User talk:Markalexander100~enwiki/Archive1

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Welcome[edit]

Hello, welcome to Wikipedia.


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Again, welcome! - Meelar 03:10, 18 Feb 2004 (UTC)


Hi Mark, Here is a link you may find useful, Wikipedia:Manual of Style for China-related articles. 大将军, 都督中外诸军事 (talk) 05:01, 18 Feb 2004 (UTC)


I cut "called a B52"- is there any reason to repeat this?

No, well spotted, it was my error. Mark Richards 02:06, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Sawadee Krap. I just notice that you created a duplicate article about the Isaan - it already has one at Isan . But no big problem, we just have to merge them now. It is a pain with those many different romanized spellings of thai names. Maybe List of Thailand-related topics can be of help - I try to add all pages about Thailand there, both to keep track of changes, but it can also be used to find articles we already have to avoid recreations. I hope you will add more Thailand topics, so far I was nearly alone to write about it here. andy 23:12, 27 Feb 2004 (UTC)


Sawasdee kap, Poed pasa Thai dai mai???? My name is Walter, user waerth, on the English/Dutch wikipedia's. I mainly contribute to the Dutch wikipedia., 90% of all Thailand pages have been done by me at nl.wikipedia.org. I also life in Thailand, BKK in the Huay Kwang area to be precise. Waerth 10:09, 1 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Sawasdee kap, put dai nitnoi. :) I'm in Ubon. Pleased to meet you. Markalexander100 01:27, 2 Mar 2004 (UTC)

If you ever get down to Krungthep give me a buzz. My number is on my Dutch userpage. Waerth 10:24, 27 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I might do that. :) Markalexander100 10:28, 27 Mar 2004 (UTC)


Just wanted to say good work on Testimony (book) - I think it's a good start on what is, as you say, a tricky subject. I'm happy to see Shostakovich on your to-do list also - that article has been on my mental to-do list almost since I started editing here (about 20 months), but I've never got round to it somehow. Anyway, happy editing. --Camembert

Thanks! Markalexander100 08:23, 24 Mar 2004 (UTC)


Tip: Please start headers at the "==" level, and work down from there (See Wikipedia:Manual of Style (headings)). Thanks :) Dysprosia 09:44, 27 Mar 2004 (UTC)


Wondeful collection of comments on the Origins of the Civil War; I hope 172 gets back to you soon. +sj+ 21:30, 2004 Mar 31 (UTC)

Totally concur with Sj's comments. Are my changes satisfactory? Thanks for all the help. 172 20:35, 2 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Opps. I didn't see those. I'm done with the new changes now, though. 172 10:32, 3 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Opps again. For some reason I thought that you'd only done 1-3. Thanks again. 172 11:06, 4 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Just to let you know how good your works on Chinese poets are. Succinct, well read...Could you do the whole lot of them? PS And Shostakovich too! Well done! - Mandel 20 Apr 2004

Thanks! I'll keep plugging away... At the moment I'm spending my days in the library doing more research on Du Fu, which should bear fruit soon. ;) Markalexander100 20:38, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Hinduism etc.[edit]

Thanks for covering my a=s! Made a big mistake. I see you like Shastakovich... I play his concertos (violin).... nice. : ) --LordSuryaofShropshire 22:06, Apr 24, 2004 (UTC)

You have been nominated for admin status at Wikipedia:Requests for adminship#Nominations for adminship. 172 21:45, 3 May 2004 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your review of the article, and for jotting down the questions that need improved answers. I shall try to address all your questions in the article and update the talk page. Please keep watch. Chancemill 12:44, May 5, 2004 (UTC)

To Markalexander: Also thanks for your help in improving Nanjing University and several other articles ---Dictioner 01:33, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Adminship[edit]

Hello Mark, unfortunately your adminship nomination failed to reach any consensus on this occassion, as one quarter of the voters felt that you were too new. The details are archived here. Good luck with any future application you make. Angela. 14:57, May 10, 2004 (UTC)

