gmane.science.linguistics.wikipedia.misc

108 Wikipedias had their logo updated

Federico Leva (Nemo — 2013-05-14T21:55:10

As you may remember, in 2010 the Wikipedia puzzle logo was updated: 
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia/2.0>
The localisation and update of logos has always been a volunteer-driven 
effort, organised mostly by Casey at the time. Building on his work,[1] 
in the last 6 months over 100 Wikipedias had their logo updated,[2] with 
the last batch yesterday.
Like the 55 Wiktionaries in December,[3] many of those wikis have never 
had a localised before; the others were still using the v1 logo or had 
some other breach of the visual guidelines.
Many thanks to all the translators and users checking the new logos, and 
to the tireless Odder who drew some 66 of those logos and uploaded even 
more in the process of doing so. Again, you can still help by adding 
translations and reporting errors on the coordination page.[1]

Nemo

[1] <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Cbrown1023/Logos>
[2] 108 if I'm counting correctly. 
<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/buglist.cgi?bug_id=40285,44974,46589,48397>
[3] 
<http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/translators-l/2012-December/002193.html>

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An interesting Wikipedia game in The Hindu newspaper,India

Frederick FN Noronha फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या *فريدريك نورونيا — 2013-04-21T14:51:08

Qwikipedia
Full-Text Online
Library<http://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=C1aL9OvxzUZP0I4K0sQbdyIFIkoHjmgPaxaDqMrqo9q1NEAEgvYO_E1DdzZ33_f____8BYOXq5oO8DqAB0oq6-wPIAQGoAwGqBKEBT9Cb6EPR6b_HcuMlW1Sysv7y3HNkFs4T8vBjTstBy-IbUp2D4suDcMSx-Zdb1xuI8SH3OiBvwSPWzgtZigAE1sdND3AA9OONo58iVB0AbDoKAN47Soj09NGY_a1wkP8RpJA3DcHEFzpMqtZ7wMnn_eFTMGxw3S5a2KZKnDhVzpMAuA2k6z5z1qepPofEm87GXMRIHCn1ZMLXTR3Vceh4b7WIBgGAB5b1xQQ&num=1&cid=5GiccUjAfPkSpS84BOzlfqnb&sig=AOD64_3J9-OlOclslBPjrIAkL0iwOcSvLQ&client=ca-hindu_site_html&adurl=http://www.questia.com/free-trial%3Frefid%3Dg_remktng>
- Read full books, journals, articles & more with a Free Trial at Questia
www.Questia.com/FreeTrial<http://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=C1aL9OvxzUZP0I4K0sQbdyIFIkoHjmgPaxaDqMrqo9q1NEAEgvYO_E1DdzZ33_f____8BYOXq5oO8DqAB0oq6-wPIAQGoAwGqBKEBT9Cb6EPR6b_HcuMlW1Sysv7y3HNkFs4T8vBjTstBy-IbUp2D4suDcMSx-Zdb1xuI8SH3OiBvwSPWzgtZigAE1sdND3AA9OONo58iVB0AbDoKAN47Soj09NGY_a1wkP8RpJA3DcHEFzpMqtZ7wMnn_eFTMGxw3S5a2KZKnDhVzpMAuA2k6z5z1qepPofEm87GXMRIHCn1ZMLXTR3Vceh4b7WIBgGAB5b1xQQ&num=1&cid=5GiccUjAfPkSpS84BOzlfqnb&sig=AOD64_3J9-OlOclslBPjrIAkL0iwOcSvLQ&client=ca-hindu_site_html&adurl=http://www.questia.com/free-trial%3Frefid%3Dg_remktng>
Ads by Google<http://www.google.com/url?ct=abg&q=https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/request.py%3Fcontact%3Dabg_afc%26url%3Dhttp://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-in-school/qwikipedia/article4634952.ece%26gl%3DIN%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dca-hindu_site_html%26hideleadgen%3D1%26ai0%3DC1aL9OvxzUZP0I4K0sQbdyIFIkoHjmgPaxaDqMrqo9q1NEAEgvYO_E1DdzZ33_f____8BYOXq5oO8DqAB0oq6-wPIAQGoAwGqBKEBT9Cb6EPR6b_HcuMlW1Sysv7y3HNkFs4T8vBjTstBy-IbUp2D4suDcMSx-Zdb1xuI8SH3OiBvwSPWzgtZigAE1sdND3AA9OONo58iVB0AbDoKAN47Soj09NGY_a1wkP8RpJA3DcHEFzpMqtZ7wMnn_eFTMGxw3S5a2KZKnDhVzpMAuA2k6z5z1qepPofEm87GXMRIHCn1ZMLXTR3Vceh4b7WIBgGAB5b1xQQ&usg=AFQjCNH-R3h8KoYl3l5YQ3lvMUACirxO6Q>
SHARE · PRINT<http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-in-school/qwikipedia/article4634952.ece?css=print>
· T+<http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-in-school/qwikipedia/article4634952.ece#>

