User talk:Rusty Cashman

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[edit] Welcome

Welcome!

Hello, Rusty Cashman, 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!  --TeaDrinker 09:29, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] welcome again

Rusty, welcome again to Wikipedia. You might be interested in Wikipedia:WikiProject History of Science.--ragesoss 13:44, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] History of geology

Rusty, my student has finished the draft of a history of geology article: User:Ragesoss/History of geology. If you're interested, you can take a look and give constructive criticism on the talk page; I'm sure it would be appreciated. We'll probably move it into Main space in about a week.--ragesoss 06:54, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

Rusty, thanks for your perceptive comments. It's in main space, so feel free to make changes now.--ragesoss 02:56, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Thanks

Hi Rusty. Thanks for your comments - it's always good to know that ones effort has not gone unnoticed. I couldn't help but notice from your profile that our backgrounds are very similar. I am also a software engineer and embedded programmer - I work on wireless handsets. I am also, of course, interested in the history of science and particularly evolutionary biology. Albie34423 03:59, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Philippine Tarsier WP:GA

Yehey!!! Thank you very much, in behalf of the editors, contributors, critiques, etc., as well as the Filipino community in Wikipedia/Tambayan Philippines. Your words are very very kind! Here's looking forward to more and more collaboration with you esp. on the WP:FA nomination. --Ate Pinay (talk•email) 20:01, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

Maybe you can also check on the Philippine Tarsier Foundation WP:GA nomination, too? --Ate Pinay (talk•email) 21:18, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Polish cochineal

Hi Rusty, thanks for evaluating this article and for your comments on the talkpage. I added some more inline citations; I'd appreciate if you could let me know if you find it better now. — Kpalion(talk) 19:06, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject Indonesia - February Newsletter

Hello there! Please click here for the latest edition of the Wikiproject Indonesia Newsletter.

We hope it gets you interested in the some aspect of the project. Please contact Indon or Merbabu if you have any comments or suggestions (or do not want to receive this newsletter). regards Merbabu 10:07, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] thanks

Hi Rusty - Thanks for the help re: Oscar (fish) and it's good article nomination. Hopefully it'll pass through the process. Cheers, David. MidgleyDJ 20:34, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject History of Science newsletter : Issue I - March 2007

The inaugural March 2007 issue of the WikiProject History of Science newsletter has been published. You're receiving this because you are a participant in the History of Science WikiProject. You may read the newsletter or unsubscribe from this notification by following the link. Yours in discourse--ragesoss 04:10, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Alfred Russel Wallace FAC

Wallace's article has been proposed for FA, and an objection has been made regarding the reliance of the article on Stotten's book. Thought you'd like to know. -Malkinann 11:12, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

You flatterer, you. Some sentences tend to run on a bit - I've gone through and tagged the ones I had issues with. The references need alphabetising by author - I had a little go at it, but I don't think I got them all. There's also the British/American spelling problems, but you could always ask for a 'translation' from a native British English speaker. (of which I am not one.) -Malkinann 09:49, 27 April 2007 (UTC)
I've only one thing to say about that stuff on spelling... biZZare.... ;) I've gone through the article again and found another couple of odd phrases and American spellings that aren't -izes, tagging them with {clarifyme}s. The article still appears to "rely" on Slotten, so you may need to defend Slotten in the FAC. It may be good to take it to peer review and to examine the structure and coverage of the Charles Darwin article (which the Wallace article will inevitably be compared to. *sigh*). -Malkinann 21:24, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Very nice work...

The Barnstar of National Merit
For excellent, dedicated and ongoing efforts to Alfred Russel Wallace -- --Merbabu 17:37, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

He gets quite a mention in the Indonesia article - see Ecology section. Also, i trust you've read Tim Sevrins book and the Malay Archipelago. I've read Sevrins book a few times, bits of the Malay archipelago and have spent a few weeks in Maluku including Banda Islands and Seram. Haven't been to Sulawesi yet. happy editing --Merbabu 17:37, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, it is always nice to have your efforts recognized.Rusty Cashman 04:57, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] history of biology

Rusty, I'd love to have your thoughts on history of biology overall. I've done all I think I can without some serious critiques and suggestions from other knowledgeable people, and I know you've put a lot into it as well. It's on peer review and WP:GAC.--ragesoss 06:25, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Some encouragement

The Bio-star
En avance de bringing Alfred Russel Wallace to FA status, and for some earlier contributions. Samsara (talk • contribs) 09:37, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject History of Science newsletter : Issue II - May 2007

