User:Writegeist

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

"Narcissistic personality disorder is characterized by an over-inflated sense of self-importance, as well as dramatic, emotional behavior that is in the same category as antisocial and borderline personality disorders." — Narcissistic personality disorder

“People with unrealistically inflated self-views, which may be especially unstable and highly vulnerable to negative information,...tend to have poor social skills." — Smith, E. R.; Mackie, D. M. (2007). Social Psychology (Third ed.). Hove: Psychology Press. ISBN 978-1-84169-408-5.

See also: Buffoon.

If you view Wikipedia less as a democracy and more as a banana republic, you won't be surprised if
you find yourself thinking it's run by a bunch of bananas.
"Things are going to get unimaginably worse, and they are never, ever, going to get better again." Kurt Vonnegut

Visitors please note: I have an aversion to bloviating, lying, and self-righteous denial when called out; deliberate misrepresentation of policies and other users' comments; hypocrisy (e.g. acting as a self-appointed BLP enforcer yet also flouting the policy when it suits a personal agenda); tendentious arguing long after the argument has been lost; and to the tedious, repeated, and irrelevant trumpeting of claimed personal credentials in a pathetic, narcissistic effort to impress. I mean, look at me: even though I'm a brain surgeon, an Olympic athlete and a Nobel Prize-winning geneticist, I've found time to read almost a million books, invent the jet engine and the Interweb, design Madonna's fabulous pointy bras, and teach Miley Cyrus to twerk. But I don't bang on about it.

This user is a member of WikiProject Bosnia and Herzegovina, a WikiProject which aims to create, edit and expand articles relating to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Please feel free to join us.

WikiProject Palestine is looking for editors to help build and maintain comprehensive, informative, balanced articles related to Palestine on Wikipedia. Start by adding your name to the list of members at WikiProject Palestine. Ahlan wa Sahlan! (Welcome!)

Quotes of the day

"You wanna raise the tax on tobacco so kids don’t get cancer? OK. But let’s put one on Sunday school, so they don’t get stupid." — Bill Maher

“All I know is what’s on the Internet.” — Donald Trump

"Sorry losers and haters, but my I.Q. is one of the highest - and you all know it! Please don't feel so stupid or insecure,it's not your fault."— Donald Trump

“When you believe in a talking snake, you can believe an orangutan will transform into a statesman.” Bill Maher

"With the invention of Wrongopedia this man [Jimmy "Jimbo" Wales] made people think it was okay not to be educated, because now anyone can pretend to know anything just by getting it off a website. Then, by ensuring that everything on it was wrong, he basically killed knowledge itself, which is quite a feat. Like something Lex Luthor would try to do." — Giles Coren

“Heck, naw, I ain’t gawn let my kids use no ‘cyclopedia! They kin walk to school like I did!”— George “Kingfish” Stevens (Freeman Gosden), Amos and Andy

"Anyone who says "Wikipedia is not censored" has never paid particularly close attention to the way talk pages are treated by third parties."— WP editor Carrite, 2012

"“In the last century—in the twentieth century—counting military deaths, both civilian and soldiers— counting civilian deaths sponsored by government activity—we sacrificed a hundred and ninety-six million people in this world. A hundred and ninety-six million people. And for us to worry about three thousand, or a hundred here, or five hundred there—I mean, if you have grief, fine, good inside; same with religion, keep it inside, keep it to yourself. If you want to share it a little with friends and family, fine. But don’t be coming and taking over things that are kind of public, and thrusting your grief on me.” — George Carlin

“The pain is shared by all of us, but a golden rule should apply: don’t capitalise on grief, don’t profit from it. Perhaps this is why big companies imposing their sympathy on the rest of us leaves a bitter taste in my mouth: it is hard for me to see these gestures as anything but profiteering. Companies are now posing as entities capable of compassion, never mind that they cannot possibly speak for all of its employees. This also brings us a step closer to endowing them with a human trait: the capacity to express emotions. They think they’re sentient. If this sounds crazy, it’s because it is.” — Jessica Reed, on corporate affectation of compassion and grief [9]

The truth about corporate lies — Oliver Burkeman's essay

"The easiness and redundancy of what we call “beauty” in modern photography is jading our souls and wrapping our hearts in honey. Not even real honey: we are drowning in honey substitute. All the glory of the world is being reduced, second by second, snap by snap, to instant, mechanical tropes of the picturesque. Amazing. Spectacular. Dazzling. Dead." — Jonathan Jones

"Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable. There is thus a flavor of the pathological in it; it goes beyond the normal intellectual process and passes into the murky domain of transcendental metaphysics. A man full of faith is simply one who has lost (or never had) the capacity for clear and realistic thought. He is not a mere ass: he is actually ill. Worse, he is incurable, for disappointment, being essentially and objective phenomenon, cannot permanently affect his subjective infirmity. His faith takes on the virulence of a chronic infection. What he says, in substance, is this: 'Let us trust in God, Who has never fooled us in the past.' " — H.L. Mencken, Prejudices: Third Series, 1922

"My own personal theory is that Joseph build the pyramids in order to store grain. And all the archaeologists think that they were made for the pharaohs' graves." — Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson [10]

“Trump image straightened” — Edit summary at Wikipedia’s 2016 US presidential elections article

“He always talked about issues that had to do with fish.” — A neighbor of the Juneau, Alaska mayor Greg Fisk the day after Fisk was found dead

"The trial of a Turkish man accused of insulting the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, by comparing him to Gollum has been adjourned so that a group of experts can study JRR Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings character, Turkish media has reported." — News report

“We do not for any reason have permission from this community to repeatedly call people liars.” — A user at Jimbotalk, February 20, 2016

“Thank you. I’m used to it.” — Jimmy “Jimbo” Wales’s reply

“I am specifically checking with every board member to try to get some idea of what, if anything at all, this accusation could be based on, and I have so far come to a preliminary conclusion that it is a flat out lie.” — Jimmy “Jimbo” Wales, Jimbotalk, February 10, 2016

“It's an interesting hypothetical which has not been part of any serious strategy proposal, nor even discussed at the board level, nor proposed to the board by staff, nor a part of any grant, etc. It's a total lie.” — Jimmy “Jimbo” Wales, Jimbotalk, February 11, 2016

“XYZ [WP user's name redacted] has made a lot of noise about why he was dismissed which is utter and complete bullshit. He wrote a nice piece for the Signpost about transparency which implied that the Board got rid of him for wanting more transparency. Utter fucking bullshit." — Jimmy "Jimbo" Wales, Jimbotalk, 25 January 2016

"If he [someone else] says that he's lying." — Jimmy "Jimbo" Wales. Jimbotalk, 17 December 2015

"Writegeist is spreading lies about me, and should be permanently blocked." — Jimmy “Jimbo” Wales, Jimbotalk, 5 January 2016

Wales, the Kazakh dictatorship, and having kittens:

"Your clarification comes as very welcome news, not least in light of past connection to the Kazakh dictatorship, described by Human Rights Watch as implementing "a growing crackdown" on free speech, which came under scrutiny by the media [11] at the time." — Writegeist, Jimbotalk page, 14 December 2014
"Past connection to the Kazakh dictatorship" - total and utter and complete bullshit. I have no past connection of any kind to the Kazakh dictatorship. — Jimmy "Jimbo" Wales, Jimbotalk, 14 December 2014
"I've been following the story of Kazakh Wikipedia [ … ] and I also I've been getting in touch with the government there. I've been talking to the Prime Minister there. [ …] I'm going in December and I'm gonna give the award in the presence of the Prime Minister [ …] I think that if we really try hard on this, instead of having sad puppies and sad kittens, we'll have happy puppies and kittens." — Jimmy "Jimbo" Wales, 2011 closing ceremony speech at Wikimania 2011

• See also: [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18]
  

Wales and The Jerusalem Post:

‘ “I was given a prize by the leader of Dubai, which I couldn’t in good conscious [sic] accept, but I couldn’t give it back, because it’s very oppressive there,^♦ so I started the Jimmy Wales Foundation for Freedom of Expression,” a foundation that promotes access to information in oppressive countries.

'Wales had no such compunctions about accepting the $1 million Dan David Prize that occasioned his current visit to Israel.’^† — The Jerusalem Post, May 20 2015. The article does make it clear that Wales is a co-founder of Wikipedia. (Wales peddles a "founder" narrative.) It doesn't tackle the ludicrous non-sequitur in “I couldn’t give it back because it’s very oppressive there”.

^♦Wales told the Middle East Monitor’s Alastair Sloan that he consulted with Israeli human rights lawyer Orit Kopel and asked her "If she would help me use the money to fuck with them," adding: "Yes, I could have declined the money, but why give money back to horrible people? So they can use it to pay for more jails?" Sloan commented: "Denying the UAE govt of $500,000 is not going to stop it 'building jails' or 'fucking with them.' The country's GDP is over half a trillion dollars, and government spending is over $100bn." [19] (See here for more on the UAE.)

^†Alon Liel, former director-general of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and former Israeli ambassador to South Africa, writing in 2012: “The military oppression of Palestinians is out of sight and out of mind for the average Israeli.” [Also, evidently, for at least one American.] “The Palestinian West Bank is being gobbled up by growing settlements, erasing the Green Line - the internationally recognised pre-1967 line…” Israel continues to build settlements on “occupied land outside Israel’s internationally recognized borders [and they are] illegal under international law.”

Number of Israeli settlers in the occupied territories in 1993 at the time of the signing of the Oslo peace accord: approx. 250,000. In 2000: 390,000. In 2012: 550,000+.

Wales and toxicity:

"I have a longstanding view that . . . a fair number of toxic personalities need to be shown the door immediately. If anyone wants my personal list, I can give it.” Jimmy "Jimbo" Wales, Jimbotalk, 15 August 2015. (Several editors then requested this “personal list” of “toxic personalities”. Wales welched on the promise.)

Wales and search:

“ I do not want to build a search engine.” — Jimmy “Jimbo” Wales, Jimbotalk, 17 February 2016

“[Wikia Search is] something I care about deeply. I will return to again and again in my career to search, either as an investor, a contributor, a donor, or a cheerleader.” — Jimmy “Jimbo” Wales, jimmywales.com, 31 March 2009

And see the Signpost exposé here

Papal bull:

Pope Francis: "American Catholics are committed to building a society which is truly tolerant and inclusive to safeguarding the rights of individuals and communities and to rejecting every form of unjust discrimination."

American Catholic and Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio: Marriage is "the most important institution in our society and should be between one man and one woman."

From WP:Reference desk/Science:

Can scratching athlete's foot be more enjoyable than sex?

How?

(Please provide references, if you can). The Transhumanist 10:50, 20 January 2015 (UTC)

I Googled "'athlete's foot' 'more enjoyable' sex" and found Seven Reasons to Get Out More at the top. Might be worth a ponder. InedibleHulk (talk) 11:09, January 20, 2015 (UTC)

Best song intro ever
Oh, my God, Becky, look at her butt! — Baby Got Back

First, in case you think I might be some Johnny- (or Joanna-) come-lately to the Computer Interweb, I'll have you know I started the first-ever blog in 1909: A Gentleman's Discourse on the Trouser Gusset, the Hobble Skirt, the Advisability of Thornproof Tweed Undergarments, and Sundry Other Sartorial Matters of Concern to the Aspiring Aviator. It was published in Compo-Serve (motto: Per Compostum ad Astra), which at that time was the premier organ for distinguished pensées on the twin arts of composting and aviating. R-e-s-p-e-c-t! (It's a little-known fact, which really deserves a Wikpedia article all to itself, that I inspired Mr. Redding's song.)