-
-
-
- [image: photos: S. James, bijoy Ghosh, ap, afp]
photos: S. James, bijoy Ghosh, ap, afp

*What is Qwikipedia?*

Ever been on Wikipedia to look up an article? More often than not, we start
with one topic, click a few links and within no time are reading about
something else.

Qwikipedia is a game that tries to quench this curiosity in us. The
objective is to get to a particular wiki page, starting from a specific
article, using minimal clicks. There is no single correct answer, so we
might surprise ourselves by finding new routes each time!

*Saturday's Surfer*

Ambulance —> Christopher Reeves

*Ambulance*

We're all familiar with the ear-piercing siren that accompanies an
ambulance passing by. Though we usually associate the ambulance with
emergency situations, there are also a class of vehicles called non-urgent
ambulances which transport patients without an urgent acute condition. A
class of ambulances called 'Quick response vehicles' are used reach a
patient quickly and provide on-scene care. These may even be motorcycles or
bicycles and may not have the capacity to transport the patient from the
scene. Today ambulances have advanced so much that most have two-way radio
systems and air-conditioning.

*Air conditioning*

Defined as the process of altering the conditions of air to make it more
favourable, air-conditioning has become something many people in cities
around the world take for granted. It includes any kind of technological
cooling, heating, ventilating or disinfecting. Usually this is done using a
simple refrigeration cycle but sometimes the principles of evaporation is
used. Cornell University graduate Willis Carrier invented the first modern
electrical air-conditioning unit in 1902. The brand Carrier is named after
him. As comfortable as life with an AC is, constant exposure to air
conditioned environments can make you sick especially if the AC is not well
maintained.

*Cornell University*

This American Ivy league University is located in New York. Cornell
University was founded in 1865 on the farm of U.S. Senator Ezra Cornell. It
was inaugurated in 1868 with 412 men who enrolled. Their website claims
that today their main campus has 20,000 students representing 120 countries
who choose from among 4,000 courses in 11 undergraduate, graduate, and
professional schools.

Among the famous alumni of Cornell University are Nobel Laureate Barbara
McClintock, Tata Group's Ratan Tata, pacemaker inventor Wilson Greatbatch
and Superman actor Christopher Reeves.

*Christopher Reeves*

Most famous for his portrayal of the 1978 Superman film, Christopher Reeves
did not lead an easy life. In 1995, he was thrown off a horse during a
competition and damaged his spinal cord.

He became a quadriplegic meaning he was paralysed from neck down. This did
not mean that Reeves gave up on life however. He went on to become an
activist standing up for the needs of people with spinal cord injuries and
founded a research center to further the cause. He died in 2004.

*So the path that we have traversed today is:*

Ambulance —> Air-conditioning —> Cornell University —> Christopher Reeves

Three clicks! Hop over. Its time for the next question:

*Monday's Marauder*

Dickie Bird —> X-Men

Send in your paths for the above to school< at >thehindu.co.in with the subject
“Qwikipedia”. Do include your name, class and school!

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-in-school/qwikipedia/article4634952.ece
FN +91-832-2409490 or +91-9822122436
<http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-in-school/qwikipedia/article4634952.ece>
fn< at >goa-india.org
Audio recordings (mostly from Goa): http://bit.ly/GoaRecordings
Goa,1556 http://www.scribd.com/doc/76671049/Goa1556-Catalogue-Books-from-Goa

Coming soon: http://bit.ly/StrayMangoBranches a new book of short stories.
Special pre-release price till May 31, 2013. Email goa1556< at >gmail.com
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Going to Wikimania? Consider WikiSym as well: Community Track Submissions May 17, 2013

Dirk Riehle — 2013-04-14T15:56:47

Call for Submissions: Community Track at WikSym + OpenSym 2013, the Joint 
International Symposium on Open Collaboration

WikiSym, the 9th International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration
OpenSym, the 2013 International Symposium on Open Collaboration

August 5-7, 2013 | Hong Kong, China

http://opensym.org/wsos2013

In-cooperation with ACM SIGWEB and ACM SIGSOFT. Archived in the ACM Digital 
Library.