British East India Company[edit]

Great job copyediting British East India Company! I went through your list of questions and made some changes to the article. Hopefully, you'll be able to change your vote at featured article status vote. 172 19:57, 19 May 2004 (UTC)[reply]

Mark, The answer to your last question on the article has been provided to the best of public domain knowledge. The history of the company between 1857 and 1873 is rather obscure. There were probably a number of splinter groups which split away from the main company, prior to or during its dissolution. The holding company still exists in London, though most of its assest were appropriated. It is sometimes reported that some modern companies like Shell and Rockefeller Oil Company has a direct ancestor in the EIC, though nothing can be confirmed. Hopefully, you find the article fit to be made a FA. Thanks Chancemill

Hello, I don't understand why you removed the sample poem in Li Po's page. I think it's translation by Bynner is now in public domain. Imho, articles about poets should give samples whenever possible. gbog 03:56, 22 May 2004 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, I cut it because we generally Don't_include_copies_of_primary_sources. Wikipedia:WikiProject_Poetry#Individual_Poets recommends linking to online texts, but not including copies. Markalexander100 04:11, 22 May 2004 (UTC)[reply]

Well... I don't fully understand why an article on Li Po shouldn't give an example of it's most famous poems and only give a link on a list of links that may contain some... If I understand well the spirit of the "no primary text" rule, It's intended to avoid long texts without any "secondary" encyclopedic content. But, i suppose an article on free verse should give examples of free verses (now it's not the case but...), and an article on Haikus should give examples and it does. Why should it be different with Li Bo ? I agree that giving only a rough example without any context is not encyclopedic, but when the article says something like "He wrote many poems about nature and liked to drink with friend the moon", then give one "primary source" showing how he wrote that seem to be relevant (for me, at least). I will try to get attention on this question in Poetry project. gbog 04:49, 22 May 2004 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not furiously opposed to a sample poem if there's a consensus to add one; I've looked through some of our articles on poets, and it seems to be about 70/30 against putting one in. I just don't see what it really achieves: if we say he writes about the moon, we don't need a poem to tell them that again. Markalexander100 05:08, 22 May 2004 (UTC)[reply]

Sure, but if we say that Du Fu was involved in describing the hard life of peasant, that Li Bo had daoist inspiration, or that another Tang poet (I forgot his name) was going so far in his imagination that we could link him to surrealistic poetry, I guess an example would be much more explanative than any prose on it. It's like the drawing in Platypus : without text, illustration is nothing, but without any illustration the text may be a little bit vague for those who don't know anything about platypus (or Chinese poetry). Actually, I'm not furiously engaged in adding a lot of long poems on any poet's page, I'd just like it to be taken as illustration on the main text (and, also, I have to say, as an encouragement to read further this given poet's work) gbog 05:57, 22 May 2004 (UTC)[reply]

Li He? I think there's a distinction between forms and poets. It's difficult to imagine a haiku until you've seen one, so an example is useful there. But a poem about the hard life of a peasant is much easier to imagine. I would hope that we can summarise the distinctive features of a poet's work without giving a poem showing each feature. Markalexander100 06:02, 22 May 2004 (UTC)[reply]

In need of community support[edit]

I'm in need of community support.

Right now, I am on the verge of being driven away from Wikipedia through the relentless efforts of a single problem user on Wikipedia:Requests for comment/172, Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration, and Wikipedia talk:Requests for arbitration/172 vs VeryVerily.

The same user who refuses to accept the results of the Augusto Pinochet poll (see also [1]) goes through my user history every time he logs on and then starts reverting things that I've written arbitrary. He manages to divert attention away from the articles onto ad hominem attacks, thus poisoning the well against me. [2]

He has been doing nothing else for the past couple of months, other than making some minor changes to pages that he finds through the random page feature. Meanwhile, I've been working on articles such as Empire of Brazil, Dollar Diplomacy, and Franco-U.S. relations. I'm tired of letting a problem user define my contributions to the encyclopedia, as opposed to my work.