Following in the illustrious footsteps of my blog, Wikipedia editors sometimes dispense advice on their user pages. I advise joining the Wikipedia Discourteous Editing Club, ignoring all rules, and noting Don't-give-a-fuckism. Oh, and beware of advice from strangers.

Nothing in Wikipedia should be relied on as fact (and the passive voice should be avoided wherever avoidance is found to be possible). Wikipedia is a humorous parody of Uncyclopedia [20] and Conservapedia [21], the only online encyclopedias that are edited with high regard for accuracy, verifiability and neutral point of view. If you find content in Wikipedia that you can corroborate as factually correct it's just coinkidink and you should edit it boldly, satirically and immediately.

And please remember: Wikipedia is actually written by "three people in a toilet." — Eddie Izzard, Washington Post (Mr. Izzard grew up "in Europe, where the history comes from." For additional interesting facts about history, refer to its encyclopedia entry: History.)

"Dear Sir, It is a honor for us that the person like you is among us to bring innovation and knowledge through the fastest source. I want to be part of this organization. I want to ask that how can I be a part of your organization. I am really looking for a job in wikimedia as I am a good writer and have passion to write just give me a platform to show me talent."

— A 2016 post to WP cofounder Jimmy "Jimbo" Wales's talk page

Kazakhstan is a country south of Putinstan and north of Kyrgyzstan^† and various other stans, some of which, like certain places in Wales, are suffering an acute shortage of vowels. Kazakhstan is quite well known for being ruled by a despotic regime, not at all well known for having co-opted the Kazakh Wikipedia as a propaganda tool of the regime, and very well known indeed as the birthplace of Borat Sagdiyev.

^†Where incidentally a Scotsman has been arrested and faces up to five years in prison for comparing the national dish—a horse meat sausage—to a horse's dick. [22] Kyrgyz horses are demanding an apology as their dicks are much, much bigger.

Wales, which is a very small country on a small island, is easily confused with Jimmy “Jimbo” Wales, who is a cofounder of Wikipedia. The other founder, whose idea of implementing a “wiki” led directly to the creation of Wikipedia, was Larry Sanger. He was its chief organizer and community leader, and he formulated many of the original policies. He also started Citizendium, and was a strategist for the Encyclopedia of Earth, which is written by experts. He says Wikipedia lacks credibility.

Speaking of credibility, here is some illuminating dialogue with Wales about Kazakhstan and the Kazakh Wikipedia which is controlled by the regime. It’s also about Wales’s award of “Wikipedian of the Year” to an operative of the regime, and about what led Wales to publicly announce a visit there to honor this gentleman even further with a gift of $5000, to be presented personally by Wales in the presence of “dignitaries” of the regime. In the end, the visit was canceled. The honored gentleman speaks English, by the way. On his “self made public figures” page of an official Kazakh government website titled “Kazakhstan 2050 Our power”, [23] he says: “It is necessary that any person could be realized wholly as the personality and as the professional, remaining in a bosom of the native language.” (Cultured readers will of course recognize that as a direct quote from Borat Sagdiyev.) The gentleman is currently “Deputy Governor at Administration of Kyzylorda region”. Which is nice.

Wikipedia contributor Dan Murphy, in the same thread, connects the dots between Kazakhstan, the Kazakh Wikipedia, and Kazakhstan’s Wikibilim organization: “Wikibilim runs the Kazakh Wikipedia. Wikibilim is entirely funded and run by the Kazkh government and senior Kazakh government bureaucrats. The vast majority of the Kazakh Wikipedia is articles imported from the government's official propaganda encyclopedia. The Kazakh government's academy of arts and sciences runs "fact checking and quality control" on the Kazakh Wikipedia.”

This subsection is of particular personal interest.

Also connected and of interest is this article in The Telegraph, headlined Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales restricts discussion of Tony Blair friendship.

The escape tunnel is now complete and ready for use. Contact the escape committee if you become a person of interest to the Wikicamp Totenkopfverbände or if you are, or think you soon will be, the subject of a Vorbeugungshaft order.

N.B. Eat this after reading.

N.B. Not before.

"Oh by the way, if anyone here is in marketing or advertising, kill yourself.

No joke there, I’m just planting the seed, see if it grows, who knows . But seriously, kill yourself . . . Now. No seriously, there’s no rationalization for what you do. You’re Satan’s little helpers. Kill yourself. OK, now back to the show.

Anyway. Seriously . . .

Anyway. You know what bugs me about doing stuff like that, is that I know every marketing person here is going: ‘Yep, Bill is trying to get that anti-marketing dollar, that’s a huge market.’ Not everything is a fucking market. Stop putting a dollar sign on every fucking thing in the world! ‘Ooh, the righteous indignation dollar, huge market. Very smart of Bill.’ "

— Bill Hicks, Arizona Bay

Here.

The Arbcom elections. This tells you all you need to know.

Caresse, Clytoris, and Dick

Yes—for the most excruciatingly tedious articles on rock bands. Case in point: Manchester's The Courteeners. (Maybe you saw their 2015 Glastonbury gig?) Two of their best songs, incidentally, and worth a listen IMO: Small Bones and Sycophant.

Might you, dear reader, be up for next year’s Wikipedian of the year? It’s like a Nobel Prize, or a Miss World crown, for beautifully high-achieving Wikipedians, only without the money, the cachet, the implants, the leery old men, or The Donald, and with, until 2015 at least, a judging panel of one: Jimmy “Jimbo” Wales. (According to the Wikipedia article, which of course may or may not be correct: “At Wikimania 2014, Wales announced that from the following year there would be a community-wide process for nominating and deciding on the winner, at User:Jimbo Wales/Wikipedian of the Year 2015. At Wikimania 2015, Wales acknowledged that process has not come about yet, but reiterated the intent to create it.”)

First recipient, in 2011, was Kazakh Wikipedia’s Rauan Kenzhekhanuly, former First Secretary at Kazakhstan’s embassy in Moscow, and Moscow bureau chief for his government’s propagandist National TV Agency, founded by the daughter of authoritarian president Nursultan Nazarbayev.  When Kenzhekhanuly received the award he was running WikiBilim, a wiki organization funded and controlled by the Kazakh government.^† WikiBilim received financial support from Wales and the Wikimedia Foundation.

The identity of the 2015 winner, if indeed the glorious crown was awarded at all, is unknown. If you want to be in the running for 2016, you have just about a year to float that boat of bootiful achievements!

^† More on international relations between Wales and Kazakhstan at Wales and Kazakhstan above.

Public Service Announcement from the Department of Baubles Is your user page short of baubles? Here at the cheery Department of Baubles (motto: Happiness is a self-awarded bauble) we offer a multi-colored assortment of congratulatory templates to transform that arid wasteland into a verdant vista of pretty baubles guaranteed to amaze your friends! One rather fun thing you can do is delete reliably sourced content from an article with half a million views, and just for shits and giggles needle the article’s main contributors on its talk page. Then, when one of them cleans up your mess and promotes the article to Good Article status, you can claim all the credit by adorning your page with the Half Million bauble. (Yes, it is really meant to be bestowed on you and not appropriated by you, but why wait? The bestowing may never happen! Here at the Department our global bauble procurement manager, who is also a stellar Wikipedia contributor, says that in 1923 her grandfather deleted half the content of a half-million-views article and added two commas the day before it was promoted to GA. He’s still waiting for his bauble because he’s not the sort of fellow to give himself an award and the Department of Baubles rules prevent his granddaughter bestowing one on a blood relative.) As if that isn't already cooler than a celebrity orangutan running for president in a red tie made in China, you can add your own text, e.g.: This editor won the Half Million Award for bringing Boris Gruntfuttock (vastly improved by deleting reliably sourced content and needling the main contributors, and I’ve racked up three million edits so I’m obviously more important and altogether more wonderful than the peasants who cleaned up after me and did all the work)]] to Good Article status. It’s never too late to bauble-up your page! Start now by awarding yourself the Error-Spotter Extraordinaire bauble if you caught the deliberate mistake in the Half Million bauble text above. Or even if someone else did and you didn't! Or even if nobody did!

The Wikipedia Prudery Enforcement Police have recently affected horror and fury at a male editor’s use of the word to (but not at, although it’s been spun that way for reasons too depressing to recount here) a female editor. When it was pointed out that in England, where the pilloried editor lives, the word is really quite anodyne—and frequently bandied around, and thought nothing of—the naysayers affected disbelief. So it’s interesting to see the word used, in an interview in a respectable British newspaper, by the interviewee—in reference to herself. [24]

“ . . . some men in full possession of a penis are now identifying as women and demanding entry to women-only colleges, and the right to change in women’s dressing rooms . . . Call me old-fashioned, but I tend to think of people with penises as men.”[25] — Ian McEwan (but of course there's no mention of penises in his WP bio. There's a Transgender page but I haven't read it. Maybe it says something about women with penises.).

Easter is a festival commemorating the death and resurrection of a bunny from ancient times called Peter Rabbit. His life was chronicled by the scribe Beatrix Potter. Today he is widely known as the Easter Bunny, and people who believe in him are called Bunnians.

Peter was the son of Rodney Bunny, familiarly referred to today as Rod. Peter's mother's husband Joe Bunny had a reputation as a kindly, empathetic and rather simple rabbit, so when Peter's mother's pregnancy became visible and she admitted to Joe she had been "visited" by Rod, Joe was OK with it and he raised baby Peter as his own. People first knew there was something special about Peter when he started hopping around on water without falling in. He also did some other pretty cool stuff. Eventually he was killed by the evil Mr. McGregor. When Mr. McGregor wanted to boil Peter for dinner he discovered Peter had disappeared from the locked larder. It turned out he'd ascended to bunny Heaven. "Easter Bunny" is a corruption of the original "Feast o' Bunny." The bunny-boiling scene in the movie Fatal Attraction is a reference to the fate Peter miraculously escaped.

(The Guardian headline, April 23, 2014.)

The resettlement will require some 95 flights by Boeing 747-400s.

You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught!

You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a different shade,
You've got to be carefully taught!

You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught!
You've got to be carefully taught!

Oscar Hammerstein II

I love Sarajevo. I valued its multiculturalism and its culture, and admired Bosnian President Alija Izetbegović.

• "Choosing between Tudjman and Milošević is like having to choose between leukemia and a brain tumour." — Alija Izetbegović

If you had been in the right place at the right time when the Bosnian capital was under siege by the Serbs in the 1990s, you would have heard a cello amid the percussion of shells and sniper fire.

The cellist was Vedran Smailović. Sometimes he positioned himself in the ruined National Library (one of 35,000 buildings destroyed).

Positioned in the hills around Sarajevo was an array of tanks, artillery, mortars, anti-aircraft guns, machine-guns and sniper rifles, manned by a force of 18,000 Serbs.

On July 22, 1993, the day when 3,777 shells hit Sarajevo, New York Yankee Don Mattingly hit his 200th home run, Australian TV soap opera series Home and Away hit its 1,284th episode, and a flood hit the town of Kaskaskia, Illinois's original capital, when its Mississippi River levee burst. (Kaskaskia's inhabitants were evacuated without injury.)

The siege of Sarajevo lasted almost four years. 85% of the city's casualties were civilians. Of the 12,000 killed or missing, 1,500 were children. Children also accounted for 15,000 of the 56,000 wounded. (A defence witness at Ratko Mladić's trial in the Hague has at last provided a credible explanation why 18,000 heavily armed Serbs killed 10,600 totally unarmed Sarajeli men, women, and children in cold blood: they had to—it was self-defence.[26]. Put yourself in the position of a Bosnian Serb sniper. When you squint through your telescopic sight what could be more terrifying and life-threatening than to see a child running away from your gunfire? Agreed, the shooting death of any child is tragic, but in this kill-or-be-killed situation, who could possibly blame the sniper?)

