h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What is this?
An interesting introduction leads us to an amazon.com logo?
This 'article' is an advertisement. An Approved Guide Advertisment, trhe first of its kind.
The book is by an in-house researcher, which makes it okay I suppose, but I do hope h2g2 can manage to balance between free-given info by the people for the people and the onslaught of commercialism.

Crusader, how did you come about this entry. Was it written, read and approved like all the others? Is there a deal involved with amazon.com? Are we expecting more teasers like this one?

Nonetheless, it's a good article. It gives a tempting feel of the rain forest, at least the first few paragraphs do.

Dear Prez,

Thank you for your (grudging?) approval of my entry. It's nice to know one's creative efforts ('owever 'umble) are appreciated even if only to a small degree.

First of all, let me clarify that I of course noted in the article that I had written a book about the Amazon - why not? How could I talk about something that has affected my whole life without mentioning something which I feel was a contribution in return? Also if there is a link to the book, and someone reads the reviews, buys the book and decides to travel to the Amazon that might be one less person who buys tropical hardwood furniture or one more person who contributes to rainforest cnservation - as a result of their visit. I was but a small link in the chain. In that instance, I would like think (to paraphrase E. F. Schumacher) I have been "part of the cure rather than the disease."

Second, I did not ask for the amazon.com logo. This was included by the editors. And in any case, I am pleased they did so. I disagree with your comment "the 'article' is an advertisement". If you mean for amazon.com - surely they are well-enough known already. I view this as a convenient service for h2g2 readers. If the article is an advertisement for the Amazon rainforest, then so what? Big deal! I hope it encourages people to travel there, which in turn may perhaps reduce the economic pressures that are driving its destruction.

Also, I'm glad to offer h2g2 readers some information - albeit personal impressions - about the Amazon, since it is among the most important ecosystems on Earth, and h2g2 is after all, supposed to be a repository of knowledge/wisdom about our beautiful planet.

If course, I expect none of my reasoning changes your mind. That's okay. We're all entitled to our viewpoint! Yet, in the end it may be single-minded perspectives of the world that doom it to a gloomy, boring future - which it surely will be without natural wonders such as the Amazon.

Oh Research Master,
it's not exactly your writing I took up arms against .
I raise my eyebrows at the fact that though it's title, and especially the heading it got on the front page a few days ago, suggested that the article was strictly an impression of the rainforest, while in the end it's about the book you wrote about that impression, but that's okay. As I said, the impressionistic bit is well-written, as is the entire article really, and why not inform your readers that thre's a bok by your hand?

It's the things like the logo, and especially the fact that I had seen the page with H2G2 Ltd's investors a moment before, that I was keen to think perhaps h2g2 had made a deal with amazon.com.
They probably haven't, although they did put in the link. I'm probably seeing commercialism creeping up on the site where it's not, and so i'll be quiet

Prez, check out the (non-commercialized) entry on Impressions of the Galapagos - let me know what you think!

Research Master