Talk:Albert Hofmann/Archive 1

Incorrect link
WARNING: the URI for this article is incorrect. It should be http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Hofmann not http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Hoffman

That is the URL - is this comment outdated? JonathanWakely 09:21, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

Premature
Isn't it a bit premature to talk about today's symposium and media attention in the past tense? JonathanWakely 09:21, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

Expansion and cleanup
I suggest an expansion and/or cleanup here. Any experienced Wikipediaist, maybe from the hallucinogen-project, maybe want to do this? /User:SockerFot

http://www.erowid.org/culture/characters/hofmann_albert/hofmann_albert.shtml is a reasonable reference Kevin143 09:46, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

Memberships
I moved this sentence here after trying to confirm the information in it:


 * "Dr. Pharm. (hc) Dr. Sc.Nat. (hc) Hofmann is Member of the Nobel Prize Committee, Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences, Member of the International Society of Plant Research and the American Society of Pharmacognosy."

The info comes from here. The Nobel site does not have confirmation, There is a Third World Academy of Sciences, but I don't see a World Academy of Sciences, I can find no International Society of Plant Research (though there are societies of Ethnopharmacology, Ethnobiology, and a Society for Medicinal Plant Research ) There is an American Society of Pharmacognosy. Jokestress 17:08, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

Status
I am wondering, is he still alive, and where does he currently live--Frozenport 23:26, 12 December 2006 (UTC)
 * He is still alive - there's a photo of him as of 2006. Young looking for a centenerian.--h i s  s p a c e   r e s e a r c h 13:51, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
 * What about his wife, Anita, is she too still alive? Zewu
 * Several forums claim that Anita died on December 20, 2007. However, I see no mention of this in an official news source, so I can't say it's true for sure. --RandomOrca2 (talk) 03:54, 9 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Looking into it... &mdash;Viriditas | Talk 03:17, 4 February 2008 (UTC)
 * It is confirmed on MAPS and covered in detail on DOSENATION. &mdash;Viriditas | Talk 03:22, 4 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Word from a friend of a caretaker of Albert Hofman is that he died today (April 29 2008) but this has not been confirmed or reported by any news outlet. http://reddit.com/info/6hj6e/comments/ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.246.234.58 (talk) 16:03, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Death?
I have information that Dr.Hoffman has died in his home in Burg today, April 29th, 2008. This news has not been reported by the media yet, and that is why I am holding off from editing the article itself. Can people try to confirm? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.21.196.25 (talk) 16:43, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
 * RIP :(  Tu rk ey ph an t 17:44, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Sad news indeed. :( But, it needs a relevant source. I'll be watching the news. -- ...RuineЯ|Chat... 19:38, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

I've been editing in a death date with the appendage "assumedly" prior to the date. I beleive this is a good compromise since it is only rumor at the moment Ferris0000 (talk) 18:20, 29 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Putting "assumedly" there doesn't work. Please read the relevant policies on biographies.  Q  T C 18:26, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Upon reading the policies page, I have to agree and will stop editing in the birth info until I see some confirmation. Ferris0000 (talk) 18:40, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Added Erowid reference to his status as deceased, but they cite no sources. jzp (talk) 21:17, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Surely Erowid is a source?  Tu rk ey ph an t 21:25, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

What is the hurry here? Why are we spreading rumors? Let's wait for an official, verifiable announcement. Please read WP:V, WP:BIO and WP:RS. Then let's do it right. Even the official hoffman foundation has no news Hofmann foundation.TheRingess (talk) 21:28, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
 * What's more verifiable than Erowid and MAPS? There's no rush but it's best to be accurate. RIP  Tu rk ey ph an t 21:32, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Why the rush? Why not wait until the story is confirmed by a few major news outlets.  Or at least until the official hofmann foundation website confirms the announcement?  Is this a competition or race to see who can spread a rumor the fastest?  TheRingess (talk) 21:37, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
 * The Hofmann Foundation Website is in transition and won't be able to be edited until late tonight.   —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.197.74.34 (talk) 21:51, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

It's not a rush or a competition, it's a psychological need for closure. I'd say that the head of MAPS' confirmation makes this legitamate. Consensus seems to be agree Ferris0000 (talk) 21:47, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
 * "it's a psychological need for closure"... We may need a new WP policy, "WP:Wikipedia Is Not Your Therapist". ;-) When it's reported in a verifiable source, we can update the wikipedia page. If the head of MAPS did in fact confirm the death, that would qualify, I think--if his confirmation of the death is reported in a reliable source. So it comes down to, do you actually have any sources beyond the level of "this dude on the interweb totally said"? If not, I think this can wait until it makes the wire services. -- Narsil (talk) 21:53, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