I may have said some regrettable things in the past, but my editing practices are scholarly and methodical. When I make an edit, my choice is based on a consideration of the quality of the encyclopedia. Unlike the user who avowedly admits to trying to escalate a personal feud (see, e.g., [3]), I do not decide which pages to edit and what changes to make on the basis of personality feuds, emotional POV whims, or a desire to get attention.

Although this user shows little evidence that he understands the content of the articles, I have shown considerable restraint, given my professional expertise. [4]. Only through community support (i.e. lobbying the arbitration committee)will this user be stopped. Otherwise, Wikipedia will die unless we stop vandals and clueless POV-pushers from running rampant and driving away valued contributors.

Please feel free to direct questions and comments to my talk page or e-mail at sokolov47@yahoo.com.

Sincerely,

172 01:48, 30 May 2004 (UTC)[reply]


Nice phorography[edit]

The Image:Ladakharchery.jpg taken by you is very impressive! But the image quality is horrible. Could we have a larger version? The photo amazing! I never knew Ladakhis look like Tibetans. Cool! --Menchi 05:49, 1 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Thanks! I've fixed it now- I didn't know how to do thumbnails at the time. :-) Markalexander100 09:32, 1 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Hi there, I saw you had problems with TDC on the Castro article. He has been known to be abusive for a long time, check Requests_for_comment/TDC. In case you want to engage in something more enjoyable than reverting please check my page for a project I started about learning, mainly vocabulary. It is discussed on my talk page, if you are interested please let me know there. Get-back-world-respect 01:42, 5 Jun 2004 (UTC)

You have been nominated for admin status at Wikipedia:Requests for adminship#Nominations for adminship. 172 07:46, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

You're a sysop![edit]

I'm pleased to let you know that, consensus being reached, you are now a sysop. Congratulations! Please read the Administrators' reading list to learn about your new privileges and responsibilities and what special tasks sysops perform. Cheers! Cecropia | Talk 01:19, 9 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Thanks! Markalexander100 01:28, 9 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Page protection William C. Rogers III[edit]

Thanks! Refdoc 12:21, 17 Jul 2004 (UTC)

No one has made any suggestions re this article. Could you please unprotect it again? Refdoc 20:01, 26 Jul 2004 (UTC)

page protection[edit]

Why did you unprotect United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East? It was protected to stop a serious edit war that is now going to start up again. --Zero 08:22, 24 Jul 2004 (UTC) Ok, I found the request. It was mistaken because the anon user was only blocked for 24 hours and has certainly not disappeared. Please reinstate the protection. --Zero 08:31, 24 Jul 2004 (UTC)

I suggest we wait to see if anon reappears on that page. If so, it's easy enough to reprotect- just post on Wikipedia:Requests_for_page_protection. Markalexander100 08:40, 24 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Adminship[edit]

Hi, Mr. 100: Thanks for supporting my nomination for adminship. I take your support and that of everyone else who is supporting me seriously, and would strive to exercise my adminship privileges judiciously and conservatively. --Sewing 01:32, 24 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Hi again, Markalexander100: I am now offically an admin. Thanks again for your support. Yours, 山道子 (Sewing) - talk 13:53, 27 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Great! Markalexander100 03:06, 28 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Hello, Just to say that you're 100% right to question the sentence I had put in Iraqi resistance and the source of which wasn't immediately obvious. I fully support your stance that more analytical statements should be held to a higher standard and should be sourced/attributed in this kind of article (dealing with ongoing, controversial, complex events). So much rubbish is said about e.g. the current situation in Iraq, and some of this rubbish will necessarily (and rightly) be in this kind of article ; but we can deal with this problem by making it clear whose views are reflected. - pir 08:57, 2 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Tibet[edit]

