User talk:Jasper33

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Welcome!

Hello, Jasper33, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome!  Coil00 19:03, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] K. A. C. Creswell

First up, well done, that's a great first article, and you are patently the type of editor the project sorely needs. I know exactly what you mean about the search box, it is a bit weak, and doesn't really function for variants of the article name...unless you apply WP:REDIRECT. You need to creat a new page for each name variant you have in mind (within reason of course), and plant the text - !" #REDIRECT K. A. C. Creswell ". It should work ok, then.
As a general comment, the opening paragraph could be expanded and give a very brief outline of the detail in the sections below. Also if you have used sources other than Hamilton, you should state them where used. But anyway, happy editing and take care. - Coil00 23:51, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

  • Fine. After few glasses of water and a hefty fry to soak it all up, of course. - Coil00 01:11, 25 November 2006 (UTC)
Your first article was one article shy of being the esteemed 1,500,000th article created! See the banner on todays front page - Coil00 19:00, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Big thanks!

Hi Jasper, thanks for your words of encouragement. I'll keep writing about flamenco :-) GemmaMS 20:01, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] I think this was meant for you

[edit] DYK

Updated DYK query On November 29, 2006, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Raymond Firth, which you created. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the "Did you know?" talk page.

Thanks again for your contributions. Blnguyen (bananabucket) 07:27, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

CheersJasper23 16:18, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Henry Burrell

Yep, the stance and the get-up make you think there's something that takes some handling in that box. "Don't look in its eyes...arghh!" - that sort of thing. Brook Watson, eh? I'll cross that off my list then. [1]. Cheers, Yomanganitalk 16:59, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

I was just nosing around your user page and figured there must be an image of the old boy somewhere. Brook Watson is a long way down my list - I couldn't find anything much more than what is in that link last time I looked. If your interests stretch that far, I wouldn't mind somebody else taking a look over Thylacine - I'm going to put it up for FA in couple of days. The Burrell article was a fall out from that one. Yomanganitalk 18:57, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for that. I've hopefully addressed most of your points. Convergent evolution is linked twice, as I thought that since the second one says: "This is an example of convergent evolution" it was rather inviting you to click the link. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any free images of the rock art, and although I managed to knock up the footprint picture that's as far as my artistic talents extend. Thanks again. Yomanganitalk 10:40, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

I have a slightly more modern 1986 version of the etymology dictionary, but it is very terse and doesn't comment on the scarcity. In afew years time the 1950s version might be right again, you never know. Yomanganitalk 13:23, 30 November 2006 (UTC)
I didn't want to list all the alternative names that aren't in common usage as it would break up the flow, but I've added a note to the bottom which lists most of the alternatives. Yomanganitalk 14:27, 30 November 2006 (UTC)
You see why I didn't want to list them in the body. It's at FAC now by the way. Thanks for your help with this. I've got another (shorter) one that I'll be putting in in a couple of weeks after I do some more referencing, maybe I'll hassle you again...no...wait...come back. Yomanganitalk 08:47, 1 December 2006 (UTC)
No, it's open to everybody - there's very little that is restricted to just admins (and don't let anybody try and tell you otherwise). The only real rule is that if you comment on something that you were a major contributor to before the FAC it's obligatory to mention it. Yomanganitalk 09:09, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Raymond Firth

Amazing! Comparing your article with my original stub, I felt so ashamed that the least I could do was to add a Persondata template :-) Great work, Jasper33! --Magnus Manske 13:49, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Hi, you can display the persondata by editing your monobook.css file and entering
table.persondata {display:table;}
there. You'll have to hard-reload an en.wikipedia page for this to take effect. For more scripting coolness, visit Wikipedia:Scripts and Wikipedia:WikiProject User scripts/Scripts. --Magnus Manske 10:36, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

OK, I've added it to your monobook.css - it's just a subpage of your user page. It can contain various settings to alter your wikipedia browsing individually (meaning, page display and layout). If you go to the bottom of the Raymond Firth article, you probably won't see a change. Reload the page with SHIFT-Reload (or SHIFT-F5 or whatever your browser wants to clear the page cache) and you'll see the persondata table (the one you could only see in the wiki code). If you don't like it, or it doesn't work, or you have other questions, talk to me :-) --Magnus Manske 19:57, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Shark

I've left Brook Watson for you though. Get on with it! Yomanganitalk 17:23, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

  • Very nice (and very quick). I wouldn't quote the whole of the legend from the painting though. Want me to track down some pics? Yomanganitalk 23:56, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "North Arabian"

In my understanding, "North Arabian" is equivalent to "Arabic", while "South Arabian" is South Semitic. I believe "Old North Arabian" is used to refer to pre-Islamic members of the Arabic group. I've created the South Central Semitic stub now, which is the unambiguous term, and which was missing. I am not positive on the correct terminology, but it should be discussed there. regards, dab (๐’ณ) 17:10, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

Copied ftrom Jasper23's talk page:

[edit] DYK

Updated DYK query On December 18, 2006, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Brook Watson, which you created. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the "Did you know?" talk page.

