User talk:Worldtraveller/Old stuff 2

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NB: I may well reply here to your messages for the sake of conversational continuity. Then again, I might reply on your talk pages. I'm indecisive like that.

Older talk: User talk:Worldtraveller/Old stuff 1

Contents

[edit] Signpost article

You may notice that I dropped the initial paragraphs of your story, the part dealing with the filesharing lawsuit, and I felt I should explain my reasons for that in case you have any concerns. I read that particular NY Times article as being essentially a wrapup of the eTech conference we covered last week. Obviously the reporter used the filesharing issue to set up his story line (reasonable choice, given its significance to the social software world), and he also mentioned Wikipedia as part of the conference, but I didn't feel he really tied the filesharing lawsuit to Wikipedia very much.

Many people in this community might be interested in the legal issues raised by the filesharing cases, of course, and if somebody makes a more substantive analysis connecting filesharing with Wikipedia's legal issues I'd be happy to publish it. But without that, I thought that presenting the material this way could come across as too alarmist without all that much to back it up. That being said, however, I think wanting to share ideas that may be a little provocative is good journalistic sense that deserves to be encouraged, because part of being informative is making people think a little bit. So although I edited this bit out, I like what it shows about the way you think as a reporter. Thanks again for all your work tracking and writing about Wikipedia press coverage; I find it very helpful to know somebody has that beat covered. --Michael Snow 19:21, 28 Mar 2005 (UTC)

[edit] South America, eh?

Hey, If have plans to came to Brazil, where I live, I recommend you to go to Chapada Diamantina, Pantanal, Salvador, Recife and Olinda.

I definitely hope to make it to Brazil - such a big country so appreciate recommendations on what to see! Most of all I want to travel along as much of the Amazon as possible - all the more so after watching The Motorcycle Diaries. Worldtraveller 10:11, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] London

Duncanssmith writes:

Many thanks for your encouraging comment on my talk page (about the London article! I am rather new to wikipedianism, and learning about it quite fast! I assume there is often quite a bit of conflict and disagreement, so I won't let anyone put me off with a snippy comment! I am impressed by your list of contributions by the way! How do you find the time to do all that work :)

Duncan Smith 09:41, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Main thing is to remember that, if a comment sounds a bit harsh, it's almost always not intended that way! I'm actually beginning to be appalled by my list of contributions, I've really spent way too much time on here. It's a very slippery slope... Worldtraveller 10:11, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Images and media for deletion votes

  • I am contacting people who previously helped to vote to delete a generally objectionable photograph by a vote of 88 to 21, and who might be unaware that immediately after that image was voted to be deleted someone posted another which was very similar in content. My objections to this, and the previous image that was voted to be deleted might be based upon reasons far different from any that you have, but I do object to it, and consider the posting of such images to be acts of asinine stupidity, which burdens the project and its major educational aims in ways that they should not be burdened, and can be extremely detrimental to the acceptance and growth of WIkipedia's use and influence. Thus far those who I believe to be in the extreme minority of Wikipedians who would like to include these images, many who have been channeled to the voting page from the article with which it is associated have dominated the voting, 23 to 12 (as of the time that I composed this message). I would like to be somewhat instrumental in shedding a bit more light upon the issue, and if possible, helping to turn the tide against its inclusion. It might also be necessary to begin making an effort to establish an explicit Wikipedia policy against explicite photographic depictions of humans engaged in erotic, auto-erotic, or quasi-erotic activities. To my limited knowledge such images have not been accepted as appropriate anywhere else within this project, and frankly I can agree with those who are casually labeled prudes for opposing their inclusion, that they should not be. Vitally important information that might be unwelcome by some is one thing that should never be deleted, but un-needed images that can eventually prevent or impede many thousands or millions of people from gaining access to the great mass of truly important information that Wikipedia provides is quite another matter. There are vitally important distinctions to be made. Whatever your reasons, or final decisions upon the matter, I am appealing for more input on the voting that is occurring at Wikipedia:Images_and_media_for_deletion. ~ Achilles † 01:21, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] FA candidate

Can you, please, look at this article again. Was it improved? All but three of your questions were answered in my view, other two of them were dealt with, no more info on the remaining one in sources available online. I said more on this on its FA candidate page. Do you still see the way it may be improved? Cmapm 08:40, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Sly & the Family Stone

(this reply is also listed in the featured article candidate page for the article.)