Hi, you recently reverted my reversion of the same POV text added to two articles about Tibet. Are you sure that's what you meant to do? Markalexander100 07:22, 3 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Although Anon's edits might be edited a bit, they seem simply the Chinese point of view which should be included. Some language needs to be added so that important events like establishing a Chinese presence in Lhasa can be seen from Tibetan, Chinese and international points of veiw. Fred Bauder 10:24, Sep 3, 2004 (UTC)

I doubt that the Mekong is really 100 m deep - are you really sure about that number? Or is it just a typo and should mean 10 m? BTW: I am currently reading that book you listed on "further reading" of that article, we'd need much more such book recommendations at our articles. andy 15:24, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Yes, the figure's right: From the region of Vientiane to the Kampuchean border, the river is turbid, particularly during the rainy season when bank erosion is at its most severe. Suspended lateritic soil gives the water an apparent rusty-tan colour. River temperatures fluctuate between 21.1°C and 27.8°C, and the pH varies from 6.2 to 6.5. The mainstream habitats range from sandy-gravel bars to deep pools up to 100m deep and several kilometres long, interspersed with rocky rapids (Pantulu, 1986a) [5].Markalexander100 00:44, 7 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Beckett[edit]

Hi. Nice edits on the James Joyce page. I note you have a quote from Samuel Beckett on your user page and wonder if you might run your eye over the article: I've been doing some work there, too. The main problem I see is the photo, but I'm sure you'll find ways to improve the text, too. Thanks. Filiocht 12:26, 9 Sep 2004 (UTC)

MusicWiki links[edit]

Please, take a look at Talk:MusicWiki

History of Thailand[edit]

I have put a lot of work into improving these articles. Please don't revert my changes without discussion. Adam 05:40, 11 Sep 2004 (UTC)

You have put no work into the History of Thailand, Sukhothai or Ayutthaya articles. You have deleted other people's work. No-one interferes with your non-standard versions; the least you could do is leave the standard versions alone. Markalexander100 05:42, 11 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I have written articles which supercede those articles, and I have removed the redundant material. This is an encyclopaedia, not a sheltered workshop. Older and less comprehensive material must give way to newer and better. Adam 05:44, 11 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Certainly not better. Markalexander100 05:45, 11 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I don't have time to deal with your childishness now. I will return to this later. Adam 05:47, 11 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I have put a reaction on Adam's talk page. Waerth 07:11, 11 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Me too :-) How many "childish" opponents does our history professor need to be convinced? andy 11:18, 11 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Adam also created another page see: History_of_Thailand_(overview) Waerth 20:54, 11 Sep 2004 (UTC)
To make sure we don't miss important discussions on Thai topics anymore I have created Wikipedia:Thai wikipedians' notice board. andy 20:55, 28 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I've added some new details to he H. pylori page. I hope this is enough to satisfy your objections on the featured articles page. Cheers.

more expressive pictures[edit]

Halló Mark, I am quite new here. Thank you for your vote on the picture at at Featured_picture_candidates. Would you like to select one with a better background at our gallery [6]? Gangleri 04:30, 2004 Sep 25 (UTC)

David Irving article[edit]

Hi, because of a number of issues you’ve recently objected to the David Irving article getting a featured status, since then the article has been heavily edited, expanded and augmented addressing most of the issues you have raised. GeneralPatton 18:10, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Issaan alphabet[edit]

Hi... I found an interesting note on http://www.2bangkok.com that it had a separate alphabet used in Issaan before the thaiification. Sadly the actual page at the Ubon university ([7]) is only in Thai and thus unaccessible for me, but maybe you can incorporate some of it into the Issaan article. andy 08:00, 8 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Thanks, I'm on the case. ;) Markalexander100 01:56, 15 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Revert on WP:FPC[edit]

Looks like a spot of confusion going on. I'm guessing that User:Wpopp is new, and his wiping out your vote on the Ibises was an accident. So a revert was in order, but in the process it seems to have nixed Wpopp's vote on the SEM pollen. -- Solipsist 10:01, 14 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Sorry, that was my mistake: I think I reverted more than one of his edits by accident. Markalexander100 01:37, 15 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for your support on Featured articles candidates. With such minority interest articles, I often wonder will anybody read them, never mind vote. If you have the time and inclination, could you read and comment on/improve H.D.? I've been doing a lot of work on it recently out of the systemic bias project. There are remarkably few FAs about women! Filiocht 09:15, Oct 26, 2004 (UTC)