Blnguyen (bananabucket) 00:34, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

Updated DYK query On December 21, 2006, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Megaherb, which you created. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the "Did you know?" talk page.

- Thanks again Jasper. Happy editing, Blnguyen (bananabucket) 06:39, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

(Copied across from Jasper23's userpage by Jasper33 18:03, 21 December 2006 (UTC))

Err, sorry I never noticed two Jasper's. I guess that's up to you, there is a place called Wikipedia:Changing username - I think that there are two admins around Mike_1 and Mike_7, I think it's the 23 and 33 which is getting me knotted up. Thanks for your contributions again. Blnguyen (bananabucket) 00:53, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Your article, Safaitic, was selected for DYK!

Updated DYK query On December 23, 2006, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Safaitic, which you created. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the "Did you know?" talk page.

Thanks for your contributions! ++Lar: t/c 23:52, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Abecedary

The redirect is working fine here. -- Longhair\talk 01:16, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

The wiki database / cache can sometimes be slow to update. See WP:CACHE#Server_cache. Adding ?action=purge to the end of your URL clears the cache when this occurs. I'd say your problem was related to this. -- Longhair\talk 01:23, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ship-eating pandas

I've put them up at DYK (just so YDK). Cheers, Yomanganitalk 13:50, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

How do I do it? I type fast and make a lot of mistakes. I'd leave the panda story - sources are pretty thin on the ground for this sort of stuff, and a 1938 booking-in date doesn't sound that wild for a September 1937 departure (although it does say 12/1938). I'm not sure the panda site is 100% accurate anyway: Saint Louis Zoo claims to have got one in 1938 that had been in Hannover, Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Leipzig, Nurenberg, Collogne and Paris, but there's no record of it having been in any of those places on the site. Harkness' page is a bit dry, isn't it? (I've added a pic though) Yomanganitalk 16:22, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] DYK

Updated DYK query On 7 February 2007, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Agnes Newton Keith, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the "Did you know?" talk page.

--Yomanganitalk 10:42, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Agnes Newton Keith

No problem at all - I admit that I tend to slap that tag onto every article I read that doesn't have references, just as a friendly reminder. But yes, again, good job, it's quite interesting and very well-written.-Dmz5*Edits**Talk* 20:38, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

Jasper, I had just never seen the spelling "licence" (or at least I didn't remember having done so) and now I'm not sure if I should have changed it. Henry Keith was British, and Agnes died in Canada, so that seems to be two-out-of-three in favor of British spelling. I didn't recognize it as a British form, but Canadian English spelling usually matches British spelling, and not U.S. spelling. So, perhaps I made a mistake making the change. I'm embarrassed that I didn't recognize the form "licence." Being familiar with such variations is usually one of my strong points. May I add that your many excellent contributions to the Wikipedia impress me greatly. Thanks for the acknowledgement of my edit (although it was merely listed by IP address). OlYeller 23:05, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Thanks

Hello, I would like to thank you for your message, in fact and as a new contributor in Wikipedia, there is many things to be learn first about editing, and writing useful articles. I like here to concentrate on articles related to the Levant, it could be great if you help by English Laguage, because my english is not perfect. For the Volcanic fields I'm preparing a List of Voclanoes (names, heights) of Es Safa. Thanks again. โ€”The preceding unsigned comment was added by KFZI310 (talk โ€ข contribs) 03:42, 10 February 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Thanks...

...it's just what I've always wanted. I've put it in with the Sea-Monkeys who are teaching it to to play basketball. Yomanganitalk 14:00, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Al Harrat Again

Hello Again, You are always welcome to do any editing on my contributions, as long as you see that this could help. For the Jordanian part of Harrat Ash Shamah, I would like to give you its name, or at least the name of the northern section of the Jordanian Harrat which is "Harrat Ar Rujaylah". it lies directly south east of Jabal Druze, I hope that this could help. I'm also interested in this volcanic region because I live there, more precisly in Jabal Druze. and also I have Russian documents on this region, it always took me time to translate them!. KFZI310

[edit] DYK (13 Feb)

Updated DYK query On 13 February 2007, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Francis Turville-Petre, which you created. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the "Did you know?" talk page.

