geekosystem

Science fiction wasn't always the kind of genre that blended well with comedy, at least not on purpose. Some early science fiction was laughable not because of its creator's sense of humor, but for things like gross inaccuracies, cheesy costumes, and canned plots. One man helped change all that. He was Douglas Adams, and he was born on this day, March 11th in 1952.

Yesterday marked the ceremony awarding the 22nd batch of Ig Nobel Prizes for the goofiest, strangest, and altogether most fun inventions, studies and pieces of scientific research of the last year. The awards were presented at Harvard University by the magazine Annals of Improbable Research to 10 researchers whose work ranged from developing the SpeechJammer, a device that disrupts a person's speech patterns by playing their own voice back to them on a slight delay, to research into why coffee spills when you're walking with it. Keep reading for video of the entire awards ceremony.

Having tragically passed away in May of 2001, Douglas Adams of Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy fame never really got to see eBooks blow up the way they have in past years. That said, he totally knew they were going to. The man did think up the Hitchhiker's Guide, after all. Back in 1993, Adams recorded some audio, chronicling the history of the book and its imminent leap into the digital, and as part of a competition, U.K. designer and illustrator Gavin Edwards came up with some impressive video for the audio. Check it out.

Douglas Adams, the author of that staple of sci-fi satire The Hithhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, died 11 years ago at the tender age of 49. For me, and likely for others, it was the first time that an icon of mine died. To celebrate his life and what would be his 60th birthday, his friends and family are putting together an enormous party featuring comedy, Adams' college plays, and music. If you happen to be in London on March 11 at 5:00 P.M., you can take part in this most exciting of revelries.

You know, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency? The other thing that Douglas Adams wrote?

The wild nonlinear romp through causality, the life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and alien ghosts?

...well, the BBC is making an hour-long special out of it, with possible series to follow, if it does well enough.