Hello mav, this short message to let you know that I have finished the images of the periodic table for the periode 5-6 and the actinides. It's on the french wikipedia, and I m too lazy to copy those file here. [[User:Greatpatton|Greatpatton]] 07:22, 13 Sep 2003 (UTC)
Hello mav, this short message to let you know that I have finished the images of the periodic table for the periode 5-6 and the actinides. It's on the french wikipedia, and I m too lazy to copy those file here. [[User:Greatpatton|Greatpatton]] 07:22, 13 Sep 2003 (UTC)
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Hi mav,
I have been looking around for discussion or briefing of what the anticipated structure of the WikiMedia foundation consists of a how its relationship to the Wikipedia Community is defined/refined. I have not located anything in any useful detail. Are you aware of any discussions beginning or which took place in the past beyond .... We are setting up a nonprofit. We can take donations.
If you've been frequenting the RecentChanges page, you might already expect that I am a Wikipediholic -- yep, I admit it (score = 82). Problem now is, sleeping has switched from a full (i.e. normal) to part time occupation.... oh well - you only live once, there's plenty of time to rest later...
Let me simplify this whole dispute. If my sysop status is revoked that will be tantamount to banning. I promise that I will not continue editing in disgrace. If you people would rather deal with Nostrum than someone of my qualifications, it's the community's loss. I'll just devote this time to efforts that would be far more constructive and appreciated. I tend to edit and write articles while doing other work. This just spares me from a wrenching distraction. 172 05:36, 15 Aug 2003 (UTC)
Along with power comes responsibility. I feared that you could not handle that responsibility correctly and time and again you have been in the gray area (if not crossing a couple lines along the way). It simply isn't good for Wikipedia to have an Admin that is in the gray area so often. I was, and still am, at a loss on why you wanted to be an Admin so badly to begin with. Sigh... I do hope you continue to contribute to our history section; you do create great copy (even though we often disagree on how to organize the resulting text). I very much respect you and your academic ability and I do wish you best no matter what you decision is. --mav
Aside from the comment on MBs page, which was solely and appropriately retaliatory and reciprocated by his actions, where's your evidence of me going into the "gray area?" It sounds like total, unsubstantiated suspicions. It also sounds like you read a bunch of one-sided wining complaints about me not being nice enough to that poor newbie vandal without even analyzing this situation objectively. I expected much more out of you.
BTW, user Zog, that hard-banned racist vandal, just made a comeback as User:ZOG. I caught him right away and banned him after he exposed his IP. He hasn't come back, so I'm getting reassured that it isn't one of those shifting AOL IPs. Crisis averted. He's not going to fill up ban pages, vandalism in progress pages, and the mailing list again with complaints because I just acted quickly. You and others should appreciate that I chose to avert vandalism rather than encourage vandals.
However, in the spirit of unsubstantiated suspicions, with which I've been thoroughly victimized, I think that MB might have some sort of strange affinity with Nostrum's POV, prompting him to attack me for articulating the case for his ban. It's also possible that he's getting back at me for criticizing him for the way he dealt with Paektu, another vandal. Nostrum and MB just drummed up all these charges and other users are repeating them. What exactly did I do other than propose Nostrum's banning, which so far has been supported by more users than those who oppose it? Nostrum and MB are attacking me personally, and it seems like there's now an avalanche of criticism by users who haven't worked with me much and aren't really aware of the Nostrum controversy. 172 07:40, 15 Aug 2003 (UTC)
BTW, I just found this comment. Think about the powers of your words: "I am quite surprised by what I am reading here. 172's edits that I have seen have always been good. If some people I trust, like mav, think the decision to demote 172 is appropriate, then I will accept it. Otherwise, I would like to keep the case open for a while. olivier 07:37, 15 Aug 2003 (UTC)" See, when one user personally attacks another it creates a domino effect or an avalanche. I have done nothing wrong, but it looks like I'm going to have to go. I'm frankly sick of a place where personal attacks by someone who comments on Pat Robertson’s penis size in articles overshadow the credibility of months of substantial contributions. This is just a chaotic rumor mill. 172 07:48, 15 Aug 2003 (UTC)