โ€”The preceding unsigned comment was added by Smurrayinchester (talk โ€ข contribs) 18:58, 13 February 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Francis Turville-Petre

Hi - could I ask why you removed the LGBT rights activist category from his page? Thanks Jasper33 16:51, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

I scanned the article for evidence and only saw the point about attedance at a congress, which hardly justified the category. I missed the other point made. 82.18.125.110 20:39, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

It would have been nice, having realised your mistake, if you could have bothered to revert it. Jasper33 21:37, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] DYK

Updated DYK query On 3 March 2007, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Violet Dickson, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the "Did you know?" talk page.

--Majorly (o rly?) 19:43, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Thanks

Thanks for fixing my category surname, first name mistake. I vaguely recall a dropped hyphenated surname but that may be rubbish. Your version is definitely the one he was known by. Children were told,

"be good, or Frank Jardine will come and get ya".

Regards, - Fred 12:38, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

Thanks again. Australians often dropped their hyphenated names. I am never quite sure how to handle it in categorising. Let me know if you come across some precedents. I see you caught Satusoru's attention too. At least I'm not the only untidy one. Cheers. - Fred 13:21, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Cripes

Wherever I go he precedes me- Fred that is - he's a friend - I was here to thank you for the Thomas Bather Moore cat correctin - I suspect my whole unofficial west coast tasmania project needs that... oops! cheers and thanks for the reminder... SatuSuro 12:45, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

Yeah I send very very nonsensical messages on freds talk page to save my insanity as we have some strange editors that we have to encounter in some of our areas of common interest. Western Tasmanian explorers are under articled - and I do own at least two or three books that have ample info - its the time issue. As for librarian issues - I used to work in the largest academic one in oz- in sydney for a while - being paid to wander through the stack looking for missing books...what a life it was. Anyways fredulence (I call him other things too) is doing some good drafts - a local crustacean and woodchipping - its enough for me to want to track down my copy of the alice/carrol books- Im sure there are carrollian quotes relevant to both drafts! SatuSuro 12:55, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
Nah we're expecting 35 degree heat tommorow - you can have it I'd rather be where my user page photo is - west coast taz- actually if you read freds latest talk - you can see where our relationship is - hes the guildenstern, I'm the rosencrantz. if youre into stoppard at all. SatuSuro 13:13, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
Your discretion is appreciated - its just when I was living in Queenstown, Tasmania I actually was Birdboot in Real Inspector Hound (Queenstown Amateur Dramatic Society - long since defunct) - but the landscape is more King Lear, and Strahan, Tasmania actually has the lanky descendant of the main convict governor Davey - who has directed lear a numberof times... (all of this was very ruedly interrupted by a flurry of gmail messages to and fro) SatuSuro 13:35, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Batu Lintang camp

Hi Jas, a nice draft with impressive detail, well done.

  • Length and number of citations my advice would be don't worry about reducing the number of cites at this stage; references don't add much to the size of articles, and it's always better to be on the safe side. There is really nothing wrong with going over the recommended length either, except in circumstances where stuff can easily be hived off into separate articles. I don't see how that could be done here. I s'pose we could have a Japanese internment camps in World War II article, but that is probably a long term project. And not much from your article could actually be removed and shifted to such an article anyway. The only places where I think the main text could be trimmed are Sections 5 and 6 (except 6.1, which needs the detail that you have there).
  • Serious military history howlers None that I can see from a quick read.
  • Images/copyright In such a big article, it would be OK to use three pics, if not more. With uploading, I will assume you are using a PC with Windows, which is all I've ever used. When you are at the Upload page, click on "browse". A window for one of your folders will appear. You may need to use the "go up one level" button (which has an icon of a folder with a green arrow) to find which ever folder you put the pic in (e.g. "My Pictures"). Once you can see the correct folder, click on the folder icon, then double click on the pic. The location of the pic on your PC should then appear in "Source filename". Fill in "Destination filename" if necessary, with whatever name you choose (preferably including the AWM catologue number, but that isn't compulsory). Then fill in "Summary" with the caption, including as many details as possible (you could just copy and paste from the AWM description). The copyright options under "Licensing" will probably not apply to an AWM pic. 99.9% of pre-1954 pics at the AWM are public domain, but check yours against the criteria/info at Template:PD-Australia, so I usually just type {{PD-Australia}} at the bottom of the Summary and leave "Licensing" blank. Then you just click "Upload File".
  • Categories "Category:Internments" and "Category:World War II POW camps" should do it I think.

BTW, when you save the article, I suggest you also change the entry for "Batu Lintang, Kuching" at List of Japanese POW camps during World War II.

