User talk:Nomoskedasticity

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[edit] WVU Academic Fraud

Hello. I saw that you made a few edits to the WVU Academic Fraud/MBA Controversy. I think that this deserves its own article, since it is too complicated to adequately explain on the WVU homepage and it would not fit well in any biography pages. I have started a draft of such an article here:User:TheZachMorrisExperience/WVU. If you can make any suggestion or edits, it would be appreciated. I'd like to get this article into good shape before putting it in the mainspace and subject to AFD or other attacks. Thanks!--TheZachMorrisExperience (talk) 19:36, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Resources

http://www.mideasti.org/files/identity.pdf

http://atlah.org/about/oxfordroundtable.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Conflict_of_interest/Noticeboard

[edit] re:Madonna Constantine

First, let me apologize if I'm doing this wrong or asking this question in the wrong place.

You wrote: "someone who sits in jail and claims "I'm not a thief" can safely be labelled a thief once convicted by a court; Columbia University is competent to determine that plagiarism has been established."

While I understand your point, I'm not sure that it is accurate in this case. I agree that Columbia is competent to determine that plagiarism has been established - but Columbia has not yet determined this. The president of Teachers College made this judgment publicly, but the matter is pending before a faculty committee.

While the press has all but declared Constantine guilty, they are not competent to judge the matter. Neither would a law firm hired by the College. A faculty committee would be. Plagiarism requires, among other things, a finding that an individual had access to the documents plagiarized. The similarity is undisputed in this case. The dispute is about priority and access, and no finding has been issued.

What the news pieces glossed over (and headline writers ignored) is that no competent authority has issued a finding on the issues of priority or access. The New York Times for example wrote that the college "announced" than an "investigation had found" Constantine guilty. While the president promoted this investigation to the media, it is unclear if the college had issued a finding of fact. Jwcampbe (talk) 15:41, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

I understand that Constantine is appealing, using the arguments in your final paragraph. But the sources used in this article clearly state that the college has determined that she has committed plagiarism and has been sanctioned (in an unspecified way). That she might have an argument for appeal doesn't change that basic fact. If there is indeed dispute about whether the college has in fact sanctioned her for plagiarism, that would be a different matter - but again as I read the sources there is no dispute on this score. cheers, Nomoskedasticity (talk) 15:56, 14 May 2008 (UTC)
I guess this is one of the frustrating things about having more knowledge of what is going on than is in the press. But if the College has not issued a final judgment on the matter - which I would argue that they have not, and I don't think the press has reported that they have - then isn't this still a matter of allegations or accusations, even if the president of the college has instituted some sort of temporary sanctions in the meantime? I feel like the idea that the college has issued a judgment is more of a matter of the tone of press coverage (and content of the headlines) than any reporting within the articles, most of which at least, attribute the finding of plagiarism to the law firm rather than the college. thanks for getting back to me so quickly. Jwcampbe (talk) 16:08, 14 May 2008 (UTC)
I do understand that frustration. I can also understand dissatisfaction with journalists - though in the case of the Chan article, there are direct quotes from university statements that seem to make it very clear the college has done. In more general terms, it might help to look at WP:V and WP:OR to get a sense of the approach I am taking here. cheers, Nomoskedasticity (talk) 16:14, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Help in reducing evidence

This is re: [1] Thanks for reminding me know about the 1000 words. I'm having real trouble reducing it (I cut it down substantially but the evidence and diffs are 1000 words on their own. Can you offer any advise specific to the content? The new content could be another batch of evidence in a new case... but I was advised to put it there. Thanks Oboler (talk) 18:56, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

Never mind... reduced it as much as possible. Thanks again for the heads up. Oboler (talk) 19:50, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] "non-Jewish Arab"

"non-Jewish Arab" is not an awkward phrasing insofar as one realises that "Arab" may indeed include Jews, as it does Muslims, Christians, Druze. One would so too justly acknoweledge that there are Berber Jews, Indian Jews, Ethiopian Jews, Ashkenazi (West and East European) Jews, Sephardic (Spanish and Portuguese) Jews, Yemenite Jews, Persian Jews, Chinese Jews.

It is very important that this to be dinstinguished. Let us not forget that even today there are those that identify as Arab Jews, much more so yesteryear. To simply say one "Jewish" and one "Arab" introduces a connotation of the terms somehow being mutually exclusive of each other, a suggestion which is clearly not the case.

