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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by JoeHenzi (talk | contribs) at 09:00, 8 October 2004 (→Tybee Lighthouse). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

My useful copy & paste notes

  • To make special characters show: add <nowiki> before and </nowiki> after
  • {{stub}}
  • {{disambig}}
  • {{inuse}}
  • {{PD-USGov}} - US Gov copyright-free pics notice
  • {{PD-USGov-USDA-ARS}} - ditto, USDA
  • <!--<tr><td align="center">image here</td></tr>--> - place for a future pic
  • <br clear="all"> - to make sure tables etc don't overlap

Welcome

Hello, welcome to Wikipedia.

You might find these links helpful in creating new pages or helping with the above tasks: How to edit a page, How to write a great article, Naming conventions, Manual of Style. You should read our policies at some point too.

If you have any questions, see the help pages, add a question to the village pump or ask me on my talk page. If you made any edits before you got an account, you might be interested in assigning those to your username.

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Wanted to add my welcome, also. Thank you for all your effort on various pine species. You are obviously an expert. Feel free to say as much or as little about yourself as you wish at User:MPF -- hike395 22:58, 18 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Hi there. I just see you do a lot of work on the oaks, and apparently you a quite a bit more knowledgeable about it than me. Maybe you can help me to confirm the species of the acorn picture I oploaded - I am not sure if I gave it the correct species name with Q. kerrii. That one was just the only quercus species google gave me in relation to the location where I made the photo (see Image:Acrons.jpg). andy 22:30, 20 Jan 2004 (UTC)

HI MPF- long ago on my user page I wrote I've decided that I'd like to start a wiki sub-project on Trees of Britain, maybe as a sub page of Trees of the world, I envisage this as being fairly long term, but to start with putting a frame work in place listing the names of the various tree species, with each species having sub-pages on say, uses of that tree, spiritual/traditional significance etc quercus robur 19:13 Oct 2, 2002 (UTC)

but have never really gotten it together to do anything about it. My knowledge isnt very extensive, but part of the idea (for me) was to increase my own knowledge in these areas by working on this project- does this interest you? Cheers quercus robur 15:56, 21 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Hi there! I appreciate your corrections in the Kunashir & Co articles. Since I'm not a native speaker, I have to turn to my Russian-English dictionary for stuff like trees or fish. You obviously know a lot more about trees than me! Siberian Dwarf Pine... Who would have thought! My dictionary has the only word Cedar for Кедр(Kedr). A word-for-word translation for Siberian Dwarf Pine would be Сибирская карликовая сосна (Sibirskaya karlikovaya sosna), which is not exactly Cedar in Russian :). So thanks again (and for the List of false friends, too)! KNewman 04:41, Aug 20, 2004 (UTC)

Taxonomic stalking

I hope you don't mind my stalking you.. I'm not really doing it on purpose... One of the things I like doing is adding/correcting taxoboxes and other taxonomic references. And since I generally use Recent Changes to find my articles, and you've been doing a lot of edits.... Hope ya don't mind! - UtherSRG 17:44, 29 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Thanks - much appreciated! MPF 19:06, 29 Jan 2004 (UTC)

I saw your changes with regard to hypenated forms, and I have to say I approve. Most of the are there because HBW, our standard source, uses them, but it has grated with me to write Storm-Petrel instead of Storm Petrel, even though I can see the logic. As for Rufous-tailed Rock-Thrush... Jim

Hi Jim, Thanks!, yes, I've always disliked these hyphenated capitals (tho' checking in HBW, I see it's 'Storm-petrel', not 'Storm-Petrel', that last is a 'Clementsism'. I've not seen that barbarity against the English language perpetrated by HBW.
But on the subject of 'petrel' - 'petrel' was originally first applied to Hydrobates pelagicus, so it should really be the Procellaridae petrels that have the qualifier, not the Hydrobatidae. But probably too late to change now, I fear! MPF 11:09, 1 Feb 2004 (UTC)
My take on the hyphen things is that I'm dammned if I understand the rules. Possibly this is because the rules vary from the US to Oz to the UK to wherever. Or possibly it's because I'm not very bright! So what I do is, for the 800-odd local species, take the HANZAB list as gospel and just do whatever they do. For non-Australian birds, I just try to do whatever people like you and Jim and Big Iron do. Saves skull-sweat. Cheers Tannin
Ha! I should have guessed. Hi Michael! BTW, I haven't left BF - far from it - just totally overwhelmed timewise at present. Lord help me, it's 3AM here already - Bedtime!