If you have any more questions, ask away.

Grant | Talk 06:55, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

My most recent changes:
  • I have restructured a bit, including the merging of some sections and the removal of a few sentences which duplicated other material.
  • Removed most of the repeated ranks/titles and first name/initials in front of surnames. "Suga", "Russell", "Eastick" etc are sufficent after the first mention.
  • There is no problem in having more pics. I have reduced the size of the pics as they were squashing the text sideways somewhat. There aren't many pics bigger than 300px in most articles. I have also tweaked some using my picture editor, for colour/contrast/light/framing/untidy edges etc and have re-uploaded them.
There isn't a POV problem that I can see. The Good Article criteria are at WP:WIAGA. You can nominate an article for "GA" status at Wikipedia:Good article candidates. Be prepared to make all kinds of minute, fiddly changes. They do say it should be a stable article (i.e. it isn't being changed several times a day) so you may want to leave it for a few days at least while it "settles in" a bit. Grant | Talk 16:34, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

I noticed that you changed the order of the first two pars in "The end of the war for Batu Lintang". As the air raids started first, I'm inclined to put that par first or, alternatively, to merge the two paragraphs, with the material re-arranged in chronological order.

BTW, if you will indulge me is digression for a minute, I suppose you must have mixed feelings about Batu Lintang, since although it was a horrible place, it allowed your grandparents to meet. A Town Like Alice in real life. Out of interest, has anyone from your family ever been back? I also think the story of the camp would make a great TV series. I mean, I don't know about the UK, but this stuff strikes a chord with so many people here in Australia, because of the personal/family connections to so many POWs. For example, a great uncle whom I never met, was lucky enough to survive the Battle of Sunda Strait and three years in Changi. One of my university lecturers spent his infancy in a civilian internment camp in the Philippines. And so on. Grant | Talk 15:52, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

Ah, so I got the wrong end of the stick about your g/ps meeting at BL. I did see Tenko, but was unaware of Keith until I read your articles. There was also a really good series made here, Changi, done in a semi-Dennis Potter style, with 1930s pop music. I don't think it was shown overseas, but is probably available on DVD.
On the point about locals assisting the Allies, I recall that Sgt Jack Wong Sue, a Chinese-Australian who was involved in commando ops in Borneo, recounted how the local Chinese were generally pro-Allied but not always keen to help the Allied cause, and occasionally had to be persuaded at gunpoint to assist. Grant | Talk 01:31, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Batu Lintang flag

Hello, and congratulations on finding my Imageshack account. There goes my privacy...

Anyway, I forgot which book I scanned the photograph from - but most likely it is from The White Rajahs of Sarawak: A Borneo Dynasty by Bob Reece, p. 113. While I am tempted to say that the image is probably usable under the Fair Use clause, the photo credit page of the book says "By courtesy, Professor Bob Recce." They are probably one and the same person, but I believe you should e-mail the professor himself to enquire more - and in the process, maybe he will agree to release more pictures of the camp or Sarawak!

Nice work on the camp's article, by the way. You put me, a local, to shame. ;) โ€“ Matthew A. Lockhart (talk) 08:32, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Batu Lintang

Updated DYK query On 22 March 2007, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Batu Lintang camp, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the "Did you know?" talk page.

--howcheng {chat} 17:07, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] re: Batu Lintang camp

You're welcome! :) --Camptown 20:55, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

That's a good question... Read this: Wikipedia:Featured article criteria, and compare the article to current nominations here: FAC - some comments are actually quite constructive... Act of Independence of Lithuania and The Four Stages of Cruelty are two recent DYK nominations, written by a teams of editors who aimed for FA, and made it within a fortnight. Personally, I don't think your article would have too much problem drawing support... --Camptown 21:46, 22 March 2007 (UTC)
Absolutely, that's probably a wise strategy. However, don't get discouraged by the fact that other articles were started by teams of people! POV is always a risk when dealing with sensitive isses, and it's probably hard to find 100% neutrality in sources in the study of internment camps. I don't think that the radio part is too exstensive. Possibly, there would be some objections to the overall style, reads like an essay, etc. But I've seen worse... ;) --Camptown 22:34, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

Blimey - having just looked at it properly for the first time, that is a good article! Act of Independence of Lithuania was a team effort, but The Four Stages of Cruelty was mostly written by Yomangani on his own. If you are unsure, you could try getting some comments first at Wikipedia:Peer review, but I agree that it would do well on WP:FAC anyway. Well done. -- ALoan (Talk) 14:31, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

I'm not an expert on military history, but this seems to be a worthy candidate for FA, and doesn't have any obvious weaknesses. It might be easiest to list it for FA, you'll then probably get plenty of suggestions, which you will need to be prepared to address. I'm not sure if peer review is a process that saves any time or effort. Sometimes FA listings get quick approvals.--Grahamec 01:53, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] note re Batu Lintang camp

Thanks for your eagle-eyed edit, Debivort Jasper33 20:05, 22 March 2007 (UTC) PS Cool user page! Jasper33 20:07, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

My pleasure. It's a really nice article you've started, particularly for such a new one. Are you trying to get it up to FA status? Debivort 05:35, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] FA bid

Well why not? I suggested "Good Article" because I think it's basically there already. FA is somewhat more difficult but well within reach methinks. I will help in any way that I can.