If you think 102 is old, just imagine how long he might have lived if he never did drugs! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.102.30.252 (talk) 22:06, 29 April 2008

Internet rumors of his passing have been confirmed for us by a friend of Dr. Hofmann's. Dr. Albert Hofmann died of a heart attack this morning at his home in Basel, Switzerland. Hofmann inadvertently discovered the effects of LSD while researching the substance in 1943. He subsequently self-administered the drug deliberately and produced the first accounts of its powerful psychedelic effects. Also, erowid should be pretty reputable, it's used a source on plenty of drug wiki's. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.102.30.252 (talk) 22:10, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

http://stopthedrugwar.org/speakeasy_main/2008/apr/29/dr_albert_hofmann_father_of_lsd_ I know thats not the CNN your looking for, but stopthedrugwar is a highly reputable site that lobbys politicians against drugs. It's up there with NORML. 97.102.30.252 (talk) 22:06, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

And what do psychedelic drugs have to do with lifespam? Please, abstain from writing if you know nothing about the subject. LSD =/= alcohol/heroin/coke etc. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.115.6.101 (talk) 09:10, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

RIP —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.237.5.161 (talk) 06:54, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

thats ridiculous, i think a better thing to say is imagine how much longer he WOULDNT have lived should he never had done lsd.--Krautukie (talk) 14:18, 30 April 2008 (UTC)
 * It was quite clearly a joke.  Tu rk ey ph an t 16:20, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

source?
made a change with the comment What is the problem with the source at the bottom of the page?. Which source do you mean? —EncMstr (talk) 22:01, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

User:Turkeyphant, I have to say you're skirting the edge of WP:3RR. Please--let this wait until it's reported in a reliable source. Blogs do not count as reliable sources (see WP:BLP); if a blog says "I called MAPS and they confirmed his death", that is not enough of a basis to put a date-of-death in a biography page. If he really is dead, it'll be reported before long, and then we can update his WP article. -- Narsil (talk) 22:06, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Before more idiots revert, it would be better to actually read my edit summaries. Erowid and MAPS are about as reliable sources as you can get on this. Nobody was citing blogs.   Tu rk ey ph an t 22:28, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
 * I read your edit summaries. The edit summaries talked about reliable sources--but you never actually included, like, links to reliable sources in your edits. You just kept claiming the sources were out there. If you'd actually included the links in your edits, this all would've been wrapped up a lot sooner. -- Narsil (talk) 07:42, 30 April 2008 (UTC)
 * The links were already in the article - I didn't need to add them in my edits.  Tu rk ey ph an t 10:46, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

Is MAPS considered reliable enough? I formatted the entry adding it as a source. —EncMstr (talk) 22:07, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
 * I think that link qualifies, yes! -- Narsil (talk) 22:09, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

In case there was any doubt, the first of the major news outlets has picked up the story: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1912485/Albert-Hofmann,-LSD-inventor,-dies.html Ferris0000 (talk) 22:42, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

False claim
Albert Hofmann is NOT "best known for synthesizing [...] LSD" but for discovering its effects on human consciousness and perception. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.83.161.50 (talk) 07:54, 30 April 2008 (UTC)


 * I agree. But, he wouldn't have tried it if he hadn't have synthesized it.  So why it may be missing the larger picture, it is technically true; and poorly worded. Smithers Ltd. (talk) 05:04, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

Death section
An IP user removed the death section and the link to wikinews. This section is needed and has been a precedence in all wikipedia bios of people that died. 204.52.215.128 (talk) 23:03, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

Film section
This section titled "Film" read strangely, like it's copied and pasted from somewhere else. I proposed it gets deleted or severely edited. Master z0b (talk) 00:50, 6 May 2008 (UTC)


 * Agreed. It reads like an advertisement, and should be deleted. --Pyrochem (talk) 15:36, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Books Section
There is at least another book missing in this section. It is "Plants of the Gods", co-authored by Albert Hofmann together with Richard Evans Schultes and Christian Rätsch. Healing Arts Press, 1992/2001, ISBN 0-89281-979-0 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ticoferd (talk • contribs) 16:08, 16 July 2009 (UTC)