The May 2007 issue of the WikiProject History of Science newsletter has been published. You're receiving this because you are a participant in the History of Science WikiProject. You may read the newsletter or unsubscribe from this notification by following the link. Yours in discourse--ragesoss 06:21, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] DYK nom

Hi, I've nominated an article you worked on, The Malay Archipelago, for consideration to appear on the Main Page as part of Wikipedia:Did you know. You can see the "hook" for the article at Template talk:Did you know#Articles created on May 4 where you can improve it if you see fit. Thanks, Malkinann 08:13, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Malay Archipelago

Updated DYK query On 9 May 2007, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article The Malay Archipelago, 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} 07:04, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Taiwanese Aborigines

Rusty,

Thanks for your support on Taiwanese Aborigines. I appreciate the time you spent appraising such a challenging(long) article:-). It has been a really positive project all along. Thx!Maowang 01:37, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Just a note

I came over to check out your userpage during the FAC on Wallace and I just wanted to say that I like your picture of the Encyclopedie. You are correct that it is far from accidental that a group of philosophes (what a terrible article that is!) decided to write an encyclopedia during the eighteenth century. It was a century of organizing knowledge (Buffon, Linnaeus, Antoine Lavoisier, Samuel Johnson. They seemed to think all things were possible, such as a universal language (Thomas Sprat). It is a wonderful time period to study. :) We need more wikipedians contributing pages on it, that's for sure! I had to create my own userbox since there was one for every section of European history except the eighteenth century. *sigh* It's always left out. Awadewit Talk 09:52, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] GAC backlog elimination drive

This form message is being sent to you either due to your membership with WikiProject Good Articles and/or your inclusion on the Wikipedia:Good article candidates/List of reviewers. A new drive has been started requesting that all members review at least one article (or more, if you wish!) within the next two weeks at GAC to help in removing the large backlog. This message is being sent to all members, and even members who have been recently reviewing articles. There are almost 130 members in this project and about 180 articles that currently need to be reviewed. If each member helps to review just one or two articles, the majority of the backlog will be cleared. Since the potential amount of reviewers may significantly increase, please make sure to add :{{GAReview}} underneath the article you are reviewing to ensure that only one person is reviewing each article. Additionally, the GA criteria may have been modified since your last review, so look over the criteria again to help you to determine if a candidate is GA-worthy. If you have any questions about this drive or the review process, leave a message on the GAC talk page. --Nehrams2020 00:34, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] ARW

Congratulations! It looks like the Wallace article has been promoted. History of evolutionary thought has four votes now for history of science collaboration of the month, so I'm going to restart the collaboration soon (probably June 1). Hopefully we can find a handful of knowledgeable people who can find some time to put into that.--ragesoss 22:41, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Shiny new medal

The shiny new Darwin-Wallace medal
For your dedicated work on Alfred Russel Wallace - Shyamal 02:30, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

Oh, I renovated the medal image and replaced your image. Hope that is ok with you. Shyamal 02:30, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Congratulations on Alfred Russel Wallace

Well done, sorry I wasn't around to be much help. Samsara (talk • contribs) 12:05, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Evolution FAC

Hi there, thanks for your comments. I decided to cut this paragraph, since human evolution is peripheral to the subject of the article, which is the concept of evolution and its general outcomes. This also helped bring the page below 100kb. I hope this deal with your objection. TimVickers 03:06, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Thank you

Thanks Rusty, for your supportive note at my RfA. Shyamal 03:51, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Rhacophorus nigropalmatus

Ta for the nice comment on my tiny edit. I just pushed it 'out of the nest' and was linking it here and there. Sorry there is not more to it. I currently sensitive to the issue of editing FAs, due to an editor reducing one by 20%, I only noticed the star after saving. After everything I said elsewhere today, I thought I had better speak up. I will finish reading Wallace later. Regards, ☻ Fred|☝ discussion|✍ contributions 19:41, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] July 2007 GAC backlog elimination drive

A new elimination drive of the backlog at Wikipedia:Good article candidates will take place from the month of July through August 12, 2007. There are currently about 130 articles that need to be reviewed right now. If you are interested in helping with the drive, then please visit Wikipedia:Good article candidates backlog elimination drive and record the articles that you have reviewed. Awards will be given based on the number of reviews completed. Since the potential amount of reviewers may significantly increase, please make sure to add :{{GAReview}} underneath the article you are reviewing to ensure that only one person is reviewing each article. Additionally, the GA criteria may have been modified since your last review, so look over the criteria again to help you to determine if a candidate is GA-worthy. If you have any questions about this drive or the review process, leave a message on the drive's talk page. Please help to eradicate the backlog to cut down on the waiting time for articles to be reviewed.