You're right, there is no article on the Services Reconnaissance Department and there should be. The history of military intelligence units in the South West Pacific during WW2 has suffered from their secrecy at the time, the lack of publically available documentation, and the ad hoc and fluid nature of their organisation and interrelationships. I will set about creating a stub. Thanks for pointing out the Tom Harrisson article; I hadn't heard of him before. Maybe I'll also start a "Allied commandos in the South West Pacific during World War II" category, as there a quite afew related articles scattered here and there. Grant | Talk 05:50, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

Hi! IMO the article is ready for a peer review. Just go for it. --Dwaipayan (talk) 10:25, 24 March 2007 (UTC)
As far as helping out on articles goes, Non, je ne regrette rien (a song which, I just discovered, was adopted by Indonesian nationalists as well as the French Foreign Legion).
I noticed that article by Oot Keat Gin. For some time I've been mulling over where to put a decent account of covert pre-invasion ops in Borneo; probably at Z Special Unit (where it is a section stub). Z seems to have been the main combat unit involved, but there may have been others. The whole matter is complicated by the thicket of alternative names for the organisations concerned, inter-service and inter-national rivalries and the standard obfuscations and smokescreens of military intelligence. But we'll get there in the end. Grant | Talk 06:24, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] John Inman camp

or at least he was (just wanted a make a change from the Batu Lintang headings). The lead could do with a bit of expansion but other than that it is first rate. Yomanganitalk 13:14, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

You may choose any prize from the bottom two shelves (although adding all the Cuba links this morning may have made it slightly too easy). Tossing the pieman unfortunately isn't as exciting as it sounds, but it might make for an interesting disambiguation page. If you need a hand with anything on Orang Utan Camp just drop me a note; the connection here is so slow I can't do anything taxing anyway. (Oh, and they should have run Sylvia Syms over when they had the chance) Yomanganitalk 23:04, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Regarding edits to Batu Lintang camp

Thank you for contributing to Wikipedia, Jasper33! However, your edit here was reverted by an automated bot that attempts to remove spam from Wikipedia. If you were trying to insert a good link, please accept my creator's apologies, but note that the link you added, matching rule img[0-9]*\.imageshack\.us/img[0-9]*/.*\.jpg, is on my list of links to remove and probably shouldn't be included in Wikipedia. Please read Wikipedia's external links policy for more information. If the link was to an image, please read Wikipedia's image tutorial on how to use a more appropriate method to insert the image into an article. If your link was intended to promote a site you own, are affiliated with, or will make money from inclusion in Wikipedia, please note that inserting spam into Wikipedia is against policy. For more information about me, see my FAQ page. Thanks! Shadowbot 15:31, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Batu Lintang camp

I saw your message on Shadow1's page. I reverted the page to the state it was before the bot undoed your edits, and removed the link to imageshaks.us. For future reference, you can click on the date of a revision in the History page too see and edit this exact revision. I hope that helps! -- lucasbfr talk 10:29, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Frank Bell (educator)

Updated DYK query On 10 April 2007, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Frank Bell (educator), which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the "Did you know?" talk page.

--howcheng {chat} 22:42, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] New source

Hi Jas, while glancing through my Dad's library at Easter my eyes fell upon Borneo Surgeon (1995) by Peter Firkins. It's a short biography of Dr James Taylor, who was Chief Medical Officer in North Borneo when war broke out. He was considered useful by the Japanese, and was not initially interned. As a result Taylor was able to engage in covert assistance to POWs and the Allied cause in general. He was interned at Batu Lintang towards the end of the war, and there are some interesting snippets regarding the camp. Once I've finished reading it, I will add some stuff to the article. Cheers, Grant | Talk 10:48, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

