29: From the Imperial Galaxy to Islington

Mark and Danny Smith are joined by Jon Hickman to continue pawing through the H section of the Hitchhiker’s Guide. Imperial Galaxy In the last moments of his dying coma, the hereditary Emperor of the Galaxy was locked in a statis field which kept him in a state of perpetual unchangingness. All his heirs are now long dead, and this has meant that without any drastic political upheaval, power simply and effectively moved a rung or two down the ladder, and is now seen to be vested in a body which used to act simply as advisers to the Emperor – an elected Governmental assembly headed by a President elected by that assembly. In fact it vests in no such place. InfiniDim Enterprises InfiniDim Enterprises bought the Guide frmo Megadodo Publications. We learn about them in the last of Adams’ Hitchhiker’s books, and I was always taken by the name. Infinite Improbability Drive The Infinite Improbability Drive is wonderful new method of crossing vast interstellar distances in a mere nothingth of a second, without all that tedious mucking about in hyperspace. Inifity Infinity is defined by the Guide as “bigger than the biggest thing ever and then some. Much bigger than that in fact, really amazingly immense, a totally stunning size, “wow, that’s big”, time. Infinity is just so big that by comparison, bigness itself looks really titchy. Gigantic multiplied by colossal multiplied by staggeringly huge is the sort of concept we’re trying to get across here.” Islington The London borough of Islington is where Arthur went to a party and met Trillian, in a flat whose phone number mapped to the probability of his and Ford’s rescue. It’s also the location of the cave Arthur inhabited on prehistoric earth, which then turned out to be where Fenchurch lived. Links capita - Paradise Circus: A Birmingham Miscellany (http://paradisecircus.com/tag/capita/) (1) The Day Today - WAR! - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3BO6GP9NMY) Brownian motion - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownian_motion) 40 years of the Guide : How we picked up Hitchhikers | Beware of the Leopard - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy podcast (http://btlpodcast.com/b/35fea5454f8ec8/) Chuck Klosterman - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Klosterman) Kōan - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Dan) Iain Sinclair - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_Sinclair) Killer tips for winning a game of Monopoly | Den of Geek (http://www.denofgeek.com/games/monopoly/31061/killer-tips-for-winning-a-game-of-monopoly) Follow Danny on Twitter (https://twitter.com/probablydrunk/) Follow Jon on Twitter (https://twitter.com/jonhickman/) Follow Mark on Twitter (https://twitter.com/iamsteadman/)