Formula One FAC[edit]

Please check back and reconsider changing your vote. Voting to support or object an article should be based mainly on its text. Besides, I think a case for fair use can be made. Thanks for your time. [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|(talk)]] 20:54, Oct 29, 2004 (UTC)

I'm afraid I don't at all agree that voting to support or object an article should be based mainly on its text; candidates are very frequently objected to because of the images which they contain, and Wikipedia's best work does not include copyvios. This seems to me a particularly blatant one, and I don't see a case for fair use. Of course if enough people support the article, my objection won't matter (especially since Raul disagrees with me ;) ). Markalexander100 04:40, 30 Oct 2004 (UTC)

"pov speculation"[edit]

I've just been looking over what you've done with the Beckett play articles I'd originally started. I do agree that the way they were presented originally may be problematic wo. POV, but I don't think they deserved outright removal.

It's merely analysis as to what Beckett was trying to say in the plays, not mere "speculation". Unfortunately I don't have the exact references to where I've read some of the analysis, but that shouldn't prevent its inclusion either. When I get a chance, I'm going to try and replace some of the stuff you removed in a more NPOV manner, I hope you find this acceptable. Dysprosia 10:00, 31 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Absolutely. Of course ideally it's better to deal with POV by sourcing rather than removing, but if I don't know where the original contributor got the idea from, that becomes difficult. I didn't know if you'd be coming back to the articles any time soon. And thanks for starting them, at least! Markalexander100 10:07, 31 Oct 2004 (UTC)

China Collaboration of the Week[edit]

You showed interest in taking part in China-related topic development. I have just set up a China Collaboration of the Week. Please add one, or several, nomination(s) and tell others about it. You may access it via the COTW page at Wikipedia:China-related topics notice board/ZHCOTW or through the shortcut WP:ZHCOTW. --[[User:OldakQuill|Oldak Quill]] 11:24, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I have drafted a proposal for a new voluntary association on Wikipedia (joining groups like the Wikipedia:The Business and Economics Forum and the Wikipedia:Harmonious editing club) to promote discussion of a sort of system of expert review on Wiki. Please take a look and add your ideas. 172 08:09, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Bernard Williams[edit]

Mark, regarding your edit of the issue of self-interest being "neglected" by Western philosophy since Aristotle, I'm not sure that's entirely accurate. For one thing, there was Nietzsche, and there were several others. That is why I had used "not honestly explored," which I felt conveyed (without going off on a tangent) that no one had explored it rigorously, objectively and from a non-religious point of view. I won't change it back, but thought I'd mention that moral philosophers would probably object to "neglected." I also thought it might interest you that I did find a quote from Shirley Williams saying the RAF uniform had helped. She told The Guardian, regarding the first time she and Bernard spent time together: "We had this magical week. He was frightfully good looking at the time in this matinée-idol way and, of course, the RAF uniform added to the effect. [An acquaintance] kept saying to me, 'This is the most wonderful man, you have to marry him.'" [8]. I won't be putting this in the article, though, because I don't want to reintroduce the "lean, energetic and gloriously tanned" POV. :-) Thanks for all your help and suggestions regarding this article, and for your support, which I appreciate very much. Putting it through the Featured Article process has improved the article quite a bit, I feel. Slim 04:39, Dec 6, 2004 (UTC)

I just saw that you had changed it in response to an objection. Thank you. Slim 04:54, Dec 6, 2004 (UTC)

Neglected doesn't have to mean entirely neglected. I just meant the change as a stopgap (did Nietzsche dishonestly explore the issue?), so I'd have no problem with replacing it with something more felicitous. Mark1 05:02, 6 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Article Licensing[edit]