The Taylor bio is a slim volume and is still in print @ A$22.00 (paperback) and A$28.00 (hb) (http://www.hesperianpress.com/booklist/title_information/borneo_surgeon.htm) The publisher is here in Perth, so there may be a few second hand copies knocking around โ€” will let you know if if I see one.
And today in my local paper there is a lengthy interview with Ivan Quartermaine, who was a civil servant in Jesselton when the Japanese invaded, and was interned at BL! Unfortunately the interview is not available on the paper's web site. It says he was a reluctant interviewee and it certainly reads that way; there may be a few bits worth adding to the BL article, but I will leave that until I've digested the Taylor bio. It's interesting that Quartermaine expresses some sympathy for Suga, whom he says was "at the mercy of the Kempeitai" and apparently lost his family in the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
Your Suga article is a nice start. I had a look on the web for bio details, but couldn't see much. It's usually quite tough with middle-ranking military types, unless they were famous for something in particular. The Japanese didn't see much action in WW1, except for the Battle of Tsingtao. But armies love handing out gongs, and I bet a lot of senior Japanese officers in WW2 had run-of-the-mill decorations from WW1. Grant | Talk 16:49, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Tatsuji Suga

Updated DYK query On 15 April 2007, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Tatsuji Suga, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the "Did you know?" talk page.

--howcheng {chat} 06:12, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Batu Lintang camp

Hi there. I just read the article created by you on the Batu Lintang camp. I was very impressed by the scope and depth of your work. Wikippedia cops a degree of flack from different sources. If they could only stop to read what you have written I'm sure they would change their mind. Anyhow I appreciate your use of Australian/British spelling as well. I must admit I'm not a huge fan of US spellings. Ozdaren 10:17, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Rowing

Hi again.. Did you say you rowed for Thames Tradesmen? I have friends who were active more recently with them (about 10 - 15 years ago). I've never met Steve Redgrave, I did however gate crash a party run by Matt Pinsent. This was back in '92. I talked my way through with my South Aussie accent. Ozdaren 07:49, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Quartermaine

Hi Jas, I don't mind you asking at all. I don't have a scanner at the moment. (I have meant to invest in a handheld scanner with character recognition software for years, but I'm a bit technologically-challenged and have never got around to it.) I'm not sure if I know anyone who has one either, but will ask around. I can easily photocopy the article and post it, but I sense (and understand) a desire for privacy on your part, so I will leave that decision up to you.

I think you will appreciate the Firkins book. It doesn't have references, is prone to digression and needed a good solid edit before publication, but it's full of interesting details about pre-war Borneo and wartime anecdotes both sad and heroic. By the way, I got one point wrong: Celia Taylor was in Batu Lintang but Dr Taylor was sent to the Outram Road Gaol in Singapore. Grant | Talk 16:03, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bastard brothers

Just thought you might like to know I've added a small amount of info and a pic to your page. Jasper33 19:38, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

I'm delighted to see the page further expanded and with such useful information. It is not "my page" though but thank you for the courtesy of telling me and referring to it as such. However, if you check the history you will see others helped gather the information there so it is nice to have another editor contributing to it. Giano 20:48, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
Yeah, and I'm kicking you too for not taking a camera! Giano 12:36, 8 May 2007 (UTC)
reply on my page or people will think it a very odd thread indeed! Giano 12:49, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Springs

Thanks for correcting me. With over 250 links to handle, I was bound to make a mistake no matter how careful I read. It was the word "piped" that threw me off into thinking it referred to the device. How did you notice? - Mgm|(talk) 17:21, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Darmera peltata

I went ahead and uploaded a rotated version of Image:Darmera peltata.JPG. I also took the liberty of editing a little bit with the colours as well as curves to reduce the blown headlights on some petals. If you have any complaints, please feel free to contact me. J Are you green? 20:54, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

No problem. By the way, blown headlights are areas of a picture that are exposed so that detail is lost; there were a few petals in direct sunlight that were so bright that they appeared to be pure white. J Are you green? 21:02, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Flower Identification

Since you offered... here is one plant and here (another view) is the other. Thanks for the offer. J Are you green? 21:06, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

Image 1 was in a garden, images 2 and 3 were wild. I figure I'll try back at the reference desk after a little wait - both have been posted there previously to no success. J Are you green? 21:19, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for trying. That is by far the closest I have seen yet. I'll keep trying to get a positive identification. J Are you green? 22:16, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Reply

Glad you like the 'roo paws โ€” that's my desktop pic. Difficult flowers to grow in gardens I'm told.

Yes, Taylor is one of the unsung heroes of the whole South West Pacific theatre. I'd have to say that Borneo in general during WW2 is not well-covered by historians, or we would know as much about him and the likes of Matthews, as we do about Weary Dunlop and the Burma Railway.