You have received this message either due to your membership with WikiProject: Good Articles and/or your inclusion on the Wikipedia:Good article candidates/List of reviewers. --Nehrams2020 23:36, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] History of Palæontology

I'll have a look in the morning. Sorry, I've had a bad chest cold. Adam Cuerden talk 02:04, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Tim Vickers awarded this Barnstar to User:Rusty Cashman for his excellent work on the History of paleontology.
Tim Vickers awarded this Barnstar to User:Rusty Cashman for his excellent work on the History of paleontology.

[edit] Civility

Hi. [1]. Regards, Fred ☻ 07:03, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Modern synthesis

Rusty, I've sort of been following the discussion page, but I haven't been keeping up with the actual changes to the article that M-r has been introducing. My own feeling is that the article should be written mainly from the books The Evolutionary Synthesis (edited by Mayr and Provine) and Smocovitis's Unifying Biology, along with bits from a few other secondary sources, with almost nothing based on primary sources. I'm not going to stick my head into this right now, because I haven't actually analyzed the expanded version (and I really shouldn't be on Wikipedia at all right now, until I finish my prospectus). Sorry I can't be more helpful.--ragesoss 18:27, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

thank you, Rusty, for your recent thoughts. I'd feel worse, of course, if I felt the reversions were actually merited! However, it's worth the WP community remembering that one destructive reaction tends to outweigh, in the minds of contributors, many helpful and encouraging reactions. I could say more if I had an e-mail channel...
I enjoyed the plastic-eating bacteria no end; WP should have originality badges! As I mentioned somewhere... bacteriology was practically a medicine-only discipline until well after WW2; there's still so much more to discover. Regards, Macdonald-ross 13:45, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject History of Science newsletter : Issue III - September 2007

The September 2007 issue of the WikiProject History of Science newsletter has been published. You're receiving this because you are a participant in the History of Science WikiProject. You may read the newsletter or unsubscribe from this notification by following the link. Yours in discourse--ragesoss 00:57, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject Good Articles Newsletter for November 2007

The November 2007 issue of the WikiProject Good Articles newsletter has been published. Comments are welcome on this, as well as suggestions or offers of assistance for the December 2007 issue. Dr. Cash 01:21, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] GA renomination of Computer program

Just to let you know, Computer program was renominated for GA. Timhowardriley 22:45, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] GA review of History of evolutionary thought

Sorry this is taking so long, but I thought that since this is something I know reasonably well, it might be more efficient if I dealt with most of the points in my review myself. The article is certainly GA quality but I'd like to polish it a bit further before passing it. Tim Vickers (talk) 20:58, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

All done, congratulations! Tim Vickers (talk) 04:40, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject Good Articles Newsletter for December 2007

The December 2007 issue of the WikiProject Good Articles newsletter has been published. Comments are welcome on this, as well as suggestions or offers of assistance for the January 2008 issue. Dr. Cash 01:10, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Request for comments on computer program

You may have removed computer program from your watch list. I rewrote the introduction as the topic sentence of many of the subsequent paragraphs. What do you think? Timhowardriley (talk) 23:44, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject Good Articles January Newsletter

Happy New Year! Here is the latest edition of the WikiProject GA Newsletter! Dr. Cash (talk) 04:06, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] History of evolutionary thought

From a first look at the History of evolutionary thought and the archived FA discussion, it's a really useful good article with a lot of detailed information, but pushing towards being overlarge for a FA – This page is 87 kilobytes long. Expression error: Unrecognised punctuation character "$". Don't know what the $ is about, just something to fix.

The lead section seems rather large and a bit unfocussed, my inclination is to try drafting a tighter alternative, aiming to cut it to about half the size. The nineteenth century gets a bit out of date sequence, and that could be clarified.

Overall it seems to me to be a bit lacking in narrative, and a drastic approach would be to concentrate more on the general shape of developments, moving the excellent detail into sub-articles or into any appropriate articles that already exist. For example, the Erasmus Darwin detail could go in his biography, or perhaps could form the basis of a new article about his evolutionary ideas. It might work best to treat the whole section as the basis of a new article overing the various Enlightenment natural philosophers.