Hi, I've started a drive to get users to multi-license all of their contributions that they've made to either (1) all U.S. state, county, and city articles or (2) all articles, using the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike (CC-by-sa) v1.0 and v2.0 Licenses or into the public domain if they prefer. The CC-by-sa license is a true free documentation license that is similar to Wikipedia's license, the GFDL, but it allows other projects, such as WikiTravel, to use our articles. Since you are among the top 1000 Wikipedians by edits, I was wondering if you would be willing to multi-license all of your contributions or at minimum those on the geographic articles. Over 90% of people asked have agreed. For More Information:

To allow us to track those users who muli-license their contributions, many users copy and paste the "{{DualLicenseWithCC-BySA-Dual}}" template into their user page, but there are other options at Template messages/User namespace. The following examples could also copied and pasted into your user page:

Option 1
I agree to [[Wikipedia:Multi-licensing|multi-license]] all my contributions, with the exception of my user pages, as described below:
{{DualLicenseWithCC-BySA-Dual}}

OR

Option 2
I agree to [[Wikipedia:Multi-licensing|multi-license]] all my contributions to any [[U.S. state]], county, or city article as described below:
{{DualLicenseWithCC-BySA-Dual}}

Or if you wanted to place your work into the public domain, you could replace "{{DualLicenseWithCC-BySA-Dual}}" with "{{MultiLicensePD}}". If you only prefer using the GFDL, I would like to know that too. Please let me know what you think at my talk page. It's important to know either way so no one keeps asking. Ram-Man (comment) (talk)[[]] 14:10, Dec 9, 2004 (UTC)

Government of Maryland[edit]

I appreciate your comments regarding Government of Maryland, which I nominated for featured article status. Per your suggestion, I have revised the article at numerous points to point out more of the differences between Maryland's government and the governments of other U.S. states (see, for instance, the sections on the Lt. Governor, Board of Public Works, Local Government, among others). I also, at a few places, have pointed out similarities (see, for instance, the intro section and section on the Governor). The intro section has also been expanded modestly by the addition of a few new details.

I have commented further on the featured article candidates page. Please take a look at my comments and the changes to see if you could now support featured article status for the article or, at least, withdraw your opposition. In any case, any further suggestions or comments are welcome. Jacob1207 03:24, 10 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Basil Fool for Christ[edit]

Hi there, Markalexander! I read your article on Basil Fool for Christ and just had to ask - where did you get this stuff? Shoplifting?? That's really something :). I'll rewrite it when I have time, if you don't mind. KNewman 04:33, Dec 14, 2004 (UTC)

Shoplifting saints are always fun. ;) It's all I could find on the Internet at the time, so I'd be happy to have it reprocessed. Mark1 04:41, 14 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for stepping in. I was beginning to realize that the list is bigger than I had initially thought, and I was going to remove some of that material myself soon... I guess the information you left is fine until something changes or new information is revealed. ~leifHELO 03:53, Dec 15, 2004 (UTC)

Thai Cuisine page..[edit]

Hi, I was wondering why you reverted my edit at the Thai cuisine page? I did not make any major changes. I just corrected the spelling for Southeast Asian, south-east Asian is incorrect to my knowledge. And coconut has no reason to be capitalized within a sentence. --Dara 05:10, 15 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Coconut was my mistake- sorry about that. For the others: there's definitely nothing wrong with south-east Asian (nothing wrong with Sooutheast Asian either, but we shouldn't go around changing one to the other); is there any reason why kaffir lime should have a capital? Mark1 05:19, 15 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Government of Maryland II[edit]

Mark, per your suggestion and that of another user, I have expanded and reorganized the references section on Government of Maryland. Please take a new look at the page and see if this satisfies your objection to FA status for that article. Jacob1207 16:05, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Uparat[edit]