Community track submission deadlines:

* Regular deadline: May 17, 2013

The 2013 Joint International Symposium on Open Collaboration (WikiSym + 
OpenSym 2013) is the premier conference on open collaboration research and 
practice, including wikis and social media, Wikipedia, free, libre, and open 
source software, open access, open data and open government research. WikiSym 
is in its 9th year and will be complemented by OpenSym, a new conference on 
open collaboration research and practice and an adjunct to the successful 
WikiSym conference series. WikiSym + OpenSym 2013 is the first conference to 
bring together the different strands of open collaboration research and 
practice, seeking to create synergies and inspire new collaborations between 
computer scientists, social scientists, legal scholars, and everyone 
interested in understanding open collaboration and how it is changing the 
world. Read more about the conference at http://opensym.org/wsos2013/about



CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: COMMUNITY TRACK

The following types of papers can be submitted to the community track:

* Experience report long and short: A regular presentation slot (30min) will 
be provided
* Workshop proposals: A workshop slot (half-day or full-day) is provided at 
the conference
* Panel proposals: A session (90min) discussion slot for the panel will be 
provided
* Demo proposals: Space and time is provided during the demo session (90min)
* Tutorial proposals: A tutorial slot (90min) is provided at the conference

Submissions are reviewed by the community track committee for their interest 
to the WikiSym + OpenSym community in general. For questions about community 
track submissions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us: 
http://opensym.org/wsos2013/about

Experience Reports

Experience reports are an integral part of the conference program. These are 
opportunities to discuss how ideas that sound good on paper (and at 
conferences!) work in real life projects and deployments. Many attendees want 
to learn from people on the front lines what it is like to do things like 
start a company wiki, use open collaboration tools in a classroom, or build a 
political campaign around open collaboration systems.

Experience reports are not research papers; their goal is to present 
experience and reflections on a particular case, and they are reviewed for 
usefulness, clarity and reflection. Strong experience reports discuss both 
benefits and drawbacks of the approaches used and clearly call out lessons 
learned. Reports may focus on a particular aspect of technology usage and 
practice, or describe broad project experiences.

Experience reports can be long (up to 10 pages) or short (up to 4 pages). A 
long experience report will receive a regular 30 minute presentation slot, a 
short experience report will receive a shorter presentation slot.

Workshops

Workshops provide an opportunity for researchers and practitioners to discuss 
and learn about topics that require in-depth, extended engagement such as new 
systems, research methods, standards, and formats.

Workshop proposals should describe what you intend to do and how your session 
will meet the criteria described above. It should include a concise abstract, 
proposed time frame (half-day or full-day), what you plan to  do during the 
workshop, and one-paragraph biographies of all organizers.

Workshop proposals will be reviewed and selected for their interest to the 
community. Each accepted workshop will be provided with a meeting  room for 
either a half or full day. Organizers may also request technology and 
materials (projector, flip pads, etc).

Panels

Panels provide an interactive forum for bringing together people with 
interesting points of view to discuss compelling issues around open 
collaboration. Panels involve participation from both the panelists and 
audience members in a lively discussion. Proposals for panels should describe 
the topics and goals and explain how the panel will be organized and how the 
Wikisym + OpenSym community will benefit. It should include a concise abstract 
and one-paragraph biographies of panelists and moderators. Panel submissions 
will be reviewed and selected for their interest to the community. Each panel 
will be given a 90-minute time slot.

Demos

No format is better suited for demonstrating the utility of new collaboration 
technologies than showing and using them. Demonstrations give presenters an 
opportunity to show running systems and gather feedback. Demo submissions 
should provide a setup for the demo, a  specific description of what you plan 
to demo, what you hope to get out of demoing, and how the audience will 
benefit. A short note of any special technical requirements should be included.

Demo submissions will  be reviewed based on their relevance to the community. 
All accepted demos will given space at a joint demo session (90 minutes) 
during the conference.

