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

Hi GTB. Wassup?

Hey Luce.

I hadn't subscribed to this page yet, so I only just now found this thread. I'm just about to get started subbing. Without even having read thoroughly, I notice that you've used gender-neutral pronouns and linked to C### pages. Those are both precedent breaking, and will be discussed in the Subs group, you can be sure. I'll let you know if anything's decided.

It looks like a good entry. I'll be subbing it and another one over the course of this week, and I can't think why it shouldn't be done by Friday, or so.

Anyway, thanks for dropping a line. I'll probably also post to the PR thread, just to be subscribed there, and to let any interested Peer Reviewers know what the new A###### is.



GTB

I thought I'd seen C### links before? Oh well. I think they're a good idea, because the reader can see at a glance everything that's been written about (eg) Saudi Arabia. Of course, if we had a specific entry on Saudi Arabia, that'd be better, but till then...

The precedent for GNPs is to replace them with some other mechanism, whether it be s/he or whatever - that's based on two or three sub-eds now. By all means discuss it in the group, though - can't hurt, right?

Ok, the word from the Towers on category links is to take them out, on the grounds that the category system is certainly going to be revamped (re--d?) soon. That seems a shame, but one hopes that, when entries on topics like entire nations hit the Front Page, somebody goes through and finds all the Edited Entries that should link to them. Maybe I'll do that for Norway, which is up there today.

On the pronouns, I'm going to try to slip them through with a linked footnote, the only problem being that 'Gender-Free Pronouns' is still with its SubEditor. Are you in touch with hir by any chance? Any idea how much longer sie'll be? (The funny thing is, I know damn well that he's male, in this case...)

GTB

Well, from his personal space, he's 50% of the way to being declared AWOL... U164010 I prodded him a few days back, but no response.

Incidentally, how soon is soon? Soon I hope!

I hate it when Subs drop off the planet with three entries on their desk... if I ever do that, hunt me down and slap me, wouldja?

Hrm. I'm hoping to get this subbed and returned rather soon, so I guess I'll have to take that link out. When your Gender-Free Prounouns entry finally does cross the Front Page, just drop a note to Editorial Feedback, and they'll get the link added. That's assuming those pronouns stay in here at all. I won't be surprised if an Italic just decides to ixnay the ootnotefay and change the pronouns to the less-than-graceful 'his/her' and 's/he' options.

"how soon is soon?"

Well, I wouldn't know anything about a date or anything, but a little bird told me that the official are leading towards A743014 lately...

Oh goody. I'll keep irritating Jimster by pointing out holes in the current system, and see if that doesn't speed the process up...

<--- for the humour impaired

Say, Martin, I don't like the last sentence in the entry. Lots of alternatives to the GDP... for what? For measuring or indicating this or that... should I consider suicide an alternative to the GDP? Do you have any ideas there, or should I just make something up?

That's a good point - it was added because people thought the entry was biased in favour of PQLI. Perhaps it would be better to just put an 'amongst others' clause in the first sentence of that para?

-Martin

Howzit look now?

Funky

Well, I think I'm done then...

Say, did you get that SBVM photo I emailed a while back?

Yeah, I think so. From the meet, right?

That's the one. I was just checking. Sometimes my computer produces jpegs that other computers can't see.

Question about PQLI. Do you have a source that shows that it "takes into account 13 different indicators, including GDP, employment, education, health, and pollution levels"? I found a link on it, and it shows how to compute PQLI just by averaging Literacy Rate, Infant Mortality Rate, and Life Expectancy, after normalizing each to be a number between 1 and 100. They seem to use a literacy rate that is tweaked to account for Education Expenditures, but that's still only 4 factors, not 13.

That's copied verbatim from the original, and I didn't check it for accuracy

Looking on the web, I think there may be a difference between Amartya Sen's PQLI and other PQLIs. But you may simply have to remove the reference to PQLI as a specific alternative, since I don't really have the info. It can always be described in a later entry, after all.

Right, I did a few minutes of research (we love Google), and rewrote the last paragraph accordingly. I'll give it another re-read later today, and then probably send it in.

Excellent - mentioning three different indicators definately improves the entry, IMO