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

Hmm. Well I thought some of the 'picture' of seen in the EG are also available as 'blobs'.

The point is, why can't we insert 'blobs' where we would like there to be a 'picture' so that during the editing process, the editors would realise that the author would quite like a picture there and then commision the h2g2 artist?

Hmm dunno... Maybe it's not so easy to get artists?

HELL

Thing is, *everyone* would like a picture with their entry, and there's no way the community artists could cope with doing a picture for every entry. If the italics think the entry warrants a picture, they will commission one, otherwise the entry has to go without. Researchers adding blobs in their entries will only attract comments of the sort 'Take the picture out, if it needs one it will get one when it gets edited', so there's no point in putting a blob in your entry yourself.

Hope that makes sense

Yep, absolutely!

Or, to put it another way, the artists are working really hard to meet current demand and I'm still having to do whole weeks'worth of graphics too.

I've just attempted to address your observation/objection concerning countries of the Med. Hell.

How about:


However, as another Researcher points out, as a list of the 'Mediterranean countries', it has shortcomings: For example, it is not complete.The complete list would be, starting from Spain clockwise around the Mediterranean sea: Spain, Monaco, France, Italy, SLovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Lybia, Tunisia, Algeria and Morroco. And also Cyprus and Malta which are islands. Hungary does not border any sea. Sicily is not a country. He points out that it's a nice word-play with boots and hunger and eating turkey; but as a mnemonic it's quite dodgy.

HELL

That looks good. Hell

I've also now put in the paragraph tags correctly, so this entry is now complete- except that I hope that, from time to time, people will send me new entries - which should also mean than new categories appear.

Hi Radioactiv

Is this pickable as far as you're concerned?

Yes, it is.

This doesn't look ready yet to me:

-There is a Botany subheader with nothing attached to it

-The human wrist bones one says:
"Note to myself: 2 of these don't fit the mnemonic and so have probably got alternative names. They are in square brackets. Need to check this."

-The 'Medicine' subheader says
"These entries are currently included under 'Biology'."

As far as the content is concerned, I wouldn't agree that

Sir Humphrey Davy
Abominated Gravy
He lived in the odium
Of having discovered sodium.

is a mnemonic at all--it's just a clerihew which happens to contain an interesting fact. I don't think it belongs in this entry.


Azara

I also find this one odd:

"9. Elements found in proteins:
Use the mnemonic NICe CHOPS
Each capital letter is the chemical symbol for the element."

Is this really supposed to be Nitrogen, Iodine, Carbon, Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Phosphorus and Sulphur?

Azara

I don't actually know. I'd never heard this mnemonic until a colleague informed me of it this week - and he can't remember exactly what it means. He was going to look it up for me, but he must have forgotten.

(I wrote the 'NICE' as 'NICe' because this is how I thought it might go; but perhaps it doesn't

I'll 'google it' and see if I can clarify.

I can see that this needs a lot of work, still. In particular, you need to get your headers, subheaders and subsubheaders sorted out, as it is all over the place at the moment!

Let us know when you've tidied it up and I'll have a read through it.

I'll look through again and tidy it up a bit.

The reason there is a 'Botany' header with nothing attached to it is to indicate that there is scope for adding new sub-headers when people send me new mnemonics. (I'm sure there must be loads of botanical mnemonics; it's just that I happen to not know any.

In a sense, this is a work that is (intended to be) never finished.

P.S.

I forgot about my comment regarding the mnemonic for human writbones. I'll consult with 'z' (U185843) to see if he can clarify that for me.

I disagree that a clerihew is not a mnemonic, Azara. The way chemistry works - a consqequence of the Periodic Table of the elements - is that once one can recall that it was Sir Humphrey Day who discovered sodium, one has also recalled that he did much investigative work into electrolysis and that it was he who discovered most of the reactive metals (potassium, calcium, strontium, barium and magnesium).i.e. One has recalled much more than a single interesting fact!

The human wrist bones one says:
"Note to myself: 2 of these don't fit the mnemonic and so have probably got alternative names. They are in square brackets. Need to check this."

Reference "The 'Medicine' subheader says
"These entries are currently included under 'Biology'.". This is inserted because the Entry is supposed to be a working document. Somebody looking for 'Medical' entries might not think to look under 'Biology' unless (s)he were guided there.

When there are some more overtly 'Medical' entries, I'll put them under 'Medicine'.

I didn't mean to include that 3rd para. above. I pasted in Azara's comments so that I could address them adequately, and forgot to delete that poara about the wristbones before posting.

But you've provided an explanation of a mnemonic at the beginning of the entry:

"The main function of mnemonic devices is to organize sequences or lists of information that are, by themselves, difficult to recall, into more concrete patterns that can be recalled by association."

An isolated fact is not a sequence or list of information, so a poem containing an isolated fact (like the Davy clerihew) is not a menmonic.

You say
"The way chemistry works - a consqequence of the Periodic Table of the elements - is that once one can recall that it was Sir Humphrey Day who discovered sodium, one has also recalled that he did much investigative work into electrolysis and that it was he who discovered most of the reactive metals (potassium, calcium, strontium, barium and magnesium).i.e. One has recalled much more than a single interesting fact!"

It's not the clerihew that enables you to remember that he discovered most of the reactive metals--it's the separate list that you (individually) have memorised. So again, I think you are completely wrong on this!

In more general terms, if this is intended to be a work in progress, being continually updated, I think it's a mistake to try and make it an Edited Entry. If you keep it under your own control, you can update it as often as you like. If it becomes an Edited Entry, you will have to keep contacting Editorial Feedback to try and make changes. This seems an unnecessary drain on everyone's time, especially since there is already a reasonably long Edited Entry on the subject.


Azara

The 'reasonably long Edited Entry on the subject' is not partciluarly user-friendly if one wishes to recallfind a mnemonic for a specific function.

I agree with you that perhaps the EG is not the best place for an Entry of this kind. It was one of the first if not the first that I wrote and hence its shortcomings have led to a long gestation. However, we are always being encouraged to keep Entries fresh and updated, and this one is intrinsically that. I can't see how it wastes peoples time if once every six months or once per year one puts it through to be updated.

I'll look again at what I put in para 1 to see if it needs modifying. Howevere, the prime function of a mnemonic device is to remember whatever it is one wishes to remember. (So, by this definition a knot in a handkerchief is a mnemonic device). However, they tend to be partcularly useful for remembering lists.

I think I've dealt with Azara's concerns; which involved modifying the introduction slightly.

I think I've also sorted out the Headers, sub-heades as well.

'Z' has given me a few more medical mnemonics which I'll insert as soon as I've regenerated my stamina.