The partitioning of Mandate Palestine was in fact into 1) a Jewish side, and 2) a non-Jewish Arab side. That means, the Arab side was for Arabs of religious heritage except Jewish, while the Jewish side was for Jews of all ethno-cultural heritages including Arab. Al-Andalus (talk) 07:38, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Interesting ideas. To get them to stick, I think you would need to do two thing: first, demonstrate that this term is widely used in scholarly and journalistic discussions. Second, get consensus for it on the article talk page. Nomoskedasticity (talk) 08:21, 1 June 2008 (UTC)
The division of the Palestine Mandate was into a Jewish state and an Arab state; it specifically uses the phrase "Independent Arab and Jewish States" and talks about "Arabs" and "Jews". There was none of this nonsense about a "non-Jewish Arabs". Jayjg (talk) 02:23, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

We know what two terms were employed. That is not what is contested. What is contested, and requires clarification, is how one of the terms was employed. That term being "Arab". In the legal arena, the use of two innately non-mutually-exclusive terms in such a construct contitutes a legal ambiguity (given the recognized authority of the United Nations from where the resolution eminates from; a quasi-legal body, even if its resolutions and declarations are binding only in those jurisdictions which have enacted its authority as recognizable under their domestic legal systems). That very legal nature necessitates the interpretation of the ambiguous term. It has always boggled the mind how such flimsy wording and ambiguous terminology (given the purpose of the resolution) was employed in the first place, or how the interpretation of Arab had never been demanded by the international community for the actual implementation of the resolution.

It would be interesting if another area had been devided under the same guise with the same wording; Independent Ethiopian and Jewish States; Independent Russian and Jewish States; Independent German and Jewish States; Independent Indian and Jewish States. We should think about the implications that would have created for the world. Al-Andalus (talk) 12:04, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Lustick etc.

'Nómos' will be obvious to all. skedánnûmi (σκεδάννυμι), to disperse, shiver (into fragments). It's not that many don't understand: they are, many of them, highly intelligent techies: it's just that a genetic mutation has occurred, and the older style of learning looks like fossilized tomfoolery. For one thing, the old dinosaur world in which I was reared, was comfortable navigating its way through several levels of meaning. They are accustomed to a binary world, of simple choices, and quick economic 'solutions' that sweep complications under the carpet. I'm not playing 'the age card' as one remarked. It's just that I bumbled like a garrulous geezer into a youth culture that takes subtlety as a symptom of old-codgery, the doddering dialectics of oldsters maladapted to their world, which is the only 'real' one they think exists.Regards (p.s.It would be nice if you, or an acquaintence with specialised talents for it on Wiki, could copyedit the text. It has numerous grammatical or stylistic errors, apart from other problems) Nishidani (talk) 08:16, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Citation required

The text for which you requested a citation on the Jerusalem page runs:-

'Recent excavations of a large stone structure are interpreted by some archaeologists as lending credence to the biblical narrative.'[citation needed]

The point is discussed in
John J.Collins, A Short Introduction to the Hebrew Bible, Abridged and revised ed. Augsburg Fortress Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2007 pp.128f., and that should suffice for the required quote. Regards Nishidani (talk) 16:39, 14 June 2008 (UTC)

Thanks - but I can't really add a citation to a book that I haven't actually read (and my university library doesn't own it). It's not plausible that anyone would revert the addition of a citation like this - and if they did revert it because it was you who added it, I will immediately take it to AN/I. regards, Nomoskedasticity (talk) 17:13, 14 June 2008 (UTC)
Exquisitely correct. I'll plunk it down in the edits-to-be-made section I created. I must look like a bit of a wimpish stickler for not interfering on the page. Perhaps things will change in the future. The important thing is that one possible source is available to editors. (It may actually end up in your Uni library. It's a marvel of erudite concision, and will be a standard ref. in the future)Regards Nishidani (talk) 17:26, 14 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Rollback

I have granted rollback rights to your account; the reason for this is that after a review of some of your contributions, I believe I can trust you to use rollback correctly by using it for its intended usage of reverting vandalism, and that you will not abuse it by reverting good-faith edits or to revert-war. For information on rollback, see Wikipedia:New admin school/Rollback and Wikipedia:Rollback feature. If you do not want rollback, just let me know, and I'll remove it. Good luck and thanks. PeterSymonds (talk) 17:10, 14 June 2008 (UTC)