What is the point of linking the passage "the king's brother and deputy, the Uparat" to an article Uparat which merely says that the Uparat was the king's brother and deputy? The article is in any case wrong since Laos is a republic, and the King of Siam's heir was usually his son, not his brother. If there is no decent article on Uparat there is no point in linking to it. Adam 08:23, 25 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Firstly the article Uparat is linked to by several other articles. Secondly Uparat is a stub, on which you might like to review our policies. Mark1 04:32, 26 Dec 2004 (UTC)
And thirdly what Adam claims is simply wrong, as it was Chulalongkorn who introduced the more western-like system of the eldest son being the heir - before the second king was the heir, and the second king was usually the brother of the king. And Laos was a kingdom until not too long ago. andy 22:12, 26 Dec 2004 (UTC)
Fourthly Laos just exists since this century and is a French invention. Before that it were the principalities/kingdoms of: Vientianne, Luang Prabang, Champassak, Xhieng Khuang and some lesser principalities and before that it was Lan Xang etc. All of these had the system off Uparaj. The Uparaj could be anybody appointed by the king. Sometimes he ruled his own principality as well. In the last two years I have been trying to struggle my way through Lan Xang, the result is a large string of articles on nl about all its kings and princess. But I have to say there is no clear rule like the brother or son is the uparaj. It was basically any familymember in the kings favour. Waerth 09:36, 28 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Phi Phi Islands[edit]

Hello Mark. I've reworked this article and incorporated the link to the boycott petition into the text. I felt that keeping it as a context-free link made the article look like it was taking a political position. I've also removed the geo-stub tag again as I feel the article is beyond stub size now. BTW, your talk page is very long. Ever considered archiving part of it? Oska 04:48, Dec 29, 2004 (UTC)

Hi, that looks fine. I'm planning to archive on New Year's Day. ;) Mark1 04:56, 29 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Power of the earthquake[edit]

BanyanTree does not appear to have physics background, and I'm not sure if you do.

He wrote something like "xxxx, while angular momentum was conserved". In physics, angular momentum is always conserved, in every physical system. My figure skater analogy was also used in some of the mainstream media explanations of this effect, for instance at the bottom of the Slate article linked to in the inline footnote reference. -- 64.228.82.241 04:35, 30 Dec 2004 (UTC)

The former is in no way inconsistent with the latter. Also, this page is not a high-school physics lesson- the concepts are explained on the articles linked to, and duplication of content is a bad thing. Mark1 04:40, 30 Dec 2004 (UTC)

That sentence explains how a shift in the distribution of mass can lead to a change in rotational speed, using a common analogy (figure skaters) that everyone can grasp. BT's sentence, which you restored, is not at all clear. If you feel it's superfluous then the entire sentence should be removed. -- 64.228.82.241 04:47, 30 Dec 2004 (UTC)

A compromise wording might be:

The earthquake shortened the length of a day by as much as three microseconds (3 µs) by shifting a tiny fraction of the Earth's mass inward, much like a figure skater pulling in her arms to produce a faster spin. -- 64.228.82.241 04:57, 30 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Still hate that skater. I'd rather leave the sentence out. Mark1 04:59, 30 Dec 2004 (UTC)

OK. I'll restore one "may have", though, because the exact effect hasn't yet been measured (see inline Slate link reference). -- 64.228.82.241 05:04, 30 Dec 2004 (UTC)


Mark -- here is what you reverted to: [rotation] ". . .increases by 15 µs every year, so any rotational speedup due to the earthquake will be quickly lost. . ." Speed. . . lost. . . to increase [of speed]. -- Zosodada

Fatehpur Sikri photo[edit]

Thanks for uploading Image:Fatehpurgate.jpg and Image:Fatehpurkiosk.jpg. I notice they currently don't have an image copyright tag. Could you add some to let us know their copyright status? (You can use {{GFDL}} if you release them under the GFDL, or {{Fairuse}} if you claim fair use, etc.) If you don't know what any of this means, just let me know where you got the images and I'll tag them for you. Thanks so much, Josh 08:41, Dec 31, 2004 (UTC)