I can shorten the intro. As for the seperate influences sections, that was done on purpose because the Family Stone had two completely different styles of music (the psycyhedelic rock/pop of the 1960s and the more sedate, drug-laced funk of the 1970s), each of those eras had a completely different influence on the music industry. The 1960s era Family Stone introduced psychedelic rock to soul music, leading to the psychedelic soul era of the late-1960s. The 1970s group, in many ways a completely different band even though 5/7 of the lineup was the same, was one of the first major funk music acts. In addition, those two sections are seperated so that they read chronologically (meaning, when the article discusses Dance to the Music, for the sake of readibility, it should discuss the impact of that album and era (psychedelic soul). Then, when it discusses There's a Riot Goin' On and Fresh, it should discuss the impact of the early funk music output of the band at that time. --FuriousFreddy 21:06, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I finished the second set of sugestions for alterations to the article. What do you think? --FuriousFreddy 18:34, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Delicate consideration of feelings not really required! :-)

Hi, WT, I was very sorry to miss your BBC appearance, but there's just no getting the real BBC channels here.:-( My cable company offers BBC World plus some seriously dumbed-down selection of ancient sitcoms deemed good enough for the non-natives, and that's it. Or rather, that was it, until they recently pulled out BBC World. :-( That was the last straw for me, so now I'm not even subscribing to their wretched "prime international selection" anymore. We're at the mercy of what the local moguls decide has broad enough appeal to pay them—well, I'll just stop, I feel a spate of bad language coming on (too much hanging on IRC has chipped away at such thresholds as I had against that). Anyway, I see you have another one coming up on the 25th, I'll try even harder to hijack some friend with a satellite dish this time. Unless these programmes exist on DVD? What I really came by to say was, I'm impressed by your politeness in keeping the eyesore I planted on your handsome well-designed userpage, and honestly, please don't feel that you have to...! It is, just as you said, highly prestigious, but visually, well...! Also, just a tip, it's possible to move stuff down to the foot of the page, you know. (Giano briskly whisked one from me down into a remote corner a long time ago, when ETPH was young, and who can blame him?) What a lot of good work you're doing! Best, Bish|Bosh 10:23, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Polite, who's being polite? I am very happy with the exquisitely beautiful award, I think it goes nicely with my Alberto Korda-esque self-portrait!! As a compulsive hoarder I am scarcely able to move, let alone remove, anything, so I fear it will remain where it is for a long while yet.
There will not be an official DVD release of my several TV appearances, unfortunately, but I have a friend with the right technology who's making me my own souvenir collector's edition. I expect overwhelming demand so may produce a run of them :) Hope you manage to catch the show on 25th, it will be quite exciting to watch I think! Worldtraveller 12:03, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)
An exciting semi-final, yes? Are we to see one more appearance a week or two afterwards? (Of course, when I was on UC in 1996, DVDs were little more than a twinkling in the eye, so we had to make do with a video tape. O tempura...) -- ALoan (Talk) 12:13, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Sorry, what am I missing here, I've been in a sunkissed place for a while (Sunkissed is my new English word, I have to use it ten times today!) what is UC and why were you both on it, I can think of several things UC could stand for, but think it best not to attempt a guess without at least a clue. And as a matter of fact the item I whisked to the bottom of the page was a tasteless bidet, which spoil the harmony of my page! Giano | Talk 12:22, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Aha, all the 'clique' is here!! UC is that great institution of British television, University Challenge, and I will indeed appear in an exciting semi-final. As to whether UCL will be appearing after that, I couldn't possibly comment! We filmed it so long ago I don't think I can even remember... Incidentally there was a question on last night's show about Colley Cibber - wouldn't have known the answer without Wikipedia. Who did you play for, ALoan, and how did you do? Did you get to stay in the almost overwhelmingly opulent Travel Inn in Manchester when you recorded it? Worldtraveller 12:27, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Aha! I was completely on the wrong track I suppose its unlikely they will ever ask my own sunkissed (sorry) alma mater to compete. Good luck, albeit, belatedly. Giano | Talk 13:17, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Giano! You have the heart to badmouth Ye Olde? I thought you the very man to appreciate a nice bit of Dresden china! :-( I may have gone a little overboard in making the trophy nearly actual size, so, OK, I've smallified it—you could put it on a keyring now—please don't let me hear another word about "tasteless".--Bish|Bosh 15:00, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Have you nothing better to do than nose about other people's pages? I don't want a bidet keyring, for all you know I may be about to become the next pope, so could I have some respect here! Giano | Talk 15:42, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Congratulations on Edfell, sure it's almost there, feeling full of glee at the moment (new word today) hope you are too, check the emails! Giano | Talk 21:32, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for your support on Eldfell! 6 supports so far has definitely brought glee to my day, even though London has been rain-caressed (at times even rain-raspberried) today rather than sunkissed... Worldtraveller 21:52, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Bad luck last night (well, some months ago, I suppose) - I only caught the last few minutes, but at least you had that final experience :( -- ALoan (Talk) 09:58, 10 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Eldfell

responded on my talk page. - Bryan is Bantman 17:12, Apr 15, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Eldfell again

