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

The same thing's happening with entry titles. The Eds are applying Procrustean rules to get them to fit the Weird and Wonderful Widget. This one will be OK, thank goodness.

A41936286 - Isaac Asimov

PDA! that's what I couldn't remember.

I guess this is the wrong place to join in the about shortening the Entry titles?

*exit, stage left*

Well, I guess it could be shorted to 'Asimov' and everyone would still know what it's about

The temporary changing of titles (so long as they go back afterwards)to suit the Weird and Wonderful Widget don't both me. If it helps to keep h2g2 in public view and afloat, that's got to be a good thing. What I am objecting to is the *permanent* removal of footnotes and modification of links to suit the preferences of a small audience using poor web-browsing hardware.

btw I also use a PDA, but I don't expect it to have the same functionality as my home PC.

Procrustean is exactly the right term for footnotes that don't fit the platform. Very apt. I love it

Is it possible to change the programming of the website so that footnotes are handled in a PDA friendly way?

Here, paily:

?



(reminds me of a postcard with a picture of the earth and inside it says 'having a wonderful time, wish you were here')

Nice entry, very save! I was a big Asmiov fan in my yoof.

There are a few nitpicks, mostly gramma:

>books of humour and limericks, children's books

The children's sci-fi books, the Lucky Starr Series, were originally written under the pseudonym Paul French. He also wrote porn as 'Dr A'.

>Dr. Asimov's first science fiction novel was published in 1950

What was it? Maybe Pebble in the Sky?

>Because of his fear of flying

You didn't mention this before - perhaps say 'see below'.

>'I, Robot' later evolved into 'The Complete Robot' by the addition of the 1986 story 'Robot Dreams'.

This sounds like there is only one more story in The Complete Robot than in I, Robot. In fact, it's got over twice as many stories.

>additional novels feature the character Elijah Baley, a human detective, and his robotic counterpart, R Daneel Olivaw. In 'Caves of Steel' he lovingly creates underground cities,

Sounds like Lije Bailey or R Daneel are creating cities!

>a simply enough goal

Simple enough

>The original Foundation trilogy comprised

Elsewhere you have capitalised the T in Foundation Trilogy.

The italicised text in the Notable Characters section need to be separated out.

>Seldon appears most of the Foundation books

Appears IN most

>Asimov had lain himself to rest

Laid

>while latter stories

Later

>the so-called Zeroth law of robotics

Capitals for Law of Robotics.

>BBC2 did a production of

BBC2 produced

>a romantic interest for Andrew (Williams)

Since you've already explained that Williams plays Andrew, I would suggest you drop the word in brackets here.

>but they soon seemed to be ignored

seem (rest of the sentence is present tense)

>the film and book have little more than a title in common

That's not quite fair... one character and elements of the plot were also taken from Asimov's stories. And it's waaaay better as a movie than The Bicentennial Man!



Gif

I had not realised that there was a previous lack of Asimov representation in the guide. I both thank you, and not the least envy you in the task.

This man was so prolific, on so many fronts, that just framing the entry boggles my mind. But, as you've proven so brave as to set out on the journey, let me ask that you consider the following notes.

Isaac Asimov was a long-time member, and Vice President, of Mensa International; a post that he never really sought as he felt that the membership was 'aggressive', and suffered from pride, in their show of intelligence.

He sat on the boards of at least one dictionary when they chose which words to drop or add to the books.

Mentioning that he wrote a completist reference compendia on 'The Bible', is a bit misleading. Yes, the Isaac Asimov Guide to the Bible was a reference work, but probably not 'complete'. His goal was to completely ignore/shy from the theologic and religious aspects of the Bible. What he did do so well was to track the information, it's socio-political meaning in the time context, and describe the effects and impacts of events.

You may want to standardise the use of Three Laws of Robotics. Sometimes you capitalised only one or two of the words.

He was a prolific contributor to the Ellery Queen Magazines.

I found no mention of the series he wrote with the central character 'Lucky Star', before much was understood about what real space-travel might be like. (He wrote them under the pen name, Paul French. I particular liked the one with the v-frogs who ate grease-covered ball-bearings!)

Best of luck and what is shaping up to be a most excellent entry!

Wasn't he a founder member of CSICOP (the Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal) too?

Busy guy!

Gif

Hi Gif - thanks for doing such a detailed read and picking up stuff I'd missed. I've incorporated just about all of your comments and corrections.

FT - I've added a sentence on the Lucky Starr series, also suggested by Gif and taken out 'completist'. I kept meaning to go back to that but never did. As you say, Asimov had so many strings to his bow, but this entry was a Flea Market rescue and I wanted to be as minimally invasive as possible to the original author's work. Anyway I'm going to draw a line under this as of now, and not add any further new material - eg MENSA etc.

Thanks to everybody for your input

Hi H5!

Yes, I noticed that it had been in FM. These were certainly not your omissions, and I'm glad you took it on.

It's all good, though, when it comes to updates. There was a reason (reasons?) that it was sent to FM). Hopefully, we can help you ready it for another round at PR and the EG! Perhaps being a bit invasive is what it needs, n'est-ce pas, wakarimasu ka?

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've therefore moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

woohay

I predicted this would happen...

all

Congratulations!

So this entry has gone up to heaven now?


Congratulations