User talk:David J Wilson

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... mi ritrovai per una selva oscura.

Contents

[edit] Galileo Galilei

Pls see Wikipedia:Featured article review/Galileo Galilei for discussion of citation. Thanks, SandyGeorgia (Talk) 16:13, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

  • Further to the above, I've added to that debate, saying here why I think your link to another article's footnote is a bad idea. Carcharoth 16:40, 17 August 2007 (UTC)
  • I'm not taking an immediate position regarding the referencing problems, I personally prefer the {{cite web |title= |url= |accessdate=}} style and that I am rather familiar with. I just introduced another ref, not quite in any normal format as I see it as a temporary solution. Please read my comment and invitation about that new reference in a new subsection on the Galilei talk page (see link to it in Galileo Galilei edit history). — SomeHuman 26 Aug 2007 13:34 (UTC)
Thanks for the response. I think the web citation method you prefer is fine, as was the citation template you used for the Sobel reference earlier. The "consistency" I was referring to in my note on your talk page had nothing to do with choice of templates, but merely with the location of the full citations for printed sources. Most of these are given in the References section, with merely a brief Harvard-style citation in the (foot) Notes section. However there are still a few full citations to printed sources which aren't listed at all in the References section (currently in footnotes numbers 10, 20 and 21). I plan to transfer these, and any others which might appear, to the References section, and leave only a Harvard-style reference in the foontnote. For citations to web sources, however, I'm not sure this would be worth the bother, even if I knew how to construct Harvard-style citations for them.
David Wilson 16:46, 27 August 2007 (UTC)
I might have introduced another problem to solve: I just added an editor's (my) footnote followed with a reference (together now 8). Also a more conventional reference (now 9). You might better have a look at those. I also noticed that the indexes list still contains a few authors by forename lastname, whereas the prevailing style is lastname, forename. Shouldn't this within one article be done in a consistent way (even if some templates might not do so)? — SomeHuman 28 Aug 2007 01:07 (UTC)

[edit] Cont'd

Hi David. ragesoss has brought up some specific concerns at the review: Wikipedia:Featured article review/Galileo Galilei. I was wondering if you planned to work on it some more and whether you found the objections actionable. Let us know. Cheers, Marskell 08:44, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Effort

See the Talk page of the Galileo article.
—Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.41.51.240 (talk) 20:20, September 10, 2007

[edit] Correction

In a comment on the Galileo Galilei talk page I wrote:

... Edward Rosen, who tried to track down the source of this quotation, was unable to find any earlier instance of it than the one in Chapter VI of Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy ...

This is incorrect—my memory unfortunately let me down. I appear to have confabulated an inaccurate recollection out of two pieces of information I obtained while reading an article of Rosen's. The two pieces of information were that Bertrand Russell had attributed the quotation under discussion to Calvin without citing any source, and that Rosen had been unable to find the supposed quotation in any of Calvin's works. On reconsulting Rosen's article I find that he did, however, track the quotation back, via Andrew Dickson White's A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom, to A History of Interpretation by Frederic William Farrar, who also cited no source. Rosen found that another source referred to by White, The final philosophy, by a Dr Shields, contained a criticism of Calvin's views on cosmology, and cited Calvin's Commentary on Genesis as the source of a different quotation. White appears to have simply presumed that Farrar's quotation would be found in the same place without bothering to check.

—David Wilson (talk · cont) 13:33, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Comment on Haldane's dilemma talk page

In response to a comment of mine on the Haldane's dilemma talk page, WalterR wrote:

Concerning Haldane's Dilemma, David (J) Wilson is more careful than most of the Internet commentators, and that is much appreciated. However, he is overly silent concerning this condemnable Wikipedia article which seeks to obscure Haldane's Dilemma from public view. Also, he has not identified any errors in ReMine's work, (more precisely, Wilson's only attempt is rebuffed by ReMine, see ReMine's footnote #4).

According to the Wikipedia guidelines, comments should only be posted to an article's talk page if their purpose is to suggest or discuss ways in which the article might be improved. Since this response to WalterR's above comments doesn't fall into this category I have posted it here. If anyone wishes to add further comments, please do so here rather than on the Haldane's dilemma talk page.