Shelling destroyed a quarter of the city's buildings. 100,000 apartments were damaged; 10,000 destroyed.

Some photographs I took during the siege might be of interest to you. Click to enlarge:

Some good coverage here and here.

For many more pictures, google "images for siege of Sarajevo". (Includes graphic content.)

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

At last, the long-awaited news: Radovan Karadžić will die behind bars. On Thursday March 24, 2016, the 70 year-old war criminal was sentenced to 40 years. Doviđenja Radovan!

Status of some other notable indictees:

• Slobodan Milošević — dead, 2006; heart attack in prison during trial

• Ratko Mladić — partially paralyzed by stroke; trial ongoing

• Goran Hadžić — dead, 2016, brain cancer; trial on hold since 2014 while they waited for him to die

• Milan Babić — dead, 2006; suicide by hanging in prison

• Slavko Dokmanović — dead, 1998; suicide by hanging in prison during trial

Others here.

. . . Genocidal rape, Female infanticide in India, Female infanticide in China, and Rape in Pakistan, all written by the excellent Darkness Shines. Seriously. Read them.

...for:

Paco de Lucia. The brilliance of the light will never dim, much less die.

Alain Resnais. With gratitude for Last Year at Marienbad, and for putting my young self out of its misery by declaring the movie meaningless — just as, four or five years later, another hero would declare another object of bewilderment and adoration, The Magus, to be devoid of meaning except in the reader's mind. Resnais's passing also reminds me I was inspired to become unbeatable at the Nim game; and now I can't remember the winning strategy.

Anja Niedringhaus, one of the greats in the pantheon of courage.

Gabriel García Márquez. Not far off one hundred years of fortitude in reportage, fiction, and life.

Camille Lepage, who was brave, wise, and way too young to die like that.

Cedric Thornberry, with gratitude for his warmth, empathy, compassion, courage, humour, and incisive intelligence.

Bobby Womack. It's all over now.

Nadine Gordimer. Tiny but mighty. A grievous loss.

Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces, including four from the same family as they played football on a Gaza beach:

Ahed Atef Bakr, 10

Zakaria Ahed Bakr, 10

Mohamed Ramez Bakr, 11

Ismael Mohamed Bakr, 9

Israeli children killed by Hamas, including these three teenagers who were kidnapped while hitchhiking:

Naftali Fraenkel, 16

Gilad Shaer, 16

Eyal Yifrah,19

Rahed Taysir al-Hom, lifesaving leader of Gaza's only bomb disposal unit. After five years defusing Israeli ordnance his luck ran out at 10:30 a.m. on August 6 2014.

James Foley. Chose to work in the most dangerous place in the world; unflinchingly courageous even in the face of his own death at the hands of a barbarian. As of August 2014, some 20 journalists are missing in Syria.

PD James, 94. Whodunnit? Old Father Time.

Lucien Clergue, photographer. Friend of Picasso, Cocteau, Eluard, Bardot, Moreau, Chaplin et al.

Sabah (Jeanette Gergis Al-Feghali). "Our giants are leaving, our cedars are diminishing." — Ragheb Alameh

Boris Nemtsov, Putin oppositionist, shot; preceded in violent death by other oppositionists including:

Anna Politkovskaya, journalist, shot

Alexander Litvinenko, murdered by polonium-210

Stanislav Markelov, human right lawyer, shot

Anastasia Barburova, journalist, shot

Natalia Estemirova, human rights worker, shot

Sergei Magnitsky, auditor, tortured and beaten to death in Butyrka prison

Terry Pratchett, author, creator of Discworld. Left dis world way too early, carried off by "the embuggerance" on March 12, 2015.

Viva-Verdi, opera buff and Wikipedia conributor, “Remembered as an inspiring person who shared his passionate love for Verdi's music.— Gerda Arendt

Maya Plisetskaya, flame-haired prima ballerina. Paragon of loyalty (“he who runs to the enemy's side is a traitor”), technical brilliance, and physical beauty; sleeping at last. “You set the stage on fire.”— Rudolf Nureyev

BB King. RIP, BB.

Mary Ellen Mark, documentary photographer; brilliant, compassionate, and real. The images will live forever.

James Salter, fighter pilot and novelist; one of the unsung greats.

Nicholas Winton, hero. Saved the lives of hundreds of children in World War II. (Note to American readers: the second, not the eleventh, so-called world war.)

Boyd K. Packer, president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, aka the Mormon church, or LDS. He said LDS historians shouldn't discuss history that doesn't promote faith. Random sartorial note: Muslims have their skullcaps; Orthodox Jews have their shawls; Buddhist monks have their robes; Catholic nuns have their habits; and Mormons have their underwear, which has to be worn day and night. It is not yet available at Victoria’s Secret.

Omar Sharif, occasional actor, constant gambler, inveterate womanizer, beautiful to behold. "People don’t have to be beautiful any more. We don’t have any Audrey Hepburns, Rita Hayworths or Ava Gardeners. When you look at Al Pacino and the greatest actors in Hollywood they’re all common-looking."

E.L. Doctorow. Eternal gratitude for the exotic fruits of a fevered imagination, such as Freud and Jung visiting Coney Island and floating together through the tunnel of love. “[A] visionary who seeks in time past occasions for poetry.” — John Updike

Ruben Espinosa, opposition photojournalist with Mexican investigative magazine Proceso, shot to death in Mexico city in July 2015 after fleeing Veracruz; the thirteenth Veracruz journalist killed since Javier Duarte de Ochoa, a lawyer, became the state's governor in 2011.

Some 140,000 civilians killed by America's bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima on the morning of August 6, 1945. (For comparison, the total number of civilians killed by Japanese bombing of US cities during the entire Second World War: 0 (zero)).

Some 80,000 civilians killed by America's bombing of the Japanese city of Nagasaki on the morning of August 9, 1945. (For comparison, the total number of civilians killed by Japanese bombing of US cities during the entire Second World War: 0 (zero)).

A total of some 475,000 civilians killed in Axis cities during World War II by aerial bombardments in which US Air Force planes participated. (For comparison, the total number of civilians killed in US cities by Axis bombing: 0 (zero)).

Six picnickers—five children and a pregnant woman—killed by a Japanese fire balloon in Oregon, USA, on 5 May 1945. Total number of people killed by enemy action on the American continent in the Second World War: 6 (six).

Justin Wilson, British racing driver, who suffered a fatal brain injury in a freak accident on August 23 2015. At 6’ 4”, he was the much-loved “gentle giant” of Formula One and IndyCars.

Oliver Sacks, who wrote of himself that he was "a man of mild dispositions, of command of temper, of an open, social, and cheerful humour, capable of attachment, but little susceptible of enmity, and of great moderation in all my passions,” but omitted to mention the achievements that were of such enormous benefit to humankind. All the great brains are leaving us, making way for the New Mediocrity.

Henning Mankell, author of 42 books, who said about living with his “incurable companion”: “I never have the feeling that I am living on what one might call ‘borrowed time’. There is no such thing. I have no doubt that my time is mine and mine alone.”

Mohammed Emwazi's poor mother and father, now that Little Mo ain't no mo. How's the 72 virgins thing working out for you Mo?

The Paris massacre of the innocents by the religious deranged, November 13 2015.

Marcus Klingberg, 97, Israeli scientist and Soviet spy. Conflicting loyalties, complicated life.

Kurt Masur, conductor, autocrat, tamer of the New York Philharmonic.

Pierre Boulez, composer, conductor, modernist, classicist, controversial and revered musical genius, whose “at my age and in my position I refuse to be dependent on the kind of nonentities who join committees” would serve as an apt coda for a departing WP user who holds the WMF board, and other users whose sole purpose here is to become administrators (I know of one but there must be others) in similar regard.

Wasil Ahmad, one of besieged Uruzgan's heroic defenders, targeted for cold-blooded murder by the Taliban, who shot him to death on his way to school. He was 10 years old.

The 8,000 victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre. Zdravko Tolimir, one of its chief Bosnian Serb architects, died on the night of February 8 2016. In prison. No silence for him; just a celebratory jig.

Umberto Eco, philosopher, sage, writer, Renaissance man, owner of more than 50,000 books. He said he "developed a passion for the Middle Ages the same way some people develop a passion for coconuts.”

Berta Cáceres, Honduran activist, leader of the Lencas, campaigner for indigenous and environmental rights, murdered after threats of rape and death for her opposition to the $50 million Rio Blanco dam project that includes forced displacement of hundreds of the indigenous population. Cáceres, one of 101 activists murdered in Honduras between 2010 and 2014, said in 2013: "The army has an assassination list of 18 wanted human rights fighters with my name at the top . . . in this country there is total impunity . . . when they want to kill me, they will do it." After the assassination, Naomi Klein said it was "part of a global wave of such attacks.”

Keith Emerson. RIP the E of ELP.

Peter Maxwell-Davies, composer, conductor, and, serendipitously, Master of the Queen’s Music. The Queen (Elizabeth, that is) doesn’t like classical music. She and Philip often jive to 50s and 60s pop, though not to the Everly Brothers hit Cathy’s Clown, which Her Majesty reportedly likened to “two cats being strangled.”

Michael Herr, author and war reporter who loved peace and conveyed better than anyone else the realities of men caught in war. Often high. Always kept it real. Dispatched too soon. "I went to cover the war and the war covered me; an old story, unless of course you've never heard it."

The victims of Goran Hadžić, the convicted war criminal who died at last on 12 July 2016. Brain cancer. Zbogom, šupak.

Pavel Sheremet, investigative journalist; recipient of the Committee to Protect Journalists’ International Press Freedom Award; critic of Putin and the annexation of Crimea. Murdered in Kiev on July 20, 2016.

Evin Nolan, painter, sculptor; author of a comedic play about Eratosthenes working in Dublin. Died July 22, 2016.

“I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”
“If any demonstrator ever lays down in front of my car, it'll be the last car he'll ever lay down in front of.”

— US presidential candidate George Wallace, 1963 and 1968

“You have people coming in and I’m not just saying Mexicans, I’m talking about people that are from all over that are killers and rapists and they’re coming into this country.”
"If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them . . . Just knock the hell — I promise you, I'll pay the legal fees."
“I love the old days. You know what they used to do to guys like that [a protester] when they were in a place like this? They’d be carried out on a stretcher, folks.”
“I’d like to punch him in the face.”

—US presidential candidate Donald Trump, 2016

Saudi court sentences poet to death for renouncing Islam

In 2014 it was reported that beheading would probably soon cease in Saudi Arabia. Instead the condemned will be shot to death.

Harry Potter books are banned. (Hooray for that, at least.)

The religious police—“The Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice”—have an “Anti-Witchcraft Action Unit”. Its job is to arrest people suspected of witchcraft and undo their spells.

Homosexuality is illegal. It carries the death penalty.

"Sorcery" is illegal. It carries the death penalty.

Women having relationships without family consent is illegal. It carries the death penalty. In 1978 King Khaled’s grandneice Princess Mishaal was beheaded for secretly meeting her lover in a hotel. He was shot to death.

Non-Muslims are ineligible for Saudi citizenship.

Burying non-Muslims anywhere in Saudi Arabia is illegal.

Saudi women were not allowed to register to vote until 2015.

The United States regards Saudi Arabia as the world’s primary source of funding for Sunni terrorism.

Hajj fatalities since 1975

"We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population." — Israel Koenig, internal Israeli government document The Koenig Memorandum.

In 2012 the Russell Tribunal on Palestine found that “Israel’s ongoing colonial settlement expansion, its racial separatist policies, as well as its violent militarism would not be possible without the US’s unequivocal support.”

