User talk:Zandperl/archive

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If you have any questions, see the help pages, add a question to the village pump or ask me on my talk page. I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian!

Angela

Regarding your request on Talk:Mormon: see generally Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; see Temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints#Temple_Endowments for some info on garments. There is no wiki article yet on "testimony" as it is used in the Church. --B 00:13, 21 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Of course, PETA is a work in progress. Feel free to delete the ADL quotes, they don't belong there. Lirath Q. Pynnor

My word, the Wiki is slower tonight than I've ever seen it. To what you said - I can't put it on my list, since I didn't make any real contributions. :-) Mostly I just put stuff I start there now, though I used to put pages I made smaller edits to...

Re: The protection. We have a well-known vandal called Michael, one of whose favourite tricks was to move sysops' userpages around. ie someone's page got moved to User:Fat bastard at one point. So whenever I was dealing with his vandalism, I would protect my page pre-emptively. One time I just decided there was no point unprotecting it. :-)

Evercat 00:53, 22 Oct 2003 (UTC)

I just used the delete button, but Talk:Santorum/Delete is still around if that is helpful.Smith03 21:20, 22 Oct 2003 (UTC)

I was about to delete those images, but I kinda didn't want to and I thought they were useful. Then, a lawyer on Wikipedia told me that they could be used under fair use. LDan 01:36, 23 Oct 2003 (UTC)

PS. Don't ask him for legal advice. Although HIAL, it's NALO.

[edit] GRE

Hi, I think sticking with the common names is better for exams like the GRE. A lot of peoplem, particularly outside the US don't even know what its full name is. All the links link to GRE, not Graduate Record Examination. Angela 04:17, Oct 23, 2003 (UTC)

I'm under the impression that Wikipedia encourages people to use full names rather than abbreviations in article names, but I am not sure of that. The page GRE does also exist, it just redirects to Graduate Record Examination, and so does Graduate Readiness Exam because I got it wrong myself to start off! Maybe we should should get some more input from other people. Unfortunately, I already moved TOEFL to Test Of English as a Foreign Language before you and I started this conversation, but it too has a redirect now. Also, the SAT pages are kinda inconsistent with the naming format they take, so we can't really model after those. If you want to move it back to GRE or TOEFL, feel free, I'm not attached to either format. I think it's an issue of consistency (throughout the Wikipedia) vs. ease of use.

--zandperl 04:27, 23 Oct 2003 (UTC)

No, the most common name is better. Wikipedia:Naming conventions (common names) says

Convention: Use the most common name of a person or thing that does not conflict with the names of other people or things.

The SAT one is different because SAT can mean more than one thing so it has a disambiguation page at SAT. Angela 04:29, Oct 23, 2003 (UTC)

From what I've seen, either common usage. or acronyms could apply here. Also, what about ETS, Educational Testing Service? Meanwhile, I've put comments on the talk pages of GRE, TOEFL, and Educational Testing Service asking for feedback. My confusion about SAT was actually why there were separate pages for SAT college entrance test and Scholastic Aptitude Test. It's not worth an edit war over this, so unless we get a bunch of comment back otherwise, I'll go with what you say.
--zandperl 04:45, 23 Oct 2003 (UTC)

I'm not so bothered about ETS as I think people know that stands for Educational Testing Service. There are not separate pages for SAT college entrance test and Scholastic Aptitude Test — they both redirect to the same place. I also don't want to get in an edit war over naming conventions! In fact, I should probably stop editing those pages altogether as I am definitely not NPOV about them. :) Angela 04:49, Oct 23, 2003 (UTC)

<chuckles> ditto that. bitter grad student here, and you?
I'm gonna leave the pages along for a while too. We can get back to them later, maybe someone else will have put in more info.
--zandperl 05:05, 23 Oct 2003 (UTC)

No, I think my POV is probably the opposite to yours. All tests are great! ETS is great! I'm English by the way, so I don't have personal experience at having had to take the tests. Angela 05:07, Oct 23, 2003 (UTC)