Hi, World, I just voted on your lovely volcanocruft article, and it strikes me that since I did two things, vote + comment, it's probably easy to miss my comment higher up, under Bantman's questions. I haven't seen any other input on the media coverage, so maybe it's of interest. Mind you, the Nordic countries have a special curiosity about each other, and notably about Iceland, so it would certainly be more valuable to have something about media interest outside of that charmed circle. Incidentally, what happened to the FAC plans for Surtsey? (Man, I love Surtsey, island and article both.) Are they in abeyance pending photos from the Icelander who would maybe get to go there this summer?--Bishonen | talk 19:41, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Hej Bish, thanks for the vote and the info about Eldfell in the news - very interesting, I will definitely see about adding a bit about the eruption making the news alongside Vietnam. I'll have to see what I can find out about news coverage elsewhere, though I'm sure it would have been big news across Europe. I certainly remember that the jökulhlaup after the Grimsvötn eruption in 1996 was very well covered here in the UK.
As for Surtsey, yes, I'd put that to one side because there were a few facts that ævarab said he could get from an Icelandic encyclopaedia, and the life colonisation bits need work (and that's definitely not my forté!). I've also been trying to work out if I'm enough of a wikipediholic to order Sigurður Þorarinnson's classic book about the eruption from the USA, for use on researching this article. I'm sure I could make the article much better if I had that to hand so I might take the plunge. I love Surtsey as well, taking a flight over it was a real highlight of my travels in Iceland - loved climbing Eldfell as well, and actually pretty much everywhere I went in Iceland! Have you ever been there? Worldtraveller 20:53, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Yup, I've hitchhiked from Reykjavik to Akureiri (on the west road, of course). That's one place everybody'll stop for a hitchhiker! Though flying back across the interior was the high point. Wildest, blackest, snowiest mountainscape I've ever seen, though I realize you've probably been in wilder places, and all the daily commuters in the plane hunched over their morning papers, not bothering to glance down...!--Bishonen | talk 14:33, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] In the news

Hey, WorldT! Would you be interested in helping cull a few choice English-wikipedia press-notes for the Quarto? (There is an "In the Press" section each edition with press about the various projects) I note that you're already offering to do this for the Signpost. +sj + 03:00, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)

The main difference being that the Quarto takes the long-view of the past three months, rather than the past week; and that there isn't space to include everything interesting, so there are more decisions to be made re: balancing praise and criticism and simple references. +sj +
Super. What I need this week : a summary of press coverage in the first three months of 2005. 20-30 refs, with brief descriptions of each (just links to the refs embedded in descriptive text; if you can fit 2 or 3 refs into a sentence describing their relationship, that's great). +sj + 13:05, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] International Writing Contest

Sungrazers snag fourth in IWC! [1] Congrats! +sj + 13:03, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)

The contest might make a decent Signpost article too. If you have the time and energy to do any articles beyond the press coverage, remember that everything I might normally write about will need to be covered by someone else instead if it's going to be covered at all. Also, as guest editor Sj has asked if we could try and submit drafts by midnight UTC on Saturday. Even if they're not complete, as more people are involved more organization is needed, and additional changes and updates can still be made after that point.
You may have seen it already, but Larry Sanger has a memoir about Wikipedia on Slashdot, which will definitely warrant a story all by itself for the coming week's issue. Again, thanks for all your help — I look forward to seeing the results on my return. --Michael Snow 06:49, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Excellent, thanks for the tip there, I hadn't seen the Sanger article but will certainly cover that, and agree that the IWC is worth covering - although not sure whether I should do that as one of my articles was in the comp. I'll head on over to the newsroom and float ideas. Have a great trip! Worldtraveller 09:46, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9

Let me know when you are done and I'll descend from my scented cloud for some copyediting :) I tried to have a go this morning, but hit an edit conflict with your new additions and accidentally lost my changes. I'll wait until you are done now.