Tutorials

Tutorials tutorials are half-day classes, taught by experts, designed to help 
professionals rapidly come up to speed on a specific technology or 
methodology. Tutorials can be lecture-oriented or participatory. Tutorial 
attendees deserve the highest standard of excellence in tutorial preparation 
and delivery. Tutorial presenters are typically experts in their chosen topic 
and experienced speakers skilled in preparing and delivering educational 
presentations. When selecting tutorials, we will consider the presenter’s 
knowledge of the proposed topic and past success at teaching it.



SUBMISSION INFORMATION AND INSTRUCTIONS

There are two submission deadlines, an early and a regular one. The early 
deadline is for those who need to know early that their community track 
submission has been accepted. This mostly applies to workshops that require a 
program committee and their own paper submission and review process (as 
opposed, for example, to walk-in workshops). Also, some may need the 
additional time to raise funds and acquire a visa.

Submissions should follow the standard ACM SIG proceedings format. For advice 
and templates, please see 
http://www.acm.org/sigs/publications/proceedings-templates. All papers must 
conform at time of submission to the formatting instructions and must not 
exceed the page limits, including all text, references, appendices and 
figures. All submissions must in PDF format.

All papers and proposals should be submitted electronically through EasyChair 
using the following URL: 
https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=opensym2013community



SUBMISSION AND NOTIFICATION DEADLINES

* Early submission deadline: March 17, 2013
* Notification for early submissions: March 31, 2013
* Regular submission deadline: May 17, 2013
* Notification for regular submissions: May 31, 2013
* Camera-ready for both rounds: June 9, 2013

As long as it is May 17 somewhere on earth, your submission will be accepted.



COMMUNITY TRACK PROGRAM COMMITTEE

Chairs

Regis Barondeau (Université du Québec à Montréal)
Dirk Riehle (Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg)

Konkani: Wikipedia strings (needing translation)

Frederick FN Noronha फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या *فريدريك نورونيا — 2013-03-12T23:43:15

Can someone help on this please? Specially with keying in Devanagari? Any
pointers would be helpful... see the note below. FN

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: isidore dantas <isidordantas< at >yahoo.co.in>
Date: 12 March 2013 08:38
Subject: Re: Wikipedia strings (needing translation)
To: Frederick FN Noronha * फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك نورونيا <
fredericknoronha1< at >gmail.com>


I could translate the latin part. But I am unable to do the Devnagri part
as I don't know how to type in unicode.


*I .  DANTAS*

--- On *Mon, 11/3/13, Frederick FN Noronha * फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك
نورونيا <fredericknoronha1< at >gmail.com>* wrote:


From: Frederick FN Noronha * फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك نورونيا <
fredericknoronha1< at >gmail.com>
Subject: Wikipedia strings (needing translation)
To: "isidore dantas" <isidordantas< at >yahoo.co.in>
Date: Monday, 11 March, 2013, 12:30 AM

Dear Isidore, Pls see if you can translate some of these... it would be
very helpful. You might need to seek permission for translation, but they
will give it...

Devanagari:
https://translatewiki.net/w/i.php?title=Special:Translate&group=core-0-mostused&language=gom-latn&filter=!translated&action=translate
 Latin:
https://translatewiki.net/w/i.php?title=Special:Translate&group=core-0-mostused&language=gom-latn&filter=!translated&action=translate
<https://translatewiki.net/w/i.php?title=Special:Translate&group=core-0-mostused&language=gom-latn&filter=%21translated&action=translate>
<https://translatewiki.net/w/i.php?title=Special:Translate&group=core-0-mostused&language=gom-latn&filter=%21translated&action=translate>
FN +91-832-2409490 or +91-9822122436
<https://translatewiki.net/w/i.php?title=Special:Translate&group=core-0-mostused&language=gom-latn&filter=%21translated&action=translate>
fn< at >goa-india.org
Audio recordings (mostly from Goa): http://bit.ly/GoaRecordings
Goa,1556 http://www.scribd.com/doc/76671049/Goa1556-Catalogue-Books-from-Goa
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Fw: 3/9/2013 7:25:57 PM

Nicholas Moreau — 2013-03-09T18:25:59

http://www.bk-games.com/xatqb/yl.kd  
  Nicholas Moreau
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link from sumuroy1998

sumuroy1998 — 2013-03-08T08:12:37

    
http://kazuaki777.lolipop.jp/hok/bqpgutmranfomy=ypopbtsumuroy1998
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Only 6 accounts from same IP?