Then, as SandyGeorgia commented on closing the FAC, summary style sections could amalgamate the existing stubby sections. By the way, it would in my opinion be better to retitle "Early modern thought" as "Renaissance and Enlightenment", and "19th century before The Origin of Species" could become "Early 19th century", with the next section being "On the Origin of Species and its aftermath". Just some ideas. Would you like me to make a start on trying out this drastic approach? .. dave souza, talk 13:51, 24 January 2008 (UTC)


Ideas above on reorganisation seem constructive and appropriate to me.
As a fan of this article, I'm still somewhat concerned about over-interpretation and over-selling of the ancient world, which is here most clearly seen in the Islamic section. Elsewhere (Hist biol Talk) I've emphasised 1) overdefinite statements with weak references from probably unrefereed sources, and 2) overall emphasis which is quite out of line with other broad historical overviews such as Mayr and Encyc Brit (more recent editions). I would be happy to see a more conservative line taken, believing that it's the job of an encyclopedia to be cautious, and not to run ahead of consensus. Of course, large-scale histories of science are something of a rarity nowadays, and consensus is difficult to judge. I would advise both cuts and more restrained neutral language in the areas where scholarship is equivocal, and emphasis given to statements backed by references from quality sources.
In intro and elsewhere, I still think the statement "natural selection was not widely accepted until the 1930s" is not completely accurate. The literature shows that general acceptance did not come until the 1940s or even 50s [usual refs]. Neutral theory predominated in the 30s, and Huxley, Fisher, Haldane, Ford were in a clear minority. Even Dob. did not come on board with a clear recognition of the primacy of selection in wild populations until his 3rd edition, 1951. In general though, I'm more than happy with the Darwin and post-Darwin material, which deserves congratulation. Macdonald-ross (talk) 07:04, 25 January 2008 (UTC)
Oops, feel sorry to have been the bearer of sad tidings. Glad you're taking this on board, have a think about how you think this should go and give me a heads-up. Agree with Macdonald-ross that care has to be taken to give a proportionate mention of claims such as Islamic ideas – it seems right to note that claims have been made, but finding a good mainstream view of the significance of such claims may be tricky, and that's needed to avoid undue weight. As you say, Transmutation of species could be expanded as a historical article covering Buffon to the Origin. Modern evolutionary synthesis puzzles me a bit, as I'm never sure if the name applies to today's theory, or if it's a historical era that ended by 1950 as the article currently implies. As always other alarms and diversions have arisen, but when you're ready I'll take on some work in getting this sorted. Thanks, .. dave souza, talk 18:45, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

I am definately going to get started on the reorganization tonight. I am going to start by announcing the plan on the talk page so that big edits don't take anyone by surprise. I honestly don't think the current Islamic thoughts section is that much of a problem. After all many of the current claims are consistent with what Draper was saying in the 1870s. I admint I was made very unconfortable about the specific claims previously being made about natural selection and Al-Jahiz because I couldn't find a translation to directly support them, but with those gone I don't see a big problem with what remains. If anyone has a concern about a particular statement I would be happy to try and dig into it. Rusty Cashman (talk) 19:47, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Intro section now much better! Macdonald-ross (talk) 17:39, 9 February 2008 (UTC)
"Wikipedia and the History of Science" might amuse you :) .. dave souza, talk 22:52, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject Good Articles Newsletter

The February 2008 issue of the WikiProject Good Articles Newsletter is ready! Dr. Cash (talk) 05:19, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject Good Articles Newsletter

The March 2008 issue of the WikiProject Good Articles Newsletter is ready! Dr. Cash (talk) 06:10, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] History of Science Collaboration of the Month

You voted for Louis Pasteur and this article is now the current History of Science Collaboration of the Month!
Please help to improve it to match the quality of an ideal Wikipedia History of Science article.

[edit] April GA Newsletter

The April issue of the WikiProject Good Articles Newsletter is now available. Dr. Cash (talk) 04:02, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Your assessment of Stephen Jay Gould

One thing jumps out at me the second I lay eyes on this article. It should jump out at every editor, but unfortunately it doesn't even seem to jump out at those who make GA assessments (including yourself, obviously): the lead is too short. Ridiculously too short, in this case. It's part of the good article criteria and I suggest you review both that and the lead section guideline page. Please raise your consciousness about lead sections and help others to raise theirs. Richard001 (talk) 07:08, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject Good Articles May Newsletter

The May Newsletter for WikiProject Good Articles has now been published. Dr. Cash (talk) 22:16, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject History of Science newsletter : Issue IV - May 2008

A new May 2008 issue of the WikiProject History of Science newsletter is hot off the virtual presses. Please feel free to make corrections or add news about any project-related content you've been working on. You're receiving this because you are a participant in the History of Science WikiProject. You may read the newsletter or unsubscribe from this notification by following the link. Yours in discourse--ragesoss (talk) 23:28, 2 May 2008 (UTC)