User:Dr jkl

I have been contributing to Wikipedia since 2002.

Fields of interest include:

Traditions of visual representation and their evolution, migration, and fusion over time.

Military History (Particularly large-scale invasions and religious wars).

The decline of Polytheism and early development of Monotheistic Cults.

I was very excited about the Wikipedia project initially, but that excitement abated somewhat after I saw the fate of an article on Kaloyan of Bulgaria that I authored.

That article set off an argument between Bulgarian and Romanian nationalists that was fascinating. Unfortunately Wikipedia requires that in the end there is only one article that represents some approved version of "the facts."

I find that to be rather unfortunate. Human knowledge is so incredibly finite that it is ridiculous to presume that we can know the one correct and reliable set of "facts." I wish that Wikipedia could have multiple articles representing opposing views.

Right now (28 August 2006) the Kaloyan article contains the following: "One of the stories about the demise of the Latin Emperor Baldwin describes his cruel dismemberment by an enraged Kaloyan, whose wife had falsely alleged that Baldwin had propositioned her, when he had in fact spurned her advances."

In fact? Falsely alleged?

Wow ... I'm glad somebody discovered those surveillance video tapes so we could be so absolutely sure of the facts!