WalterR offers some positive and some negative feedback, which is welcome, and for which I thank him. However, unless these items of feedback relate to some specific contributions of mine to the Haldane's dilemma article or its talk page, I believe it's inappropriate to post them to the latter, so I would appreciate it if in future he would post any such feedback he has to my own talk page instead.

Although it seems unlikely to me, it's possible that WalterR's criticism had the legitimate purpose of encouraging me to rejoin the discussion on Haldane's dilemma talk page because he believes I might make a valuable contribution to improving the article itself. However, I currently have no further constructive suggestions that I wish to contribute to the discussion. I shall not be rejoining it until I do.

WalterR also makes some comments about an article of mine posted to another forum, and a web page of Mr Walter ReMine's which presents a rebuttal of it. This Wikipedia policy document makes it quite clear that its pages should not be used as a general discussion forum or a vehicle for advocacy of editors' own views. It would therefore be entirely out of place for me to criticise, advocate or discuss any of the claims and counterclaims made in these articles on the pages of Wikipedia, so I do not intend to get drawn into doing so.

—David Wilson (talk · cont) 23:28, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

Here and elsewhere, your comments about Haldane's Dilemma are more careful and productive than most other Internet commentators. So yes, I do encourage your discussion anytime, as it is almost always a big improvement over that of your comrades. I mean that as a compliment.
The current Wikipedia article is a scandal. It documents a commonplace phenomenon (a phenomenon that exists on Haldane's Dilemma, and numerous other issues too, from the fossil record, to vestigial organs, to genetics, to embryology). That is, evolutionists allow confusion and error to thrive, so long as it favors evolution. Otherwise, they aggressively attack those. This disparity is condemnable and a sign of ill-health in the scientific community. The Wikipedia article is a good example of it. I hope that does not represent your behavior. WalterR 13:15, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Re: Question about Kaukab ali Mirza's book on Ja'far al Sadiq

Hi and thanks for your concern. Unfortunately, I do not have Ali Mirza's book, so I'm not quite sure where to find the original French thesis. However, I did look around for any possible French references to Strasbourg regarding al-Sadiq, and I found the following reference from the Encyclopedia of Religion article on al-Sadiq:

  • Fahd, T. "Ḡāʿfar al-Ṣādiq et la tradition scientifique arabe." In Le Shiʿisme Imāmite Colloque de Strasbourg 6–9 mai 1968, edited by T. Fahd, pp. 132–142. Paris, 1970.

I'm not sure if this is the thesis, but maybe you could loko into it and see if this is it?

As for the reference to "Light and Disease" in The Minister, I got that reference and the quote from IslamOnline. I couldn't really find the The Minister publication on the internet, which is why I also included the IslamOnline article with a cf. in brackets to indicate the source where I got that reference from. If you cannot find the publication either, maybe we could e-mail IslamOnline?

Regards, Jagged 85 (talk) 15:00, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Nicoulaus Copernicus

Hi, sorry, I didn't realize that 203.194.34.115 is you so I reverted it assuming it is a vandalism. Happy editing. ≈Tulkolahten≈≈talk≈ 16:40, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia vs. Vatican newspaper

Your would almost certainly be very interested in Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Newsroom/Suggestions#Vatican claims Italian scientists used out-of-context Wikipedia quote to attack Pope, which falls on some facts you've documented in the Galileo article recently. Thanks.--Pharos (talk) 11:04, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

David, I wrote up a draft for the Signpost: User:Ragesoss/Pope. Since I relied heavily on the digging you did, I'd like to add you to the byline, if you're happy with the story. Also, any suggestions on improving or correcting it would be greatly appreciated.--ragesoss (talk) 01:49, 11 February 2008 (UTC)
Great. I might not have time to return to it before publication time, so please just make whatever changes you see fit.--ragesoss (talk) 14:51, 11 February 2008 (UTC)
It would be great if you could look over the recent changes I've made to Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2008-02-11/Pope. Thanks.--Pharos (talk) 22:46, 12 February 2008 (UTC)