You are constantly in the middle of one edit war or another and have used your sysop powers too autorevert people you are having an edit war with (this only should be used for clear cases of vandalism). Others have mentioned shady protection use by you. So the biggest issue is that you are in edit wars so often; that in itself combined with the fact that you are an Admin has the appearance of impropriety (which you occasionally feed by going into the gray area). I'm also well aware of the force of my opinion, so I have not expressed it fully on the de-admin section. I'll try to put down the fire a bit though. --mav
Incorrect. Charges of my abuse of sysop powers have only come from conflicts pertaining to Nostrum (on Catholicism) and Lir/Pizza Puzzle (on New Imperialism). And am I the only user involved in edit wars? You and JT come to mind as just as often involved in edit wars as I am. I can't help it that these two trolls are targeting me for some reason. Why are the vandals right and why is the user acting in good faith to stop their games wrong? 172 08:12, 15 Aug 2003 (UTC)
Hm. Let's see. Without looking I remember Martin and Graculus were also involved on the side opposite you in the last NI edit war. So let's not try to paint the "all trolls against you" picture. And the issue with the Catholicism article was not if you were right or wrong, but how you conducted yourself (re-protecting the page was not cool). And when was I in an edit war over an article last? --mav
Didn't Graculus and I complete the article? Once PP was out of the picture our correspondence was very cordial. We are now on very good terms. And BTW, I don't appreciate your charges that I had a strange desire for sysop powers. Administrator's status is often awarded to users who have far less seniority than I had when I was awarded them and often to users who are far lower on the list of most active Wikipedians. I'm on this site often, meaning that I'm capable of spotting problems often and responding to them, as I did tonight with Zog. 172 08:36, 15 Aug 2003 (UTC)
In the middle of a HUGE debate on whether or not you should be an Admin you asked two developers on their talk pages to promote you and then you privately pleaded with Jimbo. It was only a fluke that Jimbo read your email before he read mine and Axel's - otherwise you would have never have been promoted in the first place. --mav
Axel? When have I ever worked with him? Moreover, it sounds like your getting a little arrogant with your own influence. You are not a developer and your status is equal to all the other 100 or so admins. My months of activity, the number of my contributions, and my qualifications put me in the top tier of administrators. I have no guilt over the fact that your unsubstantiated suspicions weren't considered. And BTW, I had the strong backing of other contributors who actually spend more time on fields of articles with which I work. 172 08:48, 15 Aug 2003 (UTC)
That's funny. Jimbo said exactly the opposite, and you said yourself that my mere opinion about you was disproportionately hurtful since I am so highly respected. You also pointed out a statement by another user that supported your de-sysoping just because I indicated approval for such an action. And Axel reads Recent Changes too and can easily see all the trouble you cause. The last thing you should be doing at this point is burning bridges. You should note that I haven't fully endorsed your desyoping; yet. --mav
Pietro Carnesecci appears to be a mis-spelling - Google has no hits for that name, and tons for Pietro Carnesecchi. I didn't move or touch the page (other than to fix a mistake in the identiy of Pope Clement), because I am very touchy about renaming anything now. The only wrong spelling in the page itself is the one at the very start. I'm mentioning this to you because you're the only person who's worked on the page; I'd suggest moving it, fixing the pointed on the Carnesecchi, and then deleting the Pietro Carnesecci forward. Noel 21:12, 15 Aug 2003 (UTC)
You didn't answer my question, Mav! Is it because it showed the inconsistency in your stance? FearÉIREANN 00:32, 16 Aug 2003 (UTC)
Look in the latest archive. Your attitude is not appropriate. --mav
I'm sorry if what I wrote above sounded accusatory. I hope you know I do still respect you enormously, even if I think your judgment call in this case was wrong. wikilove and wikipeace, FearÉIREANN 03:07, 16 Aug 2003 (UTC)
Wikilove and peace to all. :) --mav
Yeah man, The Panama City and Asuncion were listed in the August 15 Anniversary page, so I thought it'd be acceptable. I'll have to update those articles.Poor Yorick 01:10, 16 Aug 2003 (UTC)
Hey Mav, I have big news: I turns out that MB, who has been leading the attempts to revoke my sysop status, has been a personal friend of Nostrum all along. Weeks ago, I was invited to protect Catholicism from an ongoing edit war and POV vandalism. Uninvolved in the editing of the article and having received an invitation, I acted in good faith to protect the page; yet, my reputation hasn't recovered since. Now it seems that the coordinated attacks on my 'abusiveness,' promulgated by MB and Nostrum, and rehashed by other concerned users, was bogus all along. Allegations can be self-perpetuating, you know. You hear allegations and that clouds the thinking of even the far-minded.