Are you limiting yourself to comets and volcanoes? Some other astronomy pages could do with a lift: Milky Way, Andromeda Galaxy and Cosmic microwave background radiation have pretty good starts; Centaurus A Galaxy, Virgo cluster, Coma cluster do not. -- ALoan (Talk) 15:20, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Yes, I think it is quite FACabile, but you know what they say: "enter FAC a featured article and leave it a peer review". -- ALoan (Talk) 10:12, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Signpost

I'm writing an article for the signpost and I was wondering if you could tell me how many featured articles you created and/or worked on before Eldfell. Mgm|(talk) 12:56, Apr 24, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Ditto

Re: last week's WP in the press; link to a draft? And a few notes about the IWC?

Fantastic. Yes, I was just overlooking those lines in the Newsroom.
I'm on a dialup connection at home this weekend... and the site seems to be slow today all on its own. I'll edit those this afternoon. +sj +
As for work on a pope article, I haven't started; a draft would be great.

I would also appreciate a second set of eyes to help review an article about Sanger's memoirs and responses to them; perhaps late tonight.

Cheers, +sj + 19:09, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Signpost and BBC

I've decided to be bold and update the signpost. It was getting way too late. Also, what programme are you appearing on? If I got the timezones right it should be University Challenge. BTW how would you feel about being nominated for adminship? Mgm|(talk) 18:53, Apr 25, 2005 (UTC)

Good work on the Signpost, that must make you deputy-acting-guest editor or something :) You're right, it was University Challenge, and I'm happy to say I will be on one final time, two weeks from today! Regarding adminship, I have to say there've been a couple of situations recently (a page move, some reversions) where admin tools would have come in very very handy. If I was nominated I'd be happy to accept. Worldtraveller 23:09, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Admin nomination

I've nominated you for adminship. Please indicate your acceptance and answer the standard questions here. Mgm|(talk) 08:27, Apr 26, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Masturbation

Would you care to register an opinon on the Masturbation Talk page as to whether a full color photograph of male masturbation is suitable for that page? Thank you. Force10 22:38, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] User:Worldtraveller/Signpost template

Looks like a useful template. Maybe you want to adjust it so other editor's names could be inserted and move it to a subpage of the signpost? Mgm|(talk) 10:57, Apr 29, 2005 (UTC)

Good plan - I've done a revised version of the template and put it at Template:Signpost article, and mentioned it at the newsroom.Worldtraveller 11:42, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Image from Malawi

Hello, can i use the image : [2] for this french page : fr:Liste du patrimoine mondial en Afrique ? Or better if i can it import on commons on the common's Category:UN World Heritage Sites. Tell me what you prefer. if i can use it and what kind of licence you wish for this image. Thanks. If you can post your answer here : [3] (it's my french discussion's page) you will be great. Can i use a little more images (3-5 maybe not more) as the same conditions if i can't find some other with free licence ? Thanks for your nice web site. Sorry for my bad english. Petrusbarbygere 17:56, 1 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Atlantic Ocean

Thanks for getting the Sargasso Sea and Bermuda Triangle intergrated into the article. I didn't have time to put them in the way I wanted to, but I did need that information, which I wasn't finding in the wikipedia.
~ender 2005-05-02 18:00:MST

[edit] Geology of the Death Valley area FAC

Last chance to object to Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Geology of the Death Valley area. :) Any feedback on improvement will be appreciated, if you have the time and are interested. --mav 00:44, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Congratulations!

Congratulations! It's my pleasure to let you know that, consensus being reached, you are now an administrator. You should read the relevant policies and other pages linked to from the administrators' reading list before carrying out tasks like deletion, protection, banning users, and editing protected pages such as the Main Page. Most of what you do is easily reversible by other sysops, apart from page history merges and image deletion, so please be especially careful with those. You might find the new administrators' how-to guide helpful. Cheers! -- Cecropia | explains it all ® 07:51, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Ahhhh, finally a real tribute!

Ho ho ho ho! Snicker, snicker! In your face! Heh heh! Compliments are nice n'all, but there ain't nothin like the real thing: mmmmmm, envy! ;-) --Bishonen | talk 14:17, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Great Englishmen

You have to forgive me my 700 years; the Bard, Darwin, Chaucer, David Hulme, who else? Filiocht | Blarneyman 07:24, May 5, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Signpost

Someone suggested I place this note here for you to use in Signpost >>

To all of you that contributed to the article Gaia theory (science), you can take pride in this recent discovery. In an article titled "The So-called Gaia Theory" (Skeptical Inquirer, 29(3), May/June 2005) Massimo Pigliucci (p. 21) makes this attribution:

....(quoted at http://en.wikipedia.org—a good, neutral introduction to the theory and controversy);....

