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

I would like to recommend this entry http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A532135 about the care and training of bonsai trees, written by George (the babbling) Brooke. It's beautifully written, moving and informative. George explains the origins, development and meaning of the bonsai tradition and provides advice on how to proceed with selecting and training your own tree.

It's a lovely little article, however I would like to see one addition: the role Zen Buddhism has played in the evolution of bonsai as an art form. Zen promotes artistic creation (including bonsai) as an extension of the one's practice. The care involved in creating and shaping a bonsai is considered a form of meditation in and of itself. I don't think the art of bonsai would have developed to this extent without that spiritual background.

Anyway, it would make a interesting little historical aside.

Alwright Fraulein, I'll mention that. Zen Buddhism HAS played an important role in the evolution of bonsai as an art form, and according to my research, the earliest pruining potted trees was in India.

Pardon me, 'pruning OF potted trees'.

Very informative!

Here's a few suggestions:

1) Remove the first person bits (i.e., all the "I"s), as edited guide entries of this sort are written in third person.

2) There are a few parts where really long lists come into play, and make a paragraph really insanely text heavy. I would suggest formatting those as actual lists (i.e., one item per line) to inhance readability.

Keep up the good work!


Mikey

Thank you Mikey, but it is very difficult to edit my entree because I am not very good at the GuideML. I hope to ammass more sugestions and re-write it all in one fail swoop.

I think the eds will be happy to sort out the GuideML if you don't want to mess about with it.

Hi, I just would like to add my support to this entry as its well written and is a good subject for the guide imho.

If you need to learn some GuideML George either talk to a guru or go to the GuideML clinic. Its very easy, I managed to teach myself the basics of it in about half a day. All you have to do is put GuideML tags around sections of your work:



This is a title which will have a blue bar around it
This is a paragraph GUIDE ML tag which is then closed
Another paragraph
This is anotherpragraph
See how others have written their home pages by changing the "U" in the url to "testuserpage". Eg. for my space the url is http://www.bbc.co.uk/guide/U94957 to see the GideML source change it to http://www.bbc.co.uk/guide/testuserpage94957



The above is typically how a guideML article will look when you view it as source as I've explained above.

Hope that helps.

Orcus &

Sorry change that to:

Hi, I just would like to add my support to this entry as its well written and is a good subject for the guide imho.

If you need to learn some GuideML George either talk to a guru or go to the GuideML clinic. Its very easy, I managed to teach myself the basics of it in about half a day. All you have to do is put GuideML tags around sections of your work:



This is a title which will have a blue bar around it
This is a paragraph GUIDE ML tag which is then closed
Another paragraph
This is anotherpragraph
See how others have written their home pages by changing the "U" in the url to "testuserpage". Eg. for my space the url is http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/U94957 to see the GideML source change it to http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/testuserpage94957



The above is typically how a guideML article will look when you view it as source as I've explained above.

Hope that helps.

Orcus &

My problem is, whenever I edit a page, the preview shows those an annoying red phrase at the top and the pictures don't go throught a second time. Is there a way around this?

What a fantastic entry!

Putting your headings (e.g. The creation of Bonsai) inside header tags:
The Creation of Bonsai

and using blockquotes around the letter from your mother:

Dearest George....JLC the TTP might be a good idea.

Perhaps the problem you're having when you edit is that you've got an error in your GUIDE_ML? (I'm not certain exactly what you're getting at, but this is my best guess) If so, in my case at least, it's usually a failure to close a tag. It should tell you on the page where the error is. If you get stuck, duplicate the entry, write the guideML as you want it, and then put a message on my page, and I'll have a look at it for you. I'm not an expert, but I usually manage to fix my own code.

Uh.. that is... if you're having problems, play with the guideML on the duplicate, that way if you have to leave it half-fixed, people can still read THIS copy, and can comment on it through Peer Review.

Thank you for your suggestion. I have re-edited the page and now it looks better, but the didn't work, neither did the italicizing .

Hi George, I've reread your entry, I think its good, interesting, well written and your feel for bonsai comes through.
I think you need to change the part written in first person to third person as Mikey said. Not because I'd prefer it that way but because that fits the entry guidelines. If you don't do it it will probably be done during the editing process. If you do it the entry will all be in your words.
The way this is usually handled is to say something like "One reaeacher had the following experience...." or in your case it might be "One researcher received the following letter when.......". I think this sounds a bit stilted, maybe someone out there can think of a better way of turning it from first to third person.
Waz
PS Bonsai Boabab! That's about the last tree I would ever have thought of. Have you seen one?

If you read the entree on Baobob, there is mention of Bonsai. I was hoping for a link that would make my page more popular.

Very nice... I'd like to add my support for this piece.
You can put the personal bits into blockquotes.. that's certainly allowed.

thank you for such a nice piece,
Ariel

You're certainly welcome, Ariel. Once again I play the host of the party. Does anyone want any ?

What a really nice, uplifting entry. This should certainly be in The Edited Guide.

Don't I know you from somwhere?

Hello,

I certainly think it's a nice entry and worthy for inclusion into the guide. Unfortunately, I've already made my picks, but maybe another scout will notice. Helloooo! Over here!

Yours,
Jake