The most serious charges against me have been the protection of the Catholicism article from Nostrum and my attempts yesterday to urge a ban on Nostrum. But my reactions to Nostrum were no different from past reactions to other users guily of adding absurd POV rants, such as Zog months ago and JoeM days ago. JoeM, for instance, was subject to auto-revert with less of a hearing than Nostrum ever got. I think that MB owes me an apology and the controversy over my sysop status needs to be seriously reconsidered in light of the revelations of this severe conflict of interests. I don't think that months of substantial contributions by a professional academic should be overshadowed by a kid who was protecting his vandal buddy all along. 172 01:11, 16 Aug 2003 (UTC)
Sigh. "kid who was protecting his vandal buddy all along" You have learned nothing and continue to burn bridges. --mav
So what? I'm telling it like it is. This is 100% true. 172 02:21, 16 Aug 2003 (UTC)
BTW, I see that you're telling another user above that his attitude is inappropriate. By and large, you are a fair-mined contributor, but you'd be even easier to work with if you toned down your holier than thou righteousness. You are not omnipotent and subject to the limitations of your knowledge and perspective just like everyone else. You accused me of some awful things privately in confidence. I have forgiven the charges, but you, just like everyone else, are too capable of coming to the wrong conclusions. We all are since we are all inherently constricted by a limited amount of information. 172 02:30, 16 Aug 2003 (UTC)
It would be real nice if you took your own advice and not automatically assume newbies making bad edits are vandals and subject to immediate banning. They are simply not aware of our policies of NPOV and quality, if you would give then a chance to learn our ways then maybe you will find out that they are not vandals after all - just ill-informed newbies. No wonder you think vandals and trolls surround you. --mav
I agree. But I also agree that you should try not to come to conclusions until you have all the facts. I did not call for Nostrum's banning before his reappearance, although if you take a look at the Catholicism talk page and the Catholicism page history, you could see that the case could've been made then. I called for the banning after his return, after he defaced the Holocaust article and vandalized Pat Robertson. Then, I established the User talk:Nostrum/ban page. So far, more users agree with a banning than disagree. And the creation of these user ban pages was not unprecedented; it's a tactic I learned from the successful responses to vandalism by users such as Zog and Paektu. I wasn't heavy-handed, but just outspoken, and thus an easy target for vilification.
Why couldn't MB do the honorable thing of disclosing at the time of the Catholicism edit war, with which I wasn't involved (I was merely invited to protect the page), his relationship with Nostrum? Perhaps had MB vouched for him at the time then we would've given Nostrum the benefit of the doubt, which was not unlikely after a wave of trouble-making involving Michael, Adam identities, Zog, DW, and others. Why couldn't MB e-mail other users and me, reassuring us that Nostrum's intentions are good, and privately urge me to instruct him? You are a mature person and you resolved a heated dispute with me by e-mail, not by crusading on page after page. Don't you think that his action to wage a campaign to have my sysop status revoked on behalf of his friend was inappropriate? He handled this situation wrong. 172 04:02, 16 Aug 2003 (UTC)
IMO, you all three handled it wrong to varying degrees. But you are the old timer and also an Admin, so you should have handled the situation better. --mav
re US, yes, unless it's obvious (like all the delta blues singers). Jim
Thank you! :) Although only one is mine (I'm planning on replacing that one with a 100 ° panorama made of 3 different photos). --mav
Mav:
Do you want to know why I'm frequently involved in edit wars? It's because I've been working on history articles and articles dealing with contemporary politics. That's it. These are inherently contentious fields. Anyone trying to maintain proper encyclopedic standards will be dealing with partisans. That's why JT and I stand out as users frequently involved in edit wars. According to your profile, your fields of expertise are biological sciences and geological sciences. Had I been capable of contributing to these articles, which I am not, I would fade into the background and my reputation would fit my actual personal characteristics. I'm actually quite mild-mannered and quite polite. In the real world I'm not regarded as a "bull."
JT has been involved in edit wars too. And if you took the charges against him seriously you would regard him as an apologist for the Roman Catholic Church, a Communist historical revisionist, an anti-Semite, a hardline Likid partisan, a Brit-loving Irish-hating Tory, an ultra-nationalistic IRA sympathizer, a staunch Australian Republican, and a monarchist. I am merely one of the most active contributors who solely focus on history, contemporary politics, and social sciences. Please, take into consideration the plight of contributors who deal with contentious subjects. From time to time we're going to run into grotesque violations of POV, factually inaccurate rants, and uncompromising partisans.
In fact, Tannin was one of the best contributors to the history articles until he started focusing on completely different topics when he realized how bitter and contentious the disputes with ranting partisans could get. Please, quit castigating me as someone looking for trouble. A historian is going to get trouble whether he likes it or not around here. 172 16:26, 16 Aug 2003 (UTC)
Let me add a world about your influence. It doesn't rest on your infallible judgment and omnipotence. It rests on the fact that you were often the first major contributor with whom many of us started working. Although after nine months I have a good deal of seniority, you are practically ancient, having started when Wikipedia was practically an unsettled frontier. You are the second most active contributor. When you're online, you usually stand out as having the most edits on the recent changes page. You are practically an institution around here. You're also not usually involved with writing major controversial articles, but adding factoids and copyediting here and there. So it's easy for you to act as the guardian of Wiki-love and as a neutral arbitrator. In contrast, my focus is extremely limited compared to yours, and thus I have worked with far less people.