Some interesting information about Arab citizens of Israel:

Jews from any country can move to Israel. A Palestinian refugee with a valid claim to property in Israel cannot.

As of 2005, three times more money was invested in education of Jewish children than in that of Arab children.

The Bedouin infant mortality rate is the highest in Israel, and among the highest in the developed world. In the 2002 budget the Israeli health ministry allocated Arab communities less than 0.6% of its budget for healthcare facility development.

A 2010 report released by Israeli civil rights groups called the current Knesset "the most racist in Israeli history", with 21 bills proposed in 2008 and 2009 that would discriminate against the Arab minority.

Intermarriage is prohibited by the Jewish Halakha.

The joint document The Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel, asserts: "Defining the Israeli State as a Jewish State and exploiting democracy in the service of its Jewishness excludes us, and creates tension between us and the nature and essence of the State." The document explains that by definition the "Jewish State" concept is based on ethnically preferential treatment towards Jews enshrined in immigration (the Law of Return) and land policy (the Jewish National Fund), and calls for the establishment of minority rights protections enforced by an independent anti-discrimination commission.

In its annual report for 2015, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that in 2014, a year it describes as “a traumatic one in the occupied Palestinian territory), Israel killed more Palestinian civilians than in any other year since 1967, when Israel first moved to occupy the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In 2014, 2,314 Palestinians died and 17,125 were injured, compared with 39 killed and 3,964 injured in 2013.

Ashkelon was home to the largest known dog cemetery in the ancient world.

Israel has the most Bauhaus buildings in the world.

South Korea is the only country whose cattle produce more milk per cow than Israel's.

Giraffe milk is kosher.

Israeli postal stamps have kosher glue.

In 2013, using 12,000 socks, the world record for the largest sock mosaic was broken in Netanya. (Wikipedia is probably the second largest.)

The Israel Project's 2009 Global Language Dictionary, aka The Luntz report. Not for distribution or publication.

Rachel Marsden. If only because the photograph is hilarious. Well, that and the content.

Dunning–Kruger effect: According to the WP article: "[A] cognitive bias manifesting in unskilled individuals suffering from illusory superiority, mistakenly rating their own ability much higher than is accurate. This bias is attributed to a metacognitive inability of the unskilled to recognize their ineptitude." According to d'Artagnan Muldoon: "A condition what's a royal pain in the arse to other peeps what don't got it"—i.e. the Dunning-Kruger effect effect.

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,—
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.
—King Richard II, Act 2 Scene 1

In fact England is a small, wet, densely overpopulated country on an island about twenty miles west of continental Europe. There is a Wikipedia article on it. Here's one important thing the article doesn't tell you:

"The primary hobby in England is getting absolutely fucked and getting into a fight, or dressing like a hooker and wandering the streets."

— Urbex researcher Dr. Bradley L. Garrett

And here's another:

"The English may not like music, but they absolutely love the noise it makes." — Thomas Beecham

And a few more:

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Ford Pinto: Recalled after 27 deaths
Tylenol: Recalled after 7 deaths
Guns: Still going strong after 32,000 deaths per year for decades
— Text in a three-panel cartoon by Rob Rogers, who has somehow evaded capture by BLP raiding parties.

"Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?"

Depends what you mean by "free" and "brave". See Racism in the United States. "Discrimination permeates all aspects of life . . . and extends to all communities of color." — U.S. Human Rights Network.

In 2015, if you're a hijab-wearing black Muslim in the Georgia township of Douglasville (motto: "New growth, old charm, always home") and you decline the charming Judge Rollins' invitation to remove your hijab in his courtroom, he'll show you some old-fashioned Southern hospitality in the town jail. But hey. Let us not forget what happened to black man Peter Stamps in Douglasville 130 years ago. Or what happened 20 miles down the road, in Marietta, to Jewish factory worker Leo M. Frank just 85 years ago. Progress, huh?

By the way, this is the proper way to hang a Confederate flag.

And speaking of America's ugly side: having fact-checked Donald Trump’s assertion that he saw “thousands and thousands” of Arabs in New Jersey cheering the destruction of the WTC's twin towers, Politifact—recipient of a Pulitzer for fact-checking—rated Trump’s statement as “Pants on fire.”

2006: in Australia’s federal parliament:

Labour front-bencher Julia Gillard (later to be Prime Minister): Mr. Speaker I move that that sniveling grub over there be no further heard.

Speaker: The manager of the opposition will withdraw unconditionally.

JG: If I have offended grubs I withdraw unconditionally.

2015: snip from BBC interview with Germaine Greer:

GG: I think that a very great many women don’t think that, um, post-operative or even non post-operative transexual M-to-F transexual people look like, sound like, or behave like women. They daren’t say so.

Interviewer: If a man who is gender reassigned, and outwardly — and he feels, inwardly, is a woman — in your view can he be a woman or not?

GG: No.

Interviewer: Do you understand how some people feel that’s insulting?

GG: I don’t care. People get insulted all the time. Australians get insulted every day of the week.

Interesting stats you might not know:

Frequency of rape: one woman every four minutes♦
Frequency of child sexual assault: one every three minutes♦
Frequency of female homicide by intimate partner: one every six hours♦
♦Source: Western Cape Government

Number of South African men surveyed in 2010 who admitted having committed rape: one in three♠
Number of South African men who admitted other acts of violence against women: 75%♠
♠(Source: 2010 Medical Research Council survey)

Consumer product whose price is equivalent to the average daily income of 33% of the SA population♣: a cup of coffee
♣Measured by the World Bank at less than $2 per day or less

World ranking of South Africa’s income inequality: third; SA's inequality exceeded only by Namibia and Botswana.♥
♥Source: World Bank

It’s official: the country that endured the most intense carpet-bombing campaign in history (Kissinger’s B52s used up the entire inventory at Carpets R Us in Bethesda) is safe at last. You might trip over a moldy rug and get a Pott's facture, and some of the swirly patterns that still overlay Angkor Wat will probably turn your stomach, but you can rest assured you won’t be a tiger’s lunch.

• 1944 America bombs Schaffhausen, Switzerland

• 1970 American Motors launch the Gremlin

• 1976 Jobs, Wozniak and Wayne form Apple Inc.

• 2001 Same-sex marriage becomes legal in the Netherlands

• 2001 Slobodan Milošević surrenders to police

• 2006 The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) is inaugurated in the UK

• 2009 Croatia and Albania join NATO

• 2011 After numerous outages render its public information website useless, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) is renamed the Seriously Disorganized Crime Agency (SDCA)

From the talk page of Larry Sanger's Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy "Jimbo" Wales:

What's the extent of our ethical duty to our readers re. political articles?

This is addressed to you personally, Mr. Wales. It is a request for you to express your personal views in this public forum. I respectfully request others here to resist the urge to preëmpt your reply - even though it has been said that your talk page is the equivalent of the Village Pump - and to engage in discussion only after you have made your comments, if any. [Emphasis added.]

As you know, Joe DeSantis - paid by Newt Gingrich to direct communications on his behalf - has ceased editing Gingrich-related articles here directly and now posts his desired inclusions and deletions at the article talk pages and at the talk pages of editors he selects to act as his proxy. As you appreciate, this is entirely within policy and guidelines. Furthermore DeSantis voluntarily appends Communications Director, Gingrich 2012 to his WP signature. You have applauded him for the transparency of these practices and cited him as an example to other paid political operatives.

My concern now is more for our readers than our editors. Readers who don't check out the talk pages will be unaware that the Gingrich articles are edited (now indirectly) by a communications professional employed by Gingrich to help persuade Americans that he should be their next president. (Templated notices of DeSantis's engagement with the articles are confined to the articles' talk pages; and a warning of "increased risk of biased editing" during Gingrich's run for office is only displayed on his personal article's talk page.)

Information - its persuasive presentation, control, manipulation and interpretation - is arguably the most powerful weapon in the armory of a political campaign. It goes almost without saying that there will be other paid political operatives who, unlike DeSantis, assiduously attend to their paymasters' articles without disclosing their affiliation. We know you would like to see them emulate DeSantis's transparency. Do you think the ethical duty of transparency extends to informing our readers that all articles that have to do with politicians running for office, and with their campaigns, are very likely to be edited, both directly and indirectly (where editors act as proxies), by users who are employed to do so by the individuals and entities concerned?

Is your concern limited entirely to WP:COI? Or do you feel we have a duty of transparency and disclosure to our readers that goes beyond COI, and also beyond templated notices on articles talk pages (which many readers may never see)? If the latter, what do you think about including notices on the article pages? Or do you have any other suggestions? Writegeist (talk) 20:22, 20 February 2012 (UTC) Adding: So Messrs. Collect, Vecrumba and Maelefique (below) couldn't honour my simple request to wait for Mr. Wales's comments before they chimed in. Perhaps I was naive to hope for that modicum of consideration - willfully inconsiderate behaviour is widespread throughout the project. No less predictable, perhaps, is the ploy to shut down discussion before it's even begun by confounding the particular issue raised here with other issues in other discussions about paid operatives. Writegeist (talk) 05:43, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Um -- this how now been on this page quite a few times already - with the same result every time. I wonder if this time you will get a different answer than has been the prior result? Somehow I doubt it. See WP:DEADHORSE. Cheers. Collect (talk) 21:00, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

I second that emotion. Moreover, if readers can't make out political propaganda, then they believe the propaganda, in which case any disclaimers or notices are a moot point. VєсrumЬа ►TALK 22:00, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

+1. -- Maelefique_{(and Charles!)}^(talk) 00:23, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The denigrating misrepresentation in the first response (dealt with in the addendum to the original post) may or may not be connected to the fact that Wales didn't see fit to reply.

Although not posted in direct relation to the very specific issue raised in the original post above, this January 2012 comment from Wales at Blog.philgomes.com is of interest for its take on what paid advocates are paid to do:

"[P]eople who are acting as paid advocates do not make good editors. They insert puffery and spin. That's what they do because that it is what paid advocates do."

So should articles (i.e. not just talk pages) that have to do with politicians running for office alert readers to the almost certain involvement of paid political operatives in their editing? The question remains unanswered. Writegeist (talk) 02:21, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

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Scum

Flight Officer Perkins (Jonathan Miller): Goodbye Sir—or is it au revoir?

Squadron Leader (Peter Cook): No, Perkins.

— 'Aftermyth of War' sketch from British 1960s stage revue Beyond the Fringe

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It's a little-known fact that Julius Caesar started the first crowd-sourced online encyclopedia, or officinas salsiciarum, in the early days of the mule-powered Internet. His Latin wiki, Caesarpedia, is still going.

From Collect 24 (the Book of Common Prayer), for vocation in daily work:

Deliver us . . . in our various occupations from the service of self alone, that we may do the work . . . in truth and beauty and for the common good.

In Wikipedia as in RL . . .

As of September 2014 ISIS had between 20,000 and 31,500 fighters. In July 2015 US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter informed the Senate Armed Services Committee that Americky has trained approximately 60 Syrian rebel fighters. That's not a typo.

Number of dogs in America: about 83 million. Amount of poop they produce per year: about 11 million tons. Proportion of bacteria in samples from urban watersheds that comes from dog poop: 20-30%. Proportion of dog poop bacteria in air samples from Cleveland, Ohio, and Detroit, Michigan: 10-50%. Reason dog ownership was banned in China under Mao Tse-tung: he said it was bourgeois.