Wow! For those of you unfamiliar with Skeptical Inquirer, I can only tell you that it is very exciting to me as a scientist to see that the likes of M. Pigliucci considers Wikipedia worth his time to visit, read, AND mention! - Marshman 02:48, 7 May 2005 (UTC) - Marshman

[edit] Recouperating

Thanks for the poke. I thought about leaving it up, but it was too confusing; and besides, broke with the quietly reliable layout and tone of recent months. +sj +

Meanwhile... yes, I saw (and used!) your press notes from the first quarter. Thank you! +sj + 19:52, 11 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Warren County Canal

Perhaps a Signpost article could be written on the swiftness (13 days) that this article went from creation to featured status? User:PedanticallySpeaking.

Cross-posting to blankfaze's talk, since he's writing the features column this week. +sj +

[edit] Maat Mons

Thanks for expanding the article. I couldn't find that much info on the net. Evil Monkey∴Hello 00:53, May 12, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Signpost article

Hello, Worldtraveller. I edited your Signpost article "In the news"; see the talk page for my explanation (don't want to tread on any toes now!) — Knowledge Seeker দ 03:45, 12 May 2005 (UTC)

No problem, Knowledge Seeker - thanks for correcting my sloppy journalism! I was thinking the article had been deleted in May rather than March. Worldtraveller 17:03, 12 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Milky Way / Andromeda Galaxy

I have just been looking at these as a result of a query on VP - I has the impression that Andromeda was thought to be somewhat more massive than the Milky Way, but I see this is contradicted by relatively recent papers mentioned here - but current thinking on the physical characteristics of neither galaxy is dealt with very well at the moment.

But in any event, neither page is particularly stellar, which seems a shame for our own galaxy and its big/little/twin sibling - both could do with being turned into Featured Articles (hint hint!). -- ALoan (Talk) 11:24, 12 May 2005 (UTC)

Hm, well, you're the extragalactic expert, are you not? :) Andromeda looks eminently expandable - my only worry with Milky Way is it could develop into a vast article - I almost wouldn't know where to start with it. The history of our understanding of the galaxy alone could make quite a detailed and interesting article (I have a particular interest in Thomas Wright's work, as I used to live next to his observatory). Could be a good one on which to assemble all the astronomically-inclined editors we can find and collaborate on. Worldtraveller 17:03, 12 May 2005 (UTC)
I would not say that: not any more, anyway; but the Milky Way is not extragalactic - all of your objects are in it!
I saw one of the small telescopes used to make the 2MASS survey last week - it is at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington, D.C. - the main National Air and Space Museum is also well worth a visit. Just remember that your standing on a planet that evolving, and revolving at 900 miles an hour... (see Galaxy song ;) -- ALoan (Talk) 18:26, 12 May 2005 (UTC)
Oh and by the way, thanks for the trademark light copyedit on open cluster - particularly some rephrasing of clumsy wording which, on reflection, I was horrified I wrote in the first place! Worldtraveller 17:06, 12 May 2005 (UTC)
Oh, no problem - I only see to be able to find time for light editing these days. Thanks in return for the small additions to Mary Seacole. I really must buy one of her biographies. -- ALoan (Talk) 18:26, 12 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia vs. NYTimes

I saw your article on Signpost about the traffic ratio between the two sites. I just checked Alexa today and look at this graph. PedanticallySpeaking 17:51, May 13, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Images on the MainPage

Hello, Worldtraveller. Nice pic on the MainPage. ... Just wanna leave a friendly reminder that, in order to avoid vandalism, all items on the MainPage need to be protected. For images, a {{mprotected}} tag is needed, too. This has been the policy since, I think, February. Your nice picture of Mount Pinatubo is now protected. I've also unprotected and untagged the displaced photo. Cheers. -- PFHLai 18:00, 2005 May 25 (UTC)

Thanks for the reminder - I was certain that I must be forgetting to do something! Will be sure to protect and unprotect the relevant images in future. Cheers - Worldtraveller 17:22, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Syppåt Swedish language

Smörgåsbord, heh. Funny guy. :-) You don't ever come to IRC, do you, World? You'd be a great success, but look out for ircoholism! #wikipedia is where all us kewl 15-year-olds hang out and practice our shitwitting all day and all night. Bishonen | talk 10:25, 28 May 2005 (UTC)

He he, well I'm glad my little bit of hymår was noticed :) I've seen many references around the place to 'discussions on IRC' and they've given me a vague nagging feeling I'm missing out on terribly important things, but have to confess I have absolutely no idea how IRC works - if you can give me some pointers on how to get going with it I might well have to join the 'holics! Worldtraveller 17:22, 30 May 2005 (UTC)
Ah, sorry, missed your reply there. You need a piece of software known as an IRC client, and a teenager to set it to log on automatically, at least that's what I used. :-) Examples of IRC clients are mIRC, Xchat, Chatzilla. (Chatzilla is very intuitive.) After that all is easy. Talking in real time with a particular person ("private chat") can be a lot handier than e-mail, and the communal channel is a blast at the right time of day. (Tip: keep an eye out for the Flying Dutchman.) Bishonen | talk 08:42, 4 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Hubble

Hi,

I added a few more comments at the very bottom of the Hubble talk page.