Photos

Left a comment for you at Talk:Alder. I have a lot of plant photos in my files; many seem to be in your area of interest. I hope to be posting more of them in the future. There are quite a lot that are unidentified. Any particular ones that you would like, that I might have (from eastern North America)? Pollinator 20:34, 12 Feb 2004 (UTC)

taxobox

MPF - stop by Wikipedia:WikiProject Tree of Life - we've modified the taxobox standards. - UtherSRG 23:25, 29 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Mediterranean and Alpine coniferous forests:

I was using the World Wildlife Fund/National Geographic listing of the 867 ecoregions, which can be found at the following link:

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/wildworld/profiles/terrestrial_pa.html

there are articles for each ecoregion, of varying lengths, that explain the criteria for delineating each ecoregion as they have done; the WWF reports are more detailed than the WildWorld articles.

WWF/NG put the conifer forests of the Atlas Mountains in the Mediterranean conifer forests ecoregion, and the montane conferous forests of Italy in the South Appenine mixed montane forests ecoregion. The WWF puts a few Mediterranean-climate conifer forests in the Mediterranean Forests, Woodland, and Shrub biome, including the South Appenine forests. The Pyrenees forests end up as a separate ecoregion in the temperate broadleaf/mixed forest biome. My biodiversity text indicated that the central european and mediterranean high mountain ranges have a lot of endemism, so it may be reasonable to separate the Alps, Pyrenees, Appenines, Atlas, Carpathians, etc.

This is not to say that the WWF ecoregions are definitive, but it they are the chosen convention for the wikipedian ecoregion exercise. Where there seems to be some expert disagreement about how to split the ecoregions, we could explain further in the individual articles.

One of the areas of ambiguity is where to put mixed forests ecoregions; the WWF/National geographic convention is to put broadleaf and mixed forests together, with conifer forests separate. There is obviously some discretion involved here (Does gray go with black, or with white? how about light gray and dark gray? how light or dark?), and sometimes the WWF and National Geographic don't agree. One solution would be to list mixed forest ecoregions with significant conifer forests in both biome types, as you have done with the Valdivian temperate rain forests.Tom Radulovich 00:56, 20 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Re: Bulgarian trees

Hi, I really appreciate your work and if I have some time I'll translate these articles. Currently I'm occupied with the administration on bg (in this moment I'm developing a bot) - there are so many things that need to be done and we (the bg users) are so few :-( . --Borislav 06:47, 4 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Greetings

You are not alone in your struggle. The user with whom you tangled today is well known to others of us. We are gathering our strength to deal with him. -- Decumanus | Talk 06:23, 7 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Your comments would be greatly appreciated at Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Kenneth Alan. Thanks. -- Decumanus | Talk 16:52, 8 Apr 2004 (UTC)

cap or no

{sigh} Wanna weigh in on the subject? Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Tree of Life#Capitalization of species common names again - UtherSRG 18:51, 16 Apr 2004 (UTC)

ToL and Categories

Please weigh in: Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Tree_of_Life#MW_1.3_categories

As to the names Regnum, Divisio etc., I advise you to look at Taxobox components. The purpose of these messages is to allow easy translation of taxobox components for use in other Wikipedias. JoJan 05:38, 19 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Fibonacci numbers and Phyllotaxis

What I have written is available at Talk:Fibonacci_number/Phyllotaxis; please feel free to do whatever you like with it. -- Dominus 02:25, 5 Jul 2004 (UTC)

You know who

Done Mintguy (T)

Kenneth Alan

Kenneth Alan's case it now in arbitration. See Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Kenneth Alan. You may wish to add comment to Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Kenneth Alan/Evidence Mintguy (T) 14:08, 22 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Acorn

done jimfbleak 09:51, 27 Aug 2004 (UTC)

see jimfbleak user talk page for further comments on status of acorn disambig --LegCircus 05:45, Aug 28, 2004 (UTC)

copy of Talk:Acorn

I had not finished yet, I was working on it.