I'd appreciate if you could take your trusted, good-intentioned, but not necessarily infallible, judgment to the debate over my sysop status and put that circus to rest. Let me go back to being productive like I was before MB and Nosturm decided to wage this campaign against my administratorship. With all this time I could have written a major article, such as New Deal or the History of Brazil series. But instead, I have to respond to ancient charges that have already been resolved months ago. For crying out loud I'm responding to charges stemming from my role in the Communist state dispute between JT and Fred Bauder, in which my role was actually secondary! Let's get that 172 adminship page fast-tracked for the VFD too.
Perhaps I was one of the many contributors who were wrong to conclude that Nostrum was here to deliberately be malicious. You have to admit, however, that MB treated me very unfairly by not privately reassuring me about Nostrum's intentions and not disclosing his relationship with Nosturm. However, I am willing to forgive this. But I'd like him to admit that he treated me very unfairly but choosing to campaign against me for days, going from page to page, user to user, and digging up one old charge after another. His over-arching goal was to defend a friend and he chose a wrong way of doing it. Someone who has never worked with me, and never really shown an interest in my articles, has probably irreparably damaged my ability to collaborate with others. 172 17:01, 16 Aug 2003 (UTC)
Well I have to admit I try to stay away from contentious topics unless I'm asked to intervene. That's why I stay away from topics I otherwise have a lot to contribute to, such as; evolution, global warming, abortion, gay rights and homosexuality-related issues. I also tend to stay away from these topics because I know that I have a hard time being neutral on these topics (especially the gay-related topics). But even though you do tend to stay within topics that are more controversial, you should still try to tone it down a bit, not revert so quickly, ask questions on talk pages before making drastic changes, and try, really hard not to create articles above 28 KB (this makes the articles difficult to edit and absorb by others and IMO is a major contributing factor to many of your edit wars). --mav
When RK comes back I want to nominate him for sysop (again) I dont ask for much, but I ask that you support his nomination. Sincerely-戴眩sv 23:06, Aug 16, 2003 (UTC)
Sorry, but I can't support RK's nomination as Admin. He has very consistently demonstrated an extreme hostility against newbies who show even a slight bias he does not agree with. He is, however, a great, if sometimes troublesome, contributor. --mav
Trust me. Consider that responsibility brings its own rewards.
Gotta run -- campaigning. -戴眩sv 23:18, Aug 16, 2003 (UTC)
Campaigning? It looks more like trolling. --mav
Sorry for missing that guideline. I read it before it was updated mid-July. However, I don't understand why it needs to have a notice as well? This makes a lot more work. You need to list it, add the note, then remove the note if it is not to be deleted as oppsosed to simply listing it. Surely whoever is removing it from VfD should delete it there and then, which means there is no need for a note. Angela
The note is to inform the person who created the article that their work is being considered for deletion. --mav
When did this become a rule, and where was it discussed? RickK 01:15, 17 Aug 2003 (UTC)
See your talk page. --mav
Thanks Mav:
Although, you may delete all the images that I uploaded at the beginning. I don't mind; I've discontinued uploading because of all the hindrances. I've focused on just researching and writing for the timeline of video games and other articles.
As for the name election, I've discontinued with that too. Although the proposal is ethically just, Angela is also correct in that the organization currently just does not have the software and technical support to ensure that an election and vote by all Users are done properly (since they can cast multiple votes per multiple User names or IP addresses). Also understanding that this is a non-profit organization, the site has a much more prioritized agenda to do with the allocated funding than to pursue this topic further. Perhaps in future it may become viable. Although if the administrators are interested in how creative the community can be, there can be just a name competition, with only the administrators as judges.
I am concerned on how the Logo election is going to be handled since the same issues are present in this as well (all Users are able to cast multiple votes, as mentioned above).
Continue to make this website better, you guys rock.
Thanks for the reminder about VfD notification re Guts. I appreciate your being diligent in spotting apparent errors. Here, the story is a bit different. I actually did include the VfD notice (in the correct wording, no less). Shortly afterwards, the article I had VfD'd was renamed Guts (anime)
and a new article - with no history - was created with the previously used name Guts. Perhaps you could suggest to User:ZeWrestler a better way to handle this sort of aituation. Aug 17 User:NuclearWinner
I've made a few changes to Wikipedia:Copyrights in anticipation of updating our copyright notice on the bottom of the page. I purpose that the new notice read "All text is available under the terms of the GFDL. See Wikipedia:Copyrights for details." Right now the link at the bottom links to a page which redirects to Wikipedia:Copyrights, but being that the GFDL is intimidating to most to read, people are less likely to click on the current link and read the terms of copying.
