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

Hi, BigAl. I got your Christmas Card entry and it struck me as being still a tad rough. Since your last post was

>> I'd made some changes but hadn't acknowledged them as I still had it in mind to consider some of the things which (I think) Leo had suggested.<<

I was wondering if you'd acquiece to thinking about some of those changes. AT the very least, I have the following questions before I start anything :

Most suitable species, second paragraph: what on earth?

Most unsuitable species: second paragraph: what class do house mice, brown bears, and black bears fall into?

Must unsuitable species third paragraph: What is the difficulty introduced but not mentioned?

Thanks!

'Most suitable species, second paragraph: what on earth?'

Probably better to rephrase this as 'most inappropriate species (i.e. least relevance t Christas.

'Most unsuitable species: second paragraph: what class do house mice, brown bears, and black bears fall into?'

Well, all I meant hereis that, under an animal classification system, Mickey would be a mouse, Rubert would be a brown bear and Teddy a black bear. (In terms of 'appropriateness to hristmas, as I said, this teds to be in the eye ofthe beholder, and may just lead to interesting faily discussion as to hether the animal hasmuch relevace to Christmas or not.

'Must unsuitable species third paragraph: What is the difficulty introduced but not mentioned?'

'distortion' woyuld be better ord (i.e distortion in the proprtionsof various nimals depicted on the cards one has received.

I did a bit of reorganising. You can take a look and see if you object: 16646790

Here's a few questions:

>>Many legendary, heraldic and cartoon creatures can be put in Class <!--capitalize?!--> Reptilia (modern or extinct).<<

- scientifically, the word 'class' is capitalised?


>>can be grouped with horses, but the greatest controversies occur over the Colley Bird (Coaley bird = blackbird?? Calling bird = starling?)<!--!--> >>

- Um, can you turn this sentence from notation into English?


I added a section called 'Confounding Variables' for the two examples you give of, well,confounding variables.

I can rephrase the paragraphs myself, but I'd like to give you a crack at it, particularly since you're more familiar with the lingo:

>>The cards of one or two specialist charities <!--?!--> can easily distort the numbers of, for example, Emperor penguins in your census.<<

- Do you mean like Greenpeace or Defenders of Wildlife who will certainly have cute baby animals on their cards? What other specialist charities could there be?

Can't find (A)16646790 Leo.

However,

> '...can be grouped with horses, but the greatest controversies occur over the Colley Bird, sometimes known as the Coaley bird, which could mean either the blackbird (i.e. 'black as coal') or 'calling bird', meaning starling?)<!--!--> >>

>>The cards of one or two specialist charities <!--?!--> can easily distort the numbers of, for example, Emperor penguins in your census.<<

>Invoilvement with charities, either specialist animal charities or otherwise can also distort the numbers of certain animals. For example, the World Wildlife Fund has a <LINK H2G2= "A5316554" pandalogo, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society has, well, <LINK H2G2= "A143858" whales and <LINK H2G2= "A183359dolphins, whilst a non-animal charity, the Samaritans, currently has Emperor penguins on one of its Christmas cards.

A16646790

I think I'm just aboutdone, except the links.

but what is it with capitalising 'class'?

'...World Wildlife Fund has a pandalogo' > panda logo

There will be further if a member of the family has an animal or hunting-related hobby such as ponies, cats or fishing. > further distortions

'but what is it with capitalising 'class'? Well, I don't reallyhave an issue with this, I think to a large extent it's personal preference, and my PP is to capitalise it. But, as I say, I'm not worried one way or the other.

P.S. Can't understand that A16646790 link. The figures were correct but when I typed them in it wasn't recognised. However, it worked when I clicked your hyperlink.


BTW, Better put 'Rolf Harris Appreciation Society' into inverted commas as I don't think an organisation with that specific name actually exists. I invented it to convey the point.

Done and done, I think. The link for the Linnean classification system got lost... not sure how. Was it off-site? I included the hootoo entry on classification, but don't know if that's *linnean* per se.

Dang... not sure if I just lost all the changes I made or if the system is taking longer to update the entry... but if I *didn't* lose all the changes, it should be ready to go, except for the Linnean bit.

Just bouncing this up, now that I see that you're back. I want to get it back in time for the holiday.

Hi Leo,

Didn't realise you were still awaiting input from me.

That 'Linnean' link is fine - I thought it was the one I'd intended anyway.

Have a great Chreistmas.

A.

Same to you!
Whoosh... there it goes.