Just because you would search for "acorn computer" or "acorn community organiztion" doesn't mean everyone should have to.

However, I will yield if you and Jim will allow the convention apple embodies.

--LegCircus 20:40, Aug 28, 2004 (UTC)

Plant

Hi Josh - I missed seeing your note at Talk:Plant until you posted the changes today. I think it is an improvement, but I've added / expanded / revised some parts a bit, you might want to check over to see if I've done anything ghastly - MPF 20:56, 29 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Thanks! I've reverted the bit about how fungi aren't plants. Most algae aren't related to the green plants, either, but as Marshman pointed out the word plant isn't always used to mean the taxonomic group and we shouldn't be too preferential in our treatment. The rest is all appreciated, including your support for my changes. The kingdom pages have been ignored too often, I think. Josh 21:42, 29 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Mulberry

No, sorry :/ Dysprosia 11:54, 31 Aug 2004 (UTC)


Brassica

Hi, MPF. The taxonomy of Brassica has been updated by you. When I put together this list, I used the IPNI taxonomy [[1]]. It was a real headache to sort it out. Can you tell me where you got your data ? I might use it as well in the future. JoJan 13:39, 31 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Plant: Linnaeus's name

Hi Josh - Linnaeus's main book on the subject is titled Species Plantarum (1753), so I guess he did use the name Plantae. Where is the claim that he didn't from? - MPF 23:22, 2 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I noticed the claim in a paper on protozoa and other kingdoms, looking for the original description of the alveolates - it is linked on that page. Some searching confirms the second book of Systema Naturae is indeed called Regnum Vegetabile, as proven by an on-line copy. I'll admit I forgot about Species Plantarum; either he used both names, or perhaps the second wasn't intended to be formal? Josh 02:19, 3 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Hi Josh - thanks; have to admit I in turn had forgotten about his Regnum Vegetabile - probably mainly as his Species Plantarum is the important text for botanists, being the start text for plant nomenclature under the ICBN. I guess he used both; though with Species Plantarum being the earlier book and the important one under the ICBN, I'd think that is the one best to follow - MPF 07:58, 3 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Systema Naturae came first (1735) although the system we follow comes from later editions. However, I find it suspicious that the one source I can find mentioning both names attributes Plantae to Haeckel. The same server has a copy of the original Species Plantarum, and it jumps straight to classis Monandria without mentioning regna at all. So I think he used plantae as a description but never as a kingdom, but since most texts ignore the difference it's hard to confirm. Josh 13:40, 3 Sep 2004 (UTC)


Bug in "Picture in new taxoboxes"

Yes, I have seen the comment in ToL about this. My solution is the following : whenever I upload an image, I make a link to the page in question on the talk page of the image, while certifying the copyrights. This seems less bother than making a small thumbnail on the talk page of the article. But, as you have noticed already, there are times that I might have overlooked this, especially when the article has to be written yet. JoJan 08:31, 5 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Ginkgo ?iloba

You edited Ginkgo Biloba to Ginkgo biloba. Are you sure it is correct? I thought latin biological names are writen in this manner. Mykhal 08:38, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Thank you from Dixi

I was suspecting this was the case but wasn't sure. Than you very much. I got more pictures of this one. Now I can use them. One question, is thus a juvenile? It wasn't scared at all.Dixi

Answer is: For sure. But first I would like to make small gallery of pictures taken the same place, with the same pack of birds. Would you be so nice, to take a look later today? It will be on the page pl:Wikipedysta:Dixi/Galeria Dixi_2
It'reade, please take a look and let me know if you wish a better resolution picture and which one. Dixi
Thanks again! You are great! Dixi 13:29, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Ampersands

They sprouted from me... ndash is the proper range dash, and non breaking spaces keep numbers from separating from their units by wrapping. I think it raises the quality of the article. --Yath 08:12, 7 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Great Picture

Great picture demonstrating dioecious plant (Holly) - Marshman 05:27, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Thanks from Dixi, again

Thank you, very much. I am not really taxonomist, I just try to move forward biology on Polish Wiki, where there only are 2 or 3 persons having at least some idea, what a taxon ist. Of course I will use your images, with pleasure, as you suggested... The real problem is a time... I wish I have it more...