Rnt20 06:48, 31 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Astronomy

As an aspiring astrophysics major, I was wondering what your thesis was on. I also wanted to thank you for starting the article on metallicity, as the study of low metallicity stars is my intended field of study.

Cheers, Joules

Hi Joules - my thesis was on chemical abundances in planetary nebulae - in particular, why there is sometimes a very large discrepancy between two different ways of measuring abundances of elements like carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. You can read it online if you're really interested [4]! Thanks for reminding me I'd started metallicity, will have to go back to that and see what I can do to expand it now. Good luck with the studies! Worldtraveller 12:25, 1 Jun 2005 (UTC)
The main thing I would say is to get a good supervisor. Having said that, the whole point of a thesis project is to learn how to work independently, without a supervisor ;) Rnt20 17:56, 1 Jun 2005 (UTC)
I'm still in undergrad, but I'm actually at Kitt Peak right now doing a photometry run. I have an advisor of sorts and a professor with whom I do research. It's been a heckuva year, as I've been to my first AAS meeting where I got to present a poster. At any rate, thanks for the advice, from both! And I read the abstract of your thesis. It seems very interesting! I'll have to read on.  :)--Joules214 01:36, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] The F-word

"Hi - I noticed that you're changing a lot of things like sulphuric acid -> sulfuric acid. The manual of style says that IUPAC names should be used in articles about chemicals and chemistry, but for articles like Mount Pinatubo and volcano that wouldn't apply. In that case, there's no real need to change the article from the style it was originally written in, particularly if that introduces British/American spelling inconsistencies (it might do for Pinatubo, I wrote much of that article and am British). Cheers - Worldtraveller 23:49, 31 May 2005 (UTC)"

Hi! I think your concern is noteworthy, however I would argue that since I corrected the names of chemical substances in the article that it is indeed right and proper. Anyway, if you reeealy want to change back the Pinatubo names since you are the original author of those sections, I wouldn't argue with you further. Though if I may, I would STRONGLY urge you to allow the Sulfur spelling to remain as I think Wikipedia should strive for uniformity across articles, especially scientific articles. There are very few science related pages in which the Sulphur spelling remains. As for the Volcano article, I think the 2 changes I made are fully justifiable due to the MOS rule of maintaining uniform use of a single spelling of a term throughout an article. As there are many other instances of SulFur on that page it is only right to switch the two odd ones out to the right term. Please don't feel that I'm being difficult merely for the sake of it, I really feel strongly that science as portrayed here should be as uniform and clear as possible and this is just one more way we can make that happen. I have nothing against Brit spellings per se and not long ago I did something like 20-30 Aluminum to Aluminium spelling changes because that's now the proper IUPAC spelling. --Deglr6328 00:17, 1 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Don't worry, I wasn't intending to change anything back - I appreciate your reasons for changing. I just think it might be good to clear up the potential ambiguity in the MOS here before starting on a large program of changing. Not sure if "IUPAC spelling" zealots would win over "tolerate British/American differences" zealots :) Personally I think consistency is very desirable, a sudden British-ism in amongst Americanisms is slightly disconcerting and vice-versa. Could be worth bringing this issue up on WP:VP? (you might have done already - I don't really go there much). Cheers, Worldtraveller 12:25, 1 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Laonastes

Worldtraveller, Thank you so much for your complimentary article at the signpost and your interest in the Laonastes discovery. The story is pretty simple. I got my hands on a copy of the article shortly after it was published. I knew it was a big story yet Google showed no indication that anyone on the web was picking up the story. I'm interested in rodent evolution/systematics/taxonomy and recognized that this is just about as big of a story as that subject matter can ever produce. It bothered me that no one seemed to care so I did what I could to propagate the story as much as possible. That meant writing a wikipedia article and submitting it for Did you Know? and Current Events. I also wrote up a wikinews article which I hoped would be picked up by regular media outlets. Unfortunately the story still didn't gain much publicity until after WCS issued a press release. I don't think this really adds much to your existing story, but that's pretty much the story. --Aranae 00:57, Jun 1, 2005 (UTC)