I would like some feedback before purposing this on the mailing lists. Thanks. (Please post replies to my talk page) MB 18:02, Aug 8, 2003 (UTC)
I think it is a good idea. -- mav
Thanks Mav. You're right, it does make it look amateurish. I guess I just wanted an immediate response. I just thought that overstating the truth in the holocaust article would have been just as damaging as being in denial of the holocaust. I was just in a hurry to fix the problem. But thank you for being candid, and I will no longer write those types of comments but in the talk pages. Nostrum 08:18, 14 Aug 2003 (UTC)
Hey, we all make mistakes; esp when we are new. More on your talk page. --mav
Still plugging away at it, are you? Koyaanis Qatsi 23:27, 17 Aug 2003 (UTC)
I can't get enough! Sleeping is such a waste of time! :) --mav
Mav, we already had an article on Gold Standard. That's why the page was redirected. 172 05:37, 18 Aug 2003 (UTC)
I'm in the middle of something right now. I'll take a look after work in about 15 hours. --mav
In case you didn't spot it, Billbell has made a comment on the Village pump which appears to be regarding the changes you made to various date pages. Angela 13:22, 18 Aug 2003 (UTC)
Thanks for pointing me to that. --mav
Hi Mav
I've been looking for statistics and possibly graphs about the rise of Wikipedia. I thought I'd seen some earlier. Could they be put in the FAQs for example - perhaps start up a new Development FAQ? Not sure if it's appropriate, but there could also be info about Wiktionary - my guess is that that's going much slower. When I last checked there seemed to be around 130,000 articles. A few other obvious questions include:
What wiki software runs Wikipedia?
Is the Wikipedia wiki software available?
How many active Wikipedians are there?
Are there any plans for future improvements? (e.g to allow multiple servers, to enable WYSIWYG editing, enable automatic spell checking of articles, whatever .... )
I'm currently looking at Open Source systems, and Wikipedia must still be one of the largest in terms of info. It'd be interesting to see the facts and figures as it goes.
Enough to be going on with I think.
-- David Martland 13:25, 18 Aug 2003 (UTC)
Yes. It is licenced under the GNU GPL (note this is different than the GNU FDL that Wikipedia is under). See above link to download the software.
Current estimate for the end of August is 2425; 1262 of these from the English Wikipedia. See [1] and the Wikipedia Statistics - Sitemap
Yes on all counts except auto spell checking. But a spell checker may be included in a future WYSIWYG/off-line editor. But that is longer term. Shorter term we will be balancing load over several servers and setting up ways to have near-real time mirrors in several different parts of the world. We are also going to add WikiBook and annotation features for the Wikibooks project (this won't be enabled for the other Wikimedia projects).
Hope this helps and sorry for the late reply. --mav
Hello again Mav, my friend (if i can call you friend :-s). I don't suppose you have any suggestions for: Wikipedia:WikiProject Clouds (or any pictures). -fonzy
You may call me your friend, but I unfortunately do not have time to check out your new WikiProject (barely have time to eat and sleep right now) . :( --mav
OK :-).
I'm sure this will cause you to roll on the ground giggling: check out Talk:Sharaku. Noel 04:36, 20 Aug 2003 (UTC)
Thanks for the support
Hi Mav,
It was already some weeks ago, but i nevertheless wanted to thank you for the support in my application for Adminship. I will try to do my best to make the people know that Admins are here to help. If you ever see me doing someting, that you think, an Admin should not do, let me know immediately. I look forward to a long time of good collaboration (for humankind ;-)
Thank you very much, Fantasy 08:30, 20 Aug 2003 (UTC)
PS: Hope to see you back soon with "full power" ;-)
No problem on the nomination - I call things as I see them. Hopefully I'll be back first week of September. Lots of work till then. --mav
Nupedia articles-in-progress licensing status?