I have some problem with differences between Polish an English systematics. We are, I guess, more conservative. F.ex. English Wiki says there are 3 species of elephant, we still see them rather as 2 species and one subspecies...

Any way, thanks a lot. It is very important to me to have someone friendly who takes a look at my, hmmm..., rather hobbistic approach to modern taxonomy (I don't work as a biologist any more). Please, be in touch, and check (may be at the begining of next week) the changes (the ones to be). Dixi 14:52, 10 Sep 2004 (UTC)

PS. Unfortunately, I don't feel strong enough to make major changes in all those "traditional" systematic boxes, though I will try to make some annotations to increase accordance between Polish an English viersions. Dixi 15:55, 10 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Hello, I made some changes, as a matter of fact I turned everything up side down, and I hope i hanen't mess to much. Would you be so nice, to have a look? Oh, and I put our Prunella collaris on its page, but I can't use those taxoboxes yet, so perhaps you may fix them in a proper place? Thanks again. Dixi 08:42, 14 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Have you seen pl:Sosna Lamberta?. Is the cone really the one od Pinus lambertiana? Dixi 12:47, 14 Sep 2004 (UTC)


Thanks for the help!

Thanks for the help with the tree names on the Alishan article! Botany isn't exactly my strongest area so any assistance with that is greatly appreceated. - Loren 00:26, 17 Sep 2004 (UTC)

IP page on it:

Hi, it appears that you created an "user talk" page on the Italian wikipedia using an IP address (it:Discussioni utente:82.39.130.135). Is that a static IP address that you always use? If it was created in error, we can delete the page. If instead that's the page you want, please add a line or two explaining that, because otherwise sooner or later someone will propose the page for deletion. Please let me know what to do. Cheers, Alfio.

I've looked at it:Pino loricato. While the quality of the translation is low, it's still readable and the meaning of the phrases is quite clear. The fact that it's a descriptive text, with short sentences and scientific words, helps quite a bit. Still, I would advise you against using machine translations, because sometimes it's nearly impossible to extract any sense from the article (yes, they are really that bad). About a month ago someone inserted machine-translated stubs from Arabic. Half of them were deleted because no one could understand them! Alfio 15:46, 17 Sep 2004 (UTC)
There isn't a {{cleanup}} or similar tag yet. A similar function is provided by a category: "Categoria:Da controllare", which roughly means "needs checking". We'll probably make a cleanup take sooner or later. Alfio 16:44, 17 Sep 2004 (UTC)

YKW

I've no idea. It's up to the arbitators. I left a comment on Wikipedia_talk:Requests_for_arbitration#Kenneth_Alan. Mintguy (T) 20:56, 19 Sep 2004 (UTC)

You need to stop your perverted obsession with me. At any time that I show myself, you start barking like the neighbourhood dogs. Please leave me alone. Kani Olsen 16:55, 20 Sep 2004 (UTC)
After giving a gentle reminder, there is now some progress. Mintguy (T) 21:37, 20 Sep 2004 (UTC)


Could you put the right copyright tag on Image:TanoakLeaves.jpg. Photos with non-commercial tags will be deleted in the future (this process has already started). This would be a shame for this photo. Or you could request permission from the author, which would give the tag {{cc-by-2.0}} JoJan 14:44, 22 Sep 2004 (UTC)