"Do not believe that the hierarchy here has no agenda. That hierarchy welcomes and relies upon malicious slander, especially from administrators who stalk & push their POV with impunity. If the hierarchy does not like you, then even your slightest garden-variety inadvertent editing error becomes deliberate "misrepresentation" and "manipulation". The hierarchy makes rules and then punishes people who follow them, by allowing others to break those very same rules. Upset about this? The hierarchy will smack you around for that too. The list goes on and on. These people may well have good intentions, but so does the pavement along the road to hell. Power over individual editors is extremely centralized at Wikipedia, because any sort of jury system would necessitate clear rules that can be applied equally, and because, hey, otherwise power would not be centralized. Wikipedia should scrap its bureaucracy and start over." Anythingyouwant

“Wikipedia is changing. It is going/has become an online game. The days of creating Winter Palace, Ticklecock Bridge, or Pitfour estateare being replaced with a generation of "gotcha", and defining "winners". It often starts with snide comments, snark, and pestering. As soon as one can find a civility "gotcha" - a block gets slapped down. Now a person has been "labeled". Right and wrong doesn't matter - it's a matter of demoralizing, frustrating, and irritating a perceived "opponent". If anyone defends said "opponent", then they are targeted as the next undesirable - and the process repeats.” Ched

“Personally, so long as no one is being profane and alluding to sex, gender or religion, I am really not interested in what is considered a personal attack by a few over sensitive Wikipedians. If someone behaves in a idiotic fashion then they are an idiot. If someone launches a personal crusade and stalks another editor all over the project in the hope of banning them or making their life difficult, then there's probably another word for them, but my English is not good enough to know it, and I have better things to do in my life than bother to have it translated.” Giano

“I think if I knew someone who was joining WP now, my advice to them would be to "pretend you're female", or at least come across that you are. That way you'll have the GGTF and every other liberal do-gooder falling at your feet and watching your back. All of the females I know on here couldn't give a shit for how gender-divided (apparently) it is on here; they are here to write, and bloody good at it they are too. The likes of J3Mrs, Sagaciousphil and Montanabw, all of whom I respect unreservedly and would consider to be some of the best editors we have, are unfortunately not looked after in the same way as someone who creates little or no content for the project. I find that to be quite odd.” Cassianto

"The fantasy has always been that with the right set of rules the encyclopedia would write itself, with optimal versions of articles just coming to exist naturally as a consequence of the self-evident rules about citation and secondary sources. The reality has always been that instead of actually thinking critically about content decisions people just think critically about how to manipulate and play with the rules." -- Extract from blog post by writer (and now indefinitely wikibanned and desysopped) admin Phil Sandifer

The reality Mr. Sandifer describes is corroborated by my own observations and experience here. Users who exhibit incompetence in their critical thinking about content and content decisions, and focus instead on wikilawyering, twisting and misrepresenting (oops, my tautology alarm just went off) policies and other users' comments, lying flat-out about sources, using article talk pages to pursue a personal agenda of dominance (i.e. feeding an unwarranted self-regard), and arguing others into exhausted capitulation, grievously diminish the value (ha, ha) of the encyclopedia.

" . . . hidden grudges have undermined progress here. Now most folks in the latter category are articulate and would be able to explain any of their subsequent actions in terms of policy or something that will obfuscate any clear evidence. Even better, they can write an Arbcom Election Guide! This behaviour is a real barrier to big-time change as it can defuse or short-circuit consensus pretty quickly." (Emphasis added.) Cas Liber

"This place is going down the shitter pretty goddamn fast."

On June 17 2015 an encounter in a South Carolina church led to nine mysterious deaths, all apparently from gunshot wounds. Therein lies the mystery, because we know from the NRA that guns don’t kill people. And in the words of Michael Moore, “Guns don’t kill people. Americans kill people.” On June 19, an NRA board member blamed an American for the deaths, namely a pastor who was one of the dead. Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry said the deaths were an accident, and that President Obama is trying to take away Americans' guns. Which of course would only serve to perplex their owners—guns being harmless and all.

The Boy Who Cried Wolf

Münchausen by Internet

Münchausen by Doré

" . . . straight-arrow admins who are mature, modest, fair-minded, honest and helpful; who aren't pompous asses, arrogant pricks, aggressive little twerps or clueless infants; who display good humor; and who, most importantly, value service above power." — Brilliantly and succinctly put by moi, at a wikifriend's RfA. Where are they, these admins?

Beware of speaking truth to power:

"It is sad that a few bullies were allowed to throw a devoted editor out of the project, just to send a message to the community not to question admins and the arbs no matter how abusive and corrupt they are. Most people are reluctant to speak now, because they are either the corrupt and abusive group that I have been talking about or they are afraid to speak for fear of retaliation." — Banned user Kumioko

After reading the really quite good WP article on 3D printers I was able to make a serviceable one after dinner last night using a derelict Isetta bubble car, my mother-in-law's sewing machine, my neighbour's child's water pistol, and some goo. Admittedly it's large and slow but one day these brilliant gadgets will be miniaturized and we’ll always have one at the ready to make whatever takes our fancy, from flowers for a blind date (“I wish you could see them, they’re so lovely”) to shoe-fetish jewellery, cars, and Donald Trump butt plugs.

Veterans Day

The man who shot himself in the foot
Wikipedia has quite a good article on the My Lai Massacre.

Retarded

Fans

I treasure all communications from my devoted fans. Some samples: Gratitude "Let me tell you something...with the amount of time I spend making some of these car articles worthy of this site with no gratitude whatsoever, the last thing I need is to waste time reading your comments." — User:Vegavairbob Hopeful "I'm gonna tell you something mister. I can't wait to get to the [Wikipedia] conference. Hopefully there's gonna be some changes. YOU are hurting this site. Just wait." — User:71.167.61.206 Honest "Learn to not be such a snot to other people. And one more thing ... Oops, I'm sorry, I farted in your general direction", and ". . . in the past day I will be honest that I have a profound dislike of you with your clearly patronizing remark to [another user]-, and in all honesty I think that you are behaving cynically and and being snotty, I mean you are just an average joe like me, we belch and fart and do stupid crap - don't pretend you are better than me [. . .] To cut short my response, if I ever saw you in person I would let out my excess liquids from my kindneys onto your feet." — User:R-41 And now that the level of discourse has risen to these giddy heights . . . Oh my! How brilliantly the wit illuminates the social skills of one of my most adoring fans: “Urinal editor” [36], “Writeshit” [37] — User: Collect Love "Fuck you! [. . .] If I ever saw you in person I would love to beat the living shit out of you, I would only not do so because it is against the law." — 184.145.67.28 (aka R-41) Thrill "Ban me, I don't give a shit anymore [. . .] assholes like User:Writegeist [. . .] That scumbag [. . .] doesn't give a shit about anything [. . .] trolls like Writegeist who don't give a shit about anything are on Wikipedia for a thrill ride. In fact, to be openly honest and completely uncivil that I don't care about violating anymore, It's too bad for the world that that Writegeist wasn't aborted before birth, he's a waste of sperm [. . .] wastes-of-sperm like Writegeist . . . are just here to enjoy trolling." — User:R-41 Cheers Another user To R-41: "IMHO you have a great deal to offer Wikipedia - and remember "Illegitimi non carborundum" still applies. Cheers and take care." This same user, deploying the wickedly deadpan humour that makes so many of their comments a delight to read, went on to assert that R-41 "is not one who goes around posting how nasty any editor is." Inspire "I think the problem here may be Writegeist needs some assistance in getting along with other people. I note that he makes use of words like dishonest, infantile and fuck in a manner that may not inspire other people to leap to his assistance with great zealousy." User:Penyulap, at Commons. "Zealousy"! Oh joy! This glorious word was coined by one Pastor Andy (google him), as he tells us in his must-read blog: 'I have invented a new term this week - “zealousy”. It’s not a real word, but I want it to define how, with great zeal, we must share God’s jealousy for those people and things that are allowed to rival his love and glory.' We really must stop using words like "dishonest", "infantile" and "fuck" so that Pastor Andy and Wikipedia users can, with great zeal, share God's jealousy for people like us who are allowed to rival his love and glory. Note: Vegavairbob (aka IP user 71.167.61.206), R-41 (aka IP user 184.145.67.28), and Penyulap are indefinitely blocked, so at present they are unable to provide additional gems. Wit "Quote of the day from an editor who 'seems' to regard his own screeds as the epitome of 'wit': Twain is the perennial favorite of intellectual pygmies who believe a trite quote has the power to increase their stature. I rather think his 'wit' speaks for itself pretty clearly." Isn't that just absolutely darling? It's a UTP eulogy from a fan of such legendary modesty that my loving human kindness leads me to conceal his identity behind this very small (yet more than adequate) fig leaf of anonymity :~) . Faith "[A]ll of you taking his side should feel like fucking gobs of shit because that is what you fucking are when you enable this kind of abusive treatment. There is a difference between assuming good faith and being an ignorant jerkoff." — The Devil's Advocate, at AN/I

Socks

Long ago a user tried to discredit me with a fabricated accusation of meatpuppetry (which sounds rather naughty, and is, but not in a fun sense). Or maybe it was sockpuppetry. It may have been both. It was a long time ago, long before this Interweb thingy, when Wikipedia was still hand-cranked by one of the founders and the other printed the articles and sent them off to interested parties by pony express. Anyway I'm grateful to my accuser, as some good came of his curiously malign act. It sparked an interest in sockpuppet investigations, and the interest has endured to this day. I tend to visit the public gallery (if I can find a parking spot anywhere within walking distance) to while away an idle moment or two on a rainy afternoon. Amusing sock story: A puppetmaster (now blocked) created a sock and put it to work spamming user talk pages with barnstars—a rather ingenious form of fraudulent vandalism. The sock was taken down by a marksman in the Sysop SWAT Squad, but not before the perp had peppered 95 pages. The sysop who'd conducted the SPI then went from user to user removing the spam barnstars. One recipient, by a happy coincidence the very same gentleman who'd ignited my interest in SPIs, objected to losing his authentic-looking award and put it back. Wikipedia can be fun!

Leech

South Park

The more high-profile of the two Wikipedia co-founders goes all motherfuckyfucky at his talk page in a comment about South Park: "I fucking love motherfucking South Park." Then comments that it's a "really lame thing to put on the front page of Wikipedia" from time to time. When asked whether front-paging it "isn't a demonstration that Wikipedia (where appropriate) can educate and inform about popular culture in fact likely to attract new editors?" the co-founder replies: "I'm sure it will attract new editors. Not the kind we want, though." I sincerely hope I'm not the kind he wants.