Glad you saw the article and thanks for getting back to me! Well done on your work, it's the kind of thing that really enhances Wikipedia's reputation. I remember seeing the rock rat on the main page, I just sort of assumed it was widely reported and was impressed to realise that it hadn't been. Hope you don't mind, I added a little quote from you to the article. Worldtraveller 12:25, 1 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Swedish GP

I removed the pole and fastest lap information because it's already present in the race reports (links on the right side of the winners table). Sorry about marking it minor; I was making highly similar edits to a bunch of articles in succession to conform to WP:F1 guidelines, and hoped that nobody would be watching. :-)

If you're interested in F1, I encourage you to join the WikiProject and suggest improvements to the guidelines. — Dan | Talk 01:42, Jun 4, 2005 (UTC)

Always somebody watching :) Thanks for the quick reply. Was good to see links to race details, I do just wonder if it's still worth having the summary in the main article as well for quick reference as many people probably wouldn't necessarily want to click through to sub-articles. Might have to join the wikiproject, been watching F1 again recently now that Schumacher's not benefiting from a team built around him and an establishment which seemed to bend over backwards to keep him winning :) Worldtraveller 01:47, 4 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Hello World

Hello World, I replied about IRC above. If you like this it's fine, if you don't you don't have to put up with it. Compare this, this and this. Bishonen | talk 10:02, 4 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Help!

Hey Worldtraveller. I know your field is more astronomy, but you seem pretty well-versed in geography topics as well, so I thought you might help me out. The object of my concerns is Polar Motion; apart from basic cleanup (which I can do), it needs some fact-checking (this were you'd come in; I formatted and searched the references, but I'm not sure I want to spend time trying to figure them out). I also need to know if this is the same as Polar drift. I suspect the two might be related, but you what they say, thinking you know when in fact you don't.... Thanks in advance. Phils 10:26, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Press coverage article

Thanks for leaving a note on your page indicating that it would be delayed. I've published the current issue and left a placeholder indicating that the additional article would be coming down the pipe. Once you've got it done, you can let me know and I'll add it in, or if you prefer you can do it yourself. The article's destination — Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-06-06/In the news — is simply commented out right now on the Signpost page, and it's already been added to the footer template, which is Template:Signpost1-22. --Michael Snow 08:33, 6 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Not so modest

Yes, indeed, you may envy my forethought in bringing into the world the New Man, who keeps this keyboard and this screen connected to mysterious machinery contentedly ticking over and bringing me a whole new world. About the other matter, trust me, that ain't modesty. And just in passing, a third matter: you remember a disagreeable invasion of your page a couple of months back? Seems there has been reincarnation, this time with socks. Bishonen | talk 10:15, 6 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] My RFA

Hi WT, thank you for your vote of confidence on my recent successful RFA, it was much appreciated. I will work to demonstrate that your trust was well-placed - and I look forward to crossing paths with you again in the future. Happy editing! Fawcett5 19:47, 7 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] New astronomer in the pedia

Hey man, hope you are fine and that everything is going well. Just to let you know that Colby Kraybill, Lead Software Developer for the Radio Astronomy Laboratory, just started to contribute in the 'pedia as User:Jcolbyk. Perhaps a nice welcome message from someone of the Astronomy WikiProject will encourage him to contribute more. *hint hint* —Joseph | Talk 17:07, Jun 8, 2005 (UTC)

All good with me, hope the same is true for you. Also hope you saw that I dropped a line of Jcolbyk's page - he hasn't edited for about the last week, hope I didn't manage to put him off :) By the way, have you seen the astronomy portal? Needs more maintainers to keep it looking nice! Worldtraveller 20:11, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Stop sending me private messages

I don't read it. As far i care, this all space-time physics is a myth.


[edit] Thanks a lot

"Funny old world" Giano | talk 21:10, 13 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] The anti-GR kook is using a second IP

Kindly be advised that 81.218.238.113 has an alias: 81.218.230.86 . If you are to make good on your banning threat, you will have to ban both. --EMS | Talk 21:39, 13 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Cat's Eye Nebula

Hi Worldtraveller, allright, I can understand why you reverted color back to colour (actually, I wasn't even aware that there was also a different British spelling of this word ;-) ). But what about milli-arcseconds back to milliarcseconds ? I'm ofcourse not familiar with British grammar rules, since being a Dutchman, but isn't the - symbol not intended to seperate a noun and a prefix, to improve clarity? Patrick1982 11:44, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Cat's Eye Nebula

I spent quite a while improving the style and cleaning up the article, e.g. getting rid of repetition like the following:

"It was discovered by William Herschel on February 15, 1786, and was the first planetary nebula whose frequency spectrum was investigated, by the English amateur astronomer William Huggins in 1864. ... The nebula was discovered by William Herschel on February 15, 1786, and was the first planetary nebula to be observed with a spectroscope, by William Huggins in 1864."