I'm about to start a new job and have heaps to learn, so as much as the urge and fascination is there, I'm not going to be able to read much about it, or start any major Wikipedia articles for a while now. (Hmmm...I've said that before!) Thanks for the offer re The War Illustrated, but it's OK really. We don't have a fast broadband connection, and I wouldn't subject you to sending it a page at a time. When we get a faster connection, I'll let you know. Grant | Talk 02:04, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Re: Not a typo!

I am very sorry, I did not notice it was a quotation. Thanks for telling me, I shall be more careful. trainra 01:44, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sabah

hi jasper. i read the Stephen R. Evans article and all seems fine. didnt detect any mistakes. i'll help add in some stuff if i get any infos. he was an MP in M'sia is it? or UK? which constituency? anyway i havent really looked at Agnes's page cos its a bit long. one day. yea, u should visit Sabah and Malaysia one day (its Visit Malaysia Year 2007 btw :)). Sabah alone is a nice place with many things to do. good day. :) kawaputratok2me 19:10, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Yea, ive not heard any news about the depot in Kimanis. ive not been there too, but i heard its a nice place. yea probably it would damage the beauty of kimanis. anyway ur g/parents worked with the Chartered Company? they survived the camp yea? kawaputratok2me 05:23, 5 June 2007 (UTC)
oh ic. Guthrie's really big. did u mean Mawao or Tawao (aka Tawau)? ya, i hope the old house is still there when u come visit. would be very nostalgic. :)
Interesting! i'll really be looking forward to seeing those photos of KK. I was born there too. Brought up there too, but currently in KL. Yea, the only pre-war building still standing that i know of in KK is the Atkinson Clock Tower. oh, and the North Borneo Railway is still there. kawaputratok2me 15:06, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Stephen R. Evans

Good work on the categories, although I usually avoid using Category:Malaysian people if the article include its own subcategories. Keep it up though. - Two hundred percent 11:51, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bot madness

I know you bots are, y'know, bots, but could your programmers somehow fix you so that you please stop editing odd spellings that are in quotations. I'm getting tired of reverting them ... Jasper33 21:09, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

Japser33, my apologies for the inconvenience. I've tried to do it before, and it's not easy to get a bot to recognise what is directly quoted text and what isn't. As a human supervisor I try to watch out for things that are evidently direct quotes from other sources, but I'm not always successful. There are two things you can do to help:
1. When there's a problem, tell me about it! Suffer in silence, and my bot's likely to make the same miscorrection again some day. If you let me know what I miscorrected and in what article, I can add it to my bot's exception list.
2. If you find the same miscorrection occurring repeatedly with different bots/editors, you might want to put a {{sic}} in the quote (if you want ordinary readers to see it), or a HTML comment <--Like this--> somewhere near the word to advise editors that it's a deliberate misspelling.
I can only find one edit of CmdrObot's that you've reverted, and that's for replacing 'till' with 'until' in some quoted text in Brook Watson. Are there any others I should add to my list? Cheers, CmdrObot 19:58, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Oh, apologies, I had my grumpy hat on yesterday; besides, when I finally looked up what AWB was I found it specifically says it's not a bot - two of the other recent quotation-(non)-correction-edits on Brook Watson were done that way. Doh! No, you're quite right, your bot has only done it the once. Mea culpa! I'll take your advice on the code thingy - cheers for that. Jasper33 20:20, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Thanks

For the compliments and support, much appreciated.

BTW, I just remembered that description of Capt. Lionel Matthews as "christ like", which he was in more ways than one, but perhaps not as literally as this bloke! Grant | Talk 08:25, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

Again, thanks for your support. I will try not to let it go to my head! Grant | Talk 04:20, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Salaam!

Thanks very much! Nice flowers bytheway!!.. Your Batu Lintang is fascinating and rich in research. nice one! -- maxrspct ping me 13:22, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Dropped you a note

Just to let you know, I have responded to you at User talk:SchuminWeb. SchuminWeb (Talk) 18:36, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Barnstar

The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
For your work with starting so many articles, I, Sharkface217, hereby award you this barnstar. --Sharkface217 03:41, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
I came across you while looking at the history of Naval Intelligence Handbooks. And more info on barnstars can be found at WP:BS and barnstar. And you are quite welcome. --Sharkface217 09:21, 5 September 2007 (UTC)


If you ever go to Pennsylvania, pretty much every barn and house in the country (i.e. every place but the cities) has a barnstar. It's actually pretty cool. --Sharkface217 09:56, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
Wow, that really was boring. And you should do an article on it. --Sharkface217 00:31, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Boring things usually don't get to me (just read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man) but just looking at that article gave me a headache. Which is why I tend to edit interesting pages. Or, as I am doing right now, downloading film noir movies via Stage6 and writing essays. --Sharkface217 04:01, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] A question

