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

Hi guys. Sorry for the delay with this. I *will* get back to it.

Actually, I hope to get some writing done tomorrow and to get the online version updated then or the day after. (I may not get online tomorrow: I'll be busy in the evening and it's expensive during the day.)

See ye!

TRiG.

In the GB emissions are tested annually in cars 3 years of age and older.

Some of the suggested changes have been made on a rather unsystematic basis. I'll go back over the entire thread to extract out other suggestions that I've skipped over this time.

See ye,

TRiG.

Still working on this one, TRiG?

This seems like a very good Entry to me. Have you incorporated all of the feedback yet? (I haven't been following this discussion) And is it just me, or have some of the characters in this text gone awry? I see little diamonds and question marks and Japanese/Chinese glyphs in spurious positions.

Where do you see the spurious characters? Give an example.

Sorry, I think it's my problem. I saw one somewhere else on the site. Probably something to do with my font configuration/availability.

May I just 'chip in' with something I heard on the BBC 1 News this morning, and which I thought relevant to this Entry:

It was said that in the next 25 years global pollution from all sources will exceed all the pollution pushed out by all sources since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Or words to that effect!

Keep breathing deeply! While you still can!

the aritcle is really good, I lurnt something



mans only hope is antimatter, or nuclier energy, it all depends on which one cant be used as a wepon!

The first thing that strikes me is that there are too many footnotes in this entry. It makes it really hard to read to have to keep popping up and down in the entry, and as it's got lots of chemicals etc in it, it breaks my concentration and makes it unreadable. I can also see what appears to be a 'note to yourself in footnote 15 which needs fixing.

I suggest that you don't footnote references, but rather just add them as a list at the bottom of the entry if you want to keep them there, that will cut down on a few - 8, 11, 16, 21, 23. Some of them are links to other sites - just use the word you've footnoted to put the link on, and a few more will go, 1, 6, 7, 19, 22 (which is identical to 7), 24 and 25 (again identical to 7). I don't think we need three links to the same place.

Once they've been done we might have a more manageble amount left, although I really don't think we need footnote 2. You could add that to the entry as an 'interesting fact', but I don't think it's really necessary to pick out that one word to comment on.

Otherwise I think this is a worthy entry.

The first thing to strike me is that paragraphs 1 and 2 focus solely on four-stroke engines - and nowhere do I see mention of two-strokes...

<>

What does 'local' mean?

and
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I acknowledge that _most_ cars are 4-strokes... but I strikes me as odd that there's no mention of 2-strokes, which are undeniably 'guilty' on the "chemical pollution" front - so... I suggest omitting the 'four-stroke' bits... even if that means omitting the bits about Otto

The history of who did what first is open to conjecture anyhoo...

http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/auto.html
Q. Who invented the automobile?
A. Karl Benz

http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aacarsgasa.htm
The History of the Automobile
The Internal Combustion Engine and Early Gas-Powered Cars

http://www.the-vu.com/forgotten_hero.htm
Forgotten Hero
The man who invented the two-stroke engine

PS On the number of footnotes, I agree - but you don't have to click on them to read them - just float your mouse over them (this works in Firefox, Netscape, Internet Exploiter and [of course] <>Opera </&gt

That doesn't work in my Opera for some reason, and the longer ones are too long to read in Firefox. If they were more valuable, I wouldn't worry, but it's distracting.

'Twas a college assignment. It's already been tweeked a good bit, but could do with a good bit more. It is on my to do list, really it is! Though I haven't touched it in I don't know how long. Might get some done tonight, actually.

Thanks for the input.

TRiG.

I thought it might be from the references. It would be good if we could link to the same footnote more than once, which would solve much of the problem.

Let us know when you've been able to tweak it, and we can have another look.

Here's a start:

Delete Footnote 4 entirely (no need to justify/explain spelling of sulphur).

Delete Footnote 6 but put the hyperlink for 'How Stuff Works between 'REFERENCE' tags (which go between the 'GUIDE' and 'BODY' tags at the end.

Delete Footnote 7 but hyperlink 'organic' to A388217.

Delete Footnote 8 but hyperlink 'effect on climate' to 'Global Warming' at A197499.

Delete Footnote 9.

I'll be back later. Mr BA is calling me for breakfast

... cont'd/

Delete Footnote 12 and link 'carbon monoxide toxicity' to either A6359060 (Carbonm and its Inorganic Compounds), or to A817880 (Hypoxia, CO, Poisoning and Drowning).

Delete Footnote 24 and link somehow to Mina's Entry at A3913445 (Driving Cars in an Environmentally Friendly Way).

Changes made:

Some references removed, others made into links in main text, as suggested. Number of footnotes thereby drastically reduced.

Suggested Solutuions section edited. Some of the anti-4x4 sentiment removed. (I must admit that I dislike SUVs and the like because of the damage these high vehicles can do to pedestrians. And Jeeps with bull-bars!)

GuideML updated a bit more, but some of it is still in lower case. I'll continue to work on that.

Bit on Otto is still in for now, but might well come out later.

I need to do more work on particulate matter.

I need to rewrite this: [Acid rain also mobilises aluminium ions in the soil, ultimately causing the death of e.g. pond organisms and plants - because it would be concentrated in ponds.]Shamelessly stolen from the Peer Review thread: I need to do more research myself.

"The local effects of car pollution." I mean that I'm not going to go on about global warming or rising sea levels (though both are mentioned in passing). I'm talking about cities or large towns where there are many cars and other vehicles crammed together belching out fumes: What are those fumes doing right here right now? Other things, like the pollution caused by the production and transport of fuel, are, again, mentioned in passing. I think that the title, Atmospheric Pollution from the Internal Combustion Engine in the Urban Environment, sums it up as well as anything.

I *like* footnote 2 (well, footnote 1, now). It's staying there until the sub-editor gets hold of it.

TRiG.

I worked on this offline and so missed the last round of suggestions. I did keep a previous version saved on my computer so I'll be able to work out which footnotes BigAl was referring to. I will keep working on this. No, really! I mean it this time.

TRiG.

"Some of the anti-4x4 sentiment removed."

I left some in my entry, as did the Sub and the Eds.

I don't have time to read through this again at the moment, but I'll come back again soon.