The Tea Party

Rats, clowns, jerks, and pygmies

Rick Santorum as Frothy Jr. soda jerk by DonkeyHotey, who also did the clowns. Rat by Banksy. DH and Banksy keep their real identities secret---or try to. DH is a skilled cartoonist/Photoshopper, and Banksy's facile stencils are hyped as art. Long may DH be spared the indignity of a tedious BLP like this one. DH's caricature of "Samuel Langhorne Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain, American author and humorist, on the occasion of the publication of his complete autobiography after a one hundred year delay", in which the chinless Twain appears to be 40% gerbil and 60% moustache, is good for a giggle. Twain is the perennial favorite of intellectual pygmies who believe a trite quote ("The worst loneliness is to not be comfortable with your mustache") has the power to increase their stature. When I hear the creaky wheels of a tired old Twainism being wheeled into a conversation my first thought is always "uh-oh, another witless pygmy." Related: [39]

Wasp

Bug

Gnat

Canvassing

"When all else fails, try Wales." -- Christopher Logue When you're involved in a discussion at an article's talk page and you want to recruit additional editors to participate, make sure the invitation you post to other users' talk pages doesn't fall foul of the guideline WP:CANVASS. The simplest and safest solution is to post it to WP co-founder Jimmy "Jimbo" Wales's talk page. He has decreed it exempt from the guideline. If you know he shares your opinion, feel free to say so in your post, and to cite that as the reason you're asking him to join in. On anyone else's talk page a non-neutral post like that would be "inappropriate" under the terms of the guideline, but it's OK at JW's. The page may be exempt from other guidelines and policies. I asked there, but nobody answered; so I don't know. As always, Caveat editor. NEWS FLASH! July 2012: Co-founder declares Jimbotalk a forum-shopping-free zone! See next section

Forum shopping
July 2012: In addition to its existing exemption from prohibitions on canvassing (see above), Jimbotalk is now also decreed exempt from prohibitions on forum shopping. So although there are wikipolice hiding behind almost every pillar there, they can't arrest you for forum shopping: "It is never forum shopping to post on this page. Ever." -- Jimmy "Jimbo" Wales

Hope

Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign slogan: "Hope we can believe in." "I frankly don't give a fuck how it all turns out in this country - or anywhere else, for that matter. I think the human game was up a long time ago (when the high priests and traders took over), and now we're just playing out the string. And that is, of course, precisely what I find so amusing: the slow circling of the drain by a once promising species, and the sappy, ever-more-desperate belief in this country that there is actually some sort of "American Dream," which has merely been misplaced. The decay and disintegration of this culture is astonishingly amusing if you are emotionally detached from it. I have always viewed it from a safe distance, knowing I don't belong; it doesn't include me, and it never has. No matter how you care to define it, I do not identify with the local group. Planet, species, race, nation, state, religion, party, union, club, association, neighborhood, improvement committee; I have no interest in any of it. I love and treasure individuals as I meet them, I loathe and despise the groups they identify with and belong to. My interest in "issues" is merely to point out how badly we're doing, not to suggest a way we might do better. Don't confuse me with those who cling to hope. I enjoy describing how things are, I have no interest in how they "ought to be." And I certainly have no interest in fixing them. I sincerely believe that if you think there's a solution, you're part of the problem. My motto: Fuck Hope!" — George Carlin

History of violence by American forces on prisoners and civilians overseas

Wikipedia contains much information about the history of the American military’s abuse, torture and murder of prisoners and civilians, e.g. in Vietnam as well as at Korea, Chenogne, Dachau, Biscari, Mahmudiyah, Abu Ghraib and Haditha. Number of American POW’s who died in North Vietnamese captivity during the entire eleven-year Vietnam War: 114. — The Oxford Companion to American Military History Number of prisoners who died in American captivity during the first four years of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: 108. “Some are known to have been tortured to death.” — Human Rights Watch “The cases also include that of Abed Hamed Mowhoush, a former Iraqi general beaten over days by U.S. Army, CIA and other non-military forces, stuffed into a sleeping bag, wrapped with electrical cord, and suffocated to death. In the recently concluded trial of a low-level military officer charged in Mowhoush’s death, the officer received a written reprimand, a fine, and 60 days with his movements limited to his work, home, and church.” — Human Rights First The idea of listening to Britney sing while dogs attack naked men—well, it’s just not my idea of a fun evening out.” — Rush Limbaugh, May 4, 2004 “This is no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation and we’re going to ruin lives over it, and we’re going to hamper our military effort, and then we’re going to really hammer ‘em because they had a good time. You know, these people are being fired at every day—I’m talking about the people having a good time. You ever hear of emotional release? You ever hear of “need to blow some steam off?” — Rush Limbaugh, May 5, 2004 ("Blowing off steam" at Abu Ghraib included sodomizing prisoners with a glow stick, one of the tortures noted in the Taguba Report.) “The record could not be clearer regarding the fact that we caused numerous detainee deaths, many of which have gone completely uninvestigated and thus unpunished.  Instead, the media and political class have misleadingly caused the debate to consist of the myth that these tactics were limited and confined.” — Glenn Greenwald, 2009  As a student of the conduct of American foreign policy I have also found these articles about American torture and war crimes usefully informative: [41], [42], and [43]. Also this article about America’s human rights record and this article on allegations of American state terrorism. There are some interesting notes on CIA Torture in Vietnam, Latin America, and Iraq here. “ ...[S]ome people -- most, it seems -- will, under some circumstances, do anything someone in authority tells them to.... Government institutions, like most humans, have a reflexive reaction to the exposure of internal corruption and wrongdoing: No matter how transparent the effort, their first response is to lie, conceal and cover up. Also like human beings, once an institution has embraced a particular lie in support of a particular coverup, it will forever proclaim its innocence. ” --Ron Ridenhour, the American serviceman who collected and exposed the evidence of his compatriots' massacre of villagers at My Lai in March, 1968, quoted in the Los Angeles Times, March 16, 1993. Nick Davies, writing in The Guardian on April 22 2015, says that British foreign correspondent James Cameron described US actions in Vietnam as “an offense to international decency, both disgusting and absurd”. Davies notes that the My Lai massacre was far from unique: American journalist Nick Turse, searching the US National Archives in June 2001, “discovered files that recorded the findings of a secret US task force, the Vietnam War Crimes Working Group. They showed that the army had substantiated more than 300 claims of massacre, murder, rape and torture by American soldiers.” (See the WP article on the VWCWG here.) The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that in 2004 a CIA rendition team tortured a German citizen in Macedonia. The torture included beating and sodomising him. [44] The UN special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism characterized the ruling as "a key milestone in the long struggle to secure accountability of public officials implicated in human rights violations committed by the Bush administration CIA in its policy of secret detention, rendition and torture". Not to mention the Obama administration's use of drones. Or what goes on in Gitmo. Or what an independent Washington think-tank concluded about the responsibility of senior American officials for torture under the rendition programme.

America’s history of violence against its own people

In the course of the white settlement of America, the indigenous Indian people were slaughtered in their ancestral homelands and the survivors driven out. After the physical destruction came cultural genocide. Navajo children, for example, were forced into white-run schools. Top of the curriculum was educating the children — called "savages" by white Americans — not to speak Navajo. This was accomplished by savagely beating them when they did so. Democrats suppressed African American suffrage and civil rights to win the 1876 election. Militias informally affiliated to the party murdered political leaders, hunted down community members and intimidated voters. After the Democrats regained power throughout the South, between 1880 and 1951 the Tuskegee Institute recorded lynchings of 3,437 blacks and 1,293 whites. Lynching was a popular photographic subject for Americans, who sent picture postcards of those they had witnessed. Time noted that even the Nazis "did not stoop to selling souvenirs of Auschwitz, but lynching scenes became a burgeoning subdepartment of the postcard industry. By 1908, the trade had grown so large, and the practice of sending postcards featuring the victims of mob murderers was so repugnant, that the U.S. Postmaster General banned the cards from the mails." — Richard Lacayo, Time, April 02, 2000 Between 1882 and 1968, at least 4,742 African Americans were murdered by lynching. — Leon F. Litwack, Without Sanctuary "The world knows of Rosa Parks because of a single simple act of dignity and courage that struck a lethal blow to the foundations of legal bigotry." — William Jefferson Clinton, 2005 Fortunately for the United States, the policies of cultural genocide that the white Americans enacted against the Indian nations were not entirely successful. In World War II, the Japanese easily broke American communication codes in the South Pacific. To avoid defeat the Americans needed an unbreakable code. They found it in the still-living Navajo language, spoken by specially-recruited Navajo marines. Iwo Jima is a Pacific island with an area of eight square miles. Thanks to Navajo code-talkers, the Americans were able to kill 20,000 of its 22,000 Japanese defenders. The article on capital punishment by the United States military tells us that America executed 21 of its military personnel in the Pacific in World War II. It does not tell us that 20 were black. In the first five months of 2015, police in America shot 19 unarmed black men to death. California alone had 72 fatal police shootings, and 19 people killed there by police were unarmed. In Stockton, California (population 298,118), police killed three people. For comparison, Iceland (population 323,764) has had one fatal police shooting in its 73-year history [45]

Thomas Jefferson, George Monbiot and Edward Said

"The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government." — Thomas Jefferson, 1809 "Much of the rhetoric of the 'New World Order' promulgated by the American government since the end of the Cold War—with its redolent self-congratulation, its unconcealed triumphalism, its grave proclamations of responsibility—might have been scripted by Conrad's Holroyd: we are number one, we are bound to lead, we stand for freedom and order, and so on. No American has been immune from this structure of feeling...." — Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism Conrad's Holroyd: "Time itself has got to wait on the greatest country in the whole of God’s universe. We shall be giving the word for everything—industry, trade, law, journalism, art, politics, and religion, from Cape Horn clear over to Smith’s Sound, and beyond it, too, if anything worth taking hold of turns up at the North Pole. And then we shall have the leisure to take in hand the outlying islands and continents of the earth. We shall run the world’s business whether the world likes it or not." "The founding fathers were great thinkers. How did their project degenerate into George Bush and Sarah Palin?" — George Monbiot, "How these gibbering numbskulls came to dominate Washington", The Guardian October 28 2008. The degeneration of the Founding Fathers' great project regained momentum postwar. By 1998, one in four Texas state school biology teachers believed that humans and dinosaurs existed simultaneously.

Christian fundamentalism and creationism/intelligent design

"One [American] adult in five believes the sun revolves round the earth; only 26% accept that evolution takes place by means of natural selection; two-thirds of young adults are unable to find Iraq on a map: two-thirds of US voters cannot name the three branches of government; the maths skills of 15-year-olds in the US are ranked 24th out of the 29 countries of the OECD...Religion — in particular fundamentalist religion — makes you stupid. The US is the only rich country in which Christian fundamentalism is vast and growing." — George Monbiot "The cause of my life has been to oppose superstition. It's a battle you can't hope to win – it's a battle that's going to go on forever. It's part of the human condition." — Christopher Hitchens "One of the joys of living in a world filled with stupidity and hypocrisy was to see Hitch respond." — Sam Harris Almost two-thirds of Americans want creationism taught in school beside evolution. Creationists argue that their particular religiously-based origin belief is superior to those of other belief systems, in particular those made through secular or scientific rationale. Young Earth creationists believe the Earth was created by God within the last ten thousand years, literally as described in Genesis. An estimated 47% of Americans hold the Young Earth creationist view. Almost 10% of American Christian colleges teach it. American Christian organizations Institute for Creation Research and the Creation Research Society both promote it. An Answers in Genesis Ministries Creation Museum promotes it. 45% of Americans believe that God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so. For Americans, belief in creationism is inversely correlated to education. 74% of Americans with postgraduate degrees accept evolution. 20 percent of U.S. doctors believe God can cure a fatally injured patient. – Lenworth Jacobs, Lenworth Hospital, Hartford, Conn. One in four Americans believe Obama may be the antichrist. Only one member of Congress openly declares himself an atheist: Pete Stark ((D) California). Stark founded Security National Bank, which grew into a $100 million company in its first ten years. A 1975 study based on 234 US college undergraduates found that "Religious Believers as a group were found to be significantly less intelligent and more authoritarian than religious Skeptics."

Tour de France

A collection of early Tour de France racing velocipedes from the Formule Libre era when there were no restrictions on the number of riders or wheels per bike. Of particular interest and historic significance is the unusually small example (bottom right) ridden in 1907 by Alphonse "Petit" Legrand, a midget. Confounding the pundits Legrand won at record speed, only to be disqualified when an alert official discovered in post-race scrutineering that the accessory described by Legrand as a chain-driven refrigerator to cool his on-board refreshments was in fact an internal combustion engine to power the bicycle. Eight years later, soon after the outbreak of the Great War, Legrand masterminded the famous ill-fated attempt, using a Frot-Laffly tank disguised as a baby carriage, on the lives of the German Chief of Staff Alfred von Schlieffen and other senior officers of the German High Command attending the christening of von Schlieffen's niece.