Nkansah Rexford — 2013-02-09T11:53:19

Hi, my name is Rexford

I wish to find out why wikipedia allows only 6 account creation from a
network sharing the same IP address.

I never knew something like that existed.

I'm currently doing a Wikipedia training session and many will like to
create accounts on Wikipedia but we're being blocked.

Any reasons? How to bypass that?

rexford

i want to be membre

nimely williams — 2013-02-07T12:39:07


  Hi
    I want to join you to be one member .
  I hop to hear from  from you,

      Its.      Nimely  williams
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did you receive?

firoozeh derakhshani — 2013-02-05T05:44:05

To whom it may concern
I have written a tex in relation to your established information about Vincenzo Bianchini Italian Iran  diseased 2000- in Geneva  artist  doctor
Did you ever  get it? what was your corrective demands on that text I need your guidance please.

 
Firoozeh Derakhshani
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Request for new language - Epirus idiom

ΧΡΗΣΤΟΣ ΠΑΠΠΑΣ ΤΣΑΓΚΟΡΓΙΑΝΝΗΣ — 2013-02-03T14:25:59

Hi, 
I would like to create the epirus dialect to your web site. The idiom of Epirus belongs to the northern dialect of Greek. 
Thank you, Χρήστος Παππάς Τσαγκοργιάννης
       
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Call for OTRS volunteers

Casey Brown — 2013-02-02T19:00:52

The Wikimedia OTRS team[1] is receiving an increasing number of
emails, with almost 55,000 general information and permissions tickets
responded to in 2012 alone.[2] We are greatly in need of more
volunteers to catch up and help prevent continued backlog. OTRS
volunteers have the benefit of choosing how much time they'd like to
commit and share a wide variety of tools to help when responding to
inquires. Your private information would not be exposed to the public;
replies are issued from a shared Wikimedia email address.

We are looking especially for people who are strong in any or all of
the following areas:

* Familiar with processes on any Wikimedia project and able to answer
routine questions about them (some common responses include reference
desk referrals; explanations of deletion processes or how to edit. The
kind of thing you might run into at the Teahouse or Help desks);

* Familiar with acceptable licenses for images and text and willing to
handle correspondence related to permissions (many routine, but some
issues include unclear statements of permission or permissions issued
by people who can't be clearly connected to the source);

* Familiar with policies regarding living people and organizations and
able to assist article subjects with lightweight needs (updating
logos, correcting small information) or serious concerns (allegations
of gross inaccuracy; bias).

For more information about volunteering, please see the recruiting
page[3] on Meta.  Being a member of the OTRS team is a great chance to
be part of the public face of Wikimedia. We can't always help people,
but we do our best to leave them impressed with our professionalism
and responsiveness. If this sounds like something you'd be interested
in, we encourage you to consider applying[4].

While the English queues are the busiest, the info queues for all
languages could use help, and we are always looking for new
volunteers. Please translate this message and pass the word along to
those in your local communities who may wish to apply.

We look forward to seeing your applications on Meta-Wiki. If you have
any questions, please feel free to contact myself or any other
administrator of the system.[5]

For the OTRS admins,
Casey Brown

[1]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/OTRS
[2]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/OTRS/Reports/2012
[3]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/OTRS/Recruiting
[4]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/OTRS/Volunteering
[5]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/OTRS#OTRS_administrators

--
Casey Brown (Cbrown1023)
caseybrown.org

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(no subject)

2012-12-14T15:26:57


sent from my Telstra NEXTG™ handset
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(no subject)

簡睦旼 — 2012-12-13T15:46:45

http://mxhairskinandnailsfactorrevealed.com/wp-content/plugins/akismet/google.html

Support for dyslexia for your language

Gerard Meijssen — 2012-11-14T12:55:03

Hoi,

When the Universal Language Selector goes live, it will go live with
support for the "Open-Dyslexic" font [1]. This font supports the Latin
script.

An initial list of some 25 languages has been identified that will be
supported. It includes English, Portueguese, Icelandic to name a few. It
does not support Indonesian, Dutch or Tagalog to name a few others.

I am sure that at least 50 more languages can be supported by the
characters already supported by this font. I understand that the developer
of the font is quite happy to consider for additional characters that will
complete the support for "your" language.