Hi Mav,
I asked a question on the Wikipedia talk:Nupedia_and_Wikipedia about whether articles-in-progress on Nupedia qualify under the GFDL, or are they like the Nupedia "Chalkboard". I also asked at the Wikipedia:Village pump but I got no response (the question has since been moved to the Village pump archives). Some of these articles have been languishing since 2001 and it would be nice if it were possible to use some of them as a basis for articles (or at least good stubs) right now. I searched the Nupedia website, mailing lists, history etc. and there appears no mention whatsoever of the copyright or licensing status of the articles-in-progress on Nupedia. I was hoping that you might have some insight. Thanks. -- Lexor 02:21, 26 Aug 2003 (UTC)
Hm. I don't know, but I'll ask somebody who does and then get back to you. --mav
Thanks. So, no news is good news? Or maybe not. ;-) --Lexor 10:37, 1 Sep 2003 (UTC)
I think Project Sourceburg should still be set up, and on it we can place lots of pointless data, documents etc. Documents like constituions which can be linked form Wikipedia. Data like weather data for the past 100 years (or something) this will nto be useful to the average man, but for someoen doing reserach on weather paterns it will be. It just needs more man power and for people to go get the data and put it in, the licenseing will probably be different. I know your busy at the moment so don;t expect a reply yet but what do you think of trying to get it up and running as at teh moment its quite dormant. - fonzy
that was quite funny to see you removing the software patent link from the main page for not being relevant. On the french wiki, the debate is raging because some want to put a big banner『Wikipédia supports free software』across the main page (I am hardly joking) or even replace the main page with a huge free-software supporting message. Curious he ? Anthère
Relevance wasn't the issue; the article was not updated nor listed in current events. --mav
It really pisses me off Jessica Lynch is considered to be more important than software patents. -- 212.127.214.105 10:37, 29 Aug 2003 (UTC)
How is that relevant to this thread? The software patents article was not updated and it was not listed on current events. Until those two conditions are met, it will not be listed on the Main Page. So instead of whining why don't you do the updates that are necessary to link the article from the Main Page? --mav
We have quite few. In cars more and more often, but not in appartments or houses. The climate is temperate enough that we would need air conditionners only a couple of days a year. In truth, it was damn hot, but bearable to someone in good health. I have been living in AZ; over there, that is necessary. Not in France.
What happen is that old people loose the capability to realise they are losing their fluids too quickly. They don't drink enough, because they don't feel thirsty and after a few days, excretion is impaired, wastes accumulate, and body metabolism works bad, and have trouble to evacuate the heat. Solution is to drink more of course, and wet yourself to lower temperature. That is what we moms do with the kids over 40. But it seems that what is obvious to a mom toward her child is no more obvious to an old man or woman, and not even obvious to the adult children taking care of elders.
About a week after it got pretty hot, many old and diseased started feeling wrong (my father in law did so, we fed him only soups and yogurts for a few days), and then real bad. There were some incredible cases of people calling the medics for their old parents, and the doctors finding an old person just over 40°C and nothing special had been done to lower the heat at all and to rehydrate them.
In retirement houses, there were less workers than usual, because it is holiday times, so not enough people trying to make them drink, keep quiet inside, close all windows, curtains and such and wait for the evening to move again. And not enough to give them bath to cool down the body.
So, when all these people got real sick about 1 week after it started, they all got to the hospital at the same time, and then, it was sometimes too late or there was perhaps not enough people to assume the work to save them. There were not enough time and place to bury them. Too numerous.
On top of this, because of the heat, many cities had awfully high ozon pollution levels, which didnot help. My son being a heavy asthma sufferer was challenged. In some cities, strong speed limits were set, sometimes people respected them. Others didnot give a damn.
Add the numerous fires (hence smoke), some of them just around cities, most due to human stupidity (lighted on purpose).
Add the very unusually dry spring and summer on top of it, with many animals dying, no right to use water for anything else than home stuff in many department (hence, most gardens were yellow and dry, instead of perphaps providing a welcome shade)
Did I also mentionned that we nearly stopped our nuclear facilities providing the necessary electricity to make the air conditionner work because of the water level too low in rivers to properly lower the plant reactor temperature, and that many fishes died from the high water temperature in particular since the plants were exceptionally allowed to release water at higher temperature than usual ?
It is kinda easy to accuse the governement. Yes, it should have reacted sooner when the first unusual deaths occured.
But, in truth, this is just the result of the fact we don't know how to listen to our bodies and to react intelligently to the outside conditions. We wait for the government to tell us "be careful, it is hot outside, here is what you should do, and not do" instead of taking proper decisions by ourselves. And yes, some rely on technology to solve the issue.
If it's hot, stay inside. Don't move, keep quiet, close the window, drink a lot, take showers or sink in a lake, don't forget the babies, the kids, the sick, the elders. They can't take care of them themselves ? help them. Think of just helping. Just wait.
That is just what happened. Curious he ?. That made 11500 people died. Probably one being my husband god mother, over 90, in a retirement home in Paris.
