Glossary: A Hitchhikers Guide to Berriland


Alphabetic listing of places, words, phrases and acronyms with their definitions, carefully and skilfully crafted by Alex’s sister, Isabella. Crib for the underlying themes and jokes.

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
M.O.B. - Man Overboard
Malcom Robinson - Joint (Hobart-based) Berri webmaster with Steve Jackson.
Malta - Where Alex was born. Pete and Alex flew out there in June 2005.
Manacles - From the Cornish Maen Eglos or Church Rocks, named because St Keverne’s church above provided a vital sailors’ landmark to avoid these infamous rocks at the entrance to Carrick Roads and Falmouth Harbour
Marvin - The manically depressed robot with a “brain the size of a planet” from HHGTTG
Mc Vities - The best biscuits for dunking
Mercator Projection - Method of drawing a map which allows a straight course to be plotted simply, but does not take into account the curvature of the Earth; see also Great Circle
Meridian - An imaginary great circle on the surface of the Earth, passing through North and South geographic poles. All points on the same meridian have the same longitude. Meridian can also be used to describe either half of such a circle from pole to pole
Merlin - Merlin calculator
Minipooptillionth - A very, very, little bit, and definitely smaller than a pooptillionth
MMSI - Maritime Mobile Station Identity; used for radios with digital selective calling (DSC), as well as AIS (Automatic Identification System) transponders. It allows two vessels with radios that have this capability to exchange information about who they are and where they're going without need for voice contact . There is a unique numeric identifier for each user of AIS system.
Moitessier - Moitessier, Bernard: single-handed circumnavigator famous for abandoning 1969 Golden Globe Challenge, for very interesting idealistic reasons, when victory was in sight
MSL - Mean Sea Level; the height of the sea after averaging out changes of wind, waves and tide
Mungies - Beans sprouted on board if it’s warm enough
Murphy - 1- The inventor of Murphy’s Law which states (in various ways) that if something can go wrong, it will. 2- Irish beer