Qui vive

Wikipedia is open to all. That includes people with personality disorders (see e.g. paranoia, narcissism, sociopathy) who are free to roam the articles and talk pages exhibiting behaviour that would be remedied in the real world by medication or a smack in the mouth. Fortunately there may be fewer than in 2007, as the number of active Wikipedia editors has steadily declined in the interim. Unfortunately they may constitute a steadily increasing percentage of the dwindling total if encounters with them play a part in the exodus of more collaboratively-minded editors. So if the trend continues, WP could end up being edited and administered solely by a collection of pompous, egotistical, wikilawyering asshats. You may cross paths with users who habitually talk down to others. If you also cross swords, their arguments may exhibit a persistent casuistry in distorting and misrepresentating policy to browbeat you into submission. These users are pompous, egotistical, wikilawyering, asshat bullies. Bullies don't collaborate, they game the system. So a wikibully, thwarted in some piddling content dispute, tends to haul it to the nearest notice boards in the hope of getting his own way. The more sour and disparaging a bully's behaviour, the more shrill the shrieks of righteous indignation when he or she is called on it. This—the VEB strategy for getting one's own way ("I'll thcream and thcream until I'm thick. I can!")—sometimes actually works. After all, GBS's view on wrestling with pigs is quite well known. Cyril Connolly observed that bullies have "a sense of inferiority deepened perhaps by sexual ignorance" (Enemies of Promise). So spare a little pity for the wikibully when you push back. And bear in mind that when you do, he may squeal self-pityingly about you bullying him. Bullies don't get irony. "...having now spent more than 8 years on Wikipedia, my patience with hypocrisy is pretty much depleted and I find it difficult to ignore." WP editor MastCell in 2014. "See, it'd be so much simpler if we could block for simple douchebaggery." WP editor UltraExactZZ "In my many years on Wikipedia, there have been many people who have . . . abused the rules & process, ignored or talked over what other contributors add to a discussion, & resorted to all sorts of other objectionable tactics with the goal of simply getting their preferred version of an article accepted." WP editor Llyrwrch Misrepresentation and misinterpretation are common tactics. For example, an editor observes of user A, 'It should be clear by now that you can argue until you are blue in the face and [user A] will misconstrue your words, often to mean the exact opposite of what you said'; another notes that user A 'has a long history of misinterpreting policies, sources and other editors' comments, then entering into extensive pointless discussions'; and an administrator tells him directly: 'I don't understand why, after I explained everything, you continue to misinterpret me or misrepresent me.' Sometimes users just make stuff up to push a pov. Keeping a cool head is always the best response. E.g., an editor tells user A, 'I'm simply asking you not to repeat things that aren't true. You said that the [...] source was "not a medical article, and is not peer-reviewed". But of course, it is a medical article, and it is peer-reviewed.' Exercising restraint and sticking resolutely to the facts is also an excellent way to respond to a user who deploys the infantile tactic of malevolent untruth to smear another user in a talk page discussion. A little cool intelligence goes a long way towards halting the rank stupidity of an inept attacker's tactics. "The amount of verbal pomposity, elaboration of the obvious, repetition, trivia, low-grade statistics, tedious factification, drudging recapitulations of the half-comprehended, and generally inane and laborious junk that one encounters..." Dwight Macdonald 91% of Wikipedia editors are male. Which explains a lot. The smaller the mind, the greater the conceit. "Don't bother arguing the toss with a tosser." d'Artagnan Muldoon

Skewered
Living in biblical times? Plague of locusts getting you down? Scorpions in your socks? Have 'em for breakfast! (Careful how you handle the scorpions.) WARNING: Locusts and scorpions contain small parts. Keep away from children. (Always good advice for adults who are easily irritated.)

"The very existence of flamethrowers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, 'You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done.' " — George Carlin

Thank you Buster! I'll pass it on to my mother, she's a great Carlin fan. Belated thanks also for that gorgeous red barn star and the kind thoughts. Back at ya! (Careful, we're in danger of High Fives now.) I just heard news that SP is resigning from her hugely important job of looking out of the window to warn the Amairkins of any clapped-out old Russian bombers trying to trundle in over the tundra and under the radar. Apparently she wants to make a play for the even more important post (yes, it seems there is one) of 'Great Republican Decider You Betcha' in 2012. Not being a great decider myself I'm not sure whether this move is extremely funny or deeply scary. Both? Some of our old friends at the article will already be in danger of stroking out from excitement at the prospect of the sainted, unblinking Sarah buying a few truckloads of cheesy new Neiman Marcus outfits, reopening Gitmo and sending Katie Curic there. Take care. Writegeist (talk) 22:16, 3 July 2009 (UTC)

• • Can I get your input at User:Buster7/Incivility
  • Also, suggest you take a look at WP:Civility/Poll
    • Interesting...[54]
      • Will coincidences never cease!!!! [55] I once owned a Chevy Vega (hot little #)...and, then, LessVHTY, a great admin shows up.

Haha, you're a brave man to make a public admission of ever owning a Chevy Vega :~) . But hey, I had two Trabants . . . I will check out your Incivility thoughts; also the poll. Been away and just got back, so catching up. Apropos of nothing: Owner to dog: "Sit!" Dog to owner: "Oh - bad news?" Writegeist (talk) 09:28, 14 July 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for signing up for the Great Wikipedia Dramaout. Wikipedia stands to benefit from the improvements in the article space as a result of this campaign. This is a double reminder. First, the campaign begins on July 18, 2009 at 00:00 (UTC). Second, please remember to log any articles you have worked on during the campaign at Wikipedia:The Great Wikipedia Dramaout/Log. Thanks again for your participation! --Jayron32.talk.say no to drama 21:40, 17 July 2009 (UTC)

Sorry to disappoint, but I had second thoughts and withdrew. I found I just didn't feel comfortable as part of something quite so, well, worthy. (And I have a deeply ingrained Groucho Marxist aversion to clubs.) But I appreciate the worthiness of those who are made of sterner stuff. Needless to say I dread the question from my future grandchildren: "What did you do in the Great Wikipedia Dramaout, gramps?" Writegeist (talk) 02:18, 19 July 2009 (UTC)

Just wanted you to know that I think yours is awesome.--~TPW 19:41, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

How kind. Thank you, it feels good to be appreciated. But I have to say, usernames don't come any more awesome than True Pagan Warrior! Writegeist (talk) 18:11, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Tee hee. A username is a combination of inspiration and availability, and this one took some balancing to get right!--~TPW 19:32, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

		The Barnstar of Good Humor
		Refined humor is hard to come by. Thank you, – Lionel (talk) 23:05, 8 July 2012 (UTC)

Back at you Sir with knobs on, as they so nearly say here in the colonies where I reside. The award is much appreciated. As soon as I find my Mappin & Webb bone-handled Jungle Chum pocket knife in the heirloom clutter of my, ahem, "condo" (sincere apologies for the vulgar American vernacular, and by the way please note: no "m") I shall slice the handsome bronze star out of the screen and wear it with pride on the lapel of my finest Cholmondeley and Ramsbotham Number 2 Thornproof Tweed hacking jacket. Writegeist (talk) 02:05, 9 July 2012 (UTC)

In the 14th Century, one of my ancestors was a famously notorious Pirate. He was the first to place catapults on board ships to facilitate easier maurauding. My image of him is File:Jack Sparrow In Pirates of the Caribbean- At World's End.JPG. This may not be far from the truth if one considerd that my relatives surname is also the name of a living creature. Did the authors of the Pirates franchise use my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather as the basis for their character? I think they did!!!!! Someday I'll write an article and take it to FA. ```Buster Seven Talk 16:17, 21 November 2012 (UTC)

My great-great etc. grandfather was Terence Trebuchet so they may have known each other! It's an interesting story. Terry had acquired a very early Sopwith Plummet aeroplane:

The wings were somewhat lacking in lift, but Terry realized the contraption had potential for weekend marauders to throw rocks and rotten vegetables at people whose stuff they wanted for themselves, and he deftly adapted it to the new purpose. Then full-time professional maurauders took it up, and the rest is history. Without Terry, WW2 would almost certainly never have been brought to an end by America's development of those giant trebuchets that could lob multiple grand pianos over distances of hundreds of miles. Europe owes its freedom to Terry, the Sopwith Plummet and the Underwood Corps! I think you should sue the studio for ripping off your pirate ancestor's story. Writegeist (talk) 17:05, 21 November 2012 (UTC)

I agree; a lawsuit is in order. Do you know a good Personal Injury lawyer? I know someone of questionable integrity and character who is tremendous at obfuscation. Problem is he is not a lawyer: he is an Oldenwoordenboekenmaker.```Buster Seven Talk 13:31, 22 November 2012 (UTC)

May I recommend my personal injury lawyer Sammy "Batman" Malignanti? His lawyering credentials (certification from the Gambino School of Law) may not be of the highest order but he comes from a good family and his ability to inflict personal injury with a baseball bat is unrivaled. Writegeist (talk) 18:13, 24 November 2012 (UTC)

Sammy's reputation preceeds him. If it's the same Sammy Malignanti from Taylor Street in Chicago? I didn't know that a felon could become a lawyer. But...hey...who cares. Does a hi-jacker need a drivers license?? Does a "vulture" capitalist need a heart to do business? Is a baseball bat just used to hit baseballs???? Chores! ```Buster Seven Talk 12:22, 25 November 2012 (UTC)

Hello. I was led here to your userspace by the illustrious B7. I hope you don't mind if I take my shoes off and make myself at home. Wateresque (talk) 20:57, 28 November 2012 (UTC)

Greetings, Wateresque, and welcome to my humble abode. Any friend of Buster's is a friend of mine, and I hope you'll swing by whenever you have a mind to. Thank you for taking off your shoes. The cleaning lady has just been -- the place isn't always this clean and tidy. Don't trip over the cat, it won't move out of the way, it's stuffed. Feel free to browse the books. And yes, it's a real Hockney and the insurance is killing me. Are you a firefighter? If so, you'll have plenty to do on Wikipedia. Writegeist (talk) 21:30, 28 November 2012 (UTC)

Well a fake cat is better than no cat, as I always say. No, unfortunately I'm not a firefighter, just an engineer who hastily found the best picture of casually removed shoes on W.Commons. Although I imagine that if I tried I could fight a few wikifires. Wateresque (talk) 14:08, 29 November 2012 (UTC)

Your unique blend of kind-heartedness, generosity of spirit, patience and good humour, not to mention the monogrammed speedo you wear over your tights, are unique assets to ye olde pedia, and your friendship is a blessing to me. I greatly appreciate your support. I shall always wear it. We are all well, and hope the same applies in the Buster family. Our friend Cartier-Bresson sends his regards. Herewith also mine (in black and white, like C-B's!). Visit again soon. Make yourself at home—push the (stuffed) cat off the (overstuffed) arm chair; help yourself from the drinks cupboard. Feel free to check out the Cézanne in the downstairs toilet and compare it with yours (the Cézanne, not the toilet). Writegeist (talk) 16:33, 25 January 2013 (UTC)

• Your mention of cat and toilet reminds me. We have adopted a cat, unstuffed. He arrived at out backdoor Christmas morning. I think Santa was over "cookie and milk"ed and just started to leave stuff willy-nilly. We named him Star as in "Christmas Star". He is black with a white medallion star on his chest. We got him a litter box and the best cat food a fixed income could buy. He has been neutered (ouch!) and had shots. Also... He has shit and pissed in every corner of the house which, BTW, began to smell like the Lincoln Park Zoo. We love him. He currently lives in the basement until he learns how to flush the toilet. We have re-named him. His new name is Star-R, Starr...after Ringo. Buster Seven Talk

Good to hear of the Christmas addition to the Buster family. Aptly renamed. Years ago, when God was a boy, Ringo came to visit for a weekend and I had to lock him in the basement for the same reasons. Well, that and he kept drumming with his knife and fork on the Louis XVI dining table. He asked to borrow ten shillings and promised ten percent of all his future earnings in return, but I could see he'd never make it as a drummer and turned him down. Writegeist (talk) 16:45, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

• • Dogs are stupid while Cats, on the other hand, are cunning. Starr has convinced Sadie to start sleeping on the outdoor grill instead of her comfortable doggie pillow. ```Buster Seven Talk 13:25, 19 March 2013 (UTC)

Please don't tell Mrs. Writegeist about these sleeping arrangements. Writegeist (talk) 15:36, 20 March 2013 (UTC)

I see you have updated the security system. Nice. Is it a McAfee 2000?. Just dropped by to relate a little story I uncovered as I wandered here and there...