The image is not tagged. Instead you provide the text : "This copyrighted image may be freely used for any non-commercial purpose. For commercial use please contact J.S. Peterson". Non-commercial images are no longer allowed and are being banned; see : [[2]]. I know, it is a real nuisance, because most images are copyrighted or fall under the non-commercial use. Each time we want to use a rare or exclusive photo, we have first to ask permission to the author. I have done it frequently. Most of the time, the authors don't bother to reply or refuse flatly. But a few times I have been lucky, so that I could use the tags {{cc-by-2.0}} or the {{GFDL}}. As a matter of fact, I've just sent an email to Malaysia to ask permission for the use of a rare photo of Bubo kumquat (I'm working at the moment on the page of Bubo - the true toads). I'll find out soon enough if I'll get a reply, favourable or not. It's a inconvenience and a lot of work, but we must abide by the rules. JoJan 17:15, 22 Sep 2004 (UTC)
If you don't ask for authorisation, then you better have the image deleted. Beautiful picture, a real shame. But we are bound by strict rules. I found you another, but less interesting picture on the usda website [[3]]. This drawing is a tif picture. it should be converted to a jpeg picture in Photoshop. If you want that drawing, I can do the necessary for you. And if it is any comfort to you, I have uploaded lots of interesting photos of plants, all with non-commercial uses. They all have to go. Finding replacements is as good as impossible. By the way, I've had already a reply from that university professor in Malaysia. He is willin to cede one of his photos but with too many restrictions. I'm now negotiating with him. It has come to that, we must almost beg to obtain images. You could also put a request on the Village Pump for someone in the USA to make a picture of the tan oak. I've done this before and it worked ! Good luck. JoJan 18:27, 22 Sep 2004 (UTC)

List of California county name etymologies

Your grammar changes seem ... odd. I've never seen these usages before. RickK 18:23, Sep 28, 2004 (UTC)

Not any English I've ever heard of. And especially "named from"? RickK 19:50, Sep 28, 2004 (UTC)

Named from sounds extremely odd to my ear. I don't think I've ever heard that before, and in any case, it's a phrase much, much less common in American English than named after or named for. As this is an American topic, I think it should conform to the general tendencies of American English, per Wikipolicy. jengod 19:54, Sep 28, 2004 (UTC)

I agree. It's really odd. I've NEVER heard that before. RickK 19:59, Sep 28, 2004 (UTC)

It's not self-aggrandisement, it's standard English. RickK 20:02, Sep 28, 2004 (UTC)

Standard English is 'named after'. - can you cite a source? RickK 20:06, Sep 28, 2004 (UTC)

OED sez: To give a name or names to (a person or thing). Also (freq. in pass.) with after, from, for (now chiefly N. Amer.), to (Eng. regional (south-west.)), of, indicating the origin of the name jengod 20:11, Sep 28, 2004 (UTC)

MPF, I have a feeling you're British, Australian or New Zealander. Am I correct in that? RickK

Yes, thanks about that. You see? That's our problem -- two countries separated by a common language.  :) RickK 20:30, Sep 28, 2004 (UTC)

Please use second-level headings

Hi MPF! Thanks for your formatting of Colorado potato beetle. However, the Manual of Style indicates that headings should start with "==" (i.e. they should be second-level headings), not "===". Thanks! --Diberri | Talk 22:36, Oct 5, 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for explaining your motivation. I see your point, but the idea is that when sections are relatively short, they shouldn't have any heading at all in order to avoid clutter. Your change turned second-level headings into third-level ones, which didn't reduce the clutter, but just changed the appearance of the article. In general, semantic changes (such as changing H2s into H3s) should be avoided when your only intent is to alter an article's appearance. --Diberri | Talk 17:46, Oct 6, 2004 (UTC)

Tybee Lighthouse

[User:MPF], unfortunatly as you see there the original lighthouse no longer stands so all information was likely taken from history books. I can try to get into contact with people who live on the island and see what they say. There is a museum on Tybee Island which holds most of their history and that is where the information mostly came from. It was retyped into my own words so I've relied on their interpretations for now. I've got a trip planned to Tybee Island in a few months, maybe I can get more information then. JoeHenzi 08:56, 8 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I noticed that Thuja is also part of the cedar family, could it really have been cedar? What is native to Savannah, Georgia?
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