The question is, is your language on the list or can your language be added
to the list [2]. It will be great because it will open up such a treasure
trove of information to dyslectic people. ... ahum the Wikipedia in your
language.

When your language cannot be added to the list at this time, it will be
important to identify the missing characters.

PS I blogged about the subject the last few days ... [3] In my opinion this
is one very important improvement in the usability of MediaWiki.
Thanks,
    GerardM

[1] http://dyslexicfonts.com/
[2]
http://ultimategerardm.blogspot.nl/2012/11/a-font-for-people-with-dyslexia-ii.html
[3] http://ultimategerardm.blogspot.com

Survey Banner not showing

Nkansah Rexford — 2012-11-05T12:42:47

Hi

I wish to take the Wikipedia survey after the addition of Ghana. But can't
find the banner. Its not showing on my wikipedia pages.

I'm accessing Wikipedia from Ghana.

To enable me take the survey as early as possible before it expires out,
can I have the link directly to the survey page?

Thanks

rexford

Twitter's expanded tweets

Andy Mabbett — 2012-11-03T11:11:55

Twitter have announced "Expanded tweets":


http://blog.twitter.com/2012/06/experience-more-with-expanded-tweets.html

which will feature summaries of linked articles from partners such as
newspaper websites.

Is anyone talking to them about doing so for Wikipedia articles?

(Obviously, we wouldn't pay them to do so)

Wikipedia Editors Surver - October 2012 - No Ghana

Nkansah Rexford — 2012-10-31T01:42:26

Hi

My name is rexford, from ghana.

I came across the Wikipedia Editors survey on my page, and followed the
link. But to my surprise, Ghana is not included in the drop down list of
countries.

Is that intentional? If so, why?

if its an oversight, I hope it will be rectified soon.

Thanks.

rex

Sort it

John Jackson — 2012-10-26T10:55:16

Greetings –

I hope this is a good place to send a weighty message to Wikipedia.
You’ll want to read all through.

I am a scientist who has always liked the Wikipedia idea, and I like
your implementation.  Lately I’ve started making contributions.
Although I’m a cognitive scientist who taught biological psychology at
degree level for several years and have done AI research since the
‘80’s, I’ve diverted for a decade or more to resolve a set of major
evolutionary puzzles.

Fairly peripheral but within the overall project was an investigation
of bird breathing, and I decided to piece together the research into
it, and deliver it properly to the public.  Trust me, the finer
details were obscure.  On the way I discovered why penguins’ lungs
don’t collapse even at 500m when whales’ lungs collapse by 100m; I
found out what the neopulmo did (though not why) and why penguins
don’t have it, and I changed our understanding of flow within it; I
also resolved the old chestnut of whether birds had counter-current
exchange in their lungs.  That is, completely discovered, not just for
myself.  By careful editing and addition including the long overdue
diagram the subject needed, I converted the two Wikipedia pages
dealing with bird breathing from an incomplete mire to a place of
revelation (though the German version needs starting afresh, and
Duncker agrees).  But it was an honour do so.

More central to my overall project was cladogenesis, the heart of
palaeontology and just the thing that I, as an MSc in info. sys.
engineering would be expected to get into.  I’ve written my own clad.
software, invented and implemented my own heuristic version, proved
the theorem in graph theory that resolves an issue in checking
evolutionary trees by time and rooting them, and highlighted a serious
statistical fallacy invalidating another major current of work in the
time-checking of trees.

In these activities I was almost entirely alone as regards other
workers in the overall field, since that field, dinobird
palaeontology, is notorious for its abuse of the lack of scientific
and indeed academic constraint that all historical disciplines are
prey to.  Applicants for research positions into that biological
science, which relies heavily on computer science and statistics, are
usually accepted with just a geology first degree.  Put succinctly but
honestly, the standard of science amongst professional dinobird
palaeontologists is crap, so much so that I’ve never taken the idea of
publishing formally in the field very seriously.  I do from time to
time in AI, but any scientist with something sensible to say in
dinobird palaeo will always be violating sacred errors and be blocked.
 Although useless, the field is very proud and stubborn.

But there is a layer of humanity too stupid even to become
professional palaeontologists – and guess what?  They’ve established a
self-aggrandising population in the basement of Wikipedia, grooming
their egos by becoming gatekeepers.  I’m sick of the sight of their
pathetic award stars.