Thanks to your reversion, the repetition and bad style are back.

I'm sorry that you spent time on an edit that was reverted. The reason I reverted it was that it didn't follow the style guidelines. What you saw as repetition was necessary, because all articles should have a lead section, which summarises the main points of the article and could stand on its own as a precis. Therefore, information from the lead section is always repeated in the main body of the article.
I hope this hasn't put you off editing the article. If you believe there are improvements that can be made to it, then please do of course make them, but the repetition between lead and main is necessary, so there's no need to truncate the lead section. Worldtraveller 20:11, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Ryanair

You might want to take a look at the tag on this image Image:Ryanair route map as of 22 Nov 2004.gif, as their apparently has been a policy change and useres are not being informed that the images that their uploaded could be deleted, their is also an effort by Astrotrain (talk • contribs) to remove the map from the article Ryanair on the basis that it is useless. --Boothy443 | comhrÚ 18:39, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Heya

That Hubble Telescope article... how's the switching to "Notes" and then "References" going? Do you need any help with anything? - Ta bu shi da yu 29 June 2005 07:44 (UTC)

[edit] Footnoting

Try Windows 2000 and W. Mark Felt. - Ta bu shi da yu 29 June 2005 13:23 (UTC)

[edit] Spectrum

Moved to Talk:Spectrum (disambiguation) --Smack (talk) 8 July 2005 03:58 (UTC)

[edit] About your removal of "Sol System"

I see you removed my reference about "Sol Sytem" in the article solar system wondering why it should be mnetioned. Isn't it obvious? It is an alternative term that has notable use (you can't possibly argue that science fiction isn't a significant phenomenon), so surely a good encyclopedic article should mention it. Also, the disambiguation page Sol tells it isn't quite exlusive to science-fiction, as well the reasons for the term. Some articles also have links to "the Sol sytem" which lead to the "solar system" article. And here are some articles with the term "sol system": Hypothetical Sol System bodies, Terra (mythology), Hypothetical planet. I'm going to rever your edit - if you want to remove the "sol sytems" reference again, I hope you discuss it first and provide a better rationale than "only scifi writers use it". It's just one, but helpful, sentence after all. - The Merciful 16:42, 16 July 2005 (UTC)

Except user Urhixidur beat me to it. In a better way too. - The Merciful 16:53, 16 July 2005 (UTC)
I've just outlined my thinking on this on Talk:Solar system, but to put it briefly, it's a scientific article about a phenomenon which is known almost exclusively as the Solar System. Science fiction is of course a notable phenomenon, but the name some science fiction writers use for the solar system is not really very significant, when the general public and astronomers only ever use the term solar system. I do not think 'Hypothetical Sol System bodies' is at all an appropriate name for that article, or the category associated with it - I'll mention that on their talk pages to see what others think. Worldtraveller 23:33, 16 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] planetoid vis a vis mesoplanet

Does "planetoid" actually mean what you are using it to mean on the Solar system article? --Arkuat 06:15, 2005 July 17 (UTC)

It does - a planetoid generally means a body smaller than the main nine planets but large enough to be spherical. Like the definition of planet, it's arbitrary, and the article currently arbitrarily states that Ceres is a planetoid rather than an asteroid which I'm not sure is generally accepted, but nonetheless planetoid is the correct term - mesoplanet is obscure and unused. Worldtraveller 14:11, 17 July 2005 (UTC)

Even by that definition you give here, it is flat out wrong to claim, as you do in Solar system, that "Just one planetoid, Ceres, lies in the inner reaches of the Solar System." Pallas is every bit as spherical as Ceres is, and Pallas is hardly the only one. I can understand if you refuse to countenance the use of the neologism "mesoplanet", but please don't go pretending that you can arbitrarily redefine words to mean what you wish they would mean. --Arkuat 22:44, 2005 July 17 (UTC)

Yeah, you see I didn't write the Solar System article, I've only made minor edits to it, and I entirely agree that it's arbitrary to declare that Ceres is the only planetoid in the asteroid belt, like I said above. I am certainly not trying to arbitrarily redefine the word planetoid - just trying to ensure that we don't use the unscientific 'mesoplanet' instead of the accepted scientific terminology. Worldtraveller 22:58, 17 July 2005 (UTC)
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