I'm afraid we've already had list of white people, list of black people, etc, all of which were deleted after lengthy debate... Evercat 01:13, 24 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Is there an archive of the discussion regarding deleting the page for white people? If that's the concensus I'll accept it (though not happily), but I'd like to understand why that concensus was reached. I really do feel that having lists of everyone but caucasians emphasizes that they are considered standard and everone else an anomaly or variation--not a NPOV, and offensive to those whom are not white. Gah, I needa stop talking, I'm not NPOV anymore. -- zandperl 01:23, 24 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Hrmm. I'm not sure there is such an archive; I shall try to find out and create one from VfD discussion. :-) Evercat 01:26, 24 Oct 2003 (UTC)

OK, it took a while to dig this up, as it was about 2500 edits back on VfD. :-)
Talk:List of black people/white people/Delete
Evercat 01:47, 24 Oct 2003 (UTC)

I think all "List of" articles are a waste of time and space. Adam 04:01, 24 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Hello! Two things.

• First, about the gradstudent: i think its nice but a little, like you recognize, focussed on the american way of life. Maybe you should try to research how things work here in Europe, and i can help you on that. Also i think you mentioned to refer less glamorous aspects like the cyclic ansiety attacks and so on and so forth... My PhD is not history, is structural geology. If it was, i would be writing about geology in the wiki :)
• Second, the list mania!! I'm glad you agree with me in the biracial people nonsense. I had an idea, nobody listened. I proposed to create a WIKILISTS, like wikctionary or wikiquote. Will you do some lobbying with me?
• All the best, Muriel Gottrop 11:59, 25 Oct 2003 (UTC)

And another! Good morning here! I just created Wikipedia:Wikitrivia discussion to host this wikilist discussion. I hope to see you there! Cheers, Muriel Gottrop 07:35, 27 Oct 2003 (UTC) (i cant hardly blame you for not being in the mood of expanding the grad student article... i'm not either! :) )

Hi, i used your edit that turned out to be logged as "04:29, 2003 Nov 28 . . Zandperl (famous pairs: keep w/ editing and move)" as an exercise in page-history analysis, and as a side benefit, i can let you know that you're the user whose vote is slated for non-counting bcz you forgot to sign. [smile]

BTW, "tilde" is pronounced as you spelled bcz it is Spanish. And my dict. offers no alternate spelling to the one i just used. --Jerzy 08:27, 2003 Dec 2 (UTC)

[edit] Astronomical topics

The List of astronomical topics is what you're looking for.
Adrian Pingstone 09:53, 31 Dec 2003 (UTC)

[edit] Definitions of Surrealism

On: Talk:Surrealism

I added a couple of definitions that I've cut and pasted from The Manifestoes of Surrealism and an encyclopedia (I don't remember the name of), but since they are copied from the books I'm not sure wether it should be posted on the actual article. - Sigg3.net 03:35, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)

[edit] VfD comment may have been removed

Please see my important message to you at the very top of Wikipedia:Votes_for_deletion

Thanks. orthogonal 21:51, 16 Feb 2004 (UTC)

[edit] SOHO

In the title I mentioned "photo of the Sun" since unlike the other telescope pictures, it's not an image of the telescope.

Perhaps

SOHO Observatory image

(with "image" not in boldface)

[edit] P.C.

I was a caretaker for the disabled for some time, and they always said we should treat them just like anybody else, like a person. So thats what I did. I didn't treat them special, or act weird around them or whatever. The thing is, the way I treat normal people isn't remotely P.C. The people I get along with are frank and honest, and appreciate a good joke. I've never gotten along well w the thin-skinned type, which is what in my experience P.C. folks are. I say what I think, esp. if things are informal and relaxed. What I think is generally offensive to P.C. folks, and even if they don't make a huge fuss and get mad at me (which they usually do) they are very complaintitive, and unable to understand why I won't adapt to their ways. I call a spade a spade, and I'm happy to use slurs of all varieties to insult or make fun of anybody whenever necessary. At work, we have a guy named elvis (side burns), baracus (ear rings), slurry (speech impediment/possible retardation) and a girl we call frumpy, since nobody can remember her name. I get along best w earthy people, who arn't too snooty or sensitive to take a joke. When I'm w people (not alone) I spend probably half the time laughing. And its not about hurting anybody. Quite to the contrary, I'm often thinking "what would Jesus do?", and asking others opinions on the answer. I find its a great way to think about any given situation. My friends and I are not only happy, were charitable. When Howard (a mixed race guy w 5 kids and no luck) broke his glasses, we all pitched in and bought him contact lenses. We wern't going to allow him to go without, that was unaceptable, even if he is poor. My friend Bob is an all round handy man, and he ends up doing the work for free half the time. For me, its all about being a good person, good works. I am as polite as can be when things are formal, but when I'm having a laugh w my friends, it's usually at the expense of political correctness. Sam Spade 23:02, 8 Mar 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Radio telescopes