I wasn’t surprised; in fact I’d been surprised by the ease with which
my bird-lung editing had been accepted, which is why I’d turned my
attention to another problem page that was actually even more of a
mess.

Most people, even those interested in the subject, have no idea why
dromaeosaurs had such strange claws, teeth and tails.  Many even doubt
that the special foot claw was a weapon.  And because they have no
understanding of the vital importance of backtracking in knowledge
engineering, they can’t escape the rut of believing dromaeosaurs were
“pre” flight (“pre” of course being a very dodgy evolutionary
concept).  But solving this kind of thing was easy compared to related
subjects, and other visionaries such as Paul and Osmolska had made
their contributions and published some of the basics.  The four-winged
flight of volant dromaeosaurs was harder but I found a solution to
that too (...though you’re not going to like it; even I didn’t).

I know what you’re thinking – Original Work.  But of course that was
taken account of: much of the problem with the Velociraptor page was
balance – some theories had been simply ignored, even though works
mentioning them were already in the citation list.  Other problems
were solved by pointing out glaring illogicalities: ensuring the
explanation of a difference between two things must be based on some
other difference applying to them.  Things like that don’t need
citations, things that needed them were given them, and when necessary
I cited my own book.  That after all is very common in Wikipedia, and
there’s no point frowning on the basic principle (especially when it’s
a good book!).

As you may have guessed or already knew, anyone bringing much-needed
but unfamiliar and unwelcome science (i.e. any science) to dinobird
palaeontology is automatically put on the hate list and from then on
it’s just sociology.  Pointing out that modern science knows better
than to talk of “facts”, is the kind of thing that sets the idiots
off, but is one essential principle Wikipedia needs to take on board.
Luckily the pseudo-scientists usually give themselves away, as they
did on the Velociraptor page most bizarrely.  First, they insisted the
tail couldn’t bend vertically, alongside a picture showing the last
two-thirds bending up through 60º.  Then they insisted its prey only
had one leg whereas two could be seen even in the thumbnail.  No
accusations of original work at risk there.  Nonetheless they kept on
reversing EVERYTHING I’d written – the illogicality-busting, the
theory-balance restoration, and even corrections to their crap which
was contradicted by the images in front of their eyes.

The result?  Someone’s stopped the repeated reversals, and of course,
they chose to stop it on the lunatic side.  Irrespective of the
“Protection is not an endorsement of the current text” message, this
“temporary” status is a massive insult to science, which is why it’s
important, and a massive insult to me which has ensured my action.

I’m going to find the 100 most influential loud-mouthed Wiki-haters on
the net, show them the crucial photos, and the illogicalities, and I
hope I’m going to be able to say: “Look – some tiny-minded
pseudo-scientists started to infect Wikipedia filling even science
pages with blatant rubbish, but see how good it is?  It put them in
their place!”

I know an organisation of your size won’t bother with anything that
can’t affect it, and I haven’t time to dissolve you with charm.  I’m
considering removing all the good work I’ve done in the bird breathing
pages, and their talk pages that explain it, as a token of what you’ll
lose if you reward my kind of work with insults.  I was happy to give
it free but people can always buy the book.  Put it back if you want,
but if you don’t, the pages will lose a lot and if you do you’ll
underline my value.  And of course there’s the stuff above that could
go one way or another depending on you.  Much will be done before the
election and as much as is necessary when it’s over.  Don’t just hand
this over to another of the dinosaur Wiki-wankers, and don’t let them
keep spuriously using the word “source” to justify feeding the world
crap.

John V. Jackson.
http://sciencepolice2010.wordpress.com/2010/12/02/sciencepolice2010-launches/
http://sciencepolice2010.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/sciencepolice-14-latest.pdf

Requesting open-licensed, open-format recordings of the voices of Wikipedia subjects for Wikimedia Commons

Andy Mabbett — 2012-10-24T15:02:33

[CCd]

I've just written and published a blog post:

  Requesting open-licensed, open-format recordings of the voices of
Wikipedia subjects for Wikimedia Commons

  http://pigsonthewing.org.uk/open-licensed-format-recordings-voices-wikipedia-wikimedia-commons/

Free access to closed journals < at > world scientific

Samuel Klein — 2012-10-18T20:10:21

For a limited time (~6 weeks): http://www.worldscientific.com/

(no subject)

2012-10-15T13:32:15

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