I'll have a technical question about press releases btw, but I'll write privately :-)
Thanks for the long reply. The whole thing is tragic and I now understand. --mav
Hi Mav. I don't have access to email, so I'm not up to date on the discussioon about wikibooks. But I've had an idea. Does wikibooks aim to produce discrete textbooks, or textbook-type articles? If the former, do we have one wiki per book, or many books in the single english wiki? If one wiki holds several "books", why not have have books in diffferent languages coexisting? We can split them apart later, or we could look into ways of making the user interface language a user-set option. Just a thought -- it would certainly solve the current problem :) -- Tarquin 20:26, 30 Aug 2003 (UTC)
We have over 20 textbooks right now in Wikibooks. These books are or aim to be full-brown e-books, not articles. Mixing English with other languages is a mistake in an actual project. This does not need further explanation since the goal of a project is to create content while the goal of meta, for example, to to bind the Wikimedia community together. Having different languages all in one wiki does not serve the goal of creating content since it creates a confusing mess in RC and in the database itself. Why not do the same thing for all the Wikipedias? --mav
well you already have several distinct projects in a single wiki. I was just trying to think of ways to make the non-english speakers feel more included. -- Tarquin 20:55, 30 Aug 2003 (UTC)
What? Where do we have more than one Wikimedia project in a single wiki? Wikipedia is a project that has many different language versions. Wikibooks aims to be the same thing, but there are currently technical problems that complicate this right now. Wiktionary is in far better shape for internationalization and yet they aren't internationalized yet. --mav
I meant that you have 20 separate books. Why not have a 21st in french, for example? -- Tarquin 22:33, 30 Aug 2003 (UTC)
I've already explained this on the mailing list. But two words; technical problems. --mav
Can you answer my questions/comments on Talk:Main Page regarding the listing of births and deaths? If we're going to list each event once a year, what's stopping us from listing someone's birth once a year? --Jiang 05:07, 31 Aug 2003 (UTC)
Thank you for your support
Mav, just wanted to thank you for supporting my nomination for sysop. Hope to collaborate on Wikipedia for a long time. Thanks again. Alex756
And a "me too" from me too. Noel 21:32, 2 Sep 2003 (UTC)
Thanks, Mav. ;) There are some horrible little stubs still around here and there, but bit by bit. Next stop: family accounts for all the birds (Jim is not too far off achieving that now), then the mammals after that. With 9000-odd bird species and almost 5000 mammals, I don't think we will get the species accounts complete for quite a while yet!
Hopefully I'll be able to help in a year or two after I'm done with my other projects! --mav
Mav: I just was poking around User:Maveric149/Images - Yosemite National Park. I really like Media:Yosemite Valley from Inspiration Point in Yosemite NP-300px.JPG and I would like to use it as the main photo in Yosemite National Park. The problem (as I see it) is that your photo has about 1/2 the number of pixels as the current photo, so it will make the article seem less nifty. Would it be possible to generate a version at 424x281, to keep the same number of pixels? (It would then probably have to not float right, though). You have the original, so it's probably best if you do it. (If you don't want to go to the bother, I can do it from the larger version, if I have your permission). What do you think? -- hike395 05:01, 4 Sep 2003 (UTC)
I'm starting to poke around .gov sites, looking for neat Yosemite photos. We can use [2] for a similar shot, or perhaps [3]. What do you think? -- hike395
Sorry, I've been gone for a couple of days. The larger version of the Inspiration Point photo is the largest I have, unfortunately. I took that photo before I bought a digital camera and made the mistake of getting cheap digital processing. However, I don't think a valley shot would be best for the main photo in Yosemite National Park since a valley shot is already in Yosemite Valley. Since the logo of the park is Half Dome, then Image:Half Dome from North Dome-300px.jpg would be better, IMO. [4] would also work but it is a bit small and dark. I'm also going to be going back to Yosemite from the 25th-28th this month, so I'll be taking new photos with my digital camera. It is a guided field study so I won't have too much say on what I see, but if there is anything in particular you want a photo of, then just say so and I'll try to get it. Hm. A photo of Half Dome from Rainbow Bridge would be nice (I tried to get one on my last trip but the mosquitoes were so thick that they prevented me from taking too much time setting-up my camera - it was also overcast that day). --mav
Just a little kibitz - since the park is a human creation unlike the valley itself, it helps drive home the point to have some building/construct in a picture for the park article. Ahwahnee Hotel with Royal Arches behind is a classic image of that type for instance. HD in the background would be even better, but I think the trees are now too thick to make that angle work anymore. Stan 23:08, 4 Sep 2003 (UTC)