There once was a little boy named Johnny who had a wonderful dog named Laddie. Johnny was prone to emotional outbursts, and his mother was concerned by his overreactions. One day while Johnny was at school, Laddie was killed in an unfortunate accident. The mother took Laddie's body and put it in the backyard. She was very worried how Johnny would react to the news of his dog's death. When Johnny returned from school, his mother said to him, "I'm really sorry, Johnny, but Laddie died in an accident." Johnny responded "Okay" and went upstairs to change his clothers. The mother was quite surprised at the calm reaction. After Johnny put on his play clothes, he went out to the backyard. All of a sudden, the mother heard Johnny screaming. She rushed out to the backyard and saw Johnny prostrate over the dog's body and wailing. The mother said, "But, Johnny, I told you Laddie died." In between sobs, Johnny sputtered, "I thought you said Daddy."

```Buster Seven Talk 08:27, 9 March 2013 (UTC)

Which reminds me of Les Dawson, who said: "In 1846, my great great-uncle, Peregrine Cattermole Dawson, found the secret of eternal life in a disused cobbler's in Rhyl. In 1895, the entire forces of the now despised Eurasian despot Wahong Chang Arkwright caused a minor diplomatic affrontage when they invaded a bring and buy sale in Ormskirk. And in 1914, there occurred a nasty outbreak of sporran rash among the 37th Foot and Mouth Highland Regiment." Dawson, who liked a bottle of whisky and 50 cigarettes a day, died not as one might expect from cirrhosis of the liver or lung cancer but from a heart attack just after a health check for insurance. There were many nice things about him. Not least, he never took himself seriously or stooped to seeking sympathy for his physical infirmities. Writegeist (talk) 19:27, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

Zeitgeist
Thank you for capturing the movement of the Zeitgeist in precise wording, realising that "Wikipedia is a humorous parody of Uncyclopedia and Conservapedia" to be edited "boldly, satirically and immediately", for doing so, for knowing about Fucking and Socks, - you are an awesome Wikipedian!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 09:14, 5 July 2013 (UTC)

• I am glad someone else noticed how truly precious you are. ```Buster Seven Talk 12:49, 5 July 2013 (UTC)

Thank you both for the kind words, which give me a lovely shot of dopamine each time I read them. Also, Gerda, for the marvellous sapphire. I have cut it out of my laptop monitor* and wear it on a silver chain around my neck on special occasions. In fact it was much admired yesterday when I had a pint or three of Old Ferret Royal Reserve Dark Ale with my friends William and Kate in celebration of the arrival of George, their new Shar Pei puppy. *Please be assured I remembered to put duct tape over the hole in the screen to stop the Internet leaking out. Writegeist (talk) 16:45, 26 July 2013 (UTC)

And here is a photo I took of Willie and Kate's little new bundle of joy:

Liz was so smitten by her great grandpuppy that she totally lost interest in the corgis, which have now been donated to a very nice family from Korea.

. . . I regret spurning your advances all those years ago, when you made the tragically mistaken assumption that we were brothers in arms fighting in the same noble cause. (I treasure the note.) I can see you're still troubled. I've thought it over. Let's get a room. What say you? (Please don't email. My wife may see it.)

Hi, when you wrote to the project talk page were you referring to Bentley Speed Six or to another article? Regards, Eddaido (talk) 23:50, 11 August 2013 (UTC)

Hm. I could have sworn that my post to the project talk page was titled "Bentley Speed Six" and wikilinked to the article titled, um, Bentley Speed Six. Writegeist (talk) 03:03, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

. . . by asinine assholery,

"Only a complete imbecile would think that revering spelling errors constitutes edit-warring." — AndyTheGrump

A rather fun example (names etc. redacted, sorry!) of a discussion at an (unnamed) article talk page where User A argues for describing a living person (a journalist as it happens) in the article as 'notorious', which editors B, C, and D oppose (ellipses indicate where I've omitted the more tedious and/or irrelevant bits):

[Stack of 11 diffs.] In short -- "notorious" appears to be super-glued to the name XYZ. — User A

[...]

At this time, 5 editors have responded there [i.e. a noticeboard where User A has pressed the "case" for describing the BLP subject as "notorious", exploiting the same 11 diffs]. All 5 have disagreed with A. — User B

At this time, only one editor ignores the Talk Page guidelines about making personal comments about other editors. And five have stated the sources are reliable (one demurs on a post by what appears to be a pseudonymous author) -- making your snark here rather silly. The disagreement there is whether the word is supported as one to be cited in the middle of a phrase in this article, etc. Not as to the overall reliability of the sources, again - other than one where a post is signed by its author, but apparently pseudonymously. — User A

This is wildly misleading. Some of those sources don't ascribe "notoriety" to the man, some don't ascribe it to his criticism, some don't use the word notoriety. It is a dog's breakfast of sources that don't always directly support the claim you are trying to make. In more than one of the sources, you cite unconfirmed-user internet forum message boards that are not reliable sources for anything. I wasn't "demurring" on a single point or a single source, and I don't see anyone who supported your view in that thread. (And a person who intentionally uses a completely untraceable pseudonym on an internet comment thread is maintaining their anonymity, that shouldn't be a point you waste time arguing about). — User C

[...]

The original wording before I came in on this was "outspoken" which I considered as unsourced, and feel now that "notorious critic" (not just "notorious" with criminal implications) applies. I do doubt whether XYZ's credentials extend to being a valid [article subject] critic, moreover, and this is a long distance from the ideal source of a peer-reviewed journal. — User A

[...]

• Here are Google search results for XYZ and "brilliant": [diff]. And for [the name of another person mentioned in the article] and "notorious": [diff]. It appears that search and you will find. But finding it doesn't make it encyclopedic, nor compliant with BLP. — User B

XYZ and brilliant yields 458 actual results -- almost none of which use the adjective about XYZ at all... [diffs here of sources not applying "brilliant" to XYZ.] I suggest you put quotes around "XYZ" by the way -- it does affect results for the "initial estimate" and again that "initial value" is generally a tad misleading. Cheers. — User A

[...]

• User A asserts "notorious" appears to be super-glued to the name XYZ.[diff] and "notorious critic" applies.[diff]. Google, while not definitive, does at least provide a rough guide. A search for "XYZ" and "notorious critic" returns a total of five hits, of which two appear RS. (Super glue? Really?) For comparison, XYZ's name with "outspoken" returns 5,320; with "journalist", 371,000; "journalist XYZ", 38,800; the name with "critic", 389,000; and the name with "[publication name] contributing editor", 25,900. (I think I've got the numbers right; correct me if I'm wrong.) User D [Adding] Yikes, spectacular mismatch of "journalist" and "371,000", hilarious and accidental, no idea where that came from; striking. — User D

Add "notorious [specific subject] critic" 95, and so on. Paging through the "journalist" and "XYZ" results gets all of 354 results (Google is "notorious" for overstating number of hits, by the way). So it is correct to affirm the 371,000 hits you thought you found were wrong (my search had Google say only 47,300 hits) -- but when only 354 results get shown, then that is the actual figure one should use. "Notorious" and "XYZ" gets 425 solid results. Next time you cite Google hits, page through the results to confirm at least 1,000 are "real." "Critic" and "XYZ" gets 385 actual results. Cheers. — User A

The accuracy of a calculation (specifically a simple addition) you posted elsewhere was questioned by a user who seemed to me to have a better grasp of addition, so while I thank you for your musings I hope you don't mind my glossing over your figures in this instance. Your clarity about the precise form of the content you want to insert is helpful: you are pressing for "notorious critic" (you wrote "notorious critic" applies) So do you want that as, say, "XYZ, a notorious critic" (search returns one hit,* unfortunately not RS)? Or perhaps "notorious critic XYZ" (two hits,* neither of them RS)? *I note your comment that Google is notorious for overstating the number of hits. — User D

It would be nice if you noted what I wrote, consider what I wrote and then accurately deal with what I wrote. The word "notorious" is frequently found directly referring to XYZ, and the counts given of "371,000 hits" or the like are technically and factually errant. And if you will note precisely what the section title is [section title] I think your snark is all-too-clear. — User A [Note absence of cheery "Cheers" cheerio from this one]

At which point User D withdrew from the discussion instead of posting this response:

I have done so. It would be nice if you noted what others wrote, considered what they wrote, and then accurately dealt with what they wrote. The wording you have explicitly demanded is "notorious critic": The original wording before I came in on this was "outspoken" which I considered as unsourced, and feel now that "notorious critic" (not just "notorious" with criminal implications) applies. [link]. I have offered you two constructions to frame notorious critic, the precise contentious description you say you desire. One returns two Google hits, neither of them a reliable source. The other returns one hit, which is also non-RS. Specious sources you cite for notorious have already been dealt with at one of the other forums where you've tried and failed to gain support.[link] You demanded notorious and it failed. You demanded notorious critic and it failed. Now you are apparently campaigning again for notorious Oh well. When vexatious, battlesome, IDHTish comments move the goalposts in circles at least the goal stays somewhere on the pitch instead of disappearing into the next county. We must be grateful for small mercies. — User D

Always take a parachute.

	The Pornstar of Diplomacy
	Thank you for your cool head, which should always prevail in WP. Cwobeel (talk) 18:28, 17 April 2014 (UTC)

	The Random Acts of Kindness Pornstar
	for helping a newbie (me) out with this site. The K (talk) 03:50, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

		The Pornstar of Good Humor
		Refined humor is hard to come by. Thank you, – Lionel (talk) 23:05, 8 July 2012 (UTC)

Of course I've amassed tons of these, going back to the days when Wikipedia was powered by the more gerbiloid of its two co-founders walking in circles with a donkey harnessed to a horizontal wheel driving a crank. (Legend has it the wheel was salvaged from a junkyard dog cart.) But I value modesty and abhor boastfulness. And if I displayed them all here they wouldn't leave room for my peerless insights. I'm hugely proud of the three above. That I'm also deeply grateful to the thousands of other donors surely goes without saying, so I won't.

• ANI Acute Nerve Injury
• BLP Bombay Leprosy Project
• OR Overload Relay
• AGF American Gas Foundation
• GNG Growing Neural Gas
• MOS Madonna of the Streets
• NPA Nut Processors Association
• COI Church of Ireland
• COIN: Composite Organic-Inorganic Nanoparticle (“COINs have narrow peak spectra and therefore are more useful for multiple tag use”)
• GGTF German Golf Teachers Federation (very strict rules re. the balls)
• ARBCOM Attention: Random Bursts of Clueless Operating Mode

. . . for your interest in my user page. You may find this useful: WP:EIW. Or not.

<sup>†</sup> "Hoes these days!" — Gardener’s lament, overheard by George Borrow in a Welsh blacksmith’s forge, and recalled in his travel book Wild Wales: its people, language, and scenery (London, J. Murray, 1862).