Have a look at Goldstone Observatory when you have the chance please. :) How about a List of radio telescopes? --Maio 00:11, Mar 12, 2004 (UTC)

Personal preference. I mark all my edits as minor if they are stubs or if I don't change the article too much. I usually left non-minor edits for when I delete substantial context, move too much context around or it is a well-redacted article. Most of the time I'm typing so fast that I forget to mark them as non-minor edits. ;) --Maio 01:30, Mar 12, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Five College Radio Astronomical Observatory

Please? :) --Maio 02:37, Mar 13, 2004 (UTC)

I disagree with moving Nançay Radio Telescope to ...Decimetric... On the personal side, I am a user of the telescope, and both I and my colleagues refer to it as NRT, not NDRT. I've also got statistics to back me up: if you do a search for articles using the Astrophysics Data System, "Nancay" returns 467 entries, "Nancay radio telescope" returns 180, "Nancay decimetric radio telescope" returns only 13. ADS contains all peer-reviewed astronomy journal publications.

The problem is that the RT is just one of the instruments of the laboratory, see [1]. The presentation of the FORT Project uses the convention Nancay Decimetric Radio Telescope (NRT) [2]. In other words, although Nancay Radio Telescope is the most common use, the most appropiate name is the one that uses Decimetric. However, a Googlefight [3] returns NRT as the winner: [4]. So feel free to ask for a speedy deletion, but please keep the conventional long form name in the introduction, that is, NDRT, while pointing that the acronym is NRT (as it is right now).

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html, enter in the keywords at the bottom of the first screen.

Jezoos! I visited that site and felt as if I was a 6-yo getting a class of the theory of relativity. I'm sad now. :(

I'm checking out FCRAO--changed the page name already.

kekethxla~ =D

What's your interest in radio telescopes?

0. Just submitting public domain information. I like pictures tho!

--Maio 03:31, Mar 13, 2004 (UTC)

Dude, nobody understand all the articles on ADS. Those're supposed to be the best astronomy research out there today, not user-friendly stuff. And scientists wonder why kids're afraid of science and college students are dropping out of physics in droves... I personally think it's a horrible shame that most scientists don't care whether the public understands them.

I think it's more of the American culture. They can give conferences that use 32,000 acronyms for over 3 hours without noticing that nobody understands them. It's an instinctive behavior, everyone does it regularly. =/

My point in sending you there wasn't to overwhelm you or anything...

Don't worry 'bout that, I was just kidding with ya. =)

...I wanted to show that although the official Nancay people call it the NDRT, the users (French and international) usually call it the NRT. (lazy bums!)

Hey! leave us lazy bums alone! we need some <3 too y'know~

I'd certainly say keep NDRT as a redirect--it'd be silly to not have the official name as an article! I also created redirects with the "C" in Nancay as Americans type it.

No problemo. Thanks for creating the redirects. ^_^

--Maio 04:03, Mar 13, 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for the tip! I'd better scoot over and fix the template table then. Never for a moment did I think that the person who pasted the table in (you in this case, I gather) would have actually written the code from scratch. It's very distinctive. It's appallingly bad HTML which places the start of each code line at the end of the previous line. I simply cannot imagine how on earth whoever wrote it in the first place came to do it that way. (Indeed, I have carefully not looked up the original template page histories to find out who it was, as I don't want to know!)

And if they wanted to create readable text (i.e., "hide" the table code, so to speak), why remove the from the start of a line but retain the