Hey, that's a good idea. I think we will be visiting the Ahwahnee Hotel too in this trip (although I don't recall being able to see the Royal Arches from the hotel the last time I visited it). --mav
The Ahwahnee is in the Valley, so that falls under your objection about Valley shots. Half Dome is nice. I didn't suggest your shot, because it was taken about noon, and the north face of HD is completely in shadow.. Evening is the best time for HD. I have plenty of old prints of HD, but I would have to go find a scanner. If you happen to go to Olmstead point on CA 120, there is a certain tree growing out of the granite near the parking lot, which frames HD looking from the East. The best place for photos is the top of Mount Dana, the top of Clouds Rest, or the top of Mount Hoffman. Sadly, all I have for those are analog shots. I bet your field trips would not just happen to go to any of those places :-). Have fun! -- hike395
Simply being in the valley isn't a reason to exclude; a better reason is that a nice valley shot from Tunnel View is already included in the valley article (and Inspiration Point is simply a thousand or so feet above Tunnel View which means the shots are pretty similar). I'm also going on field studies to the east Sierra, Lava Beds, Lassen and the Mendocino Triple Point area this year. A scanner (preferably a negative scanner) would be a great investment for you and Wikipedia. ;-) --mav
OK --- we can do the Ahwahnee. I just don't remember what it looks like. It sounds like you are doing a volcanic field trip. Oh boy! Lots of good stuff in the Mono-Inyo Craters and the Mammoth Mountain area. I'll see what I can do about a scanner. -- hike395
Here is a photo: [5]. I don't know if I'll be visiting the craters or Mammoth but I have in the past and have several photos that I haven't had time to process yet (need to stitch together the the crater photos, for example). --mav
You know, if you showed me this photo, I wouldn't immediately think "Yosemite". Also, is it PD? -- hike395
Just a photo to show what the hotel looks like. It would take some artistic positioning on my part to make sure it gets the Yosemite stamp. Not PD. --mav
Hey, I just found a good photo, too: [6]. What do you think? It's a nifty photo of Half Dome. -- hike395
Very nice! It has the Merced in the photo too. Yes that would be a great photo to have in the YNP article. --mav
Opps. I thought you were talking about this photo. --mav
My bad --- copied the wrong URL. We can used Full.00005 if you like. I'll try to color balance it --- Half Dome is kind of washed out. --hike395
I just cannot make HD stand out from the background. It looks kind of bad when you shrink it. I'll keep looking for HD photos -- hike395
Too bad. I guess I'll have to wade into the frigid waters of the Merced to take the shot. --mav
So, you don't like [7]? We could crop out the skier. -- hike395
It works - I just really like the Merced/HD photo (even if it isn't best for the main YNP image). --mav
I'm just playing with it in a photo editor. The clouds make it too gloomy. And, if I try to brighten it up, the clouds then look alien. (Sorry I'm being so picky). I think either you'll have to get a nice photo in a few weeks, or I'll have to find a scanner. Thanks for your help!! -- hike395
Hi Mav. When do you think the 300000 will be reached ? I suppose you will send yourself the press release. When do you plan to send it ? Anthère
2-3 weeks from now given our current growth rate. But we can wait until the logo contest is done if that takes longer. --mav
oh, I had understood in one of your email to the ml, that it would be in about 1 week. Fine. We have time then. Yes, it might be really worth to wait for the logo decision then. have a good day.
Now remember wear clean underwear everyday and wash behind your ears. - fonzy
Thanks for the nice send off! I'll be back late Sunday early Monday. :) --mav
In response to your question about Simón Bolívar, I had noticed that the events under the Anniverseries tag was getting stale & hadn't been updated for a couple of days. I took a quick look at the events under September 10, & noticed Bolivar's entry under 1823. Since it appeared to be a significant event for both Bolivar & Peru, I didn't check further before I added it. I made a change to the Bolivar article that I hope explains things.
Shoulda known the first time I tried my sysop powers I'd make a mistake. -- llywrch 16:43, 11 Sep 2003 (UTC)
Hello mav, this short message to let you know that I have finished the images of the periodic table for the periode 5-6 and the actinides. It's on the french wikipedia, and I m too lazy to copy those file here. Greatpatton 07:22, 13 Sep 2003 (UTC)
Hi mav,
I have been looking around for discussion or briefing of what the anticipated structure of the WikiMedia foundation consists of a how its relationship to the Wikipedia Community is defined/refined. I have not located anything in any useful detail. Are you aware of any discussions beginning or which took place in the past beyond .... We are setting up a nonprofit. We can take donations.
Thanks, mirwin 00:09, 15 Sep 2003 (UTC)
