ramp by the interstate highway.
| Nestling quietly on top of the towel in Ford Prefect's satchel, the Sub-Etha Sens-O-Matic began to wink more quickly. Miles above the surface of the planet the huge yellow somethings began to fan out. At Jodrell Bank, someone decided it was time for a nice relaxing cup of tea. |
| Technovelgy from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,
by Douglas Adams. Published by Harmony Books in 1979 Additional resources -
|
Note also that Ford Prefect, a hitchhiker par excellence, was of course in possession of his towel.
Jodrell Bank is a wonderful place; they also have a very nice website - see Jodrell Bank Live!, which shows the current state of all of their major instruments.
You're wondering whether or not England makes a good place for observing the stars? You might prefer a nice desert mountaintop? You see, they do radio astronomy there; the 218ft parabolic reflecting aerial built in 1947 was the largest radio telescope in the world of its time. Among the great discoveries made with this instrument was the detection of radio noise from the Great Nebula in Andromeda. This was the first known extragalactic radio source. And they've been making discoveries ever since.
So, it is perfectly reasonable that they should be the first to (not) realize that Earth was about to be destroyed by space aliens.
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'Power could be compressed thus into an inch-square cube of what looked like blue-white ice'
'It's so light that you can set it up in five minutes by yourself...'
'Heavy penalties... were to be applied to any one found driving manually-controlled machines.'
'Buy a Little Dingbat... electropen, wrist watch, pocketphone, pocket radio, billfold ... all in one.'
'... an elastic, tinted material that had all the feel and appearance of human flesh and epidermis.'
'It is remarkable that the long leverages of their machines are in most cases actuated by a sort of sham musculature...'
