Talk:The Black Cloud

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it's a splendid book, but why does hoyle refer to a "tooth comb" (page 39 of my ancient penguin paperpack edition")?? I am not British. What is a tooth comb? I have heard of a fine-toothed comb or a fine-tooth comb, but never a tooth comb. Is this some eccentric british device? Or is this an early sign that hoyle was mad? (decades later his book on geology, and his steady state theory were evident signs of a madman). Hehe. Seminumerical 09:29, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

Hoyle was simply not a good stylist. Like many, he thought that a "fine-tooth comb" was a "fine tooth-comb". This particular solecism has since had such an airing in Britain that it is rather less common now.

[edit] Plagiarism

The section "Plagiarism by other authors" needs references, otherwise it looks like original research.--Tabun1015 20:31, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

Removed. Since ideas can't be plagiarised and the writing is all new, it isn't plagiarism. Shsilver 01:30, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Possible links with other themes in Science Fiction

It would take a researcher to actually validify The Black Cloud was a fore-runner in presenting certain themes in Science Fictions that were used in subsequent set-ups:

- namely the theme of the independent, partly anorganic super-brain that is independent of physical and/or earthly limitations (also e.g. Vger in Star Trek, or even later the Borg, with beings from solid planets abducted into a non-organic super-system) Thomas Körtvélyessy 17:17, 15 July 2007 (UTC)