Hi again jasper. I have a question for you as an English person on the English language. I hope u dont mind :) Do u use the phrase "just now"? Do u use it describe something which has happened (past)? Or something which is about to happen (future)? In Malaysian English or Manglish we use it describe the former (past, already happened). I heard some British ppl use the word to describe the future. kawaputratorque 03:54, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

Thank jasper. Oh, i think i may have been wrong. I thought all or most ppl in UK use "just now" to describe the future. Maybe only a minority. Ive heard something like, "the show is starting just now" (ie soon). One was a Zimbabwean and the other a Scouser. Online dictionaries seem to say that the correct usage is to describe the past: [2][3]. Maybe its an Afro-Carribean slang: [4][5] Also, even if the phrase is used to dscribe the past, the usage seems also different from Msian and common English. Yea probably a question for the expert. :-) kawaputratorque 04:11, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Brook Watson

No, there isn't a way to change AWB to my knowledge to do that. Just means I wasn't looking closely enough for the block quotes tag. My fault, thanks for the catch. Mbisanz (talk) 15:27, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sorry!

Um, that was me who made the bad commons move (Image:Parterre2.JPG), sorry about that! It's Image:Parterre2.jpg now, because my computer de-capped it when I downloaded it, and then I was busy looking at a bunch of your other images. I had 2 quick questions for you as well: first, is there any reason you're not uploading onto commons? Images on commons can be used on any wikimedia project (alternate language Wikipedias, Wikibooks, Wikiversity, etc.), which makes them useful to an even larger community. Second, I'm a horticulturist, and do a lot of my wiki work on Wikibooks writing about gardening (A Wikimanual of Gardening), and was wondering if you'd be willing to contribute some chapters about garden design (I'm very much a "mechanic"... never had much flair for design but I can often cure what ails a sickly plant). I'm working this winter on a "plant selector" system for that book that will let designers find just the right plant for the effect they're trying to get, and could definitely use some advice for putting that together as well.

Again, sorry I goofed with that image... I'll be moving a bunch more of your images to commons over the next month or so, and I'll be very careful about the suffix problem :). --SB_Johnny | talk 11:03, 23 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sabah during WW II

Hi there Jasper. I want to ask you about a person from Sabah during the 30s and 40s. I dont know whether u know him but here goes. His name is Jules Stephens. I think he's a New Zealander. Theres not much info i could dig up from the internet, but some things i found out were that he co-founded the scouts movement in Sabah during the 30s; during WWII he together a Albert Kwok and (maybe) Tun Mustapha formed a group called the Kinabalu Guerillas and led an attack against the Japanese. He was subsequently caught, tortured and executed along with hundreds other ppl; also he was (apparently) the father of Sabah's first chief minister, Tun Fuad Stephens aka Donald Stephens. Have u heard of him? kawaputratorque 07:44, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Hi Jasper. Ah thats too bad i didnt send the msg to u earlier. I think the history records in Malaysia is quite bad. Either we didnt bother to record events or they try to hide events for some unknown purpose. Yea, i might create those pages one day. There's quite a lot of pages in my list so it could take a while. Anyway thanks again, and all the best to u too. :-) ัœืžัˆืžฯ†ื˜ั‚ะณืžtorque 13:04, 16 March 2008 (UTC)
Now i know he was one of the leaders of the guerilla. I seems like the guerilla is a mainly Australian based group rather than a local (Sabah) based group as i originally imagined. Thanks again. I'll be looking forward for more info. ัœืžัˆืžฯ†ื˜ั‚ะณืžtorque 13:24, 16 March 2008 (UTC)
I see. I'll definitely come to around to get the KG page started soon. There is enough info already i think. I'll also try to get a hold of the book by Horton. ัœืžัˆืžฯ†ื˜ั‚ะณืžtorque 04:52, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Newlands

Hi Jasper, thanks for the compliments. Glad you liked the photo of Newlands! It's worth a visit when visiting North Borneo. They've turned it into a lovely museum that captures colonial life in Sabah, as well as the life and times of Agnes and Harry Keith. WarrenA (talk) 11:38, 3 February 2008 (UTC)


[edit] The Bastards

Nice photos! Pleas add them as you see fit, they are all great. If you are unsure of the architectural term, just add what you think are best, and I can do a caption.Giano (talk) 17:16, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Re: A request to Our Man in Kuching

It looks like the cemetery at St. Joseph's. I'll see if I can find more information on it.โ€“ Matthew A. Lockhart (talk) 06:10, 11 May 2008 (UTC)